LORD PALMERSTON'S PROGRESS.
Lord Palmerston's progress in Yorkshire has been triumphant. On Friday week, the Leeds Corporation presented an address, to which Lord Palmerston replied, claiming a connexion with Leeds through his friend- ship with the late Mr. Baines, "a man of whom it may be said that he was the type of an English gentleman ; endowed with those statesman- like qualities which fitted him to perform important functions in the service of the State." And be rejoiced in a continuance of the friendship in the person of Mr. Baines's son. Lord Palmerston next dwelt upon the great changes of the last thirty years—the Abolition of Slavery, Catholic Emancipation, the Repeal of the Text mid Corporation Act and the Corn Laws, and the Parliamentary Reform of 1832. We have assisted in the spread of liberty in other countries. If his administration had any success, it is owing "to the generous support which it has received from the people, the unbounded confidence of the Crown, and the ability of his colleagues." Speaking to the question of the day, Lord Palmerston said- Lord Palmerston's progress in Yorkshire has been triumphant. On Friday week, the Leeds Corporation presented an address, to which Lord Palmerston replied, claiming a connexion with Leeds through his friend- ship with the late Mr. Baines, "a man of whom it may be said that he was the type of an English gentleman ; endowed with those statesman- like qualities which fitted him to perform important functions in the service of the State." And be rejoiced in a continuance of the friendship in the person of Mr. Baines's son. Lord Palmerston next dwelt upon the great changes of the last thirty years—the Abolition of Slavery, Catholic Emancipation, the Repeal of the Text mid Corporation Act and the Corn Laws, and the Parliamentary Reform of 1832. We have assisted in the spread of liberty in other countries. If his administration had any success, it is owing "to the generous support which it has received from the people, the unbounded confidence of the Crown, and the ability of his colleagues." Speaking to the question of the day, Lord Palmerston said- " We are now seeing in another part of Southern Europe changes in pro- gress which, I trust, may lead to the establishment of a system in Italy as conducive to the happiness and prosperity of the Italians, as, unfortunately, some of the Governments which have hitherto existed in that country have contributed to their unhappiness and their misery. But our action is the action of opinion alone. We leave the Italians to deal with their own affairs, and all we hope and wish is that other countries will follow our ex- ample, and that the people of those regions, favoured with many of the gifts of nature, should be allowed to arrange their internal affairs in the manner which may seem to them best adapted to their happiness and wel- fare."
Upon another point Lord Palmerston also spoke effectively—" The pecu-
liar characteristic of the English nation—that which strikes foreigners most when they visit our shores—is the manner in which the people of these
realms govern themselves and maintain order among each other. It is that spirit of order, that obedience to the law, which not only affords the best security for internal peace, but which, applicable and applied as it is to all the concerns of private and public life, is the elementary principle upon which the wealth, increase, and prosperity of the country are founded, not only in its public aspects, but even in its commercial and industrial avoca- tions. For that, then, the Government of the day can take but little credit ; it is the people of the United Kingdom to whom that merit is mainly and practically due. It is, no doubt, to the daily and yearly increase and diffu- sion of instruction and education among the people that that spirit of order is mainly attributable, which increases from day to day as we see, and the decline of which it is now impossible to contemplate. You have been pleased in this address to refer to the loyalty of the people of this country. That loyalty is innate in the mind of every British subject ; for if there is one peculiarity, perhaps, which belongs to the British character, it is a sen- timent of gradations of rank. Every rank knows its own position ; it is neither jealous of these above, nor &vs it treat without respect those who happen to be below it. There is a general consciousness that in human society there must be degrees, that the preservation of the grades is essen- tial to the welfare of the community, and that feeling and sentiment is di- rected with increased intensity towards the Sovereign who sits on the throne."
" Three times three " for Lord Palmerston, and " one cheer more for Lady Palmerston," finished the proceedings in the town-hall. After this at a luncheon, the Mayor proposed Lord Pahnerston's health. The Pre- mier gave " Prosperity to the Town of Leeds," with the health of its Mayor. Lord Palmerston then proceeded to investigate the sources of Leeds' prosperity by visiting some of its largest manufactories. Leaving the Mayor's luncheon, and the manufactories of Sir Peter Fairbairn, Lord Palmerston presided at the annual meeting of the Ragged School Society and Shoe Black Brigade. The report stated that there were two schools in connexion with the socioty. The first, which was situated on Richmond Hill, was established in March, 1859, and the average attendance of scholars was about 100. The second school, in- tended principally for girls, was commenced in Regent Street, Leylands, in July, 1859, the average attendance for the last four months being 71. Of the boys 40 had been employed as shoeblaeks, and their total earnings for the twelve months they had been at work was 151/. The highest sum a boy had ever earned in a day was 7s. 3d. ; the highest weekly earning being 19s. 10d. Many of the boys had since found employment in mills in the town. The treasurer's report, read by Mr. W. G. Joy, stated that the balance due to the treasurer was 225/. la. 11d. ; and the very existence of the schools, it was shown, depended a great deal upon what was done at that meeting.
Lord Palmerston's speech showed knowledge of the subject of Ragged Schools, and what is better, a hearty sympathy for their success-
" There must be in all great communities—and the greater the community, the greater the development of industry, and the greater the accumulation of population—a vast number of children who either have parents whose poverty prevents them from doing as they ought for their children, or whose improvidence and dissolute habits render it impassible for them ta give Orem proper care and attention. There must be always many who, by visitations of Providence, have been, at the earliest periods of their lives, deprived of those parents upon whose care and attention they ought to have relied. In these eases institutions of this sort step in. They rescue the neglected child from the improvidence and neglect of its parents; they rescue the orphan from the destitution which threatens him ; they give early habits of order and discipline, instruction of a moral and religious description, and in those things which may conduce to success in life ; and when we see the vast de- mand which this great city affords for the industry and intelligence of every working man and woman within it, we may well hope that these seeds which are thus sown in the minds and bodies of these little children are not sown to run to waste, and to bloom without result; but, as assuredly as- you instruct these little children in the duties of social, and orderly, and moral life, and in the means of procuring by industry their live- lihood, so assurediy will they turn to labour when their labour can be profitably employed. So far, then, as sympathy with these un- happy little beings extends, you would have adequate motives for sup- porting institutions of this character; but if I take a larger view, and look upon these institutions as bearing upon the social interests el the country, we see in that view also the strongest possible motive for encouraging and enlarging these establishments. One of the great evils. of civilized society is the uncivilized portion of the community. There must—and it is vain to hope it shall not be7-there will be in every great community a certain amount of crime, of recklessness and improvidence, and the amount of these evils will greatly depend upon the direction given in the earliest years of life to the rising generation. It is true that it may sometimes happen that those who have instilled into their minds in early childhood the proper principles of education may, in after life, yield to temptations, be led away by fortuitous circumstances, and desert those paths in which they were early instructed to go, but those cases are comparatively rare ; and you will find that the great source of misfortune, of all those evils which afflict large com- munities, is want of early and proper instruction to children in the first years of their lives. Well, we may take in moral and intellectual things examples from what is done in physical and material matters. If you want to dry a morass, to get rid of the noxious exhalations from unhealthy dis- tricts, you don't simply go to pump out the water which lies in the ground, but you go to the source of the evil, you turn the springs and divert them from the country which they impregnate, and you turn that morass into profitable and healthy land for the use of man. In the same way you should intercept the sources of crime at the foundation, inculcate in the minds of the children of the country maxims of religious and moral principle, and teach them betimes the value and importance of rules and regulations and of order ; teach the child, even in school hours, to be obedient to certain regulations, and you will find, when he becomes a man, he will be more ready to submit to the laws of his country, and to assist in maintaining public order. If we succeed in this, if we rescue from vice and crime a vast number of these unhappy children who are left to all the hazards and temp- tations to which their position exposes them, you are conferring an enor- mous benefit on society, a benefit which will exteud to future generations as well as the present." (Loud applause.) On Saturday, the Premier was off to Pontefract to open the new market ; most extensive preparations were made to do him honour. Flags of all colours and garlands abounded in all directions, and across the principal street was erected a handsome arch, with the inscription, "Welcome Lord Palmerston." The interior of the ball was profusely decorated with flowers and laurels, and a similar device of " Welcome " was emblazoned over the gallery. All the inhabitants of the town turned out into the streets in their holiday attire, and there was a large influx of visitors (corn the outlying districts. The bells rung out merry
peals at intervals, and altogether such a gala day Pontefract cannot have seen for a long time. The Mayor and Corporation presented an address, and Lord Palmerston seized the occasion to speak of the warm hospi- tality of Yorkshire. He also spoke ,of his administration much in the same language, and entirely the same spirit, as he did at Leeds. Leaving Pontefract, Lord Palmerston became the guest of Mr. Monckton Milnes.
The Premier, arrived under the hospitable roof of Mr. Milnes, obtained some quiet but not exactly retirement, for a large party of the neighbours had been invited to meet him. On Sunday he attended church at Ferry Frystone ; the little building was crowded, and outside rustics were assembled who sought to get a peep at the Premier through the windows. On Monday, the Badsworth hounds had a meet at Frystone, which gave the members of the hunt an opportunity of drawing Lord Palmerston out—to receive their respects. But when the dogs got to work the Pre- mier rode off in an opposite direction to his estate at Fairbum: the visit had its characteristic points— "it is twenty-seven years since he last visited it, and there are not many of the tenants who have laid eyes on their famous landlord before. One old lady, however, remembered not only his last visit but the visit before that. 'He was a handsome man when he came afore,' she remarked; 'that is, he was younge r like, for he's very handsome now, you know, for his time.' The villagers, of course, were in a great state of excitement at an event of such unusual importance ; and, though they cannot in strictness be said to have crowded the streets, they manifested quite as much interest in their way, in his lordship's visit, and gave him as warm a welcomes as any one of the larger and more important places which he has yet visited. There were a great many visitors, too, from the outlying hamlets, who helped materially to swell their numbers. The inspection was of a very minute eharracter, and appeared to give general satisfaction on both sides. One of "its esults is worth recording. Fairburn has but one street, and about the middle of it the most careless visitor cannot fail to have his attention arrested by a low, iron-hasped door, guarding the entrance to what seems a cavern cut out of the sandstone rock, which just there comes right down into the road. This is the village lock-up or watch-house, though it is i proper to say that the rusted padlock and hinges show how long it s since it was put to much use. On passing by it, Lord Palmerston turned round and observed, There's a place worthy of Naples—what is it ? ' Fairborn
lock-up,' was the answer. Whose is it ? ' • Your lordship's,' replied the gent. 'Oh, mine, is it ?' rejoined his lordship sharply; then let it be taken down, and mind it's done at once.'" The village school was visited, and the burial ground of the chapel of ease ordered to be enlarged by additional land given by the Premier, who then lunched with his tenants.
The Premier's tour in the West Riding, terminated somewhat abruptly. Lady Palmerston had caught a cold, which grew so much worse that it was thought advisable to have her removed to town. Late on worse, Colonel Smyth forwarded to the Mayor of Wakefield, a telegram from Lord Palmerston, begging him to make his excuse at Wakefield. Wake- field insists that it is not Lady Palmerston's cold, but the disclosures before the Royal Commissioners to inquire into the bribery of Wakefield which has produced the disappointment. But as Rotherham never bribed, the working of the Wakefield conscience scarcely covers the whole argument, and Rotherham shares the disappointment. Still the self- -inflicted lesson may be salutary to Wakefield.
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