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

received and drank with great enthusiasm
Sir Refuter Peat, in returning thanks, said that he was not
using commonplace lauguage when he assured the company
that he felt overpowered by their kindness, and unable to ex-
press his feelings of deep gratitude to them. Sir Robert then
continued as follows :-1 have not been so misled by the sug-
gestions of personal vanity as to attribute to myself, or any de-
serts of mine, the origin of this meeting, or the feelings which
you have this evening expressed. I agree with our worthy
chairman in thinking that the deputation which I received from
so large a body of the merchants, bankers, and trailers of this
city was quite sufficient for me. It asserted the pried*
.by
which I was animated : it bore with it, in the approbation of my
fellow-citizens, my reward. (Loud cheers.) I wanted nu other
demonstration of public feeling, (hear,-hear;) and, if I could
regard this meeting as merely a demonstration of personal com-
pliment, I should feel little satisfied. (Cheers.) No, sir, I re-
gard it as a demonstration of public feeling from London.
(Loud cheers.) Ido think that public principle may be pro-
moted by this meeting. (Cheers.) I do think, sir, that the
impulse which has been given in this centre of the commercial
world—(cheers)—the vital impulse must thrill to every ex-
tremity of the British empire. (Cheers.) I repeat, sir, that
the throes of this mighty heart must as they act send the whole-
some life-blood of sound doctrine and good principle to every
atom of the corporate body of the united kingdom. (Continued
cheering.) Gentlemen, I understand that by assembling here
to-day you have shown an attachment to the ancient institutions
of the country, and a firm resolution to maintain those princi-
ples which are interwoven with the safety of those institutions
and the security of prosperity in this empire. (Cheers.) I un-
derstood that it was in some degree incumbent upon you to
come forth in this manner, because you do not happen to
have any pibiicly recognised organ through whom your senti-
ments may be expressed. (Loud and•lOng-contimied-cheering,)
When }consider that this great meeting, abounding as it does
in wealth—abounding in intelligence—abounding in respecta-
bility—there is not one single member out of the-18 allotted for
the metropolitan districts to represent your opinions I certainly
am much grieved, and I confess something astonished. (Cheers
and laughter.) I might speak too even of your numbers. The
hall has been taxed to the utmost extent of its accommodation,
and if there were room for ten times a greater number of gen-
tlemen within these walls we should have had them present.
(Great cheering.) And yet you and your friends had not the
good fortune to secure a single representative to yourselves out
of the -whole 18, by. whom your opinions could be spoken,
through whom your just and legitimate influence could be ex-
ercised. (Loud cheers.) In order, therefore, that there should
be no misconstruction of your silence, you feel it necessary to
speak through other organs than those which the new repre-
sentative system has provided for you (cheers) ; and in the ful-
ness of this conviction it is that I come forward to lend my
bumble countenance to this meeting. (Great cheering.) And,
gentlemen, it is because this is a public occasion, and because
we are met to promote a public object, that I am disposed to
detain you by some further observations, by some allusions to
the state of public affairs (cheers) ; and I am sure, considering
the nature of our assemblage, you will pardon me for so doing,
notwithstanding the approaching meeting of parliament. (Con-
tinued cheers.) And, gentlemen, what I shall say will be
spoken by me as one of yourselves (cheers)—not as one
anxious for conquest as a party man—not as a candidate for
office (loud and continued cheers) ; I shall speak to you as a
British subject, feeling a tenfold greater interest in the good
government of the country generally than in any emoluments
he could possibly derive from office, (great cheering)—a man"
who has a tenfold greater desire for the maintenance of the
opinions he professes and conscientiously believes and fancies
he clearly understands, than for any advantages which adverse
individuals may dream he could have by. the acquisition of
office. (Enthusiastic cheering.) I believe indeed that there is
no greater mistake than that people situated as I happen to be
are so very anxious for office. (" Hear, hear," and lauglter.)
Some fancy that the wholesome rest of every politician is
broken by his feverish longing for office. (" Hear, hear," and
laughter.) If I were to speak from my own experience, I
should tell a different tale. (Hear.) There is to me nothing
in office abstractedly to compensate for its labours and incon-
veniences, its annoyance, and its deep anxieties. (Cheers.)
Away, then, sir, with the presiimptuous assertion that men who
are tit for office would not at any time rather decline it than con-
sent to any sacrifice of opinion, toany compromise of character.
There has been a great deal said about court intrigue and court
favouritism. It is quite as ridiculous as this morbid anxiety of
honest and independent men for office. (Cheers.) The fact is,
that to an individual like myself office imposes nothing but the
heaviest sacrifices which a man can make—sacrifices for which
it offers no compensation. (Cheers:) That office holds out
great advantages to the ambitious mind I will not deny; but are
there not without office, equal if not greater means of- distinc-
tion in public life? (Cheers.) For myself, in taking office I
was urged by nothing but a sense of public duty, and from the
desire not to shrink from that which it is incumbent on every
British subject to do to serve his King when called upon to the
utmost of his ability and power. (Loud cheers.) Whilst I de-
clare the inconveniences of the public service, I at the same
time hope and' know that his majesty has not a more devoted
servant than I. (Cheers.) I am ready to give, and I have
given his majesty as sincere and as independent support, and as
liberal services as any other man in any other capacity can have
possibly given him. (Loud cheers.) The chief advantage, per-
haps, arising to me from office is, that I have had the goOd for-
tune of being connected in power, I should say in civil life, with
that great military man whose fame exceeds-that of any other
conqueror (cheers)—a man from whom I have never been se-
parated by.any'difference on political subjects, and with whom
my connexion has never been embittered by the slightest touch
of paltry jealousy (loud cheers) ; and if I thought that, connected
as I have been with him in civil appointments, I should have
the happiness to have my name transmitted with his to after
ages, it would be the chief pride, the dearest gratification of my
heart. (Enthusiastic cheers.) But I feel that I have been
straying from the subject immediately before us—the present
state of public affairs. Allow me to speak to you not as a party
man, but as one of yourselves, and to submit to you plain opini-
ons in plain language. (Cheers.) I prefer this and lam sure
to will you, to that elaborate concatenation of phrases which is
sometimes called eloquence, in which you have the smallest pos-
sible quantity of common sense enveloped in the greatest multi-
tude of equivocal words. (Cheers and laughter.) In one word
I say to you there is at present danger to the institutions of this
country (great cheering), danger to the form of government
under which we have lived and prospered. (Continued cheer-
ing.) But it is in your power, and that of those who think with
you, and fill your situations in the country, to avert the danger.
(Continued cheering.) It is in your power by exertion and by
the exercise of those functions which the constitution has left to
you to mitigate, if not altogether to remove the evil. (Loud
cheers.) My opinion is, that the danger can be only met by
your gaining an effectual influence in the popular branch of the
legislature. (Hear, hear.) We shall only aggravate the evil
if we attempt to deceive ourselves. Let us not indulge in any
useless lamentations. Let us waste no time in regretting that
which is beyond our remedy. (Cheers, and hear, hear.)
'cilia is quite idle. But if we cease to take a desponding view
of public affairs, all will be yet well. Though you may not be
able to exercise that influence to which you are legitimately en-
titled, yet hesitate not to strain every nerve in using all the pri-
vileges which remain to you. (Cheers.) Act like Englishmen,
and if you will only do so, I am confident, from ycur national
spirit and indomitable resolution, that the country will be
rescued from the dangers by which it is at present so closely
enveloped. (Cheers.) I warn you that you must not place a
firm reliance upon the prerogative of the crown—on the influ-
ence or authority of the House of Lords. The prerogative of
the one, the authority of the other, are constitutionally potent
in controlling the powers of the lower house, hut you must not
now. a-days depend upon them as bulwarks which are impass-
able, and which can be committed without apprehension to the
storm and struggle of events. The government of the country,
and the mode in which it is conducted, allow me to tell you,
must mainly depend upon the constitution of the House of Com-
mons ; I again' say the royal prerogative, the authority of the
House of Lords, are most useful, nay, necessary, in our mixed
and balanced constitution. But you must not strain those
pokers. You do not want to see a government conducted con
currently with a series of disputes between the several branches
of the legislature. (Cheers.) You would rather see them mov-
ing in that harmonious manner which insures the utility of each,
and the efficiency of all. (Loud cheers.) 1 ask you, then, to
take means to assert in the House of Commons those principles
which we believe to be just. and to exercise that authority to
which you are fairly entitled. (Cheers.) On taking office I
avowed my determination to abide by the reform bill.- I trust
I have redeemed that pledge. (Loud cheers.) On this broad
constitutional principle my friends and I acted. We acted in
the spirit of that reform bill. When we found that we had not
the confidence of the House of Commons, although the array
against us was miscellaneous in the extreme, although the ma-
jority-was small, we felt it our duty to 'resign. (Cheers.) How-
ever strongly we might have opposed the elective system before,
we now adhered to our pledge; we not only gave the reform
bill it fair trial. but we regarded it as a constitutional settlement
of a great question. (Loud cheers.) We did not entertain the
idea of governing the country against a majority of the reformed
House of Commons. (Cheers.) Allow me then to recommend
you all, in common with myself, to refrain from flattering our-
' selves with any distant hope of altering the present system—let
us not seem to threaten, even in thought, those who have ac-
quired new rights with the forfeiture of that acquisition. Let
us stand by the constitution as it exists at present. (Cheers.)
Let us never hint at alteration, or raise a secret doubt by our
conduct, even in the mind's of the most suspicious. I may
venture to prophecy to you that the proposition for change will
come from the other side. (Great and continued cheering.) If
it should come, it will never come from anybody excepting
some one of those who were themselves the authors of that re-
form bill. (Great cheering.) Ay, it will come from them,
and the moment perhaps is not far distant,—the moment they
have ascertained the bill is not likely to answer the purposes
they had in view—the moment they see it is not potent to ex-
clude the influence of what we call conservative Principles.
(Continue/1 cheering.) Allow me to Say to you, gentlemen,
that your duty will be to use every just constitutional influence
which you possess. There must be no laziness—no apathy—
and above all, no despondency. (Cheers.) Do not agitate
the minds of men by new discussions as to the foundation of
the principles of government, and, so forth. Do not af-
fect the feelings of those who who have acquired new privileges
either by direct threats, or by the more sinister and unmanly
mode of intimating an intention to fritter down these privileges
hereafter. (Great cheering.) But I have said enough upon
this subject : I do not despair that if we continue to exert our-
selves here, if we set an example to the empire, it will, in all its
parts, he before long animated by the kindly, constitutional, and
truly English feelings which are-here displayed. (Loud cheers.)
You must try above all things to regain your influence in the
House of Commons, not as your enemies would say, by bribery
and corruption and unworthy means,. but by going forth and
giving a frank exposition to your principles (cheers) and by
showing there is nothing selfish in your support of institutions
under which ire live, and the rights which we enjoy. We of
course avow this,-1 apprehend that we are not interested in
the maintenance of any abuse—(cheers,)—that we are willing
to correct every abuse (cheers), and to concur in the applica-
tion of the best remedy which can possibly be devised for that
purpose. Loud cheers.) We hold, I apprehend, that no pub-
lic office ought to be maintained for the purpose of patronage
(cheers); that they can only be vindicated on the ground of
their being necessary to the public service. (Cheers.) We
want no sinecures. (Loud and long., continued cheering.)
We want no more amount of salary for the reward of any public