The Sun.
London, England, 1836-12-08 00:00:00

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REFORM DINNER AT PERSHO-I
TO THE MEMBERS OF EAST WOW"
TERSHIRE.

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,;44 :4 14

(From the Worcester Herald.)
On Tuesday last T. H. Cookes, Esq., and E. Hold and,
Esq., dined by invitation at the Bell Inn, Pershore, with
their constituents in the Evesham and Pershore district.
The dinner took place in the Assombly Room, where ta-
bles were laid out for the accommodation of more than
150, besides which number forty dined in other parts of
the house. C. E. Hanford, ' Esq., presided on the occa-
sion ; he was supported on his right by T. H. Cesdces,
Esq., Colonel Davies, and C. H. Hehb, Esq., the M:ayor
of Worcester ; and on his left sat E. Holland, Esq., John
Martin, Esq., late M.P. for Tewkesbury, and M. An nes-
ley, Esq. James Ashwin, Esq., officiated as Vice-Presi-
dent, supported on his right by William Acton, Esq., and
on his left by the Rev. J. Foley, of Pershore, and many
other respectable gentlemen residing in the Evesham and
Pershore district.
The cloth having been removed, and the usual loyal
toasts given and received wish much enthusiasm,
The' CHAIRMAN said that the ner.t toast afforded him
great pleasure to anizounce—he meant " The People, the
true, the legitimate source of power."--(Drunk with three
time three, and tremendous cheers.)
The CHAIRMAN—He would propose to them " The
health of their Representatives, Mr. Cookes and Mr. Hol-
land."-4Great cheering.)
Mr. COOSES rose to reply, and was received with the
most enthusiastic applause. At the time of the last dis-
solution of Parliament, their opponents, the Tories, held
forth to the farmer the delusive hopes that they could re-
lieve their distresses, and vaunted that they were the only
real friends of the farmers.—(Hear.) They had told the
farmer that the Administration of Sir Robert Peel could
and would afford them relief; and now, be would inquire,
how had that promise been fulfilled? A Committee had
been granted, which bad sat for five or six ,months, and
having received a body of evidence to which there was no
parallel, the Committee had not ventured to give an opinion
thereon.—(Hear, hear.) They had sent the evidenoe
abroad to the country, without a single comment ;
as much
as to say, "Here it is; we will not commit ourselves on
the question ; we will leave it open for consideration another
day."—(Hear, hear.) It was for the farmer, then, to judge
whether those who had been so loud in their professions,
and who held out such hopes to thorn only to disappoint,
were their real friends.—(Cries of " No, no, they are not?)
There was another question connected with agriculture to
which he would allude, he meant the Tithe Act. He
thought that those who had seen its working would agree
with him that, take it all in all, it was likely to prove satis-
factory. It was with much pleasure that he could congratulate
his constituents belonging to the Dissenting con:triunity upon
the redress of part of their grievances. There were still, how-
ever, other claims loudly calling for redress, and which, on
the principle of truth and justice, ought to be granted to
the Dissenters, and if they were long withheld it would not,
he believed, be the fault of their representatives.—(Cheers.)
The Hon. Member then alluded to the Irish Municipal
Bill, which he lamented had been thrown out by the House
of Lords.—(Hear.) It was admitted by the Lords that
they had no objection to the principle of the Bill as applied
to England and Scotland, but that the Irish were unable
to manage their own affairs. They had been called aliens
in religion, in blood, and in language, and he who bad the
audacity to utter such disgraceful sentiments was himself
an alien.—(Cries of " Shame, shame !") Such language No-
plied to the Irish was disgraceful. [The Hon. Member
concluded a very lengthened address amid the warmest _
greetings of the company.]
Mr. HOLLAND then rose and addressed the meeting
as follows :—Gentlemen, the destructive policy of the Lo:rds
is not of the standing of one session only ; it has existed
since the passing of the Reform Bill. It is a dangerous
policy, and one to be risked alone under the guidance of
some reckless leader, to whom property is nothing, to
whom character is nothing, and who, having nothing to
lose, is ready to be hired and to give the aid of his eloquence
and high talents in the cause, regardless of the conse-
quences:—(Cheers.) How fortunate arc the Lords in
the choice of Lord Lyndhurst as their leader ! Either
you must put aside the Reform Bill, and make the House
of Commons as subservient as it before was to the House
of Lords, or the latter must be reformed so as to adapt it
to the improved state of the former.--(Cheers, and cries of
" Bravo.") I need not ask you which plan is to be
adopted, inasmuch, as the first, being a retrograde step is
civilization, would be somewhat difficult to accomplish.
You have therefore no choice ; to create harmony, to avoid
future collision between the two chambers, the House of
Lords must be refernied.—(Loud and repeated cheers.)
I look upon the House of Lords as the safety-valve to that
good boiler the House of Commons, without which the
boiler would burst, and the Constitution would be de-
stroyed ; for its proper working in this capacity I think it
should be hereditary, and that it should while at work be
irresponsible. But I should like to see limited the time of
its working upon each particular question. Any evil
arising from hereditary peerage would in a great measure
be remedied by abolishing the power of voting by proxy.
If the House of Lords had the power to suspend only,
and not altogether to baffle and destroy, a measure sent up
to it by the Commons (say for a term of years, or that a
measure should become law if sent up to it a third or fourth
time), this power of suspension would give the nation time
to reconsider its nature, and thus would be avoided all in-
considerate haste. Now, as to whether such a reform of
the Lords would be constitutional ? I think it would.
Gentlemen, the time cannot be very far distant when this
question of a Reform of the House of Lords will be dis-
cussed in Parliament ; and it is right that your representa-
tives should put you in full possession of their sentiments
upon this subject.—(Hear.) Let me, however, before I
sit down, impress upon you the necessity of our being
united.—( Cheers.) Reformers are of so many grades of feeling,
that although all arc travelling the same course, their num-
bers are scattered, and weakened by being spread wide.
Our enemies are old practised tacticians, and attempt to
take advantage of this. It is necessary for us to have a
rallying point, and we cannot do better than rally round the
present Liberal Ministers.--(Cheers.) Lord Melbourne •
has pledged himself to do justice to Ireland ; let us help
him to redeem that pledge. Let those like myself, who
would advance further than his Lordship in the work of
Reform, for a time hold back. Ireland demands it—lre-
land calls upon us to save her from the horrors of a civil
war. [Mr. Holland sat down amid loud and long-continued

cheers.]
The CHAIRMAN said it afforded him much gratification
in proposing the next toast, which was—" Lord Melbourne
and his Majesty's Ministers." (This toast was drank with
three times three, amid the most deafening applause.)
The CHAIRMAN said the next toast he had to propose to
them was—" The Bishop and Clergy of the Diocese, and
the Clergy of all denominations."
The Rev. J. FoLEY returned thanks. It was the abuses
of the Church—those abuses which had naturally crept in
by the lapse of time, and which the Tories, when they had.
the power, never attempted to remove—it was these of which
he was the unflinching opponent.—(Cheers.) Did they think
that he wished to see the Church upheld by sinecures, plu-
ralities, non-residence, and such-like enormities ?—(Cheers.)
He wished to see the Church made more generally and ex-
tensively useful.—(Hear.) He wished to see it rooted
in the affections of all classes of the people.-4 Loud cheers.)
He should only say, that he was a Reformer on conviction
—he was born a Tory, and educated in a Tory school, and
a Tory university ; but firmly persuaded that Tory prin-
ciples were unsuited to the age in which they lived—con-
vinced, also, that these institutions, whether in Church or
State, could not be preserved by the maintenance of abuses
—(Cheers)—seeing, from his own experience, that the
Tories would not attempt to remove any of those abuses,
he became a Reformer ; and unless the Tories would
bring forward some arguments far more onvi cncing than
any he had yet heard from them to induce him to
change his sentiments, he should continue a Reformer
to the end of the chapter.—(Loud applause.) He
thanked them heartily for the kind attention they had given
to those observations which he felt called upon to make in
self-defence ; and wishing them felt ca
and happiness, he
heartily wished, at the same time, success in any future con-
test in which they
might be engaged in defence of their po-
litical principles.—(Continued cheering.) Mr. Foley's
health was then proposed, and drunk with enthusiasm.
Shortly after eleven o'clock Mr. HANFORD left the
chair, and the company separated.

JOST-STOCK BANKS.—The following is the re-
sult of the returns with reference to these banks, which
may be collected from the report of the committee :—There
is a list given of 89 banks, of which 80 have been esta-
blished in the present year, and special returns respecting
62 of these banks. Of these, '2.2 have ❑o branches or
offices of agency ; and of the remainder 37 have 283
branches and sub-branches among them, besides agencies
and sub-agencies. The amount of nominal capital of the
62 banks is stated at 40,950,000/., in 1,031,450 shares of
from Si. to 1,0001. in nominal value. The capital paid up
on 654,661 shares issued, amounted to 6,590,545/. •2s. ad.
The number of shares not issued was 376,789, represent-
ing a portion of the above capital of 40,950,0001., amount-
ing to 11,137,4101. Seven banks only, out of the 62, had
issued their full number of shares. The dividends have
varied much, some banks paying 3 per cent., and others
4,5, 6,7 i, 8, 81, 10, 11, 121, and 16 per cent.—Times.
We regret to hear that in a house just beyond Ilea-
vitree two children were killed by the falling in of a chimney
during the storm on Tuesday.—Wedern Luminary.
According to a list published by the National, the
subscription for the monument to• be erected to the me-
mory of M. Armand Carrel amounts at present to 14,109 f
(about 5641.)