The Sun.
London, England, 1828-10-24 00:00:00

MR. CORBETT'S DINNER.

MAIDSTONE, THURSDAY, OCT. 23.

Mr. Cobbett having, a fortnight age, intimated in his
Register, that he would feel happy to meet such friends as
might wish to join him at dinner, at Maidstone, on the dry
before the Meeting on Penenden Heath, upwards of fifty
respectable farmers sat flown to a plain substantial dinner
of roast beef and plum-pudding.
Immediately after dinner several farmers, who had been
unable to attend earlier, entered, and in a few minutes the
room was quite crowded.
The CuArtimax (Mr. Russell, a hop-merchant, at
Maidstone) proposed,
" The King," with three times three.
A Gentleman requested a few moments' delay, until
glassyS could be procured.
The C►IAIRMAN--" Sir, I assure you I speak feelingly
upon this occasion ; the King is very ill, and the sooner
we drink his health the better—(A laugh)—perhaps three
hearty cheers may arouse his Majesty." The toast was
then drunk with three times three..

The CreantatanGentlemen, this is Liberty-hall—
' every man calls for what he chooses. I beg to propose—
,,c The People—the source ofadllinleagistiiionarattteimpeo;eerri—m
was filled (Applause.) .
S m4n(kiaith smoke;nygherecmn Mr.
commenced, and
Cobbett used a cigar.
The CHAIRMAN-Gentlemen, as we are. all men of
feeling, I beg leave to propose—" The Maids of Kent"—
(The toast was drunk, the whole people standing up, with
loud applause.)
The CHAIRMAN-Gentlemen, in rising to propose the
toast with which I am about to conclude, I am sure you
will anticipate the gentleman in whose favour it is.directed.
To pay that gentleman too high a compliment as to his
general information, is not in my power. He is a man who
has boldly and fearlessly spoken the whole truth, and no-
thing but the truth. Let us, I say, drink his health with
three times three, and I am sure that we shall with plea-
sure hear, mark, and inwardly digest what he has to say
to us.—(Cries of " Name, name.") I propose " the health
of Mr. William Cobbett, with three tithes three."—(Loud
cheers, and dapping of bands."
Mr. ConanTr got upon one of the tables, and was greeted
with loud cheering. In signifying his intention of dining
with the farmers.of Kent this day, his object was to com-
municate to them some information respecting the plant of
Tahoe Corn, and to demonatrate its usefulness ; but; since
he bad given that notice, his mind became co filled with
the importance of their County business, that great as was,
in his opinion, the value- of Indian Corn.--valuable, as it
would be, in giving in one crop equal to two of wheat ;
great too in supplanting that accursed and degraded root
—the potato ; still, he reflected, of what use would be
this improvement unless the people could be sure of ob-
taining the real advantages which must necessarily arise
from it. Of what use then would be Indian Corn, as long
as the Parson could lock over the wall and see what the
crop was- to help himself to a share of What he never con-
tributed to produce. (Hear, hear, hear.) Unless this
state of things could be altered, of what use would be agri-
cultural improvements ? Of what use would be Catholic
Emancipation ? The people cared not for these things ;
all they wanted was the privilege of enjoying the produce
of their own industry.' (Hear, hear, hear.) All the
farmer wanted wag, not to be obliged to bend his knee and
doff his hat to the Aristocracy in the manner which How
prevailed—to be slaves, while they worked and laboured
like men. (Applause.) If any farmer of England wished
to endure this, he deserved it. ( Hear, hear.) He begged to
impress upon them, that at this very hour the eyes of the
people of England were fixed upon the people of Kent,
and they were bound to show themselves worthy of this
great example. The question of Catholic Emancipation
was a bugbear at this moment. The people of Ireland
were indeed wretched, the most wretched on the face of the
earth—talk of slaves, talk of negroes, none were there like
the unhappy Irish. The men of Ireland were looking,
not at the parties in the state, not at their Associ-
ation, not at their lawyers—no, they were looking with
the greatest earnestness at what the people of England
would do at this crisis. It was in vain to expect relief
from any Lord Lieutenant, or any party, under their present
system—the Irish could have ne hope from any quarter
except from the people of England,-(Hear, hear)—and
England, as he said before, at this moment looked to Kent.
(Applauee.)—He implored them then to look well to the
proceedings of to-morrow, and he would sketch to them
what those would be. The High Sheriff would propose
what he would call the question—he would recommend a
petition to Parliament, to enact such measures as were
best adapted for the maintenance of Church and State, as
by law established. The Brunswickers would of course
pot their own construction on Church and State—in their
haughty bosoms they would think one way, but the body
of freeholders might think another. What would the
other party, the Whigs, do ? Why, they would propose
to do nothing at all.—(A laugh.)—But when the people
assembled would they consent to do nothing at all ? Would
they separate so foolishly ? Np, no—(Cries of "no no.")
Catholic ,Emancipation were two words, only intended to
give the Catholic Aristocracy the same share which the
other party had in the good things of the State—:it was
for roguery only—but the people meant better, and would
not be duped by such acts—they would do their duty, and,
he hoped, do it well. In 1825 a Bill was introduced into
the House of Commons, for the purpose of passing what
was called the Catholic Question. But there were two
things to be done ; first, the forty shilling freeholders
were to be disfranchised ; and, secondly, a far mote
impudent proposition—the people of England were to be
taxed, in order to pay the Clergy of that religion, which
these Brunswickers now called damnable and idolatrous.
—(Hear, hear, hear.)—This was an affront, the like
of which had never before been attempted to be cast on
the people of England. But the people did resist it ; and
he firmly believed, for it was vain to deny, that the abomi-
nable thing was put an end to by his pen and the West-
minster Meeting- convened by Mr. Hunt.—(Applause.)—
The people of Kent did not want Catholic Emancipation,
they wanted a general Emancipation, and they would have
it, too, if they persevered. They would to-morrow be
told with great solemnity, that it was necessary to the pre-
servation of the Constitution to exclude the Roman Ca-
tholics from its blessings. Every argument would be used,
not forgetting Smithfield; and the faggots, and the Pope,
would all be resorted to for the purpose of inducing them
to petition Parliament on the subject ; they would be told,
on the other hand, that' Catholic Emancipation was neces-
sary to the tranquillity, and peace, end good government
in Ireland. But let them not rely on either one side or
the other ; they were hypocrites on both sides. The peo-
ple did not wish to be relieved from the poor Late, as no
man wished to see his pour neighbour starved ; but surely
it was not too much, while they paid this rate, to call
upon Parliament to take from the Clergy a portion of
that revenue which had been mainly granted for the sup-
port of the poor ? This was a part of what he intended
to call upon the meeting to do to-morrow.—(Applause.)
If a portion of that revenue were still to be applied by the
Clergy to its proper use, he, as a true son of the Church,
would not wish to take any of it from them, enormous as
it was. What would they think, when told that the four
hundred and twenty-seven parishes in this county were in
the. possession of one hundred and ninety-six Parsons,
making about three livings to each individual? Pty the
alterations which he Would propose to make in the Church
property, the Church itself would be rendered more se-
cure—the working Clergy would be materially benefited,
and the pockets of the people relieved from their present
continual drains. But this could not be done without a
reform in the House of Commons, and, therefore, he
meant to include the question of Parliamentary Reform in
his Petition to-morrow. Would the Meeting believe that
we bad fourteen or fifteen Foreign Ministers ? They were
called Ambassadors and he knew not what—and well sop-
ported with thumping salaries. But this was not all : we
had, in additiou, 42 Ambasiadors out of employ, and these
also we were obliged to pay—and that pretty highly too.—
He might be considered a fool, or a rash man, in making
the statement he was about to make ; but it was neverthe-
less true, that we paid more money to our Foreign Minis-
ters than the whole civilized world besides.—(Cries of
shame, shame.) They might well cry " Shame !"
but what would they think when they were told
that we had twenty thousand commissioned officers
in our army ; that was to say, about one commis-
sioned officer for every four private men. Besides these,
there were both corporals and see jeants to take care of
the men- Who, then, could venture to say, that our
Government was not a careful Government—(A laugh)?
—fie should like to see the whole of those officers and
moo drawn out upon a plain (it would be no small plain
that would hold them) ; there would be one Commander
tucked in between every four men. We had 214 Field-_
Marshals and General Officers, to an army of less than
100,000 men, Mahing one General to. about every 168
ineti. Why, then, should this country be afraid of going
to war? With such an army, so officered, we could
beat the devil. Then we had also the enormous expellee
of our navy to provide for; we had two Admirals for
every ship of the line, and one Admiral for every 140 men.
We had also (omitting the Midshipmen, for he would leave
them out altogether) one Corniniasioned Naval Officer for
every five sailors; we had likewise to pay naval half-pay
and pensions to a great moldier of Clergymen of the Esta-
blished Clotreh—men who, after having beaten the Ja-
cobins and Atheists of France, came to give us the addle