The Sun.
London, England, 1840-07-21 00:00:00

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LONDON. TUESDAY, JULY 21, 1640.

SALES BY AUCTION.

PRESENTATION OF PLATE TO
THE REV. JAMES ASPINALL, A.M.. REC.
TOR OF ALTHORPE, LINCOLNSHIRE.

• ST. THOMA S-APOSTLE.
Freehold Premises, let on Lease to highly respectable Tenants, at a
• very low Rent, and exceedingly desirable for Investment.
MR • W. W. SIIVIPSON has received direc-
tions to SELL by AUCTION, at the Auction Mait,
on TUeSDAY, August 11, at Twelve, •
A valuable FREEHOLD PROPERTY, in excellent repair,
eligibly situated, being No. 14, St. Tliotras-Apostle, Queen-street,
Cheapside, consisting of a cetonlodlons dwelling-house, with ex-
cellent warehouses and ehow.rooms, counting-house, store rooms,
and cellars, in the occupation of Messrs. Greenwood, Ebbs, and
Co., foreign toy merchants (who have lately expended a consi-
derable sum in repairs), under a lease, of which four years are un-
expired, at the very low rent of 6.1/s per anntun.
The premises may be viewed by permission of the tenants ;
and particulars maybe obtained of Francis Southgate, Esq., solicitor,
Gravesend ; at the Auction Mart ;'and of Mr. W. W. Simpson, 18,
Bucklersbury.

(Abridged from the Liverpool Journal of Saturday.)
Yesterday, at twelve o'clock, a numerous meeting of
Reformers of Liverpool was bold at Eastwood's Royal
Hotel for the purpose of presenting to the Rev, James
Aspinall, who is now shout to leave Liverpool to enter en
the duties of his rectory, two magnificent pieces of plate,
subscribed for by a number of the Reformers of Liverpool,
as a testimony of respect and gratitude for his services in
the cause of civil and religious liberty, more especially in
the support and aid given by him to the friends of public
education, irrespective of creed, in the modelling of the
corporation schools.

Among those present we noticed Henry Holmes, Esq.,
James Mulleneux, Esq., Mr. Alderman Shell, Daniel
Mather, Esq.., J. Woolright, Esq., Mr. Alderman Freme,
Robert Mather, Esq., Mr. Alderman Barclay, Esq.,
and many others of the oldest and most consistent Re-
formers in the town.
The plate consists of a massive .silver candelabrum,
with six lights, surmounted by a basin containing tloviers,
richly ornamented with acanthus leaves, with scroll orna-
ments, and of a superb and massive salier, richly orna-
mented with scroll ornaments. The pieces were executed
by Messrs. Wordley and Mayer, of this town, and do the
highest credit to their taste and workmanship. They
both bear the following inscription:—" Presented to the
Rev. James Aspinall, A.M., by the Reformers of Liver-
pool, as a token of respect for his generous and able ad-
vocacy of the principles of civil and religious liberty."
Mr. MVLLENEUX then presented the Rev. Gentleman
with the plate, which he accompanied with a neat and
feeling speech, in which he recapitulated his services,
spoke of their value to-the cause, and expressed his hope
that his usefulness might be continued, possibly in a more
elevated sphere.

Mr. ASPINALL, having returnect thanks for the elegant
present, and paid a high ancritist cotiplimeot to the ;lawn
Council of Liverpool, for their successful exertions in -The
cause of education, thus proceeded—As it is but seldom
that I have the opportunity of enlarging to you on the
subject of politics, you must excuse me on this occasion if
I trespass a little on your time, and, it may be, a little
on your patience. I shall begin by delivering to you a
message, which I have for you, and which I hope you
will receive,' as it was sent and meant, in good part.
Not very long since, I was talking with a Liberal Mem.
ber ,of Parliament. In the course of our conversation

I was remarking somewhat freely—it is my fashion to
speak freely—l never try the softer strains of the lute,
when I consider the more stirring sounds of the trumpet
necessary. ( Laughter.) I was, I say, remarking
freely on some measure before Parliament. " Yes, "
exclaimed my friend, " you Liverpool electors are all
alike—you are the most determined grumblers, the most
beautiful critics we have to deal with—you know exactly
what we ought to do, and exactly what we do not do.
But then," he continued, " you do nothing to help us.
And," he added with a smile, " I hope you will tell your
brother electors this for me on the first possible oppor-
tunity."—.(Hear, hear, and laughter.) I promised that I
would do so, and I have now performed the promise.
And, indeed, we must allow that there is too much truth in
the charge thus alleged against us. We are most admir-
able critics, most resolute grumblers, whatever measures
the Ministers may bring forward. We can note down all
their omissions, all their shortcomings to a nicety ; but
then, as my friend observed, we do nothing to help
them. Look at South Lancashire ; two Tories have it.
Look at Liverpool ; two Tories sit for it. You must
amend this.—( Cheers, and " We will.") The coun-
tryman in the fable, you will recollect, without mak-
ing any effort himself, petitioned Hercules to ex-
tricate his waggon wheel from the rut into which it had
fallen. The Spanish sailor, I have heard, when a storm
assails his vessel, deserts the helm, and flogs his saints for
not averting the danger which is impending over burn. But,
certainly, before we either petition or flog the ministers, we
should, I think, lay our own shoulders to the wheel of the
state-carriage to set in motion; we should help to man the
state vessel with a tried and faithful crew, so that those
who preside at the helm may be enabled to steer her in
safety through the shoals of toryism which threaten on the
one hand, and the rocks of anarchy which impend on the
other.—(Loud and long continued cheering.) The op-
portunity for doing this may not be far off. Be sure that
you take advantage of it whenever it arrives.—(year.)
But when this event of a general election, to which I
here allude, comes, it will bring with it a conflict not
simply involving the interests of Liverpool, or your
interests us electors of Liverpool, but a conflict which
will involve the destinies of the whole British empire ; a
conflict which is to decide whether the progress of Reform
is to go on, or whether we are to revert to the dark days
and doings of Tory misrule, corruption, and oppression.—
(Loud cheers.) With such a prospect before us, I would
say a few words with regard to two classes of persons who
once co-operated zealously in our ranks, but who, of late,
although from very different reasons, have become equally
lukewarm towards us; I mean those who say that nothing,
and those who think that enough, has been done for the
cause of Reform. First, with regard to those who say
that nothing has beau done for it. I presume that,
although they use such an extreme form of speech, they
arty mean to tell us that the march of Reform has not
kept pace with their sanguine ant;cipations on the subject.
Some of ug, for instance, wish to see the protection of
the ballot extended to the voter, that he should no longer
be at the mercy of every petty despot who chooses to
trample alike upon his freedom and his rights of con
sei..- u
nce. Others again want some extension of the f-
frage. And we all, I believe, are anxious to have thesre-
gistration clauses of the Reform Act so simplified, that the
very vote of the elector may no longer bang upon a trick,
ur be dependent upon a quibble.--( Hear, and cheers.)
But if the Ministers have not yet carried or even taken up
all these things as Cabinet questions, shall we ascribe the
whole of the fault to them, or must we not impute some
portion of it, and that no slight one, to the people
themselves ? When we look at the miserable result
of the last general election—and we must confess that,
what with our own apathy and indifference, and
dissensions, and what with the bribery and intimida-
tion so unscrupulously used by our political oppo-
nents, we did make miserable work of it in all di-
rections—when, I say, we look at this—when we consider
the close divisions in the. House of Commons—and when
we contemplate the touch-and-go majorities by which the
Ministers are enabled to carry any of their measures, arc
we not, when we say that they do not go far enough or fast
enough for us—are we:not like men crying out to build, and
yet withholding brick ? Are we not clamouring for another
story to be reared upon the fabric of reform, without supply-
ing the materials wherewith the work is to be accomplished ?
—( Cheers.) But who is poetical enough to say posi-
tively that nothing has been done for the cause of Reform
by the Liberal Ministers since the dominion of Toryism
was broken down in this country? They gave us the Re-
form Bill. Is that nothing ? They gave us the Municipal
Reform Bill. Is that nothing? They opened the East
India trade to our merchants. Is that nothing ? By their
plurality-restraining Bill they rescued the Church from a
cancer which was eating sorely and surely, and not slowly,
into her very vitals. And shall I call that nothing ? They
accomplished the great measure of negro emancipation,
whereby on one day the altars of Moloch and Mammon
sank to the ground together in the British colonies, and
hundreds of thousands of human beings walked forth with
head erect and swelling breasts, and dared, for the first
time, to meet the gaze of their fellow-creatures, as man cor-
fronting man. And is that nothing ?—(Loud cheers ) In
the very last Session of Parliament also they carried the
Postage Reduction Bill—a measure by which the progress
of literature; the improvements of science, and the dis-
coveries of philosophy are freely circulated through the
land, and thus the blessings of civilisation will no longer
rest upon the pinnacle, but find their way to those who
dwell roond the base of the social pillar—a measure, too,
by which it is brought to pass that the departure of a
member of a poor man's family from his domestic circle
is no longer as the• separation of death both to him who
goes, and to those who remain behind, but he can com-
municate to them of his health, of his happiness, of his
success in life, and, in return, hear the same glad tidings
of the welfare of those whom he has left at home, and
home, we should remember, " be it ever so homely,"
is as dear to the heart of the por man as to that of the
richest who walks upon the earth. And is that nothing ?
—( Continued cheering.) In the last Session of Parli-
ment, moreover, they made their noble struggle in the
cause of national education,—a struggle in which they
had to contend with all the strength which rabid bigotry
and calculating hypocrisy could array against them' —a
struggle by the success of which they have made the first
grand move towards dispelling that ignorance which has
heretofore left the dense masses of our population the too-
ready victims of every crime and every vice which
might approach to beguile them to their ruin, and
the too easy dupes of every spiritual or political fana-
tic er impostor who might attempt to rouse their pas-
sions or prey upon their credulity. And is that nothing?
—( Loud cheers.) But, without going farther, surely we
may say, he must be a strange political arithmetician
who would add up all these items which I have enu-
merated, into a sum total of nothing. In grammar, in-
deed, two negatives do make an affirmative, but we have
yet to learn that any number of affirmatives, however
swelled out, multiplied, and extended, can be tor-
tured or wrested to make a negative. Gentlemen, is
the catalogue of benefits received from the Liberal Mi-
nisters, I mention their Bill for restraining pluralities.
Let me give you an instance—it is one out of many,
perhaps, hundreds, which might be adduced—of the work.
ing of the abuse from which that bill has saved the Church.
I have now held the living of Althorpe for about twelve
months. The utter state of ruin into which those who held
it before me had allowed the rectory-house to fall, has
hitherto prevented my going into as a permanent residence.
But in the occasional visits which I have paid to it, I have,
lam informed, already preached more frequently in the
parish than the whole of my predecessors during
the pre-
sent century.—(Hear, and cheers.) One of them—a
pluralist, of course—held the living for upwards of fifty
years, and, I am told, received from it, during that period,
nearly thirty thousand pounds. Now, bow often do you,
suppose that he preached in the parish church—recollect, t
during a space of more than fifty years, and for
thirty thousand pounds? As it is a riddle whiche.yows,
—j
never read, I may as well solve it for you at
then, twiceust twice, and no more.--( ear, hear
and shame.) Such things have been, but they cannot be'
again. Tho Tories while in power—the Tories, those
very excellent and ardent lovers of the Church, as they call
themselves—fostered and encouraged them to the very
last. But the Liberal Ministers, whom they so unjustly
and so falsely denounce as her enemies, have proved them-