The Sun.
London, England, 1868-10-28 00:00:00

88 90
83 90

RIR STAFFORD NORTHCOTE AND DIS=

SYSTABLISHIVENT.

Sir Stafford Northcote has formed the text of many a
leader in the Liberal journals. He was reported to have
laid that he would not pledge himself 'against
the disestablishment of the Irish Church. FroM
this the inference was drawn that Mr, Disraeli
meditated a coup in the matter of the Irish
Church, and that Sir Stafford would follow his leader.
Mr. Gladstone evidently took that view of the case. In
his speech at Wigan he said : "Sir Stafford Northcote,
Secretary of State for India, was asked whether under the
circumstances he would resist the disestablishment of the
Irish Church ; but he refuses to go to Parliament
with a pledge of that kind." Sir Stafford North-
cote, however, did not intend such an impres-
sion to go abroad. He is very irate at what
the leader of the Opposition has attributed to him, and has
written a letter to the right hon. gentleman, by date
October 25th, in which he says : "This is as nearly as
possible the contrary of what I have said, and of what I
have written, on this subject. Some weeks ago I received a
letter from a constituent, asking me to pledge myself
`never under any circumstances,' to consent to the dis-
establishment of the Church in Ireland. I replied that
there was no subject upon which I telt more strongly
than this, but that I objected to give a general
pledge of the kind demanded upon any subject what-
ever. Subsequently, when addressing my constituents at
'Torrington, I was asked whether I would resist the dis-
establishment of the Irish Church; I at once answered,
I will.' Then, remembering my correspondent's letter, I
added something to this effect : In saying that, I don't
intend to pledge myself as to what I may do at any
time and under any circumstances. I object to pledges
of that kind altogether.' You will observe that, instead
of refusing to pledge myself under the circumstances'
(by which I understand you to mean present circum-
stances), I distinctly did so only reserving to myself
liberty of action hereafter under circumstances which I
cannot foresee."

THE MARQUIS OF SALISBURY AT

MANCHESTER.

The Marquis of Salisbury's greeting at nianchester was
most cordial. Both members for Manchester were present,
and took part in the proceedings. In answer to the
address presented to him by the Chamber of Commerce,
the noble marquis, with much modesty, took the compli-
ment as being paid to India. Of India, therefore, he
spoke. "It gives one a sad and melancholy feeling,"
said he, " to read the addresses that are issued and the
speeches that are made in the numerous constituen-
cies of this country, to remember that the fate of 180
millions of subjects, with their various interests, their
enormous resources, their history and their civilisation,
older than your own, is entirely in the hands of the consti-
tuencies who within the next month will pronounce their
verdict, and yet that, with one or two honourable excep-
tions, these tremendous interests do not so much as attract
a passing recognition from those who are entrusted with
the responsibility of directing them. One constituency,
at least, is free from this reproach. Manchester has
never failed to maintain a constant vigilance over. the
interests of the people in India, and the affairs of that
country; and, as has been justly pointed out in the
addresses that have been presented, it is to Manchester
that many of the most wholesome measures that have
been undertaken are principally due." Coming to the
details of the Indian administration, he expressed a hope
that ere long the currency would be reformed—that a gold
would be substituted for a silver currency. " I had enter-
tained the hope myself that the reorganisation of the
currency of India might have been made coincident
with some measure for assimilating or bringing
into commensurable proportions the currency of
other countries of the world. That, however, appears
to be condemned as an idea that it is impossible to carry
out, and for the present at least we must resign it.
But I earnestly hope that whenever a gold currency is
substituted for a silver currency in India, care will be taken
that the unit of Indian currency and the unit of English
currency arc brought into definite arithmetical proportion.
It would be a very lamentable fact if the present approxi-
mate value of the rupee and the florin were to continue in
future, whenever we have an opportunity of changing."
He next took up the question of cotton. It was in India,
he said, a matter of quality rather than quantity. " There
is one matter that deserves passing notice in dealing with
that subject. Efforts have been made by Government
inspection to encourage the production of a better and
more cleanly cotton. Those efforts have been resisted,
I think, in some cases by persons who appeared to
imagine that any interference of Government for the
encouragement of the
.interests of trade was, in some
mysterious way or other, a breach of the principles of free
trade. Now, this is a matter in which I think Manchester
may very much help herself. She is justly jealous of her
renown in carrying the principle of free trade. It was
a matter that was much contested in times which are
anterior to my own political existence, but now the
acceptance of it is universal, and we appear to have
got to that stage which occurs in the history of every
creed when the faith that has been conquered tends
rather to pass into superstition ; and you will
hear doctrines fathered upon the principles of free
trade which the original professors of free trade would
never -have dreamed of, and which really do more to
impede free trade than to encourage it. I think that
there is no place from which an authoritative voice on
such a question can come so well as from Manchester ; and
that a well-devised scheme of inspection, improved in its
details by the help of such authorities as I see around
me, would go very far to encourage the ryot to so
improve his commodity that it might meet with better
acceptance in your market than it does at present." Then
there was the difficulty of conveyance. The authorities
were most anxious to construct lines. It would be a great
fallacy were they merely to make lines that would pay.
" We know by very sad experience in England, many of
us, how soon you get to the limit of a railway that
will pay. It by no means follows that railways ought
not to be constructed by a Government though the rail-
way will not be able to pay the guarantee which the
Government gives upon the capital advanced for its-
construction ; yet, by scattering wealth all along its
path, by stimulating commerce, by opening out the resources
of the country, by bringing new ideas to increase the
diligence and thrift of the natives of the country, it opens
out to the Government new sources of revenue, it makes
the people a more tax-paying people than they were before ;
and so, through the hands of the tax-gatherer, if not on the
surface of the railway account, the Government will be
reimbursed for the advances it has made. Therefore,
gentlemen, do not be satisfied with the answer that a rail-
way won't pay. Unless you hear also that the railway
won't produce wealth enough, and thereby taxes enough,
to reimburse the Government, the Government is not dis-
charged of its duty of carrying on the railway system still
further in India." In conclusion the noble marquis
referred to the constitution of the Indian Council. " I
think the impression generally prevails that the Secretary
of State can do whatever he likes, and that he can, of
course, be operated upon in the usual manner by represen-
tatives in the House of Commons. I do not know

whether it is sufficiently carried home to your
minds that in reference to every question in
which expenditure is involved, that is to say, as
you well know, in reference to every question of every
kind—because I do not believe there is hardly any ques-
tion in which expenditure is not involved—the Indian

Council have the power of absolute and conclusive veto

by a bare majority over the decision of the Secretary of
State. And upon the Indian Council, as you well know,
the louse of Commons has no direct power." In saying
this he did not question the wisdom of the arrangement
made some time ago. But in that Indian Council the

commercial interests were not represented.

" I think

;hat, considering the enormous powers that Council pos

sesses, it is a pity that its constitution is not more largely
tinged with the mercantile element than it is. Do not
understand me to say that the Council as at present con-
stituted wilfully or consciously neglects the interests of
merchants ; but you know perfectly well that nobody can
look after interests of which he by his own training knows
nothing. The eminent lawyer, the eminent engineer, the
brave general, the distinguished statesmen, who constitute
that Council—for all these characters arc fully represented
—they have not that minute and detailed knowledge of
the wants of the mercantile community which nothing but
a mercantile training can afford."

In the evening the Marquis of Salisbury was enter-
tained by the Chamber of Commerce and the Cotton
Supply Association at a banquet at the Queen's Hotel.
On the health of the noble marquis being drunk he replied
briefly, attributing the splendid hospitality extended to
him to the interest this commercial community had in the
welfare of India, and to the circumstance of his having
been charged with the affairs of that country. On
this subject he would only say that the two rules which
should always govern our relations with India were— first,
that we should act for the benefit of the inhabitants of
India, and secondly, that we should recognise that the great
means of uniting England and India, was to extend to the
utmost their commercial intercourse. He indulged in no
such illusion as that India could be prepared for self-

government and independence of England. We must not
attempt to introduce into India an exotic plant that
could only wither and fade. Adverting to a remark of
the chairman, he said that although the reform of the
House of Lords was not one of the subjects of the day, he
looked forward to that contingency with nothing of appre-
hension. Everybody was the better for being looked after,
and he would abide by the principle that any institution
that could not hold its own ground in free and fair discus-
sion of its merits should cease to exist. Alluding to the
coming election, he said men should be returned who were
twe and capable, and not mere euPPle