Lord Hartington on Wednesday laid, the foundation-stone of a memorial
ball dedicated to George Stephenson at Chesterfield, and made one of those speeches in honour of material improve- ment to which Ministers who like to say pleasant things and things easy to understand are now so addicted. George Stephenson was one of the first promoters of the steam-engine, and the steam-engine had added many subjects to her Majesty's dominion and brought more money to the Treasury than any tax ever invented. Comfort and happiness, prosperity and plenty, owe more to the steam- engine than to any law ever passed by Parliament. In a second speech, he said he felt ashamed of himself as a politician when coming among men of commerce and science, political science advanced so much slower than they did. Commercial men would soon have removed such an impediment to the machine as the Irish Obstructives, and as for statesmanship, with a whole year to work in, it had not prevented the war in the East. Is it not almost time that this kind of flummery were pronounced out of date? Neither the steam-engine, nor science, nor commerce could have done anything for England without social order, which is the product of statesmanship, nor has the excellence of laws ever prevented law-suits.
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