The Sun.
London, England, 1868-10-30 00:00:00

SIR JOHN P.

'AKINGTON AT DROTTWICEL

Sir J. PakingtOn addressed the electors of Droitwich on
Thursday night. After an elaborate reply to Mr. Glad-
stone's charge of extravagant expenditure against the
Government, he came to the Irish Church question, and
declared that he would be no party to attacking the
Protestant institutions of England. He deplored the
unworthy manner in which the subject had been brought
before Parliament, and contended that it should be ap-
proached in a calm and patriotic spirit, and not be made,
as it had been by Mr. Gladstone, a subject for a party
manoeuvre. Mr. Gladstone had been going about the
country declaiming in most violent language on
this subject, without regard to facts or expe-
rience. He read extracts from Mr. Gladstone's Lair
cashire speeches, and said he was a man who stood alone
in the power of tergiversation. He had sat in Parliament
with him for thirty years—now with him as a Tory, now
opposite to him as a Radical. At one time he was heard
ably supporting the Established Church, and now he was
pronouncing its destruction.
At the close of the meeting a vote of confidence in Sir
John Pakington was unanimously passed.

CAPTAIN SHEPARD OSBORN ON THE
NAVAL EXPENDITURE.

Captain Sherard Osborn, who is au fait on the matter
of naval expenditure, writes to a gentleman in Sheffield
on the subject. His fear is that the Conservatives will
persuade the working men of Sheffield that an extrava-
gant naval expenditure is good for their own interests.
He says : " I am not astonished at any tales spread by
those in favour of our present wasteful expenditure on
useless war-ships and fortifications, but I am at the men
of Sheffield not seeing and appreciating their value. If
Sheffield dealt in wooden ships or stonework forts, I
think they would have good grounds for voting Tory,
as I think, with a reformed Parliament and Reformers
in office, their business would be in danger, and the
taxpayers proportionately happy. But all I can say, so far
as my own views are concerned, is this, that from the year
1859 I have been teaching and writing in favour of armour
plating and rifled guns. Had I been listened to after the
Crimean war, from 10 to 15 minim:a thereby wasted on
wooden ships would have been'saved to the navy ; and if I
bad my way at present, instead of some 15 millions now
being spent on fixed fortifications, with little patches of
iron, called shields, over the guns, I would for less, far less
money, turn out a squadron of monitors, carrying turrets
invulnerable to existing cannon, and give the country
what she is still without—a good means of coast defence.
I dare say you observed Lord Henry Lennox's asser.
tion the other day, that we had three armoured ships
on foreign stations. You will smile when I tell you that
these so-called armoured ships are vessels of wood exposing
a huge area of target to the arms of precision of to-day,
and that the only armour they can boast of is a narrow belt
along the water-line, and a patch over the centre of the ship's
side ; all the rest is as vulnerable and inflammable as wood,
pitch, and paint can make such war-ships. Worse still, a
large portion of the money voted for shipbuilding is still
being spent on such craft, because men will not break away
from the traditions of the past in the form of their fighting
ships, and still insist on the ironclads of to-day resembling
as nearly as possible the navies of past times. And there
are those who find it to their interest to pander to such
weaknesses. I want to combine efficiency with economy,
and to use more iron and steel, and less wood, in oul
navy. You and your friends can therefore judge how
the policy of the naval reformer is likely to serve of
damage Sheffield,"

THE RIGHT HON. W. N. MASSEY ON

INDIA.

Manchester has had a sermon on India from the
Marquis of Salisbury, the former Secretary of State for
that empire. Now the Right Hon. W. N. Massey comes
forward at Liverpool and gives his views on the same
subject. The former, however, had ceased to be a " party
man," and what he said was greeted with approval. Mr.
Massey, on the other hand, is the Liberal candidate for
Liverpool, and spoke to a number of political
opponents. Said opponents were by no means
willing to let him have it all his own way.
His speech, therefore, was interrupted continually.
The topics on which he touched were railways in
India, the great irrigation works, and cotton growing.
He prefaced his remarks on these subjects by an apology
for the annexation policy which had formerly been the
rule. "In the province of Oude, for instance, we ex-
balloted every effort to maintain the native rule, and it
was only when they found the vices of the rule incorrigible,
and the people suffering the utmost misery from the
lawless tyranny which oppressed them, that the English
Government removed that unworthy ruler, and supplied
in his place a representative of the British Crown."
In Mysore the same wish to maintain the native rule was
evinced. As to the railway system, " they could now
travel by express from Calcutta to Delhi, 1,100 miles.
The railway was being pushed on to Amballah, at
the foot of the Himalayas. Tho line from Alla-
habad to Bombay was one of the greatest marvels
of engineering art. The development of the
railway system was not only conducive to the inte-
rests of commerce, but it had produced an astonishing
effect upon the social habits of the people, and had dono
more to connect the natives with the British race, and to
abolish the prejudices and distinctions of caste, than any
other measure which was ever conceived. Amongst the re-
volutions which were due to the institution of railwaysi
none was more valuable than this breaking down of caste.
Mahomedans and Hindoos now thronged the third-class
carriages indiscriminately. He feared he had dealt with the
subject of railways until he had wearied their patience, but
he must further say that the Indian Government were
now engaged in laying out railways in every part of India,
so that the produce, not only the developed, but the still
undeveloped produce, of India should find its way to the
seaboard with as great a facility as the produce of Europe
did in this day. They were about to establish these rail-
ways without any regard to their cost. But the capitalist,
Mr. Massey went on to say, would profit by them. Then,
as to irrigation, that had engaged the foremost attention
of the Government in India during the whole period that
he was engaged in the administration of its affairs. India
had a watershed which was not exceeded by that of
any country in the world ; but bordering on its enormous
iver were arid plains, and if the monsoons did not take
place at the proper time the whole produce of those
plains was consumed and died away, and the people
were left to starve, for the calamity of drought was of
the same gigantic proportions in India as distinguished
everything else in that country, They might consider,
then, how great was the sense of. obligation in the
mind of the Indian Government to adopt means
for guarding against this dreadful infliction on that
large portion of the human race for whose lives and
safety they were responsible, when he told them that
they were prepared to raise millions of money
in order to utilise the Indian rivers, and make them chem.
nels for irrigating those arid plains, and so guard against
the vicissitudes of the seasons upon which the lives of the
people of India now depended. With regard to cotton,
the Indian Government had done all in their power
to foster the growth of a staple so valuable. They
had, on the occurrence of the American war, organised
a staff of experienced gentlemen to instruct the people of
India in cultivating and preparing the staple for market
but the Indian cultivator at the time of the cessation of
the American war, three years ago, was under the impres-
sion that cotton would flow in from the Southern States
of America as before, and that there would be no
demand for his production. They had now found
out their mistake—they had found that the produce
of the Southern States was not, and probably
never would be, what it had been ; and the Indian
cultivator, who, as he had said, had a pretty keen eye to
his own interests, was now satisfied that he would consult
his own interests by continuing to supply the English
markets with the staple they required. There was one dis-
trict, Hingaughaut, with great capacity for producing
into
the which would vie with any sample that came
the English market.

Mr. Gladstone's Lancashire Speeches (seven in
number are being printed in a form suitable for wide
circulation. They are expected to be in the booksellers'
hands on Monday and. Tuesday next.
Captain Vivian, M,P., is sufering from an acci.
dent of some severity. A few weeks sii:ce, on the north
coast of Cornwall, he was climbing over rocks, and, having
no shoes on, the sole of one of his feet was cut by a musses.
Due attention to the wound was unfortunately neglected,
and its injurious effects extended to a considerable portion
of the leg, necessitating rest and medical care at Pencar-
row, the residence of Lady Molesworth. A surgical ope-
ration being deemed necessary, the patient has returned to
his town residence in order that the operation may be per-
formed by his own surgeon.—Western Morning News.
Enßons OF SPLECII.— One often hears spoken
and sees written, and that by fairly educated people, the
word " suppositious." There is no such word in the Eng-
lish language ; what is meant is " supposititious." There
is also a good deal of misapprehension abroad about the
meaning of the word " plastic." I have seen it used is
print as if it meant capability of being moulded, instead
of power to mould. It is not the clay of the potter, but
the potter's hand that is plastic. So when we speak of
Shakspeare's " plastic mind," we ought not to mean as
an English review did in using the term the other day,
that Shakspeare's mind was moulded by circumstances,
but that he had the power to fashion whatever fell in
his way to the pattern that pleased him best,—Caoctrs
gay Fine,