The Sun.
London, England, 1844-08-09 00:00:00

DINNER TO HER MAJESTY'S MI-
NISTERS BY THE CLOTH-WORKERS' COM-
PANY.
Yesterday a splendid entertainment was given to
Sir Robert Peel and others of her Majesty's Minis-
te s, by the Cloth- workers' Company, at their hall,
which was fitted up for the occasion with great mag-
nificence.
Amongst the company were Sir R. Peel, the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer, Lord Granville Somerset,
the Earl of Lincoln, Sir George Murray, the Solici-
tor-General, Lord Eliot, Mr. J. M. Gaskell, and Mr.
A. Pringle, Lords of the Treasury, Viscount Can-
ning, Mr. G. W. Hope, Mr. Emerson Tennent, Cap-
tain Fremantle, Mr. J. R. Bonham, Sir Knight
Bruce, the Attorney-General for Ireland, Commis-
sioners Fane and Goulburn, Mr. J. Young, M.P.,
Mr. T. Green, M.P., Mr. J. Masterman, Mr.
G. Lyall, M.P., Mr. H. Kemble, M.P., r. J. Trot-
ter, M.P., Mr. John Walter, the Right Hon. the
Lord Mayor, Mr. Sheriff Moon, Aldermen Lucas,
Brown, Sir Peter Laurie, Sir John Pine, Farebro-
ther, Humphery, Farncomb ; the Governor and the
Deputy-Governor of the Bank of England, the Chair-
man and the Deputy-Chairman of the East India
Company, Sir F. Trench, Colonel Gurwood, Captain
Peel, Archdeacon Hollingsworth, Sir G. De H. Lar-
pent, Mr. B. Dobree, Mr. J. C. Bever, Mr. Under-
Anderton, the Master of the Merchant Tailors'
Company, Mr. R. L. Jones, &c.
Mr. Sheriff MUSGROVE, the Master of the Company,
presided. The health of the Queen was proposed, and
drank with au enthusiasm which it was impossible to
exceed, and the Master congratulated the country
upon the promise of a long succession of the descen-
clanTthseofusthuealprloeyseanlttßoaosytsa,l
,}:athmeilQy'lleen Dowager and
Prince Albert and the rest of the Royal Family,"
were also distinguished by great applause.
The MASTER, in proposing "the Army and Navy,"
stated that he anti his brethren were honoured by
the company of Sir George Murray, a gallant veteran
of the first of those services, and by the company of
Lieut. Peel, a distinguished
young officer in the naval
service of her Majesty.—(Loud cheers.)
Sir GEORGE MURRAY returned thanks for the army,
and said it was exceedingly gratifying to him to be
associated with his young friend, who would no doubt
in due time realise the high expectations entertained
of him in the important branch of service to which he
belonged.—(Loud cheers.) He was convinced that
never at any time was the artily better prepared, or
more determined to keep up the character which it
had achieved by so many victories.—(Cheers.) He
was sure it would never lose that character, or the
efficiency for which it had been celebrated, so long as
it continued under the superintendence of the illus-
trious chief who was so deservedly at its head—
(Great cheering)—and who had no less claim upon
his country for the patriotic virtues he had exercised
in peace, than for those military achievements which
had shed so great a lustre on his name.—(Cheers.)
Lieutenant PEEL rose amidst great applause, and
said, I am too young to say much, but I hope my
conduct will justify that which has been said of me,
and I thank you heartily for having drank my health
in so enthusiastic a manner.—(Cheers.)
The MASTER, in a brief speech, proposed the health
of Sir Robert Peel, and the rest of her Majesty's
Ministers.
Sir RonERT PEEL said it was his duty, on the part
of his colleagues and himself, to return their most
grateful acknowledgments for the kind and flattering
manner in which the company had received the pro-
posal from the chair. Many of his colleagues were
absent, deeply to their regret, but they were detained
by the necessities imposed upon them by their duties
in both Houses of Parliament.—(Cheers.) The
Master had said that in entertaining her Majesty's
Ministers they were reverting to their former con-
dition. He trusted that they would long persevere
in that good old habit—(Laughter)—that after the
revival of that excellent custom they would continue
to entertain the Ministers of the Sovereign, and that
the present Ministers would long continue to meet
them at their annual festival, and profit by the hop-
pitality of which they had that day witnessed so
magnificent a specimen.—(Laughter and cheers.)
It happened that the first day on which he
and his colleagues enjoyed the pleasure of meet-
ing the Clothworkrs' Company was the last day
of the session, and he was therefore exempted from
the necessity.of making a long speech ; but he could
not refrain from returning his and his colleagues' ac-
knowledgments to a Company so remarkable for high
standing, and so conspicuous amongst the great
Companies for the applilation of its funds to purposes
of benevolence and charity.—(Loud cheers.) The
Master had done no more than justice to her Majesty's
Ministers, in attributing to them the endeavour to
accomplish good. They had endeavoured to maintain
peace, without compromising the honour or sacrificing
the interests of the country.—(Cheers.) They had
attempted to uphold the high character which the
British army had achieved, and to repair the disasters
in the eastern hemisphere. They had endeavoured
to maintain tranquillity, without having recourse to
the harsh enforcement of the existing laws, or requir-
ing new enactments.—(Applause.) If they had made
these efforts—if they had endeavoured to succeed in
maintaining the public credit, and in averting the evil
of an increasing debt in times of peace, it would be
for that company to judge whether the result was wor-
thy of their intentions. It was now three years since
the present Administration had been appointed. It
was for those whom he addressed to say, if, during
that period, the law had not been vindicated and sus-
tained, if commerce had not been extended, if manu-
facturing prosperity had not been restored, if the re-
venue had not been increased, if there did not exist a
prospect that the currency would be henceforth placed
on c
a andov
opyeerdmtaonbe
her
rt
Ablaasjiess.—ty
's (Hear, hear.) If
such were the impressions of the company, their ap-
probation
which,
n
next to that of the honest approval of their
own consciences and of her Majesty,Mwiansisttbeersbaigfbeeels-
ing highest
encouragement to them to continue their exertions for
the public good.—(Cheers.)
The MASTER next proposed "Prosperity to Ire-
land," a toast which the Clothworkers' Company had
been always in the habit of drinking. They felt a
deep interest in the good of Ireland, as well on account
of the people, as on account of the large property
owned by the Company there.—(Cheers.) The Master
then spoke at some length of the labours of the Com-
pany for the good of their Irish tenantry.
Lord Elio; in responding to the toast, said he was
sure the time was not far distant when the people of
Ireland would learn to value the motives and inten-
tions of his Right Hon. Friend.—(Cheers.)
Several other toasts were proposed and drunk, and
the evening was spent with real civic hilarity.

than the area of one of
ltheClEar.
amore melancholy
a:
one
tso, torn a w
resort
r tae.
Londonin t
b o tAh l°
sexes,Np OwNh etherGl t h N Peey e
oly and spirit-depressing sighs
have
nghei eynr epoairls
night. There, the hom ss and houseless miserables of
numbers, for a temporary
ballads and matches, cripples, shelter—aged women, selling
ipples, little beggar boys and girls,
slavering idiots,
pie-men, sandwich-men, apple and
orange-women, shellfish-mongers, huddled pell-mell, in
draggle-tailed confusion. Never can human nature, one
would imagine, take a m
character
abject posture than is exhi-
bited here. There is a an individuality, a fa-
mily likeness, common to the whole race of sorts. The
pale, clayey, flaccid, clammyfe face, pinched in every fea-
ture ; the sweeping, rre
bet-like, lack-lustre eye, the
unkempt hair, the slattern
shawl, the untidy dress, the
ray the confirmed drunkard.
The noises, too, of the
a
appalling, even when hsdsembled topers, are hideous—
ear in an atmosphere of gin—
imprecations, execrations, objurgations, supplications,
until, at length, the patience of the publican, and the
last copper of his customers,are exhausted, when, rush-
ing from behind his counter, assisted by his shop-
keeper, he expels, vi et arni is
drag-
ging out,..by the heels or cellars,tie the dilatory mob,
to nestle, as best they May, outside the inhospitable
miserable drunkards,
door.—Here, unobserved, may You
contemplate the in-
finite varieties of men self-metamorphosed into beasts—
soaker, tippler, toper, muddler,
beer-
swiller, cordial.tiller, sot. Here dram-drinker,
barefoot child, hungry, naked,
clay-faced,you may behold the
tip toe, that infernal bottle, which made handing up,
it, and keeps it,
what it is, and with which, when filled,
to its brutal father, or infamous mother, theitcreeps home
messenger
of its own misery. Here, the steady
his throat
respectable sot,
the good customer, slides in, and flings down
tho frequent dram ; then, with an emphatic " hah" of
gratification, drops his money, nods to
his friend, the
landlord, and, for a short interval, departs. Here you
may behold, with pity, and as much superadded virtuous
indignation as the inward contemplation of your own
continence may inspire, the flaunting cYPri in over-
dressed tawdriness, calling, in shameless an'
voice, for a
quartern of " pleasant-drinking gin,,, which she liberally
shares with two or three gentlemen, who are being edu-
cated for the bar, at the Central Criminal Court. You
may contrast her short-lived hey-day of
r
with that row of miserables seated by
tosperous sin,
wall, whose
charms are fled, and whose voices are husky,e
while they
implore you to treat them to a glass of al or supplicate
for the coppers they see you receive frome,
and who are only permitted that truly wretchedof place of
rest, that they may beg for the benefit the publican,
and for his profit, poison themselves with the alms of
others.— Bentley's Miscellany.
RAILWAY COMPETITION.—It appears, from the
evidence given before the Select Committee by Mr.
Glyn, Chairman of the London and Birmingham Rail-
way, that when the competition between
the Midland
Railways Counties and Birmingham and Derby was at
its height, the reduction of charges hadput the working
stock of the two companies in such a deteriorated con-
dition, that the Birmingham Board
Cern were obliged to
write to one of them (the Derby any, we have no
doubt), to tell them that they should beP
compelled, with
reference to the safety of the public, to prevent their car-
riages coming upon the London and Birmingham lino I
Mr. Glyn adds—" The result of the competitiont was
what we have seen in most other cases—h sill the passen-
g,rs were carried at a very low cost fora time, and ulti-
mately the companies came to a combination, and then
raised their fares to the full extent that they were be-
fore the combination commenced, and, •
in some few points,
rather higher I"—Bailway Record.