The Sun.
London, England, 1861-01-30 00:00:00

to what was called the People's House, he believed
that no assembly ever existed. that was lass calcu-
lated to govern economically than the hous which
calls itself a popular and representati' e body,
though three-fourths of its members owei no alle-
giance to any popular constituency. J n Milton,
in describing the condition of the Ch r ch and the
nation in his day, made use of a metaphor which
was applicable to our own time. He described a
man who had the misfortune to have a wen on his
head, and the wen grew so large that it had the
audacity to state that it was the head, and that the
head was the wen. (Laughter.) He asked them
to apply that metaphor to the present position of
the English nation and its naval and military ser-
vices. These services should be the servants of the
nation, their voice as to the magnitude of those
services should be held to be of very small account,
civilians ought to determine the amount of danger,
and the military were only wanted when certain
things were to be done which statesmen and civi-
lians had determined to be necessary ; but now
these services had become so great that the most
palatial clubs built in London of late years
were entirely for their accommodation.
They had also a special press devoted to
their cause, and were allied with the Court, the
peerage, and the great territorial interest. There
was a constant pressure upon the Government,
which the Government found it difficult to resist,
and they had great power in Parliament ; but all
this could not bring about this extravagant expen-
diture were it not that the people were ill-informed
upon these matters. The people were duped, and
when a man was duped it was easy, of course, to
do anything NN ith him. Having briefly alluded to
the Russian war, Mr. Bright said—Since the con-
clusion of that war he would put it to every man
present whether the most strenuous exertions had
not been made by a certain party in this country to
create alarm with regard to France. Now, for
some years past we had been in partnership with
France—we had made two Chinese wars neeillessly
in partnership with France, and transactions had
taken place in Italy in which the policy of Eng-
land had been mainly pursued. England wanted
a united Italy, and for purposes for which the
French did not want it. The French Emperor
had done nothing actively to prevent it, but had
watched the course of events, and so far as he (Mr.
Bright) could understand his policy was prepared
to consent to the consummation when it arrived.
So far the Emperor's conduct towards this country
had been friendly, conciliatory, and proper. Mr.
Bright alluded to the Treaty of Commerce andlhe
abolition of the passport system, the advantages of
which he pointed out, and asked if these were
signs of war. (Loud cries of "No.") Since the
days when France and England waged perpetual
war with each other, centuries ago, there had never
been a monarch upon the throne of France who in
the same period of time had done so much to draw
the two nations together, and to put en end for ever
to strife between them. (Loud applause.) He ad-1
mitted that the French Government spent too much
upon her military armaments, but it should be
borne in mind that the Emperor knew he had
not too many friends among the orthodox
monarchs of Europe, that the English aristocracy,
whose mouthpiece was the Times, did not like him
or his family, and that we have in our navy 84,000
men and boys, being more than all the men and
boys in the mercantile marine of France, and 50,000
more than were in the Noyal Navy of France. He
complained that our Government allowed the false
statements made by the press to be repeated by
public speakers, while they had not the honesty
and the courage to contradict them ; for example,
they had encouraged the Volunteer movement ;
some people called it mania, and others patriotism.
He would not give it any harsh names, conceiving
that many had joined the Volunteer force from
motives of patriotism. That movement might be
regarded in two ways—either they were in danger
of some attack from abroad, or they intended to
raise a cheap force and so diminish the extravagant
expenditure on the regular army. As to any
attack from abroad the Government knew that it
was the merest chimera, but they looked to the
Volunteer force to create a greater taste for military
display, so that less pressure might be excited in
favour of a reduction of the standing army. Hav-
ing dwelt further upon the waste in the public
expenditure, Mr. Bright adverted to the session
about to commence. He asked—Shall we have the
same waste, the same fraud, the same extravagant
estimates provided for and condemned by a great
Chancellor of the Exchequer ? Let him warn them
that if the estimates were as large as those of last
session there was some power in this country which
intended war. Let them not interfere in foreign
quarrels, and nobody would interfere with them,
least of all the Emperor of the French. The people
of France wished for peace with Europe, and
especially with England. He believed that if our
own Government gave authority to Mr. Cobden
to ascertain whether the Government of France
would consent to an amicable arrangement by
which the navies of the two countries should not
pass their present bounds,—he believed that would
be received by the French Government with as
cordial a feeling as it received the proposition to
make that great treaty of commerce. Of course,
the men who suspected the French Emperor would
smile at this credulity. He believed the opinion
to be a sound one, but he was sorry to say that,
judging from the past, he believed that the greatest
obstacles would be found on this side of the Chan-
nel to any such convention. The Emperor, of
course, would be safer the more his people felt that
they were rightly governed. He was sure the
Crown of England would be more safe to descend
in an unbroken line to a late generation in the same
family the more the people of England felt there
was great moderation and great justice; but there
could be neither without great economy in the ex-
penditure of the public resources. He might be
charged with unfavourable feelings towards Royal
families and to people in authority, but he dared
to assert that the time would come when the people
would discover they had been unjustly treated, and
possibly they might discover that there was no
family and no combination of families connected
with the Government in this country that was
worth £70,000,000 a year. (Loud cheers.) Mr.
Bright then concluded in an eloquent peroration,
and resumed his seat amidst the most enthusiastic
applause, after having spoken iltr an hour and a
half.