The Sun.
London, England, 1839-01-28 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY, JANUARY 28, 1839.

ANTI-CORN LAW MEETING IN

KENDAL,

This meeting took place on Tuesday evening at the Town-
hall. It excited very great interest in the town, and soon
after the appointed hour of assembling the Hall and Council-
chamber, which had been thrown into one, were crowded. A
strong feeling of enthusiasm prevailed. The IVlaloa, on
taking the chair, read the requisition.
Mr. ISAAC WILSON had been requested to move the first
resolution--" That this meeting views with alarm the present
limited supply and rapidly-increased price of corn, which is
the chief subsistence of our working population ; and that it
regards the present legislative enactment on the importation
of fuleign grain as the source of this crying evil." Foreign
nations had given over growing corn, in consequence of the
cessation of cur demand for it. As we had resolved to manu-
facture, if he might be allowed the expression, our own corn,
they had determined to establish manufactures for themselves.
Mr. RICHARD WILSON felt great pleasure in seconding the
resolution. It had been stated that land would go out of culti-
vation if the growth of corn was discouraged. Had the pro-
gress of manufactures put land out of cultivation, or of rail-
roads? The moment you set down a little manufacturing
village, that moment you double land in value. If you can
make manufactures general throughout England, you will
double the value of land throughout the country; and if we
can be supplied with food without artificial limitation, the popu-
lation will be increased and more flourishing.
The resolution was put to the vote, and carried by a forest
of hands, as were all the others.

Mr. YEATES proposed the second resolution—. That the
Corn-laws are mo. t decidedly Frejudicial to the manufactur-
ing and commercial interests of this country, without con•
ferring any single benefit on the British farmer, crippling the
enterprise and resources of capitalists, oppressing the energies
of industry, and causing the labour of our artisans to be super-
seded by foreigners both at home and abroad." In advocat-
ing it, he said that he stood in a peculiar position. A re-
duction of rents would materially affect him, because it was
from the produce of land that his income chiefly came. He
had, however, always been an advocate for repeal, and still
was so. Long before, when he was engaged in commercial
pursuits, he had seen the fatal tendency of Corn-laws, and he
had waged arguments, many years back, with friends who
were full of the landed interest as opposed to the commer-
cial. The Corn-laws, in their present operation, weighed
upon all. He only wished the prayer of the petition might be
such, that as many as possible, even landowners, could join in
it. Mr. Yeates sat down amid great cheering.
Mr. NICHOLSON, paper manufacturer, rose to second the
resolution. He could tell the meeting that the cotton and
woollen manufacturers were not the only sufferers by foreign
competition. The trade he was engaged in (the paper ma-
nufacture) he could tell them was seriously affected ; for not
only were our exports of paper rapidly on the decline, but
paper-making machinery was every year shipped off in great
quantities to foreign countries, where we lately had a good
market; ay, and they were actually now exporting rags front
Liverpool to the United States—so that this was a two-edged
sword against us, raising the price of our raw material, and
depreciating the value of our manufactured produce.—( Hear,
hear, hear.) Three or four years ago the house he was con-
nected with had very frequently nice export orders, but now
they could not send a ream. He had written to a friend of
his, in Lancashire, in the same trade, a gentleman who at one
time had his traveller out six months in every year, in Germany
and the Low Countries, and he had received his friend's reply
by the post that afternoon, which showed how gradually
and rapidly the exports of that maker had fallen off for
a number of years back, from some hundred thousand
pounds weight of paper per annum, till now he confessed
he wag fail ly beaten out of the market I He quoted the quan-
tities from 1833 to the present time. The foreigner was get-
ting our machinery, and our best men to put that machinery
in motion. Mr. Nicholson stated that they had some time
ago a clever workman, a paper-maker, who was glad to get
his 11. a week with them, till a machine-maker at Bolton, who
was exporting a quantity of paper machinery to Russia, wrote
to this man, and offered him the choice of two situations, one
at St. Peteraburgh, with 3001. a year, or one in Moscow, with
2301. a year. Now, any check in the demand for goods in-
creases the competition in our own markets, and produces a
fall of prices. Five years ago only they got 10s. for a ream
of taper, which they were now obliged to sell for Bs., a reduc-
tion of twenty per cent. He would ask for repeal, total re-
peal, and nothing less than repeal. Mr. Nicholson seconded
the resolution, and resumed his seat amidat repeated cheers.
Mr. THOMAS WILSON (Netherfield) moved the next resolu-
tion :—" That an Association be now formed, to be called
The Kendal Anti-Corn-law Association,' the object of which
shall be to communicate with other kindred associations ; to
collect and spread information on the Corn-law question ; to
prepare petitions, and to watch the proceedings in Parliament
on the subject. That the Asasociation shall consist of all per-
sons who may subscribe to the declaration annexed to this re-
solution, ani who shall Make"payment of not less than ls.
That an executive Committee of eighteen members with power
to add to their numbers, be appointed to conduct the affairs of
the association (five to be a quorum), and who shall meet ac-
cording to the exigencies of the occasion. That the attention
of the Association shall be confined to the objects here stated,
having no reference to party politics."
" DECLARATION.—, We, the undersigned, viewing the present
Corn-laws as the source of great privations to the working
population, and as a severe check upon our national prosperity,
do hereby form ourselves into an Association for the purpose of
diffusing information on the subject, and petitioning Parlia-
ment for remedial measures."
Mr. JOHN JOWITT WILSON seconded the motion.

Mr. JOHN WHITWELL supported the resolution. The main
argument with him was, that instead of lowering wages in Eng-
land, we should raise wages abroad; instead of depressing our
artisan to the level of the foreigner, we want to raise the fo-
reigner to our own standard. Let the English buyer go into
the market of Dantzic, Odessa, or Naples, and flour would
soon rise. No sooner did the Americans learn that wheat
was coming out of bond in England, than their markets rose
6a. to 7s. a quarter. So would it be all over the world, the
only difference in price being the expense of transit and the
prefits of the importer. Let us then he put on a level with
other nations in the price of food, and with God's blessing, the
industry, talent, and ingenuity of the British artisan shall yet
brave the opposition of the world. We must honestly pay our
debts, but let us away with the Corn-laws, and we shall
yet be able to compete with those for whom those debts were
incurred. What did the meeting think of printed calicoes
and hardware being imported from Germany into the Clyde
of woollen cloth selling in England cheaper than we could
make it? He (Mr. Whitwell) had seen, in a merchant's ware-
house in London, cloth from Germany which cost ss. per
yard, and which could not be bought for less than 7s. 6d.
per yard in Yorkshire or the West of England. So also the
French had bought Irish wool, made it into mouselin de laine,
' and sold it in London below what our spinner, weaver, or
prin•er could do. He appealed to Messrs. T. Wilson and Sons,
whether their once-large trade to Germany, in fancy waist-
coatings, had not been stopped, and whether the Germans
had not said, " If you would take our grain we would take your
manufactures ?"—( Mr. T. Wilson replied in the affirmative.)
Another manufacturer here had received letters from America,
stating that they had begun to make their own Kendal cotton.
Once the staple expo: tof the Kendal trade. The hosiers of this
town had serious statements to make of foreign opposition.
Look at the exportation of machinery in the three years,
1831, 1832, and 1833—its average value was 135,6571. ; in
1836, 1837, and 1838, the average bad increased to 365,414/.
or nearly treble, and this amount was nothing to the immense
machine-making establishments abroad, and generally under
the superintendence of British skill, and to some of which
nothing in England could be compared. The foreign manu-
facturers had likewise learned the importance of English wools,
and had taken away 8,000 packs of 2401b5. weight each last
year, in fact, mere than the growth of all Cumberland, thus
greatly enhancing the value of the raw material to the Eng-
lish manufacturer, while, if the foreign and home manu-
facturer went to the Liverpool or London markets for wool,
the former could buy his wool in bond at id. less than the
Englishman, while the latter would have to pay that amount
of duty (or Id. per lb. if the wool was worth above ls.),
the foreigner takes his away free. The inevitable cothe-
quence of this state of things was seen in the increased
exports of foreign countries; thus, taking the average exports
of the five years from 1820 to 1824, and from 1832 to 1836,
the increase in the intermediate period had been front England
18 per cent., from France 91 pee cent., from America 65 per
cent. These were facts, not theories, and should tell upon
the judgment with irresistible force.
Mr. ISAAC ED➢SONDSON, manufacturer, moved the follow-
ing resolution :—" That the thanks of this meeting are due,
and are hereby presented to the Mayor, for his able and im-
partial conduct in the chair," which was seconded by Mr.
EDWARD GIBSON, and both of those gentlemen avowed them-
selves total repealers. Mr. Gibson said that if the petition
to emanate from the Association did not pray for a total repeal,
he should not put his signature to it. This declaration elicited
a loud burst of appleuse.
The MAYOR briefly, but appropriately, returned thanks.
At the conclusion of the meeting Mr. Edmondson exhibited
some specimens of German manufacture, in woollen caps (an
extensive branch of business in this town), at fifteen per cent.
cheaper than they could be manufacture dat here. The meet-
ing then separated.

ANTI-CORN-LAW MEETING AT

STROUD.

On Wednesday last a very numerous meeting was held :it
the Subscription Room, Stroud, pursuant to advertisement, to
consider the propriety of petitioning Parliament on the sub.
ject of the present Corn-laws, with a view to their repeal.
The hour fixed for the meeting. was one o'clock, and by that
time a very large company had assembled. Altogether, per-
haps, the: company present might be computed at from 1,700
to 2.000 persons.

CHARLES STANTON, Esq.,
having been called to the
chair, addressed the meeting to the following effect :
It is my deliberate conviction, Gentlemen, a conviction not
formed at the present time, but many years since, and to
which conviction each year has added new strength, that
our present melancholy commercial condition does depend
upon unjust and partial legislation, and nothing else.—( Mr.
Stanton here gave a succinct statement of the various
changes which the Corn-laws have undergone up to the pre-
sent time.) The,e laws (he observed) have been for many
years entirely prohibitory; for it is quite clear that unless
prices are driven up above 60s. no corn can possibly be taken
from the foreign grower except at a loss, and he, finding the
British market closed upon him and the capital he has ex-
pended in raising corn unproductive, ceases to cultivate for the
English market, is satisfied' only to grow enough to meet the
probable demand, and gradually withdraws his capital from the
soil to make use of it in a more remunerating manner. The
consequence is, that with wheat in this country at 10s. a

bushel, there is not probably corn in Europe sufficient to supply
our deficiency. There is also another effect of these laws !
e, Le 1 1 will just mention. At Udesea wieeet ix per-
chased at from 40s. to 455. par quarter. It will cost 20s. a
quarter more to bring it over, and as much as three months
will elapse before it reaches this country. But by that time
the averages may have fallen considerably; and if they have
only fallen to 70s. there would then be a duty to pay of
10s. Bd. a quarter. There is also another view to be taken of
this question, as applied to foreign cultivation of wheat.
Capital was invested in foreign soils with a view to the supply
of the English market. This has necessarily proved unpro-
ductive, as the market was closed, and capital, instead of con-
tinuing to be wasted, has naturally been withdrawn from
the lend and converted into manufactures. On my visit
to Germany last year, I was told that a large mercantile
order had even come to Vervier, in the Netherlands ;
thus showing the commencement and rapid progress of a
system of competition, which, unless met by a better system
with regard to the price of food than at present, must b.t ab-
selutely ruinous to this country.—( Hear.) I now come to,
to you, as so many of you belong to the labouring classes,
the most interesting part of this subject, namely, the
bearing of the Corn-laws upon the rate of wages. It is
in this view that you are chiefly interested in this subject, and
I am sorry to say a great misunderstanding exists in re-
ference thereto, owing to the poison instilled into your
cars by the landed aristocracy, who, if they can keep up
their rents, care little, I fear, for the general prosperity.
Why do we want corn cheap ? That we may have labour
cheap. Why do we want labour cheap? To have goods
cheap. Any why do we want goods cheap? Why, to
comp, to with these very men in Germany and other places,
who are even now manufacturing cloths and other pro-
ducts which are driving us out of the markets. There-
fore to that extent what you have been told is true,
that it is the tendency of wages to accommodate itself to
the price of food. But, let me ask you, have you found
your wages rise with the price of wheat?—(No, no.) Have
you even found your wages stationary under the operation of
the Corn Bill ? On the contrary, have not your wages been
declining year after year ?—( Yes, yes.) And such they will
continue to do unless these laws be altered. I believe that we
possess within ourselves, by a proper alteration of the Corn-
laws, such a power of stimulating the demand for labour in
this country as to absorb the whole supply.—(Hear, hear.)
Although the tendency of the abolition of the Corn-laws, and
an attendant decrease from the present high prices of food,
might be to create a corresponding lowering of wages, yet
the condition of the labourers would very soon be improved
by the increased demand tor their industry. At the present
moment how is the principle operating ? You are all
paying 10s. a bushel for your wheat, and when Saturday
night comes do you take as much of your wages as you
used to do to the shoemaker, the hatter, and the draper ; or
do you not take a much greater portion to the baker ? I
think I can answer that a great portion of your wages is
absorbed in bread.—[" We don't get half enough of that !"]
Here then is at once seen the effect of the Corn-laws. An-
other point which I would just touch upon, is as regards the
agricultural labourers and the farmers themselves. It is a
known axiom in political economy, that in proportion as the
price of wheat rises the landlord obtains an increased rent. If
by an Act of Parliament the price of corn were fixed at 1003.
a quarter, would the farmer or his labourer be benefited ? Not
a jut. Why, the landlord would at once say to the farmer,
Thomas Styles, things are better, Thomas; you now get
100 s. a quarter for your wheat, and you paid me such a sum
when you could only get 70s. fQr it. You must pay me the
difference Thomas, in rent, or else Jack Straw is willing to
come in and take the farm out of your hands."—( Hear.) The
consequence is that all the difference goes to the landlord.
CHARLES STEPHENS, Esq., having read a series of resolu-
tions, observed, the resolutions I have had the honour to
read to you designate the present Corn-law as a landlord's
tax ; or in other words it is a monopoly of the sale of corn
for his benefit. It is undoubtedly intended to be for the benefit
of the proprietors of the soil, who are, I am quite free to con-
fess, a most valuable and influential class in the country.
The interest of manufactures, and of commerce more especial-
ly, above all things, requires the rescinding of these laws.
Our former boasted supremacy of capital, machinery, and en-
terprise, I am sorry to say, is fast vanishing under the fatal
operation of the present Corn-laws; and it is a fact both humi-
liating and distressing, that British capital and British skill
are leaving these shores in vast masses to take root in th© more
genial soil of the Continent, where these objectionable restric-
tions have no existence. I can only refer you at this moment,
for a! proof of what I say, without taking up too much of
your time, to an extract from the Leeds Mercury.—[Mr.
-Stephens here read a statement from the above paper, which
said that several eminent machine makers, and a number
of spinners, were about to emigrate to Belgium, where
large machine-making establishments and manufactories
were greatly on the increase. The same article also
gave a comparative statement of the increase of foreign
trade in the tlaree countries of England, France, and
the United States, on the average o f five years from
1832 to 1836, compared with the five years from 1820
to 1824; from which it appeared that the increase of English
exports had been 18 per cent, while the French exports had
increased 91 per cent., and the American 71 per cent.'] It
is right (continued Mr. Stephens) that I should het e notice
the usual plans upon which the proprietary ground their claim
to legislative protection. They are chiefly two. First, the
burdens which English lands are called upon to sustain, and
the danger of throning us dependent upon foreign countries
for a supply of corn. The burdens alluded/to consist principally
of poor's-rates and tithes, and I am most happy to have an op-
portunity of congratulating the landed proprietors and the
country in general upon the very considerable alleviation of
these burdens by recent enactments. The poor-rate, that most
grievous and heavy burden, has been materially diminish ed ;
and, as regards tithe, the Tithe Commutation Act, at this
time in operation, is calculated to effect the greatest good to
the farmer, by removing one of his most serious impediments.

Mr. WILLIAM Lizwrs seconded the resolutions, which were
put by the Chairman to the meeting, and carried unani-
mously.
SAMUEL S. MARLING, Esq., rose to move that petitions to
Parliament embodying the resolutions be prepared and signed,
and that the one to the Lord? be presented by Earl Fitz wil-
liam, and the one to the Commons by Lord John Russell ;
and that Mr. Scrope be requested to support its prayer. We
have the Lords against us, it is true, for they were the party
most concerned in passing the present Corn-laws, and most
interested in their continuance ; and if it had not been for the
landed interest in that House we should have had a much bet-
ter system of Corn-laws since the time of Mr. Canning. Still,
if we succeed by the force of public opinion in carrying our
measure through the House of Commons, the Lords will then
knock under.—( Cheers.) We have been the manufacturers
of the world simply because we were able to produce cheaper
and better articles than any of our competitors. If'the Corn-
laws were abolished, the effect on prices would be reciprocal
in this and foreign countries, and bring them towards an ap-
proximation. It would lower prices here, and enhance prices
on the Continent.

Mr. ANTHONY FEWSTER came forward to second the reso-
lution. It is not, my friends, and lam glad you feel it, out of
any prejudice to the farmer that we now come forward to peti-
tion against the Corn.laws; our object is not to ruin the
farmer, but, if possible, to introduce such a system of free
trade, whereby the farmer, in common with every other man,
will reap a fair reward for his capital and labour.—Loud
cheers.) I will go a step further, and I say that Ido not
conceive the object we have in view would injure even the
great landholder, but that it would operate for the general
welfare and prosperity of the entire community. 1 should
think it was not necessary to prove that our produce is not equal
to our consumption. If it were, I need not go very far back.
Let us take from 1826. In 1827 the import of foreign corn
amounted to no less than five millions and a half of quarters ;
all of which was consumed ie this country, as well as nearly
a million in 1828, a million and a half in 1830, a million
and a half in the spring of 1831. From 1828 to the end
of the succeeding five years, 5,700 000 quarters were ad-
mitted, although there was not one decidedly bad year
during the whole of that period. It may be said that we
had cheap bread since 1832, but this was owing to the ex-
traordinary produce, and produce is the principal thing that
rules prices. 1832 was a fair sear of produce; 1833 was a
large produce ; and i i 1834 there was the largest produce ever
known in this country except that of 1820, which was the
largest on record. My opinion of the effect of the abolition of
the Corn-laws is that a general rise to a certain extent will
take place in the price of corn on the Continent, and a gene-
ral lowering of corn in England, so as to produce something
approaching to an approximation. I think that instead of
much land being thrown out of cultivation, the landlords
themselves will be ultimately much benefited by the abolition
of the Corn-laws, as well 0,2 the whole mass of the population.
It will give an immense ilimulus to trade, and enable the
working classes to purchase more of those articles for which
we expect there will be an increased demand as well as a much
greater quantity of food.—(Cheers.)

The CHAIRMAN said he had great pleasure in reading to the
meeting a letter which he had received from their representa.
tive, Lord John Russell. It was needless for him to say that
anything coming from the Noble Lord was of much greater
importance, from his position as a Cabinet Minister, than if he
were a private individual. After some further remarks, the
Chairman read the letter from his:Lordship (which has already
appeared in the The Sun), and congratulated the meeting and
all classes in the country on such an expression of sentiment
by a M nister of the Cabinet.

- G. P. SCROPE, Esq., M. P., being called for by the meet-
ing, came forward, and was received with much applause, and
after the cheering had subsided, the Hon. Gentleman said—l
have always expressed my opposition to the leading principles
of the Corn-laws, opposed as they are to the great principles
of free trade, of which I have always been the advocate. Ac-
cording to those principles, every industrious producer ought
to be allowed to take his goods to the best market where he
can find purchasers, and to go for the ariicles which he requires
to the cheapest market where they can be purchased. This
is the general principle of the free trade which I have always
supported, and which I desire to see form the basis of our
commercial legislation. At the same time I hive ever thought
that in the period of transition from war to peace there might
have been some reason for introducing a moderate graduated
scale of duties.—(Cries of " No, no.") However, that is
a mere opinion, and as I am speaking of a period of
twenty years since—l am alluding to an enactment with
which I have nothing at all to do; and at all events I see no
excuse for the imposition of 80s. a quarter as the price of
wheat, whatever opinion I might have of the propriety of let-
ting down the grower gently. I understand upon the same
ground that the present object, as embodied in the resolution
to which you have all agreed, is not that the duty on the im-
portation of corn should be immediately and entirely abolished,
but that a moderate fixed duty should be substituted. With
that proposition I entirely agree; and it is one which I shall
be happy to support in my place in Parliament, whenever an