The Sun. — London, England, 1844-06-20 00:00:00

GhA.IND WEEKLY AN'TI-CORN-LAW LEAGVE MEETING 41' COVENT-GARDEN THEATRE. Tbse usual weekly meeting of the members, friends, sae'. supporters of the National Anti-Corn-law League took place last evening at the Theatre -Royal Covent- Garden. The house was more ctusialed than it has been on several recent occasions, and there was a very full attendance of ladies in the boxes,. The doors were open at seven, and within ten minutes 'after the boxes and pit were crammed; and 'hefdre the come snencement of the proceedings the gallery also was completely occupied. At half past seven o'clock G. 'Wilson, Esq., the Chairman-of the League, entered the theatre, and was received with loud applausse • Ile was - accompanied by several active mcrabcra of the league, among whom were Mr. Cobden; M.P., Mr. rlilner Gibson, M.P., Mr. Geo. Thompson, and Mr. . W. J. Fox, who were loudly cheered by the meeting. Among those present, we observed the following : Menjatnin Smith, Esq., M.P.; the ,Rev: Thomas Spencer, of Hinton Charterhouse, near Bath; Col. - Tucker ; George Thompson, Esq.; Rev. Dr. Davis ; Rev. Mr. Roberts, New Bedford, Massachusetts; rrofessor Wright, Boston, United States; Rev. Dr. , Jenkyn, Coward College; Summers Harford, Es 1V illiam Felki n , E sq . , r . L .S., S.P., Sec.; Professor Key ; .General Briggs ; Rev. S. Edwards, Notting-, hand; Ed. Wm. Gray, Esq., Newbury; ,Messrs. John Rawsthorne, of Manchester ; Charles Mackay ; W. D. Starling, Stourbridge ; J. D. Cummings, Thomas Hoyle, Rochdale; Crew, Shelley House, Essex ; • - Warland; R. Palmer; H. T. Stanton; John Bloor, Tuthury, Derbyshire ; Samuel Lucas ; W. A. Wil kinson ; J. P. Burnard ; A. Bauer ; Frederick Far-' rand; Sidney .K enne d y; P. A. Taylor ; Thomas - .Carman ; J. Carlton ; T. Johnson, Sunderland;, Samuel Rogers Isle of Man ; Duff, Isle of Man; Gerrett, jun., Isle of Man; 'William Leaf; Press Granger ; Oliver Wilcocks; W. Thornlamow; 111, Curtis, - Manchester; J. Ridge ; Charles Cobb ;: George Dill y, N ewbury; J. Elkin ; John ; Jonassohn; George Wood ; W. Greaesin; John Howarth, Rochdale ; W. G. Thomson ; A. Thomson; Thomas Thornton. The proceedings commenced by the CHAIRMAN calling on the Secretary to read the minutes of the preceding meeting, which, having been done, the .1 minutes w ere con fi rmed, on the motionof Mr. G. TuoatrsoN, seconded by Mr. M. GIBSON, M.P. .The CHAIRMAN then came. forward, and addressed the meeting as follows :—Ladies and Gentlemen, we aft again assembled here to discuss the. great and un redressed gr i evance of monopoly the parent of scarcity, which still continues to weigh down our industry —to express our hostility to its long continu ance, and the fixed purpose and determination of the League • to, increase its efforts, if that- be' possible, for its speedy and final overthrow.—(Loud cheers.) Before we meet again in this place for the promotion of the objects of free trade, our excellent friend, Mr. Villiers, will have submitted this question to the con sideration and decision of the House of Commons.— (Cheers.) I will not now stay to inquire as to the probable manner in which the Members of the House of Commons may treat that motion i it is sufficient for us to know, that after their eleCtion to Parliament for the purpose of upholding and continuing monopoly, the rank and file of the monopolists, who think it right to sacrifice every interest of the .coun try to th e i r own, are not likely to make any concessions now; but we trust there come a time when, although the mo nopolists now think that their lease is a long one, this matter shall be put an . end to.—(Cheers.) In the meanwhile, our endeavour is, by producing a timely aetion on the constituencies, to prepare them, when the proper time shall arrive, to vindicate their • own rights, and the rights of the industrious classes of this countree—(Cheera.) Before I sit down, I have to make an announcement with .respect to a subject which was some time ago brought under your notice in this theatre—l mean the bazaar. It was originally proposed that it should be held in the month of July. We have, since that announcement was made, had several applications from our friends, more especially from our friends in the country, expressing a great anxiety to furnish contributions to the bazaar, but Stating that.the time was too limited to enable them Vto do justice to the work which they had undertaken. ow, as there is no pressing reason why the bazaar ehould be immediately held, the Council of the League, taking these representations into' their consideration, have come to the determination of postponing the bazaar until the month of January, in the s next year, and I hope that by so doing we shall 'satisfy our friends here as well as those friends who have sent us np -these representations from the country.— (Loud cheers.) I have another announcement to make with respect to an alteration in the proceed ings of this meeting. It was originally announced in the advertisement convening the meeting, that Dr. Bowring, the Member for Bolton, would address you; but, owing to other engagements, he is unable to attend. But lam quite sure, that when I state that Mr. Cobden will take his place—(Loud and long continued cheering, which drowned the remainder of the sentence)—l will, then, without 'further pre face, introduce to you the Hon. Member for Stock port.—(Loud cheers.) Cola. EN, M.P., then came forward, and was Teceiyed With repeated- bursts of cheering.—lt was only within the laskiwo hours that an announcement had been made 'tao' him. >that Dr. Bowring, who had propos e d addressing,. the meeting that night, was un avoidably absent; therefore' he appeared before them on that stage, to till up the vacancy which had oc cureed. Under these circumstances, he did not know but that he might have found hi mse lf at a loss for some topic on which' to address them, were it not that- the "question of free trade was so ,prominent everywhere, that each week turned up some new topic, or some new.phase of an old topic, so as to iayest -the question with new interest. Last week, they had had two discussions in the House of Coin mons--(Cheers laughter)—and. if party spirit had not e lb owe d poor political economy aside, those discussions must have been made the school for the instruction of the public mind on a subject which was but little understood=-he meant the subject of differential duties. Unfortunately, however, many Members, on both sides, were possessed of ass idea that, instead of being merely a question of a duty of 4s. a cwt. on sugar, it was a question of place, and power, and patronage, and the, question had conse quently been discussed with mutual recriminations and invectives. Retrospective attacks, were made upon the past conduct of parties, extending back as far as 1835. Those who were in feared they should have to go out, and those whose were out manifested only one anxiety, and that was to get the others out -esseed themselves in. —(Cheers) Now; that meeting Was a pretty large school, and he would endeavour to give them a little instruction on the subject which was really the topic which ought to have been dis caesed before the House of Commons the other night, although other and less important matters, as he thought, had superseded .it in the discussion there, to the great disadvantage of the public interest. He wanted the public to understand the meaning of dif ferential duties, and he would give them an illustra tration which, he thought, would enable any child there to understand the subject so completely, that it enight go home and explain to its grandpapa what was the meaning of differential duties. He would sup pose .a „certain number of market - gardeners bolding a limited surface of land —say the parish of Hammersmith,. for instance. Sup pose the market - gardeners of Hammersmith proceeded to the Duke of Bedford, who was the pro prietor of Covent-garden Market, and induced him to lay a duty of 10s. a load on all other cabbages brought into the'rnarket except " Hanunersinith cabbages," including; of course, Battersea among the places excluded. ' Now what would be the consequence of this .2 •• 'As the parish of Hammersmith did not raise as masy cabbages as the people of the metropolis re quired to eat, the effect would be that the market gardeners of Hammersmith would . hold ba c k "th e i r sepely until they could get the same price for their eibbages as the Battersea iaeople got, who had to y an additional 10 s . to the Duke for permission to brinpag their cabbages into the markets- 'What would be the effect ? The Duke would receive lOs a load upon all the Battersea cabbages, while the ITammersmith gar deners would get 10s. a load extra - for .their cab bages, which they would put into thei r . own ' pockets, the public paying the 108 extra, for both.—(Cheers.) Suppose the Duke wanted snore revenue, and still wishing to favour the Hammersmith eib'sage-grovvers, put a duty of 10s. a load up on Hammersmith cabbages, and raised the duty upon the Batterse a ca bb ages t o 20 s . Wh a t wou ld ,be the effect of this change ? The Hammersmith pople, would hold back until they got the same pries as the-,l3attersea people, so that they would still put 10s. into their pocket. How would that affect the public ? They wou ld h ave to pay 20s. upon all cabbages; the Duke would get 20s. upon Battersea cabbages, artist 10s. upon Hammersmith . cabbages, while the Hammersmith people would pocket another 10s. But the Hammersmith people, having had a taste of monopoly, wanted a little more of the same, but they. considered thst it would not he expe dient ti go to the Duke and ask. hint to put a" higher duty . upon Battersea cabbiges e but they raised the cry of " Cheap .cabbages," and said to him " Reduce our duty of los. to Gs,, and leave the duty on Battersea cabbages RA it is now ;" and having raised this cry on patriotic grounds they would go to Lord John Russell and ails him to in terest himself with his brother, the Duke of Bedford, to help them to carry it out.--(Cheers.) If they changed the word "Cablange" for the word " Sugar . " they would have an of the motion o which had been made by th eir old opponents', the: W est India planters. Tho Government brought Ashy-arc:l a measure for fixing the duty en foree.ge sugar at 345. a cwt. of all kindly net refined, and 245. on colonial sugar t fleet t"s, they give to the colonists Ioe, is fee+ e‘! . ;:tia on all they brought to market, seeing that in the case of the Theminere smith cabbage-growers they t olild not sell one ounce of sugar n'etil they could get the same price for it that was given for Java sugar, which paid Kt. extra duty. Now, taking the ennual liiipert of sugar from the colonies at 4,000,000 cwt. annu ally, that would $ - 1 - ve them 2,000,0001. sterling at the jewels; As protection, as th e y called it—monopoly, as he called it—and that was what the Govertirneree pro posed to give the West India planters, Those whte with hie), advocated free trade principle§ in that Muse had brought forward e motion for equalizing the sugar duties—thet 'all sugars, without distiectioe of the eotiotry in which they were erode d, should na,r the same duty to the queen. That was a ques tion which had net recited any great party or pole. tical intereet.. The free-traders had the best of the argument, as he thought, though their oppo• tents beat thern in the votes: , Another amendment proposed was Mr. Miles's proposition, which was to charge 20s, a cwt. on eolenial sugar; 30s. a cwt. n' certain descritioos of f ore i gn sugar, hitt he intro. duced a third line of distinction ; Which was not in trodured in, the Goverment measure. According to the Government measure, all foreign sugar, without ilistinction of quality, was charged the same duty; but according - to Mr. Miles's proposition, all white clayed sugar, or sugar of a quality equivalent to white clayed, was charged a ditty of 345. A cwt. Ile had been told that a great number of people in that enlightened metropolis believed that the free-traders were tereng in resisting Mt, Miles's amendment, lii the first place, its origin was suspiclotm, hut he would not judge ,it by that. The West Indians complained to Sir Robert reel that they did not re ceive protection enough, and yet there were some people gullable enough to believe that they would propose for themselves a less protection than Sir Robert Peel would give them. The 4s. reduc tion of duty on colonial sugar was on all colonial sugar; the 4s. reduction on foreign sugar was only a reduction on a certain description of foreign sugar-, Now, the free traders were de sirous of ascertaining what description of sugar was affected by this exceptional duty of 345. Men not conversant with the trade were unfit to judge of those matters, and they had gone into the City to inquire what clayed sugars really were ; and they thought they could not do better, whilst they were consulting refiners and importers, than consult one of their oldest and truest friends, who had been the c h a i rman o f Lord. John Russell's and Jr. Pattison's Committees —he meant Mr. Travers.—(Loud cheers.) He be lieved Mr. Travers was one of, the largest wholesale dealers in sugar in the country; and not being him self a colonial proprietor,• but simply interested in the distribution of sugar, his interest was identical with that of the consumer. He had received a letter from Mr. Travers on this subject, which he would read to the meeting. It was these in words:— "My DEAR SIR,—I repeat to you, without hesitation, that the practical effect of Mr. Allies's amendment upon the proposed sugar duties will be to establish a differ ential duty of lee. per cwt. in favour of colonial sugars, as against three-fourths, at least, of the foreign sugar named for home consumption in November next. Java sugar, which will ,yield much more than half of this additional supply, Is wholly clayed, and its lower qualities are, in substance' (or the amount of saccherine matter contained in them), more than ' equivalent' to the white clayed of many other countries,, which, in com parison, are often - weak - and worthless. The same remerk will also apply to a portion of. the China and Manilla sugars, though the latter are not clayed at all. " Then, again, as to , the terms 'brown clayed' and ' white clayed,' it is impossible to draw a line of distinc tion in which any two parties, whose interests are opposei to each other; agree. There is, between these two extremes, every shade ' and variety of 'brown white' and ' white brown,' and, thus, the disputes of the impo r t er an d the Government officer Will prove endless, terminating, hOwever, there is no doubt, in all cases, in favour of- the revenue, and the imposition of the higher duty, unless, indeed, there is any fraud or collusion between parties in favour of the -lower duty, which would, of course, operate to the injury of the fair trader. "Both in the substance and colour of sugar there exists, in fact, as to the value, no point of fixed or gene ral ar&nient. The real . substance of sugar can only be determined by frequent experiment apd real practical experience on the part of the refiners; and the value of colour is a thing generally settled between buyer and seller-e-ceprice of the mornent—the colour itself varying with every light to which it is-subjected. "If the Government intend a differential duty of only los. per cwt. bet ween co l on i a l and foreign sugar, Mr. Miles's amendment will not answer the object. In , the absence of fraud, the colonial interest may be benefited by it to the extent of 4s. per cwt., but it will , be just so much out of the pocket of the consumer. " I am, my dear Sir, faithfully yours, " JOHN TRAVERS. i " Sivithin's-lane, June 17, 1844." • jHe had received letters to the same effect from Messrs. Thornton and West, Messrs. Goodhart, John and Henry Taylor, Mr. Peter Martineau, and Mr. 'John Davis. He had no hesitation in saying that that motion was a trap to catch unwary free-traders. '—(Hear,' hear.) He did not charge Mr. Miles with originating it, or with being an accomplice in the trick, but he believed that it had been got up in Mincing -lane by those who understood well what they were about, and who thought the free-traders in 'the House of Commons would be caught by their superficial contrivance. The effect of the duty on colonial sugar being reduced from 245. to 205., while ;the great bulk of foreign sugar was only admitted at !a. duty of 345., would give 14s. as a protecting duty :to the colonial interest, instead of 10s., as was pro 'posed by. the Government plan. There were some unwary people, who said, if they got sugar cheaper, 1 what mattered it if the colonial interest got a little advantage too. The free-traders denied that sugar ,would be rendered any cheaper by the reduction of 'the duty on colonial sugar. The 4s. would be trans iferred from the revenue, into the pockets of the monopolists; and 45., on two - million hun ;dred weight of colonial sugar, amounted to 800,0001., which would be annually taken from the 'revenue, and which the people would have to make up in some other shape. The public and the revenue were in the same boat—the monopolists were in the other boat. If that sum were thus abstracted from the revenue for the benefit of the colonial interest, they ,would have to pay it in some other form. It was through the absorption of' the revenue that ought to go to Q ueen Vi c t or i a, b y the monopolists of this country, that they had to pay the income-tax already. —(Loud ch eers .) Wh at was th i s mean amount they proposed to transfer to the pockets of the monopolists ? They said it was a small sum. A duty of 41s. on 4,000,000 cwt.—which was what the monopolists wanted—amounted to 800,0001. per annum, and that in -capital would purchase what was equal to 20,000,0001. ; and the proposition of the Hon. Member for Bristol would take from the pocket s o f th e peop l e of thi s country another 20,000,0001., and put it into the pockets of the monopolists.—(Cheers.) Ile had stated these things because he perceived there were good friends of his whose chins were not long enough, and who were liable to be gulled by this trick.— (Laughter.) He told them that the reduction of the duty on colonial sugar would not reduce the price to the consumer one farthing, and as they were told that a future period, probably nexe year, there would be a great change in the sugar duties— for Sir R. Peel put a hypothetical case with regard to the reduction of the colonial duty to 165., and the reduction of the duty on foreign sugar in a corres ponding proportion —it should be their business to understand what differential duties were, and if they could once make the people understand that, no Mi nister would dare to come down and make such a pro, position.—(Hear, hear.) Now, he told them that if the Government were to take off the whole of the duty on colonial sugar to-morrow, they , would not have sugar one farthing cheaper than they had it now.—(llear, hear.) The only way to reduce the price of sugar was to increase the supply of it in the 1 market, if the power of consumption remained the same.— (Hear,. hear.) If the whole of the 245. duty were taken off, it would only be putting the whole of the amount derived from the duty by the revenue into the pockets of the monopolists.—(Hear, hear.) Take off 4s. or is. from it, and they would have an other income-tax.—(Hear, hear.) If they could only have .the public well informed on the sub : ject, they would soon get rid of the gross fraud of differential duties. The proposition of the Hon. Member for -Bristol was neither more nor lesi than to take so much from the pockets of the people and give it to the landed owners of Jamaica. :—(Hear, hear.) When the colonists came forward, ind_proposed protection as a remedy for their griev ances, they should see whether it was a system which worked well for the colonists even themselves. Se veral gentlemen in the House of Commons almost cried over their distresses and the distress of those connected with them, because their property was of no value. But it should be recollected that those distresses happened when they were protected by a. duty of 643., whi c h . -amounted to a prohibiti on o f foreign sugate—(Hear, bear.) If such a duty did not enable the m t o bring on their business, did it not argue that they, were on a wrong task altogether— (Hear, hear)e—and that a system which was beyond all doubt injurious to the consumers,' was not even beneficial to those for whose benefit it was intended ? They should, therefore, get on a new tack. His Hon. Friend the Member for Manchester (the M. Gib son) put the queition on its right footing, when he said that when they were called on to vote supplies for the Crown they should not vote supplies to th e monopolists, but that having voted the supplies to her Majesty, the .West India interest ought to come forward with their claims, which would be voted separately, if they were entitled to any. —(Cries of " Hear, hear.") But before they voted them, they should first inquire whether they managed their properties in the best way.—(Hear, hear.) They should do as people did when a debtor would all agree in giving him Judas as a Or °, 0 1 —(Lunghter.) Among the recent i nve ntoa to o discoveries, riot the lea s t remarkable was thtetli which Sir R. Peel had lately ascertained to • 0 principle of admi n i s t ra ti o n, and wh iCß founded upon, justice and sound he meant the relaxation of the corn prohibitions and restricti o ns, and the introdatoll articles produced in other countries to comPT e the those produced in o ur ow n. He did not InaAo discovery before he came into office. There 0 : 0. it h ife eleel announcement of it in the Tamworth man never was proclaimed on the hustings in t- e „ ;es e a 1841, hut it came out now in the diffien'' enact entanglements of his position. It recoTniode him to some of' his followers, but O ed 1 1 0 him ixlious to others. It certainly frif!oipotA, no confidence from any ; and if, as WO rep(' the Whigs were too pra g matical to advoctiP the of the corn-laws, and th a t Si r R. Peel proli n ' e° ' ° ! League would certainly receive• such a pro P ro from his hands, b u t no t as f rom a champion,' ic hols been its consistent advocate, but from one ' n ietl they had no confidence, and from whom th e me hieb power of public opinion had wrung a men: l lje lo4 , should never have been refused.—(Hea r ' ) „OW' often in that plac e ad vance d earnes t reconn lie :' e ver!' to those assembled there to exert themselves ' n o the way that their circumstances allowed to Pr el7 ,l o l) i ; Liberal registration, and that whoever had i„," 00 1(1 0 ` power to obtain this great political right •,'“ re cosi d , once put himself in possession of if. Ile hau• so` mended them that they should, by conversannose by the distribution of tracts, spread abroad the o f the ledge of their principles and their convictionloo truth ; and he trusted that he might be 1 ; in taking on himself t o o ff er a f e w sugge' t r o cit e ' those who might be regarded as the v n r 10,: of their cause in the H ouse o f C o mmons. - 1 - ° ,o o ' self, he owned that it would gratify his feeling s e more if he saw those mem bers of the Le s l e y( were M.P.'s, acting m o r e i n c o ncert than t peared to have done on a recent occa sion.'' ore hear.) If there we're but few, they had thl ' e jf i be need for steady and efficient co-operation . „ o lio: question did not involve principles, then theta thing to sacrific e ; an d if it were a (I°ltl-iitlie principle, then he had no doubt but ooa consultation would bring them all to to t t he conviction as to any great application principles of free trade. At a time when tb • in l ,c ri , vernment was endangered—at a time `` he n fact, the Government was preserved by ° „;sr,' majority of twenty—it was time for the o'o4 dozens to look about them, and consider wbe r i e j weight could be best thrown—how they Could bed unite for the common good, and how they o i ° ll o , s o' advance the great cause w hich they al m a He did not say but tho s e M em b e rs acted did P, most honourable and honest motives, but be,: ill,' wish to see those t we l ve gen tlemen w", g ," filled that chair, and spoken fr o m that platfo'-v.ietl' vided as to the course they pursued ;_but thefto! in fact, divided int o th ree or f our different Pa ea (Hear, hear.) He did not w i s h t o see those ni e t besi holding Peel in office. He did not wish to see , for! a party to any decision w hi c h t en d e d to pro µ h! week, or a single day, a G overnmen t in offie j e 0 410 ruled over Ireland with so much oppession, finu a or, made the Post-office of England a great Sr?' . 11/ 10:, (Loud cheers, and crie s o f "H ear , hear?) flo rin advocated a mock Liberalism, and supported In% 0 1 "' when it could—a Government of subterfti pd false pretences—a Government which wag, jibet v 4 against the constitutional, open, fair, an', wow; meetings of the people of Ireland, and vidli, e 'd i ve l i wage warfare against meetings here if 1 ' Government, in fine, which had opposed, 111 1", o f r a oppose as long as it could, th e first rigi - "'„,. o da‘ , Englishman--an open market for the r; ss" of his labour and cheap f oo d.—(Hear, be , 3 l ,t tb prolonged- cheering.) He was glad to find ` - j v aa; feelings of the meeting wer e hi s , if he rightio c 1 derstood them.—(Renewed cheering, an d bled " Hear, hear.") The veterans who had ass e !,: the Waterloo banquet should recollect what i t „ that first led to the downfal of the desi o doi l l was finally overthrown at that tul )- ,,,biv conflict. It was the B er li n decree ,sioos, imposed, or at least a tt em pted to ir io cet fetters upon commerce—that was the first an"_.reetc effectual blow that Napoleon, in his ambitious feel, ever received. Buonaparte threatened, and, ' n og declared, that all the ports of Britain were inP o ter of blockade—that was, in fact, what the r 1 titionists now, in substance, declared—t hel o etc' nounced to every foreign ship that el th° was restricted, and that, however nw e ',, o poll people of this island stood in need of food, 10 ,', , I s° reigned there triumphant, and would exclud e " e is' far worse and more dangerous, because Ine r iVi sidious, enemy than Napoleon.—(Hear, hear.) i r esi might devastate countries, and overthrow e il l o t and annihilate cities; but monopoly, though Wee rapid or perceptible in its progress, was quite as ` a ce+ tual in its operations. Under its baneful int ll `ll# gradual, sure, and silent decay went forwar" ; ,,, waving corn-field was converted into the barren.,vtbe ture—the wealthy merchant was impoverishedtopti manufactory rendered inoperative, and the n a b l e o.) resources reduced to helpless weakness.—(Hear, Such was monopoly which, whilst it kept th e r y e at home needy and humzry, permitted the h a tT r c ieo! in foreign countries to rot from want of a su bee number of mouths to consume them.—(lle'a'' tre If war killed, if it stained the field and th e li fe with human blood, monopoly destroyed inin: ll ,,Re• st' also, its hundreds and thousands from yea r and by a lingering agency, worse to endure 4 ' 0 0• 1 short stroke of the sword or the cannon-ball ; On% war demoralised a people, so did monopoly, e i ot vt into life, as it did, theft, incendiarism, and a l a ose, evils which could befal society. He relied overruling process for the destruction of both w w er e monopoly—for the same moral law which th e i g there to advocate condemned both, and w€ l ,"' mately doom both to annihilation.—(Cheer s q t hat l„ The CHAIRMAN then informed the me eting,' jo g consequence of the motion of Mr. Villiers ' e t w ee", be brought before the House of Commons nest the'" it was not the intention of the League to „ for' , ' usual meeting in that pla ce , b u t on that AT • night he hoped to see them all again. The meeting then adjourned. tll_h SUN, LON-DON, THURSDAY EVENING, JUNE 20, 1A44. I came before them ; that is, inquire into his habits, and ' see if he had conducted his business with skill and with economy They should,ad o pt the, tattib tdWardS the West Ihdia proprietors. He (Mr. Cobden) Crossed the Atlantic ten years ago with a gentleman who had travelled over all the sugar producing coon • tries of the globe, who tol4 him that ther:e why as reneh differende between th &lb of cultivating West 'lndia land find nianufacturing its sugar, and the mode which other countries adopted who had no monopoly, as there was between the machinery, and malui.ginerit of one of the eottoti-mills of this day a.§ - compared with ON umfity years aga.—(Hear,, htar.) Therefore, he said they ought to dd away with the rotten prop of protectidn; which 'even made it impos sible for than td protect themselves. Let them, like ether men in this country,' fight their own battles.--- (Cheers.) Now, having told them what were the grounds on which he had voted against the amend ment of the Hon. Meinber for Bristol the other night, he would frankly confess th a t h e was not aware of the trap which had been laid dii Friday morning till the motion eatne, for he had on Thursday made up his inind to vote in favour of the amendment. Simple•hearted creature that he was, he thought that something good might come from the Hon. Member for Bristol.—(Laughter.) He believ e d, i n f act h e had no doubt that a great number of free-traders, as earnest as any In that theatre, who had voted with the Hon. Member for Bristol, did so under the mis apprehension which would have caused him to vote for it on Thursday. But that could not shut their eyes to the fact that there were other parties in the lletise of Commons who made this a party contest ; and the newspapers, organs of that party, were very much dissatisfied that the free-traders, who had any other objection than party or factious objects— (Cheers)—did not join in carrying a worse measure than the bad enough measure of Sir Robert Peel, and by that moan. upset the political coach.--(Cheers.) He did not look on this contest as a party or political contest. He had never given a party vote in the House of Commons, and he hop e d h e never s h ou ld .— (Cheers.) He would get the best measure he could, and he would never support a worse measure when a better was proposed to the House.—(Hear, hear.) But if he were a politician, and disposed to look at the question as one of party tactics, through Whig spectacles, he could see no wisdom in those tactics. He had heard of a coalition, but what sort of a coalition ?—(Hear, hear.) He had heard many sensible men say, that there were 250 Mem bers on the Tory side, and 100 on the Whig side, be tween whom there was very little difference; and who might now be sitting side by side in the House of Commons, if it were not for the difficulty of ad justing the rival pretensions of opposite leaders. What sort of coalition could there be between the liberal and the ultra-bigots of monopoly ? Lord John Russell with the Whigs, and Lord John Manners with young England, went out into the same lobby. Now, if faction did not blind men, if they could look beyond their noses, why should they not ask them selves what good that would lead to, whither it would lead them, even if successful ? The next vote they came to with such ingredients, would put them in a great minority ; and if ever Sir R. Peel resigned and Lord J. Russell were sent for by the Queen to take office, he would probably advise her Majesty to send for Sir R. Peel, for there VMS nobody else.—(A voice, " O'Connell.) --(Cheers.) With a majority of 90 or a 100 on a party question, could Sir R. Peel be dispossessed of office by such miserable manoeuvres of the House of Commons ?—(Hear, hear.) If, indeed, parties canse to something within lOor 20of each other, then there would be an opening for party movements. But, as he said before, with a majority o f 90 or 100 on the sid e o f Sir Robert Peel, how could those tac ticians in the House of Commons put the Opposition into power ?—(No, no.) The way to get into power, if Lord John Russell and the Whigs wanted it, was not by joining the ultra-bigots of monopoly, but by working strongly out of doors, that he might be strong within doors; and how could he increase his power out of doors, but by an advance to free trade, which indeed he professed to advocate in principle, but which he did not carry out to its full extent ? He was sorry to say, that such was the opinion of poli tical parties throughout the country, that his belief was, that people cared very little for one party or the other on the present question, and that there was very little to choose between them. He should not be sur prised that,efor. a ss. reduction per cwt. on the pro tection to sugar, the public would sell either of them. Now the League, at, least as far as he was concerned, was of neither of these political parties—neither the Whigs nor the Tories were practical free-traders. They had never yet heard a pledge, a distinct pledge, from the leader of the Whigs, that he was prepared to carry out the principle of free trade. They had plain declarations that the country was not satisfied. 'When questions of free trade were brought forward, there was always some plan to continue the pro tection on sugar, and some plan for protection to corn, and till they could get one party or other to stand up for free trade, and, against all protections, which were mere robberies, he did not believe that the League, as a League, would be acting with wisdom or policy in identifying themselves with either of them. His opinion was, that if isolated as a party, the free trade party would be stronger in the House of Commons, though not nominally greater, than if it merged itself in the ranks of either party.— (Cheers.) He saw an utter chaos into which politi cal parties were falling. He was not sorry for it, be cause, give them a compact body of free traders, the more complication there was between the Whigs and the Tories the sooner they would succeed in carrying their principles to a successful issue. The Hon. Gentleman sat down amid loud cheers, but immedi ately afterwards came forward to correct a mistake which he was told he had fallen into. He was told he had calculated the reduction of 4s. on the colonial duty upon 2,000,000 cwt. of sugar. He should have calculated it upon 4,000,000, which was the quantity imported from the colonies, and this, he be lieved, would amount to 800,0001. The Rev. TLIOMAS SPENCER, of Bath, then came forward, and said he had listened with interest to the address of Mr. Cobden, and was glad to find that the party distinction of Whig and Tory was about to be given up. He hoped another party would .be founded upon their ruins, to be called the Justice Party.—(Cheers.) He hoped also that the newspapers would alter their course, and, instead of writing articles on the poor-law and 'pauperism, to excite the people, would write for truth. He con fessed he felt diffident of his own abilities when he found so many persons of high character differing from him. He found that there were six or seven clergymen of the Church of England who voted for the free trade candidate in South Lancashire, while sixty or seventy recorded their votes on the other side. He was inclined to be of the opinion of Bishop Butler, who said " that the greater part of mankind did not think for themselves." He was convinced that many men were to.) indolent to labour with their minds, though they mi g ht d o so w i t h t h e i r b ody ; and even reading was, with regard to some persons, an act of idleness.—(llear, hear.) Such persons like'd to have their work done for them. They left their health in the doctor's hands, their property in the lawyer's hands, and their souls in the par son's hands.—(Hear, hear.) The Scripture says "Examine yourselves," but it was only when men began to think and to distinguish what was right from what was wrong, that they would succeed. When men became informed, the League would do more in a few weeks than it did now in so many years. This was one reason to account for the fact that the League had not made greater progress • another reason was th at men, who even might be well, informed on the subject, did not think it necessary to act—they left it all to Mr. Cobden.— (Loud cheers.) They left it to their representatives to speak their opinions; but it was the duty of each man to act, and to spend his time and his money, as though the successful cause depended upon his own exertions.—(Loud cheers.) Each man should say that he would take the step which was right, though °then-, should neglect their duty, and, without doubt ing of the superintendence of Providence, he should act as if Providence would only assist the man who should assist himself.—(Loud cheers.) Moreover, he besought of them not to follow names, however high. When they dethroned one Pope, they should not follow another. If they cast off one Pope, they followed another—some had their Luther, their Calvin, their Knox, and their Wesley. Let them throw aside all great names, and follow the right.-- (Cheers.) What matter, though Clarkson be against you, if truth be on your side ?—(Cheers.) Though he was Willing to pay deference to the opinions of the majority, the minority were often in the right ; and in this case he thought he had even an advantage over them, because what he advocated was the doctrine of the Scripture and the Prayer-book. He was not going to allude to portions of that Prayer book to which he had alluded at other times, and in other places, namely, the prayer for cheapness and plenty, and th e thanksgiving for it when it comes ; but to another portion of the Prayer-book, in refer ence to the right mode of action when a nation was in distress. At that particular time, for instance, the clergymen were reading the prayer for rain ; they had had three months of dry weather. One farmer in his own parish had, in consequence, lost no less than, six hundred pounds. Now, what the clergymen sought to desire was comprised in the words—" That we 'may receive the fruits of the earth to our comfort and to guided.—l God's hononi;" and the meaning of the fruits of the earth being' given to their comfort and to God's-ho nour, was in other prayers explained by the words who cheapness and plenty." This was the standard, as it Gi was' ve us coral)thisn edda ierefore, by which every clergyman was 'to be hear. He had no faith in prayer ho said, did not work in order to bte y. our a with ae d ti i7 bread, and ma ari t 'l a man of very small sense indeed.---r L.—iu it, was . , } .,ear.) He believed -there was not an instance, throuP'dout the Bible, of Gods do ing anything for man .' 'omich man could do for him . self; and this was a feet which he wished especially tc'dolcm.llWesilnu,Ptlnneitrilf;,o7-c?drlisdef iii d ed h e o ad Te i ls- b fi e e v ct d " id t n h 3 find that he rolled away. the stone, because that the disciples could do. ,A.glin, when the d ea d ,Awis rai'aed, he did of an it there theft - Otter the wordi; Loo'se nun, and let him go," because all that was needed was in the power of the disciples. 'When he fed the multitude, he instructed his disciples to tell them to sit down on the Eros, althongh the multiply ipg of the bread *as his own list ; w hil s t it Was -the disci lea wild gathered ‘ir 016 fraetnents that nothing Might be lost ; bkituse t het was iidi beyond their capacity. In every case where a needful thing was beyond their o wn p ower, t h ey had a right to ask for Divine assistance, but 'alien it was in their own P p ower they had nd right to e x p ec t th e ass i stance o f rovidence, except in connection with their own ex ne Ir whetheret r i o g n ,v. s , . — a tn ( h C de h : ro e r r s as . y ) i er r -R l b i o : obke w r o td u ip l d d e , ,,l then, appeal to the y a C d h ow ur n c , hm as an a , Ot aB la foundation to be built upon, cheapness and plenty ? (Hear, hear.) If it were a thing to be prayed for, it was also a thing to be sought after. He would also appeal to Sir Robert Peel on the ground of his own statement, that the proper rule for the State was that the people should buy in the cheapest market and sell in the dearest. This, he said, was truth in the abstract, this was right, and it ought to have been the original basis of their laws. But, then, he justified himself for not acting up to this principle by the circumstances in which they found themselves in the present day. Now, he was bound to offer up a prayer every Sunday for that Parliament, of which he was so conspicuous a Member, and a part of that prayer was to this effect : --" That all things may be ordered and settled by their endeavours upon the best and surest founda tion," which he acknowledged to be cheapness and plenty, or free trade—" that peace and happiness, truth and justice, religion and piety, may be esta blished among us for all generatiions." Now, at pre sent they had anything but peace and happiness amongst them, they had anything but prosperity. Did not Sir Robert Peel, when he heard this prayer, know that he himself was acting contrary to the spirit of the Prayer-book ?So long as he declined going to the foundation,, which was here described to be " the best and the surest," the foundation of cheap ness and plenty, allowing risen to buy and sell to the best advantage, so long would he continue to act in opposition to the Prayer-book.—(Loud cheers.) He (Mr. S.) held free trade to be one of the rights of man—a ri g ht o f which nothing could deprive him--a right t o b e exerc i sed at all times, under all circumstances, and by all nations.—(Cheers.) There could be no case i n which free trade ought to be in fringed upon ; it was the only sure foundation. God had dist r ib ute d his bounties amongst different nations. Some climates were warmer and some colder ; some possessed iron, some corn, some gold ; all these thing s are di vers i f i ed. When there was no corn in Canaan th ere was corn i n E gypt. It was God's i▪ ntention that men should enjoy the best of what was produ ce d i n diff erent parts o f t h e eart h , and the obj▪ ect of the Christian religion, which was de clared to be " glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, good will towards men," could never be carried out until the mini s t ers o f re li g i on a d voca t e d t h ose principles.—(L ou d c h eers.) H e h a d b efore him the testimony of one who was a very great man in his day, and who had not long been dead ; he referred to Robert Hall, the Baptist minister. He said, "If there is any 'clas s o f persons whose opinion on these ques tions is entitled to deference and respect, they are undoubtedly political economists, men who have made the sources of national wealth the principal o bj ec t o f their inquiry ; and where will you find one, from Adam Smith to the present time, who had not repro bated the interference of the Legislature with the price, of corn ? To say nothing of the reasoning of that great philosopher, which is un answerable, common sense will tell us that taxes to raise the price of such a commodity are unjust." —(Cheers.) Now they were told that the free trade which they advocated could hardly be carried out in cases where the countries with which they traded raised their produce by means of slave-labour. He had no idea of altering, a rule which had once been established. If a man, for instance, had made up his mind, from external and internal evidence of the truth of the Bible, that it was a genuine and au thentic document, he was not afterwards to cavil at any particular word which he might find in it. Every science took for granted its axioms. Euclid began with definitions and postulates. Newton, in his " Principle," began with axioms and postulates; and if they began with these, they must not object to anything which followed. Suppose they were not yet acquainted with America; suppose they did not yet know what were the practices of the inhabitants of Brazil, and yet had come to the conclusion that free trade was right—that every man should be al lowed to act upon this self-supporting, self-adjusting principle, and be permitted to do the best he could in the markets, of the world, they were not afterwards to alter their course be cause they found different circumstances in different countries. They did not say " You shall not trade with Russia because the Emperor has not pleased me by his conduct to Poland; you shall not trade with another country because the inhabitants are Mahomedans and idolaters, and therefore rob God of the honour which is due to him ; or with another, because it contains slaves." Was he to be answerable for all these things ? The question was, did they admit that free trade was right ? If they did, they were Not to be always departing from their principles. —(Hear, hear.) He had been a member of the Anti- Slavery Conventions for many years past; and he had always heard it contended that free labour would beat slave labour. Yet some persons who had maintained that for years, objected to the experiment being tried, as though they had no faith in their own principles.— (Cheers.) Under the old poor-law, he had seen far mers who preferred paying 9s. a-week to an indepen dent labourer to paying ss. for a pauper. The fact was, that many a man was sustained by a feeling of independence when he had an ulterior object in view ; when it was in his power to lay by against sickness and old age, he would do a great deal more work than either a pauper or a slave. But these persons said that slaves were stolen, and therefore produce was stolen. He could not quite see the correctness of that inference. It did not follow that the earth on which a man trod was stolen, because the man who cultivated it was stolen.--(Hear, hear.) But, sup posing the case to be as it was represented, the par ties convicted themselves of' sin--they acknowledged themselves to be the greatest criminals in the country. If the argument were just, what was the guilt of the man who used slave-grown cotton or tobacco? The party who resorted to such reasoning condemned himself.—(Cheers.) But then the reply would be, perhaps, that two blacks could not make one white; the parties might say " Surely we are better than you, if we do not use slave-grown sugar." He thought that, so far from being better, they were much worse. Scripture said th a t h e w h o o ff en d e d i n one point was guilty in all. These parties admitted point. Th e y (th e Anti admit th e i r own gu ilt. A n ti- Corn-law h o a r t o i haewy party) offended di idn not one They were guilty, therefore, of encouraging slavery by wilfully using slave-grown cotton, by wilfully making slave-grown tobacco, andby wilfully taking up their noses slave-grown snuff. He had told per sons of this class that the very money which they had in their pockets might be brought in evidence against them. He felt convinced, however, that the Master whom they served did not wish them to tremble at every step, lest they should happen to touch slave grown produce. The Government were under a mistake, therefore, in allowing this consideration to weigh with them ; and he was- convinced that some of them in their own minds knew better, but they did not like to - offend the feeling which pervaded the minds of many good men in this country . . When ever charity or pity influenced the mind, instead of justice, it led men into all kinds of blunders. The Bible did not put c h ar it y f or j us ti ce ; i t fi rs t said, " Do justly," and then " love mercy."—(Hear, hear.) Let everything be upright, honest, fair, and equitable i —let them do what was r i g ht, an d th en , f they had the means and the o pp or t un it y o f exhibiting their generosity, let them do so. But true charity was not that which arose out of poor-rates or church-rates —it was not the ch ar ity o f th e St a t e , b u t that which name out of a man's own pocket. He would tell them a case o f ch ar ity w hi c h h a d come t o his know ledge yesterday. An excellent gentleman, with whom h e was t rave lli ng f rom B r i s t o l, t oa d him that about thirty years ago a gen tl eman was travelling in a coach in a s t ormy n i g h t i n w i nter . Outside of this coach were a so ldi er ' s w if e an d child, ex posed to the pelting rain and a very keen wind. Hearing that the child was ill, al though the j ourney was a l ong one, h e immediately changed pla ces w ith t h e woman an d child, and bore the pitiless storm for hours, whilst the. This mo gen tleman and child travelled i ns id e . —(L ou d c h eers .) was a n o bl e f ree t ra d er , an d his name was Radnor.—(lmmense cheering, which lasted for up wards of a minute, the majority of the company rising.) He said to the gentleman who related to him the anecdote, " I wonder whether Lord Radnor would recollect the circumstance if you were to tell him of it." The reply w as , " I know of scores of things of that kind, which, w h en men ti one d to his Lordship, he had entirely forgotten.—(Cheers.) That was another mark Of a noble mind.—(Hear, hear.) Now ' what he wished to imp res s upon them was, thatif there was distress in the country they should not resort ,to the modern sy s tem of patching and m i en th d e its - .esti r to spend..s/. in removing the cause of and tinkering, but go to the fountain-head_ of misery, and try to rem ov e cause. i tution, and vice, than 5001. in keepi ng m en comfort able in their wretchedness. Now he would just state misery,t was b d ette - to them the views which, on the previous Sunday, had been his business-to bring' before his cong . regatpn. If he were wrong, it was the Church -wlncTivade him wrong. In one of the psalms of the afternoon service he read, respecting misery and distress. a 11 -1 .: 1 w will ye jwlo,unittstlY, and accept th e i3ersdni df the Wick Ad perer ) d p' 'r eed less; do justi ce t o th e a ffli c t e d and needy! , ' It 494 not the mere giving Of ,Charity, which was meant by doing juitite to the afflicte and needy., Th en; the next verse, w e re th e wor d s " Deliver th e poor and needy, rid them ou t o f th e h an d s o f the wicked." This was what the free trade movement was intended to effect. He found another command, which it was very necessary to tett:timber; at a time when religion was so much in fashion, and when numbers itiouglit it sinful to interfere with the affairs of the world— " IS . it such a hist that I have ch osen a d ay f or a man to afflict his soul ? Is not this the feat that I have chosen, to loose the bonds o f w i c k e d ness, to un d o the heavy burdens, to let the oppressed go free, and to break every yoke?" It was in the breaking of the yoke, then, and in the undoing of heavy burdens, that religion chiefly consisted. In another part of Scrip ture, he found a description which might be almost li terally applied to the state of society now existing in this country, in which the great majority of the people were hardly able to get bread and water, while a few were growing enormously rich by the very burdens of the State. This was the description to which he referred. " Now, thus saith the Lord of Hosts, con sider your ways ; ye have sown much and bring in little; ye eat, but ye have not enough; ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink ; ye clothe, but there is none warm ; and ye that earneth wages earneth wages to put in a bag with holes." This was exactly the case at the present day. The Chancellor of the Exchequer made a great number of holes in the bag of the State. After the description thus given and thus applicable to the state of England, it was again repeated—" Thus saith the Lord of Hosts, consider your ways !" It was because the people did not con sider ; it was because they did not reflect on the effect of the presentfstate of things, if they continued, that they were badly governed.—(Hear, hear.) There could be no tyranny where there were free spirits ; there could be no bad laws where the people were wise.— (Hear, hear.) They could not bribe a virtuous man ; they could not make drunken at an election a sober man—(Hear, hear)—they could not in timidate a noble man. It was, therefore, purely the fault of the people that the laws and the taxes of the country were in their present state. Reform must begin with the people. They must enlighten the public mind—they must excite greater generosity, and teach every man to promote his own interests without injuring those of his fellow-men. He should not trespass much longer on their patience. When ever he had talked to the farmers on the subject of the corn-laws, he had found that their greatest diffi culty arose from the existence of the national debt. It was said that free trade might be all very well if they had no national debt, but that whilst that existed it would be impossible for the farmers, with out the corn-laws, to compete with th e f ore i gners. Now, in the first place, he thought it was very hard, after leading the country into war, to make it the means of oppressing the people. But he contended that it was, in fact, no argument at all. He would suppose the case of two rival shopkeepers, one of whom had a mortgage upon his property, whilst that et the-other was-free from inbumbrance. Would the man whose property was mortgaged be justified in seeking to establish a monopoly ? Should he not rather exert himself the more in his business, and endeavour to get more custom, in order to pay off his mortgage ? He had no doubt that if free trade were extended, the national debt would be felt as a very light burden. It would ultimately be paid off, and great care would be taken not to incur a similar burden in future. With respect to the complaints of the farmers, of the national debt, the manufacturers and shopkeepers were subjected to it also—all paid it ; and if paying it was a title to protection, all ought to be protected. ;The argument drawn from the national debt was of no weight at all ; if it was an argument, it was one rather in favour of free trade than otherwise—(Hear, hear)—and the more the subject was discussed the more shameful would it appear for men to stand up in Parliament, or elsewhere, and advocate local and selfish interests. He hoped they should not hear them say, as they had lately heard them, in Parliament, say, bceause the planters in the West Indies had been ruined they must ruin England also. He hoped they would remember that they were sent to Parliament to represent the interests of the nation at large, and not merely their own pockets, or their own individul interest. He hoped that a time would come when men would be ashamed to deceive one another in this way; yet he was sorry to say, in the neighbourhood where he resided, at tempts of intimidation were going on in a large way. He had known petitions against the corn-laves taken into a village by the butler or head servant of the great house, and placed before, not only those who were in favour of the corn-laws, but those who .op posed them, and these latter were dared to refuse to sign them.—(Shame.) Some were at once directed to sign them ; others were reasoned with, and all kinds of appeal made to their interest; but in some eases those appeals had 'been unsuccessful.—(Cheers.) That was node conduct in those who remained true to their principles; but it was a shameful thing on the part of wealth and power to place men in such a position.—(Cheers.) The League, he hoped, would always use different means, so that in gaining a good cause they might say they had gained it by righteous means.—(Cheers.) On the Rev. Gentleman resuming his seat, some confusion occurred, in consequence of an individual in the pit standing on one of the seats, and requesting to be allowed to address a few words to the meeting. His name was said to be Dwaine. The cries of "Turn him out," " Order," and " Chair," continued for some minutes. The CHAIRMAN, having obtained silence, said they Could not depart from their rule of presenting the gentlemen announced to speak in the regular order; and, if the interruption should be persisted in, he should feel it his duty to preserve to the audience chat order and convenience which had prevailed at all their meetings. He announced Mr. W. J. Fox as the next speaker. Mr. W. J. Fox then came forward ; he was re ceived with warm and continued acclamations. He said the motion for the repeal of the corn-laws, which Mr. Villiers would propose on Tuesday next in the House of Commons, marked the completion of another year of the League agitation ; it was a time at which to note the indications of the progress which their Cause was making, and the rate at which it had ad vanced. The result of that motion would be a kind Of "taking stock" in the House of Commons—(Hear, hear)—and exhibiting, in the first instance, how the free trade cause stood as compared with last year. He confessed he had no very large anticipations as to this portion of the review ; he was well acquainted with that prayer for the House of Commons which had been so emphatically and soundly explained to them that evening. But however frequently, in some quar ters, or howeverearnestly that prayer might be offered Up, he was afraid it would be as unavailing as the pro • position made about two or three weeks since in a country village, where the farmers were suffering very much from drought, that the clergyman would put up a prayer for rain. He consulted an old farmer in the village, and wanted to know what his view of the matter was, and whether he coincided with the rest of the parishioners. Why, Master Parson, said the old farmer, in my opinion it is no use praying for rain as long as the wind holds in the north-east !—(Laughter and Cheers.) He (Mr. Fox) feared that the prayers of the Church for the House of Commons would be of as little use in leading to the settlement of this ques tion on the foundation of truth and justice, as long as the prevailing wind of that region came from the bitter and biting quarter of monopoly.---(Cheers.) He could hope but little, on a question between a class interest and the public, from a House of Com mons as at present class constructed, and even class elected. The disease was i n it s own very vitals, and there must be a regeneration of the Legislative body before they could hope for justice, to say nothing of charity, to the suffering millions from those who were at present the arbiters of their des tinies.—(Cheers.) There were other symptoms which must lead them to moderate their expectations of the approaching debate and division on this question. He confessed he should not be at all surprised if their strength should appear less even, instead of more, than it was on the former occasions; and he should be by no means disheartened by any such phenomenon ; for whenever the Whig party got a glimpse of office, they found that phrases and notions which had been thought obsolete by the progress of the controversy, were revived again ; and in the recent conflicting events that had taken place, as soon as in the Legisla ture there was any such chance of upsetting a rival party and returning to place, they perceived that the doctrine. of a fixed duty re-appeared in the W big newspapers. They had a perfect right to revive it assuredly ; they had a perfect right to dig a corpse out of the earth, ;if the earth belonged to them ;. but they had no right to push that corpse among living beings, and say, here, this is one of you, and has a right to share your functions and enjoy a portion of your privileges !—(Cheers.) Logically, and in the public estimation, the fixed duty was dead and buried, and rotten and forgotten, and it only re-appeared upon the stage because. there seemed to be some slight opening to a certain; Parliamentary party, which occupies a better position than it did erewhile. for a return to ,place. Now, with a fixed duty as well as a sliding scale, this League waged inextin guishable warfare.—(Cheers.) The hostility to their principle was as great in one case as the other. They could no more compromise with the bread-tax in one form than they could in the other. They abjured them both. They were only different phases of the intercepting of the bounty of Providence in its way to minister to human enjoyment. And they had st yet further objection to the fixed duty doctrine, which rendered it more fi4d more obnoxious • that objection was, that a fixed duty ferided to di vide the interest of the class possessing capital • from that of the class ha v i ng on ly th eir labdirtv to rely upon. It might answer the purpose of the manufacturer, the merchant, and the shopkeeper; it thighi in some measure satisfy those who were look ing eidiu;ively to their own interests; but it would do so at the sacrifice of the interests and the rights of the great majority of the toiling multitudes, whose questidri this Was, and with reference to whom it had alWayq been agitated, and not one item of whose claim to fetid should ever be compro mised by any friend of free trade, or that just and broad principle which that phrase denoted. In loosing nt the public indicatives of the state of their cause, one could not IPA be struck at once with the fact of the unabated interest that /sad been mani fested in those meetings ; and this was -the metre re markable at the present time than it was last year or on any former occasion, and for this reason :—The pre sent period was no t one of very much excitement on this question. It was not one in which there were such stimulating and cheering electoral victories as had occurred a few months ago. It was not one of those numerous public meetings in different parts of the kingdom, which some while since occupied public attention, and formed a continual occasion for regarding the progress of their cause. It had not been a period, except within the last few days, of Parliamentary discussions, that were exciting any very extended degree of notice or great influence yet they had come to this place, from week to week,; seeing the old familiar faces, and hearing the old familiar voices; they came under no temporary ex citement, under no extraordinary stimulus from with out ; they came because there was an increasing stimulus in their own bosoms ; they came because this was a matter of principle, and not of mere passing excitement; they came because their determination was fixed and rooted in their own souls to protest against the atrocious impost on food till it should be utterly abolished—and to reiterate that de termination, calling Heaven to witness, that come storm, come sunshine, come calm, come struggle, they were resolved to make their protest, till at length the voice of truth and justice prevailed over all class interests, and that the Legislature itself should yield to the power of public opinion. —(Cheers.) In this quiet determination they needed no contrivance, no recourse to varied means for keeping up their attendance. He saw in them that calm and growing strength which worked like the mighty elements of nature itself; it was the power which had within itself the means of perma nence, and the means of permanence in moral power implied the means of increase also. It showed a strength that went on from day to day silently and irresistibly swelling like the snow on the mountain top, till it formed into an extent compact as the glacier, ready at a word, if they bided their time— ready when that time came to rush down, bearing all before it, overwhelming any hostile power with the will, the resistless will of a mighty nation.—(Loud cheers.) Miscalculating the quietness with which true power held its own, they found some journalists still determined to treat th e League as absolutely or permanently defunct ; indeed, only a few days ago it was stated by one of these papers that the League had been driven from Covent-garden Theatre by the London Conservative Association, a most marvellous rout that would have been ; but the generosity that had allowed them the use of the theatre, had been by no means displaced. Their meeting ought to have been held this day instead of last Wednesday, then, when they toasted the glorious majority of ninety, they might have asked where it was last Monday and on Friday.—(Loud cheers.) They might have been called on to explain whether they were cele brating the triumph of the Tories over Peel, or of Peel over the Tories.—(Cheers and laughter.) And that question might have especially been asked of Sir Howard Douglas, who voted on the first occasion with Mr. Miles, and on the second occasion with Sir R. Peel, and who prefaced his second vote with de claring that his opinions had undergone no change.— (Great laughter.) That was the gentleman who took on him, or had put upon him, the task of being the responsor when the health of the Duke of Wel lington was given. Had the Conservative festival waited till to-day, they might have made a pithy allusion to the uncovered statue of the Duke, which he was told, for he had not seen it, stood with its face to the Post-office and the Horse-Guards, and its back towards the Royal Exchange.—(Laughter.) At that festival they said repeatedly, and they said very truly, that they were not an association to up hold " any particular Ministry." The Ministry such an association upheld must be a Ministry that were not very particular--(Loud cheers)—and he won dered much, considering the number of mercantile people there, and the large correspondence they must keep up, he wondered they did not introduce at least some such toast as teis, " Success to those who hold the seals of office, and who break the seals of letters." —(Loud cheers, several times renewed.) To re turn to the indications of the progress of their cause, he for one reckoned it a very gra tifying indication, and a good of immense moment effected by the League, that the condition of the agricultural labourer was now forced upon public attention, with a power that insured that something must be done towards their amelioration. It was the League that brought that condition first under notice, in the face of the boldest contradiction ; for every rural district was described as a perfect arcadia, all innocence, and comfort, and enjoyment. The veil was now torn aside, one which no patching could ever hold together again, and the horrid and disgust ing reality was exposed, a reality which, however tampered with, he believed could never be entirely altered in its character, and never thoroughly reformed; but by the accomplishment of that repeal of the taxes on food which it was the object of the League to accomplish. How much had been done by the League in the cause of free trade ? Would that great power, the Times, have taken up their cause had it not been for previous preparation ? The Times sent out its royal com mission to the disturbed districts ; he said royal com mission, for there were other powers of Government besides those that met in Westminster. The Times might be said, to a certain extent, to rule England as Daniel O'Connell rules Ireland. Printing- house square, and the Penitentiary at the Circular-road, were seats of Government, where there were influences which made themselves felt to 'the remotest bounda ries of either island. A series of papers had appeared in the Times regarding the agricultural districts, whence you might trace, as on a map, a broad, black line —low wages and incendiary fires.—(Hear, hear.) These papers, by the impression they would produce, would shame down the calumnies so often repeated against the League, that they had, or could have had, anything to do with these disturbances. Those sophisms had fallen in the way of so many others— they would go down the road to oblivion, and nothing would be left but theplain; daring assertion—that to tax food is good for our pockets, and that tax we will keep up as long as you leave us the power.— (Hear, hear.) It was pleasing to see that the condition of these poor creatures was becoming so much better understood, and that the need of some alleviation to the miseries of the inhabirants of the agricultural counties of Norfolk, Essex, and Suffolk was univer sally admitted. This, and much more, was owing to the exertions of the League.—(Hear, hear.) The poor creature born to filth and hunger, brought up in a dilapidated cottage destined to de molition under the common-clearing system—sent out in his early years to break stones on the road that leads to some ducal mansion, kept up in splen - doer by the assistance of a bread-tax—made to work for all; he must feed, and house, and lie as he can— his church was the beer-shop, his only refuge—his only chance of tasting anything but dry bread, poaching on the preserves of some squire —steering between the Scylla and Charybdis of the workhouse and the gaol, the view of the gallows being made visi ble in the distance by the fires of the blazing barns. To reach such as this the star of hope had risen, and it would held on in its course until it obtained the meridian of truth and justice. There were indi cations of advance in their cause in the present con dition of the hostile powers. Where was the great compact phalanx which had been bound against them two years ago ? Where was the power which was exercised in the election of 1841, when it carried everything before them ? Where was that compact now ? Quarrelling about almost everything that could be started. They were quarrelling about a Welsh bishopric ' Dissenters Chapels Bill s , an d were about to quarrel about the New Poor-law, having quarrelled about the Ten Hours' Bill, and were now I involved_ in a deadly quarrel about the sugar duties. There were high Church and moderate Church—an cient Tories and modern Conservatives —young Eng land and old England (Laughter) and there was the Prime Minister himself' stirring up the bete rogeneous.material, and well might he exclaim— " Double double, toil and trouble, Fire burn and cauldron bubble."—(Laughter.) Thus was Sir Robert Peel at the head of that great Conservative party, which he had been ten years amalgamating. These things read a very impressive moral lesson, which was to avoid in future any endea vour to form a party without principle—or what was worse, a party with five er six antagonistic principles. In opposition, Sir Robert Peel had avoided showing himself with wonderful dexterity. The amalgama tion of the Tory party succeeded in displacing the Whigs ; but Sir Robert Peel was now exhibited in the most pitiable light in which a Prime Minister has been placed—endured for his dexterity—tolerated for nothing else. There he was—toiling at their work— endured by all, scorned by all, thwarted by all—re proached by all—not adhered to for any steadiness of principle, for he turned his back upon all those doc trines which he formerly maintained, but supported because he propped up that wretched system of expe diency, which was fast tottering to destruction. In endeavouring to sustain himself in office he had been guilty of the most,palpable_ typacbery. Hp had obtained' for hithself the well-earned reputation of a trickster, and if they searched the calendai they CONINGSBL—The demand for this -ucl i r work • 00 wo understand, every day. Th e C ou rt o o i n e ir , serves :—" In whatever point o f v i ew we e r x ,. i ls Ono' work, it commands unmixed a d m i ra tion. able as a novel of real life—as a picture aEni P'ese ciety—as an exposition of political parties ll ° th e i ciples—as a gallery- of living portaits. elle r are c .is* aspects it exhibits great talent ; but it is in its,: st hination of them all that it deserves the hig ue o rson o yi Many of the characters are portraits, which 0 0 o,fr• quainted with the circles in which the origi n „re can fail to detect. Lord M onmou th an d his Crle a 'fier7„,/ Rigby, who writes slashing' articles in ts , e re at' h e o —Milbank, the Cotton Lord—Sidonia, th e '' in to , capitalist, who holds all th e • Cou r ts of Eer e F t bec e , cheque-book—Henry Sidney, B uc kh urs t, Irere'he 0 4 panions of,Coningsby at Eton—L uc i an Gay' and table wit—none of them can be mistakeei9 u et, j are also passages of high poetical beauty in th .thes The love of ConingsAy for Edith is full of * fresi-heaTie — diie - ii: The recommendation of s uc . o gst i vel to our readers wo u ld b e a wo r k of sup ere ' Everybody will read it." r {ADVERTISEMENNT.]—The Atrapilatorf o for all ir Hair Dye, the only dy e th a t rea ll y answers t he 1) , /4 ti rt lours, and does not require red o ing but its to rax grows, as it never fades, or acquires that un llll o d or purple tint common to all other dyes, 11 0 1 t he An t i' can, with the greatest confidence, reconnuen u 0 0,4 dye as infallable, if done a t th e i r establishme nt to bri e d, dies or gentlemen requiring it a re request s ' • t is their friends or servants with , them to see hew. l tho ut which will enable them to do it afterwards v v ,l dev ° `r chance of failure. Several private apartrue n :i; e ir a s entirely to the above purpose, and some of ` boal t o ,..;,g blishment having usc d it, the effect produced on :tell i a, seen. They think it necessary to add. that bye of "0 strictly to the instructions given with each 10E11 numerous persons have succeeded equally 101 coming to them. —Address Ross tind Sons , 11 , elle ie „i Bish•psgate-street,the ceh - brated Perruquiers, 1 t ow' Hair-cutters, and Flair-dyers.—N.B. at their own residences, whatever the distance' j , ASTONISHING UURE OF A CONFIR MED 5 1 arY ttr COMPLAIN T B Y H OLLoWAY ' S PILLS!--oirs• 3 n t a b o et . ford, residing in Leather-lane, 11.1 born, had be tt e se d ing for five years under the effects of 0 n' e which produced indigestion, sick head-ache,,,er, sight, lowness of spirits, i r ritability of l e gs, ~",,01 ness, occasional swelling of the body *e l f o r n et ! general debility. She attended the ho,pit*l' grew," three years, but only got worse, and ree" ve ji w of in o,C hopeless ; but 3 et, wonderful to relate, sh e of the li . u tiv .o months restored to perfect health by mean s ollo s pod extraordinary medicine ! Sold at Profe-,sor wa y V IA , Establishment, 244, Strand (where advice to eclic l gratis), and by almost almost all respecta ble vendors throughout the civilised wi,rld. of gar TESTIMONIAL DEAFNESS. - sole from John Sawyer, and D. ing wood Lodge, Maidenhead, Berke, ba mons, 39, Albemarle-street, Piccadilly. to Messrs. z"., meo , G en tle _, b been deaf for some time, I was induced, in the ill„ o n v l dec,„ i t h vember, 1839, to make trial of your Invisible Voic e a ga i iv y and, although at my advanced age, at that tim e . f rom ' ediat elml year, I had no hope of obtaining any relief, ye t applied them I could hear the general co nversa s t e i o , :i i ::l o c rr hearing has become so much improved by theY_ u l aeuti ro si now hear acutely without their aid. I am, 7 184 2.-- .. to most obedient servant, J. Sawyer. 22d Jun e , the late Henry Cowper, Esq., of Tewen Messrs; - S - . and B. Solomons:—Gentlemen , e h i n v v 'i;hlB_ s 4 for many years, I was induced to try y in &tyro° Conductors. They enable me to hear persons_ ~c , a cl e Ad and at a place of worship most distinctly. The z'r Handglass which you have sent me are very .ez c so b e e f suit my sight perfectly, the transparency of y ear the: with liant, that although I have passed my 86 best May last, yet they enable me to read , andbythcanciley-li!'; ou rty' the greatest ease and comfort to myself. I return thanks, and remain your obedient servant, HenrY.,rocor., 22d June, 1839. — Telescopes, Opera G laser, &c. of the same kind of Lenses.—Caution.—Messrs. S.2110,101A; ot -be . r, lomons, Opticians and Aurists, arc not in any way co/T a person of the same name in their immedi a te , neqr be 01 , Nor a any part of the country. To prevent rnistal'otte• tious, and Ohserve,—Only to be had at at Albs Piccadilly, oPpesite the York got& 41) 14 - ti, Ing , 4st C$ ever,