The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1833-08-30 00:00:00

CONSERVATIVE CLUBS.

In spite of the denunciations of the Whig, and the
sneers of the Radical press, these constitutional associa-
tions are rapidly gaining ground in every part of Eng-
land. The Ipswich Journal of last Saturdav contains
an account of the first annual dinner of TnE''EAsT Sur-
FOLK CONSERVATIVE CLUB, which was held in that town
on the preceding Wednesday, (the birth-day of his Ma-
jesty,) Sir William Middleton, Bart., the president of the
society, in the chair. The company consisted of two
hundred and thirty gentlemen from Ipswich and its
vicinity.

Befo're we make our extracts from the Ipswich Jour-
nal's account of the proceedings of the day, we have to
observe, that so far from regretting, we do not regret the
absence of the aristocracy from dinners of this kind, at
this period, because their presence might appear to ope
rate as an inducement to many persons of humbler rank
to attend them. Their absence proves that the •country
gentlemen, the merchants, the tradesmen, and the honest
yeomen of England, do wit associate as Conservatives
fci the honour of dining with barons, dukes, or earls, but
to skew the world that they are prepared to support the
peerage as a body, together with the throne and the altar
of their forefathers, from a strong feeling and conviction
that their existence is now endangered; and that, unless
the progress of revolutionary principles be checked, the
destruction of the monarchy must follow, with anarchy
and confusion in its train. In this, which we take to be
the true Conservative spirit, the highest and the lowest,
the prince and the peasant, are alike interested. In his
introductory observations the editor of'the Ipswich Jou-
rnal says, that—
" Under all the discomfitures and discouragements which
have thickened around the supporters of the British constitution
in church and state, we could hardly have anticipated so much
spirit-stirring zeal and enthusiasm as was shown ny all present.
It has been the fashion of late to talk of the expediency of
making innovations upon public institutions, because of their
unpopularity and the ill savour in which they are viewed; but
Wednesday furnished a triumphant negative to the assertions
of such dreamers of idle dreams. We could have wished that
some of those who cry up the expediency of alteration and re-
form had been present to hear the burst of applause when any
sentiment 'was uttered expressive of devotion to the established
order of things;—we could have wished those who, from the
prevalence of numberless calumnies have been led to believe
the church establishment an alien to the affections of the people,
had been present to hear the peals upon peals of applause which
followed the toast the clergy of the diocese,' for then, in
shame, they would have repented of their folly. It was, inderd,,
a joyful sight to see such enthusiasm in so good a cause. The
attendance of the aristocracy was but small, so much so as, to
call forth expressions of regret from many present; but there
was a very large attendance; indeed, the meeting was princi-
pally composed from the ranks of an intelligent yeomanry,
England's best sons,--whose wish is to do as they would be
done by, and who know. how to appreciate the benefits of a set-
tled and good government. There were present, in addition to
the chairman, the Right Hon. Lord Henniker, Sir Edward
Kerrison, Bart., Sir Charles Broke Vere, K.C.8.. Lieut. George
Broke, R.N., John Berners, Esq., George St. Vincent Wilson,
Esq." [A long list of names follows.]
In the course of the evening, Sir Charles Broke Vere
addressed the meeting, and we regret that we must con-
tent ourselves with the following extracts :

" Various circumstances had of late combined to shake the
principles of the constitution; but, under all discouraging cir-
cumstances, the right way appeared to him plain, namely, to
support the throne and the altar. (Cheers.) Because some-
thing was lost, all was not irrecoverable ; all was not lost.
What had lately occurred in Parliament was an evidence of
this. Many measures, without much debate, but rather with a
scrambling, had been hastily carried through the House of
Commons. We had still, he thanked God, three states of the
realm existing : two deliberative bodies, and one to give a sanc-
tion to the proceedings of the other two. Many had thought
that the delay occasioned in passing Acts of Parliament was
unnecessary; nothing could be more idle than the supposition.
It was right "that due time should be given to accept what was
right, and reject what was erroneous. Where would the coun-
try have been had the intentions of ministers been fully carried.
The necessary delay had given full time for examination, and
some of their plans were rejected, and on many occasions they
were compelled to acknowledge them in principle erroneous.
The country ought to be thankful to those gentlemen of con-I
servative principles in the House of Commons who bad attended
so anxiously to the interests of their cause ;'they ought to be
thankful also to the members of the House of Lords, who had
been suffering, he might truly say, under extreme persecution.
Noble lords had been seen attending in their places in the
House of Lords, offering disinterested and wholesome counsel,
on • questions of vital importance, and then they have turned
away in disgust when such counsel has systematically been dis-
regarded. Although the House of Lords had been threatened,
still, by pursuing a right course, they would have no cause for
fear. Sooner or later the country would resume a right feeling,
and then it would be a consolation to see those principles, for
which we, under all disadvantages, had contended, One by one
admitted to be beneficial to the country."
On the Clergy of the Diocese of Norwich being drank,
the Rev. Dr. Etough returned thanks. After expressing
his gratitude to the meeting for the kind feeling mani-
fested towards the clergy, he said—

"We (the clergy) may be told, perhaps, in no measured
terms, that we ought not to he present, that ours is not the fes-
tive board, that ours is the still and private life; but surely the
ministers of the church are not bound to utter seclusion, are
not to be denied the rights of citizenship with their fellow-sub-
jects. (Loud cheers.) There is a time when they are called
on to meet their fellow-citizens, and, by their countenance and
example, to encourage them and exhort them to energy in the
good work. (Renewed cheers.) There is a time when it is
our duty to step out of the common walks of life and assume a
more conspicuous character. (Cheers,) And if ever there was
such a time, such is the present. (Cheers.) We shall be told
that we do not watch the signs of the times ; but I assert we are
present because we do watch and do understand the signs of
the times. We see danger and are prepared to meet it. I.'eel-
ing that we have injured no man, we are afraid of no man, and
will not sacrifice our rights, or the rights of our successors,
when an outcry is raised as wicked as malicious. (Cheers.)
Those who have watched the political events of the last thirty
or forty'years, and have seen the efforts, public and private, of
persons professing the doctrines of political economy, cannot
he surprised at the present state of things. Principles, in
former times confined to the library of the educated, and inac-
cessible to the lower and vulgar ranks of life—the principles
advocated by Hume, and which sparkle in the pages of Gibbon
—are now disseminated among them by cheaper publications,
by the open blasphemies of Cathie, or in the more popular
pages of the Political Register. While these principles were
confined to other classes, or were only to be found in the more
expensive works of the library, they might be considered as
mere abstract principles, as matters of argument, and were
connected with the pages of history, or were visions of romance;
but when the works were made more accessible, and when they
were entrusted to all, ranks of life—the poor and vulgar, then
those principles stalked abroad, breeding infidelity to God and
instability to the best institutions of a civilized country. (Hear,
hear!) hence has arisen the danger which at present threatens
the whole fabric of law and Eberly, and hence has arisen that
feeling which has excited our deluded countryman to call, as it
were, vengeance down from Heaven to destroy what the accu-
mulated wisdom of former ages had united to uprear. I have
stated causes and effects; the effects arc visibie wherever we
(r.o, and in all ranks of society. It is seen in the present outcry
„
against the church; it is seen in the councils of those to whose
destiny the . interests of this mighty nation are at present en-
trusted."