The Sun.
London, England, 1849-04-12 00:00:00

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-At 411

LONDON, THURSDAY, APRIL 12. 1849.

A complimentary banquet given yesterday at
Wal;efield, by the electors of the 'West Riding, to
their eminent representative Mr. COBDEN, enabled
that distinguished Reformer to review the progress of
those principles with which his name is so conspicu-
ously identified. It afforded him, moreover, an op-
portunity of thanking the Liberals of Yorkshire for
bestowing upon him what he justly designated " the
most distinguished honour that could be conferred on
a citizm of this country," namely, their unanimous
and unsolicited suffrages, at a period when he
was actually thousands of miles away from
England. Beyond this he had to acknow-
ledge the indirect but magnificent eulogium
passed upon himself by pledging the health
of RICIIARD COBDEN in conjunction with the ad-
vancement of the three great principles of Peace,
Free Trade, and Economy.
It was felicitously insisted by the Hon. Gentleman
the ::ember for the West Riding of Yorkshire that
his entertainers had not assembled together upon that
occasion for the glorification of any individual, but
rather for the purpose of doing homage to those
principles. Viewing the matter, therefore, in this
unselfish light, regarding the occurrence rather as
a politician than as an ( gotist, Mr. COBDEN at
once and even abruptly closed his allusions
both to himself and to his auditory, and forthwith
entered upon a consideration of the goal towards
wllich they were mutually struggling in their cha-
noter as patriotic and radical Reformers.

At a period when the agriculturists are taunting
destroyers of Protection with the failure of their
,c-rines as a means of working out the national re-
.z-neration, at a moment when the attenuated spectre
the Bond-street Association seems to be miracu-
k"uPly assuming to itself a corporeal form, and when
orse or two of our most staunch and prominent
114)rtners (such now, for example, as the Honourable
lVernber for Birmingham) would almost appear to be
a,withdrawal into the ranks of the mono-
ty,lists—it would be little short of an impossibility
r Mr. COIIDEN to hold his peace upon the subject
Free Trade and its consevences, especially when
seven
surrounded by six orhundred persons of con-
genial sentiments. We cannot help regarding this
portion of the remarkable speech delivered yesterday
the
evening by Mr. COBDEN at Wakefield as most
brilliant evidence of his abilities. Disclaiming all
sympathy with him in reference to his scheme of a
wholesale reduction in the naval force of
Great Britain, considering, as we do, that project
as one calculated to prove most disastrous by the
endangerment of our maritime supremacy—it is with
the most peculiar gratification that we restrict our
comments to that division of the illustrious orator's
harangue in which he triumphantly vindicated the
cluse of the Free Traders. lie recalled to our re-
collection those rhetorical master• pieces upon which
tin opponents of monopoly used to hang with admi-
ration, when the then Member for Stockport pleaded
in Covent-garden in behalf of the industrious
cla::ses. Grappling boldly with the asper-
sions cast upon himself and his numerous
colleagues, Mr. COBDEN in so many words retorts
upon his assailants with this exclamation—" We did
not profess that free trade in corn was a sort of

alchemy that was to discover the philosophers stone
or cure all diseases." True that we have now had
somewhere about three months' experience of the
working of free trade in cereal productions, and true
again that loaves are net to be procured merely for
the asking. then, But
admirably, "we never suid that free trade in corn
would prevent the evils that follow excessive specula-
tion in railways." True that with the commence-
ment of 1849 terminated the old system of protection
to our insular corn-growers, and true, again, that
wheat flour does not lie like summer dust in the ruts
of our highways. But then, as Mr. COBDEN ob-
serves again with that exquisite irony which he
knows so well how to wield in argument, " we never
said that there would be potato rot if we had free
trade in corn." True that the aspirations of the
League have been realised during the last quarter of
a year, and true again that our agriculturists are
beginning to feel the effects of the reaction against
them in a sensation of prevailing debility. But then,
to quote once more the irmistible and sententious
language of Mr. COBDEN, " a man does not re-
cover from a fever without going through a very
painful state of languor." When the champions of
the Country Party maintain that free trade has proved
a delusion simply because grain is not to be devoured
gratuitously, when they charge the advocates of
free trade with being false prophets, simply because
all our social and political grievances have not been
removed since the first of January, they altogether
misrepresent the character of the system they are un-
dertaking to vilify, they altogether distort the as-
surances given to the population by the organs of
free-trade principles, prior to the acceptance of those
principles by Sir ROBERT PEEL. The Free Traders, for
example, never asserted, that the abolition of imposts
upon foreign provisions would put a stop to all pecu-
niary involvements, would effect a miraculous cure
in the root of a diseased vegetable, would prevent
civil war upon the continent. No—" None of those
evils that have fallen on us did we ever profess to
avert or cure ; but what we did say and do say is
this, that whether foreign or civil war happens, or
railway speculations turn out disastrous, or potato rot
comes, you will be a great deal better able to bear all
those evils with free trade in corn than you would
have been under the old sliding scale."
Having shown by these rational and con-
clusive statements the frivolity of the aspersions
cast upon us by the agriculturists—Mr. COBDEN
takes into account the difference of the course pur-
sued by the farmers and the manufacturers in periods
of temporary embararssment. The contrast is suffi-
ciently degrading to the former, who, after reaping
the enormous advantages squandered into their hands
during the whole of 1847 and the spring time of
1848— advantages so striking that it is enough to
mention the circumstance that within those fifteen
months 51. per quarter was given for corn
in Hampshire, and 100 s. per quarter was
refused in Chichester—have now been suf-
fering just three or four months bad
trade. " You," said Mr. COBDEN, addressing the
manufacturers of Yorkshire, and through them the
manufacturers of the whole of England, " you had
eighteen months of bad trade, and yet you did not come
whining to Parliament; you stood manfully during
the storm, and were ready to go to work with the
first gleam." The rebuke administered in these words
is bitter enough in all conscience ; yet no man im-
partially reviewing the course adopted in the one case
by the farmers, and in the other case by the manufac-
turers, will gainsay for a single moment its correct•
nes& The representative of the West Riding could
not content himself with entirely dissipating the
contemptible charges made against the Free-Traders,
he found himself unable to resist the temptation of
exposing simultaneously the fallacy and the weakness
of the Protectionists.

In reference to the most prominent question of the
day, the question of financial retrenchment, it will be
observed that Mr. COBDEN derives encouragement
from the concessions already elicited from the Chan-
cellor of the Exchequer. In this he is, we are satis-
fied, only judging with that instinctive accuracy which
prompted the Anti-Corn-law League to redouble
their exertions so soon as the sliding scale indicated
the Ministerial solicitude for a compromise. With a
moderate share of perseverance the Financial Re-
formers must prove in the end victorious, and so
surely as the abolition of monopoly was the reward
of the League, so surely mill the diminution of our
expenditure be the recompense of the Financial Asso-
ciation.

The entire evidence taken before the Committee
appointed to investigate the " Great North of Eng-
land Purchase Account ;" or, more properly speak-
ing, " to inquire into the charges that had been
preferred against Mr. GEORGE HUDSON" by the Chair-
man of that very committee, and one of his coadjutors,
will be found at length in another column. The
public will thus be enable to judge for themselves
how far these charges have been sustained, and
whether Mr. HUDSON has indeed been guilty of the
acts that had been imputed to him, when he was told
that the " question was one not of money, but of
character," and when his approaching downfal was
spoken of as a matter of perfect certainty by the
opponents whom his bold and manly denunciations
of those engaged in "the regular combination to de •
press railway property" had offended.
It would, indeed, have been cheering intelligence to
the " Bearish fraternity" that GEORGE HUDSON, the
man whose sound practical sense, great experience,
and vigorous determination had opposed the
strongest barrier to their nefarious transactions,
had been convicted of fraud against his brother
shareholders ; that he had enriched himself
at the expense of those who placed implicit reliance
on his honour and integrity. His unceasing exer-
tions on behalf of the railway interest have not been
forgotten or forgiven. The losses that were sustained
in the latter end of October by those, who vainly
supposed that the temporary panic that had previously
prevailed would have continued—that the vile fabri-
cations and sinister rumours that were whispered
through the precincts of the Stock Exchange, would
still receive credence—that they could carry on
with impunity their old game of selling shares that
had never been in their possession, on the chance
of obtaining them at diminished prices before the ac-
count day—still rankle in their minds, and stimulate
their evil passions. Gladly would they sacrifice the
man whose energy and decision mainly contributed
to these results. Gladly would they again commence
their operations against the pockets of the share-
holders, but that they are deterred by the salutary
terror with which he has inspired them. His re-
moval from the position which he has heretofore occu-
pied would attain these objects, would, at the same
time, satisfy their vengeance and their cupidity.
It was long since a part of " the system" to
malign and calumniate those entrusted with the ma-
nagement of affairs for the different companies. They
did not venture, however, to prefer tangible charges
that could fairly be encountered, and brought to a
decisive issue one way or the other. No, they were
then contented with speaking generally of the want
of "public confidence in the integrity of the manage •
ment," or with
"The whispered hint, the shrug, the hum or ha—
These petty brands that calumny cloth use."
And at first those vague and baseless insinuations had
the desired effect. Nothing was too absurd or too ridi-
culous for the purpose. The affrighted shareholders
exhibited the most purblind credulity, there was no
limit to their gullibility. The most outrageous tale
that our facetious contemporary Punch ever coined
for the instruction of the gallant " marines," would
have received ready credence, if it related to railway
matters. In fact, it almost ceased to be an honour to
strip parties so exceedingly " green." The " Bears,"
although they still pocketed the cash, became almost
ashamed of plundering such unsuspecting innocence.
shareholders from their
They had not to tax their imaginations for
new stories ; a
.iie
r,avnd,
eoloowke—rea
each n
solemn
d aasllpescutfi ;
a Lord •Burleigh.
cient to fright the trembling
propriety, and induce them to sacrifice
their
property
for one-half or one-third of its
actual value.
By degrees, however, those vague charges ost
Itheir
effect. Mr. HUDSON himself exhibited thei
real
value, by demanding of some of the shareholders of
the Midland Railway, who, terrified by the " capei.
court rumours," had affixed their names to a document
ascribing the depreciation in the value of their shares
to the want of public confidence in the integrity
of the management, that they should immediately
" furnish the directors with a list of the specific

charges involved in the statement, in order that they
(the directors) might convene a special meeting cf
the company, and have the opportunity of refuting
the accusation thus brought against the integrity of
a body of gentlemen who felt that they stood as high
in the estimation of the public at large as the indivi-
duals who had affixed their names to this slanderous
document." This bold and manly defiancb was not
without its effect. It arrested the progress of the mania
and satisfied the less timid of the unmitigated folly of
which they had been guilty ; and coupled with the
timely appearance of the North-Western and other
railway " statements," and our own humble but un-
ceasing exertions on behalf of the railway interest,
completely turned the tide, and overwhelmed the
" Bears " in the ruin they had prepared for their
innocent victims. They sunk unpitied into the
snares and pitfalls they had digged for others, and
were compelled to disgorge a large portion of
their " ill-gotten gains."
It became manifest that such shallow pre-
texts would no longer be available that
stories, to have any effect, should contain a
direct and positive charge, capable of being substan-
tiated or rebutted; and at this crisis the unfortunate
mistake that was made by the Secretary (Mr. CLOSE),
with respect to Mr. PLEws's calculations, afforded the
opportunity that had so long been desired. It was
known that certain 151. shares had been transferred
to the company at prices not only beyond the
nominal quotations, called the market value, but
beyond their actual intrinsic bona fide value,
and that these shares had been the property of Mr.
HUDSON ; or, at least, of persons whom, according
to Mr. PRANCE, in his capacity as witness, " they
had learned to identify as trustees for Mr. HUDSON."
This was an opportunity not to be neglected or lost
sight of. A charge was prepared and publicly
brought forward at the general meeting of the share-
holders, on the 20th February. No hint was given
to Mr. HUDSON, no opportunity of explanation.
Mr. PRANCE proposed the motion for inquiry, which
Mr. LOVE seconded; Mr. PRANCE and Mr. LOVE
were the two first members of the committee,
and we can well recollect the excitement that pre-
vailed when it was ascertained that PRANCE and
LOVE had not the nomination of their associates—
but that indifferent and unprejudiced men were ap-
pointed with them on the committee. From the
evidence it will appear, that Mr. PRANCE conducted
the examination of the witnesses, save when he de-
scended from the judicial chair to tender his own
evidence, when Mr. LOVE assumed the congenial duty.
We have already shown how signally these accusations
have failed—how completely they have been rebutted,
and how triumphantly the innocence of Mr. HUDSON
has been substantiated. There have unfortunately
been mistakes, but for these he is not responsible ;
not one word can be uttered against his honour
or integrity, which remain wholly unsullied. Each
person may study the evidence for himself, and he
should recollect that he has as ample opportunities for
forming a sound judgment as the com-
mittee themselves. The report may be looked
on as the charge of the judge (if we
could suppose the Crown prosecutor to as-
sume the ermine and ascend the bench of justice,
after he had discharged his other functions), but the
verdict must be in accordance with the evidence, and
the public are the jury to decide thereon. We
cannot entertain any doubt as to what that verdict
will be, by those at least who can bring calm and
unprejudiced minds to the consideration of the evi-
dence—that it will be the full and triumphant
acquittal of Mr. HUDSON from the grave and serious
charges alleged against him.