The Sun.
London, England, 1868-11-20 00:00:00

MB. DISRAELI S SPEECH

Mr. Disraeli's speech at Aylesbury, on Thursday, was
decidedly clever. He made several exceedingly good hits ;
and the address abounded with humour. Reform was
touched upon slightly, but in a manner that "told."
Education—the piece de resistance of the programme—was
commented upon. The foreign policy took up a large share
of attention ; and the whole speech was set off by a
peroration about the Irish Church. On Reform
he had really no new arguments to put for-
ward. He thought the franchise still a Conservative
one—not in a party, but in a nationalsense. He defended,
too, the Government from the charge of having refused a
smaller and accepted the larger measure. He spewed how
Reform had been agitated for years ; how, " because
neither party in the State had confidence that the various
measures proposed would settle the question," the
Liberal party had proposed measure after measure, and
the country had been agitated to its great detriment.
" With regard to the borough franchise, which has been
one of more controvers=y, you must remember thr..t the
plans which had always, before we attempted to deal with
it, been proposed to Parliament, were plans for the simple
reduction of the qualifying amount. It was very
obvious that the cause of the successive failures of all
those schemes was, that neither party in the State had
any confidence that, if carried, they would be a solu-
tion of the difficulty. For the main part they
seemed to me to open an interminable series of years of
agitation. Take your qualification at £lo—one now almost
forgotten, once so familiar. Well, the Liberal party,
anxious to ingratiate themselves with the great body of
the people who did not possess the franchise, determined
to take a very safe course by proposing a reduction to £B,
by which means they hoped to revive their popularity and
satisfy the public demands. But it was quite obvious
that as time went on, and as the Liberal party again
became in a certain sense unpopular—the public demand,
in a certain sense, too, would revive, and it
would be necessary to take another step, and reduce the
amount from £8 to £6 ; and so on for years—perhaps a
generation or more- We should thus have had before us
the question of the most importance in the State, and the
one which of all others should be treated with the greatest
reserve—namely, the question of the distribution of
power—being brought forward at long periods, when
the necessity of things required it, but becoming
the staple of English politics, leading to constant
agitation upon the topic of which of all others it is to the
interest of the country that there should be the least
agitation, and keeping all men's minds unsettled. . . . We
opposed a small measnre, because it would lead, in our
opinion, to no solution, for the country demanded a settle-
ment, and it was necessary that it should be settled upon
lasting principles." Mr. Disraeli then proceeded to ask
where all the prophecies of disaster and failure which
were uttered at the passing of Reform, were now.
What had become of them ? Then he went
on to ask where Mr. Bright's " residuum " was,
and what it had done so bad. A voice
in the crowd called out, asking when Mr. Bright had
spoken of a residuum. " Why," Mr. Disraeli replied,
amidst roars of laughter, " a person who takes so eminent
a part in public affairs as you are doing at present ought
to know when. Before you take that leading part which
you do in our affairs here, you ought to be acquainted with
the most memorable incidents and most celebrated
sayings of public men. I don't come here to educate you.
I came here to thank the electors of the county of Buck-
ingham for the great and distinguished honour which
they have conferred upon me." In concluding with
Reform, the right hon. gentleman said that the people,
being proud of the monarchy, " which, though limited, is
a real monarchy," being proud of their Parliaments—of
the laws, &c., would exercise, and have exercised, their
franchise in a becoming manner. The expenditure of the
country was next defended, which, he said, may be thus
summed up : " The people require education, a soldiery
well armed and paid, a good navy, and a Government well
administered. There is no body of men so interested in
economy as the existing Ministry, of whatever party they
may be formed, in this country. The popularity of a Minis-
try must greatly depend upon the circumstance whether it
is in their power to relieve the country from taxation,
and, therefore, there is no body of men more interested in
economy in the administration of the affairs of the
country than the Ministry, and there is no department in
the ptate more anxious for economy than the department
of which, by the favour of her Majesty, I have the honour
to be the head. What the people of this country are
entitled to is an economical Government—a cheap Govern-
ment in the nature of things they cannot have. We
have created in this island an immense popula-
tion, educated and elevated with all those aspirations
of freemen that the people of an ancient and famous
country will possess, and an expenditure necessary for
their education and for giving them that skill in their
industry that will enable them to compete successfully
with other nations is among the requirements which the
body of the nation will demand to be satisfied. Therefore
you cannot have a cheap Government; but what you have
a right to look for, and what I trust you really do possess,
is an economical Government. But between an eco-
nomical Government and a cheap Government there
is a great difference ; and what you ought to insist ilpon
is economy, and not upon thoughtless cheapness, which
may deprive you of many means which are necessary to
the elevation, the comfort, and the convenience of the
great body of the people. When the present Adminis-
tration first acceded to office, two years and a half
ago, there had been a collapse of credit in this
country, such as probably never occurred before. That
collapse of credit greatly and most injuriously affected
the revenue of this country, but I have never heard
anybody say—and a great deal has been said during
the past fortnight, without much regard to the precision
of statement, that her Majesty's Government were answer-
able for that collapse of credit, or for the diminution
of revenue consequent upon it. But you must recollect
this—that with the collapse of credit and with a deficient
revenue, although we have had claims upon us which are
unusual, there has been no increase of taxation. You
have had one tax for a special object for a limited period ;
but is there anyman, of any party or any class in England,
who for a moment regrets or disapproves the temporary
increase of the income tax in order to secure the march to
Magdala? With that exception, you have had no increase
of taxation. I think the diminution of the revenue has
now ceased, and that we have now seen the worst of
those times. I wish, upon the question of expenditure, to
compress my observations into this sentence—that I am
in favour of an economical Government, but that I cannot
pretend to secure a cheap Government for the country,
and that a cheap Government can only be attained by
endangering the country, and by depriving the great
body of the people of an expenditure really incurred in
order to elevate them and to improve their condition."
In the midst of this argument Mr. Disraeli referred to the
subject of education. He noted that her Majesty's
Government had not forgotten this subject in the last
session. " Her Majesty's Government, notwithstanding
the engrossing interest of Reform, brought in a bill which,
if it had been passed, would have considerably advanced
the popular education of this country. I think that is a
subject which ought to engage without loss of time the
attention of Parliament ; but it is absolutely necessary we
should proceed with great caution. We proposed that a
Ministerfor Education should be appointed, who should give
his undivided attention to the subject. I believe that if Par-
liament had acceded, or should Parliament ultimately
accede to that proposition, great advantage must result to
the cause in which we are all interested. When
that Minister is appointed it will be in his power to
obtain the most authentic and complete details
upon the subject, and where he finds that there
is a deficiency in the education of the people in any
part of the country—and we know that there are parts
where such a deficiency does exist—it will be his duty to
propose such measures as he may think adequate to the
occasion. And in my opinion these measures should not
be inconsiderable. I would even go so far myself as tosay
that power should be given to localities, if they wish to do
so, to assess themselves in order to increase the educational
opportunities of the commnity to which they belong. But
I am convinced that any attempt to establish compulsory
education, or compulsory rating for educational purposes,
would be a failure, and would not be agreeable to the
great body of the people. I think that a proposal to do
do so would be open to this dilemma, that if the great
body of the people are resolved that popular education
shall be extended there is no necessity for compulsory
rating, but if, on the contrary, they are not prepared for
that, compulsory rating will be a source of great discontent
and dissatisfaction." Mr. Disraeli also declared that law
reformers were wanted, and local taxation required revision.
Foreign affairs, of course, came in as a prominent subject, but
Mr. Disraeli did not make any very long reference to it.
He remarked, however, that the Liberals were taken with
a kind of hysterical feeling whenever foreign affairs were
mentioned by him. "They have always said, `Don't talk
of your management of foreign affairs ; it is admirable,
only it is ours.' lam well satisfied if they will agree that
we have conducted the business of the country for two years
and a half perfectly to their satisfaction ; but I must say
in vindication of the observations I have made, that our
foreign relations are now highly satisfactory, and that I
do not consider the state of affairs when we acceded to
office really deserved that epithet. I wish to say that :I
make no charge whatever against Lord Clarendon.
When we acceded to office Lord Clarendon had only
held his office for a few months, and he had no opportunity
of setting the ship right. lam told that, although our
conduct of foreign affairs is unimpugnable, still we are
not entitled to any credit for it. All I can say is
that when we acceded to office, in 1866, our relations
with all the Great Powers of Europe, though they were
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