Northern Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1857-06-20 00:00:00

PUBLIC MEETING IN MANCHESTER

The Speaker then asked whether Peter Johnson and
John Lord had been ordered to attend, to answer charges
in reference to the Rochdale election.
The Sergeant announced that John Lord was in atten-
dance, but Peter Johnson was not, though the order had
been served upon him.
A warrant was ordered to issue to take Peter Johnson
into custody.
John Lord was then called, and in answer to the
charge said, he had never attempted to induce Rothwell
to leave the country, but he had heard Johnson offer £5O
towards his outfit if he would go to New Orleans.
The accused having withdrawn,!
The Attorney-General suggested 'that the case should
be referred to a select committee.
The suggestion was adopted; and after some discussion
upon the matter, a conversation took place as to whether
the accused should be liberated, under an order to attend
before the committee.
Mr. Butt moved that Lord should be recalled and ex-
amined, to show whether there was a case to justify his
retention in custody.
The motion was opposed by the Attorney-General.
On a division there appeared,
For the motion 42
- Against it

Majority - 55
The following committee was then nominated :—The
Attorney General, Lord John Russell, Mr. Henley, the
Attorney-General for Ireland, Mr. Horsman, Mr• S.
Egerton, Sir H. Willoughby, Mr. Roebuck, Mr• Macauley,
and Serjeant O'Brien.
An order was then issued for the attendance of Lord
and Rothwell-
In a committee of ways and means a vote of £8,000,000,
ont of the Consolidated Fund, was agreed to.
The house adjourned at two o'clock.

(FROM OUR OWN REPORTER.)
A meeting of the Association for the Supply of Cotton
and the public generally, was held in the Town Hall of
Manchester yesterday, for the purpose of taking into con-
sideration the present inadequate condition of the supply,
and the best means to be taken for its remedy. The
proceedings opened at eleven o'clock, by which time a large
meeting had assembled in the large room of the Town
Hall.' The chair was taken by the Mayor of Manchester,
James Watts, Esq., of Abney-hall.
Among those on the platform were the Right Hon. Lord
Stanley, M.P., Colonel Wilson Patten, M.P., Mr. J. A.
Turner. M.P.. Sir Alexander Ramsey, M.P., Mr. Platt,
M.P., Mr. Watkins, M. P., Mr. Oliver Heywood.,
Mr. Christopher Bushell, Liverpool ; Dr. George Buiet,
of Bombay; Mr. Thomas S. Mort, Mr. Corbally,
Liverpool ; Mr. Clegg, Manchester ; Mr. Eiward
Ashworth, Boltor, ; Mr? Entwistle, and a large
number of gentlemen representing commercial and manu-
facturing interests in Manchester, Salford, Bolton, Roch-
dale, and other towns and portions of the surrounding

districts_
The CHAIRMAN : Gentlemen, most of you who'are here
are 'aware of the object we have in view in holding this meet-
ing. It is to endeavour to increase the growth of that most
valuable article which we require in this country—cotton
—(hear, hear)—and, if possible, to obtain it from all parts
wherever it can be got, in any country. Allow me to say,
that I hope the merchants of this city, who are not imme-
diately interested in the manufacture of cotton, will assist
the association by their contributions, and by their annual
subscriptions. (Hear, hear.) I shall at once, without de-
taining you for a single moment, call upon the mover of
the first resolution, Mr. J. Aspinall Turner, to come for-
ward. (Load cheers.)
Mr. J. Aserearz Tuaregs, M.P. for Manchester, then
came forward to propose the first resolution, ..and was
received with loud cheers. He said: Mr. Mayor, and
gentlemen, it is a very short time ago since I received the
resolution, and I was not at all aware that I should be
called upon to address this meeting at so early a period.
I do_ not think it quite right that I should be
called upon to do so, because, although I am
one of the members for Manchester, and, perhaps,
on that account the compliment has been paid to me, yet
I have come here rather to hear than to sae-,k, because I
wished and expfc:ed that this meeting would have been
more a spinner's meeting—a demonstration on their
part to excite members of parliament and others to aid them
in carrying out the object which to them is all-important.
(Hear, hear.) As chairman of the Commercial Association
of this city, this is no new subject to me, for I have been
almost tedious in adverting to the subject for the last twelve
years. But I must say that the subject has been treated
with very great apathy and indifference on the part of the
trade. (Hear, hear.) Now the wolf which I said was
approaching, is actually at your doors, and now you are
rousing yourselves, and I hope vigorously, to drive it away.
To say that this large district is reduced to the necessity of
assembling and associating its members together, and form-
ing a body like the Cotton Supply Association; argues some
neglect in years gone by, fur we have arrived at a period
when famine is among us. I believe that most of the mills
in this district are now working, as a matter of fact, at a
positive lose. (Hear, hear.) I believe that many of them have
ceased to work for many hours in the week, and that the
work-people in consequence must be suffering very serious
distress ; and unless we can supply the deficiencies and can
bring about a better supply of the raw material which we
all require, the evil will be aggravated and the prosperity
of this district in my opinion, must very rapidly decline.
(Hear, hear). Gentlemen, are your mills worth all the
money for which they stand in your books at present,
working at a positive loss ? When you come to take stock,
dare you value them at the amount of their cost ? Do you
not consider that it will be necessary to take off very soon
a serious diminution of their value ? (Hear, hear.) I think
you will find it so, and I think the poor-rates will increase,
and I think that, last of all, Sir George Grey will be rather
disturbed in his mind with regard to the peace of this dis-
trict. Now these are very serious considerations and we
ought all to take them into our anxious consideration. The
resolution which has been put into my hands is to the
following effect :—" That, in the opinion of this meeting,
the supply of cotton to this country is inadequate to the
requirements of the manufacturing industry, and, being
almost entirely derived from one source, is uncertain of
quantity and unduly fluctuating in price ; that this meeting
believes that the colonial and other dependencies of Great
Britain afford ample resources for the cultivation and
development of the cotton plant, and that it is the duty as
well as the interest of the British nation to aid the promo-
tion of the efforts by means of which its growth may be
extended, not only in the British dominions, but in all
accessible countries." Now, this resolution says that we
have only one source of supply. That is, perhaps, going a
little too far, but certainly the great bulk of our supply,
and our most useful cotton, comes from the United States
of America. To show that it is an uncertain and fluctuat-
ing supply, I have only to refer to some tables in
my hands—but I shall not weary you with statistics—
which go to show that whereas in 1847 we had,
when our import was only 1,234,000 bales, our
stock at the end of the year was 451,000 bales, or twenty
weeks' consumption. Now at the end of 1856, although
we imported double the quantity we did in 1847, or
2,467,000 bales, we ended the year with a stock of only
332,000 bales, or only eight weeks' consumption. (Hear.)
Is that a satisfactory state of things, gentlemen, with new
mills springing up around us, in the expectation which
once existed that there would be continued and regular
employment for them, and yet you had not, at the end of
1856, more than a supply for eight weeks' consumption
of cotton ? What was the crop of the year 1856? The
crop in the United States of America, on 'which we prin-
cipally depend, was three and a-half millions. At the
last annual meeting of the Commercial Association, I
ventured to predict that we should have a deficiency of
supply from the United States of America of half a million
bales in the crop of cotton. Now, what is the fast It
is the fact that up to the present time, not arrived yet at
the end of June, whereas the cotton year is yet three
months off its conclusion, there is a deficiency to the amount
of 25,000 bags more than what I have stated, being about
525,000 bags deficiency in the crop up to the present
period, therefore, that part of my prediction has been
amply realised. (Hear, hear.) Now if, at the end of the
year 1856, having a crop of 3,4 millions, you had only eight
weeks' consumption in stock, how will you end the year
1857, when the crop is diminished by half a million of
bales? (Hear, hear.) Certainly yon can only keep a
stock of cotton in this country by diminishing the hours of
labour. What does that mean? Just exactly the state of
things at whieh many of you have already arrived—no
return for your capital, and no adequate and profitable
employment for your workpeople. (Hear, hear.) Now,
how are we to remedy this state of things—for it is high
time to set about a remedy ? You have associated your-
selves together as a Cotton Supply Association, not to grow
cotton, for it has been suggested to us often that it is our
dnty to do so, and it has been asked, why do not the
Manchester spinners take the matter into their own hands,
and go and grow cotton? People might as well ask, why
do not the buyers of tea, if there is a deffieient supply,
scud out persons to grow tea in China —or
if there is a deficiency in the supply of sugar, why do not
the consumers send out capital to the plantations to grow
more sugar ; or why do not , the consumers of wool keep
sheep in Australia. But that, I think, would not be the
legitimate way of proceeding. It is a legitimate way of
proceeding for you to come together and furnish some
funds—not very large, but some funds very small compa-
ratively with your present losses—to associate your-
selves together, to put the money into the hands of an
active committee—and that active committees can be formed
in Manchester, I think has been tolerably well proved in
years gone by—let them endeavour by every means in their
power to disseminate information with regard to the in-
creased price of growing cotton, to remove the :obstacles
which stand In the way of an adequate supply, and to
point out what are the obstacles in various parts of the
world, and in some particularly, which will be hereafter
attended to, regarding the growth of cotton, and to do what
they can in every legitimate way to assist in furthering our
great object. (Hear, hear.) You can do much by
competition, but by desultory and individual efforts
yon can do nothing. Among the countries to which we
have to look is Africa. In the north of Africa the French
are doing a great deal. In Algeria, I know that great
efforts are being made by the. French, and the French
Government are doing just the thing which I think it is
their du`y to do, developing the resources of the country of
which they have taken possession. (Hear hear.) On the
west coast of Africa, my friend Mr. Clegg will tell you
something of what has been done, and I believe he will
tell you a somewhat more satisfactory story than I can
I have tried that part of the world. Perhaps he may tell
me that I have not tried it the right way ; but I have made
an experiment there, and knowing the negro character
myself, I have little faith in their working steadily in the
occupation of cotton growing. In the south, although
Natal is admirably adapted for the growth of cotton as to
climate, there will be for a long time a great deficiency of
labour. I have no very great faith in Natal as a
cotton growing country, although it may supply a
little, lu Australia, something may be done, but I
think it only holds out a very distant pros-
pect of relieving us of our wants. We must look for
something more near, or else while the grass is growing
the horse will be starving. (Hear, hear.) The West
Indies have been mentibv.ed ; I have more expectation of
something being duns there than I have a the other