wish for the prosperity of both is- Lord Stanhope begged leave to congratulate them on the glorious victory they had so lately obtained over bigotry and intolerance, in the house of Lords:-that liberty must ere long produce another still more glorious and decisive victory-the grand use of those victories would be to show us how to gain othersthe art was very simple when it was known-it was neither more nor less than keeping together, and acting together the victory gained the other day was not gained by any sect, nor by the dissenters, but by the friends of religious liberty throughout the country-He besought them in their prosecution of this the most glorious of all glorious causes, ever to keep in mind the fable of the bundle of sticks, which, while united, could never be broken. He concluded by proposing them a toast― "A long pull, a strong pull, and, "above all, a pull altogether." On the health of Lord Donoughmore being drunk, Mr. Hutchinson in the absence of his noble friend, returned thanks in a short speech, replete with good sense and liberality. Mr. Grattan spoke to the following effect ;—“ I am grateful for the distinction you have paid me in drink ing my health. I am grateful for the manner of it. I thank you for the honour you have personally done me. I thank you more for the principle upon which your having done it, did yourselves still greater honour. That principle is great, and will endure, while the prejudices that oppose it are necessarily low, mean, and short lived. They have all more or less the principle of death within them; and all their malice, inveteracies and violencies will not make them the less mortal. They may rage or sleep, but they must die. The right we claim is simple; it relies upon no reference to another, but is self-evident. If a man has not a right to worship his God according to his conscience-if this right be wrested from him, what are those you leave him? If a man can justly deprive another of this right, where is the tyranny you may not legalize and justify? What we seek is not religious toleration, but religions right, because every man has a right to worship God, and no man has a right to dictate to another how he shall worship him. For what is the best manner to each man?-that which his own conscience thinks to be the best. This is the test. Religion is the free offering of the soul, and conscience alone can make it acceptable. It is sincere, or it is nothing; and therefore no man, no King, no parliament, no minister, no people, have a right to compel a man to worship God contrary to his conscience. The very proposition appears most absurd in its own naked statement. It is nonsensical because it would call infidelity a test of faith. It is madness, because it would tear asunder conscience and religion, and make the one exist in its hostility to the other. But these irregularities must in time give way to the progress of order; and the two great islands, Old England and Old Ireland, would yet grow older in the interchange of mutual love, mutual renown, and mutual prosperity. As the first step to the accomplishment of that time, I would say, the Irish catholics have sent over a petition, in which they pray for the restoration of their rights. May that prayer be prosperous! I wish you all that a great people can desire, when I wish equal rights and equal privileges to all our fellow-citizens. The Duke of Bedford, on his health being drank, said, the very flattering manner in which the toast proposed by the noble chairman had been received (an honour both unexpected and unmerited by him) claimed his warmest acknowledg ments; he must attribute it solely to the anxious and earnest solicitude which had uniformly actuated him in his endeavours to do justice to the catholics of Ireland during the short period of his administration in that country; and the kindness, the confidence, and the support which he had received from that great and loyal body of men, under trying and difficult circumstances, had made a deep impression of gratitude on his mind, which nothing could alter or diminish. With no pretensions to eloquence, be trusted he might be permitted to say, in the plain language of a plain man, that he had invariably considered the cause of the catholics of Ireland, as the cause of truth and justice itself: resting on the same eternal and immutable principles, such a cause must and will ultimately prevail. He felt it would be unseemly in him, to inter rupt the conviviality of the day, by attempting to add one single word to what had been so ably and eloquently urged by his noble friend in the chair, in support of the just and vital question they were that day met to recognize; and he would content himself with saying, that every sentiment, every expression, every word uttered by the noble lord on that momentous measure, had his entire and cordial concurrence. The Earl of Hardwicke, in a neat but short speech, returned his thanks. He said, that one of the principal objects of his administration in Ireland was to repress party animosity, and more especially to restrain that gross and coarse ill language, by which the virulent bigotry of weak men endeavours to prolong the unhappy dissensions of their country. His object was virtually to realize the union between the two countries, by taking every step best calculated to promote the growth of their mutual confidence. Mr. Ponsonby, in returning thanks said, this was a cause in which our best feelings, in which all that en nobled human nature was interested; and he would tell the British part of the company, that this was not merely the cause of the Irish catholics but their own also, and that when the less liberal party in England knew the Irish catholics as well as he knew them, he had no doubt that they would repose in them the same unshaken confidence that he did.-There was no confidence that could be reposed in the Irish catholics that would not be amply repaid by corresponding affection. He had no doubt of the ultimate success of their claims, and was sure that in future times the only wonder would be, why we had delayed so long to grant to the Irish catholics what was not only mere justice to them, but great and lasting benefit to ourselves. Mr. Sheridan, after thanking the company for drinking his health, said, that he was rather awkwardly circumstanced in being called upon to speak by those who had left him nothing to say. The noble lord, (said Mr. Sheridan) after saying all that man could say upon the subject of religious liberty, and after having heard his admirable speech echoed in the most eloquent speeches of those who followed him, now turns upon me and drags me forth to your ob servation in a way that no doubt calls for my acknowledgments, and my most serious acknowledgments, I beg leave now to tender to the noble chairman. What you have already heard, gentlemen, I will not weaken by repeating; yet I cannot refrain from observing upon what appeared to me an unhappy expression that fell from an honourable friend of mine, Colonel Hutchinson, in the heat of his very animated speech. He used the words religious toleration-what is religious toleration but another name for mitigated persecution? He knew that the family of his honourable friend are enemies to persecution in any form, and how ever mitigated or qualified. He knew the worth and liberal sentiments that so eminently distinguished the character of that gentleman's illustrious relative (Lord Hutchinson.) Therefore might it be the more dan gerous to hear the vicious phraseology of " religious toleration” fall from the lips of any member of that family-we do not claim religious toleration, but as was so well said by my right honourable friend, Mr. Grattan, the great and consistent Irish patriot, what we claim is religious right, therefore I cannot but complain of such a misapplication of the terms, as to call toleration right, or right toleration, they are not only distinct, but in a measure opposite; and I cannot help reminding the honourable gentleman, that it is a sort of courtly interpretation that would substitute mere words for things, I give him the fullest credit for his sincerity, zeal, and talents, but still I could not let the word so used pass without some animadversion. Gentlemen, I have now only to say, that so fully do I enter into the purposes of this meeting, and so highly do I calculate upon its good effects, that I trust it will be annual. Let us, among our other anniversaries, devote one to the genius of religious liberty. Gentlemen, I shall now sit down, giving you this the first wish of my heart, that our next meeting may be, not to celebrate our progress to the attainment of the religious liberties of our fellow subjects, but the attain ment itself. His right honourable friend had charged him with having used the words " religious toleration." He certainly had made use of those words; but he had used them as synonymous to religious liberty. Mr. Whitbread said, that the less pretension be had to the honour just conferred on him, the greater must be his gratitude. He trusted to their candour in making every allowance for him, who had no pretensions to eloquence, and came after a display of oratory that not even his experi ence had often known to be equalled. He could only express his hearty concurrence in all that had been said, and said so well by those who had preceded him. This meeting had certainly a general object, but the catholics of Ireland were necessarily its prominent feature. The claims of Ireland upon this country, he did not think it was in the power of even Irish eloquence to rate too highly; the word toleration, which had exposed his hon. friend near him, to the verbal criticism of his right hon. friend opposite, was an instance how the language of intolerance had crept in upon our habits of speech, even amongst the warmest friends of religious liberty. The friends of religious liberty were not so much the friends of Ireland or of this country, as of truth itself: that must be ultimately and eternally triumphant. He rejoiced at all discussion in this country relating to the affairs of Ireland, because he imputed all her evils to our ignorance of her claims-her qualities and her deserts. Irish genius and Irish valour were at this moment doing the work that was to establish our liberties for ever.—We had her valour employed in success-. fully fighting our enemies abroad, and her eloquence as successfully combating our prejudices at home. And yet how much was it to be deplored that in a country teeming with mines of wealth, pure gold-native and unalloyed-that such is the infatuated bigotry of some men, that while they see and acknowledge the precious treasures that nature meant to be freely used and bountifully enjoyed; that yet they shrink, with a sullen superstition, from the use of that which they know to be essential to their security and happiness. He hoped, however, that for the sake of them and of their country, that they would soon be emancipated from this worst thraldrom of the mind; and that they would at length learn to thank the giver of all good in the grateful enjoyment of his best blessings. The cause was indeed progressive; so great in itself, that even the claims of the Irish catholics were lost in it-prejudice and bigotry were rapidly on the wane, the dawn was already visible; and the truth that bad set, and been so long hid from us, would soon arise again, and pour forth the flood of everlasting day. About twelve, the noble chairman and his guests, together with the Duke of Bedford, Lord Hardwicke, &c. &c. retired, amid the general plaudits of the room; and thus terminated a day spent in a manner most grateful to the friends of religious liberty thoughout the united kingdom. MEETINGS ON THE SUBJECT OF A REFORM OF PARLIAMENT. SMITH MAYOR. In a Meeting or Assembly of the Mayor, Aldermen, and Liverymen, of the several companies of the City of London, in Common Hall assembled, at the Guildhall of the said City, on May 30, 1811. RESOLVED, That the livery of London have, for the last 40 years, felt and declared the corrupt and inadequate state of the representation of the people in parliament to be the great source of all our national grievances and misfortunes. That to this cause alone can be as σε cribed the unjust and unfortunate war with America, at the close of which they declared in Common Hall, That our excellent constitution appeared "in no circumstances more grievously "defaced than in the unequal represen"tation of the people in parliament, "which continual experience had prov"ed to be no less productive of calami"ties to this country, than depredatory "to the rights of Englishmen." That the subsequent enormous increase of debt and taxes, the increased and increasing corruptions and abuses of the state, and all our grievances and misfortunes, arise from the same cause, and convince us that a constitutional reformation can no longer with safety be delayed. That we consent in opinion with the Lord Treasurer Burleigh, "That Eng"land can never be ruined but by a "parliament." That we agree with that enlightened philosopher, statesman, and christian, Locke, "That employing the force, "treasure, and offices of the govern"ment to corrupt the electors, is to cut up the government by the roots, " and poison the very fountain of pub"lic security." That we agree with that great lawyer, patriot, and statesman, Sord Somers, "That it belongeth to our parliament, as being one of the great ends, as well as reason, for which they ought to be "frequently called and assembled, to inquire into and punish the crimes of "judges, and all others employed by "and under the king, in the executive 66 part of the government, from whence "it is, as the house of Commons, aother capacities in which they mong "sit and act, are by the constitution "to be the great inquest of the king"dom, to search into all the oppressions " and injustices of the king's ministers, so the house of Lords, among their "several other rights and privileges, "stand clothed with the power and au"thority of the high court of judicature "of the nation, to punish those who "have misbehaved themselves in all "courts." That we agree with Baron Montesquieu, "That the English constitution will perish whenever the representa❝tive power is more corrupted than the "executive." That we agree with the great Earl of Chatham, "That parliament must re " ing the express image of the feelings "of the nation. It is not instituted to "be a controul upon the people, as of "late it has been taught by a doctrine "of the most pernicious nature and ten"dency; it was intended as a controul " for the people." That agreeing, as we do, with the above authorities, as well as the concurrent opinions of the greatest lawyers, historians, and statesmen, which might be adduced; and observing, as we have done, the daily and lamentable departure from the principles of the constitution-the rapid and unceasing progress of overwhelming influence and corruption, which threaten its overthrow, it is with the the highest satisfaction, we see a considerable number of the most respectable characters in rank, talents, and property, now standing forward to endeavour to remove these formidable evils, and to restore the constitution to its true principles, by a reform in the representation of the people in parlia ment. T'hat we do therefore highly approve of the vote of the last court of common council, and do thereby concur with them in granting the use of the Guildball on the 3d of June next, for the purpose of holding a general meeting of the friends of parliamentary reform. That without attaching improper motives to such of our fellow-citizens as may have been misled by the misrepre sentations and unfounded calumnies of interested, designing, and unprincipled jobbers, contractors, and placemen, who have long fed, and still hope to feed, upon our taxes, we cannot sufficiently reprobate their base attempts to divert the public mind from this great national question, to sow the seeds of dissention, and by every possible means to excite, whilst, at the same time, they hypocritically express their apprehension of tumult and alarm. Resolved, That a deputation of liverymen be now appointed to present the resolutions of this day to the court of common council, on Friday next, requesting their concurrence therein, as well as their co-operation with the livery of London, in their endeavours to obtain a reform in the representation of the people in parliament. Besolved, That Messrs. Billinge, Bromley, Blackett, Cole, Esce, Thorpe, Redder, Bumsted, Scott, Peacock, Stevenson, Pearson, Rosser, Stocks, Pickard, Manning, Piper, Littell, Banks, Wort, and Letts, be the said deputation. Resolved unanimously, That the thanks of this common hall be given to the right bon, the Lord Mayor, for his upright and impartial conduct on all occasions, and particularly for the firm and independent manner in which he has, in the present instance, resisted all attempts to intimidate him in the exercise of his duty. On Monday the 10th instant, a respectable meeting of the friends of Parliamentary Reform was held, pursuant to advertisement, at Freemasons' Hall, the Court of Common Council having rescinded their vote for the use of Guildhall. Sir J. Throckmorton, having been called to the chair, stated generally the purpose for which the company was convened. Mr. Trevanion, of Cornwall, rose for the purpose of submitting some |