The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1881-10-15 00:00:00

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THE STOURBRIDGE OBSERVER:

Protection was dead and buried 30 years ago, but he
has come out of the grave and is walking in the
broad light of day, but after the long experience of the
atmosphere under ground, he endeavours to look some-
what more attractive than he used to appear before
he acquired it, and in consequence he found it con-
venient to assume a new name. (Laughter). If you
were to meet him and say, "Oh, Mr. Protection, how
do you do?" he would answer, "I beg your pardon, I
am Mr. Fair Trade; I know nothing of Protection."
(Much daughter.) . . . • A quarter of a century of the
legislative life of this country was occupied in the
solution of this great economical problem from 1837 or
1838, when the great battle was gallantly taking place
in the House of Commons, and when the anti-Corn
Law League was formed, down to 1851, which was
signalized by the most difficult operation, the repeal of
the Paper Tax. The whole twenty-five years were one
succession of conflicts which had for their whole aim
the solution of this great problem. (Cheers.) It was
nearly a generation of the life of the nation that
we gave to it, and almost everything else was cast
aside in the legislation of those years, and you
will find that little was done except this one memor-
able, conspicuous, and, I may almost say, incompar-
able triumph; for a triumph more beneficent, either
materially or morally, to the interests of men I believe
never was attained by public virtue or public intelli-
gence. (Loud cheers.) But now we are told that
free trade is an admitted failure, and I want to knew
what the Tory party are going to do in this matter.
I mean, as far as it depends upon me, to drive home
that question. (Hear, hear.) The leader of the Tory
party in the House of Commons has been making
several speeches to the country, and at one he held the
language of the Fair Trade League. He said he was a
free trader, and was in favour of universal free trade.
Ile went on to another place and spoke a column of a
newspaper on the fact, and I defy any man to make
out his meaning. (Laughter and cheers.) This is
a serious fact, for ona of his followers, one of his Privy
Councillors, one of his colleagues has won his seat in
Lincolnshire by telling the farmers that he is in
favour of a 5s duty on corn. I hold the words of
that speech in my hand. Mr. Lowther has announced
a ss. duty on corn. Sir Stafford Northcote is speak-
ing to other men, and cannot tell us whether he is
for the ss. duty on corn or not. I say we have a right
to know. (Cheers.) I say it is necessary for his cha-
racter, and for the character of the party that we
should be told. (Renewed cheers.) In my own opinion,
it is a painful and humiliating position' that we should
have to open this question at all. It is quite true that
several foreign countries within the last few years
have been aggravating their tariffs. Shall I tell you
why? It is because they have had national fair trade
leagues among them. They have been doing every-
thing which a lot of people here want us to do; and
they, not having the same amount of economical
education, which we have had, and not having gone
through those tremendous conflicts to solve the great
questions which we have gone through have been more
acted upon than I hope you will be; and I hope this
epidemic mania will pass away. (Cheers.) . . . . We are
agreed that it is a mischief, and we want them to untax
our goods. There are two specifics. Our specific has
shown our consistency and the sincerity of our convic-
tion by adhering to the system which has enormously
increased the wealth and trade of the country,
has hardly added less to its power and in
other respects to the consolidation of its insti-
tutions and to its moral advancement. Hold steadily
by it, as from your experience you know it is
the true. Rely upon it, the truth will make its way.
This is one specific. The other is what I have spoken
of—that of taxing all foreign manufactures and the im-
position of a ss. duty upon corn. Well, that is a bad
and delusive thing; but I will tell you, bad and delusive
as it is, it is better than paltering with the question ;
it is better than standing first upon the right leg and
then upon the left, and not knowing upon which leg
you are standing. (Laughter.) It is far better than
winking with one eye at the towns and with the other
at the counties. (Renewed laughter.) But, whatever
is to be done, that is not the way in which we can got
foreign countries to untax our manufactures. Let us
remember that most certainly, if there is one way
shorter than another into the path of mischief,
it is to exhibit to foreign countries a course of feeble
double-mindedness that does not know its own in-
tention, that would speak without intelligence as to
matters involving the vital interests of the country
and the welfare of its people. Gentlemen, I have
done. I have detained you too long. (Cries of " No,
no," and cheers.) I may have to say something upon
the drier facts of this question to a smaller audience
to-morrow. I have assumed that all in this hall are
convinced men—convinced that free trade is not
only not a failure, but that it has been successful
beyond all our expectations. I will endeavour to
give some proof of this by-and-by. What I now say
is this—that the thought that this question can be
disposed of by merely taxing foreign manufactures is
a thing to my mind perfectly ludicrous. (Loud
cheers.) At any rate, this is a subject on which
people ought to have an opinion. We have an opinion
on all questions touching our personal and national
existence. This is a question that vitally touches
our national existence. British citizens are accus-
tomed to a free and open political atmosphere. They
shoild know their own minds in reference to it. It
certainly is a subject upon which those who lead
British citizens should above all others know their own
minds. I have told you, and I hope I have told you
intelligibly, what my mind is. I will be no party to
unsettling at its top or its bottom one single stone of
the noble structure which was reared by the combined
efforts of many able men, and most of all by the efforts
of Mr. Cobden and Mr. Bright (cheers), for which
many of us have laboured, for which some of us
have suffered, but by which the land has prospered,
and to which the people of the country have given
their solemn and final adhesion. (Loud and prolonged
cheering.)

In the evening a banquet was given in the extemp-
orized hall in the Old Cloth-yard, at which some 1,400
guests sat down. A large gallery, opposite the raised
platform on which the principal guests were seated,
had been erected for the accommodation of visitors,
principally ladies, of whom there was a large concourse,
so that the total number of persons present cannot
have been much less than 2,0@0. The walls were
gracefully draped with flags and festoons, and adorned
with a series of excellent photographs. The banquet-
ing-room and its approaches were admirably lighted
with the electric light and gas-lamp burners. When
the company. had assembled, the Chairman, Mr. Kit-
son, announced that Mr. Gladstone was fatigued by
his exertions of the morning, when he had made a
much longer speech than he had intended The Prime
minister arrived at twenty-five minutes to eight
o'clock, and was greeted with indescribable enthu-
siasm.

Mr. Gladstone replied to the toast of his health in a
lengthy speech, which was devoted to the consideration
of Irish affairs. He expressed confidence in the effect
of the Land Act, and condemned Mr. Parnell's agita-
tion. Government relied on the good sense of the
Irish people, ",and," said Mr. Gladstone in conclusion,
"we are determined that no force and no fear of force
and no fear of ruin through force shall, so far as we
are concerned and as it is in our power to decide
the question, prevent the Irish people from having
the full and free benefit of the Land Act. And if,
when we have that short further experience to which
I have referred, if it should then appear that there is
still to be fought the final conflict in Ireland between
law on the one side and sheer lawlessness upon the
other; if the law, purged from defect and from any
taint of injustice, is still to be refused and the first
condition of political society to remain unfulfilled,
then, I say, gentlemen, without hesitation, that the
resources of civilization are not yet exhausted.
(Cheers.) I shall recognize in full, when facts are ripe
—and their ripeness is approaching—the duty and
the responsibility of the Government. (Cheers.) I
call upon all orders and degrees of men in these two
kingdoms—in these three kingdoms—to support the
Government in the discharge of the duty—(cheers)—
and in acquitting itself of the responsibility, and I,
for one, in that state of facts, rely upon my fellow
countrymen in these three nations associated together,
have not a doubt of the result." (Loud and prolonged
cheering.)

At close of the banquet a procession of torchbearer
had been organised to conduct the Premier to Spring
Bank, the residence of his host. By eight o'clock, al-
though a light rain was falling, the streets were crowded
with people anxious to secure good positions. The little
army of torchbearers also began to assemble soon after.
Each of the sixteen wards into which Leeds is divided,
contributed its quota to the grand total of over 2,300
men who had volunteered for the duty. These assem-
bled in the neighbourhood of the Town Hall, coming
in by companies from all quarters of the town. After
some amount of marching to and fro, and galloping
about of the captains who were on horseback, the men
were placed in lines on each side of the barricaded
road, and they covered the distance from the General
Post Office to almost a mile beyond. The time at which
it wa's generally understood the proceedings at the
banquet would be over was nine o'elock, but it was
close upon half-past ten before Mr. Gladstone quitted
the Cloth Hall. Tremendous cheers greeted the
Prime Minister, who, despite the inclement night oc-
cupied an open carriage, and acknowledged the oyer-
powerieg greeting with his usual courtesy. The carriage
in which he sat went slowly through the streets,
preceded by a band. As soon as the carriage contain-
ing Mr. Gladstone entered the long vista of lighted
torches, the first files of the torch-bearing army turned
in and formed four deep behind the carriage, until
the whole of the 2,300 were ranged in the rear.
Dense crowds lined every street through which the
procession passed. Whenever a more than usually
l slightong street Or slight ascent enabled the procession to
be seen the sight was magnificent,as the closeness of the
torch-bearers almost made the lights /ook like a broad
ribbon of fire. The grassy slopes of Woodhouse Moor
was covered with at least 30,000 people, and it was
there that the brilliant cortege could be seen to the best
advank,gc. The streets in front of the Royal Ex-
change and tha Cloth Hall were brilliantly illuminated
by the electric light and by huge gas jets, whilst red
and green lights illumined the h(.rizon at short in-
tervals.

On Saturday Mr. Gladstone delivered three speeches
at Lee;is: he first was in reply to an address from
the Chamber of GorrimeToe, and dealt exclusively with
the question of free trade, which bpld to have been
an advantage to this country not only •cor4me;.-cially,
but morally and socially. In consequence of its in-
fluence, we suffered less than we should do during
e da p depression; and, while the general wealth
p•
of the country 0414 019 wages of the working classes
had enormously increased under ;rep trade, pauperism
had diminished, and so had crime. • -
The second address was at a luncheon of the
Liberal A.ssociation, and was of no political import-
an4:
The third address wi.ti 4yer. at a mass meeting, at
which some 20,000 people were prese;d:.. In this last
address the Premier dealt mainly with Egypt and the
Transvaal, declaring, in reference to the former, that
Government had hitherto worked in concert with
Prance; an intaF4ed to continue so doing.—The
Time-, in a leader noticing Mr. Gladstone's remarks
on the Eastern policy of England, Says ;
Mr. Gladstone's third address on Saturday was delivered
to such an audience as few men can command, He spoke
to 20,000 eager listeners in the temporary hall called after
him and here the P.ime Wnister look up the threads of
foreign policy one by one. *So far ad ha Va 3 not polemical
he left an excellent impression. Time has mellowed, but