The Sun.
London, England, 1841-05-24 00:00:00

MORNING EDITION

SALFORD BC:ROUGH MEETING.
The inhabitants of the borough met on Friday, in the
Salford Town-hall. The room was nearly full at the
cOmmencement of the proceedings ; and, upon the plat-
form, we observed nearly every gentleman of Liberal
opinions in the borough, with several Conservatives, in-
cluding Mr. 11. Hoole, Mr. R. Gardner, &c.
The Boroughreeve, G. H. HALI„ Esq was called to
the chair.
The CHAIRMAN, after stating that the meeting was
convened in consequence of a very numerous and respect-
ably signed requisition of gentlemen of all political par-
ties, which he read, said, he hoped this would not be
considered a party question.--(Hear, hear.) He had
witnessed in foreign countries the alarming strides they
were making in manufactures, purely because they had
Advantages which we do not possess.—(Applause.)
Mr. IL HOOLE, in rising to move the first resolution,
said he had done so under the two assurances from the
Chairrnan—that this should not be made a party ques-
tion, and that he should not be taken into custody.—
(Laughter.) He had to deal with a question of fact, not
of °Pmion. Was it not an alarming fact, that the trade
O this district continued in a state of distress unparal-
leled in the memory of living Man ? It was, however,
• very difficult to make them believe this fact in London ;
that there was here a vast population in want of the
common necessaries of life. It was, therefore, necessary
for us to meet, and state our views as to the course to be
taken in this crisis. We had been in this state for the
last four years ; he had foreseen, from being largely en-
gaged in foreign transactions, that we must inevitably
, arrive at point when we could no longer profitably em-
ploy our population.—(Hear.) The time had arrived.
After the passing of the Reform Bill, a measure which
he had hailed, one of the first subjects which ought to
have engaged the attention of the Reformed Parliament,
Was commercial reform—(Hear)--and the postponement
of this to party disputes was an act of most egregious
folly. If the Reform Bill did not repeal the Corn-laws,
idid f it failed in its object, and if the Reformed Parliament
not repeal the Corn-laws, we might as well not have
had reform.—(Applause.) It was a new idea he de-
rived from a speaker yesterday, that the tax to the mono-
and the
ruleisatr.l;receded the payment of taxes to the State.—
Don't let the sugar planter fleece us first,
Governinent tax us afterwards.—(Hear.) Very
few persons, comparatively speaking, understood the
nature of our commerce with Brazil. We spun, wove,
aad printed certain descriptio
insof cloth, which were sent
by our merchants to Brazil, in return for which they
sendto
ived sugar and coffee, which they were obliged to
nturiburg and Amsterdam ; and the Germans ate
and drank the sugar and coffee cheaper than those by
whose labour it was purchased.—(" Shame.") He was
no fanatic or revolutionist, but a man who ought at this
inoment to he employing 800 work people ; but if he did
30, he should be destroying his own and his family's
Prospects. He felt for himself and his children ; he felt
also for the whole working population of Lancashire ;
• and he had told Members of Parliament in London that
we must have an immediate alteration : for that, while
they
were talking the people were starving.—(Applause.)
ROBERT GARDNER, in seconding the resolution,
ksaid, if he were addressing the House of Lords or
—"se of Commons, he would not be understood ; but
only reduce them to the wages oftwenty shillings a week,
tapd if they had wives and families, he would guarantee
p2ey would then understand the question.—(Applause.)
l'he whole of the earnings of the poor man must be ab-
sorbed in food ; and consequently, he could not employ
tailors, hatters, shoemakers, &c. The landed aristocracy
and interest were absolutely levying a tax upon every poor
tlaa an in the kingdom, that took precedence of Government
and prevented them spending anything in tea, su-
r,.l,•
,Bcc. He (Mr. Gardner) had now two car goes of sugar
"'Jung from Brazil, received in return for yarn and
cloth ; and, though a fair quality of brown sugar, he
should be glad to sell it at 2d. a pound ; but, for such
a ugar as the people here must consume, he could get 7d.
f pound ' • the duty on colonial sugar being 3d. and on
sugarre• ign 74(1. a pound. As Lord Palmerston said,
sciencesgar got to a certain price, we lost our con-
, and could then consume slave-grown sugar.—
that,cos, if wwere tO pay ls. a pound, we should require.
100,000 tons ; if we paid 10d. we should require
140,000 tons ; if we got it at Bd. we should use 180,000
tons ; and if at 6d. the price at which good brown sugar
"light to be,,we should use 250,000 tons.—(Hear.) If
he told Sir Robert Peel, that to-morrow he should have
,(TIY half the quantity of food he had had to-day, and if
'tr Robert Peel said—" That's not enough," and he
were to reply—" I say it is enough, and it shall be
sa°ugh"—this would be in fact what Sir Robert Peel
Said to the people of this country with respect to the con-
sumption of sugar.—(Applause.) This was the last time
he would appear at a public meeting—(" No, no")—till
all were agreed among themselves. Now he would tell
them what he was. "I am understood to be a Tory,"
continued Mr. Gardner ; " but I will tell you what my
views are. lam prepared with all my hand and heart,
yb all lawful means, cordially and sincerely to join either
ory, Conservative, Whig,, Radical, or Chartist—( H ear)
Ito accomplish this great object.—(lmmense cheering.)
am quite satisfied it is essential to our very existence ;
and without this, as a nation, we are as sure to go down
as possible."—(Hear.) He wanted the poor man to have
three pounds of sugar for id. ; but Sir Robert Peel and
the planters had only to make sugar 15d. or 18d. a
pound, and 15,000 tons would be sufficient for our con-
snaraption ; because it would be far out of the reach of
j 7 Poor man.—(Hear.) But our consumption ougt to
e 300,000 tons. In 1835 it was 220,000 tons ;hour
;77anrlation increased a thousand a day, or 365,000 a
• , ; yet last year we only consumed 187,000 tons,
be "3,000 tons less than in 1835.—(Hear.) If we had
see,
unfettered in commerce, with corn at a moderate
ft, ee, we might have been now in a state of comfort,
stasttead
of one of starvation.—(Hear, hear.) It was
toiled in some of the papers to-day, that we were going
to fbavea general election. Now, he would say nothing
everywho olitical score ; but he would say, that
mandid not vote for those who had deter-
raed to
support free and unrestricted trade, ought to
starved,la
Lo as. he would be.—(Hear.) He had been taunted
b; with our divisions and dissensions in Lan-
teitre ; he believed that this immense county had not
Bee:eight of a feather with Government ; and why ?
other of of us were on one side, and 100 of us on the
oiva (Hear,) Till we could determine to protect our
in
terenterests and promote commerce, which is the real
ei
hstti of the country, we should not have our proper
was x,„nothe scale. The landed interest and our interest
welded---71 the same, if we could but understand it. He
tare,. aulnit, that the mills and property of the manufac-
come lov(add be first sacrificed ; but what would next be-
' were deshe green fields—(Hear)—after our manufactures
to recur y, ? And manufactures were never known
fhre tura to had
which they had once left.—(Hear.)
ne.ver had done ,• they never would do; and, there-
it w"'4\%s hile we still had possession of our foreign markets,
coa,„,°ar duty to support free trade. He concluded by
whi"eisgtulating the meeting on their orderly conduct ;
of wil4 differed advantageously from the noise and uproar
Oth at he called the bear-garden, in Manchester, the
er day
ter, • uOUN TAYLOR was quite satisfied that, if this sys-
ari,towa3 continued six months longer, the basis of the
/zd)faey would be destroyed.
that L'Ea'r 11.4.ti0N, an operative, said they had been told
caste" or twelve millions of the population were not
kachalers n) the manufacturers. The reason was, that
(Nut" had been invented to do away with their labour.
it tv",'lnestion," and hisses.) The question was whether
enk;aeul be better for the people of this country to be
thei° to become purchasers of manufactures, or whe-
eorti ,the.inlanufactures should go abroad in exchange for
bla,Cll" sugar, grown by the slaves of Russia, and the
badly slaves of Brazil. The manufacturers were not so
sql3; oriefr as they pretended to be.
arid iIIoMAS POTTER moved the second resolution,
vailerngratulated them on the unanimity which pre-
lim There were two millions of people in Yorkshire
the Lancashire, and they had only to be united to get all
inteYtwkanted. The examinations which had been made
cow, the state of the poor, were most appalling ; and he
had 'u vouch for the accuracy of the statements which
thajone forth. But he did not despair. He hoped
IvOetter days were dawning upon them.
Sotr: TROMAS BAZLEY, jun. late the boroughreeve of
taro°"l, seconded the resolution. Our course of legisla-
hut- had not been for the benefit of the whole country ;
time of the Legislature had been absorbed by the
soix ,sections who sat in Parliament, who contrived to
4r, tnis country far beyond whatrevenne taxation would
eit°not to. We paid twenty millions for the email-
' lifea:fi°°_,. of the slaves ; but, last year, we paid the
indians four millions in excess for sugar more
1v,71,we could have got it for in the markets of the
th-r'°- We had paid them nearer a hundred millions
alllaoat twenty, whilst we were taxed by the State to the
withi7kt of fifty millions. He believed he should be
110 a the truth if he stated, that the tax by the mo-
.4,polists was more than a hundred millions. Of the
the
millions which were raised by taxes, thirty was for
4;leenntational debt, and twenty for the expenses of Govern-
lop,the army, and the navy ; but the monopolists got
swall:',..,llll°as. Let them not be straining at gnats, and
,I'vmg camels. Our Legislature had paid attention
st every-thing, prisons, workhouses, police, and
0,71 e other things ; but the distresses of the people they
ultislooked. We had been told by our Legislature, that
our 4 Corn-laws were enacted to prevent famine. Would
tb,as egislature be wiser than Providence, which made
dnifeerPetual winter ? We could have comforts in abun-
n if the laws would permit us.—(Great cheering.)
selv:°Ped we should no longer quarrel amongst our-
tlistr: as to the mode of relief, when we saw the general
te around us ; but endeavour with all our energies
Alf!..7g back prosperity to this hive of industry.
:.".011I1RT CHADWICK in moving the third resolu-
liee__rs. ferred to a few articles of the tariff to show the
uri",,,'_l,ty of amelioration. To show how inoperative the
een;':
;‘‘lts, the duty on French goods was 30 to 35 per
in the smuggler was always at hand to lay down
"i°o 1,31 he warehouse here for a duty of 10 per cent. ;
beelLia.attitchee.
.tariff. was a disgrace to any country. It had
d eignmuoartanncoei
baenudncdaerrrsitoedodouats
advocatingin crulty
f4r"-b,de t'Pad injusticee
to pay 50 millions a year
raa_s ;so long as we had
to ,he should be deluding the people he attempted
it Persuade them we were in a posltionl to take upfree
f ade• But he contended for a reduction of duties, and
11(1)(1: al_Pr°Pert •--tax ; end till Government taxed property,
suotiklneYver think them sincere in legislating for the
ve°,Ple.
had WILLIAM HARVEY, in seconding the resolution,,enuncnt
e rejoiced that the attention of thebGoi
t‘l at length, though at the eleventh hour,
deeean. directed.
tr.our coinrnereial restrictions, and to the
ufproaitiiittu.hteimonboyf
-working classes. It had been forced„)
the' . •
revenue own thstresses, and the difficulty
; without which, we should have heardsinnOgth!he
• pprieeese measures, either from Whigs or Tories. The
oabf
grain on the Continent, for a number of years
.eraged 32:,. 10d. a quarter, while here it had been
h2,:i it come duty free, we might
have it at 10s, a quarter above the continental prices.
11,470.474 hat there was now great distress in this town,
111411°1* of 'the overseers, there