The Sun.
London, England, 1868-10-21 00:00:00

WEDNESDAY EVENING, OCTOBER 21, 1868,

NZ GLADSTONE IN LANCASHIRE.

Mr. Gladstone's speech at Leigh, on Tuesday, consisted
of a general review of the political questions which are
now agitating the public mind. The meeting was held in
tht weaving shed of a co-operative mill, which holds about
4,000 persons. The first question which occurred, there-
fore, was naturally that of co-operation and its relations to
the disputes between capital and labour. Mr. Glad-
stone was anxious not to over-rate these disputes. He
did not believe, as some do, that this question
clouded the future of our country. He thought
both classes had good sense enough to find their
way through the meshes and mazes of the difficulty. But
of all the plans put forward he most favoured those which,
"without removing the labouring man from the class of
labouring men, give him some of the sentiments and some
of the interests of the capitalists." "Don't suppose,"
said the right hon. gentleman, "that I am one who
believes that the functions of the retail tradesman—
the distributor of commodities—ever can be either per-
manently or beneficially supplanted ; that I do not believe.
I believe that the union of working men among themselves
in co-operative societies may be extremely beneficial as a
check upon their more ordinary method of manufacture—
that of great capitalists, and of disturbing either the whole-
sale or retail tradesmen ; but that it will supplant those
methods I, for one, wholly disbelieve. And I think it but
fair to say two things . On the one hand, lam convinced it
is only in the very advanced of the labouring wage-earning
classes that co-operation can be carried on to a beneficial
extent; but, on the other hand, the risks and responsibility
of joint-stock companies are serious. I hope, therefore,
that the greatest caution will ever be exercised by the
labouring classes with regard to joint-stock enterprise, and
I may add every other class; but wherever their joint.
stock enterprise succeeds I heartily rejoice in it, and
bid them God speed." But there was another mode of
acljasting this difficulty to which Mr. Gladstone wished
unqualified prosperity. Private individuals carried on thei*
operations on the principle of joint-stock companies, and
so adjusted their accounts that their workmen had an
interest in the proceeds. It would be presumption in him
to attempt to know when that principle was capable of
extension ; but where it could it should be extended and
applied. Then there was Mr. Mundella's method. To
Mr. Mundella Mr. Gladstone paid a handsome compli-
ment, and put forward his plan of boards of arbitration as
worthy of consideration. These several plans shewed, he
thought, that the problem was not a hopeless one, and
that we might expect from experience a solution of it.
Passing from this subject the right hon. gentleman
asked that he might be excused answering so many
letters as had been sent to him. He assured
his correspondents that their communications received the
best consideration he could give to them. In his remarks
upon the question of expenditure, Mr. Gladstone
appeared to be more "at home." He at first corrected
some errors into which he fell at Warrington, especially
in the matter of the China war. It was Sir Frederick
Bruce, he explained, who had been sent up the Peiho to
ratify and not to negotiate the Chinese Treaty. On
the matter of policy he gave no opinion whatever.
" What I wished to point out was this—that the de facto
cost of that war had arisen in connection with the opera-
tions of a former Government, and not with our Govern-
ment, and the fault I found at that moment was not with
those who had given instructions, but the fault was with
those who have at this time endeavoured to persuade the
country that the cost of that war, which had grown from
transactions entirely belonging to a former Government,
was due to the Government of Lord Palmerston instead
of being due to their predecessors." Coming to the question
of the expenditure of the present Government, the
speaker declared that it was not to be denied that
£3,000,000 had been added to the expenditure in two
years. He proceeded to reply to the rejoinder made by
the other side, that he ought to have prevented that
expenditure. He had received some verses from a Con.
servative working man something as follows :
" Now you are lecturing thro' the land
And leading working men astray,
By telling them things were not good
For which they did their money pay.
We wish to know, sir, how it is,
To oppose these measures you did not strive
While there was on your side, you say,
A majority of sixty-five."
He recognised the writer as his own flesh and blood, but
he looked on him as a rarity, and compared him to a
mammoth which was discovered in the White Sea some
rears ago. So great a discovery was that mammoth
thought, that a great value was set upon his bones. His
answer, was that to challenge the expenditure was to move
a vote of want of confidence in the Government. Under
the circumstances which obtained last session this was
impossible. The Government ought to have had
and did have a chance of dealing with the question

of Reform. That matter stopped any issue beilg
taken in the way of public expenditure. But at the same

time the Government policy was criticised. Mr. Glad-
stone declared that he himself had raised the question.
His friends Messrs. Childers and Stansfeld had criti-
cised the Government. "We did endeavour to

act on the Government and to produce an im-
pression on the House; but the House—and I do not
find fault with it—was unwilling to enter into matters
which, though important, were secondary to the main ques-
tion at issue. You have heard something this year about
meetings in my sitting-room. We Lad meetings in my
sitting-room to consider seriously whether we should
venture this year to ask the vote of the House of

Commons on the state of the public expenditure, and we

deliberately decided that we should not, because the
answer would have been that it would have been felt
impossible to interfere with the progress of the Reform
Bills, and we should have procured from the House of

Commons an adverse vote on questions of expenditure,

which would have been given probably from motives
extraneous to questions of expenditure, but which would
have been damaging to the permanent prospects of the

cause of public economy. I say, therefore, that on this

great question we went as far as we could—as far as we
dare, as far as we should babe been justified, with regard

to your interests, to go—in declaring our opinion of the

conduct of the Government." Besides Iwhich4vvhenever
the matter, even of the smallest importance, was brought
to a division, there were the Conservatives to oppose them,
so that on them, and not on the Liberals, really lay the
odium of the extra expenditure. Ms'. Gladstone gave one

instance in which an attempt was made to -save to
the country the expense of certain commissions. The

attempt succeeded, the majority being one. But
Mr. Turner, his opponent, was in the division
against them. The policy of the present Government
here came in for strong condemnation. It was a policy of
"making things pleasant all round." " That means going

from town to town, granting what this community wants,
granting what that community wants, granting what the
other community wants, and leaving out of sight that huge
public which unfortunately has not got the voices and the
advocates ready always to defend it against these local
and particular claims, but of which it is our highest boast
that we seek to be the advocates and the champions." He
instanced Whitby, where the Conservatives, having no
chance of success at the election, put out this placard:
" Who prevented the creation of a harbour of refuge at
Whitby? The Liberals. Who wanted to spend fonr mil-
lions in making harbours of refuge on the eastern coast?

The Conservatives." This was the way in which the Con-
servatives made their expenditure useful to themselves.

Lord Palmerston's Government gave judicious assistance to
works undertaken by a local community, and his

policy did not consist in " wild extravagance
and lavish assistance." "If the Government
system is to be the system on which- public

finance is to be administered, you must be prepared to

resign all hopes of remission of taxation even in gOod
years, and in bad years you must look for a steady augmen-
tation of the income tax." The French Treaty next engaged
attention. Mr. Gladstone admitted that Coventry had suf-
fered from it. Butthey at Leigh were makers of heavygoods.
What had caused their distress was not French competi-
tion, but America being shut against them, and the
fluctuation of trade. Then followed a dissertation-on the

advantages of free trade. He claimed that freedom had
produced stability, and had prevented those fluctuations

which formerly threw whole districts into distress.
The speech closed by a reference to the Irish Church

which "could not be omitted at an election meeting like
that." Mr. Gladstone animadverted severely on the conver•

sion of the Quarterly Review. The Conservative surrender,

said he, has itself surrendered. The Quarterly had foi
years been proposing the endowment of the Roma,nCatholics,

That was an indication of the views of the Tory party.
That was their choice ; in reality no plan was
put against the Liberal plan. Against the Liberal

policy it was argued that the Roman Catholics would
never be satisfied, and would demand the repeal of
the Union. " Why, gentlemen, that was the reason

that was always urged against every moderate and
rational plan of Parliamentary Reform. It was said,
The people will not be satisfied without universal suffrage
and without their having a republic.' In point of fact,
it is the old principle on which our antagonists systemati-
cally ask that you will refuse a request which is reasonable
because it may be followed by one that is unreasonable,
whereas the principle on which we desire to act is this—

grant the requests which arc reasonable, and then you will

Lave greater power to resist the requests which are unrea-

sonable."

According to a Bucharest correspondent in the
Augsburg Gazette, Prince Charles of Roumania bas asked
the hand of the third daughter of the King of Denmark,
the Princess Thyra, and has been accepted. The mar-
riage will take place, it is said, as soon a; the young
princess, who was born on September 29, shall have
attained her seventeenth year. This will closely
connect Prince Charles with the courtf, 14Qn(lOn. St,
retersbnrgh, and Athens.