The Express.
London, England, 1847-12-13 00:00:00

attention to the bung. (Laughter, and loud cheers.) I have
looked with some interest to the proceedings of the tut
election ; I was abroad to be sue at the time, but I was con-
stantly meeting with newspapers, and read the speeches at
the hustings, and the questions put by the electors to their
candidates. Well, I declare to yeu that Ido not remember
• single instance in which oat of the hundreds of questioners
one of them asked the candidate about the expenditure of the
state—whether there was going to be any retrenchment. We
know they are very fond of luxury and extravagance in public
affairs as well as on private. Do you expect the House o,
Commons is going to be more economical ? Do the electors
think that the government, that the ministers, are going to
curtail their establishment if they are never asked to do it?
Why, it would be about the most difficult trek for a minister
to go into office to retrench and cut down the expenditure
some two or three millions. He would have te dismiss servants
right and left, who in return would abuse him in the news-
papers ; he would have to say to his colleagues, " I am sorry
for it, but I must cut down the exp•aditure, by dis-
missing these men, and cutting down the salaries of others,
because the people demand it, and public opinion has
decided it shall be so. lam sorry for it, but it must be."
No doubt the expenditure of this country might be very
much curtailed, and I will tell you how—not by cutting
down this sr that paltry pension, or reducing salaries of
5001. or 1,0001. to 3001. or 4001. a year. If any reduction is
to take piece, let us strike at one great item, army, navy and
ordnance-17,000,0001. • year. (Applause.) And if we
cannot curtail that expenditure, why all the rest—such as
cutting down some pitiful salary of a man in the Pat-office
or customs—may do very well for sham-politicians to make a
fight about, but will never reach yeur pockets. (Applause.)
How is this reduction of expenditure to be accomplished /
It is only to be done by the strength of public opinion. If
you think in England it is necessary you should manage
the affairs of all the world, with your ships of war and
your armies, then you cannot reduce the expenditure of
the army, navy, and ordnance. (Hear, hear.) Why,
I see in the papers of to-day that there is a
talk of increasing the artillery, and that fortifications
are to be made along the southern coot. It is not very Me-
-1 cal, after proclaiming free trade last year, and announcing
the opening of the ports, that we should decide to receive our
customers with the cannon's mouth. The way is which
Englishmen are taxed is through their fears. They tell you
that somebody is coming to rob and attack you if you don't
pay seventeen millions • year: while the fact is, nobody is
coming to molest you at all. Since the war upwards of six
hundred millions sterling have been expended on our armies
—nearly as much as the national debt. Now, I tell you, you
must not expect men in parliament to reduce their expendi-
ture until a radical change takes place in the opinions of the
electors. The people mart first become economical; the
House of Commons will follow ; and last of all we must ex-
pect the contagion to reach the minister of the day. lam I
glad m 7 friend yonder reminded me of this great question,
otherwise I should not have thought of it. The state is too ex-
travagant, expends too much money, and we shall have to do
with regard to our public affairs what many private people
have to do now • days—reduce the es abliehment—draw in •
little ; we must cut our coats according to our cloth. Well,
gentlemen, I do not know that I have anything more to say,
further than to express my sincere regret that we should have
to nart. I repeat, I have nothing to gain by going from
Stockport ; you never gave me any trouble on account of
local or private business. I did not get a letter once •
month, and I believe I was never asked a favour by, any
elector of Stockport. I do not believe any member can
say as much. I should have been a very foolish fellow to
have wished to leave such a constituency, and go to one
with thirty or thirty-five thousand electors, embracing all
the manufacturing towns in the West Riding of York-
shire, the local business of which will necessarily
take up • great deal of time. But I am not
insensible of the honour which has been conferred
upon me by the most numerous, most wealthy, and
most influential constituency in the empire. Having been
returned for that constituency whilst 1,000 miles away from
it, I had no more idea of what was taking place than I had
of going to the moon. I feel gratified by the compliment
paid me, and exceedingly sensible of the high benour ; but
what I tell you now, I told the electors of the West Riding
—that if I had been here when they proposed to nominate
me, I should have done as I did in the case of Manchester—
taken the most natural count, end declined the honour ten-
dered to me. (Hear, hear.) I have only to say that if my
representing the West Riding of Yorkshire should in any-
wise enhance my influence in the House of Commons, as I
know it does in the eyes of many—should it in any way give
me the means of increased urefulneu to my fellow country-
men—l can only say that I place my services, upon public
questions and upon public grounds, es much at the disposal
of the constituency of Stockport, as ever I did when I had
the honour of representing you.—Mr. Cobden resumed his
seat amidst the continuous plaudits of the meeting.
Mr. Corrocx regretted the separation, but looked upon
it as a dispensation of Provideace, to which they were all
bound to submit, and hoped the borough of Stockport would
not be lost sight of by the 1., pri sentative of the West Riding.
He moved, seconded by Mr. Rayner :
That this meeting expresses its great regret at the determination
which severs Yr. Cstiden's parliamentary connexion with this ho-
rough. It still, however, lays claim to some shore of his retires/sta.
ties enenyins, and hopes, in whatever sphere of action be may be
pissed, to retain a hold on Ws sympathies, and rely, in some degree,
upon Wtaervices.
- . .

. -
The resolution was pared unanimously.
Mr. Coaoase again came forward. He thanked them for
the manner in which they had received the much too flatter-
ing .eulogy which his fronds Mr. Coppock and Mr. Rayner
had passed upon him, and he should be very glad if he
could think that anything in hie past conduct, or anything
which he should endeavour to do in future, should deserve
it. He thanked them for the forbearance they had shown to
him, and confessed that he came upon the platform with a
feeling of great anxiety, and nothing but a reliance upon
their candour and kindness could have made it at all
endurable to him, and enabled him to appear before them.
He had come from London as soon as possible—as soon as
the forms of the House of Commons would permit a writ
to be issued, to make his explanatory statement, and he
should be happy to see either publicly or personally any of his
late constituent.. He begged that this separation might not
be considered at all as a severance of the connexion !
which had hitherto existed between them. (Applause.)
Now, he ought, he knew, not to say another word more,
and in what he was about to say he begged that it might
not be understood that he was canvassing for any indivi-
dual. If he was an elector of Stockport, and a member who
was retiring came there to solicit his vote for a successor, he
should at once repudiate that interference, and say, " You
have done your duty.; we have given you a cordial recep-
Coo, and our connexion is at an end." But without wish-
ing to canvass for any man, he felt that Stockport and free
trade principles were too much identified, not only in Eng-
land but through the world ; he felt that those principles
with which his name was associated, mainly through their
kindness and confidence, were too much at stake in the con-
test now about to take place—he felt too much interested
in the election Yu Stockport which they were about to
make, not to express a hope —he felt convinced
that they would not allow themselves or himself to
be stultified before the world. (Several rounds of
applause.) He felt convinced from what he had seen of
the electors of Stockport, that they would not show it to be
said in this country, or in any foreign countries, that the
name they bore, and which is always associated with the ques-
tion of free trade—that this great agitation and movement
for free trade had bean nothing but a sham all the time—
(hear, hear)—that the inhabitants of Stockport were not in
favour of free trade after all ; and that the member for
Stockport, when he talked of the name of his constituency,
as being the representative of free trade principles, wu tell-
ing nothing but a falsehood—that there had been another
election for Stockport, and that the Stockport electors bad
sent a protectionist to parliament. (No, no.) lie spoke of
no particular individual—but let the man they sent be true
to those principles which they had so eminently contributed
to maintain. Let him be a free-trader, not a eonformer—
not a man who wanted to get into the boat when it was
in the breakers, in order that he might help to swamp
it. But let them send a man who is earnest in his convic-
tions' and wants free trade, not because he should
give tree trade to our people in the same proportion as the
Russians or the Germans give it to their people, but who
wants free trade for Eng.ishmen, leaving the Buesians and
the Germans to carry out their principles of despotism.
" Give to Englishmen," he said in conclusion, " freedom ;
let 'Englishmen be free, and let foreigners, if they like, be
slam." (Great applause.)
Mr. BRADLEY, as elector in the body of the hall, wished
to ask one question of Mr. Cobden, for his own satisfaction,
and also for that of other. abort him. Mr. Cobden had
said if we had had a sufficiency of the raw material. cotton,
we should have been better off than we are now. Now, he
(Mr. Bradley) argued that if there had been • plentiful
supply lof cotton, the warehouses would have been filled
sooner, and that instead of a few failures only we should
have had a very great many.
Mr. COBDEN thought the gentleman forgot if they had had
cotton 60 per cent. cheaper, instead of 60 per cent. dearer,
as it had been, that there would have been a far greater in-
crease in the eassamption, and consequently trade must
have been better, tease there are always more customers
for a thing when ft Is asap than when it is dear. In pro-
portion to a thing Wag scarce it was dear; but he could
not under any circuses contemplate a disadvantage to
any people in haring ea abundant supply of therm material.
'—btr. Cobden concluded by proposing a vote of thanks to the
chairman, which pried unanimously.—The proceedings
then terminated.