The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1835-05-15 00:00:00

DINNER TO SIR ROBERT PEEL.

A dinner was given on Monday, at .Merchant Tailors' Hall.
by some of the most eminent merchants, bankers, and trades of
London, in honour of that distinguished statesman Sir Robert
Peel. About four hundred persons were present. The chair-
man, John Masterman, FA., was supported on the fight by Sir
Robert Peel, the Lord Mayor, Earl de Grey, Viscount Sandon,
Lord ,Lyndlittrst, Lord Wharncliffe, Lord AbinFer, E. DrUm-
imind, 14e secretary to Sir Robert Peel, l'hoirias Vena-
bles, Esq., late "secretary to Sir Robert Peel, Rev. W. Wilson,
chaplain for the occasion, John Masterman, jun., Esq.; and on
the left by the Duke of Wellington, Marquis Camden, Earl
of Aberdeen, Viscount Canterbury, Lord Francis Egerton,
Lord Ashburton, Right Hon. Sir John Beckett, Bart., ALP.,
Right Hon. Sir George Clerk, Bart., M.P., Right Hon. Sir
Henry Ilardinge, K.C.8., John Horsley Palmer, Esq., late
Governor of the Bank, W. Ormsby Gore, Esq., M.P., Right
Hon. Frederick Shaw, A1.P.,• Right Hon. G. R. Dawson, and
the Right Hon. W. Yates Peel, M.P.
After the usual toasts had been given, the Chairman proposed
the health of their distinguished guest, Sir Robert Peel, a toast

men than that which may be suili,•ient for securingintegrity and
competence in the diicharge of important official duties.
(Cheers ) We deny that we are separated by any line of
interest, or by any other line of demarcation, from the raid-
ing classes of this country. (Cheers.) Why, who are we,
9r at least nine-tenths of those who are here assembled, that any

one should tell us that we have an interest separate from those
of the middling classes of society ? (Cheers.) If we don't be-
long to the middling classes of society, I want to know how
wide the interval may be that is presumed to separate us ?
(Cheers.) Speaking in behalf of nine-tenths at least of those
assembled within these walls, I say we disclaim any separation
from the Middling classes of society in this country (loud
cheers), and if circumstances may appear to have elevated us -
above them,. to what, I venture to ask, is that elevation in our
case owing? (Cheers.) Either on our own part or on the
part of our immediate forefathers, it is owing to nothing else
but to the exercise of those qualities of diligence, the love of
order, of industry, of integrity (cheers), which secure to every
member of the middle classes of society the opportunities of
elevation and distinction in this great community (cheers) ;
and it is because we stand in our present situation—it is be-
cause we owe our elevation in society to those qualities to which
I have alluded, and because we feel that the same elevation may
still be secured by the same means, that we feel our interests
identified with theirs, and, by the blessing of God, are determined
to keep open to them those same avenues that have been opened
to ourselves (cheers.) nor will allow their course to be obstruct-
ed by men who want to secure the same advantages bz dishonest
means. (Loud and long continued cheering.) Gentlemen,
while on this subject, will you allow me to recall to your recollec-
tion what was the grand charge against myself—that the King
had sent for the son of a cotton-spinner to Rome, in order to
make him prime minister of England. (Cheers.) Did I feel
that by any means a reflection on me ? Did that make me at
all discontented with the state of the laws and institutions of the
country? No; but does it not make me, and ought it not to
make you, gentlemen, do all you can to reserve to other sons of
other cotton-spinners (loud cheers) the same opportunities by
the same system of laws under which this country has so long
flourished, of arriving by the same honourable means at the like
distinction. ( Loud cheers.) We are charged with having
some interest in the perpetuation of abuses. Why, can there
be any one with a greater interest than we have that the public
.burdens should be as much lightened as can possibly be con-
sistent with the maintenance of the public engagements? We
are represented as fattening on the public income. Looking
to this company, and to those associated with it in feeling, is
there any motive, I ask, connected with the increase of the pub-
lic revenue that can c mnterVail the interest we have in the re-
duction of the public burdens? (Cheers.) We,. therefore, I
say, have a direct, a superior interest to any other in the correc-
tion of every abuse and the application of every just and econo-
' inical remedy; but, consistently with those feelings—consistent-
ly with that determination to correct abuses, and to consult real
economy, we do not disguise that it is our firm resolution to
maintain to the utmost of our power tIM limited' monarchy of
this country, (cheers,) to respect the rights of every branch of
the legislature, (cheers,) to maintain—inviolate the united
church of England and Ireland, (loud cheers,) to maintain it as
a. predominant establishment, (renewed cheering,) meaning by
predominance, not the denial of civil rights to other classes of
the community, but maintaining it in the possession of its pro-
perty and of all its just privileges. (Cheers.) Such it is our
firm resolution to preserve it, submitting to no compromise,
(cheers,) and exercising every privilege which the constitution
as intrusted to us supplies for its legitimate maintenance and
support. (Loud and long continued cheering.) We make that
appeal to the middling classes of the community—we make that
appeal to those who are the depositaries of the elective franchise.
We tell them that it is not only our determination to resist any
direct attack on those institutions, but that we are also resolved