The Sun. — London, England, 1845-02-20 00:00:00

the 111 0 t A i d him. — h ItnirW In a o f Colen et the hint °', I gia ° ter,— e l p i not titer feshincw "..%r A.• f -~~~ •; ~- CT rtif ff T ING, FEBit ETA 'lit 20, 1815. sa- sae empire th at h er population and extent would enable her to 1 1 0. TIP! peophe of England would find that the surest. "" "f securing k relief fr om t h e hardens that now pressed on Ireland them, vrculd be found in th e i ncreas i ng prosper i ty o f Mr. S. CA AW Fk)RD rose amid loud cries of ~ Question" and the (.1./livande.d" vr k . l l 7 er b i r , i , efly stated that he was not prepared to the income-t.of Ireland ought to he exempted from ( Hear, hear.) Though Ireland might claim ttritobe exetn.,,ted, on many grounds, from several heads of taxa "' yet, ',then call d ' t vote on this question, he could not hriog Int 1 e "" " 4 " Ito say that the land of that country ought to be lizeATltteds--( tr. bA RRY should give his vet e i n di s ti nc t o pp os iti on t o din t s 'lbrititneft4Tlng tent of th e H on. and Learned Member for Bath. ing that amendment forward he seemed to have thought but little about it, for his speech was one thing and his I ": , i•T ' quite another.--, ear, hear.) He was quite mistaken an Ili, au, • r_veid e ,, , a e p r e tto t n he th p a a t y g m e e n n tl t em of n, by living in . London or Paris, the presoot time Ireland was impro • ' vi e n d g, ta a l n e ; li m e believed lreland. th A a t t nothing would b e ,„ imp o li t i c as to lay the income-tax upon tar " ui ltry now. He cared not what the Right Hon. Baronet .....tt‘lelaid 04 former:occasinva-{ Hear, hear, and vter) sa t. ;till consider the imposition of the tax most intp,i,itte. liar I,,,;;URRUCK then reeled. He said he stood in a pecu arita'hi"". Many Members felt with him-many had spoken i Cot ; b . „ Tl : s i but almost all, with a few exceptions, had attacked lart t a • ''` "'fore he sat dower he hoped he should have an op nt'v of ~ • • with interest.-( Laugh ter.) Th epaying all his friends, taen t , s , e t Right lion. Baronet at the head of . the Govetrhnis aubje;tak, there had been a great change in his opinions on hot the ,Ia (Mr. Roebuck) would ask the House to remem espaci, "inerence between him and the Right Hon. 114ronet is blenej,..akki experience. The Bight Hon. Baronet com• tina„i"iiiir! almcet as a Secretary for Ireland, and had Yet *ha p n an almost unbroken official lifa down to 1825. t hsia. , l l ' his is of information the Right Hon. Baro l r f ie lios hoc k) had la a recent wriod the opinions which he . r. Pp pf,,il;' ) had e xpressed l that night. When he left office for . the :i:ist_sto.n..toinn,u,adnd vt s h •I i' a up with great care and astonish -1 art th e a- u ,' ' ' IL - " w surrounded, he s great party by whom he was mi gf that opinion. In 1835 he was again called to ba c k: tai again he expressed the same opinion h h e . (M Roe- Sat v,il'ilui expressed that night. Yet he now told m r r h ' at this Vhe a 04°Pthdent. impolitic, and mischievous.. Was l it all these f haaoh the R ight Hon. Baronet supported it ? The charge n rents,•% , therefore, cae hardly well from the, Right Ho Isiah that ant Ile would riot for a moment compare his l ea h par o at i y . . lairt ua • . of the Right Hon. Gentleman, but take al asit, ' as ?'" the Right Hon. Gentleman had had,. and he t w e , ou_ l ld till ashy Ns he to be charged with being impolitic because he thes r i i % k ii t ed the opinions which the Bight Hon. Gentleman %tea " h imself s The Hon. Member for Warwickshire _ha r d oebstl°litk!,observations, intimating something about his (M . en Pao s s / lacing an insignflcant person. .Suppose it was so ; 4 Air e ell he had advanced was worth nothing-- d t ,' ,N.,,WDIGATE said the Hon. and Learned Member kkii '''re'Y misunderstood him. He had never applied any 14 1, Zniark to him that could be so construed. 'What he said ', he thought his motion a very mischievous one. tl , erf es ', () EItUCK said that the Hon. Member had of course '7ll it ly` right to do se. But another observation had been la , Ila a 4 a 11,°o. Member for Waterford, which was, that he . ( h r. ' al s i r ' s) had made remarks on the Irish Members which e . lal t not have dared to make had those persons been here h , Ohl' t t O say, that if the Irish Members had been present, h e * ate 'eutt elr) would not have dared to complain of their a - sir 4Great laughter.) '' Qui H . ,_WINSTON BARRON rose amid loud cries of ,11 ral,,"air" Ile appealed to Mr. Greene. ' 4 414T:4:ENE said the Hon. Member hail a perfect right Olt ii",', 4 l previous observations he had made. 'tan. ' 'IN hTON BARRON said he did not charge.tht the ab:nd Learned Member with making any observation t on t ,rlita,: i n ;° of the Irish Members. 'therefore the Hon. iti , 4 , l stigh ' "rnber had said this for the mere purpose of raising . 'sat "th---„(" Order, order, ' chair.") What.he did say was this /14 of t e t,"". and Learned Gentleman would not have made til e evs "11) ° Ns " personal insignificance, meaning the Hon. Itbitt hers ' A ho were absent were m en who " could well be spared." L.. / Nl t l n " what he fouud fault with. He repeated, that he --‘ll pre -(4 b aae dared use those words if those gentlemen had AlT.ser ,. _.. st i a liab lt°Bl. -ICK begged to tell the House that in his smal ttesatiiiith::_pc,:zoifiaptihane ! t aw . i i n ,e cross-examining, a; that if he had to deal kat l a w Hriess of a p. uli r temperament, he always found ti Is own at . o adopt .n the first instance was, to let him °r )• - (Laughter) Now, he did not complain , L 'tob et ., , r phra , eology which . e used bv several r " 44 ' 't :1 ”t. what he dtd complain of „ was he single s'l,(llss„are• ' Now, what was it that he dare" not do ? 1 ,7 4 . u ari and laughter. ) Dared he not to say that the ^4 t, 11, ntiernen, to whom lie had alluded, had deserted their % gall ' e sentinels who, having been placed on duty, had jt : 4l , at ti ,, ° ,, w ,_° their muskets and ran away ?-( Hear, hear.) 'v.ll,i'_ltl ° f those said that, he supposed that the mortified t t ",.'ae wer7e, aientleman it was th h a . t had led them to do so. v t a r aea to ita ' nis words, and that is opinien and he now ybe still adhered to it. The Hon. ' Member for :Italikhti'l4aPhealed to his kind feelings-(Laughter)-and the ~trall'o!kher for Dun, , arvon had also remarked upon the ia' r rat ~"""e he (Mr• Roebuck) had used ; but in reply to ‘l 4e h 7)u ld ' ask,. whom had he been speaking? I} thei 1 tc'hic Centlt o he had mentioned at all careful kL 414 .7`- ' Si -ra'r°l °' t ' in i en applying it to . Nlembers of that Z - lah„..ear, he'iir.)n saw Hon. Members present to i ) alea "Cad alluded, and he would ask had not motives been th . , t4l tel) „ Y i, til ern to him, and vulgar expressions used, and e;III . s ka as t s - ,. - a cts practised ?-( Laughter)-for there were such ratilscr,.rat rno untehanks as well as little ones.-(Laughter.) g ar old t , d eign to reply to what had been said by tne Hoo. Li t he He ttlember for Watt!, ford ; but what had been said slt•lr';4aros"'. ISlernber for Cork and the Hon. Member f!n at'4,,ait to , i'll,did call for some observations from him, arid, in Ho, '"old say that, if there was any language more e„,,,, } ' 4,4o4nother by which to mark the desertion of . the tte,,,k, th at he had mentioned, and their conduct while de :r ii' kTi If t language he w o uld use.-( Hear, hear. ) He had 51h-4,. , 01) Ni t • f h •agricultural inte "s rkti a ' • emoer opposite talk o t t a, ' gat thgricultural distress, but all he (Mr. H.) could say II '''ish sd e 'Pesch of that Hon. Member looked very like as 1 1 .:1 1 . I,4o3tere wa s an end to this tax.-( Laughter.) The hos:" sv 07,hacl said that the imposition of this tax upon thi t 'af s';','' be ui , just and impolitic. He said that . he had tsahtinsi.:4°l's prosperity, and of the influx of capital into WlLkliti a ' ; °at he had not shown how hip (Mr. Roebuck s) 11 , 1 ',he (N t would interfere with that -( Hear, . hear. ) Itil s t a, ttl i i ,r% ' Roebuck) did propose was t . his, that this coon !ll74litil.thereb7. abstain from taxing . therich wo rr r .en in o g f p l e r o t i l l si e nd oi .-....( 5 /i t heY taxed more heavily the working tikisheea ~ "rt hear. 1 That was his argument . ; arimcl_loioww -2 Is e "C a et 2 Hy telling the House that eapitat wa. 11 d Wsh it, bout and that the imposition of the tax would ' Iri,C landlordsuse was prevent in what way the taxing d f English dial sro,._ would pr one ko ( l 4 ,,verc l ! flowing into Ireland. -( Hear, hear.) cauu ° They had ist,tuta4:loificantl t Id by the Hon. Members . for Armagh I N . 11% ) ' Wh 'i y °n l : ., l , h at the told by the Hot,. Members for Armsgh at th tax would cause a revolution.-( Hear, Nt r or th • --( Hear, hear.) He did not propose to tax 4 , 1 4 "',ho h , e middle classes in Ireland, but only the land kel:ots...(isa",_ caused all the evils under which that country % he i t ,' th '` ue ees.) For hispart, he did not believe that all kast4talthh,s,,alta;ititlry be used to roduce aaitation, would induce to rise into p rebellion Li- the purpose of (Ita,lals 'ark"ards from - (Cheers.) For his part, he (eVetl.4lftideavoured t a o ta d z o '- good for the Irish people.- , ( ii k .Zl• ) sheer s ) He had never voted for a Coercion Bill.- , 4 a. t,, r '• ) b y e had never voted for the Irish Church.- s 'd s ,'" lh 1 , , tti t if the Irish landlords had a particle of gene kosa-°„t reepi:Pild ask to betaxed.-( Great laughter.) He terat'e tai kith ;that laugh,b t he asserted still that they shrunk LO i' a th tt ' t h a wantof u that generosity which was charac tiatirdQA Irish People salt t s ' °, ei s l'is 'REA - GI'I I rose amidst loud cries of 4 411 4; 1 3 ' , 'lit 'Z i t tso, ask, on who • part of the Irish landlords, 4lam ci •-....( He tirink from their fair share of the public , ( ,t/, a , art hear, and laughter.) For his own part, b'"rnaj ;e ar to th e income-tax.-( Laughter. 'l4 th -t ee then divided, 'Alien there appeared e arr wr , I 33 NN t . ( meat tr, it ......... t 4;" (` M .. : .... : ......... --242 re k 'atas n i t , ) against It . . Ipsa arel tee then divided on the original resolution, when ARP,,ti'„h!ariginal resolution T I" , .it ...... 30 4 t 11 4 1k, 0 , •• • .................... , ...... __ _ Th gkh e J nty for the original resolution...••.—l9B Lit 4.7 . ,C1i , r sum e d . 111 0 4 i'ill\lAN reported progress, and obtained leave to unitta,„ rid aY• ,etai„ pp,..,n ASSESSED TAXES. 14.4t t s r, °4 aritai.'"ELL moved for returns of all surcharges for 1\ 4 .4, 4 ~aain v !tars. which have been decided by the Comm.s ttasa 'aX s ' ', 1.1 the execution of the Act relating to a e As trilrahe:i' 4 ' o ra the Ist of January, 1839, to the 31st of aa art e e t i 44. ~,111.attalohse.Hot,,,C4:1-LOR of the EXCHEQUER begged to tre at 1,,,' rt.t 4r _ ~-.4llant Member that it was utterly imessible It 1, 5 ' 44,4 4 00 151(1 be furnished, inasmuch as the assessors d 5h, 41 1. t i r :es s i orlinl.%lat officers, but were appointed locally, an l a.st h 'lllE eLn.:!. proceedings. te t) ,l)ta iti al ,, at ci ; -oded that the returns could be had for ill:4` EC HEl e s i s n a s. . • • House on his t li 4 aid he would divide the K. ,71%iiaided,and the numbers were th kgaintet .to.tion _5. t 1 1 .. . _. . , ... ........ , loose th,rl3.b.i)ority against _ ss ttl ,_ ansou rn m at.5,.._.....,_.......(21_____ o'clock. rily ct it , ~, ---- ' ) l' 1r )4, 1)1, 1 --;KLEit AlusKay's "EGYPT."—The ,Itto/I,,,u'rt!'',, Lr oy r ' ii g i i , ish E lition of this work,. translated 11 1, 1.vi t , h t::. , ti m .k. thwo w . : l l l , ll l. l , e l s ias . just . be in e , n t p h t e ib t l h is r l e ic e d y b o y ium M e r s . ti 11 4 44 'M Gi r ' (:u"nlir!" facilitieswhich q a itekl er I m an• The singular . • lUskau enjoyed in his intercourse with it s N t hefi sre 4 ! ,afferaled him advantivses such as have , °ll,l4,:"6lltlern,,r,‘dii"hto the lot of any traveller. We her e ! I ) 4 Pri • t b ehind ins ' If, not through a distorted m , tr, , ,vile g „ or , the scenes, for the Prince not only had 11 - 14 t t ttlaaell dailY and confidential intercourse with 4e rvp % t in 1 .: e el with the Viceroy when he went on veh, ° and of that ti/31 tttless - PPer I] gYpt i and the complete . unre : kstll etti4r great man, in communicating his t----his ac Red. views foe the people whom he go • 4 h4 Pter t till t uf his early lilL , , as in . the W ork 4l :e h er , °' theXtrst volume are deeply ta intresting, l it 11l 40t tx'uurlunicated. .14 the first time. 14" ev e , w holly 0 1' Yet the 141,,,%.14., oppt.rttm. a political character. The author . is V Of thy' at lr i ( ui IV of giving information respecting th e " ' s a v "e cot thr i vic, ti es, and the manners of the inhabi t to p 41 glaet:f 8, through which he passed ; and, 011 e 'la' the Gre at tl'„stYle, has addressed a letter from t 'l It s Y, to ,;‘,.i--.Yramid, which he ascended twice '',ll tie u g r „ . -r e Is , S ce. ';,,ht(t,ein,ds, giving an amusing account of 'Air `le re . , 1 r.,,inye then proceeded up the Nile, tis ~„1 1(' )' to to th a ti- oteo tibia-, arile ‘ , halt', and then set out on his ti t i l ciea t to visi Ethiopia. Tht second volume is the t nas t lll esnut a „, , ! t o ) some of the most remarkable the te es v alu a b l " of those countries ; but, perhaps, il ti 4 hit of hi s' nd interestinr, part of this volume is lt N 4 It' iourn . I ,' vt hfi t , Ive r to is ea to the South, his voyage up r litt iN " I) esert " "gula and Meroe, and his journey tbeLD,lti'l h e cort;ll..durig which, besides personal ad ,u'9.4, g th, 4 onicates many important particulars ,Im t t r q o ti ti 3 i ) : th 4 th u a a in t i :l l l. ° ) .: ii , c . o : e D ou ar r f t o , ur, and other countries .4 t) e nsS I' 4"1-Xledineh. lhc>llt tZ Nbillinnibus driver . : on Tuesday, a ntiml - er .lied, .‘,. street ,t.,),„ ~,,___g s , _ , , s, ere summoned. One cabman wits lilt c ,_ ll ,li , I „, n ~t,'„'; ' ,m _ I. el% here man on a stand, by driving b i ,,'. 11 [,.. ibi''Z'oll„,.,tnlie !raffle. An orrinibiN conductor was s °Ct 41. qt I) "1 g another Person to ride on the step of ~Nfil it I vth,,, i ~( , 1 1 , ll ' i i ' : 4 4 11 li t ii%k i" N ß , te . n i ‘ IlpaSn.3-711:1e Newcastle-on-Tyne Com -4!liiii.(y!,h.iit_i,,,,,,, 8 ,,, , : .(, e j.tist declared a dividend of 7 per .1•1,1,( 1, * ,,. , i1 ut 10 - ',!!_r 1. ~mil Sunderland Union Banking %Q. f,,,, ii a (,„,,7. c e n t per annum. The Newcastle. ~ tOl u t ,,,,,4 5 0. , have niade it dividend of 6 per cent., bp i . l IE Iv ti r i.i 4 ll,l - EAT I ,,, ll a.OOO/. being carried to the pun - mate 0 4,1 : 1 1r fi lil i ' !,41 %(,'' ru i'; i 1 : i t g t i t ' l l e i t. p a r:',,Z lll , P i • PA Rii s. — . After eight o'clock Y t. iitinospher.., was su . cceeded by , a h aSr,, k 3 - cs7, l 'atz;„ wirld blowi6nugd N . .. i l Nib t 4" ' , h :t ie,. 2 1 ito_ 6 ,, C: i es e t i si g i . r4:ejertsi:T,hk°ena tsr: ,c. l'a ss it!' s io Z i tll . , „a aitrii:ktill'eanidia...qietrclaingdiruoprntON.'searEen i t e a, t ra e :an a ,: t ied t e h e ‘ .R ec e i vin .; House 1i21,:Rrt,4,,, -tallr,,,.(l_,ii,grit t o h f ,n t ig h i e , la h s , - , how- i n 11.Yde Park, all were compel Led tO ~,,,, , t aii,i lilt, aantiscinent. ' .4 ,li I„i inets , The thermometar at noon was c i ea r hi _ I cry the tip to vieht 0' lgAi last "''''Y frorn the southward, ' ' ? ' GREAT Al EETIN G OF THE ANTI-CORN-LAW LEAGUE AT COVENT-GARDEN THEATRE. A great metropolitan meeting of the members of the Anti- Corn-law League was held .ast evening in Covent-garden TLeatre. The doors were opened at half-past six o'clock ; but long before that hour crowds were waiting outside, anxious to obtain admittance. Within a quarter of an hour of the time of the opening of the doors every part of the house—even to the slips and upper gallery—was crowded to excess; and long before the commencement of the proceedings there was not a single piece in the house unoccupied. At seven o'clock, Mr. Cobden, M.P. for Stockport, Mr. Bright, M P. for Durham, Mr. Milner Gibson, M. P. for Manchester, Mr. W. Brown, of Liverpool (late candidate for South Lancashire), Mr. W. J. Fox, Mr. J. Wilson, of London, Mr. George Thompson, accompanied by other well-known members of the League, entered the theatre, and were re ceived with the most enthusiastic cheering. William Brown, Esq., of Liverpool, in the chair. Among those present, we ob•erved the Hon. Charles Pelham Villiers, M. P., Richard Cobden Esq., M.P., John Bright, Esq., M. P., Th omas 31il ner Gibson, Esq., M. P., George Thompson, Esq., James Wilson, Esq., W. J. Fox, Esq, T. Wordsworth, E-q., Major-General Briggs, Sir John Morris, Bart. ' Dr. William Cooke Tayl o r ; Colenel Tucker ; Messrs. John Taylor Crook (of Liverpool), Joseph Wrigley (of Hud dersfield), Greenham (of Trieste), W. Graham, Robert Fowler, J. Gerstenberg, C. S. Crowley, D. Dewar, Robert Tong iod, Triompson, Win. Garraud, T. F. Ashton, T. Gosnell, H. Hegginbetham, Bailey, James Mellor, .1. T. Campart, W. A. Wilkinson, J. Fergus (of Kirkaldy ), J. Hodgkin, John Poulton, John Dyte, John Chalmers, George Brettell, James Stansfeld, J. Williams, Farrand, Richardson, Wm. Wilson, James Midgley (of Rochdale), A. Graham, Wm. Graham, T. R. Pritchard, C. J. Baker, W. Were, Henry Briggs (of Wakefield), J. Al•Conkey (of Bel fast), Henry Yandall, F. Scheer, Thom (of Inverary), S. B. Bayfield, Holland (of Dumbleton), F. L. Hay Grant, Henry Marshall Fooks, Joseph Heap (of Liverpool), .1. P. .Nixon, Thomas Harvey (of Falmouth ), Henry L. Keel ing, Henry Crosfield (of Liverpool), Rev. W. P. Davies (late of Ashburton, Devon ), Agate (of Horsham ), G. frowton, George Ridge, J. Fitzpatrick, T. Mackeneie, J. Battiscombe, H. Sparrow, Wm. Geesin, &e, Mr. Coenes, NI.P., advanced to the table, the audience on his appearance rose en masse to greet him. A most enthu siastic cheer was set up—hats and handkerchiefs were waved, and the cheering was repeated again and again for several minutes. Never was reception more triumphant. Silence having been partially restored, the Hon. Gentleman said— Ladies and Gentlemen—ln the absence of our friend, Mr. George Wil-on, the Chairman of the League, I beg to move that Mr. William Brown, of Liverpool. the late candidate and future member of booth Lancashire—(lmmense cheering)—do take the chair.—(Renewed cheering. ) Mr. WILLIAM BROWN then took the chair, amidst loud and long-continued applause from all parts of the House. He spoke as follows :—Ladies and Gentlemen—Our good friend, Mr. Cobden, has apprised you of the reason why he has called upon me on the present occasion to preside over the proceed ings of the evening ; and I can only express my regret that during the absence of our friend, only Wilson, he has not been able to get a gentleman of more influence and importance to conduct the affairs of this important meeting. But I can assure you that there is no individual in the country who has more at heart the pro. gress of free-trade principles than the humble individual who has now the honour to address vou.—( Loud cheers.) It is not the province of a Chairman to make long speeches—( Hear, hear. ) But I cannot refuse to myself the pleasure of con gratulating you upon so much of the Premier's budget as car ries out the principles of free-trade—(Cheers) —without at the same time being considered to express my satisfaction with any portion of it of which, as free traders, we cannot ap prove.—( Cheers.) Ido hope, and expect, that the progress which free-trade opinions are making, will be pressed forward with an accelerating ve'ocity in consequence of the proceedings of Friday last. —( Cheers.) And I have no doubt that the day is not far distant when I .mey be able to congrstulate the members of the League en all our principles having been car ried out in the manner that we could all wish they should be carried out.—( Cheers. ) A great deal has been said about the declaration made by Sir Robert Peel that it was the duty and privilege of every man to buy in the cheapest arid sell in the dearest market.—(Hear, hear.) But while remembering this assertion of Sir Robert Peel's, we forget what another Cabinet Minister told us some years ago ; and I consider this, of even more importance than what was stated by Sir Robert Peel. Some years since Sir James Graham said that the landed aristocracy ought to recollect that they were a small minority, enjoying the peculiar privileges which they did possess, solely because public feeling was not hostile to the present corn-laws—he spoke this of the late corn law—the old sliding-scale, but the words are equally applicable at the present moment. He said that the receivers of rent were but a small body, but they were backed by publie opinion, which rendered them omnipotent ; but that, in opposition to public opinion, they could not expect long to enjoy exclusive benefits. In such a state of things, a most fearful contest would arise if they were to attempt to continue the enjoyment of those benefits in opposttion to public opinion, and they would find arrayed against them the power of that hunger which breaks through stone-walls.—(Cheers.) Ido not know that lam quoting the exact words made use of by Sir J. Graham, but I am certain that such was the meaning they intended to convey. He said that in the event of such a contest the barriers of society would be broken down, and estates and dignities be swept away in one overwhelming torrent. Such was the lan guage of a Cabinet Minister seven years since, and I do not believe that he will now be disposed to repudiate it. —(Cheers. ) 1 will not trouble you with any further observations of my own ; but again congratulating you upon the great step taken in advance in our progress to free trade, by what took place in the House of Commons on Friday night, I will call upon Mr. James Wilson, of London, who has ever been one of the greats-rt friends of the Anti-Corn-law League and to the principles of free trade, to address you.—l now beg to intro• duce to you Mr. James Wilson. Mr. JAMES WILSON then came forward, and was received with loud applause. He said that their wwrthy chairman had already congratulated them on so much of the Budget which had been pi oposed by Sir R. Peel on Friday night as carried out, inhisown estimation, the principles of free trade ; and he heartily joined their chairman in that congratulation on the tendency of the measure which had been proposed by Sir 11. Peel on Friday night. In that measure two Most important doe trines for which free traders had contended for the last half century, had received, not only full recognitions but had beers carried into practical effect.—( Hear.) But the Hon. Gentleman, although congratulating the meeting on that part of the measure, must be permitted to say that there were many parts of the Budget which were highly objectionable ; and it must be a matter of public observation to all who considered the relief proposed to be afforded by the Right Hon. Baronet, that, although he had been praised for the boldness of his free-trade measures, he had carefully °e lected those articles on which he had every reason to expect the slightest opposition, where he had left unattacked the greater monopolies.—( Cheers. ) He did not wish to take away any of the merit due to the Right Hon. Baronet of re cognising free-trade principles, but he wished to impress upon the country that they ought not to give the Right Hon. Ba ronet too much credit for what he had done, when they learnt what he had left undone.—(Cheers.) There were two great monopolies existing—one of these the Right Hon. Baronet had left altogether out of his Budget; and with regard to the other, he was prepared to show that instead of ameliorating it as far as the consumers were concerned, he had rather studied the in terests of those who already profited by the monopoly.— ( Hear, hear.) The Right lion. Baronet, the other night, had proposed an alteration of the sugar duties. Now, although that alteration was upon the face of it very specious —although the Right Honourable Baronet pretended that he was about to lower the duty upon sugar for the benefit of the consumers of the country, he (Mr. Wil son) believed that he could allow, to the satisfaction of every reasonable man, that the alteration intended would not really benefit the consumers but the producers ' • and that while th e revenue suffered the people would not be benefited. The ex perience of the last four years had taught the people the great fact that their interests were identified with those of the re venue.—( Cheers.) And the last thing the people would wish to see was the revenue sinking to such a state as should en danger the safety of the country. For the purpose of main taining the revenue they had been willing to submit to the im position of the income-tax, and he believed that they would willingly submit to the imposition of a more onerous tax, even than that, rather than see the country disgraced by the loss of her credit. But in the case of the red'tutlon of duties they should always see that the benefit of that reduction went to the consumer and not to the proelateer ; if they were called upon to submit to a fresh tax to make good a loss arising from the re duction of duties, let them at all events see that the benefit from that reduction found its way into the pockets of the people for whose benefit it was pretended to be made.—( Cheers. ) No principle of government or legislation was so delusive—no principle had produced so much evil to the people, as the prin ciple of differential duties; and if the true. character of diffe rential duties were known, if the operation and definition of differential duties haul been as well understood some years since as the meaning of prohibition, he Was convinced that, at the present day, neither differential duties nor prohibition would have been in existence. He was afraid it was a very difficult task to explain the real operation of differential duties to such an assembly. But so important did he consider the subject, that he would attempt to do so, even if he should fail. In order to illustrate the operation of the differential duties, let them take the proposition of the Right Hon. Baronet on Fri day night last. He had told the country that he had estimated what would be the supply of sugar during the next year, and the amount of revenue which would be derived from it. He sought to establish four different rates of duty. At one rate he expected a supply of 160,000 tons, the produce of our own colonies ; at another rate a supply of 70,000 tons, also the produce of British possessions; at a third rate he expected .5,000 tons of foreign sugar ; and at a fourth rate he ex pected a supply of 15,000 tons, also of foreign sugar. Now he (Mr. Wilson) would call their attention to the work ing of this scheme. The 15,000 tons of foreign sugar was to be admitted at a duty of 28s. per cwt. It was clear, therefore, that before they could get these 15,000 tons of sugar into consumption they must pay '255. per cwt, added to the first cost of the sugar. That being a foreign sugar it was admitted into competition, not only in the English market but but in all the markets of the Continent ; and the price in this country would be rendered so much the higher by the amount of duty imposed. The pi ice in bond of this sugar was 245. per cwt. It was the same at Hamburgh—it was the same at An twerp—and in fact in every market in the world. This sugar paid the highest rate of duty, and that added to the first price would make the cost in the English market 525. Now, if Y ou take any sugar whatever, you will only get the same quan tity at the same price; but when another species of sugar was brought into the country the Minister said that that might be admitted at a lower rate of duty, but any difference of duty that mig'ot be made must go to the enhancement of the price to the import merchant. The Premier said that he hoped to get 15,000 tons at the duty of 28s, the cost of which to the public would be 525. He expected 5,000 of the second class, at the duty of 235., but the import merchant would get the advantage of this difference of duty, for the price of that sugar in bond, instead of 245. would be found to be 28s. Bd., still making the price to the consumer 525. Then there was another rate of duty proposed at 16s.—that was a colonial sugar. At that rate of duty he expected a supply of 70,000 tons, but the importer sass, " You vet in the market 525. a ton for sugar. This only pays a 16s. duty, and therefore the price which I shall charge in bond will be 335. Bd." Then there was a fourth class, produced from al our West Indian Islands, of which he would take the quantity at 160,000 tons. Sugar of that qua lity commanded a price of 525., but that sugar was to be ad mitted at a duty of 145., which would enable the producer to receive 38s. for it, instead of the original price of 245. In all these processes, while they were giving up duties, they were not rendering the commodity cheaper to the consumer—they were not lowering the price by lowering the duty, but they were in creasing the price to the importer, while they let the consumer pay 525. ; and while the revenue lost the benefit of the in clica ed duty on these 160,1)00 tons, the consumer had not got his sugar one fraction cheaper than lie would have had it had these 160,000 tons paid the 28s. duty. They therefore saw, by those four different rates of duty, that THE ScN, THURSD Y MOR khe importers of foreign sugar of the first class received 249. per cwt. ; the impo-ters of the second class, 28s. per cwt. ; the importers of the third class, 355. per cwt. ; and the importers of the fourth class, 3es. per cwt. ; while the consumers paid the same price for all.—( Hear, hear.) Now if the Minister' said, " I will charge the highest rate of dhty, riertie)e; ,28s. oh all those classes of sugar, it *e s ettith o.ee r e he might do so with out, ralainte the price (Me fraction to the consumer.—( Hear.) iti g nt lon. Baronet reckoned that from those various duties he would receive 3,916,00/. He made a sacrifice of near 2,000,0021., and then he asked the country to make up the sacrifice by imposing an income-tax.—( Cheers.) Now if he had imposed the same rate of duty on all those deseriptioni of wager, which would give the same price to the foreign aid to the colonial grower, he would receive, instead of 0,0001., no less a sum than 7,00 ',Oita, while the public would not pay a fraction more foe their sugar.—( Hear, hear.) The Right lion. Baronet also, in order he supposed to render his proposal More aoceptable to the country, favoured them with certain estimates as to what he believed would be the supply of sugar next year. Now all estimates of what the supply would be were extremely unsatisfactory—( Hear, hear)—and four years son, when the present Ministry were in opposition, and the then Ministers proposed an alteration of the sugar duties, Lord Sandon brought forward his motion, which was based on an estimate of the future supply. On that occasion Lord Sandon said, " We do not want slave •grown sugar, because the produce of our own colonies is increasing so rapidly of late, that there would be a sufficient supply without having recourse to other countries." Lord Sandon estimated the supply at 225,000 tons. Well, four years have passed over since then. The population had in that time increased one million, and white the consumption of tea had increased 2 000,000 of lbs., and that of coffee 3,000,000 of lbs., the supply of sugar, instead of increasing, had been diminishing year by year ; and last year, though there were strong promises of an increase on the part of those who would exclude Brazil sugar, the supply had fallen from 225,000 tons to 204,000,—( Hear, hear.) The public should not, therefore, place implicit confidence in the declara tion of the Minister with respect to the supply of sugar from any particular quarter. The artiele of sugar has, perhaps, been one by which the system of monopoly was tested, more than any other; for since 1811, while the population had in creased upwards of 8,000,000, the supply of sugar remained stationary.--( Hear, hear.) While the supply of tea had been doubled, and that of coffee quadrupled, the supply of sugar, which was most protected during all this period, remained sta tionary.—( Hear, hear.) And yet, notwithstanding the falsi fications of those predictions with regard to the supply of sugar from their colonies, they found that the mast absurd distinc tions were to be kept up, which every Englishman ought to feel ashamed of, when he thinks of the numerous inconsistencies in which it landed them, and the numerous disadvan tages in which it placed their commerce.—( Hear, hear.) The Right Hon. Baronet had already sad that he intended to persist in the distinction between free-labour sugar end slave grown sugar, but in the very same Budget in which he pro pounded that intention, he proposed to take off the duty on cotton-wool, a measure which, perhaps was one of the best he could have brought forward, but while he recognised the dis tinction between slave-grown sugar and free-labour sugar, he altogether repudiated it in the case of cotton-wool, which was altogether produced by slave-labour.—( Hear, hear.) While he recognised the distinction in the case of sugar, for reasons best knosi tr n tayah,m t teg o allliaa h luedr i sg m fo,ebo s fsj e ftet l thci f, he abandoned it with regard to coffee also, for twice within the last four years he had reduced the duty ward hhonee dew adf coffee, esn v er y h m teem p t oi o ,n r tac t hno e o d ndsse p ihs r ert o ee t odn l n u uel c ycy t t wforrnhoosmiuithhtoaepntßphiroitaeshzdeei casesso. one e contrary Now,rf ourl e to sugar and a different one to cotton and coffee.—(Cheers.) There was another for reducing the duty, on which the Right Hon. Baronet took credit to himself, and he was entitled to credit for it perse—that was, the reduction on the duty on copper ore.—( Hear, hear.) And not only was that the production of slave-labour in Cuba and Brazil, but the product of slave-labour in its worst form.—( Hear; hear.) Mr. Gladstone, to get rid of the inconsistency of sating one way with regard to sugar, and another with respect to coffee, said that the labour required for the production of coffee was light and easy as compared with what was required in the production of sugar, which was cruel and destructive to the constitution of the negro, but the working of copper ore was the most distressing to which the slave could be subjected, either in Cuba or Brazil.— ( Hear, hear.) The effect of the new sugar duties, instead of lessening the protective duty, as it was wished to be believed, and to benefit the consumer, the effect would be, taking price and revenue together, quite the reverse. The old duty left a differential duty of 10s 6d, but the new duty left a differential duty between 14s and 2es, and for all practical purposes, if all the duty was available, the real practical differential duty would be 14 , , instead of 108 6d.—( Hear, hear.) It might not be fair to ask on what grounds this distinction was made in favour of colonial produce. There was a feeling in the public mind, that a preference ought to be given to the colonial pro duce, but he believed that the grounds of this opinion were based on erroneous impressions. In the first place, they had been very apt to believe that a large portion of these exports went to the colonies, and it was frequently urged that it was wise to maintain their colonies even at an apparent dis advantage, in order to secure an outlet for our manufactures. Now, as far as our exports go, our colonial possessions in America, including the West India Islands, Canada, and Novo Scotia, took golds last year, which was the latest period at which there were any returns, to the amount of 4 ,600,000/. Other parts of America, including Brazils and South America, the produce of which were excluded by the course of our Legislature, took our goods to the amount of .) came year, goods to the amount of 13,500,0001., w hile the l colonial o )i s . s — es ( s i L o o n u s d t h r c o h u e g e h r o i nug T he whole ofour t the oi ld took, whole of the foreign countries w:th which this country traded, and which asked for no preference or exeluive advantage for themselves, but merely a fair exchange of their produce for what this country had to give them in return—those coun tries took of our goods net less than 38,000,000/.—(Cheers.) Some, again, supported their colonies and their colonial le gislation on the ground of affording an outlet to our increasing population. For his part, he was not a friend to emigration.— d ( i l s l p e o a s r a , l e a a t e .) hems H He put w o in n l d req a t u h i s e i r t ( s m e e t t o h e a n fr l o a r t d a y e m m e pl a n n y s m a e t n t t h e t i o r the population.---( Hear, hear.) That might be done more effectually by extending our commerce than by sending the people abroad, and scattering them over the face of the earth, to find employment.—( Hear, hear.) But were he a friend to emigration, he would tell those men who supported their co lonial system on this ground, that it appeared from the Report of the Emigration Committee that the United States of Ame rica furnished an asylum for double the amount of emigrants that all our colonies in the world did. Yet though the United States of America furnished an asylum for our population greater than all our own colonies they sought for no peculiar privileges on that account. Sir Robert Peel was fond of talking of our pietecting and encouraging countries where the English tongue was spoken. He (Mr. Wilson) did not know if it entered into his head that our colonies should be encou raged, in order that there might be a greater sale of Lindley Murray's Grammar and Walker's Pronouncing Dictionary. If that were the reason why our colonies should be protected and encouraged, then eery little attention would show that the English language was four times more extensively spoken out of our colonies than in them.—( Hear, hear.) There might be, and there was, another reason assigned for protecting our co lonies—namely, that they were a stay to the empire—that their protection afforded them greater political power; hut people in this view of the case were very apt to argue in a circle. If one spoke against the expense cf the army and navy, it was urged they are required for the maintenance of these colonies=-if one spoke of the expense of the colonies, it was said they were necessary to give employment to the army and navy, and to maintain our political power.--( Hear, hear. ) Sir R. Peel said he could not reduce the arrny...not because they were wanted at home, but because it was necessary to have relays to send to the colonies. And he agreed with Sir R. Peel in the necessity and policy, so long as they had colo nies, of affording relief to the troops who were in the colonies, which it was the object of the Bill to exclude. Was it likely that there. would be more security under the new Bill ? What pereon of ordinary prudence would risk capital when there was so much uncertainty ?—( Cheers. ) It Was A Measure do slid it1 . 14q3.0, fiat lie delled En ) ; merchant in the cif!! of Loiiaon to say what its operation would be for twelve months. —( Hear.) Hew could the mercantile interest go on with any certainty if, day after day, and session after session, new and in tricate propositions were to be made, each succeeding thc other ? How could the West Indians themselves, who were looking out with anxiety Oar the new meaqtre to regulate their measures? They would not be able to do anythitig, beta Use they must per ceiVe that the lartse.nt 6rratigtiitient *uuld not bb permanent, and that Id enable them to carry on their operations with cer tainty, the duty must be placed on a permanent and secure basis.—( Hear.) That was the great evil of the protective system, that it gave no security, and as long as protection continued, the question would not be settled.—( Hear, hear.) He believed the West Indians, as a body, lost considerably by the protective system, and that th e i r pos i t i on wou ld b e muc h better if the duties were removed, not gradually, but entirely and at one*, than if it was continued to them. He was quite sure that no person could hope for any perma nent settlement of this question, except by the entire abolition of protection.—( Hear, hear.) He was quite satisfied from the vigour and the spirit of determination which that Associa tion had shown from the first—the perseverance with which it had followed out the subject, from the success which had attended that perseverance, and from the encouragement which it had received to persevere still further, he was quite sure that until every protective principle, every particle of protection was given up, there was no chance of the agitation subsiding. He therefore trusted that the time was not to distant when all persons connected with protective interests would come to the conclusion that there was a way by which that interest might be rendered a mutual interest with the world at large and their own countrymen, and that could only be by perfect unreserved free trade, and the entire abolition of the protective system.—(Cheers.) The CHAIRMAN—I now beg to introduce our distinguished and eloquent friend, Mr. George Thompson, the powerful advocate of free trade. Mr. GEORGIC THOMPSON then came forward, and was re ceived with a loud burst of cheering. He spoke as follows : I deem it, Sir, a high and noble privilege to be permitted to occupy such a position as that in which I now stand. If pride were allowable under any circumstances, a man, I think, might be forgiven who was proud to address such an audience as this, on such a theme, surrounded by such in dividuals as occupy this platform and various other portions of this Howse. It is gratifying to know, in giving utter ance to what we believe to he just, humane, and en lightened opinions, that our audience is not confined within these walls, but that we find an audience of millions of men, wherever our language is known, and wherever the measures we: recommend, are likely to affect the interests and destinies of the human race.—( Great cheering.) I do not think there is a spot on the surface of the globe, to which human eyes are directed with more in terest than the spot on which we stand to-night. I do not think there is a question agitating the minds of intelligent beings in any part of the world, more important than that which is occupying our attention to-night. I do not think there is one question that enters more intimately into the con cerns of men, and is more closely and inseparably allied to their best temporal interests.—(Cheers.) We are not even discussing a national question ; fur we hold it to be true that free trade is not only the right of man individually, but the in. terest of nations universally.—(Cheers.) We are not advo cating the cause of our country alone, still less of any parti cul class in the country —we are advocating the cause of men everywhere, wherever they live—and where do they not live —under the primeval curse of earning their bread in the sweat of their brow.—( Cheers.) All we ask is that human indus try should possess its own. That men should be per mitted to enjoy the fruits of their ;honest labour. —that no man robs them in the quantity and quality, or price, of that which they obtain in exchange for their labour. It is exceedingly difficult to know on what topic to address an audi ence in Oovent-garden theatre. I would advise the man who expects to speak here at any time never to read the speeches that are made here—never to hear them. Let him content him self with the merits of this question, and be as ignorant as he can be of what goes on in this house, or, in reference to the question of free-trade, even in other public meetings. For if he should attend these meetings, or read the speeches, he cannot, while he sits here, or while he meditates elsewhere, se lect a topic on which he does not know that eloquence and ar gument have been almost exhausted, and he cannot choose that topic without treading over ground that has already been tra versed by those who had gone before him. In fact, our ground is growing every day narrower, even if we take in all the topics that are legitimately in connexion with this question. We had a good many fallacies afloat in days past—they are'expleded. —( Laughter.) The man would be fighting a shadow to-night who got up to battle with the paramount interest of agricul ture. He would be fighting with a shadow who got up to talk about peculiar burdens, for we have never been able to find them, and the squires won't help us to do so, or show us where they are. We cannot even take up the old topic on which we used to talk, namely, the antidote to distress, and depression, and misery, that were brought forward, all of them intended to direct public attention away from the one great source of evil, the one grand remedy for existing grievances. We, hear no more talk now of emigration, as a substitute for a repeal of the corn-laws—no more talk—or very little, at least, of home colonisation —very little now of national education, as the topic to which the public are to direct their attention—and not much, I believe, though some considerable sensation was created awhile ago, on the subject of the allotments of land. We may, however, glance, Sir, to-night at some events which have transpired since a public meeting was held in this place. Several inte resting events have occurred. The first to which I will allude is the holding of a great meeting in Manchester, at which the Council of the Anti-Corn-law League laid a report before their constituents. It was a good report. As our brethren on the other side of the Atlantic would say, it was " a most satisfac tory document."—(Cheers and laughter.) It reported that 56,0001. had been collected in fifteen months—it reported that our respected Chairman would not again have to sustain a de feat in the Southern Division of Lancashire.—(Great cheer ing.) It reported that his defeat had led to the enfranchise ment of about 1,750 individuals in that county, and the ob taining of a clear majority of more than 1,000 of the votes in that county in the cuss of free trade.—(Much cheering. ) The report also stated that a great effort, and a successful one, too, had been made in the cause of registration in almost all parts of the country—that much had been done in the P, est Riding of Yorkshire, and that that important portion of the kingdom is not likely soon to be again represented by two gen tlemen who are monopolists. It reported also, that in other Marts of the kingdom, in North Cheshire, as well as in the county in which we are assembled, much had been done in the way of carrying out the plan so ably devised by the distinguished gentleman on the plat form, and his coadjutors, for the purpose of regenerating the county constituencies of the kingdom. All that is reported, and the sanguine expectation is held out that when the mag nificent anti-corn-law bazaar is held in this place, in May next, there will be such an addition made to the League fund, as the result of the entrance money and purchase money connected with that grand exhibition, that the maximum sum —asked for at the hands of the public in the cause of free trade—will be quite, if not more, than realised.—Great cheering.) We have not only had a report from the Council of the Anti-Corn-law League of a most gratifying character, but we have also witnessed in the City of London a grand mee ting of the Agricultural Protection Society.—( Laughter.) I have read the report of that meeting, but I cannot pronounce on that report the same verdict as I have with reference to the report of the Council of the Anti-Corn-law League.—(Cheers.) A more stale, flat, unprofitable, unargumentative document I have never seen— ( Laughter)—all rationality seems to have fled from the heads of tire men who are connected with that Protection Society.— ( Laughter.) It seems to be only necessary to join the Anti- Corn-law League for a man to become a sensible man.— ( Cheers and laughter.) It seems only necessary to join the Protection Society in order to become most confused in intel lect—( Renewed laughter) —most incapable of unde:standing the subject, and still less of arguing respecting it. I will un dertake to sacrifice anything you shall please to condemn me to sacrifice, if you rill find an individual who will find me throughout the speeches made at the Freemason's Tavern on the occasion of the great agricultural dinner, one argument.— (Cheers and laughter.) It is needless to dwell on that spec tacle. If there was nothing edifyin g there was something at least amusing, and a vast deal supremely ridiculous.—( Laugh ter. ) We have had a Queen's speech, too. On that it does not become me to speak, excepting to say that it is as tame as Queen's and Kings speeches usually are, and has turned out as delusive as sttCh speeches generally turn out to be. And we have had, above all this, a financial statement from the Prime Minister of the country, and that seems to be the topic of topics at the present moment. And what shall we say of this ? I will not say it wants skill, but I will say it wants courage.— (Cheers.) I will not say it wants plausibility, and tact, and eloquence, but it vastly wants honesty and t r uth.—( Che ers. ) I will not say it does not profess sympathy with the poor, but I will say that the measures recommended do no t possess issueh or have much power to benefit this class of society, which seems to be, according to the words of the Right Hon. Baronet, the special object of his sympathy and reg ard (Cheers.) It has been already stated by the en lig hten e d gen tleman who has preceded me, that with the measures oSi; Robert Peel brought before the public in that statement, we do not seriously quarrel. They are good as far as they go. We are thankful to know that the coui se is no w being cleared by degrees for the grand heat.—(Laughter and chee rs.) This i might not be absolutely necessary, but at all events twill prove to be convenient. We shall not now hav e deputations going up about glass. We see through that subject now.— ( Great laughter.) We shall hear no more of deputa tions on the subject of coals, unless others come up to London to ask for an export dui y again to be put on coals, which is not very probable.—(Laughter.) Sir Robert allows the introduction of certain kinds of woods to stave off the dis cussions on other subjects; and then, by delusive schemes, which Mr. Wilson has so ably exposed—and no man can expose them better, and few so well—he tries to be exceedingly sweet on the community, and to put off the repeal of the corn-laws by giving us a lollypop.—(Laughter.) Now some benefit will doubtless accrue from these changes. We cannot contemplate, without thankfulness, any prospect of glass windows being put into the cabins of the Irish.—(Cheers.) We are very curious to know whether we shall have our watches and chronometers regulated by glass balances instead of steel ones, f or we are told that one of these rem arkable curiosities was exhibited by the Pi ime Minister of England on the Treasury benches the other nigh.. We find little fault with that which he has done. A grievous sin, and it is a heavy sin for such a man to commit—for a man possessing his knowledge of of this country, and a know l e d ge its geographical position, its high and wide connexion with the world at large, the peculiarities of its population and the resources for which it is distinguished, as well as the manufacture s for which it is ce lebrated—that such a man should satisfy his own conscience and seek to satisfy the public and the world with coming down to the House of Commons for the purpose of reducing duties on certain articles without disturbing those gigantic robberies in the shape of protection which are still permitted to live un • assailed and even unthreatened by the Prime Minister.— ( Great cheering.) He has granted what we never asked for. We did not ask for a reduction of taxes levied for the purposes of revenue. We did ask for a reduction and annihilation of taxes levied for the sole purpose of protection, but Sir Robert Peel has not only not touched the protective system, but he has rather strengthened it and augmented its profits, so far as he has touched it at all. Errors of judgment have been corrected by Sir Robert Peel. He has known how to remedy the defects of his predecessors in matters of legislation upon minor points. This he has done. He has shown an unwonted saga city, industry, patient toil, and mastery of detail, perhaps superior to what almost any other man could have exhibited ; but what has he done? He has corrected those errors of judg ment, those errors in legislation, which nay be referred more to the judgment than to the heart—more to the intellect than to the want of principle—and he has left alone that error of legislation against which the whole community is crying out, and he has purchased the support of great monopolists, holding o cut to the people the prospect of purcha s i ng certa i n artic l es mere cheaply, and importing some articles more abundantly, although that very reduction in taxation they themselves will have to make up, and he therefore only makes them a present of part of their own. For what does he do ? He says there is a surplus revenue for this year of 5,000,0001. sterling; but I mean to continue the income-tax. I might do away with the income-tax, and I might meet all the ordinary expenses of the State until April 1847 without having recourse tiSany income tait, or to any property-tax. I recommend nevertheless that you should continue that tax fur three years, and in exchange for the 5,000,000/. taken out of the pockets of the people, 1 will reduce the taxes on glass, cotton, coals, Ste., to the amount for they ought net to exact from military men a greater sacri fice than ought in fairness to be made. The time of their service abroad ought not, therefore, to be extended beyond a certain period, and they should be satisfied to bear the expenses of the colonies as long as they were willing to maintain them, and he did not at all mean to insinuate that they ought to be given up.—(Hear, hear.) Then, again, Sir R. Peel asked for a million to support the navy, not that it might be employed at home, bet that there might be a larger available force to protect their commerce in those seas in which they traded. Again, he did not mean to say that was wrong. On the contrary, he believed there was great practical safety in having ships to protect their commerce, and that the world's peace was more likely to be secured thereby. But what he asserted was, that the colonies ought lot to be maintained at the expense of the consumers. What had been the effect of the protective system in the colonies? They had many articles produced in their enlcnies, and there was not one in which they did hot eteel all the world when it was free from protection.--( Hear, hear.) Only a few years ago the article of indigo was unknown in the East Indies. 1 t was introduced there from Mexico, about fifty years ago, but now their East Indian possessions entirely monopelierd that article, and not only did they supply this country with that article, but the rest of Europe was supplied with it from this eisuntry.—( Hear, hear.) Again, the articles of wool, silk, and flax were articles all grown in their colonies, and which had all increased without protection, and he be lieved that if there had been no protection to their sugar, but if the grower of it had been subjected to ;hat com petition to which other classes of manufacturers were, sugar would have been grown this day cheaper in their colonies than anywhere else, and would benefit the colonies themselves.— ( Hear, hear.) He would not lightly or rashly form an opinion of so much importance to the West Indian possessions, and not less so to thel East Indies. There was not a newspaper pub lished in the West Indies which he did not receive regularly by every mail, and, if those papers taught him anything, they showed that protection was the bane of the colonies.— (Cheer..) There was not a single newspaper in which the acknowledgment was not to be found that the system of pro tection had been the barrier to all improvement.—(Hear, hear.) And it was only within the last year or two that this question began to be agitated, that they became alive to their situation, and that symptoms of improvement had taken place ; and by the last mail he received papers from which he made several extracts, which he would not trouble the meet ing by reading, but they showed that a spirit of activity and improvement was manifesting itself. Like the agricultural associations here, they were forming societies and offering prizes for the largest production of sugar. In autumn last year, the Clarendon Agricultural Society of Jamaica offered premiums for the cheapest production of sugar. There were two competitors for the prize, and the result of the competi tion Ras, that on one estate sugar was produced at Bs. Io4d. per cwt., on the other at 9s 61 j d. per cwt. ; in both cases at less than id. per lb.—( Cheers.) He had heard that in Jamaica and the West Indian Islands there was a great want of labourers, but on looking over the papers he found ample evi dence that there was a superabundance of labour. He fonnd that there were even complaints made of the number of able-bodied paupers, which was not very consistent with a want of labour.—( Hear, hear.) He found that they were going to make a railway in Jamaica, with the chief contractor of which he was conversing some time since, and he was in formed by that individual that labourers at such hard work as that on a railway, in such a climate as the West Indies, could be procured at is. a week—( Shame, sliame)—and he also found in the papers arguments as to whether the labour per day should be Is. or Is. 3d. It would, therefore, appear that whatever might be the case two or three years ago, there was no want of labour now. But those papers found fault with the proprietors and planters for their want of spirit, and one very remarkable instance occurred in January last year. Se veral proprietors and planters had been asked to subscribe to the railway to which he had alluded, as it would facilitate the conveyance of products to the sea from the interior, but though it was to benefit themselves, not one of them was got to subscribe—not the slightest encouragement was given. At last the projector, fearing that he must give up the matter as a bad job, proposed it to two or three free traders in Liverpool—(Hear, hear) — and in less than two days the whole capital was subscribed by free traders—( Cheers)—who had been accused of having in tended to ruin the country.---( Cheers.) The gentleman from born he had this information had all his sympathy in land. Ile was a native of Jamaica, to which he was about to return for the purpose of attending to his own estate, and also for the purpose of preaching the doctrines of free trade, and an entire equalization of the sugar duties. But there was one very serious objection to the proposition of the Minister. It was stated that this was to be a final settlement of the g ques tion.—( Hear, hear. ) Th e l as t Bill w hi c h was in troducedsuar did not settle any thing, and was found in practice to be inoperative, except for the purpose of disorganising the whole trade—( Hear, hear)—and every calculation made by the merchants, the planters , and the dealers. It did not even prevent slave-grown sugar from coming in—( Hear, hear)— order that he may delay fur a little longer the t antenee. condemnation, &Id eaeaotion of the corn laws. There is, I contend, every motif(; fd dr gt.. us to pro ceed, The triumphs which we have obtained in the fettfrghl , tion Of OUT' Itritteiplea, the abandonment of the fallacies with whit' h vie had to grapple s the I 1 eav mg up of all those excuses which were duce pleaded for the cernetaera—thette triumphs, I say, off the. ,iaistite and reason of our cease s are to many motives to increased tsSiettions.—( Hear, hear.) While pro. teetion exists, the Anti-Cornslayr League must proceed, adding strength to strength, numbers id //ambers, force to force, We have made thus far amazing progress, greater progress than any rimilar Association ever meda l I believe, in the history of the world. And when men hereafter shall inquire in what way they may overthrow some hoary abuse prdtected by power, surrounded and defended by wealth and rank and corruption—when, I say, they inquire whether they may venture to hope that by exertion and toil and sacrifice they may bring such an abuse to the ground, they shall turn to the pages which record the history of the Anti-Corn -law League ; they will therein learn that voluntrify association will work greater miracles than the hands of those who reared the pyramids ; that bloodless revolutions are only to be brought about by the agitation of men's minds ; that there are walls which must be struck down in the warfare; that our power is one w hich, though impalpable and invisible, is yet universal and i r resistible, and shall outlive Ministers and Go vernments and States, and rule the world when man is man indeed. Mr. sw ain , M.P., then came forward, and was received with loud cheers. He said—l may be excused if 1 feel some anxiety in being called upon to address this meeting after the two speeches to which we have listened —one delivered by a gentleman who is well known as a perfect master of the science of political economy—the other by a gentleman cele brated, not only in this kingdom, but in distant parts of the globe, as a perfect master of the art. of oratory. My confi dence, however, arises from the fact, that the question which we are met to-night to discuss is one of vast importance, and of almost limitless extent. I know, indeed, that the pro foundest thinker or the most powerful speaker, however much he may exert himself, can get no further than the very borders of this question—for day by day, as we are con nected with it and investigate it, we find continually more and more beauties, and become more and more enamoured of the great work in which we are engaged. Its course is like that of every great question : its beginning was feeble enough. At its commencement it was wrapped up in much sophistry and mystification. Fallacies the most ludi crous, pretensions the most. absurd, were brought forward to oppose those principles of which we have been the humble exponents to the public of this country. But now this so phistry—this mystification—these fallacies, and these preten sions have vanished, and the question of free trade—the ques tion for the promotion of which the Anti-Corn-law League is organised, stands before the people of this country in this simple form—we have justice confronting wrong and oppression, and we ask the people of this empire to side with justice against oppression. —( Cheers ) Two principles are offered for your adoption—the ore goes by the name of Protection—the 1 other is known by the title of Free Trade. At the Mansion house, and at an office not far off this place, men sometimes give false names. If they have committed any act which is dis graceful and criminal, not being entirely lost to shame, they give a name by which they were not commonly known. The men who support this systera—the men who for thirty years at least have laid hold with a relentless hand of the subsistence of the toiling millions of this country--these men dare not call their system by the name which only it can justly claim, but they have assumed that of protection—an amiable and harmless thing.--(Laughter.) On the other hand, the free-trade principle is offered to you; and I believe that so many meet ings have not been held in this building and elsewhere, with out the effect being that from one end of this country to the other there is now almost a universal assent to the beauty and honesty of the principles which the League is established to promote. This great principle— or rather these principles are faithfully represented by the two societies—the Great Central Society for the Protection of Agriculture, and the National Anti-Corn-law League. He had learnt that protection is not only a robbery of those upon whom it acts, but that it is ener vating and injurious even to those who profit by it. It is sup ported, for the most part, in this country by landowners, great and small, not by facts, reason, argument, and proof, but by force and fraud, and calumny, and delusion, practised upon any class which comes within the range of their influence— The Protection Society, formed twelve months ago, sought the means of obtaining this odious system. From them was formed the Great Central Association, which has opened an office in this metropolis. To be particular, I am informed at No, 1 7, Bond-street.—( Laughter.) In the north of England I have occasionally seen circulars sent down from certain, not very respectable firms in the city of London, offering to any party in the manufacturing districts, whom they supposed to be short of capital, certain accommodation bills, to be drawn and accepted, and endorsed and dishonoured. and renewed to be dishonoured again.—( Cheers and laughter.) These firms may be called 'swindling concerns. Now, I have endeavoured to discover whether that establishment at No. 17, Bond-street, is not of this character.—(Laughter.) I told them in the House of Commons, the other night, that they ought to put a sign over their door, with this inscription upon it—" British Farmers regularly taken in and done for"—( Great laughter)— and a brass plate, with the words " Richmond and Co." en graved on it.--( Renewed laughter.) They offer to the far mers, in order to help them out of their distress, fraudulent bills of every description—promises which can never be rea lised—Acts of Parliament of no more value for the purposes for which they are passed than the parchment upon which they are engrossed alluring thousands of farmers to place reliance upon a support which must lead them to ruin, and from which there is no escape.—( Hear, hear.) This society is curiously framed—Political lai.d. lords, Dukes, Earls, Lords, Baronets, and so forth, and a sprinkling of a certain sort of amphibious animal, known by the name of land-valuer—( Laughterl—a person who was a half-farmer, and half-squire.—( Cheers.) There is a little, also, of steward and auctioneer in his composition. Now, the leaders of this firm are the Duke of Richmond, the Duke of Buckingham, and time was when Sir Edward Knatchbull might have been considered a leader. It reminds me of a society which we hear of in" Martin Chuzzlewit"—the Anglo- Bengalee Disinterested Loan Society - .—(Laughter.) I be lieve the chairman of the board of directors and the one indi vidual who formed the board were enriched, and all those who trusted to their professions duped and ruined.—(Hear, hear.) Now first, as to the Duke of Buckingham : When the Government came into office, that great man—Plantagenet his name, I believe—was a member of the Cabinet. He was then called the " Farmers' Friend." It became necessary to alter the corn-law, and greatly modify the tariff; and it was desirable for the purposes to be hereafter accomplished, that the confidence of the farmers in the Duke of Buckingham should not be entirely destroyed; and therefore he left the Cabinet, and did not interfere with the carrying out of this free-trade mea sure. Did the Duke get nothing? I am not able to estimate the compensation which he received, but it was stated in the public newspapers that he received what is called a Garter.— ( A laugh.) Let no one imagine that this Garter is that homely article by which stockings are kept up. —( Great laugh ter.) I don't know exactly %hat it is, because I never saw one, but I have learned from the ordinary sources of informa tion that it is a decoration—a sort of toy, which you in the pit of the theatre would laugh at, or be insulted if any one told you Sou coveted, 11 ut yet a decoration for which great men, with a long line of ancestors, will do any dirty work for. —( Hear, hear.) I know net its use, unless it be to give one precedence above another. I have heard of magnetic or metallic rings—some contrivance by which either very wise or very superstitious people faacy they can cure the tic-doloreux, or such complaints.—( Laughter.) It may be, that this Collar or Garter may have some effect on the body ; but of this I am perfectly certain, that it comes like a shock of paralysis upon anything like independence and honourable feeling.— ( Great cheering,) 1 next come to the Duke of Richmond. Now it is hard to tell whether he is not a bigger man than the Duke of Buckingham. He talks as though he had made the Cabinet, and that if the Cabinet did not do his bidding he would unmake it. Well, one would suppose that a free-trade measure of Government would make the Duke of Richmond exceedingly hostile—he talks to the farmers of ancestors of his having led soldiers to battle some generations ago, and that so long as there is a drop of blood in his veins he will stand by the British farmer. What does all this mean 2 The Duke of Richmond is believed to be a rich man, but he has brothers who are thought to be very poor—he allows his brothers a small income from the family property until he can get them settled under the Government.—( Hear, hear.) One of his brothers, Lord Arthur Lennox, who is, I am told, colonel of a regiment, was lately placed in office under the Government as a Lord of the Treasury. I believe he still retains command of a resiment. The salary of a Lord of the Treasury is reported to be 1,2091. a-year, a thing having much tho same effect now as when Butler wrote " Iludibras"— What makes all doctrines plain and clear ? About twelve hundred pounds a year ; And that which was proved true before, Prov'd false against twelve hundred more. —(Cheers.) But the Duke of Richmond has a son, known by the title of Earl of March. He represents a district in the west of Sussex, and has had special favours from the Go vernment. I am told that he explained to some farmers in Sussex last year, that he left the army, and shaved his moustachios.—(Great laughter.) I had often suspected that, there was a vast deal of the gallant bearing and cou rage of these men in their moustaches.—(Laughter.) I am told that he left the Blues, where he was a lieutenant, and is now unattached on half-pay, and fully paid as well for Aide-de-Camp to the Commander-in-Chief the Duke of Wellington, a Cabinet Minister. It appears to me that this trade of " Farmers' Friend" is not a bad one.—( Hear, hear, and great cheering.) The Duke of Richmond, you must know, is said to be in the habit of withdrawing his family allowance when his brothers, Fac., have been settled in life, that is, settled upon you.—(Hear, and great cheering.) By his brother becoming a Lord of the Treasury, he will be able to dispense with the allowance of 3001. a year, which will be some compensation to the Duke of Richmond for the losses he has sustained owing to the free trade in salmon.—( Hear, hear, and laughter.) We come now to Sir Edward Knatchbull.— ( Laughter. )You will remember that be comes from the county of Kent; that he made a speech on the question of the corn laws, in the House of Commons, and a country gentleman, a Member of the House, told me the other day, that it certainly was a most imprudent speech. He spoke of the marriage set tlements of the daughters of the nobility and gentry, hut he never thought a moment upon the settlements of the daughters of farmers and labourers.—( Hear, hear, and cheers.) He was about to be called to the other House of Parliament, or, as some people phrased it, translated.—(Laughter.) It was un derstood that Sir Robert Peel declined to give a peerage. since his accession to office, unless on the ground of special ser vices—for good and weight reasons.—( Hear, hear.) If not, he would have had a list of applicants for the peerage, so long, that it would have reached from Charing-cross to the House of Commons.—( Hear, hear.) But he would not promote any one except for special reason s.—(Hear : ) I take it for granted that there have been special. service s . in the case of Sir Edward Knatchbull.—( Hear, hear.) He d is to n he created, according to the newspapers, Viscount P was taken I say again I believe there are special services. If to the Cabinet in H 341, along with the Duke of B p u i p c o k s i e n d r , h to un h ' av a have a sort of decoy duck—(Laughter)— w. such an unblemished reputation, toihnsteandasaistuli a character so into the Cabinet and entirely unassailable, that h i is co rosining there was considered as m an g undeniable guarantee to the farmers that p rob. not been interfered withr. And c lam, had yet there Sir Edward sits, with his hands in his pocket and his chin on Isis breast, enjoying the most comfortable slumbers imaginable' whilst laws were p assin g throu g h Parliamen t , • h d h' t which if the principles e an is par y contetidedifor were tru the most paramount interests of the country must be inevitably sacrificed. However I do not regret that the House of Com mons i s to be relied from the soporific influence of hi s presence. ( Hear, hear.) He goes to that House which has been not inaptly termed the House of incurables , a nd I declare, without any reservation whateve r , that I never beheld a man who, from nature and habit, was so likely to occupy in a bench in that House as Viscount den. Now you will see from all this the ca s es of Buckingham, Richmond, and Koatchbull, that this trade of farmer's friend is a very thriving affair.—( Hear, hear, and cheers.) It is like the trade in guano from Ichaboe, only it cannot be considered nearly so clean.—(Roars of laughter.) Now, I will ask you these to go that class who rea ll y are agriculturists , for not agriculturists, an d as k the farmers how th this system. I h ave h ear d o f some f them obtaining rich h church livings— no garters—some l a b ourers menare the got 01' under o have no stockings —( Hear, hear, and cheers)—no naval, military, or civil pro motion, for the man who invests his capital in the soil of Eng land under the faith of these corn-laws. And if the labourers were heard to speak (and it is hard to speak jocosely of them, 1 it is a subject too sorrowful to be jested with, but if it were not I should say, that the only decoration they could ask would he a million and a half, or two millions, or three millions. This is exceedingly generous—but I say again that we do not find fault with what he has done. His sin as a statesman lies in ndt hating dolie that .thigh he ought to hate dune: He hail abated tiiirer evils, lid lett the tniatiatef eVil undisturbed. Small benefits he has iionterfed; btii largb in juries have gone unredressed, and in the matfef sugar have been augmented. Sir Robert Peel has aimed at popularity by giving the people a part of that which he took from them in the first instance, and he has made the mono polists disgorge absolutely, nothing. He has shifted the bur• dens; but 4,has nut modified theta ; at Mr. Cobden prophesied, he has shuffled the cads and nothing more. The inctibtis of protection still remains ; but, happily, the Leaglie remains too. —( Cheers.) I have been met by one or two parties in the street, since Friday night, and they have said to me, " I sup pose you are not going to carry on your League operations any more, are you? ' My simple reply to that has been given in the shape of another question—" Are the corn-laws repealed? Are the sugar duties repealed May the corn, the coffee, the rice, and the sugar, and the tobacco of other countries come in upon equal terms with the productions of our own plantations? If not, the League has yet its work to do, and is de- Isterained to do it."—( Loud Cheers.) What does Mir Robert Peel say? He says " British industry must be protected ; our trade with colonies is important, and our merchant• ships must be guarded on their way over the great ocean, that they may arrive safely at their destination, and return safely back again." All this is for the sake of British in dustry. Very well, we thank him for allowing us to have ten line of battle ships, and we thank him for promising that he will equip some more steamers, so that we may indulge in the prospect of a safe sail to Jamaica or New South Wales, un affrighted by any roving buccaneer, or any Prince de Joinville. Laughtcr.)—But we did not ask for ships ; we did not seek so much to profit by means of war steamers as by means of fellowship in the way of trade, reciprocity in the form of benefits, copartnership upon a universal scale, all contributing alike to one another's happiness, and rendering a quarrel al most impossible, as unlikely as that two partners in Fleet -street should quarrel, break their windows, and tumble their own goods into the street.—( Laughter and cheers.) If there be one part of Sir Robert Peel's financial statement white's I re gard with greater dislike than any other, it is that ridiculous affectation of humanity to the negro slaves across the Atlantic.—( Hear, hear.) This has been most ably exposed by the gentleman who has gone before me; and I shall, there fore, say no more than this, that I unite with him in denonnc ing so barefaced an inconsistency as that into which Sir Ro bert Peel has fallen, fallen intentionally, fallen designedly.-- ( Hear, hear.) lie has made the humanity of the people of this country a means of saddling them with an annual tax— 'sir. Wilson will tell you how much, but I think I shall not be far wrong in saying that the extra price which we shall have to pay for our sugar will much exceed two millions sterling; and this at the same time that he allows the cotton of America to come in free of duty.—( Hear, hear.) If it is good for us to have cotton, why should it not be good for us to have corn also ? ( Hear, hear.) If he had got over his scruples as to cotton, and if it is now to be allowed to come in, not by paying a small duty, but absolutely free of duty, why will he not allow us to have corn ?—(llear, hear.) This is excluded.—( Hear, hear. ) I know that there is a way of circumventing even this prohibi tion—namely, by carrying the corn of the Western States down the rivers, and across the frontiers into our British Cana dian possessions, where, on paying a small duty, it is permitted to be shipped into this country, where it is received on paying a nominal duty. But the Americans do not like this mode of doing the business. --( Hear, hear.) They want a direct, unin terrupted, immediate access to our ports, and they are fully able to supply us, out of the superabundance of their produce, with those necessaries and comforts of life of which we stand so greatly in need.—( Cheers. ) Now, if Sir Robert Peel be that friend to peace which he professes to be—if he be that sympathetic man which he desires us to believe that he is, for he tells us that he was deeply touched by the statements made by one of the deputations, though the House was so un civil as to receive that announcement with something like a giggle and a laugh; and Sir Robert Peel was obliged to repeat his assertion, and to assure Hon. Gentlemen on the opposite side that he could feel, and had felt.—(Laughter.) If, I say, Sir Robert Peel have a heart, and is the friend of peace, how is it that his heart does not beat high, in the anticipation of securing peace by obtaining from America that which our country is so much in need of ?—( Hear, hear,) If there is one thing to be deprecated more than another, to be deplored above all other things, save and except a civil war, it is a conflict with our kinsmen on the opposite side of the Atlantic.—( Hear, hear.) No disruption could be so calamitous, no spectacle more re volting, no conflict more unnatural than a war between the people of this country and the inhabitants of the United States. Well, our friend: on the other side of the Atlantic suggest a mode of rendering this disruption impossible. They tell us what they can do—they tell us what they have—they tell us how much of what they have they can spare—they tell us what they are willing to take in exchange. They have, in fact, just that which we require, and we are able to produce that which they most need ; and Sir Robert Peel has it in his power, if he pleases, to put their raw cotton into the shape of fabricated prints, and to send it cut again to array the forms of those who are so able to return corn, cheese, and beef, for the support of those who wove and span the cotton in this country.— (Cheers.) But no;—with admirable consistency and equal humanity, what does he do? He rays, " You may have as much as you please of slave- grown cotton, "—the duty was before but the five-sixteenths of a penny, but that is now removed—" buy, and work, and spin, and rejoice, and be merry." " But," he adds, " if, when you have worked up this cotton in the mill—if, when you have spun it in the loom—if, when fair fingers have tam boured it at Paisley—if any one of you, or your workpeople, should desire to purchase a pound of Brazilian sugar, you must not do it, for Brazilian sugar is polluted—it is the produce of slave labour. It is true that you have gained all you have by working up slave labour, but you must not have even half a pound of Brazilian sugar, beeause it is the produce of slavery." _( Hear, hear.) But, worse than that, they may not taste American corn. The cotton, which is slave-grown, may come in ; the corn, which is free-grown, is excluded. Now, Sir, I be lieve you will bear testimony to the truth of what I say, when I affirm that there are thousands and tens of thousands who hold our principles in America. Although Henry Clay hoisted the standard of protection, it must not be supposed that all who voted fur him were the friends of protection. There were other reasons which induced many to vote for Henry Clay besides a love of protection; while, on the other hand, we know that at least a large proportion of those who car ried Mr. Polk into the chair of the Presidency were avowedly free-traders. I have read, since I came upon this platform, one of the most eloquent speeches that I ever met with against protection in my life, by the present Secretary of State, the Honourable Mr. Calhoun —( Hear, hear. ) Though I differ from Mr. Calhoun on some points, I do say that on the question of free trade his language is straightfor ward and statesman-like, not only consistent with the best in terests of his own, but also with the best interests of our country.—( Hear, hear.) I heartily wish that he may carry out this at least of his plans, however I may desire that he may fail in some others. I say that the party who thus sym pathise with us in the United Mates is a strong party; and no wonder that it should be a strong party. I will not trouble you with figures. I will merely state that when the census of the United States was made in 1840, the total population amounted to 17,069,453. In the middle States, that is to say New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, &c. &c., the population was 5,11- 1 ,076 ; in the north-western States, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Michigan, it was 4,131,370; making in the middle and north-western States, as contradis tinguished from the New Zealand and the south-western States, 9,249,446, leaving only 7,820,007 amongst all the other States. Now for the argument derived from this in favour of free-trade. Out of a population of 17,069,000 we find that there were engaged in commerce 117,007, in manufactures 791,749, and in agriculture 3,719,951. Now these agricul turisfs are the men whom we want for our customers.—( Hear, hear.) The longer we delay, the greater are our straits and embarrassments, and the further off is the prospect of reaping, when the change shall come, the advantages now within our reach. We have lest many already. Every year hundreds and thousands of young men in the New Eagland States have to choose what they shall be for their future lives. Their hearts yearn for the prairies of the west, and when I was in that country, five hundred a day have I seen leaving for the borders of that vast country, where they expected to find a home and an inheritance for their children. But they have been stopped in their career ; they have been kept and fixed where they are, and have turned, or rather been made manufacturers, which they did not desire to be, because you would not give them encuaragement to become agriculturists, which they did desire to be. And this has done what Sir R. Peel professes to deplore; it has added to the number of planters who have laid out their capital in the purchase of gangs of slaves, and who are found now the growers of cotton, because you will not allow them to be growers of corn. That is the effect of the course which has been pursued. The Government cannot be more pro-slavery in anything than they are in their conduct with regard to the agricultural produce of the United States; nor can they be more pro-slavery than they are in the extension of all de scriptions of sugar on the payment of an equal amount of duty. —( Hear, hear.) And, having examined this question since we met here last year, I am only more deeply confirmed in the opinion which I then expressed, that the Anti-slavery party in this kingdom, with the purest and noblest intentions, are in juring the cause which they would fain serve, and procrasti nating the day when competition and free labour shall destroy, not only slavery, but that traffic which grows out of it—the de testable commerce in the species between America and Africa. —(Loud cheers.) I have only one other remark to make with regard to America, and that is that whereas our supply of provisions in this country is known to be tolerably short, and we have it on the authority of a clerical gentleman himself, that five millions of our population.rejoice in potatoes, a very large number, in oatmeal, and while a great proportion of the popu lation, though they taste wheaten bread, have much less of it than they desire; while such are the facts witb regard to our own country, it appears, from some tables inserted in an ad mirable pamphlet, entitled " American Corn and British Manufactures," that every man, woman, and child in the United States has forty-two bushels of grain a year—that is to say, they have this to divide amongst them.—( Hear, hear. ) Only the other day I received a letter from a gentleman who has recently gone out to the United States. He says, " If I were required to come back to this coun try, I don't think I could make up my mind to it, knowing, as I do, that you are all starving , , , while we are rolling in plenty." " We have , " he adds, " on this, which is an ordinary day, roast turkey and plum pudding for dinner."--( Laughter.) Now I say that if Sir Robert Peel were to turn his attention to these things, we should give him more credit for compassion axd sympathy with the sufferings of the people than he can expect in his present course of conduct to receive at our hands. I am thankful, however, that in the present session it has been rendered more apparent by what parties in the State this distinguished man is bound and shackled in pursuing his unworthy course. The fact is, my friends, that he has a sack of corn at one ankle, and a hogshead of sugar at the other, and when a man is manacled with a sack of corn at one ankle, and a hogshead of sugar at the other, it is not to be expected that be would make very great progress. Such seems to be the unfortunate predicament of Sir Robert Peel. Still we do not deem him to be in a hopeless condition. —( Hear, hear.) We know that he is not unable to learn. We know that he is not blind—that he can read the signs of the times. We do not think that he is so completely disinte rested that he would throw up office, and patronage and friends and connexions, and all that surrounds him in his pre sent condition, rather than touch the corn-laws, or the sugar monopoly.—(Hear, hear.) No ; he wants a motive. The people out of doors must generate the momentum. He showed a glass balance in the House of Commons. There is another sort of balance that regulates his chronometer most exactly ; it never escapes from him ; it governs all his move ments. Whether he is at Downing-street, at Windsor Castle, at the Pavilion at Brighton, at 'Whitehall, or in St. Step that titivest; this balance regulates all he says. not regulate his very looks. This balance is public o} when he I am not sure ( Hear, hear, and cheers.) He will do what is right,dsl remember cannot help doing it.—( Hear, hear. ) who has to come after me, will conclude by time which properly belongs to him. in Sir Robert putting this question—ls there anything and I will yr M u o y t t frleienncroach upon the for .s On the contrary, we efforts ? You answer recede, from the vantage ground Peel's financial statement to justify ,, us in relaxing in our should be ungrateful were we to r . which we have obtained, se eing that a short time ago neglecting Minister of l t an d we th er e were seven hund red excuses for not repealing the corn laws, and if we have now got rid of 430, what a powerful bodydre not Mu sattempt Prime or think he ought to do on less than 430 grounds, and when he is a t webe to when exc e u v se en himself s elf for obliged to circulate and get others: to circulate them, in the order of the union workhouse].—( Hee*, hear, and cheer/0 Well,those if l';, Bond-street gentlemen play e d suc h f antest r e tr'cks with the interests of the farmers, how do they conduct themselves in the House of Commons? They sit by the side of I Ministers—though they e;strust the Government --they look uneasy, they are a little sullen, but they do not make any great demonstration of resistance. I told I them the other night that the character given in a very innocent book of certain faithless guardians, of old " dumb dogs who either could not, or would not, bark" was applicable to them. —( Hear, hear, and cheers.) This was considered rather vituperative.—(Laughter. ) Sir Rcbert Peel, not wishing to displease his party, took it upon himself to lecture me for want of manners.—( Renewed laughter.) He forgot the charges which he himself had made against an Hon. Friend of mine. —(Loud cries of "Hear, hear,"—" Hurrah for Cobden," and great cheering.) There was another Member on the Ministerial side of the House, Mr. Stafford O'Brien, the Member for Northampton, Chairman of the Publication Committee, pf the Great Central Committee., which meets at No. 17, Bond-R;eet, who lectured me like wise. Mr. Smith O'Brien was, he tvs".s going to ray, guilty —no, but he must be held answerable for rbe publication of a pamphlet in which the sentiments of the venerates: Adam Smith were garbled and perv er t e d— w h en he was to l d that the land lords ought to serve their tenants and labourers, G'Brien said that was not a w a y t o spea k of the gentry of Englas:St No s it is a great mistake in Mr. Stafford O'Brien to cloth* himself in the lion's skin, and then take upon himself the chest racter of the most sincere man in the House of Commontie he disappointed the designs of nattne very much, for, from hii dress and manner he showed that he Was mueh mere suited for a roan-milliner. —( Great laughter,) I believe he might have filled with great respectability such an office.---(Laughter.) They don't, then, make a great demonstration agetnst the Go vernment—it is only a sort of human growl they utter, but no great resolution on which the body agree. Their C l l l 3e is bad, and they know it, and their courage oozes our, for they have no faith is the maintenance of their principles. — they never had any soundness. Sir R. Peel drags them aim's( and they can make no opposition. A very beautiful and pleasing writer, Leigh Hunt, in one of his essays, describing a number of pigs being driven to Smithfield—(Laughter)l—e says, " Unwilling was their subjection, and more in sorrost , than in anger, they were overgone from rage, their cause wale hopeless, they did not see why they should proceed, but felt themselves bound to do so—they first conglomerated, crowded, grunted, but onward went, impelled by fate and Peel. Often would they have rebelled under any other master—they halted shut and grunted in ordinary—they sidled and shued, half stopped, turned their eyes towards all outlets and lanes by which they might escape, but in fine there they stuck, for their very progress was a sort a sticking-charm at the centre of their sphere of action— laying their heads together but to no purpose, looking on all sides—shrugging their shoulders and eschewing the knotty end of the whip of office—much eye had they to their left legs. " They shrink backward with groans—not an incipient squeak—but a sound suspicious in character and violent to a degree." But pigs find it more difficult than any other animals to accommodate themselves to circumstances.— ( Shouts of laughter.) "He with 'his tail out is in the highest state of wonderment, is sluggish and obstinate, not very civil, and has no desire to see foreign parts. Think of him in a multitude forced to travel, and wondering what the devil it is that drives him."— ( Continued laughter.) Well, as far as the great Central As sociation for the protection of British agriculture is concerned, I think it will make a very ridiculous figure in the pages of his tory—that is, if any historian will deem it worth his while to notice it.—( Ironical cheers, and laughter.) It was an impos ture when first started, got up for the purpose of making a spasmodic effort to propagate a gigantic and monstrous injus tice.—( Cheers.) But now its true character is begin ning to be clearly developed, and all the intelligent classes see through its motives. This knowledge is ex:end ing, and even the farmers are beginning to fh:d that it wears the features of an iniposture, so that we may speedily expect to see it put down altogether.—(Great cheers.) But now of that other Association—that which we are here met to-night to sympathise with—the Association which ever has advocated and tried to promote the truly grand principle of free trade, and perfect freedom to industry.— (Immense cheering.) We have no Richmonds or Bucking hams, or Knatchbulls, to whom we can point as ornamented with stars and garters, or to whom we can give promotion in the army or in the civil service. The prominent men in the ranks of the Anti-Corn-law Leaguers here, or (for they are widely extended) in other parts of the kingdom, have sprung from the ranks. They are not joining in agitation for the purpose of obtaining places or power or station—( Cheers.) If there is one rank that they covet more than another, it is this, that they may occupy a place in the minds of their countrymen— that now and in after times it may be remembered by the grateful people of a happy land, that they did something in their day and generation to strike off the shackles that fettered their commerce and their industry, and that they contributed, in however little a degree, to make their beloved country happy and prosperous.—(lmmense cheering.) From the beginning • of our exertions, some six or seven years ago, we have had no reliance on any interests further than these—first, on theemane elpation of truth ; and, then, on the intelligence and the virtnel of our countrymen. We have appealed to you time after time. We have unremittingly appealed to you and my fellow-men in all parts of the country—( Cheers)—and nobly have you and they responded to that appeal.—( Cheers.) No man in this country, be he who he may, connected with any political movement whatever, has met or can meet with so hearty, so efficient a response, as was given to the appeal which the members of the Anti-Corn-law League addressed to the people of Great Britain.—(Great cheers.) In 1839, we asked our friends and neighbours, principally in Lancashire and Yorkshire, for sub scriptions to begin to carry on the war against the corn laws, and 5,0001. was almost immediately subscribed. In 1840 we asked for further subscriptions, and 7,0 1, 0/ or 8,0001. was sub scribed for that and a portion of the following year. In 1841 we sent out circulars to every county in the kingdom, asking the men who were engaged in teaching the doctrines of Christianity, what they thought of the corn-laws, and re questing them to meet us at Manchester, and no less than 700 of these men did leave their districts at immense inconvenience and at great expense, because they were summoned to discuss this great question.—( Great cheering.) In the year 1842 we had a bazaar in Manchester, and the ladies there provided arti cles, sold them at the bazaar, and handed over a sum of 10,000/. to the Council of the Anti-Corn-law League.—( Great cheer ing.) In 1843 we asked for 50,0001., and 50,000/. was et once toll sated.—( Continued cheers.) In 1844 we asked fof 100,000/., and between 80 and 90,0001. has been already sub scribed, although the great bazaar to be held here in May next was considered when we asked the country for 100,000/- —( Tremendous cheering, which was continued for sone minutes.) This year is but young, as yet but twd months are almost gone. In the first month of this year, and in three months of the last, we ap pealed again to the free traders in the Northern counties, and we asked them, not to subscribe money, but to do something fire mere beneficial—we asked them to invest some of their pro.. perty in the purchase of a powerful weapon by which they could at the election hustings defend their dearest rights and liberties.—(Cheers.) And how was that appeal responded to ? I will tell you. The free traders in the Northern coun ties, principally in Lancashire, Cheshire, and Yorkshire, at the recommendation of the League, invested a sum no less than 250,000/. in the purchase of county qualifications.—( Great cheering.) You are aware that there is a class of men every where who de not take the trouble to inquire into the truth of any matter, but who nevertheless go about spreading that which is not true. Such men had they here. Alany in the country said, "It is quite unconstitutional in the League to collect money for the purpose of buying county qualifications." —( Laughter.) These are fictitious assertions. The League never collected a pound to buy qualifications, for anybody.— (Cheers and laughter.) The members of the League pur chased these qualifications for themselves.—( Cheers.) My five brothers—there are six of us—and myself have spent 9004 in buying qualifications for counties in the North of England —(Cheers)—and so these 250,000/. have been subscribed wholly by individual free traders throughout the country, who have resolved to get within the pale of the Constitution, and to tight the battle firmly, and coustitutionally too, on the hus tings at the next election of their representatives to Parliament. I have said that we shall have a large bazaar here in this house in May next, and I may also tell you, that in this me tropolis, in Manchester, and in a large number of towns in England, committees are farmed, and at work, for the purpose of providing materials for that bazaar; and a magnificent col lection of articles, the production of ladies, who have kindly aided us, will be then submitted for your purchase.—(Cheers. ) Every body in the country asks—" While we are doing so much, what are they doing in London ?" In the country the connexion that binds society is favourable to projects like these, and we can get the ladies, therefore, to do it in first-rate style—( Laughter)—but here it is not so easy. One does not know one's neighbour so well as in the smaller towns of the northern counties. I do not doubt that a great deal has been done, and I expect that a great deal more will be done before three months are expired —(Hear, hear,) And when this bold speculation is fully matured and perfected, it will be no discredit to the Sovereign of these lands to be pre sent in this building.—(Cheers,) Now, I take it that our pre sent position is a very prosperous one. I never advise any one to look at the dark side of things. I always look myself on the cheerful side of the picture, and troubles we know come fast enough without our going to meet them. Recollect what the present Prime Minister says—he came into office on the shoulders of the Central Association, but what says he new, and what was his opinion in past times ? He no doubt hypes that a liberal policy, and liberal measures at this time, will at an after period induce the people of England to remember him without unkindness, if not with attachment. I will read you an extract from a speech of his in 1824, when Mr. Huskisson brought forward some measure of free-trade, in the article of ribbons, &c. Mr. Secretary Peel is reported to have exhorted the House to firmness. He reminded the House that the eyes of Europe were upon them, and how greatly their commercial policy would be prejudiced if they yielded to the force of circumstances. He knew a good deal about these questions iu 1824, and he certainly could not be less familiar with them in twenty years after. In 1842 he an nounced the important principle, that the true policy of the n nationitis was, to buy in the cheapest market and sell in dearest.the among the speech on Friday last, when alluding to a combination ti roor • the coal-owners of the north of England, national resources , than for a hesaid that there g could not be a greater abuse of rice l o co mbination to exist among c.oa -mine the praetors fth r consume. I put pose of raising the p I know of e s , shall read it in an other wa y . national monopoly than for a greater abuse of its price in this country. Can - y e of corn, in order to raise be right in his • combination to exist a among landlords for restricting the supply of of free-trade in coal is not equally right • of a further with who can so realise the utmost regard to the principle of a free-trade in corn ?_ . (Cheers. ) t d h o e u doubt blessingsth at t h o o f , a m a said, i n the conclusion of his speech, the ion w p a r s i principle pl e that his It was extension o object,. degree of good, without the disturbance or alarm of interests while f reduction establ establishing n t taxation a t which could not be rashly interfered with, without para lysing the industry of the country. He openly acknow ledges the very principles which we have advocated f out n doors and in the House of Commons. All his sympathies are with the Anti-corn-law League at present. But let them look to the other side of the House of Commons. There was Lord John Russell, who was altogether stationary for three years on this question. He advocated an adherence to protection. What is Lord John Russell's opinion now? On the very first night of the present session he expressed his full cutt v talon that protection was the bane of agricul ture; and the night before last, in the discussion on the income-tax, he said that he still adhered to this declaration; and he went further, for he not only said that protection was the bane of agriculture, but the bane of every ether interest to which the principle could apply. He referred to our colonial interests—to our silk manufacturers, and to our timber growers in our North American possessions. We are associated to carry out the principle of liberty and freedom in every branch of trade. We are associated to carry these principles out by concentrating the invisible but the almost omnipotent power of public opinion in their . favour. We have the sympathy of a large sectosn of the public in our endeavours to promote the interests and prosperity of the country. Our opponents are broken—their courage is blasted, and in Parliament or out of it they have not the je c t on o t t, deuce to advocate their opinions. Our course is have continued password be still" Onward, onward." Let_ d in us the a capacity of faith in the intelligence, in the power, a x n ert ons. us have the people of England to second o t u u r 9 e i press forward Lev until we no thought of going back, but m le I,—(C:beers.) Many men achieve a complete and final trie p charge us with adhering too strictly to a dry principle of po litical economy. 1 attac ks are equally harsh and unge nerous,Sec'manner characterise all attempts t o relieve the d i st r e sse s an d they may, in like • • sof the country and to ameliorate tit. :'t'e