The Sun.
London, England, 1858-12-09 00:00:00

The great official mind was in a state of perfect
excitement at such a deviation from the mere rou-
tine of official Ilraetiee; that routine being a system
of secrecy -and mystification. (Hear, hear, and
laughter.) He, for one, was very glad to read the
despatch; not only because he approved entirely of
a great part of its contents, but because he never
would quarrel with a Minister for giving to Par-
liament information upon public affairs. (Hear,
hear.) We had suffered a great deal from this
system of secrecy—of keeping everything in the
dark, and leaving members of Parliament to
argue public questions without any knowledge
Hof the designs or the policy of the Ministers of the
day. (Hear, hear.) However, a vote of censure
was brought forward, condemning Lord Ellen-
borough for publishing the despatch. Lord Ellen-
borough admitted that he was individually and
solely responsible—that he had written the despatch
and taken upon himself to make it known—that he
had acted independently of his colleagues; and as
the Government appeared to be endangered by his
proceedings he resigned. Lord Palmerston was in
such a hurry to return to power, that they actually
went on with the vote of censure, although the only
man who deserved censure had made the amende
honorable by leaving the Government. A man
with the smallest experience in political life must
have seen at a glance that that was a great politi-
cal blunder, and so it turned out—(hear, hear)—for
after going on with the debate—making speeches
of talent, but of the most vindictive and determined
character—they withdrew the motion, put their
papers into their green bags, and disappeared in
confusion. (" Hear, hear," and laughter.) The
affair was nothing but a great blunder on the part
of those political leaders who some time since put
themselves at the head of the Liberal party. He
thought the time was come for many of those old
leaders to retire from the field. (Hear, hear.) Lord
Palmerston himself—why he had nothing to com-
plain of—he had been in office about 50 years.
(Laughter.) And when a man had been in office
for 50 years with all Governments, and had given
satisfaction to all parties, he might very well re-
tire. He (Mr. Gibson) wished him health, happi-
ness, and a long life, provided he did not trouble us
any more with aspiring to be the leader of the Libe-
ral party. (".Hear, hear," and laughter.) There
were several ancient politicians who, he thought,
with all respect to them, ought to retire. There
was no promotion in the political world—the old
heads stuck to their posts so long, and people said
longer than was justified by their bodily energies
and mental powers. There was a propriety in
men retiring from the leadership of great political
parties when they had arrived at that period of
life when they could not conduct matters with the
vigour and promptitude which were required
for such important duties. (Hear, hear.) Had
Mr. Cardwell's motion come to a vote,
he (Mr. Gibson) would have voted against it, even
though it might have laid him open to the charge
of keeping in the Tories. The next question in
which he interfered with was one in which he had
been interested for many years—viz., the total re-
peal of the paper duty. His reason for moving in
this matter, while there were so many taxes press-
ing heavily upon the springs of industry, was that
some years ago an agitation was commenced for the
emancipation of the press of England from all taxes.
There were then three taxes—the advertisement
duty, the newspaper stamp, and the paper duty.
The two former having been repealed, he was bound
to go on for the repeal of the third. In the last ses-
sion of Parliament this movement met with some
success, for the House of Commons agreed to a re•
solution that the paper duty should not be per-
mitted—or rather that it was impolitic to raise re-
venue by a duty on paper—thereby laying down
the principle, that taxing an article of this descrip-
tion was not a fit and proper mode of raising the
income of the State. The Government were there-
fore bound, if they wanted the money that the
paper duty now afforded them, to find out some
other less objectionable mode of raising the sum
required. Could anything be more monstrous than
that they should be voting money for schools on the
one hand, and at the same time allowing a tax on
books used in the schools for the purpose of instruc-
tion ? The paper duty was imposed by Queen Anne
with the avowed object of preventing the circula-
tion of cheap publications; but there was this absur-
dity in it—it was an instruction to the committee
of the House of Commons that imposed the duty,
that with the view to the encouragement of learn-
ing there should be a remission of the duty on all
books in the Latin, Greek, Oriental, and Northern
languages. Could it be conceived that in this 19th
century the duty was remitted on the classic books
printed at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge,
and that it was put on the artisans' primer and school
books? And yet we avowed ourselves to be anxious
to extend knowledge and promote education among
the working classes. He never could get one clergy-
man or bishop to say a word in favour of the repeal
of the paper duty. They would quarrel over the
forms of religion to be taught in the schools, but
turn a deaf ear to a scheme which appeared to him
(Mr. Gibson) calculated to deserve the support of
all parties, because it would enable the working
classes to educate themselves. (Hear and cheers.)
When he went on a deputation to the late Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer, Sir G. C. Lewis, with re-
spect to this tax, he (Mr. Gibson) inquired whether
English was not a Northern language, and if not
what the term meant. He was told that it meant
Russian ; so that an Englishman might print and
circulate as many books in Russian as he pleased,
and pay no paper duty ; but if he printed a book
in his native English, then came the exciseman and
claimed and received his
~I.ld. in the pound. He
hoped he had the support and approbation of his
constituents in his endeavours to repeal this
obnoxious tax. (Hear, hear, hear.) If the
paper duty were repealed to-morrow, in a short
time the loss to the revenue would not be known,
for the remaining taxes would become more pro-
ductive. The late Sir Robert Peel, by his sagacious
selection of taxes for remission, removed many
burdens from the people, not only without impair-
ing the revenues of the State, but actually increas-
ing at the same time the public income. (Hear.)
There was a question now occupying publie;.tten-
tion upon which he supposed it was beer:ming of
him to say something, though he did not know
much, because he had not seen any of the plans
likely to be proposed to Parliament in reference to
reforming the representation. He saw that a gen-
tleman was charged with having stolen a public
despatch ; and he wished that the document stolen
had been the new Reform Bill. (Laughter.) He
should like to have seen what it was Lord Derby
was going to propose. It was reported in London
that Lord Derby, who was rather a sporting cha-
racter, was going to astonish the old Whigs i that

the destruction of the House of Lords or any inter-
ference with the prerogatives of the Crown. What
we wanted was a real House of Commons, as well
as a House of Lords ; a House of Commons returned
by the people,and not nominated by the Lords ; and
that there might be freedom of voting through the
protection of the ballot. (Loud cheers.) The first
and staggering fact we met with in reference to
reform—and it was a complete answer to his first
question--was, that out of 5,000,000 adult males
scarcely 1,000,000 enjoyed the elective franchise.
(A voice--" And a great shame 'tis !") That state
of things could not last. Every man must feel
that it was a question that would have to be dealt
with, and what he wished was that it should be
dealt with calmly and dispassionately, when the
passions of the people were not aroused, and with
the knowledge that the great mass of the people
were daily improving in political and other know-
ledge. Lord Macaulay had well said, " The great
cause of revolutions is that nations move onwards
and that constitutions stand still." Let us in Eng-
land, as we knew that our people were moving on-
ward, see that our constitution moved also. But
he would be asked, " How far will you go ?
(hear, hear)—are you prepared for universal suf-
rage? What will you do" He answered, that his
individual opinion upon the question of the suf-
frage—of it being a political right appertaining to
the man—availed nothing in the consideration of
a matter of this sort. He would support that ex-
tension of the suffrage which appeared to meet the
approval of the greatest body of sincere Reformers
which appeared the most likely to be carried, and
to confer a great advantage upon the country. He
would not be deterred from supporting a moderate
measure, because it might not come up to those
abstract theories of the right of the suffrage being
in the man which everybody no doubt, whether
Tory or Liberal, must in his conscience hold.
(Cheers.) In dealing with the, question, in these
times, we must deal with it as practical men, look-
ing to what could ibe carried. Let a well-eons:.
dered measure be laid upon the table by men in
whom the Liberal party had confidence ; let that
bill be well circulated and considered; and, if it
meet the approval of public meetings in the large
towns, then let the whole Reform party unite to a
man and carry it through the Legislature. (Cheers.)
With regard to the vote by ballot, it was thought
by many to be an unimportant question. He held
it to be vital to the freedom of election in a country
like this. Do what they would with the suffrage a
man could not exercise it freely ifthere was coupled
with the right of voting the condition that he was
to publish his vote to all mankind. In a country like
this, in which there were so many social influences,
so many real powers exercised by owners of pro-
perty over the labour of the country, by landlords
over tenants, and by customers over those who dealt
in articles of merchandise, we had a case for the
ballot without going to Australia or any other
country. It could not be too often repeated that,
when the Reform Bill of 1832 was under considera-
tion, it was distinctly avowed by the ministers of
those days that the ballot was a subject for future
consideration. It was well known that the Cabinet
of Lord Grey bad resolved at that time to give the
ballot with a £2O franchise; and that they took
away the ballot when they extended the franchise
.to £lO, although when the franchise was extended
he considered there was greater necessity for the
ballot. They might depend upon it there was no
real ground for opposing the vote by ballot, but a
fear of the existing constituency of the country.
There was no danger in reform in England if by
danger was understood confusion or disorder. We
were a practical common sense people, and could
manage our reforms without violence or force, by
simple appeals to reason. He believed there was
nothing in the shape of Parliamentary reform
which the people would have a difficulty in obtain-
ing if they set to work and argued the question out
with those who held high places, and brought the
force of public opinion to bear upon them. (Hear.)
In no matter, perhaps, was the necessity of reform
greater than in the expenditure of the country.
Our military, naval, and ordnance estimates now
amounted to upwards of £22,000,000 a-year, while
during the Duke of Wellington's time„ in 1835, he
thought £11,000,000 or £12,000,000 a-year sufficient
to defend the country. What could be the reason
that at a time when we were told our relations with
all the world were of a peaceful character, and
that the Eastern question was settled—what could
be the reason for this enormous expenditure ? They
might rely upon it, it was for the interest of Eng-
lishmen to reduce our public expenditure. The
Parliament was powerless upon the question, for
this simple reason, that there were too many mem-
bers of Parliament interested in upholding and
maintaining this public expenditure.
o% r t
h(
eH ea (Hear.)
The people had not the control
pub-
lic expenditure which a Parliamentary ;.reform
would give them; and, upon that ground, as well
as upon others, he believed there was an urgent
need for the immediate consideration of the measure
which now regulated the representation of the
people. He had put his name to a programme pro-
posing that the rate book should be made the re-
gister. He did not know whether that was the
scheme to be presented by those who would submit
part of it, it would be an
a Reform Bill. But whatever bill was introduced,
purposes
usttoifwy htihceh
demand
aNnvidshfoeld.
political
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unless the ballot were
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He contended that the patronage of this country
in the civil departments, in the army, and in the
navy was not fairly distributed according to merit,
but was for the most part allotted to those who had
political and family influence, and who could bring
that influence to bear upon the Government of the
day. The aristocracy had got too large a share of
the patronage and emoluments of office. Every
Englishman, he considered, had a right to serve the
State, and to be upon an equal footing with every