Eighty gentlemen, principally members of the Council of the Bir-

mingham Reform Association, had a dinner on the 8th instant. The precise object of the meeting is not stated ; but we gather from the proceedings as reported in the Birmingham Journal, that the party Was assembled to talk over the state of political affairs with Alessrs. Art- wood and Scholefield, the Members for Birmingham, and to ascertain the opinions of the leaders of the Reform party on passing and probable future events. Several very good speeches were delivered. That of Mr. Attwood was striking, though tinged with his peculiar notions about the currency. He dwelt upon the insufficient manner in which the masses were represented in the House of Commons- " Many of our Representatives are so rich and so far removed in station from the wants and interests of the people, that they know nothing of then,. And others are so needy, or so greedy of political advancement fur themselves and their friends, that they have scarcely the power of forming an opinion without the dictation of the Ministry. This is but poor comfort fur the nation, after all the sufferings it has endured. Recollect the twenty years of wrongs and in- juries which the nation sustained before it could be induced to demand reform. Recollect the miseries and privations of 1816, of 1819, of 1826, and ,he six or seven following years. Our country suffered 'more than a mother's pangs, to bring forth less than a mother's hope!' But still, one immense benefit we have derived front our exertions in addition to the Reform ; we have set the human mind in motion—a nation of twenty millions is set to think, to study pol,tical rights and interests, and to learn how to guard, promote, and extend them. Here is a giant power which the people possess in full operation which no government can despise or neglect. All government must pass away before the irresistible will of the people, unless the rights and interests of the people are protected. See, my friends, how this march of mind advances! The very Tories have become Whigs—the Whigs have become Railicals-:the Radicals are becoming patriots. They cease to attend to dogmas of political philosop having for their object the aggrandizement of the rich and the degradatio the poor. They now begin to think of the great duty of redressing toe wroi and of advancing the liberty, prosperity, and happiness of the ma'.-of the p °pie. Here, then, we have the means of obtaining further reform; which, 1 trust, is not far distant. In Sweden, the House of Commons consists entirely of la' bourers. All are paid the wages of attendance, and all are faithful and tine to their employers. There is not a happier country in the world. This, my

Mends, is a great ptinciple eV our English constitution, as you well kcow. We have been diddled out of it by the Boroughmongers; but I trust you will shortly vindicete ite reirtoration. Andrew Marvel was the last man who received the wages of attendance in England, and for all I know, the last Member of Parlia- ment who has done his duty by the people."

There was a necessity for further changes— s' We must have a further and a sweeping refiurm ; but we shall not, and we cannot, obtain it by any other means than we did the former—namely, by suf- fering extreme injuries, miseries, and privations. If these should come, as I think they will, we shall have the game in our own hands. God forbid that these miaelies should come; but I think they will, and that they will again be brought upon us by the fraud and plunder which ie at this moment contem- plated upon the industrious classes. Mr. Cobbett used to say, ' I defy you to agitate a fellow with a full stomach.' Nothing is more true. men do not gene- rally at from abstract pi inciplee, but from deep and unregarded wrongs, inju- ries, and sufferings. The people of England never came forward to advocate the alegract principles of Major Cartwright, although in 311 respects a just, upright, and patriotic man ; but when they saw and felt that the yoke of the ' Boroughmengers was laid heavy upon them, they very easily and very quickly shook it off. When their employment and wages were gone, and the Borough- mongers stood cnnvinced before the country, the Boroughmongers were quickly cashiered. Now. when the next opportunity comes, a further reform of the Parliament will be a much quicker and easier operation. I think it likely that a million of able.bodied men will very shortly be thrown out of employment, and their masters be again robbed of their incomes and their capitals. I see twenty bleat-furnaces are already blown out in Staffordshire ; and I suppose that throws twenty thousand persons out of bread, in one hape or another. Now, this is the money-screw which the Government and the Batik of England are again putting into operation. They are determined to compel the industri- ous clam.es to find 16,000 tons of standard gold ; but they know full well, as I often told them, that so much geld does not exist in nature, either under the pound or over the ground. They have got Jahn Bull's hands in the vice. I remember a caricature a few years ago, which represented honest John with his lianas in the vice, and the Duke of Wellington turning the screw with right good-will, and there was Moses behind emptying the poor fellow's pockets. This cericature was called A man illsused,'—and properly enough, I think ; but there was another caricature which represented honest John broken loose, laying about him, and belabouring the Duke and all his tribe with might and main. Well, this money-screw is being turned again at this very moment. The Staffordshire ironmasters are blowing out their furnaces and discharging their men, just as they did before, when the same screw was put into operation. But this is not the way to proceed : they should take their workmen by the hand, and demand justice from the Government. They all know now, that it is the money-screw that is working them."

The Birmingham Reformers would soon have much in their power-

" You have acted as leaders of the nation ; the nation has given you its con- fidence, and you have deserved it. If the terrible crisis should come, which I contemplate, the road is open before you. You may again act as leaders of the nation, with double effect. The nation knows your integrity, your pru- dence, your humanity, and your strict legality in all your proceedings; ad the nation will support you with an overwhelming power in any just and legal Measures which you may think necessary. You will require an expenditure of 5000/. as I told you a year ago; and that will place you in a condition to produce two millions of men, each in their respective towns, peacefully and legally demanding and supporting your measures. You will have to send round your delegate% in order to explain your views to the people ; and the whole of the inditetrious classes will peacefully arid legally assist you in the attainment of any just and legal objects which you may desire. The people want nothing but unity to make their legal power irresistible. Through you they will obtain unity. Two millions of the bravest and best men in Europe will answer to your call. They will appear under leaders appointed by you. They will clap their hands when you clap yours ; they will stamp with their feet when you stamp with yours. They will use no violence; they will humbly address, remonstrate, and petiion.' But the sound of their voices will be like the mut- tering of ten thousand thunders. But this cannot he done if the people are prosperous-. it would he criminal and imprudent in the highest degree to at- tempt it. It can only be effected when the industrious classes generally shall again be guiltily plunged into poverty, want of employment, misery, and star- vation."

A few months ago, he had warned Mr. Spring Rice against making the Joint Stock Banks the scapegoat for Government errors, as the Government did the old bankers in l82-

° 1 said to him, You are now putting the sciew upon the Joint Stock Banks; and if you continue to screw them to even one-tenth part of the extent that you screwed the old banks in 1825, you will tneet with a fearful fate—you will be either devoured alive or buried alive. When you attacked the old banks, they were full of maurvise horde, and fear of their credit, and low pride, and timillities of many kinds. They were like the Spartan boy, and denied that any thing was wrong, whilst the fox was gnawing at their entrails. But the Joint Stock Banks will have no thnidities of this kind. There are six hun- dred of them ; and they will come at you one of these days like bands of raven- ing wolves. They will bring with them six hundred deputations of rich direc- tors, rich proprietors, rich creditors, and rich debtors, of their respective con- cerns, all demanding justice at your hands; and, by Jove, if you refuse it, they bill either devour you alive in their fury, or bury you alive under their masses.' To be serious, my friends, I cannot help relying on this gentle operation upon the Government. I think that Mr. Spring Rice and Lord Melbourne will find out the wisdom of relaxing the screw in time, and preventing the fright- ful miseries and great political changes which otherwise must arrive. My friends, I will not detain you longer. Of course we must have a Reform of the House of Lords ; brit there will be no difficulty in that, if you can but once get a proper House of Commons. At present I see but little difference between the two Houses ; but I think they must both ultimately conform to the wishes of the nation," Scholefield reminded the company, that at one of their former meetings, in Beardsworth's Repository, he had expressed his wish for a collision with the Lords- !' His wish on that point was now being accomplished: and he must say he rejoiced at it. They had arrived at one of those periods described by Paine, as calculated to try men's souls: ' still, so far as the people were concerned, they had nothing to fear or shrink (tom. They did not wish to injure the Lords; nor would he lend himself to any scheme having for its object an unjustifiable interference with the right-, and privileges of any class in the community ; he would merely say to the Lords and their advocates, let them keep their hands out of his pocket, and he would keep his hands out of theirs. He would give to the Lords all that belonged to them ; but when they asserted that they were a privileged order, and as such empowered to usurp the legisla- tion of the country, then he disputed their rights and their claim to that respect about which they had been so clamorous. When lie looked to the House of Lords, he found they had been nearly all created during his own life- time; and if he inquired the cause of their elevation, he found that it was any thing but real merit to which they were to attribute their dignity. He had lately been reading the ineinows of Cu e l'eers, b, a r satl,aniel Waax ; arid if the causes there assigned for tl e el. yahoo of the great mass of the Peers were correct, these appointments were alike a disgrace to those who conferred and to the country which could tacitly submit to them. From all he had seen and read of the Peerage, he ikfied any man to point out am of

many whose elevation was not the reward of some gross politic-al or other pro- fligacy. And yet these were the men who said the People must bow down te and respect their decision."

He was at a loss to discover the blessings which, as it was said, the Peers conferred on the country— He could not see them, and he believed there were now hundreds of then- sands of his countrymen who were equally puzzled to recognize them. Ile was reading, only a few days before, of the evils produced by the Legislative Council

in Canada; for it would seem as if men who were gifted with these exclusive privileges of doing and saying as they pleased, without any responsibility, were much the same in all countries. He recollected when he was in that country, he was informed that these privileged gentlemen profited most extensively of the advantages of being in power. They got grants of land to the exclusion of every one else; and if Satan himself went out as Governor of Canada, arid favoured the measures of these men, he would be supported by them. Well, then, what was the consequence?—why, that country was on the eve of rebel- lion ; and all owing to the misconduct, obstinacy, and wickedness of the Legis- lative Council. The Lords were the Legislative Council of areat Britain. Now, with respect to the Tories generally, their conduct struck him as being

particularly contemptible. Look to them and to the new Pootlaw Bill : they

were daily writing and exclaiming against it, and all the obloquy they could scrape together from that measure they heaped upon the present Ministry. And what was the fact in reference to the conduct of this party before and during the passing of that bill. Why, they were most anxious and willing to avail them- selves of the supposed advantages arising from the measure; and whilst he and his friend Mr. Attwood were voting against it, these gentry were voting for it, although they now turned round and decried it, in hopes of injrring the Ministry. What contemptible conduct was this ! It was all, however, of* piece with the general tenour of their tactics.

Mr. G. F. Aluntz said, that the Tories in Birmingham were mis- taken in their notion that the Reformers were indifferent because they were quiet— He met one of these gentlemen the other day, who said to him, " Why you are very quiet." Yes, he replied, he was as quiet as a barrel of gunpowder: but if the gentleman or his friends would only put the spark to him, they would find where he was, and how he felt. Oh, no ! the Tories were greatly mis- taken, if they or his friends took his quiet for either satisfaction with their con- duct, or disgust or dieratisfaction with the people. It had always been an in- variable rule with him, never to light fire while the sticks were wet ; for he knew by experience that he injured iris lungs, and blew the smoke in his face. Wait until the sticks were dry. At present they were all prosperous, and little could or ought to be done. Did they ever know Englishmen think of politics when they were well off? No, it was no ...their custom to agitate in prosperity; nor was it always desirable they should do so. Ile feared, however, the pros- perity now enjoyed would not be of long duration. A few more short month, and the horizon would be darkened, and they would have such a state of things as, perhaps, had not been for years in this country. Ile did not wish to create any unnecessary alarm, but he gave it es his decided opinion, that if the saint system Was to be pursued by the Gov, meat relative to the currency, they would experience such a change as wow '1.1. overreach any thing they had ever. witnessed.

The first thing the people ought to get was freedom of :election and that they never would have without the Ballot— No man could vote independently without sacrificing himself, arid it was not to be expected that individuals would sacrifice themselves. It was said that the Ballot was un-English : and was it, he would ask, English that no man could do justice to his country without injury to himself? Vote by ballot would do a great deal, but the suffiage was not sufheiently extensive. In his opinion, they ought to have household suffrage. Give them vote by ballot and house- hold suffrage, and they would soon get a reform in the Lords, and every thing else they stood in need of.

Mr. Douglas, editor of the Birntingltam Journal, spoke on the sub-- . ject of Peerage Reform. In reference to the constitution of the Peer- age, he said— Need he remind them of the origin of the Peerage ? It was, they all knew, founded on conquest. (A roice—" On robbery.") It was. The first Lords were the small robbers, that followed in the train of the great robber—the jackalls that came in the track of the lion. But these men had a stake in the hedge, though it was a stolen one. They parcelled England amongat them, and they sat in Parliament by virtue of the fair acres they haul appropriated. These were the Barons by Tenure: after them catne the Barons by Writ, and and then the Barons by Patent. Here were two changes, and great ones, from the men who kept place in the Great Council of the nation by right, to those who appeared on the authority of the King's letter, or of a bit of parchnieat with a seal attached to it. The year 1715 brought another change: in that year, sixteen canny Scotehmen were added to the House, neither for their lands nor by the voice of the Sovereign, hut by the votes of their fellows. The Irish Union introduced eight-and-twenty Peers for life. The same event brought in the Irish Bishops—he did not know how many of these now remained; ten of them had been marked for felling, and some had been cut down. The Irish Bishops sat not after the fashion of the Scotch Peers or of the Irish Peers: their sitting was regular-II by what is called in the press, a rowster, and it lasted only far a session at a time. Here, then, were Hereditary Peers, Life Peers, Peere elect, d for a Parliament, Peers elected for a Session, Peers representing some- thin -for the English Bishoprics were, in reality, baronies of tenure—Peers re- pre, acing nothing—all mixed up together ; and this was the unchangeable Hue -e ! Why, mutability was its essential character. But was any such nicety of ataolnent necessary for our ease? Did not the fact, that for sixty years, with a short interval of six months, a Tory party had ruled the country, and that during that long lapse not one man of 'Liberal opinions, with the exception of eleven created in 1806, had been raised to the Upper House,—did not that plain fact, in the absence of all other reasoning, justify us in calling for a larze reform in the House of Lords ? Why, more than one-half of the house was tl:e creation of the last two Georges. The Barons of the Conqueror had long ago departed. The senior baron of England, Lord de Roos—a young man at pre- sent on his travels—went no further back than 1264. There were but three- and-twenty titles that bore date anterior to the Reformation ; eighty-two only were older than the Reformation. George the Third and George the Fourth made one hundred and ninety Lords between them. So much for the antiquity of the hereditary HoitQe.

Then there was the agument in terrorent—the lion in the way; which so sorely alarmed gentlemen of uncertain principles and single ladies of a certain age- " But," said Mr. Douglas, "we will not go out of the way to avoid this lion of our opponents; we will take him by the beard. Observe, gentlemen Tories, the inference is your own, not ours. For its legitimate consequenoe. you are responsible, not we. Now, we tell you plainly, that if the existence of an hereditary Kingship cannot be maintained, without at the same time en- sluing the nuisance of an hereditary Peerage—if the one—it is yourselves that say so, remember—be as utterly incompatible with the honour and happiness and liberty of England, as we firmly and truly believe the other to be—if the only condition on which we can enjoy either is to suffer both, without strudifi- cation, without alteration—then we boldly tell you, as free men and as English- men, sooner than submit to so degrading an alternative, we will sweep away the one as readily as we would sweep away the other !" But no such alterna- tive, he WILK persuaded, awaited them, anti therefore, they might cheerfully and confidently juiu him in &hiking " A thorough Reform of the House of Peers."

The other speakers were Messrs. Salt, Hadley, Pieice, Aaron, Hudson, and Muntz junior, the Chairman.