The Express.
London, England, 1850-01-10 00:00:00

Dili. COBDEN IN BUCKINGHAM

SHIRK

GREAT MEETING AT AYLESBURY.

Yeeterday evening, HA County Hall in Aylesbury,
go, of the lamest 'ooildisens devoted to • similes pitmen in
was thowded with as andieace imposed of faname,
onour. re, and townspeople, to hear from Mr. Cobden hie
epitome en the present important orris in the traipse'
id., The platform was crowded with tenant farmers and
the respectable tradesmen of the neighbourhood.
ye,. ti A ['SON, having token the teak, said he was sore
Om was frames and atealinem enough limner& the people
01 Ail stoney to give II lair and impartial Menne to every-
ore oho dvire to videos the medlar.
The SECRETARY (Mr. Hameltee) said he bad remeived
letters WAR several gentlemen regnittiag their imbilky to
...tend. Om of the from Sir 0. Dathweed, he maid read
—tho lette r said, " I wish Mr. Cobden every suceess in his
,Nowoe, which 1 trust will be of envie" in selightening
the mricalturiste of this c ninty is to their rat
interests. No on. has been a warmer supporter
or Mr Cobden'e policy than myeelf." The members kW the
comity and tar the borough of Aylesbury had been invited
to attend the meeting, and had been informed that the plat-
form was fret—(" No. r. 0." awl " Yee. yes")—and ha (the
Secretary), as the °feral organ of the committee, might in-
form themtkat Mr. Cobden had had nothing to do with fixing
the time ef this meeting. (Hear, hear.) He said thin he. ,
cave he foetid that Mr. Disraeli, yesterday, at the meeting
at Urea! Marlow, made what be eon.idered a geese bit ~,
mice that the meeting had been filed by Mr. Cobden it •
time when none of the aviculturtits could attend. Log 1
before they had had any notion of the Onset Marlow ranting
the day for holding the present mee-ing had been fixed ; and
as it me kaown that Mr. Dora. was • slew coach—(e
lambi—it was thought that by fixing the hour at By
o'clock, it would give the hon. member full time to come
down and meet Me. Cobden. (Hear, hear.)
The CHAIRMAN, as the representative of Lord Hugest,
believed he might say that there could be so doubt, had
that noblemen been in the country, he would have beet
preterit. (Hear, hear.) Bat as he was not is thw omory
that woulo be a mfileient rove to his abeeme. Mr. La-
timer., a farmer raiding mar Be Alban's, would now act
drew the meeting.
Mr. LATTIMORE ohorved that, if the condition of the
framer was not improved, it was not for want V adviser-
and friends. The tenant farmer had many frit nds—saionost
the foremost of them was Mr. Dierseli. At the meeting at
ling Marlow yesteriav, the hen. member acid
(In the requisition) that the tenant farmer had
a reht to be put an an equal position with
his fell oresubjeeM. He (Mr Lattimore), as a tenant farmer,
responded to that, and demanded for the whole class w
tenant tatintere equal rights and privileges, equal returo and
'merit, far their capital, their energy, swi their jadeite,—
as the co.. mercial and trading classes enjoyed. (H. sr, hoer.)
The great coyest now going oa was ea the question, Who
wee to pi., the taxes? ("Yee. that is the poiut.") Mr.
Disraeli had Md. speaking of the territorial proprietors,
that unless they had protection they could not continuo to
pay their accustomed share. Now. if they decided on Mr
Diseseli's plan of protection, they would decide on dist
which was unjust to the rest of the commenity. Protection,
according to Mr. Disraeli's plan, meant enhancement of the
prices of agricultural pectin* by legal enactment. If th,
farmers alone were concerned, that would, of course, soon
be settled in the affirmative—(hear, hea)—bit'
there w.s another party to be consulted. via., the consumers,
who ion: an .qua int. rest, and had to pay their fair share of
the taxes. It wag necessary, then, that they should consider
not only the loo• way of raising the taxes, but how they
c old be fried with the greatest fairness to al chums and
CI :atoms. Now it was ordeal that if property did rot
pay i e fair stare of tatation a greater proportion of the
national heelers must be thrown on the industry of the
countre ; Gni, it the remission proposed by Mr. Disraeli for
the It welt of the landlords throe an additional ten per cent.
on imports, the working classes woad have so much
mon thee their fair share of taxes to pay. Speak.
ing a. • tenant farmer, it appeared to him that there
was no natural hostility between trade and agriculture.
(Hear, hear.) The permanent interests of owners of every
deo. ription if g, ring and industrial capital, engaged in all
kinds el nempetioss, were indissoluble noised, and wee,
equally interested in promoting pabla economy, good go-
vernmene rectory, and justice for all claims of the people.
(Hear. hear.) Mr. Disraeli had assumed that the interests
of the onset tanner and the landlord, in their prams% Oxus,
weir ii, WWII. But it was not so. Them were two kinds
of capital employed is arming—fixed and Stating capital.
The fixed or real capital received the rent; the
floatirg capital, 'kith was the labour the tenant
put co the land, paid the rent. (Hear, Item )
Be' reel emoted pee sewed 'monopoly dell legislative power.
and of all polities], social, and judicial honour,. But the
tinting capitel had no protection, hut, en the contrary, be-
came absorbed into the real capital the moment it was once
committed to the soil. Real capital secured itself against
waste—the rent was Mewed by law, and the result was, that '
it was not the best farmer, hut the highest balder,
who got the land. This practice tended to enhance
rents to the prejudice of the enterprising man of
moderate capital. Then real property had exempted Holt
from the reptant of the legacy and probate duties, to the
rej adios of whir descriptions of property. Brockman, is
hi' work, ,toted that the number of persona employed in
cc culture erne 3 30,207, and that the capital employed was
'050.0.4.0001. But Si (Mr. Lattimore) contended that this
lar„. amount of cumbers and capital; hal neither
• I. gel eor political existence. There was no such
thing as tenant farmers' capital, inasmuch as all invest-
ments in land formed part of the freehold. Yet this capital
wee mewed for local rates, tame, log icy, and probate duties,
aad was amenable for woos and dilapidation'.
Toe CHAIRMAN said it was now nis gnat pleasure and
high hamar to }strode°, to the meeting the tried friend el
popular rights, of situ and religious liberty, and of freedom
of trade, Kidwell Cobden, Eq. (The anaonneentent was
received with tremendous cheers, interspersed with • few
dissentients, who were speedily overpowered by the general
sense of the monies.)
11r. COBDEN then cams forward, and the p'audits
Were r newed and sustained for several inaistm.
When sills*" WAS test red he proceeded to speak
as fellows :—Mr. assignee and gentlemen, It gives
me great pleasure to follow a gentlemen who has
addressed you ha the earmity of • tenant farmer—me who,
to my ewe knowledge, by the growth of more can and the
raising of more cattle, and in employing of more labour, I
excels most of his wriohbonn. It gives me great pleasure to
follow • man to well entitled to speak on tie interests cf
agriculture. (Chem, and "No.") We are met here to-
day under the denomination el a parliamentary and &un-
cial refine meeting, but it will be known to every one here
present that the general impression, both here and abroad,
is, that this is • meeting, in so far se I am concerned, haul
fur the purple of discussing the comparative mote
of protection and free trade, in so tar as they cm-
tem the interests of the tenant farmer. (Hoar,
bear.) I remember speaking to an audience in
this ball is years ago ; I remember on that occasion going
through the arguments necessary to show that the then
misting seen laws were f en impolicy and injustice.
tem mber maintaining the proposition that the corn laws
had not proved beneficial to any class of the community, aid
I natured to say that the country would be mon
prosperous without • system of agricultural protection
than with it. (Hear, hear.) Well, I stand here
sow to maintain by every tee: that can proclaim the prep-
Wty or advancement ot • nation that we are now in a better
conaition without the corn law than if we bad it. (Loud
chore tooth exclamations of " No," but generally entnusi
ark meat) Well, I am glad to see that theta are some
Coratieats here, because it will show, at least, that this is
no packed meeting (Loud cheers.) We have got some
protectionism here, and if you will only keep the order emis-
sary for all rational proesediap, I will endeavour to make
Ws all free traders before I heave this spot. (Loud cheers.)
I hare said that, by every test that can decide the gelation
of national prosperity or national adversity, we stand in a
better position sow than when we had the corn law. What
We the testa of national prosperity ? A declining or im-
proving nevem ? Weil, our ee is better now than it
was under the sera law, (Hear, hear.) Oar exports and
imports, also, are better. (Hear, hear.) Take, then, the
question of pauperism, and I will not shrink from the test
of pauperism even in the sgricultural districts. (Hear.)
I have the statistic' of the unions of Bucketed Bedfordshire,
and I warn the protectionists, who are going about per-
suading themselves that they have • case on the subject
of pauperism, that when parliament meets, and Mr. Banos
is enabled to bring forward his poor law statistics up to the
last week—not blue books with the act:tents of last year
—I wars them that even in the sgricultural districts
pauperism is in • better condition, now that bread is
cheap, than it was in 1847, when they had prices to
their Man's content, and the loaf was double the pries
it is at present. (Hear.) Take nest the state of wages, the
meat test of the COIIOItIOII of the mares of the people.
What are the people earning now compared to their earn-
ings is 1b47, whoa the protectionists had prices to their
mislactuo ? As a rule throughout the country, the people
an earning more money now in every branch of burin, a,
while thee are getting the comforts and necessaries of
hie two-thirds cheaper. (" Hear, hear," and " Not the
agricultural labourers.") I will come to them by and bye.
Bet I must get you to consider in the outset that the agri-
etiturel labourer is not the entire nation. (Loud cheers )
IMotdes, it the agricultural labourer be an exception to the
emend rule, we mast calmly inquire the reason. 1 remem-
ber ioe well that when I mom to see you before, how my
man aid to be dosed with the argument that, it we had
tree vole in corn, the gold would be drained out of the
thYStry, because that fire millions of quarter' of corn could
not be imported without • drain of gold; but the fact is,
teat forty or filth million quarters of corn have
kin imported within the last four yeas, and
hull the ,often of the Bank are completely en-
cumbered with gold. (Loud cheering, a voice "1 en
)oo'd seed • into Buckinghamshire.") Now gentle-
too I base spoken of wages. [Some interruption here
tort place, and it was announced that a platinum wished to
'"'," to. Oas peruse exclaimed it wee Mr. Disraeli, an
annoocceme at which ceased the greatest laughter and
C sow j
Tae CHAIRMAN said that his wish was that every
O'reo should he accessmodated ; bat If any one disturbed
tie meeting, there would he no allarmative bet to remove
tan flor, hear )
Mr. COBDEN seemed—l &set wish to be the means of
en sloe wohmion. It my one wants to be board let him
•,'mace to the aloha's, "ad if he refuse he must be an la-
P•vor. (casaa.) l we weak*, el wages, sod I may
met in every breach a holism wages have ha
P'",td. You may asy that agricultural labour is
exception, but I will set make any sleep-
-1"*. kr the avowal clam* of labourers la your &the.

I lad that Imo is woonso's work the wars of the straw
Plait smokily hays Ia 1847 a family staid OM
15.. a moat M tko hadaow, sod tow t►sir Nat motor
stsomitod to SU ( Now, kev—sad ono or two ea♦nrioas
or diwoot.) I ktow that what I say is woo, beams* IMO of
MO wool szoosin ataaatostarors aro in this hill. Apia.

there is the lees trade. The pillow-lass trade, -ma-
pinying • greet sinew of wows la Heckle/km-
shire, is, I mm delighted to lid, Is• nub
mess floorkeing esaditioa than in 1847. (New. haw-)
The pose pillow: workers him mere wages now them
they hod that, while they get their toad two-thirds shearer.
The poor shairmakere also are gettiag better wall's. I re-
peat it, that there is no .em is say trade to whisk admi-
ts,* has not seeped from the presets moderate prise of
fold. I want now to come to the guidon width elute the
interests of this immediate neighbourhood. It is this--If
every other great interest in the seuntry is Bourke/at, hew
is it that agriculture is deterioradng ? How Is k that
agriculture is found to he in antagonism with every other
interests la the swanky t It Is because it is edablielmdl ea
e false hads—upen act of parliament mine-ens' reser,
like every other interest, it is obliged to be en.
teat with hatless! mites. (Loud cheers.) We lad
need, go celled everywhere, purporting to be meet-
ings of farmers to complain of their distress. What is the
or per remedy for that distress ? Is It not to go, like men
of Mennen, to their landlords, and ask them for fresh terms,
in as that they may have the raw material of their trade,
the lima, et its natural price, and free from those absurd
restrictions which destroy tee value of that raw material?
But, no, no. You have no such thing. You see met-
lege at which the chair is taken Usher by the
tendoweer or his better half, the agent. (Hear, hear.)
PI-nty of talk takes place there, but ii is not the proper talk
for the farmer. What do they say t Why that they meat
go to parliament to get an act to raise the peke of corn, in
order that the farmers may be enabled VI pay their nuts
(Hear, hear.) Toe landlord, es Mr. Danish very properly
-aid at Great Marlow, is an individual who MN land, which
is the raw material of another man's labour, to dispose of ;
and the farmer is the capitalist, who offers to take it and
work it at a profit. (Hear, hear.) In fact the landlord and
the farmer stead in premed, the same position as the tenon
merebant end the cotton spinner. Ins former sells us the
cotton, and the latter spin it ter profit, sad if he can get It
abundant and sheep be makes a profit, bet if the material
he dear he can get no profit. But
.you never hear of 'item
party going to parliament pitiebang for a law to keep up
the price of cotton. (Hear, hem.) 1 declare that when 1
reed the accounts published in the papers of boito- de and
tenants going about together crying out fur protection to
raise the mice of corn, 1 count help eing humiliated at
the spectacle, because it shows the west of intelligences on
tins aide, arid, I tear, of want of honesty on the other.
(Hoar, hear.) Suppose you were to see • crowd of men
turning up and down the streets of At Itsbury, shouting out
" Fineness, protection, gin us protociton ; we are all row.
Mg in the same boat." And if you ...lee who those mote
were, and were told they were the grocers of Aylesbury and
their customers, and that they were cilieg out for a law to
roise the once tit the hogsheads of sugar in their stores,
would you not say that it was a gross combination of the
grocers, and that it was an idle lanai to say that they and
their customers were rowing in the same boat ? (Hear.) Would
you not say that the interests of 04 men ado owned the
hogsheads of sugar were not the same as those
of their customers, and yet this was precisely the position of
ten la- dlord end the farmers. (Cairn, and some dissent)
The gestlemen who interrupts Ind better get as the plat-
form and confute me if lam wrong. (Loud cheers.) Now,
gentlemen, the taut I would recommend the tenant farmers
to adopt toward, the landowners is precisely the plan which
I pursued myself towards my oan tenants, and which 1 will
now 'splint to you. I trust that the papers which write
tor the protectionist farmers, it they report nothing else,
will at least let their aminaltural leaner. know what I am
now going to say. (" How lane are your farms 1") 11
tail you ell about it, don't be alarmed. (Loud cheers.) I
happen to stand here in the quality of • landlord, aittough
one of the most inemdficant of toe ceder. I puss. ss a .mall
mute its West Buse:, about 160 acres, great (Mt of eolith is
covered with wood. It is in a peculiar:), farming district, is
the midst of the largest proprietor,. of Sussex. It is not within
ten miles of a market toe n, nor does it (seen& the Advantage
at the oicidi y of those tell cbitunees which enhance the value
of land in th, manufacturing dia.ricts. Now this is precisely
the k,nd o. laud which we are told by the/de:quota Granby
canbut b- cultiveno in tub country with Mt price of corn at
40.. 1 ins property come into lay possession its 1847. ("The
league bemeot it for )ou.") Yes, I am indebted, and I am
motel to ackuowlooge it, for that estate to the henget,
of my countrymen. (Tremeadeus cheering.) It was
the new of my birth and my ices, el. It was U.S
property of my rummtore ; and it is through the nimokconce
• my wean, men that this small mate, which hail from
teleessity been snorted by say lather, has again come into
my Minus, mod I am enabled uain to light up the hearth of
my fay.en in the fleece were I spent my intancy—(cheer.)
—and I say that ao warrior duke, who holds • vast domain
by ,he vote of an imp. fuel pat element, possesses hie property
by a more honourable title than 1 possess seine.
I lied and prolonged cheers.) My first visit to
this property after it came into my ponossion took place is
1 is. At mat time, as you are aware, prime ranged Limit in
this country, but not expecting that those price, would con-
tinue, 1 ualegot that the proper nun tor every man woo
an tattiest in the land to peepers for the cosines competition
with the foreigner. (Hear, heir.) I ease sod n that every
hedgerow trues that estate should bo cut down. (Cheers.)
I rettiOtteid the tenauts, there beteg two occupying tourist-
OS the prim rty, to remove every twee oit the estate. It
they liked to grab up only • minion of the fences, they
were to be at litkrty to act acoordingli ; but I said I wield
rather they would not leave • singte h nee on the pro-
perty, as I aid u,t consider LIMOS necessary en
bind, which was surrounded by woods. that portion which
required draining I had dreamed at my owe cost (Cheers.)
ibis .dud Is tun:: a, US 1 stated bet./le, en the very midst
of large pr ta heats% leadowiters. soht wero ei a matter of
course, game preserver. It had been particularly infested
with hams and rabbits. I authorised the tenants to kill
them, and to empower any use eke whom they messed to
se. tee same. (Curers ) So troublesome bed been the hares
sad rebbita on that little property, that they had eves
entered the gardens and altetieeets of the ltbouren ; and
sue of those lab:mantra, erten he appeared before the sou-
mittee of the !lessee( Common in 1645, stated that the bars.
sod rabbits not otly devoured the yr peon:es—not only ate Lis
cabbages and Lis peen, but actually dug up hie potatoes.
(Great laughter) At that tints the property did Lot belong
to me. But I to It care to inquire for this man when I
visited the property fa 1848; and,on finding him, I explained
to him that if trio bens and rabbits eve r troubled him or the
other labour. reliving upon my property-1 explained to him
and to them that the present state ot the law authirised see:e-
mu to destroy hues and rabbits, without taking oat a
license, on his own holdings ; and I adv.sed them men to
set gins arid scares on their allotments and gardens, to catch
all the hares a:.d rabbits they could, and when they had
caught them, to be nee and put them in their own pot and
eat them. (Cheers and laughter.) That is the way in which
I dealt with my game. (Cheers.) I mast confess
that I have no taste whatever for the preserve-
Men of that vermin, the existence of which I be-
aky. to be utterly inconsistent with good farming.
(Hear, hum.) The preservation of hares and rabbits !con-
sider to be the greatest obstacle to the employment of the
labourers—(peer, bear); and, for my own part, I would
rather see • good fat hog in the stye of a labourer than the
best game which could be preserved. (Cheers) That is
the course which I took in 1848 to premise for competition
with the foreigner. At that period, as I previously stated,
prices ranged high. They coatinued to do so during the
greater part of the year. Nothing, however, was settled
about rent. But, in the course of the last year, I received
from one of my teasels a letter, in which be said, " When
I took this lead from your prodecessor, it was upon the cal•
tendon that wheat would be at 561. a quarter; it is now
little more than 40.., and I should like to have • new
arrangemeut made with regard to terms." I wrote
in reply, "The proposition which you make it
reasonable; we will have a new bargain. (Chien ) I am
willing to estimate the future price of wheat at 40.., but
whilst I am willing to take upon myself all the disadvantage
of low priors, I must have the benefit of good cultivation—
(hear, hear)—and, therefore, we will estimate the produce
at such an amount as can be grown by good farmers on land
of the same quality." (Hear, hear.) From the moment
that I made that reasonable proposition to the farmers on
my estate there was not the least anxiety of mind on their
part ; they had no more difficulty in carrying on their farm-
ing busiceu under free trade than they had lad under pro-
tection. (Cheers.) From that moment the farmers on this
small property felt that they were no longer in-
terested in the question of free trade end protec-
tion, end the labourer, felt that they bad as good
a prospect of employment es they had had before.
(Cheers.) We have settled our terms. (Hear, hear.) I
have bargained for my rent. It is no business of the public
what tent I get ; that is my business and the business of the
farmer ; but if it is any satisfaction to my protectionist
friends, I will admit that I am receiving a reduced rent,
notwithrtanding the feet of my having drained my land and
had it cleared of every hedge-row tree. (Cheers.) But
what becomes of the arse/sent that it is impossible to carry
on cultivation in this country with wheat at 40a. a quarter /
(Hear, heat) I am getting some rent ; I am not getting so
large an amount of rent as 1 was before ; but It is enough for
me to say that the land is being cultivated, and
that both the farmers and the labourers are contented.
Now, with regard to leases, I have mid to both my tenants,
" Either take the land from year to year, with an emu-
runt binding each of us to submit to a valuation of unix-
hausted improvements when you leave; or if you prefer it,
take a lease, and I will bind you down by covenants as to
the way. in which you shall cultivate the land while you
occupy it." Now, I ask what possible exclaim have lead-
owners in any part of the country for going to public meet-
ings and telling no that the land cannot be cultivated be-
muse wheat is 401. • quarter? (Hear, hear.) I have an
example of wheat groan on inferior landi under the most
disadvantageous circumstances; I bare a case of my own in
point to disprove their statement; and the &sowers
which I intend to give to those noble dukes and
noble lords who are muting about the country so
angrily and scolding me so lustily is this, " Let MO
have the arraneing of the relations between you and your
tenants, and 1 will show you under what kind of holding
the land may be cultivated better than it wee before. The
farmer shall have as good • profit, and the labourer as good
wages, provided you will allow ete to make for you similar
arrangements to those I have entered into with my own
tenants." (Cheers.) That would not suit the landlords: it
would maven into • mem matter of business what is now
made the subject of an agitation which ought to be called
wesestelse. (Hear, beer.) If I had been a protectionist
I &Sold have made money by it. I will show you how.
Whoa say tenant said there ought to be a fresh agreement
between us, if I had been • protectionist landowner what
Medi have bean m 7 naswer ? " That's true, my !geed
abut. 1144 we win lave a meeting at Omit

0•0111111 L • st High Wycombe, to
matins muusent to pow rs." (Laughter.) Then
+. alliond have had • nestle& My tenant. would have
Ma invited to attend ; aid Willi teem they would have
eivuted eat,. We are all rowing is the same boat." (Grim
laughter.) And after two or three hove occupied with dull
*penes, there meld have been a emaclasioa with three
groans **Collate. (Laughter and chem.) [Some indi-
vidual in the centre of the room having, at this part of the
hoe. gentiesman's address, enema an interruption by an
dint to reent the platten, tha chairman requested the
polka to take iato custody every perm Mon vi.denos
might create • farther dieurhame. This led to s sea-
man' of tin latenuptios.] Then, gentlemen, whoa the
meeting wee over, my Meats might have gone home
have prepared for the stet audit day, and hen paid the
same amain of rest as before. As a protectionist land-
owner I should have mated some fran muse ageless the
ant audit day ; aid stesid have told my twit. to come
up to the seat touting of the penectioaista et 17, N•w
Bond-street, ia wan OM they night sign a wwwwW4
her Majesty, he nst tense of petitioning the Ham of
Common., we were gong to lay our implants at the foot of
the throne. (Lang ater.) After my poor tenants had done
this, they might have gone hone and prepared their mats
for the next half-year'. audit and, as sone fresh excuse
would have to be found, 'I should have told them
probably that instead of memorialising the Queen again
they should agitate for the desolation of Parliament., When ones we had hit epos the .theme of
dissolution of Pediment we should hen been
safe a regards our rents for three years, becala each
en agitation would last for some time—you would not bring
it to a dose ender throe years. But, is the 'meantime, whet
would have been the oonssieuences to the country ? (Hear,
hear) Why, what with heart 'lemma at the delay ; what
with hopes inspired by dreary protectionist speeches, telling
the farmers that in ceder to pay rents they must have pro-
tection, while nothing was being dose for the melioration
of their condition, a large portion of the tenantry might
have been ruined. (Hear, hear.) And lam not sure that
a large portion of the tenantry will not be ruined by the
tseties of the protectionists (Hear, Mr.) But will anybody
tell me that the farmer would necessarily be ruined, or the
labourer thrown out of employment, if every landlord pur
sued the 'me course as I have pursued with regard to my
tenantry ? ("Hear, hear," and cheers.) Whet I wish you
to understand is simply this—that this is purely a rent Ives-
don. (Hear, hear.) It 12 a question If rout, and witting
else. (Hear, hear.) If the farmers cannot carry on their
business, it is because they pay too high a money rent in Ro-
seate to the amount of their produce. (Hear, hear.) I
not say that the rents of tne land might in many c sees be
monsive, provided the land were cultivated up to its full ca-
panty. But that can never he done without sufficient ea-
pitch Sufficient capital you can never have without
sufficient snare', ; sufficient security you can never have
without leases, or at lead a tenant right amounting to
a lease. Unless you have all these you cannot ovoid a re-
duction of money nuts, or the other alternative, the ruin of
a Inge proportion of the existing tenaetry. (Hear, hear.)
Now, we want to bring landlord and tensed together, that
they may confront each other in their natural ant legitimate
capacity ; we want them to come together as other men of
bueineu do, instead of playing this comedy at their meetings
and crying out for protection, and saying that they were
rowing in the same boat, when, in fact, they are rowing in
two boats and in an opposite direction. Mr. Latimors
has told you that the stock in trade of the farmers of this
country has been estimated at 260,000,0001. Why, that is
five times as much as the value of the stock in trade of the
cotton manufacturers; and, in order to catch dim cod°.

lords, it is proposed to batten farmers a burden of en
times as great as that to w these cotton lords would be
subjected. Is is not, I aek, a wise project of the fermer's
friend, that the rates should be thrown on the Bustles
capital, three-fourths of which are owned by tenant
farmers ? I am really humiliated when I read of
meetings at which farmers stand, and look, and gape while
speeches are made in which such propositions are advocated.
(Hear, hear, and cheers.) I feel delighted—l positively
reel gratified—that no landlord can e tepid me to attend
such meeting, and that I have not, therefore, the huniiiia-
tion of witneesing such a spectacle. Now, what farmers I
would do if they had leaders it Mr. Latham*, and if they
had the courage to follow them (hear), is this, they would
meet together as tenant farmers, and as tenant farmers on' y.
That is the chirse the operative* and manufacturers of York-
shire and Laseashire nee ; bat the farmers—they are led
cut to parade by the Intel agent, the valuer, and the land-
lord, and they allow the landlords to be constantly parading
them in this way, talking in their name, and making an ea.
Whims of them, which was lamentable to their fellow-
couotrym n. (" Hear, hear," and a laugh.) Now, on the'
subject of the core laws, the tenant farmers should meet
together by thenkelves, separate from the landlords, and
consider hoer the question affected them. (Hear, bear.) I
do not mean is say that on other questions the small squire
and the tenant farmer should be separated, or that the laud-
lord and the tenant farmer should not go together to the
same enurch, meet in the same marketplace, at the
market dinner, and talk together on matters in which
they are mutually and equally interested. (Cheers.)
But when they assemble to talk of free trade, they should
meet together by themselves, and landlords and landowners
ehould be altogether excluded from their meetings to dis-
cuss this subject, In which they have an interest directly
opposed to that of the landlords ; they should exclude not
only the great landed proprietors, who live by letting land
to others, who bring th, it capital and industry to bear on its
co:ilea:ion, but to MOMS proprietors also whose interest is
that of the landowner, although he may be an occupying
farmer to some extent himself, by farming a portion of his
own land. (Heir, hear) Is this matter of protection the
tenant farmers have a totally distinct and opposite interest
from that not only of the landlord, but of the small squire
and the land agent, and urhil they meet together in a body
apart from all other classes to consider the questions
which affect their own particular interests, they will never
have a chance of arriving at a just appreciation of their own
position, as shall enable them to combine together to ob-
tain suns terms and conditions es are necessary to the sae-
earful carrying on of their business under free trade.
(Hear. hear.) Let me not be misrepresented. Ido not
my that, under a healthy and natural state of thing., all
clesees of the community have not a natural interest in com-
mon. I know that the landowner, the tenant farmer, the
manufacturer, and the merchant—all have a common inte-
rest in the prosperity of this country. Let all, then, act
honestly by each other, and they need not doubt but that
they would be promoting, in the end, not only their ow.
interest, but the general interest of the whole community.
(Lund cheers.) We have come here to talk or financial and
parliamentary reform, and other kindred menet.. As lam
minting from a severe cold, I will leave others to deal with
these, having myself preferred to deal with the question as
between the tenant farmers and the landowner,. (Loud
cheer..)

J. HOUGHTON, Esq. proposed the first resolution. He
had stuck to the snip protection as long ea it would hold
together; but it had faller to pieces, sad It was now their
• duty to meet togetner to see what was best to be dose, not
for the landlord only, but for the farmer and the Limiter.
No man was more interested in this question than himself,
' whose every shilling was invested in and upon the land. No
one, not even lir. Disraeli himself, proposed to repeal the
corn laws. The question, then was what wee test to be done for
the farmer and the labourer t They had been told that the
',pea of the corn laws would drive all the gold out of the
country. But what was the fact t There was more gold in
the country than at any previous time. (A voice—" Yes,
but we can't get at it.") But it was the landlords who
prevented their getting it. The whole question was rent.
Uprises were increased by act of parliament to-morrow to
any extent, would they not have a valuer over their lands
with a view of increasing the rent of the land in propor-
tion to that increase of prices t He moved:
"That this meeting denounces the attempt to re-impose
• tan upon the bread of the people; that the proper remedy
for the distress of which the humors complain is to be found
in the re adjustment of terms between landlords and tenants,
sad in the reduction of taxation; and that, to secure the
latter object, it is desirable that the people should possess •
complete control over the choice of the memben of parlia-
ment."

Mr. 1. GIBBS emended the resolution. He said that
the object of it wu to awn the fallacy of protection,
bat he contended that a greater crime never disgraced the
robber or the pirate, than would be the restoration of that
system.

Mr. F. O'CONNOR, M.P., then came forward and was
loudly cheered. lie said he should not have been there but
that no had heard Mr. Disraeli was expected, and he wee
anxious to receive a lemma in political economy from the
' great master. (Laughter.) He presumed that the tenant
farmers were there on a similar masien, and were anxious
to learn how they might become independent of the land-
owners. Be looked upon the present movement as most
important, and be believed that it would mainly influence
the deliberations of the present parliament. (Hear, hear.)
The farmers were the planate in the present action, and Um
landlords tae defendants, and yet the latter unfairly Bought
to be the arbitrators in their own caw. tHear, hear.) Ile
had, in 1835, opposed free trade, because it was unaccomps
Hied by other measure* which had been promised by Lord
John Russell in lidinhargh, but now he supported it because
its advocates were prepared along with it t give the fran-
chise to every unsullied man is the kingdom. Therefore
he had joined this association because it sought to
onfranchise the land, which was the raw material
of labour, and to destroy that infernal feudal system
which gave the country over bound hand mil foot iuto
the hands of the landlords. (Cheers.) He was glad
to find that the resolution was so acceptable to the
meeting. Fur himself, he would repeat that he did
not now stand in antagonism to a great popular
party, and that be could unite with the association without
isurrendering his owa principles. He would n ban Jen
one point of the people's charter—(hear, hear) ; but he could
not refuse to concur in anything which would confer bens,
lßt on the people. (Cheers.) The Queen Dowager had
lately died—a good woman, and one whose conduct had
ben exceedingly philanthropic and humane. (bleu. hear.)
Weald any of themselves be tone farthing the richer, uader
the present system, for the falling in of her allowance of
100,0001. per anima ? (Hear, hear.) Nothing of the kind
was to be expected. He hoped, however, that he should ere
long cease among them as the harbinger of peace, to pro-
claim that the charter had become the law of the land.
(Clasen.)

Mr. likfilLlLL mid that as a landowner of that count
he felt great pleasure in supporting the resolution. (Chitin.)
Ile entirely agreed with Mr. Cobden that as regarded the
cpsesties or Inc readjustment of rent the landlord and the
tenant did not and Gould not float la the mine boat. (Hear.)
It would be rank hypocrisy for him to stand there, and
dealers that in• rent *entreat his own interest and that of
the tenant were identical. It was slearly the interest
of the tenant that the rent should be as low se
kslible, and of the landlord the; it should be es
has possible. (Rear, hear.) It was an important con-
oration, that if landlords could not obtain emplol went for