Mr. Buckingham's Address. 



entire stranger, but its invitation was founded on a knowledge of my public life and 

 labors alone. I was successfully returned to the first reformed Parliament as its mem- 

 ber, and had the happiness to advocate, in my place, in the British House of Commons, 

 the views I had maintained in India — for maintaining which, indeed, I was banished 

 from that country — and which I had since, by the exercise of my pen and tongue, for 

 ten years, spread so extensively in England. The triumph of these principles was at 

 length completed by the accomplishment of all my views. The India monopoly was 

 abolished, and free trade to India and China secured. The liberty of the press in India 

 was established, and trial by jury guaranteed. The political as well as the commercial 

 powers of the East India Company were curtailed. The horrid and murderous practice 

 of burning the widows of India alive on the funeral piles of their husbands was put down 

 by law. The blood-stained revenue derived from the idolatrous worship of Juggernaut 

 was suppressed. The foundation of schools — the promotion of missions — the admi- 

 nistration of justice — were all more amply provided for than before— and to me, the 

 sufferings and anxieties of many years of peril and labor combined, were amply rewarded 

 by the legal and constitutional accomplishment of almost every object for which I had 

 contended, and the gratification of almost every wish that I had so long indulged. 



In addition to my ordinary share in the duties of the Senate, I had the happiness to 

 be the favored instrument of first bringing before it the great question of Temperance; 

 and through the investigations of a Committee, I had the satisfaction of presenting to 

 the world such a body of evidence and so demonstrative a Report, as to convince a 

 large portion of the British nation, that it was their solemn duty to God and man, to 

 follow their American brethren in the noble example wliich they were the first to set in 

 this most important branch of Moral and Social Reform, 



Of the remainder of my labors as a member of the British Legislature, it is not ne- 

 cessary that I should speak : but I may perhaps, without presumption, be permitted to 

 add — and there are happily now in the city of New- York some of the most intimate 

 and influential of my constituents among the merchants and manufacturers of Shef- 

 field, who can confirm the statement — that I had the happiness to sit as the represen- 

 tative of that large and opulent town for a period of six years, in the enjoyment of as 

 much of the confidence and approbation of its inhabitants as it was possible for any 

 representative to be honored with; and that in every annual visit made to my consti- 

 tuents, for the purpose of giving them an account of my stewardship in Parliament, 

 and surrendering up my trust to the hands of those who first bestowed it on me, I was 

 uniformly crowned with the testimony of their unanimous approbation, and sent back 

 to the House of Commons as their Representative, with, if possible, still more unlimited 

 confidence than before. 



The period came, however, in which it was necessary, for the interests of those who 

 are dear to me by blood and family ties, and for whom it ismy duty as it is my happiness 

 to provide, that I should quit my senatorial duties, and after nearly thirty years devoted 

 to the service of the public, at a sacrifice of ease, fortune, leisure, domestic enjoyment, 

 and indeed every thing but honor and character, that I should resign my trust to some 

 more fortunate successor, and devote the few remaining years of health and activity, that 

 might be spared me, before old age should render exertion impracticable, to providing a 

 retreat for the winter of life, and acquiring the means of making that retreat indepen- 

 dent as well as honorable. I accordingly announced this intention, and the reasons on 

 which it was grounded, and at the close of the last session of Parliament in July, 1837, 

 I paid a farewell visit to my constituents at Sheflaeld, where, though all our previous 

 meetings had been cordial, hearty, and affectionate in the extreme, this was more cor- 

 dial, more affectionate — though tinged with a new element of sorrow and regret — 

 than any ,that had gone before. 



