The Sun.
London, England, 1839-01-11 00:00:00

ABOLITION OF THE CORN-LAWS.

(Abridged from the Glasgow Argus.)

On Wednesday evening a numerous meeting of gentlemen,
friendly to the total and immediate abolition of the Corn. laws,
was held in the Black Bull.
JAMES DUNLOP, Esq., in the chair. He called upon Mr.
Weir to state his sentiments on the subject of the Corn laws.
Mr. WEIR, after stating the circumstances which had led
him to take a prominent part in the proceedings, continued_.
We meet hero, not for the purpose of arguing with and con-
vincing each other, but for the purpose of concerting means
for spreading our common faith to others ; and, above all, of
bringing our opinions to bear with the force of conviction
upon the Legislature of the land. Our object is not to
search after truth, but to communicate the knowledge of the
truth we have discovered to others. Our object is not
speculative, but practical—not discussion, but action. Thus
circumstanced, the main question we have to consider is,
whether there be, in the present aspect and position of
public affairs, any thing that holds out a better prospect of
success, to a movement such as we contemplate, than has
been found to wait upon our previous efforts. It seems
to me that there are many signs which encourage us to
be up and doing. First, there is the late deficient harvest—the
scanty supplies which, under any circumstances, can be hoped
for from abroad—and the panic fear of sharing our scarcity,
which has already closed the ports of Belgium and Sicily.
The second sign to which I adverted is the diffusion of the
opinion of the inexpediency of the Corn-laws through the mer-
cantile and manufacturing classes of all shades of political
opinion. So long as the pressure of these laws upon trade
was less distinctly felt, attachment to a political party induced
many to exclude from their minds an opinion contrary to the
dogmas of that party. Our Tory traders would not for the
world be so unpolite as to allow themselves to think that the
laws eulogised by their political leaders could hurt them. A
little pinching they could not help feeling now and them—a
misgiving would from time to time cross their minds—but, like
children frightened by a ghost in the dark, they re-assured
themselves, and said—" It is nothing." That time has
gone by. The pressure is too urgent—too real to
admit of further self-delusion. There is mutiny in
the Tory camp on the subject of the Corn-laws. To-
day a very striking indication of it has fallen under my own
eyes. You all know the Chamber of Commerce—its excellent
services in the questions of the bankrupt laws, weights and
measures. and the like. But you likewise know the anxious
fear of grappling with the weightier and more vital questions
of free trade which has of late years characterised its Direc-
tion. Well—even in that focus of anti-free trade feeling, my
friend Mr. Buchanan this day tabled a recommendation to the
Directors to petition for the alteration or repeal of the Corn-
laws, and not one voice was raised against the recommendation.
Nor is this confined to Glasgow. Mr. Williams, Member for
Coventry, has declared himself actively hostile to them. He
has told his Coventry constituents that, on a recent tour
through the Continent, he has witnessed with his own eyes
the efficacy of these laws in raising up successful com-
petitors to us. I have every reason to believe that
Mr. Williams' hostility to the Corn-laws is of compa-
stively recent date t and I hail it, not so much as a
vote gained in Parliament, as a proof that Mr. W.'s constitu-
ents—the silk and ribbon manufacturers—not long ago indiffer-
ent or hostile to free trade in grain—are now with us as a body.
—( Cheers.) The third sign to which I referred will be found
in the occasional indications of a willingness on the part of
members of the landed interest, to admit that the Corn-law
policy is a fair topic for discussion, or even of a willingness to
concede in the rigour of their restrictive policy. They show a
wavering--an indecision—a tendency to desertion in the hos-
tile ranks.—( Cheers,) Tbis is the moment for a decisive
charge. A bold onset will make timid and disunited enemies
give way, and half-friends at once throw themselves into our
ranks. This is no time to be lost in argument ;It is the time for
action. Entertaining these views, I have taken the liberty of
sketching out not only a scheme of organisation, but a scheme of
our first practical movement. This I will now take the li-
berty of reading and submitting to the consideration of the
meeting. In doing so, it is far from my wish to have the
appearance of prescribing. But I have always found that the
deliberations of meetings like the present were most produc-
tive of geed when, by tabling a distinct proposition, form and
method were given to their discussions. My plan is sub-
mitted to the meeting only as a means of originating discus-
sion. It is follows :
" That the individuals composingithis Meeting, do consti-
tute themselves into an Association, having for its object the
adoption of practical steps for obtaining a Repeal of the
Corn-laws.
" That every inhabitant of Glasgow, favourable to the total
Repeal of the Corn-laws, be admissible as a Member of this
Association, on payment of entry money.
" That the Interim Office-bearers be directed to prepare, at
the earliest period, a constitution for the Association, and
submit it for the discussion, amendment, and adoption of a
General Meeting of the members.
" That the Interim Office-bearers be further directed, with.
out delay—
" Ist. To prepare, for general signature, a petition, in name
of the subscribing merchants, manufacturers, traders, and
others, inhabitants of Glasgow, to the House of Commons,
offering to prove the destructive nature of the Corn-laws ;
craving to be heard by Counsel, and allowed to produce evi-
dence, at the bar of the House, in support of this allegation ;
and praying, in the event of their making good their case, for
the immediate and total Repeal of the Corn-laws ;
" 2d. To take measures for procuring to this petition the
signatures of as many of our influential merchants and manufac-
turers, and generally of the inhabitants of Glasgow, as possible.
" 3d. To take measures for procuring at the same time
subscriptions to a guarantee fund, for defraying the expenses
of employing Counsel and leading evidence in the event of that
part of the petition being granted, to be uplifted only in case
that prayer is granted.
" 4th. As soon as a sufficient number of signatures, and a
sufficient amount of subscriptions, are obtained, to intimate
what has been done to the various Chambers of Commerce,
Anti-Corn-law Associations, and the like, throughout the
country, and to invite them to adopt the same course."
Of the first four resolutions I say little. The nomination
of the office-bearers—the suggestion and fixing of the en-
trance-money, is as of right left to yourselves. The de-
grse of interim organization requisite for immediate action
alone is given. The form of the body can be matured at
leisure. It is to the fifth, as most instantly urgent—as
most claiming explanation and argumentative recommendation,
that I more especially invite your attention. It is now seven
years and more that I have been incessantly active in my hos-
tility to the Corn-laws, and during that time I have co-ope-
rated with many individuals and classes, and seen many different
plans of agitation tried. All of them—lectures, public meet-
ings, petitions, debates in Parliament, have their uses, but all
have also their defects. What seems to me the advantage of
the plan I recommend is, that while it neither interferes with
nor retards any of those other modes of operation, it gives a
better organization to the public conviction and sentiment
they are calculated to call into life. Public meetings vote
resolutions and petitions, and each man returns home to nurse
his grudge against the Corn-laws, but the Corn-laws are un-
shaken. Lecturers are listened to with applause, but with the
same practical result. By both of these means knowledge
is diffused, and a hostile feeling to the Corn-laws excited ;
but something more is necessary to bring forth practical
effects from that knowledge and passion. A debate
upon the operation of the Corn-laws in the House of
Commons—all that can be got by general petitions against
them—leads to a wordy war, in which strong averments are
made on both sides, each party voting at last in comformity to its
previous opinion, and the " preponderant landed interest" of
Lord John Russell of course gaining the day. Are we to go
on, year after year, fighting with weapons which experience
has proved to be blunt or fragile ? Are we to be, year after
year, at the expense and trouble of getting up and forwarding
petitions, only to be laid on the shelves of the Library, with a
ticket of the number of signatures appended to it? By peti-
tioning to be heard by Counsel, and allowed to lead evidence,
you gain, if the prayer be granted, this :—The opening state-
ment of the Counsel puts the question in a distinct, limited,
and clear form. In the after discussions, honourable members
can be kept to the question—prevented from wandering into
irrelevant details. The statements of fact, by men like the
Gregg and Cobdens of Manchester—and many of our own
traders, to name individuals of whom would.be invidious —can-
not be avoided under a pretext of ignorance. They must be
met, if met at all, by counter-evidence. That got up evidence
of the landlords will have a very d.fferent effect, when sifted
and torn in pieces by our Counsel and friendly members,
than when put forth in fair language in a pamphlet,
meant only to be perused by those who wish to be con-
vinced. Truth and fallacy will be brought face to face on a
clear field, and who can doubt the issue ?—( Cheers.) So much
for the first head of this resolution. In order to secure the
granting of the prayer, it is necessary that the Members of the
House be made to feel that a body prefers it powerful enough
to make them feel its displeasure if refused. To insure this
backing is the object of the second, third, and fourth sen-
tences. The whole mercantile body, if possible, must be
amide to move in this one direction, But, before we can get
merchants to move in other places, we must show them that
we are moving in earnest ourselves.—( Cheers.) Therefore, it
is proposed to have a Glasgow petition numerously signed, and
subscriptions obtained to a fund (only to.be collected in the
contingency of the prayer of the petition being granted) suffi-
cient to meet the expenses of employing counsel and sending
np witnesses. This is what you find expressed in the second
and third sentences of the fifth resolution. When this gua-
rantee of our earnestness is obtained, we will then be entitley
to go forward and claim the co-operation of our mercantile
brethren in different parts of the empire. With such vouchers
for our good faith in our bands as our petition and our guaran-
tee fund, we can call upon them to do likewise. This is the
object of the fourth and last sentence. It is necessary, forthe
success of such a orgy er, that it be offered up simul-
taneously froma great.nussiber of our mercantile and menu-
tacturing staples. In order to induce all these places to move
it is necessary that some one move f:.4t• Let us, in Glasgow,
take the plunge. Not only is the prayer' more Likely to be
heard, if emanating at once from many digeserent places.
Each place can send up its own witnesses, and thus will the
trouble and expense to each be essentially diminished. T ,;:ere
is one circumstance that renders this mode of proceeding more
especially advisable at the present moment. . When on former
occasions we moved by petition against the Corn-laws, our
unenfranchised brethren moved 'long with us. They are
tired out and disgusted—they are hopeless of obtaining until
they, too, possess the franchise. They are as hostile as ever
to the Corn-laws, but they refuse to petition against them
because they believe it to be unavailing. Our array in
point of numbers is on this occasion much diminished,
as in point of wealth it is increased. We must act according
to circumstances. We must make up by discipline for want
of numbers. We must trust to the organised energies of
the enfranchished class alone. The recusants will rejoice in