The Sun.
London, England, 1866-10-19 00:00:00

C ardwell and Mr. Henley on Public

Affairs.

OXFORD, Thursday.
The Mayor (Mr. J. C. Craven) last night gave
his annual dinner to the official and other leading
personages of the city, University, and county.
The company, which numbered about 250, included
the Duke of Marlborough, the Right Hon. Edward
Cardwell, M.P., the Right Hon. J. W. Henley,
M.P., Mr. C. Neate, M.P., Colonel North, M.P.,
Colonel J. W. Fane, M.P., Mr. H. Barnett, M.P.,
Mr. Samuelson, M.P., the Vice-Chancellor (Dr.
Leighton), the Dean of Christ Church, the Rector
of Exeter College, the President of St. John's, the
High Sheriff (Sir 11. Dashwood), Sir B. Brodie, the
Warden of New College, the Recorder (Mr. W.
H. Cooke, Q.C.), the Chairman of Quarter Ses-
sions (Mr. Hamersley), Professors Rogers, Bur-
rows, and Rolleston, Aldermen Sadler, Thorp,
Browning, and Hughes, and Mr. Sheriff Castle.
The " loving cup" having passed round, and the
loyal toasts having been duly honoured,
The MAYOR gave " the Health of the Lord-Lieu-
tenant."

The Duke of MARLBOROUGH, in responding,
pointed out the value of the Militia, Yeomanry, and
Volunteer forces in the various counties, not only in
a military point of view, but as bringing together all
classes of the community—the peer, the landowner,
the tradesmen, and the peasant—and linking them
by a common patriotism, which overrid distinctions
of rank and opinion.
The next toast was " the Health of the High
Steward (Earl of Abingdon)", which was followed
by that of " the City Members."
Mr. CARDWELL rose, amid hearty cheering, to re-
spond. He said—Mr. Mayor, my lord Duke, and
gentleman, on many former occasions of this kind I
have found it impossible adequately to express my
sense of the kindness and cordiality with which you
have been good enough to receive the mention of my
name, and I assure you that I am using words of the
deepest meaning when I affirm that I have no power
to express the grateful feelings which animate me at
the hearty and flattering reception which you have on
this occasion been pleased to give me. It is a great
gratification, Mr. Mayor, at the close of your year of
office, the duties of which you have discharged with so
much honour and credit to yourself and so much satis-
faction to your fellow-citizens, to meet at this festive
entertainment so many, not only of the principal citi-
zens of Oxford, but of the authorities of the University
and the county who are assembled here this evening
to evince their esteem and regard for yourself, as well
as to testify to that good feeling which so happily sub-
sists in all respects between the county, the Univer-
sity, and the city. I am glad to be present to bear my
part in a tribute so honourable and so gratifying to
you. Gentlemen, great events have been taking place
around us within the last few months. It is not
many weeks since we looked with apprehension on an
approaching war in Germany--a civil war which
threatened to be second only in duration and severity
to that great internecine struggle which we witnessed
with so much sorrow in the United States of Ame-
rica. But, happily, our forebodings have been dis-
appointed, and we were scarcely alarmed by the
actual outbreak of war before we were reassurad by
the restoration of peace. We have seen arise a new
Germany on the ashes of the old—a Germany which ;
is likely, I think, to exercise a greater influence in
the councils of Europe, and I trust that that influ-
ence may prove a beneficent one. (Cheers.) We
have seen, too, with great pleasure going on before
our eyes the completion of that union so long and
so ardently desired which unites Venetia with Italy.
(Cheers.) It is the privilege of a country so abun-
dantly satisfied with its own territorial possessions
as England is, and so justly confident in its own
resources, material and moral, that it can witness
events like these not only without jealousy, but
with a lively sense of interest, provided they appear
calculated to promote the advantage or to increase
the happiness of friendly nations. But, sir, there
is one respect in which it is right, I think, that we
should carefully observe and examine such events.
If we see victories gained more rapidly than the
victories of Cie3ar or Napoleon—if we sec the des-
tinies of empires changed in a war so short in dura-
tion that it has been termed a seven days' war, I
think it is only prudent for the greatest countries in
the world to investigate the causes of those events,
and to consider whether they can learn from them
any lessons in regard to the future organization or
improvement of their own material resources.
(Cheers.) A great writer of the last century ob-
served that the history of the world has been the
history of militias defeated by standing armies, by
which I conceive he meant the history of less skilled
armies defeated by more skilled armies ; and with
respect to the training and effective armament of
our regular forces, I would not yield to my hon.
and gallant friend the county member (Col. North)
in the zeal with which I would maintain that your
forces, if they need not be so numerous, should
always be in the highest state of efficiency and
training. (Cheers.) But, sir, there is another sub-
ject connected with this which appears to me to be
of peculiar interest at the present time--I mean
the extent to which men engaged in civil life are
DOW devoting themselves to the study of the
military art, and constituting themselves valuable
accessories and reserves in aid of the regular forces
of the country. The noble duke in his eloquent
speech, in which he referred to the Volunteer forces
of this country, has anticipated to some extent what
I was going to say ; but in the recent history of
every country you will trace the same thing. you
are aware how large a part the landwehr of Prussia
have borne in the recent campaign, and you remem-
ber how in the Northern States of America civilians
rapidly acquired all the activity and skill of profes-
sional soldiers. I can entirely confirm, too, what
the noble Duke said with regard to the efficiency of
our Militia when it was embodied during the war
in the Crimea. I remember that distinguished gene-
ral the late Lord Seaton pointing out to me, I think
it was the Staffordshire Regiment of Militia, and
telling me it was in a state of efficiency that would
do honour to any regiment of the Line. We are
extremely proud of our friends, some of them from
this immediate neighbourhood, who are at this mo-
ment enjoying the splendid hospitality of Belgium
—(cheers)—and are displaying their practised skill
in honourable competition with friendly foreign
rivals. If, again, you turn to the sea, you have in
the Royal Naval Reserve a force exceeding 16,000

men, officers, petty officers, and able seamen, whose
daily life is employed in the maintenance of the

superiority of that mercantile marine which is not

only one great cause of commercial pre-eminence,
but may also be considered essential to our great-

ness as a naval Power. Well, sir, the inference I
wish to draw is this—that it is most important not
merely that each force should in its own separate
State be in the highest state of efficiency, but that
*e should most seriously and carefully consider what
ought to be the relation of these forces one to
another, so that the whole defensive power of the
etrentrYbest a
allaonuld be at any moment of necessity in
hear.)
most available condition. (Rear,
1 f
vantage, for rd these forces as of singular ad-
of great streivrth,tll,_Y reasons. They are sources
ey are sources of great economy,
but they possess
this
that they are great merit above all others,
chieti y enlisted on the defen-
sive side as against the aggressive side, and thus
constitute a great makeweight
in the scale in favour
of peace, and a great discouragement
cution of unjust and unnecesstlie• nt
to the prose-
b Republic
e
Gentlemen, we have all, lam sYu'rwears• (Cheers.)
with
h interest the progress of that ,reat
which we are connected by so many friendly ties,
and with which we desire always to maintain the
most amicable relations, towards which, moreover,
re have been drawn now still more closely by that
material bond, the electric wire. We watch with

friendly interest the progress they are making in the

reconstruction of Government and the consolida-
tion of their power in a more centralised and efficient
state, probably, than it has before seen. Side by
side with that great republic, but not in any emula-
tion of its surpassing greatness, we are at this
moment employed in the interesting work of con-
structing a new community by uniting the various
provinces of British North America in one confede-

ration. They will not be of a greatness to compare