The Sun.
London, England, 1853-10-18 00:00:00

HINCKFORD AGRICULTURAL AND)
CONSERVATIVE CLUB.

wasTleieelaenbrn rsa
aivteeder of this old Conservative
on Friday,
bya
dinneratth Club
e
Bull
Inn, Castle Hedingham, a small hamlet in North
Essex, long the great rendezvous of the Conser-
vatives of the county, where the "Essex Ten"
were wont to meet and rejoice over the fact that
both divisions of the county and every borough in
it returned stanch protectionists as their represen-
tives to the Commons' House of Parliament.
Prior to the dinner ploughing matches took place
in fields abutting upon the Sudbury road, and prizes
were distributed to deserving labonrers and ser-
vants. As one of these illustrates in some degree
the vexed question of the wages at present paid to
agricultural labourers in this part of the kingdom,
it is given here
" To the agricultural labourer of good character in the
service of a subscriber, and not in the receipt of more
than 10s. per week, exclusive of harvest, who has sub-
scribed the longest time to a medical club, it."
Mr. G. Round, of Colchester, presided at the
dinner, and the attendance was numerous and
respectable, although not so great as on many pre-
vious occasions.
The usual loyal and patriotic toasts were drunk
with enthusiasm.
Captain WAY returned thanks for the " Army
and Navy."
The CHAIRMAN, in proposing the toast of the
evening, " Success to the Hinckford Agricultural
and Conservative Club," said that he took a suffi-
ciently vivid interest in the affairs of the county
and the boroughs within it to be able to offer a few
remarks in reference to their present position,
which was one of most extraordinary novelty, when
compared with that time last year. At that time
Lord Derby was at the head of the Government.
(Cheers.) A strong, and powerful, and true body
of Conservatives were at the helm, and it was
hoped and fondly believed that those reckless and
ruinous courses which had been adopted to the
prejudice of agriculture would have been in some
degree stemmed and averted. (Cheers.) But that
had not been the case, and they now found them-
selves the most powerful and important interest in
the country with a Government that had no sym-
pathies with them, with every party as it were
hostile to them, with war almost on their shores,
and with a high price of corn, which they well
knew was neither the result of men nor of politics.
The toast was drunk with all the honours.
The Rev. J. Cox, M.A., of Fairstead, in acknow-
ledging the toast, observed, after a passing allusion
to matters of a personal and only local interest,
that it would seem that the system of persecution
to which they had been exposed at the last election
was only the beginning of a series of complicated
affronts and persecutions which were to be adopted
towards them by the Whig-Radical party. They
were aware of the gross indignities to which his hon.
friend Sir J. Tyroll, and his right hon. friend
Mr. Beresford, had been subjected at the last elec-
tion. (Cheers.) He hoped he should never see
the like again, because he did say now, quietly
looking at it through the vista of one year, that it
was disgraceful to all those who had been concerned

in that business. No sooner, however, were the
elections over than the present Attorney-General
moved for a committee to inquire into the conduct
of Mr. Beresford with regard to certain proceedings
at Derby. As that question yet remained to be
tried before a legal tribunal, he would not enter
further into it than to say, that in the whole history
of party warfare, party persecution, and party spite,
there never had been anything at all to be com-
pared with the virulence with which his right hon.
friend had been persecuted. (Loud cheers.) The
question which the select committee of the House of
Commons had to try was, " Is Mr. Beresford
guilty, or is he not, of being concerned in the bri-
bery which took place in the borough of Derby ?"
That was the issue. Was he guilty or was he in-
nocent ? But, what was the course taken by that
Whig-Radical committee with a Peelite chairman ?

They- were obliged to find that his right hon. friend
was totally exculpated from any share in the bribery
transactions at Derby, yet they could not forego
their itching palm, and so great was their love
to finger something which might be detrimental
to the Conservative party, and destructive to
his right hon. friend, that, though they pro-
nounced him " Not guilty," they concluded
their verdict with a most severe censure upon his
conduct. (Cheers.) He said that such a pro-
ceeding was unheard of in the whole Parliamen-
tary history of this kingdom. (Cheers.) But that
was not sufficient. His right hon. friend was to
be indicted as a criminal for entering into a con-
spiracy to bribe the people of Derby. As that,
however, was an issue which yet remained to be
. .

tried, he was precluded from saying anything upon
it. Even that was not enough to satisfy the ani-
mosity of their political opponents, but they must
present a petition against the return of his hon.
criends, Mr. Ducane and Mr. Miller, for the bo-
rough of Maldon. (Cheers.) Mr. Cobden said, if
we had free trade we should have peace all over
the world, because it would be the object of the
Emperor of Russia, who was the great lock-keeper
of the Danube, to sell us his corn. In place of
that, however, the Emperor said—" I hold the keys
of the granary of Europe. I'll do what I please,
and you dare not touch me—if you do I'll starve
you." This it was which accounted for the vacil-
lating and truckling conduct of our Government
on the Eastern question. (Cheers.) As to the
uniformity of prices, he defied any of them to re-
collect the time when within six months corn had
risen 100 per cent. He contended, then, that the
prophecies of the Freetraders had been much more
at fault than those of the Conservatives. He knew
that party was at an end with the present Govern-
ment, because they had no principle, but were
a mere combination of Peelites, Whigs, Radicals,
Pope's bands, and a variety of other little conglomera-
tions, constituting a knot of persons in Parliament
whose object was the destruction of the Conserva-
tive party. (Cheers.) Under these circumstances,
it was the duty of the Conservatives toe holdofthem fast
by their principles and to withjo.in non
Peelites, and all,
to fall ;
leaving them, Whigs,.
Radicals,
h,,
played by the
Pope's
d (Loud cheers and laughter.)
intobrass the "Rogue's
The position of the present Government was this,
that they were bound hand and foot to the Pope,
and without his sanction they dared not make a
movement. Witness the Canada Clergy Reserves
Bill, the Charitable Trusts Bill, and the humiliat-
ing letter of the Premier to Messrs. Monsell,
Keogh, and Sadleir. They must erect, then, the
Conservative party upon the great platform of the
Protestant institutions of this country. (Loud
and prolonged cheering.) Any man who supported
the present Government should be looked upon as
aiding and abetting in the overthrow of their Pro-
testant institutions.

The CHAIRMAN called upon the meeting, after
the excellent speech they had just heard, to drink
a special toast to the Rev. John Cox.
The toast was drunk in a bumper.
Mr. A. MAJENDIE, of the Castle, in an eulogistic
speech, proposed " The health of the County
Members," and read the following characteristic
letters from two of them. The first was from Sir
J. Tyrell :

" Rongham-hall, Oct. 9.
" I am sorry frankly to admit that I have neither
heart, spirit, nor courage to attend your meeting at
Hedingham on the 14th. I fear that many friends will
think I am neglecting them—others, that I am indiffe-
rent to what is passing in the county. Your meeting
is Conservative and agricultural, and I have a few words
to say upon that subject. The Conservative party is so
completely demolished in the House of Commons as a
party, that it must be reformed before it can be a com-
bined party. If I am asked what has brought about
that state of things, my answer is, the perfidy and in-
sincerity of conduct and action of many of that party,
who talked loudly on the hustings of confidence in Lord
Derby, and who were afterwards in the lobby of the
enemy defeating by their countenance the proceedings
of the most strenuous of our leaders. Under these cir-
cumstances, our moral influence as a party has vanished.
Undoubtedly, I acted like the cabmen—struck work, and
perhaps you may say abandoned my duty. I admit that
I am too old to enter the lists, and I have seen too much
of party conflicts to attack those in our ranks who,
though their motives may be sincere, have, in my opinion,
acted a part inconsistent with their declarations, which
excited cheers from the hustings, and caused extraordi-
nary exertions to be made to secure their return to Par-
liament. It is not impossible that we may ere long, from
the present relative state of the party, be awakened
by some attack upon our own Protestant liberties, or by
the din of war, mainly brought about by the antiquated
imbecility of the head of the Cabinet, whose known sym-
pathy with the Orleans party has encouraged Russia to
rely upon a division between England and France, and
would at once leave Turkey at the disposal of Russia.
This state of things would never have occurred had Lord
Derby remained in office, and that is the penalty that
England has to pay in supporting a Government bound
by a combination of trading politicians—that is, of men
whose great object was to be in office on any principles
or at any price, and which is daily becoming explained
to the public by the e/ite of the Irish party. Those gen-
tlemen, it seems, have been tampered with by the under-
lings of the Peel-Whig party, putting into the shade by
their imperfections the little imperfections of which Lori