The Sun.
London, England, 1857-03-14 00:00:00

CONFIDENCE IN THE GOVERNMENT.

A large and influential meeting of the electors of the
City of London, comprising merchant, bankers, traders,
and others, was held yesterday afternoon at the Guildhall
—the Right Hon. the Lord Mayor presiding--" to take
into consideration the decision recently come to by the
House of Commons, relative to the affairs at Canton,
and to express its high confidence in her Majesty's
Government."
Long before two o'clock, the hour for commencing
the business of the meeting, the hall was densely crowded.
The interval between the assembling of the electors
and the commencement of the business of the meeting
was devoted to the usual ebulitions of popular feeling on
such occasions as these. The names of the favourites on
the popular side of the question were Lucily cheered,
whilst those on the opposite side were received with
groans, hisses, and other. unmistakeable tokens of dis-
approbation. The whole being interspersed with a
• variety of songs of liberty, the Marseillaise Hymn
being the favourite, the strains of which rever-
berated through the vaulted ball, to the surprise and
astonishment of those sober guardians of the building
—Gog and, Magog.
At two o'clock the Lord Mayor arrived, and was
loudly cheered. He was accompanied by Messrs.
Itaikes Currie (candidate), J. Dillon, Crawford (candi-
date), Sergeant Ballantine, W. J. Hall, Deputy Dakin,
Oliveira, Edwin James, Q.C., Sheriff Keats, Alderman
Wire, Whitehurst, Alderman Sir J. Duke, M.P. (can-
didate), and other gentlemen of influence.
The LORD MAYOR, in opening the business of the
meeting, said that he had called it at the request of 800
electors of the City. Hecalled on them to give all an im-
partial hearing. The reading of the object of the meet•
ing was received with mingled expressions of approval
and. disapprobation.
Mr. RAIKES Ctinstrs, M.P., then came forward amid
some confusion (principally caused by some 20 or 30
"roughs" stationed in front of the platform). Tee hen.
gentleman said that, often as the citizens of London had
met. in their ancient hall, he believed they had seldom
assembled on any occasion when the best interests of the
country were more deeply at stake than at the present
moment, for, as he understood the question, they were
met, not to glorify any man or any Minister, however
able and successful he might be, but the great question
proposed to the sound understanding and practical com-
mon sense of the people of London was this—whether,
having had a Government. which had redeemed the dis-
asters of the late war, which had brought that war to a
coraclusion under most difficult circumstances—which
Lad established an honourable peace, and under which,
no matter what its merits cr demerits might be, the
country was now flourishing—(cheers, and cries of "No,
no")—that Government was entitled to the confidence
of the country. (Cheers, and cries of "No, no ;
there are plenty of working men starving.") He
assured those persons who cried " no," that if they
were unemployed ho was extremely sorry for it, for he
had always the good of the working classes at heart. He
had often addressed large masses of the working men of
the country, and he would not have been on the plat-
form that day but for them, for be was utterly unknown
when, some 20 years ago, in proposing Mr. G. Groteas
one of the members for the City, he bad uttered senti-
ments which touched the hearts of the working men of
Northampton, and they had asked him to represent them
in Parliament. He acquiesced, and if any one who heard
him would go to Northampton and ask wuat his main
'meter was, he thought they would get au answer which
would satisfy them that he was nut insensible to the
wants of the deserving, industrious, and unemployed
poor. He was one of those who, at this moment, was
endeavouring, with the aid of persons more influential
than himself to make another bridge to high-paid labour
in distant colonies, where the thews and sinews of men
were estimated at their full value, and where, if they
would be frugal, a competence awaited every man. He
was prepared to maintain, notwithstanding the cry of
" No," that with few exceptions the commerce of the
country. was thriving. In addition to this, the Govern-
ment had premised large reductions of expenditure, and
they had taken off the " war 9d." (A. voice —" That
don't affect us ;" and another—" Yes it does, you fool I")
Now the question he would put to the meeting was,
" Will you disturb everything I Will you upset the ex-
isting Government f• (Cries of No, no ; Palmerston for
ever; three groans for Lord J. Russell.) They all is new
that the sense of the country had already given its ver-
dict on the matter. If the good old Duke had been alive
nothing would have been heard of this question. He
embodied in his own mind thecommon sense of England
and his maxim was, "Choose the best men you can for
difficult positions, and when you have honestly chosen
them, honestly support them." (Cheers.) T•os head and
front of the Government offence was, that they •ad
endeavoured to support a man who was sent a distance
of 15,000 miles to represent the interests of England,
and upon whom the greatest responsibility was thrown.
The Government were no more responsible for the un-
fortunate events in China than he was, or any other man
in that hall. They had heard a great deal of abuse about
Sir J. Bowring. He knew something of that gentleman
from having sat with him for many years in Parliament,
and he believed it would be impossible to find a more
forbearing man, or one less likely to provoke hostilities
with a friendly people. The people of England had a
great deal to do with this question. If Sir J. Bowring
had an aristocratic name, or was the younger son of
some great ducal family, with influential political con-
nexions, very little would have been heard of this mat-
ter. But Sir J. Bowling was a man of the people ; he
sprang from the people, and he was sent to Parliament
by working men as the disciple of Bentham, whose poli-
tical doctrine was "the greatest happiness fur the great-
est number." (Cheers.) Such was Dr. Bowring, and
he appealed to an assembly of Englishmen, who coasted
themselves of their love of fair play—(hear)—whether
they would turn round and crush those whose only of-
fence was supporting the man whom they believed to be
incapable of an unjust or cruel act. (Hear.) He asked
them again whether they wished to throw the Govern-
ment overboard in order that they might dive down dark
waters for the chance of picking up another? (Cheers.)
Would they have Lord Derby ? (No, no.) Lord Derby
bad told them that be could not take the Government—
(" We don't want him")—for that, without Lord Pal-
merston and Lord Clarendon, he could hot form an Ad-
ministration. (Hear.). Or would they like to see a
coalition--(no, no)—and Gladstone, Sidney Herbert, and
the small, but talented, band of Peelites terming an Ad-
ministration ? (No, and great uproar.) Lie hoe. gentle-
man-concluded by moving the following resolution :
" That Lord Palme.ston having undertaken the Go-
vernment of this country under circumstances of ex-
treme difficulty, asd in the crisis of a great war whites
he eueceesluliy earned to the issue of an honourable
peace is enthled to the thanks of the country, and hav-
ing by an Adverse vote of the House of Commons been,
in fact, censured for his pi Hoy in reference to the pro-
ceedings at Gaston—this muting feels called up m te
express its conviction that from the p isition of affairs
in China and the past pr ceediegs there, Ito oilier course
was fairly 'spun to a British statescoas, or was compat-
ible with safety to the preperty and lives of our tellers.-
countrymen in that quarter, and with the honour and
dignity of the nation."
Mr. J. DILLON, in seconding thu ti re50.U..01,, observed
that peacemakers and plecehunters had united to put the
Government in a position of great difficulty. Of the
peacemakers be would say that they Here no doubt
honourable, crotchety, and well-meaning men ; but
every one knew that " welleneardog peopls" produced
a world of mischief. (Hear.) Now, one word with re-
spect to the placehunters, who had supported the peace-
makers with the view of turning out the Adminiqratiou.
The real question for the country was, nut Sir John
Bowring, but Lord Palmerston. (Heat., hear.) It was
not Commissioner Yeb, but the Earl of Derby. (We
don't want him.) The China question was passed and
gone, and the real question now was whether the coun-
try would prefer to see Lord Pahnerston in power or
see him supplanted by Lord Derby. (No, no.) That
was the question, and no other. Let those who were for
Lord Palmerston hold up their hands. (Au immense
majority of the meeting responded to the call amid loud
cheers.) That which had taken place in China was not
a separate fact, but part of a system which had been in
vogue for the last 20 years. Lord Palmerston had not

origihated that system, but, if Lord Derby were in office
to-morrow, be would support it. It was impossible not
to lament the late hostilities at Canton, but there was
no British statesman with a brain to think, and a heart
to feel, who could refuse his ,-upport to the course
adopted by Lord Palmerston. (Cheers.) A great deal
had been said of the traffic in opium, and of the tril. uta
of silver, but he asked whether, if Lord Daby were in
power, he would prohibit the opium trade, or whether, if
tat GladstOne were in office, he would return the silver
would
to the Chinese. (Certainly nut.) No, they
was°l42,lot, and their conduct in the late division
into office, the dishonest trick of a
into office, and party to get
(ethhee of London ought to resist
it to a man.
The Opposition was out of
work and wanted 84'employment. Their cry was that they
would manage thinos bet
tration, and that they than the present Adminis-
wtoueldandothtehe brokerage of the
country at an eighth lepssiuen
men
.o.ver the way.
(Laughter.) He (Mr. ) asked the citizens of Lon-
don whether they were prepared to abandon the best
interests of the nation in order to bring a 1
were only bun ;
4'er.ng after place of men into
power who p,ace ? (No, no.)
Lord Palmerston. was a wan about whom there
as a
great difference of opinion ; but it the country wi to
make him a reformer to their mind, kt them cetera a
reformed Parliament, and depend upon it Lord Palmer-
ston would not bo unwilling to lead it. (Loud cheers.)
Let them remember that, whatever the noble lord's an.
tecedents were, he had pc rf)rrned one act at least to
entitle him to the thanks of the people of England. At
a moment of great peril, when the reputation of the
country was at stake (and the reputation of England was
more precious than her wealth), Lord Palmerston inter.
posed, carried ou the war with vigour, and concluded it
with a glorious and honourable peace. (f_e•nd chore.)
Whatever nalgiat he said to the contrary, there was no
denying the truth of the assertion, that, during the late
war, Lord Palmerston had shown the wisdom of a states-
man and the vigour of a man. (Hear, hear.) iie (5-11.•
Dillon) therefore called upon the citizens of London to
show an example to the country, by resisting the incur-
sions of those European Chinamen, who had boarded the
vessel of the State, dragged down the flag of the Empire,
massacred the character of our envoys in distant coun-
tries, and poisoned the food of the people, (Cheers.)
Mr. SAMUEL MOBLEY said the question which the
meeting bad to decide was one of progress or no progress.
He wished to remind the country that we had a home
POllaY U well as a foreign policy, and that while we felt