No. XXXV.] APPENDIX. 379 



and were refused the room in which we now stand. They said, " What do 

 we want with principles of Church and State, of religion and government ? 

 We are beyond all that. The days have passed for anything like propriety 

 in that way. We'll not even allow you the use of this room." And we 

 were refused, by the Radicals of that time, even this room in which I might 

 address you. (Hear, hear.) When I came the second time, I found that you 

 were much more deeply interested in the principles I had put forward than 

 you were on the first occasion. The Radicals were violent ; the Radicals 

 were excited, and the whole city was placarded with announcements that 

 in this room a meeting was to be held to denounce the principles put 

 forward at the King's Head by " the stranger who had come down from 

 London." Who resisted this but the working men of Rochester ? (Applause.) 

 Who said that no man should as was intended pass a resolution against 

 me unless I was heard first ? (Applause.) You would not permit in this 

 room one word to be said till I was heard, and I was sent for ; and when I 

 was sent for, the voice of the meeting called out that as I was to be 

 attacked I should be heard first. (Hear, hear.) Hour went on after hour, 

 and not one word was spoken. Here we stood in dumb show, when your 

 respected and estimable member said across the table, " Smee, we have got 

 all the people in here ; how shall we get them out again ? " (Laughter.) I 

 said, " I am ready to stop here all night. I have entered into the fight and 

 I assuredly will go through it. (Applause.) But if you wish to disperse 

 this meeting, I'll disperse it in two minutes." " How F" he said. " Take hold 

 of my arm, and we'll walk straight oiit." We did walk out, and there was 

 an end of that meeting. (Applause.) That time you rallied round me and 

 gave me the show of hands at the Guildhall, but still that was no use 

 against the strong combination of all the odds and ends of fancy sections 

 who came against me and won the election. When I look to those events 

 and look to this proud occasion, when I am to receive a testimonial not from 

 one but from hundreds of my fellow-countrymen, I have reason indeed to 

 be proud of the doctrine of Conservative progress, and to thank you most 

 cordially for being here to-night in the hall which has been granted in the 

 kindest manner by your mayor. (Applause, and a voice " Three cheers for 

 Mr. Edwards.") Now, our position at the present time is confessedly 

 difficult. You have got in this city in particular a large mass of earnest 

 Radicals who are joined one and all against your doctrines and to oppose 

 your principles. That alone would require a great effort on your part to 

 overcome. You have also to recollect that the Radicals have been a long 

 time in power. Place has fallen to their lot, and consequently we may 

 say of those who have had place that they may be expected to exhibit 

 gratitude. With regard to that gratitude I must say I felt a little 

 astounded when the question of the separation of Church and State was on, 

 that some of those who lived by the Church did not support that Church in 

 the manner which might have been expected. (Hear, hear.) Probably they 

 relied upon the doctrine of gratitude to Gladstone, who had put them in 

 their situations ; but I cannot but think that gratitude to God, who had 

 given them this Church, should have had a greater effect upon their minds 

 than gratitude to a patron who had put them in place. (Applause.) But, 

 contrariwise, I was also astonished by the manner in which those who 

 heartily felt that religion and state should be united, expressed their 

 feelings. One of your clergy at Strood, being confined by disease, was 

 carried across by two men to the poll, there to record his vote for Church 



