The Express.
London, England, 1849-12-12 00:00:00

THE F )(PRESS, WEDNESDAY EVENING. DECEMBER 12, 1849.

LAYING THE FIRST STONE OF THE HOXTON

1 ---ashuniestal in fighting for aad obtaining.
110 P:• en hen have mask le do is the mate di:echos. The
h sot yet settled with reference to tariffs
gohes Meer imports, and I am afraid we 01111123%
117.1.1.—
sea tothow la the reduction of dunes anises we
▪ ;;,,s_ e•d te leek ear whose.' upending:o is the face.
k.-1;44o Imeseet cif the national debt is act lug* that it
while hosblteg yoarulf about the
••"4 wheal elpsaditare, bemuse nothing can
At wed' which will be worth baying. Now I
hea the: *akin. (Hear, hear.) I thii,k
el '77 Issues welch you might deal vita.
Om • it is teas, are ca what is
pith lr* • al
(seraf kat is • largo sounding, not
.1* the
e-- sulerstood somenciature, bat it does not
*N... I deal think say contracts, although they
Noored by set of parliament, art permanent, if the)
.llf :mile settled. 1 coaiiiiet them not binding in the
18811.1.L.Fogyie go, I believe ever, farthing taken from
fOrtirs se Me tat peger should have as adequate return.
tbs this the gave meat should have only se mush
"Meta(% se will pay for the services to be rendered;
Hasa &said Mel that they paid
tat mssfor that witch was
Niecesreedeemi them uservice, and limbo
Maw beer.) If yaw ware to adogia *me with
myg. pia would make a most hemesellene sump
rjharjoya capeaditate. (Cheers.) Now, MOM hail
wisabeeddeel el sauna( at we damask! reform missielle
re el essay, thick. who hug to ham
"theeouts
Isom la west are called the ° whig as re lees
kiad of suer about the Financial form leseeisi
est of visimary, impracticable mes, alarming,
..A ambles Me public mind upon the meant of ow'
Wrotteure, whits it ie inspostible to effect anything ha*
eke tedestiess they hold out." This has been the doe
lye as er two of the leading whig otgai.s. Now,
ileaw the poanim of attain ? In 1848, only twe
~ego, there was a great plot got up about the
isnmesi sad the public naiad was to be
slued moss; Fumes, and the coast was to be fortified,
so great imagers were tareatrued, and men were to submit
rem wince of taxation for the lately of their homes and
fools; the cry was the French wen riming. A lame_ad-
gossa to the pubits expeaditute was contemplated. Well,
* exam* vitermen were set to be taken I. by Oda
guatefted ineasies—eat of toe French, but of the tax-
women—opus the taxpayers. (Caren, and •• hear, hear.",
tybo mil they say ? "W • will have none of this ; we
wit lobate to it; we don't believe is these dangers ; we
gigue submit to this increased expense. It is a hoax ;it is
peep by the professions ; it is got up at the clubs ; we
mat believe in it," sad toe government were enabled—
*et that very time they were ming carried away by the
moos they were in the hands of the strong, and were going
te add t; o the szpeaditure—they were enabled, through the
*pot which the Finantid Ri form Assciation gave them,
to tome the pressure, aad to draw in the e :per dimes. (Hear.)
I res.stiet the present first 1 rd of toe admiralty, Sir
Paco Bering, putting a question, in the committee on the
awn, cloy, and ordi mom estimates, to a distinguished
sauna ono was exenthied as to the amount of tome that
▪ neceenty ; and he asked him if he ever remembered a
lime wren the profeuiona were satisfied with the amount
of hoc. " lie certainly was lot able to say,—he did sot
recoil,ct say particular period when ins peoreasiona were
Knoireli" (Laughter.) 'The govetsment were in the hands
at the prOsemose, who were hurrying them on to a larger
iacreue of expeaditure, when toe Financial Reform Assad-
toe came to the rescue, sad to • certain extent got then eat
of heir difficulties ; sad new they were to be sneered at.
Wed, what has government done ? Why, ue wen
told, in the lass: ial statement that was made last
swim, that a saving of two millions three huts-
drat thousand had been effected in the annual expend.
tut ; mad, sotwitbstanffing that, we were told that the
Chancellor of the Exchequer did not estimate that the
know of the country for the next year would more than
ewer the ex; 'Altars. I waat to anew what his paktum
weld hove been if, after that saving, the income was only
to be equal to the expenilitate, the Financial Reform Asso-
ciation bed not bestirred itself, and prevented that Mamie
white was threatened in the yeas 1848 ? 1 tell yon that we
shoolalsave bees landed in increased taxation, and we should
hove Muesli further off any charmer removing those taxes,
sad those Oaths which are now so oppressive upon many
trenches of our industry. (Chun.) I think the Ftnancial
&farm Association has already dose mach service. They
have cussed committees )(Wintry upon the army, navy, and
haulm estimates ; and what hale these committees eluci-
dated ? D tficult, as I kaow it is, to obtaia say metal inter-
*boa iiicommitteel, as they are oomposed la the Rouse of
Comma -tor they are generally composed with a view to
hide rather than elicit informati but, notwithstanding
that, mach valuable inionnatioa has been elicited. i
If when we find that, on a complaint, 3,000
men are struck off the navy, and 10,000 Withal army—and
when we find owe diatineuished general giving an opinion
one way, and another distingaahed general &wither—when
we fiod committees of the House of Commons eliciting this
opinion, that great works, coating a million or two each,
ought actor to have been begun—we are onfy convinced that
the present system of administratioa is not audieiently con-
trolled by the popular voice in the Hoene of Commas, to
sante an economical and useful expenditure. (Hear, hear.)
Imy them are cot, equences which I have a right, as a
*long man, in any ass, glibly to Wing forward as proof—
s positive proof, cambia demonstration to the mind of
every thinkiag person—that the system of cheek and control
is very tar from what it ought to be, aad I believe
would be under a batter system. (Heat, hear.) Well,
now, take the cue of the crown lands. We are taught to
believe that the crown lands were gins to the country ; and
that in return the sovereign was to receive a yearly payment
kola the ooseslidated fusd. Wtryell, the crown Lando are sup-
posed to be given to the coun ; and in the financial re. I
tams of last ear I find that heir revenue is (lowa'
as 360,0001. a year. Yet bow much of this 360,0001. a
year, which was said te be given to the cushy, wee
estuary paid into the British exchequer Why, last
mei about 80.0001.; the year before, I believe, abut
70,0001. What becomes of the difference ? Why, a 'teat
deal of the udierence is employed in paying sham aims
—bear, hear)—in keeping up hereditary rangers and
*Wary wades', and *thus the names of which have
become so outlandish and so barbarous that I can't eves
cony them in my reeoLleetion. (Chun. ) The differeoce
between this 360,0001., which they ought to yield, sail
90,000 L, which are paid in, is expended, not th rearing
oaks far the royal navy, but in rearing deer who eat the
oaks; and in giving the deer to bishops and clergymen,
sad to die ingsished paeans in the neighbourhood of the
brats. (Cheers.) I was very much amused at a return I
saw laid beton parliament, about the oaks that we have been
told were grown is th a. royal wrests, in order to support the
royal navy. I saw a return from 1940 of the quotity of
mks supplied to the British navy from the new forests.
It ran—" 1840, nil ; 1841 ; leen, ; 1843, it ;
ISt 1, nil; 1846, ail; 1848, ma; and 1847-8 and 9,
nil. (Laughter and great eheerisg.) Now, there was not
a steels ye m that they had missed giving some venison to
the Bebop of Winchester and the neighbouring clergy.
(Renewed laughter and cheers.) Why is it not monstrous
!Oat we should be told that these crown lands
ere to be paid over to the consolidated land, and that
pore from them al! that you give to the monarch, when
we lath that there is this dilapidation of national property ?
Why, I will undertake to say that, when you talk of railway
easamressest—(lasghter and eheen)—l will undertake M
my, there wee no Marge that woe ever brought 'garnet say
director or directors of any railway, and mach lees
trey
sharp that was ever proved—l will sot except anybody, set
even the meet dietiagnielted (load laughter and chemO—emil
I won't say the meet dietingaished except in the mina
e;i2z,thiegiboit remarkable—(resewed hinghter); but I any,
s generally and advisedly--end by-the-bye the emu
mad sp liking clause has a temperiog effect—l speak
openly end advisedly when I say that no charge was ever
brought against railway directors for mismanagement and
miaappliances, that I could not bring against the directors
lad *amen of the woods and forests; and that you would
not my, it you had the evidence, was satisfactorily proved.
New, Wetly, when we boar of railway audits and govern-
ment with, and all this excessive desire to look atter pri-
vate companies, and the affairs of private individuls, I
mast say that 1 wish they 'would turn a tilde of their rite'
sad eathedasse in the PUN of good auditing, and correct
accounts, into the department of the woods and torah.
(Chun) The civil list is the appropriation of • ,
large sum of money, io a particular way, according to
the chums of an net of parliament; and one of the chasm
requires that a very large proportion of that sum should be'
paid in salaries to political officers, who are said to be nun. ,
airy to maiatain the dignity of the Crown; but who I con-
tend would, kr the honour of the position, be quite willing
to accept it at any rate without them salaries. But these
pensions are awarded according to sehoduke, fixed to this act
of parliament ; teed they are not at all the tort of things that
people generally imagine—namely, pensions and salaries
allotted at the discretion and pleasure of the crown. The
crown has no more to do with it than we have in
this room ; it is all done by the same parties that
appropriate the crown lands ;and when they exchange the
crown lands toe the civil list, they take care to put
In the 4 pockets a little portion of one, and a great slice
of the other. (Cheers.) lam necessarily obliged, in such
subj.* as matters of financial reform, to go somewhat into
detail ; sad I trust I may be pardoned if I ass at all trespass-
Mg epos your patience in teaching upon these matters.
y(ed.' of tt goAare say ty are familiar to moat of
ou, but I hope we Mall have en effectual remedy—and I
=tie them remarks in this place, in order that those ',hotted
tha queo.on in their hands may know that there is an
inion upon the subject ;—and that the proposal made by the
of that committee on the lands, in the Huse
of Comm ins will be this, that he will move for leave to
bring in a bill to sell the crown lands, and to apply the
mooted. to the public expeediture of England. Loud
cern.) I would have none left except those which are
actuary fir the personal convenience or pleasure of the
monarch. All that are kept there for the papa., as it is
mid, of growing oaks for tho navy, or giving the nuts or
kit or fines, or what not—ell these I would have
lispoied or. With regard to the army, navy, and
ordnance, I lay, after thirty-five years' peaces let us bate
a peace es...blishment. (Hsu, hear.) Let as have the
number of offican in the navy beating some proportion to
the walk to bei done. (Hear.) When I was at a meeting
the other day, in the Free-trade Hall, I took the liberty of
saying what 1 will repeat again, because I wish to say it at
every meeting that I timed upon this subject—that Sir
Jeaes Stirling—au of the ;most distinguished officers of the
Keel, and rte whom report Imes has lately been
offered a seat at the board of the Admiralty—told the Home
of Lords that Uto excess of officers in the British navy, over
and above what was required tor the duties to be performed,
was equal te the maintenance of 20,000 able seamen. I
believe ihst 31r. Cobden's budget of a reduction of ten mil-
lion., it no• so virionary as people would have us believe.
("r. Y- u hero had a reduction of 2,303,00/. in
the mutual izunditure. That is pinsible, for it has been
done ; and here we all are ode, can sleep in our beds, and
are hot afraid of the French. I believe there is no
due that teems to be gradually weighing down the WM-

failure' to the extent that the soap duty ie doing. We see
a seastant decline in the number el raeoefaeterese of soap •
and I believe they have a great difficulty la competini
owlitikthetbwsoirld.46l bellaalielvleitttuisistruofestr:apt itnhetkepatirattnwihielahuhkseviles
of late years bees takes out for improving the maaufacture
of soap have been feud totally insteps, because they were
iaappheable wider the Exciais system, sad because, while
thedivacialitoiosinsrdsloninfirthetovaeihe xepsui, we are
6:7llRofodbparTlMOOlige:ii.mit°, bat acoord‘tii"Vanieninitr:earit:o.
liar.)
The paper duty is a tax epee knowledge.
cheers.) I would remove the paper duty—the stamp duty
epos newspapers—(eiterre)—the duty epos advertneoseete
(Continued cheering.) We have beard a greet deal U. this
country aheut the importance of d.ffusing knowledge
amongst the labouring classes of society—aye amougit all
elegies; for we are all iustreeted, from day to day, by the
knowledge; that isosoveyed to as by the press and by our
literature bat do we, by oar einem, tiot Impose obstacles—
direct and positive ebitaeles—to the spread of knowl.dge
amongst the greet masais of the community ? Mitre we
gut • free press? 1 say no. I eh.e we plume our-
selves, asheilislimese, th a we have a tree press, but
the sagacity of the English aristocracy has does by •
tax what the censor of the fereign ue-pots and the peaces-
ti ill of foreign courts doter them. Not to the same amen;
I admit, but to some extent. I advuence, the retore,untexiog
the press (Loud cheers.) I think that the agricultural
body, sow thatthey have lost pruh ctise, eau have waieterest
Ia bad government. (Heir, hear.) They can have no more
interest in it than we nave hi heavy tam, in the misapplies-
tine of public funds; soil now that they ate set free by the
repeal ot the Coen law, I believe you will MA them turning
their attention to larger creations than you ever gave them
credit for. Let es consider also that we ought to press at on
the made of men the getting rid of that fallacy which s ems
to prevail—that there is • something shout the government
cyst m more then the mere duty of providing protection
te society, and meeting those wants wnich civilised men '
adopt governments to &cure. There rem. to be a sort ut
idea that those who rule have, as it were, an intereet, and
that cower is to be exercised in reference to the pentad,'
in'ereste of the ruling few, rather than to the advantage ot
the many over whom the power is exercised. You been
utllees talked of es matters in which men have veined ii-
tercets or r ght of property. Ad this notion seems to be
pert of the feudal traditionary Ryan= which has been '
handai down to us ; aid it is for these intelligent com-
munities like Manchester and others to expound these
fallacies and to teeth men the real objects fur whirl
they tog tame., and the only objects for which they oueiht.
ti ply taxa —namely, 'lmply to secure tor society those ,
advantages, to obtain which eiviiis,d man associates eimeelt 1
into the furin of society. But we h eve vast prejudices to
contend with before we arrive at that pant; and I never
heard the question raised in parliament as to the doing
away with any office, or with the disbanding of any un-
necessary person., that some question of vented right,
some question of interest, was not raised, clearly show-
ing that there is another principle besides the one to
which I have alluded in the minds of m. n in reference
to the objects and duties of gov ronamit. 1 hold, and will
repeat again, that we are to look a' government no: in the
slightest degree to be carried ou tor the mere advantage of
these who hold the ales of power, but entirely and ergo-
sively for the benefit and advantage of the community over
which power may be exercised. (Caters.) We must hold
the doctrine that ell power comes from the people, is given
by the people, and is only to be held at the pleasure of the
people ; and without that broad and important maxim, I
will simply say that I believe it is the one that, in the course
of events, will be deeply felt by the people ot this country ;
and that it is the only maxim upon which sou ty may be
secure, either from foreign danger or domestic trouble.
(L lad appl suie.)—The right hon. gentleman took his seat
amidst loud and enthusiastic cheering.
JOHN BitIOH r, Esq., li.r., on risir.g to address the
meeting, was received with prolonged ca akin—the whole
meeting rising • wooed time to renew the demonstretions of
enthusiasms. He said—Although I believe this is the first
time I have meet my coassituents since the election in 1847,
by sop-vial invitation, yet it is not by any means the fir t time
sin. *het occasion that I have had an opportunity of ex-
pressing at length my views upset public question, end of
explaining tho opinions I entertain witu regard to teem.
For I cannot forget various occasions on which I have seen
the Fres Trade Hall crowded to excess with the
electors and iehabitants of this borough, and in
which I have been permitted to address them
at considerable I•ngth. 1 will not now go into
any minute details of toe pm. alines which have taken place
letting the last two sessions of partisan et, and in which I
may have borne any part. It is not my intention its state
low many divisions the house CAMP to during the course ash
theme two sessions, and how many of those divisions I was
present at, and at how many I was absent. I feel that
those years into, during the few wake when I was en-
gaged in canvassing the electors ot this Innough, pay
opinions and principles were fatly and frankly aided,
and I was examined by blinds, and aoosaxamineal by poli-
tical foes. (" Ilea, hear,' and laughter.) 1 bad matting
to conceal, and I concealed nothing that was necessary to
the occasion. Since that time I lea that the course 1 have
putsued in parliament, however much it may have fallen
short of my intentions or your wishes, has at least been cor-
respondent to or with the declarations I then made, and
that on first meeting yuu in your capacity as constituents, i
have no apologia/ or Grouses to make that I know ot. (Loan
cheers.) It would be impossible tor me at this time to forget the
circumstances which plated me in the position of your podia
mental? representative. I cannot forget, and shall never
forget, the struggle in which you, and I, and many others,
had been for years mimed. the struggle which in.
crestsus now, as much as it did teen, not as we
did then, looking foamed to the time when the
principles which we held should be triumphant, but now
looking abroad upon the country, Wearier the working oi
those principle*, and descrying, as wee
may deary on every
hand, how hilly ad the prophecies, all the predictions, all
the dalaratious we made have been or are ncw beiug hal
filled by the events. We see the country emerging from
the condition of the deepest misery, and of the greatest
difficulty and distress. It was not • suffering condition
brought about by free-trade, but which was neat the cause
' why free trade at that ime triemplied. We behold the
country on every hand, c
is every branch of its industry,
emerging slowly, steadily, bat surely, nom • state of
disaster and difficulty which has rarely been paralleled.
We find throughout al conditions of the manufacturing and
commercial districts of the country employment becoming
more abundant, and wages, notwithstanding the price of
toed, tending rather to rise than fall. We fiud hood every-
where more abundant than we have known it for twelve
years past. We find poor-rates, in the vast majority ot tee
uniesse is England and Wens, radually, and in many of
them rapidly fallin and we find, that which we expected
to find, that the greet bulk of the labouring classes, for
whom we worked as much as for any other class—(hear,
hear)—that they have the means of living, andel eonnort
sztemided to them to a degree which they hardly ever sinew
lashan. (Hear, hear.) Now it may appear to
some unnecessary to make observations on this
old question with which we We so familiar, but
let us not forget that the party whom we over-
came pretends yet not to be convinced that they
were wrong; they assume that now it is necessary to go
bask to their policy, and will endeavoar to force the legisla-
tions to the adoption of principles which to. legislature of
11611, as we thought for ever, had discarded. It may, More-
lia, be necessary to ask your attention to one or two facts
widels bear importantly on this quzstion. I have mode
some inquiry as to the cost of food in families generally
throughout the country —1 mean the cost of that particular
kind of food which goes by the name of flour and meal, the
produces engrain. 1 find that is the families of the middle
Jason—of those who are comparatively well to de in the
werid—the eon is about Id. per need per day for each mem
bar oldie family. I have made a calculation from this,
aseaming tuat this may be taken as a moderate
stalameat through all classes of the people, for if amongst the
dams that are poorer a lees wetly flour be used, doubtless
mere of it is used, because probably less of other vegetables
sad lees of animal food is consumed. I assume, therefore,
Id. per day as the actual expeaditure is float for each in-
dividual in the United Kingdom; and amusing the pope-
latioa at thirty saillions, we may come to the cost of flour
far the United Kingdom. It will be 126,000 i. par day—
(beer, hear)-875,0001. per week, and 46 mullions and a
halt pounds sterling per annum. (Hear, hear.) That is
when wheat is at 40s. per quarter. Now what do the pro-
terimnists want? why that they shall have • remunerating
Now I won't sesame that a remunerating price
Met Colonel Thompson describes it, " • bottomless pit
whisk sobudy ever fathomed "—(laughter)—but I assume
It is what they always said the corn laws were intended to
secure them, from Ms. to Mts. per qr. They make the
modest request that the price of corn shall be raised nearly
60 per cent., or something over 20 million pounds static!!
per annum. Now we may as well consider what all this
-w.de to, beyond what it is that we are actually disputing ;
yet I won't say that we are disputing or that we are not dis-
puting ; bat I will see what it is these people et their agris
cultural meetings say we should give them. They attribute
the present low prices entirely to free trade in coin, and
10.411010 that the distress they say they now suffer arises
from this new policy on the part of government.
Now I have here an extract from the circular published
by Messrs. Stings, of Birmingham. who are largely engaged
in the corn trade, and whew authority on this point I be-
lieve no person is disposed to dispute, in which they eau
that the averse. price, by the return of wheat in the Ga:ette
last week, was 441.41., lower than it has ever been during
the peasant century, except in parts of 1832, iti 1835, and in
1838, when it was below 405., and came as low as3Gi. 7el. per
quarter, which was during the period when the big lest
sliding scale was in force. It ought to be borne in mind that
in 1832 most kinds of wheat were 30 per cent. cheaper than
at present. It wi.l show that the high range of prices gives
the natural stimulus, but protection le generally followed by
uisastroudy low rates to growera. If this be true, we are
not to be chargeable with the disastrous rumours of
the distress which the farmers ere suffering, if
they ere disastrous, fur we have their own evi-
dence before • committee in 1836, when we heard texts in-
let:nay more astounding than any we have heard disclosed
during the last few months. It seems to be • very prevalent
idea that if wheat is very low, it is the duty of pailiement
to raise the price. Why, many of us might have gone
during the last three years, and, on the same principlh.
e,
asked for • law to ewe the price of yarn and clot
(Hear, hear.) Farmers are in an unfortunate position, the'
they have been led to look upon government as
to o somur eeth
yes. ing ,
quite different from that which it has appeared
All their members, and the candiustes for their rein*.
natation for 30 years past. have asked the for-1
re to
me sand them to parliament on this specs' I
plea, that they would keep up the price of
agricultural produce; end now, when the price is Inw, they
turn round upon those genes themselves in ul a
tlemen who have not ffillmoned thrr
ea engsgemte, and they
P
tolerant and violent meaner against a parliament which
rces ?a-
lienates to give freedom to the industry and Iretdoin to the

food of the nation. They suppose that agriculture is to be
free from the fluctsuitiens sad vicissitudes whisk attend en
o ler branches of industry, and are only now launching
forth on the ocean track that should have been followed 30
years ago, and then they would not have found themselves
ou estosisked and so dieteacted at the vicissitudes and °hearses
they must inevitably meet with. But I think the
lauded proprietors of this country have no right to come
to us it certain facts we hear ere true. Throughout
a gri at portion of England, hitherto, there has been no re-
duction of rents. (Hear, hear.) If the corn law were in-
tended to maintain the rents, they ere, perhaps, right to ask
for it; but ask them freely if they have dons anything to
meet the case of the tenant-farmer ? (Cheers.) And of the
farmer', I might ask if they Lave taken the navies of a very
able agriculturist is the county of Devon, Mr. Fowler, who
recently, in a letter to the farmers of the county, recom-
mended as ene means of sustaining a competition with fo-
reigners, to tontine the number of their acres to the
aumber of their ten pound notes, fur if the farms
corresponded to the amount of capital, they could
much more easily sustain foreign competition, and
Lye with present prices, than they could under a
es stem ot large farms and small capitals, which has been so
long pursued in all parts of the kit:omm (Cheery.) lam
not surprised at whet is going on in the farming districts;
there is rericultural anarchy. (Laughter.) The farmers
are astoiashed, because the circumstances under which they
hod themselves are so unwarranted. I was looking at some
tams with respect to the deficiency which has existed
in Ireland, and to the amount of the importations of
food into that country daring tee lest three years ? and
you will see at once how extraordinary is the demand
for a prohibition upon the importationof food, with the view
to improve tae condition of Leland. Take the three years
184 , 1847, and 1948. and there have been imported into
Ireland of foreign grain 4,425,592 qrs. ; cot British grain,
2,055,778 qrs. ; all 6,481.370 gm. In the same time the
imports of foreign Haut and meal were 1,431,766 cwt. ;
of British deur and meal, 2,640,729 cwt.; or altogether
4.115,496 cwt. Into en agricultural country, where a
!ogee portion of the people are existing, or have been ex-
istiug, by the cultivation of the soil than in almost any
country of the world, and far more teen may other tart
of the United Kingdom, y have imported nut lea than
61 millions of quavers of gran, and no* less than 4 cello's@
of eels. of Cur and meet (Hear, hear.) And at this
very moment, there c m be no doubt whatever that the im-
position of tiny amount of duty upon the provisions coming
from toreros countri s into this, by which you would give to
Ireland a monopoly of this minket, could in no degree what-
ever m tee to advance the true interests of the farmers, melte
eaters, and labourers of that country, but must of necessity,
from the competition that still exists, and has all along
existed for the land, save only to give the landlord greater
power over the tenant, and te exact greater rents tor the
laud which he lets to thorn. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) Bat
vet there are rumours of this fixed duty. Mr. Gibson dots
not bell-ye it. I can't say that I believe it. (Hear.) Bat
WO may a:. !ell look at one or two points in connection with
that. It f, mid that a great whig duke-1 don't know who
they be has nodded his head or has shaken his head—
(laugater) —but he has intimated that his opinions
have undergone some little change. (Hear, hear) Bat
it there could be now en attempt on the put of them
who hold the place of power, to re-enact those laws, doe't
you think that bandied' of thousands of persona who never
yet consulted the clauses ot the Reform Act, or the principles i
of our constitution, would begin to ask very unpleasant
questions about the distribution of our representation, and
about the constitution of our House of Lords? (Hear,
hear.) Suppose men were to begin vs ask questions like
this, for examplo :—' Why abould about 400 gentlemen.
who are called neers—men who, generally speaking. have
not been born in circumstances to give them greater wisdom
than other men—(laughter)—who have never had the ordi
nary stimulus to great exertion—who have never had the
cannon inducements to comprehend that which is sets-
shy for the well-being of the country—why should
400 gentlemen sit there, and legislate there, with I
no responsibility to anybody upon earth ? " (Lose I
cheers,) Bear in mina, I am net putting this mass I
Lion. (Laughter.) I am only throwing out a hint to
certain parties, that if certain things are attempted cer:aln
questions will present themselves very forcibly before the
minds of certain other parties. (Laughter and cheers.)
bis country cannot now be treaty: as it once could.
When the corn law was passed, in 1815, the populstiou of
this great town was more han 120,060, hut your opinion was
not *eked about it. (Hear, hear.) And that corn-law re•
mained on for seventeen yens, oppressing your population
and your trade, and during the whole ot that time you had
no representative in the Reuse ct Commune. (Hear, hear.)
Well, and now you have representatives in the II- une or
Commons, observe how fraudulently the whole thing is
arranged, so that your position is only thus much better than
it was before, that you have men there who can at least
speak your sentiments and utter your complaints tied your
remmostraucts to parliament; but, as I have told you be-
lore, wban we sit on one side of the house, there are two
men from one place and two from another, who are in no
sense whatever representatives of tne people, and yet their
votes Co every division aunt as much as those of the
two representatives of tea. greet impuls ion. (" Hear, hear,"
and cheers.) There are two or three eases, one of which
I have stated before. In speaking in the Free-trade Hall, I
alluded to Um town of Stamford, the Marquis of Exeter's
borough, with a population of 7 010, and 494 101. house-
!udders. The blamer' of Exeter mese s e most ot the 101
houses in the boviegh (you will find that in the " Parlia-
mentary Pocket Companion"), and the marquis returns two
men to parliament, and then you are penuaded—(there are
gentlemen, good men, who will persuade you—the whig
arras, for example, of whom Mr. Gibson has spoken)—that
Manchester is fairly represented in the English lions. in
Commons. (Hear, hear.) Then there is Thetiord, in
Norfolk, with 3,844 of population, 271 IW. householders,
and 160 r.'gietered ale-ion. The Duke of Grafton
sled Lord Ashburton have great influence there—oo says
the " Partisan:May Comp, ann." amid whom do you
thick they send to parliament ? Lord Beaton, the Duke of
Onitton's son, is cue of them, and the Hon. F. Defies, who
1 presume is the son of the late Lord Ashburton, is the
other. (Hear, hear.) Now, you meet at an election in St.
Aan's•square, you have meetings, and canvassing, and great
excitement; you have addresses at the hustings, and you in-
tern two men to esprese your opinions in parliament, and you
fancy you are represented early ; and your two last mem •ers
met the two members for Stamford, and we meet the two mem-
bers for Thetford ; and their you s tell as much in the
divisions as the votes of the repres natives of this great
conetiturncy. (Cheers.) There 1- aco her case, the county
o Rutland, the smallest of the counties; about as large as
the parish of Ileochd *le. (Hear.) It hes about one-fourth of
the population of the prim of Rochdale. (Hear, hear.) It
returns two members te parliament, and their two votes
may neutralise the vote s of Mr. Henry and Mr. Brown, the
members for South Lancashire, or the two me tubers fer
the time bi Mg of the West Ridin; of Yorkshire, and
yet we imagine we are represented' These Thetford,
Stamford, and Rutlandehire men have levied taxes upon
all the industry, wealth, and population of this district.
(Hear, hear.) 1 say, if we are to pay the taxes and sustain
the burdens of this great empire, we have a right from our
population and our wealth, and the intelligeace of this dis-
trict, to a representation in the House of Commons, which
we have
Now, there are goad men and timid men who probably,
readiest what I am saying, will say that tnis tends to a wild
and destructive dense:racy. (Hear, hear.) Nothing is more
mistaken. (Cheers.) There is no destruction so entirely
without remedy to a country as that which comes from a
system ot government like that which is now being pursued,
and has long been pursued in this country ; a system
of government which makes it a point of spending as much
as can be safely extracted from the taxpayer' ; a system of
government which leaves millions of the people wholly ua-
enfranchised, and without the pale of the constitution ;
which allows to grow up in their minds a distrust of all
orders in society more elevated than themselves, and also
breeds in their breast a contempt for law end government,
such as, at some time ter other, when occasion often, may
break out into the most disastrous convul-ions, overturning
institutions bad and good alike. (Loud cheers.) Now,
I would ask these good and these timid men whether
there is anything in the government of this counqy that
they would wish to have changed; whether there any
reductian of expenditure, any improvement of any kind,
which they think is necessary for the well-being of the
country ? Let them look at this fraud which I have de-
scribed—this fraud of our represectation—and they will
see at once that it selves the problem of all that is evil in
our system of government. Your exports I suppose
to be from 55 to 60 millions st ring per annum at the very
mat; your taxes come to an equal sum. (Hear, hear.) I
say it is not to be believed that an expenditure like this is
hir the just and wise government of a nation.
(Hear, hear, end cheers.) And if we had a parliament fairly
elected should we have those official jobs which are bang per-
petrated constantly, and which disgusts° many of the people?
Have you read a letter which has lately been written by Su
Charles Napier upon the subject ot the Admiralty ? (Hear,
hear.) He states there a fact which we might all have
known by a simple addition sum, that from the year 1821 to
the year 1949, the navy have had voted to them 157 millions
sterling, and of this sum 44 millions have been absorbed by
the dockyards. (Hear, hear.) Now horn 1821 to 1849 we
have been in profound peace ; in fact the Eugll.h ships have
had almost nothing to do ; end you have heard how they
have spout their time in the Mediterranean and the Tagus—
everywhere, in fact, where it was plemant. (Laughter and
cheers.) But yet during that time the sum of one hundred
and tiny millions sterling has been taken in the shape
of taxes and headed over to this department. Toe
woods and forests you have already baud spoken of,
bat Mr. Gibson (error the b—t thing about it. I was looking
over a map ot the woods and forests estates this monolog.
and I found that there is one called the forest of Salcey, en
Noreiamp.on, consisting of about 1,250 acres. The ranger-
ship or surreyorship of this forest has, for reasons which
have never been disclosed—and I dare say never will be
—been given to an unfortunate fellow who was an attorney's
clerk at one time in the City of London. He went down to
survey the forest of Salcey, and fee took it into his head ti
appropriate it to himself; and before the Woods and
Forests department found it ou, he had cut down the whole
of the forest, and had sold it,t and pocketed the money.
(Great Isughtera Now observe, we have a nobleman woo
presides at the Woods and Forests at present, the Esnl of
Carlisle; I believe, before him, Lord Liucoln. (.• Hear,
hear," and laughter.) lam not sure under whose govern-
ment this perimeter act was committed; but these 'mole
lards have received their salaries of 3,0001. or 4,0001 a year
for performing thi duties of this office. Have they per-
formed Shale duties? (Nee no.) Has anybody performed
them? No. Has not the property of the Woods
and Forests been Blipping away year atter year, and no-
body has paid the slightest attention to it ? These noble
lords are many of them pieced in offiso for purpo-es
far more ornamental than ustful.'. (Laughter awl cheers.)
And I believe, if we h
tenting the nation, not that they
would not have noble lords
ad a parliament thoroughly re re)
office, but that they would have neither lords nor eons-

o'c:ock.

moans in Mies *be did aell deem habits of heals's% and •
capacity ta mew the Milts which they undertook.
(Cheers.) Noy, If we hags aselparikment, our colonial
office would mos be so beelpemegeb to parliament cud to
public opinion se it is at mesa& (Rear, ego) That in-
surrection in Canada some years ago, I bilis,' would Raver
have talon place; and the difficulties which are now arising
in Canada might have been avoided by a different system of
government. (Hear, hear.) We should not have had the
atrocities committed in Ceylon which have disgraced the
country, and have covered with shuns the name of Lord Tor-
rington, who bas been sent cut as governor of that colony.
(Hear.) And I don't suppose we should have had the difti-
culties that are now occurring at the Cape. The feet is, that
our House of Common, is a great screen to the malvereatioes
aed the evildoings of all these departments. And you would
not require to sit more than one session is the House of
Commons to discover that that house which professes to
represent the people does not represent them, but does, con
almost all occasions, screen the malversations and mis-
deeds which us constantly being brought to light in the
various departments of the public service. (" Hear, hear,"
and cheers.) And think you, it we had • House of Commons
such es I have spoken of that for fifty years or more the
condition of Ireland would have been so entirely saatteaded
to as it has been until yecently ? I will mot egg MOM of
Ireland, for it is too grave a subject to treat thee hisishatally;
bat I will say, that its position is a standing condemnation ef
the government and of the constitution of this kingdom&
lam not speaking sentiments which I myself have taken up
but tonight, fur they were told as distinctly when I wee a
candidate for Manchester as they sue now. I have hell them
for many years, and the additional experience I have pima
from being a member of the House of Commons, hes only gone
to confirm me still more in my belief of tee urgent necessity
fur the changes which I am now advocatieg. (Laui
cheers.) And I have not made this declaratisn here
only, but in the House of Commons itself I have, on
more than one occasion—but on one occasion especially—
frankly and openly stated these doctrines, and urged them
for acceptance on the house. Of ceuri• the House of CAII-,
mans will not reform itself of its own will. (Hear, hear.)
But there is • r ction of a party there who can, at least, tell
what the people wish upon this subject; and if the people
choose, by emaciation and combination, they can at every
election add largely to that party, aid they can at length
correct ibis greatest and most fundamental of all our evils,
namely, the existence ef a parliament that represents only
• class of the people, and has but small sympathy with the
great mess of the industrial population of the Unite!
Kingdom. (" Hear, hear," and cheers) I have spoken
these things in the Mouse of Commons on your behalf and
in your names, and, as 1 bell ved, for your interests and
your liberties; and I trust that I have not been mistaken
in supposing that when I urged these views I was sup-
ported by that great and ictelligent boy by whom
I was placed in parliament. (Loud cheers.) I would not,
for the sake of pleasing you, abandon for a moment any
thing that I hold to be so important and of such neces-
sity as this—(" hear, hear," and cheers)—but lam delighted
to believe that as year passes after year, experience will only
make • still larger number of yen come up to the standard
of pilitical advancement which I set before you when I
asked to be returned as your representative to the House
of Commons (Cheers.) lam Beasible, deeply sensible, of
the usmsrited honour which you conferred upon me then.
I am sensible of the kindness with which you have re-
ceived my name to-night. I feel that although on many
occasions I may fall short of that which you have a right
to expect—(no, no)—yet that, at any rate, I have a zeal
in your service, and in the service of the country and of
this great cause, as fervent as ever warmed the breast of an
man—(tremendous cheers)—and for that distinction which
you have conferred upon me, and for that power which you
have given me, I am willing to make all the return 1 can
make, which is the devotion of my heart and of my in-
tellect to the advancement of those great principles with
which your town and this district are so intimately saw
elated. The hon. gentleman resumed his seat amidst en-
tnusiastic cheering, having spoken an hour and twenty-foes
minutes.
1.1"1 CHAIRMAN then gave. " The members for the
county, William Brown, Esq., and Alexander Henry, Esq."
—Toe toast was cordially r ceived.
THOMAS BAZLEY, Esq. (president of the Chamber of
Commerce), responded on behalf of the members, who were
absent.
The CHAIRMAN gave, "The borough members general
election committee." (Cheers.)
GEO. WILSON, Esq., an chairman of the committee, re-
'paneled. However merited the compliment might have
been to the commie*, who secured the return of the rignt
hon. gentlemen, Mr. Gibson and Mr. Bright, he believed
I that his individual services entitled him to no such mark of
distinction at their hands.
The CHAIRMAN then proposed " The health of Joseph
Brothertou lisq., the member for Salford." (Cheers.)
The CHAIRMAN proposed, amidst loud cheering, " W.
J. Fox, Esq., and the liberal electors of Oldham."
W. J. FOX, Esq , on rising to respond to the toast, was
received with tremendous cheers. lie said—Mr. Chairman
and gentlemen, I am with you a willing, sympathising, and
an honoured guest, to join in that moat merited tribute of
respect which you have paid to two men, than whom two
shore able, trustworthy, or efficient representatives of the
people are certainly not to be found in the House of Conb
mons. (Chien.) Most hearuly do I sympathise with
you, for it has 1 ng been my mental occupation and long
the gratification of my heart, to witness the course of
these two honourable and patriotic men—the one of them
eabedyiug the energy, the activity, the trutbfuluess, the
Meedisess, the wisdom, and the justice of the industrial
dress, and the other ef them exhibiting a career which to
as has been full of the liveliest interest, and such as to
excite a personal regard in his cause and progress which few
public men are capable of exciting. (Hoer.) I have marked
with lively interest his first uoble victory over the prejudices
and the associations of his juvenile years. (Hear, hear.) 1
have since marked with similar interot the gradual develop•
went of diversified powers, blending the accuracy of tae
Kat'Cial, the ;weer and the clearness of logic the graces
of wit, the humour of eloquence and of refinement, and
tendering him subservient to the best and greatest
or political purposes. (Cheers.) And I wish to supply
an omission, I think, both on his put and on that
of others, in what he said to-night of his own eon-
s:thee lie good humouredly remarked on what he deemed
the cbeiroun's &widener to paint in glaring colours his cause
and service ; but I think that he himself tailed on the other
aide, and by which means places before you one or two cir-
cumstances which is alike due to himself and just in you
that they should not go altogether unnoticed. (Hear, hear.)
His becoming conduct, his spirited and well-principled con-
duct in retiring fr. m offirial lite because he would not cum-
promis the position of the representative of Manchester—
(loud cheers)—that has been adverted to ; but, sir, I for one
—I as a frotrader, and as one ef the people of England,
desirous of just and cheap government, feel similar and
perhaps equal obligations to Mr. Milner Gibson fur his pre-
vious acceptance of office as I did from his relinquishment of
it. And now, air, to advert to the honour you
have done me. I feel ttsat in conferring upon me the
distinguished positii n of their representative in parliament,
that the electors of (Salaam have imposed upon me more
bemuse's than either they or I reckoned upon originally.
Though, sir, you have coupled them with me, and with
the well-deserved tribute to their patriotic and generous
conduct in the sentiment brought before the meeting, the
electors of Oldham are not praised by fres-traders only;
awl if I am always to honour their praises, I must go into
ether companies, such as 1 have not been accustomed to
keep. I must come not only to Manche-ter dinners, but to
Guildford dinners, and to the agriculturists and protec-
tionists of Surrey ; and there acknowledged the compliment
tendered by Mr. Henry Drummond, when he told the far-
mers of Surrey to follow the Manchester school in this par-
ticular—that they returned their representatives without
cost ; aad especially mentioned the electorsof Oldham, as
worthy of their pisefully andacknow imitatioledge the compliment in this rticular.
(Cheers.) Sir, I graratep of
the protectionist as well as of the free trader; but I cannot
quite subscribe to the oundnese of the advice given by Mr.
Drummond, in calling upon them to go and do likewise with
my friends at Oldham ; forgetting that there was a very con-
siderable difference in the men and in their circumstances.
I trust that the teachers of the Manchester school,
those of its professors whom see as well as
those who are absent, will take the whin hand next,
and that they will say to them wheny witness those
sad aberrations and tervigersations to which they are too
prone—" r o d," what does that spell? Laughter and
cheers.) And if they do not find the answer ready, perhaps
they will wake them first taste it and then kiss it. (Renewed
laughter and applause.) I trust, as I have an educational
character at stake, that nobody will suspect me by this
illustration of beiug
,favourable to corporal waterier, for
what the whip need is not a COTe9rlll correction, but • gene-
ral correction. (Hear, beer) how you will support your
members by up^olding the Financial and Parliamentary
Ass.ciation and the Freehold Land Society, which are now
spreading so rapidly throughout the country. But, whether
in the Manchester school or elsewhere, I have learned a little
lsrson of chronology which I will impart to the postbag.
Mr. Fox then alluded to the antislavery agitation, which,
he said, had occupied from about the year 1774 to 1834,
a period of sixty years ; the catholic emancipation agitation
occupied only thirty years; the reform agitation, alter the
peace, fifteen years ; and the anti-corn-law agitation about
seven and a half years. Now, if there was any truth in
aethmetic—(hear, hear)—the present agitation would just
take about three and three-quarter years. (Laughter and
applause.) Trot was a shorter time than had been allowed
by even the leaders ef the present agitation for any hope
whatever of its success. (Hear, hear.) But mark
the coincidence. The natural term of the present par-
liament's existence would he over in about three years
and three Roorten, so that then it might be seen, at
a new election, if the parliamentary retoemers did their
duty throughout the country, by the horsing of some of the
proud men who had ridden over large counties, by showing
the general determination of the people to have a body in
poliement to express their views—it they did their duty
as honestly, deliberately, and as patiently, as the An 1-
Corn-law Logue did—the approach of the prophesied
period might see the people freely and fairly represented.—
Mr. Fs: it then, on behalf of himself and his Oldham consti-
tent having ezpressed his hearty thanks for the kind
reception which had been awarded him, sat down amidst
great applause.
he Right Hon. T. M. GIBSON then proposed a vote of
thanks to tee chairman, which was carried with acclamation,
and she proceedings terminated at ten minutes after twelve

OUR METEOROLOGICAL ReveitNs.—lt will be
even, by reference to oar meteorological tables, that two
alterations have been m►de ;—flrat, the various places are no
longer arranged alphabetically, but is order of latitude;
and, secondly, the returns, which from accident may have
been delayed in arriving in due coarse, are printed the day
after. Them changes have been made at the suggestion of
Mr. Welsher, chief of the magnetic deputraent of the Green-
wich observatory.