The Sun.
London, England, 1836-02-16 00:00:00

GREAT AYLESBURY MEETING.

The Reformers mustered in force on Friday evening last,
n consequence of an announcement that Mr. Thomas Hob-
house would meet his friends at the Crown Inn. At seven
o'clock, the Hon. and Learned Gentleman, attended. by his
principal supporters, entered _the large_ ton, which was
thronged with a respectable and extremely aura-6;ns eons-
pauy. Mr. Wing took the Chair, and opened the proceed-
ings by a brief, but encomiastic notice of his Learned Friend's
character. In conclusion, he requested the company to drink
that Gentleman's health, which was received with deafening
and unanimous applause.
Mr. Honnovse, after thanking his friends for their hearty
greeting, took a review of the chief events which had occurred
since the last tima of their meeting. In alluding to Como.
rate Reform, he asked whether that form of government which
was conducive to the interests of those small communities
would be pernicious in its application to the whole kingdom ?
—(No, and cheers.) He was no stickler for abstract prin.
ciples. Had it been his fortune to represent them-in Parlia-
ment, he would have supported such improvements as ap-
peared practicable, without, ,however, renouncing Vote by
Ballot, Triennial Parliaments, and Extended Suffrages. The
first was essential to free choice—( Loud cheers)—the'seconcl
would change a remote and must uncertain period of account
into.one much nearer and less indefinite—(Heass, and cheers)
—the last would embrace an extremely intelligent body of
persons at present excluded from electing those by whom they
were governed.—( Hear, and applause.) They were now on
the threshold of Reform, and past improvements would beat
no more proportion to the future than a dwarf to a giants—
( Cheers.) Empty words would not deeCiYC them on the Irish
Church question ; nor could the nauscotts cry of " No Popery"
prevail against the truth. It was not against the name, but
the spirit of Popery that their 'ancestors had contended ; and
following the example of r--verend antiquity, he exhorted them
to resist the Popery's': the Church of Englnd.—(Vehernent
and lengthened fusers.) What was it in Popery which the
early RcfP.Tmers condemned ? If he knew anything of history,
the tlfsbtention related to the right of private judgment; it was
sslinther each might choose his creed on free inquiry. It was
worth seeing whether they were more free to follew their own
worship now than in the old times. He was warranted in the
assertion, that nothing except the nature of the penalties was
changed. A man might always act according to conscience,
on pain of meeting the consequences. In past times religious
martyrdom was the punishment ; at present, the punishment
was to pay two priests—one chosen by yourself, another pro-
vided by the State. A lighter penalty now existed in lieu of one
more severe. In fact, the law was nut changed, but only the
punishment. —( Cheers.) He had been accused of declamation
by those who did not understand the value of words. Decla-
mation, so far as it was the vehicle of blame, might be founded
on false or exaggerated premises ; or it might be a spirited ex-
pression of notorious and disagreeable truths.--( Hear.) He
wondered whether he should be charged with declamation
when he said, that Buckinghamshire was worse represented
than any part of England, and Aylesbury wont; than any part
of Buckinghamshire.—( Prolonged cheer's and laughter.)
Was it declamation to affirm that they 'were saddled with a
couple of Members, incompetent for their duties, guilty of the
grossest inconsistency, and stee',,ed in political prejudices?—
(Loud cheers.) That he r.'ight not be accused of declama-
tion, he would support himself by facts. Before the last elec-
tion, Colonel Hanmer, in a speech which had been put forth
in a hand-bill, that no portion of its precious eloquence might
}se lost—(a laugh)—had declared against the Malt Tax, and
promised ho would "always" strenuously urge its repeal.
Yet, in a few short weeks, he deemed it not inconsistent with
his duty to vote' in the teeth of his voluntary declaration.--
(Cries of " Shame.") And now for Mr. Rickford. In the
Parliamentary debates of 1824, a resolution was moved by
Mr. Hume, " That it is expedient to inquire whether the
present Church Establishment of Ireland be not more
than commensurate to the services to be performed,
both as regards the number of persons employed, and the in-
come they receive." This was moved on the 6th of May,
1824, and rejected in that corrupt house by a large majority,
the noes being 153 and the ayes 79. Among those ayes was
Mr. Riekford ; but Reform was a mistress whose alkeements
ceased when hope was to be converted into possessisn—
" 'Tis distance lends enchantment to the view."
Mr. Rickford was willing enough to vote_fsir Reform, on con-
dition it might never be accomplished,._( Hear, and laughter.)
He earned popularity without the clanger of abating a- single
grievance. Could it be beliesesel that the same man who called
for for inquiry in 1824 was anst Lord John Russell's resolu-
tions to correct that aVsuse in 1825, after proof-of-its existence.
—(Cries of " Sbssine.") To add to riis other enormities he
had since voted for depriving Irishmen of the " hope" of a
corporate reform, on .the principle of popular election. It
cord not therefore be denied; it was matter of fact not decla-
mation, that the two members for Aylesbury were a matchless
pair--( Cheers and laughter)—worthy of each other, and
worthy of those who viewed them with " unabated con-
fidence." When Mr. Rickford's friends used that expression,
they did themselves injustice ; for he believed that each
step of that gentleman's descent endeared him more and more
to his worthless and obsequious crew.—( Hear, and laughter.)
How long would they submit to be Rickford-ridden ?
(Laughter, and great cheering.) For his own part, he chal-
lenged the most abandoned sycophant to pronounce that man
a liberal, or even neutral, who had in the last session voted
for the Tory Speaker, and, on pretence of avoiding a factious
opposition, against the amendment to the Address ; yet now
resorted to that same factious course be had before condemned,
for the purpose of overturning a Reform Administration, and
withholding from the Irish people their dearest rights.—
( Cheers.) It', in addition to such misconduct, Mr. Riekford
had voted for Mr. Hume's resolution in 1824, and against
Lord John Russell's Irish Church Bill of 1835—if he had
uniformly opposed vote by ballot, triennial Parliaments, and
extended suffrage, except in the case of the odious tenant-at-
will clause of his friend Lord Chandos, with eipom, in the
very agony of Reform, he had exchanged votes—if all these
things were true, and of their truth there was not a
doubt, it must bo allowed that neutrality was a mere
mockery, in order to gain the second votes of conflicting par-
ties.---( Cheers.) It must be allowed that the man was a
Tory, and that his dependents were either Anti-Reformers, or
had sold their consciences for gold.—(Hear, hear.) About
the time of the last election, Mr. Riekford had whined nut a
wish that the distinctions of Whig and Tory were buried in
oblivion. " For once," said the Learned Gentleman, " 1 place
implicit reliance in him--(Laughter)—and 1 fAncv the desire
is shared by most of his party. Perhaps a s;.4lltr inclination
may be found among another class, Us destroy the vain
distinction between themselves and 'nosiest men.—(Peals
of laughter.) Whigs, no dosibt, will be as anxious
to preserve their separation ;row. Tories, as Tories to
contaminate, by their foul enakaces, the Whigs.--( Hear,
hear, and cheers.) Mr, liobhouse then alluded to his
triumph over the returning officers, who bad accepted 151. 5d.,
his original tenser, in lieu of 47/. 16s. 2d., their first demand.
—(Cheers,) He descanted on cheap election, and concluded
an animated and eloquent speech, of which the above is a
hasty sketch, amidst vehement and protracted plaudits.
Mr. Glans immediately rose, and moved a vote of censure
against Mr. Rickford, which was carried unanimously.
Mr. WING gave " O'Connell, the Liberator of Ireland,"
which was received with the most rapturous applause. The
same gentleman afterwards returned thanks, on his ownhealth
being drank.

A—song, appropriate to the occasion, was sung by Mr. Hin
ton. The lines

" Unite to hut' the Neutral down,
Unite to wreath the Patriot's crown," &c.
were received with peculiar marks of approbation by the com-
pany, who seemed to relish the allusioa to Mr. Rickford.
Several other toasts were given, and the company dis-
persed highly gratified, at a late hour.

EMBOSSED BIBLES FOR THE BLIND..--A public
meeting was held yesterday in the theatre of the Philosophical
Institution, Park-street, for the purpose of forming a society
for embossing bibles for the blind. A report, detailing tbl;.,
progress made in the system w-,,s then read, and subsequently
and was
it was resolved, that a socicV be now formed, to be called the
Bristol Society for embossing and distributing the bible
g
amon the blind*
these obie?ts into effect. a
—Bristol committee
Mercury. arced for carrying
144,,NG,At the first meeting of ng the new town-
conncil of Beading
meetin , a m notio was made by Mr. Williams, that
The motion was at that
the future gs of the
time ne to7n-council should be public.
ing subsequently brought
attved, but Mr. Williams hay-
t.g
the subject again forward, it was
a diviiiiab p Wassed without
boroughs will f4liew , . e hope the corporations of other
A similar course to that of Reading.