The Sun.
London, England, 1839-01-18 00:00:00

REPEAL OF THE CORN-LAWS.

We understand that the following requisition was delivered
yesterday afternoon by Messrs. Heppel, Hall, and Gilloway,
to the. Right Honourable the Lord Mayor. His Lordship
received the deputation most politely, and after reading the
document which was signed by 110 Members of the Court of
Common Council, including three Aldermen, his Lordship
stated that he should be most happy in complying wi.h
wish of the requisionists; and he hoped to be able to appoint
a Court of Common Council for Thursday, the 24th, or
Friday, the 25th, of this month. The dTutation informed
his Lordship th it ci. her of those days would be convenient.
His Lordship said he should, therefrc, fix on one or other of
those days by to-morrow (this day):—

" TO THE RIGHT HON

THE LORD MAYOR.

" We, the undersigned Members of the Court of Common
Council, request your Lordship will convene a Court of Com-
mon Council on an early day, to consider the expediency of
petitioning the Commons' House of Parliament for the repeal
or modification of the Corn-laws,"

MR. T iIOMSON AND FHE CORN

LAWS.

(From the Manchester Guardian.)
During his late visit to Manchester, our Right Hon. Re-
pros ntative, Mr. Poulett Thomson, was requested to re-
print, fur general circulation, the excellent and conclusive
speech on the subject of the Corn-laws, which he delivered
br the House of Commons on the 7th March, 1834. Of
that speech a printed copy has just reached us; and it is
accompanied by an introductory. letter from Mr. Thomson,
addressed to Mr. Alderman Kershaw, in which he notices
and disposes of the attack lately made upon him at the
Chamber of Commerce meeting on the Corn-laws. As we
have reason to believe that a good deal of misconception
prevails with respect to the course which our Right Hon.
Representative has taken on the Corn•law question, we
quote the most important and interesting paragraphs of the
preliminary letter referred to:—

" Since we met, the (Manchester) Chamber of Commerce
has assembled to consider the Corn-laws; and a discussion
has taken place there, which has attracted, and deservedly so,
a great deal of public/ attention. I am glad that such his been
the cafe. The high character of the meting, the important
facts and the able arguments brought forward by the different
speakers, cannot fail to produce a good ell ct upon the public
mind, and to advance the cause which we have at heart. I

may indeed regret, that year after year was suffered to pass
without more attention having been paid by the great manufac-
turing community of which Manchester is the centre, to this,
in my opinion, all-important subject ; and that it should have
been thought advisable to wait till the public mind was excited
by a bad harvest and a high price of provisions, to bring for-
ward those facts and arguments which were equally applicable
in times of comparative plenty and of low prices of corn in
England. Still, I rejoice in the movement that has been made.
" I observe, however, from the proceedings, as reported in
the Manchester Papers, that at the meeting, one or two of our
friends thought proper to express some dissatisfaction at my
conduct upon this'question ; and, although their remarks were
promptly and most satisfactorily met and answered through the
kindness of others who were present, I cannot forbear from
briefly noticing this, to me, most extraordinary attack.
" I may remark, that it so happened that three weeks before
this meeting of the Chamber, I had the pleasure myself of
meeting the memters of that body, when one, at least, of the
gentlemen to whose observations I allude was present; and it
seems to me that it would have been more manly as well as
more candid, to have produced those charges when I was pre-
sent, than to have waited till I was no longer in a situation to
reply to them, and when but for the kindness and sense of
justice of others, they might have remained unanswered. But
that is, after all, a matter of taste. What I have to deal with
is the charge itself.
" 1 am blamed for neglect of this great question,—for not
supporting more warmly the views and wishes of my constitu-
ents with regard to it , and to crown all, it is said that my
conduct in this respects contrasts unfavourably with that of
the late Mr. Huskisson I Certainly, upon all other questions
but this, I shall be the last to complain of seeing my humble
exertions placed far below his great and successful efforts in the
cause of a better commercial system ; but• on this, I confess, I
am somewhat astonished at the selection which has been made
of his name. But let us see by a short retrospect what has
been my course, and what that of those by whom this charge is
brought.

" In the year 1827, shortly after I entered Parliament, the
Corn Bill, of which the present law is a repetition, with some
slight alterations only, was introduced by Mr. Canning and
Mr. Hukisson ; I then found myself in a miserable minority of
sixteen in favuur of a low fixed duty, and in opposition to a
fluctuating scale, such as is provided by the present law. In
1830, when called upon to accept place ender the Govern-
ment of Lord Grey, I declined it, unless with the stipulation
that I was to be at liberty to advocate, by my voice and by my
vote,anthaaltteiriagthiotn,
ainndthine
the
eisftainege Corn-laws.nfthecine
ab Itn, of 1834
many I vin-
dicated
of
my own friends, much public and private attack, I expressed
them by the best ar-
guments opinions I entertained, and supported .
bgeulmieevieitswel
twe a
not
natblielltsonaincledtuecae,
—arguments
tfisnwdhtlheaht theyaayntniociw-
t again, upon the same principle;
plBat3esdimjonsinteodf
tthheosGe
nwvheirenhinwenere used at the late meeting. In
and I have never omitted an opportunity of publicly recording
my opinion in favour of a change in these laws. -
" And now give.me leave to ask what has been the course,
during the same period, of those who charge me with want of
i e
zeal ? Surely they must have been untiring in their efforts to
draw public attention to this question I to stimulate the exer-
tionsof
kind, their
duringei r
friends,
that ds ,
besiegeriodf:arliament by petitions! On
long to
p e
has been made, and that one
under circumstances which attracted no attention to the fact ;
and yet it must have been in the power of any gentleman, a
member of the Chamber of Commerce, still more of a member
of its committee, to have originated, at least, a proposition to
that effect.
~ I do not say this in censure of the conduct which the
Chamber adopted : far from it. I have no doubt whatever
that their conduct was regulated by the best motives, and the
most prudential considerations; but I say it is a little too
much for any member of that body, when he at last wakes
from the repose in which be-has been so long indulging, to
charge others who have been assiduously labouring from the
first hour, with inactivity and backwardness.
" There is to be sure one charge to which, in form,
I must
plead guilty, that I did not speah upon the last occasion,
when the Corn-laws were before the House of Commons.
But upon this point. I must beg, without any vanity, to re-
mark, that a pretty long parliamentary experience may have
made me the best judge, whether a question at any particular
time is likely to be better served by a speech or by a silent
vote; and I have no doubt that a little longer experience in
public mattera, and in popular assemblies, of which you have
now one in Manchester, will convince our frier.d who makes
this a ground of attack, that it is frequently far more advisable
to be silent, than to consume the public time in repeating
arguments which have been used before, or in exposing falla-
cies which have been already overset."

Between three and four o'clock on Tuesday after-
noon, a labourinc, man, named Jeremiah Corklan, while at
work at the British Museum, was standinc, on a plank
placed across the top of the bannisters of the landing-
place of the fourth story of a well staircase of one of the
galleries, assisting in hauling LIP a basket of sand, when by
some means he overbalanced himself, and was precipitated
on to the stone flags of the basement floor. He sustained,
besides other sovere injuries, a very dreadful compound
He was removed to the Unher-
sfr:tayacuroelleogfetlH)eolsett thigh.
Hospital, and not the slightest hope is enter-
tained of his surviving.