A party of Ipswich Liberals met at what is called
"Time Mayor's dinner "—the cost of which, we presume, was not, as in the olden time, defrayed out of the public money, but front the pockets of the company. On proposing the Queen's health, the Mayor spoke with loyal indignation of Mr. Bradshaw's speech at Canterbury— "11 the people will stand by and applaud a speech so seditious, I was going to say so treasonable, as that of Mr. Bradshaw, they will have lost their cha- racters. But I know they will not sanction such remarks. Though there were many clergymen of the Established Church present, not one of them got up to rebuke the Member for Canterbury for the seditious language lie used; hut the people of Canterbury felt that they were stigmatized by that meeting, and I consider that we should not discharge our duty if we did not exceedmgly reprobate such language. Gentlemeu, these have been times when. the Tories have asstuned to themselves the whole of the loyalty that 'Was m the kingdom—I say assumed to themselves, for they never possessed one spark of the genuine loyalty which actuates the gentlemen whom I now address. (('heers.) In the pahnv days of Toryism, when the Royal favour _flowed alone on that portion of trie continuality, and the spoils of the nation were at their commend, then they were outrageously loyal people; but now that the time is come when her Majesty does not regard religions creeds in the choice or those who are to administer the Government and to carry on the affairs of the State, and through her exeellent education not making religious opinions the test of her ,ipprobation of the titaess of men for any public office, that does not suit the Tories at all, for they want an exclusive possession of office and exclusive power in this country ; and then they turn round and make such seditious speeches as the honourable Member's for Canterbury. I hope you will show your loyalty oh this occa-.1si, ahl drink with me a bumper to the Queen."
Three times three, amid "one cheer more " for the Queen, were then. given by the company. After several other routine anl local toasts had been drunk, Cilsem rose to propose " General I:ducat:ea on the principles of - religious liberty." His was the principal speech of the evening, and is reported at great length in the .fpsrrich Espress. We select some of the telling passages- " It seems a very stimige thing that T shoul.1 es.. incurred so mush odium for voting in fivost of the scheme of , • s: ssmally submitted to
the Honse ofComecin= by C ,vernm. !17. ", turns out that the
Bishop of Excier is willing t 1:nit td:a is moderate psinoiple.
( /s,,s/ fript(it.) fart is. g 1 i .-., • T,iries Intro discovereil--that in opposing the et ,;;,on the subj,et of na- Ronal education, they hid ttir to 10,5 thy ,el,port , many of those who were
induced to inlist under the jesuitical h Peel she,' he pub-
lished the farms' Tomworth manife,to. le .'F forgot that they had inlisted under their banners a gr,•ot manse p 5•,,ns under false pre- tences. They fosgot when the old. leaven of exelunven.:ss and religious tests broke out, that they had a great many pi:I:sow, among iheir supporters, or at heist next door to them, who were friends to religious toletotion ; and therefore their sober second thought told them it would be wi;e. to etfect a compromise, and get rid of the odium they hail brought upon themselves, by appearing to stand forwaril as the opponents of national education on the principles of reli- gious liberty. And then we have the Bishop or EM: hr—that Bishop who is the man to give the signal when it is proper or politic to cry net No Popery l'—who is the signal-ligutenant of the camp—coming forward to tell us that this is a just and moderate principle. I shoulil not wonder, gentlemen. tvlien the education questiou was first mooleol by the Government, hut that rt diseiNsion took place among the 'fories to this eri, et—' Now what d'ye think of this ? Can't 1Ve make setn5thing of this? What do you think of raising the cry of No Popery ?' I..t u3 cry out ' Intieellty.' not the Church in
danger,' but let us it step further, nod cry out Religion is in danger: Very well ; I like it much ; so be it : to Mr. So-and-So, in Fleet Street, and have 3,000 or petitions up, and we will s.:na them down to
every clerfyman of iii:urelt of i'••d,00l, and raise such a hubbub about inede:I.Y,' and roe end !leaven Is II ()Ws W11:Lt that in LIS 1. ((heers.) Now, I have no doubt that that was ee,sdtit te ersesoe se-tten of edu- cation Ira, got up .1 ,sirable to F. e if C. 'y 11.,t act on. men's religioos pi:ttts CH: t!.• sonic in*.
1,•1:1 111 1,11111:'ll 1.' • • "H Of ,11.111-1,111. They lima- there wa e: men .t I' '• I H.'ilthnentS; to wino!' i ' nportance than tie". in:lee:nee ; and then they ,•••icol we can persuade
them that these melt ii ii to introdne , ' 1...utralize the op- pesitiert or, or bring ti oar side., v 0: „ :t Libsral prin-
ciples in a general v:ey, let' :1 Ieh ide with us:
'Mat, goat lemem I tdze: to have I n , .• to the Edu- He referred to the conduct of the elagy at the Canterbury dinner- " When I mead such speches as are repot:tit to h ive been dslivered at Can- terbury, \dutch' the peasantry of Ireland, the Romon Catholic inhabitants of Ireland, are called ' bigoted savages,' aliens in :Wood, in language, and in re.
I look, tgeutlemeo, upon sneh people's Protestantism as going a great deal farther than any of ours : 1 take it not only Colt th:yy protest against the el Pore of the Roman Catholic religion, but that they protest against Christianity altogether. I give them credit for the most extreme Prot-sal:a:ism. but it le that to which 1 tah.e it many would apply the term 'plat-tie:it Infidelity ;' for you will never make me believe that men who could calmly sit there and tell us that the Boman Catholics of Ireland were those 'hioted savages,' and apply to them such opprobrious epithets, were men flcillited. by that spirit of universal love and brotherhood which is elearly the pervading genius of Christianity. And, gentlemen, t say it is to any member of the Chinch—it is humiliating to consider that there should sit around this honour- able gentleman, when he was making these ex:le:nations against the Roman Catholics of Ireland, and against the Queso, and apiTs:1 'LT:WI]: who never in- jured him—it was humiliating to timid that all these oNpressions, however severe and however bitter. were cheered lw the ecclesiastics then present I I say it is Laminating : ;ma the only charitable supposition I can put upon it is, that those expressions took plaee at that pored when, perhaps, they would have cheered any thing. That those expressions, gentlemen, too'o place at a period when perhaps they hole thought such serious declamation was going to take place ; awl 1 dare say that these reverend divines searcely knew what they had been applauding. One of the reverend gentlemen there, aceo.-iling to the papers, was the Reverend Dr. Russell, Now, I don't know whether the reve- rend doctor was the !ate master af the Charterhoase School. If he be, I had
the honour of being under his tuition in early life ; cud I can only that if these be his present sentiments, I am glad I am out of his clutches. 'file re- verend doctor was a good sehoolmaster, :Ind at adept at the Latin gram-
mar ; he was a groat :slept at knowing the ■piainii :es of Latin words: but he scents to have sadly neglecteil his political eid.e.aion. 11.- seems to me to mea- sure but badly the le»gth. and the depth, and the breadth of expressions which may fall in his hearing, when he attends political meetings. I take it that if he had the same tart in discovering the 1im:t1: and breadth, the depth and weight, of these expres,ioes that fell front its. honeurable slumber for Canter- bury, as he had iii discovering tin' quantities of Latin words and the specifie gravity in mechanics, he would hardly- have nttereil the animating cheers which he did at that meeting." The 'Tories, not the Liberals, were injured by such speeches as Mr. Bradshaw's- -. "They might depend upon it that Sir Robert Peel would be glad, and too happy, to pass some gagging-law to stop those indiscreet partisans. He re- collects the specious pretences of the Tannworth manifesto; and be knows if that haul the effect of catching converts—he knows, I say, that those speeches will unfasten thens from the hook. Ile would be too glad to keep the mouth of those over-zealous advocates of Protestantism closed. Depend upon it, gentlemen, there can be no better symptom fur the Liberal party—no 'betters reason for increasing their spirits tout putting them in good humour—than finding men going about and advocating Tory principles, in a way that must go far to shock every reasonable and moderate man in the whole community. As a proof that what I say is not without some fume, the Times :111d the Standard, two leading oracles of the Tory party, have actually tried to get tine Canter- bury Tories out of the scrape ; they have tried hard to make out what was reported was not actually saint ; they felt perfectly ashamed of it, and regretted the injustice and intemperance of the remarks."
. There was still a class of old Tories who dreaded the progress of kuov1edn'e- "I believe that a great many of the Tories, though perhems not of the old school, but some of the moderate Conservatives, and the whole body of the Liberahparty, arc inGt afraid of the progress of knowledge!: the old school of the Tories still are, met they think that men may know too nmeb, and they think that ignoreece is the best thundation on which to base religion ; they think that ignorance is the be,t foundation for loyalty ; they still think that ignorance is the best foundation of obedience to the laws; they still think that ignorance is the best foundation for those qualities %thick render men good Citizens and good subjects. But, luqpily, that party is dwindling. away. There-are many of them remnining, 1 nelanit; and they are generally to be found among the old see:re:n=1.1y and clergy, and the ancient gentlemen of England. In fact, they fear that the people may know too much ; but happily, I repeat, that party has been dwindling down, and I thiuk all men are agreed that knowledge and education me the best means for fitting men to discharge their duties iu this Me to prepare them for the next. The bugbear which used to agitate suen's minds no longer exists; it is no longer supposed that a know- edge of God's works is to lead 11101 to deny his providence : on the contrary, it is .believed that a knowledge of his works is likely to confirm the truth of his word. Depend upon it, that it is on an iguoraut population—it is upon a gelation in an uneolightened state, annul incapable of weighing or thinking on hose cusses wimkh open-ate to the benefit of' stmes—it is on such a population that the Chartist demaeogues, and nnnemn like Frost and Vincent, can nroduce the greatest effect. It is on the soil of ignorance that the seed of the demagogue will fructify and produce the greatest return : it is not on the soil of knowledge; .for, depend upon it, the elsw progress, the silent teaching of books, and the tranquil :Toney of' education, will set at defiance the illusory and insane .attempts of such men.r,s these Chartist leaders. Bat at the same time, though it would set their attempts nut deli/met —though education would set such attenatts completely on one chic—yet it would prepare the working classes for thatanaceild diseussioa and inquiry, that following up of their seghts by the March of disiuterested reason, which is the only course that can ever be sue- Cessful."