TOPICS OF THE DAY •
THE GLASGOW DINNER. TO THE EARL OF DURHAM.
A PUBLIC dinner to a distinguished person may be a very worthless compliment. If he in whose honour it is pretended to be given is high in power and place, it is stamped at once with the mark of sycophancy : the company are fairly liable to the suspi- cion of casting prospective glances at the good things hoped for. If, as very often happens, a dinner is given to a defeated candi- date at an election, then it amounts to little more than a mere bravado, an opportunity for disgorging local spite. In the annual reunion of a club, such as the Purr or Fox, the interest seems to depend mainly on the political events of the day and the state of parties. Thus, for many years, the few gentlemen who made a point of attending the Edinburgh Fox dinner, were marked men : they did not assemble merely to spout Whiggism and drink port or claret, but to avow their irreconcileable hostility to the CASTLE- REACH and StnmolITH domination, the embodied spirit of Toryism. The dinner to Mr. BROUGHAM in the Northern capital, in 1825, was not only the highest personal compliment that the Chancellor ever has received—for then his hands were indeed "clean"—but it was an important event in the political history of the country, and evidence of the decided progress of Liberal opinions. To confound such a meeting with common party gatherinzs, would be absurd. The state of the public mind, the motives of the per- sons who attended the dinner, the nature of the services already per- formed by and expected from HENRY BROUGHAM, and his avowed political principles, all conspired to render it one of those mani- festations of the national mind, of the temper of the people, which no prudent Government would have disregarded. The projected dinner to Lord DURHAM at Glasgow, must be looked upon in the same light. For—what has given occasion for it? Lord DURHAM'S noble and independent bearing, and the wise and statesmanlike principles declared by him, at the GREY Gathering. Lord BROUGHAM, in a speech of studied eloquence and craft, had laboured to defend the compromising policy of the late (we will not say of the present) Ministry : he had presumed to lecture the more resolute and sincere Reformers for their itnpa- tience of abuses; and even intimated, that if he and his colleagues had not accomplished a great deal during the last session, it was only because comparatively little remained to be done in the way of Reform. The orator was surrounded by admiring friends, servile supporters, and thoroughgoing Whigs, whose main object seemed to be won when their party had at length recovered their political ascendancy. The tone of the meeting was averse to con- troversy ; and the artful Chancellor would have succeeded in giving a Juste Milieu colouring to it, which might be turned to account in the Cabinet, in Parliament, and in his peregrinations through the country,—bad not Lord DURHAM, with calm presence of mind and bold determination, in language which no one could mistake, but at which no one could take offence, administered a seasonable rebuke to the jesuitical orator, and called forth the unequivocal expression of the real feelings of the assembly in favour of sub- stantial, uncompromising, and resolute Reform. He held up the mirror of honesty to the meeting, and the unwholesome enchant- ment conjured up by the eloquent magician at once disappeared. In the expressive language of the Apostle of the Gentiles, he " withstood him to his face, because he was to be blamed"— because "he saw that he walked not uprightly according to the truth." The assembled thousands felt that the true chord had been touched at last, and cheer upon cheer resounded through the hall. Almost every one felt, what some at once exclaimed, "That is the man I"
As it is in consequence of Lord DURHAM'S conduct and speech at the Edinburgh Dinner that the inhabitants of Glasgow have stepped forth to do him honour, it will be worth while to look , back upon that speech, that we may see clearly what are the sen- Almeida whiCh are so cordially approved of. The passage which has excited so much attention is the fol- lowing.
"My noble and learned friend, Lord Brougham, has been pleased to give some advice, which I have no doubt lie deems very sound, to sonic classes of persons —I know none such—who evince too strong a desire to get rid of ancient abuses, and fretful impatience in awaiting the remedies of them. Now I frankly con fees, that I am one of those persons who see with regret every hour which passes over the existence of recognized and unreformed abuses. I am, how- ever, perfectly willing to accept the correction of them as deliberately as our rulers, and my noble friend among them, can wish ; hut on one condition, and on one condition alone—that every measure should be ptoporied in conformity with those principles for which we all contend. I &IOW to the compromise of opinions, not to the deliberation of what they should be. I object to the clip- prig, and paring, and mutilating, which must inevitably follow any attempt to conciliate enemies who are not to be conciliated, and who thus obtain an ad- vantage, by pointing out the inconsistencies of which you are guilty in abandon- ing your friends and your principles, and attribute the discontent felt on this score to the decay or dearth of Liberal principles. Against such policy, I, for one, enter my protest—as pregnant with mischief—as creating discontent where enthusiasm would otherwise exist—as exciting vague hopes in the bosoms of our adversaries, which can never be realized—and as placing weapons in the hands of those who use them to the destruction of our best interests. With this candid explanation,— with this free exposition of my principles, which I have never con- cealed in say position in which I have been placed,-_l am ready to grant the utmost extewi. of deliberation to my noble and learned ft knd which he has called for this night, and which, when given under such conditions, will calm the dis- content which has recently prevailed."
We learn from this that Lord DURHAM is not aware that any considerable number of persons in the country hare been fret- I fully impatient. He avows for himself, that he sees with regret I every hour which passes over the existence of recognized and unreformed abuses. And what is there unreasonable in this? Why, it may be asked, should abuses 1?e allowed to exist an hour after the power to remove them has been given to our rulers ? An individual will not submit to injury for an instant, if he can avoid it; he will not hesitate about recovering a lost right, or freeing himself from the oppression of a palpable wrong. To say that such a man is &edid and impatient—that he is a too ardent or san- guine remover of his personal grievances—would be deemed rank nonsense or hypocritical cant. And what is a public abuse, but a wrong to millions, instead of an individual injury ? The principle, then, which Lord DURHAM would apply to the conduct of public affairs, is that which all men of spirit and discretion—all but the cowardly, the corrupt, and the slothful—adopt in every-day life. It is a principle which sound reason approves of, and which expe- rience recommends. Lord DURHAM objects to the clipping, paring, and mutilating of good measures, with a view to conciliate oppe. limits who trample upon such overtures. We should suppose that there does not exist a single person of common observation and tolerable sagacity in the country, who does not now cordially con- cur with Lord DURHAM on this point. The utter, the ludicrous failure of the compromising policy, has been demonstrated. Mr. Fox's saying, ".that he would rather give a little to a friend than all to an enemy," has been most absurdly quoted in defence of the policy of the GREY Administration, which Lord BROUGHAM still clings to. But instead of giving a little way to friends, Mi- nisters gave up a great deal to enemies, who would not have been . conciliated with the whole from such hands as were stretched out towards them. Hence the miserable failure of that "clipping, paring, and mutilating" of good measures, which has been pro- ductive of discontent and disunion in the Liberal ranks, and of vain, presumptuous hope in Conservative breasts But though he denounces the system of compromise, and avows his impatience of needless delay in the removal of abuses, Lord DURHAM would give ample time for deliberation. He is quite as much opposed as any man in the country to hurried lawmaking. This is one of the distinguishing characteristics of the Independent party. We have repeatedly urged upon our rulers the- necessity of
timely preparation. To delay measures to the fag-end of a session, and then slur them over hastily, is not deliberation or caution—its laziness or incapacity. The country is not eager to see a great number of bills brought into Parliament, but desires evidence of forethought and honest intention in the management of a few good ones. We are willing to receive our debt by regular instalments, and do not wish the property to be sacrificed by hurried sales.
These are the main principles avowed by Lord DURHAM; and it is to testify their marked concurrence in these principles, in
direct opposition to the wavering, trimming, uncertain policy that
Lord BROUGHAM was excusing or recommending in glozing speeches, that the capital of the West of Scotland has set itself in motion, and invited Lord DURHAM to a great public festival. On this point there cannot possibly be any mistake. The speech of Lord DURHAM is in every ones hands; and it is because his views
are seen to be rational and wise, and in accordance with those pro-
fessed by the great body of Reformers, that they delight to honour him. Let Lord MELBOURNE be instructed by this expression of public feeling. The country does not insist upon Lord DUR- HAM'S admission to the Cabinet—though that would be a politic measure—but it does require that the principle of progression which Lord DURHAM laid down, in the teeth of Lord BROUGHAM'S tern porizing maxims, should be the rule of Ministerial conduct.
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