The Sun.
London, England, 1861-12-11 00:00:00

lITHE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 11, 1861.

MR. lIORSMAN, M.P., ON THE :AME-
RICAN QUESTION.

STROUD, TUESDAY.

This afternoon the Right Ron. E. Horsman,
M.P., addressed his constituents in the Subscrip-
tion-room of this town. There was a very nume-
rous attendance, and the right hon. gentleman was
well received. Mr. Fewster occupied the chair.
Mr. HORSMAN addressed the meeting at consider-
able length. He commenced by saying—Gentle-
men, I thank you highly for the kind reception
you have given me, and I can assure you that it is
always a pleasure to me to find myself among my
constituents at Stroud. It is an event to which I
look with pleasing anticipation, and to which I look
back with agreeable recollections, because, although
there have been, and always will be, differences of
opinion between me and some of my constituents,
with whom I have been at political warfare since I
appeared amongst you, the only effect of those diffe-
rences has been to give a livelier and gayer cha-
racter to our public meetings, so that people at a
distance may consider my annual meeting with you
as one of the gaieties of the winter season.
(Laughter.) But I know that those differences are
not of such a character as to interfere with the ge-
neral satisfactory state of our relations, or in
the smallest degree
.to endanger our permanent
political connection. (Hear, and a laugh.)
I now become before you at a period of unusual
national solicitude, and on this occasion we shall
have to consider the future more than the past.
During the last session there were three principal
matters which occupied the attention of Parliament
—parliamentary reform, foreign policy, and finance.
The question of finance I will dismiss with this
single remark. Last year the repeal of the paper
duty, which had been postponed in 1860, was
again brought forward. I felt it my duty to repeat
the objections which I had advanced in 1860. But
Parliament took a different view ; the excise duty
on paper was repealed, the question was settled, the
controversy is over, and I have no wish to revive
it. (Hear, hear.) The question of parliamentary
reform was killed in 1860, and was buried in the
silence of the Queen's speech in 1861. The nation,
instead of indulging in a general mcurning,indulged
in something that sounded like a general fit of mer-
riment ; and well it might, when it found that that
great demand for Parliamentary reform—that na-
tional, overpowering, and irresistible demand, that
had been in the mouths of every minister and states-
man—that had been the prominent topic of every
Queen's speech, the cause of so many cabinet coun-
cils, the subject of so many hustings speeches, was
by the unanimous testimony of his own champions
and apostles, so far as regarded the constituencies,
such a delusion—so far as regarded the representa-
tives such a gigantic sham, that out of the 650 of
the deeply pledged members of the House of Com-
mons, only 46 could be found to enter even a formal
and uemeaning protest against a minister that he
stormed office upon a pledge of reform, abandoned
reform, and yet retained office. (Hear, hear.) Lord
John Russell was the only man whose sincerity was
undoubted. He had been for years persevering in
his endeavours to mar his own great work, and
every measure which he had offered to the country
had been less acceptable than the preceding one,
and if his own career bad been cut short last year
his biography would have been stained by its
closing chapter. But he lived to redeem his error.
The indifference of the public in 1860, and the in-
sincerity of Parliament, brought conviction even to
his reluctant mind. Feeling that conviction he
manfully expressed it. Bat he has had his reward.
As long as he was coercing the nation by ill-digested
measures of reform he was disliked and distrusted
as a public man. He was now distrusted no longer.
His popularity as a minister and a statesman is now
re-established: The whole nation heard with de-
light of his elevation to the peerage, as a well
merited recognition of distinguished and faithful
services. (Cheers.) He is now instead of a weak-
ness the mainstay and ornament of the cabinet to
to which heebelongs ; and that cabinet did unfortu-
nately relapse into devices of clap-trap when it sup-
ported Mr. Baines's bill, it paid a speedy penalty
in the signal and ignominious defeat at which the
nation rejoiced as an additional guarantee of the
fate of further ministerial enterprises in that
direction. And now, the nation, being satisfied
that it will no longer be harassed by Lord John
Russell's agitation for reform, has turned its atten-
tion to the contemplation of his really valuable
services in the administration of foreign affairs,
when events unforeseen, events of unusual difficul-
ty, demanding great sagacity, great courage, and
great judgment in the minister, and imposing on
him great responsibility, have opened to him a field
which Europe already sees is more suited to his
genius, and far more promising for his renown.
(Hear, hear.) This brings me the second question
—foreign policy—and it is fortunate both for the
minister and the nation that the principles on which
our foreign policy are to be conducted are now so
unanimously held in England that no minister
could either mistake or disregard them. The first
principle of our foreign policy is that of non-inter-
vention—that is to say that all other states are to
be left to the exclusive and absolute management of
their own internal affairs. But when these are
affairs not of internal but of international character,
affecting the relation of states to one another, and
each or all of them to England, then we hold it to
be the duty of England not only to be a vigilant
observer but an actor in whatever transactions may
affect the general condition and peace of the world.
During the last three years there have been three
great contests going on in which the ministers of
England have had to act—in Italy, Austria, and
America. In Italy, when the war broke out, we
laid down the principle that the Italians should be
left to the management of their own affairs. In
conformity with that principle we were the first
power that recognised the independence of Italy,
and if that independence is not recognised by the
whole world, it is not the fault of England, but of
France, that keeps an army in Rome, which has the
effect of protecting the brigands of the Pope, of fo-
menting insurrectionin Naples, of perpetuating
intrigues at Turin, and keeping up that uncer-
tainty which clouds the future of Italy. Then there
has been war between the Emperor of Austria and
his Hungarian subjects. I attach the greatest im-
portance to Austria as one of the great powers of
Europe, but I have lately come toathe conclusion
that it depends very much on the manner in which
Austria closes her contest in llungary, whether
maintaining her among the great powers of Europe
is practicable or desirable. The whole press of Europe
is on the side of Hungary. No one can tell how
long the present state of uncertainty may last, but
I have no hesitation in expressing the opinion,
which the friends of Austria ought to regard, that
unless Austria does by some means or other conci-
liate her Hungarian subjects, the first shot fired in

Europe may bring about such a state of circum-
stances that any man a few years hence looking at
the map of Europe for the Empire of Austria may
haply look in vain. (Hear, hear.) I now come to
that other subject which is in every man's mind—
what is felt in every man's heart—and which both
in England and in Europe is occupying everybody's
attention. One question is in everybody's mouth—
is England at war with America ? It is impossible
to exaggerate the interest we feel or the importance
we attach to the answer to that question. Before

►his year is closed that answer will be received.
This is a question of all others in which you are
interested in knowing what are the views of your
representatives—what is the line they are disposed
to pursue, and what is the course which, in their
opinion, the Government and the Parliament of the
country should follow in the painful and unex-
pected difficulty in which we are now placed. (Hear,
hear.) The question seems to me to be a very eim-
ple, although it is a very large one, and in order to
a right understanding of it you mast look at the
origin, the objects, and the probable results of the
war between the Northern and the Southern States,
in order that we may understand their relations to
one another, and what are and ought to be Eng-
land's relations towards them. Having referred at
length to the origin and objects of the struggle now
raging in America, the hon. member expressed his
conviction that the truth with regard to the latter
was, as 'stated by Earl Russell—" that the North
were fighting for empire and the South for inde-