Zbe Metropolis.
A public entertainment was given to Mr. Wyse, "ALP., at Woolwich, on Wednesday, in the Theatre of that town, as a mark of respect for his consistent and powerful advocacy of a national system of education. The chair was filled by Captain Head, R.N. ; supported by Mr. Wyse, Mr. Beale, 31.P., and Mr. Barnard, M.P.
The counsel of King's College have determined to add a course of instruction in the arts of construction to the department of civil engineering and science as applied to the arts and manufactures.
A working-class dinner to Messrs. Lovett and Collins, in honour of their release from Warwick Gaol, was given on Monday at the White Conduit House ; Mr. Wakley in the chair. Mr. Lovett, who sat on the right of the Chairman, carried the marks of his imprisonment in his delicate and attenuated appearance. Mrs. Lovett and her daughter were present. So was Mr. '1'. Duncombe, M.P. for Finsbury ; to whose exertions, in a great degree, the ultimate abatement of the rigours of their confinement was owing. Upwards of twelve hundred persons sat down to a substantial repast.
After the cloth was removed, Mr. Wakley proposed, as the first toast, " The People, and the full measure of their rights ;" whieli was received with great cheering. The next toast was the health of the Queen ; but it was met with considerable opposition. What Mr. Wakley said, and how the meeting acted, is described as follows by the &li ne present was a very peculiar epoch in the history of the country. The most powerful nation on the face of the globe was at the prevent moment wider petticoat government. (Laughter.) Did he, far one, deplore that ? Not at all; it was the best of all kinds of government; and if men would but be ruled by their wives they would seldom do wrong. (Laughter.) There was a little wife in this country who was then President, and the Stewards were anxious on the present occasion that her health should be drunk, lie was sure that toast would meet with the approbation of every person present. It was a splendid position to occupy the throne of so great a country as Eng. land, but it was more splendid still for the possessor of that throne to inherit a heart that felt for the distress of the people. If' thee President of the nation forgot her duty, she ought to be told of it. She was surrounded doubtless by tenons who, basking in the sunshine of courtly corruption, seldom, for their own purposes, let her hear the truth. (Cheers.) Ent they would Hot allow her to be blinded as to what was passing ; and she would see in public records of the day, what the desires and feelings of the people were then at meetings of the present kind, where Englishmen were enthusiastically congregated for the purpose of paying tribute to private worth, and the defenders of public principles ; and the people should tell their President what were their feelings with regard to that President's public duties. In proposing to the present meeting the toast of " Theseen," there had been an addition made to it which, he believed, all would skein to he of imporl ;nice. (Utica ."3's, no !") Ile agreed with the person who said " No, no!" and he would he the last to propose the toast of the Sovereign of the country if the conduct of the Sovereign hod not been such as to obtain his approval. (Great cattlemen, cries of' " 0ft, oft!" and" Hear the (?utirman ! '7) All that he asked Of the meeting wits to hear the toast ; and if they would not, his duty was ffl!led. (Considerable confusion; amid tohich Mr. 1kily said) " Suppose it Is proposed."—(incretesed confusion.) " Only hear the toast, and then de termine for yourselves whether you will adopt it or not."—((Jries " lVo, no; no heath of Me Queen !") It' they did not support him in the discharge Of his duty,• lie must abdicate his seat. (Long and continued cheering.) A toast had been put into his hand by one of the Stewards—a man whom he had known for many years ; and he believed that a more respectable man did not exist; nod he believed that the toast had met with the approval and general concurrence of the Stewards. (Cries of " ") Hooch was not the case, then let the Stewards that were opposed to it hold up their hands; and if it Wu decided against, he would not put it. (Great confusion.) He only asked the meeting to hear the toast before they condemned it. It was—. The Queen sad Prince Albert ; and may they soon, as parents, feel sympathy for those who, having children, are confined in prison for political offences." (Great cheering.) He thought the meeting would not dislike the toast when they had
beard it. In every nation there must be some ruling power, some one should be selected as their guide. He was there as their direction-past, aud when he pointed they ought to obey. " The toast was then carried ; only twelve bands being held up against it."
Mr. Wakley next proposed the health of William Lovett and John Collins. Mr. Lovett, he said, was one of the National Convention of the working classes ; and nine or tcn years ago, he had resisted, even to the sacrifice of all he possessed, rather than obey a law in the making of which he had no participation— Ile was drawn in the Militia, and for refusing to serve he was taken before the Alagistrates: they said they would make him serve : he relliised to do so, stating that lie would never be the man to cut throats by hire. If a foreign army came, he expressed his readiness to fight if the quarrel Ivas just ; but he leas the last man tido, would cut the throats of his conntrymen because they demanded their rights. (Great cheering.) When the Mieeistretes fonnd they had so determined a man to deal with, they were glad to get rid of him, and desired the officers to turn him sent. Off he went—ona st, aid hi, furniture too ; for immediately after he divappeand from the Police -office, his furniture disappeared from his house. (Cries (!i' Shame, Ado, .'") It was a shame, hut It was a still greater shame that tie y allowed it. Nidwithstanding this, Lovett was not to be intimidated, but the union ()I' the working classes, and aided in the support of every principle that had or its object the welfare of the people. They knew what he had lately endure:1 in consequence of the support of his principles; and Mr. Wakley thongllt, if any thing was wanted to shuw the necessity of an alteration of that repr,-sentat ivy system, it was to be (Mind in the treatment which the political offenders had lately received. The Spanish Inquisition was a treat compared with it. There, persons were killed in a short time; but here, the treatment political offenders received caused a lingering death—such a death as a poor Coroner like himself could not take cognizance of after it had taken place. (Conlinued elm.rs.) Mr. Lovett returned his thanks in so low a tone of voice, owing to the debilitated state of' his health, that be was scarcely audible. Ile dwelt briefly on his treatment in prison, and expressed his determination to continue to assist in supporting the People's Charter— Life at best was but storm and clouds, with a few spots of slItIS11111e ; hilt It NV.Is a source of ,:ongratulation, after all, to know that you suffered in a righte ous cause. For what, he would issk, had he been punished 's For telling the truth—for not allowing truth to be converted into falsehood, in order that Whiggery might be placed upon a more sectire foundation. He was still as
convinced as lie ever was, that most of the vices ima crimes with which the
country abounded were to be fraud to eorrupt and exclusive legislotion; and he was equally convinced that the plssing: of the People's Charter into me law, would lead to the formation of a Parliament composed of good num of all classes, who would at once put an end to the evils of poverty and oppression— :Ind devise means by which prosperity would gladden t heir fru i i fo I land. While he %vas the advocate for thosc cliiinges, which he believed would oldmatcly take place, he was not the advorate for violence or destruction. ( vrrs)— for, not withstanding the insolent assertion of Lord John nssell, that Le had endeavoured to excite the people to overturn the laws, he had ever been, and ever would be, anxious to guard against anarchy on the one hand and corruption on tbe other. He eid not mean tel say that the Radical.', in the pursuit of their object, bad not expresSed them ,:elves strongly, and in miny instances acted improperly ; but while he sernpled not to say such emcluet had taken Oar.), :old was calculated to do injory to tiluir Call At., and dri ve some of their brVatest ornaments from their ranks, he could :int conceal from his recollection ibe otonerous heartrending tales of mi-(,:ry ii I itch heard, and which, in many instances, he was afraid were too Its It sv,s to be hoped that the noljlrity of the Radicals, by the prieent time, saw the necessity Mr substitutia:; eseement in the piece of empty elotres and violence. (('.4,eo.) A gre:: (1.::,1 had beea said about a reorganization. Ile hoped he should not he uomdderett presumptuous if he expressed a hope that shortly he anil his peioseented friend titeliies would be able to put forward their views on that su',jeet ; for though the imprisonment of Warwick Gaol had injured his health, it had not tamed Ins resolotim. Alluding to the petition of himself and Collins oa the suls.'wet of their treatment in prison, he said that every ailegation in that le ',Won was true ; and when Parliament, upon the motion of Mr. II unite applied for the rules mid regulations of Warwick Gaol, an old dietdry table was substituted for the one then in use. I he comknined iii stmeig terms the inequality of punishment at present awarded for the same offences, owing to the differences in Magist erial regulations in diderent prisons ; and expressed a hope that the notice drawn to this state of things by their imprisonment would produce an uniformity of system.
Mr. Collins entered more minutely into their treatment in prison, and described particularly the sufferings of his colleague 1,9v eft— The Magistrates published in their dietary table that he and his fellow prisoner bad half a pound of meat twice a week: although the flirt wit, tliat they had none for nearly six months, except three days when he was in the hospital, mid on Christmas-day, when they were allowed a bit of mit tt by purchasing it themselves. (llm,rs of laughtcr.) When they complained of it to the Magistrate, they were told, " It you hii unit have the Ineat in a solid, you have it in a soluble state ; you have it in the soup." (arral laughter.) Ile replied, " Whatever may have been put in the soup, there is in meat in it when it comes to us; " and, in fact, the soup was of that nature that he could not partake of it—it made him iil. II is friend Lovett having a great craving for animal final, :tttempted to force a little of it into his stomach, and was congratulating himsch' very much one Sunday: when he was taking his soup, and he his bread and waver, that he had some animal food in it; Ina it happened. to cause rather a different sensation upon his tongue than other Ida& of animal food hod done, so he tl,t needs take it out to look at it ; cud it proved to be a very tine black beetle. (Lought, r, owl cries of" !..) So that, notwithstanding the great desire Air. Lovett had for animal food, he could not take it in a soluble state any more. (Great laughter.)
expressed his determination to bring the subject of their treatmeut in prison before the notice of Parliament next session
Notwithsomdiee all he had endured, he was not less a Radical than when he was first laid bold of by the myrmidons of the Government. (Loud cheers.) lie was not less disposed to lift up his voice, and to denounce the unjust conduct of that individual who, instead of protecting the people, exercised that power with which he was intrusted to oppress them.
The health of Mr. T. Duncombe was drunk with great cheering. lie returning thanks, Mr. Duncombe alluded to the conduct of the Government in their prosecution of the Chartists, with great severity. Referring to the manner in which the Queen's health had been drunk, he said—
Ile trusted that when the time arrived that her Majesty had an heir to the Throne, the Ministry would advise her to take that opportunity of issuing an act of amnesty to all political offenders upon so joyous an oecasiou, ibr joyous it would be, because it would extinguish the hopes of Hanover. (Great cheering.) He would tell the Goverument, that there might be rejoicings an
the palace and among the aristocracy, and there might be illuminations in different towns, and the bells of the churches might ring merry peals; but they might depend upon it there would be no rejoicings among the workingclasses, so long as their relations and friends were kept in the prisons of Northallerton and elsewhere. There would be no rejoicing unless the prison-doors were set wide open. (Loud cheers.)
Mr. NVakley took occasion, before he left the meeting, to express his sentiments, in strong language against the conduct of the Whig Ministers to the Chartists
" What, in the name of God, do they mean? Is it their intention to deter men from the expression of their opinions by the fear of gaols and dungeons?" -Why, what was their own conduct ten years ago? What was the language they held at public meetings, when they moved fitment the working-classes in their ranks, and when they besought the friendship, the feelings, and the aid of the bone, the marrow, and the sinews of England? Was there any delicacy of expression to be observed then ? No, the exclamation then was, " The Bill, the whole Bill, and nothing but the Bill!" and "Down with the Tories!" More than that, the means were unscrupulous that were to be used—you were to pump upon them, and pelt them with brickbats; ay, and fighting-men were to come up from Kt nt to the extent of limadreds and thousands. Bat MOW that the men who held those doctrinee were quietly ensconced in their seats, what is the language they hold towards those who advocate an extension of the suffrage? "Water-gruel, and nothing but weter-gruel—put them into stone jugs—into gaols—into dungeons—reshain them by every tntans in your power, so as to prevent other men from declaring what are their principles! Gentlemen, I, for one, will not submit to this treat ment. (Load cheeriv.) I say, that in the whole history of England, throughout the entire history recorded in type, a more intliputts abandonment of principle, a more intionous specimen of tergiver,:ation, Inis never been manitasted in the entire history of the world. Our principle was this—not the principle of the Reform Bill, but the principle of tie ItUltCt representation of the people in Parliament ; and we said this= We are content to take that bill es a first step; but if we find that the people are not represented by it, then we are at liberty to go me aud advance until the object we have et heart shall be attained.' (cheers.) I tc,k you, is that object attained 2 No, of course it is not. You have a worse house of CO1111110118 than pnt ever had; and the Reform Act Las wholly tidied. You have got in the House of Commons now two sets of men—the landlords amid the mill-lords-11m landlords and the manufacturing lords; and the object of the two sets of lord: is to raise themselves at the expenile of the working-people. Well then, what I want is this—and don't talk to me of Universal Suffrage, or that or the other suffrage—but what I want is the faithad representatien of the people,_ and I will never be CUlltellt Until I have got it."
After some other speeches had been made, the festivities of the day concluded with a ball.