armies [Cheers]. It had not been our policy to keep a large standing army, but we had always been ready to consider that the bravery of our men could be relied upon; and so long as England could send forth such men as fought in the Crimea, she has little to fear either for her honour or her safety [Cheers]. But at the same time many persons had thought that through the insufficiency of our military regulations our army was exposed to unnecessary suffering and loss, and that we showed an inferiority in comparison with our allies. IT was now our duty to make our army the most efficient that could be had - to see that our officers were educated up to all that was necessary for such efficiency. . . As regarded the Maynooth Grant, which had excited so much attention. It was given as a national policy to raise up a priesthood at home rather than [Hear hear!] He thought it could not be said to have answered its object. He should be favourable to the withdrawal of that grant on the principle that it should be done so as not to raise a feeling of injustice to our Catholic fellow-citizens. He should not be prepared to support a measure which was directed by a narrow point of religious animosity against any Christian denomination whatever. He had said that Roman Catholics were looked upon with more suspicion than any other religious body, and he thought that he shared in those suspicions. He disliked that excessive and paramount authority which was claimed by the priesthood, and the power which they exercised over the people by the confessional and their connection with a foreign power rendered their motions more justly open to be closely watched. He would say this much at the risk of repeating himself that it was not his business to reason upon these principles led to so long as the people were loyal fellow-subjects [cheers].
The one other subject to which he would call their attention was the sudden and extraordinary way in which the country found itself surprised into an election, if, indeed, they were to have an election at all. He not recapitulate to them, the extraordinary steps taken by Mr. Frewen with regard to his retirement from the representation of East Susssex. These proceedings must now sufficiently well known to all. They were first induced to suppose that he meant to retire at the next general election. Then, without any warning, they found that he was standing for Leicestershire. Then he informed them that he was about to retire last week, a pledge he had not yet redeemed. Mr Frewen, as they knew him in Sussex, was a Prolectionist, chiming to that exploded policy long after it had been rejected by everyone else; still he made it his boast that he acted up to his family motto, and never changed his opinions. In that he told them that with hiim time brought no lessons, facts had no influence, and experience no weight. He also made -
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From Historical Hastings
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