ch no true-hearted Englishman could read without emotion: and I
have heard a tribute not less generous and not less unqualified borne
to the qualities of our troops by eminent persons belonging to that
great military nation with which we are now so happily allied. To look
to another quarter--to contemplate another class of virtues not less
essential than those to which I have referred to the happiness and
glory of nations--I have heard from enthusiastic, even bigoted,
votaries of that branch of the Christian Church which sometimes prides
itself as having alone retained in its system room for the exercise of
the heroic virtues of Christianity,--I say I have frequently heard
from them the frank admission, that the hospitals of Scutari have
proved that the fairest and choicest flowers of Christian charity and
devotion may come to perfection even in what they are pleased to call
the arid soil of Protestantism. But, my Lords, can we flatter
ourselves with the belief that the character of our statesmen, of our
public men, and of our Parliamentary institutions has risen in a like
proportion? Is it not, on the contrary, notorious that doubts have
been created in quarters where such doubts never existed before as to
the practical efficiency of our much-vaunted constitution, as to its
fitness to carry us unscathed through periods of great difficulty and
danger? I believe, my Lords, that there is one process only, but that
a sure and certain process, by which these doubts may be removed. It
is only necessary that public men, whether connected with the
Government or with the Opposition, whether tied in the bonds of party
or holding independent positions in Parliament, should evince the same
indifference to small and personal motives, the same generous
patriotism, the same disinterested devotion to duty, which have
characterised the services of our soldiers in the field, and of the
women of England at the sick-bed. And, my Lords, I cannot help asking
in conclusion, if--which God forbid--it should unhappily be proved
that, in those whom fortune, or birth, or royal or popular favour has
placed in the van, these qualities are wanting, who shall dare to
blame the press and the people of England, if they seek for them
elsewhere?

From the tone of this speech it will be seen that Lord Elgin had not at
this tim