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

body spoke about Free-trade. But now we ate in this
most sincular position, that we have undeniably a Pro-
tec'iOn Ministry in power, but we are blamed, and the
followers of that giuistry are positively hooted, if they
7 single word about the question of Protection.(l"sr" and a laugh.) A Protection meeting is a
thing now not to be thought of ;in
fact, I believe it is
considered to be as dangerous a thing as a convocation
of the clergy. (Loud laughter.) It is not expected to
end in an harmonious and rational discussion of any
queetion of public policy, but in something like a
great -
complete scuffle, disgraceful to all concerned in it.
(Laughter.) But this is very easy to comprehend. The
chairman of the Publication Committee of the Protection
society, that once met at 17, Old Bond• street, is now
transformed into a Secretary of th© 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
have to perform on him the duty of whipper-out.
(Ltughter and cheers.) Mr. Christopher is by some
wonderful transformation made a Chancellor of the
Duchy of Lancaster. Mr. Bankes, who declared that
Free-trade would be ruin to Dorsetahire (hear, hear),
becanse he was a lawyer under some unknown title ot
Cursitor Baron, is now Judge-Advocate. Sir John
Trollope (laughter), another eosin, nt Protectionist, is
now at the head of the Poor-law Board. Lord Naas,
the son of the Earl of M 33.0, who recently took the ease
of the Irish corn millers under his protectien. prep.
sir g that liter should be kept out, that Irish mills
might be made more prosperous, is now Secretary fur
Ireland, Mr. Herries, who was the patron of the ship-
pirg, is President of the India Board. Sir J. Peking-
too, who took the sugar planters under his especial pro-
tection, has been raised from the contemplation of bill,
for the regulation of beer-houses to the government of 40
colonies. (Laughter.) And, finally, Mr. Disraeli
(laughter 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 barn
boozlement 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 them that
these talking oratorical Protectionists when in opposition
should become dumb dogs that cannot bark when in
p.,wer. (Laughter.) I certainly anticipate a great and
most interesting " breach of promise" case (laughter);
and what with corn, and ships, and colonies, Mr. Disrael
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 o'
the acknowlf dged 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. Lora
_Duey and his party, and the country gentlemen, for
any thine they have said in public, are Protectionist,-
still, Our ease, 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, knew as well then as 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 uejuet 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 are 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 he 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 are
not statesmen, and that those men only who could not
see whet was simply right on this great fundamental,
al.-absorbing question, ere 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
en the authority of a gentleman who is a member of the
.hthinet, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, and the
ender, at least, of a minority of the House of Commons.
Laughter, some hisses, and cheering.) Why, a man
vho calls us a Jacobin Club, must think it is not con
sistent 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, (Lone
and 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 tho ancestors
of the Stanleys ever did ono- thousandth part so much
to give comfort and tranquillity to tliie country as we.
the democracy of the Anti• Corn-law Lague, have
done. (Loud cheers.) But we aro also something
elee, if possible, worse. We arc, 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 Parliament, the anticipated deluge.
(Great laughter.) Well, I believe the Bins," the gen-
tlemen who are in office, always endeavour to persude
the country that after them nothing can be looked for
but a deluge and national dustrurtion. The Whig
Government said something very like this to you. The)
" Don't turn the Whigs out until yen have found
somebody to supply their places." The present Govern-
ment, " Den% turn us out ; it is better to
--e ' Bear the ills you have,
"' Then fly to others that you know not of.'"
(Great lath, h ter.) On this platform we have nevi
been partizans of any Gov,,ramunt. We have never fec
tiousfy allied ourselves with any party in order to over-
throw uny Cabinet. We have stood here, as we steno
here to-night the pledged defenders of the sacred right
of industry to the people of this country ; and no pro-
teetations 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 theta does act m a probability th It
the Anti-Corn-law League will, in fact, in a very
abort period become is 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 bet character, and that some lessons should
be drawn from it for the benefit of these who survive.
Now, ask yourselves this question,—Why was the core
law pessed at all in 1815 ? (Hear, hear.) Follow that
up with another question,—Why did the corn law, uncle,-
delerent shapes, all about equally objectionable, remain
upon the etatute• hook of this free country from 1815 to
1846? There was not a moment during those 30 years
whet, that corn law was not an offence in the sight 01
Heaven, and a flagrant violation of the rights of every
industrious man in this kingdom. (Hear, hear, and
chef es.) We don't speak of the Crown—the Crown had
little—probebly nothing—!o 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 subjects. I say not much of the House ot Lords,
for, unhappily-, too many members of that house have
been educated in the belief that they have some here-
ditary claim to settle themselves upon the industry of
the people of this country. (Hear, hear, and cheers,)
Of the House of Commons, however, I will say this
mach,—that it was composed in 1815, and up to 1832,
and that in a lesser degree it is now composed,
of lords and squires, the humble servants, the family
relations, or connected by kindred and by interest
with the great territorial aristocracy who are enthroned
in th.s House of Lords. (Hear, hear) If you had had a
real representation in 1815,—if the people of this country
hart not been led into that awful strife against what
were called French principles,—if he had not added
500,000,000/. at leant to the national debt during that
period.—in all probability, before 1815, you would hare
had a better representation of the people in the House
of Commons; and if, at any time subsequently to 1815,
such an improved representation had existed that corn
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
enduring to 1838, it required seven years of labour
—of public meetings—or such an employment of the
printing-press for political objects, as this country had
never bsfore known, and enormous subscriptions, and,
even then, there was a majority of 100 men in the
Rouse of Commons against ithe total repeal of the
corn laws, and oily from 80 to 100 votes, I believe,
were ever records d in tuveur f such a proposition.
Finally, it required an Irish famine in 1846,—such a
famine as h 4.1 not been knot: r. in Europe for cern
turten—it required that a cit amity should overtake
one-third of the United Kingdom, under which and
its immediate consequences, 250,000 dwellings of
6,.ur countrymen have been swept away,—more than
eve times the numbtr of houses in Manchester,—and
tae) eopuletion of Ireland has been diminished by
2,000,000 (for that part of the kingdom has, at
this na''`l'eut, no greater population than it had more
than 30 Q
hey of 1:13 ago)—to satisfy Parliament of the impo-
penalties shoranwlelo. be
It was necessary that all these heavy
are paid, that all these awful sufferings—
whichnever be ade"cieurldted in another world, but which can
dured before yourety described in this—should be en-
intended not to ctinetitution (ill framed, ill adapted,
would act upm, work),vine ,and your House of Commons
the requirements of the intelligent
of common justice, or obey
and industrious popu-
lation of the kingitm,
aftera(gear,ear, hear.) But when the
the this experience,
House of Commons,
were con-
vinced and converted, and pal
corn laws were finally
abolished, what are we to think
of the
now occupying the the conduct of the
Administration at present in power,
public ofnce.s, now meeting fn Cabinet Council
Pate the neeeh of the and
whit
perial Parliament
?Sovisereign on
are naw about to pre
we are 5(1 think a aac'..,k
the eceeine, of the Im
Hs experience, you
Ilhat, after t
not yet converted? Ought it not to be pointed at with
indignation and scorn, and hurled from their seatitifl
The :act is that, as an industrial people of
,backs. Under your -we
carry the aristocracy en our represen-
tative system Manchester, Glasgow, and Birmingham are
dwarfed in the House of Cumawns to the size cf Bart
wich, 'Thetford, and Totnes, and the whole population,
and ail the electors of those three boroughs are very
much smaller—nay, do not even approach near—to the
population of a single ward in this borough of Man-
chester. lam of opinion that where there are popula-
tion, industry, wealth, and intellittence, if we have a
free constitution at ad. there must be power, and
if this
be not granted, then, I say, that our constitution is a
sham, and our representation is an imposture. (Cheers-)
I am not anxious that we should have other great move
ments for great objects. myself have bad much
cf political agitation that nothing but the most impera-
tive and overwhelming sense of public duty would itoluee
me to ec.)nnect myself with anything further of the kind:
but I do believe that we owe it to postetity at) to (=viva