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

bales of their goods were sent round the Cape of Good;Hope,
and sixteen thousand bales to South America. It was said
that the Americans could not compete with us in grey cloths,
but he would inform the meeting that the gentleman who went
from this country some years ago, and established the first mill
in one of the States, had cleared about two hundred thousand
pounds by this species of manufacture. This fact he (Mr.
Greg) had from the gentleman's son himself, and it was not
likely they would go on exporting so largely if they had no
profits. And the same gentleman, when with him, said—
" We have pushed these fabrics beyond the market, and we
are now turning our attention to spinning low numbers of
twist, for the German market." These were facts which
filled him (Mr. Greg) with alarm ; but what alarmed him
most was this, that our own manufacturers and merchants,
men who ought to know better, were not only ignorant of
them, but were absolutely incredulous. In his mind this
was the most alarming feature of the whole. It was not the
interest of the landed gentlemen that bound them so much
together, but it was our own ignorance and indifference; and
to such a degree had this ignorance and indifference acted
upon the minds of himself an partners, that they had coma
to the determination to make no increase whatever in their
manufactories here, but to look abroad ; and they bad, more
than once, been upon the point of forming establishments out
of this country,' in Germany, and very probably in America.
Such was their conviction of the effect of the Corn-laws. One
point remained to be noticed ;it was this,—if this is the ease,
what can be done? flow can we retrace our steps? The
only chance of escape was to repeal the Corn-laws, the opera-
tion of which was this : the imposition of Corn-laws first de-
prived our customers of the means of payment, for by those
laws we said we would not take their money. It was not a
question of money on the one hand and poverty on the
other, but we distinctly said, " We do not like your
money." The next step was to make the foreigner a manu-
facturer, the next step in the process was to give to
him cheap food and to us dear food, and so on till
our ruin was about to be consummated. Now repeal
the Corn-laws, and the first effect was to give the foreigner
dearer and ourselves cheaper food, to create customers where
e had no customers before, to found an agricultural interest,
there to prependerate against the manufacturing interest,
and to make this newly created interest to moderate the
high protective duties sought by the manufacturers, by saying
of us " these are our customers." What said the southern
states of America. when the northern whiled to have high
protection? " These are our customers," said they, " these
high duties will interfere with our trade." So it would be in
Germany ; the agriculturists would say " these are good cus-
tomers of ours ; we cannot allow you to impose these high du-
ties." We might return to a prosperous state, if we would
thus exchange our clothing for food; for they were the great
articles of interchange which never could end, and to which
no limit could be assigned, for both were necessaries.
If we did this millions might exist abroad that did
not now exist ; and in our own country millions
might exist who had no existence now. But, to put
the case in an extreme point of view, suppose we had an extra
twelve millions of population consuming our foreign corn
and not one quarter of English wheat, what would be our con-
dition ? In the first place, double the population would con-
sume double the quantity of butchers' meat, double the quan-
tity of milk, and a greater quantity of land would be required ;
consequeritly the land, instead of declining in value, would ac-
tually be advanced. So far there was no fear for the owners
of land, except in the continuance of the present odious and
impolitic law. If we doubled the population, we should have
only half the taxation; and supposing we reduced the taxation
one-half, and doubled the population, we thereby doubled the
demand for agricultural produce, and we should all be in a
more prosperous condition. Every approach to this state of
things would make us so much the more prosperous ; with one
million more we should soon have two millions, and so we should
en;
udho
rtev
: f,o
ea
inprg a,
tcrer our 'goods
ot her ecgreoffuooolrdrdeesi thereforeign
honatcountries
afford,o uit nwas no need for the landed interest to
be alarmed. But after all it was more important to have a re-
tasr•
es
s at
could to
the havel
aoffs
loss
roudfr
to foouoprdr
to
rsdaundpeepe,
fooditeo take
ftko aer
their produce ; for if we would not take their payment, we could
not trade with them. Upon the other hand, whatever the
food cost, if we took it in return for our goods, we could
afford to buy it. The inhabitants of Poland, and the Euxine
might give us two quarters of wheat where they now give us
only one, upon the condition that they should be enabled to
purchase their clothing at a low rate. And if they did give us
double the amount of their industry, they would still purchase
their clothing at a quarter of the price which, thirty years ago,
they were obliged to pay for it.
At the suggestion of Mr. SANDARS, the PRESIDENT here
read the original and the amended petition.
Mr. PEARSON, after stating that Mr, Poulett Thomson
deeply lamented his inability to disturb the Corn-laws, and was
fully cognizant of their evil consequences upon the prosperity
of the country. and his regret that the country had hitherto
shown so much apathy on this vital question, expressed his
concurrence with the petition read by Mr. Cobden. Under
existing circumstances it was better calculated than the other
to make an impression upon the legislature.
The MAYOR (Mr. Thos. Potter) mentioned that when his
father was alive the agriculturists were a most comfortable and
prosperous race, quite a contrast to their present state. This
degeneration he attributed to the operation of the Corn-laws ;
and as to the petitions, he thought that prepared by Mr.
Cobden decidedly the best.
A long discussion, in which some difference of opinion was
manifested, followed between Mr. Sanders, the President,
Mr. Cobden, and Mr. J. B. Smith, but it is unnecessary to
report it.
Mr. J. B. SMITH said the adjournment of the last meeting
had been the means of enabling him to obtain a valuable mass
of additional information upon this important question. It had
been stated in one of the Manchester Papers of Saturday that
the whole of the facts he had stated were good for nothing ;
and that, as the official value of exported manufactures in 1815 -
16 -17 was thirty-seven millions, and in 1835-6-7 seventy-eight
millions, the increase had been forty millions, and we had no.
thing to be dissatisfied with. Now the writer of this article
must either
toverymislead
ignorant
readers.man,
The
eh s
Chamberobjeet mustknew
thavehat
been wilfully
his
what was called the " official value" was the value attached
beta

to the articles in the year 1694, and therefore that it merely
indicated quantity. There was another value in the Custom
House returns—namely, the " declared value." In the years
1815-16-17 the "real value" was forty-five millions, whilst
the " official value" was only thirty-eight millions ; in
1835-6-7 the "official value" was seventy-eight millions.--
but bad the " real value" doubled? No; for it reached only
to forty-nine millions; in the first period it was forty-five mil-
lions, therefore, instead of doubling it had actually decreased
four millions, which proved that we were at present export-
ing double the quantity of goods for the same amount of
money. He might take the cotton manufacture as an ex-
ample. Last year, 1837, our exports amounted to twenty
millions; and he had endeavoured to show to the last
meeting that the increase in our exports were articles that
had gone through only one process, such as unwrought
iron and twist, and that these articles, which we formerly
manufactured into goods, were now manufactured into
that state by foreigners, whereby a large amount of labour
was lost to this country. He had shown how this affected
the cotton manufacture. Last year we exported twenty mil-
lions, and of that one half was in cotton twist, but the value
of the cotton twist was seven millions of pounds, whilst the
value of the manufactured goods was only thirteen millions ;
consequently, by the export of yarn instead of manufactures,
we sustained a loss of seven millions of money in labour and
profit. What would be the situation of our weavers, and of
all those connected with the cotton manufacture, if, instead
of these seven millions going abroad, they had been spent
here for the benefit of the working classes ? The same ap-
plied to the raw material in iron and steel, only in a much
stronger sense than in the cotton manufacture ; for Mr. Bab-
bage said that one pound of iron, manufactured in France
into agricultural instruments, became worth 31. ; manufac-
tured into musket barrels it was worth 91. ; into swords it
was worth 161. ; into files 20/. ; into razors 53/. ; into needles
701. ; into pen-knives 6571. ; and into buckles, the enormous
sum of 896/. Now, conceive the immense value of the
labour thus transferred to foreign shores, and you at once
satisfactorily account for the prevailing distress in Bir-
mingham and Sheffield. There was another important ques-
tion, which to his mind furnished a strong reason why the
petition moved by Mr. Dyer should be preferred to the pe-
tition proposed by the Directors ; it was the lamentable fact
that whilst our exports were nearly stationary, the exports of
foreign countries were increasing in' a very alarming ratio.
He had before him the declared value of the exports in
1815 and 1836, of three different countries. First of our
own ; in 1815 we exported 51 millions ; in 1836, 53 millions,
an increase of four per cent. The United States exports
in 1815 amounted to 28 millions of dollars ; in 1836 they had
reached to 60 millions of dollars, being an increase of more
than 200 per cent. France, in 1815, exported to the value of
23 millions of francs, but in 1836 she exported to the value
of 74 millions of francs, which was an increase of nearly
400 per cent. ; so that whilst our exports had increased
but four per cent., those of France had increased 400
per cent. ! Was 'tot this an alarming fact ? And the
increase of the manufactures of foreign countries in dif-
ferent articles was another interesting fact. He had be-
fore him a statement of the increase of Russian manu-
factures from 1821 to 1831, a period of nine years. In
that time the cotton manufactures of Russia had increased
230 per cent. ; the silk manufactures 25 per cent. ; the woollen
manufactures 30 per cent. ; of flax and hemp 25 per cent. ;
of tobacco and snuff 150 per cent. ; and of soap 131 per cent.!
Were not these alarming facts? Some gentlemen were
pleased to express but little alarm at losing our native manu-
factures; it might be that those who were spinning cotton
twist were doing very well—( No, no)—those who were spin-
ning the raw material might be doing well—(No,
the manufacturers (No, no)—the makers of iron and steel
might be found wholly employed, but the manufacturers em-
ployed to fabricate that iron and steel into different articles,
all complained of bad trade. Some of the Directors of this
Chamber had expressed surprise to him, that in spite of all his
arguments to show the loss of our foreign trade, we should yet
flourish apparently as much as ever. Why it was very difficult
' to ruin a country like ours, abounding with wealth, but were
these gentlemen insensible to the handwriting on the walls ?
Did they not see what was in progress? What was the
reason why wealth had accumulated here? Why, our manu-
factures, and the enormous extension of our productive
power, which has enabled us to produce two or three times
the quantity of articles from the same means as we could
before. And who derived the benefit ? The labouring
classes? No ! Why ? Because this prodigious increase in
our productive power had been exchanged, not for wheat, the
article of food which they were most interested in, but for
luxuries, for blocks of wood, or for anything that could not be
eaten. The increase in our productive power had been enor-
mous ; see—in 1813 our steam power represented thirty mil-
lions of people; but at, present it was equal to the labour of