Five hundred Tories of the West Riding of Yorkshire dined
toge- ther on Monday, at Wakefield. The Morning Post assures us that the banquet was the most magnificent ever given in the Riding; but we only recognize the names of three "distinguished persons " among those whose presence is recorded,—Lord Wharncliffe, Mr. John Stuart Wortley, and Mr. Edwin Lascelles. The remainder are, no doubt, very important members of the Yorkshire squirearchy ; but few of our readers will know more than ourselves of Mr. Barton, Mr. Greeves, Mr. Joseph Scott, and Mr. Charles Wynn. The proceed- ings seem to have been excessively stupid. Lord Wharncliffe was the great orator, and he spoke, chiefly, his Halifax speech over again. Messrs. Wortley and Lascelles rung the changes on O'Connell and other standard topics of the Tories.
The Tories of Chard, after using every exertion to get persons to go to the feast at Ilminster, offering gratis tickets in abundance, could not muster more than above twenty, many of whom had no votes. A reaction here certainly, but not in favour of Toryism.— Sherbourne Journal.
The Bradford Tories entertained their trimming Member, Mr. Hardy, at a public dinner on the 2d. Mr. Hardy went over the whole Raphael plot again—reading the letters and documents, apparently un- conscious of the contemptible figure he cut in that affair, and of his disgraceful defeat.
There was also a grand dinner of the West Cornwall Conservatives at Truro on the same day as the Bradford " feed." That admirable Judge of Appeals, Lord Falmouth, was the chief orator.
A Durham Conservative festival is to be got up on a grand scale. The Marquis of Londonderry is expected to preside. Twelve hundred members of the Buckinghamshire Conservative Association dined together yesterday, at Aylesbury; the Earl of Orkney in the chair. The Marquis of Chandos, Sir William Young, Mr. J. B. Praed, and Lord Abingdon, were present ; also, " Benjamin Disraeli, Esquire, M.P.," as he is styled by the Morning Post re- porter, rather prematurely. Most of the speeches were stupid, though bitter ; but Mr. Disraeli, after he had got through some rhodomontade about the Peers having established and preserved popular freedom, be- came rather amusing as well as abusive— They lived in strange times, when every Cabinet meeting of the King's Minis- ters was looked upon as a conspiracy against the State. What then was to save the country in this fearful state of things? Why, meetings like the present. But it may be said that the King's Government does not head this attack upon the in- stitutions of the country—that they act quiescently. Perhaps so, discretion may be the better part of valour even in Downing Street. The Epicurean leader will not lead his troops through Coventry—he shrinks ftom that. lie will intro- duce a Master Shallow into the Cabinet; he will intrust the seals of one office to Master Silence, and the interests of oar foreign affairs to Master Slender. But the rank and hie—the men whom he receives the King's wages to lead— the men, after all, with whom he must fight the battle at Shrewsbury—at these he turns up his nose. He is ashamed of his colleagues. He shrinks from Mouldy, Wart, Shadow, Feeble—most forcible Feeble—and Bullealf, who must surely be some representative for a Metropolitan borough—r oaring Bull- calf who cries down the Lords. Add to these the Milesian Pistol and his ragged tail of cut-purse Nyms and destructive Bardolphs, and the political picture was complete. People of these sorts are your rulers.
" Lord Lyndhurst and the Peers " was one of the early toasts ; at a considerable distance followed " Sir Robert Peel and the Conservative Members of the House of Commons ; " but the health of the Duke of Wellington came in at the fag. end of the list.
The Liverpool Tradesmen's Reform Association, though only four- teen days old, has eight hundred members, and the numbers are in- creasing daily. It consists of true householders, who can be relied on to resist Tory intimidation ; but who nevertheless most earnestly de- mand the protection of the Ballot.
Died on Tuesday last, the Lincoln Standard, Tory newspaper, aged five w eeks !
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