The Sun.
London, England, 1837-01-07 00:00:00

DINNER to the REPRESENTATIVES
OF THE CITY OF BATH.

On Thursday evening last the Members for the City of
Bath, Major-General Palmer and Mr. J. A. Roebuck, were
entertained at a public dinner, given by a body of their con-
stituents, in the large room of the Town Hall. The tables
were laid for about 400 persons, and as soon as dinner was
announced they were all fully occupied. The Mayor
(Mr. W. T. BLAnt), who had granted the use of the Cor-
porate Assembly-room for the occasion, presided, and was
supported on his right and left by the two Hon. Members
in whose honour the festivities were celebrated. Amongst
the guests present we noticed Sir W. Molesworth, Bart.,
M.P. ; Mr. Leader, M. P. ; Colonel Napier ; Colonel
Charles Napier ; Mr. Bridges, of Bristol ; Aldermen
Barrow, Mainwaring, Crisp, Ashman, English, Jones,
Shenston, and Kent. In the course of the evening, the
Chairman announced that he had received letters of apo-
logy from Colonel Gore Langton, M.P. ; Colonel Tynte,
M.P. ; Mr. Grote, M.P. ; and Mr. Hume, M.P.
The usual toasts, including " The King," " The Queen,"
" The Princess Victoria and the rest of the Royal Family,"
were respectively proposed from the Chair, and drunk with
all the honours.

The CHAIRMAN said, the next toast he had to propose
was one which ought to be responded to in every free and
enlightened country—he meant " The people, the only true
source of legitimate power."—(Cheers.)
The next toast was, "the Army and Navy."—(Drunk
with all the honours.)
Captain MAINWARING returned thanks on behalf of the
naval branch of the service.
Colonel C. NAPIER, in returning thanks on behalf of the
army, would own that his principles were those of a Radical
of 40 years' standing.—( Cheers.) By the term " Radical"
he meant to convey that he was for annual Parliaments,
universal suffrage, and vote by ballot.—(Loud cheers.) He
contended also that the House of Lords was bad and rotten,
and must be reformed. Of the species of reform that it re-
quired he was not prepared to speak—it was a question which
lied received the consideration of many great men, but upon
it they had not agreed in opinion. He was also most
decidedly hostile to the enactments of the Poor Law
Amendment Bill. He was opposed to that measure, if not
in Practice, at least in principle. He held it to be wrong
that the Whig Government should commence to legislate
for effects, instead of legislating for causes.—( Hear hear.)
Why, he begged to ask, should they legislate for paupers
made poor by being robbed of at least half their earnings
Iv taxation ?—(Hear, hear.) Instead of curing the causes
of pauperism, they had provided means, not of relief, but
for opening the Bastille doors to the wretched, as if poverty
was a crime.—(Hear, hear.) But he had still another ob-
jection to this poor law measure—a point which Lord J.
Russell should have borne in mind when he fixed the in-
come of a bishop at 10,0001. a-year. For put a case—
A and woman go to church to be married—the bishop
of clergyman joins their hands, pronouncing that those
whom God had joined together no man should put asunder ;
ant! yet these parties, on coming out of church, might be
met fry a poor-law commissioner, who has been authorized
under this bill to say, " I am greater than any bishop, for
.1 ani empowered by law to put man and wife asunder."—
(.fear, hear.) This was at least inconsistent, if not irreli-
gk us. But there remained to be noticed a still greater
(if that be possible) breach of every feeling of religion and
humanity—he alluded to the rules which separated a mo-
ther from her children when inmates of these new Bastilleq.
.He had been in the West Indies, and he could state that the
g-eatest cruelty that could be practised on a female slaws
yo-vs to take -ter children from her, and if the poor law
evt horized the practice in this country, he must denounce
the .ineasure as cruel, tyrannical, and inhuman.—(Cheers.)
th respect to Ireland, he was moat distinctly of opinion
that a. system of poor laws was necessary in that country.
revetted much to see that Mr. O'Connell was opposed
to their introduction. In public and in private, he (Colonel
Napier) had long been the firm and unshaken supporter of
O'Connell, but he wa3 astonished when he saw that
-„Mr. O'Connell had set his face against poor laws for Ire-
and gave as his reason that they were unnecessary, as
the poorest Irishman (such was his characteristic) would
al".za,vs be ready to divide his last potato with a passing
p,,,upo.- in distress. Therefore, to save the people of Ire-
land fro.o the misery and want of which he had so often
and energetically complained, he cast upon them the burden
.of supportin,: their starving fellow-countrymen. From that
hour he gave Mr. O'Connell up ; but let that gentleman
pause in this portion of his policy. He could only' say, in
the language attributed to King Edward, when he heard
of the death of Percy at Chevy Chase—
" Thank God, we have within our realm
Five hundred good as he."—(Cheers.)
(Colonel Napier) was rejoiced to find that in the per-
sons, of Mr. Sharman Crawford and Priest O'Malley two
chac.m.'ions had started forward in the cause of the starving
populat ion of Ireland.—(Hear, hear.) He felt confident
that by .their exertions justice, in this respect at least, must
be eventually obtained.—(Cheers.) The gallant officer,
after again thanking the company for the high honour they
;lad conferred on the service to which he belonged, sat down
amidst rapturous applause.
The CHAIRMAN said, the next toast he had to propose
to his fellow-citizens was, " The healths of Lord Melbourne
anJ his Majesty's Ministers (a slight murmur at the lower
,end of the hall), and may they continue in office as long as
they advocate the cause of the people."—(The toast was
received and drunk with manifest apathy by the majority of
the company.)
The CNAIRMAN next propcaed " The Healths of the
Dresentatives of the City of Bath."—(Tremendous api
131,, se.) He could with truth, and without the fear of'
coot! adiction, say, that all parties, friends as well as foes,
adinit,ted that the conduct of those Hon. Members in Par-
liament: had been perfectly consistent with their declarations
out of it.—(Hear, hear.) Their conduct had uniformly
been manly, open, and straightforward, and they had ever
supported those great measures which, in the opinion of the
majority of the reformed House of Commons, were calcu-
lated to improve the institutions of the country and amelio-
rate the condition of the people.—(The toast was received
with the utmost enthusiasm, and drunk with all the usual
honours.)
General PALMER, M.P., on presenting himself to return
thanks, -was most loudly cheered. He would refer, in the
first instance, to the conduct of the Whigs with reference to
the .Reform Bill. No other individual but Earl Grey could
havta proposed and carried out that great and sweeping
measure of Reform, which astonished both its enemies and
its fri ends, and which he could venture to say went much
further than many who voted for it either hoped for or ex-
pected. —(Hear, hear.) He certainly regretted, as much
as his blon. Friend and colleague, the delay which had taken
place in carrying out those further measures of Reform
which svere expected by the country, but he really must
state, in justice to the Whig Government, that he thought,
under all the circumstances and difficulties of their situation,
they- had done as much as could be expected from them.—
(Cries of " No, no," with partial cheers.) He also thought
that they had been fortunate in having done that which they
had aeceiroplished. With all respect for Earl Grey, as a
Statesman and a Refermer, he must say his retirement
;from office, while it was honourable to himself, was advan-
tageous to the country. The country had also to felicitate
its if on its good fortune in the accession of Lord Melbourne
to office, for no individual was more acceptable and less ob-
jectionable to all parties than that Noble Lord. He spoke
from his own knowledge of the Noble Lord for the last 30
-years, and he sincerely and firmly believed, that whenever
his Hon. Friend and colleague by his exertions and agita-
tio n had opened the minds of the people to the necessity of
vote by ballot, annual Parliaments, and the augmentation
of the suffrage, and they should call for it, that Lord Mel-
bourne would be most anxious to carry it into effect. He
stated this from his experience of the character of that
Noble Lord.
Mr. ROEBUCK, M.P., then rose, and was received with
the most enthusiastic and vociferous cheering and applause.
His Hon. Friend and colleague had observed that there
neve,- was such a man to fill the office of Prime Minister
of &gland as Earl Grey—his Hon. and Gallant Friend
had 'forgotten, however, that Earl Grey brought in the
Irish. Coercion Bill, and that he was turned out of office.—
(Cheers.) Next in the praises of his Hon. and Gallant
Friend came the Government of Lord Melbourne—and
he, it seemed, was in no danger of being turned out for
doing that which his Hon. and Gallant Friend assured the
meeting the Noble Lord would do if the people would only
pro oerly get into a passion.—( Cheers and laughter.) Now,
he begged and entreated the people to consider for what
purpose all this flame of friendship and feeling for the
Whig Government had been raised. Had the people, or
indeed the assembly by which he was now surrounded, ever
considered what was meant by the people and themselves
when accused of appealing to the passions of a Whig Go-
vernment? If those he addressed had done so, he thought
they would come to the conclusion that, considering the
manner in which that Government had expressed itself,
.and the support which, in consequence of those expressions
ut had received, at least the people should have justice at
-their hands. For that justice, and no more, he had asked. He
and, those who thought with him said, that at this time there
existod amongst the people of England a desire to increase the
responsibility of the Government. They also said, that for
this putposo, and in order to carry out that responsibility,
certain flings were necessary and requisite, but that those
requisites and essentials they were ready to put aside and
not ask the Whig Government to effect ; but, on the con-
trary, all they asked was, that the Administration would
allow the met nbers who composed it to be at liberty to ex-
press their own conscientious opinions on the various mea-
sures affecting the people which would be brought forward.
—( Hear, hear.) They had not asked for the ballot—
they had not asked for an extension of the suffrage—they
bad not asked for a repeal of the rate-paying clauses of the