The Life of Thomas, Lord Cochrane, Tenth Earl of Dundonald, Vol. I

by Earl of Thomas Barnes Cochrane Dundonald; H. R. Fox Bourne

Mr. Cotes said he was entirely unconnected with the noble lord, and had never even had the honour of speaking, to him. He agreed, however, with him in thinking that this was a moment when the eyes of the public ought to be open to their real situation. The amendment harmonized entirely with all the opinions which he had been able to form upon subject. Mr. Wilberforce, to whose humane and benevolent Mr. character he was happy to pay his acknowledgments, had attempted to get rid of the noble lord's amendment by a sort of side-wind; but to his judgment there was no incompatibility between the object of the meeting and the amendment. There was nothing irrelevant in it; it naturally grew out of the course adopted by the chair, and in which a cause of the prevailing distress was distinctly specified. The question was, then, ought their resolutions to go forth to the public with a falsehood upon the face of them? Ought they not to state the true cause, since His Royal Highness by mistake had assigned a fallacious one? Mr. Wilberforce, with his usual ability, but in a manner that still marked its duplicity—he meant the word in no offensive sense—had asked, would he enter into a political discussion when we were called upon to extend relief? He begged to state this was not the true question: it was whether they would found all the future proceedings upon error and misstatement, or upon incontrovertible facts. Another question was, would they be satisfied to patch up the wounds of the country for a short period or seek to remedy the disease in its spring and in its sources before it became still more alarming and incurable? The Duke of Kent said he had offered the resolution as it had been put into his hand; and if he had conceived there had been any mention of a course upon which difference of opinion could exist, he hoped they knew him sufficiently to believe that he should have been incapable of requiring their assent to it. He now, therefore, proposed an omission of all that part of the resolution which had any reference whatever to the cause of the present distress. He knew the noble lord well enough—and he had known him in early life—to be assured that he would agree with him, at least in a declaration as to the fact. Their common object, he believed, was to afford relief and to admit its necessity without assigning either one cause or another. For his own part, it had not been his intention to attend a political discussion. He would never enter the arena of politics with the noble lord; but he begged leave to say, he considered himself as competent to plead the cause of humanity, to advocate the interests of the weather-beaten sufferer, as the noble lord could be. There were, however, other times and other places for men to engage in discussion of party politics, and he therefore implored the noble lord not to distract the attention of the meeting by the introduction of these; and to keep solely in view that they had met as the friends of benevolence, not as the advocates of a party. His Royal Highness then proposed to alter the motion as follows:—

"Resolved that there do at this moment exist a stagnation of employment and a revulsion of trade, deeply affecting the situation of many parts of the community, and producing many instances of great local distress."

Lord Cochrane, in reply, stated that he had no wish to excite a difference of opinion on such an occasion, and that, after the alteration in the resolution, nothing gave him more pleasure than the opportunity of withdrawing his amendment; but, in justification of what he had done, it became necessary for him to say that he never would have thought of his amendment if it had not been for the assertion as to the cause of existing distress—he had no doubt in his mind as to the nature of that cause, and he held it but just and honourable that if a cause must be assigned, it should be the true one. After returning thanks to Mr. Wilberforce and the Duke of Kent for their expressions of personal civility, the noble lord consented to withdraw his motion so far as he was personally concerned in it.

Considerable opposition, however, from various parts of the hall was manifested to this mode of withdrawing the amendment, and a great deal of disturbance took place. At last the resolution, as altered by the Duke of Kent, was put and carried.

The Duke of Cambridge, in his speech, which followed, returned his warm thanks to the noble lord for the handsome manner in which he had withdrawn his amendment. He moved the following resolution, which was unanimously agreed to:—

"From the experienced generosity of the British nation it may be confidently expected that those who are able to afford the means of relief to their fellow-subjects will contribute their utmost endeavours to remedy or alleviate the sufferings of those who are particularly distressed."

The Archbishop of Canterbury moved the following resolution, which was seconded and carried unanimously: "That although it is obviously impossible for any association of individuals to attempt a general relief of difficulties affecting so large a proportion of the public, yet that it has been proved by the experience of this association that most important and extensive benefits may be derived from the co-operation and correspondence of a society in the metropolis encouraging the efforts of those benevolent individuals who may be disposed to associate themselves in the different districts for the relief of their several neighbourhoods."

The Duke of Rutland afterwards addressed the meeting, and moved that a subscription be immediately opened, and contributions generally solicited for carrying into effect the objects of this association; which was seconded, and agreed to.

The Earl of Manvers, after stating that he had opposed the amendment of the noble lord (Lord Cochrane) solely from his anxiety to preserve the unanimity of the meeting, as it was only by becoming unanimous they could gain their object, moved: "That subscribers of 100£ and upwards be added to the committee of the Association for the Relief of the Manufacturing and Labouring Poor; that the committee have full power to dispose of the funds to be collected, and to name sub-committees for correspondence."

The motion was seconded by Sir T. Bell, and unanimously carried.