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

MR. GLADSTONE'S VISIT TO LEEDS.

Mr. Gladstone commenced his public visit to Leeds I
on Friday in last week by attending at the Town Hall.
where he was presented with an address from the Town
Council and upwards of eighty-six other addresses from
Liberal clubs and associations throughout Yorkshire.
The Premier, who was accompanied by Mrs. Gladstone
and Mr. Herbert Gladstone, one of the members for
the borough, received an enthusiastic reception from
the vast assemblage of ladies and gentlemen that
crowded the Victoria Hall, in which the proceedings
took place. Two hours before the advertised time
for the presentation of the address to the right hon.
gentleman, the holders of tickets began to take pos-
session of the Victoria-hall, and long enough before
the ceremony commenced there was a . crowded
assemblage. A raised dais had been erected in the
hall just below the orchestra, and upon it were three
chairs, the centre one of which was occupied by Mr.
Gladstone. The front seats in the orchestra were re-
served for the following representatives of muni-
cipal corporations—namely, the Lord Mayor of
York, and the Mayors of Hull, Scarborough, Old-
ham, Huddersfield, Colchester, Halifai; Dewsbniy,
Batley, Darlington, Barnsley, and Jarrow. The body
of the ball was filled with persons identified with the
Liberal party in the town, and not a few strangers
were present. The Mayors on the platform wore their
chains of office. The orchestra was crowded with an
audience mostly composed of ladies, and the gallery
was tested to its full capacity, being occupied 1:07 a
great number of the workers in the various wards and
others. Mr. Gladstone came up to the platform, pre-
ceded by a large number of the , aldermen and
councillors of the borough, amid the wildest enthu-
siasm. All the aldermen and councillors wore their
official robes. Mrs. Gladstone accompanied Mr.
Gladstone to the platform. When the cheering had
subsided,
The Mayor of Leeds, on behalf of the Corporation,
cordially welcomed the right hon. gentleman, and,
after highly eulogizing his political and social career,
the mayor presented the Address from the Corporation,
which referred in eulogistic terms to the public
career of Mr. Gladstone, and concluded as follows
"In all these offices you have displayed unflagging zeal
and supreme capacity in carrying out with a single eye what
you have felt to be for the country's good. But it is not
only in your character as a statesman that we approach you.
to-day. We rejoice to remember that it is your proud dis-
tinction to have laboured as occasion has permitted for the
social, intellectual, and moral elevation of your fellow-
countrymen, and it may be said with truth that there has
scarcely been any movement in modern British history, having
fonts object the spread of education and intelligence. and
the well-being of mankind, around which you have not
thrown the mighty spell of your resistless eloquence, while
amid the pressure and excitement of your unsparing toils
you have found leisure to adorn and enrich the pages of
literature and philosophy with contributions from your pen.
Of you it may be truly said, as was remarked of the Earl of
Chatham, that you possess the precious ownership of—

A name illustrious and revered by nations,
And rich in blessings for our country's good.

"In conclusion, we pray that the Almighty may pour upon
you His choicest blessings, and that He may spare you for
many years, so that you may still be enabled to dedicate to
the interests of your country those superb endowments
which have rendered such noble and brilliant services in the
past"
Mr. Gladstone, on rising, was received with loud
cheers. The right hon. gentleman, in reply, expressed
his cordial and heartfelt thanks for the generous terms
in which he had been addressed, and concluded by
saying :—Mr. Mayor, there are three items of com-
mendation in this address which I can appropriate to
myself—first, that sincerity of attention which I accord
to every other as unreservedly as you have attributed it
to me; secondly, the length of time during which
I have been engaged in the service of the country,
which is a fact altogether undeniable (great laughter)
—undeniable, I fear, by friends or foes. Besides
that I cannot deny that my long life has been
spent in labour, and, gentlemen, life is worth very
little indeed, either to its possessor or to anybody else,
if it is not a life of labour. (Cheers.) Here, in this
great and constantly expanding seat of British in-
dustry and enterprise, coming among you, whose
whole life is devoted to the development of the energies
of this country and who contribute so largely to the
consolidation of its power, I know that if my life had
not been a life of labour I should have been an object,
not of sympathy and approval, but of contempt.
(Cheers.) In that lot, gentlemen, we are appointed to
live; in that lot we are appointed to die. With these
few words, Mr. Mayor, I will now beg you once more
to accept the cordial expression of my thanks for your
too indulgent and flattering address and will proceed
to await the further developments of these proceed-
ings.
The presentations of addresses from the Leeds
Liberal Association, the Eastern Division of the West
Riding Liberal Association, the Leeds Federation of
Liberal Clubs, the Lees Liberal Club, National Reform
Union (Manchester), and eighty other political bodies
of Yorkshire and district was next proceeded with.
Mr. Gladstone, who, on arising was again loudly
cheered, replied in a speech of considerable length, in
the course of which he said :—ln these addresses,
reference has been made to my past in terms tco
indulgent, and to my future, I am afraid, in terms
too hopeful. It is not for me at my time of
life and nearness to its inevitable close, to antici-
pate those future years of strength and service
which you are good enough to desire on my behalf;
but yet, gentlemen, though I do not indulge in any
such anticipation at all, though I confess I think
that repose of mind and reflection on other matters
are more appropriate to the latest stage of our human
existence, yet I do not on that account look forward
with the slightest lack of confidence to your future as
the Liberal party of this country. I know that when
I depart I shall hand over the charge that is now in-
trusted to me to other hands. I shall hand it over to
men already possessing your confidence, who have
already shown in many a well-fought field of what
metal they are made. And here, Ido not mean to
speak only of one whose distinguished name is ever
dear to all of you, my excellent friend Mr. Bright,
because he, too, is but one stage behind me in
the journey through the vale of years. But I
speak of Lord Granville. (Cheers.) The most
intimate and almost daily communication during
many anxious years has given me the most thorough
knowledge of his great abilities and of his admir-
able devotion to the service of his country and of his
capacity to service it if Providence so ordain. I speak
also of Lord Hartington (cheers), who, in the struggles
in the House of Commons, has likewise earned the
confidence of the country and has enabled you to build
your expectations of his future upon the ample expe-
rience of what he has been to you in the past.
(Cheers.) Therefore, gentlemen, I look forward with
confidence to the Liberal party as in no degree depen-
dent upon the slender thread, as yet unbroken of my
own political life. I believe, gentlemen, and I think
you will believe with me, that in all ordinary and
normal circumstances, though this country is divided
between two classes of political opinion, the Liberal
opinion is that of the majority of the people. (Cheers.) I
will go a little further, and say this, that when we -
were defeated in 1874 we were not defeated through the
energies and growth of Toryism, but we were de-
feated by the .divisions that had unwisely insinuated
themselves among us, and it was not the absolute
breaking up of the party. It was the prevalence,
perhaps, of some sectional ideas, and the actual and
necessary shortcomings, the actual shortcomings,
of myself and others—(cries of " No, so
but at any rate it was through our divisions,
it was because our ranks did not march steadily
to the breach in 1874, that we were a minority in
the last Parliament. (Hear, hear.) But what I wish
to say to you is this. I see no signs of such division
now. (Cheers.) I doubt whether since the free.
trade struggles the Liberal party, speaking generally,
has been in a state so healthy; never have I had occa-
sion to so much appreciate, along with its generous
indulgence, the signs of cordial union as during the
anxious experience of the long Session of Parliament
that hae just so lately closed; and therefore, as you
may look back with confider ee upon .our past, so I
say fearlessly you may rely upon your future.,
(Cheers.) Be determined among yourselves to main-
tain an energertic growth and avoid the needless divi-
sions of 1874. I think the consequence of those divi-
sions, which administered to selfish enjoyment, will
be that we shall not fall into those errors again.
(Hear, hear.)
After some observations on the land question, in
the course of which he said he trusted the Liberal
Party would deal with the questions affecting
the transfer and the devolutioq of land, Mr. Glad-
stone proceeded to say.—Last year, and before
we were six week old, we determined to repeal
the malt-tax, not because we really believe in
the absurd pretension which had been set up by
some of the malt-tax repeaters, but because we
always admitted there were very good reasons for it.
In the first place, the malt duty disturbed altogether
the action of the market, and as free traders we could '
not approve of that disturbance of the market for
barley in this country. It attached to the barley
of certain soils which produced the finest and best,
and gave to it a fictitious value in addition to its
natural advantages. It is a bad thing, and as
free traders we are opposed to any legislative action
which interferes with one description of article in ,
competition with another. (Cheers.) There was I
another reason for repealing the malt-tax. You, as
Liberals, have always been forward, and I hope you
always will be forward, wherever you can, to get rid of
an excise duty. Here was an excise duty the effect of
which was to prescribe to the people in regard to
one of tile largest trades in the country what mate-
rials they should make their beer of. In repealing the
malt-tax the great object we had in view was the
liberation of a vast trade from restraint, and the giv-
ing to British industry in yet another province
the absolute freedom which we desire to see it
enjoy. (Cheers.) And what has happened? Why,
the Tories have turned their backs upon the repeal of
the malt-tax, and they say now, without even the
slightest decent regard to their professions of half
a c,entury, that it is a worthless and insignificant
affair, and is rather perhaps on the whole an evil than
a good. (Laughter.) It is really very difficult to deal
with people who proceed in that way, and who, when
we think we are making a justifiable approximation to
their views, turn round upon us and denounce in
terms of violence' or else reduce to total insignificance
that which they formerly geld up as a capital article
both of political justice and of national policy. But
they tell the farmers "We must have you relieved of
a great deal of the burden of the rates." (Cheers and
laughter.) It is well worth our while to dig a little
below the surface of that profession and see what it
means. In the first place, do not suppose for a
moment that, in my opinion, rates ought not to be
dealt with. I, being an old man, may no ha. a much
to say to it, but if I were 20 years younger I should
say that nothing was more worthy of large and ez-
tensive change. lam an enemy of the present sys-
tem of what are called grants in aid. Of course, you
will understand that I am not laying down mathe-
matical propositions, but in general I see the greatest
mischief in these grants in aid, which it seems the
object of the Tories, for the sake of obtaining the
voices of the farmers, to extend without limit. lam
against an extension of grants in aid or relief in any
form without a thorough consideration of the ques-
tion of local government. (Cheers.) In the first
place, these grants in aid encourage extravagance; in
the second place, they promote centralization—(hear,
hear); and, in the third place, they sap the principle
of local government by depriving it of one of the
means for the exercise of its functions. I cannot pass

-

from the subject of local taxation without impressing
on you the fact that local government in this country
is a training school for Imperial government. The
forms and the habits of local government enable this
country to find men who are fit to carry on the busi-
ness of the government of the country. (Cheers.) On
all these grounds I think that the present system of
grants in aid is one that requires to be checked. It is
also a most impolitic system on this ground :—The
collection of Imperial taxes is always a matter of
serious political delicacy and even difficulty, whereas
the collection of taxes for local purposes is a thing
comparatively easy. Now, what I am about to say
will have reference, not to local taxes in towns, but to
local taxation in the country. Rates have increased in
towns with great rapidity, and the question of the
legitimate incidence of a rate is much snore open
to debate and doubt in a populous district than
it is in a rural district. But one word I must say
of rates generajly, and especially of rates in the
country. I think the time may have come when it may
be very proper to make considerable alterations in
local taxation; but I must endeavour to bring into
view that which it seems to be the object of Toryism
to keep out of view, and that is this, that every
sixpence which you ake off the rates of agricultural
districts in this country, while it is an immediate
relief to the tenant, is an ultimate gift to the land-
lord. (Cheers.) And, taken in that point of view,
the demand that some millions shall be taken off
taxation by grants from the general Exchequer
of the country in order to be applied to the payment of
rates in rural districts, while it may be very agreeable
to the farmer for the moment—l do not now inquire
into what ought to be done for him—it is a demand
that the landlords of this country and their .descend-
ants shall to that extent be quartered on the public
Exchequer. (Laughter and cheers.) Gentlemen,
this is a very serious matter for consideration.
When I say this I speak as one whose fortunes and
the fortunes of his family are closely allied to
the welfare and prosperity of the land, but at the
same time we will always strive to prevent any bias
from taking possession of our minds in relation to
this subject. But subjects of great importance to
all persons connected with the land question, on
which I hope the present Government, whether while
I am in it or not, will deal efficiently and fear-
lessly. I do not doubt that that will be the case. There
is another part of the question yet more essential
and that is that which touches the tenant. Here is the
true interest of the question. The object of the
farmer is to have his interest in the land made
secure. (Cheers.) I see that in Tory meetings it is
said that they are willing that this should be done.
Why, they told us five years ago that they had done
it. (Laughter.) They passed a Bill they called the
Agricultural Holdings Bill, and that was the great legis-
lative achievement of their six or seven years of
office. That was the summit of what they could do
for the farmers to whom they owed their elections, and
the great bubble suddenly exploded. (Cheers.) I
ordered a great many copies of the measure to see
if I could make anything of it among the tenantry. I
thought it best not to scatter them wholesale, but sent
copies to two or three highly intelligent men among
the farmers. I could not get them to look at them.
(" Hear, hear," and laughter.) They neither knew
nor cared anything about it. That was the most
complete abortion I have ever known in the handling
of a great legislative subject. (Cheers.) That
was after all the principal legislative achievement of
an Administration of between six and seven years.
However, the question has arisen, and arisen in
a very serious form, in consequence of the
pressure on the farmer due to a series of unfortunate
seasons and I will not enter now upon any details as
to the 'best mode of proceeding under the circum-
stances. I have said emphatically that in my opinion
the Irish Land Act ought not to be an English or
Scotch Land Act. (Hear, hear.) I say as emphatically
that it is an object of immediate importance for the
farmer to see that effectual and not abortive measures
are taken to secure the whole interest of the tenant—
not a part only, but the whole of his interest—in his,
improvements. This is the point of junction between
trading and landlord interests in relation to the mat-
ters we are now discussing.
Mr. Gladstone then proceeded to dilate upon the
trade of the country. He said :—lt has been indeed
severely and lamentably depressed, in certain branches
particularly so; it has been depressed most of all, I
believe, in what I should call this district—l do not
mean in the town of Leeds in particular, though,
perhaps, it has been greatly felt in the town of Leeds,
but I mean in the sister town of Bradford—a town
where, if there is a pressure of foreign competition, they
are sure to feel it. I will not trouble you in a great
assembly of this kind with a number of figures, but
these figures which I have here show the case very
simply. Taking the woollen and worsted manufactures,
and taking our trade with certain countries—France,
Turkey, Holland, and Belgium—l believe it is the
case that our imports of woollen and worsted
goods do come very close upon our exports to those
countries. While we exported £8,860,000, we im-
ported £8,509,000. This is very nearly a balance. I
am not now going to discuss the question whether it
is in the power of the capitalists or the industrial
interest of the cauntry to amend that balance. My
own belief is that it is. I often say that the English
producer wants a good deal of pressure to make him do
his best, but when that pressure is put upon him he
will compete successfully with anybody in the world.
Circumstances appear now to be against him, but I will
not enter into that further than that it enables me con-
veniently to raise a question whieh I feel would be
advantageous. The question is not whether the depression
of the last few years has been severe, because it has been
very severe. I, as the Chancellor of the Exchequer, have
felt it It is not true that the revenue has recovered
from the effect of it. The revenue of the last quarter-day
was, I think, in the Press estimated rather more favour-
ably than it deserved. It may be said, that the re-
venue is somewhat recovering, but it is very far now
from a complete recovery, although I have no doubt
that complete recovery will arise. But what has been
the cause of this depression of our trade? This is an
important question. Systematic attempts have been
made to persuade you, and although they will not
succeed here they may succeed elsewhere—to persuade
you—the people of England I mean—that the cause
of this depression is that we cannot carry on our
trade with foreign countries in consequence of the
pressure of hostile tariffs; and, secondly, that free
trade is a fallacy. Now, let us look at the sub-
stratum of fact which is in this statement. • . . Now,
you will agree with me in this, that the main cause of
the depression of trade has been either the unwillingness
or inability of foreign countries to buy; or else it has
been the decrease of the purchasing power at home.
Let us see which of these has been the main factor in
the recent distress, because it is upon the assumption
that the foreign question is the great question that is
founded the recommendation now so confidently made
to go back to the state of things that we parted with
some thirty years ago. Now, I want to measure, and
it is possible to do so without much difficulty, and
with quite sufficient, though not with minute accuracy
—I want to measure what has been the amount of real
depression and contraction in our foreign trade, and
what has been the decrease of the purchasing power
at home. I take the year which presented the very
highest amount of exports, which amounted to 256
millions of British goods and produce. You all know
very well that that 256 millions was exported at an
inflated state of prices that could not possibly be
maintained, which, as regarded iron and coal in par-
ticular, were totally unknown in the history of the
country. But I will presume it was all-round
trade and a natural state of things, and I will show
you upon that enormous assumption what is appa-
rently the decrease in our purchasing power, and
the actual loss of the people of this country
which has accrued from the depression and con-
tract'on of our foreign trade. If the value of exports
had continued in 1878, 1879, and 1880, the three
years of great agricultural depression, if that high
state of export had [continued, we should have ex-
ported in those years 760 millions of goods and pro-
dues, Instead of that we only exported 607 millions.
That was a decrease of exports amounting to 161 mil-
lions in those three years, but that, of course, was
not all loss. What was lost was the profit upon that.
I take the profit at the usual rate it is assumed—
namely, 10 per cent., and I show in that way that the
country was 16 millious the poorer in consequence of
the contraction of this foreign trade. There ought to
be a further item put down, which I will allow for
liberally. I will assume that besides the loss I have
mentioned there was a loss of eight millions of net
profit on the carrying of that 161 millions to foreign
countries. If I &sill that eight millions to the 16 mil-
lions, I show that the country is perhaps 24 millions
the poorer in consequence of the contraction of foreign
trade since the time when our exports were at their
maximum. I have endeavoured in that calculation
to put the allowance against myself on every doubtful
point. Now, we turn to the effect of bad harvests,
and I take the loss by bad harvests in 1878, 1879,
and 1880. Of course when I speak of harvests
I speak of the whole agricultural produce of the
land, including root crops, grass, and everything. I
believe there is no doubt that it is a moderate estimate
for the three kingdoms to . place the loss at 120
millions, and we may place it higher, considerably
higher. lam convinced if I were only to take the
reduction in rents' the allowances upon rent, &c.,
that it is a moderate statement to say that the agricul-
tural products of those three years fell ehort by
£120,000,000 sterling in the, aggregate of what they
would have been if the harvest had been good. That
is not entirely loss, but it is all of it sheer loss, except
that there was a saving of the getting in of the goods
represented by that £120,0000.0. Let us suppose that
the expense of getting in his agrieultural crops is on
the average one-sixth, then the farmer, in login 120
has saved 20 millions which he would
have had to expend in getting in the goods. The
net loss, therefore, is WO millions. Gentlemen, what
we show is this—that while it is an extravagant
statement to say that the country was '24 millions
poorer on account of the contraction of Ite foreign
trade it is no extravagant statement to say Coat it
was 1,00 millions poorer on account of the remarkable
series of cieasient harvests. (Cheers.) Therefore, the
principal seat of this depression is not to be looked
for in the pressure of ‘o4:ejgn tariffs, though that is a
very serious subject, but it is to LP looked for in bad
harvests. We may reasonably hope that •kve are not
to Oxpf4rience a perpetual series of such harvest. Th,e
present hxrvgst is one difficult to judge of. I have
made the best imiciries in my power, and I believe it
is distinguished from °Use; harvests by its inequality.
The returns in certain cases 4c,0 admirable ; in other
cases they are very different. on 4 important
crops from the failure of which we ha,vo tgssea Sly
sulfet:c4 of late years, and particularly potatoes,
are, at all eventa in our neighbourhood, abundant
and healthy almost beyond precedent. Two or
three nights ago a potato W 4,3 dug up in a cottage
garden which weighed 11b. 50z., ;;,11.61 the root was in
perfect condition. Any one who is aecustomacl
these things will know what sort of a season it is If
this Is gesserelly the case. On that Ido not dwell. It
is only safe to assume that no adverse decree of Provi-
dence has gone forth ags.hsat the harvests of this
country, and that we shall have an avvrQ,g3 ef fruitful-
ness in future years, which will restore the home market
—the greatest by far of the markets we deal with. '
But, gentlemen, in reference to this subject of the de-
pression of trade, an attempt is made to raise a
great and most mischievous delusion. An insti-
tution has been formed in the imposing ;lame
of the National Fair Trade Leagne. What in
the world, you will ask, does that mean? Well,
gentlemen, I must say it bears a suspicious likeness
to our old friend Protection. (Cheers and laughter.)