The Sun.
London, England, 1866-10-12 00:00:00

Mr. Grant Duff, M.P., at Elgin.

On Wednesday Mr. Grant Duff met his consti-
tuents at Elgin. There was a large attendance of
electors and non-electors. Ex-Baillie Hay was called
to the chair, and introduced Mr. Grant Duff, who
was received with cordiality.
Mr. GRANT DUFF said—For the first time since
1858 your representative comes before you ma mem-
ber of a discomfited party—discomfited, I trust, not
for long, but nevertheless discomfited. I know not
what were the reflections of our distinguished leader
as he went homeward in the early June morning
after the division on Lord Dunkellin's amendment.
Surely they might, with propriety, have been summed
up in the words of Sir John Falstaff, " I have led
my ragamuffins where they are peppered ; there is
not three of my one hundred and fifty alive."
(Applause.) The elections of last year resulted in
giving the Liberal party—for general Liberal pur-
poses—a large majority. It has been said that it was
a Palmerston majority, but of that there was no
evidence. When the Palmerston cry was likely to
be useful it was, of course, freely used, just as the
Reform cry was used in places where it was likely
to be useful; but the real question which was put to
and answered by the country was simply the ques-
tion, are we to beprogressing or standing still? The
country has decided for progress. No reasonable
human being expected Lord Palmerston to lead the
new House of Commons, and just a year ago he
closed his long, and, on the whole, honourable career,
passing away amidst the lamentations of many who
had spent the best part of their middle life in oppos-
ing him, and least regretted by those who, having
supported him when he had comparatively few
friends, felt that he had lived on into a time which
it was contrary to the very nature of things he should
be able to understand, and in which he was becom-
ing—if indeed he had not rather already become
—a power for evil, and not for good. His
vacant place was filled by Lord Russell, as was
natural and inevitable. No member of a party
which boasts to move with the times could be
blind to the disadvantage of replacing an octogena-
rian chief by a chief well on in the seventies. The
work of reconstructing the Government proceeded
through the winter. The choice of men to fill up
the non-cabinet offices gave general satisfaction ;
especially were people pleased when Mr. Stansfeld,
who was driven from a subordinate post in a very
ingenious way during the last Parliament, rejoined
the ;administration in a snore dignified capacity.
The re-arrangement of the Cabinet was not so suc-
cessful, and those who understand the house of
Commons best will not, I think, disagree with me
when I say that the mistakes made in this important
matter have led, and may yet lead, to calamitous
results. Very early in the session I saw around me
all the symptoms which preceded the fall of the Pal-
merston Government in February, 1838, and he
must have been indeed dull who did not perceive
that her Majesty's late advisers would soon land in
the Liberal coach all the innocent passengers in
what the Yankee mail-driver more expressively than
classically described a most unhandsome nip and fri-
gate of a fix. (Laughter.) Meeting Parliament
as they did, with a weakened Cabinet, and a House
of Commons with regard to which they could know
nothing except that they commanded a large ma-
jority for general Liberal purposes, it would surely
seem that their wisest policy would have been to
announce in the Queen's Speech a group of bills in
which they could not have failed to carry all their
party along with them. What the effects of such
tactics would have been was shown in the splendid
majorities which we obtained on the Oxford Tests
Bill, so admirably brought forward by Mr. Cole-
ridge, the only measure on which the full strength
of the Liberal party in the present Parliament has
been put forth. Had this been done we should very
soon have seen an improvement in the tone of their
supporters. Those who were enthusiastic about
the men would have been enthusiastic for the
measures, and Ministers would have approached
what ought to be the real work of the pre-
sent Parliament--the settlement of the Reform
question—with infinitely greater chance of suc-
cess. The one obstacle in their way was, however, a
perfectly fatal one. Mr. Gladstone, who during
the last quarter of a century has been slowly con-
verted to Liberal opinions, has not yet even in so
simple a matter as church rates adopted the views
which are held by the overwhelming majority of his
supporters. This was an unfortunate thing for the
Liberal party, and, above all, an unfortunate thing
for those who wished to see a Reform Bill passed
without the revival of the bitter political animosi-
ties of 1832. 1 am not sure, however, that it was at
all an unfortunate thing for Mr. Gladstone—even if
it had, been possible to prevail upon him to be a
party to the abolition of church rates, or to giving
the full advantage of the universities to persons who
dissented from the Church of England. His name
could never have been prominently connected with
the measures. It was otherwise with reform, by
which he had by a happy accident now committed
himself in the House of Commons, even in his most
Tory phase. By making himself the champion of
that great cause, and thoroughly identifying himself
with the biggest piece of political work that lies at
present before us, Mr. Gladstone could reckon on
enormously increasing his personal popularity, if not
upon obtaining sufficient influence to check the ad-
vance of his followers in directions where he is not
willing to go with them. For this purpose nothing
could be better than what has happened. To bring
forward a Reform Bill which all sincere Reformers
would be obliged to support, whether they did or
did not approve of its details, and of the time of its
introduction, to declare that the Government would
stand or fall by it, conscious that reform must
triumph in the near future, and that its martyrs in
1866 would be its saints before many years were
over, was surely, in Mr. Gladstone's position, the
most natural and judicious thing in the world.
Looking at the matter, as I do, from the point o_
view of one who is so anxious to see the Libera
party victorious at all points, the course I should
like to have seen taken since the death of Lord
Palmerston would have been something of this
sort—first, to have constructed the Cabinet in
the way best calculated to command the
confidence of' the party. Second, to have brought
forward just measures, as I have suggested,
which could not have failed in their passage through
the house to have welded us together. Third, to
have pledged the honour of the Government to have
introduced and read a first time before the end of
the session a comprehensive measure of reform.
Fourth, to have introduced a large, wise, and care-
fully elaborated measure, which the enemies of re-
form might indeed have opposed, but which would
not have required a Government which was pledged
to it to change its front in the face of the enemy.
After a few further observations the hon. gentle-
man resumed his seat amidst loud cheers.