Gleanings from the Blanchester Speeches.
Mr. Milner Gibson's logic.—" We have averaged something like fifteen mil- lion pounds a year since 1815 for armaments and defences; and therefore I be- lieve we always have bad adequate means of defence."
Frankness—with a reservation: the Vice-President's future vote.—" I know that there is a feeling on the part of some gentlemen not to speak their minds; but I never found candour bad policy,—and I am quite sure it is the most satis- factory to one's own feelings. I have told you broadly—I tell it you conscien- tiously- -I tell it you sincerely, I have no sympathy whatever with what is called the military spirit. I told you—I told you that I will not commit myself in this assembly or in any otherplace to any particular vote or act in reference to this question: I know not what Government mean to propose; I am not in their se- crets, and therefore I cannot disclose them. They may have the same opinion as I have in reference to this invasion and the folly of the panic. But all I say is this, wait—wait, before you pronounce an opinion, at least till you hear what they have to propose. Pronounce an opinion upon the subject of the celebrated letter from Lancashire; pronounce an opinion upon Mr. Pigoet, and the Duke's letters while they are before the public; but pronounce no opinion upon the in- tentions of the Government, when you are not in possession of those intentions. And leave me free in opinion; and when the proper time comes to judge of the matter, I willVnetilti my full consideration, and vote upon it according to the dic- tates of my juent, e t, and in the manner in which the welfare of my country calls urn me to act? Curious coincidence.—" I [Mr. Cobden] little dreamed at that time [three weeks or a month ago at Newton-in-the Willows] that the very moment I was speaking, a large meeting was being held at Rouen, the Manchester of France, at which 1,800 electors were assembled to promote, at a public dinner, the pro- gress of Parliamentary Reform; and that there a gentlemen [M. Visinet] was making a speech so similar to my own, that he sent me a newspaper, and ex- pressed his astonishment that it should be possible for two speeches to be made, without collusion, so similar to each other." The idle Nary: what Mr. Cobden saw at Lisbon and Malta.—" Have you inquired whether the Navy for which you have paid so largely is really employed in the best way, or at all events in the way best calculated to do that which these men profess themselves to be so anxious to do, namely, protect our shores? Now, where are all our great battle-ships gone to? It so happens that I have picked up a few secrets abroad, having travelled by water as well as by land; and I will venture to say that there is not more idleness or demoralization going on in any apace on the face of the earth than there is in the ships of war, for want of em-
oyment. Where are these great line of battle ships which you pay for to be found? Occasionally, they sail out, making a great display of power, science, and other attractions; but they do not go to Hamburg or the Baltic, where there is so much trade: no, they do not go there; the weather is rough, and there are not many attractions on shore there. Well, do they go to North America, do you suppose? to the United States, where we do one-fifth or one-sixth of our foreign trade? Are any of these great men-of-war to be found on the coast of North America? On the contrary, the arrival of an English man-of-war is recorded in the newspapers as a rare occurrence." • • • • " I moved for a return of the amount of our naval force that has been in the Tagus and the waters of Por- tugal on the first of each month during the last twelve months, with the names of the ships, the complements of guns, and the number of men. When that is be- fore you, I should not be surprised if you were to read that you have had naval forces in the Tagus and Doom, and on the coast of Portugal, which would not fall much short of the American Navy. Now, Lisbon is a pleasant place, as I will vouch for, having seen it; the climate is delightful, and there are geraniums in the open air in the month of January. I do not quarrel with the tastes of the captains and admirals, who are quite willing to spend a twelvemonth in the Ta- gus if you let them." What Mr. Cobden will do in the House of Commons.—" When I go to Par- liament, if they talk to me about increasing the armament of the country, I will tell them, if they are frightened for the Channel, to bring home the ships lying useless in the Tagus, or worse than useless—lying there to protect the Queen of Portugal and her Court from her subjects, who, if properly governed, would be her best protectors." • • • " I stated at Stockport very candidly, what I will state now, and what I stated in my writings twelve years ago—that you cannot have any material reduction in our armaments until a great change shall have taken place in the public feeling of the country with regard to our foreign policy. The English people most first abandon the notion that they are to regulate the affairs of the whole world. I wish to do no injustice to the Minister that maintains our armaments, nor do I blame him for it now; but all I wish is to invoke public opinion upon the folly of conducting our foreign policy as it has been conducted in times past; and this I will do on all occasions. When the public opinion—the majority of the public opinion of the country—is on my aide, I shall be content to see my views on this question carried out; but until that time
I consent to be in a minority; and in a minority I will remain until I can tutu it into majority. But, gentlemen, the question is not that which this paper Manchester has so mystified in its latest number—whether we shall dismantle our fleets. This is not the question. The question is, will you have an increase. in your Army and Navy? When I admit that public opinion does not go wish, me to that extent that I could carry out my views for a reduction of our arma- ments, I at the same time maintain, speaking for the West Riding of Yorkshire, speaking for Lancashire, speaking for London, speaking for Edinburgh, and speaking for Glasgow, that public opinion is with me. And if that public opinion, is expressed, and expressed through public meetings like this—for I have no hesi- tation in saying that a large portion of the press of the country has abdicated its duties on this question—if, I say, public opinion on this question is expressed in public meetings before the estimates are brought on in the House of Commons, there will be no increase of our armaments."
Colonel Thompson on the chances of war.—" There are those who say I ought to know something on the subject. And here I am afraid I must begin with stating the difference there is between my opinions and those of many men whose alliance I am glad to profit by, whose multiplication I see with great delight, and yet with whom I cannot go to the whole extent of their most benevolent wishes and opinions. I do confess, if I speak to you upon the subject on which I intend to attempt to address you, I must put myself forward to you as a man who has not yet been convinced of the abstract possibility of doing without war, either now or hereafter. We shall always have too much of it, I do fear. And our wis- dom will lead us, I think, rather to take the means which shall produce the maximum of depression of the evil, rather than to lose ourselves in theories, which if they may be suitable to a better and a happier time, I do fear are not com- pletely adapted to the present moment. I wish the time may come when we may do without surgeons, for instance—lawyers, too, if you think they may be dis- pensed with. Not the smallest objection shall you find from me to such a process, when you can do without them. Clergymen, too; I never hear of any that are to exercise their office in the better and happier world which we all look forward to. All these things are evidences of human infirmity, of human suffering, which it is our business to diminish; but a man may lawfully doubt whether to express an abstract desire to abolish all appearance of them at this present time be the direct way to produce the effect we aim at. I have fairly stated that I do not come before you as a believer in an abstract possibility of doing without war; but I do mean as an ancient soldier, which I am in some de- gree entitled to call myself, to question the necessity there may be for this present war, which it appears is to be forced on your stomachs and purses. The articles of war, as every old soldier here well knows, are written in rather an antiquated style, and have reference to military malepractices, which, in some instances, puzzle a soldier of the present day. Among others I have often heard a discussion on what it could be which alarmed our fathers under the name of ' false alarm.' There is an article of war against false alarm. If we have not known what it meant hitherto, I think we ought to know it now. I do believe a lieutenant commanding a picquet would be brought to a very severe reckoning if he had turned out his force, to their annoyance and loss of their repose, upon so slender a pretext as, so far as I can see, has hitherto been exhibited. Who has frightened you ? Who is coming near you ? Who is going to eat you ? Who- has opened their mouths, or shown any intention of permitting such a process? Why, if a period had been picked out in which there was the greatest quiet among the European family, at all events, it would have been the years which have lately gone by."
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