- SCOTLAND.
Mr. Bouverie, M.P., addressed his constituents at Kilmarnock on Tuesday ; he reviewed the last session at length. Be thought a Tory Government now impossible ; "they dare not administer the affairs of this country upon their ancient principles, and they cannot long admin- ister them on the principles of their opponents." H: e did not believe in a Conservative reaction in the public mind.
"There was a time in the history of our country, and not many years ago, when there was an attempt to govern the country, irrespective of party, by personal influences by combining men of different shades of opinion of different views and different principles. In the first twenty years of reign of George III.-100 years ago—such an attempt was made, and the result was most disastrous for the Government. of this country. A feeble Government, a factious populace, eluded laws, luxurious nobles, in the words of the poet, these were the results of the attempt to govern without party ; and I believe the experience which was reaped by our forefathers, at that time, of the disadvantages of that attempt would recur again to us if an attempt were made in this country to govern without reference to party combinations." lie was of opinion, at the last general election, that the state of affairs abroad was so critical, as to require that the affairs of this great country should be in the hands of men upon whom the country could implicitly rely. Recapitulating the recent history of Italian struggles against the government of "brute force," and eulogizing Garibaldi, Mr. Bouverie touched upon the advantages to flow from the new state of things. "Merely personal and commercial advantages are not to be named in the same breath with the general results of such a great change; but see what advantages to Europe and to ourselves will flow from such a state of things. Instead of Italy being the battlefield for the contending powers of Europe— for the Germans or the French to contest the supremacy in Europe—as it has been for three centuries and a half—if the Italians become an united people under one powerful government, nobody will venture to attack them, and they will have the greatest interest in the world in assisting us in main- taming this our great object in the world—the peace of Europe. They have a climate the finest in Europe ; they have a soil much of it the finest in Europe ; they have a people ingenious, industrious, economical, and com- mercial in their habits; and who can tell how great may be the results in the course of a few years, if they have the blessing of a free government and a stable government, and the free development of their resources and of their industry ? Who can tell the amount of intercourse which may take place between us and them ? You may be sure that no great benefit can result to any portion of Europe in such close proximity to us as Italy with- out redounuin,g to our advantage." Mr. Bouverie thinks Lord Palmerston the man of his time—" Whatever may be the opinion entertained of Lord Palmerston by many people in this country, nobody can at least deny this —that he is the man of all others among ourselves who, by unanimous con- sent, is the one who has the most knowledge' the most experience, and the most skill in the management of this branch of our public affairs. He has been longer at it, he knows the trade better, he understands the necessities of the different States of Europe better, he is more familiar with the details of the business than any man living among us' and It was of the last importance therefore, in such a critical timq, that the conduct of our affairs should be in the hands of a man of such great experience and great know- ledge and sagacity as he is."
Turning his attention to domestic matters, Mr. Bouverie first alluded to the Reform Bill; he spoke respectfully of the "intelligence, power of combination, and pitch of education at which the people have arrived." The Reform Bill "was talked out of the House of Commons." Why did it fail ? Because the House was afraid of a dissolution. There were two modes of ascertaining public opinion, which did not express itself strongly in favour of the Reform Bill ; one mode was through the press, the other through the House of Commons itself. Mr. Bouverie blamed Mr. Bright-
" He, however, made statements and said things in these speeches in the fervid heat of his eloquence, which, perhaps, he himself on reflection would not have supported, and which, I believe, did, with regard to many mode- rate and comparatively timid people, frighten them as to the probable re- sults of such changes as he proposed. He started upon two assumptions which did very much mischief in the country. One notion he had in his head was this—that our social inequalities, the difference between wealth and poverty in this country, are the result of political inequalities. Now, I believe in nothing of the kind. I do not believe that our social inequalities have anything to do with our political inequalities. I cannot conceive that a share of political liberty will enable a man in any respect to stand in a different position with regard to the production of industry from what he did before. I believe, on the contrary, that in a free country, where there is the utmost amount of civil liberty, the largest independence of action with reference to a man's thoughts, to his industry, to his toil, and to his mind—where there is the greatest liberty there will be practically the greatest social inequality, because there the differences between man and man will be worked out to their fullest extent without any restriction from law."
Mr. Bright, too, was wrong in putting the argument as one between class and class; there never was greater union between classes than in this country. Mr. Bouverie next went into questions of finance, de- ploring the increase of military expenditure, and singled out France as the only power which caused the mischief. There were two modes of putting an end to this state of expense. One was to fight it out at once— it may come to that. But a better plan was to make France as like our- selves as possible ; industrious, manufacturing and commercial. This brought Mr. Bouverie to the Treaty of Commerce-
" What we want is not a very close and intimate alliance with that won- derful and inscrutable man the Emperor of the French. Nobody ever seems to be able to divine or discover his purpose ; and there is no doubt that from that yery inscrutability a very considerable amount of doubt has arisen. What we want is an intimate alliance with the French people—an alliance of commerce an alliance of trade, an alliance of interests, which will make it as much 'to the disadvantage, and the misery, and the suffering of the French people that they should attack us as it would be to our disadvantage that we should be attacked by them. That, I think, is the justification of the commercial treaty with France of which the House of Commons ap- proved. The French have now made the first step in the right direction ; they have removed the prohibitions on their tariff; they have agreed to admit a great quantity of our produce at comparatively low duties. France is a country which produces an enormous amount of various articles which are the very things that we want ; while, on the other hand, we produce an immense number of articles which are the very things that they want. If you remove this tariff, this absurd artificial rule of exclusion, which has hitherto prevented the trade between the two countries, the trade will, in a very short time, become such as it never was before. In a few years, it will be perfectly marvellous, and will encourage their continuing in the progress of free trade reform, in which they have now taken the first faltering step. And if this result is achieved, will anybody talk of war ? If every French peasant wears woollens from Yorkshire, or cotton from Glasgow or Man- chester; if every French farmer uses a plough made of Scotch or English iron ; if every house in France, or even every other house in France, is warmed by English coal ; and if the best produce of every French vineyard and the choicest products of French industry come here in exchange for -what we send them, why, you may be sure that war will become impossible between the two countries, and then the greatest realization will be achieved of that hope of European peace which seems hitherto to have been a mere dream of theorists instead of the realization of statesmen."
[Mr. Bouverie was entirely silent as to the English Bankruptcy Bill in addressing his Scotch constituents ; but, in blaming the House of Commons for talking too much, he might have explained his own oppo- sition to the Attorney-General's bill, which did more to postpone it than any opposition from other quarters.] Mr. Bouverie represents a cluster of boroughs, of which Kilmarnock is only one. On Wednesday he visited Port Glasgow, and there repeated his speech at Kilmarnock in a condensed form. But on the talk of Par- liament he was a little more diffuse on this occasion-
" Much time had been spent in mere talking. But it should be borne in mind that the House of Commons was a talking machine, for discussing matters which came before its members. The House of Commons had become the one power in the State. All the great affairs of the public wete transacted in and through the House of Commons, and therefore there was an enormous mass of business to be transacted, and there was a good deal of this business which involved debate and conversation, and therefore a good deal of talk—some of the members talking much, while others scarcely ever spoke at all, and were called the silent members. And still these silent members, from their intelligence position in the country, and in- fluence in the House, had very much to do m carrying forward the business. Some spoke because they had something to say, and these were the leading men of the day, who had been sent to Parliament because of their great skill in debate and oratorical powers. Another class were those who talked because they wanted to say something, and it was these who really pro- tracted the business of the House. He was getting an old fellow now, and might from experience be able to give them. an advice, and that was, that they must take the evil with the good ; for if they attempted to correeet the evil, they might, in doing so, be losing a great deal of the good; and he would apply this as an excuse for the talking evil in the House of Commons."
Mr. Harcourt declines to contest Wick with a candidate "so compe- tent as Lord Bury."
The third half-yearly meeting of the General Council of the University of Edinburgh was held on Friday, Sir David Brewster, Principal and Vice-Chancellor, presiding. The Secretary (Mr. Alexander Smith) read the deliverance of the University Court on the representation of the last meeting of the Gene- ral Council on the subject of middle-class examinations. It stated that the Court concurred with the Council as to the advantage of instituting a University examination equivalent to the middle-class examinations of the English Universities, and they had the satisfaction to learn that a faeasure relating to the subject was under the consideration of the Pro- fessors. The Secretary then read the deliverance on the representation of the last meeting of Council as to the expediency of tranferring the patronage from the Curatorial Court to the University Court. It was to the effect that the Court were of opinion that it was not expedient further to entertain the question. A rather stormy discussion ensued upon a motion of Mr. George Steel-
" That the General Council represent to the University Court, the im- portance of bringing before the notice of Parliament and of her Majesty's Government the just claims of the Scotch Universities to have three sepa- rate representatives in the House of Commons, of whom one shall be re- turned by the University of Edinburgh, ono by the University of Glasgow, and one by the Universities of Aberdeen and St. Andrew's."
The previous question was moved, and seconded by Professor Blackie, who said he did not think the Scottish Universities should have three representatives, or oven four, but beeause he thought they should "let sleeping dogs lie." He thought they could not possibly get these mem- bers without revolutionizing the country, and destroying the balance of our mixed constitution, in which direction Lord John Russell, by his late Reform Bills, was plainly rushing, whether he knew it or not. A show of hands was taken, but only six were held up for the amend- ment, and above 100 for the motion, which was therefore carried.
Mr. Sheriff Hallard then moved- " That it be represented to the University Court that, in the opinion of the General Council, a separate and distinct Chair of Political &moray ought to be established in the University."
He remarked that it was only in the country of Adam Smith that there was no separate and distinct chair for political economy. Mr. Thin told his experience, that when a student he had heard Professor Wilson and Dr. Chalmers lecturing on subjects connected with political economy and uttering diametrically opposite opinions. The motion was carried unanimously.
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