The Sun.
London, England, 1839-03-19 00:00:00

!EVENING- EDITION.

ANTI-CORN-LAW DELEGATES.
(YESTERDAY.)

The Delegates met yesterday afternoon (as usual), at
Brown's Hotel. J. B. SMITH, Esq., in the Chair.
Mr. Hawes, M. P., Mr. C. Lushinv,ton, M. P., Sir
Edward Codrington, M.P., and Mr. Dennistoun, M. P.,
were present.
The CHAIRMAN announced that a letter had been re-
ceived from Lerwick, in the Shetland Isles, inclosing a
copy of a petition, signed by 5,800 of the inhabitants,
being one-fourth of the whole population of those Isles, for
the total and immediate Repeal of the Corn-laws.
This petition was a very important one, as the Shetlanders
contended that the Corn-laws affected them more than
any other class of the community ; and they looked with
peculiar interest to the proceedings of the Delegates. He
undemood if a general measure for the repeal of the Corn-
laws were refused by the Legislature, the Shetlanders in-
tended to apply to Parliament for a Bill for their own
special relief.—( Loud cries of " Hear, hear.") They felt
that the existing Corn-laws were grossly unjust towards
them, as they could not grow their own provisions, and
had no other means of obtaining their bread, but by ex-
changing their fish for the corn of other countries, and he
thought Parliament was, at all events, bound to take their
case into consideration.

Mr. WIGHAM, of Edinburgh, corroborated the statement
of the Chairman, and was afraid those poor people would
find propriet ,rs of land there to oppose their wishes as
well as here.—( Shame, shame )
Mr. JOSEPH STURGE wished to correct an inaccuracy
that he made the other day with regard to the imports
f em Ireland, which arose from his not knowing what was
the official mode of turning flour or meal into quarters.
Ile held in his hand the official return, and he found it was
stated by Sir R. Peel that 3,474 000 qrs. was imported in 1138,
including manufactured meal and flour, and that misled him.
There teas an official standard for reducing it into quarters,
that he w..s not aware of; but it confirmed what he
had stated relative to the repeated decrease of the
imp r. tation of wheat into this country from 1 "1.32. We
coald not expect to obtain any larger supply of wheat
flour from the land in future.._-( Hear, hear.) He hoped
th It Daniel O'Connell would bring before the House,
before the conclusion of the debate, some of those en-
-I:ghtened viers that he had expressed to the Dele-
gates. He (Mt. Sturge) considered that the Delegates
were ander a great obligation to that Hon. and Learned
Member for taking up the question so warmly as he had
done, particularly as there was a large portion of the Fish
e'rnmunity of opinion that the Corn laws should be up-
held.—( Hear, hear.) He recollected an instance in which
one of the correspondents of his (Mr. Sturge's) house sent
a bill of lading for wheat, net at all wanted in this coun-
try, sta in his letter that the people of Ireland
wcro in an ext-ernaly distressed ccndition, that they were
fercing, open the stores to get food ; and it so happened
that at the time the poor Irish were starving even on
.potatoes, the food that ought to have been given
to them for consumption was sent to this country.—( Hear.)
He hoped this' fact would be mentioned to the House of
Commons, for he was certain that the sufferings of the
agricultural poor of Ireland were increased by the opera-
tion of the Corn.laws —( Hear, hear.)
Mr. CeeDEN Viould be glad if the example of their friend
Sturge, in correcting an error into which he had
fallen, were folloeed by Sir Robert Peel.—( Hear,
hear ) Iln wished that the Honourable Baronet would
correct some of the fallacious statements he had made
the other night. If he did not do so, he hoped tine would
La atTyrded to some Hon. Mt.reher to answer him. One

cf the gr atest fallacies of the Right Honourable Baronet
teas in his allusion to Mr. Grote's speech, who ex-
pretsed an opinion that the increase in the importation
would not be more than 230,000 quarters. In alluding
to tie.it Slr Robert Peel made one of his triumphant
bursts of exultation, in which he was cheered by his
supportera, and exclaimed, " What, are we to upset
the whole established arrangement regarding the Corn-
trade, for the purpose of get ing only 250,000 quarters
m than we have hitherto done.—( Hear, hear.)
Th Itiglit Hon. Baronet ought to have known that it was
not reerely that this country had to pay the duty on the
.2;0,000 quarters of corn imported, but the tax levied by
our own landlords on the 14,000,000 quarters grown at
boree.—( Hear, tear.) It would become the Delegates to
vindicate themselves from the charge which Lord- Mel-
bourne had brought against the opponents of the Corn-
laws, of " wildness" and " madness"—( Hear, hear,
bear)—and for that purpose it would be well that a
Committee be appointed to ascertain the amount of reve-
nue raised from the duties for protecting British manufac-
tures, which could be easily learned from the revenue
tabh.s. He (Mr. Cobden) had a statement in his hand,
slyiwing that for an average of four years ending Jan 5,
1833, the duty levied on the importation of cotton manu-
factures, was 4,9921. ; on iron manufactures 20,6911. ; on
linens, 15,3571.; on woollens, 20,4121. ; on silks,
(the principal item,) 192,8731.; in the whole
something under 300,0001.—( Hear, hear, hear.) The
duty paid upon corn imported for four years ending
sth Janu,ry, 1838—the average for that period was
266,2321. ; so that the whole financial difficulty of the
question was less than half a million sterling annually.
And that was the obstacle upon which Lord Mel-
bourne had represented the opponents of the Corn-laws
es " wild" and " mad." He (Mr. Cobden) would take
upon himself to say that if no other mode could be de-
vised by Lord Melbourne fox supplying that deficiency the
manufacturers would themselves find the means of raising
the sum. They would consent to any tax, even the
worst of all taxes that could be devised—upon their steam
vower itself, if in return they might enjoy an un-
restricted freedom of trade.—(Hcar, hear, hear.) He
would move, in conclusion, that a Sub-Committee be
appointe3, consisting of the Chairman, Mr. Plint, Mr.
Sturge, and Dr. Bowring, to inspect the revenue returns,
for a series of years, to ascertain what amount of revenue
was collected by duties levied for the protection of British
manufactiies; and to report their opinion as to the best
means for making the result known to the House and to
the country.

Dr. BO WRiNG thought the question of prohibitions
ought also to be examined into. He would just mention a
case which had come to his knowledge. A vessel from
the port of Hull had been wrecked a few days ago on the
Dagger Bank, and was conducted in safety to that port by
a poor Dutch fisherman, who, when desirous of'selling his
lord of fish, was told that our prohibition of foreign fish
was preremptory, and that the fish must be thrown into the
sea.—(llear, hear.) The duty on the importation of
foreign corn, was but a part of one great and perverted
system, characterised by an unbrotherly and malignant
spirit,—( Hear, hear.)
Mr. Noon cordially agreed in what had been said by
the last speaker, and could confirm what had been stated
by Mr. Johnson, on Saturday, respecting the Brazil trade.
Our principal articles of export were hardware, lead, &c.,
and the returns were sugar, coffee, cotton, &c. To show
the fallacy of the operation of the present law relating to
these articles in Brazil, he might mention a circum-
stance which had transpired within his own knowledge.
A vessel had arrived in London which had taken
in a oargo of coffee in Holland, and gone round
the Cape of Good Hope, so as to bring it within the limits
of the East India Company's Charter. The duty on the
coffee from Brazil is ls. 6d. per lb. ; coming from places
within the limits of the East India Charter 9d., and from
the West India Colonies 6d. For Brazil coffee only 465.
could be obtained in consequence of this regulation, while
West India Coffee of the same quality would fetch 903. to
955. As regarded sugar, within the last month there had
been imported into the City of London from Holland
from 800 to 900 hogsheads of sugar, to be exported again
to the Mediterranean. Our vessels were thus driven out
of their natural employment, and we were obliged to pay
an extravagant price for the produce of those countries
which were taking from us an immense quantity of our
manufactures.

Mr. BOULTIIER said, the worthy Chairman would do him
the justice to admit, that when first he had the pleasure of
his acquaintance at Birmingham, he placed several papers
in his hands to show that the Corn-laws, enacted to keep
up prices to a certain standard, had not only failed, but
produced exactly the contrary effect ; and that grain had
always been lower under the operation of a protective sys-
tem than when the ports were open. This opinion he
had advocated to the utmost of his power from the passing
of the Act of 1815, to the present time ; the avowed object
of that Act was to keep the price of wheat at 803. per qr.
At the first meeting in this place, he endeavoured to obtain
the assistance of a Committee to ascertain and report upon
the effects of the Corn-laws, by a reference to authentic
documents. Had his suggestion been adopted, he was pre-
pared to prove, from public documents, that the landowners
were more injured by the Corn-laws than any other class; but
the Committee was objected to, because, it was said, proving
his ease would injure their cause. He could not comprehend
how truth could be injurious to any cause, and nothing would
lead him to suspect the justice of any cause more than the
fear of its advocates to face the truth—and further, he must
say that it was rather inconsistent in gentlemen to cry out so
loudly against the House of Commons for not devoting
much time and enormous expense to hearing their evidence
—they themselves having refused him half an hour, un-
attended the outlay of a single shilling, for a similar
purpose. Haviug, for twenty-four years, considered
the misapprehension upon this subject to have consigned
hundreds of thousande or millions of our fellow-creatures
to want and misery, and, in numerous cases, to absolute
starvation, not from high prices, but for want of the means
to purchase food at any price, he bad felt it to
be an imperious duty continually to renew the
abject both here and at Manchester to the
aunt)) z.,nce, he feared, of those gentlemen 40 differed
from him in opinion. He hoped those gently en would
be kind encugh to attribute his pertinacity to honest mo-
tives and not to a spirit of opposition. Mr. Porter was
considered a great authority upon subjects of that
kind. It was highly gratifying to him to find
the opinions be bad advocated so long and so
anxiously, unequivocally asserted and clearly proved in
the pamphlet then in his hand, as well as by many
of the speeches during the present discussions.
If it were possible to induce every Member of the two
/louses of Parliament to read this little work, he would
not say another word upon the subject, but as his own re-
cent experience showed the extreme difficulty of per-
suading people to listen to evidence in opposition to their
preconceived opinions, he felt called upon to make one
more rffort to lay the facts of the case before the Legis-
lature, in such a manner as would be attended with the
least possible trouble on their parts. He therefore moved :
" That a Committee be appointed to select as many im-
portant facts from Mr. Porter's pamphlet, or any other
source, as can be compressed into the compass of a letter,
and that a copy of such letter be transmitted to every
Member of both Houses of Parliament."
Mr. JOH'SSON said the motion of Mr. Cobden was not
yet disposed of—it would be better to dispose of it first.
The Hon B. M wished fact to the
URRATto state one
Pe.6.gation.. In -going home to Glasgow from Mauches-
Le,, ne happened to travel with a farmer, and as he wished
there should be no mistake upon the matterabe would men-
tipsotho €. a year from
was Mr. Ewer, who rented to the amount
from Lord Zetland, and he (Mr. M.) was
e. as.toniabed to find that he was an ardent favourer
the abolition of the Corn-lairs. In addition to being a
farmer he was a large drover, and he said, in 1836, when he
wit 7,1,- g emt ti nt ounliyasegt; for
marketa ils grain, he was selling his
to greater profit, and two