Edward Robert Sullivan

“ I have always maintained that, in strict moral justice, and by that alone, do I guide my policy. The interests of Russia in India require as great, or even greater consideration than our own. (Loud cheers.) India is a trust placed in our hands by Divine Providence to have and to hold till she can walk alone, and if she now thinks she can walk alone, and my friend, Lord Ripon— (loud cheers) —has done all in his power to induce her to try, or if she prefers the guidance of Holy Russia to our own, she is perfectly at liberty to do so. (Loud cheers and shouts of "Perish India.") ”

“ Removing them from the unremunerative labour of growing wheat to the remunerative labour of growing fruit, and flowers, and jam. Is it only a dream of happy Arcadia, or is it a reality, that in a few years our population will withdraw from the ruder arts of husbandry—will no longer toil and moil in the demoralising atmosphere of unsuccessful manufacturing competition, but, guileless and happy, will, under conditions of compulsory peace, employ their leisure in the truly rural occupation of growing fruit and flowers and making jam. ”

“ We spent six or seven millions sterling in destroying Alexandria, in stamping out the national rising under Arabi, in bringing the blessings of civilisation to the fierce Arabs of the Soudan at Teb and Tamanieb. (Loud cheers.) These are the sacrifices we have made in the noble cause of cosmopolitanism, in advancing the interests of ether nations in preference to our own; and now—such is human ingratitude—the very nations in whose interests we spent £6,000,000 to destroying Alexandria now ask us to pay £8,000,000 more to rebuild it. ”

“ It has never yet been proved to my satisfaction, and I think I may promise you it never will, that England would be worse off without India, or Ireland, or Australia, or Malta, or Gibraltar. Are not the Dutch, and Belgians, and Portuguese as happy and prosperous as the Irish? Is not our true position amongst the fifth-rate Powers of the world, and should we not be more honest and respected if we accepted it? ”

“ The only way in which he can serve his country, and achieve success, is by making him a peer. (Cheers.) He would make an excellent peer. Should I be justified in sacrificing the best, probably the only prospects of my son's advancement, to my dislike to Lord Salisbury? (Cries of "No, no.") Am I to sacrifice my friends in order to be revenged on his? To burn my house in order to roast his eggs? (Cheers.) I think not. I am not, as you know, just now a supporter of female franchise, but that is because it was made a stalking-horse by the Tories to hamper my Franchise Bill. ”

“ Let jingoes rave and patriots declaim, England can never, under free trade, carry on a war with a maritime power; our fleets would be employed in guarding our grain ships; our coasts, our colonies, our coaling stations would be at the mercy of our enemies. ”

“ OUR POLICY IN EGYPT
is the wonder and admiration of the world, and but for the pardonable jealousies of some of our neighbours, and the unpardonable criticisms of the Opposition, our success would have been greater still. The judicious letting of blood at Alexandria, Tel-el-Keber, in the Soudan, and on the shores of the Red Sea, appears to have been attended with wonderful results. ”

“ I have been reminded that as the Scotch are the most adventurous and successful of our pioneers, that as there are a far greater number of her sons in India and our Colonies as covenanted and uncovenanted servants, as merchants and traders all over the world, the policy of abandoning our possessions might not be popular with you ”

“ But the strongest argument against diminishing our home supply of wheat, and one that almost makes me doubt the sanity of my countrymen is, that
"IT PREVENTS OUR GOING TO WAR!"
They say that if we went to war with any maritime Power we should be starved into peace in a fortnight. Of course we should. And this, forsooth, is called a national danger. I say, on the other hand, it is the greatest national security that human ingenuity could devise. (Loud cheers.) Who so safe as those who cannot fight? (Renewed cheers.) I say that Free Trade is steadily extinguishing our home supply of food ”

“ Is it not the great canon of our faith that everything noble, generous, and admirable, is represented by the party I have now the honour of addressing, and everything mean, contemptible, and miserable by the party that I am told will be addressed by Lord Salisbury next week? (Loud cheers.) Four years ago I told you that the
DECLINING TRADE
of the country was the result of the foreign policy of Lord Beaconsfield. I could not have foreseen that the deadly effects of that policy could last so long. The fatal effects indeed are so strong we cannot get rid of them. ”

“ I beseech you not to listen to him. "Let no man beguile you into a voluntary humility!" Honour to whom honour is due—the honour of your success is due to your noble selves. "You owe nothing, absolutely nothing whatever, to your institutions, to your citizenship. ”

“ I know that in addressing so thoughtful and intelligent an assembly as I now see before me, I shall receive your hearty applause when I tell you that what is vulgarly called the glorious Empire of England, inspires me with no pride whatever. ”

“ In a month wheat would be up to 200s. a quarter; and I defy the most warlike Minister that ever lived, I defy Lord Salisbury himself, to carry on war with wheat at 200s. a quarter. "But," say the pessimists, still not happy, "the English are, after all, at heart, a proud, fierce nation, and if insulted would rush into war," ready or not ready. Well, all I can say is that if, after; a few more years of Radical rule, they have any pride left, they had better put it in their pockets; it will only cause them mischief. ”

“ I never now feel fretful about the present, or anxious about the future; on the contrary, I grasp the present with perfect confidence, and leave the future with equal confidence to take care of itself. A woman, as you know, is as young as she looks, a man is as young as he feels! ”

“ But granted, which in all humility it is my pleasure to do, that in every case we have not been able to command complete success, does not that prove the extraordinary difficulties we have had to encounter? ”

“ It has even been whispered that if I had been in opposition I should have been an Egyptian nationalist, that I should have supported the struggling nationality of Egypt, as I had before done those of Italy, Bulgaria, and India ”

“ I need not explain to you, my dear fellow-countrymen, whose indisposition to give a direct answer is proverbial, how impossible it is that there should be any sympathy, anything, in fact, but antipathy between me and a statesman who says exactly what he means, who tells you point blank what he wants, and how he is going to get it ”

“ And my eldest son, to whom, I grieve to say it, politics appear to be rather a bore, it is certain he will never make a name in the present House of Commons; it is possible he may never sit in another. ”

“ This fall in wages will not only enable us to compete with them in our own market, but if the fall is continued, as I think we may reasonably hope it will be, it will enable us to compete with the Belgians in their own markets, in spite of the 40 per cent. protection they enjoy. ”

“ I am sure you will agree with me that it is better for the great cause of humanity and cosmopolitanism that every ship in England and in Scotland should be laid up than that they should continue to trade under the inhuman system that Mr. ”