The Sun. — London, England, 1845-06-19 00:00:00

,infused but little of that spirit of Christianity which should have pre-eminently distinguished them. Mr. BuGby's plan was then a confederation of native chiefs. Such a system was absurd, because the English would have virtually retained their Governor under the guise of a native ruler. New Zealand never was an independency. The British Crown had invariably asserted its supremacy there. The Company had but exercised the right to which all Englishmen were entitled of colonising an uninhabited and dependant State. The Church Missionary Society had been the first to oppose this in disputable right, opposed as it had always been to colonisation generally. And why ? Because they had become large pos sessors of land, and, as interested parties, they ought not to have interfered with a Company which had been the first to in troduce British sovereignty into the islands. Such interference was unwise and unfortunate. If such was the state of things, the Government were not to be thanked for interfering ; they had been driven to it, it was their own iu terest, and, after resisting. and refusing all demands, they had been at length compelled to interpose. When the Right Hon. Baronet had said that a State larger than Great Britain, yet containing not more than 100,000 persons, was so fully occupied as not to have any waste lands, he could surely not be serious. The colony comprised an extent of 78,000,000 of acres, of which the New Zealand Company originally possessed themselves of 20,000,000 acres. That right they had, how ever, waived, when the Government asserted the sovereignty of the island, and established its rule there. It therefore must be admitted by the Right Hon. Gentleman the Under-Secre tary of State, that the waste lands were either native right, or vested in the Crown. Mr. HOPE—No, no. Mr. HAWES—Oh ! If the Hon. Member denied that the title was vested in the Crown, the whole conduct of the Go vernment was manifestly unjustifiable. Some years ago, when supporting a measure which comprehended the whole gist of the propositions now advanced, he (Mr. Hawes) totally differ ing in politics, as he ever had, from the Hon. Member, divided in a minority, and he found on reference to the Parliamentary Votes on that oeeasion the names of H. Baring, G. W. Hope, and W. E. Gladstone—the question which those Members, in unison with him, supported, being the self-same as that now propounded by his Friend the Hon. Member for Liskeard. In 1842 a similar vote was given by the Hon. Member, but in 1845 he chose to forget that conduct, and showed a vacillation of which he could not have believed him capable. That was the information he had received, and which he had endeavoured to obtain from authentic sources. To this mo ment the affairs of the Company had been left divided and in eonfirsion, and they had not received one single farthing under the agreement up to the present hour. He was induced to ask, what authority had interix.sed the difficulty which had led to the present state of affairs in that colony? If the object of the Government was a single one, why had it not put things in order ? He was persuaded that the whole of the bad ma nagement of New Zealand was, more or less, to be ascribed to the home Government. It followed from the system of colo nial legislation. They had too much to attend to, and they evinced a coldness to listen with interest to the concerns of parties in the colonies. That was a great fault, but nothing else could be expected from the present system of colonial ma nagement. The home Government were imperfectly ac quainted with colonial usages and wants, and it was impossible that any other result could happen than what had already oc curred in New Zealand. He was one of those who some time ago associated with other gentlemen, generally to promote co lonisation, and they intended to promote a superintendence over the affairs of the colony, considering that that was a point to which their attention could be directed with advantage.—(Hear, hear.) They made application to the Government of the day for the legislative sanction to ferm themselves into an independent association, but were refused because they were not a joint-stock company. The present New Zealand Company were actually forced to become specu lators in the land, and it was the Government who compelled them toit. They had proposed to the Government to become an incorporated company, with large and liberal views, similar to those which had been founded in America years ago, and which had flourished ever since. The colony , of New Zealand would never submit for a moment to the injustice of the Go ment at home if they possessed power to defend and assert their rights. As an instance of how colonies flourished when they were placed beyond the immediate reach and control of the home Government was the possessions in the East Indiei. The East India Company was a chartered association under an Act of Parliament, and the colony over which they had juris diction was notorious for having enjoyed a long and almost uninterrupted course of prosperity. He did not know a single instance of a colony in which the Government had interfered which was not brought into distress and danger and ultimately to ruin. What was the cause of the present distress in New Zealand? Similar causes led to similar results, and the constant interference on the part of the Govern ment was the primary cause. It was impossible properly to govern people at so great a distance, of whose wants and necessities nothing or but little was known. It was proposed to send out a new Governor to New Zealand, unfet tered by instructions from home. He was glad to hear it, for instructions to New Zealand Governors had led to a vast deal of laborious trifling. He was not, however, pleased with a Governor being placed under the control of the Colonial-office, and he was sure the country would never be satisfied with such an appointment. He believed that New Zealand presented an opportunity for establishing a municipal institution, and thus laying the basis of a constitutional government, which, when left to itself, would realize a greater amount of property than could be looked forward to from any other source. The best had not yet been done—the proper course had not yet been taken. If the posi tion of these extensive islands in the southern seas was looked at, the establishment of an independent Government there would lay the foundation of a powerful empire. He trusted that something, more than a mere vote being come to on the resolutions which had been proposed would be realised. He considered that the country was now in a better position to dis cuss the great question of Colonial Government than it had everbefore been. Theclaims of New Zealand for an independent Government would gradually fall with more strength upon the Legislature, until eventually they would be forced to adopt one of two courses, either an independent Governor must be ap pointed, or a system of representation similar to the British House of Commons must be constituted.—( Hear.) A spirit was springing up in different colonies, which would lead them to demand a greater share of independent Government than they now possessed ; and he should be happy to see the time arrive, when the emancipation of these colonies from home in terference was accomplished. It bad been suggested that from time to time all the statistics and other information connected with the colonies should be obtained, so that a digested report might be had of all the circumstances going on in these places. He was afraid, however, that the Colonial-office already had more business to attend to than it could well perform, and was satisfied that the sooner it was relieved of some of it, the better would it be for the interest and welfare of those colonies. Sir HO WARD DOUGLAS said he had read all the volumi nous papers which had been presented to the House on the affairs of New Zealand, and he therefore rose to address the House with a due sense of the importance of the subject before it. He should net, however, occupy their time in referring to documents to bear out his views, as they had been quoted at great length by the Under Secretary for the Home Depart ment (Mr. Hope), by the Hon. Alember for Liskeard (Mr. C. Buller), and by other Hon. Members. The subject of New Zealand had occupied his attention for many years, and he spoke with peculiar interest respecting it, as he had the honour to command the troops serving in that colony. No Member of that House, or any subject of the realm, could attach higher importance to a properly managed system of emigration than he did. It was because he was of this opinion, and because he had the interests of that colony, which was a fruitful one, at heart, that he deprecated and condemned that rash, that unauthorised, that ill-conducted lawless scheme of colonisation which had been attempted in that colony by the brew Zealand Company, and the failure of which had been the cause of all that had happened, and all that might happen, of a serious nature, in that colony. In support of this opinion he quoted a passage in the report of the Committee last year on New Zealand affairs, which stated that the Company were guilty of impropriety and irregularity in sending out persons to the colony in the way they had done. For the words " impropriety " and " irregularity" he wouldsubstitute " rash" and " lawless." It was the duty of Lord Glenelg to have stepped, and cf Lord Normanby to have adopted strong mea sures to have prevented any colonisation without the Queen's authority ; and had he (Sir H. Douglas) been there he would have sent those who attempted to carry out so objectionable a system to New South Wales.—(A laugh.) Lord J. RUSSELL—That would have been against the law. Sir H. DOUGLAS—He repeated that he would have sent them there until colonisation could be adopted with the Queen's consent, and until the course they proposed to adopt was not illegal. He then referred to letters sent by Lord John Russell and the Marquis of Normanby to Captain Hobson, recognising the strong claims of the natives, who had made some progress in the arts of Government, and recommending measures for the proper management of the af fairs of the colony. The Company caused the Government to (adopt measures for its own protection and for that of the colonists. The Company proceeded in their undertaking with out the authority of the Government, and now called upon them to break the guarantee which they (the Government) gave to the inhabitants of New Zealand. By what right had Sierra Leone been held but by the same circumstances ? and it was a new principle of colonial law re specting native rights which had been promulgated by the Hon. Member opposite ; a law not to be found in Vaughan or Black stone's Commentaries; he denied its authenticity, he suspected its origin. It had been introduced from the land where the black man was a slave, and the red man hunted and tracked like the wild beast of the forest, and he knew how it had travelled from those parts. It was carrying out a principle adopted there; but the tenure of Canada was the reverse of that. He called upon the New Zealand Company to surrender their charter ; and having thought much on the subject, and studied it much, he came to the conclusion that no good result in the way of colonisation would be effected, until the Queen's anthority was made paramount, with a colonial representation.—( Cheers. ) Lord HOWICK said that he concurred so much in the re• commendation of the Hon. and Gallant Member, as to the ne cessity of giving to the colony the benefits of self-government, that he would not follow the Hon. and Gallant Member through the earlier parts of his speech. But he must say, that he had heard with great pleasure the speech of the Hon. Gen tleman the Member for Leominster (Mr. Barkley), who had addressed the House in terms and in a temper which left but one impression that the House would be greatly benefited by that Hon. Gentleman taking, in future, an active part in their discussions.—(Cheers.) He agreed with that Hon. Member in thinking that it was not the case of the New Zea land Comp any t h e H ouse had to cons id er, b u t th e i n te r e s t of the coloni es o f t hi s country, separately and i n t h e aggrega t e . Be thought that the con d uc t o f t h e G overnme nt towards New Zealand was faulty throughout, and ought to be retraced.— (Cher The Ho n . G en tl eman t h e U n d er -S ecre tary for thfe .Colonies had st a t e d th at t h e N o bl e L or d now a t th e h ea d of th e Co lonial Department was unjustly accused for the faults of his predecessors. Now he (Lord Howick) denied that statement, ile was perfectly prepared to show that th e poli c that the Noble Lord's policy y opreceding Governments was such was entirely adverse to it.—( Hear, hear.) He did not f think that any colonial Government could be entirely fre e from error, but that w hi c h appeare d to hi m to be the mo s t free from error was the policy of his Noble Friend, the Member for London (Lord J. R usse ll.) Th e di spatches of his Noble F r i end were proofs of the st a t esman lik e v i ews of hi s Government. Th(egherreeate fault was in the a pp o i n t ment o f in efficient office rs .— c He th ere f ore did not b lame Lord Stanley for anythi ng more than the appointment of such a gen tleman as Capt a i n Fitzroy, that was fault enough.— (Cheers and laughter.) He would net at th a t ti me o f t h e n i ght take up the time of the House by the di sas t rous con sequences of Captain Fitzroy's ciently exposed in the documents read by nt 'these w ere suffi is Hon. F r i en d t h e Member for Lambeth. He w o uld not now go into a discussion Government of thequestion whether the Company or the G mos , to blame. But he thought that th e country was indebted to the Company for having secured those magnific ent islands to the British Crown.—( Hear, hear.) He was bound also to say, that he thought their plan of colonisation showed great wisdom in its design, and great perseverance, prudence, and moderation in the mode of carrying it out.—(Cheers.) He was surprised to hear the Hon. and Gallant Gentleman (Sir H. Douglas) say that the disasters of New Zealand were to be attributed to the rashness and lavishness of the Company, whilst the same Gallant Officer in the same breath recom mended that the whole of the Company should be of once transported to New South Wales.—(Cheers and laughter.) The facts were that the management of the Company was en tirely successful until the officers of the Government made it a system to thwart and annoy in every way the Arts of the Company, and to render the situation of the sutlers uncom fortable and insecure.—( Hear, hear.) In the northern part of the island the Company did not interfere in any respect, and If anything wrong took place there it was owing to the mis management of the Government. There was sort of Irregular colonisation taking place there ; horrih!e crimes had not been unfrequent, and scenes of anar • chy and confusion followed each other. Such Banes took place in 1832, and took place in New Zealand, that it was not unfrequent to see the heads of the natives brolght into the museums in this country as matters of curiosity, and it was found necessary to make a prohibition to their importation. In 1842, there was a vast improvement, but since the establish ment of British authority there things have got worse, when the New Zealanders had nothing to do with it. The Govern ment of that country must have been ill conducted, or else such an alteration for the worse would not have taken place. If there had been a good policy and a proper firmness such a state of things would not have followed. Is was all attributable to the erroneous policy pursued there. With regard to the land case, it was allowed by Lord Stanley himself that it was the unset tled state of that matter that produced all those evils. The Hon. Gentleman (the Member for London) had stated that the treaty of Waitanga was thoroughly comprehended, but if the House permitted he would be able to meet those arguments. His (Lord Howick's) complaint was that neither those who had been entrusted with the colony, nor her Majesty's Govern ment, had understood the paramount importance in colonization of the proper administration of waste lands. The principle of wise colonisation was, that of selling land to be distributed to those who really meant to use it; and by applying the price so received in great works necessary for the successful occupation of land. Had the Government understood this system of colonization they would have immediately ob tained from the nati ves of New Zealand their acquiescence in the disposal of the land. By this means, all mischievous dealing in land would have been done away with. The laws respecting real property in this country were quite unintelli gible to the natives of New Zealand. He ( Lord Howick ) recollected, when he was in the New Zealand Committee, one witness incidentally said that he knew a chief in New Zealand who had stated that he had a great title to his land, inasmuch as he had eaten the former owner.—( Laughter. ) The Mem bers of the Committee would recollect that. Mr. J. MILNES—I put the question myself. Lord HOWICK continued—That was one of the grounds which were considered by thenatives of New Zealand as sufficient for the establishment of titles to land in that part of the world. This being the state of things, an English gentleman was sent out to decide according to the rules of English law, disputes as to the titles of real property in New Zealand. Why, such a tribunal as this gentleman had to preside over was ridiculous, and its proceedings must only be a farce. He (Lord Howick) was sorry to trouble the House at this length, but having been on the Committee on this matter, his attention had therefore been directed forcibly to this subject. If the Government had properly understood this subject, they would not now have been placed in those difficulties with which they had now to contend. Mr. Hobson had pointed out in his dispatch of 1840 the great evils which had arisen, and were arising, from jobbing in lands both by natives and Europeans. He would just read an extract from the last report of Mr. Corn missioner Payne, dated the 6th of July last, which would clearly show the state of things in New Zealand. Mr. Com missioner Payne stated that he had travelled over the country where he found millions of acres of land upon which the human foot had scarcely ever trod, and it did appear truly lamentable that the present few inhabitants should be differing on the sub ject of land when there was so much of it unoccupied in other parts of the island, which they could easily make available for their purposes. The natives were little disposed to agree to his laws • not because they wanted the land themselves, but merely because they objected to Europeans taking possession of it. Now this was the course of the present policy of the Government. They had taught the natives to extort from settlers compensation for lands which had perhaps for ever been lying waste and unoccupied. Where was the sense of such policy as this? Well, then, this was the main cause of the present difficulties in New Zealand. Let him now con. trast this with the effects which might have resulted from a different policy? Suppose they had said to the natives, " You have givn up the right of possession of the land to the British Government, and the British Government will give you for that land what it is worth ; but, with respect to the waste land, which you have never occupied, the British Government will give you no compensation, but they will take care that it is so improved that it shall mutally turn out to your advantage." If this line of conduct had been taken with proper firmness, the acquiescence of the natives might have been ultimately obtained. If the Crown had been appointed trustee of the waste lands no occupied by the natives, many evils would have been avoided. Industry would have been peomoted, there would have been no disputes between settlers and natives, chiefs would have been maintained in their position as regarded the whole community, civilisation would have gone on, and the greatest and most noble scheme of civilisation that had been promulgated for the last 200 years would have realised a glorious result. Nothing was more certain, ask appeared from the evidence of those who were well acquainted with that country, than that there was a disposition on the part of the New Zealander to look up with almost superstitious reverence to the white settler, and that they would readily obey all commands that might be put upon them. This was the state of affairs at first, but by allowing the power that had been originally exercised' to fall into desuetude, contempt had gradually increased, and the effect of the power of the white man was destroyed. Mr. Shortland, in June 1840, in his account of affairs in New Zealand, had told the Governor that he was assured of the allegiance of the settlers, and he had great pleasure in informing him that her Majesty's Go vernment was established amongst both natives and settlers, and the entire population was in a satisfactory state. This was, in 1840, not less than one year from the arrival there of Captain Wakefield. The report also stated that there was a slight disturbance with respect to some land occupied by the natives; but the moment persons representing the Government interfered, the matter was completely and quietly adjustied. In 1841, Governor Hobson wrote to the Secretary of State, stating that the native chiefs had expressed their willingness to comply with every order that he might give. From that period, and for two years after, Captain Wakefield's arrival there he extorted a general acquiescence and submission to the power of the Government., He said, also,:that the natives were con structing a road. He interfered, and told them they could not do that, as the Queen only had the power of ordering it, and the project was at once abandoned. The policy of the Government seemed to have been lessened by degrees, and their power had been slowly falling. The first effect of their mismanagement was the encroach ment of the settlers on the land of the Hudson. In December, 1841, two years after the Company's settlement Mr. Clark, the protector of the aborigines, set forth that they were peaceable and tractable, but remarked that some apprehensions were entertained by them, respecting the retention of the lands. So that up to this time they had the natives respecting their measures, and evincing a friendly feeling towards them, and as being desirous of amicably set tling the disputed claims. The native who barbarously mur dered Mrs. Roberts and her children, and in whose case the Governor showed great laxity of duty, by not promptly using the authority which he possessed, was brought to justice, and suffered death, so desirous were the aborigines not to violate the law. Three months afterwards (on March 12th, 1841,) the Governor wrote to the effect that depredations were com mitted on propel ty by the natives, and regretted that he had not sufficient power to put a stop to such practices, as a spirit of hostility had arisen between the native and white settlers. How a British officer could write in this strain, he (Lord Howick) did know. The power of the Government ought to have been sufficient, and was sufficient, to protect the rights of the colonists from aggression, and they ought not to have al lowed those rights to be trampled upon in the way they had been. In February, 1842, those disturbances became more serious, and for several months peaceable British settlers were wantonly and outrageously interfered with, and had their pro perty destroyed by lawless natives. The unfortunate men in seeking redress for these enormities were bandied about from one official to another, and then told that they might seek their remedy in a court of law against the natives of New Zealand. In some of the outrages the natives made no claim to the land, as was the fact in Mr. Swainson's case.—( Hear, hear.) The Noble Lord proceeded to read the letter which was of great length, and which concluded by saying that the colonies ought to be governed by moral influence, and not b} physical force. Now he (Lord Howick) asked was it right to give to those per sons whose houses had been burnt down—whose lives had been endangered, and their crops destroyed—the op• ion of a civil action against the barbarians?—(Hear, bear.) The Governor would take no means to repress the savages who broke through all laws, and at the same time he enforced the laws against the settlers, who were sacrificed to their obedience.—(Hear.) In a further part of the letter the writer stated that he had great difficulty in watching over both parties to prevent a collision, which would be most disastrous. This was the forerunner of the massacre of June, 1843 ; and they subsequently allowed this barbarous chief, who had been the cause of all the worst scenes of atrocity which had taken place in New Zealand, to trample upon their laws, giving him an overweening notion of his own power and their weakness—( Hear ) and encouraging him in his outrages. The consequence of the impolicy of their officers was the tragedy of June, 1843, when the lives of British officers of the highest rank and character, and gentlemen against whose character not one word had been said, were sacrificed in a manner which was really painful to contemplate. He said it deliberately, and most de cidedly expressed it as his opinion that this dreadful calamity was directly traceable to the impolicy of the British Govern ment, and he believed the blood of these murdered men still cried out to them to give better pro tection to the settlers in the colony of New Zealand. For what does civil government exist, if those things are to be allowed? If their power be used firmly not to oppress the natives, not to rob them, but, on the contrary, to maintain due discipline, and to teach them what were the blessings of peace, order, and security. If that had been the policy of the Government from the first instance, no man could read those papers, and believe that any resistance would be offered to their authority. If the European settlers were organised as they ought to be, their authority would be absolute. If he had made out his case that this state of things was the result of a bad policy, it was the duty of the House to acquiesce in the amendment of his Hon. Friend. If they carried that vote for going into Committee, in Committee their resolutions should be mainly confined to condemning what was passed. They could not improve their policy, with out pronouncing an opinion on their past errors.—( Hear.) He thought that any governor that was sent out ought to go out armed with full powers to dismiss any of the subordinate officers of Government, if he should see cause. To many of these parties was to be attributed the anarchy which at present existed in New Zealand. The Governor should be a man of the highest character and station. He should be sent out with unfettered powers for the restoration of order, and when that restoration was accomplished, he (Lord Howick) hoped that the Government would revert to the old custom of our ances tors, and allow the colonists to govern themselves. All experience was in favour of self-government by the colonies. In New Zealand was to be found the ill-effects of a distant Government. He saw the Right Hon. Gentleman the Secretary -at-War cheer that sentiment—he smarted, perhaps, under the sting which he (Lord Howick) had so often felt of that pest of Boards, the Board of Trade.—(Loud laughter.) It might be said that the principle he advocated entailed a want of security to the natives; but if the policy of the Government should be, as recommended by the New Zealand Company, not to keep the two races distinct, but to assimilate and amalgamate them, before long a great part of the native population would possess the English language, and take their place with their fellow subjects of the British race.—(Cheers.) He would conclude by repeating the declaration with which he commenced, that the substantial question before the House was the approval or disapproval of the policy pursued by the Government towards the colony of New Zealand.—( Hear, hear.) Independent of considerations of the administrative incompetency at home as compared with that abroad, independent of the differences between the Company interested in the colony and either Go vernment, he repeated that the proposition virtually was the disapproval of that House of the course pursued by the Government at home, arid the adoption of a new and more suit • able system of administration.—( Hear, hear.) If they regarded stheu suffering interests ering in those hotsee parts,Brith i he who shouldhad colonized,adm irea and nda wereppleud theirnow sympathy, and if, in turn, they would do justice to the settlers and the natives they could not reject the motion of hi s H on . Friend the Membe r for Liskearr (Cheers.) explained a a tl a thatse self-Government. had not proposed a Govern ment Air c A o i E s t S s nment. Mr. MANGLES then moved the°avtdebenurdnimspeonstedofotfh,eadnedbathtee. The other orders of the day were House was adjourned. Canada, a n d a l so Dispatches for theeneral or for the Governors of the other North American P • rovinces, were sent off last evening from the Colonial -office. The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council sat yesterday. Sir Thomas Wilde and Mr. Fitzroy Kelly, Queen's Counsel, were heard on an appeal from Bengal, Casement v. Fulton. Mr. Turner, Queen's Counsel, commenced his address for the respondent, and had not concluded when the Court rose at four o'clock. T U N, GP. EAT M EETING OF THE ANTI-CORN-LAW LEAGUE COVENT-GARDEN THEATRE. A great metropolitan meeting of the members of the Anti Corn-law League was held last evening in Covent-garden Theatre. At half-past six o'clock the doors were opened, and by a quarter before seven there was nit a seat in the theatre unoccupied. There were a great number of ladies in the boxes. Precisely at seven o'clock George Wilson, Esq., chairman of the League, entered the theatre, apd took the chair amidst the most enthusiast ictheering. He was accompa nied by R. Cobden, Esq., M.P.,; John Bright, Esq., M.P. ; and W. J. Fox, Esq., who were received with loud applause. Among those present, we observed George Wilson, Esq., in the Chair; Richard Cobden, Esq., M.P., John Bright, Esq., 111. P., Richard Brinsley Sheridan, Esq., M.P., John Bowring, Esq., LL.D., M.P., the Hon. Charles Pelham Villiers, M.P., Thomas Milner Gibson, Esq., M.P., William Johnson Fox, Esq., John Houghton, Esq., Dr. Buck, Mr. W. E. Hutchinson (Leicester), Major-General Briggs, Captain Cogan, Dr. Haslam, Professor William Graham, Mr. W. Leavers, Mr. D. Dewar, Mr. J. Hutton, Mr. P. A. Taylor, Mr. A. Fordati, Mr. J. Butler, Rev. J. G. Adeney, Mr. R. Ricardo, Mr. J. Burt, Mr. J. Clode, jun., Mr. A. Novello, Mr. G. Offer, Mr. J. Bell, Mr. R. Davison, Mr. J. Ashton, Mr. W. Burton, Mr. G. Smith, Mr. W. Taylor, jun., Mr. John Jervis, Mr. J. B. Allen, Mr. S. Lees Man chester), Mr. J. Taylor Crook (Liverpool), Provost Hender son (of Kircaldy), Mr. Alexander Wilson, Mr. T. Powell, Mr. Joseph Ivimey, Mr. P. J. Templeton, Mr. James Farrer, Mr. Alexander Powell, Mr. W. H. Patching, Mr. John Porteus, Mr. J. Tibbitts, Mr. John Watson, Mr. James Waterman, Mr. J. Baynes, Mr. J. Hodgkin, Mr. W. Ellis, Mr. J. Blackburn, Mr. J. Faulkner, Mr. W. Gover, Mr. R. Burnett, Mr. J. Miller, Rev. Mr. Whitehead, Mr. H. C. Wilson, Mr. A. K. Watson, Mr. W. Poulter, Mr. G. Hawkins, Mr. J. S. Stock, Rev. A. M. Walker, Mr. S. Lucas, Mr. J. P. Burnard, Mr. J. A. Lyon, Mr. W. A. Wilkinson, Mr. G. Crowley, Mr. T. Smith. Mr. Joseph Phipps, Mr. P. Granger, Mr. J. Benham, Mr. C. Latti more, Mr. Richard W. Cole, Mr. H. Crompton, Mr. R. G. Welford, Mr. Henry Hull, Mr. J. Hickson, Mr. H. Cole, Mr. G. Wade, Mr. T. Miller, Mr. T. Falvey, Mr. J. Simp son (Edinburgh), Mr. H. Keeling, Mr. J. Chalmers, Mr. T. Waterlow, Mr. J. Sewell, Mr. 'l'. Bourcicault, Mr. W. Hampton, Mr. R. L. Tweedale, Mr. James Hendry, Mr. R. Hvly, Mr. C. Fox, Mr. G. Hyde, Mr. G. J. Dixon, Rev. T. Sadler, Mr. E. Brain, Mr. J. Gosnell, Mr. J. C. Wil liams, Mr. R. B. Lopez, Mr. J. Grieve, Mr. H. White. side, Mr. W. H. James, Dr. Evans (Southampton), Mr. J. Duberly, Mr. Edward Davy (Crediton, near Exeter), Mr. Henry Cooke, Mr. —Pritchard, Mr. D. Keane, Mr. W. Geesin Mr. T. Sheffield (Carlisle), Mr. Henry L. Keeling, Mr. John Wood (Glossop), Mr. Edward Wray, Mr. Frederick Sherlock, Mr.— Dick, 111 r. David Aumonier, Mr. T. Mason, &c., &c. The CHAIRMA N, having advanced to the table, proceeded to address the meeting as follows :—Ladies and Gentlemen,—lt is no great novelty to see this place on these occasions filled to overflowing, but certainly looking at the appearance presented by every part of the House at this moment, I must confess that it has never before been my lot to behold a more brilliant as semblage than that which I have now the pleasure of seeing before me.—(Cheers.) It may naturally be expected that some allusion will be made this evening to those proceedings which have for a time superseded the necessity of our assem bling together here as usual. These our nocturnal meetings have only given place to another method, perhaps more agree able, and certainly equally gratifying, of disseminating the principles of free trade—l mean the Bazaar.—( Loud cheers. ) There is not any necessity for me now to refer to the imme diate reason for holding it. It was no secret, twelve months ago, that the League had determined, for the purpose of meeting the contingent expenses of carrying on this agitation, as well as for the purpose of enabling the country generally to demon strate the interest which it felt in the cause of free trade and the abolition of all monopolies, to raise a fund of 100,0001. It is equally well knows that from the first the ladies have at tended our meetings, and countenanced by their presence the greater portion of our public proceedings, and that at the time when great distress prevailed in the manufacturing districts ; and when we petitioned the Legislature on the subject the la dies memorialised her Majesty, beseeching her to look with an eye of compassion on the sufferings of the people, and in order to alleviate them to permit the corn then in bond to be de livered to them duty free. The signatures to this memorial were obtained by ladies, who canvassed them from door to door in the depth of a severe winter in the manufacturin g districts.— (Cheers.) They did more. They held a Free-Trade Bazaar in Manchester by whivh they realized for the League the sum of 10,000/.—(Cheers)—and to show their unabated interest in the Anti-Corn-law movement they proposed to complete the 100,0001. by holding a bazaar in this theatre last year.— ( Cheers.) The bazaar last year was postponed for reasons into which it is now unnecessary to enter. It has been recently held in this theatre, and with what success I shall presently show— (Cheers.) Now, as I have said before, if pecuniary contribu tions alone were what we had looked for, a bazaar would in all probability have been the last thing to which a power ful body like the League would have been willing to commit itself—depending as it must necessarily do on such a variety of circumstances. In the first place we proposed to make it a national exhibition, and it was a national exhibition. —(Cheers.) We received contributions from Shetland, at one :end of the kingdom, and from Cornwall at the other— (Cheers)—and I think all those who had an opportunity of seeing the bazaar will agree with me in saying that never has there been seen collected together in this country such a pro fusion of beautiful, ingeniously constructed, and useful articles, the production of which reflected the greatest credit on the skill and industry of the working men of this country.—(Loud cheering.) It is not my intention to enter into minute details respecting the peculiar circumstances of holding thin bazaar. may however state, that in many districts of the country, from which it was difficult to furnish contributions of goods, small purses were sent, and from many other districts we received contributions, both in goods and money. Every county in England made some little acknowledgment, for the purpose of manifesting the in terest which it felt in the progress of the free-trade cause.— ( Loud cheers.) Where manufactures could not be sent, small purses had been made up and forwarded. There had been re ceived through the Bazaar from— Money Sub. Sales. X. s. d. X. a. d. Devonshire, Exeter 41 5 9... 96 13 6. Northamptonshire... 17 10 6... 124 0 8. Total. 1:. s. d. 136 3 9 ... 141 11 2 - 163 5 6 Wales (Swansea) ... 32 4 0... 131 1 6. Cheshiie and Deiby.. shire Nottinghamshire 172 15 8 ▪ 232 7 1 240 17 6 .. 227 10 5 .. 252 0 5 264 9 10 ▪ 297 15 6 Glouce — stershire 115 6... 239 2 0., Staffordshire Agricultrl. counties. 182 13 6... 69 6 11. Sussex Leicestershire Cumberland, North umberland, and Durham 7O 7 0... 253 1 1. Warwickshire 2B 10 0... 387 10 10. Coal brook dale (Salop) 30 16 0... 519 5 4. London Scotland 260 9 0 .. 1,744 5 2.. Yorkshire __ Lancashire, Man chester Other towns 2,209 12 3...2,398 8 2 Post-office Confectionary Book Stalls... Model Room Glass Stall .. Fairy Glass Medals Curiosities Received at the doors . Beds for Labourers . 113 7 6' 428 1 0 571 5 2 213 3 2 80 18 0 140 10 0 .... 77 18 4. Subscriptions subsequent to Bazaar 323 8 1 416 0 10 - 550 1 4 _1,959 1 8 ~2,004 14 2 -3,891 12 7 -6,816 8 5 1,724 19 0 4,815 17 6 123 8 0 233 6 0 Total amount... And there were left on hand as many contributions as would equal any bazaar ever yet held in this country. There was another gratifying feature in connexion with it, for they re garded it as the close of the 100,0001. fund, as will be seen by the following account :- 1844. LEAGUE FUND, 1845. Dec. 31.—. Amount received to this date, as per advertised statement - £86,009 7 3 1846. June 17.—Receipts to this date, as per ledgers ....£2,627 991 5,632 5 2 Ditto London lists .. 3,004 15 5) Bazaar receipts as per statement 25,046 0 11 £116,687 13 4 [The reading of these accounts was received with tremendous cheering, the sums received from the agri cultural districts more particularly so.] It is not merely in a pecuniary sense that we congratulate you on the re sults presented by the Bazaar. From the first day visitors were admitted the daily numbers exceeded 5,000; from first to last 120,000 persons were admitted. The Bazaar lasted 17 days, so that upwards of 7,000 must have been the daily averar of visitors.—(Hear, and cheers.) The receipts per day ave raged more than 1,2001. The especial thanks of the friends of free trade are due to those alone who at this jancture assisted in the completion of the League fund, and gave evidence to the country that an interest was felt in it which had never been surpassed on other questions by the same class.—( Hear, hear. ) The moral effects of that demonstration are great and will be felt for many years to come. I have heard but one opinion ex pressed by those who visited it that they never in all their lives before saw so great a multi tude collected together who manifested the same order and decorum as they observed during the time that they visited it. The contributions are more diffused throughout the country, doing your work, and when other things shall occur which may appear more congenial to the taste of free traders, the simple relics of the result of the la bours of those who sent to the Bazaar shall be reading a quiet lesson in the domestic circles for years to come.—( Hear, hear.) I have great pleasure in calling on Mr. Cobden.— (Loud cheering.) Mr. COBDEN came forward, and was received with the same hearty and unbounded demonstrations of applause which inva riably greet him in free-trade meetings—He said, Ladies and Gentlemen, I could not help thinking, as my friend the Chair man detailed to you those interesting and novel statistics, that I was following him at some disadvantage, inasmuch as I would have little chance of communicating to you anything so new or agreeable. He is just come from the north, where he has been making up his accounts. —( Laughter. ) I have just come frem a railway group, where I have been on the tread-wheel for the last three months, as much a prisoner as though I had been on Newgate, and with the disadvantage of feeling conscious that I was in a place where more time was wasted than even in the distinguished House itself. Yet even under the roof of St. Stephen's something has of late passed of a very cheering cha racter. I think I may say, I bring good news from the House of Commons. —( Hear, hear.) It is not, after all, such a bad place, especially for agitation.—( Hear.) Last year we made a little mistake at the beginning of the session—we laid our heads together, and came to the conclusion that we should employ ourselves better out of doors, in visiting some of the counties and agitating a little,—this year we changed our tac tics, and we think Parliament was, after all, the best place for agi tating.—( Laughter. ) You speak with a loud voice when you speak on the floor of that House. You are heard all over the world, and, if you have anything hard to say, it is a long whip— the la.h will reach over the kingdom.—( Cheers. ) We deter mined to confine ourselves to Parliament, and the result shows that it was the best field for our labours. We there brought for ward a succession of motions ; we asked for a Committee to inquire into the nature of the corn-laws ; we challenged the protectionists to show us what benefits the corn had conferred ; the game, they refused a committee of inquiry, and the country would rightly interpret their motives.—( Hear, hear.) Mr. Bright, an active-minded man, looked about him and thought that of all Hear, a aboli tio n r i wohfne thea r r e s . ) h c o o w ns li - t e l h a e w f y e s l c t the burdens on land none was greater than the game-laws, for the to a great extent, consumes the produce of the land. could compensate theocoums :pboiefnlisaPtE of f l e e th to e tenantry P a in in e t for the game -laws. LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, JUNE 10, With more luck than I had, he obtained his Committee, And no doubt, when " the secrets of the prison-house" arc revealed at the close of the session, that they s ould he able to show, from the mouths of the most intelligent farmers in the country, that there was one burden which they considered greater than all local taxes, highway-rate, county-rate, or even poor-rate, and that was—the excessive burdens of the game pre serves. Well, then, we had our friend Ward's motion, by way of sweeping the ground clean for the great annual motion of Mr. Villiers. He proposed that they should give a Com mittee to inquire into those special burdens, and if there were such to compensate, and have done with them. They said, No inquiry. You ll'ave in London an old trick called, " a dodge," which is sometimes practised in the streets on the credulous and philanthropical.—( A laugh.) One of those artful dodgers walks about the streets as a mendicant, with his arm in a bandage—now, he has a special burden. One of the visiting officers comes to him and says—let me undo the bandage, but finds the artful dodger very loth to comply. Well, now that is the case with our landowners.— (" Hear," and great cheering.) They have been going about, exciting the benevolent feelings of the community, alleging that they labour under some serious disadvantages--some great and heavy burdens—and when we come forward to relieve them of the heavy burdens, like those impostors in the streets, they take to their heels and run away.—(Loud cheers.) Bat I most admit that we have not done so much for the cause as has been voluntarily done by cur opponents. On the grease debate—(Laughter)—a motion was brought forward for the relief of local burdens. What do you think one of these local burdens was? That in a maritime country, where ships were wrecked and accidents occurred, dead bodies were often washed on shore, and the inquests upon them was one of the local burdens on the country. Such is the argument of the great landed interest. Then came the annual debate, brought for ward by my friend Mr. Villiers, who introduced it with his accustomed talents and energy. Now we heard rumours in the House. These things are always known—they are con cocted in the clubs—so we always know what is the dodge in the House. There were, on this occasion, rumours in the House that they did not intend to have any debate—no speeches on the other side—the protectionists were determined upon being silent; and I believe, if Mr. Villiers had not alluded to three of the county members, who were then forced to talk, not one of them would have opened his mouth in that debate. But, however, three or four of them spoke, and the most significant part of their speeches was, as the Irishman would say, what they did not say.—(Laughter.) They did not say one word about the farmers having an interest in the corn-laws. What a change ! Three or four years ago, to my own knowledge, they talked of nothing but the farmers, and how they came there for the interest of the tenant-farmers. I am standing between two most extensive tenant-farmers, Messrs. Latimer and Houghton, who would prefer no corn-law. Nothing is now talked of in the House but special burdens. But the most significant part of the discussion I have referred to, was the speeches of the leading men on both sides of the House. By Sir R. Peel and Sir J. Graham on the one side, and by Lord John Russell on the other. I was very anxious to hear what Sir James Graham would say. He spoke on Lord John Russell's motion a few nights before, and in the most gratuitous manner clearly showed, by undoubted statistical returns, the moral, social, and physical evils which resulted from a scarcity of food, and that the country was most tranquil when food was cheap. —( Hear, hear.) He showed by these returns that disease. mortality, puperism, and crime were identified with scarcity of food, and vice versa. Mr. Villiers followed, and with that promptitude for which he has no rival in the House, applied the admissions of the Right Hon. Baronet to the enforcement of his free-trade doctrines. I thought Sir J. Graham would, in the corn law debate, retract the opinions he had uttered ; but, se far from doing so, he confirmed them, and reiterated all he said before. Sir R. Peel followed, and, though he has been going at a rather quick pace lately—( Cries of "Punch."). I hear somebody calling out Punch; well, he is admirable authority—an admirable critic and commentator is Punch— ( Cheers)—he is never wrong—Punch is infallibly right.— (Loud cheers.) He showed us a few days ago how Peel was going fast ahead of Lord John. Well, on this occasion, his fast travelling seemed to have quickened. I have contrasted Sir Robert Peel's speech on this occasion with that which he delivered last year, and I find how much he has advanced. Then he said every thing to conciliate those above him, below him, and on the same bench, and everything that could be done was done to insult free traders ; but now, how does he treat his former friends ?—( Hear, hear.) He tells them that the principles of free-trade are the true ones, and that he intends to carry them out gradually and cautiously, but that still they must be car ried out. Lord John Russell was with us, though qualifying his vote with a wish for a fixed duty, but next year 1 think this little inconsistency will have disappeared, and he will be as great a free-trader as any of us.—( Hear, hear.) He admitted that the tax on corn was the most objectionable of all taxes. Well, though the argument was all in favour of us, the vote was against us. But this state of things cannot always last. Public opinion must tell even upon protectionists, and if moral force is to have any weight at all on the Legislature of this country, the votes on the corn-laws must be soon reversed. ( Hear, hear.) Our principles are acknowledged to be right. and what an argument are they establishing for the advocates of force—what a dangerous precedent are they establishing—it was for this the League met, discussed, petitioned, and legally and peacefully agitated, for six or seven years. The country was convinced that the corn-laws were bad—bublic opinion was against them, but they would not be repealed until ten or twenty thousand starving men assembled in Whitehall and menaced the persons of the Legislature unless they abolished the law, and then, and not till then, would it be abolished.— ( Hear .) The whole thing is, in fact, a question of time, and the question narrows itself into the little word " when. The Times, in an able argument, said this was the sole point to which they would direct their arguments—to show the policy of an immediate repeal. I have no objection to accept the challenge, and in doing so I trust you will bear with me whilst I am detailing some heavy and uninteresting facts. Whilst I am laying the foundation stone, those behind me will furnish the Corinthian capitals and the other arehitectuzal beauties. It is one of the peculiarities of this audienee that they listen with the same attention and in the same numbers as people in other countries behold amusements—as the Spanish witness a brutish fight, or the Romans used to witness a brutal one ; that the audience here are as attentive whilst the simple dry truths of political economy are being laid down, as other assemblies to mere pastime.—(Cheers.) There are other ways of dealing with this question, as Sir R. Peel would say • first, by im posing a duty per quarter, to diminish is. every year until it was abolished altogether ; secondly, by de ferring the repeal until it suits your party. or until cilcutnstances compel you ; and thirdly, at once and for ever to abolish the corn-laws, which is very plain. The Government acknowledged the principles, but strove to stave off the debates, for if they controverted principles so generally knowu, they would be hooted and laughed at, at the corners of the streets. All acknowledged the injustice of the corn-laws, but the protectionists will strive to keep them up, until the land is desolated by another famine such as occurred in 1840, when they will be swept away. But should statesmen wait for such a crisis? No, they should not wait for the evil day.—( Hear, hear.) Grandmamma, in an article this morning, says, if there were no corn-laws, farmers could not live, even if they paid no rents.—( Laughter.) A sort of slip-slop twaddle, meant as an answer to the able article in yesterday's Times. I appeal to my friends, Messrs. Latimer and Houghton, whe ther the farmers would not prefer the abolition of these laws at once, to being held up by the tenter-hooks of suspense.—(Hear, hear.) Party monopolists hold up this raw head and bloody bones of reduced prices, whilst the Prime Minister, whom they wish at the same time to sup port, denounces the principles by which these laws are main tained. Now, let us look to the second mode, which is by enacting a fixed duty of Bs., or any other sum you please, and allowing ls. to pass off every year. What would be the effect of this law upon the farmers? If we pass this fixed _duty of Bs., the farmer will be told by the land agent, or very possibly by the landlord himself, Well, we have passed this duty of 83., but you know you have been only protected to the amount of 6s. or 7s. against the corn imported into this country. And now what is the effect of this ! We need net talk of continuing your leases, we need not speak of draining, or of subsoil ploughing, or of clearing away your hedge-rows, ,for wheat is as high as this law can make it." The conclusion is that nothing is done, but all must wait and the farmer goes on as before, till the next rent-day brings the agent and himself again together. " Ha ! farmer Hobson, the new corn-law does not seem to make much change with you. The wheat is much the same," and again nothing is done. The farmer goes on exerting himself to pay his rent but what goes on abroad in the meantime ? The foreigner is told that as soon as the duty comes down to 2s. or 35., when the doors are opened for the admission of grain into England, and the farmer here cannot look to artificial aid to keep up the price of corn ; then, wi thth lowis the duty , farmers, in an pours dso t i h t e g f o o e r s e ign corn into this country,swamping until the month of M'ay or June creates a counter abundance. —(Cheers.) But we come now to our principle of total and immediate repeal.—(Great cheering.) Now, what is our an swer to the word "when?" We say "now."—(lmmense cheering.) The landlords may say that this will create a panic, and in order that that argument may not wear out, set their newspaper organs to work to frighten the farmer and keep it alive. What is there to be afraid of in the total and imme diate repeal of the corn-laws ? We are told that there is a vast deal of corn lying abroad, ready to he poured into this market if the corn-laws should be repealed. That argument is so well dealt with in the Times of yesterday, that I shall read, if you will allow me, an extract from its columns. " Count up every quarter of corn in every one of earth's richest granaries; track all her winding shores, penetrate every creek, and every stream ; measure every diluvial delta end every sheltered valley, the natural fertility of the plains .nd the artificial productiveness of the hills; take the sum of all the warehouses, all the heaps, and all the standing crops ; and we entertain no doubt whatever that reasonable and candid men will be astonished above measure at the universal ' naked ness of the land.' fhe Baltic and the Euxine, the Gulf of Genoa, the St. Lawrence, the MiSsissippi, and even the rivers that flow under our feet, are names of terror to some minds, as if they Sowed with corn. But rivers of corn are as pure and impossible a fiction as rivers of gold. Once you begin to in vestigate, to measure, and to count, you find the most formida ble accumulations dwindle into a few months' or a few weeks' sustenance for such living and growing multitudes as London, Manchester, or Glasgow. There is not too much corn on earth, nor will there ever be till the saddest and awfullest words that ever were spoken are finally unsaid, which they never will be in this mortal world." Now this is painting stern truths in all the charms of beautiful and poetic language.—(Cheers.) I look to ages of experience and I ask how have we been situated, when there has been a smaller demand for corn ? In the years 1839, 1840, and 1841, during all this period the average price of corn was 675. a quarter. We ransacked the world for corn—in those years we swept nearly the face of the earth, driving the corn of all nations into our markets ; and I have here a list of the places from which we received corn during that period. We have grain from Russia and from Sweden, from Norway, Denmark, Prussia, Ham burgh, France, Germany, Portugal, Spain, the lonian Islands, Gibraltar, Tripoli, Tunis, Algiers, the Cape of Good Hope, Australia, Canada, the United States, Chili, and Peru. Every region on the face of the globe—Europe, Asia, and America, and even Australia, were searched for food. And how much of corn did we receive from those countries when the price was 675. a quarte r ?—( Hear, hear.) In the year 1839 wheat, including flour, amounted to 2,875,605 quarters, or about one-eighth of the annual consumption of wheat in this country. In 1840, when the Government had given one year's stimulus to this import trade, the amount of wheat sent into England was 2,432,765 quarters. In 1841 the import was 2,783,602 quarters, and the total amount dur ing those three years was 8,091,972, or above an average of 2,700,000 quarters per annum, and this when corn was at 675. —( Hear, hear.) This corn was kept back by our merchants in England until the prices should rise to between 70s. and 80s., and when it could be imported from abroad at Is. duty. There was, therefore, during those years a total and immediate repeal of the corn-laws, and you saw the result in the state of our markets. If you pass an Act now for the total and imme diate repeal of the corn-laws, you will find yourself in the very same position that you were in during that peried—(Cheers) —for now corn is only 465., and not 675. as then. And therefore, I say, where is the corn to come from now, if we were not inundated with it in that dear season ?—( Cheers.) No, there is no such thing as a store of corn in this world— there is no such thing as a provision made for contingencies there that is mightn no ground expec t fored toth the i arise ea duringthat tthe graincertain r p d e u re produced d d s would, an d be diminished by the repeal of the corn-laws.—(Cheers.) There was no supply therefore except such as might be ex peeted from the regular market, and if the repeal of the corn laws were carried out to-morrow there would be literally not sufficient to meet the demand that might arise in consequenc.e. But our opponents wish to produce an unnatural price in the market by withholding and delaying this justice to the farmer. They say, " wait till Sir Robert Peel is com pelled by the cry of _(stress to repeal the corn• laws, because you cannot ej.st w knout some protection." These opinions they t:y to spread, even to the Ukraine, and to every country where their trash may be disseminated. Now, I have referred to this subject only as it injures the farmer, but is there not another class whose interests are affected ? Is this law not most injurious and destructive to the great body of the people ? This movement would not have taken place—we should not have been able to originate an associati'n composed of a vast proportion of intelligence in the population of this country, if this had been a mere question of political economy. It is be cause the question respects the food of all—it is not because it is a farmer's or a landlord's question. I speak not in their names, but I stand here in the name of the great body of the people, and if I show that the law is injurious, if I show that a large majority of the people are unfairly and unjustly treated, then I think I am fairly entitled to ask for the total and immediate repeal of the law.—( Great cheering.) Who ever said that this law was passed for the benefit of the great body of the people ? No one. We have heard it said, indeed, and it has been attempted to be argued, that it is a sort of compensation to the landlord for some peculiar bur dens to which he is liable, but we have found out that this is an imposture.—( Laughter and cheers.) We must send the Mendicity Society's officers alter them.—( Renewed laughter and cheers.) It was rather hard to maintain an injurious law for the benefit of the farmers, who were, after all, but 250,000 out of the 27,C00,000 who form the population of these islands. —(Cheers.) Yes, that is the proportion which the favoured bears to the injured class.—(Great cheering.) But who ever heard it urged that it was for the benefit of the people that the law had been passed ? It never ought to have been passed, and those who did so ought to hide for very shame their faces, that now we are compelled to demand the repeal of it.—( Great cheering.) I say, if it was not passed for the be nefit of the people, why on earth should they not at once repeal it without setting up some other interest? Sir Robert Peel was very fond of talking of the great and important interests which had grown up under this law.—(Great laughter.) I plead for greater and more important interests, which are now crushed to the earth by the pressure of this law—(lmmense cheering)—and if they want proof of this, why I bring their own Home Secretary with his prison reports and his statistical tables, and I put him into the witness-box, to show what the law has done for that class which is the most numerous in this land.—(Cheers.) I apply for the total and immediate repeal of the corn-laws, on the ground of expediency, and be cause it could now be better effected than at another time. apply for it on the ground of justice, because if the law be a bad one, it should be at once annulled.—( Cheers) And w hat will be the effect on the great body of the people, when the time comes which Government contemplates—for they are going to repeal the law in a season of distress? And such a season may come—aye, three weeks of showery weather, when wheat is in its bloom, will repeal this corn-law? Bat how ? We have the experience of 1839, 1840, and 1841, and are the people of this country to be subjected to another such infliction before this law is re pealed ? What provision is made for such a calamity ? This is an important consideration at this moment. Divine Providence miy repeal the corn-laws by a bad harvest, but at present He mitigates by his bounty the rigour of the landlord's corn-law. —( Cheers.) Well, supposing a reverse to take place, as within the last six years—convulsions such as the youngest person here has seen during some part of his life—supposing such to occur again, what provision is made to meet it? None. I have told you how much corn could be got in 1839, after the scanty harvest of 1838 ; and such would not be your supply now. The maritime cities of the Atlantic are increasing in importance, and consuming more and more corn, and we give them no inducement to spread themselves abroad into the in terior, and therefore they are more and more in a condition to consume corn greater than their increase. —(Hear.) I heard in the House of Commons the other evening, Mr. Mitchell make a very peculiar speech on this subject—a speech which rivetted the attention of the House, as all speeches do, when a man speaks only of what he well understands.—(Loud cheers.) Mr. Mitchell exposed the bankrupt condition of this country so far as corn went. Where, in the event of a bad harvest, would Great Britain be supplied from ? Government gave no answer to the question. It ought, however, to be thrust upon them, and they would not have nerve enough to bear the re sponsibility, if this were continually done.—( Cheers.) Then, let us look to the condition of the middle classes. True, the poor feel the first effects, but the middle classes are not so well placed as they, for the former in times of scarcity cannot starve, but have a right to claim support from those above them. What is done with the capital of the country ? Go to the House of Commons, and in one of the lobbies there leading to the Committee-rooms, in one of which I have the misfortune to be engaged, you will find railway speculations extending over the length and breadth of the land, occupying the atten tion of all parties. What effect would a bad harvest have on this? Alen have expended their thousands and hundreds of thousands for railway shares, and have paid their subscriptions for them. How would a bad harvest affect them? It is all plain sailing now. Everything is sunshine. They get shares to-day, sell them to-morrow and reap for their labour 20 per cent.—( Laughter.) But these shares will be held by some one at last, and if we have a failing harvest, what is to be done then? I would recommend every speculator in railway shares to keep a sharp look-out on the barometer.—( Laughter.) He should take in two papers, a railway paper and the Mark-lane Express—( Cheers and laughter)—and when he sees the price of shares then let him look at the price of wheat in Mark-lane.—(Great laughter.) But if a bad harvest comes, then will be the season to exhibit distress in every sec tion of the community. That is the point I want to urge on the Government, and on every member of it. As a Govern ment let us throw on them the responsibility. And now, gen tlemen, that is the point, the concluding point, of my case in favour of the repeal of the corn-laws.—(Cheers.) As the lawyers say, gentlemen, that is my case —(Laughter.) Now, I want to know why we should not carry the repeal of the corn-laws now ? Merely because those men cannot make up their minds to say that they have been wrong. Now, what I want to do, is this—to open the door as wide as possible for the conversion of our opponents. I wish that I could burn " Hansard," and all other books of debate, in order that they might be allowed to alter their course of policy. But they are afraid of being taunted with saying something diffe rent before from what they should now. But why should they be ashamed to acknowledge that they had learned ? I hope that they will learn something by this discussion to-night. 1 trust that they may be induced to make a clean breast of it, and they will never be taunted a fterwards.—(Cheers. ) Now, gentlemen, I want to say one word on the important subject of registration before I sit down. The next registration will probably decides the fate of the corn-laws—(" Hear, hear," and cheers) and, therefore, let every one make it his business, as much as the ledger or counter. On the 20th of next month is the day for the counties, and I will just direct your attention to Buckingham, where there are at least l,ooo,if not 2,000 bad votes. But no one thinks of ob jecting to them, because some man is called the Duke of Buckingham ! Why, if they would only consider this thing, the Duke of Buckingham is not more formidable in a Registration Court than any other person here.—( Cheers.) You are the members of a great body, by the advice of whose leaders you are guided, and you are aware that that body is in a position to place you morally, legally, and in a pecuniary way, far beyond the reach of a hundred and fifty dozen Dukes of Buckingham.—(Laughter and loud cheering.) Now, in Surrey we have succeeded ; but let me ask why should they, in East Surrey, be allowed to return two monopolists at the next election ?—(Hear, hear.) Then there is the Borough, and there is Lambeth ; in both those places there is not one in one hundred of those who are entitled to have a vote whose names are in the county list, while in the rural districts we have managed so well that there is not more than one in every forty whose name has not been registered.—(Hear, hear.) I say it is the duty of every man who has a right to be on the list to take care that he is so, and yet there are hundreds who have a right to be on it who never give themselves the trouble of thinking about it all.—( Hear, hear.) Now, we have pos sessed ourselves of Middlesex, and we will take care of it— (Cheers)—and there are other places of which we hope to give an equally agreeable account in good time. But even this we do not consider doing much ; for, mark you, we have another object in view besides the protection awl the increase of the registration—we have in view the possibility, nay, the cer tainty of carrying some of the fighting counties.—(Cheers.) And why not try to carry out our principles by contesting a county where there is a chance of success, as well as braving a contest where we are not certain the return will be in our fa vour ?—( Hear.) Why should we not have in every parish an active man or two who would make it his business to bring up every man to register his vote who was entitled to do so, and at the election make that man exercise that privilege without putting the candidate to any expense?—( Hear, hear.) If this were done we could not only carry the places we have carried heretofore, but we could also contest, at a compara tively trifling expense, those counties where we might cal culate upon a fair chance of success.—( Hear.) On the other hand, let me ask how does the monopolist propose to recom mend himself so as to call upon the county to return him at their expense ?—(Laughter.) In what position does he present himself as a claimant for the popular support? Why, so far from his having a claim of that sort, when he is returned, and those who are returned upon the same interest, very soon begin backbiting each other in the lobbies and com mittees, and such places.—(Laughter.) One is accused of having voted for Peel, and another of having voted against him ; and thus they begin to fight with each other like so many village gossips.—(Laughter and cheers.) I say, then, it is the duty as well as the interest of every man to give his attention to the registration, and see that it is effectively carried out. If this be only done, steadily and perseveringly, there is not the least doubt but we will repeal the corn-laws within a very short period, and that, too, in a manner that will set a glorious example to all future time.—(Loud cheers.) I was going to say, and I must be pardoned for saying it, that I hardly regret that this agitation has continued so long. If the repeal of the corn-laws had been carried in the years 1830, or 1840, or 1841, so soon after that agitation had begun, then, perhaps it might be thought that its success had been owing to sudden and multitudinous clamour ; but the agitation has gone on for such a length of time steadily increasing, that it is now quite apparent that we have been teaching the people something more than merely the necessity of demanding a repeal of the corn-laws. We have been teaching the farmers to think well upon what they are about, and to look clearly and steadily at what is really their own interest. We have taught the mo nopolist that he cannot much longer expect to persevere in his course; and if we only persevere as we have done, there can not be the least doubt that we will, in a very short time, achieve that which we have been organised to accomplish. The Hon. Member sat down amidst loud cheers. Mr. BRIGHT was next introduced to the meeting, and was received with those demonstrations of applause which usually greet his appearance at this meeting. He said—On every occasion of our meeting together in this theatre, it appears to me that something has occurred during the interim which supplies us with some new cause for re joicing, and that we find some additional reasons for congratu lating each other since the previous meeting. Two months have now elapsed since the last regular meeting was held here, under the usual forms of Chairman, Secretary, &c. ; but 1 cannot help looking back with feelings of deep gratification at the extraordinary meeting that was continued to be held in this hall for eighteen days during that interim—( Cheers.) I think that meeting might indeed well be called a monster meeting.—(Hear, hear.) The 120,000 persons who visited the theatre during that time might be called such with great truth, for it was the largest and most important of all the free-trade assemblages that has taken place since the commencement of the agitation of that question.—( Hear, hear.) During that time we had exhibited here specimens of the industry and ingenuity of our country men engaged in every branch of trade, and the vast variety of the produce of their skill there exhibited, seemed to me to make a mute but powerful appeal to the Government of this country on behalf of the millions by whom those specimens were contributed.—(Cheers.) We had specimens of the pro ducts of free trade, not only of this country, but from foreign countries. Those whose works they had, met face to face ; they seemed to shake hands in mutual concordance of principle, while they looked on at the progress the movement had been making in this country, and to regard it as a symptom of the manner in which Englishmen were resolved to regard that sacred pledge, solemnly taken, not to relax in their efforts, until all restriction s u p on th e i r i n dustry had been r e moved.—( Cheers.) I need not here enter into any panegyric: on the exertions of those of our countrymen by whose extra ordinary sacrifices the late exhibition and the bazaar have been carried to so successful an issue. In another place, where their sacrifices and their virtues are not known or appreciated, I have taken care to speak.—(Cheers.) But it may be enough to say here, simply, that from our hearts we thank thorn— (Cheers)—and that we look upon what they did upon that oc. . cation as a pledge of what they were willing to do for the future—( Cheers)—and we now know, through that effort of theirs, that this is no longer a question for the statistician, o: one of mere political economy, but one which will, in future, be the topic of the domestic circles in the hundreds of thou sands of homes in this kingdom.—(Cheers.) I may be dis posed to a.,1 your attention for a moment to what has been said by some who are anxiously opposed to this measure of free trade. They say that we have exaggerated the advantages that would result from the repeal of the cern-laws ; and this, too, has been said by those who say they concur in the principle, but are rather lukewarm friends to the practice ; but before all these I am ready to maintain that no mar, however eloquent or skilled in the powers of discussion he may be, can truly picture the evils and the cruelty on which those corn-laws are based--( Hear, hear.) I say there can be no safety in laws which tend to spread over the land a partial famine, for the sake of the private interest of a few individuals.—( Hear. ) There can be no possible good in any law which shuts out the public from a full and fair supply of food—(Cheers)—but it is a law which does certainly and most imperatively resist and interfere with the free exchange of the property of the vast majority of the population of this country I mean their skill and labour.—(Cheers.) On this subject I shall now quote for you the words of a man, who is said to have been as far-seeing a statesman as ever lived, and who in wisdom and oratory has never been surpassed, I mean Edmund Busks —( Hear, hear.) He says, that " monopoly is contrary to natural right, and that free-trade was the same thing as the free use of property."--(Cheers.) We have always maintained that the poor man had as full a right to all the proceeds of his labour as any man had to his property who wore a coronet, or ruled over half a county.—(Hear, hear.) If the property of the people's labour could be weighed in the scale against all the jewels;and plate, and land, and all else that aristocracy deemed most valuable, the' former would far outweigh all that the rich hold most dear.—( Hear, hear.) I will now call your atten tion to a few facts which have been well authenticated, and which will serve to show that our statements have not been as exaggerated as it has been attempted to be asserted they were. I hold in my hand re'urns of the prices of food in the town of Bolton in Lancashire, at various periods, from the year 1835 to 1845. During the years 1835, 1836, and 1837, the average price of wheat in that town was only 445. Bd. ; during that time the town was in a state of great prosperity and all the labouring population was employed. There was no poor-rate, wages were well paid, cottages all occupied, rent well paid, shopkeepers were stirring, and improvement was visible every where.—(Hear, hear.) From the year 1838 to 1842, the average price of wheat in the same town was 645. 4d., being nearly one-half more than it was from 1834 to 1836.—(Hear.) During the the years 1839 and 1840 the mills were working short time, being only engaged from three to four days in the week. Several establishments had stopped work altogether, and remained so till 1842 or 1843. Taking twelve months in 1839-40, and in 1840-41, and comparing them with twelve months in 1834-35, it was found that the loss in wages alone was 130,000/., and the loss incurred in the price of food con sumed by the population of Bolton, 195,0001., making a total loss of 325,000/.—( Loud cries of " Hear, hear")—or a loss of 1,000/., every working day in the year. From 1835 up to 1841, 1,500 houses and shops had been emptied of their tenants thousands were thrown out of employment, and wages had' fallen from ten to fifteen per cent.—( Hear, hear.) Pauperism had generally increased, and out-door relief was extensively administered. In 1838, the sum applied for the relief of the poor was 1,558/. ; in 1841, the amount applied for a similar purpose was 6,2581., showing a fourfold increase in the amount dis tributed.—( Hear, hear.) In addition to this, soup-kitchens were opened, and continued in operation for the casual relief of the poor till 1842. In the latter year the Poor Protection Society of Bolton relieved 6,127 persons, leaving out of view the other sources of relief he had referred to. The effect of this state of things was seen in the rapid diminution of the funds rased for the relief of the destitute; the difficulty with which the people could be got to attend places of worship ; and the neglect of the education of the children— the schools being deserted. The whole town was in the con dition of a fallen ruin. This was the time that Colonel Thomp son addressed a letter from that town, descriptive of its mi serable and desolate condition, in which he termed it the " siege of Bolton." In 1842 the price of corn fell, and since that time it has only averaged 50s. per quarter. With the re duction in the price of food came an improvement in trade and manufactures. Places of employment were again set in motion, workmen again fully employed, while wages underwent an in crease of from 10 to 15 per cent. For the second time in the progress of the cotton trade an advance took place in the prices paid to the mule hand-spinners. I may state that those are the men in the cotton trade who always receive the highest wages, and that there is always a strong desire manifested by other parties to get into it. The effect of this strife is to pre vent wages from rising in this department, even when other branches of the cotton trade are flourishing. Hence the wages of this branch have generally fallen from the effect of this competition; but in 1835 and in 1845 an increase took place from the great impetus which had been given to trade, arising from the reduction in the price of provisions, and this year the same result might be expected, did the same cause continue to operate. The cheapening of the price of food had overcome the competition for employment, and the result is seen in the increase of wages to which I have referred.— (Loud cheers.) Collateral with the increase of wages the poor atates had fallen, shopkeepers had increased in business, and iron-foundries, engineers' workshops, and machine esta blishments, that had been lying idle, were brought into active operation.—(Loud cheers.) Cotton mills, that had been standing still since 1839 and 1840, were now going, making an increase altogether to Bolton, in the wages received by its working population, of 2,982/. weekly, or an annual increase of 155,0641.—(Hear, hear.) And if each of those engaged saved a penny each day, as compared with the previous period, it would make a further sum of 151,666/., which, added to the increase of wages, would show that the whole town was better off by 306,730/.—( Hear, hear.) This shows whether protection does best for the working classes ; whether dear food tends to keep up the rate of wages. --(Great cheering.) I need not look at Bolton alone, for every town in the manufac turing districts shared similar results; and, in some towns, there was a still greater contrast —( Hear, hear.) Not only have the manufacturing operatives been benefited, but the agricultural labourers also. Contrasting the condition of the agricultural labourers at the same periods of time, a conside rable improvement had been effected. I have evidence of several intelligent farmers who admit this, and who say that the returns they have hod at low prices, have remunerated them better than under the other system, and that they were in a better position to reward the;r labourers—( Hear). While they had high prices, from 1838 to 1842, pauperism increased, and a state of things prevailed, showing a much greater evil in operation than that which has, in the fancy of certain parties, been ascribed to free trade.—(Lowl cheers. ) What is the case now ? lam in the habit at present of having a sort of levee with the farmers, three days in the week. I meet with from nine to twelve intelligent farmers, with whom I discuss the game-law question. What lam about to state regarding them is the result of private conversa tion, for what is said in Committee is not allowed to be used till it is published. They all admit that the present state of things is much more satisfactory than what it was six or seven years ago. For this satisfactory change there must be a cause. It cannot be the work of any party. It cannot be attributed either to the single conduct of Sir Robert Peel, or of Lord John Rus sell, or be ascribed to Sir James Graham as an emanation of the Horne-office.—(" Hear, hear," and cheers.) It was during the years of so much suffering that monopoly existed almost without adulteration, and it did its work well; and the reason why an improvement had taken place was not because mono poly had been strengthened and extended, but because freedom of trade had been admitted and partially conceded.—( Hear, hear.) If monopoly is good in itself, why should it not be carried out ; if it is good for the working classes, why not give them the benefit of its rigid application. Let us see what would be the result if that experiment were tried. Were such a state of things carried out for ten years, there is no force or cohesion in society that could hold it together. Order could not be preserved, and the spectacle would be most dreadful were such a principle to be carried out.—( Hear, hear.) The effect of such a system would be the putting of every man on short allowance.—(Loud cheers.) Sir Robert Peel says the improvement we have experienced in trade has arisen from two causes—partly from a good harvest, and partly from his own legislation.—( Hear, hear.) He is not particularly modest, it appears, in taking so much credit to himself.—( Loud cheers.) But, if legislation is to be taken as the cause, and I admit that to a certain extent the statement is right, then it is to be ascribed to his going forward in the direction of free trade.— (Loud cheers.) For the improvement which had taken place to legislation on this subject—but in a higher degree, to the seasons—was to be ascribed the change for the better that had been brought about.—( Hear, hear.) If the case I have this night given of Bolton be not true, is it not clear that too much evil cannot be attributed to monopoly ?—( Hear, hear.) And ff the beneficial effects produced may be mainly attributed to the cheapness of provisions induced by three good harvests, is it too much to say that the abolition of the corn-laws would lead to a still greater improvement, and tend to the permanent prosperity of the population ? A cheap and plentiful supply of food constituted the foundation of true prosperity; and what ever interferes with this supply is a prolific source of ignorance, the parent of crime, and the cause of the premature death of thousands, who, in other and better circumstances, would have grown up to be useful members of society.—(Loud cheers.) I can show you the results, founded on the authority of the Secretary for the Home Department. In 1836 the number of commitments were 20,000 ; in 1841 they were 32,000, showing a gradual increase between the two pe:- riods. Now, what were the effects when an improvement had been brought about by the reduction in the price of food? In 1842 the commitments were 29,000; in 1544 they were 26,000 ; and if the present harvest turns out a good one, this year will no doubt show another proportionate decrease. I will ask, where is there a philanthropic society like this League? It is good to visit those in affliction, to give them counsel and assistance. It is praiseworthy to educate youth, and to assist with the hand of benevolence the poor and the needy in the hour of distress. I honour every man and every woman who engages in this godlike work.—( Cheers. ) Yet how little can the efforts of single individuals do, compared with what this association aims to accomplish—the unlocking of the granaries of the world, so as to give to the people fairly that abundance which God intended all should possess— ( Tremendous cheering)—to furnish industry with its due reward, to effect the redemption of thousands from crime, and to save from infamy or a premature death those that otherwise would have fallen victims to this odious and detestable law. The opposition to the principle on which our present agitation is founded is gradualiy becoming weaker, and it is now difficult to catch a single fallacy. Sir Robert Peel, in his opposition to the motion of the lion. Member for Wolverhampton, could not oppose it on the grounds he had formerly stated, or on those taken by other parties on his side of the House. He admitted that it was impossible this country could supply itself with a sufficient amount of food, and denied what had so often been insisted on by the monopolists—that low prices of (grain necessarily implied a low rate of wages. These questions were therefore settled..—(Loud cheers.) He further admitted that the corn-laws could not be defended on account of mortgages or incumbrances on land.—( Hear, hear.) This showed a great change in the opinions of the Right Hon. Gentleman, who, in 1838, said that the corn-laws were a part and parcel of the Constitution of England, and must be main tained, and that the interests of the landlords should be pro tected on account of the particular burdens they had to bear. Now, however, there has not been a single word spoken about this constitutional corn-law, or about the special burdens which the land was said to bear.— ( Hear, hear.) I have heard from a gentleman, a member of the Royal Humane Society, instituted to save people from drowning, that there is an annual dinner of the members and friends. When the dinner is over, and it is necessary to get up the subscription. the persons who have been saved from drown ing are made to walk in procession round the room. When the sympathies are highly excited, then the subscription is set a going, and the experiment is found to be successful. Now, as the Royal Humane Society adopts the course 1 have stated, and as dinners of the monopolists are occasionally held in Free mason's Hall, if it were wished to get up a subscription on the same principle, for all the farmers saved by protection, how long would be the procession ? lam sure it would be no diffi cult matter to count the number.--( Loud cheers.) The de fence of the corn-laws, it was plain, could no longer rest upon the grounds previously set forth. The growing intelligence of the people, and the improving spi r it o f l eg i s l at i on w ere equally opposed to their maintenance.--(Loud cheers.) They had had an agricultural meeting in Wiltshire, and though Ido not wish to speak hardly of the parties present at that meeting, yet if I needed a justification of the harsh things which had been said by members of the League—if I needed any justification of the means which had been taken to accom plish the ends we have In view, I should turn to the circum stances which occurred at that meeting, and feel that I had found a full justification of everything we have said and fromthraldomwhich has tyran done to free the country 1 0 nised over its best feelings, and destroyed the .interests , housands. When I see that men, and that women, too , come forward, and are repelled because they comp lain that far working from sunrise to sunset, and often afterwards, they receive no more than six, seven, eight, or ten shillings a week' for the support of a family of ten persons, I feel fully assured that no imputation can lie on the P ro ceedings of this League, and I enjoy a consolation in the the thought, that we are en deavouring to work out a great and a good object. I will not speak of the difference which existed between the labourers in those agricultural districts and those whom we see in thoar factories.—( Hear. ) They were rep elled because ey their desired to have those things which from labour they have a right to have. And when I come to look at the hovels which they inhabit, I am con strained to believe that there is as little consideration for t rights of the poor, as there is of knowledge of what is good for the nation.—(Cheers.) I will not say that many parts of th e country are not in a state of prosperity, but I do say that there. has not been sufficient care for the interes ts of all the classes of the community, trod especially when I consider that the.,r: pulation is steadily increasing, and that there are now a rolu" and a half more of human beings to support than there blriee only four years ago. When I look at the state of the pu e _ mind only four bears ago, and I see how this prii.ciple has h all growing, I am constrained to believe that the grantingiof f t he f that we require cannot be very long delayed, and public mind continue to be agitated as it wa s s i r late years, no Government, —not even that ld Robert Peel, were it ten times as strong as long resist the onward tendency which the country ha. en e ce quired, and it must yield that which reason and "Perlorn alike demand. In all his speeches on the repeal of the_c laws, Sir R. Peel had invariably shown a disposition to ad,r: in the right path. I will not therefore find fault with it i9: f r because I believe that it is for this reason —His fortune, .4 1 . 7 made from those delicate fibres of cotton from which , 1 . 2 believed, the e great changes in the world would yet which Tu he h would render commerce the grand vehic le throng Peel was civilization of the world must be effected. Sir Robert not exactly the man whom he desired to effect the great 111f_e,, of delivering commerce from the thraldom under which t ~ad been placed ; but still from the necessity of his great tion, he believed that he might be theaeers.) instrnment of effecting this object. —OA" po wer, The Prime Minister of this country possesed enormous and where there was enormous power there was mous responsibility. In the late debate on Mr. s hout's ' "ur lters's motion Sir James Graham said that heu vote against the motion of the Hon,,urable Memb er f e r o.son verhampton, but he sho - a l d he very unwi llin g to tak tbo himself the responsibility of putting a restriction osre all food of the people of a great country like this. These and h e symptoms of the settling of circumstances—( Cheers) a nd the was glad to see that this settling was having its effect oder time will come when posterity will look bask with l ic h ore the struggle in which we are engaged. The claim Which ag ain, make is a just claim, and, as it is reiterated again and session after session, with increasing power on our p arts , it with increasing feebleness on the parts of our 0 1 ) P ° . n plac e must be manifest that the great change which is tar. e ff e ct in the public mind must eventually—and that short Y its tion all that we desire. It is the assurance of Divine 'fbe that the earth is the Lord's, and the fuln ess there4hosine merchants of this great commercial city have inscribelsoange..... sentiment on their new and royal and magnificent es i ., writ is (Cheers.) What then is so clearly laid down in 11° Eii i re ; and surely consonant with the best feelings of human nature our we may confidently look for the blessing of besi e n d u c arefn l efforts for the general good, if we are but energetic ° a fter Y es/. in carrying out this great work.—(Cheers.) Yea r el . , a nd the League has been going on increasing in P ° ,../ g reatn es° it grows in power, it is acquiring new elements ha ve in and influence. Yours it is to carry out the end , 7 , 4 beep view. Yours it is to complete the work which we to $ s e : and to carry on that which we have so ha pily begu n Ojai' P d •li our d a t cessful issue. Our work will never be complete ti down sou is attained.--( The Hon. Gentleman then 1 thue.) immense cheering, which continued for a considerable O f the Mr. Fox—l apprehend, Sir, that the antieiPt, l ., Are coo last speaker will be well received, as I am sure t tworeasea founded, and that free trader will, indeed, be told w ith been able person who does not express himself satia has been progress and prospects of this great question. .1+115,.,_ ,__; well observed by Mr. Cobden to-night, I entertatt tu:i7egrand but that the majority which is now arrayed aga i l e c onor i t t o question in both Houses of Parliament, will soentt, ba p To into a minority ; and that, not by a triumph of 14 Ttt%: og% 0 conscientious assent of all classes of the comm o f the i• n our not, it is true. the vote as yet of the great le i "' S p eeeh"4 the of Commons, but we have nine-tenths of bell cissiet; have favour. We have now the opinions of farm 11 ;:, se t community in our favour. Even the J a— they - -le 't• ,„b t The so long been urged on to the opposition vir , "' 0 00' is up to an enlightened policy are beginning to e, e he stated opinions are changed, 'id the whole sense 0 ' t ote moving toward the great object. The land) these „retee'''slr by the farmers to have deserted them, and if theW to shadknow corn-laws are not the landlord's business, I should whose they are. All argument in favour oft be eearkiog he now been given up, and two newspapers , Web' sPe,,, st if the? pleas which could be put in their favour, stated . con is was an argument still in. existence, it was so clos el y m ysterit 1 ; that it was impossible to discover it. There i s w hich i t fact, about all these corn -law ons " f the ee -aw reas e o . to nearly impossible to fathom, and it reminds In s tories' torn at Athens, in the celebration of the Eleusinia3l, nodes lead an ass about, covered with a white linen Yen' t last utterl nobody must look. And this was done so as citizens ner• to destroy the feeling of respect with which th t came be accustomed;to regard the animal, that at lu st I so it wa s common juke that the ass carried the mystery. daY t euc tl r regard to the corn-laws. They heard from Y a - t d the e the mystery with which the burdens on land , an ' l i ma a; pleas were enveloped, that it soon ceased to be soro occu rreo derful, and reminded him of a caricature which hadons of `reed at the meeting of a certain corporation. Whils t , h is bet members was speaking, another was observed to shase tos tion e ' in a very significant manner ; and on being closel. bo and charged with this shameful breach of corporat doe t t here had confessed that he did shake his head , but added t ha t th ere was nothing in that.—( Laughter.) Such, toe, I t ' s b a se he with regard to the mysterious burdens on land. " the addition of many irrefragable argument s in fave—nd toet.s; abolition of this injudicious and impolitic inonopolY., L a "; in 01 ; truly do I desire that they may bear their full weir' hsor community; for this is the season when, of all times , the could be best effected—when prosperity gladdened the rg , so 4 ' from one end to the other, and when no evil can befal anY o° pie' great good must ultimately arise to every portion of the Y— t he I trust the neistry will see this ; for dreadful would )low havoc, fearful would be the symptoms which would rsbele winter alter a bad harvest—when, as a few years a , o ,t '' - peoP le country was convulsed from the want of food , and thetlireoa• driven to desperation by want and suffering—would quie'ilaoce, vert the whole of this beautiful scenery, peace, and ailliesh to one common spectacle of havoc and desolatiom-Lerwise, near.) But, I hope that the case will be et" c or and that in the place of public contention and foreig d u s t : et . tention there will be peace with all nations abroad , an o tesu exchange of their food for our manufactures --w h o of hearing the bombardment of our towns and the wow of our coasts, the only invasion we should have to d re° o als w° be the invasion of cargoes of corn, and the only eePr f co ol should make would be in the shape of consignme nts ° t of t i b l goods—when, instead of looking to the strong excite slne, tavern and the alehouse, the mechanic and the artlos%o ana look to the Athenaeum and the parks for their recreoldpigh:i improvement—when, instead of attending to the bang s drillings upon the hills, they would look to the jute" v , e fal e t ; scaredkindne an the mutual promotion of the corolla ° t esti% These the moral influences which t he t eyed one for free trade is likely to produce ; and I tract the on be who now hears me will use his best endeavours to aril rese 9t to hiID good work. The Premier is with us, though at P toot e• d does not state so much openly ; but in order e e oe aft his point, we must continue our efforts with un We 0 , 0 Not a fibre must be spared, not a muscle relaxe d. still follow up the same beautiful union o f effort, a ei• shis + exhibited in the formation and conduct of the 13aus,rines hear, and cheers.) We must remember the few opening of The Miller and his Men : " When the wind blows, Then the mill goes, When the wind drops r eek s Then the mill stops. e ol ust Whe —(Cheers and laughter. ) To make Peel go age the c w Russell o,g and to make Russell go we must i nt o ostit eeP tbie go, andle make the Whigs go we must make the st o skt ate d go, and to make the constituencies go we InuWith unajoro League, which is the mainspring of all, go -- ,_P d t he ,„ieco, vigour and increasing energy. Sir R. Peel u ti nenrd taken in battle, described in Mr. Sergeant theTalfour oie th e put down the helmet, the buckler, and tbst 10 0 protection, but with this difference/ e ater fa ts fictitious hero laid down his armour to__ to 'Mgr, captivity, while the object of Sir Robert Peel or ok i n d..,. o ill commerce and enfranchise the intercourse of 0%, i t Fox concluded his long and able speech to which our 0:10 not allow us to do anything like justice, by fries w• b°delrt appeal to the natives of the different foreign c one d nob ly t ete ,* be present, calling upon them, by those high an the ir I _ o o menta of national character, to remember and to us7 3 ,i e btle . , felif and7oprortunities inpromoting that great object,4" won lo fulfilled by intire freedom of intercourse and which 001 FOY justify every philosopher and philanthropist_ „ T at se term of the "Family of Man." He sat down after 13 10 rou e to t racted cheering, hoe dien ce rd The CHAIRMAN then said, that as all would he e u do at the next meeting. he would call upon t o res .n d th e commence the registration with three cheert.biage, and were then given by the immense asse'' meeting dispersed. woo:: .. . -- The New Zurich Gazette of the 13t to ;10 In o i - oi a report that Dr. Steiger has accepted a n offer glad e '- o f bili o eSupdel Government of Lucerne to spare his life , on condition rem l hinuelf in Genoa or Alexandria, in Italy, there t° the surveillance of the police. On the 13th inst, ..- .------- 1 5: .—.—....— . `" ~ Se" the le d). 431. tije Joh l/ George Smith, of a son. R. Henry El - Mick, f atßarkeNwvaes; Haesrstse,xo•f twi n susrle. ) ll* On the 13th inst., at the Manor House, BIRTHS. creditoll, .it iiid y of hj ao O thnn n , oK t f h ea e nsn l o 3 an t ‘ . v h . a i v n , s B t . a , r L a t, of E as son. Dev o nshire, the ,r ~,g , of P .- v On the 10th inst., at Wardour Castle, La' A tk - ,r filli" g G daughter. cN O o O s s i i n n el tt t i h h h n eee, t l , 4 sci th ., inst., in Eaton-Place, the Couni,— nf • of a son. 13th inst., at 'Bang Cottage, th e Wife ; 0 00P TieorY 13th inst., the wife of the no r ' i". - s on. v,ao rti Head Master of Stepney Grammar School, o. - g o. , On the 14th inst., at Laura -place, Claptoo, Paterson, of a son. ------------------ emir; ,WARBIED. i nsAl :A of i Jong 111 3 1 1 eLl' s 1 On the 10th inst., at Parsons-green, P v;c he ~ 0 Esq., younger, of Dunkenny, to Mail Riche pars°:" - V o is/ daughter of William Mitchell Inner, Escl . :_ whitbreTlO Percival, Esq., to Frances Isabella, On the 10th inst., at the parish churou, daughter oi , „ Richardson, of Whitby, Esq. s, sci. ' 0 41 ; 4 At Croydon Church, James Willis Broo _ unge st i, 0 0 street, Bedford-row, London, to Marianne, 3.uisrewlisli of the late Colonel Edward Mac Donnell, °' 011 11 7 of Clare, Ireland. *W e ' lit e ' Mor) so On the 17th inst., at Trinity Church, , . bir d d John Walter Baynes, Esq., to Margaret i stree t ' Daniel Stuart, Esq., of Upper Ilarley- only daub of joire Pa O rl a ia JaOtnnesthe Henryl th inst., Abinger ---- DlED.wide ce, 1 1 -6 O'Reilly Scott, Fmreiday, June 13, aged 72, at her rnache John Callin,nt-street, Liverpool, Elizabeth, Widow' e k " . ~n o , Esq. riaC P v f 4 - .lello, "" 14 0 in New-street, Spring-g4A-, ;00 of inst., at the Vicaraoy, a Lawrence Scarlett, youugesv ' A O 0 A ir elliOli:ieg O the 9th ' I___Onthe 14th .. just., in Paltnerstreet, DA , v l 4 , Church Barham, 8.A., , aged 13. gobert 0 tb RScletdt,l6;oungest son of the natej3Lcjiell'ulte;lal3t (Se, 1:)., Esq., 81.agedinst ' at Bideford, Dev°ll'lllllli . 0 On the 16th • On the_l7th.inst., at Amen-corner, the ....el'ata tliitij' 1.D., aged 85 • O P. v ilicl3sl4 minor canon of St. Pauls. p rof ____----------- ------- 014'" , „iffigoo Yl4O , 1 2 o f 1 4 , -.0.0n , Printed and Published by 0,- 1 - - offiet,oll7 " No. 112, Strand. Printer , ate 00 0 .., Strand, in in the Precinct of thSavolt,'• Middlesex, Thursday, Joe 19,1545' 1848.! T(7 b tvi t , n a DDro v ents.