The quality of Tory eloquence is not improved since we

last treated our readers with some choice specimens. Our opponents, "greatly daring, dine," and are no doubt "judicious" in their choice of liquors ; but their oratory is still " flat" and " stale ;" and it would be an " Un- profitable" use of our space to occupy much of it with extracts from the speeches, which fill scores of columns in the Times and Morning Post. Some memoranda, however, of Tory proceedings in the pro- vinces, necessarily form a portion of the week's news ; and we pro- ceed to cull a few of the more noticeable passages from the speeches at the different dinners, which have taken place within a few days, with remarks critical and explanatory, as the commentators phrase it.

There was a grand " feed" of the North Lancashire Conservative Association, at Preston, on the 20th instant, under the presidency of that mushroom Peer, Bootle, Lord Skelmersdale. His Lordship is elT opinion that the Catholics are bound to support the Protestant Establishment in this country, because, be wisely observes, they can sever hope to " establish " their own church, and therefore, if the existing church were overthrown, there would be no religion in the country. It will scarcely be believed, unless we quote chapter and verse, that even a Tory Lord could talk such nonsense in the nine- teenth century. But here are the Peer's own words, as reported in the Tunes— The public were concerned in their church ; and indeed it required no argu- ment to show that they were deeply involved in the success of that esta- blishment. No persons were more deeply concerned in the maintenance of the Established Protestant Church than the Roman Catholics. No Roman Catholic, however sanguine he might be, could look forward to the establishment of the Roman Catholic religion in this country. The question Men was, whether the Established religion should continue, or whether there should be no religion, and the people should be left to the exercise of their own judgment."

So that, according to this sage personage, if the people were left to the exercise of their own judgment, there would be "no religion" in the land !

Lord Skehnersdale is the father-in-law of Lord Stanley ; and an. flounced to the diners, that Lord Stanley had perfected his apostacy, and gone ova:, body and soul, to the Tories.

" The meeting were no doubt well aware that Lord Stanley was now a eon- firnied Conservative. His Lordship had joined himself some years ago to a party iu whose measures he could then concur : circumstances, however, were not slow in occurring which rendered it necessary to his honour to make in- quiry how he would stand in the opinion of honourable men if he continued the connexion ; and his own upright mind at once told him, that he since he could no longer agree to the measures which were proposed by the Government of which he was a member, his honour and duty required that he should sepal ate himself from the men by whom they were originated ; and he left them ac- cordingly."

A petulant colleague at the Council.board, where his behaviour bad prepared Lord Althorp for the virulent vulgarity of his Thinablerig speech,—the " calamity " of Ireland,—branded with the mark of a de- serter from his party and his principles,—we wish the Tory party mid their leaders joy of Lord Stanley. We hope, however, that the Lan- cashire Liberals will at the next election split their votes bete een Mr. Townley and Mr. Patten, and send the renegade Lord to enjoy with the Cumberland Baronet the blessings of peaceful obscurity.

A Mr. Edward Braddyl propose& the toast of Lord Lyndhurst and the House of Peers. " The Duke " seems to be voted an old twaddler without pluck, by the more zealous Tories : his name, not unfn quently, is passed without notice at these Conservative festivals. Lyndhurst is the man for their purposes—the Duke has a great deal to lose ; and the horror of civil commotion, which forced him to yield to O'Connell in 1829, has not probably been diminished with his increasing years. The speech of the Reverend Mr. Carus Wilson, Vicar of Preston, was rather singular for a parson-

" Ile thought it a matter of very great importance that-no difference should exist in their opinions relative to the Church. The Church did not cbusist of the clergy, but of the whole body of Christian society ; the people let :se the Church, and the clergy were only the people's humble serrants ; and those who hurled a blow against the Church, did so against the interest of the whole mass of the people. He was not anxious to say more, but he considered it necessary and due to himself to offer some explanation for appearing there that day. if he had considered that he attended to celebrate a party field-day, he might have hesitated ere he came ; but tinder no circumstances could he be ashamed of his company."

Very condescending this in Mr. Wilson ! and very gratifying it must have been to Skelmersdale and Company that he was not ashamed to be seen among them. The Church, said the divine, consists of the people. Very good ; but suppose the people say that the Established Church is not that which they belong to,—suppose, which is the fact, that Ca'holics Bad Dissenters together outnumber the professed Church- men among his Majesty's subjects,—what becomes of the Church ? where are we to look for its identity with the "whole mass of the people ? "

Mr. Christopher Wilkins was more than usually sublime (lie spoke late in the evening) in replying to the toast, "The Lancas- ter Heart of Oak Club." He commenced his oration in these words- " My Lord and gentlemen, had I not many weeks ago pledged my wor d. in answer to a pressing invitation, that I would contribute the few rhetorical powers that I possess towards the furtherance of the peaceful and constitutional objects of this meeting, I should not have been your guest this evening."

Wilkins was evidently hired for the evening. When gentlemen get deep into their cups, they tolerate, nay, perhaps admire, conceited im- pertinence like the following- " Love of display always frustrates its own end. The Swiss .peasant, whose latticed window looks upon Nature's proudest palaces, and whose image is re- flected by her most splendid mirrors, passes heedlessly the mountain and the lake, because custom has stripped them of their majesty. There is no pheno- menon so sublime, no eloquence so commanding, that frequency will not de- grade, and repetition render monotonous. With a consciousness of this in view, you will not wonder that I tremble lest my garrulity should have become irk- some, and the little influence I possessed should have been diminished by its frequent exercise."

Pray, Mr. Wilkins, do not be bashful—continue to attend the Tory dinners and spout as heretofore. Your eloquence is "commanding "— you are a " phenomenon ;" to be sure you are "garrulous," but by no means "irksome "—for you make every body laugh. " The Operative Association" called forth a speech from a Brum- magem operative, ycleped Parker, which, we are assured, "was distin- guished for talent and shrewdness of observation." Pity that what follows is the only specimen of his eloquence that the reporters have preserved. Wonderful is the "talent and shrewdness of observation" it displays !

"The Established Church was peculiarly the church of the poor min, and they were determined to defend it against all aggressors. She was the iairest of the fair, the brightest among ten thousand. She had existed for eighteen hundred years; and for five hundred of that period was pure and apostolical, until a man (I think they called him Austin) came over with some Roman hardware, which got mixed among the pure gold. (" Hear I " and laughter.) This continued for some time, until the people got like cannibals: I don't know whether they ate men or not, but it is a fact that they were very fond of roast- ing them." (" Hear, hear !" and laughter.) Austin—who, in the name of Popery, was Austin ?" Mr. Parker could not mean "young Austin," or Mr. John Austin, the learned jurisconsult. Possibly he was thinking of St. Augustin. And this is the fellow who was brought to Preston to represent the intelligent, independent, hard.headed operatives of Birmingham !

The day after the Preston dinner, the " Operative Conservative Association" of Liverpool had a feast. This is the fourth or fifth exhibition of gormandizing by the Liverpool Tories within the last three or four weeks—the Lancashire Tories must have eat-iron stomachs. The club in question is a mere collection of Lord Sandon's voters. His Lordship will probably be turned out at the next elec- tion, to make room for Mr. James Brruieker ; but he is struggling desperately to keep up his interest. In the course of next week, the management of the Docks will pass into the bands of the Town- Council ; and this will cut away a mass of the corrupt influence by which he has been hitherto returned. Our readers remember the exhortation of the inspired Sir Roger Greisley to the Tories, when the Liverpool Dock Bill was in Committee last. session—" Shall

Sandon sit for Liverpool?" The Bill was rejected ; and the general opinion is, that Sir Roger understood its real merits, and that" Sandon must go." Of course his Lordship was the prime spokesman at the Operatives dinner. He told tlie company that they rejoiced in the humility of their lot- " They were free from those feelings and habits of thought which in some countries were so prevalent ; they were not actuated by the desire of the French- man to pull down every thing to his own level; they rather rejoiced to see something above them—to have some object after which to strain every faculty of mind and body to reach. They had that noble ambition which was glad to see placed at a proud elevation some preeminent object which they might endeavour to attain to, rather than anxious to bring down every thing to the dead level at which, after all, a greater part of the community must, in every country, by necessity, and by the dispensation of Providence, be placed."

This is the mawkish style of the stories which are circulated still in some parts of the country, for the instruction of the peasantry—the dwellers in towns of every degree would spurn them. Therein the parsons are described as pious, the squires as bountiful, and the poor contented with their poverty, and as happy in their rags as the day is long. Lord Sandon of course revelled in characteristic cant, put forth for a party purpose.

"lie only appealed to their hear ts: would they follow the vain theories of the day, which would have every !opt' provide for himself the means of religious instruction, in order to relieve the rich from the burden o£ providing for the religious instruction and consolation of the poor—to destrey all those endow- ments which the piety of their ancestors had provided, and to leave every man to shift for himself ? (Vheers, and cries of "No, ! ") They were not la- bouring- under any excess of the means of religious instruction and consolation just now : on the contrary, it was all they could do, with the means at their disposal, to keep pace with the constantly-increasing wants of a growing popu- lation. How was it that men making a pi ofession of religion evinced a dispo• sition to sweep away the endowments which had been set apart for this impor- tant purpose, when all the efforts they could make were barely sufficient to inert the wants constantly thrown upon their hands? Ile did not wish to enter more largely into this question. He touched, as he had before remarked, upon higher and holier feelings than were congenial to the atmosphere, pure and temperate as it was, which they were breathing."

The class of persons who attended this meeting is sufficiently indi- cated by the following extract from the speech of Mr. Holme, the same person whom we mentioned last week as figuring at the Liver- pool Tradesmen's Association- " He would beg to observe, that the freemen of this town had been grossly abused ; but he could never banish from his memory that the freemen of Liver- pool had chosen as their Representative a Canning, while the ten pounders had chosen a Ewart. He would ask them to look on this picture and on that; and then lie believed they would join with him in the wish which he entertained with all his heart and soul, that they should soon have another ilfember who would represent their opinions in the Great Council of the nation."

The difference between the two parties in Liverpool is here correctly described. The householders are Liberals : the freemen—so notorious for their poverty and venality—are those on whom Lord Sandon relies for support.

At Droitwich in East Worcestershire, at Maldon in Essex, and at Leeds, the Tories have also had grand dinners. At the two former, nothing passed worthy of being recorded even in a newspaper paragraph. At Leeds, Sir John Beckett was the "lion," and harangued his con- stituents at great length ; hut we look in vain through his speech for a new fact or an original idea, or an old idea well expressed. Mr. John Stuart Wortley prophesied, that by and by the Whigs would go over to the Tories, and make common cause against the Radicals. A few of them will, we dare say ; and the sooner, perhaps, the better.

"The present Goverment and their unnatural compact could not long exist under such a display of public feeling against them ;_ and very soon they must resign ; when he had no doubt that a Government would be formed out of materials whole conduct and integrity would be a guarantee to the nation that property might rest on a secure and firm basis. And he would tell them, that whenever that change occurred—and it could not be long before it would occur—the Whigs would desert and betray their only chief supporters, the Radicals. When the Radicals could no longer give them effective support, they would leave them in the lurch, and join the Conservatives."

We have now supplied our readers with specimens of the arguments which the Tories are employing against the Liberals in the provinces. Their tone is generally that of insolence and triumph. They boast that at length they have made an impression on the working classes ; but we feel assured that this is asserted for the purposes of deception. The men whom they bribe into their associations will expect the usual "compliment" at the next election ; and then it will be seen, that the sympathies of the mass of the people have not been excited in favour of Toryism. Could the Tories promise the people extended suffrage, reduction of taxation, and cheap bread, then indeed they might hope to make way among the masses; but as it is, through all their feigned condescension, the haughty spirit of aristocracy is transparent.