DINER TO THE Mavon OF Yortx.—A dinner was given on
the 6th, at York, to the Honourable Edward Petre, Mayor of that city, and High Sheriff of the county. Sir William B. Cooke was in the chair. Sir William was supported on the right by the gentleman in whose honour the dinner took place, Lord Viscount Morpeth, the Honourable Mr. - Jerningliam, M.P. for Pontefract, and the Honourable Mr. Howard, the youngest son of the Earl of Carlisle ; and on the left by the Might Honourable Lord Dundas, Lord Viscount Milton, the Honourable
T. Dundas, one of the representatives for the city, and Sir E. Vavasour. In addition to the distinguished visiters there were present the Ho- nourable Charles Langdale, the Honoural:le Mr. Stourton G. Cromp- ton, Esq. B. Dealtry, Esq. num. Leathern, Esq. P. Midleton, Esq. Legard, Esq. E. Strickland, Esq. George Strickland, Esq. C. Max- well, Esq. M. Milbanke, Esq. S. Crompton, Esq and a great many other gentlemen. After the usual toasts had been drunk, that of Mr. Petre was given. There is nothing very remarkable in the address of thanks of that highly respectable gentleman ; but it is not a little curious to find such arguments so cheered in a Protestant assembly in an archiepiscopal city, and where several clergymen of the Church of England formed a parebf the audience. Speaking of himself and his opponent Mr. Bayn- turn, Mr. Petre said—I declared myself a friend to reform ; he did not dare to hold up his hand against it. I advocated the cause of civil and religious liberty. I stated my horror of slavery, and my anxious wish that every establishment of the country in Church and State might
nourish, and be preserved according to the laws of the land. My opponent did not dare to lift up his hand agai,l,t that ; but those who brought him
forward said that my religion disqualified me, notwithstanding the law of the land declared otherwise, and the Sovereign had expressed his ardent wish that all animosities on account of religious opinions might be for ever done away with. (Great applause.) I must say it comes with very bad grace from those who say Give a man the Bible, and let him construe its meaning to the best of his judgment,' to persecute those who construe the Bible differently from themselves—it comes with a bad grace to tell men in the first place to form their own opinions, and after they have done so, to tell them that they ought to be outcasts of mankind, and disqualified from holding a situation in the Senate." (Cheers.) The healths of Lord Thindas, Lord Milton, Lord Morpeth, and several others were subsequently drunk. The Chairman then proposed the Duke of Wellington, "and may his Majesty's Ministers promote timely reform and economy in the State." • The announcement of this toast called up Lord Milton ; and as his lordship, from his extensive influence, high rank, and unimpeached cha- racter, cannot be supposed to speak either lightly or inconsiderately on such topics, and as his speech may not improperly be accepted as an earnest of the spirit in which the noble, Duke may expect to be met during the ensuing Parliamentary session, we shall give it entire. 33efore the toast was drunk, the noble Lord said—" If you do not inter- fere with me, I will interpose a few moments' delay, before you accede to the proposal which has been made to you by my honoured friend ; but. I think that the sentiment which be has attached to the name of the Duke of Wellington and his Ministers is a sufficient justification for my venturing to make one or two observations, before I raise to my lips the glass with which I have to drink his Grace's health. It behoves us to drink the health of that great hero, who dared to do what others would not dare to do ; but I am not, on the present occasion, asked to drink his health as the hero of Salamanca and Waterloo, -but as the head of his Majesty's Cabinet. As I am one of an assembly which, in a short time, will be summoned to the capital of this empire—as I am a person who has a public character to main- tain, I owe to myself and to you to explain the sense in • which I will drink that toast, and to add those qualifications to it which will secure my conduct against misconstruction —(Hear, hear) where it is of importance that neither my conduct nor your con- duct, or our opinions, should be misconstrued. (Cheers.) I entirely agree with the sentiment which my honourable friend has thought necessary to add to this toast, because I am particularly desirous that his Grace and his Majesty's Ministers should promote a timely reform and economy in the State—(Cheers); and I think it ex- ceedingly necessary that, in drinking his Grace's health, he should understand that that qualification was appended to it. (Great ap- plause.) In the course of that long period during which I have had a seat in Parliament, I never remember a King's Speech in which so much was promised as in the last ;—but I must also say, that the performances of Ministers have not come up to their promises. (Applause.) The army, which is the greatest tax upon this country, is not diminished a single man. One or two taxes have been reduced; but, give me leave to say, that when his Majesty's 1Iinisters have been charged with it in the House of Commons, I have sever heard them deny that when that King's Speech was delivered there was no intention of repealing any taxes. It was in consequence of the universal cry which arose at the commencement of the late session of Parliament, which began in the country, and was repeated within the walls of Parliament, that a reduction of taxation was forced upon Minis- ters. (Cheers.) Now, gentlemen, I am not going to deny that the Duke of Wellington is entitled to great credit. I think that he had, in the ;session before last, the praise of knowing when to yield. (Cheers.) But that is no proof whatever of his principles being altered, and I can bring you proof that they are not altered. (Cheers.) In the course of the last two years we have been negotiating and treating with foreign nations. A proposition was made to place Greece under a SoVereigti to be chosen by the Great Powers of Europe—England amongst the number. The boundaries were marked out, it being un- derstood that the country was t& be subject to the Ottoman Porte. In the course of the negotiations, however, that arrange- ment was altered, and Greece was made independant of the Otto- man Porte. As soon as that was determined, the limits of Greece were curtailed by the Duke of Wellington and his Cabinet. That is one proof that the Duke of Wellington is no friend to freedom. (Cheers.) Twelve months ago, some 2000 unhappy Portuguese, expatriated from their country by one of the vilest tyrants that ever disgraced a throne, sought refuge in this country. These unhappy individuals were desirous of making an effort for the restoration of the Constitutional Govern- ment of Portugal. An island in the Atlantic remained faithful to Donna Maria. That island they thought would be the fulcrum to effect their object ; but what said the Duke of Wellington ? He said to those men who had arms in their hands and were ready to serve their legitimate Sovereign, " You shall not go there as troops" (which was the only way in which they could go there for any effectual purpose), " but you may go there as individuals, two or three at a time.' (Cheers.) Thus I am bound to say that the Duke of Wellington is no friend of Portuguese freedom ; and if he is not the friend of Fortis- gue.ie freedom, I very much doubt that he is the friend of Engli.sh freedom. I love freedom, and do not wish it to be confined to any geographical limit; I love freedom in Portugal, and I love freedom in England, and I would wish those who do not enjoy it to have the power of attaining it ; and I say that the Government which takes that power away is no friend of freedom. (Cheers.) During the last two sessions of Parliament, I have supported few of the plans brought forward by the Duke of Wellington (excepting always of that great measure which is the glory of his life); and when I have done so, L have always thought it necessary to guard myself from being supposed to have any immediate connexion with him. (Applause.) Before I connect myself with any man, I like to know what his principles are ; it is not enough that I know their measures. Men of good principles of government may be led into bad measures, bad men forced into good measures. Because the Duke of \Veiling- ton and Sir Robert Peel conceded that measure of religious liberty, which renders Mr. Jerningham eligible to sit in the Commons House of Parliament, it is erroneous to suppose there is any change of their princi- ples. They have, over and over again, acknowledged that it was neces- sity which caused them thus to act ; and I have heard that Sir Robert Peel said that he wished things had been otherwise; that his principles were unchanged, and he wished it were possible for them to go on in the old train. (Cheers and laughter.) Let us now go back to UM, and inquire who proposed the repeal of the Test and Corporation Acts. If there should chance to be in this room, an individual, who thought it not right to take the sacrament according to the rites of the Church of England, and who now is qualified to filr the office of an Alderman of the city of York, he must not suppose that he owes his present privilege to the love of liberty entertained by the Duke of Wellington and Sir Robert Peel ; and, therefore, if I drink the health of the Duke of Wel- lington, I do it as the hero of Waterloo only, and to encourage him to adopt those measures, and give a force to the sentiment which my ho- nourable friend has thought fit to attach to his name. (Long and con- tinued cheering.) The Lord Mayor (Mr. Petro), after some additional toasts had been drunk, proposed the Liberty of the Press. Mr. Hargrove and Mr. Baines returned thanksfor the compliment. We notice the speech of Mr. Har- grove merely to deprecate the ridiculous humility which pervades it, and indeed all the exhibitions of our brethren on such occasi_ us. Why should Mr. Hargrove talk of being called on to speak before a lord or. two, and some dozen of country gentlemen, as the highest reward that a journalist could receive ? A public journalist, if an honest man, ought neither to study the pleasure, nor care for the smiles of any man. It is his part not to be rewarded by the applause of public men, but to reward them when they do their duty by his applause. Had Mr. Hargrove told the politicians present, that he had heard their professions and would watch their fulfilment, he would have spoken more to the purpose. Is the time never to come when an intelligent, principled, and honest man may stand not before one or two lords, but before one or two hundred, with some other expression of countenance than a penny-a-line man before Sir Richard Birnie ? We turn with pleasure from such advocacy of the press to the able and manly speech of Mr. G. Strickland. That gentle- man took the bull by the horns ; he did not go fly-flapping at its taiL We wonder, by the by, how he contrived to pass over the very remarkable part of Sir James Scarlett's sitting for Mahon. Such an opportunity of explainingought not to have been denied to Lord Milton, after his attack on the Ministry. " It has been said to me," said Mr. Strickland " You are a Whig; you are connected in opinions with the King's Attorney-General- you must be an enemy to the liberty of the press.' (Cheers.) From the earliest days in which I can recollect to have had any opinion upon political, religious or moral subjects, I was warmly attached to the right of freedom Of thought, and freedom of discussion. I then entertained the utmost abhorrence—an abhorrence which has in- creased with my years—to that accursed quibble, handed down to 1i...- from the lawyers during the worst period of despotism, that truth is a libel ; or that still more accursed quibble, that the greater the truth the greater the libel. I had been taught from my infancy—I have learned from my religion—that truth is a virtue, and that falsehood is a sin, whether that falsehood be in words spoken, or in words written, or in the perjured kiss that Judas gave his Master. Truth is a virtue, and it is in vain that human laws endeavour to reeder that a crime which God hath ordained to be good. (Long continued cheers.) Gentlemen, this leads
me to a subject, which I approach with the greatest satisfaction—I mean
the return of Lord Morpeth as one of the representatives of this county in Parliament. In the kindness of his heart I have heard that noble Lord express his gratitude to this friend or to that, or to his united friends, for their exertions in his behalf ; but I will tell that noble lord that he is indebted to one friend alone—and that friend is himself. (Applause.) When a liberal candidate was wanted for this great county, it was most natural that the people should direct their attention to that man who, in Parliament, had exerted his great talents with success for the repeal of that most disgraceful law in a free country, which consigned a person for a second conviction for a libel to transportation to a distant
colony—to work in chains, under the lash of slavery. If Lord Morpeth, instead of taking the part I have described, had supported the measures of the Attorney-General—had assisted hira to shackle the press still further, I say, with confidence, that Lord Morpeth would not now have been one of our representatives ; that he never would be, as long as he lived ; and this I consider to be one of the signs of the times in which we live ; and I trust that he will persevere in the work he has begun ; that he will not rest froth his labours till he has removed that disgrace attached to what I hold to be the most useful and honourable profession —that editors of newspapers should be obliged to give security for their good behaviour, as if they were convicted criminals." (Loud and long continued cheers.)
We hope the noble lord will do so, or rather we say he, and every one else who looks to receive the suffrages of their countrymen, must do that and a great deal more. They must not only release editors from the Attorney-General's bond, but they must shelter them from the Attor- ney-General's claws, and from the claws of the Chancellor of the Ex- chequer more lengthened and more lacerating than even his. The tax must fall ; the press must be freed from robbery as well as from assault.
YORK CousTr MEETING.—A meeting of the county of York was held on Tuesday, at the Castle, to address the King on hit accession. The address was moved by Lord Milton and seconded by the Earl of Harewood. The commencement was in the usual form, as was the prayer in the termination. The other clauses are not unworthy of notice, espe- daily as the first was dwelt on in the speech of the noble mover. They run thus—" Your Majesty's dutiful and loyal subjects cannot refrain on this occasion from expressing the peculiar satisfaction with which they see the crown of England worn by a prince whose early years were de- voted to that naval service which we have ever considered as the true protection of the insular empire over which we trust that your Majesty will long preside. Your Majesty's dutiful and loyal subjects entertain a confident expectation that under your Majesty's reign the resources of the country will be administered with that frugality which the exigen • cies of the nation require; and that your government will be formed upon such a basis as will entitle your Majesty to be enrolled by histo- rians among those patriot sovereigns whose thrones have been maintained in safety and in glory by the well-merited affections of their people."
COLCHESTER E suer ron.—The return of Mr. Spottiswoode is to be disputed, on the ground that be was proposed and withdrawn on the first day ; and that it was not until Alderman Venables had declined that lie was again proposed. This secend nomination is, it is alleged, illegal.
SHAFT Esnuity MettnEns.—Messrs. Penillyn and Dugdale were so roughly handled on Friday. 'whenchaired, that the Magistrates were compelled to read the riot act. The members are Ministerial, returned by Lord Grosvenor.
LEEDS AND Lours Panne—The Mayor of Leeds was applied to last week by fifty of the inhabitants to call a meeting for the purpose of expressing the opinion of the inhabitants on the recent events in France; bat he refused.
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