TORY FESTIVAL AT COVENT GARDEN.
THE Tories of the City mustered in great force at Covent Garden Theatre on Wednesday. The set-out was splendid, and nothing that the pocket could command was needed. Not less than a thousand persons sat down to dinner. But it was a dull affair : the spirit of Toryism is evaporated, and we had only its dregs—its vapid or loathsome dregs. Mr. Homie, the Fleet Street banker, was the chairnian,—a gentleman who appeared for the first time in that character; and, as he seems to have thought, probably for the last, for every toast was preluded by a tiresome, prosy dissertation, culled from the speeches of his party, carefully set down in writing and promulgated afresh to his hearers. In him and Sir CLAUDIUS HUNTER centered all the City eloquence of the evening.
The Duke of WELLINGTON and PEEL were absent—unavoid- ably and reluctantly, as the party were frequently assured. But where were the other Tory chiefs of either House, that the Lords had to be represented by the empty swagger of the Duke of BEAUFORT, who vehemently expressed his desire for a collision; and the Commons by the Earl of LINCOLN, who vainly endea- voured to string together half a dozen commonplace sentences, and speedily found himself in that most ludicrous and helpless predicament of being equally unable to go on or to stop? The Reverend GEORGE CROLY (Lord BROUGHAM'S protégé) repre- sented the piety and morality of the Established Church of Eng- land, and the Reverend MORTIMER O'Sni.LivAN the meekness and humility of that of Ireland. The latter received many broad hints from his auditors that they had heard enough; and at length he was fairly scraped down. These were the orators of the party. Their tone was dejected—they feel and know that their game is up : their speeches, therefore, were filled with bitter sighs and groans. A few of the old City jobbers and contractors, those who fattened under the good old times of PITT and DuNnAs, were there, and some of their sons—the CURTISES, PRICES, SCHOLEYS, HUNTERS. What a humiliating contrast must this meeting have presented to those of bygone days, when Tory in- solence, Tory rapacity, and Tory power were rampant
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