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The Lord Mayor gave a splendid banquet on Friday to the Governors and Directors of the Bank of England, the East India Company, the East and West India Dock Companies, the Marine Insurance Com- pany, the New Zealand Company, the Copiapo and Cobre Mining Com- pany, the South Australian Bank, the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, &c. Tffp Egyptian Hall was magnificently fitted up for the occasion. Among the company were the Duke of Cambridge, the Duke of Buceleich, Lord and Lady Sandon, Lord D. Stuart, Sir George Murray, the Honourable F. Scott, Dwarkanauth Tajore, (an eminent Indian merchant,) Chunder Mohun Chutterjee, (also a distinguished commercial man from India,) the Honourable J. F. Tollemache, and a host of Members of Parliament, and persons illustrious in the municipal and mercantile circles. Among the oceans of complimentary speaking, the curiosity was the address of Dwarka- nanth 'fajore, who was toasted in conjunction with his countryman and fellow-guest Chunder Mohun Chutterjee- The company could not expect to hear him speak well in a language foreign to him. Ile could not, at any rate, express his gratitude in that language. Indeed, he knew no language which could describe that sentiment. It was not merely because he was received and treated in BO flattering a manner that night and in that company, but because ever since he set his foot upon Eng- lish ground he had experienced the most unexpected kindness and attention. He spoke this as referring to himself as a stranger. But if he felt as he ought the distinction and friendship with which he had been treated, what must his country, which had been saved from utter destruction by the national friendship and humanity of England, feel upon looking to the glorious result? It was England that sent out Clive and Cornwallis to benefit India by their counsels and arms. It was England that sent out to that distant nation the great man who had succeeded in establishing peace in the world, and who was the first man that introduced a proper and permanent order of things in the East. It was the country which the company he addressed represented, that, to the honour of human nature, protected his countrymen from the tyranny and villany of the Mahometans, and the no less frightful oppression of the Russians. (Loud cheers.) And all this was done, not in the expectation of a requital, not in the hope of any thing whatever in return, but from the mere love of doing good. Twenty millions of money were given to check one horrible system of cruelty in the West Indies, by the very people who spilt their blood and expended their treasure in opposing the torrent of oppression in the East. (Loud cheers.) It was impossible for his countrymen to treat the English with ingratitude. He was confident that they could never be such fatal enemies to themselves as to exchange for the benignant protection of the Beitish the awful villany and tyranny of the Mahometans or the Russians. (Loud cheers.) The Anti-Corn-law Conference held its last sitting at Herbert's Hotel, in Palace Yard, on Monday. Mr. P. A. Taylor, in taking the chair, observed, that the Conference had done their duty in exposing the evil of the Corn-laws and suggesting the remedy. Government seemed determined to maintain those iniquitous laws. It was fearful to contemplate the future- " That the millions of industrious and intelligent artisans who ought to be the glory of our country, as they have been the creators of its wealth, will quietly submit to the destitution they are now enduring, and to the utter ruin which seems rapidly approaching, to gratify the grasping rapacity of a landlord Legislature, is neither to be anticipated nor desired. I trust they will use no violence, but not submit to be starved ; that they will respect property and but not suffer their children to perish by famine; and if when the time arrives that private property has become a nuisance,' the struggle for existence is repressed by bloodshed, by whatever name that bloodshed may be characterized in a British court of judicature, in the eye of reason, of justice, of posterity, and of God, it will receive its true appellation, and be stamped with the guilt of murder."
A delegute from Camberwell regretted that the Conference was about to close. He should propose that a society be formed in London, to be called the "National Society," to do every thing it could for the good of the country, and to be permanent in its sittings. The Chairman did not think this wds a proposition that could be made to the present meeting ; but f.d" he would take it on himself to work it out, they would lend him every assistance in their power.
Mr. Bright said, that the Conference had at least done one thing, they had put the Government and the monopolists more clearly in the wrong than they were before the Conference assembled— As for Sir Robert Peel, they believed he held precisely the same opinions as the deputation : it was impossible for any man, with his knowledge of the state of the country, of business matters, and the principles of political economy, not to be acquainted with the real operation of the Ccrn-laws : he must find his position extremely difficult with regard to his argument. It was not to be wondered at that he stated in the House of Commons his dissatisfaction with the general impression conveyed by the reports of those interviews, though he could not point to any one fact actually misrepresented. The general impres- sion they conveyed was certainly that the Ministers had cut a very unfavour- able figure. Sir James Graham said something of the same kind ; but the only fact that had come out was, that he himself was guilty of the only misstate- ment then made.
Mr. Bright moved the adoption of an address "from the Conference of the National Anti-Corn-law League to the People of the United Kingdom." It briefly reviewed the exertions of the League and the progress of the cause ; it stated that the subject had been forced upon the attention of Parliament by repeated discussion ; that the labours of the Conference had not been in vain, for "public opinion was running strongly, irresistibly in their favour "; that the perils which surrounded them menaced the existence of the country, and they prayed that they might be averted ; and that they returned "to the country to labour incessantly for the accomplishment of the great object of the League, the total and immediate repeal of the Corn-law ; and they were prepared to reassemble at such time and place as the Council in Manchester might determine." The address was seconded and adopted.
Mr. Joseph Hume delivered a speech in which he attributed the maintenance of the Corn-laws to the compactness of the phalanx on the Treasury benches, while the Liberal party in and out of the House were disagreed as to the course to be pursued : until a union of the industrial classes took place, nothing effective could be accomplished.
Mr. Villiers thought that the striking and appalling statements which had been made apprized the public of London of the real state and con- dition of the country more fully than they had been before. He was of opinion, that in the present defective state of our representation, a con- stant conference of qualified and talented men, sitting to comment on the proceedings of Parliament, would be attended with the greatest ad- vantage. He expected that it would have the effect, which he thought he had observed it to have lately, of checking the utterance of those foolish and hollow things which satisfied many in resisting the enact- ment of good laws and the repeal of bad laws. He likened the work- ing-men who opposed the Anti-Corn-law agitation to Negroes who were content to remain in bondage ; and he did not believe that the working-classes in general sympathize with them— He believed that many took the view of one with whom he had discussed the subject, no zealous champion of the people's rights certainly, but a somewhat more sagacious defender of monopoly than many with whom he had spoken, and who candidly admitted that he opposed the Corn-law not for the silly reasons assigned by some, but because he agreed with Mr. Villiers, that the effect of allowing food to be cheap and abundant in a country like this, would be like adding to it so much fertile land, when the produce could be obtained with little labour; and, with the abundance of capital that existed in this country, the people would be made as impudent and inde- pendent as they were in the United States, and that would be prejudicial to the aristocratic classes in this country. It was no fool who said that ; and he believed that many an intelligent working-man who had signed a Corn-law petition knew well that while food was scarce he must be a slave; and if it was abundant while his labour was in great demand, he would be inde- pendent—that he would then be in a position to make better terms with his employer. He would not have referred to this topic but that he could not but suppose that it was some such expectation as that of the grievous corruption or perverseness of the working-class, or their disunion with those above them, that induced the Government and the Legislature to adjourn the session, heedless of all the warnings and turning from all evidence which had been offered to them of the distress and insecurity of the country, without at- tempting or desiring to take any step to alleviate or relieve the people from their condition.
He gave the League a practical suggestion— He would suggest, that those whom they might intrust as lecturers to diffuse information on the subject, should peculiarly direct the attention of the people to the effect of the Corn-laws on the revenue and on the local taxation of the country, in order to show how they made the first less productive and the latter more burdensome. Be mentioned this because he thought what the commu- nity were about to suffer from most, before they should meet again, was the Income-tax and the Poor-rate.
Mr. Cobden entered into some explanation why the League could not engage in the agitation of any other question ; one reasou, among others being, that the ladies of Manchester had given them no less a sum than 7,0001., the produce of their bazaar ; a good portion of which was still in the banker's hands. Mr. O'Connell favoured the meeting with a general attack on the measures of Government—" a Corn-law, equally potential to crush as the former; a Tariff, that, show- ing that they never know how to do right, but are determined to do wrong ; and then an Income-tax to crown and bless the whole." The other speakers were, Mr. Rawson, Mr. George Thompson, and Colonel Thompson. Several resolutions were carried, anticipating an early recall of the Conference by the League ; thanking Mr. Taylor, the President of the Conference, for his "punctuality, amenity, discretion, and dignity "; thanking the editors of London and provincial newspapers for coOpera- tion, and Lord Radnor for his exertions in the House of Lords ; thank- ing Colonel Thompson as the pioneer of the Anti-Corn-law agitation ; and thanking Mr. Villiers and the Members of both Houses of Parlia- ment who had advocated the total and immediate repeal of the Corn- laws.
The Chairman, briefly acknowledging the compliment to himself, declared that the Conference had terminated its sittings.
Mr. John Wade, a trustee of the chapel at Deptford, in a letter to the Morning Chronicle, denies the accuracy of Sir James Graham's and
Sir Robert Peel's representation as to the Anti-Corn-law meeting in the chapel, and the disturbance in the town on Tuesday week. He quotes passages from the Ministers' speeches, and then gives his own version— "'Would your readers believe, that amidst all this the minister of the ehapoll spoke at some length ; and that Mr. Taylor, a gentleman who supplied W. Thompson's place, addressed the meeting for upwards of half an hour? Yet such was the fact. I deny Sir James Graham's facts ' : the meeting in the Broad- way was not a continuance of that held in the chapel ; the minister dissolved the meeting in the chapel, which was chiefly composed of respectable inhabit- ants (male and female) of Deptford and its vicinity ; and that the meeting in the Broadway was, according to the witnesses, of a very different description
of persons. • •
"One thing is quite certain, viz, that there was a dishonest and cowardly interruption of a legal and peaceful meeting—dishonest, because it was sought to convert a meeting called for a specific purpose to other objects; and cowardly, because the meeting being in great part composed of ladies, in whom the slightest interruption with the regular proceedings was calculated to excite confusion and alarm. Who paid the one or two individuals who were the most active in the interruption, a similar revelation to that made at Leicester may one day unfold. Finding that reasoning and remonstrance had no effect open the disturbers of the meeting, the Police (who behaved with a great deal of prudence) were sent for; but the managers, seeing their presence only in- creased the confusion, thought it more prudent to dissolve the meeting than continue it under such circumstances.
"Several errors have appeared in the reports of this transaction : one, that I walked out of the chapel arm-in-arm with Mr. M'Douall ; another, that one of the trustees offered bail for him. Neither of these are true. I remained in the chapel until it was quite cleared, and did not see Mr. M'Douall that night after he left the platform ; neither did I know his name until I heard him give it the next morning at the Police-office. The gentleman who offered bail lives at some distance from the town, and had no connexion whatever with the chapel, or with the arrangements for the meeting. "I know nothing of the meeting in the Broadway but from report, nor did I hear that such a meeting had been held until eleven o'clock at night ; but I say emphatically, that that meeting was not a continuance of the chapel meeting; and that the outrage, violence, and riot, as described by Sir Robert Peel and. Sir James Graham, did not take place within the chapel premises ; nor is the building damaged to the amount of sixpence."
Several races occurred on the Thames on Monday. Two cutters belonging to the Royal Yacht Club sailed for a prize of IOU; which was won by Mr. Gunston's Champion. Doggett's coat and badge were won by James Liddy. In the Greenwich regatta, James Hubbard was the vanquisher of five other scullers.
The race for the amateur championship of the Thames, on Thursday, terminated in transferring the Winkfield silver sculls from the custody of Mr. Jenkins to Mr. Chapman, who was defeated by Mr. Jenkins last year.
At Wandsworth Police-office, on Wednesday, the Reverend Stephen Aldhouse was charged with bigamy. Certificates were put in to prove the marriage of the prisoner with Frances Moss, otherwise Montague, at St. Leonard's Church in Shoreditch, on the 21st of January 1824, and again, as a widower, with Hephzibah Roberts, a widow, at St. James's Clerkenwell, on the 4th of January 1838. A Policeman said that he had been to Norwich, where he saw Mr. Moss, the brother of Mrs. Aldhouse, who told him that he had seen her a few days before, and that she was alive and well. Mrs. Hephzibah Roberts deposed that Mr. Aldhouse told her, before they were married, that his wife was dead, and that he had been to identify her body. Mrs. Poole, his sister, however, told her that he had a wife living ; and Mrs. Roberts wrote to Mrs. Aldhouse, directing her letter to 'Change Alley, where Mrs. Ald- house's remittances were forwarded ; and she subsequently received two letters, which convinced her that the prisoner had deceived her. Mrs. Roberts said that the prisoner had deserted her for some time. She had also several letters by Mrs. Aldhouse to her husband, which she had found at a lodging which he had left. He was remanded till today.
A pleasing instance of recovery from drowning occurred on Satur- day. Mr. Thomas Boulter, a fruiterer of Albany Street, Regent's Park, was accidentally passing the canal adjoining the Park, when his attention was drawn by a crowd, and he ascertained that a boy named Edward Battiscombe had fallen into the canal and had disappeared. He imme- diately stripped ; and after diving twice, succeeded in bringing the boy on shore. The usual remedies were applied by him incessantly for two hours ; when animation was restored, and the boy was taken home to his mother, a widow with four other children. Great praise is given to Mr. Boulter ; who is not a young man, is subject to rheumatism, and has a wife and small family.
The Thames Tunnel was opened, for the first time at the Wapping side of the river, on Monday ; and upwards of five hundred visiters of all nations passed through the tunnel as far as the shaft on the Rother- hithe shore. The High Street of Wapping was thronged with people ; who were allowed to view the shafts and the double staircase for foot passengers. The shaft is about ninety feet in height, and is surmounted with a handsome glazed dome, to admit light and air. There are two staircases ; one terminating close to the Western arch, and the other leading to the Eastern arch. The Western arch only is opened for visiters. At mid-day there were upwards of a hundred persons walking in the tunnel ; and upon an inspection of the winters book, the names The House of Lords gave a final decision yesterday in the long-con- tested case of Lady Hewley's charity. The charity consisted of certain _ manors in York, left by Lady Hewley, in the time of Charles the Secc in trust to support "godly preachers of Christ's Holy Gospel"; a phrsit. taken to designate Protestant Dissenters. In process of time the trust. fell entirely into the hands of Unitarians ; but attention was drawn to, the subject by the Report of the Charity Commissioners, and a bill was' - -- filed in Chancery to dispossess the Unitarians. The Vice-Chancellor and the Lord Chancellor decided against them. On an appeal to the Lords, the opinion of the Judges was taken, and they decided that Unitarians did not come within the terms of the trust-deeds ; Mr. Justice Erskine observing, that those who denied the Trinity were in Lady Hewley's time considered blasphemers ; and therefore they could not be intended by the term "godly preachers." Lord Cot- tenham now pronounced judgment, affirming the decree of the Court below, with costs.
and residences of more than thirty Americans, from different parts of the United States, were found to be entered, together with those of persons from all parts of Europe, and many from Asia : one-half of the visiters were foreigners. A good many were permitted to pass right through, from shore to shore.
The surveyor who has, by the direction of the Churchwardens, ex- amined the steeple of St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, which was struck by lightning in the great storm of Wednesday sennight, is of opinion that the greater part must he pulled down, and that the total cost of re- building it will exceed 2,0001.—Globe.