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2 erthygl ar y dudalen hon

--------THE LIBERAL CAMPAIGN…

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THE LIBERAL CAMPAIGN IX MONTGOMERY- j SHIRE. I MEETING AT LLANIDLOES. A public meeting, convened by the Montgomeryshire Liberal Association, was held in the Old Bethel Chapel, Llanidloes, on Saturday afternoon, May 4th, for the purpose of hearing addresses by the Hon. F. Hanbury Tracv M.P. Mr. Stuart Rendel, Mr. David Davies, :M,P., and other gentlemen. There was a very large attendance, the audience occupying both the galleries and the body of the chapel. On the motion of Mr. E. Davies, seconded by Mr. W. Thomas, the Mayor (Mr. R. Jones), was voted to the chair. The MAYOR, who was received with loud cheers, in opening the proceedings, said it would be very difficult for hinj to tell them the great pleasure he had in presiding over that meeting. Connected as he had been for some five-and-twenty years with the active policy of the Liberals of Montgomeryshire, he was proud to tell them that the position in which that policy had placed them was more satisfactory now than ever it had been before. At the time tha'. the Hon. Charles Hanbury-Tracy, their former member, was elected for the Boroughs, they were placed in a very happy position. It was said that their leaders in politics came to a tacit understanding that there was to be no contest for the future in Montgomery- shire, either for the Boroughs or County. The under- standing was that there should be no contest for the Boroughs, because they would never be contested by a Conservative, on the understanding that the Liberals would not contest the County. That understanding was not at all agreeable to the feeling of Liberals in the upper part of the county, because they all very well knew that they had a large majority of Liberals in that part of the county, who could not consent to an agreement on those terms. The agreement seemed to have been broken on the part of theCollsen-ati ves, when at the last vacancy which occurred in the Boroughs a Con- servative candidate was introduced for the purpose of contesting the Boroughs in the person of Lord Castle- reagh, and the Liberals succeeded in placing their present member in the position his brother previously occupied, with a large majority, shewing that the Liberals of the Boroughs were in that satisfactory position he had pre- viously stated they were. (Cheers.) The Conservatives having thrown down the gauntlet in the Boroughs, it was perfectly just and right the Liberals should take it np, by contesting the county on the same principles on which they had contested the Boroughs. (Cheers.) He, as ex- pressing the opinions of a large majority, took up that position with a great deal of pleasure. He always believed, and firmly believed, that Montgomeryshire was not only Liberal in heart and principle, but that the majority was dstsrmined to place the seats for the County and Boroughs upon a Liberal and very Liberal basis, and he believed they would be able to do so, if the Liberals would only be united. He was proud to tell them that they were HOW in a position to bring forward a gentleman who would contest the county on Liberal principles—(loud cheers)—and he (the Mayor) was sure, united as they would be, they would place him in the House of Commons as the Liberal member for the county of Montgomery. He had no doubt their new member would be proud of that position, and do all he possibly could for the interests and good of the county. (Loud cheers.) He begged, therefore, to introduce Ir. Stuart Rendel to them—(loud and prolonged cheering)—upon whom they could firmly rely, and who would advocate those principles to which they were so firmly attached, to their utmost satisfaction, and to the fullest extent of his ability, and he (the Mayor) was happy to tell them that lie was possessed of that ability. He was sure he would if elected do justice to their interests. He begged to introduce Mr. Stuart Rendel, the future member, he hoped, for the county of Montgomery. (Loud cheers.) Mr. STUART RENDEL, who was received with great cheering, then said :—Mr. Chairman and gentlemen,—I thank you most gratefully for your kind reception of me. This is not the first time I have stood here, and, perhaps, as the worthy Mayor, our chairman, has given you the history of the candidate appearing at all, I may be allowed to take up the story where he left it off, and tell you a little secret, and that is, how I came here before and have had the honour of addressing you already. (Cheers.) Well, some good and true friends of yours, who happened by my good fortune to be also friends of mine, came to me about the time of the last election and said:—"We should like you for the county of Mont- gomery," and I answered, "Montgomery! Every one knows that Montgomeryshire is in the hands of two or three great landowners, and the Liberals of Montgomery, though they exist, cannot call their souls their own." (Cheers and laughter.) Well, my friends said, Don't be too sure of that. Come down and see," and I came down and saw with what enthusiasm, with what public spirit, with what unity Montgomeryshire could act when it wished, in the Liberal cause, and one great difficulty was removed from the path of the future candidate. But, gentlemen, I say more than that. I do not want to place myself on a lower ground than I can help. It was not want of courage merely which interfered with my accepting at once a proposal so very honourable, and which I felt did me a great deal more honour than any merits of my own could at all justify. There was something else that swayed my heart when I came here, and that was, if you will forgive me for saying so, a feeling of pity for you. I saw that in this county there were a large number of Liberals, and that to the best of my poor judgment there was a con- siderable majority of Liberals. (Hear, hear.) I saw this also, that these electors had for a long period been entirely without the opportunity of showing what their opinions were, or of making their influence felt. Gentlemen, I said to myself, It is a shame; it is a shame that Mont- gomeryshire should go on for election after election with never a man to stand up for the Liberal cause in it." (Cheers.) I know I can rely upon the public spirit of the people. I know in the "first place that a large num- ber of them are Nonconformists, and we all know also that though all Liberals are not Nonconformists, yet that all Nonconformists are Liberals. (Hear, hear.) But I did not reckon in a factious spirit upon Nonconformity. What I reckoned upon in the Nonconformists was their known, their traditional independence of character, and I verily believe that powerful as may be what is called the legitimate influence of property in Montgomeryshire, the independence of the Montgomeryshire people would, if a fair chance was given it, triumph over all obstacles. (Cheers.) Now that I think is enough of anything in the nature of personal retrospect, and I pass on to describe what I hope will be the real issue in the contest which will sooner or later be fought—I mean political questions. It is upon these we wish to record a decision, a decision, I trust, most favourable to the cause I venture to champion. (Cheers.) I give the first place, as I have done before, in the political questions of the day, to the Burials question. (Cheers.) I make no shame to harp upon that. I know you would wish to hear the views of your candidate for yourself. You might read about them, but you will, I trust, be glad to know with how much genuineness and eartnestness they come from his mouth. (Cheers.) Now I do hold a very strong and earnest opinion upon that question from a point of view which, I trust, is wholly un- sectarian. I believe it to be for the best interests of this country that a battle should be fought upon that question if the Conservative party are unwise enough to permit it. You know they have a very happy art of yield- in., at the critical moment. The loaves and fishes of office are very dear to them. (Hear, hear.) Their business is a very simple one. While we unfortunate Liberals are bound for our lives long to keep our shoulders to the wheel, their duty is to stop it as long as they can in their own interest, and let it roll, when it must roll, in their interest too. (Cheers and laughter.) As to the Burials Question, it is not only one of wide and general significance for the Liberal party; but the proposed change in the law is one which the Nonconformists should carry as an act of justice to themselves and an indication of their position in the country generally. (Cheers.) I do not wish to say that it is to be treated by them in any sense as a vantage ground from which to continue attacks upon institutions very deeply rooted in the hearts and traditions of the people of England, especially as distinct from the people of "Wales. I do not wish to say that, but I wish to urge that this question should be warmly taken up and fought, not merely upon sentimental grounds, not upon the ground that some concession should be made in order that persons religiously minded should not have their feelings wounded by those who differ but slightly from them upon doctrinal points, in moments the most sacred and touching in their lives. I do not wish that the battle should be fought merely upon that ground, but upon the wider ground of bare justice. (Cheers.) It is by fighting it upon that ground that one step will be 0 made- one more step-in that general advance of Liberal opinion, which it is our business as Liberals to encourage in this country, and to sympathize with wherever it may be in progress in the world outside us. (Cheers.) As for argument upon this question, I think we need not go into it. Nobody argues upon this question now. It is reduced simply to a trial of strength. You have the fact we cannot get over, that the great bulk of the clergy of the Church of England have risen as one man in one compact body with a view to resist the proposed change. This is the only argument, and it is an argument which, if you face it, must melt before you. You know that the clergy are upon this question in a very isolated, and in fact, rather a pitiable state. They have not got the great bulk of English Churchmen with them. They have no authority or recognition from their own Archbishops and superiors. (Hear, hear.) There are liberal Bishops like the Bishop of this Diocese, but unhappily they do not carry their clergy with them, and we must deal with the fact that the Conservative party in the ensuing election will be only too certain to bid for the support of these 15,000 clergy with the bribe of continued resistance upon this Burials Question. (Hear, hear.) That, gentlemen, I ven- ture to say is the only solid argument with which you have to-'deal, and it is an argument you can most easily meet by simply appearing at the Poll, with resolution, with your hearts in the matter, determined to work not only for yourselves, not only for this Principality of Wales, not only for Nonconformity throughout the country, but for the good Liberal cause everywhere and in all places. (Loud cheers.) And here I would say a word or two on Disestablishment, because I think you would wish to hear and to know for yourselves from me what my feelings are upon that subject. Now I recognize the Church Estab- lishment'as one of those institutions which this country was exceedingly slow in producing, and will be exceedingly retentive in guarding, and which, for good and for evil, is so deeply entwined in the hearts and affections of a large number of people that some care, some prudence, must be exercised on the part of public men in dealing .with it. Do c not take me for a trimmer upon the question. You need have no real doubt as to what my sentiments are in regard to it. I am in favour of free churches, of religious liberty everywhere. (Cheers.) But it is, we must admit, a question of policy. I dare say you have heard the saying of a wise old man, "You may fell an oak, and the forest will re-echo with its fall, but a hundred acorns are sown in silence by the unnoticed breeze." The oak, gentlemen, is the English Establishment; the acorn is just such a chapel as we saw raising its modest head in Newtown only yesterday. The acorn is one of many hundreds which this Principality alone can number. It is, I think, from such acorns as these we should look for the day when the oak itself having- fallen into respectable decay, will be surrounded by hearty thriving saplings, out of which the country will get the good timber of sound religious teaching. (Cheers.) From these two questions I daresay you will prefer that I should go at once to the great question of the day, upon which I am to be followed by very able speakers, some of whom are, I know, not quite at one with me in respect to it. I wish to take little more than a merely general view of the ques- tion, because you know it is one of those questions so large and so close to us, that it is very difficult for any man to regard it in its J." t" _lLt. ezitirety. Ecteli man seei a particular part 01 it, anu wicre- fore there is ground for difference of opinion upon it amongst persons, otherwise of one mind, which will dis- appear—be sure of it-with lapse of time. When this looming ominous cloud is a little farther from us, we can see what it means, what it was, and what it is. With that prelude I venture to describe the situation in this manner. England, as you know, was the principal Power interested in the maintenance ikf the existing state of -ine things at the eastern eud of the Mediterranean. I might say she was the only Power, from her own point of view. That was how she came to take the principal part in rais- ing difficulties with Russia many years ago. She got France to join her simply because France wished the respectability of such an alliance. She got Sardinia to join her because Sardinia saw that it was the easiest road to a European position, and with these allies she carried on a war for a purpose really and entirely her own. I give prominence to this point because in the Treaty which followed that war the obligations which England accepted were thereby rendered of a peculiarly sacred and binding character. Now, what were those obligations? She said in effect-" I t isto my interest thatTurkey.should remain undestroyed by externalforce. Let Turkey quietly sink into oblivion. Letthefree nationalities in Turkey slowly emerge Do not put Turkey to sudden death. Let time work out its own will upon her." Then Europe said It would be a scandal to the nations if Turkish misrule were suffered to continue." So England agreed that Turkey should enter into her own recognizances to be of good conduct in the matter of her unfortunate dependencies. Those recognizances—or that guarantee as it was called-were accepted by Europe, and by England in particular—as England had a most special obligation under that Treaty. Now England never fulfilled that obligation. I am not saying this as a matter for which the Conservatives are to blame. I am merely indicating a simple fact. Then came upon us only a short time ago this dreadful crisis, in which Turkey proved herself to be utterly abominable and utterly unfit to rule. At the same time she did us and our reputation as her allies very great damage. We have not yet seen the end of the mischief she has done us. Then Europe, united Europe, did that which we believe was right. It invited us to reconsider this Treaty, and to endeavour to place some pressure upon Turkey to make her behave herself. What has our Government done ? In our indictment against our Government we charge it with having for a long timv persistently resisted these efforts of Europe to have this question settled by a European Congress or Conference. Nobody can dispute that. Of course we have every day fresh defences of the Government. It would be a very unfortunate thing for the Government if some of its mem- bers were not clever enough to make the worse appear the better cause. Yet no one can dispute the fact that our Government persistently rejected ^European action in this matter. The ground which they took up was the ground of British interests. They distrusted Europe, and I think that if British interests are to be interpreted as they in- j terpreted them, they were right in not believing that Europe would support them. But the matter could not rest where it was, and then after the Conference Russia was forced into war by sentiments which I think everybody must admit did the Russian people honour. When Russia entered upon war what was the eourse that our Government advised Her Majesty to pursue? It was to issue a proclamation of neutrality. That proclamation of neutrality was isssued, and what followed ? Necessarily assent; not protest, but the assent of England to the infraction of the treaty thus caused. I hope gentlemen that I carry you with me so far, and that you will admit that when her Majesty's Government decided not to interfere, when theydecided that they would neither take up the cause of the unfortunate Christian subjects of Turkey themselves, nor permit Europe to [settle the question, suffered Russia to take up arms on behalf of the Christian subjects of the Porte, England, by assuming an attitude of neutrality, assented so far to the course taken by Russia. Now comes the straining point of the difficult position we are in. Russia having gone to war, having done the work and paid the price, comes forward and says I want a settlement made now. I want the ratification of Europe to what I have done. I cannot go back to where I was, after all I have done and suffered. You permitted me to undertake that war. You cannot expect me to give up all the results I have achieved at so tremendous a cost." Well, gentlemen, I am no sympathizer with Russia. But I am a true friend of peace-(cheers)-and I cannot conceive how anyone can seriously maintain that there is anything in the situation which has arisen from the circumstances I have, I believe, fairly and truly sketched, which would justify this country in undertaking what Mr. Bright has happily called the multitudinous crime of war. What are we going to war for ? Nobody knows. Many people suspect, but there is no clue to the policy of her Majesty's Government which does not, in my humble thinking, point more or less to the restoration of the Turkish dominion in Europe. The country will never accept that. (Hear, hear.) It is useless to propose [t, and therefore it is kept in the back ground. But I bhink it is so clear, from the speeches of her Majesty's Ministers, that any one can read between the lines that that is the only issue which the Government have definitely before them when they contemplate the possibility of war. It is a strange thing surely that we should be ready to fight in order to restore Turkish misrule in Bulgaria. It is a very hard thing that we should not be ready to fight to get rid of that misrule, while weare ready to fight to prevent Russia frori acquiring mere influences in Bulgaria. (Hear,hear.) It seems almost inconceivable that the British Government, in this year of grace, 1878, should be àdbptmg such an extremely re-actionary line of policy as this. (Cheers.) I do not at all wish to venture upon minute criticisms of the conduct of Ministers, or their utterances. On this oc- casion, at any rate, I wish rather to take a broad view of our position, but I will say this, that Lord Beaconsfield has been our evil genius in this matter, and that we are suffering for the sins and weaknesses of the Conservative party. (Cheers.) They cannot find a leader amongst themselves. They have therefore a professional leader, a man who is no Epglishman-a man who has no real stake in the country. (Hear, hear.) Then again when the Conser- vatives get into power, what do they do? They invariably create some ferment in the public mind upon foreign questions in order to divert attention from home affairs. Their last resort towards the end of their tether of office, their natural game to play is war war! and how easily they can play it. Do you observe that in this country there is no conscription so that the rowdies can clamour for war, without any danger of being called upon to take a personal part in it. We live in a very secure little island, and the well-to-do people in London fearlessly and eagerly share in the excitement of warlike preparations and the prospect of a war, without the least risk of in- vasion. (Hear, hear.) These things have much to do with the light heart with which war is encountered. I would only end this dreary subject by saying to you, I think fitly from this place, where the words of the Prince of Peace have so often been uttered,-Is it not of the utmost moment that all earnest and true-hearted and Christian-hearted men should have the moral courage to rise and give voice everywhere to their determination that this country shall not be recklessly thrust into war for an object they understand not, with an end they know not, a war, which as I believe, would seriously demoralize the whole country and strike a most formidable blow at real Liberal progress both here and all over the world. (Loud cheers.) I feel I have very inadequately touched upon a large question, but it is difficult to know how to speak when one knows one is surrounded by men holding various opinions, and whose feelings one would wish to spare, and therefore I have tried hard, at the ex- pense, I fear, of some dulness, some want of point, to keep to the broadest generalities. Now I shall not detain you further, and will only end with one special and hearty word of thanks for the cordiality with which I have been received iu this county. It is the only acknowledgment, I believe, I can make of the kindness I have met with from those whom you respect, from those who are placed amongst you in the position of leaders, and who are, I am glad to know, thoroughly united, who will present a firm front, and will be able, I believe, if you will only second their efforts, to carry out your wishes, and to send a representative of your own opinions now at the last to the House of Com- mons. (Loud and prolonged cheering.) The MAYOR then called upon Mr. David Davies, M.P., to address the meeting. Mr. DAVID DAVIES, who was received with loud cheers, then moved the following resolution :—" That this meeting heartily welcomes Mr. Stuart Rendel, as a candidate for the county, and pledges itself to use every legitimate means to secure his return." (Loud cheers.) They not only accepted Mr. Rendel as a candidate, but pledged themselves without any if at all about it, to return him as their member. (Cheers and laughter.) It might be said, Suppose we have not sufficient of the needful to do it." He remembered very well that when they began the railway they had only about one-fourth of the money they wanted, but they said they would make the rest, and spend it as they went along, and they did so, and made a good railway. (Cheers.) He believed there were enough good Liberals in the county to return Mr. Stuart Rendel, let the election come when it might, but they would do well to employ the in- terval in making the needful, he did not mean making money, but converts to Liberalism. (Cheers.) Fine speeches were all very well, but what they wanted was votes. (Hear, hear.) They were all agreed in wanting a change in the representation of the county—(loud cheers). Let them remember all they owed to the Liberal party for the last forty years,—(cheers,)—and having all agreed that they wanted a change, the question was whether they had got the right man in the right place. Well they had heard him, and he was sure that if their candidate had been born and bred in Llanidloes, he could not be a better fellow than what he was. (Cheers and laughter.) He was the very man they wanted as the candidate for Montgomeryshire. (Cheers.) It was true that to some extent he was a stranger in the county, and some of the Tories had been saying that they had got a man who came from London with a carpet bag in his hand, because they could not find a candidate in the county. Well, if they could find a better man out of the county than in it why not choose him? (Cheers.) He (Mr. Davies) felt that a great responsibility rested with them for inviting him. They were doubly responsible for returning him, j because he was a stranger amongst them, and having in- vited him to come, and if he were to go away defeated, the shame would be on their heads as long as they lived. (Cheers.) It was perhaps better to be a little afraid about it, because when people were afraid they never went to sleep. (Cheers and laughter.) As Liberals they should be always willing to lend a hand to a weak brother, and do what they could to strengthen and confirm him. They were told it was all very well to say that the county was Liberal, but the Tories had got the land, and the land had got its influence. He admitted that the Tories had got part of the land, but they had not got it all. The Liberal had got a goodish slice of it. (Cheers.) They had representatives in that room of three out of the seven largest estates in the county. (Renewed cheers.) But one man was worth a great many acres of land, and they had got heaps of men in the county. (Cheers.) Under the old system of open voting he never did advise a farmer to GO against his landlord. He could not advise him to go against his bread and cheese, by voting for him. -The farmer could not afford to make that sacrifice. N ow under the Ballot things had very much changed. But they would be canvassed, and there was a great incon- sistency between canvassing and the Ballot. (Cheers.) Had he been in the House of Commons when the Ballot Act was passed he should have protested against can- vassing being permitted to continue. If a Tory agent extorted a promise from them to vote contrary to their convictions the question was whether they would be doing most wrong in breaking their word or doing violence to their convictions. Upon this point each man's conscience must judge for itself. He was not going to advise them to vote against their promise, but this was the conclusion he should come to. This old Tory landlord has no busi- ness to press me. He is a wicked old villain for doing it. (Laughter.) The Legislature must have intended that in such a case I might break my word, because they expressly provide the means to enable me to promise one way and vote the other." (Laughter) That is what was meant, and no doubt a great many did it. If because they were under a Tory landlord now they voted for a Tory, an( I if they should afterwards gain their liberty and vote for a Liberal, they would be accused no doubt of being turncoats. The Tories were all very well in their way, and he had a good many friends amongst them. He did not object to a Tory provided he did not take hold of the strings of his purse. He objected to his ruling for him. A Tory was only fit for a good dinner. (Laughter.) He was not fit to manage a liberal and progressive nation like ours. (Cheers.) When he was returned for the Cardiganshire boroughs, a little more than four years ago, and the Tories were in power, he said something for which lie was very much blamed by his Tory friends. He said the Tories lived gay, and lived expensive. (Laughter.) Well, had not the Tories lived gay and lived expensive? (Cheers and laughter.) They had not only done so, but they had quarreled with half the world. (Cheers.) What business had they to quarrel with our customers. Let them think of what a purse the Chancellor of the Ex- chequer had when the Tories came in power, of the pros- perous state of trade, and of the country generally, before they went into office, master and man with plenty of money, almost more than they knew what to do with, and let them look at the state of things now. How had it come about ? If a tradesman in Llanidloes or anywhere else lived gay and lived expensive, and then quarreled with half his customers, where would he be ? Why they would soon see him in" the Bankruptcy Court. (Cheers.) Where was the nation drifting now ? Why towards bankruptcy. Let them look at the state of things in Lancashire, or South Wales, or even in Llanidloes. It was all the doing of the Tories, and the only remedy was to turn them out. (Cheers.) One very good step towards turning them out was to put their friend Mr. Stuart Rendel in. (Cheers.) That would make a Liberal gain of two votes on a division. He believed that every Tory seat in Wales, with the exception of Sir Watkin's seat, was to be contested at the next general election, and that the candidates were ready, (Cheers.) They were not going to contest Sir Watkin's seat. Sir Watkin was not very well, and as he was a jolly good fellow, and did not often go to the House to vote, they would leave him in possession of his seat as long as he lived. (Cheers and laughter.) Something had been said about a compromise which had been entered into with regard to the borough and county. He was no party to anything of the sort, and knew nothing about it. He could not see why there should be any such compromise. Why should they set off a safe Liberal seat against an unsafe Tory seat ? Since the county was contested they had had the ballot, and an exten- sion of the franchise, which had added 2,000 votes to the register. Some people thought there was an insecurity about the ballot. Now he would make a contract with them, and they knew he could and would keep his word. If any one of them lost his farm in consequence of giving his vote, he would buy a farm for him of equal size and make him a present of the freehold. (Loud cheers.) But he would make one condition, and that was a very im- portant one. It was that they should hold their tongues and keep their own counsel. (Renewed cheers.) Let them not say a word about it, but quietly go and vote according to their conscience. (Hear, hear.) The hon. gentleman then referred to Conservative activity and to the establishment of Conservative Clubs as politi- cal training schools for young Conservatives, and for drawing young recruits from the Liberal ranks into their own. The Tories had been in office five years and had feathered their nests so well, that they would move heaven and earth before they would allow themselves to be turned out of their posts of emolument. (Cheers and laughter.) The Liberals must be equally on the alert to make converts. He believed there were only thirty Conserratives in Llanidloes, but let them try to gain some of them. (Cheers.) I 1 11 Mr. T. r. KOISEHTS seconded tne resolution in a ] Welsh speech, which was very well received. He said the electors of Montgomeryshire had already one member to represent them in Parliament, but they wanted two. For his own part he respected the Welsh gentry. He respected Mr. Wynn, the present member, and he would not have advised them to vote against him but for one reason—his principles were opposed to theirs. (Hear, hear.) Now, Mr. Rendel was of the same way of thinking as he (the speaker) and most of them were. Did not he and their borough member (Mr. Tracy) show that the previous day by taking part at the laying of the memorial stones of a new Nonconformist chapel ? How many Conservatives were there ? (Hear, hear.) Let them work earnestly till the day of the next election, so as to place beyond doubt the return of Mr. Rendel as our second member to represent the electors of that county. (Cheers.) Mr. R. G. GREENHOW, the ex-Mayor, supported the resolution in a forcible and effective speech, in the course of which he thought that when the screw was put upon a voter it was better for a man to break a promise given against his convictions than to vote in violation of them. The CHAIRMAN then put the resolution, which was car- ried unanimously and enthusiastically. Mr. STUART RENDEL, who was received with much cheering, said he could not refrain from infringing the rules laid down for their proceedings that day by rising a second time for the purpose of thanking them from his heart for the kind manner in which they had supported the resolution which had been so kindly proposed and seconded. He assured them that he entered into that contest with a very serious, and at the same time with a very firm heart. (Cheers.) Fine speeches, as had been observed, were not so important as resolution and unflinching courage, which could only be displayed when the opportunity arose. He trusted that when the opportunity did arise he should not be found altogether wanting in those qualities which were most necessary for the purpose they had in view. (Cheers.) Mr. S.MOUT, in an excellent speech, moved "That this meeting presents its thanks to the Hon. F. H. Tracy, M.P., for his past services, and pledges its complete con- fidence in him as the Liberal representative of the Mont- gomeryshire Boroughs." (Loud cheers.) Mr. WILLIAM THOMAS seconded the motion, which was carried with much enthusiasm. Mr. HANBURY TRACY, who was received with great cheering, said that if any assurance were necessary that the hearts of the people of that town of Llanidloes were sincerely and earnestly devoted to the support of their political principles, it would be furnished by the ringing cheers which had just resounded from all parts of that room. He could assure them that having mixed a good deal amongst the general public in London and elsewhere, and especially amongst Liberals, it was a great source of satisfaction to the members of that party to know that amidst the difficulties which had surrounded them during the last four years, they could reckon upon the unswerving fidelity of the people of those Boroughs. (Cheers.) Now he did not want to flatter them, but to stata why he thought that their support was so valuable. It wasl because that support was given upon due consideration and conviction, not on the hasty impulse of the moment, but from a just appreciation of facts and principles as they came before them. (Hear, hear.) From what he knew of the Tories-and he had a great many Tory friends-he could assure them there was a very great difference between their politics and 1 ory politics. inothing had struck him more forcibly during the time he had been in Parliament than the one fact of the difference in point of earnestness between the two parties. He had been anxious to tell them this because at the coming election—whether it came next year or next Whitsuntide, or whenever it might come, having once stood a contest in those Boroughs, and having been told that he would have to contest his seat again next time, he was very glad to know that he should have to fight by his side in the county a gentleman like Mr. Stuart Rendel. (Cheers.) With regard to the Eastern Question it had been alluded to so fully by previous speakers that he did not propose to enter into it at any length. He wanted to know what Lord Beaconsfield had done to bring about such a settlement of affairs as would herald a return to those happy times of peace and prosperity which this country formerly enjoyed, but which had passed away. He could call to mind no single act or word of Lord Beaconsfield's which had done anything to bring about this result. On the contrary no opportunity had been lost of impelling Russia to defend her national .dignity by letting loose the dogs of war. (Cheers.) He did not think that any one in that room, he might almost say whether Tory or Liberal, would dissent from that state- ment. He had himself heard some of the strongest sup- porters of the Government express themselves as exceed- ingly angry with the Government for their conduct upon the Eastern Question. If the party in power began quar- reling amongst themselves the result would very soon be a dissolution of Parliament, and then they would find themselves called upon perhaps very sud- denly indeed to fight for their principles at the polling booths. (Hear, hear.) He would not detain them at any length upon that occasion, but would rather keep himself in the back ground, because that meeting was not merely as he at first anticipated it would be, a meeting of himself and his constituents in that borough, but a more general meeting, in order, as it was market day, to give farmers and others attending the market an opportunity of seeing their future candidate, and, as he believed, from all he heard, their future mem- ber. (Cheers.) The hon. gentleman then referred to the Burials question and to the Bill of Mr. Ritchie, the mem- ber for the Tower Hamlets, the object of which was, he said, to give clergymen a larger discretion, and to allow < them, if they liked, to parmit Nonconformist ministers to officiate at,interments in churchyards. That was a very absurd proposal. Of course the clergy would not like that. (Hear, hear.) That was the way they were played with by the Conservative party, and they might depend upon it they would never get the Government to concede the demand embodied in Mr. Osborne Morgan's Burials Bill, until they were absolutely forced to do so. He had heard continually of late that the Nonconformists were not so anxious for the Burials Bill as tkey had been, and that if an election came about this year the question would not furnish the sort of war cry it did a few years ago. But he did not believe this. He did not be- lieve they would be satisfied with anything short of their just and reasonable demands. (Cheers.) He read a story the other day, as he was coming down in the train, which might, perhaps, illustrate the subject, as showing that sometimes when people resorted to a ruse, however in- genious, to accomplish their object, thej got punished for it. In the American State of Louisiana the porters were very careless about passengers' luggage; so much so that passengers hardly ventured to take any decent clothes or anything of value with them. One man had, however a great deal of luggage which he did not know what to do with, and as he did not wish to lose it, he had a portman- teau made in the shape of a coffin, put all his clothes in it, dressed himself in mourning, and went about telling people that the coffin contained his deceased wife's re- mains. (Laughter.) The porters accordingly took very great care of it, and the man arrived safely at his destina- tion with all his luggage intact, but, unfortunately when he got to the hotel he was told that no coffins were al- lowed to .be taken in there, and the consequence was that he was left out in the road. (Laugh- ter.) Such would be the fate of any Conservative Bill for dealing with burials in their churchyards. They would not have anything to do with it. (Cheers.) They would have the whole Bill of Mr. Osborne Morgan's and nothing but the whole Bill. (Renewed cheers.) That was a very important consideration for them, and he was quite certain that if they really regarded it as a vital ques- tion, upon which they could accept no tampering, they would not stand the slightest chance of getting it settled until they returned in England and Wales a majority of Liberal members. (Hear, hear.) He would say no more, except to thank them for the kindness with which they had received him. He hoped to be able to pay them another visit at Whitsuntide, when he trusted they would have a still larger meeting. (Cheers.) With regard to Mr. Stuart Rendel, he could only say that they were fortunate in getting him as their candidate, and that he was even more fortunate in having the prospect of representing them in that county. (Cheers.) Mr. HUMPHREYS OWEN, who was received with cheers, said that the following resolution had been placed in his hands:—"That it is the opinion of this meeting that neither the honour nor the interests of the Empire are in- volved in the maintenance of Turkish misgovernment in the south-east of Europe, and that the present critical state of our foreign affairs is solely due to the vacil- lating action and menacing and ambiguous language of her Majesty's Ministers during the last two years." Before beginning to say anything upon that subject, he should like to say something about the gentleman who had addresssed them for the first time, in his character of can- didate for the county. (Cheers.) For the benefit of those who were not present when Mr. Stuart Rendel began his address, he could say with great sincerity that that gen- tleman had expressed most fully the sentiments which lie himself, and he believed the great majority of Liberals in that neighbourhood and county, entertained fupon pub- lic affairs. (Cheers.) He believed that in returning him they would return a man whom they could rely upou all occasions to represent those Liberal feelings and that Liberal programme which were dear to the heart of the men of Montgomery, and which had been the very root and well-spring of the national happiness and prosperity during the last fifty years. (Cheers.) It had been said by people who ought to know better that Mr. Stuart Rendel was a mere flitting stranger who came there with his car- pet bag in his hand. It was truj he did come with a car- pet bag in his hand, but he believed there was a great deal more luggage to follow, and,-(cheers and laughter,)—more than that, he came not only with his carpet bag but with his umbrella. These were modern representatives of the ancient staff and scrip, and they might remember the man who went over Jordan with his staff and scrip, and who returned over it with three bands. (Cheers.) That he thought was the answer they might give to those who flung opprobrious nicknames at the head of their candi- date, and their future member for the county of Mont- gomery, if they only worked with a will to return him. (Cheers.) He must say that he felt ashamed as one of the landowners of the county, that so much should have to be said about the necessity of relying upon the protection of the ballot, but he did sincerely believe that a great deal of what had been said had been exaggerated, much exaggerated. More than that, he believed that if it was true that the screw was being put on, it was being put on against the wishes and the knowledge of many of those in whose names it was resorted to. (Hear, hear.) He could not and would not believe that honourable men would think of depriving of his livelihood any man, much less a man who had been on their estate for years, and whose family,it might be,had been on the estate for gener- ations, simply because he registered his vote in accordance with his conscientious convictions. (Hear, hear.) If he appeared to be egotistical he hoped they would forgive him, but to the best of his recollection he had never but once canvassed any tenant of his. (Hear, hear.) He would tell them what happened to himself at the last election. He asked a tenant, a new voter in one of the boroughs, whether he would vote for the Liberal candidate. The voter replied that as the votes were taken by ballot he must be excused making any promise. He (Mr. Humphreys Owen) replied that of course that was quite sufficient, he did not want anything more. The man went away, and he had not the slightest idea how he voted, and what wa4 more he did not want to know. (Hear, hear.) All he knew was that he was a good tenant, and as long as he was a good tenant his tenant he should be, unless he (the tenant) wanted to better himself. (Cheers.) He did entreat them to believe that that was not only the universal feeling on the part of Liberal landlords, but that it was shared by many if not by all Conservative landlords, and that if their agents, or people who professed to be their agents, assured them otherwise, in words which had become historical in France, You will not believe them." He would now pass from that subject, and say a few words about the present crisis. He knew there were many people who believed that war would be good for the country—that it would be good for trade. There could not be a greater delusion. (Cheers.) Let them for a moment take his own case, although he was very sorry to be again talking of "I" and me." Now he was doing what he could to make improvements on his own property. Instead of taking from his income threepence in the pound they now took fivepenee. If they went to war they would make it fifteen pence and it might be two and sixpence in the pound. Did they not see that for every half-crown taken out of his pocket to be spent in powder and shot, he would have so much less to spend in stone and lime and drain- ing pipes. (Cheers.) That was not all. Let them re- member that the transports which took out the war materiel would not be employed in bringing back hides and tallow and corn from Russia, or tea and sugar and coffee and spices from the East, but in carrying death and destruction to those in Russia who would have exported tallow and hides and corn, in exchange for British commodities, and in bringing not tea and coffee and spices from the East, but Mahom- metan savages to take part in European warfare. (Cheers.) He did not say this because he was a peace-at-any-price price man. He was not. On the contrary, he would fight as soon as any one, and. would spend, not like the Jingoes," as they were called, the last drop of his neigh- bour's blood, and the last shilling out of his neighbour's pocket, but a good many drops of his own blood and a good many of his own shillings, if he really thought the honour of old England was involved. (Cheers.) But he considered that the honour of old England was not in- volvedin supporting that multitudinous crime, theOttoman Empire, but in aiding, by reasonable and peaceful means, in raising its subject races, so long and cruelly mis- governed, into a barrier against the ambition of Russia, and in thus permanently closing that vast sore of Europe, the Eastern Question, (Cheers.) They were told that the Liberal party were peace-at-any-price men, and not only peace-at-any-price men, but Russian agents. He denied the accusation. The war which was declared against Russia twenty-five years ago was to a large extent carried on by the Liberal party. It was carried on upon the ground that Russia was the oppressor, and the aggressor as well. On that ground they not only refused to take part with Russia but on the contrary resisted her to the death. They resisted her simply because they believed the cause of Turkey was on the whole the cause of freedom and good government, and that the cause of Russia was the cause of retrogression and oppression. As regards Turkey they had been bitterly undeceived. They hoped and trusted that Turkey would reform itself, and they spent not only their gold, but what was far dearer, the lives of their soldiers, in procuring for her space for repentance and amendment. How Turkey falsified all their anticipations let history and the blood-stained plains of Bul- garia tell. (Cheers.) On the other hand Russia had emancipated her serfs, and many thousands of Russian soldiers had given up their lives in defence of what they sincerely believed to be a righteous cause. (Hear, hear.) In doing this he drew a wide distinction between the Russian soldiers and people and the Russian Government. To stand up for anything'Russian now was something like addressing a jury on behalf of the defend- ant in a breach of promise case, id which the plaintiff was young and interesting, and an eloquent advocate like Mr. McIntyre or Mr. Morgan Lloyd had just concluded an impassioned appeal in her behalf._ (Cheers and laughter.) With regard to the mass of Russian people, all he could say was, that from the personal testimony of those who had been amongst them, and from the written testimony of those who had lived amongst them, he sincerely believed that the war in which they spent so much blood and treasure was a war undertaken for the liberation of men of their own race, and therefore lie con- tended that it was wrong, it was wicked on our part to meet those aspirations with the scorn, the insult, and the contumely—(cheers)—Lord Beaconsfield and his followers in the press were constantly indulging in. He drew, as he had said, a distinction between the Russian nation, and those Russian leaders, masters of duplicity and fraud, who sought to turn those noble aspirations to their own account. (Hear, hear,) The policy enunciated by Mr. Gladstone nearly two years agQ, and which had been steadily and consistently advocated by his supporters in the press, would have been by far the best, and he believed the only practicable barrier against Russian aggression and Russian intrigues. (Cheers.) He would in conclusion revert for a moment to the subject with which he commenced his speech—the return of a Liberal candidate for the county. Let them remember that the Liberal party had given them peace and plenty, and an extended suffrage, and that the Tory party were now in favour of war abroad, and that their organs, and especially their chief organ in the press, enunciated doctrines at which he felt sure that constitu- tional Tories themselves, when they were fully unmasked before them, would stand aghast. (Cheers.) He begged to move the resolution he had read. (Cheer-i.) The Rev. N. C. JONES, who spoke in Welsh, in second- ing the resolution, said that although as a minister of the Gospel he did not generally think it most fitting that he should take a prominent part in political matters, this was one in which it was peculiarly the province of a minister of the Gospel to speak out his mind. The Burial Laws, Disestablishment, the extension of the Franchise, the Licencing Laws, are all important ques- tions but all sink into the shade and into utter insignifi- cance by the side of this Eastern Question. First of all the reason given was the maintenance of the integrity of the Ottoman Empire, but he supposed that even the Conservatives themselves were, brought to feel ashamed of such an argument for war. The next thing we heard was that we must protect British interests, but they failed to show what British interests were at stake. You might as well ask for last year's snow as ask any one to make this clear. (Hear.) And now within the last few days they heard of some old treaties—the Treaty of Paris, and the Treaty of London—when everybody knows that those Treaties have been torn into tatters years ago by the Turks them- selves, and indeed by our own Government. (Hear, hear.) Now they must protest against such a deceitful dishonest policy, and let them show it by working to return Mr. Rendel. They had enough of the Welsh element to be able to re- turn him if they liked. He would say no more, but that he hoped to have many more opportunities of speaking in his favour, and doing the little he could to promote his return. (Cheers). Mr. JOHN HALL, Newtown, snpported the resolution in a speech which was extremely well received, and in which he passed in review the course of Liberal legislation. and contrasted the effects of the Liberal with the effects of the Conservative policy, upon the condition of the country. The resolution having been carried unanimously, Mr. 0. J. CREWE READ proposed a vote of thanks to the Mayor for presiding, and called upon the meeting to give three cheers for him. The cheers were very heartily given. The Mayor acknowledged the compliment, and the proceedings then terminated.

POOR LAW CONFERENCE AT RHYL.