The Sun.
London, England, 1866-09-08 00:00:00

MR. gLA.DSTONE AT SALISBURY.

The Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, M.P., the ex-
Chancellor ofithe Exchequer, has for some days past
Deen on a visit to the Bishop of Salisbury, accom-
panied by Mrs. and Miss Gladstone ; and a distin-
guished party has each day been invited to meet
them at the palace. The Liberals of the city have
seized the opportunity to present the right hon.
gentleman with an address, approving of the policy
of the late Government, and the part taken in it by.
Mr. Gladstone. The presentation took place yes-
terday afternoon in the Council Chamber of the
city, the Mayor (Mr. R. Stokes) having convened a
public meeting for the purpose. There was a very
numerous attendance, and Mr. Gladstone received
a hearty welcome.
The Mayor presided, and briefly opened the pro-
ceedings by explaining that he had called the meet-
ing in compliance with a very numerously-signed
requisition of the inhabitants presented to him on
the previous evening.
The address, which was read by the Mayor, was
in these terms :-
44 To THE RIGHT HON. W. E. GLADSTONE, M.P.

" Sir,— We, the Liberal electors and non-electors of the
city of Salisbury, gladly embrace the opportunity of your
visit to our ancient city to address you in testimony of our
respect for your personal character and admiration of your
public career.
" We desire to tender our earnest thanks to you for the
many additional benefits that have accrued from your
management of the financial affairs of this great country,
and we trust that ere long the power of inaugurating fur-
ther fiscal improvements may again be in your hands.
(Cheers.)
" We also beg to express our profound regret that the
course of action pursued by a section of the Liberal party
in tho past session of Parliament has led to the overthrow
of the judicious measure of reform introduced by you, and
which, having justice for its basis, we believe to be essen-
tial to the welfare of the community.
" We cherish the conviction that the country is ripe for
action in this matter, and that the next session must wit-
ness a Liberal Government dealing satisfactorily with the

question.
" We trust that your life may long be spared, and that
this country may continue to have tho advantage of your
great abilities, and of your undoubted political honesty."
Mr. GLADSTONE then came forward, and was
greatly cheered. After alluding to the personal
associations which entitled him to feel an interest in
the city and neighbourhood of Salisbury, and making
some graceful references to his friendship with the
late Sidney (Lord) Herbert, the right hon. gentle-
man, adverting to public questions, and especially
to that of Parliamentary Reform, said—Upon that
subject I feel that the country is unquestionably not
in the dark so far as my opinions, desires, and in-
tentions are concerned. .No one has accused me of
any undue reserve in the business of putting my
countrymen in possession of all I had to say, so far
as it might be regarded by them as a matter of inte-
rest. In truth, I have had a task to perform which,
I fear, has been beyond my strength, and to my
defective performance of that task—(no, no)--I do
not say you, but at any rate many impute—as they
have a perfect right to impute if they think fit—the
failure or the miscarriage during the present year
of that great question. I may not, perhaps, wholly
concur in the opinion, at the same time I feel that
it is an opinion which they have a perfect right to
entertain if they think fit, and which if they enter-
tain they do better to express it. (Hear:) How-
ever, what I observe is this, that there is a great
disinclination to express any aversion to a further
reform of Parliament—(cheers)—and there being a
great disinclination to express plainly that aversion,
other modes are adopted of accounting for the failure
that has occurred. One of those modes has been,
as I have said, so personal to myself, that I think
it better to pass by that topic altogether, only
assuring you that if it be my fate to take a
further part in the prosecution of that question, I
shall honestly endeavour to avoid any faults which I
may have heretofore committed ; and at the same
time, while endeavouring to avoid those faults, I
shall also endeavour to avoid any of those half-
hearted modes of speech and action which un-
doubtedly are in favour with certain portions of the
community. (Laughter and cheers.) But, gentle-
men, there is another charge that has been made,
and which does not affect myself alone, but affects
the Government to which I lately belonged, and on
which I will certainly say one word with very great
confidence. it is sometimes stated that the failure
of the measure introduced by Her Majesty's Go-
vernment for the extension of the franchise, as the
first and most important of the measures connected
with an improvement of the representation of the
people, was due to the careless, rash, and hasty
manner in which that measure had been framed.
Gentlemen, it is always open to a political party to
treat as impotent the efforts of its opponents ; and
in speaking of a Government there is no extent of
disparagement to which its opponents may not with
apparent fairness resort. All I can say is this, at
any rate the members of the late Government were
men who were the oldest and most experienced pub-
lic servants of the Crown ; and if they really did
frame a hasty and an ill-considered measure, it was
more blameable in them than it could possibly have
been in anybody else. But if haste and rashness
are to be measured by the ordinary tests, then 1
must say to this charge against the Government

that no measure which has been introduced into
Parliament since the great Act of 1832 in relation
to reform ever was prepared with one half of the
industry, care, solicitude, and patient examination
which was bestowed by the late Government upon
the bill that they introduced for the reduction of
the franchise. It is true that that bill did not con-
tain a great multitude of provisions. We wished
to make it a simple and intelligent measure, and I
believe that in that object we succeeded. I believe
that the epithet of praise which you bestowed upon
it in your address, where you call it a judicious
measure, is an epithet deserved by its provi-
sions. It is true that the bill has failed. Do not,
therefore, suppose that the question is likely to
remain long in abeyance. (Cheers.) Gentlemen, in
this room I shall strictly avoid all allusion to local
politics, for this reason, if for no other, that I have
long enjoyed the privilege of the friendship of both
of the gentlemen by whom this city is represented,
and from the elder of them a Liberal Government
has, upon former important occasions, received cor-
dial and valuable support. Gentlemen, Salisbury,
I am happy to say, has rendered us considerable
assistance in connection with this question. you
have reared the man whom Brighton has sent to
Parliament--(cheers)—whom you are glad to num-
ber among your fellow-townsmen, who is not
ashamed of that title, and whom we in the House
of Commons—upon all sides, I may presume to say
—welcome as an important and valuable addition
to the strength of the representatives of the people.
(Cheers.) There is another gentleman immediately
connected with Salisbury whom upon this occasion
I cannot refrain from naming. I mean Mr. Lam-
bert. (Hear.) Mr. Lambert occupies a position in
the public service of which I need not say that it is
important and that he well discharges its duties ;
but this I will say, that he is a man of character, a
man of talents, and a man of devotion to duty that
would fit him for a higher and yet more responsible
position. (Cheers.) I cannot bestow too high a
commendation upon the manner in which Mr. Lam-
bert, during
the eight months he was engrged in
that service, discharged the very arduous and diffi-
cult duty of examining into the whole of the facts
connected with the actual state of the representa-
tion of the people. (Cheers.) Most sincerely and
earnestly do I congratulate you upon reckoning
such a man among the citizens of Salisbury, while I
as cordially record my gratitude to him for the im-
portant services he has rendered to the State.
(Cheers.) Now, gentlemen, if we look at the state
affairs in general—if we
of public look especially
beyond our own shores—l cannot but entertain the
hope that the stirring events which have oc-
curred in Europe are likely to result in the
realisation of great and solid benefits for the friends
of general peace and prosperity. What we in Eng-
land want to see is .Europe tranquil, flourishing, and
industrious. (Cheers.) The days have gone by
when that idle and mischievous delusion prevailed,
that the strength of each country was to be sought
in the 'depression of its neighbours. We wish tosee
the United Kingdom of her Majesty strong, but we
wish to see it strong in conjunction with the strength
and well-being of every other state in the civilised
world, and we wish to see it deriving much of its

strength and much of its prosperity from that bene-
ficial intercourse of industry and trade with every
other country which not only increases wealth by
wholesome and salutary exchanges, but which knits
together the hearts of men in the several countries
of the earth, and helps to make those one in spirit
and in feeling whom the providence of God U-
mighty has made one in race and nature. (Cheers.)
Well, the short and decisive war we have seen goes
to invest Europe, so far, with the blessings of solid,
well-defined territorial divisions, and promises to
leave the administration of States and Governments
in hands well suited for the task, with the people of
those States attached to the persons under whom
they are to be ruled, and the rulers themselves com-
petent to discharge all the duties that are conducive
to the maintenance of general peace and order.
(Cheers.) As to ourselves, we can hardly say that
the results of the legislation of the year have been
satisfactory. We have got a great unsolved ques-
tion in our hands ; and I think that question of
such importance that I would not, for any conside-
ration, say one single word that would tend to im-
pede or to prejudice its solution, irrespective of the
quarter from which that solution may come. (Laugh-
ter.) If a good, honest, effectual measure is proposed
by those now invested with the responsibilities of
Government, let us embrace it with all our hearts—
(cheers)—and let us say nothing and do nothing at
this time either to drive them onwards or to drive
them backwards. Let us leave in their own minds
and in their own hearts the discharge of the respon-
sible duties which they have courted and assumed ;
looking first and foremost of all—above and beyond
all—to the satisfactory solution of the question which
has assumed a magnitude far above anything per-
sonal, far above everything personal, far above
everything connected with the immediate interests
of party, which has become national and imperial in
the truest sense. Only this I will say, while there
should be no haste, and no precipitation, it is impor-
tant that the solution should not be too long delayed.

(Hear, hear.) There is a sense in the minds of the
people of this country that the subject has been trifled
with—(hear, hear)—and the manifestations, espe-
cially among the working classes of the community
within the last two or three months, have been such
that if I were to look at them with reference simply
to the promotion of the views of the late Government,
I should hail them with an unqualified satisfaction,
for indeed they must have been amply sufficient to
convince those who persisted long after conclusive
evidence to the contrary, in the idle assertion that
the nation was indifferent to reform. (Cheers.) But
I frankly own I am not one of those who desire to
sec this country perpetually torn by agitations and dis-
cussions upon questions of organic change. (Hear,
hear.) I think that if we were wise—l think that if
we addressed our minds to this subject in the spirit of
moderation and of justice—in that spirit, I presume
to say, by which thelate Government at least endea-
voured to be guided, and by which I am persuaded
its members will strive to be actuated hereafter—it
is in our power still to effect a satisfactory settlement
of that question. I think, however, it is a time to
make cautious men reflect, when separate classes are
so much called on to act in their separate capacities
why are we to have all this separation between the
working classes and other portions of the community?
(Hear, and "bravo.") This attempt to draw that
broad and invidious distinction to cast suspicion upon
them with regard to their motives and their compe-

tency has naturally reacted in a vigorous, distinct,
separate, intelligent reaction upon their part. I think
it was impossible but that such must be the result.

(Cheers.) But happy shall Ibe when the day arrives
when all such separate action will come to a close, and
when we as a united community, all classes under
their several and distinctive names, be they richer
or be they poorer, be they higher or be they
lower, shall look upon this question of the franchise
as a question of national and imperial interest far
above all narrow considerations, and shall unite i❑
offering an extension of political privilege —an ex-
tension safe indeed, but liberal and effectual to those
who have been and who still are excluded, but whose
competency for the exercise of those duties, I think
none, at least of those assembled in this room, can
doubt. (Cheers.) I trust that solution may be
arrived at at an early period. (A voice—" By the
Ballot.") Our efforts—l speak for myself and for
those with whom I have the honour of acting—will
not be wanting. I can give no pledge on their part,
and I believe you will ask for none, except this—
that we shall endeavour to keep in view the interests
of our country, and we understand those interests
in the manner and in the sense in which we have
hitherto endeavoured to explain and enforce them.
(Cheers.) The question will be best and most fairly
judged by the people of this country in proportion
as it is detached from every personal consideration.
(Hear, hear.) The weight of public opinion, the
weight and value of all its indications, would be
discouraged if it could with justice be said that the
ministers who have been politically overthrown were
using their personal endeavours to inflame the
public mind. (Hear, hear.) I own to you that I
think we have done our part so far as lay in our
power. The further prosecution of the question
until we meet again within the walls of Parliament
lies with the people of this country. lam satisfied
to abide their verdict. I believe them to be com-
petent judges of their own interests. It is for them,
it is for every intelligent man in every rank of the
community, to consider in his own conscience what
course he shall take with respect to it. The aggre-
gate results of the exertions of individuals is that
which will give for.rn to the expression of public
opinion. With you, gentlemen, for the present—
with you, as a sample of the great British public—
the prosecution and handling of this great question
lies. When the time for parliamentary exertion
comes, rely upon it that if you think we have done
our duty in the past, so we shall be prepared again
to do it in the future. (Loud cheers.)
Speeches were subsequently made by Mr. Fawcett,
M.P., and Mr. H. D. Seymour, M.P., and a vote
of thanks to the chairman, followed by three cheers
for Mrs. Gladstone, who was present, brought the
proceedings to a close, and the meeting separated.