The Sun.
London, England, 1837-09-08 00:00:00

Mr. STEUART rose amidst loud cheers, and iaid, Mr.
Chairman and Gentlemen, &c., connected as, I am with
her Majesty's Ministers, whose health has been received
just now in so flattering a manner, I should be doing v'io-
knee to my own feelings, and little justice to the
feelings of those personages, were I to remain silent—
(Groat applause)—and it is an encouragement to me
also to thank you in their name for drinking their health in
this marked manner, and moreover to find, that in rising to
thank you that you had been pleased to greet me with
such enthusiastic -applause. After some nbservations upon
the different members, Mr. Steuart continued. The dis-
solution, you are aware, was none of Lord Melbourne's
seeking, but brought about by that calamitous event
which the nation deplored—namely; the death of his
late Majesty. But those who deeidod in favour of Liberal
opinions, and who dispassionately looked at the train of
public affairs during the last three years, will be di•posed
to admit that Lord Melbourne's Government has a fair
claim on the support of the country ; and it is to the iiptn-
ner in which that claim has been made that
I ":;,tild now
advert. In England, it is true, a majoritu
Members have
been returned from whom. the 0
peat of support in P---" ..."overnment has little to OX•
tisajuritu _ -ruamenit ; but if you will analys' that
you will see that tnat to jaority does not compre-
oend the majority of the population and wealth of the coun-
try. The majority is comprised of the Members returned
by the English counties. Look at all the large trading towns
of England, where Liberal Members have been returned.
Thirty years ago England returned a majority of Liberal
Members ; but the Minister of the day and the House of
Peers together, returned a sufficient number of Members •
to swamp the misgoverned people of Eggland ; and now
the people are told by the Conservatives that they have
not acted up to their former spirit. And Scotland, once
degraded and politically dead, has come forth to their
rescue to advocate liberal measures, and I trust will long
be enabled to do so.—(Loud cheering.) Nor can I pass
over Ireland, long trampled on, and long submissive and
patient under all the insults and sufferings she has en-
dured. She has now risen up against her bitter foes,
and has proved that there is still public spirit and pa-
triotism sufficient to arouse her to gird on the sword. The
intelligent, but uneducated sons of Ireland have indeed

been trampled on by the Tories in a manner they will not
soon forget, and which requires a great portion of the Chris-
tian spirit to enable them to forgive.---(Loud cheers.) Ire-
land felt at the late election that she was struggling not only
for her birthright, but for her very existence. When Earl

Grey assumed the reins of offle,?: rebellion and bloodshed

stalked through the breadth and length of the laud ; but at
the late Assizes the Judg,_.s themselves declared the calen-
dars to be unusually light, and heinous erim,.s we know are

now of rare occurrence, while the whole wealth of the coun-
try is now falling into its proper channels, and in 50 years
the prosperity of Ireland will, I trust, have increased in a
greater ratio than Scotland has ever done in more than a
century. I know that the majority in the House of Com-
mons is sufficiently strong, backed as it is by the support of
the Queen, to carry out all those measures which you look
for as the offspring of Reform.—(Loud cheers.) What-
ever advantages may have arisen from the circumstances of
the Tories having been in power for the short period the
last time they were in, and I am not aware that any great
disadvantages have been permitted to arise, yet this I know,
that one great advantage did arise from their being last in
office, and that was the confession which Sir R. Peel made
in his last speech as Prime Minister of the Government, and
in reference to that very sentiment, which I dare say you
will all recollect, I ask you to fill a bumper. The circum-
stance to which I allude was, when Sir It. Peel resigned his
place, and when he stated that it was impossib:e to struggle
longer, or to think of carrying on the Government, in oppo-
sition to the small majority which then supported Liberal
measures ; and yet the Tories tell us that it is impossible
for Lord Melbourne's Government to exist with so small a
majority as they have at present. Sir Robert declared
also, that it we' through the House of Commons alone that
England and Ireland could be governed—and what is the
House of Commons but the representatives of the people ?
—and what is to be deduced from that speech but this,
which he admitted tardily and reluctantly I must confess,
that the people alone were the source of all legitimate
power ? There are many among you who will remember
the-day that drinking of the toast, that tha people is the
source of all legitimate power,: would have been a sufficient
reason for a man to be held as a person whose company
should be shunned ; and it was fortunate, indeed, if he es-
caped a visit front the Procurator Fiscal. What Sir Robert
Peel has admitted, cast many excellent citizens their liber-
ties and lives.—(Cheers.) I thank God, now, that as a
member of the present Government, I can stand up and
express the feelings of those who govern the country, and
when I can propose that we should now drink to that great
principle on which all Govera:nent is loan led, namely,
that the people are the source of all legitimate power.—
(Drunk with great applause.)
The CHAIRMAN—WC arc come to what may be desig-
nated the principal toast of the (lay, and I hope you will
pledge it in an overflowing bumper, The gentleman whose
health lam now going to propose is Mr. St!uart, our•ta-
lented and much respected representative.—( The toast was
drunk with the most rapturous applause, which continued
for some time.)
Mr. STEUART on rising was hailed with loud cheers.
After alluding to his connection with the boroughs, and his
recce re:urn, the Hon. Member continued—However these
means would have been of little avail to my Opponent had
they not had recourse to another—l mean that cry in
which the present Government, and those who supported
them, were said to be leagued against the Church. The
cry was, " the Church in danger."—(Loul cheers.) .''iris.
was not the first time this cry had been raised ; in the year
1715, the year after George the First ascended the throne,
the Whigs being then in power, and the Tories being
driven from it, raised the cry of the Church in danger ;
and it is rather remarkable that the Tories, who were at
one time, opposed to the Protestant estah!ishment, and did
every thing in their power to subvert it, should have been
the first to raise the cry.—(Cheers.) Whenever they were
anxious to gain any advantage in this country, they resorted
to this hug-hear cry that the Church was in danger.—
(Cheers.) I should like to look to the graneds on which
they say the Church is in danger ; they tell us it is be-
cause, we are in league with Mr. O'Connell, and we are
yielding to every clamorous cry that comes from the
other side of the Irish channel.—( Hear.) They went so
far in some of the western counties of England as to say,
that Mr. O'Connell, with a whole host of Catholic priests,

was corning over to drive from their paris'.►es those pastors
who superintended the cure of sous. Extr,ivitgant ns this

may appear to you, vet it was not too extravagant to be
❑sed against the simple and ignorant. What is the ground
of this charge ? Now we happen to know, because it is
the sank! as that which was raised against the Government,
that in many parts of Ireland there were parishes with vet y
comfortable and portly parsons, but without churches, with-
out glebes, without maniv_!s, without any resident clergymen,
who preyed upon the people by tithe proctors and minion,,
who collected their tithes ; but who never attended and
performed divine service, and who never looked after the
spiritual wants of their parishioners from one year's end to
another ; indeed this establishment was sufficiently large for
the whole people of the • 'country if they had been unani-
umusly Protestant. Now when they found, oat of a popu-
lation of 8,000,000, searecly 1,000,000 were members of

- -
the Established Church—that so few prosi tes h...d been
made to the state religion, it surely was no tn,fair thing to
suppose that something more wes required than the Estab-
lished Church to insure the advancement of :eligion in
that country, or t.l promote the cure of p:ople's Fouls.
They therefore proposed that a ne.v allocation should
be made of the parishes in Ireland—that in every parish
where there was one man professing the Protestant reli-
gion, that that man should not be left without ragions in-
struction and consolation ; and in those parishes where no
Protestant was to be found, anti where no service had been

celebrated, that the tithes of that parish should be put in
abeyance, and diverted to the purposes of instructing the
people in reading, in order that they might be enabled to
inquire into those truths which are taught in every parish
in Scotland. It was alleged against thorn too, that they
were going to overturn the Protestant system, because in
the system of education proposed to be conferred on the
public, the Bible, they said, was wholly excluded, or only
certain portions of it read, as suited the 13,pish priesthood.
I have no hesitation in stating, that it was to that cry I
impute the interruptions to my election in this district—and
those who have not the means, us I have, of knowing the
plans of Government, can scarcely fail to respect the man
who could abandon his political opinions rather than his
God and his country.—(immense cheer nig.) But, Gentle-
men, I trust this idea will soon be expelled—and as truth
is mighty, and will prevail, so time will show that we are
the real friends of the Church and of religion. And well
would it have been for the Church if its Ministers had ab-
stained from raising the cry which they must have dist:o-
- Knowing that cry to be false, they must have dis-
gracefully supported that religion which they professed.
* * It is only by the unshaken attachment of
the people to the present Administration that all opposition
can be overruled, and good government exist in this country.
(Immense applause.) It is d struggle not only of the
Liberal party and Liberal opinions against intolerance,
but it appears to be approaching to something like a
betwixt the oligarchy and demner4q. On what
otherstrug le
gground can we assume that the House of Lords is op-
posed to every tneast r,,,,. pk,posed in the House of Comine;•,:i
for the 7...,a;:lieuance and security of the just tights of the
ik
people ? But I cannot conceive th t. snch short-sighted
policy will continue tQ httide direct counsel: of'
ITtAwkitig, the significant
these men, 1 dot;ltd, nod Cllr,
i""C"lrt t"4tto ritvren,-.: to tie Royal Family
awn • - ,oußa •to Aso. ve that the
—wet" from that toast one who stands next in the
'v4s
IF('"u
11°I.
• I.
fad faair.,
Io: der of succession to the Crown.—( Loud cheers.) Gen-
tletnen, I allude to this for the purpose of remarking what

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