The Sun.
London, England, 1859-02-04 00:00:00

opinion between us upon all points. (Hear, hear.) At all
times the weight of public opinion in England must exercise
a great and deserved and salutary influence on Europe, and
there never was a time when that combined public opinion
could operate with greater force and greater power than at
the critical period in which we now are. (Hear, hear.)
Before I proceed to more important topics, I will just allude
for a moment to the criticisms of my, noble friend upon the
subject rather of matters which are omitted from the Speech
than of anything which is contained in that Speech, and I
will endeavour as shortly as possible to give an answer
which, I trust, will be found satisfactory. At all, events
I will speak with perfect frankness, for. I can assure
your lordships that neither my colleagues nor myself have
aught to conceal. (Hear, hear.) My noble friend began
by intimating his opinion as to the abstinence from certain
topics, both in the Speech and in the Address, and he con-
cluded that I had given advice to my noble friends carefully
to avoid those particular questions to which he has ad-
verted. I can assure my noble friend that I gave no such
advice ; I did give my noble friends such information as
they desired upon the topics which are dealt with in the
Speech, and I presumed, that according to that usual
custom, my noble friends would have for the most part
addressed themsell;es to the topics which are treated of in
that document. If there was any divergence from that
usual course, it would naturally be expected to arise from
the anxiety of my noble friend who seconded the Address
to lake the earliest opportunity of bringing before Parlia-
ment the exceptional case of that great interest with which
he is so closely connected. I do not mean to deny that
that interest at the present moment is not in a state of con-
siderable, but I hope only temporary, depression. Into the
causes of that depression I am sure your lordships will feel
I ought not at the present moment to enter. (Hear, hear.)
I think those causes are various, but, in alluding generally
to the prosperous condition of the country, I did not mean
to convey an opinion that there were not now, as there aro
at all times, certain interests which are in a less prosperous
condition than is desirable. What I wished to convey
was that the general state of the country, both as to the
coudition of the people and the abundance of employment,
as -w ell as the diminution of crime and pauperism, which in
both Cages are most striking, could only be regarded as sa-
tisfactory. And as to one very important indication of the
prosperity of the humbler classes, I may refer to the vast
increase that has taken place in the course of the year in
the amount of deposits in savings banks. I have the docu-
ments, but I will not at the present moment trouble the
house with them, and will only state, that in every week
during the last quarter the amount of pauperism in this
country has been considerably below not only the last ex-
,eeptional year, but also below the corresponding periods of
1857, and, moreover, so equally was that improvement
spread over the whole country that, from the accounts
taken last December, in all the 11 or 12 districts into which
England is divided for the purposes of the poor law, there
Was not one district in which the amount of pauperism was
not below both the amount in 1858 and that in 1857. With
respect to the savings banks I will only state what I recol-
lect of the figures—that whereas in the last year, from the
beginning or middle of December to the middle of January,
there was an excess of withdrawals over deposits to the
extent of £600,000, in the course of the present year there
has, on the contrary, been an excess of deposits over with-
drawals, amounting to about £500,000. In point of fact,
upon balancing the accounts of the savings banks in the
two years there appears a difference in favour of their pre-
sent state of £1,100,000 as compared with preceding year.
Now, the principal matter of which my noble friend com-
plained, as not being noticed in the Speech, is the case of
the Charles et Georges. The reasons for that omission are
obvious. In the first place so many subjects are treated of
in the Speech that it is more than ordinarily leng thy, and it
was not deemed desirable to encumber it with any matters
which it was not absolutely necessary to introduce. The
case of the Charles et Georges is one upon which the Go-
vernment will not hesitate to give the house the fullest
information in its power, and I am quite sure when the
papers are before your lordships you will be satisfied thht
in no respect whatever have the Government fallen short
of the requirements of the Treaty of Paris, nor
of the obligations which our long-standing friendship with
Portugal imposes. But the non-introduction of such a
subject in the
.Royal Speech is easily to be accounted for.
It is not customary to introduce into the Speech questions
which may have arisen between two foreign Powers with
which the British Government is not directly concerned.
Upon this occasion the discussion was between France and
Portugal, upon a matter as to which full information is not
before her Majesty's Government, and thus it would have
been impossible for them to form an accurate opinion; but
they adopted the course which I believe was suggested by
my noble friend opposite, that of offering to both parties
their best advice and friendly offices. Unfortunately, how-
ever, neither party accepted that advice, one declining it
upon one point, and the other upon a different point; but
we have not less received an assurance from Portugal of
satisfaction and gratitude for those friendly offices which
were tendered before they were asked for. No doubt, in
that question there were circumstances which enlisted in
favour of Portugal the sympathies of this country, because
it appeared as though Portugal were suffering unjustly for
attempting to put a stop to proceedings which it regarded
as a revival of the slave trade. I will not now enter upon the
discussion of that question, but I will say that wo never for
a moment varied our opinion, or in the expression of that
opinion week after week to the French Government, that it
was impossible to separate the so-called free emigration
santioned by them from the commission of acts of the slave
trade in the interior of Africa, even if no irregularities wore
committed by their'own officers. While we have never ceased
to press that view as strongly as had been done by my noble
friend opposite, who lately filled the office of Secretary for
Fe:eign Affairs, I believe no recommendation, no circum-
stance could have brought the matter so home to the con-
victions of the French Government as the facts elicited by
the inquiry into this very case of the Charles et Georges, and
it is creditable to the French Government that as soon as their
own experience satisfied them of the immense difficulty, if
not impossibility, of preventing one systen from degenerat-
ing into the other, they immediately gave orders to put a stop
to the exportation of negroes from the East Coast of Africa,
where the greatest difficulties prevailed ; and now arrange-
ments are pending, with a prospect of speedy termination,
by which the French Government intends to put a complete
stop to negro emigration from either coast of Africa, and
moreover to give us cordially and readily a more active co-
operation for the suppression of the slave trade. (Hear,
hear.) As to the case of the lonian Islands, it is impossible
for me at the present moment to enter upon a full discussion
of the steps that have been taken in that matter. Within
a very short time the very distinguished gentleman who
has undertaken a temporary mission to those islands will
return to this country, and be enabled to give his own
version and his own explanation of the duties he has had to
perform, and the manner in which he has performed them.
But what I would wish to state to your lordships is the
original reason why Mr. Gladstone consented to go out as
Commissioner to the lonian Islands. The statement
reached us from all sides, and the fact had become notori-
ous, that from various causes the government in those
islands had come to a dead lock, ana that for years it had
been impossible for the Government and the representatives
of the lonian people to carry on satisfactorily together the
legislation of the country; and, in fact, the government
was carried on by a system of fiction, by perpetual proroga-
tions of the popular branch of the lonian Legislature. Mr.
Gladstone, my lords, was appointed Lord High Commis-
sioner Extraordinary to the lonian Islands for the purpose
of satisfying himself, by means of investigation upon the
spot, as to the real causes which stood in the way of the
prosperity and well-being of that portion of the dominions
under her Majesty's control. He. accepted that mission,
which we considered his high position, his powerful abili-
ties, his great authority, the interest which he had always
taken in Grecian affairs, and his conciliatory manners,

rendered him peculiarly well qualified to undertake,

Your lordships must at the same time bear in mind
that ho undertook this duty simpry as a mission

of inquiry, without the slightest intention of super-
seding the gentleman who then filled the office of Lord High
Commissioner of the islands in question. Circumstances,
however, immediately afterwards transpired, for which her

_ .
Majesty's Government can be held in no way responsible,
which rendered it absolutely impossible that any improve-
ments in the position of the lonian Islands, or any reforms
in the administration of their affairs, could be introduced by
Sir J. Young with any chance of their heir)... accepted. We
therefore thought it desirable that Mr. Gladstone should,
for a short period longer, continue to lend his services to the
country, and that he should himself be the means of recom-
mending to the Senate and people of the lonian Islands
those alterations and amtndments which ho might deem it
expedient to submit to their notice. Ho consented to un-
dertake that task for a short time at consideratle inconve-
nience to himself, and to launch the reforms to which I
have alluded with all the authority and advantage which
must be the result of the intimate knowledge which be has
obtained of all the circumstances and bearings of the case.
(Hear, hear.) His appointment will in the course of a few
days be brought to a close; he will be replaced by a par-
ina.nent successor, and when he resumes his seat in the
Hons.) of Commons—to which he will, I trust, be soon re-
stored—ho will, I have no doubt, be able to satisfy your
lordships and the country as to the wisdom of the policy
which has been adopted by the Government, and also to
furnish such explanations with respect to the present state
of the lonian Islands as he may deem to be consistent with
his duty to afford. (Hear.) If, my lords, I refrain from
touching on many of the other topics which are mentioned
in the Speech from the Throne —such, for instance, as that
which relatesto internal legislation, or that which has refer-
ence to the treaties which have recently been concluded with
foreign Powers,—it is not because I am not fully alive to
their importance, or to the greatness of the results to which
they may lead, but because future occasions will arise on
which those subjects can be more conveniently dis-
cussed. (Hear, hear.) I may, however, in passing
b© permitted to say with respect to the treaty
which has been concluded with Russia and to which
my noble friend who has just spoken has adverted, that it
is ILA only the treaty itself, but to the whole course of pro-
ceedings adopted of late towartiS this country by the Exi-
peror of Russia, that the expressions of satisfaction to be
found in her Majesty's Speech at the re-establishment of
friendly relations with that Sovereign are to be attributed.
(Hear, hear.) I make this statement because I think it is
due to the Emperor of Russia that I should bear testimony
to the fact that even before the signature of , tho treaty,
British subjects having been previously placed in a more
unfavourable position than the subjects of other nations, he
voluntarily conceded to them all those advantages from
which they had so long been exelusively debarred. (Hear,
hear.) Nor can I, my lord, pass over the question of treaties
without adverting to those which have been concluded with
China and Japan, and without expressini, my high admira-
tion of the conciliatory, but, at the sem:lime, firm and de-
termined course which Lord Elgin has pursued in the difO-