THE EX - MINISTERS AT THE MERCHANT TAYLOR'S HALL.
The annual festival of the Merchant Taylors Company in honour of the achievements of the scholars in their school and of the visitors from St. John's College, Oxford, who came up to inspect that establishment, took place on Saturday. Her Majesty's Ministers—" moribund Minis- ters ' as Lord Derby called them—were as usual invited, and beside them there was a great company of Peers and Judges, of soldiers and civil- ians. The speaking after dinner bore on the late untoward fortune of the Derby Government. Sir John Pakington, speaking for the Navy, glorified his own administration at the Admiralty, yet took no credit for performing a duty commanded by conscience. Lord Derby, received with repeated cheers, made much of this flattering homage to a fallen Minister, and construed it to mean approval of the public conduct of her Majesty's Government And with respect to the foreign interests of the country, I will venture to say that we have diligently and successfully laboured in so raising her moral, as well as physical power, as that it may be applied with advantage in the hour of need, according as the exigency of the case may demand. if we have not succeeded in preventing other countries from entering into mad and causeless hostilities, we have, at least, not failed in our endeavours to keep England out of the turmoil of war. We have hitherto preserved to her the blessings of peace. We have protected her from all entangling and embarrassing alliances ; and we are now enabled to hand over the reins of Government to our successors, whoever they may be, with the country in a position, I hope, prepared for war, if unfortunately they should be driven into it; or if they should determine as long as possible to maintain peace, in a position in which they can with advantage make use—as I am sure every English Minister must be anxious to do—of those means, both moral and phyaical, which we have been carefully engaged in collecting and strengthening." (Cheers.) He hoped another Administration would soon be formed.
" A period of uncertainty—a period when there is no Government—is one which at this moment is fraught with extreme danger to the country. However, I may differ in political opinion from those who may succeed me in office,—though I may perhaps say that upon many subjects, and those of a most important character, I believe there is so much unanimity of politi- cal opinion that men of all parties can cordially combine for the public welfare—I think I may venture to state on my own behalf, as well as on behalf of that great Conservative party with which I have so long had the honour of being connected, that acting in the truest spirit of Conservatism, our most earnest, anxious, and truest services out of office will continue to be rendered to our sovereign and our country; that there will be no fac- tious course taken which may prove embarrassing either in the first place in the formation of a new Government, or in the next place in the subsequent proceedings of our political rivals ; and that so long as they continue to walk in the light of the Constitution and exhibit a due regard for, and in- terest in, the honour and the happiness of the nation, not from their own supporters will they receive a more cordial assistance than from the oppo- nents whom they have succeeded in displacing, but whose sanction and aid will be given as before to any measures the object of which is the mainte- nance of the prosperity and welfare of England." (Loud cheers.) The Lord Chancellor having answered for the House of Peers, and pro- mised to occupy the breach in that House as the defender of the consti- tution against "rash innovation" ; Lord Stanley, Mr. Disraeli being absent, replied for the House of Commons. His speech was taken up with the expression of a wish that there might be always two parties in the House of Commons ; "that party which leans to the side of caution, and which looks with respect to that which actually is, and that party which identifies itself with what is termed progress, and which is dis- posed to looked forward rather than back." A House of Liberals could pass no measure ; a House of Tories would be a revolutionary institution.
"Another respect in which I should like to see Parliament remain un- changed is this :—I hope the time may never come when that state of things which now exists shall cease to be, and in accordance with which the great majority of those who compose the House of Commons are men who go there, not from a wish to gratify any personal ambition' not from the expecta- tion of office, or from a desire of personal advantage and emolument, but who take their seats in that assembly merely because they think that by so doing they can best discharge the duties of life, and because to sit in the House of Commons is an accident—almost a necessary accident—of the social position which they hold." (Cheers.)
Previous page
