The Sun.
London, England, 1836-09-24 00:00:00

ANDREW CROSSE, Esq., J.P., occupied the Vice-Presi-
dent's chair. After the cloth was removed,

The CHAIRMAN said, that they had met to rally round
the grand principle of Reform of the British Constitution
—(Hear, and cheers)—and to pay the tribute of their
gratitude to the two gentlemen whom they had selected to
represent them. He would, however, in the first instance,
propose to them, " Health and lent, life to one of the best,
supporters of reform in these kingdoms, the individual who
sits upon the throne, King William the Fourth."—(Loud
cheers.)
The next toasts were " The Queen" and " the Princess
Victoria and the rest of the Royal family."
The CHAIRMAN then said that the next toast he had to
propose was, " The health of his Majesty's Ministers"—
(Loud and continued cheers)—" Lord Melbourne and his
Majesty's Ministers."---(Renewed cheers.) The King's
Ministers had shown their firm determination to represent
the wishes, feelings, and interests of the people hitherto,
and if ever they flinched from this, the course they had
laid down for themselves when they had taken office, then
it would be the business of the people to condemn and not
to praise them.—(Hear, hear.) He, however, after having
paid common attention to the affairs of the country, could
not discover any ladles and dereliction of those principles
which his Majesty's Ministers had assumed as their rule of
conduct, and he trusted that this was also the opinion of
the people of the Western Division of Somerset.—(Loud
cheers.) It was true that Ministers received their power
from the Crown, but they also received it from what was
the source of all legitimate power, the people ; and when
Ministers forgot that, then it would be the duty of the
people to forget them.—(Loud cheers.) The toast was
drunk with nine times nine, and amidst great applause.
Mr. LABOUCHERE, in returning thanks, said it was a
matter of great gratification to him to meet so large a com-
pany as was then assembled, representing as it did the in-
telligence and respectability of the western division of So-
merset. It was indeed a sincere pleasure, because, by their
meeting that day they paid a just compliment to their re-
presentatives, Messrs. Sanford and Tynte, for the fidelity
and ability with which they had discharged the trust con-
fided to them.—(Loud cheers.) The Hon. Baronet, in
proposing the toast, had alluded to the events of the last
session, and he (Mr. Labouchere) should be guilty of insin-
cerity if he did not say that there was much which had
occurred in that session to cause disappointment and regret
to those who, like that meeting, desired, by constitutional
means, principles of such importance and consequence to
the country ; he might, however say that the last session
had been unproductive as far as regarded the most import-
ant measures which had been proposed by Government as
necessary for the good of the empire. This, however, was
not owing to the Government, nor, he must say, from any
want of support by the Reform interest in the House of
Commons, and no individual could say that if the mea-
sures proposed by Government had been made laws, that
session would have been mis-spent--(Hear.) Those measures
chiefly regarded the policy which it was right to pursue re-
lative to Ireland ; this was a portion of the national policy,
and it was important not only to Ireland but to England
also that a sound and just course of policy should be pur-
sued towards the former country ; and he had no doubt.
that in respect to the measures introduced regarding it by
Government last Session, from a conviction of their justice
and policy, it would not relax in their efforts to promote
them,—(Loud cheers.) It was not in his power to with-
draw the veil from futurity, but he would say, as an
opinion founded upon the best observation he had been
able to give to the progress of affairs in this country, that
he believed that any question on which the mind and the
opinion of the great majority of the people was made up,
if they only proceeded firmly and constitutionally, he had
no doubt or fear that they would carry them as they had
carried others for the great benefit of the country.—
(Cheers.) lie saw present in the room many individu-
als connected with the agricultural interests ; and one
question connected with it had been passed during the
late Session—he alluded to the Tithe Bill, which, he felt
assured, would not fall to be eventually a source of mate-
rial advantage to those interests.—(l-lear.,) It would be of
great and positive benefit—more especially to the occu-
piers of the land—that the tithe should be a fixed pay-
/tient) and not subject to fluctuations. He again thanked
them for the rue:neje in which they had received the health
of the present Administration ; Lind he should feel glad to
sue its members in office as long as they could remain so
with honour to themselves and utility to the country ; and
he knew enough of the leading members of that Administra-
tion, to lay, that when they found that they could not hold
office with honour to thettieelitg and benefit to the empire,
they' would not continue to retain it for rift hour..—( Cheers.)
The CHAIRMAN next proposed " The health of Messrs.
Sanford and Tynte, the Members for the Western Division
of Somerset."—(Loud and continued cheers.)
theAmir._. SANFORn had endeavoured to act up to principles of
liberal government, which gave power to the many, and not
to the few—principles of civil and religious liberty over the
world. These were the grounds upon which had asked
for their confidence ; on them he had obtained it, and i! "S
for his constituents to turn him adrift when he deserted
Loud cheers.) It would be necessary for him now
tod o, allude t
session
tl
he of
f constituency
Parliament,
a few
of
so
o la
addressing,
r g measuresea ca os
uintroducedhe had
Tin t
the
h Their
rh honour
last
political l
sethihde
opponents said that they had all the aristocracy with them ;
but looking around him now, he would challenge them as to
aerraecdt ewr ,haos
waste
trank,their
iarn
Vice-President,d respectabili respectability ;11
he
and,
would he
challenge
nh
acaogne-
n
charactera
as to intellect also.—(Loud cheers.) (The Vice-
President, Mr. Crosse, is the gentleman who so pre-eminently
distinguished himself at the late scientific meeting in Bris-
tol.) Those to whom he alluded were apt to give them-
selvesc h a ct erw
sb ut let
himh b(yMort.hSerasn....4fordH)ehaar,vehetahre,
which given
the
meeting
and cheers.) He would now briefly allude to some of
the events of the last session ; and there was one subject
connected with them which was more interesting to the
a rtchsatns referringn(yHoatahre,r,hear.)
Tahse itl
last
td
meetingto the ag
he
agri-
cultural
attended in that room was one of the Agricultural As-
sociation ; and he had then delivered to them his opinion
candidly and honestly, which was, that he did not believe it
to be in the power of the Legislature to grant them the
relief they considered they ougt to have afforded to them.
It was his duty to state to them candidly what his opi-
nion was, and he would not, for the sake of a little popu-
larity, hold out to them any delusive hopes.—(Cheers,).
During
tural distress sat during five months, three days each week,
the last session, then, a Committee upon agricul-
tural
and had examined witnesses from all parts of the
kingdom,d and what was the result of this ? Why those who had
de-
clared, and held up a Committee of the House of Commons
to be a panacea for all the evils of the agricultural interests,
were the first to declare that no report should be made, and
that the House should merely send to the country the evi-
dence taken by the Committee.—(Hear, hear.) And
those, too, were the very individuals who had styled therA.