zbc Vrobintes.
On Friday evening, the members of the South Lancashire Con- servative Association dined together, to the number of between six and seven hundred. Lord Sandon presided: there were present, among other leading Conservatives of the county, the Earl of Wilton, Lord F. Egerton, the Honourable R. B. Wilbraham, M.P., Mr. Patten, 31.13., Sir J. Y. Buller, Colonel Tempest, Mr. J. I. Blackburne, M.P., Sir R. Brooke, Sir T. Brancker, and several clergymen. Most of the speakers alluded to the present prospects of the Conservative party in a tone of triumph; and the recent registry, scot only of Lancashire hut of the whole country, was referred to as having strengthened their ranks. The Ministers, of course, were roughly handled. The Earl of Wilton, after alluding to the improving prospects of Conservatism, thus charac- terized the position of Ministers— He would now ask them to turn to the other side of the picture. They would see a Government (though so great a misnomer never was given)—a Government without credit, without confidence, without power ; a Government who, in pandering to the worst passions of the multitude, were now reaping the bitter harvest they had sown; a Government who agreed in no one intelligible principle beyond that of retaining their offices; a Government who had come into power upon the most distinct and positive pledges, which in the next session of Parliament they had shamefully abandoned ; and lastly, a Govern- ment which retained power and office from week to week, and day to day, by the support of the most bitter, the most implacable enemies of the Constitution and the Throne.
The-same subject was treated by Lord Sandon with greater force— Who, he would ask, had confidence in the present Government ? Not the House of Peers ; not the Church ; nor the Magistracy, (unless, indeed, the new Magistracy had been formed upon the principles of confidence in the Whigs ;) not the manufacturing or commercial interests of the country ; not the gentry. Where, then, were they to look for confidence ? And if they talked about con- fidence in the principles of the present Government, they, might ask what were their principles? Were they the principles of this year, last year, or the year before? Nay, were they the principles of to-night or last night iii whim:11411u were called upon to repose confidence-? The real fact was, they had no prin- ciples at all; and they only found supporters because they were made of squeezable materials, and their most strenuous adherents expected to obtain some advantage from them. Men of that kind never could command the con- fidence of the country, and they only exided as a Ministry by doing as little mischief as they possibly could. Ile would give them credit for being in heart as good Conservatives as those present ; lila the misfortune was, that they would not act up to their own views; and that man only could be called a true Conservative who acted up to the principles which he knew to be right.
Lord F. Egerton and the other speakers were mit more merciful in their diatribes.
The foundation-stone of the Liverpool Collegiate Institution, in con- nexion with the Church of England, was laid on • Thursday week, by Lord Stanley. The site of the intended building is in Shaw Street, Everton. At five o'clock upwards of' eight hundred gentlemen sat down to dinner in the Amphitheatre; Lord Francis Egerton, Lord Stanley, Lord Sandon, and several other persons of distinction, being present. Lord Stanley, alluding to the question whether it is the duty of a government to educate the people, said he thought the affirmative opinion as hastily taken up. It was, he conceived, the duty of a government to promote education; but a system of education entirely under the control of government would be at variance with freedom of conscience. There might be circumstances, he said, in which it would be the duty of the state to assist in the diffusion of religious error, it' shared by a large portion of the community ; and there are many occa- sions in which its duty is to be satisfied with the promotion of imperfect truth. It was the especial duty, however, of the members of the Established Church, to promote education according to time doctrines of that Church. Lord Francis Egerton spoke of the importance of giving a liberal education to the middle classes; for whose advantage, more particularly, the Liverpool Institution is intended. Every one, he said, who took a comprehensive view of the present state of society, must see that it tended towards a concentration of power in the middle clasaes: it therefore became a sacred duty to endeavour to afford to the younger members of that ituportant class the advantages ot' a religious education.
Lord Charles Fitzroy attended a meeting of the Bury St. Edmund's Reform Association on Monday. He reviewed briefly the Parlia- mentary proceedings of last session ; and, after expressing, his general approbation of the conduct of flue present Ministers, he blamed them for not bringing forward atty measure to make the Reform Bill such as in spirit it ought to be, by improving the registration-system, and pre- venting bribery and corruption at elections.
Mr. Roebuck delivered a lecture on the rationale of Parliamentary Representation before the Leeds Reform Association on Friday last, to the Music Hall. Hamer Stanstield, Esq., occupied the cheir. Both the Chairman and Mr. Roebuck were received with loud cheers by a numerous assemblage. We have received a Intl report of the lecture : of which, however, from its length we can make little present use. It I IS characterized by Mr. Roebuck's usual enciery a:1,1 talent, mm ith more than usual conciliation of teminmr. Ile ti rest' a striking picture oh' the exclusiveness of different classes Of society, and enthreed the neecesi V Of union for accomplishing the greatest perfection of the represent:ilk e system of which it is capable. Reform, he observed, is progressive ; and those views which might be deetuml wild and elision:try iii 1Sro, would meet with general support in le e°. One of Mr. Roebuck's illue- trations applies particularly to our pending mid prospective wars- " Everybody knows we are on thu eve a a war. l'er mm limit? llas cc v (Me Mt himself impeded in the operations of his dailv lehaur? Ilas he foin■et the enemy walking over his fields and his gardens, or int, reeptiug the quiet a his hours? Not at all. But it so happens that there dmvells a man in !manning Street, who has a political sympathy with a man who dwells in Coestanti- nople ; one is called Secretary of State, and the other is called the Sultan of Turkey. And the Secretary of State says, I have 11 great interest in the integrity of this num's dominione, in keeping them entire; and therefore 1am determined to make tl:e mitlinns of this country sacrifice the means of their daily labour for the purpose of killing their neighbours in the East. Now it the people and the interests of the whole body were represented in the Bosse of Commons, that man would not be able to play such pranks as these for a single hour. It is impossible het that the good a. ese of the cotnamnity should impel them to rise up as OHO man. and say, We know nothing of this non- sense: you talk about the Pasha of Egypt and the Sultan of Turkey, but we have nothing to do With that ; we are safe ; we have the means of livelihood; our interests are fairly pndected, and there is not the slightest danger to us from these things. But Wpm look further, you will find what is the great danger to these men at the po:cut time. It is that of the people being quiet and being able to think and ponder over their intereats, and placing themselves in the position th,y are enabled to cn:cupy by the increased knowledge they possess. They are afraid that they should begin to think seriously of their own happiness, and so deprive the Aristocracy Ilt. this country of their peculiar and exclusive i:derests. Therefere, for the purpese of preventing this, the.y sacrifice tho interests id' the matniGeturer, 11:: shopkeeper, and the
labourer, and rush into a new war against liherd prieeiples. Do you laelieve that its reality the man in Dee nine Strert has any sympathy with the
man in Constantinople? No such thing Ile len a sy mpathy with his own class. He fears that Reform must co7ne c 1 icstov: it off, we must have a confusion, and make war. Niue, I say I v cc were ii le represented, this could III, t he, I will take the inhallitants of this 16 ceoati a fair representation of the le 4. I will ask the manufacturer, the laLetring in ut, if they desire this war. They cannot. What is to present it ? The watchers of the Government should have such an in t, rest ie the caminueity as to stop this mad project. You have no such watchere. And if you look ict the signs of the times, you will see that you are really in clanger of whit we are speaking of; and that the real enclitics of 11,e people are t Lose who are exeitieg am: fostering this dispute ; and thot we are How really on the brink of a war to prevent Reform; and that the great banner that was lifted in IS30 shill sink down in the carnage andt tornn,11 that shall t•ise iii 1540, ten years after it was raised, by the old aris- tocratic thshion of getting into a war "
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