The Sun.
London, England, 1841-05-26 00:00:00

MEETING OF THE TOWN-COUNCIL.

An adjourned meeting of this bo.ly was held on We3nesday,
and attended by forty members. The Mayor presided. Mr.
Wade brought forward his motion on the modification of the
Corn-laws, and recommending a moderate fixed duty instead of
the present fluctuating one. He advocated the alteration in
long speech, full of calculations, making it appear th it the
people of this country are compelled to pay a tax upon corn
amounting to 70 per cent., and upon beef and mutton a tax
of 150 per cent. The question, he contended, was not one
of party politics, but one in which every class of the commu-
nity was deeply interested. Mi. Wade then moved—" That in
the opinion of this Council, the present Corn-laws are alike
injurious to the consumer, the manufacturer, the farmer,
the general merchant, and, in short, all classes of the
community, except the landowner, and therefore ought to
be repealed. And that such a moderate fixed duty on
-orn ought to be substituted for the present fluctuating one,
as will not only encourage a steady importation from our own
olonies and distant countries in British vessels ; protect the
English farmer from those ruinous fluctuations in price to
which he is atpresent subject (and stimulate him to a better
mode of cultivation; but also form a source of revenue to the
State, without mishit* the price of that prime necessary of life
beyond what it is relatively in other neighbouring manufactur-
ing countries, with which the British manufacturer must
either be enabled successfully to compete, or be successfully
driven out of the different markets of the world."
Sir WILLIAM LOWTHROP seconded the motion.
After some further discussion, two or three verbal alterations
in the petition were moved by Mr. SQUIRE, by way of amend-
ment, and agreed to.
DERBYSHIRE.

A high-respectable correspondent from Bakewell writes as
follows:—" I am happy to inform you that the petition we
have adopted has been most successful in this district. From
all the larger townships we have applications for fresh sheets,
those which we sent them having been filled with names. In
several places every male adult resident has signed. In Bake-
well about 400 already, and our work not done. I believe the
petitions from the district will be far more numerously signed
than those for the Reform Bill. The enthusiasm at that time
was very great; but there is now a steady determination which
seems to combine all parties, except a few ultra-Tories and anti-
Poor-law Chartists. The landed proprie: ors and farmers have,w it h
very few exceptions, signed ; also some of the clergy and moderate
Tories, who have not hitherto supported Ministers. The pre-
sent, however, is not a party question in this neighbourhood,
and the national cause, in contradistinction to that of mono-
poly, was never so triumphant in this agricultural part of the
Peak of Derbyshire."
Another correspondent writes that, " In Chesterfield and
the surrounding district the same steady determination to sup-
port the Ministerial scheme of finance is visible as is mani-
fested in Bakewell. In Scarsdale, the petitions in favour of
the Ministers Lave already been numerously signed, and those
not yet presented to Parliament are still receiving additional
names in great numbers, especially in villages where the popu-
lation is partly composed of persons engaged in mining and ma-
nufacturing.