The Sun.
London, England, 1849-01-12 00:00:00

SIT N JANUARY 12, 1849.
9

THE GREAT FINANCIAL REFORM
MEETING AT MANCHESTER.

In The Sun of yesterday we gave a full report of the
proceedings at the Great Financial Reform Meeting held
in the Free Trade Hall, Manchester, on Wednesday
evening, to tho conclusion of Mr. Cobden's speech, and
a condensed summary of the remainder of the proceed •
ings. We now give a full report of what took place
after the conclusion of Mr. Cobden's speech.
ALEXANDER HENRY, Esq., M.P., seconded the reso-
lution. He said—l have.great pleasure in seconding the
resolution which has been proposed. My experience in
Parliament has given mo some insight into the workings
of the parties who have hitherto had the rule in that
House. I was placed, unfortunately, upon a Com-
mittee called a Committee for miscellaneous expen-
diture, and sat upon that Committee, with other
gentlemen, for the weary period of five months,
and, finally, we produced a miserable abortion of
a blue-book. When first upon that Committee, I
inquired who were to be my colleagues, and was
assured that it was an honour for me to have been
requested to become one of its members. The proceed-
ings of that Committee are before the public in the blue-
book to which I have referred; and to show how little
was to be expected from its members, I will read the
names of those who were placed upon it by the Govern-
ment. They were Mr. Ellis, Mr. Vernon Smith, Earl
Lincoln, Mr. Henry, Sir George Clerk, Mr. Rice, Mr.
Stafford, Dr. Bowring, Mr. Parker, and others, in all
fifteen members; and at our second meeting I saw there
was no use in going on with the Committee, and proposed
to the chairman that I should ask permission of the
House to withdraw, for whenever it came to the voting
of any large amount of expenditure, Dr. Bowring and
myself were outnumbered, and it became exceeding dis-
heartening to be upon the Committee, though nothing
better could be expected when the two Members for
Dover, where a large amount of expenditure was to be
laid out for harbours of refuge, were sitting upon it.
Mr. Henry concluded by saying that the pressure from
without must be applied, if they wished to effect the
reforms proposed by Mr. Cobden in the next Parlia-
ment.— (Loud cheers.) _ _ _

Mr. GIBSON, M.P., rejoiced to see the movement they
were setting on foot inaugurated by such a meeting as
the present, which he knew would have an influence far
beyond the sphere of the locality in which it was held.
A political movement should never be originated with-
' out an earnest desire of carrying out the objects in
view, not for mere party or personal objects. He had
now represented Manchester for seven years, and ho felt
that his constituents had a right to the full expression of
his political sentiments. When he addressed them last
year, he was an official of the present Government; he
now stood before them an independent Member of Par-
liament. He hoped that by making that change ho had
not forfeited any of that confidence of which the people of
Manchester had given him repeated proofs. Ho was
not insensible, it would be affectation to say so, to the
personal distinctions which office conferred ; he only
estimated at a higher value the confidence of the electors
of Manchester.—(Cheers.) The opinions he was cent
to Parliament to support, were also in accordance with
the honest convictions of his own mind. He found that
his connexion with the present Government would pre-
vent him from supporting those political opinions which
he had been sent to Parliament to support. Burke said,
" War with the world, peace with our constituents." He
(Mr. Gibson) did not go that length, but he said peace
with our constituents when the opinions they profess are
in accordance with our own conscientious conviction.
He could not give that assembly a very satisfactory ac-
count of the proceedings of the last session of; Parlia-
ment; they passed 133 Acts of Parliament, but
amongst them only one solitary measure for the
advancement of those principles of commercial
freedom, and the trade of the country at large,
in which Manchester was so deeply interested. He
referred to the abolition of the duty on copper
ore, but in sugar they had made a retrograde step. It
was said there was a reaction against free trade, but he
would ask them if they were not determined to uphold
the principles of free trade with respect to corn, as well
as other articles? There was a letter in that day's
Morning Chronicle from Mr. Young, who had distin-
guished himself by his advocacy of the navigation-laws.
lie did not call upon the free-traders to retrace their
steps, but wished them to pause in their career. This
would be the greatest injustice, especially to the agricul-
tural community, whose interests Mr. Cobden had so
ably advocated. Why pause in our career? We had
exposed the agricultural community to the disadvantage
of competition with foreign powers—were they to bo re-
fused the same advantages of free trade which we ex-
tended to all other classes? Mr. Cobden promised the
farmers the repeal of the malt-tax, and a reduction, in all,
of 10,000,0001. from the amount of our taxation, in-
cluding the hop duty, and a variety of other burthens. The
honest agriculturist, who had been taught by such high
authorities to look up to Mr. Cobden and respect his
advice, would begin to think he might as well try that
statesman with a bill of fare so tempting.—(Loud cheers.)
- With respect to the extension of the probate and legacy
dutield to real property, he gave it his moat cordial sup-
port; no thing was more likely to create misconceptions
between a Government and its subjects, or to lead to
bitterer discontents amongst the different classes of
society, than the idea that any particular class was
favoured at the expense of others. Any one who looked
at the great burdens imposed in the shape of local taxes
would say that the amount of general taxation ought to
be as small as possible. There were, under the head of
local taxes, the poor-rates, the church-rates, the tolls, the
fees levied by the various officers in the administration of
justice, the port dues, the navigation dues, the lighthouse
dues, and others; add these together, and you had a total
sum, according to the report of the Local Tax-Committee
of 1831, of no less than 12,000,0001. The local taxation
of this country was equal to the whole expenditure for
defence and civil government of some of the greatest
countries of Europe.—(Hear, hear.) Again, it behoved
them to examine that system of policy which required
them to keep large amounts of force in every quarter of
the world. He distrusted altogether the principle of
what was called an armed peace, believing that instead
of preventing war, it provoked to war. Why should we
have twenty-five ships of war cruising in the Mediter-
ranean, for no other purpose than to keep the Euro-
pean powers in a fever? Might not the United States
as well keep a large fleet in tho British Channel,
for they had a much larger and more valuable
trade with our ports on that sea than we had in the Me-
diterranean?—(Hear, hear.) With regard to Ireland,
he thought that by adopting a policy based upon the
reconciliation of classes, the necessity of maintaining a
large part of the force at present maintained would be
avoided. He looked upon the endowment of the Church
of Ireland as a gross misapplication of the public
money.—(Cheers.) He would not endow the Roman
Catholic clergy—he would have religious equality in that
country, as far as religious opinions were concerned;
but it was his firm belief that they would never find
Ireland what it was, unless they put down the Protestant
Church, and applied its funds to the general purposes of
the civil government of that country.—(Hear.) With
reference to the aspect of foreign relations, our security
was increasing, the influence of the peace principle was
increasing, and whilst that was the case, it was merely
absurd to be augmenting our military establishments.—
(Cheers.) The Hon. Gentleman having declared that
he gave his warm support to Mr. Hume's plan of re-
form, concluded by moving the following resolution:—
"That although a combined effort throughout the
country may and will succeed in effecting a large re-
duction of' the public burdens, yet experience shows that
economy will not become the root of government, nor
the necessity for continued agitation be removed, until
the tax-payers obtain a more direct and complete control
over the House of Commons by the amendment of our
system of representation."
W. RewsoN, Esq., seconded the resolution, which,
like the former one, was carried unanimously, and amidst
much cheering.
JOHN BRIGHT, Esq., M.P., came forward, and was re-
ceived with a burst of enthusiastic cheers. When silence
had been obtained, the Hon. Gentleman spoke as fol-
lows:—Although we meet so many thousands strong in
this hall, I am not mistaken in supposing that there are
numbers of persons out of doors who will not agree with
the objects which we are met here to advocate, and with
the arguments that have been to-night brought forward.
And I suspect that in that mysterious and somewhat
sacred district, generally known by the name of " The
West-end," our opponents will not be few.—(Hear,
hear.) They have asked already why we meet? and
after the meeting they will ask, where is the justifica-
tion for the course which we have taken? I would ask
them to come here, and to look upon this meeting, and
the men who say that we are here without an object and
without an earnest purpose must be wholly unaccus-
tomed to the character of Englishmen and to the intelli-
gence which reigns in these northern districts.—(Hear.)
I find a justification for this meeting in every part of
this empire—(Hear, hear)—and in every department of
its Government.—(Hear.) find that 60 millions of
taxes are annually expended—not a little of it squan-
dered—by a Government which is not truly and honestly,
or directly, responsible to the payers of the taxes.—
(Hear, hear.) I find, too, that these 60 millions of taxes
are levied by this, to a large extent, irresponsible power;
and being levied by such a party, I find, what I might
naturally expect, that this largo sum is levied most un-
equally and unfairly.—(Hear, and applause.) My
lion. Friend who has just preceded me alluded to one
point where this gross inequality was apparent. Ho did
not give you the figures to show how great was the bur-
den laid upon one description of property—how extra-
ordinary the exemption which was permitted to another.
—([fear, hear.) That tax upon the property which
been
y your fathers left, and which you will
leavel
imposed from the year 1799 to the ear 1839; and
during that time the personal property
hasin-
habitants of the United Kingdom,left toy the
than 75 millions of pounds sterling paid not less
erv.lfble of
ngo into the
the
public exchequer; and during that
time the real freehold prooupserbtyur
exempted from has been
oh thisud whichunder
some
cwomit
the next session, believe, hear.)
revi-
sion. That is, the duties upon stamps.—(Hear,
I will give you one
in the
respect to them; for, I be-
lieve, there is nothing the whole range of our taxa-
tiorimore wicked and unjust than the system upon
which
the taxes upon stamps hav© been arranged.—

[PRICE SD.

(Hear, hear.) If any man here wishes to apprentice his
son to a profession where the apprentice fee should
amount to the sum of 4001.—end there are many such—
there are many medical men who receive as large a fee
as this—the tax upon that indenture of apprenticeship
is not less than 25/.; and you may settle for generations
the largest amount of lauded property which the eye
can look over, and you would not pay for a stamp larger
than 251.—(Hear, hear, and cries of " Oh!") If you
settle property of 20,000/. value or upwards, you pay
a stamp of 251.; but if you sell a property in land of
the value of 20,000/., a stamp is paid of 2401.; the object
being to favour all that scheme of settlement which in
this country is productive of so much evil, and to dis-
countenance that distribution of the land, without which
no people can be permanently prosperous and contented.
—(Applause.) But, in addition to this, this irresponsi-
ble Government has had, as we know, who are accus-
tomed to meet here, thirty-four years of corn-law.—
(Hear, hear.) And in addition to this, they have intro-
duced a system of indirect taxation, by which they
throw the chief burdens of the state upon that portion
of the people who have tho smallest amount of property,
and who by right are least entitled to be called upon to
defray the expenses of the state.—(Hear.) Well, now,
survey this empire. Canada has been already touched
upon. That insurrection would never have taken place
to which allusion has been made, had the people of Eng-
land been fairly represented in Parliament, for imme-
diately after the insurrection everything was granted to
the Canadians which they had asked for before the
insurrection.—(Loud cries of " Hear, hear.") Go
across the ocean, and come to the Cape of Good
Hope; there we find an innocent warfare, and within
the last three years we have been called upon to pay
a larger sum than the actual value of the whole fee sim-
ple of all the property which is beneath the British scep-
tre in the southern part of the continent of Africa. Go
to the island of Ceylon, to which, I believe, a lord of the
bedchamber was some time ago appointed Governor.—
(Laughter.) He has succeeded in getting up an insur-
rection there.—(Hear, hear, and renewed laughter.)
And this very session, in all probability, or in the next,
wo shall have a sum in the votes for extra expenses in
"putting down" this disturbance in Ceylon.—(Hear.)
India has been spoken of; and I shall be forgiven for
saying a word or two upon that subject, for I sat many
months last session on a Committee to inquire into the
reason why we cannot have cotton from India. I then
found that India had no roads; that Lancashire pro-
bably has more metalled roads than are to be found in
the whole continent of India.—(Hear, hear.) I found
that its population was prostrated and degraded; that
capital was almost entirely unknown; that there was
neither spirit, nor enterprise, nor industry, nor hope, in
scarcely all the one hundred millions of the people who
therein are acknowledged as the subjects of the British
Crown.—(Hear, hear, and applause.) But I find,
besides that, that those old women who sit in Leaden-
hall-street—(Laughter)—and let me tell you, if I have
not mentioned it before, that the people of India, so
many thousand miles away from us, have a very great
dread of the government in Leadenhall-street, and—l
speak it on the authority of Colonel Thompson, who is
well acquainted with Indian affairs—they believe the In-
dian Government—the Hon. East India Company—is
some indefinable company, some mysterious old woman,
who rules that great continent. But I find that the
Leadenhall-street Government takes more than twenty
millions of taxes annually from the people of India.—
(Hear, hear, and " Shame.") And I have it upon the
authority of one of their own directors,',,before that Com-
mittee, that during the last 14 years, in which time their
taxes have amounted to the enormous sum of 280
millions of pounds sterling, he could not show that
they had expended more than one million and a
half in any of those internal improvements—roads,
bridges, canals for irrigation, and tanks for irrigation,
which are absolutely necessary for India, and which
cannot there be founded by any other means but
through the superintendence and provision of the Go-
vernment.— (Hear, hear, and applause.) But we come
nearer home. Ireland has also been mentioned. Wo
have not an idea of what Ireland is. We don't know its
state. Ireland has, for the last two years, been a land
of starvation and death. Half a million of our country-
men—those whom we call brethren and sisters—those
who are, or ought to be, one with us in everything that
is good and forward—half a million of these have died
in the workhouses, in the hovels, by the roadsides, un-
pitied and unheard of, in the ditches of that island.—
(Hear, hear, and " Shame.") They tell us of the insur-
rection in Paris, and of the three thousand people that
were slaughtered in the June emeutc—they tell us of
what is doing at Rome and Vienna; that one man
was assassinated in Rome, and another gibbeted in
Vienna ; and the columns of all your morning
papers—no, not all of them, for there are two, the
Daily News and the Morning Advertiser, that have told
the truth—but in the columns of the morning papers,
and of all the papers of the faction, you find all these
horrors related at length and with a minuteness—l will
not say a fidelity—but with a minuteness which is dis-
gusting; and then we talk as if we were better than our
neighbours, whilst is one year have died in Ireland of
starvation—and starvation which I believe can be traced
to the Government of this country—(Great cheers)—a
larger number of human beings than over fell in any war
in which this warlike country has been engaged.—
(Hear, hoar.) Half a million starved to death or dying
of fever! Half a million! If uprooted by the pressure
of necessity and crossing the ocean, found in a burning
ship, or tempting the channel and suffocated in a steamer.
—(Hear, hear, and applause.) It is as if the misfor-
tunes of that land were never at an end. Ido not say
that there are not Irishmen to blame.—(Hear, hear.)
But it is not so much the poor of Ireland that are so
much to blame as the nominally rich; and whatever blame
be showered upon them, the oligarchical Government of
this country, which has governed for the nominally rich in
Ireland, can never but plead guilty of the calamities
which have taken place in that afflicted land.—(Great
applause.) Why,: everything 'there appears idleness.
There is ruin to property there aro disasters
abundant to our own country and district from the course
which affairs are pursuing in that country.—(Hear,
hear.) But go to the propertied class in Ireland and
examine their condition. They don't pay assessed taxes
as you pay them. They don't pay the income-tax as we
pay it, when we have any income, and some of us when
we have none.—(Laughter.) It is only just now that
they have begun to pay poor's-rate, and yet this nomi-
nally rich class requires, for its safety and security in
that country, 50,000 armed men, paid at the expense
chiefly of the people of England.—(Hear, hear.) I agree
with my Hon. Colleague entirely in the view which he
has taken of that Irish Protestant Church.—(Great ap-
plause.) I believe that on the whole page of universal
history, you cannot put your finger upon so flagrant a
violation of common sense and common right as exists in
that church.—(Hear, hear, and applause.) Why, what
was it for? To convert the Catholics.— (Laughter.) It
has not converted the Catholics, and, what is more, it
has made it utterly impossible for anybody else to con-
vert them,—(Renewed applause.) Why, Protestantism
has gone to the Catholics, not with that benign
aspect which Christianity should always wear ; but,
ghastly-headed, it has made Protestantism a bye-
word and a horror to the people it was intended to
convert.—(Great cheering,) It is to maintain that
Church and the privileges of the landowners, the pro-
prietors of Ireland, who hold vast estates when they
are ruined men; it is for this, and this alone, that 50,000
men, armed men, are kept there at the expense of the
tax-paying people of Great Britain.—(Cheers.) But we
don't need to go so far off as Ireland. Look at our own
land. We have here not a little discontent. We have
here periodical attempts at insurrection.—(Hear, hear.)
And the few foolish and violent men that make these
attempts would not themselves be emboldened to try the
desperate hazard, if they did not believe that there was a
large amount of sympathy for them, if there was not
actual oppression and wrong.—(Hear, hear.) Oh! look-
ing over this last year, 1848, we see the tricks of the
ruling party, and we see the solidity of the character of
the people of this country. Do you recollect the 10th of
April?—(Laughter.) The Ist of April should have been
the day .—(Roars of laughter and applause.) Have you
real the reports of Sir George Grey's speech in the
House of Commons? You should have seen him speak
it. Why, heavers and earth were coming together.
There never was such a panic.—(Hear, hear, and laugh-
' ter.) I don't know what they thought these Chartists
were. The sea serpent was nothing to them.—(Laugh-
ter.) The newspapers of the faction wrote up this de-
monstration as something exceedingly formidable.
They knew what they were to do. They had it
from quarters which I need not name. And then,
having excited the alarm of the people to the utmost
possible extent, the moment it was over, they came down
upon these poor unfortunate Chartists, as being the most
contemptible set of rascals that ever took it into their
heads to attempt a revolution.—(Laughter,and applause.)
I pitied the people who were getting up the meeting,
tewd imputedaitsanethneo :01 test orpo-s:
constable
while these articles were being written. I pitied, ;_v_`.`',,o
more after the meeting had taken place; class,
from my heart the policy of a party, of a rurpose,
that
that could raise that alarm, for this only p_ustian,
and
they might make broadcloth afrairdat_cfpairty._(Loud
broadcloth would side with the arisatotet.
that there
buutlianguesese
of the working
cwheereer i Togo. )o
oele,lonn:de
nouites believethha countrycr i
rnn
ao sty altogether,t.,a n c b
conceived in the possibility of
in
classes, who
of those ter
largeroe iousmaanssdesdor
itd
rhrf
the working
tided
de:skdigiibnizys
Don't believe it. N
we do w to tve spt
for their love of ord h
1 Nobody
oweerr; could
practising
ng
were an
ea
cheers.) Well,
we have re-
centlypeople.
knows more
d
Well, then,
rlt h
0 e
preserve
i;
b:taen
military power, if
exposed to.—(Loud
looking over this country, and over thisoom oemoptiree,
con
the departments of the Government,anyreforins are necessary.—
(Hear,
i
elusio n
hear.)tha t 2
But I great
m
ain driven to an unpleastanthconclu-
sion along with it, and that is, that the Government of
this country, ,as now constituted, is wholly incapable of
effecting those reforms.—(Hear, hear, and applause.)
Incapable, in the first place from will, or the want of
will, and
Look a
incapable
tyour f from
house m theos
eof L
circumstances
ords
Thein Housewhlch
it is
placed.of
Lords does not look a very likely body for effecting very
successful reforms.—(Laughter, and cries of " No.") It
has generally been notorious for opposing them to the
very last point that opposition was safe ; and about six-
teen years ago it opposed them so long that the people
began to make them very unsafe. But if you look at the
House of Commons—which by the theory of the