The Sun.
London, England, 1841-11-06 00:00:00

EVENING SUN

fore the public, but wherever he went he should takecare
that it should be thoroughly understood. He had,
whenever the case had been mentioned to him, said. " I
know nothing of the circumstances of the case ; but I will
bet two to one, the masons are right." And why did he
say so ? Why, because it was contrary to human na-
ture that 200 men should voluntarily throw themselves
out of work, and subject themselves to all the domestic
privations consequent thereupon, unless they were ac-
tuated by some high principle of duty.(Cheers.) Their
strength was in union, and the more their union was
abused, the more firmly ought they to unite.—(Cheers.)
With regard to Parliament, all he could advise them to
ask from that body was to let them alone. Doubtless
some measure would be proposed during the neat Ses-
sion for their protection—(A laugh)—but he would
make it his duty most carefully to watch any such mea-
sure. If any of the middle classes or of the aristocracy
should offer to unite with them, he would advise them to
hold out the right hand of fellowship to them, but at all
events it was their duty to go on to fight their own great
moml battle, and he doubted not but in the end they
must obtain a glorious and a bloodless victory.—(Cheers.)
Captain ACKERLEY said their Ilow. Friend, Mr. Wak-
ley, had told them that he did not fairly understand the
question at issue before he heard the circumstances de-
tailed that evening ; and as he came to hear the truth,
in a few words he would still in-we enlighten him. The
reason he (Captain Ackerley) had given his 101. was not
only to support the masons of London, but the working
classes all over the kingdom.—(Cheers.) He hoped
Mr. Wakley was alive to the bad system of contracts
adopted of late years by the Government. Some years
ago if a man lost his leg or any other limb on the public
works he had a pension, and, if he died, his wife and
children were provided for. But the system of contract-
ing had done away with that. A man that sustained an
injury in the public service was as much entitled to a
pension as any captain or admiral in the navy. He had
prepared a memorial to the Government to that effect, and
hoped the meeting would join him heart and
hand in supporting it. The Gallant Captain then read a
long memorial to tl-,e Government on this subject. He
also submitted a resolution to the effect, that a simi-
lar memorial should be presented to the Lord Mayor
of London. He (Captain Ackerley) was elected yester-
day by all the old clothesnson of London—(Loud laugh-
ter, in which the Captain joined)—to represent their
grievances in Cutler-street.—(Loud laughter.) The
Gallant Captain then submitted another resolution to
the meeting, that the public voice being the mind of
God, it is the opinion of this meeting that every one
should have a voice in Parliament. He begged to ask
the Chairman to propose that resolution, and he would
second it.—(Much laughter.)
The CHAIRMAN said it was certainly rather singular
that the Gallant Captain should propose a resolution,
and then ask him to do it. If any person chose to do
so he would put it to the meeting, but he could not do
so himself.

Captain ACKERLEY—Here is Mr. Griffiths ; he is 21
years of age, and is ready for the work.—(Laughter )
A young man, apparently about 16 veers of age, here
;stepped forward, but the meeting refus-ed to hear him.
The CHAIRMAN, without noticing Captain Ackerley's
resolution, said that a meeting of the masons would be
held at the Craven Head, Drury-lane, next Wednesday
evening, at eight o'clock.
Captain ACKERLEY rose, but
The CHAIRMAN said—l shall not put the resolution.
Captain ACKERLEY—Then I will put the resolution
myself.
Various members were now beginning to move away,
when
Captain ACKERLEY said, " For God's sake stop, will
you, and put your shoulder to the wheel."
A vote of thanks was then proposed to the Chairman,
who left the platform in the possession of Captain Ac-
kerley, who continued protesting against_the conduct of
the meeting towards him.

TRIAL BY JURY.
The friends of Parliamentary Reform dined together
yesterday evening at Anderton's Rotel, Fleet-street, to
celebrate the Forty-seventh Anniversary of the acquittal
of Thomas Hardy, John Horne Tooke, John Theis% all,
&c., from the charge of high treason. At half-past six
o'clock about one hundred and thirty gentlemen sat down
to a very substantial and excellent dinner, which re-
flected much credit upon the taste and liberality of the

caterer, Mr. Hardinge.
When the cloth was removed,
The Chairman, Colonel PEYItONNET THOMPSON, rose
and said, the first toast on his list was one which
was the foundation of all social and political rights.
—.Hear, hear, and cheers.) It was the source from
whence was ascertained what was legal power and what
was not. The recognition of that principle constitned
the grand distinction between nations boasting to be free
and nations which were not. They had received from
their forefathers what they believed to be the rights of
free subjects, and free institutions, and they should not
hesitate to acknowledge the source from whence these
rights and all legitimate power was derived. The com-
munity was the only source from whence, as their
brave forefathers had declared it, legitimate power
could be derived. They had handed down these
principles as a heritage to their consenting pos-
terity. Recognising the people, then, as the -source of
all legitimate power, he thought they should next look
to the sovereign of the people's choice as the representa-
tive of the power of ,the :people. Ile would give them,
with all the honours—" The Sovereignty of the People."

.(Great cheering.)
• The CHAIRMAN said—llaving stated and recognised
the source from whence all sovereignty flowed, it was
now their duty to give the health of the Sovereign of the
people's choice. It had lately happened that the Duke
of Modena (had it net been for the Act of Sovereignty)
would have been the sovereign of that country and have
reigned over them—(Oh!)—but the sovereignty of the
people had willed it otherwise, and having recognised
their power, he would now give them—" The health of
the reigning Sovereign the Queen."—(Three times
three, and great cheering.)
The CHAIRMAN said he now came to the immediate
toast of the evening. They were met to celebrate the
anniversary of a great constitutional triumph of those
who might be called their forefathers, although he
believed there were some individuals present v. ho were
conversant with the times and circumstances to which
the toast alluded. It was known to all of them that at a

period when bad government and arbitrary power had
obtained a powerful sway in that country, an effort was
made to involve innocent and deserving men in a breach
of the laws of the highest and most serious character—
namely, an act of high treason. The wise preparations
and precautions of their ancestors in such case made and
provided, and the manly and powerful energies which
they brought to bear upon the charge, enabled them to
set the innocent at large, and let the oppressed go free.
—(Loud cheers.) They met to celebrate an occasion in

which, if he might be allowed to express it, the jaw-
teeth of tyranny were broken in its mouth. It was an
event which must give hope to all who followed in the
same glorious cause, and who had only virtue and in-
telligence to put these principles into action. Circum-
stances bad occurred which would render the celebration
of the present year more than usually interesting. Did
they not see something like the return to power of the
same dangerous faction ?—(Hear, hear.) Were they
not on the point of having the same dangerous pro-
ceedings over again ?—(Har, hear.) Unless their
enemies were grievously disappointed, an attempt would
be made to establish the very same tyranny which
their forefathers had put down.—(Hear, hear.)
Nay, it had ben distinctly stated, in the avowed organ
of the party, that it was titre to put a stop to the over-
grown weal* and commerce of the metropolis, and to
disperse thekeople under the care of the landlords and
clergymen of the agricultural districts.—(Hear, hear.)
That would show the necessity of union and co-operation
among the working and industrious classes. The cause
of their failure hitherto had been the want of co- opera-
tion between them and the middle classeS.—(Hear, and
cheers.) It was time to put an end to tbat source of
weakness and defeat. He did not mean to contend that
the working classes should give up their views, and
adopt those of the middle classes but he thought that
all should agree to struggle in the way they thought
most judicious for the general good.—(Gear, hear,) He
complained that the Government had placed itself in
direct opposition to the great commercial and manufac-
turing interests of the country. So long as these were
the-principles upon which they conducted the affairs of
the Government, they could not hope fur the support
and sympathy of the people. (Hear, hear, and
cheers.) He was rather surprised to read in the Morning
Chronicle, a short time since, that Mr. Pitt was an honest
man.—(Great laughter.) But if any man would read
Horne Tooke's trial, and the examination of Tooke, and
see how Pitt shuffled and lied, and disavowed every sen-
timent he had professed in thefarlypart of his life, they
would admit that he had exhibited himself on the occa-
sion as the advocate of a corrupt and tyrannous aristo-
cracy.—( Hear, hear.) After some further observations,
r representa-
tion which he impressed upon the company the importance
of endeavouring to effeetafull.
tion of the people in Parliament, frthee; and
Chairman fair
by proposing " The Memory of Tooke, Thelwall, Hardy,
and their illustrious compatriots.
Mr. RICHARD TAYLOR said he o
Lion to the toast which had been would call their atten
put into his hands—
The memory of those'great and
g
did the institutions and liberties of the
men who, in 1794,
the country such good
service. At that period a great portion of the aristo-
cracy, who were supposed to be the friends of the peo-
ple, fell away from them, and became the slaves of des-
potism.—(Hear, hear.) At that period, the great men
to whom he referred had nobly and magnanimously stood
forward to resist the encroachments of arbitrary power.
On some former occasions they had had the pleasure of
meeting there one of these men—Thomas.Cl 3
(Cheers)—who had for nine days stood the ordeal of a
trial unprecedented in its nature and objects. He
recol-
lected on one occasion having been deputed to request
Lord Erskine. to meet them there on the sth of Novem-
ber, to celebrate the acquittal of these men, and that dis-
tinguished Judge had expressed his high approval of the
character and conduct of Hardy, and had regretted his
Inability to attend. He gave them The memory of Thel-
wall, Tooke, and Harry, and their compatriots."
Mr. J. H. PARRY begged to say a few words upon the
subject of Lerd Erskine. It should be borne in mind
that he had stood forward as a man who sympathised
with them on higher and nobler grounds than that of a
mere advocate, and declared that he avowed all their
acts and principles, and that he would have stood there
as a martyr to those principles. Thomas Erskine was
honest and consistent throughout his whole career.
When he was called upon to defend Tom Paine he (lid
not shrink from his duty, although he was acting as At-
torney-General to the Prince Reuent. He was called
upon to decide between his appoiPntment and his brief ;
and he threw down, not his brief, but his miserable di-
ploma, and stood forward as the honest and independent
asserter of those rights and principles which were advo-
cated-by his client.—(Cheers.) It was only by contrast
that theycould estimate the character of Thomas Erskine.
There was only one of his contemporaries who survived
him, and that was the man 'ho- made the tour of Ame-