374 APPENDIX. [No. XXXV. 



No. XXXV. 

 SPEECHES DELIVERED AT ROCHESTER BY ALFRED SMEE. 



1. SPEECH AT A COMPLIMENTARY DINNER TO ALFRED SMEE, 

 DECEMBER 19TH, 1868. 



MR. SMEE, who on rising was received with loud cheering, said: Mr. 

 Chairman, my Lord, and Gentlemen, It is with a great deal of diffidence 

 that I rise to express the thanks which I feel for the honour you have 

 done me this day, in asking me to come amongst you, after the defeat we 

 have experienced at the late election. We have unmistakably had a great 

 defeat in Rochester a defeat which we did not expect. The moment I 

 entered the city I received numerous promises of support ; those promises 

 came rolling in day by day till 10 o'clock each night : they amounted at 

 last to 1,024 on the day before the nomination. After the nomination, at 

 which, as you know, we gained the show of hands, that same evening no 

 more promises came, but promises began to fall off; withdrawals began 

 to be made, which showed the city must be under the power of certain 

 persons in it. (Sensation.) And on the next day these 1,024 promises 

 degenerated into 702 performances. (Shame.) Accustomed as I am to 

 numbers, I sat ticking off the votes at the Giiildhall as they came in, and I 

 soon saw that there was something wrong. I sent word to my committee, 

 " Why don't the voters come up ? " No answer came. I wrote again, 

 " Tell me, why don't the voters come up ? " A slip of paper then came 

 with s. d. upon it. (Sensation.) I understood at once the meaning. 

 Now there must be some very potential reason which prevented 1,024 

 promises from realizing more than 702 votes. In the first place, I think 

 many good Conservatives were victims to despair. I found they wor- 

 shipped success, and the moment they saw we were not at the head of the 

 poll they stayed at home and did not vote. (Shame.) With this despair it 

 is very difficult to deal ; and I can only call your attention to the wife of 

 that great man on whom our gracious Queen has bestowed a high honour. 

 In the difficulties and disappointments of her husband, she supported, she 

 comforted him, and all, even from the Queen on her throne, recognized 

 what she did. (Hear, hear.) I will commend the victims of despair to the 

 ladies of Rochester, and I am quite sure, as no " faint heart ever won fair 

 lady," the ladies of Rochester will never let a man become a coward 

 because his cause does not happen to win. (Cheers.) Mr. Smee then pro- 

 ceeded to quote the words of Sir Robert Peel, in the debate of 1833, in 

 which he argued that if property of 300 years' possession was not secure 

 to any establishment, little hope could be given of the safety of private 

 property. Lord Palmerston had also expressed a belief that the Church 

 and State establishment was essential to the constitution of every civilized 

 country. (Cheers.) Lord Castlereagh and Mr. Canning were of opinion that 

 the union of Church and State and the maintenance of the Irish Church 

 were necessary for the well-being of the empire. Could we, in the face of 

 all this great mass of opinions before us, proceed to vote step by step for 

 the disintegration of Church and State ? (No, no.) We had no need of 

 apologizing to Mr. Martin for having voted in the Conservative cause, even 



