The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1835-02-17 00:00:00

CONSERVATIVE DINNER AT ROCHDALE.

A dinner to celebrate the return of John Entwisle, Es ~ as
parliament for Rochdale, and triumph of con-
servatism amtiesminbewr of parliament
that return eviuced. was given. on Thursday
last to Mr. Eutwisle, at the Flying llorse Inn, Rochdale,
Cle-
!meut ltnyos, Esq. in.the chair. About one hundred gentlemen
from the town and neighbourhood forthed the party.
The accustomed toasts having been disposed of,
'The CiLattimv a remarked that the next toast was one which
they had never had an opportunity of drinking before.. It was
"'file Conservative Member for Rochdale; may he long be
spared to be the comfort of his family, and the stanch supporter
Of his King and country." The toast was received with loud
applause, and live times five hearty cheers.
301iN• ENTWISLE, Esq., M.P., then rose, and was. loudly
cheered. Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, said he, it• is now my
duty
to return you my most sincere thanks for this honour; .and,
althoughit ought to be a most pleasing duty, yet I confess to
You it is a, difficult one, for me ever to discharge that debt of
gratitude which I owe to you for services which can never be
repaid. (Cheers.) If I have reason to be proud, gentlemen,
in having been elected your representative, it is not becauSe
ot-
the number of electors who registered their votes for me, but
because I have not been asked for one pledge or promise on
any subject whatever; (Cheers, )•it is because I goto parliament
free and unfettered: there is one matter, however, which may
form an exception to this, and which was mentioned on the
bustine's, and that is, that I pledged myself not to uproot the
church. (Loud cheers.) My principles, gentlemen, I have
never affected to conceal from you, and therefore 1 need not.
now enter into any detail of them. When I get into parlia-
ment I shall honestly endeavour to support his Majesty's pre-
sent goveinment, (cheers,) for I think they might to allowed.
what they ask for—a fair trial. (Cheers.) The first contest in
parliament will be on a base attempt of the whigs- to drive from
the chair a speaker. whom they formerly elected themselves,.and.
whom they now have set their faces against, not because he is.
'not the best man that could be chosen, but because it no longer
suits Alteir vile party purposes to support him. (Cheers.) in
'this -qtifotion,.gentlemen, I shall support the iniastry. (Cheers.)
Gentlemen, there are two kinds of reform—the one calculated,
to phU.4nse and. destroy, and the other to renovate and support.
former. I shall ever oppose, and when any measures are.
brotht ferward in accordance with the latter, they shall have
my honest vote in their favour. (Cheers.) Although you have
elected me without requiting any pledges from me, there are
one hr two subjeCts on whial my opinion has been asked pri-
vatelY;'and. to which I will here allude. The first is the fac-•
toryill. Numbers of people have spoken to inc upon this sub.::
jectjaiid 'lave uniformly expressed my opinion that there must
be snine amelioration ut the present system, for both masters.
and iiien'aie 'crying' out against it. (hear, hear.) The next
subject is, the poor law amendment bill. As far as this country
is coneeined, gentlemen, I think that there never was-a greater
job than this' bill. (Hear.) The poor laws in this district have
hithert9 worked well, amid have been ably administered; but
now a'magistrate has no power on earth to interfere between the
poor and a hard-harted overseer, nor has he any authority or
' control ever the decisions of a select vestry. I-should always
have been happy as. a magistrate to have exercised a deciding.
Lower between the two, and to have determined, where the-poor
have complaints to make, how much they should' be allowed to
receive. But that power has been taken away from us, and
now the_iloor have nu claim to out-door relief, hut must be sent
to the Workhouse, which, in many cases, is little better than a
prison to them. (Hear, hear:) Gentlemen, I will not detain
you Itinger, but will conclude. by proposing that we drink—
" Our fair friends, the 'blue belles' of Rochdale." Twee times
three.-. Glee—" The generous heart." •
IZ r.l A N said that When he mentioned the South Lan-
cashire Conservative Association, he did trot hesitate to say that
he mentioned a body of 'men who had saved their country; fur
they had achieved a glorious victory over a whig-radical, who,
not content with seeking to overturn the civil institutions of the
country, would have levelled the church with the dust. (Cheers.)
"The. South Lancashire Conservative Association." Three
times three.

JOHN bony, Esq., returned thanks.—As secretary to the
Rochdale district of the South Lancashire Conservative Asso-
ciation, I believe it levolves on me to acknowledge this toast:
It is an association in whose welfare I feel the deepest interest
—as One of its earliest members I have worked for it, I have
fought for it, and I have done my utmost to promote its wel-
fare and advance its interests—and I need not say that I feel
proud when I contemplate the le.ood effects which have resulted
from our efforts. (Cheers.) may safely affirm that to this
association we in some measure owe our recent triumphs, one'
of which, and a great one it is, we celebrate this day. (Cheers.)
I say, gentlemen, it is a great, a constitutional triumph that we.
are met
.to celebrate, and one which will strike terror into the
ranks of our enemies, while it inspires our friends with confi-
dence. What is it but the great cause of truth versus false-
hood, which an honest, free, and impartial jury have decide()
in our favour. • (Loud• cheering.) The country is tired of
impudence and quackery under, the specious name of refovm,
and hence this great, this glorious reaction, or rather return
to conservative principles, which will, 1 hope.ere long, charac-
terize the great. bulk of my countrymen. (Loud cheerS.)•
I firmly and conscientiously believe that our recent victories
have been mainly owing to the splendid example and efforts'of
the South Lancashire Conservative Association—not that we
were ever deficient in numbers, wealth, and intelligence ; no,
as far as these are concerned we outweigh the destructives ten-
fold; but afuretime whenever-the 'battle was to be tuught, we

had no /cadet, no discipline •nn organization. (Cheers.) Our
opponents on the contrary Wad all these—ever prepared through
the politieal,uuions and what not, the brick-bat ansi blielgeou
party outmustered, or rather outgenerallcd us. ((Veers.) We,
ou the contrary, wheoever any manifestation of principle was
required, whenever our cause wanted support, never knew how
or whereto commence, Our machinery, to use a figure which
every body here will uuderstaud, for want of being kept -con-
stantly running, teas always out of order.—lt wanted oiling or
gearing,—there was a screw loose here, or a pin loose there—
(laughter)—so that when mast wanted it was the least effective..
However, thanks to the South Lancashire Conservative Asso-
ciation, it has been kept running pretty constantly -of late, and
to some purpose too, and whenever any more conservative twist
is wanted, I .hope we, shall have a supply always ready to meet
the demand. (Cheers.) However, to be serious once more.
we have always been too ready to rely on the goodness of our
cause, and to cry "Mayna est veritas et preralebit." "Great
is truth and it will prevail." But maxims are useless unless
acted upon. "Be ye. warmed,,and he ye fed," is au excellent
maxim, but it will neither_ warm nor feed without food and tire.
Good wishes will not do now a-days; we must work awl actively
too. We have enemies ever vigilant, ever ready to take ad-
vantage of our weakness,—enemies to whom the reform bill has
given prodigious power and impulse, and whom nothing less
than a superior antagonist. power will keep from overthrowing
everything dear to us as men, as Britons, and as Christians.
(Loud cheers.) But we have worked lately, and to good pur-
pose to,—we have seated iu the British senate a man, a gentle-
man whom I am proud to call lay friend, who will represent
our feelings, wishes, and opinions, on all the great subjects
which will have to be decided in time ensuing session. (Cheers.)
He is a man than will go straight femare! in the old honest
John Bull fashion—(cheers)—not like too many in the last
parliament, with a tortuous timid policy,. creeping first to this
side and then to that,—wilituut any fixed principles of action—
cajoling here, 60)14 there,. patting O'Connell on the back
to-day, and calling him a great demagogue to-morrow—(cheers
• and laughter)—coaxing, conciliating, and vacillating, till the
nation never know from one day to another what the morrow
might' bring forth. (Cheers.). Now we know what to depend
upon; but we do not send our representatives fettered with
pledges ; when did you ever hear of tories tying their repre-
sentatives band anlfoot with pledges? (Cheers.) No! this
line of conduct Was reserved for liberals, self-styled so, who are
so excessively liberal that they dare not trust one auuther. We
send a member too who will not advocate any theoretical doe-
trite, atenit delusive rights—who wiil not advance the interests.
of one party by plundering another—who will not delude the.
poor man by essertieg that the rights of property are. distinct
froth those of industry. .(Cheers.) Who is there but the true
'conservative who will preserve the source whence the labouring
man, the artizan, derives his sustenance ? I mean property,
Capital, without which, or even with a feeling of its instability,
a mass of misery would be created in this country unparalleled
perhaps in the history of revolutions, and of which the poor .de-
Wed democrat hinaself would have to endure the greatest share.
(Laud cheering.) One. other matter, and then t have done.
'Our opponents assert, some of whom oughtto know better; that
the
.tories if kept in pewer mean to sidle, or,-at least, to nullify
thc4forali bill. Look, say the. late ministers, where his Ma-
jesty has been most grticiously pleased to kick out of his'cabinet
—(laughter)—look at our beautiful darling, . Whom. we have
suckled and dandled and made "-a broth of a boy".-,-will you •
put it out to uuzse to these wicked tories ?—..what are you think--
iug of?—they will assuredly smother it, poison .it, or snake it
commit "Feld de se." ( Laughter.) Nu, eentleman„:Weshall
"do none of. these things;. bnt, •as Lord Eldonsaid after the
passing of the catholic emancipation bill, it is new the law of
the laud, and we bow to it. (Cheers.) Again, the late minis-
ters say, these vile tories, what burdens they will put upon your
hacks—what places and pensions you will have to endure.
(Cheers.) We would wit kick a fallen enemy, but this really
comes well from men who, when in power, have added snore in
four years of peace to our national burdens than the tortes dur-
ing the same period of war.• (Cheers.) Thirty millions- they
have added to the capital of the debt, besides places and pen-
sions without number. • (Hear.) Our. West India colonies
ruined—our East India territories expecting the same fate—
China shutting her ports against us—these are only some few
of the benefits of whip legislature. (Hear.) But. I had for-.
gotten one important piece of legislation, one inestimable boon
they have granted us—l beg his Majesty's late ministers ten
thousand pardons for omitting-it—one tax they have taken off
for which we cannot feel sufficiently thankinl,.7-Gentleinen,
mean the tax on short-tailed dogs!—(cheers and laughter)—
and yet these men have the assurance to expect the country to
placetthem again in power by any means. • They may rest as-
sured That, as a party destined ever to rule, they are- defunct,
dead. (Cheers.) Should they ever seize the helm of the state,
they must become either conservatives or ile,,structives, accord-
ing as they ally themselves with the O'Connell-gang on the one
band or the tortes on the other, and in whichever-position they
place themselves, they wid -be swallowed up, extinguished. by
their new allies. (Cheers.) Tory principles ate now in the
ascendant, and with respect to this outcry against our present
ministry governing under the reform bill, they may and will
say as George the Third said to the Americau ambassador at
the close of the war, " I was the last to acknowledge your inde-
pendence,- but I will be the first to maintain ' (Loud
cheers.) Mr. Roby concluded by proposing the health of John
Entwisle, Esq., as father of the South Lancashire Conservative
Association. (Drunk with three times three:)
Mr. Entwisle returned thanks, and proposed the health of the
chairman, Clement Royds, Esq. A great number of other
toasts were given. At ten o'clock the chairman left the room
accompanied by some of his immediate friends.