common warfare here, and a common hope hereafter. I am a Conservative,
not because I am adverse to improvement, not because I am unwilling to
repair what is wasted, or to supply what is defective in the political
fabric, but because I am satisfied that, in order to improve
effectually, you must be resolved most religiously to preserve. I am a
Conservative, because I believe that the institutions of our country,
religious as well as civil, are wisely adapted, when duly and
faithfully administered, to promote, not the interest of any class or
classes exclusively, but the happiness and welfare of the great body
of the people; and because I feel that, on the maintenance of these
institutions, not only the economical prosperity of England, but, what
is yet more important, the virtues that distinguish and adorn the
English character, under God, mainly depend.

[Sidenote: Speech on the Address.]

Parliament met on August 19, and, on the 24th, the new member seconded the
amendment on the Address, in a speech, of great promise. In the course of
it he professed himself a friend to Free Trade, but Free Trade as
explained and vindicated by Mr. Huskisson:--

He should at all times be prepared to vote for a free trade on
principles of reciprocity, due regard being had to the interests which
had grown up under our present commercial system, without which, as he
conceived, the rights of the labouring classes could not be protected.
Much had been on various occasions said about the interests of the
capitalists and the landlords, but unless the measures of a Government
were directed equally to secure the rights of the working classes,
they never should be supported by a vote of his. It was true that the
landlord might derive some increased value to his property from the
increase of factories and other buildings upon it, and that the
capitalist might more advantageously invest his capital, or he might
withdraw it from a sinking concern; but the only capital of the
labourer was his skill in his own particular walk, and it was a
mockery to tell him that he could find a satisfactory compensation
elsewhere.

But the most characteristic part of his speech was that in which he
commented on the 'harsh, severe, and unjust terms' in which it had been
the fashion to designate those who had taken an opposite view on these
questions to tha