The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1883-02-13 00:00:00

Otto ant entuS.

THE TORY FD!

A card of invitation, resplendent in gold and
colour., intimated that I ha I the honour of being re-
quested to attend the annual banquet of the Poole
Coneervative Association. on Thursday last. I felt it
• duty t my re., lees to accept the courteous invite,
let the consequences be what they may. I knew the
sort cif oratory I should be compelled to listen to,
but. martvr.like, I determined to bear it. I may say
at once that my forebodings were well fun led, and
I have hal p litical Is igestion ever since. The ace .41
of action was the large c'ui rinbly.room of the
Antelope Hotel. the reapected propristor of which,
Mr. Morris, put a capital c rid spread, with hot
vegetables, upon the tables, which it is needless to ear
was di. eased in trut "Caustitutional" form. I
should think over 400 were present, and the wide
expanse .if shirt trouts to be seen at the top table wee
really quite awe inspiring...
The ex-Judge Advocate General, the Right Hon.
0, A. E. Caverplish•Bantinck, presided, and in him
the gathering bad • chairui to after their own hearts.
It may be remembered that Mr. Cavendisb•Bentinck
bald cdice when the Beaconsfield G vernment were in
;wer. The salary attached to the post is £2,000 •
ear what the duties are would puzzle the holders
theme,' es to sttte. It is at present occupied by the
Right Mtn. G. Osborne Siorgan, Q.C., member for
Oeuhighahire. Bluff, outspoken, not over particular as
to adjectives or accuracy, the right hon. gentlem
I see described in a London paper as "that
staunch Protestant”—fully enlisted the sympathies of
bin .iu lionce. According to him the illustrious gentle-
an at present recru;ting his health at Comes is re.
aponsiboa for everything for which we find an excuse to
grumlile at. Infileity and Bradlaughism is rampant
throngh the support and etc iuracenn-nt afforded them
by Mr. Gla atone, according t the King of Breakers
Leland ; aol I am not quite sure whether the 0.0. NI
lent auswerAie for the comet, the If coda and the
shock of earthquake recent'y felt at Parkstone,

On the chairman's ri.zrs-t. sat Mr. Ellis Ashram:l
Bartlett, of the youthful age of 34, but looking con-
',Monthly oiler, • barriatr, brother-in-law to the
Baroness Bur iett-C fates, an American, hut' nature-
lite I" Engliehtuan, and member for Eye, • little old-
faiihionesi borough, situate in Suffolk, about 20 miles
north of Ipswich, and posmseing the important con-
stituency of • no ire over a th ittesnd voters. Mr.
Aahmead Bartlett it must be confessed, I. • most
fluent speaker. tile sentences are well turned, and at
times he becomes almost eloquent. Whether his
arguments or his assertions can stand criticism is
cruse another .natter. They probably will hold ivonut
as much water as those iif other gentlemen who throw
mud iutliscriminately in the hope that some of it will
stick. A fair specinieu may he tak•n in his state-
ments as to the Ireland iif 79 and 'B2. Of curse,
everyone admits that in the former year the Sitter
Isle was more peaceable than now, hut the fact stands
that ',edition anti rebellion was then simply slumber-
ing, and the present state of things with which the
Government have to deal is lost the legacy handed
ilowu by their predecessors What did Lord Beacons-
field say in his c ilebrated Bath letter in '80? He
Avowed that Ireland was in a state "scarcely less dins-
trous than pestilence and famine," and in that state
Lord Beaconsfield left it when he went out of office. So
mach for Mr. Astamesil Bartlett's facts 1 Mr. Ellie Ash.
meal Bartlett is not • bail looking young man, and re-
sembles greatly the p frtraits of his brother whom the
Baroness married. He wear, a moustache, curled at
the end., and an Imperial. He also weary an Eye
-
visas, which as he alternately uses it first on the left
side and then on the right, is, I take it, sported
rather as a delicate compliment to his constituency
than for any use it can be—in fact, an Eye-witness to
the questionable discretion of the little Suffolk
borough.
5.
On the left of the chairman Pat " cur member," Mr.
Schreiber. Hit sp•ech wa, as elaborate and ornate
a. ever. The hearty cheering with which he was
greeted must have been a cornifentation to him ev-n
for it, indignity recently inflict.' upon hi, hat. Mr.
Schreiber in • dress suit is the essence of political
chivalry. When amid the rapturous applaute of hie
supp friers he announces he will bold his seat agtinst
all c ousts, be p 4iiss as a ch npion worthy of the
C 3,1., Mr. Sc ireilor toy h‘ et: for having very
decided ohjsetion. to a re-distribution of seats; and
he drew forth a number of cheerful blames by store...
kg his regret that the Poole Liberal Defence Amoeba-
tion intended to send a c fuple of delegates to the
Bradlangh demonstration on the 15th. It is very easy
to evoke capital out of this, but it should be remem-
bered—and all right thinking people will admit it—
that this is not a token of sympathy with Atheism,
but a protest against an attempt to restrict the liber-
ties of the people in their chid., of representatives at
the National Aesembly. And I doubt whether "our
member" himself would have been so very much
ailverm to opening the doors of the House to" Ic ino.
cleat" were it not that he has declared war against
" perpetual pastime," and Mr. Schreiber feels bound
to stand up in defence of one of the many absurdities
that Englishmen swallow, and by which his lady's
family have binefitted to the tune of £721,000. and
probably will coutitme to do so at the rate of £4,000 a
year as long as John Bull is content to fork out.
Adj 'Ming Mr. Ashmead Bartlett was seated a
young gentleman who—and I believe it I. no secret—
aspire. to represent his native county when the op-
portunity I. given him—Mr. H. R. Farquharson, id
Tarrant Gamine. Mr. Farquharson is a vary pleasant
spoken, as probably his tenants would put it. young
man, but I moat confess I have heard hint speak a great
deal hatter than he did Tbureday night. Whether he
will be en 04.1 to out-distance the lion. Humphrey
Start or Mr. K Portman is certainly a question. I
hope the opportunity of trying it will not be afforded
for some time to c ime. He addressed himself princi.
pally to the re-distribution of seats, and exhibited to
bin hearers the latest bogey id the Poole Conservative
party—" the virtual disfranchisement of the borough."
That, in the event of the re-di•tribution of seats, Poole
will still have its voice in the Government of the
nation is certain, but that a 1) trough of hut • little
over 12,000 inhabitants ehifuld for ever have • member
all to itself, when, as Croydon, with its 79,000, in-
habitants, remains without one, Is hardly to be ex-
pected.
•-•

There were other speakera more locally known—
the chairman (Mr. Dudalc whose wallet Aterte will
shortly give employment to some of the gentlemen of
the long rob., but hot in Poole, I am told), the hon.
sec. (Mr. Lionel Bulge, who app,ared in a dual
capacity, a captain of volunteer. and • defender of the
Constitution), the vicar of t. James's (who attended
to give a moral support to the great Conservative
ca.t.e), and others. They warmed up well to their
work, and on the principlo that to appeal to an Eng-
lish man's heart the nearest way is through his stomach,
they were each and all cheers I again and again, so
that from a To y point of view the great Conservative
banquet of 1883 was a tlecided aut cess.