The Sun.
London, England, 1841-05-27 00:00:00

CORN LAWS AND COMMERCIAL
REFORM._______

GREAT ANTI-CORN-LAW MEETING AT THE
AMPHITHEATRE, LIVERPOOL
(From the Liverpool Times.)
One of the most numerous and enthusiastic meetings of
the electors of Liverpool ever assembled, was held
on Monday, at the Amphitheatre, in Great Char-
lotte-street, which is the largest building in this town, to
receive and communicate with a deputation of gentlemen
from Manchester, Ashton, and Rochdale, and other places
in the manufacturing districts, on the subject of free trade
in corn, sugar, and all the necessaries of life. The at-
tendance exceeded all expectations, and not only was the
immense building in which the meeting was held crowded
to the roof, but vast numbers were unable to obtain ad-
mittance.
We noticed the following gentlemen amongst others
near the speakers :—Sir Joshua Walmsley, Colonel W il-
liams, Charles Tayleure, William Rathbone, Thomas
Blackburn, Christopher and James Rawdon, R. Shell,
3. D. Thornlev, Samuel Stitt, Charles Robertson, Walter
M'Gregor, J.-Woolright, John Priestly, Lawrence Hey-
worth, Samuel Thornely, Wm. Earle, John Rosson, John
Ronald,Taylor ESamdgaurelFßleltcachkebrur,
JnolinT.Tß. ICacrokobku,rnnejnurny"Bßar.nleVs,
JTahmomesa sr Urquhart, a
WM
Thornhill,H. T ayl u rjm
, Thomas James
ul Taylor,
e
MFinch, Edward Finch, Charles Wilkins, barrister, W.
ntoxr, John
M'Khee, Richard Johnson, W. Slater, Thomas Wylie.
Robert Johnson,
i jun., James Harvey, jun., W. Wood,
George Maxwell, D. M'Viccar, a _ J
Esq., H. C. Langton, A. C. J.Deffrveiyd,PJat.
onitAGugureestnues,
Radcliffe, Alderman Freme, Hardman Earle, J. Lewes-
, T. B. Barker, W. Bland, Edward James,
btearriije Rter,°s&s°cn.
Sir .TositttA WAMISLEY stepped forward and was re-
ceived with loud cheers. He said they had deputed him
to take the chair that evening, and he accepted the office
with pleasure. He understood that a placard had that
day appeared on their walls, setting forth that a number
of gentlemen had come from Manchester—men he believed
they were called, and men they were, and noble-men—had
eome here in a spirit of dictation. He believed it was
unnecessary to deny the tisacetiori. They came not in a
spirit of dictation, but as men of all parties, Whig, Tory,
and Radical, to communicate with their fellows in a
neighbouring town on their grievances. They came not
before them as manufacturers, or agriculturist;,
or mer-
chants, but as men. They came to show the peop..9 of
Liverpool, if they could, that the Corn-laws were unjust
and iniquitous. He (the Chairman) should take care to
let every one have an impartial hearing.
Mr. ASHWORTH was received with loud cheers. He
and his friends came not here with any degree of dicta-
tion, for they despised that word. Far be it from them
to use any such thing as dictation to their sister town.
They had come for the purpose of discussing the subject
of the grievances by which they were oppressed—of lay-
ing before the meeting their sorrows and diStresses. For
some years past the working and industrious classes of
Lancashire had been suffering in every way. Pro-
visions had been dear, work scarce, and wages low.
The manufacturing interest had never been fairly re-
presented in the House of Commons. For years past
monopoly had opposed it. The West India interest was
an important monopoly, and the East India interest was
an important monopoly, but the agricultural monopoly
was the greatest of all. He would speak of the mono-
poly as regarded sugar. Why should that interest claim
any preference ? Merely because they had retained it
for years. They discussed not the right or the wrong
of the matter, but they had the monopoly, and they re-
fused to give it up.—(Loud cries of " Hear, hear.")
The people had given twenty millions for the manumis-
sion of the slaves in the West Indies, and having done
that, the proprietors should be told that free labour
ought now to support itself on its own merits, and
without protection. This nation was protected to death.
What was the protection of Jamaica ? The sugar ob-
tained from the Brazils paid a duty of more than twice
as much as that from Jamaica. The sugar of Brazil was
excluded, and therefore so long as the West Indies did
not supply sufficient for our consumption, we had to pay
a monopoly price for it. Sugar purchased in Jamaica
paid only 3d. per pound duty, while that bought at
Brazil paid 7d. The English people paid annually
3,300,0001. to the proprietors of the soil of Jamaica
on account of this monopoly. This preference of 4d.
per lb. to the West Indies pressed more heavily than
would be imagined on private families. He had calcu-
lated the cost in his own family, and found that it
amounted to 10/. Bs. a year. That sum he had to pay
on account of the monopoly of the West India proprie-
tors. Every labourer that used only one pound of sugar
a week paid directly to those men, who were previously
slave-owners, and whose only claim on us for this pre-
ference was, that they had manumitted their slaves for
251. each. These men, however, had now turned huma-
nity-mongers ; they had endeavoured to cajole the
people by appealing to their humanity on behalf of those
slaves, and under this plea they wanted to continue the
tax of 4d. per lb. on sugar, for their own especial bene-
fit, and not, be it remembered, for the advantage in the
slightest degree of the negroes.—(Hear, hear.) Then,
as to the monster monopoly, the Corn-law. What
right, he would ask, had the landowners to their mono-
poly ? During a war of 25 years, all kinds of agricultu-
ral produce rose to an unnatural height, to the great
benefit of the landowners, but to the great prejudice of
trade ; for it was trade, and not land, that paid the cost
of war. The landowners, however, having had high
prices for a long time, took those as the rule, and not
as the exception. But what said those gentlemen in
their own favour ? They declared that they bore
a share of the national burdens. But what share
of the national taxation did they pay ? The assessed
taxes amounted to 4,000,0001. a year, and what propor-
tion of them did the agriculturists pay ? They were ex-
empted from the payment of duty on their servants, their
windows, their horses, dogs, sales by auction, insurances,
&c. ; almost everything belonging to them was ex-
empted, so that they had to pay scarcely anything. He
had in his pocket a letter from a farmer, who rented
three hundred acres, and who stated that his assessed
taxes did not amount to Si. a year.—(Hear, hear, hear.)
What shopkeeper, paying a rent of 1001. a year, did not
pay in assessed taxes three times 51. a year ? Did their
exemptions, then, give the landholders of this kingdom
a right to lay a tax of fourpence in the shilling on every
loaf of bread consumed in the country ?—(No, no.) That
tax was called in round numbers 50,000,0001. a year.
The whole of this, however, did not go to the aristocracy.
The people of England had been caged up within the
limited extent of their soil, and the consequence was
that very inferior soil had been brought into cultivation.
A farmer in his neighbourhood had told him, that for
ten years past he had not had in his house a single
ounce of sound flour of his own growing.—(Hear, hear.)
The people had been screwed down to starvation point.
until trade had been nearly ruined, and now, forsooth, a
relaxation of our bonds was talked of. Yes, both sides
of the House of Commons now talked, forsooth, of re-
laxing our bonds. Now, he said that the same effort that
would secure a reduction of the duty on corn to Bs. a
quarter, would give the people the full measure of liberty.
—(Much cheering.) The same energy that carried the Re-
form Bill would be called into existence to carry this
question.—(Renewed applause.) He besought of them,
therefore, not to be deluded from the honest justice of the
case by false sophistry. Let them have no sliding
scale—no Bs. fixed duty—but the full measure of
justice due to the country.—(Great applause.) What
was the state of the manufacturers at the present
time ? During the last fortnight there had been
failures in Glasgow to the extent of 300,000/. Within
the last week there had been failures in Manchester, the
extent of which none yet knew, and there were fearful
apprehensions as to what to-morrow would produce.—
(Loud cries of " Hear, hear.") The speaker concluded
by emphatically observing, " Our case is your case ;
your case is our case ; we will endeavour, to the utmost,
to obtain justice for you, and we beg that you will exert
yourselves to obtain justice for us."—(Much cheering.)
Joux Baooxs, Esq., of Manchester, was received
with loud applause. He came forward not as a politician
at all. Lord Stanley had told them that politics was a
thimble-rig. They had it, therefore, from good authority—
from one who had been in the trick himself.—(Laughter
and applause.) After reading Sir R. Peel's speech the other
day, he said to his friend Mr. Alderman Cobden, " What
are we to do about this infernal machine (he always
called them the infernal machine), the Corn-laws ?" Mr.
Cobden replied that he supposed they were to have a
sliding scale again. He supposed the scale would be a
little less than the former one, and that they would kill
from 10 to 15 per cent. fewer by it than by the old one.
It did kill the people ; it ground them to death, and that
was far worse than killing them.—(Hear, hear, hear, and
cheers.) The new sliding scale would be of no use to
anybody except the speculator in corn, and it would stop
the trade as the present scale did.—(Hear, hear.) He
had been iti shipper for twenty-five years, and had never
yet brought corn home. He had brought every descrip-
tion of articles home ; things that neither he nor any
body else could use ' but had never brought corn.
What was the reason ? The sliding scale would not
allow them to send for corn, excepting to short distances.
If they got Sir R. Peel's sliding scale, the Bank of Eng-
land would be moved every three months, instead of
every six months, as at present. It would stop the trade,
and make the sovereigns go out of the country, instead
of sending out goods. As a proof of the misery Which
he said at present prevailed in Manchester, Mr.
Brooks read an extract from a statistical koala
drawn up in April last,. of the state of the poor of
Manchester. In the first district, there were two thou-
sand families of 6,866 persons, who on earned
from Id. to itld. each per day, and in another, 0;000
families of 8,136 persons they were Only getting
about ls. 6id. each per week, or about (is, did. per family.
But they did not seem to be torero in London that they
were so badly oft Sir Robert Peel, even, did not know
they were Bo badly off: for he said they would flourish
again by
.and by. Whilst the grass gee*, the horse
starved ; and how many poor people had starved for
want within the last year, he wondered. It appeared to
him that Sir Robert l had no idea of the tOtAl Qr 1111-
mediate repeal of the Corn-laws He; beilit4p6, thought
it was madness to talk 111)(51113 it ; and so they did last
year, but they got the wedge in, and cracked them.—
(Laughter and cheers.) They had come down to Bs.
without inquiry, but what, would they come to when they
had inquired ? They talked much of protecting the
landed interest ; but if protection was to be had at all,
they ought to begin at the right end. Let them have
the poor protected first.—erremendous applause.) Talk
the
hreoeamn
cs
fromA lu n etrxyta,hnaadntr
di
pa a
col
sae.t e 6;
dy they
fborro
Cueoga
paysrhtrti
lautogliirnt6yd-
.fipv thirty-five
r cqaTaroteesr of
of protection A gentleman of the name of Todd,
Whenthem. h
we broughta
Was
i t innot
enough, then, to have 100 per cent. protection ? Plenty
them here he had lls. duty toof
gentlemen then present did their business for one per cent.
protection. But he would tell them one of the effects
of
free trade. The Chartists at Manchester would not he-
etthely td. could
pe r
lb.ge t t.,111.
be-
lieve him when he told it the other day ; they asked if
he were mad. He told them that
beef at
a
e
duty off corn, they could get
t
Monte Videot where he had tradod for t o last thirty-
tw
hou years, at•one time th,ey used to krin the hides, the
and tae fat of catue away, and IMO
rns
the carcase