tat Cumin).

Eight hundred Liberals of Halifax gave their Member, Mr. Charles Wood, and their unsuccessful candidate, Mr. Protheroe ; a public dinner on the 30th ultimo. There was no room in Halifax large enough to accommodate all the company; so they dined at several inns, and afterwards assembled in a temporary wooden building, erected for the occasion in the Woollen Hall. A spacious gallery was put up for the ladies, and was quite filled. Mr. J. Ackroyd presided. Among the persons of mark who were present, we see the names of Mr. Gaskell, Mr. Blackburne, Mr. Fielden, Mr. Baines Mr. Gully, Mr. H. Cavendish, and Mr. James Simpson. Mr. Wood and Mr. Protheroe were the chief speakers. Mr. Wood regretted that so many good bills had been rejected by the Lords last session, but dwelt with much complacency on the few that had been carried. He felt alarmed at the agitation of the Peerage Reform question, and the disunion it would pro

duce in the Liberal ranks— •

Ile wished, as a sincere Reformer, to press on them the extreme irnpolicy of urging forward such a question as the reform of the House of Lords—a question upon which they were not all agreed. If they wished to carry through the House of Lords any measure short of a revolutionary change of the constitution, they coald only do so by the unanimous exertions of the Reformers of the empire. Let them, then, act upon those measures upon which they were all agreed, and not, by urging those upon which differences existed, diminish that power which they possessed. He felt convinced that Englishmen had the power to obtain from the Legislature every beneficial measure they really desired, provided they temperately, firmly, and constitutionally exerted themselves to achieve them. The Lords had before yielded to the desires of the people, when they themselves were opposed to them; and let the people, therefore, now turn their attention to the means which they possessed, by which their present demands could be enforced ; but, above all things, let them not take front that power by exhibiting dissensions or differences of opinion regarding what they wanted. There were many old men amongst them, but there were none so old as that they could not profit from the experience of the past. He would ask them to look back to the circumstances of the last six short years, and they would find what effect dissensions and disunion amongst parties had produced. The Tories had been united before the year 18;28, and they were thus enabled to hold their power undisputed and absolutely; but what had occurred ? They had fallen out on the Catholic question, and the consequence had been that their power had tottered for a year, and that their disunion had tffected their dismissal from office in the year 1830. Again they united when the Reform Bill was introduced by Earl Grey; but the Reformers united also, and their efforts were too strong for their opponents. In 1834, however, an unfortunate, and he would say an unreasonable, difference of opinion had occurred amongst the Reformers ; and that disunion had, as had been often atttsted awl acknowledged by the Tories, led to dismissal front office of Lord Melbourne's Adwinfstration ; when Sir Robert Peel boasted that his hopes of ruling were founded upon kis opinion that this dissension would continue. But the Reformers were too wise for him ; they had been taught a lesson of which they derived the benefit, and by again uniting, they had once more driven the Tories from office. And he would now ask, from the evidence they all possessed, upon what basis was it that the Tories founded their hopes of a return to office'? Upon the hope that they would be able to effect another disunion amongst Reformers. They were well aware that dissension was the signal for the downfal of Liberal government, and for the triumph of Conservatism ; and he would ask, would the Reformers of the empire be so unwise, so foolish, so impenetrable to their own interests, as to play the game for their opponents? He was sure they mould not do so. Ile was sure that they too well knew their interests to be betrayed into the snare. He was sure that their principles and practice would be an unity of opinion and of action : and in asking them to observe such an union, he asked them not for any sacrifice of principle—he should feel ashamed to do so at any price. All he asked of them was, to unite strenuously and firmly to procure those beneficial measures which were for the common good. Let those who pleased hold their own opinions, but let the efforts of all be united and combined to gain from the common enemy that which would be for the common benefit. With respect to the Ballot, Household Suffrage, and Annual Parliaments, he had never concealed his disapproval of them ; but he only opposed them because lie thought that they would not have the beneficial effect expected from them, not because he was opposed to the extension of popular rights.

Mr. Protheroe assured the company that he bad not changed his opinions since he addressed them as a candidate for their suffrages

He had certainly not become a Tory, nor had he taken an immoveable station amongst the Conservative Whigs; but at the same time, lie had not associated himself with those who have been described as " going the whole hog." He however hoped, that in combining the principal characteristics of Whig and Radia cal, he would secure to himself the esteem and support of the majority of the electors of that borough. It had ever been one of his maxims, that the Government of the day ought to extend the political power of the people in proportion to their intelligence. Those who perished on the field, or on the scalibld, contending for liberty and the right of thinking as they plea,ed on religious subjects, were intended to serve as examples. NI'llen lie supported the &form Act, it was not because he thought it would destroy the institutions of the country, but because Ite thought It would tend to support them. He perfectly concurred with their Representative in Isis views of the great benefits that had resulted from it. Ile had not been an idle spectator of the late proceedings in Parliament; but t it would argue bad taste n him to occupy their time, after the able and intelligent statement of their Representative on the subject ; and it would be equally indecorous in hint to dwell in detail on those proceedings, seeing they were rendered of no avail by the Lords. Many persons thought Ministers should adopt measures to introduce a change in the House of Peers. However such a measure might be deprecated, there was no one that could not perce've that the House of Lords had been guided and governed by principles entirely opposite to those of the House of Commons. It became a matter of serious reflection for them to consider well the course they might have to pursue, in the event of the House of Lords adhering to the same line of conduct they hail recently displayed. He was aware, when speaking on the subject, he was treading on delicate ground, and that were a Conservative present, he would anticipate that he was about to create a theme of discord : in that, however, he would find himself mistaken. Ile had alluded to that delicate question, because he knew and felt that the Whigs and Radicals did not differ as to the grand object they would attain.

Mr. Blackburne, the Member for Huddersfield, was clearly of opinion, that there ought to be a Reform of the House of Lords. e It was said by some of his friends, that to reform the Lords would be to overthrow the Constitution ; but there he entirely disagreed with them. It was however of the greatest importance, that this question should not be allowed to break up the Reform party; and Mr. Blackburne eloquently enforced the necessity of union.

Mr. Baines, Mr. Gully, and Mr. Fielden, also addressed the company.

According to the Tory accounts,—which as yet remain without contradiction, but which must be exaggerated,—there was a great deal of drunkenness and rioting at this dinner. Bottles were thrown about the room ; the guests kicked and struck each other ; the ladies in the gallery, who were admitted at 2s. fid. a head, shrieked with alarm ; and the whole scene was as noisy and disgraceful as can well be imagined.

The Halifax Radicals had a separate dinner on Monday, in consequence of a disagreement with the Whigs, who refused to invite Mr. Feargus O'Connor to the Wood and Protheroe dinner, although an arrangement to that effect bad been concluded with the leaders of the Radical party. This refusal determined the Radicals to have an exhibition of their strength; and Mr. O'Connor was invited together with Mr. Protheroe to a public entertainment. Feargus was escorted into the town by a considerable number of persons, who went out to meet him on the road from Huddersfield. Mr. Protheroc, who was visiting a gentleman in the neighbourhood, came in without parade ; but he is the candidate and the favourite of the Halifax Radicals. The party dined at several inns, and assembled about five in the evening at the theatre ; the boxes of which were filled with ladies, and the pit with a crowd of Radicals. the stage being reserved for the gentlemen who were to take a leading part in the business of the meeting. On the stage was a table covered with fruit and wine--according to the reporter of the True Sun (which paper gave exclusively, on Wednesday, a long account of the proceedings), it was "groaning under the accumulated weight of sundry bottles." Mr. Michael Stocks junior was Chairman ; arid as soon as the company were seated, he came forward to the footlights, by desire of the audience, and explained the reasons for the separation of the Radicals from the Whigs on that occasion—" why the Radicals, who had been hitherto in partnership with another firm, bad thought it necessary to set up on their own account." He said that the Radicals would gladly have avoided disunion— It had been, he was proud to say, their anxious care to avoid every thing that might have the remotest tendency to cause disunion amongst the Liberal party; and they were the more solicitous on this point, because they well knew how fashionable it now was to torture every act of the Radicals which evinced the slightest tendency to independence into a desire to break with the Whigs, and abandon the public interests to the common enemy. If proof were wanting of the conciliatory spirit which influenced the public conduct of the Radicals of Halifax, he might refer to a recent circumstance, which doubtless was in the recollection of those whom he addressed, and in which the Radical party, notwithstanding the indignity which had been put upon them by the Whigs, had displayed a forbearance which nothing but their devotion to the public cauae, ear/ their anxiuus desire to avoid di-union, could under any circumstances have justified. He of course alluded to the conduct of the Whig party, who, after having entered into an engagement with the Radicals, that Mr. O'Connor, as an influential member of their body, should be invited to the dinner to Meyers. Wood and Protheree, afterwarda re.cinded the resolution of their own Committee, and violated their compact. ( Cries of" Shame, shame !") The Whigs, therefure, having by this ail virtually excluded the Radicals of Halifax from their entertainment, the Radicals determined to have a dinner of their ewn, if it were for no other purpose than to show that they are not so contemptible and insignificant a party as some might seem inclined to believe. The time had arrived when it was necep•sary that the Radicals of Halifax should assert their claim to some little share in the political concerns of their own borough, and when they ahould convince others that, in the management of public affairs, they as a party were determined not to be wholly overlooked. But while they determined on setting up on their own account, they had no objection to do a little business in concert with their " ancient ally " the Whigs, provided the terms were mutually advantageous, and that the " reciprocity " was not " all on one side." There was one thing, however, which the Radicals had determined should form the basis of the treaty.—namely, that they should have the choice of at least one of the Members. They felt that this was an article in the treaty, which from their position they were entitled to insist on. Neither of the other two parties could get in a Member without their assistance. It was not, therefore, too great a concession to expect, that the Whigs would, in return for that assistance, support the candidate selected by the Radicals. They were naturally inclined to support a Whig in preference to a Tory; but if the Whigs expected their support without giving any thing in ieturn, it 'would be completely a one•sided bargain, and one which the Radicals would never submit to. Come what might, the Radicals of Halifax were determined to have a Member of their own. ( Great cheering and waving of hats and handkerchiefs.) The result of that day's proceedings had decided the point & result, the effects of which would be felt as long as Halifax existed.

Some loyal toasts followed, and then Mr. Protheroe's health was drunk.That gentleman replied in an adroit speech, calculated to please his Radical friends without offending the Whigs. On the Ballot he was decided, on Triennial Parliaments and Extended Suffrage not

so clear; but he may be put down as a supporter of all three. On Peerage Reform he spoke as follows " It appears to me pretty certain, that the majority in the House of Lords 'will not yield to the present House of Commons, and that an appeal will be made in a short time—I should say within a year—to the constituencies of the empire. What then may be the question which will excite public interest, I cannot conjecture ; but as I feel assured that in the conduct of the Lords there 'will be a decided resistance to the People, I conclude that one of the most interesting questions which will come under the discussion of the People of England will be Peerage Reform. I am well aware, and I have no lirsitation in telling you, that the inclination of my mind, in theory at least, and probably in practice also, is to a change in the constitution of the House of Lords. (Tremendous cheering.) I am not one of those who undervalue the change that was brought about by the the Reform Act ; but I can also say, that it disturbed the whole balance of the Constitution, and that the cohesive principle which bound together the two Houses of the Legislature has been destroyed. That cohesive principle was the power of the Lords over the Commons—the influence the Aristocracy had in the return of Members of Parliament. However prejudicial this was to the interests of the People, it produced concord and harmony in the action of the two Houses. We now have presented to us a spectacle, and we are living under a constitution equally unknown in England as it is unexampled in any other country. We have an independent House of Commons, an independent House of Peers—both originating in different sources, both directed by different principles, and both terminating in entirely different conclusions. I will not pretend to say what the operation of public opinion may be upon the House of Lords; but I confess to you, that from every sign of the times, from the progress of public opinion, and from the conduct of the Lords ever since the passing of the Reform Act, it will soon be the duty of every wise statesman and every prudent elector, to consider whether it will not be desirable to introduce into the House of Lords exactly the same influence of democratic and public opinion as formerly the House of Lords had in the Commons. Of all questions which have been presented to our minds, I consider this probably the most complicated, and upon which it would be most injudicious to pronounce a definite opinion. I am not ashamed, therefore, of confessing to you that I shall be guided hereafter in my conduct and votes, if returned to Parliament, by circumstances and by the feelings of the people at the time."

In this latter sentence Mr. Protheroe indicates the course which we gather from his speech he will pursue on most questions—he will not go counter to the popular voice. He declared his approbation of the new Poor.law, however ; and was assailed with a storm of hisses ; but be was prepared for them, and regained the good-will of his audience by complimenting them on the manner in which the old law had been generally administered in the North, and representing the degradation it entailed upon the labourers in the Southern counties, where he had resided and formed his opinions, as an apology for approving of the Amendment Act.

The Vice-President, Mr. Rawson, proposed the health of Feargus O'Connor, in a speech which displayed much Radical soreness at the conduct of the Whigs

" The Radical party had no desire to create disunion amongst the Liberal party; but the shameful conduct of the Whigs rendered it imperative on them to pursue the course which they had now adopted. • • * The Whigs talked of their desire to conciliate the Radicals, and yet Mr. Charles Wood, the Whig Member for the borough, took an opportunity to insult the Radicals when they were not present to defeud themselves. He entertained no disrespect for the Whigs in their individual capacity—he spoke of them as a political body ; but he, for one, would never allow himself to be trampled on by any set of men. The Radicals were quite competent to conduct their own affairs, and be trusted they would soon have an opportunity of proving that they were so. With respect to Mr. Protberoe, he trusted that on the next vacancy he weuld be returned for Halifax."

Mr. O'Connor was most enthusiastically received ; and entertained the company with a tirade against Ministers and the Poor-law, and in favour of Universal Suffrage, miugled with some jokes, which seem to have told well.

When the health of the Ministers was proposed, there was nothing but shouting and hissing. The Chairman went to the front of the stage, and said he knew there was no disrespect meant to himself having drawn forth this expression of public opinion, he was satisfied, and withdrew the toast, which he had proposed merely because be found it on the list The party broke up in good-humour and good order. There ss as no annerfluous hilarity at this meeting. Captain Pechell had a meeting with his constituents at Brighton, on Tuesday evening, and addressed them in a speech which, the Brighton Gazette says, entitles him to the character of a Whig-Radical supporter of Ministers.

Mr. Brotherton, M. P. for Salford, has sent a circular address to his constituents, giving an account of his Parliamentary conduct during the past session. In the course of it he announces his intention to vote for Peerage Reform unless the Lords mend their courses.

Mr. Hodgson Hinde (lately Mr. Hodgson) the Member for Newcastle, wrote a letter to Mr. Beaumont, maintaining that the last election at Newcastle was a symptom of a reaction in favour of Toryism, and that the Irish Church question was that on which the election turned in his favour. This letter has produced a reply from Mr. Beaumont, who sticks to his original opinion. He says " The questions asked on the hustings (I speak as an experienced electioneerer) are usually a mere farce. The election is generally decided before the appearance on the hustings. Your impressive mode of canvassing the freemen, the grateful freemen, was not without its reward ; and I hope the hint will not be lust next time on the Liberal party. I repeat, my dear Sir, that part of my letter which seems to have given you particular offence, that the Irish was forgotten in the individual question.' Conservative duplicity has insidiously chosen to put forward that the abettors of Catholic rights are the supporters of Catholic ascendancy. The assertion on their parts is false. Since you once represented Newcastle on Reform principles and supported the Reform Bill, I am sure you would not join in so odious and calumnious a charge. You must have known (for I am aware of the shrewdness of your talent) the necessary consequences of the Reform Bill in doing justice to Ireland, relieving her religion from unconscientious payments, and raising her inhabitants, hitherto uselessly called fellow countrymen, to an equal consideration in all respects with ourselves. I cannot insult my neighbours—I could not allow them to be so insulted, as to permit them to be degraded into a chosen specimen of English illiberality, without raising a pen to defend them."

About seventy Essex farmers dined together at Epping on Tuesday. They were hearty Radicals, and toasted the Ballot, Short Parliaments, and Extended Suffrage, with much fervour.

At Leominster, Alderman Atkins, of London, offers himself in the Conservative interest, along with Lord Hotham ; and Mr. Bish and Mr. Charles Pearson in the Radical interest. For many years this borough has returned Members of opposite principles.