The Sun.
London, England, 1847-12-13 00:00:00

S DT, DECEMBER 13, 1847.

and breaking his leg you should charge me with not
having fulfilled my promise.—(Laughter.) Give us
ordinary—give us natural circumstances—and then
when we have free trade I maintain the same dos •
trines as I always did. Before we have prosperity in
Stockport we must have free trade in corn and other
things. We have been suffering severely in the cot-
ton districts from a diminution of the raw material ;
and when I think of the combination of evils that
have pressed upon the cotton districts, on the trade of
Lancashire, during the last twelve months, lam
astonished that you have not suffered more than
you have. In the first place, you have had wheat
at one time as high as 100 s. a quarter, a price
hardly known since the war. It has been up as
high as 120 s. in Uxbridge-market. At the same
time cotton was 50 per cent. higher than it was the
year before, and along with these two evils you have
had a high rate of money, such as has never been known
since the war, arising out of inordinate engagements
and speculations in railroads. With the combination
of these three evils—dear cotton, dear corn, and dear
money—l repeat it is with me a matter of astonish-
ment that the cotton districts have escaped so well as
they have done. It is nut merely in England that we
have had this distressing state of things, but through-
out Europe. With the exception of Russia, there is
no country in Europe that has not suffered frcm
scarcity, and in many parts there has been famine.
A large portion of our trade, as you know, is carried
on with the Continent; and if the people are suffering
from scarcity of food—from high-priced corn—it
stands to reason that they will be unable to purchase
the same amount of manufactured goods as they could
under ordinary circumstances. You have then had
a limited demand from the Continent for your pro-
duce, and a limited demand at home at the same
time ; and this combination of evils, I repeat, has
never been known before or since the time of the
war. We may, at all events, draw this consola-
tion from the facts mentioned to you, that free
trade has been subjected to an ordeal at its com-
mencement which it is not likely to undergo again ;
and if we pass through this ordeal without forgetting
our principles, we may fairly expect in ordinary times
to reap the advantage we looked to from them. It
would appear that we have some Protectionists still
in the House of Common's...there are not many of them
there—there are not many of them in Stockport;
still we have those curiosities, those eccentricities
still in the House of Commons.—(Laughter.) They
tell us we have been out of our predictions. They say
we promised good employment, and that you are
wanting work in the manufacturing districts. They
say we promised there should be no drain of gold to
pay for corn, and now they say there is a drain of
gold. They remind us of our promises, and say we
have fulfilled none ; but they seem to have quite for-
gotten their own predictions. They said that if we had
the repeal of the corn-laws the farmers would be
ruined. Why, the farmers have never been doing better
than they have done during the last year.—(Cheers.)
They told us that the land would be thrown out of
cultivation, whereas agriculturists have never been
more busy in cultivating the land than they are at
this moment ; and, instead of their predictions being
fulfilled, that our landlords would run away to
Australia, they are at the present time getting higher
rents for the land.—(Cheers.) Now, if they have
been out in their predictions, and we have been out
in ours, it is quite certain that the time must come
when one or other must be right ; and I only ask for
the time which is necessary to test our principle, in
order that we may see which party is right. They
taunt us that foreigners do not reciprocate free trade
as we predicted. Now, one reason why foreigners do
not follow us in our free-trade experiment is, that
they read English newspapers; that they see Noble
Lords, that they see gentlemen who are Members of
the House of Commons, that they see men who are
among yourselves—millovvners of Stockport—calling
out for protection—(Cheers and laughter)—and
they say, "We cannot yet be convinced
that free trade is to be the permanent policy
of your country."—(Hear, and cheers.) They say,
" We see so many men of high rank, we see so many
men in high places, who are still calling out for a re-
turn to the corn-law and for protection, that we are
not satisfied that it will last."—(Hear, hear.) It is a
question I have been asked over and over again whilst
travelling on the Continent, " Do you think free trade
can be maintained in your country ?" My answer
has been " Certainly ; we are nut a people given to
change when a question has been discussed, and when
a decision has been arrived at by public opinion."
" But," they said, "we see a great many lords and
other men arguing for a restoration of protection and
regretting that free trade has been adopted ; and we
must wait; we see you are not agreed among your-
selves." And so it is; those men who taunt us that
we do not see any progress making among other
nations in free trade are themselves the very cause of
it.—(Cheers.) They are the men who are throwing
obstacles in the way of our progress, by exciting dis-
trust as to the continuance and permanence of free
trade principles here. Not that I think it will be an
obstacle long ; for though foreigners see that there
are great statesmen, and great lords, and mister
spinners—though there may be some men of great in-
fluence and of high rank arrayed against us—though
they see these men on one side, they must perceive
that all the statesmanship, the, great intellect, and the
talent of the country are on the side of free trade.—
(Loud cheers.) An as they know that brains in the
end do prevail—(Cheers and laughter)—l think they
are fast coming to the conclusion that we are not
likely to go back again under the rule of the block-
heads.—(Renewed cheering and laughter.) In my
travels on the Continent I made this observation, in
every country to which I went—in Spain, in France,
in Italy, in Germany, in Russia—everywhere I found
every man of intelligence on the side of our principle.
—(Cheers.) I found among the statesmen and poli-
ticians everywhere that the ablest men were the men
most disposed to imitate the English example and
carry out the free trade principle. And I saw there
was-everywhere, on the part of the cleverest men in the
country, a conspiracy to elude the vigilance of the
Protectionists and establish the free trade principle.
hy, I believe if our bad example in England had not
led almost everywhere else to the establishment of this
bad principle—if "the Governments of the continent
instead of their present absurd, complex, and injurious
tariffs, had now sheets of white paper on which to
write their tariffs, and had to write them over again,
I believe there is not a country on the continent of
Europe would establish a restrictive system at all ;
because now the disposition is everywhere to esta-
blish free trade, and to undo the mischief that has
been done by their predecessors.—(Hear, hear.) We
have had, too, the taunt thrown out against us that
we have not induced other countries to follow our
example ; and one good honest gentleman in the
House of Commons has said, " If you can show me
one country that has followed our example, I will be-
come a free-trader." Well, I take him at his word
I'll show him a country that has followed our ex-
ample—(Cheers and laughter)—and it is the
country which it is of the most importance to
this country should have been induced to do so—
it is the United States of America.—(Hear,
hear.) Within six months of the passing of the
Bill repealing the corn-law by our Government, they
remodelled their tariff, and established a tariff for
the admission of our manufactures on a considerably
lower scale than they had fixed it at before.—(Hear,
hear.) And I look on it as a most fortunate thing
that Sir R. Peel made the change at the time he did,
because it gave them the opportunity of making
provision for our wants. The Americans had just
one season in which to prepare before our famine
came upon us ; and had it not been that Sir R. Peel
had changed the rate of duties to a scale ranging
from 10s. to is., so that the merchant could calcu-
late on more steady prices, and could venture to im-
port corn with more certainty of remuneration, I
believe that we should have had thousands and tens of
thousands of our people starved to death.—(Hear,
hear.) _Because it is well known, gentlemen, that
under the old sliding-scale the Americans never
would move their corn from the interior for this
market; that they never would start it from the in-
terior down the Mississippi and Ohio with a view to
sending it here, because they could never calculate
that the prices would remain low sufficiently long
to enable them to introduce it at all.—(Hear, hear.)
The same argument applies to Russia; for if the duty
on foreign corn had not been fixed within a moderate
limit at the time it was, we should not have had a
quarter of the corn we had to supply our wants with
from the corn-growing districts of Russia.—(Hear,
hear.) It may be an interesting fact to know that so
great is the distance of the corn-growing districts of
Russia from the port of St. Petersburgh, from which
the great bulk of the grain is shipped, that the Rus-
sian corn we have been eating this year is not the
crop of last year, but of 1845.—(Hear, hear.) I was
toll in Russia that the corn they had shipped was the
crop of 1845 ; that it takes two seasons to bring it
from the interior for the purpose of being shipped, it
being frozen up half a year on their great rivers, and
one year being lost before it can arrive at its destina-
tion. Now, when we recollect these circumstances,
when we consider that but for the establishment of
this free trade policy, the growers of corn would not
have speculated with a view to supplying us, we shall
see the vast advantage, the immense and almost pro-
vidential advantages we have derived from Sir R. Peel's
repealing the old sliding-scale and establishing the

corn-law of last year.—(Loud cheers.) I believe
we could not have been supplied with corn if we had
depended upon the ordinary stocks in the ports of
Hamburgh, Leghorn, and Odessa, and if we had not
had the stimulus which was given by that measure,
and which led to the extraordinary supplies we drew
from the vast prairies of the interior of Russia and
America. Now, gentlemen, these are the justifica-
tions I offer for the policy we have proposed with
regard to the corn-laws, and that it has not prevented
great calamities from overtaking us no one can
wonder. No one could have expected that we should
have to purchase 10,000,000/. worth of grain for
Ireland, and twice as much for this country, making
in all 30,000,000/. worth of corn to meet en unex-
pected and unexampled scarcity ; no man could have
I expected we should go through such an ordeal as that
without some suffering.—(Hear, hear.) But what
shall we say of the men who try to palm upon their
too credulous hearers the belief that we have been
suffering all these evils from the effects of free
trade, contemporaneously with a large importation
of corn ? Why, gentlemen, we have had an increase
of exportation to America.—(Cheers.) During the
last nine months of the present year the expor-
tation of our manufactured goods from Liverpool to
America has been 90,000 packages more than we ex-
ported thither in the same time last year. You have
had an increased demand, but you cannot suppose that
you will have that increased demand to meet an im-
portation of corn which arises from a sudden and
unexpected deficiency that we should have had under
a regular and growing trade.—(Hear, hear.) If
there had been some sudden calamity in America,
through the destruction of all their clothing, cutlery,
plows, harrows, spades, axes, and other implements
of agriculture, contemporaneously with our famine
here, then you might have expected a sudden demand
from them just the same as we had here for their
food.—(Cheers.) I have spoken of the distress you
have suffered in the cotton districts through the want
of the raw material ; but there is great consolation in
looking to the other parts of the kingdom to find that
in those places where other descriptions of manufac-
tures are carried on they have not suffered so much
as in like periods of high priced food before. Mr.
Cobden proceeded to observe that he felt perfect con-
fidence in the future prosperity of the manufacturers
of the district. Many people tried to mystify the
matter, and talked about there not being money
enough to effect this result ; but the fact was, that if
all the linen cloths in the country were to be made
into bank-notes, and each note stamped for 1,0001.,
it would not enable all the railroads to be made in
five years that should be made in 25 or 30 years.
He was not telling them this after it had happened
only ; for last year, before going to the continent, he
wrote a petition from the Manchester Chamber of
Commerce on the subject of railway Bills. Of all
the mad things that were done by any body of men,
he believed that the House of Commons, by granting
these railway Acts during the last three years, had
done the most insane act ever perpetrated by a public
body. The directors of railway companies would be
compelled to suspend their works, because the share-
holders would not be able to pay the money demanded
of them; and the result would be, that which ought
to have been originally attempted within 10 or 16
years would be done in that time instead of the next
five years, while a great deal of mischief would still be
inflicted, not only on speculators, but on the mercan-
tile interests of the country generally. He had
gone into these facts to show that an abund-
ance of raw material, with cheap food, would
always produce good trade in the district ; but
if they had this evil hanging over them—if they had
all those demands upon all available money at 7 or S
per cent.—that would be a disturbing element in the
country, and retard its prosperity. Mr. Cobden
went on to show that taxation ought to be reduced.
Taxation was much lost sight of. The English
seemed to lose their good sense when they dealt with
matters of government. Never would the House of
Commons be more economical than the electors—
Government would never curtail expenses if nobody
asked them ; no Minister could attempt it till he could
say, " [he people at the hustings have demanded it."
When would this demand be made ? He would `el]
them how the expenditure of the country could !be
very much curtailed. Reduction could be made in
the army, navy, and ordnance expenses to the amount
of 17,000,000/. a year. Cutting down petty salaries
might serve sham politicians to make a fight about,
but that would never reach the pockets of the
people. There must be a complete change ,of
public opinion on this subject. If we thought
we could manage the affairs of the world only
with our ships of war and armies, then we could
not reduce our army, navy, and war expendituie.
Formerly men put the taxation question first and
foremost, and that must again be done before we
could obtain retrenchment in the national expendi-
ture. Mr. Cobden ridiculed the attempt made to
affright the people by an alleged approaching inva-
sion, and concluded his address by saying, that so
long as he remained in Parliament his services would
be as much at the disposal of the electors of Stock-
port as of the freeholders of the %Vest Riding of York.
The lion. Member sat down amidst enthusiastic and
long-continued cheers.
Mr. COPPOCK (town-clerk of Stockport) moved,
" That this meeting expresses its great regret at the
determination which severs Mr. Cobden's Parliamen-
tary connexion with this borough. It still, however,
lays claim to some share of his representative energies,
and hopes, in whatever sphere of action he may be
placed, to retain a hold on his sympathies, and rely,
in some degree, upon his public services." I
The resolution was passed unanimously.
Three cheers were given at the conclusion of Mit,.
Cobden's address ; and
Mr. COBDEN then proposed " Three cheers for
Free-trade," which were heartily responded to, and
the meeting separated.

DIR. COBDEN AND THE WEST'

RIDING.
Mr. Cobden has addressed the following letter to
the electors of the West Riding of Yorkshire :
" Gentlemen,—Having been anxious to prevent the
inconvenience of a protracted struggle for the election
of my successor at Stockport, I have postponed until
the moment when a new writ could be issued, this
public expression of my gratitude for the signal
honour you did me in choosing me, in my absence,
one of your representatives in Parliament. To have
been thus returned, when 1,000 miles distant, with-
out solicitation, by the most numerous and influential
constituency in the empire, is probably the highest
electoral distinction ever conferred upon a public man.
"Whilst fully appreciating the honour you have
done me, I will not conceal that this double return to
Parliament has imposed upon me a painful task in
the selection of my seat. Although in the unexpec-•
ted situation in which I found myself on my return
from the continent, I did not hesitate to recognize
your paramount claim to my humble services, yet in
justice to my views of the obligations which consti-
tuencies and their representatives owe to each other,
I must frankly declare that if I had been in England
when it was proposed to nominate me for the West
Riding, I should not have felt justified in consenting
to sever my connexion with a constituency from
which I have received repeated proofs of confidence
and kindness. You, who have possessed, and known
how to appreciate, faithful representatives, will forgive
me if I cannot lightly break the ties which have united
me to my former constituencies.

" I have only to express the hope that, at the close
of the present Parliament I may find that in our poli-
tical views generally we are as much in accordance
as we are upon those commercial principles on
which you more especially pronounced judgment at
the late election, and respecting which there is now
very little difference of opinion amongst men of In-
telligent and unprejudiced minds.
" I have the honour to remain, Gentlemen, your
most obedient and faithful servant,
" RICHARD COBDEN.
"London, Dec. 9."

MISS STRIC/ELAND'S LIVES OF THE QUEENS OF
ENGLAND. VOL. XL—The eleventh volume of this
truly charming history perfectly sustains the authoress's
reputation, in point alike of truthfulness, diligence, and
style. The anecdotes interspersed throughout the work
are exceedingly racy, and claim credence by the un-
questionable authenticity of the evidence on which they
are presented. On the whole we must pronounce Miss
Strickland beyond all comparison the most entertaining
historian in the English language. She is certainly a
woman of powerful and active mind, as well as of scru-
pulous justice and honesty of purpose.
And, as we b„.
fore remarked, the considerable number or new docu-
ments to which she has had access, and the curious
nature of some of these documents, impart to her pro-
duction a character of which it would be hard to deter-
mine whether the utility or the entertainment predomi-
nated. The present volume is occupied with the reigns
of Mary 11. and of Queen Anne. more interesting or
exciting era has not been in the English annals, and we
heartily recommend both lives to the attention of the
public.—Morning Post.
[ADVERTISEMENT.].THE SURPRISING EXCELLENCE
OF HOLLOWAY'S PILLS IN THE CLEF OF INDIGESTION.—Extraet Of a
letter from AI r. Thomas 1101 l
and, Seaton-street, Liverpool, dated July
26, 1847 :
"To Professor II 1 o loway—Sir,—l had suffered intensely for
many years from bad digestion,
attended with sleepless nights, fright-
ful dreams, want of
obtained was of no aav"'eltite, and extreme debility. The best advice I
taking your 411* I.was. in this wretched state when I com-
mencedme to health. I feel quite which,
in a few weeks, completely restored
well : and am capable('
ofi eenadnuerly man. My appetite is good ; I sleep
enjoy by taking your invaluable Fills."
sfaoltdiguboy. jhDesreublestsins,gssmil
" rr°4l—.......2_____lelloway's zitabitaulatut, 244, Uri- ' Lultai.

It, 244, itriad,

Lord John Russell was much better on Saturday.
The Duke of Wellington attended the early service
in the Chapel Royal, St. James's, yesterday. The
prayers were read by the Rev. Dr. Wesley, and the
sermon was preached by the Rev. C. Moore. At the
daily service the prayers were read by the Rev. T.
Ilelmore, the lessons by the Rev. Dr. Knapp, and the
communion service by the Rev. Dr. Wesley. The
sermon was preached by the Rev. C. Moore. The
service was in A (Sir George Smart). The anthem
was " Awake, put on my strength" (Wise). Sir G.
Smart presided at the organ. The Marquis of Win-
chilsea, Lords Granville, Farnham, Ebrington, and
Sydney, were among the nobility present. The Hon.
and Rev. Baptist Noel will preach on Sunday next,
the 19th inst., in the Chapel Royal.
The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council sat
on Saturday, and resumed the hearing of an appeal
from New South Wales, " The Bank of Australasia
v. Breillat." Mr. Bothell (Queen's Counsel) and Sir
Fitzroy Kelly were heard. The case was adjourned.

PORTSMOUTH, DEC. 12.—Her Majesty's ship Asia*
with C.B , has b
compelled
the
olinpelledfla
flag
o freturn in con.sequeneeeeonf
tserious y
of
f injuriesßiseay. caused
She byh had got
aboutntering a tempest in
100 leagues to
the westward of the Land's End, when a gale of wind
came on which increased to a storm. Several sails were
blown out of the bolt-ropes; the seas washed away her
quarter-boats and hammock-netting, and one sea stove
in a scuttle, and the orlop deck was nearly flooded, so
that the crew had to go to the pumps. The Asia
strained so much in the heavy weather that her caulking
was injured, and the seams opened to such a degree
that she has leaked considerably ever since. Owing to the
heaving, pitching, and rolling of the ship some of the
iron ballast has shifted, and it will be necessary to have
her in dock to re-stow her hold and recaulk her. This
will occupy the artificers ten days.
AMERICAN REPRINTS.—A question of interest to
the English publisher attaches to the importation of
works, or copies of works, from a foreign state into this
kingdom, the same being reprints of works first pub-
lished in this country, but which are out of copyright.
The original publisher of the work here having, perhaps,
expended a considerable sum to print and produce it in
the first instance, requires, and is naturally entitled, ja
some manner to be protected from the unlimited and un-
restricted reprints .of the same abroad, and its intro-
duction into this country for the general purposes of
sale. The remedy, so far as it extends, appears to rest
actual
existence in the present state of the law,
as
existence or non-existence of copyright,If the former
be the case, of course any copies published
States of America or elsewheret,ewould be in to
the the
United
positively pro-
hibited to be imported; but if h
into this country may not then be prevented; and if
e American
im-
ported from America, in th latter, its introduction
language, would be entitled
to
admission (ait.
the
Ednugtlyishe)f
21. 10s. per hundred weight as a foreign living language,
as it would be printed in the language of the state or
nation from which the importation takes place.
BRECHIN.--REMARKABLE CASE.—Robert Duncan
(a pensioner discharged from the Ist Regiment of Foot,
now aged 70). in th American war in 1813-14, was
hounded by a musket-shot in the left knee, at the battle
of Chippeway ; and, notwithstanding every exertion of
the medical staff, the ball eould not be extracted at that
period ; consequently it has remained in his kneebone
until last week, when it was taken out by our eminent
townsman, Dr. Guthrie—the ball having been carried
about by the aged veteran for the long period of
33.
years. lie has been confined for the last ten weeks, In
consequence of the ball_shifting out of the bone into the
flesh, causing him great pain, which he has borne with
great fortitude. The ball might be an excellent relic for
the British Museum, es it actually is stuck round with
several splinters from the aged warrior's leg. Duncan
is a native of Brechin.—eilontrose Review.
• The Honourable Robert Gore, R.N., lately ap-
pointed consul at Monte Video, has instructions to await
at Rio Janeiro the arrival of an envoy to be sent out by
France, and to proceed in company with him to this
River Plate, hhere both will appear in concert to enforce
the terms of pacification agreed upon by the GoYern-
, meats of Easland ancl of Franco.— Observer.