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

give peace to the empire and security to its institutions?
Parliament is about to re•opeu ; it may be worth while
to consider these questions before the Ist of February

arrivt s.

LI)VERTISER.—The Manchester Financial Reform
meeting eas held on Wednesday evening. It will be
regarded hereafter as a great historical event. Whether
for the numbers who attended, the enthusiasm mani-
fested, or the unanimity which characterised the pro-
ceedings, we make bold to say, that never, on any for-
mer occasion, did a meeting of her Majesty's subjects
take place which could be at all compared to it. Such a
demonstration from such a quarter, in favour of financial
reform, was all that was wanting to give consistency
and ( fleet to the movement whic has been recently
making in favour of retrenchment in the national ex-
penditure. The success of the new agitation is now a
moral certainty. All doubts on that head have vanished.
The fears of the Ministry, and those who feed and fatten
on the public finances, are more than verified. The face
of many a siuecurist will turn pale as he reads the report
which appears in the papers of the proceedings at Man-
chester on Wednesday evening. There will be confusion
worse confounded in those aristocratic families who have
hitherto regarded the money wrung, by means of taxation,
from the half-starving masses, as a legitimate subjcct for
plunder. Mr. Cobden was present, and very appro-
priately took the lead. He was the lion of the evening.
and his speech was the speech of the evening. It was
one of the boldest, most straightforward, and most prac-
tical specches which the Hon. Gentleman ever delivered.
It lasted an hour and a quarter, and was received
throughout with an enthusiasm never surpassed in the
annals of popular oratory. Thu speech of Mr. Cobden
will obtain an extensive publicity by moans of the news-
paper press; but it must be printed in a separate and
cheap form, and be circulated, in hundreds of thousands,
throughout the length and breadth of the land. Mr.
Cobden adheres to all the positions he advanced in his
memorable letter. He does not retract a hair's-breadth.
He even goes farther than he was then prepared to do.
He now fixes on 10,000,000/., as the minimum amount of
the reduction he proposes. That :um is not to be re-
garded as the full and final saving of the public money
which he contemplates. He will accept of that amount
in the first instance, and then look about him, and see
what further reductions can be made in the national
expenditure, without impairing the efficiency of the
public service. Mr. Cobden assailed with terrible force

the wanton extravagance which prevails in our military
and naval establishments. Under these two heads ime
mense savings may be effected. Will it be believed that
while, in 1835, we only spent 11,000,0001. in the maire
tenance of the army, navy, and ordnance, the cost is now
upwards of 18,000,000/.? The people of these realms will
scarcely know whether they ought to feel more sur-
prised or more indignant at this enormous addition to
our military and naval expenditure ; and this, too, in a
time of profound peace. If circumstances had unhap-
pily involved us in a war with France, or any other of
the leading Powers of Europe, what, we ask our readers,
must in that case have been the amount of our expendi-
ture for army, navy, and ordnance ? It Gould not have
been less than from 20,000,0001. to 22,000,000/. to
begin with. And supposing such a war to have lasted
for some time, the amount must, before the close of 1850,
have swelled to at least 25,000,000/. Mr. Cobden placed this
great financial movement in a new light. He said, with
much humour, but not with more humour than truth,
that whereas, in the Anti-Corn-law movement, the League
were regarded as the farmers' foes, they must now be
considered the farmers' friends; for the object of the
present agitation was to reduce the tax on malt, hops,
butter, cheese, timber, paper, salt, and house windows.
In all of these respects the farmers would be largely
benefited. In some of them, the benefit would be almost
exclusively theirs. In the matter of malt, for instance,
they would be enormous gainers. The advantages they
would derive from the remission of that tax would al-
most reconcile them to the repeal of the corn-laws. When,
therefore, the agricultural part of our population, once
clearly comprehend the nature and objects of the pre-
sent movement, it is but reasonable to infer, that they
will rally round the standard of financial reform, and
become the most trusty and faithful of the forces with
whom to do battle with the aristocracy. The latter will
thus have to fight against unequal odds. With both the
manufacturing and the agricultural classes marshalled
against them, what can they do, or what can they ex-
pect ? Their signal and speedy discomfiture must ap-
pear certain to themselves. Better, therefore, to give up
the unequal contest at once. Mr. Cobden, in the con-
clusion of his speech, made a vow. He solemnly pledged
himself that he will never give up the enterprise in
which he has embarked until he has succeeded in com-
pelling Government to recur to the expenditure of 1835,
—thus reducing the cost of our various establishments
to the extent of 10,000,000/.
" He would never cease the advocacy of this question
till lie saw the cost of our armies reduced to 10,000,000!.;
until he saw the expenditure of the country reduced to
what it was in 1835, at least. He did not say he would
stop there. That was the least they intended to do, and
it was something worth the struggle; and he repeated
he would not stop there; and he sincerely believed that,
with the assistance of the people and the growing ten-
dency for peace throughout the world, they would
not long continue to witness the horrid waste of
10,000,000/. on a fighting establishment in time of peace;
but they would live to see the day when one-half of that
sum would be considered enough; nor did ho think that
time would be long in arriving."
What Mr. Cobden says, he will do. What he under-
takes, he will perform. He enters into no enterprise
rashly. He proceeds with caution. He comes to no
conclusion without due previous deliberation. Ho
has carefully counted the cost, and weighed the
consequences, before unreservedly committing him-
self with the present movement. Ho is not
the man to falter, or draw back. " Onward "
will be his motto, until success crowns his efforts.
His triumph will be quite as signal, and much more
speedy, than that which he achieved in his conflict with
the corn monopolists. The proceedings at the Man-
chester magnificent meeting acquire an additional
value from the specific character of the resolution
which Mr. Cobden moved and carried, amidst deafening
acclamations, and without a dissentient voice, although
it was computed that 8,000 persons were present. The
resolution was this :—" That this meeting resolves to
co-operate with the Liverpool Reform Association, and
other bodies, in their efforts to reduce the public ex-
penditure to at least the standard of 1835, and to se-
cure a more equitable and economical system of taxa-
tion." This is no vague, general resolution. It is as
definite as the most devoted admirer to the specific
could d( sire. The meeting fairly and fully committed
itself, nut merely to the principle of financial reform, but
to the minimum extent to which that reform shall be
carried. Manchester, the place in which the Anti-Corn-
law League had its origin, and where it started up at
once into a giant's proportions—Manchester " goes' for
a reduction of 10,000,000/. a year, at the least, in our
public expenditure. The country will follow the exam-
ple of Manchester. From Land's-end to John O'Groat'a,
the cry bill now be raised for national retrenchment to
the tune of 10,000,000/. per annum. That cry, so uni-
versal and so loud as we know it will be, will make itself
heard within the walls ofl'arliament. It will be heard,
and in part, at least, responded to before the close of the
approaching session.