The Sun.
London, England, 1840-01-14 00:00:00

TilE SUN, LONDON, TU-ESDAY, J NVARY 14 140

is that of ehandos*Buckingham, the father of the present
buke, the self-styled farmers' friend.--( Hear, hear.) Thu
other names on the list are Lord Montfort;Lord King,
and the Earl of Carlisle.-a4 Heat; hear, beer.) Gentle-
men, I say that such acts as these, and such sen-
thhentss readers it unnecessary for me to pass
any eulogy on those f, om whom they ma'
hated, and therefore with your leave I would rather ad=
dress myself for a few moments to that other matter,
which I consider rather to have bleen the cause of my being
placed now before yob, namely, to tell you that there are
landowners--I will not say they are more disinterested
than other landowners—for into that -past of the question
need not enter; and with respect to myself it would be
absurd to say so, bet.'ouse the conclusions to which I have
come are from a strict and severe investigation of my
own interests, and because I find those interests
are in accordance with the interests of a large
mass of my fellow-subjects. Early in life—l am afraid,
about thirty years ago—( Hear, hear, and laughter)-1
was the owner, and became the occupier oj a very large
tract of land. I farmed, by my own personal and daily
inspection, about 1,500 acres of land ; arid having, in
order to enable me to occupy it, borrowed,
you may call
it money if you please, but what I borrowed was [O,OOO
pieces of paper, which bore on their face a promise that I
should receive, instead of them, other exactly similar
pieces of paper, and nothing else. Having borrowed them
and invested them in the purchase of farming stock, and
having done that under the security of a vote of the House of
Commons, introduced under the section of the then
Chancellor of the Exchequer, which assured me that two
of these pieces of paper were worth two good bang-up
golden guineas, although I could not have purchased two
golden guineas with three of them. Having done this,
and having declined farming in the year 1822, and having
paid back, instead of those pieces of paper, 10,000 plump
sovereigns, you may well conceive that I came out a loser
by several thousands by the transaction. Will such cir-
cumstances as those make a man think seriously about his
condition ? and I assure you that they made me think very
seriously about my real interests and my real situation as
a landowner.—( [leer, hear.) Of course I became imme-
diately aware that the only value which could arise from
my land must depend on its producing more articles of
food and consumption than were used by those
who were engaged in the production.—( Hear, hear.)
I was aware that I must find somewhere customers
for any surplus. It was in vain for me to lo,lt
abroad—l knew if my surplus were to go abroad, I should
there meet with people who had a natural protection to
the extent of 83. or 10s. a quarter against me.—( Hear.)
I was therefore obliged to turn to the manufacturing,
trading, and commercial population at home, and I then
began to understand how much it was my interest that the
population should be wealthy, prosperous, and successful
in their various conditions.—( Cheers.) A somewhat ac-
curate investigation also informed me—[The Hen. Gen-
tleman was here interrupted by an immense number of per-
sons in the meeting crying out " Come forward
come forward—we can't hear."—Mr. Gisborne having re-
mained at the table near the Chairman instead of coming
forward to the platform erected for the speakers. Having
acceded to the request, and the' clamour having in some
degree subsided, the Hon. Gentlemen continued.) Gen-
tlemen, I believe 1 was about to say that further considera-
tion convinced me that as the aggregate income of the
working classes in this country is much larger than the ag-
gregate income of all classes put t..gether. that therefore
I, as landlord--( A clamour was now raised by those in
the mere remote parts of the pavilion for Mr. Gisborne to
go back to the Chairman's table).
The CHAIRMAN—I aye informed there are a number of
persons at the end of the pavilion, who continually inter-
rupt the different speakers, If they do not cease their
interruptions, I shall order them to be turned out.
Mr. GISRORNE proceeded.—Gentlemen, I assure you
I feel in the very strongest manner not only how extremely
difficult it is for any speaker to make himself heard in this
assembly, buy still more, how extremely difficult it must be
for him to make himself interesting to you, because the topics
we have to discuss are of such a very dry and uninterest-
ing nature, that they arc hardly, perhaps, adapted to such
an assembly as the present. I shall therefore pass over
all other points I had intended to touch upon, rind will
speak only to one, which one of the mottoes I see before
me brings to my mind.—(" No, go on," and " We can't
hear.)—Aftcr attempting for some minutes to obtain a
hearing where he stood, the Hon. Gentleman returned
to the Chairman's table, for which he was cheered by
those in the farther part of the pavilion, while those who
were in the centre expressed their dissatisfaction. Silence
being again in some measure restored, he resumed his
address.) I shall detain you, Gentlemen, but for a few
moments, while I tell you what is the reason of the dc-
termin ed opinion I have adopted between the question of
a fixed duty and a total repeal. lam quite certain, from
the general temper of the two brahches of the
Legislature, and of the Landowners of this
country, ire shall get nothing by the modera-
tion of our demands.—( Cheers.) I wish to know
whether we were not moderate enough when, fifteen years
ago, Mr. Hume asked for a fixed duty of 15s. a quarter, to
sink a shilling year by year till it was reduced to 10s.,
and then to remain fixed permanently at 103. a quarter.
Was not that a moderate demand ?—( Cheers. ) But i'
was rejected.—( Hear, hear.) Was it not a moderate de-
mand when, in the last Session of Parliament, we sub-
missively asked for leave to grind corn in bond?—
(Cheers.) But they refused to give it us, because they
would not let us have the bran.—(Cries of " Hear.")
Was not that a moderate demand ?—( Hear.) Let us
not then yield to the landowner, and agree to a
fixed duty. No, Gentlemen, we stand on the justice of our
claim, and we have been forced by the acts of our oppo-
nents to the position we now occupy.—( Hear, hear.)
When we made small and insufficient demands they re-
jected us with scorn and contumely.—(Hear, hear )
Gentlemen, if there is to be a compromise, let it come
from the other side.—( Loud Cheers,) Arc we to go to
them, and say, we shall take the least you will give us ?
(" No, no.") And, Gentlemen, the moment we do part
from the high ground on which we base our claim—that
of justice to the great bulk of the community—we lower
ourselves immensely in the public estimation—we deterio-
I rate the interest which any men feels in our success, and
we diminish immeasurably our chance of success altogether.
—( Cheers.) Gentlemen, I said that I addressed you as
one of a small, but, I hope, increasing hand of landowners,
who take a different view of their interests from that taken
by the rest of their body.—( Cheers.) We ask rot no
particular protection—we are satisfied with the protection
which nature and our station give us—a protection which
the.law will not give and cannot take awa).—( Cheers.)
We know,Gentlemen, that that it is an honest—we believe
that it is a wise course; and, Gentlemen, we arc willing
to bind together our lot with that of the whole united body
of all classes of our fellow-countrymen.—(Much cheering.)
The CHAIRMAN then gave " The Irish Members of
Parliament who are favourable to a repeal of the Corn-
laws."—( Drank with much cheering.)
Mr. O'CONNF.LL then presented himself, and was re-
ceived with the loudest and most enthusiastic cheering,
which was with some difficulty suppressed. He said—ln
return for this overpowering kindness, I have a mind to
set you right as to one mistake you have fallen into.—
(Here there was some interruption, in consequence of per-
sons in the remote parts of the building not being able to
hear the Hon. Gentleman distinctly. Ono man shouted
several times, " Speak out," and Mr. O'Connell said, " I
wish you had a potatoc in your mouth," which produced
great 1 aughter. When order had been restored, Mr.
O'Connell proceeded.) You imagine I have come here
to make a speech—no such thing.--( A laugh.) I did not
come here under the guise or pretence of being an orator.
I came simply as a witness to Lear testimony to the senti-
meets my country entertains of the injustice which has
been practised upon your manufacturing interests.—
( Cheers.) I know that we are not to talk politics here—
( A voice, " Party politics.") I accept the correction, but
I am so much of a party politician that I look like party
politics upon two legs—(Much laughter)—and if I am
driven to it—and I most cheerfully submit to it—to abstain
from them on the present occasion, there is a kind of
moral paralysis over me, and I am as one half dead.—
( Cheers and laughter.) Now we understand each other.
As I cannot allude to party politics, I may be allowed to
tell you a fact as a matter of history. I have always been
looking for justice for Ireland—that has been my struggle ;
but I should be unworthy of obtaining justice for Ireland if
I was not ready to do justice to England. I know it is
said—and by one of my own constituents, who wrote to
me from Ireland—" We:have no advantage in Ireland but
the Corn-laws—l voted for you at the last election, and I
will vote against you if you vote for the repeal of the Corn-
laws." My answer was, "If every man who voted for
votes: against me at the next election, as an act of jus-
tice I will give all the opposition in my power to the
Corn-laws."—( Cheers, and interruption.) There are two
secrets for those who wish to hear or to learn: the first
thing is, that if they wish to hear somebody else talk, they
must not speak themselves; and the next is, they ought to
be seated if they want to listen. Sir, I would scorn any
support at the expence of injustice. My principle has been
that there should be no partiality or favour in one
part of the empire or the other, but equal jus-
tice to all ; and even if Ireland derived any
advantage from the Corn-laws, it is an unjust one,
and the Irish should at once reject it.—(Cheers.) l am
convinced that the repeal of the Corn-laws will be bene-
ficial to all parts of the empire. I will go farther, and
say, that I believe it will be specially beneficial to Ire-
land, and I will tell you why. What Co we want in Ire-
land? Not fertility of soil—not an abundance of pro_
duce—not superabundant harvests. Our agricultural
productions have been great, and are increasing. Are
the people of Ireland one bit the better of it? Is there
more of poverty, wretchedness, or distress in any
other part of the world ?—( Cries of " Hear, hear.")
If the Corn-laws were good to rescue the labouring classes
from misery and wretchedness, why should they not rescue
the people of Ireland ?—( Hear, hear.) What does Ire-
land do ? She exports nine-tenths of her agricultural
pro ,
duce • and her people are starving while her ships arc
sailing away laden with corn and prov.sions.—( Hear,
bear.) So far as roy experience has gone, the Corn-laws
have worked for ill every where, and for good no where.-
-( Cheers.) In Ireland, especially, what do we find ?
Not only are her provisions exported, but her population
ileanisria)nohAesrteer t?herAendno sixty
ift
thec Corr.-laws
ve-isaewsnatfy_
ftiaothi also.
—(Hear,
t n
rhei
dw?• e(s, why
Cheers.)'a v e
‘t
vh enyi
tnhoet dr
edone
it for those now i's Ireland ?—( Cheers.) Will there not
market,
up() b
upon
England
which the
glwandiif time
iher wages? Aud is
'
Englisadditionalhlabourer
b o
labourernrer ".as advantages
takenwould
obtain
out
off
conferred f
hi
it not manifest that both England and Ireland are suffer-
ing under the influence of those Corn-laws ? What care I
laws-...ttheellan'geriewualt"uersisatreb •y t increasedhoseC o r7.lreason
e tosf nt these
moneyCurn.
from the operative; but take the two together, and I ask you,
nre they one halfpenny richer ?—( Cheers and great laugh-
ter.) If one man has the higher price, the other is minus
that sum. If, indeed, we sent our corn to be sold to an
enemy, we would have had this advantage, that we would
plunder there: or if we sold it to a neutral, we would have
this advantage, that we should get money from a foreigner;
but when it is only a transaction between Englishman and
Englishman, what advantage is there in one man put-
ting his hand into the pocket of the other ?
( Loud cheering.) I - want to see manufactures
springing up in Ireland.__( Cheers.) We have the greatest

water power at ahy &edit, in the world:---we have gteaitif
facilities for the transmission of our produce to foreign
coUniritt, by the greeter uhinber of splendid harbours
which nature has erected upon our shore:,.,
Made
water power, which is now the more valuable that meatie
have been discovered of transporting that power to remote
plates t so that we beet! till the elethetits, including a hardy
and laborious populetione—we have all the eletnetitts of the-
nufacturing industry: What do I want for Ireland ? I want
that foreign countriere who have slibith their antiety to
purchase the products of this country, to be enabled to obr
tarn them to any extent, so as to make our manufactures
articles of necessity and luxury with thene—(Cheers.)
Therefore it is, that ae an Irish Member of Parliament,
although I may talk of chivalry and generosity, I must
freely acknowledge that I have more solid and rational
grounds for contending against the Corn-laws, because I
am thoroughly convinced they have injured my part of the
country as much as yours. Hovy was I ci;cumatanced
on Saturday last ? A deputation from the flour
trade of Dublin with the Corn-law Act in their pocket.
They complained of a grievous inconvenience in conse-
quence of the badness of the crop, the quantity being
small, and the produce worse than it had been known for
a series Of years. Under these circumstances they thought
it their duty to import flour into Ireland. The moment
they brought it in it was seized and confiscated by the
Custom House. I took the Act of Parliament, and found
that the Corn-laws prevented the importation of foreign corn
into Ireland as well as England. I was not sur-
prised at that. But I found there was a total prohibition
of the importation of flour into Ireland. It appeared that
the Legislature had given John Bull a thump on the
head, and had shared the same fate with Paddy—with this
addition, that he broke his teeth into the bargain.—(Loud
laughter and cheers.) It is perfectly manifest, therefore,
that the British empire should rise as one man to demand
a repeal of those lvas.—( Cheers. ) I see before me the
words, " Landowners—honesty is the best policy !" If
that were so, they would have given up the Corn-laws.
But they will not do:so until you convince them...—( Cheers. )
I have always held that John Bull possessed the quality
of common sense, but I am afraid that some of it has gone
a wool-gathering, or abroad somewhere, for I have been
actually told that the working men have insisted that they
will not accept of cheap bread until they get better laws.
Oh, I would feed the fellow first, at all events.—(Great
laughter and cheers.) I remember Hunt said that the
Reform Bill was a bread and butter question ; I wish the
Chartists would make the Corn-lairs a bread and butter
question, and join with us in insisting upon the repeal. Be-
lieve me,lit is hard to trust a man with the reform of our
political institutions, when you find him practically igno-
rant, or not honest enough to recognise the first great
principle of wiping away injustice.—( Hear, hear.) When
we hear what has been so well called the " Squire logic"
of higher prices producing higher wages, we can well
answer with the fact, that as corn grows dearer, wages
become smaller. One matter of fact of that sort is worth
a thousand speeches of Lords or Squires.—(Hear, hear.)
Is there a man in the community who does not know
that the way to increase wages is to increase the de-
mand for labour ; and that if you diminish the
demand for labour, you necessarily diminish the wages.
—( Cheering.) What have we been seeking for ? Why
that for every one mill that now exists there should be
three, and where there is nosy one factory that there
should be four ; and I ask any man of common sense
whether, when the labourer has seven shops to gO to, he
will not be better off than when he had only two —(lm
mense cheering.) So that you see the Squire logic is to-
tally false in every respect. I come now before you to
tek you, will you submit, to this state of things ?—( Cheers.)
Ido not like to use harsh phrases—l do not like to
use words with daggers in them ; but I trust no man will
any longer submit to have the landowner plunder him as
he has done for years past..—( Cheers.) Why does the
lendlord wish to maintain the Corn tax? Is it not to put
money into his own pocket?—( Hear, hear.) And whose
money is it ? Not that of the Swedes, the Danes, French,
or Spaniards ; but the money of his own fellow-country-
men.—(Cheers, and laughter.) The question then is,
What are we to do ? My advice always is, " Agitate,
aeitate, agitate." The landlords have held meetings
in Lancashire, Newark, Norfolk, and other places, and
they have boasted that the landlords have been always
most, kind and generous to the poor; but whose money
have they given them? That of the poor themselves
Thank you for nothing, I say.—(Great laughter and
cheers.) Go td heaven, can any thing speak so trumpet-
tongued of the hard-heartedness of these landlords, while
easing oa turtle and venison, and claret, than this sickly
• entimentality, when we know their claret is purchased
with the widow's tears, and their venison sauce with the
orphan's hungry cries —( Cheers ) I ray the thing is not
to be borne..—( Loud cheers.) I never was the advocate
of violence—it disappoints its own end. ( Hear, hear.)
I never was the advocate of physical force—it creates
more enemies than it can possibly subdue, and
it is never of the least avail until public opinion becomes
ipe, when it is totally unnecessary.—( Cheers.) I trust
that the sentiments uttered here to-night will be circulated
thro igh the country, and that every man will be brought
'.O consider the real practical bearing of the Corn-law
question. —( Hear, hear.) What care I fur the different
classes of publications, whether they be Whigs, Tories,
Conservatives, Radicals, or Chartists? What care I for
the different religious persuasions into which you may be
divided. Every man cats bread, whatever may be his po-
litical or religious opinions.—(Cheers.) All politicians
agree as to the necessity of eating and being well fed.
Why should England suffer the taunts of all the na-
tions of Europe ? Why ehould its aristocracy and landed
proprietors roll the wheels, of their carriages over the woes
of the people of Ireland ?—( Cheers.) It is a shame
for England that such is the ca e, and all Europe ought
to exclaim that it was a shame that Britons hi d borne it
so long.---(Cheers.) Let every man who hears me
from this moment become opposed to the aristocracy,
and let every person when he meeta his neighbour blush
when he tells him what he has endured so
long—(Cheers)—and let him ask every man, either Whig
orr-eTory, first, are you honest ?—( Cheers.) I agree en-
with the inscription, that a fixed duty is a fixed in-
justice.—(Cheers.) We ask for nothing but: honesty,
and we are here to say that we will have justice.—
( Cheers.) We must have no compromise ; we must have
that which is given us by Providence, and nothing less._
(Cheers.) Ido from this spot denounce the landowners
of England; I arraign them of pilfering and plundering
the people.—(Cheers.) I am a plain spoken man,
and I arraign them of plundering the people.—(Cheers.)
You may call them Dukes, or Lords, or what you like, I
don't care what nick-name you give them, a robber is a
robber still, let him go by what name he will, and nothing
can convice the people that the landowners are not dis-
honest.—(Cheers.) Array, then, the people of
England in the most bloody battle that was ever
fought between man and ma* the battles of
Poictiers and Cressy and Waterloo, where the
English conquered, because they would not be beaten, are
nothing to it.—(Cheers.) An eternal disgrace would
fall on the country if the present state of things was en-
dured any longer.—(Cheers.) For the law, as it at pre-
sent stood, took away the widow's morsel and the orphan's
bread.—(Cheers ) There is not a Christian in the land
who will tolerate such a state of things. From my
heart, therefore, I call upon you to support the re-
peal of the Corn-laws..( Hear.) The Honourable
and Learned Member concluded a most eloquent speech,
to which we regret we are not able to do justice, amid
great cheering. -

Mr. Alderman COBDEN then impressed upon the meet-
ing the necessity of aiding their CALISO by subscriptions,
and a box was sent round to collect the contributions of

•
those present.
The CHAIRMAN then proposed as a toast, " The De-
puties from the various Towns and Associations in the
United Kingdom to the Anti-Corn-law Lcague."—
( Cheers.) He begged to introduce to the meeting one of
the most powerful writers on the question of the Corn-
laws, Mr. Edward Baines, junior, of Leeds.—(Cheers.)
Mr. BAINES, jun., rose to return thanks, and was
greeted with loud plaudits. Though feeling himself a
very unworthy representative of that large body of men,
the Deputies, yet, in obedience to the call that
had been made on him, he begged, in the name of
the hundreds of the able and intelligent men who
had ccmc from the various towns and trades of
England, to return to the men of Manchester their
sincere th.inks. We are extremely sorry that in conse-
quence of the great length of the proceedings, and from
want of time, we arc unable to give a report of the very
able and eloquent speech of this Gentleman.

The Rev. 11r. ;%I‘DoNALD, of Birmingham, returned
thanks on behalf of the Deputations, and pointed out in a
very forcible and eloquent manner the injustice and ini-
quity of the Corr-laws.

Dr. BOIV&ING having been called upon from all parts of
the pavilion, spoke at considerable length, and with great
eloquence upon the subject ; but w© are too much pressed
both for time and room to permit us to do justice to his
speech.
Mr. GIBBON (who on rising was received (with very
great applause) said—Gentlemen, I confess to you that I
should have felt much mo e pleasure in continuing a
listener than becoming a speaker on this occasion. I feel
my mind already so occupied in digesting the valuable
information and instruction I have received from the etc-
quent speeches that have been already delivered, that I
tea some difficulty and embarrassment in bringing my
mind to the consideration of the toast which I have been
called upon to propose. 'rho toast, Gentlemen, which I have
the honour to propose is, " The farming tenantry ; may they
speedily discover that the Corn-law ostensibly passed for
their benefit is nothing but a rent-law. Gentlemen, I
come myself from, I may say, the celebrated farming
county of Suffolk—celebrated not only for the extent of its
tillage and grain cultivation, but also celebrated for having
always had a greater amount of pauperism, in proportion
to its population, than any other county in England. Gen-
tlemen, it is also celebrated for its agricultural associations
—for those meetings at which persons are put forward,
with high names and titles to dazzle the mental vision of
the ignorant and simple.—'(Laughter.) Dukes and
great men are put forward to tell the simple agriculturists
with what cure and disinterested affection they regard their
interests.—( Laughter.) Gentlemen, these agricultural
associations, when they meet at dinner are not unpleasant
things ; for six or seven drillings you get a capital dinner,
and a good bottle of wine ,c and if you are a farmer, you
are told by the Duke of Buckingham, and Chandos that
he, the last of the Plantagynets, is one of your dearest
and most loving friends ; you are told, that in the hour of
need, you will always find him coming forward to fight your
battles, and on his ilag will be emblazoned the motto of "No
surrender;" and that he is prepared to nail it to the mast.
( Cheers and laughter.) Gen tlemen, notwithstanding all
these generous assertions, and that the agricultural
labourers are also taught to believe that their condition
progresses with the price of bread—noveithstanding all
this, I have lately begun to pt ,rceive there is something
like a growing scepticism as t o whether they are really
better off from being obliged u bey dear bread under the
restrictive system which is the importation of fo-
prnrnet'', hibi
.ehat although the Corn-
reign corn. I say, G, Inte
laws in this country are taught ahnost as matters of faith
to these classes, I do begin to peret ive a growing scepti-
cism amongst them.—( Hear, hear.) The farmers
are beginning to say, and to ray boldly, that
high prices mean high rents.—(l ;beers.) They arc be-
ginning, many of the more intcll igcnt amongst them, to


a After all, we could make a safer contract with the
owners of the land if the Corn-trade were open than under
the present system." Ahd, Centlemen, we know this ar-
runent is founded on reason, for when a osan goes to take
JAM!, is sore to meet many competitors, Wild :ire wil-
ling to give such d rtnt its to prevent any farmer whateve7
be prices, from receiving one fat thing more than the usual
interest of capital and ordinary profits. Gentlemen, not
Only do 1 believe your exertions have promoted ro"nd
inforrr.ation off The sohject of the Corn-laws amongst':
flit, manufacturing classes, )tsit, also, that your
exertions naVS, begun to enlighten the itErißtiltural class.
—( Hear, and cheeA y I perceive a daily-grawittg dispo-
sition to dispute with their isfidlords on the efficacy of this
protective system. It was but the Gther day that a pro-
position was made by the Magistrates, to estabish a Rural
Police in the county of uffulk. The farmers were very
tried] against it, on the grotia!, namely, of expense'.
" Oh," saj the landlords to the farmers; "it is not your
business to talk or mites and expenses, that ail comes out
of rent." " And then," repfled the farmers, "what be,
comes of your argument al out prctealtin being necessary,
on the ground of the taxes we besr."—( Cheers.) That,
Gentlemen, I am happ^ to say, is the course things
are taking ; and although I fell Into disgrace for voting
for Mr. Villiers's motion--( Loud and gencrnl cheering)._
I am proud to be able to say here, that I have received
a memorial, signed by many neighbours in our district,
who are farmers, and which contains the distinct assertion
that they approved of my conduct on the Corn question.
—(Cheers.) Gentlemen, I say the Corn-laws have al-
ways been the means of deluding the occupiers of land—
these laws have been always put forward as the induce.
ment to give high rents, and they have not the power to
secure uniform and proportionately high prices; and when
the period arrives of low prices—low prices produced by the
landlords who, like other greedy monopolists, are some-
times apt by avoiding it, to glut their own market, then
the landlord gets ids rent out of the farmers' capital, so
long as it
,will bear it ; and when, Gentlemen, it will bear
that no longer. you will see a philanthropic paragraph in-
serted in the Morning Post that the Duke of So-and-So
or Lord So-and-So, has returned twenty-five per cent.
to his tenant.—( Great cheering.) But, Gentlemen,
it is clear that the mere farmer can have no interest
in this restrictive system. The landlords are the only par-
ties really interested in it. We can produce facts to con-
firm our a priori reasoning—facts which it is impossible to
dispute, prove that agricultural distress has always been
caused in this country by a delusive reliance on the Corn-
laws. We know that in 1822 the agricultural panic was
not created by excessive importation or lands going out of
cultivation, and foreigners sending their corn int) themarket,
but by farmers having rdied upon the delusive promises
of the 'landlords, that the Corn-laws would secure high
prices, and that; on that they might easily contract
for high rcnts.—( Cheers.) It was supposed that
the Corn-laws could keep up uniform high prices, and
when low prices came, they were involved in one common
ruins—(Cheers.) Mr. Huskisson's resolution, which
passed the House of Commons, clearly pointed out these
lacts.—(Cheers,) Therefore, I say, Gentlemen, that we
can with perfect confidence and sincerity drink success to
the farming tenantry.—( Cheers.) We wish to do them
no injustice. (Cheers.) We wish to convince them
that, like other consumers, it is their interest to
get what they want for their own consumption.
to ,get, in short, their food at the cheapest possible rate,
fur in their calling of agriculturists, low prices may be
just as remunerating to them as high prices, inasmuch
as they never can derive any advantage from the latter,
being, by the natural laws.of competition, always driven to
give their landlords increasing rents with increasing
prices.
It really is melancholy to bear our great land-
owners prophesy as to ‘vhat will be the result of the re-
peal of the Corn-laws. We have been told by
one Noble Duke that if the Corn-laws were re-
pealed he would sell off all his land, houses,
and furniture,' pack up his things and go to some
more pros2erous clime, there to tell the tale of happier
days. "=( Laughter.) But we believe these very landlords,
notwithstanding their gloomy predictions, will share in the
general prosperity of the nation which would ensue from a
repeal. of the .Corn-laws.—(Cheers.) We don't want to
drive them to foreign countries—we want to make them
more respectable—more respected—more really and per-
manently Aourishing at home. Into what a ludicrous po-
sition do they put themselves by these gloomy forebodings.
Imagine a Noble Duke, poor, melancholy soul, wander-
ing river the Continent •
" Remote, unfriended, melancholy, slow,
Or by the lazy Scheldt or wandering Po."

Telling the sad tale that once he and some friends kept a
bread and beef shop in England, and possessed the exclu-
sive right of supplying their fellow countrymen with pro-
visions at their own prices—(Laughter)—and that some
troublesome, inquiring, active-minded people in the manu-
facturing district got up a cry that they did not sec why
other people should not open such shops as well as them-
selves, and because they could not continue to sell bread
and beef at their own prices, they had left their own country
as being unworthy to live in.—( Great laughter.) I don't
think, Gen;lemen, our illustrious Duke would, under such
circumstances, get many to sy mpathise with him--(laugh-
ter).--they would tell him to go back to his own country,
atidhe satisfied with that to which he was legitimately and
justly untitled—namely, the real and natural value of the
prolauce of-his estate, and not that artificial value which is
created by monopoly and the plunder of the property of others.
As a proof that the agricultural labourers are not benefited
by, hign prices, 1 would call to your noticea I esolut ion lately
passed, proposed by a Noble Duke and seconded by an
Esquire, to thts effect (It was a resolution passed in the
Grantham Union poorhouse last February): " Whereas in
eauseqUence of the high price of provisions the agricultu-
ral labourers had been driven to make use of an inferior
kind of "food—have been driven to give up the use of
wheat flour and resort to bread of an inferior description,
it is expedient that we introduce the same sort of bread
into' the poor house, lest the paupers in the house should
live better than the paupers out.—(Laughter.) Now,
Gentlemen, we all know that the principle may itself be
sound, hut it is pretty clear the tendency of the high price
of provisions is to reduce the labouring classes to smaller
allowances of the coarser kind of bread.—(Cheers.)
Gentlemen, there areother speakers who have to address
you, and I will, therefore, detain you no longer.—( Cries
of " No, no," and "go oil.") The old arguments which
usLid to be put forward in suppoit of the Curn-laws arc
new no longer broached. There was a time when Noble
Loads and Dukes could be found to get get up and say_
We don't assert that there is any actual necessity or tinan-
cial grounds for the restrictive system; but whatiwe contend
is, that it is sound constitutional policy to give the landed
proprietary an advantage over the rest of the com-
munity.—(Hear, hear, and Cheers.) such sentiments
as these have been professed, and is now the real reason
for their giving way on the Corr.-laws.—( Cheers.) The
argument used to be that it was sound policy to give the
landowner a benefit over the rest of the community, be-
cause, when a man was possessed of land he was more dis-
posed to order and good government, and the support
of established institutions, and could better per-
form the functions of a Justice of the Peace than
other people. It was wise to _ support a class
composed of such persons, even at' the expense of
the community. But that day is gone by. The Esquire
is no longer supposed as a matter of course merely because
he possesses land, to be a bit more loyal or orderly, or to
have greater capacity than another man. All those doc-
trines are now exploded. But be assured that tin ugh not
avowed they arc still in accordance with the wishes of the
opponents of the repeal of the Corn-laws. The great de-
sire is still to place the landed aristocracy on vantage
ground with reference to the rest of the country.—( Hear.)
You have always had a Parliament of landowners, and
they have legislated for their own advantage._( Cheers.)
I thank you very kindly for the indulgence with which you
have heard me ; there are many other speakers who will
follow me, who will no doubt illustrate the marvellous in-
consistencies of those who resist a repeal of the Corn-
laws. One word, before I conclude, about the
reason why the Duke of Buckingham won't
hear of a fixed duty on corn ; he does not
like breaking ground—he knows if he gives any,
he must yield all, that inquiry will be fatal. He
gives the same advice to the landowners which I would
give to a friend who might consult me on the propriety
of repai:ing an old dilapidated house with a bab foun-
dation ; Don't touch a brick I should say, or, the old
house will tumble about. your cars.—(The Hon. Gentle-
man sat down amid loud and enthusiastic cheering which
lasted several minntes.)

Mr. SHARMAN CRAIVI,ORD then addressed the meeting.
—Sir,---It is impossible that the advocacy of any toast
could have been deputed to me, in the sentiments of which
I more fully concur than in those expressed in the toast
which I hold in my hand. Most cordially do I agree in
the proposition contained in the last clause—that the
Corn law was framed for no other purpose than a Rent
Law—Cheers)—and most ardently do I join in the
aspiration that the farming tenantry of the United
speedily discover that their true interests
Kingdom- may
are not sustained by these laws. It has been said that
these laws were enacted for the benefit of the agricultural
interest. I admit that if the agricultural interest can be
supposed to consist of landlords only, the assertion may be
true; but I hold that the agricultural interest consists of
two other classes, vastly more numerous and important
than the landlords, namely, the tenants and the labourers.
I hold, Sir, that the Corn-laws perpetrate a: robbery
on the tenant and starve the labourers —(Great cheers.)
They rob the tenant, by extorting from him a rent, under a
fiction, which is not realized in practice.—(True, true.)
The evidence before the Committee of 1836 proves that
the large tenants were broken merchants, or else paying
their rents out of their capital instead of out of their pro-
fits. They rob the labourer by raising upon him the price
of the absolute necessaries of life, and at the same time by
their unjust operation on the tenant, lessening his means
to afford the poor labotrer employment. Loud cheers.)
But another and more extensively dangerous effect pro-
duced by these laws is, that they convert the tenants, w ho
were formerly denominated the Independent Yeomanry of
England, into absolute slaves.—(Hear, hear.) They
place a halter round the neck of the tenant, and give the
other end into the hand of the landlord, ready to be
tightened to strangulation the moment lie would show a
spark of political independence—(Cheers)—and thus the
honest voice of freedom may be stifled whenever the tenant
would presume to utter a sentiment at variance with the
whispered will of the landlord, and thus the Corn-laws, if
continued, will destroy the liberties of England.—(lm-
mense cheering.) Another effect is, that these Corn-
laws are used as an engine on which to sustain every
branch of lavish profusion in the public expenditure, and
consequently of profligate taxation, as well as all the
abuses of civil and ecclesiastical monopolies. If
the Corn-laws were destroyer' taxation must be reduced
or else the tenants would not be able to pay rents, and
public economy even in a landlord's house would thus be
insured.—( Hear, hear.) I am perfectly aware that changes
must be produced whenever a repeal of the Corn-laws
shall. take place ; but I hail the prospect of these changes,
because I can foresee none that will not be productive
of the most beneficial effects on society.—( Loud cheers.)
I regret to say that in Ireland there is a general impres-
sion that her infant prosperity would be destroyed if the
corn duties were repealed. It seems to be forgotten, that
if the population of Ireland lived in such a manner as
human beings ought to live, the Irish produce would be

only sufficient for her own consumption. It is not the stir-
pins which is exported, but the absolute necessaries of life I
arc abstraeted from the people, and in thole parts of Ireland
i
where there s the greatest export of provisions, there is the
greatest poverty.—( Hear, hear.) What comes, then, of
the profits of the export market ?—they ver come among
the people, but are transferred into the pockets of the
corn merchant or of the absentee proprietor—(" Shame,
shame ")—the poor tenant does not get them, In those
tliskriets the Poor-law Evidence records that tenants who
hare oUlls have been occasi6nally obliged to bleed those
cows and drink the blood in order to preserve themselves
and families from death by starvation.—( Hear, hear.) I
ask, then, do the Corn-laws bring wealth either to the
teitailtry or the population of Ireland ? No such thing--
the only bright spots in Ireland are those where manufac-
ture is combined with agriculture. There you have pros-
perity, good wages, and universal employment.—(Great
cheering,) It is, then, our interest to encourage menu-
facture, and to remove every impediment o their
progress. I maintain that the prosperity of the
woiker is universal prosperity, and that it is
the only foundation on which the prosperity of
every other elms' can be based ; and that although some
little shock may be experienced for a time, the landlord
would find his interests as much promoted by the repeal of
the Corn-laws as any other class in society.—( Hear, and
cheers.) But no matter what political arguments could
be adduced in favour of Corn-laws, I maintain that no
human laps ought to stand between men and the decree
of the Almighty Creator, which gave the earth t) him
and the fruits thereof that he might subsist himself
by his labour.—( Hear, hear, hear.) We have no right
to place out of the reach of the poor man by fictitious
means the benevolence of Providence. Entertaining
these opinions, I have felt it my duty, as an Irish landed
proprietor, to accept your invitation to this meeting, and
to join my British countrymen in their glorious struggle
in this great cause of humanity.—(Cheers.) I conceive
that a landlord who thinks as I do is a participator in all
the miseries which his fellow-creatures may suffer, if he
fails to perform his duty in openly protesting against these
laws, and joining in every constitutional effoit for theu-
lc; cal.—(The Hon, Gentleman sat down amidst peat
_ _ _

The CHAIRMAN then proposed " The Ladies," and
Mr. O'CONNELL• responded to the toast.
Mr. GEORGE Tuosteeoe rose amid loud cheers and said
—Mr. President, Gentlemen—l am particularly anxious
tha t ere the clock stikes twelve, and this Pavilion becomes,
" A banquet-hall deserted,"
you should receive as It deserves, the toast I have the ho-
nour to propose. Gentlemen, if I had been permitted to
choase from amongst the toasts selected for this evening's
meeting, the one most congenial to my feelings, I should
assuredly, without hesitation, have made choice of that
which has been confided to me by the Council. Gentle-
men, I give you—" The working men of this kingdom."
—(Long continued cheering.) If there is a class
of men in the community to whom the question we
have this night mat to discuss, comes home with greater
directness and force than any other, it is to that class
to which this toast refers.—( Cheers.) If to any eyes the
statute sought to be repealed appears like the prophet's
roll, written within and without, with mourning, lamenta-
tion, and woe, it is to the eyes of the working
men of this country.---( Hear, hear, hear, and cheers.)
Who amongst us is not the friend of the working man ?
Who does not respect, and desire to serve the class who
minister so largely to our comforts, wealth, and luxury ?
Gentlemen, rcake up this question as the cause of the work-
ing-mau. ram known to the public as the friend
of the labourer—the once uncompensated and enslaved
labourer of the West—the now oppressed and famishing
labourer of the East—and to-night the ill-fed, ill-paid,
and in too many parts of the kingdom, the unemployed and
starving labourer of our own kingdom.—( Cheers.) Gen-
tlemen, there is something strange, unnatural, and ominous
in the very sound of Corn-laws. —( Hear.) Laws to regu-
late the munificence of the Creator I—laws to dole out the
bounties of Heaven !—laws which say to the blessings of
Providence, hitherto shall ye come, but no further.
Sir, on the very face of them, they bear the marks
ut impiety and foul injustice.—( Cheers.) God has given
us the world for our market, and all mankind for our cus-
tomers; lie has plainly taught us that mutual dependence
and mutual interchange are laws by which we should
regulate our transactions with each ether.—( Hear,
hear, hear,.) The map of the world teaches
us this lesson. Some portions teem with grain, some with
spices, some with vineyards, some with minerals; here we
see flocks and herds covering a thousand hills, and there
extensive regions aadpted for the manufacture of
the raw material into all the forms of use and orna-
ment—here a people given to agriculture, and there
another, conspicuous for energy and handicraft skill. Why
then should we cut ourselves off from profitable and amica-
ble intercourse ?—why should we stir up jealousy and
create rivalry, arid spurn the abundance of those portions
of the earth which are willing, while they feed us with
their grain, to be clothed in the garments
which we can supply.—(Loud cheers.) Gentlemen,
the Corn-laws are a monopoly, and, therefore, to be re-
garded with suspicion and dislike.—(Cheers.) What
t,ood hare we ever derived from monopolies ? What were
the blessings which we ever derived from Chinese, or East
India, or West India monopolies? The one with which we
are now dealing is of the same character, and must' be
sent to the same place.—( Cheers.) Gentlemen, my toast
refers to working men, and I want to turn you all into
working men. I want the four thousand in this room to
give themselves to work during the present year. Believe
me, if you would have the struggle upon which you have
eetered a short one, you must expect it to be a sharp
one, and a hard one, and you must make up your minds
accordingly. I see no reason why the conflict should not
be soon ended. I behold before me a mighty mass of
mind, and I feel confident, that if, when it is scattered
over the kingdom, it be properly employed, another year
would not pass away before we met again in this
or in a still larger pavilion—not to talk of battle, but to
si, g of victory—not to deal in pleasing anticipations, but
tot cjoice in realised benefits.—(Loud cheers.) If, then,
you would have it so, be working men. Let me advise
the delegates who are here, and know the character of '
die constituencies they represent, to:do as they do in similar
gatherings upon great questions in die United States—let
them agree amongst themselves to put down certain
sums, to be forthcoming in the course 'of the ensuing
year of agitation ; so that the Council of the League mei
be encouraged to enlarge its operations, and thus
expedite • the completion of the work.—( Hear,
arid cheers.) I would respectfully tend another word of
advice, and it is this : let those who are here, or who else-
where labour in this cause, come as much as they can into
contact with the labouring population of the country.—
( Hear, hear.) Let them throw themselves amongst
the mass of the people, no matter by what name
they are called-. Let them show themselves the friends of
the working men, by searching him out, and reasoning
this matter with him. Such conduct will disarm prejudice
—it will remove ignorance—it will smooth away internal
asperities and misunderstandings, and possibly bring
the parties to see eye to eve, and to fight in this
moral warfare, shoulder to shoulder. And now, Gentle-
men, I have only to say, be true to yourselves and to your
cause, and to the motto which, in characters of light,
flames forth above my head. ( Hear, hear, hear.)
Your ww.chword is Justice. , Let all your measures
be marked by justice—( Hear, hear)—let your temper
also be distinguished by justice—and while justice guides
your hands,lind•points youto-ai:guments, let benevdlencc
wsrm your hearts, and be your ever present motive._
( Cheers.) Gentlemen, I would fain believe, for the honour
of 'our eduntry, that there is no than in favour of the Corn-
laws, far the sole reason that they promote his own in-.
dividual benefit, and with a full knowledge of the misery
they entail. I say, I can scarcely believe that such a man
exists—but, _

" If such there be, go, mark him well !
For him no minstrel raptures swell :
High though his titles, proud his name,
Boundless his wealth, as wish can claim;
Despite those titles power and pelf,
The wretch, concentred all in self, i
Living, shall Lrfeit fair renown,
And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust from whence he apt ung,
Unwept, unhonoured, and unsung."
Mr Thompson sat down amidst the loudest applause.
Mr. EBENEZER ELLIOTT then addressed the meeting,
but from the noise of persons leaving the building it was
impossible to eaten his observations distinctly.
Mr. WARBURTON proposed the health of the Chairman,
and he would take that opportunity of returning his thanks
to the Chairman and Committee of the Corn-law League
for ti c noble stand they had made twelve months ago.
He would only at that late hour add one word more, that
as in the case of the postage, and other important benefits
conferred upon the country, they chould not cease u
petition—petition—petition—for the repeal of these most
obnoxious laws.—(Chccrs.)

The CumamAN'returned thanks, and trusted that all
the friends of the question would persevere in their exer-
tions, and there was little doubt of their being ultimately
crowned with success.

Three cheers were then given for the Queen, and a
few minutes before one o'clock the meeting separated.

CHARTISTS AT SHEFFIELD.

(FROM CUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
Information has been privately received of an intended
rising of the Chartists at two o'clock on Sunday morning
to fire the town, and pillage it ; the Ist Dragoon Guards,
polices and constables succeeded in taking seven or eight of
the ringleaders, but not before one poor fellow, whom they
took for a policeman, received fourteen slugs in his back ;
three policemen very severely stabbed, and dne shot in the
head with two slugs; an immense quantity of fire-arms of
all descriptions, ball-cartridges, iron bullets, hand-grenades,
fire-halls, daggers, pikes, some 12 or 14 feet long, swords,
and an immense quantity of crow-feet, a most formidable
weapon for disabling horses ; they are thrown
.iiipon the
ground, and present a point three or four feet long, which
cannot fail to enter the horses' feet if trod upon. The
police office was literally filled with implements of war-
fare, and astonished the soldiers themselves. At eight
o'clock on Sunday morning all was quiet, but the police
and constables were searching the houses of those sus-
pected, and bringing fresh proofs of the diabolical inten-
tions of the Chartists; there is no doubt, but for the
prompt and active measures taken by the Magistrates and
those under their command, the town of Sheffield would
have been another Bristol or a Birmingham.

--- -
Formerly, we had some good and stout agitators
in Liverpool, but they have all gone to sleep since they
obtained power. We rejoice to see any symptoms of a
revival ; and we feel certain, that the Liverpool Anti-
Corn-law Association will speedily become a powerful
engine towards achieving the emancipation of the coun•
try from the pernicious influence of the bread-tax.—
Liverpool Albion.

The Earl of Fife is expected in town after an
absence of ten years on the family estates in Scotland.
His Lordship's brother and heir presumptive, the Hon.
General Sir Alex. Duff is passing the winter in Paris.

THEATRE ROYAL COVENT GARDEN.
UNDER THE MANAGEMENT OF MADAME
YESTRIS.
THIS EVENING, JAN. 14,
Will be performed Sheridan's Cemedy of
THE SCHOOL FOR SCANDAL.

Sir Peter Teazle, Mr. W. Farren ; Sir Oliver Surface, Mr.
Bartley ; Sir Benjamin Backbite, Mr. Harley; Joseph Sur-
face, Mr. Cooper ; Charles Surface, Mr. Charles Mathews ;
Crabtree, Mr. Meadows ; Moses, Mr. Keeley ; Lady Teazle,
Madame Vestris ; Mrs. Candour, Mrs. Orger ; Maria, Miss
Lee.
To conclude with the New Grand Comic Christmas Panto-
mime, entiiled
HARLEQUIN AND THE MERRIE DEVIL OF ED-
MONTON ; OR, THE ,PREAT BED OF WARE.

Wtih entirely Ness Seenery. Machinery, Dresses, and De-

eorat ions.
Har.cluin, Mr. C. J. Smith; Clown, Mr. T. Ridgway ;
Pantaloon, Mr. Morelli ; Merrie Devil, Mr. Gibson ; and Co-
=bine, Iliss Fairbrother.
Drees Boxes, is; Second Price, 3s. 6d. ; First and Second
Circles, N-5. ; Seeond Price, •2s. 6d. ; Pit, 3s. ; Second Price,
; Gallery, Is.
Doors to be opened at half-past Six—the perfqrmances to
commence at Seven o'Clock. _ . _

Tickets and places fo: the Boxes to be taken of Mr. Notter,
at the Box-office, from Tim till Four, wh re Season Tickets
may be had upon application.
Private Boxes to be had solely of Mr. Andrews. bookseller,
107, New Bond-street.