The Sun.
London, England, 1853-01-29 00:00:00

THE PEACE CONFERENCE AT MANCHESTER.

Od Thursday evening a meeting of the Peace Confer-
erence was held in the Corn Exchange, Hanging-ditch,
Manchester—Mr. George Wilson occupying the chair.
Mr. COBDEN, who was heartily cheered on rising to
speak, said—The outcry that we hear in this country
about an invasion from France, is levelled against the
present Government of France. I have an extract here
from the Journal des Debats, which is a pacific news-
*paper; not in the -interest of Louis Napoleon, but a de-
cided advocate of peace and free trade ; and what is the
tone in which that paper speaks of this cry of invasion
in this country ? It says, that " whilst the British
journals are every day accusing our Government of mak-
ing large augmentations of its navy, we observe that un-
der this unfounded pretence England is constantly add-
ing to its fleet and other armaments • and we are led to
believe that the English press can have no other object
in thus declaiming against the imaginary armaments of
France than to conceal the real preparations that are
going on in that country." The effect will be precisely
the contrary of what the alarmists want. Instead
of damaging Louis Napoleon, you will unite all
parties in France with him as against England.
And this is the great evil of such demonstrations as
this—you make every man in France, that has one
atom of self-respect, or of French • spirit in his blood—
you make him feel indignant that you have lowered him
and his country to the rank of savages,•ln supposing
that they are to come here some day, without notice,
without declaration of war—a thing that never happened
in any civilised country in the world ; and yet you are
assuming that it is going to be done, some day, without
any fact to warrant it ; and you are making all the pre-
paration that he sees, in your ports, in order to receive
those savages. (Cheers.) I wish I could get some of
the public instructors and bring them to test how far
they are in earnest, when they write in the way some of
these Manchester papers write about a French invasion.
(Hear, hear.) Now, to my knowledge, they have been
writing in the same way these last five years ; I have
had them upon me ever since December, 1847, which is
above five years ago. They were writing in the same
way when Louis Philippe was King of the French, and
when M. Guizot was his Prime Minister. I will not let
them off on their protesting that all they want now is to
guard us against an usurper and a despot. I say they
raised that cry as long ago as 1847, when Louis
Philippe was king, as loudly as they do now. They
have been for five years in this state of panic and alarm ;
and I say it is high time that such people should take
some assurance against the consequences of this inva-
sion when it comes. Well now, lam prepared, not
only to give them that assurance on moderate terms, ,
but I will put their sincerity to the test. Bring me that
public instructor in your town who has been telling you
for the last five years and upwards that this invasion is
so imminent, bring him to me, and I will make a pro-
posal to him. If he will pay one shilling a week to your
infirmary, as a subscription, I will enter into a legal
bond to pay him down ten thousand pounds when this
invasion takes place. (Great cheering.) The Govern-
ment has no belief in any danger of a sudden invasion
I will prove it to you in a moment. If an invasion took
place without notice, our Government would be cer-
tainly impeached for allowing our largest concentrated
fleet—a fleet more powerful than the whole American
navy—to remain where it is at present stationed. Now
I am speaking deliberately when I say that we have a
fleet before which if every ship of war which the Ameri-
cans have were brought they could not exist 24 hours ;
and that fleet is now lying at Malta, or amusing them-
selves between Malta and Corfu (with a great expendi-
ture on the part of the officers for kid gloves for •thnir
parties and excursions) ; and I say that if Parliament
believed what the Government and the instructors
of the people are saying (as if it were derived from
some special sources of information), that any go-
vernment that ever existed in the country, and
was proved, if an invasion and descent on our shores
took place, to have suspected it, to have anticipated it,
and to have given a hint of it to some of those public in-
structors in the country, would inevitably be impeached ;
and deservedly so, for having left our largest fleet, 1,200
miles off, and at such a distance that it couhl not be col-
lected in less than a month's time. So I assure gentle-
men in the provinces who join in the cry that they are
only being heartily laughed at for their pains, and the
Government, which may profit by the cry, is by no
means a sharer in the panic. The last French war arose
out of a gross and unprovoked aggression on our part.
The last war on the Continent originated with us from
an oligarchical Government, fed from the resources of
this great nation, but carried on against the interests of
liberty and in the interests of despotism. But, after that
war was at an end, I think we might have expected that
if there were any complaints, or accusations, or suspi•
cions, they would more naturally have come from the
other side of the Channel. I think that, under the cir-
cumstances, when we investigate the origin and charac-
ter of the last great French war with this country, it is
surprising thnt there is not a greater feeling of re-
sentment and indignation on the part of the French
nation against the English. But, are the English
people in a position to begin again to exasperate the
French people by accusing them of an intention to
invade us, and of entertaining those base inten-
tions against our shores, when the only example
in the memory of living man, is one in which we
played that part against them ? If there should be suspi-
cion in the minds of any it should be in the breasts of
Frenchmen. We have no danger it is admitted on all
hands from any other country. If it were not for this
bugbear of France and the French invasion, there would
be lamentation and woe in some clubs in London, for I
do not think they could have any excuse for keeping up
so large a military and naval force. As to America,
they do not give us any excuse for keeping up our navy.
If France was out of the way, and we had only to look
to and to be prepared for competition with America, or
even with Austria or Russia, that would hardly afford
us an excuse for keeping up our present armaments. It
is France alone that you are threatened with danger
from, and I say that the people of this country are
alarmed with respect to France, simply because they
don't understand the circumstances of that nation ; and,
being in ignorance, you may persuade them to anything.
It is like blindfolding a man, and then spinning him round
once or twice. He then does not know where he stands,
and you may persuade him that anything in the world
is coming to eat him up ; but unbandage his eyes, and
he is not so easily frightened. (Hear, hear.) The French
people coming here, like a band of pirates, to take what
the English people have Why, you have to deal with
8,000,000 of landed proprietors. A very worthy friend
of ours, who is now travelling in the south of France,
and who is known to most of my friends about me, has
written within the last few days to us that, as the result
of his inquiries and investigation, the condition of the rural
population of France is very superior to that of the Eng-
lish peasantry. The French peasantry are the proprie-
torsl of the land. When the man follows his horse to fie:
d
th
oe rwe
dhoe
yi so
uturning
over from their acres to come here onamere marauding
expedition ? (Applause.) Now, something has been said
t understand
what a Financial B
about the Financial Reformers. I caiTo
ex-
pects ever to get any reduction
thatu p the
i s exactly furrows
the upon
ppo population uhlias ti n own
t o soil.ru
N
c
ture, or any remission of those
us in so many places, unless he can hope to effect a re-
duction in our war
like expenditure. Now, take it in
round
numbers. I won't trouble you with figures, but
eformercan
of be
Government thinkingwhih
are pressing
taxes of
ow xh poon
take in round numbers our expenditure—say 28 millions
annually go to pay the interest of the debts incurred in
past wars—l am sorry to say aggressive wars. Well,
then, we have about 24 or 25 millions more to pay. Out
of that, about 17 millions go for our present warlike ex-
penditure. Well, these invasionists tell us that they
cannot be reduced ; and if the interest of the debt must
be paid, which we all admit, there you have 28 millions
and 16 millions, which make 44 millions, that must not
be touched. Then the Financial Reformers have left
some five or six millions, which cover the whole expense
of our civil Government. It is not an expensive Go-
vernment really, for twenty-eight millions of people.
The civil Government costs us six or eight millions ;
why, then, if the Financial Reformers join in this
great cry for more warlike armaments, and give way
to this red herring drawn across our path in the shape
of an invasion, then I think they ought to close
their books, and retire from business, and no lon-
ger call themselves Financial Refornters. (Cheers.)
Our lecturers and our tracts must be directed to disabuse
the public mind, in the first place, of the impression
which is created with respect to the intentions of France.
That is the first thing to be done, because there's where
the danger is. Then let them deal with the economical
view of the question—l mean the pressure of the enor-
mous burdens on the industry of this country, Let our
lecturers go and show what each town pays—why, I
heard it stated that Manchester has to pay 800,0001. as
its share for our past wars, aid for our present prepara-