TORY AND RADICAL MEANS OF AGITATION.

ALTHOUGH the " No-Popery " cry seems to have been used with effect in Devonshire, the more sagacious of the Tory party are con- scious that it cannot be depended upon to rouse the masses in other parts of the country against the friends of the Liberal Administra- tion. Sir ROBERT PEEL steered clear of High Church and King poli- tics in his last manifesto. The recollection of the part he acted, and the nature of the opposition he encountered in carrying the Catho- lic Relief Bill, might perhaps have rendered him averse from

lending his aid to resuscitate the bigotry of 1807 and 1829 ; but, at all events, his knowledge that the People were not to be excited in favour of the Church in 1829, must have made him doubtful of the expediency of repeating the experiment in 1835. Nothing has occurred within the last half-dozen years to conciliate the affections of the country towards the hierarchy—nothing to abate their hatred of tithes, or to seduce them into love of Church- rates.

During the last twenty-five years, there has been time for the stupid and unreasoning dread of Popery to wear away. The Catholics have increased along with other sects. They are found to be as honest, conscientious, moral, and humane, as the rest of his Majesty's subjects. The Duke of NORFOLK, Lord SHREWS- BURY, Mr. TOWNLEY, and Mr. GIFFARD, are not suspected of treason, any more than Sir Roesler PEEL or Lord RODEN. In a lower rank of life, the same rule obtains. No one would refuse to have dealings with a Catholic because he is a Catholic. In short, even ignorant people are beginning to laugh at the old stories of Jesuit malignity and Guy Faux conspiracies. " Church and King " and " No-Popery," then, will no longer answer the purpose of those who aim at misleading the multitude. We lately pointed out, that the Tories are debarred from using other more legitimate and effectual means of getting up a popular feeling in their behalf, They cannot promise to carry the Ballot, or Short Parliaments, the abolition of the Corn-laws, or the ex- tension of the Suillage. Their system of government and their real designs are known to be anti-popular. Sir ROBERT PEEL must be aware of the advantage of a rallying-cry, as effectual as " No-Popery " was formerly, at the present time ; but he had nothing of the sort for his auditory and his party at the Merchant Tailors' dinner. It was thought necessary, however, that the most should be made of what he did say. Accordingly, his speech was ordered to be placarded and distributed by the thousand, in ac- cordance with the advice of the Standard and the Times ; and the latter journal boasts, in the following passage, of the alacrity with which its suggestion has been acted'upon. " Our advice has, we are happy to say, been promptly and efficaciously fol- lowed. The admirable speech of Sir Robert Peel is already printed in the cheap form of a single sheet, and sold for 1d., 9d. per dozen, or 5s. per hundred, at Canterbury, Maidstone, and throughout the chief towns of Kent. Placards and handbills, announcing the publication, are also printed in large letter, and dis- persed in all directions among the people. The other counties of Great Britain ought instantly to follow this useful example, and saturate the public mind with the most valuable truths and the most wholesome lessons thatever were addressed by a sagacious and manly British statesman to his fellow-subjects at a moment of extreme national peril. Indeed, the wealthy ought to buy up the Peel speech by hundreds, and distribute copies to all their neighbours of the middle and working class." In spite of all this puffing, we may safely challenge any one to say whether he really thinks Sir ROBERT PEEL'S speech is spirit- stirring—whether it is the kind of address which is likely to rouse the masses to action for the reestablishment of Toryism in the land. It may be very cunning ; the advice it gives to the leaders of the party may be the best that can be afforded tinder existing circumstances ; but, as an instrument of agitation, it must fail. O'CONNELL would deliver a dozen speeches in the course of a week, each of which should produce ten times the effect on the popular feeling that Sir ROBERTS elaborate harangue will create.

Of course, if the Tories agitate, their antagonists will resume their old weapons, and apply themselves to the work at which in 1831 and 1832 they proved themselves to be master-hands. The Birmingham Political Union is again to be put in motion. Let any one read the following brief address from a portion of its mem-

bers to the Council. and compare it with the most vigorous passage in the Merchant Tailors speech, and ask himself which is most likely to strike a responsive chord in the breasts of that multitude, whom it is sought on both sides to stimulate.

" TO THE COUNCIL OF THE BIRMINGHAM FOLITICAL UNION. " We, the undersigned members and friends of the Birmingham Political Union, being principally of the industrious classes, who cordially joined with the middle classes in obtaining the passing of the Reform Bill, without having derived any benefit therefrom ourselves, observing that the old Tory faction, headed by the high and haughty Tory Aristocracy—the uncompromising enemies of the People's rights—are forming themselves into Political Unions, under the disguise of Conservative Associations, do hereby respectfully but earnestly call upon you again to place yourselves at our head, in order to obtain 110USEHOLD SUFFRAGE,

VOTE BY BALLOT, SHORT PARLIAMENTS,

AND THE

ABOLITION OF A PROPERTY QUALIFICATION IN MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT.

A MORE EQUITABLE

SYSTEM OF TAXATION,

ESPECIALLY THE

REPEAL OF TIlE TAXES ON KNOWLEDGE.

And, in aid of your exertions, we pledge ourselves to give you our strenuous support, both pecuniary and personally, and rely with confidence on the co. operation of our fellow countrymen in the same patriotic efforts."

Now this is but an ordinary coinage from the Birmingham mint —tame, calm, and spiritless, compared with the addresses which we shall soon see issue from it—with the harangues which one of these days will be thundered from Newhall Hill. But even this is a hundred times more to the purpose than Sir ROBERT PEEL'S artful "concatenation of phrases." It may or may not be prudent or politic at this time to demand Household Suffrage ; but when it is seen that the aim of the " haughty Tory Aristocracy" is to per- vert the Reform Act into an instrument for their own reinstate- ment in office, instead of good government for the many, it is not surprising that the classes below the middle, or, as they term themselves, the "industrious classes," should go the full length of claiming what they are justified in seeking to obtain by all law- ful means.

The result of the agitation which the Tories have set on foot, will probably be the advancement, by some years, of the period when the suffrage will be little short of universal, and Parliaments perhaps annual. If these changes should occur before the mass of the People arc sufficiently instructed to use their power wisely, we shall have to thank the Obstructives, the Tory Agitators, for the difficulties and dangers that will arise. They have entered into a struggle in which success is impossible, and in which their de- feat may not only be fatal to their own peculiar privileges and power of mischief, but perhaps disastrous to a certain extent to more worthy and less blameable parties.