Seven hundred electors of Bath dined together on Wednesday, in

a large room, formerly a riding.school, which had been fitted up and tastefully decorated for the occasion. 11r. William Hunt presided. Lord John Russell and Sir John Hobhouse had been invited to at- tend the dinner, but were ptevented by official engagements. The principal guests were Mr. Hume, General Palmer, Mr. Roebuck, and Colonel Napier.

In proposing the health of the Princess Victoria, the Chairman dwelt upon the treasonable designs of the Orangemen, and the deter- mination of the Radicals to maintain the rights of the Princess. These remarks were enthusiastically cheered by the company. When " The Duke of Sussex and the Royal Family " was given from the chair, there were loud cries of " No Cumberland !" The health of Minis- ters was well received. The next toast was " The Army and Navy ;" given in a way to call up Colonel Napier ; who delivered a speech full of vigour, truth, and originality. Ile commenced by stating, that in his opinion, the character of a soldier was not incompatible with that of a citizen. Ile would not full into the error committed by sonic officers who had recently addressed public assemblies-- Those oflicem had taken upon themselves to declare, not only what were the opinions of the Army at large on certain political questions, but even what that Army would do in the event of eertain circumstances arising obit+ those persons aatimpated. ThisIw considered extremely arrogant and piesumptuons, seeing that soldiers, like other men, were of various minds. As the representative of Cie Army and Navy for the time being, he thanked them for the compliment they had paid, Leeause he believed it to be only a compliment, and wholly unconnected w ith political considerations. Ile regarded it only as an expres- eion of that good-will which Englishmen-- ii,I Englishwomen, too, he should Lope—( Great char inp, and a general gaze at the ladies in the galleries)— wtre always ready to show to a plain man, who, baying undertaken to defend them against foreig,u enemies, had honourably fulfilled his contract. Having baid thUN IOUChi ah a soldier, he woohl now resume his character el a citizen ; sod in that capacity he would add for himself that he trusted and believed the Thitish Army Ha a body would never seek to tuella, in any manner with poli- tical discussions. Ile did not 1111.3U by this to admit the truth of the axiom, that soldiers, as individuals, had nothing to do with politics—an axiom which had been pushed to such an absurd extent, that he had been frequently asked how be, a soldier, writing the History of the Peninsular War, should dare to meddle with the political questions connected with it. It lists Hnoetimes put forward in ignorance, but tiir more frequently in craft ; beratise it MIS much oftener in the mouths of Tories than in those of other voile. Ile found that it was these very persens who hail most fr.:To:110y in their :11,,101,s threats of what sidhliers weuld th, mainst domestic fites awl traitors,—wcaiang always ny de- 211cstie foes and traiiors, any persons who, like thi.r. meeting, were seek hig for good and chelp government. The sting that rankled in their liieasts, though, was the cheap aadvernment ; for 6,4101 they had a strong .-listract love tyran- ny, they had an inordinate love of gain. _N ii, it was the duty of soldiers— of English soldiers at least—to think and act ills, other cif ipais : it is the duty a the soldier to Isms; whether he was a Inv to Inlif,tain free in- stitutions, or it lietisir lie was a mere min dever, hired to -1,1. mei to he slain. It wss the duty of the Eislish Hddier to lie hherty, ler that n.o.vcii the soul to

u.ble daring; if was II:sduty ahst lo and -i-i, t,ith its mean-

ly., that he might avoid that ferosity of heart 5 s :sidled the high-

II:bided, gallant, n ttiated soldier, and cosver:dd him it .stained

cary. If a soldier did not know, au.; ,.;.;we. r: : as isiag from se institutions—if he did not hada. es.; • , ; ,111:Sd springing born an equality of just lights—in Goa% oasis ‘.- is is ti •ihhit as a soldier Ii the national cause ? Would it be said tic it his would support him innid nll the privations and toils if is at ? What if in his ? o hat it the shilling a

day was not forthcoming? must the light mat lamp of England's military

reuown among the natiMIS of the woi Id flicker and took away because the g..1den oil that fel it once had failed? Ile tri.soid they would believe him when be told them from experience, that this never hail been, and never would be, the character of the English soldier. lie had seen hunch eils of these gallant men toiling and struggling with the most undaunted spirit against all the hor- 7tOs of war—horrors pf which those who had nut seen war, as he had seen it, could form no adequate idea. Ile had been them struggling against its accu- mulated evils until, nature quite exhausted, they hat dropped dead upon the

field— not with any weak lamentations—not with any wailings for their own

Lard fate, but with the heart -stirring, soul-inspiring aspiration that it mattered net—they died for the glory of England. What was England to these turn? Not

the mere soil, the dirt that they trod under their feet. No; in England they

ii membered the country of the free institutions that bad Matured them in moral pride and digniry—England, the home of their fathers, and the protector of their children when they were gone. This it was that imade England a country to them in the burning sense of the worth; and this it was thatwould always, in the long run, make free men victorious over mercenaries and hirelings. These institutions, then, he held, it should be the object of every wise and patriotic man to preserve and to maintain ; and it was in this view that he hailed that great meeting with delight.

He hardly knew whether he was entitled to address the company; for be had been disfranchised !—not front any fault of his own, for he had complied with all the provisions of the Reform Act, and had been carried from a sick bed to vote for Colonel Gore Langton, at the first election after the Reform Act had been passed ; but he was disfran- chised because the Overseer of his parish had omitted to sign his own name to the list of voters !

Now, these Revising Barristers cost the People about 50,000/. a-year; and its Ice had never yet heard that they took any extraordinary pains to seek out coy and reluctant voters, he was entitled to say that they received this sum for confining and limiting the franchise. Why need the People pay them so much money, when an "unwashed artisan"—to use a Tory phrase—could do the work at half the cost ; more especially when all he had to do to disfranchise a parish was, not to make a stroke with his pen, but to make no stroke at all ? Tice Greek philosopher Platohad defined man to be an unplowed biped; he hoped he might, without offence, just for the sake of illustration, be allowed to desig- nate an Overseer a bribeable biped. If he were, might not any body of men, with a great object in view, and plenty of money—the Carlton Club, form- stance—be pleased to bribe the bipeds until they had disfranchised all the Labe. sal voters ? And might not the Liberal interest go on bribing in all the Tory counties until they arrived at the very happy condusiou of having no voters at all ? Ile might Is- told that this was an extreme case ; but m Last Somerset &oak no fewer than twenty-eight parishes had been already disfranchised on a similar ground, not through the bribery of the Overseer, but owing to his neg- ligence. He mentioned this to show them how much they had yet to do to carry out Reform in their own way ; and to give weight to his advice, that while they were true to the men who had been true to them, they would be true to themselves.

Colonel Napier then adverted to the Irish Church question,—

In other matters the axiom was, that the few should give way for the benefit of the many ; in this case it seemed to be reversed—the principle appeared to be that many should suffer and starve to support the few in idleness. Yes, the ministers of a Christian church in Ireland revelled in the wealth wrung from a starving pe iple, while the doctrines of the religion they professed to teach taught them that poverty best befitted their holy calling. The Clergy asked the People what business they had to interfere with their spiritual concerns ? Let the People ask the Clergy whether they had not interfered with their tem- poral concerns ? Did they not meet with them at every corner—artisans, ma- gistrates, sportsmen, courtiers, besetting the ears of Royalty, always sounding the trumpet of war, and never whispering the notes of peace? Was not " Church and State " a connexion of their own forming? was it not their de- light, their watchword, and their care? Had they not adored it far more than they ever adored their God ? In England, the People wanted a zealous, pious, and useful clergy — not gtate- fed dignitaries, in purple and fine linen. And while they would have this in England, they would not have in Ireland savage men calling themselves the most holy, who, amidst the moaning of bereaved mothers, and the shrieks of wailing infants, grasped their beloved( tithes with their bloody hands. They would have no Orange domination. ( Cheers and cries of "Never !") They would not have William the Fourth deposed because he had passed the Reform Bill. They would not have the succession to the Crown changed—no not even for a Grand Master. They would have equal laws for poor and rich. They would not have the Dorsetshire labourers sent to Botany Bay, while Princes of the Blood Royal only went to Kaliseh. And that they might have all this constitutionally, they would have a shortening of the duration of Parlia- ments, an extension of the suffrage, and vote by Ballot. (Loud and prolonged cheering.) But the Ballot was un -English. Was it? Its object was to pro- tect the poor and humble man, in the exercise of his right, against the rich and proud. Was that.um English ? If it were, it followed, as a matter of course, that to be a proud opmessor, to be wicked as well as wealthy, to trample on all the just rights of your country and your neighbour, and to make a man dishonest because he was poor, was perfectly English. Could a greater libel on the national character be conceived, or could it be necessary to pursue the disgusting absurdity further ? (('beers and " No! ") Well then, English or on-English, they would have the Ballot; and what was more, they would have a strong infusion of Detnocracy into the Constitution—they would have a House of Lords amenable to the wishes and feelings of the People at large —they would have that, or they would have no house of Lords at all. (Enthu- siastic cheering.) Now, he knew he might be told here, that a noble lord— one of the heads of their own party, and a Minister of State, of whose company that (lay they had been disappointed—deprecated such language as this, and was opposed to all "organic changes." If that noble lord had been present, Ile had intended to ask him, what greater organic change could be imagined than the establishment of such a doctrine as this for the People vf England ? " You cannot have neform, you cannot bite change, you caunet have improvement, because one hundred awl se”enty Lords have set their faces against all change." This would ha', indeed, an organic change—a change from light and life to din kuess and death.

He was abont to speak irreverently of the Lords : be might do so still—it was impossible to say : but he would exempt one man, whom he should be the basest and meanest of human beings, if he were to attempt to depreciate fur One instant, in order to gain temporary popu- lurity ; he meant his old general, the Duke of Wellington— He had seen him in the field, wise. aide, enduring, and brave ; he bad seen him leading On the armies uf England from victory to victory, more like a god than a man. Ile had no hesitation in saying, that however gallant, however brave, however invincildle the English armies were iu the Peninsular, they owed at least as much to the Duke of Wellington as he owed to them. But because he said this, did he call upon the meeting to submit to the Duke's politics? No; he wa.s there that night for no other purpose than to call upon them to oppose them. Let them, however, meet him as honest and true-hear ted Englishmen —not by insulting him, not by depreciating his talents, but telling him foot to foot and face to face that he was in the wrong course, and that if he pursued it he would make the People his enemies. Let theta say—" Duke of Wellington, conqueror in Spain, conqueror in France, conquerer in Portugal, conqueror in India, conqueror at Waterloo—you shall not be a conqueror in England !

Ile would now return to the hundred and seventy Lords— Were they wiser or more patriotic than their neighbours? What were they but servants—upper servants, if the meeting pleased—to be treated with all

respect when they did their duty, lint when they turned upon those they ought

to serve, to be rebuked, and reminded for their edification, that England once did very well without Lords, and might do so again ? And if this lesson—aed a mild one he called it, considering the great wrongs they had otlered to the People—failed, they must be sent to learn in affliction the lesson they had de- spised in prosperity,—namely, that their titlea, hononrs, wealth, and station were nut of their own, but the People's production. Let them convince their Representatives that night, that in their honest and zealous endeavours in the People's cause, the electors of Bath were ready to support them to the utmost. Thus encouraged, he had no doubt they would gain for them the object of all their wishes—a really free and equitable constitution : not the constitution which held forth the cup of liberty in one band and the cup of religion in the other ; and when the poor man came to taste, filled the one with despotism and tinged the other with blood, and, amidst the brutal cheers of his heartless oppressors, dashed it from his lips. The healths of General Palmer and Mr. Roebuck were then given. General Palmer spoke briefly in reply, Mr. Roebuck more at length. He alluded to the difficulties a real friend of the People had to con- tend with in the House of Commons, where the People had very few real friends. He was stimulated by the approbation of his constituents to persevere in contending for the extensive reforms which were yet necessary ; for they were yet only on the very threshold of Reform. Ile never would be satisfied until the whole political power of the country was placed in the hands of the People. With respect to the House of Lords, he proposed that if they should again treat any measure as they bad treated the Municipal Bill, the Commons should repass the bill, and then, without more ado, it should become the law of the land:

Jr. Hume expressed his pleasure at perceiving bow well satisfied

the electors of Bath were with the Representative whom be had re- commended to their choice. He was not at all of Mr. Roebuck s opinion that in order to obtain good measures it was necessary to pall down the House of Lords : it would be enough if they were made re- sponsible. He was in favour of the Constitution of IUng, Lords, and

Commons. Lord Milton, eldest son of Earl Fitzwilliam, and Member for the Northern division of Northamptonshire, died on Sunday, of typhus fever. The Tories are already on the alert to secure the vacant seat in the representation for Mr. T. P. Maunsell, who lives in the neigh- bourhood of Kettering. We believe that the Reform interest is not considered very strong in Northamptonshire. The last registration made but little difference in the strength of parties, and there was no contest at the election in 1834. The Liberals have published hand- bills requesting the electors not to promise their votes, as a candidate on the Reform interest will be brought forward. Even his political foes must regret this severe blow to the kind-hearted and truly excellent Earl litzwilliam.• Lord Milton was oily twenty-four years old at his death. He distinguished himself; while little more than a boy, in the memora- ble election contest of 1831 ; and gave indications of superior qualifica- tions as a Member of Parliament in the Election Committees of last session. His private character was as irreproachable as his father's, and his political principles as Liberal. His brother, Thomas Spencer Wentworth, is now heir presumptive to the earldom : he is only twelve years of age. Lady Milton, however, is expected to be confined in the course of a few weeks.