The Sun.
London, England, 1861-01-22 00:00:00

PRICE 4D. STAMPED, SD.

excitement in reference to which, he said, spread
• like a fire in the prairies, he characterised the reso-
lutions of Lord Palmerston as a pusillanimous mode
of dealing with a great question involving the
privileges of the House of Commons. Anticipating
the coming session, could it be possible, he asked,
that the Government who when in Opposition
turned out that of Lord Derby on the solemn pledge
that they would introduce a Reform Bill, intended
to meet Parliament with a speech from the Throne
utterly ignoring that question ? Who, until last
session, ever heard of the house being counted out
dnring a debate on a Reform Bill ? He and other
members used to retire last session during the
• debates on Lord John Russell's Bill to take a cup
of tea—and very bad tea it Was—(laughter)—when
some one would run into the room and say that,
unless they returned, the house ran some risk of
being counted out. A "count out" on a Reform
Bill ! Could there possibly be a greater proof that
neither the Government nor the country was sincere
in the matter ? In point of fact, he (Mr. James)
hardly knew what " the Liberal party" was. (A
laugh.) He was taunted with not having attended
a meeting of the Liberal party on one occasion
during the excitement on the question of the paper
duties. He said he was sorry, adding that he knew
nothing about the meeting, and that he was sure to
get into a scrape with his constituents ; but he ven-
tured to ask how many were present. Eleven, he
was told. (Laughter.) Now, he submitted that the
great Liberalparty ought not to musterin a wretched
tea-room to the number of eleven. (A laugh.) But,
on the other hand, what were the Conservative
party doing ? They hifal great intellect, talent, ter-
ritorial wealth—all that could give them weight
in a popular assembly ; but he confessed that,
looking to the great events which had occurred
since the close of the last session, he was surprised
that the great Conservative party should seem to
be positively paralysed. Mr. Disraeli, it was true,
had spoken out ; but upon what subject ? Why,
about carrots and church-rates. (Laughter.) Had it,
then, come to this, that such a wretched fragment
of ecclesiastical revenue as church-rates was to be
made the cry of the great Conservative party in
1861 ? (A laugh.) Mr. James proceeded to say that
the question of questions to be brought under dis-
cussion in the forthcoming session, was that of
retrenchment in the public expenditure. His friend,
Sir James Duke, had alluded to the memorial on
that subject which had been recently presented to
the Prime Minister. He (Mr. James) did not sign
that document; in the first place, he was never
asked—(laughter)—and if he had been asked he
should have declined, not because he did not sym-
pathise with its object, but because the obvious
answer to such a memorial was that the House of
Commons had the remedy in its own hands, and
that if the 60 gentlemen who signed it attended to
their Parliamentary duties with half the constancy
and fidelity of his friend Mr. Williams when the
Estimates came under discussion, the aim they had
in view would gradually be achieved. (Cheers.)
How were the Estimates passed ? He could hardly
believe it until he entered the House of Commons.
He had sat with about twenty-five or thirty mem-
bers criticising the Estimates and urging divisions
upon them, but they were only laughed for their
pains. (Laughter.) The division bell rang ;up
came a number of Members from the smoking-room
or the kitchen—(a laugh)—who had not heard a
single word of the debate, to vote with the Govern-
ment ; so the estimates were carried, and his hon.
friend Mr. Williams was asked what he had taken
by his motion. (A laugh.) After commenting at
great length upon the lavish character of the public
expenditure and what he conceived to be its
causes, Mr. James went on to say Nye lived in times
pregnant with interest. He never believed in the
absurd notion of an invasion of England by the
Emperor Napoleon. With the distrust of Russia
towards him, the jealousy of Prussia, and the fear
of him of Austria, the alliance with England was
the only support of his throne. (Cheers.) He (Mr.
James) had no fear of any invasion of England ;
still no man could foresee into what complications
the Emperor of the French might drive this coun-
try ; and our first care was to be prepared, though
he would not go so far as to say we should be armed
to the teeth. The dream of the French Emperor
was of the Rhine ; that was the old traditional
policy of his race ; and what we had to do was to
act on the principle of nonsintervention, and to see
that it was observed by other Powers. (Hear, hear.)
Passing on to the subject of the Italian Revolution,
he said within one year we had seen accomplished
there the results of ages. That which poets had
dreamed of, and patriots in the dungeons had
sighed for, had been brought about by the disin-
terested efforts of one man. Liberty in Italy had
been partly accomplished, and he hoped it would be
carried to its result, and that Rome and Venetia
would soon form, part of one United Italy. That
country had struggled for its freedom, led by one
man, compared to whom he might be allowed to say
Washington himself was eclipsed. (Cheers.) The
people of Italy had accomplished that liberty which
it was necessary to check by constitutional limits.
Liberty in the abstract could never be carried out.
The poet dreamed of liberty when he said—

" Go, seek
Earth's loftiest heights and ocean's deepest caves—
Go, where the sea-snake and the eagle dwell,
Midst mighty elements, where nature is, and man is not.
There may you see afar, impalpable,
As is the rainbow on the summer cloud,
That glorious vision—Liberty I"
(Loud cheers.) That was liberty in the abstract,
which required to be tempered by constitutional
limits. But one man, in one year, in an almost
bloodless revolution, had brought about the liberty
of his country, freed it from the hereditary perfidy
of the Bourbons, and given its people the oppor-
tunity of making themselves free. That man sits
now upon his solitary rock of Caprera,'pluming his
pinions for another flight, and that man is Gari-
baldi. (Loud and repeated cheers.) He hoped
that the first assembled Parliament of Italy, which
was about shortly to meet, would at once remons-
trate against the occupation of Rome by French
soldiers, and state their intention, not recklessly or
rashly, but in a distinct manner, that Venetia
should be a part of Italy. What part was Eng-
land to take in this great Italian complication ? It
was that of the great principle of non-intervention.
England, the freest country in the world, the
cradle of liberty and freedom, tempered by consti-
tutional limits, should be careful not only to pre-
serve the great principle of non-intervention, but
be equally jealous that it should not be abused by
those who had promibed that it should not be.
England, by its enlightened, liberal, and domestic
policy at home, and by steady adherence to the
principles of non-intervention abroad, and by its
great moral influence as an example to the world,
might so carry itself as that it should be said, in
the words of its great poet—
" Thou shalt remain, to shame—invultrLable
Like a great sea• mark standing every Sow
And saving those that eye thee I
resumed his seat
[The hon. and learned gentleman
amid loud cheering.]
who was called for by
Mr. WILLIAMS, M.—,
several persons in the meeting, paid a high compli-
ment to the able parliamentary services rendered
by Mr. James, and recommended that the electors
of Marylebone should stick by their hon. member.
Mr. WvLD, M.P., also bore witness to the inde-
fatigable exertions and untiring skill and ability of
Mr. James, and after some remarks upon the politi-
cal questions, and some comments upon the enor-
mous expenditure of the past year, proposed the
following resolution, which was seconded by Mr.
on
the
Michell, and carried by acclamation :—" That this
meeting, having heard the opinions of Mr. Edwin
James, M.P
come before Parliament in the ensuing seeaiou, ex-
presses its confidence in
tad representative
questions likely to
of the borough of MarYlobnne."
Mr. .i.fotEs having thanked the meeting,
Mr. Whitmore moved, and Mr. Thomaa Rose