in burying him who was our greatest hero, we have perhaps buried the man who amongst us had the greatest horror of the miseries of war, that every effort and every energy of his mind in the field, in the camp, and in the senate, was directed to the attainment of victory, or triumph, or glory, only because they constituted the means of securing to his country and to the world the blessings of a lasting peace. "My Lords, I trust that in solemnly interring him, we have not taken leave of or buried our recollections of the principles which he supported and advocated. I am sure, my Lords, that I am speaking in the spirit of him whose loss we all deplore, when I say that I look—and I am sure that your lordships will look-upon war in itself as the greatest curse with which a country can be afflicted, and upon unnecessary war as the greatest crime of which a statesman can be guilty. I am sure, my Lords, that the great and paramount object of this country is the maintenance of a firm and honourable peace; but I am no less convinced of the necessity, upon that principle which it was his constant duty to inculcate upon successive governments, in order to maintain the security and the permanence of peace, the necessity that every nation should have within itself those means of self-defence and of self-dependence which would not provoke aggression by their weakness, more especially if to that weakness is added the possession of unbounded wealth. I trust that we shall bear this in mind, not in words only, but by actions and in our policy; and that setting aside all political and party considerations, we shall all concur in this opinion, that in order to be peaceful, England must be powerful; but that if England ought to be powerful, she ought to be so only that she may be the more secure of peace."-Speech of the Earl of Derby (on the Funeral of the Duke of Wellington), in the House of Lords, 1852. |