The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1838-10-23 00:00:00

OF THE

LIVERPOOL OPERATIVE CONSERVATIVE

ASSOCIATION.

On Friday evening the members of this association
held their third annual meeting in the Music Hall,
Bold-street, where the members of the Tradesmen's
Association held their annual festival the evening be-
fore. The same arrangements and decorations which
characterised that splendid dinner were retained, and
the room in every respect had the same splendid ap-
pearance. If anything there was a more goodly array
of the gentry of the town and neighbourhood than at
the tradesmen's dinner; and most of the gentry
seemed anxious to show their respect and estimation
of this loyal association and valuable conservative aid.
The gallery set apart for the ladies was filled with the,
delighted wives and sisters of the operatives, and the
dinner, which was substantial and excellent, was again
provided by Mr. Lawton, of the Rainbow Hotel. The
wines were exceedingly good. The arrival at the
dinner hour (5 o'clock) of Lord Sandon, Mr. Cress-
well, and the principal guests, was greeted with en-
thusiastic applause. Mr. Horsman, a member of the
association, was in the chair. On his right was Lord
Sandon, M.P., the Rev. Rector Brooks, the lion.
Richard Bootle Wilbraham, M.P., Sir Thos. Brancker,
Henry Lawrence, Esq., Charles Henderson, -Esq.,
John Nelson Wood, Esq., Charles Cardwell, Esq., and
Major Brooks. On his left were Cresswell Cresswell,
Esq., M.P. the Rev. Rector Campbell, John Roby,
Esq., of IMP.,
James Aspinall, Fl., Samuel
Holme, Esq., Adam Hodgson, Esq.. George Hall
Lawrence, Esq., John Arthur Tinne, Esq., John Shaw
Leigh, Esq., J. B. West, Esq., of Dublin, and Peter
Greenall, Esq., of St. Helen's. At the centre table
were Wilfred Troutbeck, Esq., Thomas Carson, Esq.,
Peter Wright, Esq., George Green, jun., Esq., John
Wilkinson, Esq., John Shephard, Esq., George Har-
riou, Esq., of orinskirk, Captain Armstrong, &c.
The vice-presidents were George Gordon, Esq., and
John Kilshaw, Esq.
The cloth having been drawn, and " Non nobis Do-
[nide" sung,
The CHAIRMAN, with a brief preface, gave—
" Her Majesty the Queen—Duchess of Lancaster,"—four
times four.

The. national anthem was sung with the same fervour as on
the previous evening, and with similar evidences of attach-
ment to the principles of our limited monarchy. The com-
pany at the close rose and gave three times three hearty
.chess.

The CHAIRMAN hoped that the same justice would be done
to the next toast as had been rendered to the last.

" Tne Queen Dowager and the rest of the Royal Family,"
three times three and one cheer more.

Glee :—" Here in cool grot and mossy cell."
The CHAIRMAN then called upon the company to fill a
bumber and drink the next toast with nine times nine at least.
" The Constitution of our Country in Church and State ;
may the purity of an Established Church continue the surest
protection of our ancient and revered institutions in the
State." (Drank as requested.)

The Rev. REcTott BROOKS rose to reply to the toast, and
was received with enthusiastic and lung continued cheering.
lie said, Gentlemen, your chairman has deputed to me the
office of responding to the toast. which you have just heard
from the chair—that of the Church and State. And 1 can
honestly assurd you, however little I am in the habit of
speaking at public meetings, or attending suer meetings as
these, yet, still 1 consider it as a very great privilege, and a very
pleasing task to be put upon me on this occasion. (Hear.)
Gentlemen, the enthusiastic manner in which you have been
pleased to receive this toast, convinces me that you strongly
approve of the principle that is embodied in it; and that you
are still true to the great objects which first induced you to
associate together for the preservation of the ancient, and
invaluable institutions of this great country. (Cheers.) Gen-
tlemen, when you did so associate together, you did not come
into the field in the character of aggressors; you did not at-
tempt to invade the rights of others; the armour which you

put on was purely defensive; you were determined that you
would not see every thing that was dear and valuable to you
laid desolate and in ruins. (Hear, hear.) Gentlemen; of
all those institutions which we ought so highly to value in
this country, there is none that, has been assailed with greater
virulence than that of the Established Church ; it has been
made the main object of attack; and those persons who
could never consent to agree upon any other point have firmly
united together to endeavour for her overthrow. Now, gentle-
men, it is natural enough first to ask the question, why. is this?
Where are we to seek for the reason that should bring this
about ? Is it because the tenets of the established church are
not scriptural? Gentlemen, that it cannot be. I defy [bent
to prove that there is any one of the doctrines of the esta-
blished church that is not based in the warranty of scripture.
(Loud cheers.) Nay, her very articles declare that she will
not Italie believed any doctrine that has not such warranty.
([lean, hear.) Is it, gentlemen, because they consider that
her discipline is not apostolic? That, again, I will take-the
liberty to deny; and I again call them-to the proof to show
from scripture where any other kind of church government,
is established during the primitive and pure ages of Chris-
tianity, than that which we enjoy in the different orders of
Bishops, Priests, and Deacons. (Cheers.) Is it, Gentle-
men, that she is intolerant in her principles? • That again I
deny; and I am bold to adieu that there never was a church
that showed so great a regard, and so fully acknowledged the
rights—the sacred rights of conscience. Well, then, gentle-
men, if we cannot find it any of these, and these are ostensi-
ble, and one would think legitimate reasons, if they were true
ones—but if we cannot find it any of 'these, we must look for
it elsewhere; and it is- not very difficult to discover that reli-
gion
has nothing to do with it at ell. The grand reason why
these oppose theinseives to• the established church is purely
political. (Hear.) The church is an established institution;
those who oppose the church oppose all established institu-
tions;—(hear, hear)—through the church they would attack-
the state—they would attack the throne,—(hear)—they
would attack the House of Lords, and they would attack
every thing that is permanent. And, gentlemen, they make
no secret of this; at all events they are open enemies; they
tell you to be upon your guard, and to take care of yourselves,
for that their object, though they may take it by instalments
and piece-meal, yet their object is destruction. (Loud
cheers.) Gentlemen, there is an old latin adage, which in
plain English amounts to this, that. "it is no bad thing to
take •a lesson from an adversary." You have done that.
They have told you to take care of yourselves; you deter-
mined that you would take care of yourselves—when the
citadel was attacked yuu flew to defend the ramparts, and
the display of conservative feeling which then burst forth
• from one end of the county to the other—which has 'since
that time every year increased, and which I am happy to find
is still increasing—(cheers)— has, in my opiniou, been the
salvation of your country. (Renewed cheers.) But, gentle-
men, you must still persevere; you mist not sleep upon your
posts; because your adversaries have been checked in their
career, pod in their advances, you must not think, therefore,
they have been determined upon retreat. No, gentlemen,
they are a very different elassof people. They were always,
and still are, busy and active, and you must combine to de-
fend what they are combined to destroy. (Cheers.) Gen-
tlemen, it is not to be expected, or fitting, that you should, in
times like these, leave the defence of pure religion to the
clergy alone. • (Hear, hear.) You are as touch interested in
it as they are. The weapons which they could use are not
the only weapons that are now necessary. The clergy of
our established church have for ages defended religion by
their writings; and iv would be no difficult matter to bring
forward a list of imperishable names who have thus fought
the battle of the church, and have in every contest conic off
triumphant. k Hear, hear.) But, gentlemen, that is not
exactly the species of warfare that would be available
in the present day; the battle is now to be fought on
different grounds;—(bear, hear)—it is to be fought in
the court of registration ; it is to be fought at the hus-
tings;—(hear)—it is to be fought .by sending those who

are to be yotir representatives in the senate, who are of the

same opinions and entertain the same sentiments as your-
selves—(cheers)—who you are assuied will defend those
institutions which you so much value, and will never allow
principle to give way to expediency—(cheers)—nor league
with the great enemies of the institutions of the country for
the purpose of obtaining political power—(cheers)—men,
gentlemen, who will nut allow a separation to take place
between the altar and the throne, under whose combined
influence Great Britain has arrived at a degree of prosperity
and of glory which has seldom been equalled, and never sur-
passed. (Great cheering.) Then, gentlemen, if it is not to
be lett to the clergy, the clergy are most happy to call you in
as assistants—they are ready to put you in front of the battle,
and they will fight with you in any post which you may assign
them. (Cheers.) It is to you, and to such as you, gentle-
men, to such a meeting as was held in this room last night,
aud to such a meeting as I have the gratification and plea-
sure, as I have, to see now—it is to such as you' that 1, for
one, am wilting to confide the defence of the established
church. (Cheers.) Gentlemen, this country has been called
"the palace of the world in wealth, and the eve of the world
in knowledge." (Cheers.) Now, I would express my
earnest hope that you could never cease to remember that
that knowledge would be worthless, and that wealth nnsanc-
tilled, when the country forgets that she is Christian; when
she allows her altars to be desecrated and her religion to be
trampled under foot. (Great cheering.) With that impres-
sion, gentlemen, and with a.perfect conviction that you will
never live to see such.a state of things tak-e place,. ,I have the
pleasure once mere of offering my acknou lade-melds to the
chair for,the toast of." Church and state," which was given
front it. (The rev. lector sat down amidst vehement cheer-
ing, the audience rising and waving their hats.)
'the CHAIRMAN then gave "'The Army and Navy," with
three times three.
Glee—" To all you ladies now on land."
"The Bishop and Clergy of the Diocese," with three times
three.
The Rev. Rector CAMPBRLL, being loudly called for, rose
amidst great cheering. He said,—Mr. Chairman and brother
operatives—(cheers)—as I make it a general rule, whenever
I can, to give place to my betters, I therefore seldom make a
speech when my better half, the senior rector, is present.—.
(Applause.) And, gentlemeu, as there is a remarkable har-
mony of opinion between us—so remarkable, that I assure
you, (aud I do it with a very great pleasure,) that there has
not beets the slightest interruption of that narmony during
the course of the nine years that we have been joint rectors
together ;—I was going to say that 1 hoped all the married
men in the company could say the sante. (Great cheering
and laughter.) Therefore, gentlemen, it is less necessary
fur isle to make a speech when he is present; because we
generally have to say the same thing, and he can say it very
much better than I. As your respected chairman has called
upou me to respond to this toast, of course I feel it my duty
to obey ; and as in such au immense parish as this, containing
200,000 souls, wehave not very many opportunities of meeting
together, and you seldom, most of you, conics to hear my
speeches, therefore I must say something as a substitute for
t hge ern operative,tienien' that I take the
a sermon, and I promise you a shall not be a very long one.
liberty( Lou (Loud applause.) ef
calling
myselfA.)
n
1 hope you will
not think me unworthy of. that name, because I am not
merely what was called a " productive labourer." (Cheers.)
da n ob‘rvo,
It strikes me that the moral distinction between the pro-
ductive and the non-productive classes, and the ill-na-
tured inference that is drawn from it, that every nuns
is idle that does not produce something from the labour
of his hands, are weak inventions of the enemy to disunite
the several classes from each other, and profit from the dis-
order that will result from such disunion. (Cheers.) lam
sure you will not for a moment think me capable of under-
valuing the rights of labour, or decrying the worth of pro-
d-lit:five industry- far from it. Gentlemen, God forbid that
I should do so. I value the interests of the labouring classes
as highly as they ought to be valued; but as a minister and
a. servant of that great God in whose sight all men are equal,
and who, so far as spiritual things ate concerned, regards
with equal favour the labourer in his cottage and the monarch
on his throne (cheers), I wish—and it should be the wish of
every good Christian and of every honest man—that labour
should have its full reconspeuce, and productive industry its
full reward. But let not that, gentlemen, blind us to the
conviction that there are other labourers in the social field
fully as prufitable to the community as you who,work with
your hands. There are some who work with their heads,
and some who work with their hands; and in many instances
those who work with their heads work. the hardest oft.he two,
producing benefits not duly to the.communtty in general,
but to the productive class of labourers to whom some of you
may belong. It has been calculated by an American writer,
that the number of men put in occupation in different coun-
tries, such as paper.makers, bookbinders, and printers, by