The Sun.
London, England, 1834-12-20 00:00:00

WEST KENT CONSERVATIVE DINNER.

A very large and respectable body of the friends of the Con-
stitution, in Church and State, resident in West Kent, dined
together last evening at the Bell Tavern, Maidstone. The
company consisted of upwards of 400 of the Nobility, Gentry,
and most influential inhabitants of the above division of the
county.
Lord Viscount MAHON took the Chair. Among the com-
pany assembled were the Earl of Winchilsea, Lord Bexley,
Lord Brecknock, Lord Farnborough, Lord Marsham, Lord
Maidstone, Lord Sydney, Lord Holmesdale, the Mayor of
Maidstone, Sir W. Geary, Sir E. Deering, Sir J. Croft, Sir
p. H. Dyke, Sir E. Fillmer, Sir W. Twisden, Sir J. Thom-
son, Sir J. Cross, the Rev. Sir C. Farnaby, Sir W. B. Rid-
dell, Sir J. R. Shaw, Sir T. M. Wilson, the Hon. A. K.
Legge, Colonel Bingham, Colonel Best, Colonel Jones,
Admiral Jones, the Hon. and Rev. Sir F. Stapleton, the
Hon. T. W. Stratford, the Hon. and Rev. Mr. Neville, the
Hon. J. W. King, the Rev. C. Cage, the Rev. W. Home,
the Rev. W. S. Marriott, Major Morrice, C. Wykeham
Martin, Esq., Lieut.-Colonel Fairman, Alderman Lucas, &c.
At three o'clock the company sat down to dinner. After
the cloth was remo•,ed Non Nobis was sang.
The CHAIRMAN then rose and proposed the health of the
King, which was drunk with three times three, and one cheer
more was repeated from several parts of the room.
The next toast was the Queen, when every man rose at the
same moment, and shouted and cheered in the most enthusiastic
manner.

The next toast, the Princess Victoria and the rest of the
Royal Family, which was drunk with due honours.
The CHAIRMAN then rose to propose the toast, " Our Pro-
testant Constitution in Church and State." He observed that
since that meeting was appointed to be held, most momen-
tous changes had taken place—( Cheers.) The cheers of the
company encouraged him to say most happy changes for the
country—( Hear, hear.) When he first received the application
to attend the meeting those men who are now in office formed
what is termed the Opposition. But the time would come
when. the principles advocated by that party would be
rightly understood and generally diffused—( Hear, hear.) He
wished here to state that it must be evident to every one, from
the weakness and discord of the late government, that they
could not have remained together much longer, and it was,
therefore, much better to place the Administration in more able
hands than to try to patch up the old party—( Cheering.) 'That
Administration had been substituted by men whose characters
were held in estimation by the people. The name of Peel—
( Cheers)—of Wellington—( Cheering )—and of Lord Lynd-
hurst—( Renewed cheering) were calculated to call forth
warm expressions of approbation. The present was the time
for all true Englishmen to combine, and, casting aside party
grievances, to inquire if there existed any substantial grounds
of objection for the people joining the standards of the Admi-
nistration ?—( Cheers.) There never was an assertion more
unfounded, than that the Conservative party were hostile to
improving the condition of the people. The Noble Lord en-
tered into a variety of observations on this point, and then ad-
verted to the Reform Bill. After directing the attention of
the company to the opposition which he made to the Bill, he
said he would put it to any of the honest supporters of the Re-
form Bill, whether they considered the Conservatives, or their
adversaries, the fittest men to administer the law? Sir Robert
Peel, in his address—which they had, no doubt, read—ob-
served most truly that they had had enough of agitation, and
ad% iserl, now that the question was settled and the Bill passed,
that they should abide by the settlement of the question, and
not disturb it.—( Hear, hear.) But what was the language of
the opposite party ? What said Lord Durham ? While in one
moment he claims the merit of having originated the Bill, in
the next he wishes to alter several of its clauses—( A laugh)--

same frankness as if he was still unconnected with office.—
(Cheers.) The Noble Lord, after some other remarks as to
the necessity for the people affording Government at this pe-
riod all the assistance in their power, concluded by proposing
the toast before-mentinned.
The Earl of WINCHILSEA rose amid loud cheers to propose
the following toast, " The Archbishop of Canterbury and the
Protestant Clergy of the United Kingdom." The present
day was a proud one for Kent, for it was a proof that union
still existed among them, and that whatever divisions were
caused by the Refoim Bill among the community, still the
majority of them were united, man with man, to support his
Majesty, and to protect the Constitution in Church and State.
A spirit of the kind he had alluded to, and the union he had
mentioned, always marked the county he had the honour to
belong to. He feared that he was intruding, and that it would
be better for him at once to propose the health of the Arch-
bishop of Canterbury and the Established Church of the
United Kingdom.—(-Cheers.) 'Ma cls..-acter of that truly
distinguished and eminent Prelate was too well known to need
the slightest comment on his part, and even if lie were called
upon to name his virtues, they were so great, both public and
private, that he would be found incompetent to the task.
Every one would allow that in his exalted station he gave
proofs of the most exalted piety, joined with the most extensive
learning, and a firmness to support those religious principles
which he and they ought to value beyond all earthly price—for
that religion and those principles were the foundation of the
moral character that distinguished the people of this country,
and made them superior to the inhabitants of all other nations.
With respect to the clergy of the United .Kingdom, he would
boldly assert that they were distinguished above all other
bodies either in this country or any other; and Le thought,
therefore, that all those who valued religion should give them
then' support, and protect them against those who raised an
unjust anci libellous cry against them. He had heard it s; id '
that the people talked against Church abuses. Ile would
boldly say that from no institution had there emanated so much
good to all classes—to the rich and to the poor—as from the
institution of the Church. He begged to remind them that
the Church was not founded by the State, but by the piety of
their forefathers, and that by them it was instituted for the
especial benefit of the poorer classes. When he saw the acts
of the individuals of whom the body of the Church was com-
posed—when he saw that in all acts of charity they led the
way, that they did the utmost in their power for the poor, and
that on many occasions their acts of charity went beyond their
power—when he saw them coming forward at every oppor-
tunity to support every established institution, whether it was
moral, religious, or useful to the country, he felt, when he took
all these things into consideration, that the loss of such a body
would be a loss indeed.—( Hear, hear.) For his own part he
would willingly support any measure that tended to make the
institutions of the country, whether in Church or State, more
general—more beneficial—more useful ; any measures of that
description would, he assured the meeting, receive from the
humble individual before them the most cordial support The
Noble Earl then sat down, and the toast was loudly cheered.
The Rev. J. MOORE rose to return thanks. A foreign
statesman, whose name he forgot, said that the Constitution
of England was the noblest monument of human wisdom that
had ever been seen—that it was so divided, that each estate
was a check upon the other—that it was so nicely balanced,
that nothing but English folly or English treachery could ruis
England.—(Cheers.) For the last four years he considered
that the Government of the country was plainly verifying the
worst part of this prophecy—( Hear, hear)—but thanks be to
God, they had not succeeded.—( Loud cheers.) Looking to
England even at the time of her worst ignorance, and at the
time of her deepest degradation, she was never more reduced
than at the present, or at least more than she had been for
the last four years.—( Hear, hear.) For the truth of this
he appealed to those gentlemen who had lately travelled in
foreign countries. They would say that the name of Eng-
lishman was now sent into comparative insignificance, and
that their ears were continually annoyed and insulted by
hearing the name of England held up to contempt—
( Ilear, hear, hear)—that she was doomed to destruction,
and that her destruction was to be brought about by her
own suicidal hand.---(Loud cheers.) Could any one at pre-
sent deny that such a charge, looking to the moral influence
of the Government of the last four years abroad, was un-
founded? lie would now come near home. lie would ask
them to look to Ireland. The Protestant Clergy and Yeo-
manry of Ireland abandoned their country. They were turned
out of it—driven by agitation out of it ; and thousands of them
quitted their own country and sought refuge in a foreign land.
—(Hear.) He would now turn to England herself, and he
begged them to look how she was situated. He begged them
to look at the farmers. Were they rich and prosperous ?
(Cries of " No, no.") They were plunged into the extreme
of distress ; and every one knew that they were sufferers, and
that their sufferings proceeded from the free-trade system.
( Cheers.) What relief had the farmers received from the
House of Commons during the last session?—(Cries of
" None.") And yet these were the most useful men in the
country : for it was they who produced the staff of life.
These men— these useful men—finding themselves in dis-
tress, applied to the House of Commons, and demanded
a Committee of Inquiry. Would it be believed by after
ages that a House of Commons refused to institute that
inquiry ?—( Hear, hear, hear ) Whet was the c,niduct of the
late Ministers towards Ireland ? Why, to take an instance of
it, let them take the case of a Protestant Judge—to that of a
man who was second to none in private worth, learning, pro-
fessional ability, and integrity ; and yet this man was sum -
mooed like a felon and accused before the House of Commons.
The accusation was made by a man amenable, or nearly so, to
the laws of his country ; by a man that was so nearly guilty of
treason that his crime could scarcely be distinguished from it
—( Cheers)—and yet it was at the instigation of such a man
that a Judge, an upright and Protestant Judge, was about to
be called to the bar of the House of Commons—( Hear, hear)
—but happily this crying shame was prevented by a Kentish
man.—( Cheers.) Sir Edward Knatchbull caused them, for-
tunately, to rescind their decision. He was happy to say that
the clouds that had hitherto obscured the horizon were now
beginning to break—that a new day was dawning upon them.
The first cheering prospect they had was the King's declara-
tion to the Bishops ; by that declaration William IV. would
establish his throne in the hearts of his subjects.—(Cheers.)

Mr. BERENS ( Chairman of the County Sessions) said they
were assembled to testify their attachment to the King, and to
the Constitution in Church and State ; and above all, to that
Constitution of the country as established in 1688, in King,
Lords and Commons.—( Hear.) That Constitution, it ap-
peared to him, they were assembled to maintain and uphold,
and he hoped there was no Gentleman there but was prepared
to stand by it, to uphold it in its purity to the very last drop of
his blood.—( Cheers and cries of " We will, we will 1") Where
were they to find evidence of attachment to that Constitution ?
Why, to be sure, in showing their energetic exertions in return-
ing to the next Parliament those Members and those Repre-
sentatives only who would that Constitution in Church and
State in the manner he had just been speaking of. At any rate
now, thank, God, they had on their side—on the side of the
Constitution—the power of the King—and they all knew
that the King's name was a tower of strength. He did not wish
to throw dirt on the Administration that preceded the present,
for his principles were not hostile ones, but conciliatory.
He wished to throw no dirt—to cast no reflections, but as
lightly as possible on the Ministers who had preceded the pre-
sent 'Administration. The reflections he would throw upon
them would be in a kindly and conciliatory spirit. The truth
was, with respect to the late Administration, that when they
came to a political point, the leaders bolted—( Laughter), and
then it was found that their wheelers could not be brought up
to the point. The Greys, above all, among their set of horses,
could not be brought up to the scratch—till at last, and he
was now seriously speaking, the coach was at the mercy of a
random horse that might be brought to drag it on.—( Laughter
and cheers.) But unfortunately, or fortunately, every horse
wished to drag a different way. Could a Government—he
begged pardon, a coach—of this sort last ?—( Cries of " No,
no.") Just at this moment stepped by the opposition coach the
Wellington, and the only chance was to put the others into a
basket, and let the Wellington party carry them through.—
( Laughter.) But now they had to look to something more se-
rious, viz., how they were to best manifest their attachment for
the Church and State and Constitution of the country. The
best way he would say was to strenuously support that Ministry
which the Gazette of last week presented to thorn. As to the
address of Sir Robert Peel to his constituents of Tamworth, it
was a clear expose of principles ; an expose that every Eng-
lishman would heartily agree to, and against which he thought
that the must perverse mind could not object.—( Cheers.) He
begged to conclude by proposing the health of Sir Robert Peel
and his Majesty's Ministers.
The Noble Climamari proposed the health of their excellent
Lord Lieutenant.
Lord BRECKNOCK, in the absence of his father, returned
thanks.

Lord BFXLEY rose, with permission of the Noble Chairman,
to propose a health which he thought not only they, but the
whole of Europe would receive with approbation, particularly
so when they saw that the man whose health he was about to
propose had. held, single-handed, for the last few weeks, the
reins of Government. That he had courageously received
those reins at the command of his Sovereign, when they were
just dropping from the feeble hands that before held them,—
( Cheers.) The individual that he alluded to would lead the
country to happiness, as be had formerly led Europe to vic-
tory.--( Cheers.) The only claim that he (Lord Bexley) bad