On this page
-
Text (2)
-
¦ October 2, 1852.] THE LEADER. 935
-
DEIIHYITE MANIFESTO AT BANBURY. "IUniuih...
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
1 ' Lord John ^$Tss9^ Of J)Emocracy. By ...
( r ¥ e are bound in justice , as well as , I think , directed 1 v to wait untii the ? e measures are produced which by P 011 ™ ' to the agricultural interest , to the colonial inare to gi to shipping interest all that compensation te rh , Vh they have hitherto been unjustly deprivedt hter ") and which are at the same time to confer i Pffts on every class in the community—( Laughter , and bcn jjjgge admirable measures which are to put an T to a long contest—which are to satisfy people who t the present -moment in the greatest state of satisfaca ° _ which are to content people who have never been r ntented ( Laughter )—and which at the same time to reconcile along with them other classes who are ^ contented and dissatisfied . " fie was sure the farmers expected relief in the direction of compensation for alleged ill-treatment ; nd he put the case ratner humorously , as between the Farmer , the Whigs , and the Derbyites .
"It appeared to me—I may be quite wrong in this j . ( jUfc I know it appears to me somewhat like the 16 found in no historical work , and of which there is no C recedent amongst statesmen , but of which there are precedents to be found in the practice of daily life—I mean of the patient who seeks for a regular physician , and who says to him— ' I feel very much depressed—I have not been well for some time—I want to be cured . ' The physician says to him— ' I see what it is ; I am sorry to observe that for a long course of years your regimen has been very unhealthy , and that you have lived on artificial stimulants . ( Laughter . ) I advise you to return to wholesome food
and exercise , and to trust to nature for your recovery . ( A laug h . ) "Well , I have very often heard that that patient has been very much dissatisfied with this advice , and that he has said , ' This is a trumpery fellow of a physician who tells me nothing but to lead a wholesome life ; it is not worth listening to his advice , I will turn him off and send for some one else . ' He has only to take up a newspaper , and he will find the announcements of persons who say that , without any confinement , without any inconvenience , by merely taking a few pills —( Laughter)—the patient shall be restored entirely to health , and shall lain afterwardsbut the
never have any reason to comp , on contrary shall be strong and vigorous for the next twenty years of his life . ( Laughter . ) I cannot help thinking that the present case is likely in the end to turn out something liko this . ( Cheers . ) But mind , my suspicions may be unjust . I may have the envy of the discarded physician —( A . laugh)—I may be the person who gave that unpalatable advice—I may , to end the metaphor , think that the happiness , welfare , and prosperity of the agricultural classes is to be sought for in the general welfare and prosperity of the country . ( Loud cheers . )"
If any medicine could be procured which would produce universal satisfaction he would be sure to own that he was utterly wrong . " But , gentlemen , as all this is to be told us in November ; all I can say is , that I think and I trust , when wo meet in November , we shall confine ourselves , in the first instance , to asking what the course is that is to be proposed ; and when we have heard what that course is , we shall then consider what ought to be our course with respect to it . " This gathering broke up with three cheers for the Queen .
¦ October 2, 1852.] The Leader. 935
¦ October 2 , 1852 . ] THE LEADER . 935
Deiihyite Manifesto At Banbury. "Iuniuih...
DEIIHYITE MANIFESTO AT BANBURY . "IUniuihy cukes" are familiar as household words to our juvenile population , and tho sweet-toothed among our adults . Of course , they are concocted in other towns , and often prove counterfeits ; but Banbury itself has maintained its reputation , always turning out genuine cakes . On Wednesday , there was a political dinner given at Banbury in honour of Mr . Henley and Colonel North , ami " honoured" by the presence of Captain Vyse , and a young Knightly from Northamptonshire , who is a worthy successor of his bucolic parent , ' ir Charles . At this banquet Mr . Henley was the main spokesman ; ho promised to present bis hearers with what we may call a genuine Banlmry cake political ; but , as will bo seen , he turned out a miserable
counterfeit . As the dinner was liko all other gatherings of its kind ; and as tho interest especially attaches to the most weighty and most eccentric speakers , we Khali omit tli « commonplace , and tell only of the pretentious lll "l uncommon . ' 'lie scene of tho feast was the floor of a malting iiouso , mi , i i ] u , t : JlairiUj in > 3 l Mr . Loveduy . It sounds •» < % , hut is nevertheless true , that ' the toast of ' ' > rd Derb y and tho Houko of Lords * , " was , out of i '( ' *]» oct to tho memory of the Duke of Wellington , ( " * uiik ii » silence , and not responded to save by " a ' •»»" ¦ ' song from Mr . Ilruton . " After thin delectablo l"'' - !<> nnaiice , Mr . Curtwri g ht proposed tho health of Mr . »! uley , Colonel North , mid tho mornbers for Oxford-Klure .
"i " . Henley , in reply , attacked tho press for opposing ' "" " I Derby ; and for " what ? Uxi ^' i ' i ' V ' - a ( : l ' ' * ' has done , but because it , has what of n" ¦ ' . "" I ) r'M ( 'i |» l < iH . ' Now , if I undei-Htand anything me "i ° " ' K ? ° f ••! " > gentlemen assembled , that , ( i ' ovornv ' . ' ,. '"oeoived , and will receive , your support because ;)( ""'' ovo it has principles . ( Cheers . ) Ah this lias been fi-in " l a " l Ho " 'ry insisted on -echoed , I may say , > on ,, end ,, f ( , | u , t ; ollI 1 t . ry | , the oilier , I shall , witli ' « i ponuiBuioii , if i do not trospuoa too long on your
time , endeavour to trace out a little what have been the principles of that great party with which I have the honour to be associated , and what are , and what will continue to bo their principles to the end . ( Applause . )" And he proceeded to fulfil this pledge by giving , not a statement of principles , hut an historical disquisition on the great " Conservative party . " They were , he said , deeply attached to the monarchy . Then they had opposed—nay , Lord Derby had split from , the Whigs on the appropriation clause .
" The next question which followed , and which shook the then Whig Reform Government to its centre—the question which first gave the Conservative party a tie , or a majority of one ( I forget which ) , in the House of Commons , was whether the people of this country , by the aid of the State , should receivo a religious or a secular education . N " ow , I ask you , is that a question of principle , or is it not ? ( Cheers . ) Arc children to be taught that " the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom , " or are they to receive a merely secular education , and be let loose to pick up their religious principles where they can ? That was the first question which shook the Whig Government , and laid the foundation for the accession of Sir R . Peel to power . I ask if that principle does not still remain in all its force , and whether the same party who wanted to introduce it twelve or fourteen years ago are not now again ready to proceed with the same measure ?"
Next , he wanted to know what were the Whig opinions with regard to the Irish Chnrch ; decrying Lord John Russell ' s speeches on Mr . Ward ' s motion in 1844 and ' 45 , and claiming immense credit for his own party , who opposed that motion . Then came the Freetrade question , raised by the Whigs , and taken up by Peel . "It was the late Sir Robert Peel ' s Government which first hounded on the country upon these questions . " " They were the first , in 1841 , to make them an electioneering cry . In 1840 , when those gentlemen were in opposition , we heard a great deal , and they taught all who trusted in them to believe that there was something
unholy in buying sugar which the slave produced—that it was irreligious and immoral . Well , was that changed in 1846 , when they supported the Whigs in carrying the very measure which they themselves denounced ? Surely , if it were wrong in 1845 , it could not be right in 1846 , and men will be disposed to ask themselves whether these gentlemen were sincere in the opinions which they entertained ? Five or six years passed on , and great changes were effected in 1846 , and because the 250 gentlemen , forming perhaps four-fifths of the great Conservative party , who had held those principles uninterruptedly and unbroken from 1833
and 1833 , when they first formed a party , did not suddenly , and without reason assigned , turn round on all they had previously believed , and say that it was wrong to do that which in 1840 they had declared to be right , but chose to say , ' We see no arguments or reasons to make us change ouv opinions , and we wish to see the operation of those great measures upon the community at large before we give our assent to them ;'—because they take that course , people turn round upon them and say , ' They havo no principles . ' If that be the case , I do not know what a principle is . "
As to their accession to office , and their right to office , why , they did not arrive there by any motion of their own , but by the disunion of " the Liberal party . " Lord John Russell " hit up the Government in a pet , " and said , " There is nobody fit to take the Government , because he has not been in the Government before . " But they , as the largest body , for the Peelites did not count , took office as a matter of duty" Wo have dirtbred from the leaders of what was called ' the great Conservative party' on commercial policy . Scarcely Heven years havo passed over our heads since that policy became the law of the land . I am speaking in tho presence of men who have not unfrequently heard me express my opinions on this subject , and oven at a time when your feelings ran somewhat counter lo my own . My opinion wus , that- it was a question which must be decided
and settled us it should be proved to affect tho whole community . ( Hear . ) I know you will do mo tho justice to admit ' that that is the language I have always held in this , town . \ told you to withhold your judgment , and that , deep an the pressure and difficulty you were labouring under might be , not to deceive yourselves into tho belief that these questions would over bo settled as they merely affected yourselves , but with reference to their bearing on the wlioio community . 1 know it is an unfortunate thing _ I knew it then -I know it now--it is an uufortiiimto thing for those who happen to bo the sufferers . Still , I zhould only havo been deceiving you then , and I should be only deceiving you now , if I led you to believe that , these quotations would bo settled in this country in any other way than as they allot : I , the great mass and majority of the people /'
And ho digressed here to show that tho IVelite branch of tho Conservative party stood alone , having no chance of forming a government . So far ho had proceeded , and ( hero remained only tho question as to what coui ' so would bo taken with respect to the suffering interests , of the country . All oars wort ) opened ; hut Mr . Henley did not deign to satisfy the curiosity lit ) had raised . " Tho agricultural interest has no doubt suffered , and tho Hhipping interest has no doubt suffered ; and , if it had not been for matters to which 1 shall shortly advert , they would have sufl'eivd still more severely . Wo agriculturists , in the Mouth of England particularly , have always had two great difficulties to contend with . At times wo havo had fluctuating pricoH , and tlmt I ma afraid nothing will
remove from us . We shall have them , I fear , fluctuating still , only on a lower scale . Fluctuate they will at seasons , and neither free-trade nor anything else will prevent higher or lower prices ; but no doubt we shall have them on a lower scale , except under special circumstances . The other matter we suffered from in the south of England was our labour market . Every one who is acquainted with tho management of land is aware that the occupiers in tho south do and did cultivate their farms at a greater expense for labour than our brethren north of tho Tweed . The
actual cost for labour . on a farm north of tho Tweed , cultivating the same quality of land in the same manner , has been satisfactorily proved to be much less per acre than in the south of England . That , no doubt , is very much owing to the state of our labour market . Our parishes , many of them , wore overdone with labour ,-and we were obliged , therefore , to employ a greater amount of labour at a low rate of wages , and that is the most expensive labour we can employ . ( Cheers . ) Well , circumstances which had nothing on earth to do with free-trade—the famine and tho destruction of hidhan life in Ireland—the
vast exodus of our people which has taken place m consequence of that and of the discovery of the precious metals in other parts of the world , have occasioned such a diminution in the labour market that no difficulty is likely to be felt on that head for some time to come . That has also very much relieved the shipping interest , the demands for shipping for the purposes of emigration being so great that no British ship is unemployed , but that we have been obliged to have recourse to Dutch , Hamburgh , and other foreign ships , to carry the people away . What the ultimate effect will be of thus stripping the land of its sinews and strength , God only knows ; but the real fact is , that in Ireland , from the misery of the people , and in England from the hope of gain , the people are rushing from our
shores in every way and in every direction as soon as they can muster the passage money . The colonists themselves are sending home large sums of money , which are distributed by a Government office as trustees for the colonists , and in the manner they direct , for the purpose of hiring and sending out labour . The effect , no doubt , has been very much to empty our workhouses . So far it has benefited the land , and has also advantaged the shipping interest , by giving them a great amount of employment ; so that the evil is somewhat palliated . ( Hear , hear . ) It would be presumptuous in me to pretend to point out how this
much this or that cause may have tended to produce or that amount of prosperity in various parts of the country ; nor shall I attempt to say what that prosperity is . I have lived too long in this county to suppose that you feel anything but the greatest pleasure at the prosperity of any portion of her Majesty ' s subjects . We feel it , not only as a gratification to ourselves , but , further from this interested motive , that if a large portion of the country is doing well it must reflect some benefit upon us ; and , above all , that they are our fellow-countrymen , and that their being the better off does not make us one jot the worse . " ( Cheers . )
And he wound up by saying that he had gone through all the topics ! The other speakers did not rise to the level of Mr . Henley , and only one ventured to express his disappointment at the speech of the Minister ; but he said such extravagant things that we will print a few to show our readers the intentionsof the " roughs" among the Derbyites . The speaker we allude to is Mr . Rainald Knightley , who succeeded his father , the notorious Sir Charles Knightley , in the representation of Northamptonshire . First , Mr . Knightloy expressed his disappointment : —
" He was sure they must all have listened with attention to the speech of Mr . Henley , but lie must say for himself that lie should like to have had one little more glimpse of that ' bright thing' which was ' looming in tho future for them . ' ( Loud laughter and cheers . ) He supposed , however , they must bo content to wait patiently uiilil Parliament met , when it would rise upon them with a bright halo all at unco . ( Itonrs of laughter . ) They must not expect too much at present , for the dlovernment were placed in rather . strange and awkward circumstances . " After ridiculing , in a ribald strain , the Whigs and the Peelitt's , tlin young member showed in what light be and such as ho regard tho mass of tho community at homo and abroad : ¦ "Besides these two parties , there was yet a . third—the ultra-democratic section and a strange combination of monstrous contradictions it consisted of . On tho first
night of the coming session , then , they would see united on out ! bench , in the closest bonds of fraternity and affinity , Papists and Puritans , Socialists and Quakers , . lews and Jesuits , all united for one object that object being the destruction of the Protestant faith , and the plunder of the revenues of tho National Church . ( 11 ear , hear . ) Now , supposing they succeeded in compelling his right , lion , friend , Mr . Henley , and his colleagues to resign Hie reins of power , the question he would ask them was this out of which motley section of this harlequin opposition could her M ajesty select a councillor who would have the slightest prospect of being able Io carry on the government of the country r ( Loud cheers . ) These wore not tho times when
tho important duties which pertained to offices of tlien ( iitn wero to he toyed and trilled with . Who amongst them did not romoinbei * tlio awful imd momentous epoch of IH 1 H , when the institutions of almost every country in Kuropo wero shaken lo their very foundations , and rent in twain from top lo bottom- when order and anarchy long ' trembled in the balance' nor did the latter eventually 'kick the beam' till the sword of the Autocrat of Russia was cast into tho opposing scale r ( Hoar , hear . ) . Lot not Englishmen bo deceived l > y tho present aspect of continental affairs . The Xoviali . it . hell-hounds of neighbouring states wore at present chained and muz / . led , but if they could oucupo their bonds , wus it likoly Umt tho Into
-
-
Citation
-
Leader (1850-1860), Oct. 2, 1852, page 3, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_02101852/page/3/
-