FACTION FOILED. (From the "Britannia" May 1.)

New Zealander, Volume 8, Issue 677, 9 October 1852, Page 4

FACTION FOILED. (From the " Britannia" May 1.)

Lniu) Johv RussKi,r, has broken up the Opposition. Such has been the result of his la&t f.tlsc si,ep, such the effect of his ill-omened speech against the Government Militia Bill, In the vain expectation of avenging his own ignominious defi'iit on the same question, he tried to sacrifice Mr. Walpole and fell a victim to his own reckless daring. His position was unexampled. Only a few weeks before he had appeared, in his place Piemier, the advocate of a Militia force, and on that question had accepted, as vital, the defeat which a former colleague had helped to ensure. As the Minister he had defended the principle of a Militia force against the furious outcries of Radicals and the sneers of military Solons. As Cv^pecially charged with the defence of the country he had made the responsibility of his position a "cause for boasting, and appealed with pride to his cheap defence of England. In these few weeks all was changed. From Premier he hadsunk to leader of the trepartite opposition, from Minister to pl.iin M. P. The Militia force which he applauded as a Minister, he reviled as a Member, and the principal of National Defence, for which he risked place and power, he abjured now that place was gone, and the power passed away to worthier hands. On his own responsibility, without consulting with private or political friends, with all the effrontery of a political Guerilla, he repudiated a measure which he had himself declared to be essential for the safety of the country, and alienating from him men with whom he had lived and ruled for years, and dragging others through the mud with him, he only all the more exposed the bitterness of his hatred and the weakness of his power to do mischief. What a sad picture was presented by the Russell opposition ! The defences of the country and the safety of our lives and properties seemed about to be sacrificed to faction. That measure, which our public men and our highest authorities had pronounced to be necessary, was to be made the occasion not of defeating our enemies, but of defeating the Government. Can we be surprised that honourable men shrank from such a prostitution of party? Can we be surprised that Sir F. Baring, Lord Seymour, Lord Shelburne, and at last fifty more Whigs closely allied to the Family Cabinet by blood, not only refused to be degraded by their former chief, but stamped their contempt for his partizanship and their censure of his tactics, by swelling the powerful majority against his fietious motion? The remnant of the Peel party, with two miserable exceptions, did their duty to their country and their own political honour. Air. Frederick Peel, the inheritor of his father's viorst poiuts of political character, spoke and voted with the Whig leader. lie gloried in his own baseness, and could not be content to be dragged silently through the mud of faction. Not so the crafty Graham. Strange to say, the bold Baronet of Netherby was not in London. Pie had " remembered to forget" the day and hour, and sneaked out of the difficulties of his position as the selfelected leader of the Radicals, by a convenient absence from the impending struggle. "It is scarcely possible," says the Times, "to overrate the disastrous, and, we fear, permanent consequences of Lord John Russell's late proceedings to his own reputation, to the party with which he is connected, and to the future prospects of the Liberal cause throughout the country." The Times has confessed the truth, Lord John has thrown away the game. He degraded the opportunity offered to him for an act of magnanimity into an occasion for the display of petty spite- Backed by a few Cavendishes, Russells, and Romillys, he became the tool of the Cobdenites, and fell ignominiously with a Bright, a Bell, a Wakley, and a Cobden. The inconsistency of the arguments used by the opponents of the measure were ably exposed by Lord Seymour, in his opposition to his former leader. " Objections," said the noble Lord, "were brought against both features of the bill, some persons disapproving of voluntary enlistment, and others of compulsory service. Those who objected to compulsory service declared that it was intended to take all the industrious persons in the country ; those who objected to voluntary enlistment, on the other hand, said the effect would be that they would get none but the idle and worthless. Now, if we wanted men, they must be taken either from the idle or the industrious class of the population; he saw no alternative; they must be either idle or industrious (a laugh) — unless we could adopt the course which some African king was said to have embraced, of organizing a battalion of ladies (laughter)." Equally to the point was Mr. Cardwell's warning to the faction to inquire how the law stood, ere they, for miserable motives of revenge, hazarded the rejection of the Government Bill. "The old Militia Act," said the hon. member, " the 42nd Geo. 111., cap. 90, is an enduring law, and stands upon your statute-book; for nearly twenty years the Legislature has dealt with it in this manner — it has passed a law suspending its operation for twelve months, and with that law you have left a power in the executive Government, which it may exercise by order in council, to suspend the suspending law, and to revise the enduring law, the statute of 42. Geo. 111. (Hear, hear, hear). Now, if we defeat this Militia Bill on the second reading, the House of Commons will find itself in this predi • cament — the Minister may come down and say, 'I feel that without a militia the country is not safe from foreign invasion ; my predecessor told you the same thing (hear, hear), and therefore I cannot dispute it (hear, hear) You have refused to go with me into an inquiry with respect to the details of the Militia Bill which I have laid upon the table — a bill which I have told you was virtually intended to substitute voluntary enlistment for compulsory conscription. If you thought that the mitigatory clause was not mitigatory enough, you might move in committee a more mitigatory clause if you thought proper; but, instead of "doing so, you reject my bill on the second reading. I will not ask you, therefore, for the Annual Suspension Bill, because I don't think the shores of the country safe if we suspend it; therefore I shall put into operation the statute of Geo. 111., and shall proceed by compulsory conscription to ballot for the Militia. If your constituents don't like it, the responsibility rests with you; you had an opportunity of amending the law and you rejected it, and therefore 1 shall not hold myself responsible for the consequences.' " This warning Mr. Walpole reiterated in the able speech with which he closed the debate. By a few plain and. simple facts he overthrew, one after the other, the amateur remedies of his opponents, and showed with unanswerable effect, that a Militia, or a large increase of our Army, was absolutely requisite for the defence of the country. The Coast Guard, the Colonial Garrisons, the Mounted Police, and the Dockyard Guards have all their work to do whenever the sad day of our national trial comes on. In counting our strength we have not forgotten them, and in reckoning our wants we have remembered the duties they will have to perform in the hour of national peril. To the foreign statesmen and people who watched with no little anxiety the political discussions of our legislature, the debate and division on Monday night will read a lesson replete with grave instruction. The triumphant majority of that evening was no mere party division, it was a national vote. It was a pledge, that despite our party dissensions and struggles, the great mass of the right-thinking men of the nation are unanimous in repelling real danger to our country and our nation, come it from w thin or from without. It marked in the blackest colours the contempt in which the once respected statesman was held, when he cast aside his honour with his offtce, and sacrificed his patriotism to a faction. In that division personal feelings and party considerations

were again and again sacrificed for the country's good. England liiay be proud of the 315 who stood true to her in thai bitter struggle.

J ?>7th. — Kilkenny. — On Monday, the 17th ' May, (ho Ofticers of (his !&cgiineul gene a grand , dinner to Major-Gene; al M'Donald, C.8., ComJ ninndiug (he District, and se\cralof their friends, ! to commnnoiaie Ihe bailie of Albuera, in which J action this gallant Regiment bore a distinguished part, and acquired the appellation of "The Diehards," which they have retained ever since. The dinner and wines Merc of the very host description, and Ihe rich Mess plale of the Corps Mas displayed to gieat advantage. A portion of Ihe old colours canied on (heClh of May, JBJI, and which had waved triumphantly before the embattled ho^fs of France, were hung up opposite the banners now used in (he Regiment, and reminded Ihe auesls of " Auld lang syne." After Ihe "Health of Her Majesty Ihe Queen" had been drunk with all the honouis, Major Shadforth gave the "Memory of those v.ho had fallen at Albuera" — drank, of course, in silence. The Major then proposed '" The health of LieutGeneral Sir Edwaid Blakcncv and Hie survivors of Albuera," coupling with these (he names of Major-General M' Donald, C.8., and Colonel Urownc, Commissioner of Police, the only two persons at table Avho were present at Albuera, and who sal at his right and left hand. MajorGeneral M" Donald returned thanks in an eloquent and soldierlike manner. He said that although he and his friend Colonel Browne were the only Albuero men present, he saw several officers whose fathers had served in that glorious action, in particular Major Shadforlh, whose father had lost a leg in the 57th there ; and Capt. Tnglis, son of the late Sir William Inglis, K. C.8., who was Lieut. -Colonel commanding the 57th in this gallantly fought battle. He added that when the regiment had sustained a loss of twothirds of its numbers, the Lieu tenant-Colonel called out in a loud voice, "close your ranks, !>7lh— die hard !" which expression was Ihe origin of the name by which the Corps is still called. Major-General M'Donald also quoted the very Haltering terms used by Marshal Beresford in his despatch, with reference (o the 57th. The Major-General's manly speech was received with the greatest enthusiasm ; when he again rose, and proposed " The health of Lord Hardinge (Colonel of the Corps), and of the S7th Regiment." He stated that to Lord Haidinge, (hen a Lieulenanl-Colonel upon the staff, the British army of Albuera Avere most deeply indebted ; and that to his decision and promptitude at a critical moment, and the unflinching courage of the 571 hand some other Regiments, the glorious result of the day was mainly due. The President (Major Shadforth), after returning thanks for Lord Hardinge and the 57th, proposed Ihe toast of " The Fusilier Brigade, and their friend and guest Colonel Browne, who served in the Royal Welsh in (his great action.' He commented in warm terms upon the noble conduct of the Fusilier Brigade, which had contributed so largely to the victory, and so beautifully described by Napiei in his " History of the Peninsular War." Colonel Browne returned in suitable terms, and said he had come from Dublin on purpose to be present on so interesting an occasion, and would have gone (en limes the distance to meet the old " Die-hards." Other toasts were given, and the party did not break up until long after the midnight hour, having passed a most convivial evening, which will long be remembered by (hose who partook of the festivity. The fine band of (he Regiment contributed greatly to the enjoyment of the evening. — United Service Gazelle.