The Sun.
London, England, 1852-11-03 00:00:00

e--
body spoke about Froe-trade. But now we are in this
most smeller position, that we have undeniably a Pro-
but we are blamed, and the
tection Ministry in o
are positively hooted, if they
folluwers of that
wordministry
u hb.r) A Protection meeting is a
thing now not to be about the question of Protection.
say a single
(" Hear," and a 1
agthought ot ; in fact, I believe it is
idered to be as dangerous a thing. as a convocation
CODS I
t is not expected to
of the clergy. (Loud laughter.) . .
end in an harmonious' tied rational discussion of any
great question of public policy, but in something like a
senile, disgraceful to all concerned in it.
enplete
c(cLaughter.) But this is very easy to comprehend. The
chair man of the Publication Committee of the Protection
seeiesy, that once met at 17, Old Bond-street, is now
transformed into a Secretary of the Admiralty. (A
laugh-) Major Beresford (groans and hisses), who was
whipper-in to the Protection party, is now Secretary-at-
war, and if he does not hold his tongue somebody will
bate to perform on him the duty of whipper-out.
(Laughter and cheers.) Mr. Christopher is by some
-,eoedeeful traesformation made a Chancellor of the
Ducey of Lancaster. Mr. Bankes, who declared that
Free-trade would be ruin to Dorsetshire (hear,hear),
because be was a lawyer under some unknown 'title ot
Carel:or Baron, is now Judge-Advocate. Sir John
grollope (laughter), another eminent Protectionist, is
stew at the head of the Poor-law Board. Lord Nees,
ties sun of the Earl of Mayo, who recently took the case
of the Irish corn millers under his protection, propo-
sing eller, fl err should be kept out, that Irish. mills
mighe be made more prosperous, is now Secretary for
'retire/. Mr. Herries, who was the patron of the ship-
ping, is ?resident of the India Board. Sir J. Peking-
ton, who teo'k the sugar planters under his especial pro-
tection, has been raised from the contemplation of bills
for the regulation of beer-houses to the government of
Mr. Disraeli
40
colonies. (Laughter.) And, fitaa y,
slaughter and hisses), the patron of all these monopolies,
the propounder of every, kind of fantastical scheme for
the amusement of the country gentlemen, and the bam-
boezlement of the farmers (hear, hear), is a member of
the Cabinet and Chancellor of the Exchequer. A Whig
poet wrote a couple of lines about the Whigs, which may
well enough be applied to the Protectionist party :
" As bees on flowers alighting cease their hum,
So, settling into places, squires are dumb."
(Great laughter.) But I take it for granted that such
persons throughout the country—farmers and others—
who are honestly convinced that Protection is a sound
policy, and that these men in office ought to endeavour
to advance it, will ask what advantage it is to therm that
these talking oratorical Protectionists when in opposition
should become dumb dogs that cannot bark when in
pewer. (Laughter.) I certainly anticipate a great and
most interesring " breach of promise" case (laughter);
and what with corn, and ships, and colonies, Mr. Disraeli
will be the defendant against the claims of three fair
ladies at once. (Renewed laughter.) Now, contrast the
position which we, the Free. traders, occupy with that of
the acknowledged stereotyped statesmen of this country.
Up to the autumn of 1845, the Whigs and the Tories as
a body, were in favour of Protection. In fact. Lold
Derby and his party, and the country gentlemen, for
any thine they have said in public, are Protectionists
still. Our case, when our meetings were first held in
the Corn exchange of this town, was just as good as it
is at this moment; and every man who had thoroughly
examined the question, and who was honestly disposed
to do that which economic principles and common jus-
tice pointed out to be right, know as well then its he
knows now, that the case of the Anti-Corn-law League
could not be met, and that the corn law was as wicked
and unjust a law as we, in our speeches and writings,
have ever described it to be. But the fact is that we are
not statesmen. (Laughter.) We aro cotton-spinners,
and manufacturers,. and bleachers, and printers, and
shopkeepers, and traders of all kinds, and professional
men. We are not statesmen, and have never pretended
to be so. In this country there has been a great gulf fixed
between all those interested in industry and the paths of
statesmanship; and though we were right 14 years ago,
and have been right on this question ever since—though
three Cabinets have been wrong, and one of them
has not yet put itself right—it is to be held that we arc
not statesmen, and that those men only who could not
see what was simply right on this great fundamental,
alt-absorbing question, are entitled to describe and to
carry out the political policy of the nation. We have
not hereditary brains. (Great laughter.) We are " a
Jacobin club.'. (Renewed laughter.) That you know
on the authority of a gentleman who is a member of the
Cabinet, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the
leader, at least, of a minority of the House of Commons.
(Laughter, some hisses, and cheering.) Why, a man
who calls us a Jacobin Club, must think it is not con-
siatent with loyalty to the Throne to declare that the
people of this country shall not be starved. We'll
teach him whether we are a Jacobin Club or not. (Loud
end prolonged cheering.) But we are the democracy.
Lord Derby says this, and he must be a high authority,
for his blood for twelve generations has flowed at the
high level of an Earldom. Yet not all the ancestors
of the Stanleys ever did one-thousandth part so much
to give comfort and tranquillity to this country as we,
the democracy of the Anti-Corn-law Lsague, have
done. (Loud cheers.) But we are also something
else, if possible, worse. We are, according to the
dictum of a man of noble family, whom a metropolitan
constituency thought it their duty to reject as their re-
presentative in Yerliansent, the anticipated deluge.
(Great laughter.) Well, I believe the -fins," the geu-
tlemen who are in office, always endeavour to perende
the country that after them nothing can be looked for
but a deluge and national destruction. The Whig
Governmeht said something very bite this to you. They
said, " Don't turn the Whigs out until you have found
se-n ebedy to sweetly their places." The present Govern-
ment, "Don't turn us out ; it is better to
—"'' Bear the ills you have,
" ' Than fly to others that you know not of.'"
(Great laughter.) On this platform we have never
been prize/is of any Gov& rneaent. We have never fee
tiou tly allied ourselves with any party in order to over-
throw any Cabinet. We have stood here, as we stand
here to-night the pledged defenders of the sacred right
of industry to the people of this country ; and no pro-
testations of any kind, no offers from any quarter,
have ever sufficed, or will ever suffice, to turn us one
hair's breadth from our duty on that great question.
(Cheers.) But there does seem a probability that
the Anti-Corn-law League will, in tact, in a very
abort period become a matter of history, and it is
usual when some one of great value and of great
virtues passes from among us that something should
be said of his character, and that some lessons should
be drawn from it for the benefit of those who survive.
Now, ask yourselves this question,—Why eves the corn
law passed at all in 1815 ? (Hear, hear.) Follow that
up with another question,—Why did the corn law, under
different shapes, all about equally objectionable, remain
110`,P the titatule- la:x.4 of this free country from 1815 to
1816? There WaS not a moment during those 30 years
whoa that corn law was not an offence in the sight of
Heaven, and a flagrant violation of the rights of every
industrious man lie this kingdom. (Hear, hear, and
erects.) We don't speak of the Crown—the Crown had
little—probably nothing—to do with that law. It could
never be the interest of a monarch of this, or any other
country, to have such a law as that afflicting millions of
his :al.-,jects. I say not much of the House of Lords,
fog, unhappily, t's;c) many members of that house have
te:.:ct cdocated in the belief that they have some here
ditary claim to settle themselves upon the industry oi
the people of this country. (Hear, hear, and cheers.)
Of tee House of Commons, however, I will say this
much,—that it was composed in 1815, and up to 1832,
and that in a lesser degree it is now composed,
of lords anti squires, the humble servants, the family
relations, or connected by kindred and by interest
with the great territorial aristdcracinvho are enthroned
in the Deuse of Lords. (Hear, hear.) If you bad had a
real representation in 1815,—if the people of this country
hadaiet been led into that awful strife against what
were called French principles,—if he had not added
500,000,0001. at least to the national debt during that
period.—in all probability, before 1815, you would have
had a better representation of the people in the House
of Commons; and it, at any time subsequently to 1815,
Buell au improved representation bad existed that curia
law :must have fallen amid the execrations of the people,
on some one of those several occasions when distress
was spread throughout almost all ranks. Yet, after
enderieg to 1838, ft repaired seven years of labour
—of public meetings—or such an employment of the
printing-press for political objects, as this country had
never before known, and enormous subscriptions, and,
cynic then, there was a majority of 100 men in the
House of Commons against !the total repeal of the
eursi laws, and only from 80 to 100 votes, I believe,
were ever recorded in favour of such a proposition.
Iriaally, it required an Irish famine in 1846,—such a
famine as had not been known in Europe for can-
tiaries,—it, required that a calamity should overtake
eee-third of the United Kingdom, under which and
its immediate coosequerces, 250,000 dwellings of
()sue countrymen have been swept away,—more than
five times the .
the „0,.,.,_.0 number of houses in Mauchester,—and
~,,,,i,,71
_1 of Ireland has been diminished by
this moment,'u-000 (for that part of the kingdom has, at
than 30 year " greater population than it had more
liey of the law, It satisfy Parliament of the impo.
penalties ahould he waa
necessary that all these heavy
which are record_Raid, that all these awful sufferings—
neicr be adequately described another world, but which can
constitution
in this—should be en-
dured before your
taferrtied not to work), and (ill framed, ill adapted,
would act open principl:sadotyour House of Commons
common justice, or obey
the
lation reqofuirementsthe kingflern of the ,
intli
gent and industrious popu-
hear-) But when the
1101150 of Commons, after (Hear
all this
thlaws were finally
con-
vinced and converted, and the corn laws were
abol:Ated, what are we to think of ,
nlconduct of the
Administration at present in power,
public offices, now meeting in Cabinet connn'9Yina the
are now about to prepare the speech ot the SPo'vt'‘ and
who
the opeeing of the Imperial Parliament ? e're-sffn on
what, after ibis experience, wet are to think of a caiNeut
not yet converted? Ought it not to be pointed at with
indignation and scorn, and hurled from their seat of
power? The fact ii that, as an industrial people wi,
carry the aristocracy on our backs. Under your represen-
tative system Manchester, Glasgow, and Birmingham are
dwarfed in the House of Commons to the size of Har-
wich, Thetfoid, and Totnes, and the whole population,
and all the electors of those three boroughs are very
mush smaller—nay, do not even approach near—to the
population of a single ward in this borough of Man-
cheater. I sue of opinion that where there are popula-
tion, industry, wealth, and intelligence, if we have a
free constitution at all, there must be power, and if this
e, be net granitied, then, I say, that our constitution is a
et
sham, and our representation is an imposture. (Cheers.)
se . I am not anxious that we should have other great move-
mento for great objects. I myself have had so much
of political agitation that nothing but the most impera-
tive andoevorwheltning sense of public duty would induce
me
to connect myself with anything farther of the kind;
(
‘e) atbtit I d
e .
e beliefs 1114 we owe it to posterity as to ourselves