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    x w that what the noble lord the member for Tiverton tOtJls wn > ng , when he declared he had left us in rela-^ aTamity and security with all the nations of the world . 5 S Ir hear ) The noble lord had , in fact , not shown the foments were unfounded which made the funds go up , T fear they will go down to-morrow . But , comparing i * p noble lord ' s statement now with that which he made 18 iS we may -find arguments to show why there is less danger at present than then of any attack from the French 1 ) 0 He assen ted that we were as safe now as in 1848 from invasion ; that the present measure would be deservedly unpopular ; and that public meetings would certainly protest against it .

    " What is it in effect ? A mere fraction of the community are to be drawn away from their business and pursuits to take on themselves the duty of soldiers , and to be But under martial law , —for what ? I say , that if substitutes are allowed to the rich , the burden of defending the country will fall upon a small section of the community chiefly of the poorer classes , that the mechanic , able to earn his 4 s . a day , will be taken from his Workshop and imt under martial law to receive one shilling a day ,

    J _ . « *« ! " •¦_ J _? ^"_ . — — . JJ lL . 1 Z £ f w . n » •¦¦ Fill that this will be a great injustice , and that if you will have 150 , 000 of these men for soldiers , they ought to be paid , and well paid , by the country . , It is a most flagrant hardship and injustice . ( Hear , hear . ) I say that there is no necessity on national grounds for this measure . You have ho business to contemplate any invasion of your shores , if the numerous fleets for which you pay so large a sum are properly kept up and disposed of ; You hav in that case no reason to dread invasion , whether by a few

    brigands or by a foreign army . " Disposing of the pamphlet of Baron Maurice , as detailing an impracticable scheme of invasion , he turned to another hinted at in the following extract from the United Service Gazette . "' What we have to dread is , not an invasion , but a hostile descent , throwing on some part of our coast a force of 10 , 000 or 12 , 000 men , who , although not strong enough to occupy the country , might do irreparable mischief ^ before they are subdued . A buccaniering expedition might even make its way into the Thames , and demand a Canton ransomjrom the metropolis of the world . '

    " Now this is a very grave and serious matter put forth by the editor . ( Hear , hear . ) But , in the first place , I take exception , to it on this ground : —it is a libel on the French army . ( Cheers . ) I don't believe yott could find a French officer to undertake abnccaniering expedition of this kind without a declaration of war ( cheers ); and if you did , then the expedition would be an act of piracy . ( Hear , hear . ) If it ba too- KJgk < m appeal -to make to French , morality and French honour to suppose they would not act in this way , there is still this appeal—that they will be pirates . I am told one of the objects of such an invasion would be

    to avenge Waterloo ; but how would it avenge that defeat , if they only came over here to be hanged ? ( Hear , hear . ) Again , I am told they will burn our ships in Liverpool and Bristol . If they did , they would not burn English ships only ; but they would burn American , Dutchmen— vessels unde r every flag in the world ; and the nation that warranted such an act , and the Government that permitted it , would be hunted at least from the face of the ocean by all the ships of every maritime nation of the earth . These are the most serious arguments I have met with for the increase of our defensive armaments . Nay , I have no belief in anything of the kind . "

    Ho hoped that the House would refuse the permission asked by the noble lord . When Mr . Cobclon sat down , Lord Pulmcrston and Mr . Fox Maule rose together . The House londly called for Lord Palmerston , and Mr . Fox M aulo gave way . Lord Palmerston took upon himself the credit of having proposed , in 184 ( 5 , the measures now deemed necessary for national defence . As to not mixing ourselvos in continental quarrels , he quite agreed ; but we had interest beyond our own shores , and these it would iiot bo safe to stand quietly by and see destroyed .

    Honourable gentlemen talked as if our only danger of rupture was from Franco ; but Franco was not the only country with a largo fleet , and a large disposable army . Our insular position is our weakness , as woll as our Btrongth , the Channel is narrow , and , as Lord Howe mud , the " sea ia a wide place . " Continental nations ftro only approachable by known roads , which can bo fortified , wutched , and defended ; our great extent of coast is open on every side . Aa to the navy , that was irt cfiiciont us it had ever been , if not inoro efficient , in proportion to its oxtont . But it would bo madness to rt > ly only on our navy .

    o » r , it ia perfectly impossible for any navy , however active , vigorous , and numerous , to prevent altogether the I yj of u U 09 til ° force , when we consider the short inerval between our own shores and those from which ni » enemy might come , nnd whence an expedition might sail 1 ° ^ ° 8 l > ot of our wide-extending shores , and lund in Jreland , or any less guarded portion of the country . If it J ? ° necoasnry , as I think it is , that we should have a land lorco that we should have armed men to resist armed f ^~ ~? or . na * ° fortiftcationB , it is useless for us to think ot * ° rt « fying more than our arsenals and dockyards , and

    such places of vital importance , — -there is no fortification like brave men armed ,-organized , disciplined , and ready to meet an enemy . ( Loud cheers . ) That is the best fortification , and such a fortification yon will always find in the hearts and arms of Englishmen ; but , if it be necessary that we should have armed men to meet the unfortunate possibility of an invasion—I hope not the probability ; and mind , the less probable it will be the more you are prepared for it . ( Cheers . ) Nothing so much tempts as

    weakness and incapacity to resist , when to that is added enormous wealth , and a great temptation for political objects . ( Cheers . ) If it be necessary that this country should have aforee capable of defending our homes against an invading army , and of protecting us from the incalculable calamity which would arise from the occupation of any portion of our country , even for a month , by an invading force , why then , I say , something like the mode proposed seems to me the best , if not the only possible mode of

    doing so . It was all mighty well for people to talk of the hardship of defending their lives , homes , and property ; fortunately , they did not know what were the horrors of war : but the people of the United States did not consider it a hardship . ( Cheers . ) Austria and Prussia have a similar force ; and even in France the disbanded national guard has been partially reorganized . We alone

    had no force of the kind ; and , considering our enormous wealth , there was no country in the world so defenceless . Now , the militia was the proper force to organize for this purpose . And that being so , he could not understand why Lord John Russell preferred the local to the regular militia , which was the old constitutional force of the country . Turning , then , to an obvious omission from Lord John Russell ' s scheme , he fastened on it , and worked it up with great skill .

    " The regular militia , too , raised in Great Britain and Scotland , is liable to serve in the whole of the United Kingdom , and I am astonished that in a plan for the defence of the realm Ireland should be left without the protection < said to be essential for the defence of this country . ( Hear , hear . ) The local militia can only be called upon to serve in Great Britain , and why Ireland is not provided for , I am at a loss to conceive . Do the government doubt the loyalty of the Irish people ? ( Hear , hear . ) Why ,

    Sir , T would pledge my existence that there is not a man in Ireland who would be called out , and who had taken the oath of allegiance , who would not lose his life rather than not defend his country against invasion . ( Cheers . ) I have the . most complete confidence in the loyalty of the millions of Ireland . I am persuaded they would be true to the Queen and to their oath ; and as to their courage , that is sufficiently well known to need no mention from me . " ( Hear . ) ^ ... .

    He concluded that if we were to have a militia , as m his opinion we ought to have , it should be the regular and not the local militia . The House cheered loudly when the noble lord sat down . Mr . Fox Maums in a few words echoed the speech of the premier ; taunted Mr . Cobden with being in favour of a standing anny ; and Mr . Hume for calling the balloting a conscription . Mr . Newdegate admired Lord Palmerston . Mr . Roche asked why Ireland

    was omitted , and Lord John Russell defended the omission on the ground of " difficulty , " and that Ireland did not require a militia . Mr . Sidney Herbert supported the views of Lord Palmerston . Sir George Grey was put up to reply to him . He said that the difference between the local and the regular militia was that the former was a defensive and the latter an offensive force . We did not want now what was required at the conclusion of the last war , —a militia which

    would enable us to set free every soldier in the country , not for internal defence , but to carry on a continental war . As to tlio objection that the local militia could not bo moved as a body upon any particular point without its being construed by foreign powers into a declaration of war , he would answer , noither could tho general militia . Lord Palinerston replied to the firHt of these assertions by stating , that in 1814 wo bad 82 , 000 militiamen and 56 , 000 troops in the country ; and Mr . Sidney Herbert answered the second by observing that the law expressly provided for tho removal of tho general militia anywhere at any time Mr . Osborne hero struck in , and took up one or two points in Mr . Cobdon ' s speech , which all tho other speakers bad strangely omitted to notice .

    " The hon . member said that ho had great confidence in the morality of the French army . The morality of the French army I The morality of any army ! Did the hon ' . member derive his confidence from tho scones lately enacted ? Was it from tho successful fusijlndo ou tho Boulevards P ( hear , hoar ) , or from the execution done by tho artillery in other streets where the cannon wns fired by Frenchmen oh Frenchmen P Did the hon . member suppose that Generals Espinasso and St . Arnaud would hesitate to attack this country when they had not hesitated to break all lawa , human and divine , and place their own Legislature under arrest P ( Cheera . )" In other respects , he defended not only tho measure , but the omission of Ireland from it . The Irish police

    were the best Irish militia . Mr . Cobden explained that he meant to say that French officers would not be found to command an expedition sent out without a declaration of war . Mr . Tbeiawney , Mr . Axgock , and Mr . Anstey , supported the measure ; Captain Scobell spoke equivocally . A resolution , that a bill should be prepared and brought in , was agreed to , a report ordered on Friday , and the House resumed . Lord Palmerston the next day gave notice that he should move that the word " local" be omitted , and to insert after the word " amend" the words " and consolidate . " This was received with loud cheering . ST . ALBANS' DlSFKANCHISEMENT .

    Sir George Gbey moved on Monday for leave to bring in a bill to disfranchise St . Albans . The ground for the motion was the evidence of corruption elicited by the commission . The characteristic of the debate which ensued was the appearance of Mr . Bell and Mr . Repton . Previously to their rising , some sparring took place between Sir De Lacy Evans and Mr . Ker Seymer respecting Harwich ; Mr . Seymer humorously describing the electors as " not perfectly virtuous , but prudent , and that was their safeguard ; " Mr . Bagshaw denying emphatically that there had been any corruption at Harwich since 1841 , and asserting that

    the commission which Sir de Lacy Evans proposed to move for would produce the following wonderful effects . * " The bad odour of the borough , " exclaimed Mr . Bagshaw , with a manifest disregard of metaphorical proprieties , " would at once be obliterated , and it would shine forth in its proper character . " Mr . Roebuck wished to do away with " shams . " If a man who sold his vote for a small bribe was corrupt , what was he who sold his borough for a large bribe ? Mr . Bell was loudly called for , but begged to postpone what he had-to say . Lord Claude Hamilton coupled the Reform Club , " Coppock , " and Mr . Roebuck together , in a way that roused that gentleman , asking whether

    he had done his part to prevent corruption . Mr . Roebuck declared that his election cost him nothing , and although a member , he never went to the Reform Club . Mr . Spooner wanted to know whether it was true , as stated by Mr . Coppock , that he had procured government situations for persons who had ]? een serviceable in carrying elections . Sir George Grey was totally ignorant of anything of the kind ; and he satirically observed that he " was glad to find from the warm cheers with which the question of the hon . member was received , that there were no hon . gentlemen in the House who had ever applied to government for places for those who had rendered them services at elections . "

    ( Cheers and laughter . ) The calls for Mr . Beix now became so imperative , that he rose and said that during the whole of this " unfortunate transaction" he had been persuaded to hold his tongue , that he had consequently " laboured under the weight of an incubus , " and never had an opportunity of explaining or extenuating the charges brought against him . " On the present occasion he was desirous of addressing a few words to the House , when he was particularly requested not to do so , ( loud laughter , and cries of ' hear , hear , ' ) but he had so often regretted not having earlier acted on his own judgment , that he was determined not to be driven from his coarse again . ( Hear , hear . ) As this was the first time of addressing the House on the subject , he felt he ought to state thut the reason why he had

    been silent was that a judicial inquiry was pending . Besides , there were others implicated in the proceeding who desired him not to say anything . ( Renewed laughter . ) That judicial inquiry had terminated , and the whole responsibility of anything he might say rested on himself . Before saying anything respecting the borough , he thought it would be proper to clear himself from the extreme degree of culpability which appeared to rest upon him . It would appear from the report that he had gone down to St . Albans perfectly aware of its reputation , and with his eyes open . It was exceedingly easy—with all the proceedings of the case before them—with the whole transactions mapped out after their occurrence—to say where the mistake had been committed , ( laughter , ) where the errors hud arisen . ( Continued laughter . ) He was

    sensible that he had committed one great error , that was m going down to St . Albans ut all . ( Loud laughter . )" Ho thought there would bo no opposition , but in that ho was deceived . Mr . Bell represented his simplicity an perfect . " Having pledged himself to go" to tho poll , having rigorously canvassed tho electors —( laughter)—in order to secure their support aa speedily aa'possible , ho felt that ho could not retract . He had no , opportunity of escaping from the dilcmmii in which he found himself . When ho appeared in tho field , rumours arose , and increased , of improper practices in tho borough . Although ho saw no evidence of anything illegal —( laughter , and cries of 'hcur , Lear'

    )yet he confessed that he had his suspicions . ( Renewed laughter . ) But he considered that it was not his duty to inquire into all the details of such proceedings . ( Continued laughter . ) He believed it was not usual for parties de-

    Untitled Article

    Feb 21 , 1352 J T&ti 167

• Citation
  • Leader (1850-1860), Feb. 21, 1852, page 167, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1923/page/3/