Sitting of 6 February 1862

MINUTES.
NEW WRIT ISSUED—For Lincoln City, v. George Fieschi Heneage, esquire, Chiltern Hundreds.
NEW MEMBERS SWORN.—For Lancaster County (Southern Division), Charles Turner, esquire; for Birkenhead, John Laird, esquire; for Coleraine, Sir Henry Hervey Bruce, baronet; for Oxford County, Lieutenant Colonel John William Fane; for Nottingham Town, Sir Robert Juckes Clifton, baronet; for Carlisle, Edmund Potter, esquire; for New Shoreham, Sir Percy Burrell, baronet; for Plymouth, Walter Morrison, esquire; for Lincoln City, Charles Seeley, esquire; for Finsbury, William Cox, esquire; for Worcester County (Eastern Division), Harry Foley Vernon, esquire.
PUBLIC BILL—1o Outlawries,
The House met at half after One of the clock.
Message to attend the Lords Commissioners;—
The House went;—and having returned;
MR. SPEAKER MR. SPEAKER acquainted the House that he had issued Warrants for New Writs, for Plymouth, v. Viscount Vallotort, now Earl of Mount Edgcumbe; for Lincoln City, v. Major Gervaise Tottenham Waldo Sibthorp, deceased; for Carlisle, v. right hon. Sir James Robert George Graham. bart., deceased; for Finsbury, v. Thomas Slingsby Duncombe, esq., deceased; for Worcester County (Eastern Division), v. John Hodgetts Hodgetts Foley, esq., deceased; for Nottingham Town, v. John Mellor, esquire, one of the Justices assigned to hold Pleas before the Queen; for Oxford County, v George Granville Vernon Harcourt, esq., deceased; for New Shoreham, v. Sir Charles Merrik Burrell, hart., deceased; for Coleraine, v. John Boyd, esq., deceased.

OUTLAWRIES BILL.
  FIRST READING.
  Bill "for the more effectual preventing Clandestine Outlawries," read 1o.

  THE LORDS COMMISSIONERS' SPEECH.
  MR. SPEAKER reported, That tin-House had been at the House of Peers at the desire of the Lords Commissioners appointed under the Great Seal for opening and holding this present Parliament;
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  and that the Lord High Chancellor, being one of the said Commissioners, made a Speech to both Houses of Parliament, of which Mr. Speaker said he had, for greater accuracy, obtained a copy, which he read to the House.

ADDRESS TO HER MAJESTY ON THE LORDS COMMISSIONERS' SPEECH.
MR. W. PORTMAN: Sir, I rise to move that an humble and dutiful Address be presented to Her Majesty, in answer to the most gracious Speech which we have just heard read; and although when requested by the noble Lord at the head of Her Majesty's Government to undertake the task I much wished that it had fallen to the lot of some other hon. Member of this House, whose greater command of language and experience in addressing you would have enabled him to express the feeling of this House more eloquently and more adequately than I can hope to do, yet I felt that it was intended to pay, through me, a compliment to the constituency which I have the honour to represent, and therefore I shall endeavour briefly to call the attention of the House to the principal topics in Her Majesty's Speech. It is probable there are many hon. Members now present who attended the meeting of Parliament in 1840, and may have heard the hon. Member who then moved the Address offer to Her Majesty the congratulations of the House and of the country on Her then approaching marriage with Prince Albert. The hon. Member expressed the most confident expectation that from the union then about to take place the most complete happiness would result, not only to Her Majesty, but to the nation over which She reigned. We have all seen how fully that expectation has been realized. But it is now, alas ! my painful task to refer to the termination of an illustrious career, and to notice some leading features in the character of the Prince whom it has pleased God to remove from amongst us, in the prime of life, and while actively engaged in promoting every measure which could tend to the mental advancement or physical comfort of the great mass of our fellow-countrymen. Sir, the task which I have undertaken is at once easy and difficult—easy, because I feel assured that all who now hear me will concur with me in expressing the highest admiration of the deceased Prince in all the

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domestic relations of life; and it is, at the same time, a difficult task, because I feel how impossible it is for me to do full justice to my subject, or to say anything which has not been more aptly said elsewhere on many public occasions by those whose personal acquaintance and intercourse with the deceased Prince, on matters of public and private interest, enabled them to obtain a deeper insight into his talents and high moral character. Placed at a very early age in a most exalted position, from that moment this illustrious Prince devoted himself to the study how best he could perform the duties of that position, From the first moment that he came amongst us he evinced an ardent desire to make himself acquainted with the history, feelings, and principles of the English people; endowed with intellectual powers of no common order, but debarred from exercising them in political affairs, in which he would, otherwise, no doubt have distinguished himself, he devoted the energies of his mind to promoting the welfare of the nation by giving encouragement to every charitable institution, to the arts and sciences, and to every well-considered scheme for promoting the physical comfort and moral elevation of the people, more especially of the poorer classes of this country. I think, Sir, that the domestic happiness of the Court of England has, exercised a most beneficial influence on the whole private life of the country, and has doubtless contributed much to raise this country and Her Majesty's Court to a high pitch in the estimation of all foreign nations. I am sure we can all bear witness to the deep grief and sorrow which was felt by all Her Majesty's subjects upon the receipt of the intelligence of the death of His Royal Highness; and it is to be especially remarked, that among the humblest classes of society the first thought was for the Queen, and the first inquiry was how she bore the overwhelming shock of her great calamity.
Turning to less melancholy subjects, the House must receive with much gratification the assurance that Her Majesty's relations with all European powers continue to be satisfactory, and that Her Majesty trusts that there is no reason to apprehend any disturbance of the peace of Europe. But—
"A question of great importance and which might have led to very serious consequences, arose between Her Majesty and the Government of the United States of America;"
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and, Sir, I think that the pacific solution of that question is mainly due to the prompt and vigorous measures adopted by Her Majesty's Government. The act of Commodore Wilkes was one which no nation having the power to resent it could possibly allow to pass unnoticed. It was a breach of international law and a direct insult to the British flag; and I am not afraid of hearing any dissentient voices when I say that the course taken by Her Majesty's Government was the one which was best calculated to maintain peace, and at the same time to assert the dignity of this country in a manner worthy of the trust which was reposed in them by the nation. The despatch which was sent by our Government to that of the North American States was courteous although firm in its tone, and was free from any menacing expressions or any language which might have been calculated to wound the feelings or excite the passions of a nation kindred to ourselves and already struggling with the horrors and the difficulties of a civil war. The tone of that despatch gave to the Government of the Northern States of America an opportunity of disavowing the act which had been committed by an officer of their navy, and at the same time to make full and ample reparation for it; and we have great cause for thankfulness that the course marked out, as it so clearly was, by justice, by sound policy, and by common sense was followed by the Government of a country so different from our own, and in which there must always be more or less danger that the violence of popular clamour should overbear the counsels of wise and moderate men who are better capable of judging what line of conduct is most honourable towards other Powers and most conducive to the welfare of their own nation. Without wishing to say anything irritating or invidious, I may, perhaps, be permitted to draw a comparison between the attitude of the people of this country on this occasion and that of the people of North America. If we are to believe the reports which were published by the press of that country, there existed among the people of the United States a violence of feeling and a readiness to push matters to extremity from which we were happily free. The people of this country were in the first instance anxious to ascertain the rights of the case, and when that point was placed beyond all doubt, not only by the opinion of our own legal authorities, but by the

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concurrent opinions of all the other great powers of Europe, they evinced their determination to seek reparation for the injury which had been done them, and, if necessary, to enforce that reparation by an appeal to arms. We were happily spared the misfortune of a war with men of our race; but, although saddened by the prospect of such a contest, this country was determined, if necessary, to carry it on until due and ample reparation had been obtained for the offence which had been committed; and I am sure that all that has been done in this matter by Her Majesty's Government has received the full approval of the large majority of the people of England; and I am happy to find that what has been done has left our friendly relations with the United States unimpaired. On the other hand, this occurrence has produced some most gratifying results, the principal of which is the display of loyalty and patriotic spirit on the part of Her Majesty's subjects in British North America, The people of that part of Her Majesty's dominions have shown that they can appreciate the wise and liberal form of government under which they live, and under which they enjoy to the fullest extent their civil and religious liberty. The prompt assistance, too, which was sent out from this country by the despatch both of military and naval forces, and of officers who were competent to assist and direct the efforts of local patriotism, has had the best possible effect, and has encouraged the Canadians to redouble their exertions, and to resist any attempts at annexation or invasion, of which at one time there appeared to be such imminent danger. At the same time the prompt-ness with which the reinforcements were despatched has prevented the conception of any idea by the people of Canada that the mother country is careless of preserving the attachment of her most important colonies. We have also received from out-ally the Emperor of the French a most important proof of his friendship in the readiness with which he expressed his opinion in favour of this country; and I can have no doubt that the prompt and unhesitating expression of that opinion went far to produce the pacific solution of this most important question. We have hitherto maintained the strictest neutrality with reference to the painful struggle between the Northern and Southern States of America. We have maintained that neutrality at the expense of much suffering and distress
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among thousands of our manufacturing population; but I trust that it may be in the power of Her Majesty's Ministers to continue that neutrality. I believe that the exigencies of the case will only offer fresh impulses to British commercial enterprise, and will be the means of opening new fields from whence we may derive our supplies of cotton, and thus of making our manufacturers comparatively independent of the supplies which they had hitherto drawn from the Southern States of America. Another thing upon which I may congratulate the House, and more especially hon. Members opposite, is the success of the scheme for the organization of our Naval Reserve. By that means we have been enabled to send forth a powerful naval force, and we know that if another similar emergency should occur, we have at our command the voluntary services of a body of skilled sailors, who are ready to assist us in battling for and in maintaining the supremacy of this country at sea. I find next in the Speech we have heard read, that—
"The wrongs committed by various parties and by successive Governments in Mexico upon foreigners resident within the Mexican territory, and for which no satisfactory redress could he obtained, have led to the conclusion of a convention between Her Majesty, the Emperor of the French, and the Queen of Spain, for the purpose of regulating a combined operation on the coast of Mexico, with a view to obtain that redress which has hitherto been withheld."
Sir, I believe that in joining France and Spain in the expedition to Mexico Her Majesty's Government have no intention to do more than obtain the redress which is our due. They have no desire to interfere with the internal affairs of Mexico, or to seek any territorial aggrandisement; and when the object of the expedition has been attained, the Mexicans will be left to settle their form of Government as they please. It is also a matter for congratulation that an improvement had taken place in the relations between Her Majesty's Government and that of the Emperor of China. I trust that a more enlightened era is dawning upon the Chinese empire; that the fears of intercourse with other nations and of the evils which might possibly result therefrom may by degrees diminish; that instances of duplicity, of insult, and of the infraction of rights which have been insured to us by treaty will become less and less frequent; that the trade of this country with China will be placed on a more satisfactory footing; and that we shall no more be compelled,

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as we have hitherto been, to use force to obtain the rights which hare been secured to us by former treaties. Her Majesty then informs us that a convention has been concluded with the Sultan of Morocco, by which the Sultan has been enabled to raise the amount necessary for the fulfilment of certain treaty engagements which he had contracted towards Spain, and Her Majesty also informs us that She has directed to be laid before the House the Estimates for the ensuing year, which Her Majesty tells us have been framed "with a due regard to prudent economy and to the efficiency of the public service." The House, I am sure, will be of opinion that it is not only the duty but the policy of every Government to make all practical reductions in the expenditure of the country, but at the same time only to make them as far as might be consistent with the maintenance of the perfect efficiency of our establishments. The people of England give freely towards the support of those establishments, and they expect that the money which they so freely contribute will be laid out to the greatest possible advantage, and with the least extravagance and unnecessary expenditure; and the opinion is also very prevalent in this country that those means of taxation which are the most easily resorted to, and which in time of difficulty and distress are most elastic, should be handled as lightly as possible when no such difficulties exist. The House is next informed by Her Majesty's command, that measures for the improvement of the law will be laid before us, and among these a Bill for rendering the title to land more simple and its transfer more easy. I believe the House would bear me out in the assertion that no greater boon could possibly be bestowed on the landed interest of the country than such a measure; and not only to existing landed proprietors, but to those who wish to become so; for it is well known that the expenses at present attendant on the sale and transfer of land are so heavy as in many instances to become almost prohibitory. Other measures of public usefulness relating to Great Britain and Ireland, we are informed, will be submitted to the consideration of Parliament. Her Majesty then alludes with regret to the fact "that in some parts of the kingdom, and in certain branches of industry, temporary causes have produced considerable pressure and privation; but Her Majesty had reason to believe that the
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general condition of the country is sound and satisfactory." Representing as I do strictly an agricultural constituency, I may say oh their part that the late harvest, though small in quantity as compared with former years, was of such excellent quality that the agricultural interest may now be said to be in a prosperous and flourishing condition. In moving this Address it is my duty to ask the House to depart from its usual course, and to agree to a special paragraph of condolence with Her Majesty in the afflicting dispensation of Providence with which She has been visited. Her Majesty has always so identified herself—if I may use the expression—with the domestic life of this country, that her sorrow has inconsequence been more deeply and more sincerely appreciated, and that the pity which is felt for her among all classes of her subjects is not so much that which would be deemed right and proper towards a Queen, as heartfelt sympathy with the widowed mother. On the part of the House of Commons and of the people whom it represents, I may be permitted, in moving this special paragraph, respectfully to assure Her Majesty that in this course we are not merely fulfilling a conventional form of duty, but we are endeavouring to express the heartfelt sympathy felt for her by all classes of her subjects, and to give an additional proof, if proof were needed, that her throne is founded on—humanly speaking—that best and surest foundation, the hearts and affection of a free, a loyal, and a devoted people. The hon. Member concluded by moving,—
"That an humble Address be presented to Her Majesty, to thank Her Majesty for the most gracious Speech delivered by Her Command to both Houses of Parliament:
"To take this first opportunity of offering to Her Majesty our sincere Condolence on the afflicting dispensation of Providence with which Her Majesty and this Nation have been visited in the death of His Royal Highness the Prince Consort:
"To assure Her Majesty of our heartfelt participation in the universal feeling of sympathy with Her Majesty under this calamitous bereavement, and in the deep sense entertained by all classes of Her Majesty's Subjects of the irreparable loss which the Country has sustained in a Prince whose tender attachment to Her Majesty, whose eminent virtues, and whose high attainments, unceasingly devoted to the interests of this

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ountry, won for him general love and admiration, and will cause his name to be held in grateful and affectionate remembrance:
"To assure Her Majesty that it is our earnest prayer that Her Majesty's health, in which Her faithful People take so lively an interest, will not be impaired by overwhelming grief, and that this Kingdom will long continue to enjoy the blessings of a reign with which its happiness and welfare are so intimately associated:
"Humbly to thank Her Majesty for informing us that Her relations with all European Powers continue to be friendly and satisfactory, and to assure Her Majesty that, with Her, we trust that there is no reason to apprehend any disturbance of the peace of Europe:
"To express to Her Majesty the deep gratification with which we learn that a question of great importance, and which might have led to very serious consequences, arising from the seizure and forcible removal of four Passengers from on board a British Mail Packet by the Commander of a ship of war of the United States, has been satisfactorily settled by the restoration of the Passengers to British protection, and by the disavowal by the United States' Government of the act of violence committed by their Naval Officer; and that the friendly relations between Her Majesty and the President of the United States have therefore remained unimpaired:
"To assure Her Majesty that we have heard with much satisfaction of the loyalty and patriotic spirit manifested on this occasion by Her North American Subjects:
"Humbly to thank Her Majesty for commanding that the Convention between Her Majesty, the Emperor of the French, and the Queen of Spain, for the purpose of regulating a combined operation on the Coast of Mexico, with a view to obtain that redress which has hitherto been withheld for the wrongs committed by various parties and successive Governments in Mexico, upon foreigners resident in the Mexican territory, should he laid before us:
"To express our satisfaction that the improvement which has taken place in the relations between Her Majesty's Government and that of the Emperor of China, and the good faith with which the Chinese Government have continued to fulfil the engagements of the Treaty of Tien-tsin, have enabled Her Majesty to withdraw Her Troops from the city of Canton, and to reduce the amount of Her force on the coast and in the seas of China:
"To thank Her Majesty for informing us that
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a Convention has been concluded with the Sultan of Morocco, by means of which the Sultan has been enabled to raise the amount necessary for the fulfilment of certain Treaty engagements with Spain, and thus to avoid the risk of a renewal of hostilities with that Power; and for commanding that Convention, and Papers connected with it, to be said before us:
"To thank Her Majesty for having directed the Estimates for the ensuing year to be laid before us:
"To assure Her Majesty that we will give our most serious attention to the measures for the improvement of the haw, especially as concerns the Title and Transfer of hand, as well as to other measures of public usefulness which may be submitted for our consideration:
"To convey to Her Majesty the assurance that we participate in Her regret that in some parts of the United Kingdom, and in certain branches of industry, temporary causes should have produced considerable pressure and privation; but at the same time, to express to Her Majesty the gratification with which we learn that Her Majesty has reason to believe that the general condition of the Country is sound and satisfactory:
"Humbly to assure Her Majesty that, in common with Her Majesty, we fervently pray that the blessing of Almighty God may attend our Deliberations, and may guide them to the promotion of the welfare and happiness of Her People."
MR. WESTERN WOOD, in rising to second the motion of the hon. Member for Dorsetshire for an Address in reply to Her Majesty's most gracious Speech, said he was aware of the proverbial forbearance and indulgence extended to every Member on the first occasion of his venturing to address that House; and while none could be so acutely sensible as himself how much he stood in need of their exercise, he felt that he should less deserve them if he ventured upon any lengthened appeal to the consideration of hon. Members, and he should, therefore, proceed at once to discharge in the best manner he could the responsibility devolving upon him. The touching allusion in Her Majesty's Speech to the irreparable loss which Her Majesty and the country had sustained, doubtless, came home to the hearts of all, and the House of Commons desired in common with every individual in the country, to express their sincere sympathy and condolence with Her Majesty in her

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overwhelming bereavement. In so doing, he ventured for himself to say, that the veneration, respect, and high estimation in which the Royal Consort was held, would long endear his memory to all classes of Her Majesty's subjects. Such respect and such veneration had never, he believed, been more universally or unequivocally expressed—or, he would add, more worthily deserved. A demonstration of feeling was in progress, which, he trusted, would not only result in handing down to posterity the record of the high qualities and inestimable virtues of the late Prince Consort, but would also erect in some shape of practical utility a more imperishable memorial both of his deserts and of their appreciation—a memorial such as he would have been delighted, if living, to have had his name associated with, and through which, being dead, he might yet speak to Englishmen for ever. Her Majesty had been long and mercifully preserved from almost every cloud of sorrow; but lately it had pleased God within a few months to visit Her Majesty with a twofold affliction, leaving her motherless and a widow. While they could not sufficiently admire the submission with which Her Majesty had bowed to the will of Providence they must also the more feel how deeply she was entitled to their sympathy and commiseration. His hon. Friend the Mover of the Address had adverted at such length and with so much feeling to this topic in Her Majesty's Speech that he might be deemed tedious if he were to say more on so painful a subject. There were other portions of the Royal Speech to which, perhaps, as the representative of a great commercial community, he might be expected to apply himself, and on these he would venture to make a few observations. They must all rejoice unfeignedly at the announcement that Her Majesty continued in friendly relations with the other great European Powers. That the people of this country believed such to be the case, was shown by the high prices which the funds were maintaining. In a commercial country there was no better indication of public confidence, and the price of public securities in England might be favourably contrasted with the rates at which those of other nations were at present quoted. With regard to the next paragraph in Her Majesty's Speech, the threatened rupture with the United States had caused greater excitement in this country than anything which had occurred since the Crimean war. He was very desirous that no observation
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should escape his lips which should be calculated to excite the susceptibilities, or, perhaps, he might say, the irritabilities of our friends on the other side of the Atlantic. He was very unwilling, in the present state of feeling, to give rise to the supposition, however groundless, that in his speech on this occasion his statements were made on any authority but his own. He would, therefore, content himself with saying that, as all were aware, an insult on our flag having been committed, redress was demanded, and that redress had been conceded. He would not stop to inquire whether the manner in which it had been conceded was as prompt as was due to this country, and, he would add, as was consistent with the character and dignity of the United States. Be that as it might, the Government of this country had every reason to be satisfied, for their claim had been admitted by the Power against whom it was made, and we had obtained the concurrence of every great Power of Europe, both as to the justice of the claim we had put forward and in the temperate manner in which we had enforced it. He turned from the conduct of the American Government to the conduct of our own, and he was quite sure he would have the unanimous concurrence of that House—certainly, if not of that House of the whole country—when he said that the conduct of the British Government, in reference to the affair of the capture, was entitled to the approbation of the British nation. The action of the Administration had been characterized by promptness and energy, and at the same time by a moderation which left nothing to be desired. While on the one side they might commend the marked moderation of the tone of the official demands, they must, on the other, be delighted at the energy and confidence with which measures were adopted to enforce these demands, if the American Government should refuse to comply with them. He should imagine that on no former occasion had the great Power of this country been so rapidly and efficiently developed. They had lately from the noble Lord the Secretary of the Admiralty a vivid description of not only what was done, but also of what more would have been done if it had become necessary. He should not attempt by any touches of his own to spoil the picture which the noble Lord had drawn of the strength of our resources; but he believed that at no former period in our history had so formidable a fleet

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been brought forward in so short a space of time. Great credit was due to the chiefs and the executive both of the army and the navy for the way in which they had met the exigencies of this case. The hour of difficulty had also proved the inestimable value of the Naval Reserve—its efficiency had been shown, and the wisdom of its establishment justified. The mercantile marine officers and men vying with each other, had plainly shown how glorious a resource this would be in time of need, and it was one upon which confident reliance could always be placed. He could not, while upon this subject of the late American difficulty, but compliment the noble Lord the Foreign Secretary for the moderation and the tone of his demands upon the Federal Government, and the noble Leader of Her Majesty's Government for the promptness with which he had taken every measure that was required to bring the dispute to a satisfactory settlement. He could not omit either to notice the conduct of the officers and men, both of the army and navy for the readiness which they had shown for the service of their country, and he felt that, with such gallant defenders abroad, and our host of Volunteers at home, they might well rest satisfied with the security of this country. The threatened rupture with America had, moreover, given Her Majesty's subjects in Canada an opportunity of displaying their loyalty and patriotism; and they had availed themselves of it in a manner which was most gratifying to the Sovereign and to the people of England. Some slight doubts had been thrown on that loyalty; and while he would not go the length of saying that it was worth having the difference in order that the loyalty of Canada might have been displayed, he certainly thought that the occurrence on board the Trent had been of value by reason of its effects on that country. There was now being organized a force in Canada which in all probability, with a slight assistance from this country, would be sufficient for the future protection of that colony from any attack that might be made upon her. With reference to the next paragraph in Her Majesty's Speech—that relating to our intervention in Mexico—he would express his opinion that there could be no question of the unanimous approbation by Parliament of the measures which Her Majesty's Government had taken in that respect. The long-continued state of anarchy and
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disorder which had reigned in Mexico, the continual spoliation of the property of foreign residents, and the atrocious and bloody murders committed, had long called for interference; and if any fault could be found with the Government, it was for too long forbearance rather than on account of its present attitude, The terms of the convention, as he understood, went further than the hon. Gentleman who moved the Address had described; for, if he was not mistaken, it guarded specially against any interference with the internal government of Mexico, and the people of Mexico were to be left entirely free and unfettered to choose their own constitution. The only object of the expedition was, to seek redress for the wrongs committed, to secure the restitution of property taken, to require the punishment of the guilty, and to insure for the future liberty and freedom to foreigners resident in that country. Some of the inhabitants of Mexico had expressed their opinion that a monarchial form of Goverment would be the one best calculated to achieve the regeneration of the country; and a personage had also been pointed out who perhaps, under all the circumstances, would be the best selection as a Sovereign for Mexico; but as it was rumoured that he had been advised that he could not enter the country without an army of 20,000 men, and funds to the amount of £4,000,000, the proposed plan did not seem very likely to be speedily carried into effect. Referring to the paragraph in Her Majesty's Speech which alluded to our relations with China, he would observe that though the Regent of that country had come into power by means that might not be agreeable to noble Lords and right hon. Gentlemen in that House, yet there was good reason to think that he would carry out the stipulations of the treaty with this country in a manner that would lead to increased trade with an empire of such great size and enormous population. The next passage of the Speech referred to the Convention entered into with the Sultan of Morocco, and he did not doubt that the measures taken by Her Majesty's Government would meet with the approval of the House. The public estimation of the loan to that country guaranteed by Her Majesty's Government had been sufficiently shown by the monetary world, which had offered five millions when only £500,000 had been required; and a further proof of the same fact was to be found in the very high premium which the loan bore in this

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country. The present Emperor of Morocco, he was informed, was a very enlightened and excellent man, and they might look forward with perfect confidence to his faithfully observing the stipulations of the treaty. Her Majesty's Government were not a party to the loan, but they had undertaken the collection of certain of the revenues of Morocco as security for the payment of the interest and the ultimate redemption of the principal. In regard to the Estimates for the year, and the appeal which Her Majesty had never yet made in vain to the patriotism of the country, he entertained no doubt that the House of Commons would liberally provide all that the public exigencies required. His opinion was that a wise liberality was in the end very often found to be a prudent economy. His hon. Friend had referred with great satisfaction to the introduction of a measure for simplifying the titles to land and facilitating its transfer. He had no doubt that representing an agricultural constituency, as his hon. Friend did, that portion of the Royal Speech must appear to his hon. Friend eminently a subject of congratulation:—it would be a subject of congratulation in other quarters as well. The simplification of the transfer of land, was not a subject of importance to the agricultural interest alone, for there had been so large a development of building societies of late that an increased facility of transferring land had become a matter of great interest and importance to the people at large. Far be it for him to say that landed proprietors ever required advances of money on their estates, yet it was highly desirable that greater facilities should be given to them for obtaining loans, and that such securities should be placed on the same footing as every other description of property. There was only one other point of the Speech to which he need refer. The House must sympathize deeply with the regret expressed by Her Majesty at the distress existing in some portions of the kingdom and in some branches of trade. No doubt that distress existed to a considerable extent, but there was some consolation in feeling that it was not of the same urgent character as on many former occasions, and that up to the present time local relief had been sufficient for its requirements. He could not pass from this subject without paying a deserved compliment to the working classes, whose conduct under their difficulties had been most admirable. He attributed this in a great measure to the
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diffusion of general knowledge, which had enabled them to form a correct judgment upon the causes from which their difficulties had sprung, and to appreciate the impossibility of their immediate removal. This knowledge had strengthened their patience in the presence of the evils pressing upon them. That the Legislature might be enabled to remove this pressure in the most natural way, must be the sincere desire of all parties; but the working classes must be well aware that the whole of that distress had not arisen solely from the supply of the raw material having been cut off, but also partly from the over-production of manufactures, which had, in fact, inflicted a plethora of goods upon every part of the world. He had trespassed longer upon the patience of the House than he had intended, and he could not better conclude than by joining in the prayer expressed by Her Majesty at the conclusion of the Royal Speech, that the blessing of Almighty God might attend their deliberations and guide them to the promotion of the welfare and happiness of her people. He would extend that prayer on his own part by praying that God would be pleased to shower down His best blessings on Her Majesty herself. With many thanks for the patience with which the House had heard him, he had now the honour to second the Motion for the adoption of the Address.
Motion made, and Question proposed, That, &c.[See p. 56.]
MR. DISRAELI:—Sir, the intimation conveyed in the Speech of the Lords Commissioners, both with respect to our foreign relations and our domestic condition, must, I feel, be satisfactory to the House. Although no one can be blind to the fact that the general condition of affairs is one pregnant with anxiety—but I hope not apprehension—yet, under the favour of Divine Providence, and with the exercise of vigilance and moderation in our Councils, let us trust that these perils and trials may be averted or surmounted. Since the House was prorogued the march of events in North America has been momentous. Nothing, however, has occurred so far which has for a moment shaken my conviction of the wisdom of the policy which was adopted originally by Her Majesty's Government—the policy of neutrality; and I feel bound to take this, the earliest opportunity, of expressing my belief that that policy on the part of Her Majesty's Government was sincerely adopted and had been sincerely practised. Very recently,

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indeed, an event occurred which for a moment seemed to endanger the practice of that policy. The conduct of the Government with respect to the matter of the Trent was the conduct which I trust that any men responsible for the government of this country would have followed. But that it was followed with firmness and moderation I freely and cheerfully admit. On the other hand, I am bound to say that the reparation that was offered to us appears to me to have been influenced by sentiments as worthy. I, Sir, am not prepared to peer and pry into any possible motives unknown to us that may influence the conduct of public men. When I consider the great difficulties which the statesmen of North America have to encounter, when I consider what I may call the awful emergency which they have been summoned suddenly to meet, and which, without giving any opinion upon the cause of these transactions, I would venture to say they have met manfully and courageously, I think it becomes England, in dealing with the Government of the United States, to extend to all which they say at least a generous interpretation, and to their acts a liberal construction. Sir, fairly and frankly expressing my own feelings upon these points, at the same time I think we have a right to expect from the Government of the United States that they should take no perverse view of the conduct of the Government of this country. In an in stance of intestine dissension a neutral Power must contemplate a term to such disorders, but whether that term should be accomplished by vindicating the authority of the legitimate Government, or by recognising the existence of the insurrectionary power, is an event which time and circumstances alone can settle, but which is a result which never can be absent from the observation and consideration of responsible Ministers. Sir, there is something in these matters stronger than the law of nations—the instinct of the human heart, which recoils from hopeless and tin necessary ravage.
All that the Government of the United States has a right to expect, and what I trust no Government that may exist in this country would ever refuse them, is that no steps should be taken—if steps should be necessary—in a precipitate spirit. A precipitate step may turn out to be a premature one, and we owe the utmost and the deepest deliberation on such matters not only to the feelings of an
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ally—which ought to be considered—but we owe it to the interests of this country itself. And when. Sir, I see in this paper before mo the reference that is made to another country in North America, and when I find that an interference is about to take place in that country which, from certain authentic statements that are prevalent, may even aim at its political independence. I say, remembering that this country was the first that acknowledged the independence of that insurrectionary State, it becomes us well to consider what steps we should take in future in similar matters. But, Sir, in saying so much, and without giving any opinion upon the present condition of the Southern States, or upon the character of that blockade of their ports which so much occupies public attention at this moment—because I think to-night it would be most inappropriate and inconvenient to enter into any controversial discussion—I think that this country has a right to expect that the most ample and authentic information in the possession of the Government with respect to the blockade of the Southern ports should be said upon the table of the House. I presume that from the commanders of our squadrons and other official sources on the spot the Government are in possession of very ample materials on which the ultimate judgment of this House and of the country may depend. That nformation—without intimating the slightest opinion upon the merits of the case on the present occasion—I think we have a right to expect to be given.
Now, Sir, there is another matter connected with North America, to which I have for a moment alluded, which, I confess, is one that fills me with some apprehension. As I understand that papers are to be laid upon the table, it would be highly inconvenient and quite unnecessary to enter now into any discussion as to the merits of the policy adopted by the Government with respect to Mexico; but I do not wish this opportunity to be lost—nay, I feel it my duty to take this occasion to impress upon the House and the country that this is a question which deserves our most anxious attention. And, Sir, I do this for two reasons. In the first place, I cannot forget that England was the first country that recognised the independence of Mexico—an event connected with a memorable policy and a memorable man. The occasion must be one of the most grave which could bring about the necessity that Eng-

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land should strike at that political independence which itself created. But there is a second reason which, makes me view this announcement with apprehension, and which makes me anxious that, even on this early occasion, the House should give its attention to this important subject. So far as we can form an opinion from those statements which are held to be authentic, and which meet the public eye by the convenient communication of favoured journals, the very grounds upon which this interference in Mexico is taking place have changed in the course of a very brief time. First of all we heard that the object of the expedition was to obtain redress for British subjects who had been the victims of extortion and confiscation; but now it is generally rumoured that the object is much higher—that not merely is it to obtain redress for injury to British subjects, but that the object and effect of this alliance may be to introduce into North America new principles of Government, and absolutely even to establish dynasties. I will offer no opinion to-night on the conduct of the Government in this matter. It is impossible, until we are perfectly familiar with all that has taken place, that we can come to a satisfactory conclusion. But I think that the state of affairs is such as to justify on our part great anxiety, and may even lead to considerable embarrassment.
But, Sir, there is another piece of information which follows the announcement of the convention with France and Spain in regard to Mexico, which though certainly of not so important a character, ought not to pass without remark, and that is the convention with the Sultan of Morocco. Now, Sir, it is very difficult to collect from this announcement the exact nature of this convention; but I presume I am not in error in the interpretation I place upon it, when I say, that though not a formal guarantee of interest by this country to those who have lent money to the Emperor of Morocco, it is in fact a virtual guarantee. Now, Sir, treaties of guarantee to those who lend money to foreign Powers should always be treated by this House with great distrust. I do not mean to say that there may not be circumstances of so grave a character that the political considerations may not absorb those principles of finance which generally prevail in this House. I do not mean to say that there are no circumstances in which such conventions have not been sanctioned by the House, though even within a few years the
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House has sanctioned only by a very narrow majority the engagements of the Crown in this respect. But if there is to be a guarantee, I should much prefer a direct to a mere virtual guarantee. In the case of a direct and absolute guarantee this House necessarily exercises a control over the transaction. The matter must be brought before this House before such an engagement on the part of the Crown can be accomplished. But in the case of a virtual guarantee like the present, where the Crown has not formally guaranteed the interest of the creditor, but has placed itself in a position which makes it the holder of the resources to which the creditor is entitled, in that case the House of Commons exercises no control whatever. The obvious answer to any objection is that there is no guarantee, and why, then, should the House exercise a control? But I put this case to the House—suppose the interest is not paid on the Morocco loan, do not you think the House of Commons will hear of it? Do not you think the hon. Member for the City (Mr. W. Wood) who has described with so much unction the policy of Her Majesty's Government with regard to the loan, would then come down to the House and say, on the part of his constituents, that they would not have accepted the engagement if there had not been a moral conviction that the honour and credit of the Government of England were concerned. Then there would be associations organized to obtain justice. People in the country who lent their money on the faith of a convention now publicly referred to in the Speech of the Royal Commissioners would complain that they had been misled by the interference of the Crown. They will say that they have a moral claim on the liberality of the country; and I put it to the House whether under these circumstances a Chancellor of the Exchequer may not consider himself fortunate if he can defeat such a movement. Therefore, I say, so far as the character of the transaction is concerned, if political circumstances have been of so grave a character that all financial considerations must yield to them, it would have been better to have had an absolute legal and formal guarantee than to have involved the Crown and the country in a transaction which, I cannot help thinking, if adverse circumstances prevent dividends forthcoming at the necessary time, will involve the Government of this country in considerable difficulty, accompanied, probably, by considerable loss.

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There are many other topics in the Speech which are not undeserving of attention, but I confess that I am not myself inclined on this night to enter into minute criticism or controversy on these matters. No person can be insensible to the fact that the House meets to-night under circumstances very much changed from those which have attended our assembling for many years. Of late years, indeed for more than twenty years past, whatever may have been our personal rivalries, and whatever our party strife, there was at least one sentiment in which we all coincided, and that was a sentiment of admiring gratitude to that Throne whose wisdom and whose goodness had so often softened the acerbities of our free public life, and had at all times so majestically represented the matured intelligence of an enlightened people. Sir, all that is changed. He is gone who was "the comfort and support" of that Throne.
It has been said that there is nothing which England so much appreciates as the fulfilment of duty. The Prince whom we have lost, not only was eminent for the fulfilment of duty, but it was the fulfilment of the highest duty under the most difficult circumstances. Prince Albert was the Consort of his Sovereign—he was the father of one who might be his Sovereign—he was the Prime Councillor of a realm the political constitution of which did not even recognise his political existence. Yet under these circumstances, so difficult and so delicate, he elevated even the Throne by the dignity and purity of his domestic life. He framed and partly accomplished a scheme of education for the heir of England which proved how completely its august projector had contemplated the office of an English King. In the affairs of State, while his serene spirit and his elevated position bore him above all the possible bias of our party life, he showed on every occasion all the resources, all the prudence, and all the sagacity of an experienced and responsible statesman.
Sir, I have presumed to touch upon three instances in which there was on the part of Prince Albert a fulfilment of duty—duty of the highest character under circumstances of the greatest difficulty I will venture to touch upon another point in his character equally distinguished by fulfilment of duty, but in which the duty was not only fulfilled, but was created, Although when he was adopted by this
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country he was, after all, but a youth of tender years, such was the character of his mind—at once observing and contemplative—that in due season he discovered that notwithstanding all those great achievements which long centuries of internal concord and public liberty had permitted the energy and enterprise of Englishmen to achieve, there was still a great deficiency in our national character, which, if neglected, might lead to the impairing not only of our social happiness, but even of the sources of our public wealth. That was a deficiency of culture. But he was not satisfied with detecting a want; he resolved to supply it. His plans were deeply laid; they were maturely prepared; and, notwithstanding the obstacles which he inevitably encountered, I am prepared to say they wore eminently successful. What might have been his lot had his term completed that which is ordained as the average life of man, it might be presumption to predict. Perhaps, he would have impressed upon his age not only his character but his name. But this, at least, posterity must admit, that he heightened the intellectual and moral standard of this country; that he extended and expanded the sympathies of classes; and that he most beneficially and intimately adapted to the productive powers of England the inexhaustible resources of science and art.
Sir, it is sometimes deplored by those who admired and loved him, that he was thwarted occasionally in his undertakings, and that he was not duly appreciated. But these are not circumstances for regret, but for congratulation. They prove the leading and original mind which has so long and so advantageously laboured for this country. Had he not encountered these obstacles, had he not been subject to this occasional distrust and misconception, it would only have shown that he was a man of ordinary mould and temper. Those who improve must change, those who change must necessarily disturb and alarm men's prejudices. What he had to encounter was only a demonstration that he was a man superior to his age, and therefore admirably adapted for the work of progress.
There is one other point, and one only, on which I will presume for a moment to dwell, and it is not for the sake of you, Sir, or those who now hear me, or of the generation to which we belong, but it is that those who come after us may not

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misunderstand the nature of this illustrious man. Prince Albert was not a mere patron; he was not one of those who by their gold or by their smiles reward excellence or stimulate exertion. His contributions to the cause of State were far more powerful and far more precious. He gave to it his thought, his time, his toil; he gave to it his life. On both sides and in all parts of the House I see many Gentlemen who occasionally have acted with the Prince at those Council Boards where they conferred and consulted upon the great undertakings with which he was connected. I ask them, without fear of a denial, whether he was not the leading spirit, whether his was not the mind which foresaw the difficulty, his not the resources that supplied the remedy; whether his was not the courage which sustained them under apparently overpowering difficulties; whether every one who worked with him did not feel that he was the real originator of those plans of improvement which they assisted in carrying into effect.
But what avail these words? This House to-night has been asked to condole with the Crown upon this great calamity. No easy office. To condole, in general, is the office of those who, without the pale of sorrow, still feel for the sorrowing. But in this instance the country is as heart-stricken as its Queen. Yet in the mutual sensibility of a Sovereign and a people there is something ennobling—something which elevates the spirit beyond the level of mere earthly sorrow. The counties, the cities, and the corporations of the realm—those illustrious associations of learning and science and art and skill of which he was the brightest ornament and the inspiring spirit, have bowed before the Throne. It does not become the Parliament of the country to be silent. The expression of our feelings may be late, but even in that lateness may be observed some propriety. Tonight the two Houses sanction the expression of the public sorrow, and ratify, as it were, the record of a nation's woe.
VISCOUNT PALMERSTON:Sir, I rejoice, and I think the country will rejoice, that the Address which has been so ably moved and seconded by my hon. Friends behind me will this night be unanimously adopted by the House, without any proposal which at all interferes with the general sense which the House entertains of the topics to which it relates. The right hon. Gentleman, however, who has just
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sat down has made some observations, not to take notice of which would ill become the Members of the Government. The right hon. Gentleman has expressed his approval of the course which we took in regard to the unfortunate difference between this Government and the Government of the United States upon the affair of the Trent. I am bound to say—and I think the country and this House will agree—that the communication which was made by my noble Friend at the head of the Foreign Office was a combination of the utmost courtesy and consideration on the one hand, with firmness and decision on the other; and that, with respect to those measures which we deemed necessary to provide for any turn which that affair might possibly take, my noble Friend at the head of the Admiralty, my right hon. Friend at the head of the War Department, and my noble Friend at the head of the Colonial Office showed a promptitude, a vigour, and a judgment to which, I think, we may in a great degree ascribe the fortunate termination of the difference. We should not have been justified in anticipating, as a matter of course, a favourable termination to that question, because we knew that angry passions had been let loose in America which might he too strong for the Government and might overbear them in the course which they must have been desirous of pursuing. Therefore, the measures which we took were those which prudence prescribed, and while, on the one hand, they were equal to the occasion, I think, on the other, they cannot be deemed greater than the occasion required. The right hon. Gentleman has expressed his approval of the course which the Government has taken from the commencement of those unhappy disputes in America, in preserving strict neutrality between the contending parties. That position of strict neutrality we have, as he has very handsomely admitted, sincerely and rigidly observed, and from that position of strict neutrality it is not our intention to depart. We regret, no doubt, the calamities which that war is bringing upon the population of the United States; we lament the pressure which incidentally that war has produced upon the commercial and manufacturing interests of this country; but we do not think that that is a sufficient reason why we should depart from a course which a sense of prudence and a sense, I may say, of national honour, have imposed on us, or why we should

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interfere in a quarrel with which originally we had nothing to do.
The right hon. Gentleman adverted in the next place to that part of the Speech which relates to the expedition to Mexico. Sir, the convention between England, France, and Spain has been laid upon the table. That convention will speak for itself, and it will show that we are not parties to any undertaking to interfere in the internal arrangements of the Mexican Government, and that we confine our operations to obtaining redress for wrongs and injuries sustained. The convention stipulates that the operations of the allies for the purpose of obtaining redress are not to be perverted into any interference with the object of dictating to the people of Mexico any particular form of Government which they may not be willing to accept. Undoubtedly reports have been spread that there are persons in Mexico who wish to convert their republican form of Government into a Monarchy. I am unable to judge how far those reports are well grounded, or how far there is any party in Mexico of sufficient strength and numbers to give effect to such wishes. But what Her Majesty's Government desire is, that there shall be established some from of Government in Mexico with which foreign nations may treat—some form of Government which will do justice to foreigners and enable commerce to be carried on with safety—some form of Government with which relations of peace and j amity may be maintained with confidence in their continuance. That is the utmost which the Government of Great Britain is desirous of obtaining, and I am sure that must be the wish of Gentlemen on both sides of the House.
With regard to the convention con eluded with the Sultan of Morocco, the right hon. Gentleman says, I believe that he would prefer a positive and direct guarantee, rendering this country liable to pay interest if the Sultan should not himself discharge it, rather than the indirect security which the convention establishes. I wish the House to pause until they see the convention. They will find that the engagement established between the Sultan and the British Government is simply this—that the Sultan agrees that certain persons shall be appointed to receive the Customs' revenues at certain ports of his territories for the purpose of discharging the interest and sinking fund of the loan; and I cannot think that there is any dan-
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ger whatever that this country will be involved in any pecuniary responsibility arising out of that convention. Everybody who turns his attention to our relations with the Mediterranean must admit that it is a great object of British policy to maintain the independence of Morocco. There is a treaty between Spain and Morocco, by which Morocco is bound to make certain payments within certain specified periods, upon condition of which the town of Tetuan is to be evacuated. It is quite clear that it is important to avoid the contingencies which may arise if the Sultan of Morocco should be unable to fulfil those engagements. The consequence would be that Tetuan would not be evacuated, that Spain would have just cause of quarrel with Morocco, that the war might be renewed, and that disasters might befall the State of Morocco. I trust and believe that when the treaties and the papers connected with them, which are now on the table, shall have been read, the House will be disposed to think that the course pursued by Her Majesty's Government has been such as is most consistent with the interests of this country.
The last topic to which the right hon. Gentleman adverted is one, undoubtedly, upon which there cannot be a dissentient voice in this House. I do not think the light hon. Gentleman started the question—but I have heard the question started, whether it was right in Her Majesty's' Government to follow, upon this occasion, the several precedents in the later periods of the last century, or whether it was better to have a separate address as in the; ease of Prince George of Denmark. But hon. Gentlemen who look back to that precedent will see that there was no announcement by the Crown as to the death of Prince George of Denmark. It was impossible to follow that precedent on the present occasion. We, therefore, followed the precedents in the cases of the Princess Charlotte and of Queen Caroline, where there was an announcement in the Speech from the Throne, and condolence was embodied in the Address from the House. It is hardly possible for anybody to exaggerate the loss which the Queen and country have sustained in the death of his Royal Highness the Prince Consort. The right hon. Gentleman, with eloquence and feeling which I am sure must have excited the sympathy and admiration of those who; heard him, dilated upon the eminent qualities possessed by the late Prince Albert.

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It is no exaggeration to say, that as far as the word "perfect" can he applied to human imperfection, the character of the late Prince deserved the term, because he combined qualities of the most eminent and in some respects of the most different description in a degree which was hardly ever equalled by any one in any condition of life. The talents of the Prince have been expatiated upon by the right hon. Gentleman opposite. Those who had the good fortune to hold intercourse with him, and to converse with him on any subject, however serious or however trifling, could hardly fail to feel that they were in the presence of a master mind. I venture to say that no man ever came into such contact with His Royal Highness without Carrying away some new idea, or some fresh view even of matters with which he thought himself already well acquainted. The position which the Prince occupied was one of considerable difficulty—one which it required the greatest judgment and the most consummate tact to fill with that universal approbation with which his course was attended. His aim was not to take too prominent a part in political affairs, but to contribute, as far as the resources of his mind and his commanding rank enabled him, to the improvement of the nation in every branch of intellectual and industrial effort. How fully he accomplished that object everybody is well aware. His domestic life was most exemplary, and it is no exaggeration to say that the domestic life of the British Court has been of the greatest value to the interests of the country. In times of difficulty it has tended to strengthen that link which binds the people to the Throne, and has, in many ways, rendered the most important services to the nation. Such being the Prince whose loss we have to deplore, we can easily imagine what must be the grief and desolation of her from whose side he has been taken. It is becoming in the House to tender to Her Majesty its sincere and cordial condolence upon the irreparable loss which has befallen her; and when we reflect that there was hardly any hour of the day when those two minds did not consult and communicate with each other, we may conceive what must be the bereavement which our Sovereign has sustained by this lamentable event. The condition of the Sovereign is, in one respect, different under such circumstances from that of any other person in the nation. In private
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life persons are surrounded by relations and friends, with whom they have formed habits of intimacy, and who, when a great misfortune arrives, tend to soothe and in some measure to alleviate their anguish. But the high and exalted position of the Sovereign debars her from that society in which she might find support and consolation at such a time, and now that she has been deprived of her beloved Consort by the stroke of Providence, she is left in a solitude of grief which could hardly befall any other person in the realm. I am sure that the House will feel that in agreeing to this Address, and especially to that portion of it which relates to the loss of the late Prince, Consort, it is understating those feelings which every man must cherish in his breast, and I am equally sure, that although the Address goes as far as the language of Parliament will permit, every one will regret that it is not possible, according to the forms of the House, to convey even a stronger expression of sympathy and sorrow.
MR. HADFIELDsaid, that the expressed and decided opinion of the noble Lord in reference to neutrality with America would give the greatest satisfaction to the country, and he hoped the House would endorse the noble Lord's sentiments to the fullest extent. He could not help expressing his opinion that they were deeply indebted to the noble Earl at the head of the Foreign Office for the manner in which he had conducted the proceedings, for the temper which he had shown, and for the courteous way in which he had put the difficult question before the Government of the United States for their consideration. It was a most unfortunate thing that the public press on both sides of the Atlantic should act in a manner which almost showed that the conductors of it were resolved to bring two great and generous countries into collision in order that they might sell a few newspapers. The conduct of a considerable portion of the press here and in America was perfectly discreditable to the two countries which they professed to represent. He should be gratified if a law were passed which should give power to the Government to have the articles in those villanous prints burned by the common hangman. The general feeling in the United States was friendly towards England; and the reception in America, little more than twelve months ago, of the heir apparent to the throne should convince

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them of that fact. He rejoiced, therefore, that the unfortunate differences between the two countries were at an end, and felt that the dignified and pacific course adopted by this country towards America was deserving of approbation. He felt sure that if America were left to herself the disasters which at present afflicted her would work their own cure.
MR. MAGUIREsaid, it was not his intention to disturb the feeling of unanimity that appeared to pervade the House, or touch upon any subject on which a contest could arise; but he felt it to be his duty, as the representative of an Irish constituency, and intimately connected with a large and populous city in the south of Ireland, to say a few words respecting the real condition of the country. It was stated in the address—
"That temporary causes have produced considerable pressure and privation, but Her Majesty has reason to believe that the general condition of the country is sound and satisfactory,"
If it were intended that that paragraph should refer to Ireland, he must say that the condition of Ireland was not sound, and, unfortunately, was not satisfactory. There was great distress as well as great misery at that moment in Ireland, but it seemed to be the policy of the Irish Government to ignore that distress, and to turn a deaf ear to any appeal on behalf of that misery. It was said there was no real distress in Ireland that should demand the interposition of the Government, or of Parliament; but the idea was most erroneous, and if it were persisted in on the part of the Government and of Parliament I it would tend to the most fatal results, It was very well for English gentlemen to speak of the condition of their country as sound or satisfactory. Though distress prevailed in manufacturing districts in England, that country how been blessed with a bountiful harvest; but that great, blessing, though vouchsafed to England, had been denied to Ireland. The harvest of Ireland had been a lamentable failure, and the result was an almost total paralysis of trade; there was an entire lack of employment, and the most intense misery had fallen upon the great masses of the people, both in the towns and in the rural districts. The oat crop was almost an entire failure; the wheat crop was also bad; the potato crop was never worse since the years known by the awful name of the famine years; the hay crop was almost a failure; in many districts of the
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country it was unfit for the use of cattle, and was converted into manure. In many cities and towns in Ireland, there was an almost total want of employment, and the policy of the banks in Ireland was very far from being liberal and accommodating. The consequence was that traders were greatly embarrassed in their business, mechanics were left out of employment, and the labouring population were dependent either upon the resources of the poor law, or upon the charity of the liberal and benevolent. He was anxious to call the attention of the right hon. Secretary for Ireland (Sir Robert Peel) to the condition of that country. He believed that the right hon. Baronet was actuated by the best and kindest motives, but he was liable to go wrong, because he was a man of quick impulse, and possessed that kind of firmness which induced a man to persevere in error. Indeed, the right hon. Baronet had himself led the people of this country to believe that the condition of Ireland was not such as to require the interposition of Government and of Parliament; and no later than two nights before, the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, also a most humane man, had stated, at a banquet given by the Lord Mayor of Dublin, that there was nothing in the condition of the country that required remark. He (Mr. Maguire) confessed that he was shocked when he heard those cold words from the viceregal lips, and many men around him felt a sense of shame at witnessing the indifferent manner in which the miseries of the country were treated. The advisers of the right hon. Baronet and of the Earl of Carlisle were not those who had the keenest sympathy for the wants of the Irish people, Had the right hon. Baronet gone abroad and seen things for himself, instead of making that hurried tour of 300 miles in three days, taking with him the Irish Fouché to be both his spectacles and his counsellor, it would have been much better for the honour of this country and for the interests of Ireland. No later than that day week a deputation consisting of leading inhabitants of the town of Kanturk, in the Eastern Riding of the county of Cork—a town remarkable some time ago for belonging to the richest district in that part of the country—waited on the Board of Guardians to ask for advice, and make an appeal. The rev. gentleman who headed the deputation, stated that the population of the town of Kanturk amounted

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to 2,200 odd, and as some of the persons he addressed were members of the Kanturk Relief Committee, they must be aware of the appalling destitution that prevailed in the town. He found, he said, that considerably more than 1,000 persons were deemed by that body to be fit objects for assistance. It was also stated that masses of labourers were trying to eke out a miserable existence on one meal a day, consisting of turnips and Indian meal. He (Mr. Maguire) asserted that the condition of Kanturk was the condition of many towns in the southern counties. Great alarm was felt for what might be the condition of the people in the next few months; but he did not ask for alms from the people of England or from the Parliament of England; but he did ask for some better measures from the Government than a Fair and Markets Bill or a Poor Law Amendment Bill. He asked the Government to adopt the policy enunciated by Lord George Bentinck for recommending which his name was coupled with blessings and gratitude by the people of Ireland. He, indeed, suggested a noble plan that would have developed the resources of Ireland without burdening the resources of England. There were many railway projects in Ireland that Government might encourage, and there should be laid upon the table of the House a Bill enabling the Government to give immediate assistance to those projects which, owing to the difficulties of the present moment, would, otherwise, languish and fall to the ground. In the western portion of the county of Cork two great projects were undertaken, one of them a railway of imperial importance, and it was impossible to ask the shareholders to pay calls under the present circumstances. It was from hand to mouth with many of them, and happy was the man whose hand could feed his mouth. He asked the Government to give loans to those railways, and let the amount of such loans be the first liens on them. He told the Government that if they wished to have the affection of the Irish people, and to act humanely and in time, they ought to bring forward some liberal measure which, without exciting jealousy in England, would afford prompt and immediate assistance to the people of Ireland by giving them the means of employment, and of supporting themselves without the degradation and calamity of applying for poor-law relief. He might be told that the workhouses of
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Ireland were not full, but this was no proof that great and general distress did not prevail, for there was so much pride, even in the humblest of the people of Ireland, that they would rather die by the wayside than accept the shame and degradation of poor-law relief. The fact, however, was that in the workhouse of Cork there were now 1,000 more inmates than there were two years ago, and that the guardians were at their wits' end to know how to meet the increasing demands upon them.
SIR ROBERT PEEL: Sir, one of the allegations contained in the speech of the hon. Member who has just resumed his seat was that I, in my capacity of Chief Secretary for Ireland, have led the people of England to believe that there is no distress in the sister country. Sir, until the hon. Gentleman rose I had hoped that on this, the first night of the Session, hon. Members might have confined their remarks to the contents of Her Majesty's Speech, and not have entered into subjects such as those to which he has alluded. I must say that after listening to the remarks of the hon. Gentleman, I am, from my personal knowledge and conviction, inclined to believe that the great majority of the people of Ireland, who very well know what the real state of the case is, will be disposed to agree with me, that we must not attach more weight than they deserve to his observations. I, for one, should be inclined to state that he has gone further, and said more than the justice of the case required. When the hon. Gentleman alluded to what he called the famine in Ireland, painting and delineating most hideous suffering, and stating that the people of Cork, though starving, would not go into the workhouse, I listened to his remarks with attention, but I was amazed at the inaccuracies into which he fell. I have no doubt the hon. Gentleman spoke with a firm conviction of the truth of his statements. I should wish to be the very last man in the House who would question the honesty of purpose of the hon. Gentleman. I believe that his mind is not closed to conviction, and, were there now an opportunity, that he would accept the facts which I could adduce in complete refutation of the statements he has made. Now, I do not for one moment deny that during the last few months there has been very considerable distress in Ireland. I admit that the potato crop has failed; that it is watery, that the root itself is

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small, and that, in fact, there is a potato blight. I will not admit to the lion. Gentleman that the oat crop has failed; apart from the potato, the crops have been tolerably satisfactory. [Mr. MAGIORE: "No, no!"] At all events, it is certain that there is a superabundance of bread-stuff's in all parts of Ireland, and I am told on competent authority that there are funds and money adequate for the purpose of purchasing food. I admit that, to a great extent, the fuel has also failed. But while I state that there has been a failure of the potato, of other food perhaps, and partially also of fuel, I cannot let pass the opportunity of paying my most willing testimony to the fact that wherever want has existed the true spirit of Christian charity has been shown by the landed proprietors, particularly in the remote districts of the West. Nothing has been more striking than the readiness with which they have come forward—striking, I mean, in comparison with former times. My hon. Friend the Member for Galway (Mr. Gregory) was one of the first to most generously throw open a portion of his property for the purpose of affording fuel to the people of Galway. I have watched and admired—and so have other Members of the Irish Government—the manner in which he landed proprietors have relieved the wants of the suffering classes; they have done so with a perseverance and liberality which is worthy of the most public acknowledgment. The hon. Gentleman has referred to statements made by the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and also by myself, as tending to mislead the country, of course I cannot venture to enter into details, but we have received from almost all parts of Ireland petitions setting forth the extreme destitution of those localities; but, on the other hand, we have received in almost every case a contrary statement, declaring that the cry of famine has been exaggerated, that there are abundance of bread-stuffs for the relief of the people, and that the contrary statements made in each instance to the Government were in reality without foundation. The hon. Gentleman says the workhouses of Ireland are not full because the people will not go into them; but that in the county and city of Cork there is no room whatever in the workhouses. Now, I admit that in the city of Cork, and also in the city of Limerick, the workhouses are nearly full, and that there may be applicants whom, unfortunately, it is not possible to accommo-
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date within the walls of those buildings. But these are the only two places in Ireland where the workhouses can be said to be in any degree filled. The extent of workhouse accommodation in Ireland would suffice for the reception of 149,000 inmates, whereas there are not at this moment in Ireland more than 59,000 or 60,000 in receipt of relief. Doubtless this is very lamentable, but compare the condition of the two countries. On the 31st of December, 1861, there were 899,000 persons in the receipt of relief, outdoor and indoor, in England; while at the same date, there were in Ireland only 59,000 receiving outdoor and indoor relief. That is to say, in Ireland, with a population amounting to not more than 5,500,000, about 1. per cent of the population was in-receipt of relief under the workhouse system, while the proportion relieved in England and Wales, where there is a population of over 20,000,000 amounted to 4½ per cent. The state of Ireland, therefore, when compared with England and Wales, is not so very serious, though it certainly may be a subject of regret. The hon. Gentleman has really over-stated his case. He says that I have endeavoured to lead people in this country to believe that famine does not exist in Ireland. On former occasions he and others raised the cry of famine.
MR. MAGUIEE: I beg the right hon. Gentleman's pardon. I did not use the word "famine"; I said great distress, misery, and destitution.
SIR ROBERT PEEL:I will adopt the hon. Gentleman's words. I say that on former occasions attempts were made to excite sympathy by saying that "great distress, misery, and destitution" prevailed in Ireland. Those attempts succeeded; but on this occasion the persons endeavouring to propagate that opinion have signally failed. The real truth is that the people in Ireland have not taken up the cry. They do not believe in the reports of distress which are spread abroad; and I know of my own knowledge that nothing has been more distasteful to the people of Ireland than to have—as they have had within the last few months—their alleged grievances and imaginary wants placarded and paraded over Europe. Why, the House will hardly credit it when I tell them that the begging-box has been sent round through France and America, though, as regards the result, I believe it has been very much like the victories of the Federal army, which are very much talked of, but

83
are very little seen. I never heard that the I proceeds of any collections from America had arrived in Ireland; but, let me tell hon. Gentlemen who are getting up this cry of famine in Ireland, they really do not understand that the people of Ireland in the year 1861–2 are no longer the same as they were in 1846–7. That is their great mistake. The hon. Gentleman has sneered at what he calls my tour in Ireland, "300 miles in three days." Now, that is not the truth.
MR. MAGUIREsaid, I rise to order. Does the right hon. gentleman mean to say that I stated what is not true? My statement was based on a speech made by the right hon. gentleman himself.
SIR ROBERT PEEL:Of course I did not mean to impute any improper motives to the hon. gentleman, but he certainly said that I had travelled 300 miles in three days.
MR. MAGUIRE:You boasted of it.
SIR ROBERT PEEL:I am quite certain that the time I took in visiting the most distressed districts was more than three days. But this I will tell the hon. Gentleman—that the people of Ireland are no longer what they were. And, although they may be very poor-looking, and perhaps, badly clad, sure I am that the peasants of Ireland have independent and sensitively-organized minds, and that they are just as capable of, and suitable for, moral and social improvement as the most favoured people on the face of the earth. But there is the mistake which the hon. Gentleman makes. The people of Ireland are beginning to think for themselves; they are beginning to have that just and legitimate confidence that they ought to have in the honesty, integrity, and energy of their landlords. In those few days that I travelled through Ireland, I had an opportunity of seeing how well the great properties in that country are managed, and the efforts which are being made to advance the prosperity of Ireland. Properties such as that of the Marquess of Downshire came under my observation, that of Earl Fitzwilliam, of the Earl of Bessborough, of the Earl of Lucan—particularly of Mr. Allen Pollock, of Mr. Pike, of Viscount Palmerston, and many others, whose energy, determination, and example have, I will say, regenerated Ireland from the condition in which she was before. The hon. Gentleman alluded to the state of things existing at Kanturk. I am sorry to say that in parts of Ireland in which famine is complained of—in parts
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of Skibbereen, of Skull, and also of the extensive Roman Catholic district of Tuam—attempts, which I will not characterize, have been made to set the people against their landlords, to make them feel that their landlords are not disposed to do their duty by them, and that they ought not to put confidence in them. Every attempt to excite the people has been made, happily without effect. The state of Ireland, as regards the paucity of offences, was never more satisfactory, and I do not suppose that in the history of the country the relations between landlord and tenant were ever more harmonious. I am happy to say that the relations now existing between landlord and tenant in Ireland are happily free from those bloodstained records of crime which have marked some portions of the past history of that country; and that is a satisfactory result to refer to, even supposing that the misery or famine to which the hon. Gentleman alludes really exists. I admit that there have been times of great visitation in Ireland. The years 1817, 1822, 1827, and 1839, were periods of great misery. Even as late as 1846 there were parts of Ireland in such distress that some wretched victim to disease was to be found in almost every cabin. But in 1861 the case was different. I recollect that in September of last year it was predicted that hundreds of lives would perish, as in 1846, but I can assert—whatever may be the state of Cork and of some parts of the west—that not a single death has. occurred since that prediction which can be attributed to absolute want of food. I will not go into the subject at any greater length, but I must say that a merciful Providence has watched over Ireland and warded off those sufferings and miseries which some people would have led us to anticipate. The spring is approaching, and with its genial influences the exigencies of the moment will, to a great extent, have passed; and we may expect that the existing state of things will have considerably improved. I speak in no cold or heartless spirit, such as that which the hon. Gentleman alludes to, when I say that, looking back at the last few months, the industrious and honest poor of Ireland will have learnt a lesson most useful to them for the future. They will have learnt a lesson of self-reliance and of confidence in those among whom they are placed which will tend to eradicate that undue dependence on extraneous aid which can only produce demoralizing and prejudicial effects.
MR. VINCENT SCULLYsaid, that he had not intended to address the House, and he should not have done so only he deemed it necessary to correct some of the statements of the right hon. Baronet the Chief Secretary. Some of those statements were altogether novel. He (Mr. Vincent Scully) must say that he had not heard of any meeting held in Skull or Skibbereen to set the people against their landlords. He did not think that the hon. Member for Dungarvan had overstated the facts; but if he had, the Chief Secretary had equally understated them If there had been overstatements on one side as to the distress, there had been understatement on the other. The right hon. Baronet the Secretary for Ireland had charged the hon. Member with travelling out of the Queen's Speech; but he (Mr. Maguire) was not open to that charge; for there was a paragraph in the Royal Speech alluding to the distress which existed in some portions of Her Majesty's dominions, though that paragraph was not supposed to refer to Ireland. There could be no doubt that there was a deficient harvest in Ireland last year. Potatoes had failed, wheat had failed, and oats were a partial failure. Fuel—turf, had also failed through the extreme wetness of the season. The right hon. Baronet said that there was a great deal of food in Ireland. There was a great deal of foreign, but not of home food there. The right hon. Baronet had also said that from no place had he got a statement of distress without receiving a counter statement. He should like to ask the right hon. Baronet whether he bad received any counter statement from Skull or Skibbereen. He might, perhaps, have received such statements from persons who had corn to sell, and who were anxious that the Government should not send any relief into their districts. He was no faminemonger, but he believed in the existence of great distress in some parts of Cork, for he had received applications from them for subscriptions, and no similar applications had been hitherto made to him during the ten years he had represented that county. The right hon. Gentleman had spoken about the begging-box being sent round; but the applications which he had heard made to the Government were for the construction of a railway, and for the speedy carrying out of public works in the Department of the Ordnance, He gave the late Chief Secretary for Ire land a good character when the right hon. Gentleman was leaving office. He stated
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that he had every qualification for the office, but a little knowledge of the country he had been sent to govern. The present Chief Secretary possessed that deficiency in a more eminent degree, for he had had less time to obtain an acquaintance with Ireland. It was said that Cœsar venit in Galliam sumâ diligentiâ. The right hon. Gentleman (Sir R. Feel) had not visited Ireland on the top of a diligence, but he had gone through portions of it on a low-hacked car. The right hon. Gentleman found the country a peaceable one; but he had been doing his best to get up a little disturbance. He thought Ireland rather phlegmatic, and was endeavouring to introduce a little English excitement. He regretted to be obliged to say that there was at this moment great distress in Ireland. The dairy and sheep farmers never had a better year, and their rents were never better paid, but the small tillage farmers even in the famine year were scarcely worse off. He trusted that the right lion. Baronet would keep his mind open to conviction, and that he would not feel that he was compelled in honour to prove the proposition with which he had started—namely, that there was no distress in the country; for he (Mr. Scully) believed that the statement of the right hon. Gentleman would turn out to be egregiously wrong, and that in the months of March and April, instead of the distress having diminished or disappeared altogether, it would have increased. He hoped, therefore, the right hon. Gentleman would apply himself to relieve that distress. He saw with pleasure the announcement in the Royal Speech of a measure for simplifying the transfer of land. If the Government could carry an honest, bonâ fide, and working measure of this kind, it would be the greatest improvement effected in Ireland during his remembrance. Such a measure had been brought in by the Government of the Earl of Derby, and in voting that Government out of office his chief reluctance had arisen from an apprehension that the incoming Government would not bring in an equally good measure of the same kind. He trusted that the Government would endeavour to do something to reduce the enormous legal expenses to which suitors in the courts of law were subject, and which caused a scandal both in England and Ireland. He had no hesitation in asserting, after some considerable experience, that nine out of ten successful suitors were losers by the legal costs of the exist-

87
ing system. A legal friend of his, who was in the habit of spending his summers in Denmark, told him that a similar evil formerly existed in that country, but it had been eradicated about twenty years ago by the, establishment, not of Courts of Arbitration, but Courts of Reconciliation. No one, he was told, could bring a person before any of the courts of Denmark without first going in private with his adversary before a judge, who heard the statements of both parties. The party was not bound to be reconciled, but until he had obtained a certificate that the dispute could not be settled he was not allowed to go to law. In this country the litigants were kept asunder, and that was the great evil. Now, the result of the system that was in force in Denmark was that, on an average, in six cases out of every seven the parties were; reconciled; and the only objection that had ever been urged against that system was that six out of, very seven of the professional gentlemen there were in comparatively unproductive positions.
Motion agreed to.
Committee appointed,
To draw up an Address to be presented to Her Majesty upon the said Resolution;—Mr. PORTMAN, Mr. WESTERN WOOD, Viscount PALMERSTON, Mr. CHANCELLOR of the EXCHEQUER, Sir GEORGE GREY, Sir GEORGE LEWIS, Sir CHARLES WOOD, Mr. MILNER GIBSON, Mr. CARDWELL, Mr. VILLIERS, Mr. ATTORNEY GENERAL, Sir ROBERT PEEL, The LORD ADVOCATE, Mr. PEEL, AND Mr. MASSEY, or any Five of them:—To. withdraw immediately.
Lords Commissioners' Speech referred.
House adjourned at a Quarter before Eight o'clock.

MINUTES.
Sat First in Parliament.—The Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, after the Death of his Father; the Duke of St. Albans, after the Death of his Father.
Took the Oath.—The Bishop of Worcester.
PUBLIC BILLS.—1a Select Vestries; Assent to Use of Prayer Book; Public Worship.

MEETING OF THE PARLIAMENT
THE PARLIAMENT,which had been Prorogued successively to the 22nd October, thence to the 17th December, thence to the 7th January, and thence to the 6th February, met this day for Despatch of Business.
The Session of PARLIAMENT was opened by Commission.

SELECT VESTRIES.
Bill, pro formâ, read 1a,

THE LORDS COMMISSIONERS SPEECH.
The LORDS COMMISSIONERS—namely, THE LORD CHANCELLOR, The LORD STEWARD of the HOUSEHOLD (the Earl of St. Germans), The Lord CHAMBERLAIN of
2
the HOUSEHOLD (The Viscount Sydney), The Lord STANLEY of ALDERLEY (President of the Board of Trade), being in their Robes, and seated on a form placed between the Throne and the Woolsack, commanded the Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod to signify to the Commons "The Lords Commissioners desire their immediate attendance in this House."
Who being come, with their Speaker;
THE LORD CHANCELLOR, in pursuance of Her Majesty's Commands, delivered the Speech of THE LORDS COMMISSIONERS to both Houses of Parliament, as follows: —
"My Lords, and Gentlemen,
We are commanded by Her Majesty to assure you that Her Majesty is persuaded that you will deeply participate in the Affliction by which Her Majesty has been overwhelmed by the calamitous, untimely, and irreparable Loss of Her beloved Consort, who has been Her Comfort and Support.
IT has been, however, soothing to Her Majesty, while suffering most acutely under this awful Dispensation of Providence, to receive from all Classes of Her Subjects the most cordial Assurances of their Sympathy with Her Sorrow, as well as of their Appreciation of the noble Character of Him, the Greatness of whose Loss to Her Majesty and to the Nation is so justly and so universally felt and lamented.
WE are commanded by Her Majesty to assure you that She recurs with Confidence to your Assistance and Advice.
HER Majesty's Relations with all the European Powers continue to be friendly and satisfactory; and Her Majesty trusts there is no Reason to apprehend any Disturbance of the Peace of Europe.
A QUESTION of great Importance, and which might have led to very serious Consequences, arose between Her Majesty and the Government of the United States of North America, owing to the Seizure and forcible Removal of Four Passengers from on board a British Mail Packet by the Commander of a Ship of War of the United States; but that Question has been satisfactorily settled by the Restoration of the Passengers to British Protection, and by the Disavowal by the United States Government of the Act of Violence committed by their Naval Officer.
THE friendly Relations between Her Majesty and the President of the United States have therefore remained unimpaired.
HER Majesty warmly appreciates the Loyalty and Patriotic Spirit which
4
have been manifested on this Occasion by Her North American Subjects.
THE Wrongs committed by various Parties and by successive Governments in Mexico upon Foreigners resident within the Mexican Territory, and for which no satisfactory Redress could be obtained, have led to the Conclusion of a Convention between Her Majesty, The Emperor of the French,and The Queen of Spain, for the Purpose of regulating a combined Operation on the Coast of Mexico, with a view to obtain that Redress which has hitherto been withheld.
THAT Convention and Papers relating to that Subject will be laid before you:
THE Improvement which has taken place in the Relations between Her Majesty's Government and that of The Emperor of China, and the good Faith with which the Chinese Government have continued to fulfil the Engagements of the Treaty of Tien-tsin, have enabled Her Majesty to withdraw Her Troops from the City of Canton, and to reduce the Amount of Her Force on the Coast and in the Seas of China.
HER Majesty, always anxious to exert Her influence for the Preservation of Peace, has concluded a Convention with The Sultan of Morocco, by means of which The Sultan has been enabled to raise the Amount necessary for the Fulfilment of certain Treaty Engagements which he had contracted towards Spain, and thus to avoid the Risk of a Renewal of Hostilities with that Power. That Convention, and Papers connected with it, will be laid before you.
"Gentlemen of the House of Commons,
HER Majesty commands us to inform you that She has directed the Estimates for the ensuing Year to be laid before you. They have been framed with a due Regard to prudent Economy and to the Efficiency of the Public Service.
"My Lords, and Gentlemen,
HER Majesty commands us to inform you that Measures for the Improvement of the Law will be laid before you, and among them will be a Bill for rendering the Title to Land more simple, and its Transfer more easy.
OTHER Measures of Public Usefulness relating to Great Britain and to Ireland will be submitted for your Consideration.
HER Majesty regrets that in some Parts of the United Kingdom, and in certain Branches of Industry, temporary Causes have produced considerable Pressure and Privation; but Her Majesty has Reason to believe that the general Condition of the Country is sound and satisfactory.
HER Majesty confidently recommends the general Interests of the Nation to your Wisdom and your Care; and She fervently prays that the Blessing of Almighty God may attend your Deliberations, and may guide them to the Promotion of the Welfare and Happiness of Her People.
Then the Commons withdrew.
House adjourned during pleasure.
House resumed.

ADDRESS TO HER MAJESTY ON THE LORDS COMMISSIONERS' SPEECH.
The LORDS COMMISSIONER'S Speech having been reported by The LORD CHANCELLOR,
LORD DUFFERIN, on moving that an humble Address be presented to Her Majesty in answer to the Speech of the Lords Commissioners, said: My Lords, in rising to perform the duty which has devolved upon me, I feel that scarcely ever has any Member of your Lordships' House been called upon to address you under more solemn or more trying circumstances; and most painfully am I aware how great is my need of your Lordships' patience and indulgence. My Lords, for nearly a quarter of a century it has been the invariable privilege of those who have successively found themselves in the position I occupy to-night to direct your attention to topics of a pleasing, hopeful, or triumphant character,—to a gratifying retrospect, or a promising future—to projects of law calculated still further to promote the rapidly-increasing prosperity of the country—to treaties of amity and commerce with foreign nations—at the worst to difficulties surmounted, or disasters successfully retrieved—to foreign wars gloriously conducted and victoriously concluded. But, my Lords, to-night a very different task awaits me. For the first time since Her Majesty commenced a reign of unexampled prosperity, we have been overtaken by a calamity fraught with consequences which no man can yet calculate—unexpected—irremediable—opening up alike to Sovereign and to people an endless vista of sorrow and regret. Under such circumstances even the most practised speaker in your lordships' House might well shrink from the responsibility of intruding the inadequate expression of his individual feelings on a grief which must have endowed the heart of every one who hears me with an eloquence far greater than any he can command. If, however, my Lords, there is anything that can mitigate the painful anxiety of my situation, it is the conviction that, however inefficient,—however wanting to the occasion—may be the terms in which you are urged to join in the proposed sentences of condolence with Her Majesty, the appeal must in its very nature command such an unanimity of earnest, heartfelt acquiescence, as to leave the manner in which it may be placed before you a matter of indifference. My Lords, this is not the occasion, nor am I the proper person, to deliver an encomium on the Prince whom we have lost. When a whole nation has lifted up its voice in lamentation, the feeble note of praise which may fall from any individual tongue must necessarily be lost in the expression of the

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general sorrow; but, my Lords, superfluous ' as any artificial panegyric has now become, right and fitting is it that that public grief which first found vent in the visible shudder which shook every congregation assembled in this metropolis when his well-known name was omitted from the accustomed prayer—which, gathering volume and intensity as reflection gave us the measure of our loss, swept towards the Throne in one vast wave of passionate sympathy, and is even still reiterated from every distant shore that owns allegiance to the British Crown,—right and fitting is it that such a manifestation of a nation's sorrow as this should find its final embodiment and crowning consummation in a solemn expression of their feelings by both Houses of the British Legislature. Never before, my Lords, has the heart of England been so greatly stirred, and never yet has such signal homage been more spontaneously rendered to unpretending intrinsic worth. Monarchs, heroes, patriots have perished from among us, and have been attended to their grave by the respect and veneration of a grateful people. But here was one who was neither king, warrior, nor legislator,—occupying a position in its very nature incompatible with all personal pre-eminence,—alike debarred the achievement of military renown and political distinction, secluded within the precincts of what might easily have become a negative existence,—neither able to confer those favours which purchase popularity nor possessing in any peculiar degree the trick of manner which seduces it,—who, nevertheless, succeeded in winning for himself an amount of consideration and confidence such as the most distinguished or the most successful of mankind have seldom attained. By what combination of qualities, a stranger and an alien—exercising no definite political functions—ever verging on the peril of a false position—his daily life exposed to ceaseless observation—shut out from the encouragement afforded by the sympathy of intimate friendship, the support of partisans, the good fellowship of society,—how such an one acquired so remarkable a hold on the affection of a jelous insular people, might well excite the astonishment of any one acquainted with the temper and the peculiarities of the British nation. Yet, my Lords, after all, how simple and obvious is the secret of the dominion he acquired ! If, my Lords, the death of Prince Albert has turned England into a land of mourning; if each one of us is conscious
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of having lost that calm feeling of satisfaction and security which has gradually been interwoven with the existence of the nation from the day he first took his stand beside the Throne; if it seems as though the sun of our prosperity were darkened, and a pillar of our state had fallen; it is because in him we have lost that which has never failed to acquire the unlimited confidence and enthusiastic veneration of Englishmen—a man who in every contingency of life, in the presence of bewildering temptations, in the midst of luxury and splendour, in good report and in evil report, in despite of the allurements of vanity, of selfishness, and ambition, trod day by day and hour by hour, patiently, humbly, faithfully, the uninviting path of duty. My Lords, great must that people ever become whose highest notion of human excellence is the fulfilment of duty; and happy may that man be considered who has been able to realize their ideal! Of the various achievements of Prince Albert's career I need not remind your Lordships. We can, most of us, remember the day when he first came among us, and every subsequent chapter of his blameless life has been open to our inspection. We all know with what prudence he proceeded to exercise the functions of his elevated but difficult station, and with what simplicity of purpose he accepted the position marked out for him by the Constitutions. Noble Lords on either side of the House can describe the impartiality of the welcome he extended to all the Parliamentary advisers of the Crown. Those who have had the honour of enjoying personal intercourse with him can speak not only to the grasp of his remarkable intellect, and the inexhaustible store of his acquirements, but still more to the modesty, the gentleness, and chivalrous purity of a disposition which invested the Court over which he presided with an atmosphere of refinement and tranquil happiness such as, probably, has never yet been found in a Royal home; while his various speeches, replete with liberal wisdom—the enlightened influence he exercised over our arts and manufactures—and, above all, the triumphant establishment of the Exhibitions of 1851 and 1862, will bear witness to that practical sagacity which in spite of the apparent inaction to which he was condemned, could call into existence an unimagined field for the exercise of his untiring energy. And yet, my Lords, it is not so much for what

9
he did, as for what he was, that the memory of Prince Albeit will be honoured and revered among us, though, probably, all that he has been to England no one will ever rightly know. As I have already had occasion to remark, the exigencies of Ills position required him to shun all pretension to personal distinction. Politically speaking, the Prince Consort was ignored by the Constitution—an ever-watchful, though affectionate jealousy, on the part of the people, guarded the pre-eminence of the Crown. How loyally arid faithfully the Queen's first subject respected this feeling we are all aware; yet who shall ever know the nobler loyalty, the still more loving fidelity with which the husband shared the burdens, alleviated the cares, and guided the counsels of the wife? Some there are among us, indeed, who have had opportunities of forming a just idea of the extent to which this country has profited by the sagacity of Her Majesty's most trusted counsellor: but it will not be until this generation has passed away, and those materials see the light from which alone true history can be written, that the people of England will be able justly to appreciate the real extent of their obligations to probably one of the wisest and most influential Statesmen that ever controlled the destinies of the nation. But, my Lords, deserving of admiration as were the qualities I have enumerated, it is by ties of a tenderer nature that he will have most endeared him-self to our affection. Good, wise, accomplished, useful as he was, little would ail these engaging characteristics have availed him, unless, before and above all else, he had proved himself worthy of that precious trust which two-and-twenty years ago the people of England confided to his honour, when they gave into his keeping the domestic happiness of their youthful Queen. How faithfully he has fulfilled that trust, how tenderly he has loved, guarded, cherished, honoured the bride of his youth, the companion of his manhood, is known in all its fulness but to one alone; yet, so bright has shone the flame of that wedded love, so hallowing has been its influence, that even its reflected light has gladdened and purified many a humble household, and at this moment there is not a woman in Great Britain who will not mournfully acknowledge that as in life he made our Queen the proudest and the happiest, so in death he has left her the most afflicted lady in her kingdom. Well may we then hesitate, my Lords, before we draw near
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even with words of condolence to that widowed Throne wrapped as it is in the awful majesty of grief; yet if there is one thing on earth which might bring—I will not say consolation, but some soothing of her grief, to our afflicted Sovereign, it would be the consciousness of that universal love and sympathy for her with which the heart of England is at this moment full to bursting. Great as has been the affection always felt for her by her subjects, the feeling has now attained an intensity difficult to imagine. Death and sorrow have broken down the conventional barriers that have hitherto awed into silence the expression of her people's love;—it is not a Monarch in a palace that they now see, but a stricken Woman in a desolate home; and public meetings, and addresses of condolence, and marble memorials utterly fail to interpret the unspeakable yearning with which the entire nation would fain gather her to its bosom, and, if it were possible, for ever shelter her from all the ills and sorrows of this storm-shake world. Surely, next to the compassion of God must be such love from such a people To give expression to these sentiments, as far as the forms of State will admit, will, I am certain, be the heartfelt desire of your Lordships' House; and not, even when in some day of battle and defeat your Lordships' ancestors made a rampart of their lives round the person of their king, will the Peers of England have gathered round the Throne in a spirit of more genuine devotion; and heartily, I am sure, my Lords, will you join me in praying that the same inscrutable Providence which has visited our Queen and country with so great calamity will give to her and us patience to bow before the dread decree; and that the Father of the Fatherless and the Comforter of the Afflicted will, in His own good time, afford to our beloved Sovereign such a measure of consolation as is to be found in the love of her lost husband's children, in the veneration of his memory, the fulfilment of his wishes, and the imitation of his bright example. Such a wish can be embodied in no nobler words than those furnished by the great poet of our age:—
"May all love,
"His love unseen, but felt, o'ershadow Thee,
"The love of all thy sons encompass thee,
"The love of all thy daughters cherish thee,
"The love of all thy people comfort thee,
"Till Clod's love set thee at his side again."
And now, my Lords, glad should I be might my task of sorrowful reminiscence

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be here concluded; but on such an occasion it is impossible not to remember that since we were last assembled the service of two other trusted and faithful councillors has been lost to the Crown and to the State—the one a Member of your Lordships' House, cut off in the prime of his manhood and in the midst of one of the most brilliant careers that ever flattered the ambition of an English Statesman—the other a Member of the other House of Parliament, after a long life of such uninterrupted labour and unselfish devotion to the business of the country as has seldom characterized the most indefatigable public servant. My Lords, it is not my intention to enumerate the claims upon our gratitude possessed by those two departed Statesmen; but, in taking count of the losses sustained by Parliament during the last recess, it is impossible not to pause an instant beside the vacant places of Lord Herbert and Sir James Graham. Bach has gone to his account, and each has died, falling where he fought, as best befitted the noble birth and knightly lineage of each. My Lords, whenever in her hour of need England shall marshal her armies for the vindication of her honour, or the protection of her territories, the name of him who laboured so assiduously for the improvement or the sanitary condition of the soldier at a time when peace was devastating our barracks in more fatal proportion than war our camps, will never lack its appointed meed of praise. And when the day shall come for the impartial pen of history to blazen those few names to whom alone it is given to be recognized by posterity as the leading spirits of a by-gone age, the trusted friend, the laborious coadjutor, the sagacious colleague of Lord Aberdeen, and Sir Robert Peel, shall as surely find his just measure of renown. But, my Lords, it was neither in the hopes of winning guerdon or renown that the Prince whom we mourn and the statesmen whom we have lost preferred the path of painful, self-denying duty to the life of luxury and ease that lay within their reach. They obeyed a nobler instinct; they were led by the light of a higher revelation; they cast their bread upon the waters in the faith of an unknown return. " Omnia fui, nihil etpedit," sighed one of the greatest of Roman emperors as he lay upon his death-bed at York; yet when, a moment afterwards, the captain of his guard came to him for the watchword of the night, with his dying breath he gave it,
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"Ldboremus." So is it, my Lords, with us; we labour, and others enter into the fruit of our labours; we dig the foundation, and others build, and others again raise the superstructure; and one by one the faithful workmen, their spell of toil accomplished, descend it may be into oblivion and an unhonoured grave—but higher, brighter, fairer, rises the fabric of our social policy; broader and more beautiful spread out on every side the sacred realms of civilization; further and further back retire the dark tides of ignorance, misery, crime—nay, even of disease and death itself, until to the eye of the enthusiastic speculator on the destinies of the human race it might almost seem as if in the course of ages it might be granted to the intellectual energy and moral development of mankind to reconquer a lost Paradise and reconstruct the shattered harmony of creation! In what degree it may be granted to this country to work out such a destiny none can tell; but, though heavy be the shadow cast across the land by the loss of the good and great, most eloquently do their lives remind us that our watchword in the darkness still should be Laboremus.!
My Lords, there are but one or two other topics of importance to which I need allude, and in a very few minutes more I shall have ceased to trespass on the attention of the House. My Lords, if anything could have deepened the gloom spread over the country by the death of our illustrious Prince, it would have been the prospect of a sanguinary war with a nation connected with us by such various ties as the people of America; and if any proof had been wanting of the degree in which grief had swallowed up every other feeling in our minds, it would have been found in the secondary importance we evidently attached to what at that time appeared so imminent a contingency. Happily, my Lords, the impending tempest has been dissipated by the firmness and moderation of Her Majesty's Government, and England has escaped being drawn into that vortex of civil strife which is daily swallowing up millions of money and so many precious human lives on the continent of America. My Lords, I am sure there is no one in this country who is not proud of the attitude adopted by Great Britain during the whole of this momentous crisis; and if the vindication of the national honour in the firmest, the most temperate, and the most successful manner is any

13
title to our esteem, I am equally certain that there is no one in this House, no matter on which side he may be sitting, who will not be willing to congratulate the noble Earl, Her Majesty's Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs, on the memorable auspices under which he has assumed his well - merited honours, and taken his seat in your Lordships' House. My Lords, although the disruption of the United States, entailing as it was sure to do such fearful consequences to our external trade and domestic manufactures, was viewed with the greatest anxiety in this country, yet from the first moment that the contest began to assume those portentous proportions which now characterize it we at once determined to maintain an attitude of the most absolute neutrality. When it became evident that one half of a continent was in arms against the other, when armies almost as large as those Napoleon used to handle were seen face to face on the banks of the Potomac, when all the elements of a gigantic, dubious, and desperate struggle had been called into existence, we at once recognised each of the contending sections as belligerents; and from that day to this we have never departed in a single particular from the strict impartiality we then assumed. Unhappily, the most inaccurate interpretation was put upon our conduct by the inhabitants of the Northern States. Because we refused to reject the evidence of our senses, and would not, regard the levée en masse of the Southern Confederation as the partial and spasmodic effort of a transient disaffection, because we declined to stigmatize its adherents as rebels and hang its cruisers as pirates, we are accused of being the allies and patrons of slavery, jealous of the great republic, and saturated with the poison of what are called "Southern proclivities." My Lords, nothing can be more unreasonable or more mistaken than this view of our sentiments. The institution of slavery will always be regarded with abhorrence by the English people. Far from being jealous of the prosperity of America we have always regarded the expansion of her trade, the development of her vast resources, as affording the most satisfactory security for the increase of our own wealth and the invigoration of our industrial energies; we loathed and derided the idea of war between two communities bound by every moral and material tie to the maintenance of a mutually advantageous peace. Every year the ocean interposed between us was
14
felt to be a lessening barrier, and Lancashire began to look across the Atlantic as familiarly as it had hitherto done across St. George's Channel. When, therefore, news of the unexpected cataclysm which has overwhelmed the American Union reached our shores, we were as much dismayed as if a devastating volcano had exploded in the Isle of Man. Distress throughout our manufacturing districts, impediments to our trade, were the least of the disasters which seemed likely to overtake us From henceforth all was to be uncertainty and agitation; we had exchanged an intelligent, methodical, enterprising correspondent for a firm apparently in the agonies of a dissolution. As to sympathizing with one side or the other, or sitting in judgment on the questions at issue between them, we had neither the inclination nor the materials fur doing so. We could not even rightly comprehend the elements of their quarrel; those subtle distinctions between the sovereignty of the Union and the independence, of the component States seemed more difficult to reconcile than the conflicting claims of prerogative and privilege which used to puzzle our boyhood. Secession might he injudicious, undutiful, suicidal, but it seemed the apparent consequence of incompatibility of temper; and, if so, to seek for the restoration of conjugal rights at the point of the bayonet might prove an unreasoning remedy. Again, though slavery be a horrible institution, though great and heavy have been the sacrifices made by this country to free herself of its taint, its mere existence can never become, in our opinion, a casus belli; nor will any circumstances ever justify, to our ideas of morality, the proclamation of a servile war: while the same feeling which conducted the steps of the Prince of Wales to the tomb of Washington must always induce us to regard with the greatest misgiving the efforts of one section of a co-ordinate community to subdue by force of arms the affections of another. Under these circumstances, the only thing left for us was patiently to await whatever solution Providence might decree. This, accordingly, we were prepared to do, when suddenly all England was astounded by the intelligence that a blundering sea-captain, besotted apparently with a vulgar lust for notoriety, had stopped one of our packet-boats while running between two neutral ports, and had violated the sacred shelter of our flag. Never, perhaps, has the temper and self-

15
control of the British people been more signally manifested than when the news of the capture of Messrs. Slidell and Mason reached our shores. For forty-eight hours there was an almost absolute abstinence from all expression of opinion. We were busy searching out the sacred dicta of precedent and law. Who can doubt, if this investigation had proved favourable to America, that we should have acquiesced in the result? As it was, the wrongfulness of the wrong we had endured stood out in unparalleled relief. Europe pronounced in our favour, and Her Majesty's Government, backed by the approval of the entire nation, forwarded a demand, couched in terms of unmistakeable courtesy, for immediate reparation and redress. Then followed a period of suspense such as will not easily be forgotten. Each mail from America brought us files of American papers, replete with threats and menace against England, with the most fulsome adulation of Captain Wilkes, with notes of preparation for the inevitable war. We had seen the small cloud no bigger than a man's hand rising up out of the sea; we were now encompassed by the mist and the darkness, the mutterings of the tempest. At last arrived the still small voice of Mr. Seward. No one has probably ever had the advantage of addressing a more attentive audience. Luckily, perhaps, his communication did not reach us in extenso until its contents had been sublimed in the alembic of a telegraph office, and reduced by a discriminating clerk into a compact and satisfactory residium; the essence of which was, that the kidnapped Commissioners were to be released. My Lords, there can be no doubt that the solution of the difficulty was hailed with delight by everybody in this country. Though we were quite ready for war, if it were necessary; though, humanly speaking, success was certain; though the first effect of such a contingency would have been the liberation of the cotton crops, yet every one was glad to have escaped so barbarous an alternative. So strong, indeed, was this feeling that when the original of Mr. Seward's despatch came to hand but very little notice was taken of the unsound and exceptional explanations which somewhat dimmed the grace of the reparation offered by the American Government. My Lords, I intend to imitate the discretion of the public; it is always contrary to etiquette to look a gift horse in the mouth. The missing
16
Commissioners have come to hand; we need not inquire what was the colour of the paper in which they were wrapped up. At all events, if the act of the American Government has been in accordance with the dictates of justice, law, and common sense, we may well afford to ignore the ungracious commentaries by which they have been accompanied. It is sufficient for U3 to remember that a sensitive, courageous, and powerful people, having been betrayed into a false position by the folly of one of their unscrupulous citizens, has acknowledged the error, and afforded the only satisfaction the nature of the case admitted. Such conduct will do more to maintain the consideration of the American Government in the eyes of the civilized world than any amount of self-assertion, or obstinate disregard of the obligations of public law; and let the convulsions which seem doomed to signalize President Lincoln's administration terminate as they may, his compliance with the demands of this country in connection with the affair of the Trent will entitle him to our respect as a just and upright politician, and render us still more anxious to maintain those friendly relations with his Government which have for so many years subsisted between us.
My Lords, my task has now drawn almost to a conclusion, and it is with but a very few more observations that I shall have to weary your attention. Still, my Lords, in looking back upon the events of the last three months, it is impossible for me not to wish, before I sit down, to congratulate your Lordships and Her Majesty s Government on one or two mos gratifying circumstances in connection with them. In the first place, my Lords, no one can have failed to mark with extreme satisfaction the loyal and patriotic spirit which has been evoked in Canada by the prospect of an American war. Without a moment's hesitation, with an unanimity of sentiment which could not have been exceeded in this country, with the certainty of having to bear the brunt of a formidable attack along a comparatively unguarded frontier, the Canadian people manifested an amount of energy and determination which has well merited the affectionate admiration of the mother country. How universal and intense the military enthusiasm of our North American fellow-subjects has become it is needless for me to stop to demonstrate. When a gentleman with such antecedents as Mr. Thomas D'Arcy Magee gives the signal for the

17
onset; when a Roman Catholic bishop, of French extraction, offers his palace for a barrack; when even the poor Irish emigrants, so cruelly maligned by those who professed to be their friends, form themselves into regiments for the defence of their Queen and for the protection of her empire, the old-fashioned notion of the province being tainted with secessional disaffection may well be considered as for ever exploded, and from henceforth the loyalty of Canada is as completely established as that of Middlesex or of Kent. Doubtless a certain proportion of this feeling may be traced to the wisdom with which the British Government has consulted the interests of that important section of the empire; but, my Lords, in examining the manifestations of patriotic feeling which have been called forth on the other side of the Atlantic, it is impossible not to perceive that a large measure of it has been inspired by an absolute sentiment of loyalty towards the person of Her Majesty. My Lords, it is on such occasions—in such moments of anxiety and doubt—that Englishmen are made to feel how vast is the debt of gratitude due from them to that Sovereign whose gracious influence, whose spotless life, whose unswerving fidelity to her sacred duties, has so powerfully strengthened the hands of her Ministers, and welded together in the bonds of a common loyalty the wide spread communities which own allegiance to her sceptre. My Lords, another circumstance on which I shall venture to congratulate your Lordships is, the marvellous precision, rapidity, and completeness with which the naval and military-resources of this country were made available against the anticipated contingency of war. I am sure it will be admitted that the greatest credit is due to Her Majesty's Government, and more especially to the illustrious Duke the Commander of the Forces, the noble Earl below mo (Earl de Grey), and to the noble Duke the First Lord of the Admiralty (the Duke of Somerset) for the unexampled activity with which an army, with all its encumbrances and impedimenta, complete in every branch, was equipped, marshalled, embarked, and conveyed across a tempestuous ocean in the space of three week, while with similar celerity and skill a formidable fleet was commissioned, fitted out, manned, and despatched to reinforce the squadron already stationed in the Amen can waters. Seldom has it been reserved.
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my Lords, to any Administration to exhibit such a triumph of military and naval organization; and long will the country remember with pride the success of these remarkable operations, conducted as they have been with such ability, energy, and skill by the two illustrious and noble Dukes, and the noble Earl below me.
Lastly, my Lords, there are some other topics referred to in the speech of the Lords Commissioners, on which, perhaps, it might not have been improper that I should have addressed your Lordships; but it is really impossible for me to presume any further on your indulgence. Moreover, I am in hopes that no paragraph in the Address which I now beg to move will be likely to give rise to any difference of opinion in your Lordships' House. Our difficulties with China seem to have been brought to a successful termination, and the friendly and honourable feeling exhibited by the Emperor's new Ministers will enable us to reduce our military expenditure in that quarter of the globe. It is true the anarchy which has prevailed so many years in Mexico, imperilling as it did the lives and properties of all European residents, has at last compelled us to join with France and Spain in the military occupation of that State; but it may be reasonably expected that the energetic measures thus inaugurated will enable us soon to withdraw from a position so little in accordance with our usual policy. In other respects we have no reason to be uneasy at the prospects before us, As long as this unfortunate civil war rages in America there must be a certain amount of distress in this country; but, as far as we are able to foresee, the industrial resources of our manufacturing districts will be quite equal to any emergency which may arise. In the mean time, we must be content to hope that before long the Transatlantic States will discover some means of terminating their unhappy differences, and thus release the world from the condition of painful suspense in which it has been kept during the past year. As for us, my Lords, our course is plain—patiently to continue tha policy of judicious and sober legislation which has already contributed so powerfully to the moral and material improvement of the country, and to endeavour by the unanimity of our counsels and our zeal for the public service to mitigate in some degree the effects of the irreparable loss which our Sovereign has sustained by the

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death of her illustrious Consort. My Lords, I will now conclude by moving that an humble Address be presented to Her Majesty, as follows:—
MOST GRACIOUS SOVEREIGN,
"WE, Your Majesty's most dutiful and loyal Subjects the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament assembled, beg leave to offer our humble Thanks to Your Majesty for Your Majesty's most Gracious Speech from the Throne.
"WE take this first Opportunity of offering to Your Majesty our sincere Condolence in the afflicting Dispensation of Providence with which Your Majesty and this Nation have been visited in the Death of His Royal Highness the Prince Consort,
"WE assure Your Majesty of our heartfelt Participation in the universal Feeling of Sympathy with Your Majesty under this calamitous Bereavement, and in the deep Sense entertained by all Classes of Your Majesty's Subjects of the irreparable Loss which the Country has sustained in a Prince whose tender Attachment to Your Majesty, whose eminent Virtues, and whose high Attainments, unceasingly devoted to the Interests of this Country, won for him general Love and Admiration, and will cause his Name to be held in grateful and affectionate Remembrance.
"IT is our earnest Prayer that Your Majesty's Health, in which Your faithful People take so lively an Interest, will not be impaired by overwhelming Grief; and that this Kingdom will long continue to enjoy the Blessings of a Reign with which its Happiness and Welfare are so intimately associated.
"WE humbly thank Your Majesty for informing us, that Your Majesty's Relations with all the European Powers continue to be friendly and satisfactory; and we assure Your Majesty that we trust, with Your Majesty, that there is no Reason to apprehend any Disturbance of the Peace of Europe.
"WE humbly express to Your Majesty the deep Gratification with which we learn that a Question of great Importance, and which might have led to very serious Consequences, arising from the Seizure and forcible Removal of Four Passengers from on board a British Mail Packet by the Commander of a Ship of War of the United States has been satisfactorily settled by the Restoration of the Passengers to British Protection, and by the Disavowal by the United States Government of the Act of Violence committed by their Naval Officer; and that therefore the friendly Relations between Your Majesty and the President of the United States have remained unimpaired.
"WE assure Your Majesty that we have heard with much Satisfaction of the Loyalty and patriotic Spirit which have been manifested on this Occasion by Your Majesty's North American Subjects.
"WE humbly thank your Majesty for commanding that the Convention between Your Majesty, The Emperor of the French, and The Queen of Spain, for the Purpose of regulating a combined Operation on the Coast of Mexico, with a view to obtain that Redress, which has hitherto been withheld, for the Wrongs committed by various Parties and by successive Governments in Mexico upon Foreigners resident within the Mexican Territory, should be laid before us.
"WE beg humbly to express our Satisfaction that the Improvement which has taken place in the Relations between your Majesty's Government and that of The Emperor of China, and the good Faith with which the Chinese Government have continued to fulfil the Engagements of the Treaty of Tien-tsin, have enabled Your Majesty to withdraw Your Majesty's Troops from the City of Canton, and to reduce the Amount of Your Majesty's Force on the Coast and in the Seas of China.
"WE thank Your Majesty for informing us that a Convention has been concluded with The Sultan of Morocco, by means of which The Sultan has been enabled to raise the Amount necessary for the Fulfilment of certain Treaty Engagements which he had contracted towards Spain, and thus to avoid the Risk of a Renewal of Hostilities with that Power, and for desiring that that Convention and Papers connected with it should be laid be-fore us.
"WE assure your Majesty that we will give our most serious Attention to the Measures for the Improvement of the Law, especially as concerns the Title and Transfer of Land, as well as to the other Measures of Public Usefulness which may be submitted for our Consideration.
"WE convey to Your Majesty the Assurance that we participate in Your Majesty's Regret that in some Parts of the United Kingdom, and in certain Branches of Industry, temporary Causes should have produced considerable Pressure and Privation; but at the same Time we express to Your Majesty the Gratification with which we learn that Your Majesty has Reason to believe that the general Condition of the Country is sound and satisfactory.
"We humbly assure Your Majesty that, in common with Your Majesty, we fervently pray that the Blessing of Almighty God may guide our Deliberations to the Attainment of the Welfare and Happiness of Your People.
THE EARL OF SHBLBURNEsaid, he trusted that in rising to second the Address which his noble Friend had just moved, their Lordships would permit him so far to tread in the footsteps of his noble Friend as to recur if but for a few moments to the melancholy subject to which his noble Friend had naturally given precedence in his able speech. He alluded, of course, to the deplorable affliction which had befallen Her Majesty and the country in the death of the Prince Consort. It was a loss the extent of which seemed, if possible, to be still more appreciated by the country as each succeeding day passed over. It would be vain for him to attempt to give additional weight to what had been already so eloquently said by his noble Friend in moving the Address, or which had been expressed elsewhere by noble Lords and other gentlemen, in language more eloquent than he could pretend to possess. He could not, however, reconcile it to himself to take any part in the proceedings of that day, when their Lordships were about to present an Address to Her Majesty, without asking to be allowed to pay his humble tribute—little as that might be worth—to the memory of that illustrious and lamented Prince. Consolation, my Lords, we cannot presume to offer; but he had always believed that if there was one thought upon which it might be expected that the mind of Her Majesty would, under her deep affliction, be able to dwell with anything like comfort, it would be this—that not in this island only, but far and wide, her loyal and devoted subjects had made her grief their own, and had proved in a manner never shown before to what an extent she reigned in all their hearts. In addition to the sympathy which the deplorable event of which he was speaking had evoked in the breasts of all her subjects, he thought there was another circumstance on which her Majesty could scarcely fail to dwell with pride and satisfaction, and that was the recollection that the illustrious Prince whose name would be for ever associated with her own in the annals of England's history had, perhaps, done more during his short but brilliant career to secure the foundations of constitutional government in this country, and to place its advantages prominently before the eyes of mankind in general, than had, perhaps, fallen to the lot of any other single individual, He had come among us a foreigner, and though a foreigner he under
22
stood, adopted, and systematically maintained the constitutional usages of the country which had become his own in a, manner which had endeared him—and most justly—to its people, while he had, at the same time, shown the world how large was that sphere of utility which a Prince might occupy in an empire like ours, without at the same time trenching in the slightest degree on those prerogatives which Parliament and the country alike held dear; and, my Lords, Parliament and the country do and will offer all the acknowledgment it is in their power to give. There was not, he believed, throughout the length and breadth of the land, a man who was not prepared gratefully to admit the truth of the words spoken by the late Lord Aberdeen in that House, when he stated that his Royal Highness the Prince Consort had never breathed a syllable which did not tend to the honour, the interests, and the welfare of this empire. Having, then, however feebly, paid his humble tribute to the memory of that illustrious Prince, he would venture to address a few words to their Lordships on another topic of the Speech from the Throne—he alluded to the present crisis in America, which was one of the most important subjects which could at any time occupy the attention of Parliament and the country. The subject, indeed, was one which the past history of the two nations must of itself render interesting to us, but how much was not that interest increased by; the important issues which were at stake! The diplomatic correspondence which had lately taken place between the two countries had, he was happy to be able to say, disposed of the immediate difficulty which had recently arisen between them; but; those who were desirous that a state of permanent harmony should exist between the two countries could not be blind to the feeling which prevailed in some quarters towards England on the other side of the Atlantic. In making that remark, he did not deem it advisable to lay too much stress on those ebullitions of feeling—perhaps not unnatural—which marked the proceedings of a large portion of the population of the United States at a period when agitators were endeavouring to interpret an act of justice into an affront. Nor did he think that any importance should be attached to some speeches delivered in higher quarters—such, for instance, as one which perhaps their Lord-

23
ships had read, and which was spoken by a Member of Congress, whose name betokened everything that was peaceable and convivial, while the sentiments to which he gave utterance were of a most sanguinary character. He regretted, however, to be obliged to say that there were citizens of the United States, whose names were well known and respected, not only in that country, but beyond it, who had expressed sentiments towards England which it must be a source of deep sorrow to us to find that they entertained, and which he was justified in saying were completely unfounded; for, whatever might be the political opinions of the Government holding the reins of power for the moment, he could appeal to their Lordships with confidence to bear him out in the statement that it was not our wish either to aggrandise, our own or to humiliate any other country; more than that, that it was our sincere desire to behold in the United States a great, powerful, and free nation. There was, moreover, at the same time a strong wish in England to see friendly relations with them established on a permanent footing, which would give us some security for the future, and which could not fail to be conducive to the best interests of two peoples so closely related by the ties of kindred. If that feeling could only be acted upon, peace would, he could not help thinking, be based on so durable a foundation that it would not hereafter be broken on light or insufficient grounds. Certainly nothing was more likely to conduce to such a friendly understanding than that either nation should abstain from arrogating exclusive rights to itself, and should each of them adhere strictly to the principles of the law of nations. With regard to what had passed out of doors on this side of the Atlantic, he cordially congratulated the Government, on the one hand, upon the confidence with which they had been enabled to inspire the people of this country in dealing with recent critical events; while he felt, upon the other hand, bound to congratulate the people themselves upon the good sense, moderation, and temper they had displayed in leaving the hands of the Government so completely unfettered; feeling that not the interests only, but the honour of the country were perfectly safe in their keeping. There was one short remark he could not help making with reference to the circumstances under which the recent negotiations had taken place; and the
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more especially since the nation was perfectly satisfied with the course which had been taken by our Government in either case. He regretted then, that the Government of the United States had not, in dealing with the transactions to which he was now referring, deemed it consistent with their duty to take a leaf out of the book of the mother country, which, in a case analogous with that of the Trent—that of the Chesapeake in 1807—had adopted a far nobler course. The details of these cases were somewhat different; but as the persons captured were in both instances untried, they are quite analogous as far as question or reparation goes. On that occasion, His Majesty King George III. took the earliest opportunity, in a Speech from the Throne, to express what he (the Earl of Shelburne) could not but consider a most noble apology; for His Majesty did not hesitate to inform Parliament that "for an unauthorized act of force committed against an American ship-of-war His Majesty did not hesitate to offer immediate and spontaneous reparation." Unfortunately, however, on the other hand, in the recent Speech of President Lincoln to Congress, no allusion whatever was made to topics the omission of which could scarcely have been matter of accident. If he (the Earl of Shelburne) had called attention to this circumstance, it was only for the purpose of expressing his regret that advantage had not been taken of that precedent. He had referred to the case of the Chesapeake because he had no doubt that on that occasion the manner in which reparation was offered must have been most grateful to the feelings of the American public, and because he felt assured similar conduct on the part of their Government in the case of the Trent could not have failed to have on the minds of the British public that effect which the immediate and spontaneous acknowledgment of error invariably produced. The people of this country would have been much more ready at the present moment to pass over any other little difficulty that might arise if they had seen the American nation more ready to meet them as frankly as we had met the United States on former occasions. The people of this country had been the more susceptible upon this point, on account of the tendency which there had been on the other side to denote them as an unfriendly power; but in truth both the Government and the people had observed strict neutrality, and had been ex-

25
tremely temperate under circumstances of considerable pressure, which might almost have justified them in urging on the Government a different course from that adopted; and therefore nothing had occurred to give a ground to the American Secretary of State for implying any unfriendliness on the part of England. It was impossible not to recollect that if Her Majesty's Government had chosen to copy the example set by the Government of the United States, who in 1849 authorized their agents to express their readiness to acknowledge the independence of Hungary, such a course would have been quite as justifiable for them as for the Government of the United States. But Her Majesty's Government very wisely abstained from any act of the kind, and he only mentioned the circumstance to show how completely this country had abstained, and that the action of this country left no opening for any attack such as he had referred to. Before passing from this subject he must express his full concurrence in the desire that the events j now passing in America might find some speedy solution, which would terminate a war regarded by every man, not only in this country, but in the rest of Europe, as most deplorable. There was one other topic to which he must allude in connection with this subject, and on which we could reflect with the greatest satisfaction, and that was the conduct of His Majesty the Emperor of the French. His Majesty did not content himself with holding aloof from any expression of opinion in this matter as he undoubtedly might have done, and have thus given greater importance to his own position by watching the progress of events; but he hastened to declare his opinion to be in perfect harmony with that of Her Majesty's Government; and he had thus given her Majesty's Government that important moral support which the expression of such an opinion on the part of a great nation like France must always carry with it. There were several other topics in Her Majesty's Speech on which he would not dwell, as their Lordships would have an ample opportunity of discussing them hereafter, and with far greater knowledge of their detail than they could have at the present moment. He would, therefore, conclude by thanking them for the indulgent hearing which they had given his remarks, and by seconding the Address which had been moved by his noble Friend.
THE EARL OF DERBY:My Lords, the present is an occasion, when, if ever, it is most desirable that nothing should occur to mar the harmony or to interfere with the unanimity of our answer to the Speech from the Throne, which has just been moved and seconded, the main topic of which is the expression of our sympathy with Her Majesty in that deep affliction with which it has pleased Providence to visit Her Majesty, and, at the same time, our sense of the irreparable calamity which the same event has inflicted on the nation at large. Of an ordinary man it were much to say that, called suddenly and in early manhood to a station the most exalted and perilous, surrounded by every temptation, having at command every luxury and pleasure which the human heart could wish for, he yet knew how to resist them all, and that for a period of twenty - two years he discharged blamelessly and irreproachably every duty of a husband and a father; that he made his household a model of domestic order and family affection; and, that placed in a situation of extreme difficulty, he so conducted himself that even the breath of calumny never ventured to insinuate against him the slightest charge of having abused in any degree the influence which he possessed. But as applied to the illustrious Prince whose loss we all lament, and to whose merits and virtues justice has been done in such eloquent terms by the noble Lord who moved, and by the noble Earl who seconded the Address—as applied to him, who was no ordinary man, illustrious in the best and highest sense of the word—such language were but feeble, inadequate, almost negative commendation. He has passed from us in the prime of life and in the full vigour of bodily activity and intellectual power; but he has not passed away without leaving his mark upon the age in which he lived. Never condescending to flatter—on the contrary, on some occasions going to the very verge of indiscretion in combating what appeared to him to be our national prejudices, he pursued steadily, silently, and most unostentatiously that line which he had chalked out for himself, and succeeded in establishing an impress of himself, which will long survive him, on the habits, the tastes, the feelings, of the country of his adoption. Comparatively few have had the opportunity of knowing how wide was the range of his studies, how few and sparing were the hours he employed even

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in the most harmless and innocent recreations; how assiduously he exercised a mind of more than ordinary natural powers and of far more than ordinary cultivation; with how comprehensive a grasp he seized intuitively on the main and leading principles of every question submitted to his consideration, and with what untiring industry he worked every question out in its minutest details. This, however, is not the time nor is this the place for speaking of these things. Ample justice will yet be done elsewhere, and the country will have day by day more ample means of estimating the invaluable service which he has rendered to the cause of art and science. Nor is this the fitting place to speak of that encouragement and that stimulus which he gave by his personal attention and unremitting efforts to the promotion of everything that could tend to increase the domestic comforts of the humbler classes, to expand the mind, to extend the area of intellectual enjoyment, and to elevate the social and moral condition of every class of Her Majesty's subjects. The debt which is due from the country to him on these accounts can hardly be estimated at present, and, I fear, will only be estimated by the experience of the loss which we shall feel to have sustained by the loss of him. But this is the place in which one word, at least, should be said on a different portion of the Prince Consort's life—I mean on the part which the late illustrious Prince took, and greatly to the benefit of the country, in public affairs. I refer to this matter because, some years ago, I recollect it was a subject, with some persons of not unnatural constitutional jealousy, that any interference in the affairs of the country should take place on the part of one who was altogether in an irresponsible position. The persons who so argued, argued, I repeat, on a not unnatural feeling of constitutional jealousy; but they argued in forgetfulness of every dictate of human nature, and they demanded what was impossible by the very constitution of the human mind. What they required amounted to this—that two persons should be living in the closest and most intimate relation, in the most absolute confidence which could subsist between husband and wife, and yet that the mouth of one of them should be absolutely sealed, and his thoughts altogether forbidden to dwell, on those topics which, day by day and hour by hour, must to the other be the sub-
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ject of engrossing care and anxiety. The very statement of the fact shows the impossibility of carrying out the views of the persons who so argued. I should say, undoubtedly, that there would have been grounds for constitutional jealousy if, in his high position, the Prince Consort had ever stooped to make himself the tool of a party, or to subserve the intrigues and machinations of any of the different political parties. But all who had the opportunity of judging know that it was impossible for any one to be more absolutely and entirely free from such an imputation than the late Prince Consort, and know also that the whole, of his endeavours were directed, altogether irrespective of party, to give to his Sovereign and his wife that counsel which he thought most befitting the interest of the State and of the Throne. If, then, it was impossible that there should not have been that communication between the Prince Consort and the Queen on all questions connected with the public affairs, how much more desirable was it that his influence should be exercised with a full knowledge of all the circumstances attendant on every political question, of all the views, and their reasons, entertained by the Ministers of the day, and of all the discussions that had taken place, than that it should have been exercised in private and in secret, with only an imperfect knowledge of the grounds on which certain questions were submitted for Her Majesty's consideration? I feel confident, my Lords, that all those who have had the honour of being admitted to that personal and confidential communication with the Sovereign which is the highest privilege of a Minister of the Crown will acknowledge—and I appeal to all who have filled that position to say—whether from the presence of His Royal Highness at such communications, from his cool, calm, and impartial judgment, his great information on all topics, they did not derive most useful and valuable hints, and receive great assistance in the discharge of their own responsible duties? My Lords, in the Prince Consort the Queen has lost, not only the husband of her youth, not only the father of her children—him to whom her youthful affections were freely given, and for whom maturer years only augmented and intensified her conjugal love—but she has lost her familiar friend, her trusted counsellor, her unwearied and never-failing adviser—him to whom she could look up in every

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difficulty and in every emergency, and to whom she did look up with that proud humility that none but a woman's heart can know, glorying in the intellectual superiority to which her own will and her own judgment were freely put in subjection. I do not doubt that from the surviving members of her family Her Majesty has derived all the consolation that affection can give; but in the discharge of her public duties she must henceforth tread alone the high, but hard path of Sovereignty. The sustaining hand, the guiding judgment, the never-failing counsel are Hers no more. And who, my Lords, can hear without the deepest emotion, how, in the full consciousness of that utter desolation, that aggravated responsibility, in the very presence of death itself—in the first moments of that ago nizing bereavement, rising as it were from beneath the crushing weight of that overwhelming sorrow, the first brave outpouring of that noble heart was, "With God's blessing, I will yet do my duty!" And, my Lords, I am certain that of those who hear me there is not one who will not join in my fervent prayer (which will be echoed by millions), that she may be strengthened to carry out her brave resolve; and that He who has seen fit to inflict this heavy blow, and has thus deprived her of him who on earth was her comfort and support, will be Himself her comfort and support under this deep, deep affliction. My Lords, the words of our Ad-dress must necessarily be somewhat cold and formal, but the Sovereign may be assured that they convey unfeignedly—though still inadequately—not only an expression of your Lordships' feelings, but the unanimous expression of a nation's devoted loyalty, deep admiration, and loving sympathy. And in the presence of this sacred sorrow I am satisfied it will be the desire of your Lordships, the desire of all, on all sides of the House—not only of this, but of the other House of Parliament—to contribute all in their power to spare Her Majesty one additional care, or one additional embarrassment under the affliction that presses so heavily upon her. On my own part, and on the part of those with whom I have the honour of acting, such I am satisfied will be the spirit in which we shall enter on the business of this Session; and I earnestly trust—as from the tenour of the Royal Speech I am induced hopefully to believe—that Her Majesty's Ministers are dis-
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posed to meet us in the same spirit; that they are disposed rather to initiate those useful and practical measures in which all can alike join harmoniously and cordially for the advantage of our common country, and to abstain from bringing forward themselves, as well as to discourage others from broaching, those agitating topics and more violent controversies which by their possible result might add to the cares and anxieties of our Sovereign.
My Lords, I make this declaration with the more satisfaction, because on the next important topic adverted to in the Speech from the Throne I am able not only to abstain from any objection, but am prepared to give the Government the meed of my cordial approval—whatever that may be worth—of the course which has been pursued by Her Majesty's Government with regard to the affairs of the United States, I make that statement, not only in reference to the course the Government has pursued in respect to the events which have occurred recently, and from which it was at one time too probable we should be involved in a war with that country with which, of all others, it is most our interest and our wish to maintain the most friendly relations; but I extend my approval to that bonâ fide neutrality which Her Majesty's Government have pledged themselves, with the approbation of the entire country, to maintain, in the unhappy struggle between the Northern and Southern of the formerly United States. If, indeed, there has been any difference at all in the attitude of our Government towards the two parties, it has been in favour of the Northern States, with which alone we have any recognised diplomatic relations. We have at no time, except during the short period when there was an apprehension that war was imminent, prohibited the export of arms and munitions of war; and the absence of any such prohibition, under the circumstances, has practically operated materially in favour of the North. Again, we have given to the Federal Government a greater advantage than it has claimed for itself, because we have admitted what it has itself denied—that it is actually at war; and that as a belligerent it can exercise rights which except as a belligerent it could not claim. We have given the Federal Government far more than it required; and by an act of which it has grievously complained it is in a far better position than it has claimed for itself. We have also submitted, and sub-

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mitted without a murmur, to the interruption of our trade caused by this war. And this reflects the highest credit on the good sense and patriotism of the working men of the whole manufacturing population of this country. I do not speak so much of the master-manufacturers, because if there must be a scarcity of the raw material of their trade, it could have hardly happened at a more opportune moment than at the present, when every foreign market is overstocked, and when, therefore, a diminution of production must, under any circumstances, have been a necessity of the trade. But, with regard to the workmen, who by the suspension of trade incur the loss of their daily earnings, this lamentable interruption of their labour has produced very melancholy results; and, I think that the greatest possible credit is due to them for the manner in which they have submitted, without a murmur, to the effects of a blockade which the slightest interference on the part of this country would, in their judgment, put an end to, and so relieved them from the evils under which they labour. As I concur with the course Her Majesty's Government has pursued, I do not ask them to deviate from it; I think the time is not yet come when they can properly be called on to recognise the Government representing the successful revolt of the Southern States. For while it has always been the practice of the English Government to recognise a de facto Government, which has succeeded in establishing itself on the consent of a whole people, I do not think the resistance of the Southern States has been as yet so successful as to justify us in recognising them as a Power which has proved its ability to maintain its own independence. I do not, therefore, call on the Government to go further than to treat, as it hitherto has done, both parties impartially as belligerents; but I hope Her Majesty's Government will be able to satisfy the country on one point—a point of great importance, and one on which they alone have authentic and authoritative information. It is how far the blockade of the Southern Ports has been bonâ fide and effective. Mind, I do not wish to intimate that whether we recognise this blockade or not, any material effect will be produced upon the cotton supply of this country while the war lasts. Indeed, I am not sure whether, as good frequently arises out of evil, the
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continuance of this American difficulty may not ultimately place us in a much more advantageous position, by enabling us to obtain a more abundant and constant supply from other sources than we at present possess, and thus to render us less exclusively dependent on the cotton growing States. At the same time I do think it is important that the country should have, upon the authority of Her Majesty's Government, the information which they could furnish it from the reports of our Admiral on the station, and our consuls, as to how many vessels have been captured for attempting to break the blockade, and how many have succeeded in breaking it; so that the public might have the means of forming an opinion whether the blockade has been such a one as ought to be recognised and respected by the law of nations. My Lords, while I give Her Majesty's Government the fullest credit, not only for the course they have pursued, for the firm and temperate manner in which they made their demand, and sent out those reinforcements which were absolutely necessary to support the allegiance of our colonists, I rejoice to find that in the Speech justice has been done to the spirit and unanimity with which all classes of Her Majesty's subjects in the North American Provinces have come forward and shown their determination, at all hazards—and the hazard of war would in the first instance have fallen on themselves—to maintain their allegiance, and to support the honour and dignity of the British Crown. If there be one thing more than another that will tend to confirm the good understanding and peaceable relations that now exist between this country and the United States, it is the knowledge they must now have received of the utter delusion under which those persons within the States have laboured who imagined that Canada and the North American Provinces were eager for annexation with the States, and to sever their connection with Great Britain; and that, on the other hand, Great Britain would never venture upon a war with America, because she would always fear the willing annexation of Canada. That delusion is, I hope, now dissipated for ever, and its dissipation will form an important element in our future relations with America, and tend to secure us against the dangers of war with that country. My Lords, I cannot pass from this part of the subject without expressing my unaffected

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concurrence with the testimony borne by my noble Friend who seconded the Address to the honourable and loyal part which has been played upon this occasion by the French Government. I have not been slow upon other occasions, when I have thought that the conduct of that Government was not as straightforward and just towards us as we might have expected, to express my opinion to that effect; and I have the greater pleasure, therefore, in being able to state conviction that nothing could be more frank, more loyal, or more timely than the intervention which, at the instigation of the Emperor of the French, M. de Thouvenel undertook in the despatch which he addressed to the American Government. I cannot say what influence that despatch may have had upon the ultimate decision of the American Government, but this I will say, it is a matter of the highest satisfaction that that despatch, followed by similar despatches from other Courts of Europe, must have established to the satisfaction of the world at large that in making our demands we were only requiring that which, we could not have refrained from demanding without forfeiting our character as an independent Power and sacrificing the honour of the country. When the English people first received the news of the capture of the Trent, the first feeling was that of surprise, and no doubt a certain amount of indignation was displayed; but at the same time a calm and unanimous determination as of one man was taken by the nation to await the decision whether this capture was warranted and justified by international law; and I do not hesitate to say that if it had been found that that capture was borne out by international law, or even by precedents taken from our own history—though as Englishmen they would have had a keen sense of the injury and the insult inflicted upon us—they would have bowed to the majesty of the law, and would have submitted to the seizure as a legitimate exercise of belligerent rights. But from the moment when it was clearly ascertained that so far from international law sanctioning the act, no precedent even could be discovered to up hold or oven to palliate the conduct of the American commander—from that moment the country, equally as one man, determined that reparation and apology must be obtained. They adopted that determination not in passion, not in anger, not
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in fierce excitement, not rejoicing in the prospect of war—at which, indeed, they shuddered with abhorrence—but as in the performance of a grave, serious, imperative duty—a painful duty, but one from which, however painful, they could not shrink, because, great as might be the horrors of war, greater still would be the ignominy of forfeiting the national honour. My Lords, while I have thus feebly attempted to convey my view of the conduct pursued by this country, by the people of our North American provinces, and by His Majesty the Emperor of the French, I wish I could look with equal satisfaction upon the course taken by the Federal Government. I believe that the maxims which regulate private society are not inapplicable among nations; and speaking to an assembly of high-minded men, I am certain that there is not one of your Lordships who, if it were made clear to him that you had offended or injured any person with whom you had been on intimate relations, would not feel that the most honourable course was to anticipate any possible requirement from the other side, and to tender on the instant a frank and manly apology; and the more ample, the more, speedy, and the more frank was the apology the higher would he who made it stand in the estimation of all honourable men. Applying the principle to nations, I cannot but express my deep regret that when the American Secretary of State was convinced, as he and his Government were long before the termination of these negotiations, that the capture was illegal, and the persons captured were wrongfully detained—they should still have been detained for a considerable time in all the rigours of a not very merciful imprisonment. I regret that the Secretary of State should not only have hesitated to grant the reparation which he must have felt was due in justice and honour to this country, but that—I am speaking, of course, of the American Government in general—but that he and his Government should have sanctioned language which they knew was wholly unwarranted by facts, and permitted impressions to go abroad calculated to excite the most bitter animosity between the people of the United States and this country. Lastly, I think it greatly to be regretted that, having made up his mind that reparation and apology were necessary, the American Secretary of State should have waited until the formal

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demand was made, not privately, but officially and formally, thus waiting not to consider how much reparation he should give, but how small a measure of reparation would satisfy the imperative demands of Great Britain. I must say that by the course which they pursued, the Federal Government have placed themselves and their people in a position of unworthy and undignified humiliation—for they have shown that they have apologized not from a sense of justice, but on a demand backed by force, and that they only gave the reparation we demanded when they were convinced that this country would be satisfied with nothing less. My Lords, I am not about to enter upon any of those vexed questions of international law which not unnaturally have arisen in the case of the Trent. But I have seen some very wild opinions expressed with regard to the holding of a Congress of Nations for the purpose of establishing a new doctrine as to international law. I earnestly trust that Her Majesty's Government will be extremely cautious how they enter into such negotiations or conventions. We have had on the present occasion to sustain the rights of neutrals, and we have sustained them as it was due to the dignity of this country that we should. But we must not forget that we have a deep and preponderating interest in maintaining the rights—the legitimate rights—of belligerents also; and that this country, while disclaiming all undue exercise of such rights, is not one that can afford to sacrifice the legitimate exercise of belligerent rights which are justified and warranted by the law of nations. Now I confess that I regretted—and I expressed my regret at the time—the sacrifice which, as I thought, my noble Friend (the Earl of Clarendon) made in 1856, when he consented, on the part of the Government of this country, to the principle that enemy's goods should be safe on board neutral vessels. I thought this a dangerous concession for a country situated as ours is, and I remonstrated against it. Undoubtedly, it is true that that agreement has not up to the present moment the binding force of a treaty, nor has it been ratified by the Sovereign. It is not of force to alter the real state of international law; but I hold that with regard to all the Powers whose representatives signed this paper, and whose acts have not since been disavowed by their Sovereigns, those Powers are morally bound by the liabilities and the
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obligations imposed upon them at the time. Now, if we had gone to war with the Federal States, I will ask in passing, what would have been the result of our adoption of the doctrines of the Congress? We had an agreement—I will not call it a convention—with France. We had no agreement with America. In the event of war with America, therefore, American merchandise on board a French vessel would, by our obligations with France, be safe against our cruisers. But America not having entered into any agreement, the goods of our merchants on board French vessels would not have been safe against American cruisers. Thus the arrangement would have been a very onesided operation—one party would have had all the benefit without having been a party to the agreement, and the other that was a party to it, being bound by it, would not have had the benefit of it. That is a position in which England ought not to stand towards any country whatever. I recollect asking at the time whether this would not have been the consequences of the agreement, but I did not succeed in extracting any satisfactory explanation on the subject. Then, I see various suggestions made that certain things were contrary to the doctrine of that morality by which wars were carried on in modern times, and calling upon us to give up certain privileges, declaring that it was unlawful even to exercise the right of search, and that all neutral vessels, wherever going and wherever bound, should be perfectly free to pass, and that their goods should pass without any right of search, and without any interference whatever. I can only say that I hope the noble Earl the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs will never consent to abandon rights which I feel—and deeply feel—are most substantial and important rights to this country. My Lords, the other topics of the Speech are not such as to call for lengthened observations. I should hope the Government will be able to give the House before long explanations—which are certainly much required—not only of the convention itself, but also of the manner in which it is to be acted upon by the three Powers which are parties to an interference in the affairs of Mexico. I know well into what a state of anarchy and confusion for many years Mexico has fallen. I know well how many causes of complaint all European nations have to make against the successive Governments which

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have distracted rather than ruled in that country; and it was once my painful duty to advise the Crown to introduce into a Speech from the Throne a paragraph referring to the subject and announcing the enforcement of the just demands of this country. I think that matters of this kind are in general best settled by the individual action of each separate State; but I do not complain that in this instance there should have been a convention between three great Powers, each of whom has similar wrongs to complain of, and each of whom has agreed to a similar course to obtain reparation. But if I am to believe the statements in the public prints, I cannot help fearing and suspecting that one at least, if not both, of our allies are disposed to enter upon operations of a more extended character than are contemplated by the terms of the convention; and I shall be glad to hear from the noble Earl the Foreign Secretary, or the President of the Council, that in all matters relating to Mexico there has been a thorough and entire agreement as to the course of proceeding to be adopted by the three Powers who are parties to the convention. Again, we have not before us the convention that has been entered into with the Emperor of Morocco. It is one, as far as I am aware, of a very unusual character, but, at the same time, one that I frankly admit may be justified by the peculiar nature of the case out of which it has arisen. I apprehend the object of the convention is to secure to the Government of Morocco a sum of money upon the security of the Customs' duties levied at the outports, and those duties are to be collected, as I understand, by British authorities, and the balance paid over to the Government of Morocco, after retaining sufficient to secure a sum to be advanced to liquidate the claims of Spain, and for which she still holds as guarantees Tetuan and other points on the coast of Morocco. This is a subject of great interest to this country, and the noble Earl the Foreign Secretary will remember that at the outset of the war Spain disclaimed any intention of permanent occupation of any part of the coast. It is a matter of the utmost importance to this country that no such occupation should be allowed, seeing how much our interests at Gibraltar may be dependent upon the Power which holds the opposite coast. Therefore, though this convention was of a most unusual character, I cannot help hoping that the circumstances will be found to justify the course which Her Majesty's
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Government have taken in agreeing to it. As to other measures, I rejoice to find, as far as we can judge from the announcement in the Speech, that they are likely to be confined to such measures as will probably not lead to any party conflicts—measures which we can discuss in a calm, impartial, and unprejudiced spirit. The particular measure of simplification of the transfer of land is one of great importance. The subject had attracted the notice of former Governments, and a Bill was introduced, when my hon. and learned Friend Sir Hugh Cairns filled the office of Solicitor General, which I hope will be closely followed in that which is to be submitted to us in a short time. It is a subject requiring close attention, and I am sure your Lordships will consider it calmly, and having regard to the interests of all concerned.
Before I sit down I may allude for a moment to one subject which is not referred to in the Queen's Speech, and upon which, although it is not a subject generally discussed in this House, I think we ought to have some information as to the intentions of the Government. I refer to the recent Minutes of the Committee of Council on Education. The subject has attracted great and general attention. I am no way disposed to blame the originators of those Minutes; but I find that some of the alterations will have effects which could not have been contemplated; some will involve breach of faith which the Government cannot intend; others, I think, are ill adapted for the objects they are designed to accomplish; and others will be found to be fraught with injustice and disadvantage. But the peculiarity of the question is this—that in consequence of the manner in which the sanction of Parliament is obtained to the scheme, this House—although many of us are deeply interested in the question—will have no legitimate mode of expressing an opinion upon the subject. The plan is submitted to the consideration of the House of Commons, not to be embodied in a Bill, but to receive its sanction in the shape of a pecuniary vote. I think it is important that we should have some opportunity of considering these proposed alterations, and I hope the noble Earl the President of the Council will state, not that the Government intends to adhere to every clause and provision of those Minutes—for if he does I shall be astonished and disappointed—but I hope he will state that in some way, and, if he can, in what manner, he will submit this question to the considera-

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tion of this House, and enable your Lordships to give an opinion upon the details, which no body of men are more capable of giving.
I need not now further trouble your Lordships with any observations upon the remaining topics in the Speech. I am happy to think that at present there seems no likelihood of any interruption to the unanimity with which we shall agree to the Address; and I say sincerely it will give me the greatest pleasure to find the proceedings of Parliament during the remainder of the Session as cordial and unanimous as they have been upon this its first evening.
EARL GRANVILLE:—I thank the noble Earl for his candid and patriotic speech. No one could have expected otherwise from the warm and firm loyalty of the noble Earl, who expresses the real feeling of this country when he says, that whenever the national honour or the national interests are concerned party spirit will be immediately discarded. The noble Earl has referred to the excitement which prevails with regard to the Minute of Council respecting education. With regard to the Minute, it is, no doubt, desirable that the subject should be fully considered in Parliament, and it is the desire of the Government to give Parliament the earliest opportunity of discussing it. I think it would be convenient that I should state on Thursday next what we propose in respect to those Minutes, and what modifications we are prepared to make to meet some objections which appear to possess weight. I do not think I need go into the question of Mexico at present, as it would be better to defer discussion upon that subject until your Lordships have read the papers. With regard to the late events which excited so much interest in the public mind—the American question—I think the course of this evening's debate has been highly satisfactory. The noble Lord who moved the Address, in a speech which has been justly characterized as singularly eloquent, and which points him out as belonging to a family distinguished in the annals of this country, justified the conduct of the Government, as did also my noble Friend who spoke afterwards, in a tone of calm judgment, which gives promise that he will worthily follow in the steps of his noble father, who has been an ornament to the British Parliament during a space of fifty years. It must, I think, afford singular gratification to my noble
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Friend at the head of the Government and his colleagues to find that they have conducted this affair so much to the satisfaction of Parliament and the country. I am bound to say that the Government have had some advantages in dealing with this question with the United States. They never had the slightest doubt, that if they cared for the honour and interests of the country, they would have the confidence and support of the country; and if they had that confidence and support, they knew the strength, physical and moral, which it would give in urging our demands in a calm and moderate tone, such as has been admitted to have marked our proceedings. In common with the majority of this country they were determined to take no step until they were fully satisfied as to the illegality of the measure of which they complained. Her Majesty's Government relied not only on the result of their own researches into the legal bearings of the question, but they were backed by the public opinion of Europe. They were not unconscious of the peculiar evils that must attend a war with the United States. They regretted that any cause of quarrel with that country should arise, particularly at a moment when it was distracted by civil trouble; but they felt that the injury done to England was one for which it would have been most injudicious, impolitic, and, in fact, impossible—having regard even to our relations with the United States themselves—not to have taken the promptest and firmest measure to obtain the redress that has happily been obtained. The noble Earl opposite has given what appears to be a due meed of praise to the conduct of the French Government in this matter. My noble Friend behind me has also pointed out the singularly straightforward and friendly course pursued by the Emperor of the French towards this country; and I may add that it appears to me that that course was not only friendly to this country, but likewise friendly to the Government of the United States—giving them as it did a support under the difficulties with which we cannot conceal from ourselves they had to contend in dealing with a national question of this kind, one part of the Congress, the Representative Chamber, declaring the act done to have been a legal one, and some American authorities asserting that according to their notions of international law, no wrong whatever had been committed. That peace has been

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preserved is a source of unfeigned satisfaction to Her Majesty's Government. From the beginning we have endeavoured to maintain the strictest neutrality; and although circumstances may arise which may call for a different course, yet as long as circumstances remain in their present position I believe that the Government will be supported by the country and by Parliament in thinking that the only right, just, and prudent course to adopt is not to try to meddle with questions of infinite difficulty—complicated as they are with slavery and the constitutional rights of the individual States—but to hold a perfectly neutral attitude, leaving those States for themselves and by themselves to settle their differences whether by war or by peaceful means, our only hope being that that end may come speedily and in a manner most favourable to the interests of the States themselves and of the world at large. The loyal and admirable spirit shown by the people of Canada and by the whole of our North American colonies does them great credit, and has been most satisfactory to Her Majesty's Government to witness. The noble Earl criticised not. indeed, the present Government, but my noble Friend below the gangway (the Earl of Clarendon) upon the course he took with respect to neutral rights at the Conference of Paris in 1856, Now, I am bound to say that the Government of that day were in the fullest sense responsible for the conduct of my noble Friend on that occasion, because not only did they approve it, but it was after constant communication with him and the most careful consideration at home that they resolved—taking all the elements of that most important question into account—that it was for the benefit of this court try that the rules there agreed upon should be adopted. In respect to the point mentioned as to a treaty, I quite concur with the noble Earl that that makes no difference. It is very difficult to make inter national treaties bearing upon times of war, because by the very operation of war all treaties cease of themselves. No doubt, however, that act of the Paris Conference binds, as between themselves, all the countries who agreed to it—but not those who did not join the Conference—to the observance of these rules during future war. I think the noble Earl was not quite right in the illustration he gave of the effect of allowing neutral ships to carry the goods of belligerents. If, unfortunately the ea
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lamity of a war with the United States should befall us, I have no doubt that our first operation would be to blockade, and that in a very efficient manner, all the ports of that country, thereby putting a considerable and speedy check upon the American trade. And so far from its being a disadvantage that any commerce which she carried on should be carried on in neutral bottoms it would be quite the reverse.
THE EARL OF DERBYbegged to explain that he had supposed the case in which we should not enforce our rights, as against France, but in which America, having rights which she had not surrendered by treaty, would be entitled to enforce them.
EARL GRANVILLE:I can assure the noble Earl that there is no present intention on the part of Her Majesty's Government to enter into any negotiation on the subject of international law as bearing upon belligerents. I do not think it is desirable to do that, nor is this the fitting time for it. My Lords, I have only a few words to add to what has been so well said as to the irreparable loss we have sustained in the death of the Prince Consort. The noble Earl, having been twice Prime Minister, spoke with peculiar authority when he told us how much that illustrious Prince contributed to lighten the labours of the Sovereign and to assist her in the performance of her high functions as an eminently constitutional monarch. The noble Earl also stated the advantage it was to succeeding Governments themselves that one who lived so near the Throne should have been so wise, so sagacious, and so pre-eminently gifted, and I venture to say that just in proportion to their opportunities of holding communication with the Prince will be the appreciation by those who have filled the position of Ministers of the heavy loss which the country has now sustained. Having myself, both officially and unofficially, had frequent intercourse with His Royal Highness during later years, I must say that I remember no one person in any class of life who possessed a clearer understanding, no one whose intellectual faculties had been more highly cultivated; none from whom I personally derived so much instruction, or whose conversation led me to think with more benefit to myself on all educational and social subjects. It was a remarkable trait in the lamented Prince's character that not only were his intellectual faculties of the very highest order,

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not only was his power of grasping general. principles on any subject marvellous, but there was that in him which is by no means always combined with those qualities—namely, an unwearied industry and attention in applying great principles to the minutest details. I may also add, what I am sure the noble Earl opposite will concur in—namely, that His Royal Highness, although a man of strong will and strong character, was never exceeded by any person in any position, not only in his willingness, but in his anxiety to hear every possible objection that could be raised to his own views, in order that he might arrive at a really sound conclusion on the matter in hand. My noble Friend, who moved the Address, and the noble Earl who seconded it, have referred in eloquent terms to the many virtues of the late Prince Consort. My Lords, it has been well said that there is no more sublime spectacle than that of an honest man struggling with adversity. I conceive, my Lords, that there could be no nobler, no more touching sight than our bereaved Sovereign with her heart almost filled with despair, at present believing that she can enjoy no future earthly happiness, but inspired by her own sense of what is right, inspirited by the counsels of him who is gone, turning with a fortitude and a courage almost beyond a woman's strength to the performance of her duty to her children and her country. My Lords, it is, I believe, with feelings excited by such a spectacle that we shall all unanimously vote this Address, and individually and collectively give, as far as we can in our different spheres, every assistance and support to our beloved Queen.
LORD LYTTELTONsaid, it had been his wish to offer a few remarks on the revised Educational Code; but as he un-stood that that subject was to be discussed by their lordships on an early day, he would reserve his observations upon it till that opportunity.
EARL RUSSELL:My Lords, the noble Earl opposite has stated that every one who has held a high situation in Her Majesty's Government must be aware that the judicious advice tendered to the Queen by the illustrious Prince whom we all so deeply deplore was of the greatest advantage to the Crown and the country. Now, I wish from my own personal observation and experience to confirm that opinion. I am bound to state that the opinions the Prince gave, the temper with which he brought them to bear,
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and the impartiality with which he viewed every subject of State, were of great service to the Sovereign and to the Government. I will say one thing more—and I think that those who have watched the position of the Sovereign during the last twenty years will agree with me—that there has been a great change in this respect, a most beneficial change from what prevailed in former reigns. It often happened, when the Sovereign entertained political principles in opposition to those entertained by a portion of his subjects, that favour was given to one party, while another was decidedly proscribed; and the consequence of such distinctions—the effect of that favour shown to one party—whether it were the Whig party at the succession of the House of Hanover, or whether it was the opposite party in succeeding reigns—was to make one portion of the subjects of the Sovereign feel towards the other portion a degree of bitterness and animosity which would not, otherwise have existed. Now, I happen to know from the late Prince himself the view he took of the duty of the Sovereign in such a case. He stated to me, not many months ago, that it was a common opinion that there was only one occasion on which the Sovereign of this country could exercise a decided power, and that was in the choice of the First Minister of the Crown. The Prince went on to say that in his opinio that was not an occasion on which the Sovereign could exercise a control or pronounce a decision; that when a Minister had retired from being unable to carry on the Government, there was at all times some other party which was prepared to assume the responsibilities of office, and was most likely to obtain the confidence of the country. But, he said, a transfer having been made, whether the Minister was of one party or the other, he thought that the Sovereign ought to communicate with him in the most confidential and unreserved manner with respect to the various measures to be brought forward, the fortunes of the country, and the events that might happen—that whether he belonged to one party or another the utmost confidence should prevail between the Sovereign and the Minister who came forward in Parliament as the ostensible possessor of power. I do, my Lords, attribute in great measure to that opinion, which the Sovereign held in common with the Prince, the fact that there has been no feeling of bitterness among any party in this country arising from political exclusion, and that all parties during these twenty

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years have united in rendering that homage to the Sovereign which the conduct of Her Majesty has so well deserved; and the country still reaps the benefit of the good counsel which the Prince Consort gave to the Crown, My Lords, I will say but a few words with regard to some of the other questions touched by the noble Lords who have preceded me—namely, the temporary interruption of our amicable relations with America. On the subject of the blockade of the Southern American ports, I think it better to postpone discussion till your Lordships have seen the further papers which will be produced. Let me, however, say that the declaration of the Convention of Paris was in strict accordance with international law, which at all times has said that a blockade, in order to be legal, mast be effective. But that declaration went on to say that, to be effective, a blockade must be kept up by a force sufficient to prevent access to the ports blockaded. Now, generally speaking, with the exception of the first few weeks, there was a force sufficient to prevent access to the ports blockaded; but, it must be confessed, that although the force was perfectly sufficient, the blockade has not been regularly enforced, and there are instances of vessels having been able to evade it. For my own part, and on the part of the Government, it is our earnest wish to be enabled to preserve unimpaired that neutrality which we have hitherto maintained. I consider it of the greatest importance to do so. I cannot but think that before many months are over it will be ascertained whether the Northern States are able to accomplish that task they have set themselves of reconstructing the Union with the Southern States of America. If they are not able to accomplish that object, I am convinced it is far better that they themselves, their Government, their Congress and people, should be persuaded of the inutility of their efforts, and be ready to form a treaty by which the independence of the Southern States should be acknowledged—it is far better that this conviction should come to them from the failure of their own efforts than from the intervention of any foreign Power. If the fortune of war and the inutility of their efforts should induce them to acknowledge the Southern States as independent, I hope that not only the two might proceed in amity together, but we might expect that the United States would rest satisfied that the Powers of Europe had behaved fairly in this contest,
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that they had respected the mighty Union in which liberty had for eighty years been established, and that they had been content not to interfere prematurely with the conduct of that contest. But if they should be convinced that it was by foreign interference and force that the Southern States had established their independence, depend on it there would be a rankling feeling against that country that first interfered, an enmity and bitterness we might have to deplore for several generations. With respect to Mexico, the three Powers are bound by the convention; they have but one object, and no influence will be used to prevent the Mexicans from settling for themselves all questions relating to their own form of Government. I am certainly not so sanguine as some others that the Mexicans are ready to establish a constitutional Government; but whether they are ready immediately to do so or not, I think it absolutely incumbent on this country to endeavour to obtain some redress for the wrongs we have suffered, and the sole feeling with which we have been actuated in the course we have taken, has been the desire to obtain redress for the outrages that have been committed. With regard, again, to the United States, the Government are proud to reflect that the nation has left entirely in their hands the treatment of the difference which had arisen. Nothing could be more satisfactory to the Government than the approval with which their recent acts have been received by the country. And now that the question has been adjusted I must say I believe that although on other occasions, when questions of boundary had to be settled, the country was most willing to yield any reasonable advantage to the United States of America, yet when our honour and reputation were concerned it was impossible that any compromise should be permitted, and it was incumbent on us to seek reparation, and not, be satisfied till that reparation was obtained.
THE EARL OF CARNARVONsaid, it would be recollected that Mr. Jefferson Davis, in his Message to the Congress of the Confederate States, stated that he had laid before the various Governments of Europe evidence to show that the blockade had been interrupted and broken on many occasions. It was very desirable that those communications, if they had been made to Her Majesty's Government, should be included in any papers which might be presented to their Lordships.
EARL RUSSELLwas understood to state that the communications referred to by the noble Earl would be included in the papers which would be laid on the Table.
LORD KINGSDOWNsaid, there was one subject to which he wished to call the attention of their Lordships, and that was the mode in which the dispute with America bad been settled. He did not know whether the effect of the Address they were now asked to agree to, was to express an opinion that the settlement of the dispute had been satisfactory. If it were, upon the information of which the country was at present in possession, he felt it impossible to pronounce such an opinion. He thought it had been most unsatisfactory. He gave full credit to Her Majesty's Government for their proceedings—for the promptness with which they had demanded reparation, for the temper with which they had made the demand, and the vigour with which they prepared to enforce it. But what had been the conduct of the United States? A gross and scandalous insult had been publicly offered to the British Flag by an officer of the United States. It was said that this was done originally without the authority of his Government. The Government might have repudiated it; but they adopted it—they took possession of the captives and detained them in prison. It was true they at last surrendered them, but upon what terms? Without one word of apology, without the smallest expression of regret for what had happened, without one farthing of compensation to the victims of the outrage. The surrender was accompanied by a despatch making statements and laying down rules, in which if we had acquiesced he did not hesitate to say that Great Britain would have stood before Europe in a much worse situation than if she had taken no notice of the insult. The despatch justified the conduct of the officer, and maintained, in effect, that his only fault was in not carrying the outrage further; and it concluded with an insulting declaration that right or wrong the United States Government would have kept the prisoners if they had been of any value, and gave them up only because they were worthless. Was this the reparation which was sufficient to remove the stain upon the honour of our flag? He was not prepared to say that after the surrender had been made we ought to have gone to war
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in order to enforce an apology, but he could never think that a surrender made under such circumstances could be properly termed by their Lordships a satisfactory settlement of the dispute. He would not have intruded upon their Lordships' attention if he did not wish to give his adhesion to the principles laid down by the law officers of the Crown in the despatch sent in answer to that of Mr. Seward. The surrender might have been satisfactory if it had proceeded on the grounds laid down in that despatch; but the Government of America repudiated those grounds, and insisted upon totally different principles. He could not but congratulate the noble Earl and the country on possessing at so important a crisis the assistance of such a law officer as his hon. and learned Friend the Solicitor General, who brought to every case to which he applied himself all the weight and authority that belonged to great ability, the most profound knowledge, and the very highest character, both public and private. In reference to the recent loss which the country sustained in the death of the Prince Consort, he would only say, having had the honour of being associated with His Royal Highness for nearly twenty years in the management of the Duchy of Cornwall, that His Royal Highness had uniformly displayed, in the conduct of those affairs, all those great qualities for which he had been distinguished in more conspicuous stations. His aptitude for business and patience and attention to it were quite extraordinary, and nobody ever conducted it with greater efficiency or in a manner more calculated to conciliate the respect, admiration, and affection of those who enjoyed the honour of being his colleagues.
Address agreed to, Nemine Dissentiente; and Ordered to be presented to Her Majesty by the Lords with White Staves.

CHAIRMAN OF COMMITTEES.
The Lord REDESDALEappointed, Nemine Dissentiente, to take the Chair in all Committees of this House for this Session.
House adjourned at a quarter-past Eight o'clock, till To-morrow, a quarter before Five o'clock.