The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1835-12-18 00:00:00

OPERATIVE CONSERVATIVE ASSOCIATON AT
ASHTON-UNDER-LYNE.
\

On Monday se'nnight evening tne first quarterly meeting N
this society was held at the Iting-o'-Bells, Ashton-uuder-Lyue.
Many new members were admitted, and several gentlemen
were enrolled as honorary members. Some persons intruded
themselves into the room for the purpose of acting as spies, and
others tried to do so' in the hope of creating a disturbance but
the latter were repulsed.
. The first resolution pledged the society to undeviating loyalty
to his Majesty ; the second declared, that the society viewed
with regret the attacks made on the established church, the
House of Peers, and the throne, and pledged the association to
prevent by all legal means any inroads on the 'constitution, to
promote whatever would advance the national welfare, and to
resist whatever might be detri:nental to that interest ; the third
expressed the opinion of the association as to the necessity of
preserving the religious institutions of the country, and the ad-
vantages likely to arise from a more general diffusion of a good
moral and religious education ; the fourth resolution was ex-
pressed in the following words :—"That as we are jealous of
being volaved by the proud boasters of mock liberty, we will at
all tunes secure ourselves against the undue exercise of author-
ity, so that our liberties, which are our glory, as the subjects of
King William the Fourth, shall be sacredly transmitted to our
children as they were received by us, but considerably en-
' larged."
Mr. Earle, -a
solicitor, addressed the meeting at great
length, pointing out, in a brief sketch of the constitution,
the value of the institutions which they had pledged them-
selves to support, and the character of those who were
banded together for its destruction. Mr. Earle then proceeded
to say that a great deal of abuse had been heaped upon the con-
servative party in general, and also upon those persons who had
united to fonts that society; but he would put it to any one of
calm reflection (who was a careful observer of passing events
and the conduct of parties) who were, as bodies or in their in-
dividual private capacities, the best masters, neighbours, friends,
subjects, fathers and relatives, the conservatives or their op-
ponents? He well knew what the reply would be. Look, too,
(he said) at the lotid-tongued boasted patriots, how they strut
upon the public stage and cry aloud that they alone are the real
friends of the people and the reformers of all abuses ; when at
the same time some who have become rich through oppression
and wrong are only seeking greater power to tyrannize over their
fellow men of inferior stations or society, or to screen, under the
veil of popular declamation, their real characters; and those
who were poor and too idle to work for an honest livelihood
endeavoured to extract the last sixpence from those operatives
and"others who are, from mental blindness, deluded by their
sophistry and their boasted endeavouri to serve them. Yon,
however; (he said) are not carried away by such delusion, and
there lire many of the same character who will ere long join
you, and show by a cordial co-operation in all your acts, that
they. are determined to tear aside the mask so long worn by
base deceivers, to exhibit them in their true characters to the
gaze of the world, and to frustrate the pernicious ends they
have id view. In the constitution and future operations of your
society I can see ultimate advantages which I have never yet
heard mentioned. I can perceive that you will not only become
genuine patriots as regards great political questions, but also
benefactors of your fellow-workmen, in questions of a trading,
.local and domestic nature; that you will become a balance of
power between the masters and men, should any difference arise
between them; that, not carried away by violent feelings or
heated animosity, (fostered by hired agitators) you will calmly.
consider every question that may arise, and by throwing your
united weight and iufluence into the one scale or the other,
soon turn thebalance, and not allow it to remain suspended in
equality and doubt fur any lengthened period. By stepping into
any unlucky breach which may be made, you can prevent the
dangerous inroads and direful calamities which must otherwise
ensue.