The Sun.
London, England, 1864-10-14 00:00:00

still to ba during the whole of their course, a period of great
and peculiar interest. But there also circumstances appli-
_

cable to the moment, on which.l will venture to say a word•
We are still, if I may presume to use the expression, in the
trail of the great cotton famine, because, through the

mercy of Providence—first under Him and next by the in-
comparable spirit of our fellow-citizens of Lancashire—

,he workmen in the first place, and their employers

and superiors in station generally in the second, we

have, ftrust, escaped from what may be termed the

bitterness of the affliction.

The worst of the calamity we

may hope 'to be passel. But speaking to a commercial rather

,han to a manufacturing community, I need not do more

than simply observe to you that we cannot expect to return
from a state so disordered and unnatural with regard to the

supply of that great and capital article of industry as that
which has prevailed for the last two years to a state that is

natural and normal without undergoing much inconveni-
ence by the way. The great shock of the earthquake has
been felt, and the ruin it was destined to work, and the suf-
fering it was destined to cause, it has caused. Secondary

and minor shocks have yet to be experienced, and it is for

you, gentlemen, as a commercial cpmmunity, to bear speci•
ally in mind that influences ought to be exercised in your
proceedings by a recollection of the numerous—perhaps the
rapid, perhaps the varying and inverted, but certainly the
great and considerable—changes that may occur in the
course of that downward movement in the price of cotton

and that upward movement of the supply which we all con-
fluently trust is destined to place the great cotton industry
of this country on a basis firmer and broader than it has ever
heretofore occupied. (Cheers.) Another circumstance of
great and peculiar interest, still more specially belonging to

,he moment of which we speak, demands a few words from

me—l mean the state of the monetary question in its appli-
cation to the present condition of the money market.
Now, gentlemen, this is perhaps of all other subjects
the subject that you would least expect me to venture

either upon the expression of abstract opinions, or
upon a positivo or confident indication of inten-
tions, for there is no matter of greater delicacy, there is no
question on which the expression of a rash opinion by a
responsible Minister would be less excused by the circum-
stances of the case or more likely to produce mischief out
of all proportion to the good it uvula pussibly contemplate.
What I would venture to say, in the first place, is to

use the language of congratulation, for, in my opi-
nion, if we compare the manner in which the exist-
ing tightness and dearness of money has been met by
the commercial community on this occasion with

the manner in which it was met on other occa-
sions, if we compare the absence of complaint and the absence
of agitation, which is now so remarkable with what we have
witnessed at other times, we see, I think, in the future of

our course the assurance that the commercial mind of Eng-
land, so to speak, is advancing farther and farther in its
edueation ; that the perception of sound principles is grow-
ing wider and more clear, and above all that the great law of
self-dependence, so opposite to dependence on the acts of
authority, is more and more becoming the rule of conduct

of the British merchant. Our whole monetary history for
the last 40 years has been one course of progressively widen-
ing and extending experience. The Act of 1844 was a great
fact is that monetary history. It was followed, as you well
know, and have reason, perhaps, to recollect, by two sus-
pensions, by the occurrence of two periods when no Ministry
was ready to be responsible for maintaining the act in ope-
ration. Ihe last of those suspensions was followed by a
Parliamentary inquiry, and the experiences obtained from
day to day during the crisis of 1857 forced in the main the
substance and basis of the deliberations of the committee of
18:58. Since that time no legislative change had occurred;
but an administrative change has occurred under the very
able and enlightened Government. The Bank of England
has taken a modified and altered view of its functions, and
has, as you well know, attempted to secure by prompt and
early action, by a close conformity to what appeared to be
the economical law of the question, that security and stabi-
lity for the monetary law which the previous system of ad-
ministration had not been able to effect. Under these cir-
cumstances I hope it is unnecessary for me to assure you
that her Majesty's Government, that department of it
which is charged, with this special responsibility, are not
more alive than they ought to be to the deep interest of the
circumstances which may occur from day to day. From
day to day they are followed with the closest attention,
and then they see every cause to repose their confidence
in those by whom the great central institution at the
head of our monetary transactions is now managed and
administere.l. There is, however, one lesson to which the
peculiar circumstances of the time peculiarly point—it is the
lesson that for the successful and safe prosecution of com-

mercial enterprise, British prudence must be combined with
British energy and spirit. (Cheers.) Now, a few words upon
the larger and broader features of the time in which we live.
Reference has been made in the address of the Financial
Association to myself as the follower of Mr Huekisson and
Sir Robert Peel. (Cheers.) There is no title, if indeed I
may arrogate it to myself, by which I would more desire
and more rejoice to be known. (Hear, hear.) To them, to
others who preceded, accompanied and followed them, I am
glad to owe the instructions on which I have feebly and
humbly endeavoured to act. (Hear, hear.) I may, indeed,
say that 1 owe trithe personal influence of Sir R. Peel the
particular manner and degree in which it has been my poli-
tical lot to follow, a commercial and fiscal career in Parlia-
ment, But the lessons of the time, the lessons drawn from
the past, the expectations connected with the future, are
indeed of a deep, and I may almost say of an overwhelming
interest. I should exhaust even your patience if I were to
attempt in this hall, or in addressing any other assembly of
my fellow countrymen, to follow the development of the cha-
racter and resources of the legislation of which we have all
been witnesses, and to which mo, t of us in one form or other
have been parties, some of the results of the great changes
introduced into the commercial system are obvious, and lie
upon the surface. We see from the figures which daily meet
the eye, the vast expansion of our trade. We know from
other but not less palpable experience, that the expansion of
trade has not been merely a commercial or material ques •
Lion, but that it has been fraught with moral, social, and
political results—that it has bound us together as a com-
munity in a manner in which we were nut bound before,
and has made us all rejoice as we never so fully rejoiced
before in belonging to the country of which we are the
happy inhabitants, (t heers.) But even these are not the
bounds and limits of the effects produced by the system of
commercial legislation especially associated in Parliament
with the names of Huskisson and Peel, especially asso-
ciated in Parliament and elsewhere with the names of
others, some of them my colleagues in the Government,
some of them not my colleagues, but men whom I am glad
to recognise as teachers in the school of true economy,
such as Mr Cobden, whose name has been mentioned
already—(hear, hear)—and, going further back, let us do
justice to that old economist of our country who first of all
was the bold and efficient pioneer in making known to the
people the truths of economic science, Dr Adam Smith,
and not less than him,' to the enlightened and courageous
Ministe.r, Mr Pitt, who became the champion at a date
so early of those truths in his place in Parliament, as
the responsible Minister of the Crown. (Hear, hear.) A
marked effect of the adoption of freedom of trade upon
which I may congratulate you is that, along with the ex-
tension of commerce, it has given far greater stability to
commercial operations, whatever may be the inconvenience
of the crisis which we have now to undergo. I do not speak
of such a case as the cotton famine, due to causes which are
beyond our control, but of the crises which occur from time
to time in the commercial world in connexion with the va-
riation of harvests, the fluctuating supply of the respective
articles of commerce, and the consequent state of the money
market. Whatever, I say, we may think of these things,
we must agree that there is a great mitigation in the fea-
tures of these crises as compared with what formerly oc-
curred under the ancient system of protection and monopoly.
Whereas before the adoption of freedom of trade there were
many of those who hoped it would be extended who yet
feared that the extension would be accompanied with some
degree of instability, experience has shown that, with a vast
enlargement of the scale of trade, there has also been a
broadening of its basis and a great mitigation of the evils
which attend its occasional disturbances. (Hear.) This
question also has aspects and results reaching far beyond
the narrow bounds of the island in which we live. We have
adopted in a great degree the principle of freedom of trade
for ourselves, and stand on the well understood basis that
everything in the nature of a protective duty is unsound
and bad, and that everything in the nature of a revenue
duty should be brought down to as low a point as the ne-
cessities of the country will permit. There is still a rich
and abundant harvest to be reaped. It is a harvest which
will be found in foreign countries. If an enormous impulse
has been given to trade in this kingdom by the conduct of
the British Legislature, what will the impulse become when
our example has been followed by all the other Legislatures
and Governments of the civilised world ? (Hear.) As to
the Treaty of Commerce with France, the obvious and pal.
pable consequences which flowed from the direct operation
of its written terms were those of the least importance. It
may possibly happen that we shall fail to retain all those
markets in France which we have got, because such are the
ingenuity and skill of the French people, such are their ex
pending energy and their ready acquisition of commercial
habits, as well as their accumulation of capital, that no doubt
in every competition they will be able—and, I trust, be able
fairly to hold their own. But I own for myself, and I may
say as much for others, that wo have looked beyond the
mere terms of that treaty—first of all, to one great tact in the
moral order,and second,to another great fact in the material
order of things. The great fact in the moral order is that the
commercial treaty laid the foundation of a closer union in
feeling and spirit between the two greatest nations of
Europe. (Hear, hear.) The great fact in the material
order was this. We know very well what was the language
held abroad. So long as the adoption of the principles of
free trade was confined to the British Legislature, the lan-
guage held may be summed up in these words. They
charged us thus— they said, " You have mounted to wealth
by the ladder of protection, and having got there, you have
kicked it down, and now you want to prevent us from tread-
ing in your path and attaining to the same position that by
means of protection you attained." That was totally un-
true. Protection did not lead us to wealth; protection had
impeded and deferred our progress on the way to wealth—
but, although it was untrue, yet we must admit it was also
plausible. It was an argument dtifieult for us to refute—
but when France in the very midst, in the very heyday of
her protective system—under I must say the enlightened

manful guidance of her present ruler—(cheers)—and
through the great material influence of Mr Cobden—(cheers)
—who I must also regard in fairness and justice as having
been undeniably the great source of this important mea-
sure—when France proclaimed herself, in principle at least,
and in great part in practice, a convert from the ancient

system, then I think we were able to bring an uasuspected

Witness into court, and I frankly own that it is to the ex-

ample of France that I confidently trust as being morally

certain to draw after it in this beneficial course, one after
another, more quickly or more slowly, and all the worse
for those who are slower, but still draw after her, by a
certain chain of cause and consequence, the final accession
of every civilised Legislature and every civilised people
to the principle which consecrates freedom of intercourse

between man and man, between country and
country. (Cheers.) But now, Mr Mayor and Gentle-
men, I hope it was not needful for me in addressing the
presidents of these associations to use strong, laboured, ar-
tificial expressions in assuring you on behalf of her Majesty's
Government, as well as on my own individual behalf, that
with this great encouragement in our views and recollec-
tion, we, too, shall be studious according to our means and
oppci tunitivs in the search for occasions and means for the
further application of these principles which have produced
benefits so incalculable to cur country. (Cheers.) Allow

me, however, to point out that there are certain general

. . .
rules from which we should be wrong to depart. I see in
the able address which Mr. Jeffrey presented, or I think I

detect a latent principle, on which my own peculiar posi-

ion as Minister of Finance I confess I look with a ceztain

degree of suspicion. He wants to promote public economy
by making the paymant of large taxes insupportable; Direct
taxation, I admit, if we were to proceed upon abstract

principles, is a sound principle ; but, gentlemen, have some
compassion upon those whose first neeessity, whose first
duty it is to provide for the maintenance of public credit—
(hear)—to provide for the defences of the country—to pro-

vide in every department for the full efficiency of the public
service. (Cheers.) I wish I could teach every political
philosopher and every financial reformer, to extend some
indulgence to those who would ascend along with them, if
they could, into the seventh heaven of speculation—(laugh-
ter)—but who have weights and clogs tied to their feet which
bind them down to earth, and render it necessary for them
to infuse large dilution, large participation of secondary
matter into that system of abstract reasoning by which, if
they could, they would be very glad to be gui led. Thai is
an important reservation from me. Allow me to say that I
trust that at no time will any Government be induced for the
sake of seeking favour with thebelief—and I am quite sure
that in seeking favour they would fail to find it—let no
Government be induced under the notion of abstract, ex-

tensive, sudden, and sweeping reforms to endanger the vital
principle of public credit, or to risk throwing the finances of
the country into confusion--(cheers)—but subject to these
imitations, I, for one, trust that progress will be the law of

our Legislature in that as well as in every other particular,
and in that particular not less than in any other. I am very

glad to think that among the sources to which we may now
look for the progressive extension of fiscal reform we may,

I trust without too confidently reckoning on the future,

calculate a steady increase on the revenue of the country.
(cheers.) Indeed this is no matter of secondary import-
ance. There was a time,—and that time is within the re-
collection of almost the whole of us,—there was a time when
the revenue of this country was nearly stationary. In an
important period marked by many and most beneficial
changes in every respect—the important period between
1830 and 1810—a period which was almost barren in mea-
sures of commercial and fiscal improvement, the increment
of the revenue was almost imperceptibly slow. But it is
now our gratifying duty to record from year to year, quite
independently of the progress of the imposition of any new
taxation, a considerable increase in the public receipts, as
the result of that increased activity of capital and industry
which has been imparted to the various industrial classes of
this country. There is a source upon which indeed we can-
not reckon with confidence from year to year, because cir-
cumstances may interfere to break the continuity of pro-
gress, but upon which, in looking over a series of years, I
think we may reckon with considerable confidence, and
which, therefore, leads to the belief that we have as yet by
no means arrived at the term of fiscal and financial improve-
ment; but there is one consideration on which, in conclud-
ing these remarks, I will briefly touch. It is fraught with
so many topics of reflection, brings into view so much of
the future, it extends over so many departments of the
deepest human interest, that even to touch upon it almost
appals the mind. We all remember that before the repeal of
the corn laws we were told that we should get into a
state of dependence on foreign supplies. (Hear, hear.)
Let us do literal justice at least to the prophets from
whom these menaces proceeded. We have fallen into
a state of dependence upon foreign supply, (Hear, hear.)
Prima facie, therefore, the prophecy is justified ; but yet
when we state what that prophecy really meant—because
the real meaning of it was this, '• You will obtain your corn
from abroad, and your fields at home will remain unculti-
vated"—that was their full predictions—l need not ask
whether that full prediction has been verified or not. As far
as my knowledge goes, the fields of this country eontinue to
be cultivated. 1 believe that those who are happy enough to
be possessed of any portion of the lands of the country still
continue to receive some rent for those lands. (Laughter.)
In point of fact it is not only that they continue to be culti-
vated, but there is a great deal better cultivation than ever,
It is not only that they produce as they did before, but they
produce a great deal more than they ever did before. It is
not only that they produce more than they did before, but
it is this—that they produce what is less in the character of
the mere necessaries of life, and what is more of the charac-
ter of the comforts, and in addition in one sense, let me say,
the luxuries of life for the mass of the population. It is that
which has increased the general progress in the condition of
the country, and which has made us dependent on foreign
supply, because we find it cheaper and better to get our corn
from abroad ; but, gentlemen, at the same time there is
something I believe almost unprecedented, nay, as regards
any great country, something quite unprecedented, in the
condition of a nation whose commercial position might now
be defined as ours. Nearly one-half of the essential food of
the people of England—l mean grain—is cultivated and
raised in other lands, and perhaps I might say, indepen-
dently of food, nearly one-half, possibly for aught I know it
may be more than the one-half, of the whole materials of
the labour of the country are produced in other lands.
What is the condition of a country whose industry is dis-
tinguished by features like these ? Here is opened to us a
vista almost interminable, because we are not only depen-
dent, but we are increasingly dependent on foreign supply.
I see indeed, and I see with joy, in the figures of the Cus-
toms' revenue, that there is a decreasing duty on foreign
grain, because a small revenue from that source means
abundance at home and cheapness in the main essential ele-
ment of the subsistence of the people. That is the case com-
paring one year with the years that are nearest to it; but if
we look a little further what must we expect ? Population
and trade have grown enormously, but have they reached
their limit? Have your dock walls reached their limit?
Has the extension of Liverpool reached its limit ? When I
was a child its population was 100,000.; now it has more
than quadrupled its numbers. Is there any reason why the
rate of that increase should be slackened in the future ? For
my part, I know of none. If it please God to preeer re to
us the inestimable blessing of peace— (loud cheers)—l know
no reason why the trade of the country should not continue
to extend with the population of this country—should not
continue to grow—(cheers)—why along with the growth of
the population in mere numbers the powers and efficacy of
the moral agents at work within it should not also continue
to grow in future times as they happily have grown during
the last 30 years—(cheers) ; and 1 know no reason why we
should refuse to accept the benefit Providence thus offers us
in the increase of numbers, of power, and, as we believe and
trust, of happiness and virtue, because we see, and must
plainly see, that it will be and must be accomplished from
day to day with increasing dependence on foreign supply.
(Cheers.) For, gentlemen, when we consider the matter,
what does dependence upon foreign supply mean ? It means,
I humbly trust, progress, the substantial progress towards
that state of things which may still be remote, which =ei-
ther we nor our children may live to see, but yet which we
may hope lies in some happy future—that state of things
in which the intercourse between nation and nation, pro-
duced by human industry, the blessed result of that law of
labour which Providence imposed on our first parents and
all their descendants, shall weave a web of kindness by
the incessant action of the interchange of commodities be-
tween country and country, shall diminish progressively
the force of those motives which dispose men to violence
and aggression,and shall progressively surround and increse
the power and efficacy of those motives which incline men
to live in concord, amity, and love with one another. (Loud
cheers.) lam not insensible—none of you can be insensible
—and still less can any one responsible for public affairs be
insensible to the gravity of the question which must be en-
countered in the working out the great problem before us.
What is to be the condition of a country with respect to the
necessary element of the means of defence. What is to be
the state of the maritime and international lawof the world ?
How far the rules hitherto applicable to its conduct are safe
good, or wise, or require alteration or modification by the
joint consent of the nations in order to meet the exigencies
of coming times ? All these are questions which must be
examined and must be brought in due time to their solution ;
but beyond, and above, and beneath, and around these
questions is embraced the destiny of our time, and the ex-
tension of those great laws of industry and exchange which
are a wider and a larger fulfilment of the beneficent design
of the Almighty in giving different productions to different
climates and countries of the earth. My belief is that the
law of that extension will prevail, and that as our depend-
ence on foreign supply increase we may become more and
more pledged and bound to a policy of peace and justice, to
setting a good example of moderation and wisdom, and pro-
moting the iefluence of every principle that conduces to the
happiness both of ourselves and of our fellow men among
the various surrounding nations of the earth. The right
hon. gentleman resumed his seat amid loud and enthusiastic
cheering.
Three cheers were given for the Chancellor of the Ex-
chequer, three for Mrs Gladstone, and a vote of thanks to
the Mayor closed the proceedings.
At a special meeting of the Chamber of Commerce of
Liverpool, held at 11 o'clock, Mr Grainger, the pres Pent, in
the chair, Mr Ilorsfall, M.P., moved, and Mr Brocklebank
seconded a resolution enrolling the Chancellor of the Ex-
ceequer as an honorary life member of the Chamber. This
was carried with acclamation. Au address to the right hon.
gentleman was also adopted.