The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1836-10-21 00:00:00

_ .
Tu.on who•.avowedly retained their power by this " union of all
reforrners"—that was to. say, the compromise of what were
once caller: their principles, but now were known by the easier
in
'l4uoininatian of their " minor differences.', Dolus versatur
Ifaieralibus was a favourite maxim of the universities. They (of.
the universities) distrusted these vague generalities,
which they
lielieved to have been adopted because they afforded the rea•
(Last opportunities for successful and safe evasion. Would they
giv e him. their permission to speakaid shortly of two of their
*libbolet.hs of faction, vvhicb directly affected the universities,
•
disregard,of consistent woad
the Present time with the grossest
tice to Ireland. And whay d common sense. The first was jus-
t divl justice to Ireland mean ? It
can that the. law should be insulted with impunity—
pulctiii,
16rof barn said, in suPPorting a Celebrated coercion
014
if-4*.kii.,:own sits lightly on the.head of arer which
,4,/t
.-Ifiiriitice without affinding coon."Drotec Not the
c', / 1a S 1
o'' eq. blishment—for Lord Lansdowne solemnly
1•41 la - -
„.4 Ido n ~, ,A,„ ji-, -ft, id never he a party to the alienation of .1.
e,.., . utarrtiera.4.,.f. purposes strictly protestant. Not the an'
'•`----"‘ It• 7,rdi - for Lord J. Russell said, "he wo,id .i.,•,,,.-
A . ' —ti0....,----57:, ',az z the House .of Commons to an at,---
, „ ..
•
°l.'''. • 149)p1)---in- - 'lstion." • Was it, then, rounici.,
' ' w re, iclieproP -
s-iaott ' f pl4 •
i„(i. : •-
~, . 4.4 a'

•
lie had a short character given of them by Mr. O'Connell.
'He called them "base, bloody, treacherous, mercenary whips."
But they knew he was rather hard, and would not stick at
anything,—(A laugh.) But there was another opinion of
them, given by a milder man. In a late communication be
had'had with Lord Eldon and Sir Robert Peel, he found these
qualities- described, (loud cries of " Buckingham! ") that the
tories had this great feature of, difference, (reading from Mr.
Buckingham's letter) namely, they. practised what they pro-
fessied.—(Cheers.) That they were faithful to each other.
Look bere—(tremendous cheering)—" and grateful to those
who support them."—(Continued cheering.) Now came the
side' of the question which they would call contra. " Whereas
the Whigs are perpetually professing principles which they
are either ashamed or unable to carry out in action. They
are faithless and ungrateful to those by whose support alone
they are kept in power, and they have generally created
in the minds of the people disappointment and disgust."—
(Loud cheering.) Let them not suspect him of having writ-
ten this character.—(Loud cheering.) He could not have said
anything half so bad. It came from no tory in disguise;
but it was the production of Mr. Buckingham, a Radical. If
it were true that on the ministerial side of the house the
government were kept in office, not by a fair fulfilment of its
duties, but by a monstrous, and forced, and unnatural com-
bination—by a combination which rested on no common
attachment, but by a common antipathy, which was scarcely
stronger than the hatred with which they regarded each other
—if such were the state of this government with reference to
the measures it had brought forward, and with reference to
those about to be brought forward—if such be the state of
this government in reference to those by whose confidence
it was kept in office, might he not be justified in saving,
that in comparing their position, victorious though they had
been, with the position of Sir Robert Peel, he and his friends
need not wish to exchange their honourable retirement for
the emoluments of office, tarnished with Such a reputation as
this ?-7-(Tremendous cheers.) He had detained them more
than enough.—( Loud cries of "Go on.") Upon matters of
a public nature there still remained something to be said. He
was unwilling to obtrude upon them in a private capacity,
and yet be was still more unwilling, by a total silence, to give
any room for animadversion. He was not insensible to the
close connexion in which he stood with the town of Liverpool,
bound to them, as he was, by birth and by pecuniary interests,
but severed by circumstances from immediate intercourse with
them for a lapse of years. Thus much of himself. He would
venture to say there was no period, and there could be no
occasion on which he would more gladly revive the remem-
brance of his thoughts of Liverpool, that at that prsent time
and in that place.—(Cheers.) He stood there in the presence
011 his noble friend, their able, faithful, and distinguished
representative, and in the presence of his noble friend, the
member for Warwick, who had that night given them, they
would allow him to say, an earnest of what he would do as
their representative.—(Enthusiastic cheering, and waving of
handkerchiefs, &c., by the ladies —the company stauding.)
As their representative —as the worthy companion of Lord
Sandoh, he hoped to see him enter the House of Commons.—
(Confirmed cheering.) There might be some there who I
would recollect, that his now revered parent had no incon-
siderable share in originating the connexion between Mr. Can-
ning and the town of Liverpool. That connexion had reflected
much honour upon Mr. Canning: but Liverpool had received
hack in return, a superior splendour. (Loud applause.)
He looked forward with joy and exultation, and he had a right
to look forward with joy and exultation, to the speedy renewal
of that connexion; and God grant that it might long continue.
(Immense cheering and clapping of hands.) But further, he
was addressing the members of an association which, he would
venture to say, exhibited a pattern to the kingdom of what loyal
mind right-snicded Englishmen should, at the present day, exhi-
bit ; and members of an association which he would not dwell
on in eulogising, because his noble friend had already spoken
on that point with his usual ability. But this he would say with
regard to the smallness of that apartment, which, though large
in comparison with common measures, was trifling compared
with their enthusiasm, and compared with the enthusiasm which,
had there been space, would have collected them in far greater
numbers on that occasion. He hoped to meet them again in
some yet larger room. He trusted that by some means a per-
manency would be given to this association. It was true that
all this excitement which he witnessed was to be regarded as an
evil. It was true that private life was to be preferred before
political excitement. But they were entering in this country
into a state of habitual excitement. The question was, whether
they Would value personal convenience more than the public
welfare, and refuse to enter into the contest which had been
raised, and forced on them against their wishes. He could not
doubt the alternative which their loyalty would adopt. He
trusted this body wonld enshrine itself in some building worthy
of itself, where it might continue to exert itself for the same
beneficial purpose it had already so successfully promoted.
(Applause.) Having said so much of the Conservative Asso-
ciation, he had now a gratifying task to perform which brought
him near the close of his remarks; he was afraid they bad been
more protracted than they ought. As a last duty he had to pro-
pose the health of their chairman. And now [addressing the
chairman,' in the face of that company; of Mr. Holine's, and
his own fellow-townsmen he had to state him to be, in reference
to his public duties, all that an able, an upright, an active, and
an influential English tradesman ought to be. (Loud cheer-
ing.) He could say no more than this : they knew him better
than he could do. He had been bet a distant observer of his
life,—they had examined and knew him. They had seen him
from a nearer station: he was valued by every one amongst
them. (Cries of "He is !") Long may he live ! (Cheers.)
And as he would say to that class of tradesmen in this town,
without offence to any other class, that they were an example.
by their energy, both to these beneath and to those above them;
so he would say of Mr. Holme, that he was an example to that
class. (Loud cheering.) He had stated thus much in his pre-
sence,—not to give Mr. Holme pleasure, for perhaps he would
rather have been alluded to in terms less direct ;—not to give
himself gratification, although it was gratifying to him to be
permitted to bear testimony to his merits. (Hear, hear.) But
be bad an opportunity of ascertaining by a reference to their
sentiments what was the place which he occupied in their esti-
mation; and he had an opportunity of seeing from the cheers
of approval that the ground of virtue, and public spirit (what-
ever be the bitterness of opposition, and calumny) and an in-
telligent appreciation, and sincere advocacy of the best, and
highest interests of his countrymen, (for Mr. Holmes was not
a mere politician) did not remain without its reward. (Tre-
mendous cheering. He would conclude by giving them the
health of their respected president. Air. Samuel Holme. (The
toast was drank amidst rapturous applause.)
Band—" For auld lane syne."
The CHAIRMAN, on rising to return thanks, was received
'with several distinct rounds of applause. He said that on or-
dinary occasions he did not feel himself at a loss in giving ex-
pression to his feelings, but on this occasion he much wished
that he had that burning
.power of eloquence possessed by those
around him, and with which they had been delighted, in which
to express his thanks in the manner he ought to do. He could
not say more than that from the very bottom of his heart he
thanked them for the way in which they had received the men-
tion of his name. He was not ashamed to say that he had risen
from the lower ranks himself. He was proud to declare that in
this country it was in the power of all persons, and of every in-
dividual, let the talent they possessed be trifling as it may, how-
ever humble might be their situation in life, to devote sonic por-
tion of it to the benefit and welfare of his fellow-man, and that,
however humble the station he might be placed in, he had the
power of doing good to the great family of man. (Cheers.)
He had one wish which he hoped to see gratified ; it was the
ocean to the river of his soul; it was, that he might see the.pro-
testant institutions of his country preserved in their integrity—
in all their richness and their fullness. The building in which
they were then met, called to his mind the grand scene it had
presented only a few weeks ago. The protestant clergy of the
town had then come forward to counteract those infidel princi-
ples which were intended to subvert those institutions. (Cheers.)
He then saw the enlightened and highly educated clergy of Li-
verpool coming forward as one man to resist the attempt made
by the enemies of the church, and to rescue the town from the
deep disgrace that would otherwise have fallen upon it. When
he recollected that those men who had so warmly espoused the
cause of protestantism had received their education at the uni-
versities of Oxford and Cambridge;—when he recollected that
those universities were the strong! holds of conservatism, he
could not resist the-opportunity of proposing them for the next
toast. Before he sat down he would again thank them for the
honour they had done his name- He could only regret that he
had not language to do credit to the feelings of his heart. He
would now propose to them "The universities of Oxford and
Cambridge, and may they long continue to be the seats of sound
protestant education." He need not say that he expected the
toast would be drank with three times three cheers.
The toast having been duly honoured,
Mr. CARDWELL, a member of the University of Oxford,
rose. He said, it would be impossible not to feel deeply grate-
ful upon being called upon to acknowledge the toast that had
just been so warmly received by the present numerous assem-
bly; and-to return thanks for that university to which it was
his pride and privilege to belong. They would believe that he
never rose with feelings of more intense and heartfelt gratitude
than th"ose which he felt at the compliment paid him by the
present large, intelligent, and independent meeting. It often
happened that those who are known in the higher walks of learn-
iug were pre-eminent also in the paths of public life, and he
would not say that it unfortunately so happened, but he would
say that he heard of that meeting with joy, knowing their dis-
tingurked guests would be there to bear their testimony to the
proud position of the university of Oxford, and with the belief and
earnest hope that one of them would have risen to do justice to
the.. toast oefore them. If, therefore, he ventured to address
them, they would know that it was not his own presumption,
and accord to him their kind indulgence. But, although they
did the universities generous justice for their long roll of learn-
ed theologians—of men distinguished in literature and science,
embodying such names as Sir R. Peel and Lord Stanley, and
some of the brightest names in European statesmanship, he was
persuaded they would pour out their heartfelt enthusiasm to-
wards them, because they regarded the universities as amongst
tbecarmest bulwarks of that church which, by God's blessing,
was established in these. dominions. (Cheers.) It was only
while the universities continued to maintain the respect, and
receive the support of meetings such as that, that they either
deserved to stand, or could continue to discharge their impor-
tant services to the cause of pure morality and sound religion.
Mr. Gladstone had told them what was the last notable exploit
of4hat celebrated "compact" which united bands of men to-
gether—than whom the assemblage in Noah's ark was not more
promiscuous. Their last exploit had been to deprive the coun-
tryeof those measures of church reform prepared by Sir Robert
Peel's commission, and accepted by time friends of the church
without a dissentient voice. And yet they were called upon,
under the shadow of an empty name, without any definite inter-
pretation, and with no tangible meaning. to place confidence in
lien, of whom it might fairly be said, that their
" Bauldest thought's a hankering wither,
To rin or stay,"—

pal reform—that exquisite device for giving peace to conflicting
factions, or, in other words, enabling Mr. O'Connell and his
myrmidons to " make a tude and call it peace !" (Hear,
hear, and cheers.) He had no experience,on that subject ; but
from the circumstance of their having chosen that day for the
entertainment, he would venture to 'draw an inference as to the
I estimation in which they held the blessings of municipal reform.
What then was justice to Ireland? Justice to Ireland was a
stern and an uncompromising resistance to' those who make
their daily bread by a system, under which is the expressive lan-
guage of Sir Robert Peel, " there is no punishment except for
innocence, and do security except for triumphant guilt." It
was now two years since Lord Brougham told them " of the
book of Ireland's wrongs, little now remained except a few short
pages which might speedily be erased by the wisdom and justice
of parliament." "All gracious God !" said his Lordship, "why
was this improvement prevented? Because a few individuals
gifted with genius by the same bountiful Providence which en-
dowed their country with fertility, mistaking their own happi-
ness, if they knew what happiness was—preferred, to honest in-
dustry by which they might obtain power, a species of political
and personal mendicancy' which makes (and these were remark-
able words) every fibre of a man's body quiver with unbearable
shame." He was unable to ascertain by what stroke of the ma.
gician's wand the " base, brutal, and bloody" whigs of Lord
Grey's high-minded government had degenerated into the
pure and disinterested patriots" who supported Lord Mel-
bourne's, hybrid ministry. The next stale watchword was,
" civil and religious liberty." And he asked them, as men of
common sense, what they interpreted it to mean, when it pro-
ceeded from men whose professions and practices were in such
painful opposition to each other?' He would tell them what was
said of it by an unquestioned authority. " Every sect clamours
for toleration when it is down. Every bigot says, •I am in the
right and you are in the wrong : when you are in power you
ought to tolerate me because it is your duty to tolerate truth :
when I am stronger I shall persecute you, because it is my duty
to persecute error.' To join the catholics against the church
is to raise a spiritual despotism, compared with which the des-
potism of the establishment is as a little finger to the loins, as
punishment with whips to punishment with scorpions." If
they wished to knoW who was the authority, this was the opi-
nion of the Edinburgh Review, in commenting upon the whig
history of the late Sir James Mackintosh. He could not help
thinking it a sign of the times that the brilliant reviewer from
whose pen these remarks proceeded, should not in his honour-
able exile in India have reviewed the newest political fashions
fast enough to adapt his writings to the present professions and
practices of his party. They had had this question forced upon
them; and-if they bad rejected it, it was not that they under-
valued the importance of the principle, but that they could place
no confidence in the men who so consistently profess it. "The
voice is the voice of Jacob, but the hand is the hand of Esau."
They (the university of Oxford,) had been foremost in the fight,
and he acknowledged with pride the debt they owed them. One
of the members for South Lancashire was the leader of that sin.
gular host, and what was the consequence to him? There came
a dissolution of parliament, and they (his constituents) gave
him his reward. That question was forced upon them, and
what was the answer that they gave ? Why, as their excellent
chairman had told them, they had been asked the same ques-
tion, and within those glorious walls five thousand of them re-
turned the samlianswer •—that they would not depart from the
doctrine and discipline of the Church of England. It was be-
cause they had maintained those principles, and discharged
those duties that it was no poetry to say of the universities, that
they "had braved a thousand years the battle and the breeze."
It was because they had maintained those principles and dis-
charged those duties that
" Swiftly the glance of memory ranges back,
O'er the long roll of Oxford's honoured years,
To that old time when Alfred's patriot voice
First woo'd the Muses to those hallow'd seats ;
First taught his rude barbarians the soft strength
Of faith—attempered knowledge"—
and, by God's help, while the nation lasted, they would main-
tain the same principles and the same duties; the universities
would endure as towers of strength and monuments of glory,
supported by the voice of an intelligent community and based
upon the foundation of eternal truth as long as the nation
should continue to exist. (Mr. Cardwell sat down amid loud
and long reiterated cheers.)
Mr. hoasyTsi, of the University of Cambridge, then rose
and said he felt that some apology was due from him in rising
to acknowledge the toast which had just been so ably proposed
and so cordially received. Ile was well aware that he was by
no means the person most competent to address them on that
occasion • and he must suppose that he (addressing the chair-
man) like a skilful general had chosen in that case to occupy
his strongest positions with his weakest troops, and confided to
him (Mr. Forsyth) the task of returning thanks, well knowing
that the toast was one which was independent of the strength of
the advocate. In truth, he felt that he had not much to say—
he must either indulge in the language of panegyric or adopt
the tone of defence. Panegyric would be useless there; and,
as to defence. what more splendid testimony to the strength of
the cause he was there to advocate could be found than in the
fact that the mention of those institutions had been received in
such a manner, in such a place, in such an assembly. What,
he would ask, was the nature of the charges with which the
universities were assailed ? They were told that they were be-
hind the spirit of the age—that they were marching in the rear-
ward of events—that their learning was pedantry, and their
knowledge antiquated lumber—that, in the poetic language of
the radicals " they were islands of barbarism in the midst of an
ocean of light"—that the owl of Minerva with them could not
bear the blaze of light which had flashed upon the 19th century,
and that the trees beneath whose shade Bacon, and Milton, and
Newton grew up and flourished were cankered at the root and
withering away. It might be so, but he was sure they did not
think that it was so. A great man once, in affected scorn of the
British people, called them " a nation of shop-keepers," and in
the sense in which he used the terms they were those of re-
proach. But the charge was false—while England bad been
sending her ships- to every corner of the habitable world, and
filling her warehouses with merchandise from every land, she
had not. neglected to encourage the arts and sciences, and had
held out the hand of protection to the seats of learning—re-
membering that it was that 'which now constitutes the chief
glory of the Italian republics, . which, in the darkness of the
middle ages, carried their commerce and their ships to every
portion of the then known world. Not the freightag,e of their
vessels or the magnificence of their buildings, but those great
and glowing names which, fostered and protected by the mer-
chants of Italy, stood out as among the brightest and noblest on
the page of history. Such beimg the case, the appellation of
" a nation of shopkeepers," in an offensive sense, might well be
exchanged for another—that of a nation of merchants, than
which a snore noble title could not be bestowed, one which, in
former times, won from the inspired penman, with regard to
that ancient city whose seat was upon the waters, the splendid
eulogy that " her merchants were princes, and her traffickers
the honourable of the earth." He had the honour to be a
member of a university which used in former times to be dis-
tinguished, as par excellence, the whip university; and perhaps
there were many there present who agreed with-him in think-
ing that there was a time when the name of whig did not neces-
sarily entail reproach—when the names of Chatham, and Burke,
and Pox were some guarantee for the principles of the party,
and when that party did not condescend to adopt that favourite
figure of speech of the modern whigs, that political synecdoche,
which

" The part for the whole doth take,
Not for the sense, but for the metre's sake,"
and substitute the populace for the people, and the mob for the
nation. But whatever might be thought of the whigs then,
from the disgrace, and the brand, and the infamy which would
be stamped upon the university by the name of whig now, be
was happy to say they had completely emancipated themselves;
their representatives in parliament were conservative, and the
great majority of the young men studying at the university
were conservative also, and was not that a cheering thought, a
delightful circumstance, that the rising youth of Britain, from
her schools and in her colleges, were embued with the sound
spirit of conservatism ? He knew that the radical newspapers
affected to think lightly of this' matter, and talked of them as
beardless youths, whose opinions were not worthy of notice;
but these writers forgot, or did not choose to avow, that those
beardless youths were shooting up into men, and that from their
ranks, the educated ranks of Britain, must ultimately be drafted
those who would have to take a part in the legislation of the
state, and assist in the councils of their sovereign. There was a
time, indeed, and not long back, when the case was different—
when the trail of that serpent, whose slime extended over all,
• had reached the university; and that incubys, of which they
had heard that evening, threatened to sit heavily upon them,
when under the specious name of reform they were likely to
sanction revolution. He knew how these expressions might
be tortured into a different construction, and he might be told
that they were. opposed to every change, and hated every real
reform; but this was not so. He was no bigoted defender of
those institutions. He did not pretend to think them perfect.
They had changed, were changing, and would still farther
change; but while the Universities were elastic enough to ad-
mit of such changes as the advanced intellect of mankind might
require, they were unbending enough, or, if the expression suited
better, obstinate enough, to resist what was demanded by the
clamour of a faction or a mob. They thought that the educa-
tion of the young was too sage and serious a matter to be di-
rected by the suggestions of a few scribblers in radical news-
papers, and that it demanded wiser heads than those to advise
for them measures of improvement. No, they were not oppo-
sed to change, but they could not consent, in the rash spirit of
experimentalism, like the enchantress of old, to cut off the limbs
their aged parents, and throw theist into the cauldron of confu-
sion, to see them boil and bubble there, fur the dubious chance
of a youthful renovation. He had alluded to the nature of the
calumnies directed against the studies of the Universities.
Those charges resulted from either very gross ignorance or very
gross knavery. With regard to many of those who brought
them forward, he was perfectly willing that they should shelter
themselves behind the plea of ignorance, for of the spirit and
nature of those studies they could possibly know nothing; but
there were others who were guilty of very gross .knavery, who
accused them of studying there what tended only to make them
servile and bigoted. What, was the language of Greece and
Rome the language of servility ? Was it likely that their pa-
triotism and love'of liberty would glow less warmly by perusing
the orations of Demosthenes, or being imbued with the senti-
ments of Cicero, than if they employed their time over penny
magazines, or the other productions drawn from the modern
slop-shops of knowledge? . But those who made the charge
knew all this—but they knew more. They knew that in the
Universities the page of history was unrolled before the young,
and that they are taught to regard with respect and veneration
the names of the great and'goocl, and to distinguish between
the true glory that surrounded them, and false notoriety which
others, by base arts, attained. In short, to 'revere those states-
men who had been distinguished for principle, and admire the
characters of such men as Aristides, the incorruptible and she
just, and Regulus, whom the poet described in terms of such
striking contrast with the whig-radical minister, as—
" Dissentientem conditionibus •
Frodis, et exemplo trabenti
Perniciem vernens in wvum ;"
and to think with scorn and abhorrence upon those who had
built up the fabric of their power upon a nation's folly, and, by
pandering to the passions of the multitude, kept themselves in
place and office—upon such reckless demagogues as a Olson or
a Cataline. He was, he observed, too young to prophecy, and
particularly he was unwilling to appear before them a prophet
of evil; but there were times when he confessed he looked for-
ward with gloomy forebodings to the future. Upon the institu-
tions of this country the attack had already commenced—the
muttering of the storm had been already heard, and one blast
had already swept over the Universities. With the Scotch Uni-
versities the House of Commons was then tampering. Whether
those institutions were to fall or not he knew not; but if any-
thing could give him confidence, it was the fact of such an as-
semblage as that, met together to proclaim its attachment to the
blessings which the country had hitherto enjostd—the fact of
men eminently practical receiving in so cordial a spirit the
mention of institutions which the wisdom of their forefathers
had planted, and who would not consent to forego their chance
of being able to afford their sons the blessings of a sound, learned,
and religious education—who did not forget the great and good
men who had issued from the Universities, whose names would
last as long as the languages of the world endured, and who di-
rected their best efforts to advance the interests, and ameliorate
the condition, of mankind

The CHAIRMAN said he would not omit any-longer the oppor-
tunity of giving.a toast which; bv 'some miscalculation or other
on the part of the committee, had been, placed last.upon the list.
lie had before alluded' to the well-known gallantry of the gen-
tlemen wile surrounded him, and, if he made a further draft