The Sun.
London, England, 1866-07-12 00:00:00

ELECTION INTELLIGENCE.

KING'S LYNN.

The election of a member to serve in Parliament
for Lynn Regis, in order, in the language of the writ,
that the borough might not be deprived of the ser-
vices of one of its burgesses owing to the acceptance
of the office of one of her Majesty's Principal Secre-
taries of State by Edward Stanley, commonly called
Lord Stanley, took place yesterday at the Town
Hall, before Mr. J. 0. Smethen, the mayor, and a
considerable gathering of the inhabitants. ,
Mr. LIONEL SELF proposed the re-election of Lord
Stanley. (Loud applause.)
Mr. R. BAGGE seconded the nomination.
No other candidate being proposed,
The MAYOR declared Lord Stanley to be duly
elected. (Loud and prolonged cheering.)
Lord STANLEY rose, and was received with a
volley of applause. He said—Mr. Mayor, electors,
and non-electors of Lynn, I have come before you
after an interval of exactly twelve months since the
last general election to ask once more—and now, I
think, for the eighth time—a renewal of that trust
which you first reposed in me unknown and untried
as I was in political life, nearly 18 years ago—a trust
which ever since that time I have endeavoured to
the best of my ability to discharge—a trust which
I have ever held it a high honour to be permitted to
discharge, and a trust of the continuance of which I
hope I have done nothing and said nothing which
should render me now unworthy. (Applause.) Gen-
tlemen, with that trust you have invested me again ;
and for that I heartily thank you. The actual state
of affairs, the position in whichl stand here as a mem-
ber of a Cabinet which has only once been called toge-
ther, is not a position favourable to much speaking.
With regard to the future, and especially with regard
to that great department with which it is my fortune
to be now connected, I am compelled to observe a
greater degree of reticence and of reserve than
in the position of a private member would be either
necessary or desirable. (Hear, hear.) With regard
to the past, retrospective criticisms are, as we all
know, of very little use. We can all of us be wise
after the event. What is done is done with. The
difficulties and mistakes of one year are not those of
the next. Old quarrels are better forgotten. Old
interests give place to others newer and fresher.
(Hear.) Still, some words of explanation are due
from me here. When standing in a position which
twelve months ago I never dreamed of occupying,
which has come to me unsolicited, unsought, and
even undesired, because although it is a position which
brings with it honour enough to satisfy a far more
aspiring ambition than mine, it is also a position which
in the present state of the world brings with it enough
of difficulty, enough of anxiety, and enough of re-
sponsibility to try the finest courage and to damp the
most overweening self-confidence. (Hear, hear.)
Practically, since the last election, the time of Parlia-
ment has been occupied with only one subject. With
the exception of a few days at the beginning of the
session devoted to the cattle plague ; with the excep-
tion of a single and short discussion upon European
affairs, and with the exception also of the necessary
routine business, the only question dealt with in the
session has been that of Parliamentary Reform. Now
many of you, no doubt, have followed the debates
which have taken place on that subject, and all of
you know the result. (Laughter.) To what is that
result due ? That is a question which I shall endea-
vour to meet as calmly and as impartially as if it were
what indeed in some sense it already is, a matter of
merely historical interest. Now, in the first place,
I hold it absolutely certain that the measure pro-
posed by the late Goveinment went further as regards
the franchise. (Cries of " No, no," answered by
"Yes, yes.") Do not you think you had better hear
the end of my sentence—(bravo)—before you know
whether you agree with me or not ? (Hear, hear,
and laughter.) I say that measure went further than
the majority of the House of Commons were pre-
pared to follow. (Laughter and cheers.) That house
was elected to support Lord Palmerston ; and
although Lord Palmerston had given his assent to
several Reform Bills, and had even as First Minister
of the Crown introduced one, it was nevertheless
thought, whether rightly or wrongly does not now
much matter, but I believe rightly, it was neverthe-
less thought that he was not very eager to deal with
that question, and that indeed he rather looked upon
it with dislike than otherwise (" Like you," followed
by laughter). Consequently the nominal Liberals,
or perhaps I should say the Palmerstonian majority
of 70 (" Adullamites") with which the session com-
menced by no means exclusively represented those
who were favourable to a large extension of the fran-
chise. Still I believe that with some modifications the
bill of the late Government might have been passed,
but for the declaration made by them early in the
session, and often repeated by them in the course of it,
that they would listen to no proposal of compromise
that in any way affected the numbers who were pro-
posed to be admitted to the franchise. (" No more
they ought.") If we had been assured that the late
cabinet would have accepted a £2O rentalin the coun-
ties and an £8 rental in the boroughs, supposing,
these figures to have been carried by way of amend-
ment, I make no doubt whatever that a compromise
of that kind would have been accepted, I do not say
by the whole, but by a very large majority of the
Conservative members. • (Hear, hear, and a cry of
" That is higher than Lord Derby's bill "). But,
gentlemen, it very soon became obvious that nothing
of that kind was possible, and those who thought that
in many respects the bill might be amended, and those
who upon other grounds thought it was a hasty and
ill-considered proposition, had no practical alternative
offered to them except to accept it as it stood, or else
to oppose it altogether.:(Hear.) But there were some
other minor causes of misunderstanding. The plan
with which the late ministry started, of keeping back
one-half of theirproposition until another session, and
so of not allowing us to see what were to be the results
of that which we were about to do, was, from the
first, unpopular in the house, and I need not tell
you how late and how reluctantly that method of
proceeding was abandoned. Ido not wish to dwell
on personal matters. I have always spoken, and I
always shall speak, of the late Chancellor of the
Exchequer with that respect which is due to splendid
ability and to eloquence which has seldom been sur-
passed in Parliament. (Cheers.) But, neverthe-
less, must add that, as leader of the House of Com-
mons, he does not appear to me to have been alto—
gether fortunate. He seemed to feel from the first
that the House of Commons was not favourable to
the proposition he was about to submit. He made
that feeling apparent. He seemed desirous of bring-
ing popular pressure to bear on our deliberations ;
and it is an invariable rule that when a Minister,
and especially a Minister who is in the position of
a leader of the House of Commons, shows his dis-
trust of that body, the House of Commons will re-
turn the compliment and show distrust of him. I
do not refer to a few unlucky phrases that he used,
because it is inevitable that in a long and animated
discussion, running over a period of three months,
something will be
said that had better have remained
unsaid ; nor shall. 1
c a
comparatively
o
argue the question whether it
was wise to abandon
measure of so much import-
ance on a point so Laratively indifferent as that
of rental or rating. I
all nbot. argue that, because
I look on that defence as
than the reason for the withdrawalejag rather the excuse
of the measure.
By that time the late Cabinet had pereeiv9d that
which had become apparent to every,
s one else, that
success in carry-
success as they desired it—that
is
ing their plan whole and unmodified was not at-
tainable. And that being so they took tZ
oppor-
tunity, fairly enough in that point of view, although
I think not wisely as regards political tactics, they
took the opportunity of cutting the knot, and of
escaping by the shortest route from a position
which had become untenable. (Hear, hear.) There
matters stand ; and there the Reform question will
remain till the next Session, when I do not doubt
that whatever may be the course of the Government,
after all that has been said and done of late, you will
find members of the House of Commons ready to
take it up again. (Hear, hear.) It is not a ques-
tion that is likely to he allowed to go to sleep—
(" That it won't and no mistake")—and that fact
may carry some consolation to those who were so
entirely dissatisfied with the result of the present
session. There I shall leave the subject. But I
have understood, since I came down here, from one
or two personal friends, who are also my political