 Section 1 of the World's Famous Orations, Volume 5. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recorded by TPZOM. The World's Famous Orations, Volume 5 on Canadian Confederation by Sir John Alexander MacDonald. MacDonald on Canadian Confederation 1865. Begin footnote. Delivered in the Parliament of Canada in February 1865, MacDonald, not yet Sir John, being then Attorney General. Two years later, when the Union was affected, he became Prime Minister. Abridged. MacDonald was born in 1815, died in 1891, Receiver General in Canada in 1870, Attorney General in 1854, Prime Minister in 1857 and again in 1868 and 1878. One of the British commissioners who signed the Treaty of Washington. Leader in work of affecting Canadian Confederation. End footnote. I have had the honor of being charged on behalf of the government to submit a scheme for the Confederation of all British North America provinces. A scheme which has been received, I am glad to say, is general, if not universal, approbation in Canada. This subject is not a new one. For years it has more or less attracted the attention of every statesman and politician in these provinces and has been looked upon by many far-seeing politicians as being eventually the means of deciding and setting very many of the vex questions which have retarded the prosperity of the colonies as a whole and particularly the prosperity of Canada. The subject, however, though looked upon with favor by the country, and there were no distinct expressions of opposition to it from any party, did not begin to assume its present proportions until the last session. Then, men of all parties in all shades of politics became alarmed at the aspect of affairs. They found that such was the opposition between the two sections of the province, such was the danger of impeding anarchy in the consequence of the irreconcilable differences of opinion with respect to representation by population between Upper and Lower Canada, that unless some solution of the difficulty was arrived at, we would suffer under a succession of weak governments, weak in numerical support, weak in force, and weak in power of doing good. In the proposed constitution, all matters of general interest are to be dealt with by the general legislature, while the local legislatures will deal with matters of local interest, which do not affect the confederation as a whole, but are of the greatest importance to their particular sections. By such a division of labor, the sittings of the general legislature would not be so protracted as even those of Canada alone. And so with the local legislatures, their attention being confined to subjects pertaining to their own sections, their sessions would be shorter and less expensive. Then when we consider the enormous saving that will be affected by the administration of affairs by one general government, when we reflect that each of the five colonies has a government of its own, with a complete establishment of public departments and all machinery required for the transaction of the business of the country, that each has a separate executive, judicial, and militia system, that each province has a separate ministry, including a minister of militia with a complete adjutant general's department, that each has a finance minister with a full customs and excise staff, that each colony has as large and complete an administrative organization with as many executive officers as the general government will have, we can well understand the enormous saving that will result from a union of all the colonies from their having but one head and one central system. We in Canada already know something of the advantages and disadvantages of a federal union. The whole scheme of confederation as propounded by the conference as agreed to and sanctioned by the Canadian government and as now presented for the consideration of the people and the legislature bears upon its face the marks of a compromise. Of necessity, there must have been a great deal of mutual discussion. When we think of the representatives of the five colonies, all supposed to have different interests meeting together charged with the duty of protecting those interests and pressing the views of their own localities and sections. It must be admitted that had we not met in a spirit of conciliation and with an anxious desire to promote this union. If we had not been impressed with the idea contained in the words of the resolution that the best interests and present and future prosperity of British North America would be promoted by a federal union under the crown of Great Britain. All our efforts might have been proved to be of no avail. If we had not felt that after coming to this conclusion, we were bound to set aside our private opinions on matters of detail. If we had not felt ourselves bound to look at what was practicable, not obstinately rejecting the opinion of others, nor adhering to our own. If we had not met, I say, in a spirit of conciliation and with an anxious overruling desire to form one people under one government, we never would have succeeded. With these views, we press the question on this house and country. I say to this house, if you do not believe that the union of the colonies is for the advantage of the country, that the joining of these five peoples into one nation under one sovereign is for the benefit of all, then reject the scheme. Reject if you do not believe it to be for the present advantage and future prosperity of yourselves and your children. But, if after a calm and full consideration of this scheme, it is believed as a whole to be for the advantage of this province, if the house and country believe this union to be one which will ensure for us British laws, British connection, and British freedom, and increase and develop the social, political, and material prosperity of the country, then I implore this house and the country to lay aside all prejudices and accept the schema which we offer. I ask this house to meet the question in the same spirit in which the delegates met it. I ask each member of this house to lay aside his own opinions as to particular details and to accept the scheme as to a whole, if he thinks it beneficial as a whole. As I stated in the preliminary discussion, we must consider this scheme in the light of a treaty. By the happy coincidence of circumstances, just when an administration had been formed in Canada for the purpose of attempting a solution of the difficulties under which we labored, at the same time the lower provinces, actuated by a similar feeling, appointed a conference with a view to a union amongst themselves, without being cognizant of the proposition the government was taking in Canada. If it had not been for this fortunate coincidence of events, never perhaps for a long series of years would we have been able to bring this scheme to a practical conclusion. But we did succeed. We made the arrangement, agreed upon the scheme, and the deputations from the several governments represented at the conference went back pledged to lay it before their governments, and to ask the legislatures and people of their respective provinces to assent to it. I trust the scheme will be assented to as a whole. I am sure this house will not seek to alter it in its unimportant details, and if altered in any important provision, the result may be that the whole will be set aside and we must begin de novo. If any important changes are made, every one of the colonies will feel itself absolved from the implied obligation to deal with it as a treaty. Each province will feel itself at liberty to amend it, add lebitum, so as to suit its own views and interests. In fact, the whole of our labors will have been for naught, and we will have to renew our negotiations with all the colonies for the purpose of establishing some new scheme. I hope the house will not adopt any such course as will postpone, perhaps forever, or at all events for a long period, all chances of union. The statesmen and public men who have written or spoke on the subject admit the advantages of a union, if it were practicable, and now, when it is proved to be practicable, if we do not embrace this opportunity, the present favorable time will pass away and we may never have it again. Because, just so surely as this scheme is defeated, will be revived the original proposition for a union of the maritime provinces, irrespective of Canada. They will not remain as they are now powerless, scattered, helpless communities. They will form themselves into a power, which, though not so strong as if united with Canada, will nevertheless be a powerful and considerable community. And it will be then too late for us to attempt to strengthen ourselves by this scheme, which, in the words of the resolution, quote, is for the best interests and present and future prosperity of British North America, end quote. If we are not blind to our present position, we must see the hazardous situation in which all the great interests of Canada stand in respect to the United States. I am no alarmist. I do not believe in the prospect of immediate war. I believe that the common sense of the two nations will prevent a war. Still, we cannot trust the probabilities. The government and the legislature would be wanting in their duty to the people if they ran any risk. We know that the United States at this moment are engaged in a war of enormous dimensions, that the occasion of a war with Great Britain has again and again arisen, and may at any time in the future again arise. We cannot foresee what may be the result. We cannot say but that two nations may drift into a war as other nations have done before. It would then be too late when the war had commenced to think of measures for strengthening ourselves or to begin negotiations for a union with the sister provinces. At this moment, in consequence of the ill feeling which has arisen between England and the United States, a feeling of which Canada was not the cause, in consequence of the irritation which now exists owing to the unhappy state of affairs on this continent, the reciprocity treaty, it seems probable, is about to be brought to an end. Our trade is hampered by the passport system, and at any moment we may be deprived of permission to carry our goods through the United States' channels. The bonded goods system may be done away with, and the winter trade through the United States put an end to. Our merchants may be obliged to return to the old system of bringing in during the summer months the supplies for the whole year. Our selves already threatened, our trade interrupted, our intercourse political and commercial destroyed. If we do not take warning now when we have the opportunity, and while one avenue is threatened to be closed, open another by taking advantage of the present arrangement and the desires of the lower provinces to draw closer the alliance between us, we may suffer commercial and political disadvantages it may take long for us to overcome. It is the fashion now to enlarge on the defects of the Constitution of the United States, but I am not one of those who look upon it as a failure. I think and believe that it is one of the most skillful works which human intelligence ever created. It is one of the most perfect organizations that ever governed a free people. To say that it has some defects is but to say that it is not the work of omniscience but of human intellects. We are happily situated in having had the opportunity of watching its operation, seeing its working from its infancy till now. It was in the main formed on the model of the Constitution of Great Britain, adapted to the circumstances of a new country, and was perhaps the only practicable system that could have been adopted under the circumstances existing at the time of its formation. We can now take advantage of the experience of the last 78 years during which that Constitution has existed, and I am strongly in the belief that we have in a great measure avoided in this system, which we propose for the adoption of the people of Canada, the defects which time and events have shown to exist in the American Constitution. In the first place, by a resolution which meets with a universal approval of the people of the country, we have provided that for all time to come, so far as we can legislate for the future, we shall have as the head of the executive power the Sovereign of Great Britain. No one can look into futurity and say what will be the destiny of this country. Changes come over nation and peoples by the course of ages, but so far as we can legislate, we provide that for all time to come, the Sovereign of Great Britain shall be the Sovereign of British North America. By adhering to the monarchial principle, we avoid one defect inherent in the Constitution of the United States. By the election of the President by a majority, and for a short period, he never is the Sovereign and Chief of the Nation. He is never looked up to by the whole people as the head and front of the Nation. He is at best, but the successful leader of a party. This defect is all the greater on account of the practice of re-election. During his first term of office, he is employed in taking steps to secure his own re-election, and for his party a continuance of power. We avoid this by adhering to the monarchial principle, the Sovereign whom you respect and love. I believe that it is of the utmost importance to have that principle recognized so that we shall have a Sovereign who is a place above the region and party to whom all parties look up, who is not elevated by the action of one party nor depressed by the actions of another, who is the common head and sovereign of all. With us, the Sovereign, or in this country the representative of the Sovereign, connect only on the advice of his ministers, those ministers being responsible to the people through Parliament. Prior to the formation of the American Union, as we all know, the different states which entered into it were separate colonies. They had no connection with each other, further than that of having a common Sovereign, just as with us at the present. Their constitution and their laws were different. They might and did legislate against each other, and when they revolted against the mother country, they acted as separate Sovereignies and carried on the war by a kind of treaty of alliance against the common enemy. Ever since the United States was formed, the difficulty of what is called States' rights has existed, and this had much to do in bringing on the present unhappy war in the United States. They commenced, in fact, at the wrong end. They declared by their constitution that each state was a sovereignty in itself, and that all the powers incident to a sovereignty belonged to each state, except those powers by which the constitution were conferred upon the general government in Congress. Here we have adopted a different system. We have strengthened the general government. We have given the general legislature all the subjects of legislation. We have conferred on them, not only specifically and in detail, all the powers which are incident to sovereignty, but we have expressly declared that all subjects of general interest, not distinctly and exclusively conferred upon the local governments and local legislatures, shall be conferred upon the general government and legislature. We have thus avoided the great source of weakness, which has been the cause of the disruption of the United States. We have avoided all conflict of jurisdiction and authority, and if this constitution is carried out, as it will be in full detail in the Imperial Act to be passed if the colonies adopt the scheme, we will have, in fact, as I have said before, all the advantages of a legislative union under one administration, with at the same time the guarantees for local institutions and for local laws, which are insisted upon by so many in the provinces now, I hope, to be united. I think it is well that in framing our constitution our first act should have been to recognize the sovereignty of Her Majesty. I believe that while England has no desire to lose her colonies, but wishes to retain them, while I am satisfied that the public mind of England would deeply regret the loss of these provinces, yet if the people of British North America, after full deliberation, had stated that they considered it was for their interest, for the advantage of the future British North America, to sever the tie, such is the generosity of the people of England that whatever their desire to keep these colonies, they would not seek to compel us to remain unwilling subjects of the British Crown. If, therefore, at the conference we had arrived at the conclusion that it was for the interest of these provinces that a severance should take place, I am sure that Her Majesty and the Imperial Parliament would have sanctioned that severance. We accordingly felt that there was a propriety in giving a distinct declaration of opinion on that point, and that in framing the constitution its first sentence should declare that, quote, the executive authority or government shall be vested in the sovereign of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and be administered according to the well understood principles of the British Constitution by the sovereign personally or by the representative of the sovereign duly authorized, end quote. That resolution met with the unanimous assent of the conference. The desire to remain connected with Great Britain and to retain our allegiance to Her Majesty was unanimous. Not a single suggestion was made that it could by any possibility be for the interest of the colonies, or any section or portion of them, that there should be a severance of our connection. Although we knew it to be possible that Canada, from her position, might be exposed to all the horrors of war by reason of causes of hostility arising between Great Britain and the United States, causes over which we had no control and which we had no hand in bringing about, yet there was a unanimous feeling of willingness to run all the hazards of war, if war must come, rather than lose the connection between the mother country and these colonies. We provided that, quote, the executive authority shall be administered by the sovereign personally or by the representative of the sovereign duly authorized, end quote. It is too much to expect that the Queen should vouchsafe as her personal governance or presence, except to pay us, as the heir apparent to the throne, our future sovereign, has already paid us, the graceful complement of a visit. The executive authority must therefore be administered by Her Majesty's representative. We place no restriction on Her Majesty's prerogative in the selection of her representative, as it is now, so it will be if this constitution is adopted. The sovereign has unrestricted freedom of choice. Whether in making her selection she may send us one of her own family, a royal prince as a viceroy to rule over us, or one of the great statesmen of England to represent her, we know not. We lead that to Her Majesty in all confidence. But we may be permitted to hope that when the Union takes place and we become the great country which British North America is certain to be, it will be an object worthy the ambition of the statesmen of England to be charged with presiding over our destinies. Address as Lord Rector of Edinburgh University by Thomas Carlisle. Born in 1795, died in 1881. Lived in Scotland until 1834 when he settled in Chelsea, London. Lord Rector of Edinburgh University in 1866, his wife dying in the same year. Received the Prussian Order of Merit in 1874. His complete works in 37 volumes published in 1872 to 1874. Footnote. Delivered on April 2, 1866 and described by Tyndall in a telegram to Mrs. Carlisle as a perfect triumph, a bridge. Carlisle went from Edinburgh to his old home in Scotland and there received news on April 21 of his wife's death while she was driving in Hyde Park, London. By kind permission of Mr. Chapman and Hall. End of footnote. Your enthusiasm toward me I must admit is in itself very beautiful however undeserved it may be in regard to the object of it. It is a feeling honourable to all men and one well known to myself when I was of an age like yours nor is it yet quite gone. I can only hope that with you too it may endure to the end this noble desire to honour those whom you think worthy of honour and that you will come to be more and more select and discriminant in the choice of the object of it. For I can well understand that you will modify your opinions of me and of many things else as you go on. It is now 56 years gone last November since I first entered your city, a boy of not quite fourteen, to attend the classes here and gain knowledge of all kinds. I could little guess what, my mind full of wonder and awestruck expectation and now after a long course this is what we've come to. Advices I believe to young men as to all men are very seldom much valued. There's a great deal of advising and very little faithful performing and talk that does not end in any kind of action is better suppressed altogether. I would not therefore go much into advising but there is one advice I must give you. In fact, it is the summary of all advices and doubtless you've heard it a thousand times but I must nevertheless let you hear it the thousand and first time for it is most intensely true whether you will believe it at present or not. Namely, that above all things the interest of your whole life depends on your being diligent. Now, while it is called today, in this place where you've come to get education, diligent, that includes in it all virtues that a student can have. I mean it to include all those qualities of conduct that lead on to the acquirement of real instruction and improvement in such a place. If you will believe me, you who are young, yours is the golden season of life. As you've heard it called so it verily is the seed time of life in which if you do not sow or if you do sow tears instead of wheat you cannot expect to reap well afterward and you will arrive at little. And in the course of years when you come to look back if you have not done what you have heard from your advisors and among many counselors there is wisdom you will bitterly repent when it is too late. The habits of study acquired at universities are of the highest importance in afterlife at the season when you are young in years the whole mind is as it were fluid and is capable of forming itself into any shape that the owner of the mind pleases to allow it or constrain it to form itself into. The mind is then in a plastic or fluid state but it hardens gradually to the consistency of rock or of iron and you cannot alter the habits of an old man he as he has begun so he will proceed and go on to the last. By diligence I mean among other things and very chiefly too honesty in all your inquiries and in all you are about. Pursue your studies in the way your conscience can name honest more and more endeavor to do that keep I should say for one thing an accurate separation between what you've really come to know in your minds and what is still unknown leave all that later on the hypothetical side of the barrier as things afterward to be acquired if acquired at all and be careful not to admit a thing as known when you do not yet know it. Count a thing known only when it is imprinted clearly on your mind and has become transparent to you so that you may survey it on all sides with intelligence there is such a thing as a man endeavoring to persuade himself and endeavoring to persuade others that he knows things when he does not know more than the outside skin of them and yet he goes flourishing about with them. I daresay you know very many of you that it is now some 700 years since universities were first set up in this world of ours Abelard and other thinkers had risen with doctrines in them which people wished to hear of and students flocked toward them from all parts of the world there was no getting the thing recorded in books as you now may you had to hear the man speaking to you vocally or else you could not learn at all what it was that he wanted to say and so they gathered together these speaking ones the various people who had anything to teach and formed themselves gradually under the patronage of kings and other potentates who were anxious about the culture of their populations and nobly studious of their best benefit and became a body corporate with high privileges, high dignities and really high aims under the title of a university. It remains however practically a most important truth what I alluded to above that the main use of universities in the present age is that after you have done with all your classes the next thing is a collection of books a great library of good books which you proceed to study and to read what the universities can mainly do for you what I have found the university did for me is that it taught me to read in various languages, in various sciences so that I could go into the books which treated of these things and gradually penetrate into any department I wanted to make myself master of as I found it suit me. Well gentlemen whatever you think of these historical points the clearest and most imperative duty lies on every one of you to be assiduous in your reading learn to be good readers which is perhaps a more difficult thing than you imagine learn to be discriminative in your reading to read faithfully and with your best attention all kinds of things which you have a real interest in a real, not an imaginary and which you find to be really fit for what you are engaged in of course at the present time and a great deal of the reading incumbent on you you must be guided by the books recommended by your professors for assistance toward the effect of their predilections and then when you leave the university and go into studies of your own you will find it very important that you have chosen a field, some province specially suited to you in which you can study and work the most unhappy of all men is the man who cannot tell what he is going to do who has got no work cut out for him in the world and does not go into it for work is the grand cure of all the maladies and miseries that ever be set mankind honest work which you intend getting done as applicable to all of you I will say that it is highly expedient to go into history to inquire into what has passed before you on this earth and in the family of man the history of the Romans and Greeks will first of all concern you and you will find that the classical knowledge you have got will be extremely applicable to elucidate that there you have two of the most remarkable races of men in the world set before you calculated to open innumerable reflections and considerations a mighty advantage if you can achieve it to say nothing of what their two languages will yield you which your professors can better explain model languages which are universally admitted to be the most perfect forms of speech we have yet found to exist among men and you will find if you read well a pair of extremely remarkable nations shining in the records left by themselves as a kind of beacon or solitary mass of illumination to light up some noble forms of human life for us in the otherwise uttered darkness of the past ages and it will be well worth your while if you can get into the understanding of what these people were and what they did you will find a great deal of hearsay of empty rumor and tradition which does not touch on the matter but perhaps some of you will get to see the old Roman and the old Greek face to face you will know in some measure how they contrived to exist and to perform their feats in the world I believe also you will find one important thing not much noted that there was a very great deal of deep religion in both nations this is pointed out by the wiser kind of historians and particularly by Ferguson who is very well worth reading on Roman history and who I believe was an alumnus of our own university his book is a very creditable work he points out the profoundly religious nature of the Roman people notwithstanding their ruggedly positive defiant and fierce ways they believe that Jupiter Optimus Maximus was lord of the universe and that he appointed the Romans to become the chief of nations provided they followed his commands to brave all danger, all difficulty and stand up with an invincible front and be ready to do and die and also to have the same sacred regard to truth of promise to thorough veracity thorough integrity and all the virtues that accompany the noblest quality of man to which later the Romans gave the name of virtue proper, vertus, manhood as the crown and summary of all that is ennobling for a man in the literary ages of Rome this religious feeling had very much decayed away but it still retained its place among the lower classes of the Roman people of the deeply religious nature of the Greeks along with their beautiful and sunny effulgencies of art you have striking proof if you look for it in the tragedies of Sophocles there is a most deep toned recognition of the eternal justice of heaven and the unfailing punishment of crime against the laws of God I believe you will find in all histories of nations that this has been at the origin and foundation of them all and that no nation which did not contemplate this wonderful universe with an awe stricken and reverential belief that there was a great unknown omnipotent and all wise and all just being superintending all men in it and all interests in it no nation ever came to very much nor did any man either who forgot that if a man did forget that he forgot the most important part of his mission in this world our own history of England which you will naturally take a great deal of pains to make yourself acquainted with you will find beyond all others worthy of your study for indeed I believe that the British nation including in that the Scottish nation produced a finer set of men than any you will find it possible to get anywhere else in the world I do not know in any history of Greece or Rome where you will get so fine a man as Oliver Cromwell for example and we too have had men worthy of memory in our little corner of the island here as well as others and our history has had its heroic features all along and did become great at last in being connected with world history for if you examine well you will find that John Knox was the author as it were of Oliver Cromwell that the Puritan revolution never would have taken place in England at all had it not been for that scotchman that is an authentic fact and is not prompted by national vanity on my part but it will stand examining I should say also of that protectorate of Oliver Cromwell's notwithstanding the censures it has encountered and the denial of everybody that it could continue in the world and so on it appears to me to have been on the whole the most salutary thing in the modern history of England if Oliver Cromwell had continued it out I do not know to what it would have come it would have got corrupted probably in other hands and could not have gone on but it was pure and true to the last fiber in his mind there was perfect truth in it while he ruled over it Machiavelli has remarked in speaking of the Romans that democracy cannot long exist anywhere in the world that as a mode of government of national management or administration it involves an impossibility and after a little while must end in wreck and he goes on proving that in his own way I do not ask you all to follow him in that conviction but it is to him a clear truth he considers it a solicism and impossibility that men should ever govern themselves he has to admit of the Romans that they continued a long time but believes it was purely in virtue of this item in their constitution namely of their all having the conviction in their minds that it was solemnly necessary at times to appoint a dictator a man who had the power of life and death over everything who degraded men out of their places ordered them to execution and did whatever seemed to him good to God above him he was commanded to take care that the republic suffer no detriment and Machiavelli calculates that this was the thing which purified the social system from time to time and enabled it to continue as it did probable enough if you consider it and an extremely proper function surely this of a dictator if the republic was composed of little other than bad and tumultuous men or all over the better and all going the bad road in fact well Oliver Crownwell's protectorate or dictatorate if you will let me name it so lasted for about ten years and you will find that nothing which was contrary to the laws of heaven was allowed to live by Oliver one remark more about your reading I do not know whether it has been sufficiently brought home to you that there are two kinds of books when a man is reading kind of a subject in most departments of books in all books if you take it in a wide sense he will find that there is a division into good books and bad books everywhere a good kind of book and a bad kind of book I am not to assume that you are unacquainted or ill acquainted with this plain fact but I may remind you that it is becoming a very important consideration in our day and we have to cast aside altogether the idea that if they are reading any book that if an ignorant man is reading any book he is doing rather better than nothing at all I must entirely call that in question I even venture to deny that it would be much safer and better for many a reader that he had no concern with books at all there is a number a frightfully increasing number of books that are decidedly to the readers of them but an ingenious reader will learn also that a certain number of books were written by a supremely noble kind of people not a very great number of books but still a number fit to occupy all your reading industry do adhere more or less to that side of things in short as I have written it down somewhere else I conceive that books are like men's souls divided into sheep and goats some few are going up and carrying us up heavenward calculated I mean to be of priceless advantage in teaching in forwarding the teaching of all generations others a frightful multitude are going down doing ever the more and the wider and the wilder mischief keep a strict eye on that latter class of books my young friends and for the rest in regard to all your studies and readings here and to whatever you may learn you are to remember that the object is not particular knowledges not that of getting higher and higher in technical perfections and all that sort of thing there is a higher aim lying at the rear of all that especially among those who are intended for literary or speaking pursuits or the sacred profession you are ever to bear in mind that there lies behind that the acquisition of what may be called wisdom namely sound appreciation and just decision as to all the objects that come round you and the habit of behaving with justice candor clear insight and loyal adherence to fact great is wisdom infinite is the value of wisdom it cannot be exaggerated it is the highest achievement of man blessed is he that getteth understanding and that I believe on occasion may be missed very easily never more easily than now I sometimes think there is a failure all is failure however I will not touch further upon that matter I do not want to discourage any of you from your Demosthenes and your studies of the niceties of language and all that believe me I value that as much as any one of you I consider it a very graceful thing and a most proper for every human creature to know what the implement which he uses in communicating his thoughts is the very utmost of it I want you to study Demosthenes and to know all his excellences at the same time I must say that speech in the case even of Demosthenes does not seem on the whole to have turned to almost any good account he advised next to nothing that proved practicable much of the reverse why tell me that a man is a fine speaker if it is not the truth that he is speaking Phocion who mostly did not speak at all was a great deal nearer hitting the mark than Demosthenes he used to tell the Athenians you can't fight Philip better if you don't provoke him as Demosthenes is always urging you to do you have not the slightest chance with Philip he is a man who holds his tongue he has great disciplined armies a full treasury he can bribe anybody you like in your cities here he is going on steadily with an unvarying aim toward his object while you with your idle clamorings with your cleon the tanner spouting to you what you take for wisdom Philip will infallibly beat any set of men such as you going on raging from shore to shore with all that rampant nonsense Demosthenes said to him once Phocion you will drive the Athenians mad some day and they will kill you yes Phocion answered me when they go mad and as soon as they get sane again you the highest outcome and most precious of all the fruits that are to spring from this ideal mode of educating is what Goethe calls art of which I could at present give no definition that would make it clear to you unless you were clearer already than is likely Goethe calls it music painting poetry but it is in quite a higher sense than the common one and a sense in which I'm afraid most of our painter's poets and music men would not pass muster he considers this as the highest pitch to which human culture can go infinitely valuable and ennobling and he watches with great industry how it is to be brought about in the men who have a turn for it very wise and beautiful his notion of the matter is it gives one an idea that something far better and higher something as high as ever and indubitably true too is still possible for man in this world and that is all I can say to you of Goethe's fine theorem of mute education alas it is painful to think how very far away it all is any real fulfillment of such things for I need not hide from you young gentlemen and it is one of the last things I'm going to tell you that you've got into a very epic of the world and I do not think you will find your path in it to be much smoother than ours has been though you have many advantages which we had not you have careers open to you by public examinations and so on which is a thing much to be approved of and which we hope to see perfected more and more all that was entirely unknown in my time and you have many things to recognize as advantages but you will find the ways of the world I think more anarchical than ever look where one will revolution has come upon us we have got into the age of revolutions all kinds of things are coming to be subjected to fire as it were hotter and hotter blows the element round everything curious to see how in Oxford and other places that used to seem as lying at anchor in the stream of time regardless of all changes they are getting into the highest sorts of new ideas are afloat it is evident that whatever is not inconsumable made of asbestos will have to be burned in this world nothing other will stand the heat it is getting exposed to and in saying that I am but saying in other words that we are in an epic of anarchy anarchy plus a constable there is nobody that picks one's pocket without some policeman being ready to take him up but in every other point man is becoming more and more the sun not of cosmos but of chaos he is a disobedient discontented reckless and altogether waste kind of object the commonplace man is in these epics and the wiser kind of man the select few of whom I hope you will be a part has more and more to see to this to look vigilantly forward and will require to move with double wisdom will find in short the crooked things he's got to pull straight in his own life all around him wherever he may go are manifold and will task all his strength however great it be but why should I complain of that either for that is the thing a man is born to in all epics he is born to expend every particle of strength that God Almighty has given him in doing the work he finds he is fit for to stand up to it to the last breath of life and do his best to move on to do that and the reward we all get which we are perfectly sure of if we have merited it is that we have got the work done or at least that we have tried to do the work for that is a great blessing in itself and I should say there is not very much more reward than that going in this world if the man gets meat and clothes what matter it whether he buy those necessities with seven thousand a year or with seven million could that be seventy pounds a year he can get meat and clothes for that and he will find intrinsically if he is a wise man wonderfully little real difference on the whole avoid what is called ambition that is not a fine principle to go upon and it has in it all degrees of vulgarity if that is a consideration seekest thou great things seek them not I warmly second that advice the wisest of men do not be ambitious do not too much need success be loyal and modest cut down the proud towering thoughts that get into you or see that they be pure as well as high there is a nobler ambition than the gaining of all california would be or the getting of all the suffrages that are on the planet just now on the whole I would bid you stand up to your work whatever it may be don't be afraid of it not in sorrows or contradictions to yield but to push on toward the goal and do not suppose that people are hostile to you or have you at ill will in the world in general you will rarely find anybody designedly doing you ill you may feel often as if the whole world were obstructing you setting itself against you but you will find that to mean only that the world is traveling in a different way from you and rushing on in its own path heedlessly treads on you that is mostly all to you no specific ill will only each has an extremely good will to himself which he has a right to have and is rushing on toward his object keep out of literature I shall say also as a general rule though that is by the by if you find many people who are hard and indifferent to you in a world which you consider to be inhospitable and cruel as often indeed happens to a tender hearted striving young creature you will also find there are noble hearts who will look kindly on you and their help will be precious to you beyond price you will get good and evil as you go on and have the success that has been appointed you and of section 2 recording by Peter Block section 3 of the world's famous orations volume 5 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Jim Gallagher the world's famous orations volume 5 the secret beyond science by Goldwyn Smith footnote from an address at the University of Oxford entitled the study of history printed here by kind permission of Miss. James Parker and company and footnote Goldwyn Smith born in 1823 graduated from Oxford in 1845 professor of history in Oxford 1858 through 66 became professor in Cornell University in 1868 removed to Toronto in 1871 what is the sum of physical science compared with the comprehensible universe and with conceivable time not to speak of infinity and eternity it is the observation of a mere point the experience of an instant are we warranted in founding anything upon such data except that which we are obliged to find upon them the daily rules and processes necessary for the natural life of man we call the discoveries of science sublime and truly but the sublimity belongs not to that which they reveal but to that which they suggest and that which they suggest is that through this material glory and beauty of which we see a little and imagine more there speaks to us a being whose nature is akin to ours and who has made our hearts capable of such converse astronomy has its practical uses without which man's intellect would scarcely rouse itself to those speculations but its greatest result is a revelation of immensity pervaded by one informing mind and this revelation is made by astronomy only in the same sense in which the telescope reveals the stars to the eye of the astronomer science finds no law for the thoughts which, with her aid are ministered to man by the starry skies science can explain the hues of sunset but she cannot tell from which earns of pain and pleasure its pensiveness is poured these things are felt by all men felt the more in proportion as the mind is higher they are a part of human nature and why should they not be a sound philosophy as any other part but if they are the solid wall of material law melts away and through the whole order of the material world pours the influence the personal influence of a spirit corresponding to our own again is it true that the fixed or the unvarying is the last revelation of science these risings in the scale of created beings this gradual evolution of planetary systems from their center do they bespeak mere creative force do they not rather bespeak something which for the want of an adequate word we must call creative effort corresponding to the effort by which man raises himself and his estate and where effort can be discovered does not spirit reign again a creature whose fear of vision is a speck whose experience is a second sees the pencil of Raphael moving over the canvas of the transfiguration it sees the pencil moving over its own speck during its own second of existence in one particular direction and it concludes that the formula expressing that direction is the secret of the whole there is truth as well as vigor in the lines of pope on the discoveries of newton superior beings when of late they saw a mortal man unfold all nature's law admired such wisdom in the earthly shape and showed a newton as we show an ape if they could not show a newton as we show an ape or a newton's discoveries as we show the feats of apish cunning it was because newton was not a mere intellectual power but a moral being laboring in the service of his kind and because the discoveries were the reward not of sagacity only but of virtue we can imagine a mere organ of vision so constructed by omnipotence as to see at a glance infinitely more than could be discovered by all the newtons but the animal which possessed that organ would not be higher than the moral being reason no doubt is our appointed guide to truth the limits set to it by each dogmatist at the point where it comes into conflict with his dogma are human limits its providential limits we can learn only by dutifully exerting it to the utmost yet reason must be impartial in the acceptance of data and in the demand of proof facts are not the less facts because they are not facts of sense materialism is not necessarily enlightenment it is possible to be at once numerical and gross we may venture without any ingratitude to science the source of material benefits and the training school of inductive reason to doubt whether the great secret of the moral world is likely to be discovered in her laboratory or to be revealed to those minds which have been imbued only with her thoughts and trained in her processes alone some indeed among the men of science who have given us sweeping theories of the world seem to be not only one-sided in their view of the facts leaving out of sight the phenomenon of the moral nature but to want one of the two faculties necessary for sound investigation they are acute observers but bad reasoners and science must not expect to be exempt from the rules of reasoning we cannot give credit for evidence which does not exist because if it existed it would be of a scientific kind nor can we pass it abound from slight and precarious premises to a tremendous conclusion would annihilate the spiritual nature and annul the divine origin of man End of Section 3 Section 4 of the world's famous orations Volume 5 This is a LibriVox recording All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org Recording by Tom Mack Tucson, Arizona The world's famous orations Volume 5 On the Principles of His Party by Benjamin Disraeli Born in 1804 Died in 1881 Elected to Parliament in 1837 Chancellor of the Exchequer in 1852 1858 through 1859 and 1866 Carried the Reform Bill in 1867 Prime Minister in 1868 and again in 1874 through 80 Made an Earl in 1876 at the Congress of Berlin in 1878 Footnote in Manchester in April 1872 During a widespread discussion precipitated by Sir Charles Dilka's speech at Newcastle in the previous November denouncing the cost of royalty abridged The result of this discussion was the weakening of the Gladstone Ministry then in power and finally overthrown two years afterward Disraeli becoming Prime Minister Printed here by kind permission of the London Times and Monsieur's GP Putnam's sons End footnote I have not come down to Manchester to deliver an essay on the English Constitution but when the banner of Republicanism is unfurled when the fundamental principles of our institutions are controversial perhaps it may not be inconvenient that I should make some few practical remarks upon the character of our Constitution upon that monarchy limited by the coordinated authority of the estates of the realm which under the title of Queen Lords and Commons has contributed so greatly to the prosperity of this country and with the maintenance of which I believe prosperity is bound up Gentlemen since the settlement of that Constitution now nearly two centuries ago England has never experienced a revolution though there is no country in which there has been so continuous and such considerable change how is this because the wisdom of your forefathers placed the prize of supreme power without the sphere of human passions whatever the struggle of the parties whatever the strife of factions whatever the excitement and exultation of the public mind there has always been something in this country round which all classes and parties could rally representing the majesty of the law the administration of justice and involving at the same time the security for every man's and the fountain of honor now gentlemen it is well clearly to comprehend what is meant by a country not having a revolution for two centuries it means for that space the unbroken exercise and enjoyment of the ingenuity of man it means for that space the continuous application of the discoveries of science to his comfort and convenience it means the accumulation of capital the elevation of labor the establishment of those admirable factories which cover your district the unwavering improvement of the cultivation of the land which has extracted from a somewhat churlish soil harvests more exuberant than those furnished by the lands nearer the sun it means the continuous order the only parent of personal liberty and political right and you owe all these gentlemen to the throne there is another powerful and most beneficial influence which is also exercised by the crown gentlemen I am a party man I believe that without party parliamentary government is impossible I look upon parliamentary government as the noblest government in the world certainly the one most suited to England but without the discipline of political connection animated by the principle of private honor I feel certain that a popular assembly would sink before the power or the corruption of a minister yet gentlemen I am not blind to the faults of party government it has one great defect party has a tendency to warp the intelligence and there is no minister however resolved he may be in treating a great public question who does not find some difficulty in emancipating himself from the traditionary preges on which he has long acted it is therefore a great merit in our constitution that before a minister introduces a measure to parliament he must submit it to an intelligence to all party and entirely free from influences of that character I know it will be said gentlemen that however beautiful in theory the personal influence of the sovereign is now absorbed in the responsibility of the minister gentlemen I think you will find there is a great fallacy in this view the principles of English constitution do not contemplate the absence of personal influence on the part of the sovereign and if they did the principles of human nature would prevent the fulfillment of such a theory gentlemen I need not tell you that I am now making on this subject abstract observations of general application to our institutions and our history but take the case of a sovereign of England who exceeds to his throne age the law permits and who enjoys a long reign take an instance like that of George III from the earliest moment of his accession that sovereign is placed in constant communication with the most able statesmen of the period and of all parties even with average ability it is impossible not to perceive that such a sovereign must soon attain a great mass of political information and political experience information and experience gentlemen whether they are possessed by a sovereign or by the humblest of his subjects are irresistible in life no man with the vast responsibility that devolves upon an English minister can afford to treat with indifference a suggestion that has not occurred to him or information with which he had not been previously supplied gentlemen the influence of the crown is not confined merely to political affairs England is a domestic country here the home is revered and the hearth is sacred the nation is represented by a family the royal family and if that family is educated with a sense of responsibility and a sentiment of public duty it is difficult to exaggerate the salutary influence they may exercise over a nation it is not merely an influence upon manners it is not merely the way they are a model for refinement and for good taste they affect the heart as well as the intelligence of the people and in the hour of public adversity or in the anxious conjecture of public affairs the nation rallies round the family and the throne and its spirit is animated and sustained by expression of public affection gentlemen there is yet one other remark that I would make upon our monarchy though it had not been for recent circumstances I should have refrained from doing so an attack has recently been made upon the throne on the account of the costliness of the institution footnote the speech of Sir Charles Dilkey and footnote gentlemen I shall not dwell upon the fact that if the people of England appreciate the monarchy as I believe they do it would be painful to them that their royal and representative family should not be maintained with becoming dignity or fill in the public eye a position inferior to some of the nobles of the land nor will I insist upon what is unquestionably the fact that the revenues of the crown states on which our sovereign might live with as much right as the Duke of Bedford or the Duke of Northumberland has to his estates are now paid into the public Exchequer all this upon the present occasion I am not going to insist upon what I now say is this that there is no sovereignty of any first rate state which costs so little to the people as a sovereignty of England I will not compare our civilist with those of European empires because it is known that in the amount they treble and quadruple it but I will compare it with the cost of sovereignty in a republic and that a republic with which you are intimately acquainted the Republic of the United States of America gentlemen there is no analogy between the position of our sovereign Queen Victoria and that of the President of the United States the President of the United States is not the sovereign of the United States there is a very near analogy between the position of the President of the United States and that of the Prime Minister of England and both are paid much the same rate the income of a second class professional man the sovereign of the United States is the people and I will now show you what the sovereignty of the United States costs gentlemen you are aware of the Constitution of the United States there are 37 independent states each with a sovereign legislature besides these there is a confederation of states to conduct their external affairs which consists of the House of Representatives and the Senate there are 285 members of the House of Representatives and there are 74 members of the Senate making all together 359 members of Congress now each member of Congress receives 1000 pounds sterling per annum in addition to this he receives an allowance called mileage which varies according to the distances which he travels but the aggregate cost of which is about 30,000 pounds per annum that makes 389,000 pounds almost the exact amount of our civil list but this gentleman will allow you to make only a very imperfect estimate of the cost of sovereignty in the United States every member of every legislature in the 37 states is also paid there are I believe 5,010 members of state legislatures who receive about $350 per annum each as some of the returns are imperfect the average which I have given of expenditure may be rather high and therefore I have not counted the mileage which is also universally allowed 5,010 members of state legislatures at $350 each make $1,753,500 or $350,700 sterling a year so you see gentlemen that the immediate expenditure for the sovereignty of the United States is between $700,000 and $800,000 a year gentlemen I have not the time to pursue this interesting theme otherwise I could show that you have still but imperfectly ascertained the cost of sovereignty in a republic and now gentlemen I would say something on the subject of the House of Lords it is not merely the authority of the throne that is now disputed but the character and influence of the House of Lords that are held up by some to public disregard gentlemen I shall not stop for a moment to offer you any proofs of the advantage of a second chamber and for this reason that subject has been discussed now for a century ever since the establishment of the government of the United States and all great authorities American, German, French, Italian have agreed in this that a representative government is impossible without a second chamber and it has been especially of late maintained by great political writers in all countries that the repeated failure of what is called the French Republic is mainly to be ascribed to its not having a second chamber but gentlemen however anxious foreign countries have been to enjoy this advantage that anxiety has only been equaled by the difficulty which they have found in fulfilling their object how is a second chamber to be constituted by nominees of the sovereign power by nominees of the sovereign power what influence can be exercised by a chamber of nominees are they to be bound by popular election in what manner are they to be elected if by the same constituency as the popular body what claim have they under such circumstances to criticize or control the decisions of that body if they are to be elected by a more select body qualified by a higher franchise there immediately occurs the objection why should the majority be governed by the minority the United States of America were fortunate in finding a solution to this difficulty but the United States of America had elements to deal with which never occurred before and never probably will occur again because they formed their illustrious senate from materials that were offered them by the 37 states we gentlemen have the House of Lords an assembly which has historically developed and periodically adapted itself to the wants and necessities of the times what gentlemen is the first quality which is required in a second chamber without doubt independence what is the best foundation of independence without doubt property the prime minister of England has only recently told you and I believe he spoke quite accurately that the average income of the members of the House of Lords is twenty thousand pounds per annum of course there are some who have more and some who have less but the influence of a public assembly so far as property is concerned depends upon its aggregate property which in the present case is a revenue of nine million pounds a year but gentlemen you must look to the nature of this property it is visible property and therefore it is responsible property which every rate payer in the room knows to his cost but gentlemen it is only visible property it is generally speaking territorial property and one of the elements of territorial property is that it is representative gentlemen it is said that the diminished power of the throne and the assailed authority of the House of Lords are owing to the increased power of the House of Commons and the new position which of late years and especially during the last forty years has assumed in the English Constitution gentlemen the main power of the House of Commons depends upon its command over the public purse and its control of the public expenditure and if that power is possessed by a party which has a large majority in the House of Commons the influence of the House of Commons is proportionally increased and under some circumstances becomes more predominant but gentlemen this power of the House of Commons is not a power which has been created by any reform act from the days of Lord Grey in 1832 to 1867 it is the power which the House of Commons has enjoyed for centuries which is has frequently asserted and sometimes even tyrannically exercised gentlemen the House of Commons represents the constituencies of England and I am here to show you that no addition to the elements of that constituency has placed the House of Commons in a different position with regard to the throne and the House of Lords from that it has always constitutionally occupied gentlemen we speak now on this subject with great advantage we recently have published authentic documents upon this matter which are highly instructive we have for example just published the census of Great Britain and we are now in possession of the last registration of voters for the United Kingdom gentlemen it appears that by the census the population at this time is about 32 million it is shown by the last registration that after making the usual deductions for deaths, removals double entries and so on the constituency of the United Kingdom may be placed at 2,200,000 so gentlemen it at once appears that there are 30 million people in this country who are as much represented by the House of Lords and the House of Commons and who for the protection of their rights must depend upon them and the majesty of the throne but gentlemen the constitution of England is not merely a constitution in state it is a constitution in church and state the wisest sovereigns and statements have ever been anxious to connect authority with religion some to increase their power some perhaps to mitigate its exercise but the same difficulty has been experienced in effecting this union which has been experienced in forming a second chamber either the spiritual power has usurped upon the civil and established a sacriduital society or the civil power has invaded successfully the rights of the spiritual and the ministers of religion have been degraded into stipendiaries of the state and instruments of the government in England we accomplish this great result by an alliance between church and state between two originally independent powers I will not go into the history of that alliance which is rather a question for those archeological societies which occasionally amuse and instruct the people of this city enough for me that this union was made and has contributed for centuries to the civilization of this country gentlemen there is the same assault against the church of England and the union between the state and the church as there is against the monarchy and against the house of lords it is said that the existence of nonconformity proves that the church is a failure I draw from these premises an exactly contrary conclusion and I maintain that to have secured a national profession of faith with the unlimited enjoyment of private judgment in matters spiritual is the solution of the most difficult problem and one of the triumphs of civilization it is said that the existence of parties in the church also proves its incompetence on that matter too I entertain a contrary opinion parties have always existed in the church and some have appealed to them as arguments in favor of its divine institution because in the services and doctrines of the church have been found representatives of every mood in the human mind those who are influenced by ceremonies find consolation in forms which secure them to the beauty of holiness those who are not satisfied except with enthusiasm find in its ministrations the exaltation they require while others who believe that the anchor of faith can never be safely moored except in the dry sands of reason find a religion within the pale of the church which can boast of its irrefragable logic and its irresistible evidence gentlemen I am inclined sometimes to believe that those who advocate the abolition of the union between church and state have not carefully considered the consequences of such a course the church is a powerful corporation of many millions of her majesty subjects with a consummate organization and wealth which in its aggregate is vast restricted and controlled by the state so powerful a corporation may only be fruitful of public advantage but it becomes a great question what might be in the consequences of the severance of the controlling tie between the two bodies the state would be enfeebled but the church would probably be strengthened whether that is a result to be desired is a grave question for all men for my own part I would say that I doubt whether it would be favorable to the cause of civil and religious liberty but gentlemen after all the test of political institutions is the condition of the country whose fortunes they regulate and I do not mean to evade that test you are the inhabitants of an island of no colossal size which geographically speaking was intended by nature as the appendage of some continental empire either of Gauls and Franks on the other side of the channel or of two tons and Scandinavians beyond the German sea such indeed and for a long period was your early history you were invaded you were pillaged and you were conquered yet amid all these disgraces and vicissitudes there was gradually formed that English race which has brought about a very different state of affairs instead of being invaded your land is proverbially the only inviolate land the inviolate land of the sage and the free instead of being plundered you have attracted to your shores all the capital of the world instead of being conquered your flag floats on many waters and your standard waves in either zone it may be said that these achievements are due to the race that inhabited the land and not to its institutions gentlemen in political institutions are the embodied experiences of a race you have established a society of classes which give vigor and variety to life but no class possesses a single exclusive privilege and all are equal before the law you possess a real aristocracy open to all who desire to enter it you have not merely a middle class but a hierarchy of middle classes in which every degree of wealth refinement industry, energy and enterprise is duly representative and now gentlemen what is the condition of the great body of the people in the first place gentlemen they have for centuries and in the full enjoyment of that which no other country in Europe has ever completely attained complete rights of personal freedom in the second place there has been a gradual and therefore a wise distribution on a large scale of political rights speaking with reference to the industries of this great part of the country I can personally contrast it with the condition of the working classes 40 years ago in that period they have attained two results the raising of their wages and the diminution of their toil increased means and increased leisure are the two civilizers of man that the working classes of Lancashire and Yorkshire have proved not unworthy of these boons may be easily maintained but their progress and elevation have been during this interval wonderfully aided and assisted by three causes which are not so distinctively attributable to their own energies the first is the revolution in locomotion which has opened the world to the working man which has enlarged the horizon of his experience increased his knowledge of nature and of art and added immensely to the solitary recreation and pleasure of his existence the second cause is the cheap postage the moral benefits of which cannot be exaggerated and the third is that unshackled press which has furnished him with endless sources of instruction information and amusement but now gentlemen I want to test the condition of the agricultural laborer generally and I will take part of England with which I am familiar and can speak as to the accuracy of the facts I mean the group described as the South Midland Counties the conditions of labor there are the same or pretty nearly the same throughout the group may be described as a strictly agricultural community and they embrace a population of probably a million and a half now I have no hesitation in saying that the improvement in their lot during the last 40 years has been progressive and is remarkable I attribute it to three causes in the first place the rise in their money wages is no less than 15% the second great cause of their improvement is the almost total disappearance of excessive and exhausting toil from the general introduction of machinery I do not know whether I could get a couple of men who could or if they would would thresh a load of wheat in my neighborhood the third great cause which has improved their condition is the very general not to say universal institution of allotment grounds now gentlemen when I find that this has been the course of affairs and are very considerable and strictly agricultural portion of the country where there have been no exceptional circumstances like smuggling to degrade and demoralize the race I cannot resist the conviction that the condition of the agricultural laborers instead of being stationary as we are constantly told by those who are not acquainted with them has been one of progressive improvement that in those counties and there are many where a stimulating influence of a manufacturing neighborhood acts upon the land the general conclusion at which I arrive is that the agricultural laborer has had his share in the advance of national prosperity gentlemen I am not here to maintain that there is nothing to be done to increase the well-being of the working classes of this country generally speaking there is not a single class in the country which is not susceptible to improvement and that makes the life and animation of our society but in all we do we must remember that as my noble friend told them at Liverpool that much depends upon the working classes themselves and what I know of the working classes in Lancashire makes me sure that they will respond to this appeal much may also be expected from that sympathy between classes which is a distinctive feature of the present day and in the last place no inconsiderable results may be obtained by judicious and prudent legislation but gentlemen in attempting to legislate upon social matters the great object is to be practical we have before us some distinct aims and some distinct means by which they can be accomplished gentlemen I cannot pretend that our position either at home or abroad is in my opinion satisfactory at home at a period of immense prosperity with the people contented and naturally loyal we find to our surprise the most extravagant doctrines professed and the fundamental principles of our most valuable institution impugned and that too by persons of some authority gentlemen this startling inconsistency is accounted for in my mind by the circumstances under which the present administration was formed it is the first instance in my knowledge of a British administration being avowedly formed on a principle of violence it is unnecessary for me to remind you of the circumstances which preceded the formation of that government you were the principal scene and theater of the development of statesmanship that then occurred you witnessed the incubation of the portentous birth you remember when you were informed that the policy to secure the prosperity of Ireland and the content of Irishman was a policy of sacrilege and confiscation gentlemen when Ireland was placed under the wise and admirable administration of Lord Abercorn Ireland was prosperous and may I say content but there happened at that time a very peculiar conjuncture in politics the Civil War in America had just ceased and a band of military adventurers Poles, Italians and many Irishmen concocted in New York a conspiracy footnote the Fenian movement to secure the independence of Ireland and footnote to invade Ireland with the belief that the whole country would rise to welcome them how that conspiracy was baffled how those plots were confounded I need not now remind you I need not now remind you for that we were mainly indebted to the eminent qualities of great man who has just left us footnote Lord Mayo who as viceroy of India was assassinated in 1872 end footnote you remember how the constituencies were appealed to vote against the government which had made so unfit an appointment as that Lord Mayo to the viceroyalty of India it was by his great qualities when secretary for Ireland by his vigilance his courage his patience and his perseverance that this conspiracy was defeated never was a minister better informed he knew what was going on in New York just as well as what was going on in the city of Dublin when the Fenian conspiracy was entirely put down it became necessary to consider the policy which it was expedient to pursue in Ireland and it seemed to us at that time that what Ireland required after all the excitement which it had experienced was a policy which would largely develop its material resources there were one or two subjects of a different character which for the advantage of the state it would have been desirable to have settled if that could have been affected with the general concurrence of both the great parties in that country had we remained in office that would have been done but we were destined to quit it and we quitted it without a murmur the policy of our successors was different their specific was to despoil churches and plunder landlords and what has been the result sedition rampant treason thinly veiled whenever a vacancy occurs in the representation a candidate is returned pledged to the disruption of the realm Her Majesty's new ministers proceeded in their career like a body of men under the influence of some delirious drug not satiated with the spoilation and anarchy of Ireland they began to attack every institution and every interest every class and calling in the country it is curious to observe their course they took into hand the army what have they done I will not comment on what they have done I will historically state it and leave it to you to draw the inference so long as constitutional england has existed there has been a jealousy among all classes against the existence of a standing army as our empire expanded and the existence of a large body of discipline troops became a necessity every precaution was taken to prevent the danger to our liberties which a standing army involved it was the first principle not to concentrate in the island there was a overwhelming number of troops and a considerable portion was distributed in the colonies care was taken that the troops generally should be offered by a class of men deeply interested in the property and the liberties of england so extreme was the jealousy that the relations between that once constitutional force the militia and the sovereign were rigidly guarded and it was carefully placed by local influences all this is changed we have a standing army of large amount quartered and brigaded and encamped permanently in england and fed by a considerable and constantly increasing reserve I will illustrate this point by two anecdotes since I have been in public life there has been for this country a great calamity and there is a great danger both might have been avoided the calamity was the crimean war you know what were the consequences of the crimean war a great addition to your debt an enormous addition to your taxation a cost more precious than your treasure the best blood of england half a million of men I believe perished in that great undertaking nor are the evil consequences of that war adequately described by what I have said all the disorders and disturbances of Europe those immense armaments that are an encumbus on national industry and the great obstacles progressive civilization may be traced and justly attributed to the crimean war and yet the crimean war need never have occurred the great danger is the present state of our relations with the united states footnote in the matter of the alabama claims and footnote when I acceded to office I did so so far as regarded the united states of america with some advantage during the whole of the civil war in america both my noble friend near me footnote lord derby then lord stanley and footnote and I had maintained a strict and fair neutrality this was fully appreciated by the government of the united states and they expressed their wish that with our aid the settlement of all differences between two governments should be accomplished they sent here a penny potentiary an honorable gentleman very intelligent and possessing general confidence my noble friend near me with great ability negotiated a treaty for the settlement of all these claims he was the first minister who proposed to refer them to arbitration and the treaty was signed by the american government it was signed I think on november 10th on the eve of the dissolution of parliament the borough elections that first occurred proved what would be the fate of the ministry and the moment they were known in america the american government announced that mr reverendee johnson the american minister had mistaken his instructions and they could not present the treaty to the senate for its sanction the sanction of which there had been previously no doubt but the fact is that as in the case of the Crimean war it was supposed that our successors would be favorable to russian aggression so it was supposed that by a session to the office of mr gladstone and a gentleman you know well mr bright the american claims would be considered in a very different spirit how they have been considered is a subject which no doubt occupies deeply the minds of the people of Lancashire now gentlemen observe this the question of the black c involved in the Crimean war the question of the american claims involved in our negotiations with mr johnson footnote reverendee johnson the american minister to england in 1868 through 69 who negotiated a treaty for the settlement of the alabama claims which was rejected by the senate are the two questions that have turned up and have been the two great questions that have been under the management of the government i come now to that question which most deeply interests you at this moment and that is our relations with the united states i approved the government referring this question to arbitration it was only following the policy of lord stanley my noble friend disapproved the negotiations being carried on at washington i confess that i would willingly have persuaded myself that this was not a mistake but reflection has convinced me that my noble friend was right i remember the successful negotiation of the clayton bulwer treaty by sir henry bulwer i flattered myself that treaties at washington might be successfully negotiated but i agree with my noble friend that his general view was far more sound than my own but no one when that commission was sent forth for a moment could anticipate the course of their conduct under the strict injunctions of the government we believed that commission was sent to ascertain what points should be submitted to arbitration to be decided by the principles of the law of nations we had not the slightest idea that that commission was sent with power and instructions to alter the law of nations itself when that result was announced we expressed our entire disapprobation and yet trusting to the representations of the government that matters were concluded satisfactorily we had to decide whether it were wise if the great result was obtained to wrangle upon points however important such as those to which i have referred gentlemen it appears that though all parts of england were ready to make those sacrifices the two negotiating states the government of the united kingdom and the government of the united states placed a different interpretation upon the treaty when the time had arrived to put its provisions into practice gentlemen in my mind and in the opinion of my noble friend near me there was but one course to take under the circumstances painful as it might be and that was at once to appeal to the good feeling and good sense of the united states and stating the difficulty to invite confidential conference whether it might not be removed but her majesty's government took a different course on december fifteenth her majesty's government were aware of a contrary interpretation being placed on the treaty of washington by the american government the prime minister received a copy of their counter case and he confessed he had never read it he had a considerable number of copies sent to him to distribute among his colleagues and you remember probably the remarkable statement in which he informed the house that he had distributed those copies to everybody except those for whom they were intended time went on and the adverse interpretation of the american government oozed out and was noticed by the press public alarm and public indignation were excited and it was only seven weeks afterward on the very eve of the meeting of parliament some 24 hours before the meeting of parliament that her majesty's government felt they were absolutely obliged to make a friendly communication to the united states that they had arrived at an interpretation of the treaty reverse of that of the american government what was the position of the american government seven weeks had passed without their having received the slightest intimation from her majesty's ministers they had circulated their case throughout the world they had translated into every european language it had been sent to every court and cabinet to every sovereign and prime minister it was impossible for the american government to recede from their position even if they believed it to be an erroneous one and then to aggravate the difficulty the prime minister goes down and the parliament declares that there is only one interpretation to be placed on the treaty and defies and attacks everybody who believes it is susceptible of another was there ever such a combination of negligence and blundering and now gentlemen what is about to happen all we know is that her majesty's ministers are doing everything in their power to evade the cognizance and criticism to their friendly communication of which i believe it has been ascertained that the american government adhered to their interpretation and yet they prolong the controversy what is about to occur it is unnecessary for one to predict but if this be true if after a fruitless rationation worthy of a school man we ultimately agree so far to the interpretation of the american government as to submit the whole case to arbitration with feeble reservation of a protest if it be decided against us i venture to say that we shall be entering on a course not more distinguished by its feebleness than by its impending peril there is before us every prospect of the same incompetence that distinguished our negotiations respecting the independence of the black sea and i fear that there is every chance this incompetence will be sealed by our ultimately acknowledging these direct claims of the united states which both as regards principle and practical results are fraught with the utmost danger to this country gentlemen do not suppose because i counsel firmness and decision at the right moment that i am of that school of statesman who are favorable to a turbulent and aggressive diplomacy i have resisted it during a great part of my life i am not unaware that the relations of england to europe have undergone a vast change during the century that has just elapsed the relations of england to europe are not the same as they were in the days of lord chatham or frederick the great the queen of england has become the sovereign of the most powerful of oriental states on the other side of the globe there are now establishments belonging to her teaming with wealth and population which will in due time exercise their influence over the distribution of power the old establishments of this country now the united states of america throw their lengthening shades over the atlantic which mix with european waters these are vast and novel elements in the distribution of power i acknowledge that the policy of england with respect to europe should be a policy of reserve but proud reserve and in answer to those statesmen those mistaken statesmen who have intimated the decay of the power of england and the decline of its resources i express here my confident conviction that there never was a moment in our history when the power of england was so great and her resources so vast and inexhaustible and yet gentlemen is not merely our fleets and armies our powerful artillery our accumulated capital and our unlimited credit on which i so much depend as upon the unbroken spirit of her people which i believe was never prouder of the imperial country to which they belong gentlemen it is to that spirit that i above all things trust i look upon the people of lancershire as a fair representative of the people of england i think the manner in which they have invited me here locally as a stranger to receive the expression of their cordial sympathy and only because they recognize some effort on my part to maintain the greatness of their country is evidence of the spirit of the land i must express to you again my deep sense of the generous manner in which you have welcomed me and in which you have permitted me to express to you my views upon public affairs proud of your confidence and encouraged by your sympathy i now deliver to you as my last words the cause of the tori party the english constitution and of the british empire end of section four recording by tom mac