The Sun.
London, England, 1838-12-22 00:00:00

IWashington, Dec. 3, 1838.

REPEAL OF THE CORN-LAWS.

ADJOURNED MEETING MEETING OT F HE CHAMBER OF

COMNIERCE OF MANCHESTER.
The adjourned special general meeting of the Chamber of
Commerce for the purpose of considering the propriety of
Petitioning the Legislature for a Repeal of the Corn-laws,
was held on Thursday, in the rooms of the Chamber, Town
'tall-buildings, King-street. The attendance was as large,
if not larger than at the original meeting. The President of
the Chamber, Mr. G. W. WOOD, M. P., took the Chair.
The PRESIDENT, after introducing the subject, mentioned,
that the two concluding paragraphs in the petition prepared
by the Directors, and laid before the last meeting, had been
withdrawn, as they did not seem to have given satisfaction ;
and that they had instructed him to read the following, as, in
their opinion, suitable to be substituted :
" Your petitioners address your Honourable House on this
subject in no spirit of partisanship. They do not desire the
exclusive advantage of a class, but the equal good of all.
They desire not to retain for themselves any protection which
they protest against allowing to others, but are anxious to see
every department of our national industry left to rest on its
OWD resources and native energy. Considering therefore, as
jupon the strongest grounds they do, that the operation of the
Corn-laws is disastrously injurious to all their fellow-country-
men who earn their daily bread by their daily labour ;—that
it is sapping the foundations of our national prosperity, by the
unjust advantage it confers on the rival manufactures of other
countries; that it is thus vitally opposed to the prosperity of
our commerce and manufactures ; and considering, more-
cver, that our agricultural prosperity is closely connected with
those two branches of national strength, and must flourish as
theyflourish, and fail as they decay—your petitioners earnestly
conjure your Honourable House that the existing Corn-laws
roa's be repealed."
The matter was now open to be dealt with as the Chamber
..!eight think expediert, and most likely to advance the object
,
1! view. The Directors bad no idea of dictating to the
:geeting in what form they should express their sentiments,
:ut they had considered it their duty when it was thought
ceeessary to summon the Chamber, to be prepared with a pe-
tition, which, in their opinion, would be suitable. •
They
?Pished the meeting to consider that they acknowledged,
111 the Chamber, the most unlimited power of acting inde-
pendently of anything they might suggest, not doubting that
a body of gentlemen so numerous, so intelligent, and so
deeply interested in the question, would do that which was
!roost fitting for the character of the Chamber, and for the
otferests of the town with which the members were so closely
connected.
1‘11.• J. C. DYER felt deeply interested in the issue of
the Important question of the Corn-laws. It was a question
that called for the dispassionate consideration of the whole
country, for we were in that state of danger, arising from
eernpetition from abroad against our commercial prospe-
tnY, which called for the most prompt and energetic ex-
erti°ll upon the part of the whole people to remove the
came of that danger. Being entirely ignorant of the course
intended to be pursued, be had hurriedly prepared an amend-
reent to the paragraphs proposed by the Directors to be sub-
stituted for those withdrawn, which he would propose, not in
ttipasatagement of tneir proceedings, but because, in his opinion,
•ge petition did not contain that energetic expression of feel-
on this subject which did or ought to pervade the public
mind. We had heard much upon the subject of extreme
!Pinions, and much upon the subject of moderation. In pri-
ate life moderation was extremely laudable and desirable ;
it added greatly to the courtesies of society, and was in every
commendable;Way but upon public questions, where a
Plain matter of justice was concerned, he held the moderation
*o
„ much lauded to be highly objectionable. A great deal
of mischief arose from the use of the term, " moderation,"
when it was misplaced. The " moderados," the " juste
"mieu," and the " moderates," then, all stood in a wrong
Irition, because it was the duty of every man to promote
e best and permanent interests of the country, and not
(.0 stand half way between right and wrong. They (the
Juste milieu) might prevent the perpetration of new wrongs,
011 t they were also very liable to prevent the removal of old
arb'e • He was extremely anxious to see this greatest of all
r uses, the Corn-laws, removed, for which purpose the ques-
sten ought to be stripped of all extraneous manner. It was a
industry,
question bete een a whole community, whose capital,
°f reproduction,
and talent, were respectively used for the purposes
1) reproduction, and a class of men who obtained rents,
,inor-
dinately raised beyond what they ought to be, by reason of a
Landlord monopoly. All persons, then, whether engaged in
rtlufacturing or agricultural industry, or in the various use-
Professions in life, in shopkceping and other branches of
il- de, the master-manufacturer and the eminent merchant—
e short, every person whose talent, capital, and labour, were
conjointly or individually devoted to the production of national
,ealth, the supply of the national wants, those parties were
deeply interested in obtaining food from every part of
,ise world, at the cheapest rate, in exchange for the exports
"' our manufactures. The landlords, to whom the benefit
: f the monopoly was secured, bad a certain number of per-
"B dependent upon them, and these were neutral in the
question. These persons cared not whether food were dear
Zr cheap, but all our domestics, and the parties employed
fell us, were interested in our prosperity. If we fell, they
:zit with us ; therefore it was those who lived, like ram-
Ines upon the blood of the nation, that were interested
t" keeping up the monopoly. The universal people were in-
terested upon the other side. The acts of legislation upon
:Is subject were specimens of extreme ignorance and selfish-
ness, eminently disgraceful to the Legislature that passed
essero ; and as an individual, he would not consent to shrink
be the expression of the indignation and resentment which
'lle felt, in consequence of the mischief thereby inflicted upon
It was said we must offer a boon for the concession of
la natural and most essential of all rights; that we must
concedesil the repeal of all the duties upon manufactures. Now
a first duty of all legislation was to provide for a supply of
rood at the cheapest and best market, for the universal people;
_luld that right he demanded upon the principle of justice, and
fl,e,t upon any principle of compromise, or of yielding up some-
Rang else. If our manufactures could stand against corn-
Petition with every protecting duty repealed, he should re-
joice; but he did not consider it right to mix up the two
questions. Whenever any impost upon manufactures ope-
rated injuriously to any class, even to the landlord class, if they
;Quid show him that some of the articles they consumed, the
o'...lorrionds and jewels that decorated their persons, by the duties
e.fpanufacturers—
Ivl,r. SMITH—They pay no duty upon diamonds.
1,.."Jr• DYER—Well, if they could show that the protection of
"3' branch of manufacture was injurious to them, or to any
Part of the community, he should be very glad to see that
Protection repealed. The assertion that we were now in a
condition to remove all protective duties upon manufactures,
toas not true. He was happy to say it was true with regard
the great flourishing manufactures of this town and district,
and t was really a national honour, and a matter of pride and
gratification to ourselves, that we had so managed pur indus-
Dh 80 nobly carried on our manufactures prosperously and
41°44(131y, in defiance of foreign competition, even under all
,_e burdens we suffered. But there were other branches of
manufacture of great importance, with which we were not
~`"leediately connected, in which it would be well in us to
t•zraY for a removal of protection. He would take for
ample all the manufacturing industry which was em-
_eYed upon the material of leather— such as harness-
Zakers, saddle-makers, and boot and shoe-makers, of whom
there were a great number, especially in the rural dis-
de.ta• Here came again the landlord—he had secured a heavy
oPon the importation of forein necessary hides, and
417 for his protection. It was thats,
there
mould be a duty to protect this manufacturing industry,
tom One was imposed upon boots and shoes, and all articles
t.„ Posed of leather. He would not trouble the Chamber by
further detailing these things, but he had thought it right to
hietion them, to see how far it was proper to compromise
pi 8 question, how far we should demand it as an inherent
gh, and then we could meet fairly all those persons who
5r%1:14 Prove they had been damaged by the removal of this
psan°PelY. Then he came to demand that the petition should
thi Y for an absolute, unqualified, and immediate revocation of
8 "bat law.
re The Priestoesm—The petition does pray for immediate
- eal,Mr• n
not a • DYER.—But he was persuaded that if the Chamber did
re„,,,-(Mand in language that could not be misunderstood, the
,01,,eation of this unjust law, a compromise would be demanded,
tai's.even acceded to, by those who were ordinarily called Libe-
Posed One of the most eminent of those gentlemen had pro-
00r a duty of 10s. a quarter upon the importation of foreign
n'
robbe of twenty-five
words, that the ccuntry should submit to be
twenty-five millions a year, for the estimated con-
m3pt`l
tar en was fifty millions of quarters, so that at 10s. a guar
thiB d .11tY, the loss would be twenty-five millions a year. With
tort of compromise be could not agree, Mr. Dyer having

11,Isro to
upon a perrormance of their obligations. To relax
tm this sa.utary rule because the Sminoles have maintained
themselves so long i- the territory they had relinquished, and,
in defiance of their frequent and solemn engagements, still
continue to wage a ruthless war against the United States,
would not only evince a want of constancy on our part, but
be of evil example in our intercourse wish other tribes. Ex-
perience has shown that but little is to he gained by the march
of armies through a country s ) intersected with inaccessible
swamps and marshes, and which from the fatal character of
the climate, must be abandoned at the end of the winter. I
recommend, therefore, to your attention the plan submitted by
the Secretary of NN ar in the accompanying report, for the per-
manent occupation of the portion of the territory freed from
the Indians, and the more efficient protection of the people of
Florida from their inhuman warfare.
Admitting that the adoption of the laws of Maryland for a
Portion of the district confers on the Circuit Court thereof in
that portion, the transcendent extra -judicial prerogative powers
of the Court of Queen's Bench in England, or that either of
the Acts of Congress, by necessary implication, authorise the
former court to issue a writ of mandamus to an officer of the
United States, to compel him to perform a ministerial duty,
the consequences are, in one respect, the same. The result,
in either case, is that the officers of the United States, sta-
tioned in different parts of the United States are, in respect
to the performance of their official duties, subject to different
laws and a different supervision—these in the States to one rule,
and those in the district of Columbia to another and a very
different one. In the district their official conduct is subject
to a judicial control, from which in the States they are exempt.
Whatever difference of opinion may exist as to the expedi-
ency of vesting such a power in the judiciary, in a system of
government constituted like that of the United States, all
Must agree that these disparaging discrepancies in the law
and in the administration of justice ought not to be permitted
to continue • and, as Congress alone can provide the remedy,
the subject is unavoidably presented to your consideration.
M. VAN BUREN.