The Sun.
London, England, 1861-11-14 00:00:00

therefore less willing and able to avail him-
self of those benefits which institutions like this
place within his reach. (Cheers.) There is another
question suggested by that which I have just
glanced at, which may become, at any moment, one
of gigantic importance, because it may any moment
cease to be an abstract one. That is the question
of peace and war ; and I don't hesitate to say that
if this country should be involved in war with a
great neighbouring nation, not only all that we
have done, all that you have done here, but all that
has been done by every similar institution through-
out the country will be undone. (Applause.) The
country itself will be arrested in its path of im-
provement and civilisation, and the mind of the
people will, in all probability, be thrust back from
all the ground which, during so many years, with
so much labour and so much patience, we have all
been struggling to win. (Cheers.) Now, what is
the advantage—the great, the incalculable advan-
tage which is to outweigh calamities such as these ?
Why, the chance—for it is but a chance—that you
may prevent the Emperor of the French from ac-
quiring—by negotiation, mind you, not by force—
an island in the Mediterranean Sea, or a petty pro-
vince upon the Rhine. And it is for this we are to
go to war; and I suppose it is in anticipation of
this that eminent personages, high in the confidence
of their Sovereign, make big speeches at little ports.
(Hear, hear.) Were it not that from causes less
grave than this some of the direst calamities that
have befallen our race have sprung, it would seem
puerile, almost idiotic, to imagine the case which I
have just put; but all experience proves, however,
not only that such a case is very possible, but that,
unless the nation which is about to be victimised is
forewarned in time, it is very probable. From such
a probability, so long as his reason is undisturbed
by passion, man shrinks as from the contemplation
of some great crime; and great criminals will they
be who, knowing all these things—knowing what
must be the cost of war—knowing that the empire
the supposed aggrandisement of which they profess
to combat rests upon no stable foundation, but pro-
bably upon the life of a single individual—shall
persist in involving this nation in calamities and
difficulties from which no man living can extricate
it, and the issue from which no man living can
foresee. (Applause.) Now, my reasons for referring
to this subject are these :—The first is, because I
feel that an attempt is being made to prepare the
public mind for a policy which must eventuate in
war ; and the second is because the time is happily
gone by when it rested with a knot of statesmen
exclusively to dictate the foreign policy of the coun-
try. (Hear, hear.) Fifty years ago it would have
made little difference what might have been the
opinion, for example, of the present audience upon
questions of foreign policy, but, thanks to the estab-
lishment of these institutions, to the teaching of
innumerable schools—perhaps more than all to the
institution of the cheap press—the time has passed
away when a Parliament, a Cabinet, or a solitary
Minister, could exclusively control the foreign policy
of the country. (Loud cheers.) And thus, while
speaking as I do in the presence of persons who,
whether they possess direct political power or not,
must, in proportion to their intelligence, influence
the opinion of all the rest, and speaking as I do on
an occasion upon which we are met to commemorate
the progress of that intelligence, I make no apology
for adverting to an event, the recurrence of which
may efface every triumph which not only this, but
every kindred institution has achieved. (Pro-
longed applause.) Nor is it possible to estimate
what may be the consequences of even a temporary
debasement of the class upon whose moral and in-
tellectual wellbeing, perhaps more than upon that
of any other, the safety and glory of the empire
depend. I think it was Mr. Bright who once elo-
quently said that it was not in the palace, that it
was not in the feudal keep, that it was not in the
ancestral hall, but in the cottage in every age and
every country that the nation had dwelt. And I
might go further, and say that, whatever may be
the qualities of those who dwell in palaces and
ancestral halls, it is the gladness of the cottage
which in every age and country constitute the true
glory of the commonwealth. (Loud. cheers.) No
doubt the splendour of a nobility, the magnificence
of the great, wise statesmen, skilful artists, great
poets, may confer a certain lust, o upon the race
whose sons they are and from whom they sprung ;
but unless the national greatness be based upon
something more than this—unless, at the
same time, the heart of the people be sound and
in its right place—unless the mind of the people
be exalted and refined—unless the condition of the
people be one of independence, comfort, and self-
respect, and unless the love of God and their
fellow-men be shed abroad in their hearts, you may
have wise statesmen in your Cabinet, a noble
monarch upon your throne, pomp in your courts,
and luxury in your capitals; your fleets may tra-
verse every sea, your soldiers may triumph upon
every shore, but there is a worm at the root of your
civilisation, and the days of your prosperity are
numbered. (Protracted applause.) These are con-
siderations which we cannot affect or afford to
neglect in forming our estimate of the greatness
and permanence of States. (Hear.) But, most of
all, we should bear them in mind when, as now,
there are indications of the approach of one of those
great periodical tempests which involve the whole
civilised world, and in wLich nations perish or grow
strong. (Applause.) It would be a nice investiga-
tion to ascertain how it is that revolutions never
occur alone, and how it is that at points the most
distant, and among peoples the most dissimilar, a
simultaneous movement takes place, resulting in
some instances in the modification and development
of political institutions, and in others in the down-
fall of dynasties and the disruption of empires.
These periods of change are almost universally pre-
ceded by periods of restlessness and uneasiness
among the population corresponding to the area
over which the storm is about to rage. At this
moment these symptoms are making themselves felt
everywhere. In America the storm has burst already.
We know what has been passing in Italy. We turn
to Hungary and to Poland, even to Turkey and
Russia, and we see a modification of the same symp-
toms. Does any one suppose that a country which is
the very centre of free opinion, at a moment when
the whole civilised world is beginning to tremble
with the pulsations of a new and sudden life, can
remain sleeping in indolence an I altogether insen-
sible to the universal vibration? (Hear.) If any
one thinks so he is probably misled by what is
called the apathy which upon the question of
pelitics appears at the present moment to have fallen
upon the people; but what if this quiesence, in it-
self so unnatural, should be but the lull which pre-
cedes the storm ? It certainly has been so on pre-
vious occasions, and all experience proves that it
may be so ; and, if there is any truth in this anti-
cipation, we are about to enter-1 do not say this
year, or the next year, but within a few years—
into one of those great periodical times of change,
and we shall enter them under very different con-
ditions from those under which we have passed
through them formerly. It is a very happy thing
that there are much less than there used to be of
matters which can either constitute or be construed
into grievances. There is far more knowledge among
the people now than there was either in 1832 or
1846, when they last tried conclusions with the
party of resistance, and, while in that knowledge
there
is vast power, at the same time there is infi-
nite safety. This has not always been the case in
times that are past. There have been circumstances
which, from time
faction might
o
have led patrtiots to fear
lest the aria of
replacestriked to
aand
and
restore,
s hiver
d a wheren i t was impotent ;
there have been moments when the leaders of
an agitation themselves have stood aghast at the
work of their own hands. More than once the dig-
nity and safety of the empire have seemed. to
tremble in the balance ; and if there is any man in
this company who from the recurrence of that in-
evitable agitation—for it is only a question of time
—fears peril to the State, let him apply himself to
thoughts,
removing that ignorance in which is danger, and
to let light upon which
poets,
skilful artists, or great
whose heartsissafety,
and from
themasses f
a r
more than from great
of the people, from
ts .) If be
f e yen
statesmen, proceed in crises such as these the irre-
sistible current o
lour endeavour, an
proportionate success, the storm may burst upon us if our. efforts(Cheers be crowned this
with