SIR ROBERT PEEL.

New Zealand Herald and Auckland Gazette, Volume I, Issue 43, 15 January 1842, Page 4

SIR ROBERT PEEL.

We Extract the following Speech of Sir Robert Peel, from the Port Phillip Herald, o f Nov. 30th, at a Public Dinner given to him, by his Constituents at Tamworth :

Sir Robert Peel then rose amidst the loudest demonstrations of applause. He said—Gentlemen, I thank you most cordially for the kind manner in which you have received the proposal that has just beenmade to you. lam deeply sensible of the obligations which it imposes, and the return I ought to make to you is not in extravagant expressions of thankfulness, but it is by the faithful and zealous discharge of public duties, by promoting to the utmost of my power your local and peculiar interests where they do not conflict with the general good, and by upholding those political principles which I expressed to you when I sought for the honour of your suffrages (hear.) Gentlemen, I do not intend those political principles (loud cheers.) 1 think it hardly necessary, after having been called upon not to vote, but to deliver an opinion on almost every public question which has been sumitted to Parliament for many years past —it can hardly be necessary for me to state to you what are my political principles, and what are my views of the great questions which are likely to occupy public attention. On a review of the declarations which I made in 1835, a'id on a review of the opinions which I expressed with regard to particular measures in 1840, I have nothing now to retract (hear hear.) I entertain the opinions which I then professed, and it is my intention, whethether in a private or in an official capacity, to act upon those declarations {re t rated cheers ) Gentlemen, I shall not presume whatever may be the speculations as to the majority which the Conservative party may exhibit on the meeting of Parliament, I shall not presume 1 in what manner her Majesty may think fittoexecise her prerogative (hear.) ' I retain

any opinion that no Government in this country ought to in the administration of the ; publie affairs unless it possesses the confidence of Parliament (great cheering ) But, while I res-

pect that constitutional principle, I hold in equal respect the prerogative of the Crown ; and it is not for any individual to presume in what manner that prerogative may be exercised (hear, hear.) Gentlemen, lam constantly asked what it is I

mean to propose, supposing I am called to the

administration of affairs? - Gentlemen, I will answer that question when I am placed in that prsi-

tion (loud cheers.) My advice for the present is, dismiss those who are at present in office (shouts

of applause.) They have not the confidence they had not- the confidence of Parliament, and they have not the confidence of the people. Change your physician, the patient has not confidence in him (cheers and laughter,) They found her in health and they left her in sickness; and

then they say to me, what do you f prescribe ? But I'll waitiill lam regular'y called in (loud cheers and laughter.) No, Gentlemen, he would be acting the part of an irregular practitioner—the

the part of a quack doctor, and not of a professional man, who should professthat he had some invaluable nostrum which without being consul-

ted by the patient, or allowed to feel his pulse, would prove a perfect ramedy for whatever disease he might labour under ("hear.) I, therefore,gen-

tlemen, must continue steadily to refuse to offer my advice until I have access to the patient, and all those advantages of consultation, without which no proper advice can be given. I need hardly tell you—for you, I believe, give no credit to the assertion—that I have not the slightest intention of visiting the continent, but that I do intend, on the 19th of August, to be present in my place in Parliament, perssonally to witness the result of the appeal which has been made to the people of this country (loud criesof "Hear"). I will read you another paragraph—it Queen and Sir Robert Peel''—-(loud laughter.) It

comes from the Globe again, the organ of her Majesty's Government (loud laughter,) 'On dit, that the Queen has heard of the vain boastings of Sir Robert Peel, that if he again came tnto power he would make her a Tory (or a Conservative, as he said) in six weeks, and that consequently the right hon. baronet is more disliked taan ever at head quarters.'' Now Gentlemen, observe it is not confidently asserted, it is only " reported," that the Queen had heard the vain boast, but there is no doubt at all about my having used the expression. The correspondent says "a Tory (or Conservative as he says.") Now when a person is so particular who can doubt his veracity ? Cloud laughter.) Gentlemen, I trust that I need hardly say to you that the whole of this paragraph is a mere fabrication (loud cheers) Need I say that I never made this indecent boast? cheering.) I refer to these things without anger or irritation—quite the reverse (hear, hear, hear.) I think that such paragraphs afford the most satisfactory proofs that there is very little which can be said from that quarter,

provided the truth be adhered to (hear hear.) Gentlemen, if it were possible to suppose that her Majesty could look at these miserable fabrications, which are evidently intended to injure me in her Majesty's opinion, I very much doubt, not only whether her Majesty would attach any credit to them, but more than that, whether there would not be excited feelings of indignation at the presumptuous familiarity which undertakes to answer for the private feelings of her Majesty (immense cheering.) Gentlemen, Ido not think I should have been induced to say a word to you on the subject of party interests—l should have been content to acquiesce in a suspension of hostilities, considering the near approach of the period when the combatants must meet face to face—l say I would have been perfectly content to acquiesce in this, if 1 had not recently seen a public manifesto put forth, by Lord John Russell, the leader of the House of Commons, which, from the tone it assumes towards the opponents of the Government, relieves you from any scruples on that head, and imposes on me the necessity of making a very few remarks (cheers.) This manifesto professes, to take a review of the present state of affairs, or rather of past events ; and it recites with the utmost satisfaction, the victories that have been achieved by Her Majesty's presentadvisers (greatlaughter.) Gentlemen, this paper also talks of the dexterity which the opponents of Government have shewn in inventing facts; but I must say that, whatever dexterity we may have shewn in inventing facts; the dexterity of the noble lord in forgetting them far surpasses us ( cheers and laughter.) If there were any foundation for this long array of facts, I might perhaps complain of the triumphant tone taken towards vanquished opponents. But if this were a true and fair representation of the state of things, then would the result of the late appeal to the people be more marvellous than it is at present. It is surprising that her Majesty's Government, having held the reins of power for six years, possessing, as is the constant boast, the entire confidence of their Sovereign, seeing the use, the improper use, that has been made by some candidates of the name of their Sovereign—it was only yesterday that I saw inscribed on the banner of the hon. Mr, Petre, a Vote for Petre, the Queen's candidate" —I say it is surprising that, notwithstanding this, and the appeal to the female population, with reference to cheap sugar, and the cry of the big loaf to the labouring classes, the constituency and the people have ratified the decision of the late House of Commons, namely, that her Majesty's present advisers did not possess the confidence of the House of Commons, and that their retention of office under such circumstances, was at variance with the spirit of the constitution (cheer.) It has not been the Chandos clause that has produced this result (hear, hear.) The counties, it is true, may have declared themselves against the present Government, and it may be said that some of the counties which are more intimately connected with the agricultural interests have theiir zeal against Government, on account of the danger with which those interests were threatened ; but it was not the Chandos clause that returded two members for the City of London (hear, hear,) it was not the Chandos clause that for the first time since the Reform Bill returned a member for the city of Westminster—nor was it the Chandos clause that wrested one seat from the opposite party in the great manufacturing community of vLeeds(loud cheers.) • It was al o something more than the Chandos clause that returned two members in Hull and two irt city of Dublin, two for Belfast and two for Liverpool (continued cheering) It was not the Chandos clause that returned four members for the great county of Lancaster, and frightened any Ministerial candidate from Apposing Lord Stanley, Lord F. Egerton, Mr. Wilson Patten,, or Mr. Wilbraham. It was not the Chandos clause that returned two members for that district of immense importance, as connected with' the vital manufacturing interests of this country, the West Riding of Yorkshire {loud cheering)—which has dispossessed from his seat in Parliament a nobleman whom, from his abilities, combined with his virtues, it is impossible to mention without respect, I allude to Lord Morpeth (cheers.) No, Gentlemen, there must have been some cause which has led to lhis expression of public opinion other than the influence of landlords over tenants. The counties, no doubt, have made returns in an increased number unfavourable to the Government: but if you look to the towns and boroughs containing populations exceeding ten thousand inhabitants even where they have little or no connection with the agricultural interest, the cry of cheap bread and cheap sugar' has totally failed, (loud cheers.) The returns for those places have beeen more unfavourable to Ministers than' they were in the last Parliament (hear, hear.) How, let me ask, is this to be accounted for ? It is because the constituencies of this empire—representing as they dp, the people of this empire—have no confidence in her Majesty's Government. The noble Baat. ;een sat down amidst loud and long contiuued eheering,