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

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EVENING, JANUARY 30, 1861:

MR. BRIGHT AT BIRMINGHAM.

BIRMINGHAM, TUESDAY EVENING.

A great meeting was held in the Town-hall this
evening, at which the members for the borough,
Mr. Scholefield and Mr. Bright, addressed their
constituents; the Mayor (Mr. Arthur Ryland)
presided.
The hon. gentlemen met with an enthusiastic
reception.

Mr. SCHOLEFIELD, as senior member, spoke first.
lie referred to the great increase which had taken
place in public taxation during the 14 years he had
been in Parliament, and particularly to the enor-
mous expenditure on the army and navy. He
believed that a considerable saving might be made
on both those services without impairing their
efficiency. The state of Europe was alarming, but
he hoped that the policy of non, intervention would
be maintained. As to a Reform Bill, he said, unless
the Government introduced a measure of that kind
in the ensuing session they would neglect a great
opportunity, and the time might come when it
would be too late. No Reform Bill could be satis-
factory which did not give a large accession to the
number of voters, which did not make a material
alteration in the distribution of seats, and secure a
full protection to the voter in the shape of the
ballot. (Cheers.)
Mr. BRIGHT then rose, and was received with
loud and protracted applause. He said, he looked
to that assembly with more than ordinary interest
and apprehension. The House of Commons of
late years had presented itself to them as a
body caring little for the great internal interests'
of the country—reckless and profligate in its ex-
penditure ; if that were so, and if lie could judge of
what was passing in the public mind, he was forced
to the conclusion that the question of taxation and
expenditure was that to which men were look-
ing at the present moment with the greatest in-
terest. The past year had been one of unusual
prosperity, and heavy burdens had been borne
without much complaint ; but there were clouds,
particularly in the west, which promised a great
change of circumstances, and the question was
passing from mouth to mouth, " How long will the
Chancellor of the Exchequer be able to raise
£70,000,000 in taxes on the people of this coun-
try ?" He was about to make a complaint against
the governing class, which was, that it was guilty
of a wasteful expenditure of the public resources.
He was as anxious as his hon. friend that no body
of men should effect a hostile landing on this coun-
try, but there were foes of their own household, as
well as those who were such in a political and na-
tional point of view, and he would point out some
of the worst. In 1830 the expenditure, including
the cost of collecting the revenue, amounted to
£53,000,000, £28,000,000 being set aside for the
debt incurred in those vile intermeddlings which
our forefathers undertook in the affairs of conti-
nental Europe. In 1834 the expenditure fell to
£49,000,000. At that moment there had been an
enormous cry of peace, retrenchment, and reform.
They got a partial reform, and some retrenchment.
So long as the popular voice was so raised the ex-
penditure was reduced to something like a mode-
rate amount, but, as political feeling subsided and
the Tory party came into office, the expense began
to creep up. Whenever the people took their eyes
off it the expenditure began to rise. In 1839 to 1841
the expenditure rose again to £53,000,000, and in
1844 to £55,000,000, and remained at that amount,
or thereabouts, until 1853, with the exception of
the years 1848 and 1842, when there were revolu-
tions all over the continent ; and our Government
always took the opportunity when anything was
going on upon the continent to ask the people for
more taxes. (Cheers.) He now came to the year
1854, when the Russian war broke out. Some
people had a habit of fancying that war was so
inevitable, so natural, that they spoke of it
just as they do of scarlatina or smallpox.
(Laughter.) The cholera broke out ; the Russian
war broke out. (Laughter.) In 1854 the expen-
diture went up to £65,000,000, in 1855 to
£83,5J0,000, and in 1856, the year the war closed,
it fell to £75,500,000. Look at that enormous ex-
penditure. It was like a man taking a big house
aa,l we El Z. k;-ct r.:,kark 0,21.4 .Va k.
had not the wherewithal to continue it honestly, but
lacked the firmness to bring himself to his original
and due proportion. In 1857 and 1858 the expen-
diture was £65,000,000, in 1859 £64,000,000, and
in the past year it would be something like
£71,000,000. Thus in the 26 years which had
elapsed since 1834 the expenditure had risen
£22,000,000. But that did not give an adequate
idea of the case. In 1834 the Government spent
£21,000,000 in keeping the peace, in dispensing
justice, in preparing what was necessary for the
defence of the country. In 1860 it spent £43,000,000
for the very same purposes, being more than double
the sum spent in 1834 ; and if they returned to the
expenditure of that year they might abolish the
income tax and the duties on tea and sugar, and at
the same time a vast sum might be saved as a sus-
tentation fund, out of which hundreds and thou-
sands might obtain more steady employment and a
higher rate of wages than they can attain at pre-
sent. Somebody, he did not know who, made a
remark in the autumn, that he was not in the house
when they were discussing matters of a few hun-
dred pounds. Now, he had spent week after week
backing Mr: Hume in an endeavour to diminish the
estimates ; but he had never seen in the House of
Commons approaching success against any of those
enormous estimates for the military services, and it
was not very inviting when he saw millions run-
ning away, and nobody caring for it, that he should
spend evening after evening in discussing a ques-
tion of .£lOO. But this £70,000,000 was something,
though the House of Commons did not believe
it. He would give two illustrations of
what it was. Probably there were about a million
agricultural labourers in England and Wales whose
average income did not amount to more per head
than £25 per annum,so that the wages of the whole
body were not more than £25,000,000 per annum,
being about three times less than the Parliamentary
votes for the year. And if they added Scotland and
Ireland, it was not more than half the taxes which
their rulers had the conscience to ask, and they had
the patience to pay, (Loud cheers.) Take another
illustration. In Lancashire there was the most stu-
pendous manufacturing industry which the world
had ever seen, which produced at this moment, at
the period of its greatest and most astonishing ex-
pansion, £70,000,060 worth of yarn and manufac-
turing cloth. Well, then, our governing classes, our
rulers, with the most docile, the most industrious,
and probably the most church and chapel going
people in the world, devoured every year, this year
and last year, certainly more than the whole pro- ,
duce of the most gigantic industry the world had
ever seen. (Applause.) How was it done ? He
would tell them, and also who did it, and more, he
would tell them how it happened that up to the
present moment it had been done with apparent
impunity. Parliament was composed of two houses,
one of them was separate from and had no responsi-
bility to the people. The House of Commons was
more especially intended to take care of the people
and especially of their pockets, though last year it
ventured to tax their pockets with the greatest
audacity. He had never heard the feeblest protest
raised inthe Hoe se of Lords again st the extravagance
of the Government. It was worth their while toknow
that with few exceptions the members of the present
peerage owed the'r peerage to creation within the
last hundred years. The origin of many of them
arose from the rotten borough system ; any man
who could get four, five, or six seats in the House
of Commons at his command to serve the Govern-
ment of his day could, by ways known to such acn-
tlemen—(laughter)—peooure to himself in all pro-
bability to be made a peer. He told them this to
show that when they were asked to examine into
the conduct of the _House of Peers, they were not
to look at it as any thing as old as the Monarchy of
England ; they might single out a few families who
had come down from remote times, the majority of
whom had generally shown themselves considerate
and just to the people of this country ; but all the
modern peerage was bred in the slime and corrup-
tion of the rotten borough system, and they need
not look to a house so constituted for any great
anxiety to save the pockets of the nation. Coming

to what was called the People's House, he believed
that no assembly ever existed that was less calcu-
lated to govern economically than the hone which
calls itself a popular and representative body,
though three-fourths of its members owei no alle-
giance to any popular constituency. JAn Milton,
in describing the condition of the Choi 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 with 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 needlessly
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 and the
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
Leen 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 an end for ever
to strife between them. (Loud applause.) He ad- I
mitted that the French Government sp3nt 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
diaplw7, vv 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 mere 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 for an hour and a
half.

MR. MILNES UPON FO.REIGNIWAIRS.

The annual soiree of the Pontefract Mechanics'
Institution was held on Monday evening at this
Town-hall, Pontefract, under the presidency of the
Mayor (Mr. J. E. Robinson). After a few suitable
remarks had been addressed to the meeting by the
Mayor and the Vicar,
Mr. A. HALE, the hen. secretary, read the report,
which was of a satisfactory character, and from
which it appeared that the number of members of
the institution is 156.

Mr. MILNES, M.P., then addressed the assem-
bly, reviewing some of the leading topics of the
day. All persons, he said, had a way of fancying
that the time they lived in was the most important
the world had ever seen. This was a weakness to be
guarded against ; but, nevertheless, he thought it
would be very difficult to find, in modern history,
at all events, any three or four months which pro-
duced three such wonderful events in different parts
of the world as the three or four months of the last
year, during which time the great empire of China
had been opened to the world ; during which the
wonderful career of Garibaldi had established in
the South of Italy the same freedom for the Sar-
dinian dominions which had been already established
in the North, and during which had occurred that
event pregnant with the most mischievous conse-
quences, not only to another hemisphere, but pos-
sibly very injurious to this country—namely, the
disruption of the United States of America. On
the first of those points there were two or three
things which struck a person very much. How
strange it was the great empire of China had been
opened to the world, not by any conqueror, not by any
nation going forth for the purpose of driving out
the Government of the country and occupying the
territory itself, but by a nation whose simple pur-
pose was to be on the best possible terms with
China, to get as much tea as it could from the
Chinese, and to get them to take as much English
cottons and woollens as possible. It was trade which
had opened China to this country, not conquest.
(Hear.) He hoped that that event, inaugurated as
it had been by very little bloodshed, and only by
those :unhappy cruelties of the atrocity of which
perhaps the authors themselves were hardly con-
scious, had established our affairs with China on a
more substantial basis than they had ever been.
(Hear, hear.) This country had broken down by
one strong blow the insane and demoniacal pride
of that people, who fancied that they were the only
people that God had created in the world, to govern
it or to live upon it, and the Chinese had now been
introduced into western civilisation. All whom
he was addressing would be very glad that the
future trade between England and China should
go on prosperously, to the increasing advantage of
both countries, and without a single shot ever again
being fired in anger on one side or the other. (Ap-
plause.) With regard to Italy, he had mentioned
the extraordinary career of the Genoese sailor who
bore the name of Garibaldi, which was, perhaps, as
well known as any name in Europe at the present
moment. (Hear, hear.) Garibaldi was a man of
great simplicity of character, more like an intelli-
gent and well-educated English merchant sea-
man than anything else, and devoted to the one
idea of making Italy one nation. He had exhibited
the greatest unselfishness of character, because at the
time when he was, as it were, master of the whole of
Sicily—when he had in his hands the whole trea-
sure of the kingdom of Naples, he went to live upon
a little island to cultivate a farm, with a few goats,
without taking away with him one shilling of all the
treasures which were within his grasp. (Applause.)
Besides this there was something very remarkable in
the character of the man who had gained such a
remarkable influence over the people of the various
kingdoms of Sicily; but, perhaps, the bottom of the
secret was this, that the people were very unhappy
with the political condition in which they found
themselves, and that they, too—the best of them at
least—felt a real desire with Garibaldi that the
great country of Italy, which had been broken up
into so many different governments and cities,
should become one of the great States of Europe.
(Hear.) If the Austrians had only had the northern
part of Italy, which was given to them in 181.5., and
had governed it well, it was probable that they
would have been there now ; but the Austrians
could not get over the old habit, which the Germans
all had, of trying indirectly to interfere with the
other States of Italy. The consequence was that the
King of Naples, the Grand Duke of Tuscany, and
the other Italian Sovereigns, all thought themselves
more bound to consult the interest of Austria than
the interest of their own people. That was the
real cause which had driven some of those rulers
from their thrones, and compelled the last to be
fighting for his life at the little fortress of Gaeta.
(Hear, hear.) It was a very remarkable thing
that an attempt should be made by the various
provinces in Italy to give up their separate
rights and power, and to join themselves to form
one great kingdom. It was a very difficult thing,
from the very shape of the country, for it to form
itself into a solid mass, as it were. It was not even
yet bound together by railways, the roads were not
good, and there were great difficulties to irrigation;
so that there were several material reasons why the
people should like to have separate governments,
and not to be joined together in one great Power.
But they were the best judges of their own inte-
rests, they seemed to wish it, and he was sure that
it was not the interest of any person whatever to
oppose them in doing so. (Hear, hear.) He said
this because history showed that where separate
States, having subordinate interests to their
general interests, could be bound together
by common ties, that was one of the
best securities for the peace of the world.
(Hear, hear.) He knew many people said it was
impossible Italy could ever become one great nation.
They said that since the old Roman Empire it had
never been one nation, and it never would be ;
but he thought the people who said this for-
got that there was hardly any other nation in the
world of which the same thing might not have been
said at some time. For instance, France was for-
merly made up of a large number of different king-
doms, such as the kingdom of Burgundy, the duke-
dom of Normandy, the kingdom of Navarre, &c.
There was a time when England was split up into
seven different kingdoms, called the Heptarchv,
and before that there were all sorts of little Govern-
ments—he believed there was a King of Leeds
once—(laughter)—yet England gradually formed
itself together till it became the great country it
now was; Scotland was alive to the importance of
the same course of action, Ireland was also annexed,
and so in time the three countries became the United
Kingdom, and had never tried to disturb that unity
since. He could see no reason therefore, histori-
cally, why Italy should not become one of the great
united nations some time or other, just as France or
England had done; and if the Italian people were
really fit to undertake their own Government, and
were willing to get rid of any foreigner whatever,
be it Germany or. France, all the English people
had to say was—" God speed you. You are engaged
in a good and patriotic work ; we honour all the
sacrifices which you make for that purpose ; you
have our good wishes, though we don't send you
arms and money for this very excellent reason, that
it is the business of every nation to fight out its
own independence and liberty, and if it does not do
that it does not deserve either the one or the other."
(Applause.) As he had already said, there was
another subject of a very different character to
which attention was forcibly drawn at the present
time. While in Europe there were separate States
making all kinds of sacrifices for the purpose of
forming themselves into one nation, on the other
side of the globe there was a country, speaking our
own language, of our own people, who, with a strange
wilfulness, and urged by the worst and most unrea-
sonable passions, were breaking up the great Re-
public of the United States, leading to confusion and
civil war, and possibly to the destruction of their
country. Mr. Milnes proceeded to remind the meet-
ing that since the United States seceded from Eng-
land, and formed a republic under that name, the
number of States had increased from 13 to 30, the
population had grown to an enormous extent, the
most astonishing progress had been made in every
direction—the whole northern continent of America
had been peopled with intelligent men of English
blood, speaking the English language, possessing ,

the English literature, and the feelings and religion'
of the Anglo-Saxon race, and laying the founda-
tion for one of the greatest dominions the world
has ever seen. How had this been disturbed ? By
the existence of an institution of which English-
men could not speak of even with toleration—
namely the institution of slavery. (Hear, hear.)
It was true that England was to a great degree
answerable for the introduction of slavery into the
United States, for it was while that country was
a portion of the dominions of Great Britain that
slaves were imported there ; but if the Americans
at the declaration of their independence had set
their minds to discover the best means of gettin g
rid of the evil, they would not have been witness-
ing such debasement, or such unhappy events as
were now threatening the dissolution of that great
empire. (Hear.) The little State of South Caro-
lina had made itself notorious by a precipitate seces-
sion from the Union, and had, in all probability,
been followed by three or four others, with a view
of forming themselves into a Southern confederacy,
and carrying on slavery to the fullest extent.
Between the Southern or cotton-growing States
and the Northern or Free States there were three
or four States known as the tobacco States, in which
slavery was not a favourite institution ; and at pre-
sent it was not known whether they would unite
themselves with the South or the North ; but it
was piObable that they would hold an independent
course, using their position to act as the future
mediators in the restoration of their country's na-
tionality. (Hear, hear.) The English were
often charged with rejoicing over the mis-
fortunes of other countries, but there was a
general sorrow and universal regret at this sud-
den disruption of the United States. (Hear, hear.)
Of course they had a material interest in this
matter, and could not but look with alarm on the
effects of a civil war or a servile insurrection in the
States in checking the supply of cotton, and
thereby restricting the manufacture of cotton and
the employment of labour in the manufacturing
districts of Lancashire and Yorkshire ; but this
was not the only feeling which was passing through
the minds of the English people, and there was no
one of whatever party, who did not view with the
deepest sorrow the present aspect of affairs in
America. (Hear, hear.) All they could hope was
that the tobacco States might check the violent
fanaticism of the South, and so mediate between
the North and the South as to reduce the evil to its
smallest compass, and prevent any long and con-
tinuous civil war. (Hear, hear.) He perfectly
agreed with Mr. Seward that it was quite impossible
to imagine a peaceful secession of the United States,
and that as long as those secessions continued civil
tumults and civil war would continue, so that
perhaps the present state of affairs in America was
only the beginning of one of the greatest disasters
that had ever come upon the human family. What
a warning did the present aspect of America give
of the truth of the decree that the sins of the
fathers should be visited on the children! Here
was an institution, begun, perhaps, with no great,
sefise of its wickedness—with no clear feeling of
what an abomination it was—carried on until men
came to be treated like beasts, and placed abso-
lutely in the power of other men, and which had
brought on a great calamity that threatened to
destroy a magnificent empire which had grown up
under a beneficent Providence, establishing the
freest institutions among all diversities of men, and
accompanied with more material happiness than
had, perhaps, existed in any other portion of the
globe. (Hear.) Mr. Milnes next observed that the
three great topics to which he had alluded were fit
subjects to speak upon at a mechanics' institution
meeting, because they were closely connected with
one of the branches of instruction taught by such
institutions—namely, geography, without a know-
ledge of which his remarks would have been utterly
unintelligible and uninteresting to the audience.
(Hear.) He rejoiced to hear of the prosperity of
the Pontefract Mechanics' Institution, and expressed
a hope that year by year the importance of acquir-
ing knowledge would be more fully appreciated.
lie trusted that it would be more and more felt that
to send a young man into the world uneducated
was to send him unprepared and unarmed into the
midst of a hostile population. (Hear.) Englishmen
went forth from their own country into every part
of the world, and it depended upon the education
which they received whether the influence which
they exercised would be for good or evil. (Hear.)
He urged them, therefore, to promote in every way
they could in their family circles, in their schools,
and in their mechanics' institutions the blessed work
of education ; and he hoped the time would soon
come when the disgrace which hung over the Eng-
lish people would be obliterated—namely, that of
having a large portion of the children of the coun-
try unprovided with any means of education, and
sending them forth into the business of life with all
the disadvantages which want of education entailed.
(Hear.) As an illustration of the beneficial influ-
ences of education and proper training, Mr. Milnes
mentioned that the juvenile crime of the country
had already been diminished more than half by the
operation of the Reformatory movement, and he
concluded by remarking that all the rising genera-
tion ought to have a good and sound education con-
ferred upon them, and impressed with the fact that
oouL t
no truth, ru
personth, without temperance,
could succeed; but
honesty was not only the best policy, but that with-
out honesty, e
self
it
i
control,
that if he had those virtues, under the blessing of
cw
God, in this free country, he might become both
useful and eminent. (The linn..member resumed
his seat amid warm applause.)
Other gentlemen subsequently addressed the
meeting, and the proceedings terminated with the
customary votes of thanks,

MR. BUXTON, M.P., ON 7HE UNITED
STATES AND THE COTTON SUPPLY.

Yesterday evening Mr. C. Buxton, member for
Maidstone, addressed a crowded meeting in the
Working Men's Institute, upon the disruption of
the United States and its probable effect upon the
supply of cotton to this country. Mr. Buxton,
who was warmly received, observed that it was
somewhat remarkable that we should at the same
moment be looking at two movements in
two leading countries—one in Italy, the
junction for the first time since the
Roman empire of the various States into one king-
dom—the other in North America, the fall-
ing asunder of those which had been so long joined
together. The latter event was unquestionably one
of the saddest, one of the most mortifying, that had
ever occurred in our time. We might have hoped
that across the Atlantic, where freedom had a fair
field and no favour, where a new and vigorous society
bad pushed itself forward with such amazing rapi-
dity, where the ow grievances of Europe were still
unknown, where there were no ambitious neigh-
bours to threaten the horrors of war—we might
have hoped to see that people rising from height to
height in the greatness of power, and showing to
the world what boundless blessings freedom and
peace could shower upon mankind. But it was mor-
tifying to find that in less than 100 years from
their first declaration of independence these fair
prospects were so darkly clouded that already the
mighty fabric was rent asunder, and that possibly
war might break forth—war of the most dreadful
kind—civil war among brethren. One fatal crime
had wrought all this evil—the stain of one sin had
been enough to cloud all the greatness and glory of
the United States, and to withhold them from set-
ting a noble example to the world—the curse of
enslaving their brother men had been strong enough
to ruin all their greatness. But for slavery they
might have remained great and independent beyond
any empire in the world. Mr. Buxton, after de-
nouncing slavery in strong terms, proceeded to re-
mark upon the supply of cotton. He said they were
not at all likely to have the whole supply of cotton
from the Slave States brought to a sudden termina-
tion. If the worst came to the worst they might
still, in all probability, expect to obtain at least one-
third or one-half their present supply. Now, in
ordinary years they obtained fully one-fourth of
their supply from elsewhere. Supposing they ob-
tained only one additional fourth from North Ame-
rica, instead of the three-fourths they now obtained
—still even in that extreme case they would have
half their ordinary supply. (Hear.) But, beyond

this experience had shown that whenever the crop
in the United States fell short the small rise of price
that took place at once created an immense influx
from other countries. Only three years ago India
sent us half as much as the United States sent us.
(Cheers.) If the falling off from the United States
were still greater there seemed little doubt that
India could send a very much larger supply than
that which she furnished two years ago. Egypt,
Brazil, North Africa, West Africa, and many other
quarters of the globe would also furnish their quota,
and from all he could learn it seemed clear that the
deficiency at the very worst would not amount to
more than a quarter of our usual supply. (Hear.)
That, no doubt, would be a serious evil, but the ca-
lamity would not be a crushing one. The general
prosperity of the country would remain untouched,
and after a year or two enormous resources would
be opened in different parts of the world. As an
illustration he might mention that a few years ago
a lady of his acquaintance sent out £5O to a mis-
sionary in West Africa, with the request that he
would spend it in promoting the growth of cotton.
This trifling beginning soon produced so fair a pro-
spect that Mr. Clegg, one of the great cotton mill-
owners of Manchester, and two or three other gen-
tlemen, took the subject up warmly, and already
the trade from Abbeokouta in West Africa had be-
come a very considerable one. (Cheers.) There had
now been sent out some hundreds of cotton gins,
which had been purchased by the native negroes,
who had learnt to clean their own cotton. Four of
the chiefs had ordered out from England and had
themselves paid for hydraulic presses to press the
cotton for exportation ; and in fact there could be
no question that, unless the slave trade should in-
terfere, in a few years the quantity of cotton ex-
ported from that part of Africa would be of great
magnitude, and he need not observe how it would
be stimulated by even a small enhancement of the
price of American cotton. He felt no doubt himself
that in the long run the prosperity of the world
would be largely increased by any event that would
hinder the production of cotton in the United States
and thus stimulate its production by free labour in
other portions of the globe. (Cheers.) In conclusion
he wished to express a hope that the facts, dry as
they were, which he had laid before them would
make them rejoice more than ever in the thought
that England had cleared herself of the great crime,
the great folly, and the great misfortune of holding
men and women in bondage, and he thought the
survey he had taken of the results of that crime in
the United States must tend to impress upon them
more deeply than ever the truth of the maxim that
in the life of nations, as well as of individual men,
" wrong never comes right." (Loud cheers.) At
the close a vote of thanks was unanimously passed
to Mr. Buxton for the address he had delivered.

POLICE INTELLIGENCE—Jan. 29.

MANSION-HOUSE.—John Johnson, 45, who
had been previously convicted, and who refused his
address, was charged before the Lord Mayor with
stealing a quantity of gas fittings.
The evidence went to show that on the previous
day the prisoner stole unobserved into the entrance
of the Agra Bank, and also up the stairs leading to
several merchants' offices in Cannon-street, and
wrenched off all the gas-fittings he could find. The
result was that the adjacent rooms were speedily
filled with gas, to the great danger of the occupants,
who were obliged to open their windows to allow
it to escape. He was taken and given into custody,
with the proofs of his guilt secreted beneath his
clothes, and remanded for further evidence until
Friday.
Jane Little, 17, a domestic servant to a house-
keeper having the care of the offices of Mr. Rither-
don, a merchant, at 31, Easteheap, underwent a
preliminary examination on a charge of stealing
between £3 and £4 from a cashbox belonging to
him.

She pleaded guilty, and electing to be dealt with
by the court in preference to being sent for trial by
a jury, she was remanded until Friday in order to
obtain the attendance of an additional magistrate.

GUILDHALL.—WiIIiam Martin, aged 17, Fran-
cis James Burton, 16, George Gabriel, 15, and Mat-
thew John Cooper, 14, were charged with man-
slaughter.

henry Bryant, potboy at the Three Coltspublic-
house in London-wall, said—Last night, about half-
past 9 o'clock, I was close to• the Albion-hall, in
London-wall, in front of which I saw a number of
boys fighting with a man. I know the prisoner
by sight, and saw him among them. I saw them
strikin the man very much on the breast. Martin
then picked up a stone in the road and give it to one
of the others, I cannot say which, and said, "Here's
a stone, cut his head open." The boy to whom he
gave the stone then threw it violently at the man.
It struck him, for he called out immediately and
fell, upon which all the boys ran away.
Mr. Quentin Dalrymple said,—l am a bookseller,
and carry on business in Great Queen-street, Lin-
coln's-inn-fields. I was at a meeting last night in
Albion-hall, and when I came out, about half-past
9 o'clock, 1 found there was some disturbance in the
passage. My attention was directed to the two
boys who were fighting, and while I was remon-
strating with some of the boys I saw John Silver-
side, the hall-keeper, staggering and about to fall,
and I caught him iu my arms and placed him on
the ground, keeping his head raised, for I thought
he was in a fit. His wife, however, said he was not
subject to fits. I called for some cold water and
bathed his face and opened his necktie and collar,
but could perceive not the slightest animation for a
minute or two, and then I noticed a slight convul-
sive shudder, which proved to be the poor man's
death struggle. I saw blood on his mouth when
he fell. I did not see the stone thrown. The pri-
soner:Gabriel was one of the boys I saw fighting.
Some other witnesses were examined, and the
case was then adjourned, in order to ascertain the
result of the coroner's inquest.
Edward Gandell and Henry John Todd, who
carried on business as general merchants at 1, Size-
lane, and, covertly, at the premises of Thomas
Gandell and Co., packers, of Greenwich-street and
Joiners'-hall-buildings, Upper Thames-street, in
which firm the bankrupt Gandell held the position
of manager at a salary of £250 ayear,were brought
up on remand, charged with unlawfully obtaining
goods on credit within three months of their bank-
ruptcy, under the false colour and pretence of
carrying on business and dealing in the ordinary
course of trade, with intent to cheat and defraud
their creditors.
The prisoners were remanded for a week.

WORSHIP-STREET.—Mary Anne Williams,
a young woman who has been several times at this
court for drunken and disorderly conduct, was
charged with robbery.
Mr. Thomas Stuart, a chemist in Cropley-street,
Hoxton, had been to a party in the city, from which
he was returning, perfectly sober, at a quarter past
two that morning, when on reaching the Eastern
Counties terminus he was accosted by the prisoner,
who engaged him in conversation and asked him to
see her home. This he positively refused, but on her
pleading the coldness of the night, and asking him
for a cup of coffee, he consented to give her that,
and paid for it at an adjoining coffeehouse, and had
one himself. He now thought himself rid of the
prisoner's importunities altogether, as on leaving
the house he left her near there, but on getting
some distance further he was disagreeably surprised
to find she had again got up with him, and wished
to renew her conversation. He tried again to get
rid of her, and while doing so the prisoner suddenly
said that she had to go to Hackney, and quickly
moved away. This seemed suspicious, and on put-
ting his hand to his waistcoat pocket he found that
his gold watch, worth £2O, and which was safe
just before, had been stolen. The prisoner was then
running, and he pursued her, but she was too rapid
for him, and would most probably have escaped
altogether had not a constable who was ahead of
him heard his calls to stop her, and after a sharp
chase ho did so; but on getting her to the station
no watch could be found.

The prisoner protested her innocence, but Mr.
Knox remanded her, that the watch might, if pos-
sible, be traced.

SOUTHWARK.—Wm. Dearmer, an ex-police-
man of the M division, and recently a carman em-
ployed at Pickford's, the carriers, was brought up
for final examination charged with cruelly beating
with a heavy cartwhip and otherwise torturing
his two children, Edward Dearmer, aged 14, and
Sarah Dearmer, 11 years of age.
It appeared that the prisoner was discharged from
the police force about two years ago, and some
little time afterwards he obtained a situation as a
carter in Messrs. Pickford's employ. His first wife,
the mother of these children, died in 1851, and he
married another woman, by whom he has no chil-
dren, and they lodged at 24, Great Union-street,
Borough-road. On Monday, the 21st instant,
information reached the police that the children
had been brutally used by him, and in conse-
quence of that a constable proceeded to the
house, and found the children locked in a room,
and, on gaining an entrance, he found them in a
dreads,l condition, They were extremely dirty,

and had nothing on them but scanty filthy rags.
He removed them to the station house, and finding
their bodies covered with wounds and cuts, pro-
ceeded to Pickford's yard and took the prisoner into
custody. When the children were shown to the
magistrate on the following day, the miserable rags
were partially removed, and a scene was exhibited
that is rarely seen in a court of justice. Both children
were covered from head to foot with wounds, some
of them recent and others of long standing.
Mr. Combe then remanded the prisoner, to give
the parish authorities an opportunity of prosecuting.
Yesterday afternoon the children were again
brought into court, but they presented a very dif-
ferent appearance, being decently clad, and having
been taken care of in the workhouse. The boy, in
addition to his former evidence, stated that he was
14 years old last September, and his sister was 11,
and they resided with their father and mother in
law at 24, Great Union-street. The father and
mother in law were out nearly all day, and they
were locked up in a back room without food. On
Saturday, the 19th, they had a little bread and
water in the morning, and were locked up as usual.
He got a nail and put the lock back, and went
below to a lodger's, who gave them bread and butter.
Their father came home at the time, and, finding
them below, he ordered them up stairs, and he
followed them, and after stripping them stood at a
little distance from them and beat them severely
with his heavy cart whip. The blood came from
his back so that his trousers stuck to his legs.
Their food was bread soaked in water, and some-
times they had a little rice boiled in water. Their
clothes were nothing but rags, and they always
slept in the passage on an old piece of carpet, and
their covering was a sack and an old sheet. They
were washed only twice during last month, and he
could not recollect the taste of meat. A fortnight
ago their father whipped them, and then their
mother in law was in the room, but she did not
interfere.

Mr. Thomas Evans, surgeon of the M division,
residing in High-street, Borough, said that on the
evening of the 21st inst. he was called to the station
house at Stone's-end, where he saw the children in
presence of the prisoner, who was charged with ill-
using them. They were covered in very scanty rags,
and on reniuv lug thew Lo tliawvc.c.2 ...ix. uu ineir
bodies and limbs, which appear to have been caused
by severe punishment.
Mr. Combe consented to take bail, but as the
prisoner could not procure it, he was removed by
the gaoler amid the yells and execrations of the
mob who crowded in and about the court. It
was with some difficulty that they were prevented
from attacking the prisoner, who was compelled to
have the protection of the officers of the court.

LAMBETH.--A well•dressed person, 30 years of
age, was charged with breaking into the dwelling
house of Mr. Jos. Henry Bills, and stealing there-
from a silver watch of the value of £2 10s., his
property. .

From" the testimony of the prosecutor it appeared
that on the evening before, at about 7 o'clock, he
returned home, and, on opening his front door with
his latch key, he heard a rustling noise at his back
kitchen door, and missed his watch from where it
had been hanging, and where he saw it safe two
hours before. Soon after the prisoner was brought
to his house in the custody of a constable, and his
watch was also produced to him.
From other testimony it appeared that the pri-
soner in his flight had knocked over two or three
persons, and when secured by the constable thrust
his hand into a heap of mud, in which the stolen
watch was afterwards found.

The prisoner, who gave the name of Thos. James
Edwards, but who refused his address, was com-
mitted on the charge, but was ordered to be
brought up again after he had been seen by the
detectives.