The Sun.
London, England, 1859-01-22 00:00:00

the occasion of celebrating the planting in their
final resting-place of the guns that had been
captured on the ramparts of Sepastopol. (Loud
applause.) We had scarcely accomplished that
purpose when we seemed to be watching for
further echoes of cannon on the continent of
Europe, and we have heard much of hostile
preparations in the armies and arsenals of
the world, though I trust that the impending
cloud from which the storm seemed to burst has
now, for the time at least, blown over. On the oc-
casion to which I have referred no one who was pre-
sent could certainly have laid it to the charge of the
inhabitants of York that they evinced any want of
sympathy for the military prowess of their country-
men in arms; but, if I rightly now interpet the
public feeling, I think there would be an universal
protest against the guilt of wantonly disturbing the
peace of England. (Cheers.) And while I believe
we shall all feel that we ought to maintain due pre-
caution and adequate preparation, at the same tune
I believe that we shall all wish to keep aloof as
much and as long as we can from all interference in
the bloody quarrel. (Applause.) Your lordship has
been pleased to couple my name with the House of
Lords, and I am glad to see that, whatever may be
said here and there of that august body, their fel-
low-citizens, so far as I may judge from yourselves,
do not appear disposed at least to exclude them
from the equal feast. (Applause.) Your lordship
has adverted to reflections that have been made on
members of the aristocracy not having hitherto
found themselves called upon to step forward in de-
fence of their rights and their position. The fact is,
my lord, I do not think that they are under any
apprehension that their death knell has yet rung.
(Cheers.) When any real alarm shall arise I ven-
ture to anticipate that they will, at all events,
endeavour to make a good fight of it for themselves.
(Applause.) For their past services they are con-
tent to refer to the history of their country, and as
long as the constitution remains, which must perish
with them, inasmuch as they form an integral por-
tion of it, I feel every confidence that they will
apply themselves with zeal and public spirit to the
duties both of progress and conservation, for both
alike devolve on them, as they devolve upon all
men. (Hear, hear.) And when they cease to do
this I shall no longer wish for their continuance.
The LoRD MAYOR, in proposing " the City Mem-
bers," hoped that in the coming session they
would not do anything to impair our good old
constitution, and that if we had reform
we should have it without revolution, and have
that which they all trusted would add to the pro-
sperity and stability of the country. (Applause.)
But, however their representatives differed on
matters of general public interest, he believed they
had always acted cordially in watching over the
welfare of the city, and, above all, they were
united in opposing the principle of centrahsatiom
(Cheers.)
The toast was drunk with loud cheers.
Mr. J. P. B. WESTHEAD, M.P., returned thanks.
He said he was reminded on this occasion how dif-
ficult was the task allotted to a member of Parlia-
ment in addressing a mixed Company—gentlemen
who differ conscientiously in opinion from each
other upon questions of general politics. Not long
since he saw an amusing and clever leader in the
leading journal of the country on the members for
Oxford being required, year after year, to partake
of the festivity of the Ancient Druids of that city,
those members being expected to accomplish the
feat of cutting out a pound of flesh without spilling
a single drop of blood, without giving offence in
any way. (Laughter and applause.) While he
acknowledged that in that company it was difficult
to enter generally upon politics without giving
offence to some one, yet he thought there were
points of great general interest to Englishmen in
which they would agree. He, for one, was a lover
of the constitution of the country, for, however he
might differ from his hon. colleague iu any vote he
might hereafter give, it was not because he yielded
to him in reverence and admiration and attachment
to the British constitution. He believed there was
not a country in the world that was better go-
verned than the country in which we live. (Ap-
plause.) Reference had been made elsewhere to
the constitution, and one gifted with great powers
of eloquence seemed somewhat to disparage it,
and to say—Who has seen the British constitution ?
An answer to this question had been given by a
member of the House of Commons, who was one of
the most advanced of the Liberal party, and he
said to his constituents that they had not seen it,
but who did not feel the benefits of the British con-
stitution—(applause)—who did not live in the
midst of freedom, and who was there that did not
move about where he listed through the length and
breadth of the land ? (Applause.) Mr. Westhead
also referred to the freedom of speech that is allowed
in this country, so long as it offends not against the
laws of Christian charity, and one speaks no ill of
his neighbour. Were not these great blessings,
and where else to the same extent did they exist in
the wide world besides this blessed land ?
(Applause.) He should never be found wilfully
and intentionally doing anything which would in
the slightest degree impair our noble constitution.
(Renewed applause.) He had no sympathy with
those who take a pride and pleasure in disparaging
what is noble in this land. (Hear, hear.) He had
little sympathy with the man who would look on
the glorious sun, and look only on its spots.
(Applause.) There might be, and were in all
things human, defects in certain parts of our con-
stitution, but were we not, from year to year, en-
deavouring to regulate and accommodate our laws
and our institutions to the wants of the present
time ? (Applause.) Speaking of those who sit in
the high places of the earth, Mr. Westhead said,
did they not see in the noble earl (Carlisle) on his
left an example of one who, born in the high places
of the earth, had filled up ad well his allotted space
as if they had traced the channel of his life in some
lower and inferior current ? (Applause.) He knew
not how or in what way one so born and so edu-
cated could have more worthily filled the objects of
his destiny than had the noble lord. (Applause.)
The hon. member then spoke of Lord Chief Justice
Campbell—the son of a Scotch minister at Cupar—
as being worthy to take his place with the highest
of th. land. He next referred to the great name
obtained by Lord Clyde in India, lie being a man
of obscure origin, and then to Lord Canning, re-
marking that he need not go further to show that
at least in the British peerage, whether they looked
to the distant past or to the, important present,
there were men found there worthy to represent
the interest and to care for the fortunes of his
country. (Applause.) He did not sympathise
for a moment with those who would set class
against class. If they looked (through the length
and breadth of the world, where was it that Eng-
lishmen had not been, and where had they not dis-
tinguished themselves ? There was Havelock,
Outram, and Wilson. all commoners, who came out
gloriously in the hour of trial. And there was a
man raised from the operative class, traversing,
with noble and glorious purpose, the interior of the
vast continent of Africa—Dr. Livingstone ; and if
he took them into the regions of science or mecha-
nical or practical art, how many such men would
they meet with—Watts, Arkwright, and Stephen-
son, and men of that stamp. Go where he would,
and look where he might, he found in the various
classes of his countrymen much to admire and com-
paratively little to condemn. (Applause.) They
knew well that none set a more correct estimate
upon the value of aristocratic position than the
noble earl near him, and they knew that whatever
distinction might be conferred on man, he will agree
with the sentiment of a writer who declares that
aristocracy of character is the true heraldry of
man. (Applause.) He (Mr. Westhead) trusted that
whatever changes might betide, or whatever might
be the events of the coming session of Parliament,
the result would be not to impair, not to destroy
the British constitution, but to widen its founda-
tions, to strengthen it in all its parts, that it might
be handed down to distant posterity, and prove to
them, what it had hitherto proved to us, one of the
safest Governments which human skill and in-
genuity and wisdom. under the guidance of Provi-
dence, had ever contrived for the benefit of man.
(Loud applause.)
Col.
S opposed 3Y M.P., also responded, and declared
himself
to interfering with foreign quarrels.
i Tii ,