The Sun.
London, England, 1841-11-18 00:00:00

IMPORTANT FREE-TRADE
MEETING IN SHEFFIELD.
(From. the Sheffield Iris of Tuesday.)
Yesterday a highly-important meeting, for furthering
the objects of the Sheffield Society for the promotion of
Free Trade, was held in the Cutlers' Hall, Oftley Shore,
Esq., President of the Society, in the chair—present,
Earl Fitzwilliam, John Parker, Esq., M.P. Sir Arnold
James Knight, and nearly all our most influential mer-
chants, manufacturers, &c.
The CHAIRMAN rose, amidst cheers, to open the pro-
ceedings, and said,—Their object in meeting and uniting
was not to annoy the Houses of Parliament and disturb
the country with unnecessary agitation, but to promote,
ns far as posSible, the general peace and prosperity ; and
under such circumstances he had the greater pleasure in
taking the chair. Some there were who had said that if
not a hammer was lifted, nor an anvil struck in Eng-
land, tl:e country would not be any worse off than at pre-
sent, and he deprecated such an absurdity. If they
simply looked at the prosperity of the landed interest
alone, they would see that its tendency had always been
to improve with the extension of commerce; and
it followed as a natural consequence thnt the value of
landed property would inevitably sink with the decline
of trade. Another important thing to be taken into
consideration was the fiscal resources of the country,
for they depended not less upon trade ; and the pay-
ment of the interest of the national debt itself would be
endangered when that source failed. It therefore was in-
cumbent upon them to guard the rights of commerce.

R. J. dAINSFORD, Esq. (one Of the Secretaries),
stated that invitations had been sent to the borough
Members, as well as to the Members for the West Rid-
ing and North Derbyshire, the latter of whom repre-
sented some portion of the interests of Hallam-shire—
(Hear, hear)—as well as to some other Noblemen and
Gentlemen connected with the neighbourhood, from
some of whom he held replies, excusing their non-attend-
ance, but expressing their cordial approval of the meet-
ing and its objects.—(Hear, hear.)
A letter was read train Mr. Ward, excusing himself,
because he had his house filled with company.
" Wortley, Nov. 10, 1841.
" Sin—l have the honour to acknowledge the letter
from yourself and Mr. H. Hinde, containing an invitation
to me to attend the first general meeting of the Sheffield
Society for Promoting Free Trade, on the lath inst., at
the Cutlers' Hall ; and I beg, in the first place, to assure
you that I am very sensible of the valite of that compli-
ment, both mu regards itself and the manner in which it
is conveyed. I prize it the more, because it proves to me
that, however I may unfortunately differ in some points
of opinion from many of the gentlemen whose names are
connected with this Society, they do me the justice to
believe that I am anything but insensible to the intrinsic
value of the great principles which they evince their de-
sire to promote; and that there is nothing in those diffe-
rences alone which would prevent my cordial co-opera-
tion with them for such a purpose. If, therefore, I think
it necessary to decline attending on the approaching oc-
casion, I feel sure that they will not consider my decision
as springing from any indifference towards those great
principles, and still less from anything like disrespect
towards themselves.
" Upon a general view, my first impulse is to comply
with the request contained in your letter, and to unite,
without distinction of political party or prejudice,' in
any effort for removing or relaxing, as far as possible,
all those vexatious and injurious laws and regulations
relating to trade, which prevent us from freely exchang-
ing the products of our industry with the various nations
of the world.' lam desirous of a complete and impartial
revision of our commercial tariff' with the above view,
a work which I am by no means without the hope of
seeing undertaken by the Government, which is, in my
opinicn, the proper quarter from whence it should pro-
ceed, and I shall be anxious to avail myself of any op-
portunity which I may have in my legislative capacity to
promote it.
" Thus far, therefore, I should be able to concur
in the objects of the proposed Society ; but, upon
further consideration of the address which you have
been good enough to send me, I am led to fear that
in the discussion of these principles there would be
points on which I might find myself compelled seriously
to differ from the views of the Society. I ain not informed
of what took place on the occasion of the former meet-
ing mentioned in the address ' • but although I am only
too well aware of the actual existence of commercial
depression and distress, I am by no means prepared 'to
proclaim that ' our trade appears to be upon the decline,
and is rapidly departing from our shores.' Again, lam
as little prepared to admit that the present distress and
stagnation is chiefly traceable to the present scale of
import duties—high on most articles, and, both high and
fluctuating on the paramount commodity of corn. Still
less should I be likely to assent to many of the argu-
ments with which it is probable that these propositions
will be maintained ; ar.d when I add to these reasons
the recollection that a peculiar party signification has
been unfortunately of late attached to the phrase Free
Trade,' which the Society has adopted in its very title, •
I cannot but apprehend that my attendance at the pro-
posed meeting would lead to no beneficial result ; and
that I shall be taking, on the whole, a more expedient
course, if I beg that my absence may be excused by the
Society.
'" I will request you to be so good as to convey my
answer to the Committee, and to assure them that I re-
main their, as well as your, very obedient servant,
" J. STUART WORTLEY."

Mr. Denison preferred reading to hearing the speeches
of his constituents, and therefore declined attending.
EDWARD SMITH, Esq., amid cheers proposed the first
resolution—" That the present import dutieF, which
either prevent or obstruct our intercourse with foreign
countries, greatly aggeavate the distress now Existing
amongst the mercantile and manufacturing classes of
England." Mr. $. thought he might, in the first place,
congratulate the meeting on the progress of Liberal prin.
ciples---(Cheers)—for he was glad to see that an influen-
tial Member of the West Riding had so far yielded to
them, as in some degree to modify his views upon those
subjects they were now met to deliberate on.—(Cheers.)
Our imports were paid for by our exports, and who
would suppose that the men of this country would con-
tinue to send their goods abroad, unless they could get
more by what they brought back than what they sent ?
Where, then, was the possibility of a loss from the re-
moval of' restrictions? The direct tendency of import
duties was to restrict consumption ; and foreigners
would not trade without profit any more than us.
After showing the injurious effects of the import
duties in relation to the domestic comforts and
minor necessities of the working classes, especially in
the consumption of coffee and sugar, Mr. Smith turned
his attention to the paramount subject of the heavy duty
on corn ; and, deprecating the irregularities to which it
often gave occasion, said that nothing in trade was more
beneficial than steadiness—(Cheers)--for when a sud-
den demand was by any means caused, its immediate
effect was to give such an impulse to industry as could
not be met by ordinary means ; workmen, finding the
value of their labour rise so high above the proper me-
dium, and not knowing how to take a right advantage
of their success, often gave their employers a great deal
of annoyance—and under such circumstances they were
more to be pitied than blamed.—(Hear, hear.) Upon
this alone might be founded a great objection to
any duty on corn, but especially under the sliding
scale—for its great tendency was to produce the revur-
-1 sions he so much deprecated.—(Cheers.) Suppose
that the merchant might in some case be making mode-
rate profits in his business, the prospect of a failing har-
vest, or even one of those sleight-of-hand tricks with
which corn dealers were sometimes charged, would im-
mediately induce an excessive importation of grain,
which from the suddenness of the occasion would have
inevitably to be paid for in gold ; and here was another
of the great evils of irregularit).—(flear, hear.) On
one occasion a reduction was speedily made to the
amount of six millions ; and an increased rate of in-
terest was the immediate result ; the effects very rapidly
extended into the country; and the consequence was, that
many who under other circumstances could have availed
themselves of the banker's assistance, now to their morti-
fication found it withheld. And what followed ? Why
the manufacturer dismissed his men that the amount of
production might be lessened ; their houses were to let,
and men who ought to have been employed at some use-
ful and profitable work, were set, for a scanty pittance, to
sweep the streets--(!hear, hear)—and when all was gloom
and despondency together, some one came forward and
wisely attributed it to over-production.—(hear, hear.)
But at any rate, said the speaker, if that be the case, let
us not have the matter made worse by Act of Parlia-
ment.'—(Cheers.) If we are to have adversity, let us by
all means have it in the ordinary course of Providence,
and not of our own seeking for.—(Cheers.) Mr. S.
concluded, in an eloquent and impressive manlier, by de-
nouncing the cry of over-production—and by expressing
his wish that trade might be unshackled, that prosperity-
might bless alike the manufacturer and the agriculturist.
THOMAS Dna:4, Esq.. was reminded of a meeting in
the same place for a similar object Mee months ago, and
was glad to see how much better the present one was
attended. Many important changes had takes' place
since then ; and though he would not e,;o into party
questions on this occasion, he could not help .declaring
that he regarded the groat measure proposed by the late
Government as ono eminently calculated fur the benefit
of the country.—(Cheers.) In allusion to the duty on
corn, Mr. Dunn advocated a fixed duty, under which he
said there was no rational probability of prices rising
above a fair medium; and, as to supply, why, even Lord
Stanley, with the aid of some new light which had burst
upon him, had discovered one region alone that would
supply all the world.—(Loud cheers.) There was no
tear of shortness in the supply so longas there was a de-
mand; for, thirty years ago, when we were at war with
nearly the whole of Europe, Napoleon, with all his
decrees, was unable to keep foreign corn from this coun-
try. But commerce itself was the best safeguard of
peace ; for a pool' of which they had only to look at the
spirit which had been manifested during the late unplea-
sant ocsurrencee America.—(Cheers.) After congra-
tuleting Lord Fitzwiiliam and other lauded proprietors
of the neighbourhood, on the example they were setting
to the rest of their order. Mr. Dunn concluded amidst
cheers by seconding the resolution.
J. PA RKEit, Esq-, M.P., in support of the motion, said,
every one knew what a strenuous advocate for free trade
his frliow representative was, and that his services and
energies in this great cause would never be wanting when
they a ere necessarily called on.—(Cheers.) In reference
to the important bubject which we are brought together
to discuss, and which is so intimately connected with the
welfare of this town, I do not hesitate to declare myself
friendly to those principles as maintained by this Society.
And I rejoice that you are beginning to see the necessity
of taking. the field on this momentous;question, and setting
out together in a decorous and business-like manner. This
Society is pledged to unanimity—disclaims connection
with any particular party or shade of politics—and asks
every man to enter with you in this great contest—nu
matter whether be be Whig, Tory, or Radical—be they
of whatever denomination of politics they may. I am
persuaded that no plan—come from what party it may
—no matter whether it come from a Whig or a Tory
Government—no plan can be adopted for the per-

mil-lent relief of the people of Eng,lssid, nor tend
to extricate the masses from the difficulties in which
they are plunged, unless the party bring; forth such
measures of relief, go boldly and fearlessly into the con-
sideration of the question of free trade, and with a
determination to open more freely the ports of this
country to the produce of foreign nations.—(Loud
cheers.) Wo have—whether wisely or unwisely I will
not pretend to say, nor, to discuss—au enormous
national debt, to pay the interest ef which requires thirty
millions of money, which must be collected by some
means.—(Hear, hear.) We have then twenty millions
more required for the support of the various departments
of Government. Everyone who pays any attention to
the finances of this country must see that the means of
taxation are becoming exhausted—(Hear, hear)—and
if some new plan be not adopted on a large and mere
comprehensive principle of admitting the produce of
other nations, the trade of our own will be lost—(Hear)
—but if done, so great is the productive power in this
country, that by it alone we shall have ample indemnity
and compensation.—(Cheers.) It is also clear to me
that, whatever Government assumes the management of
affiiirs, they cannot reduce the establishment of the
realm.—(Hear, hear.) They may strike out a 500/.
there, reduce a 1,0001. here, and a few scattered hun-
dreds elsewhere, but they can do nothing which shall
affect the required twenty millions.—(Hear.) Such is
now the increase of our colonies as well as the nature. of
affairs between this country and the world, as to make
such a procedure partially impossible. If, instead of
admitting corn by fits and starts, Without any timely
notice, as is done under the present sliding scale, you
substitute a reasonable arrangement, and treat the ad-
mission of corn into our ports as you do other comruo •
dities, you will immediately augment our commercial
transactions, and do good both to the revenue and the
country at large. If the State choose to have a duty on
corn, let it be fixed—that all mankind may know it.
By such a plan the State must derive considerable
benefit to the revenue, and the trade of this country
be indefinitely augmented. When we talk of re-
ciprocity we should recollect that very few coun-
tries have the power of reciprocity, excepting those
who funiish us with our raw material. Why
complain that other countries will not take our
commodities ? We give them no opportunity to do so,
inasmuch as we give no positive and previous notice
that we shall require their corn—we only send for it
when we want it.—(Hear.) Therefore, it does not
enter into their minds to make permanent arrangements
to provide for us. I-low, then, can they take our commo-
dity when they have not provided themselves amply with
their own produce to exchange with us?—(Hear, hear.)
Sonic there are that treat with contempt the manufac-
tures of this country—(Hear)—who wish to renew the
old feudal system—who are tired out by the complaints of
the manufacturers, and who anxiously desire to see the
re-establishment of the Barons of old, and who exclaim
that the sooner such smoky places as Leeds, Sheffield,and
Manchester, are lost to the world's view, the better. Such
as do not wish to see the revival of the days of the
Barons, but who desire to live in towns like Shef-
field, Leeds, and Manchester, in prosperity, and under
the shade of a good commercial government, it becomes
them to declare their opinion in favour of just hews.—
(Cheers.) Such was not the opinion of one of the
greatest men of his day, Mr. Burke. This great states-
man asserted, that when he first devoted himself to the
public service he considered how he should render him-
self best fit for it, and considered what it was that gave
this country prosperity, and placed it at the head
of all other nations. He discovered—and no man
ever searched more deeply into this question than he
did—that this country rose from its Constitu-
tion and commerce. I therefore venture now to re-
commend to others to imitate the conduct of Mr.
Burke, and •not be ashamed to say that it is on
account of its Constitution and its commerce that this
country aspired to greatness—and while they maintain
the one, learn to understand the other. I beg simply to
add, that no arrangement on the sliding scale system can
be satisfactory; unless it partake so much of the fixed
duty as not to admit of being called a sliding scale. Any-
thing which keeps up that vicious system—so long as
there continues to exist those jumps and starts, we shall
always find that the monetary system of this country
cannot be in a satisfactory state—it will not be in that
state of steadiness which would be produced by a system
in respect. of corn as we have it in other commodities.
The Hon. Gentleman concluded an eloquent speech by.
saying, I consider myself your representative, and as
holding the principles of the Sheffield Free Trade So-
ciety, which will be conducive to the glory of the empire,
to the improvement of the revenue, and the advancement
of our trade.—(Loud cheers.)

The meeting was subsequently addressed by William
Ibbotson, Esq., S. Jackson, Esq., Wm. Vickers, Esq.,
James Moorhouse, Esq., Wm. Fisher, Esq , Mr. Ben-
son (an operative), who seconded one of the resolutions,
and Mr. John Wardle.
Earl FITZWILLUM, on receiving the thanks of the
meeting, said, I cannot certainly do less than return you
my thanks for the very handsome manner in which you
have been pleased to compliment my presence.—(Cheers.)
In addition, I shall only say that I have derived the
greatest possible satisfaction from what I have heard ;
and particularly the adoption by this meeting of the last
resolution, which you have carried unanimously, and
which throws 'overboard all the protection which the
manufacturers are said by their opponents to be anxious
to hold fast unto, that you are desirous of taking
from the landowner that interest in protection which
you are so anxious of claiming for yourselves. I
am heartily glad that you have thus dealt with that
question. Depend upon it that it is the only true mode
of procedure—(lfear, hear)—and the only one which
rests on a solid foundation, and by which you can escape,
in the least degree, from any charge of being actuated
by selfish motives, which might otherwise have been
ascribed to you.—(Cheers.) I shall not say more on the
present occasion, but assure you that I am exceedingly
grateful for the manner in which you have been pleased
to appreciate my presence.—(Loud cheers.)
• JOHN PARKER, Esq., also returned thanks.
The resolutions adopted were as follow ;
"That it is an unsacred principle to attempt, by le-
gislative interference, to protect the manufacture or the
growth of anything in any national locality, because free
commercial intercourse will ever determine by whom and
in what locality each thing can be best manufactured
and most conveniently grown."

" That the free intercourse between the nations of this
earth for the various articles of manufacture and of natu-
ral production, is most conducive to the happiness of
mankind generally, and is especially advantageous to a
country which, like England, possesses great mineral
wealth and natural facilities for commerce, combined
with superior capital, industry, and skill."
" That, whilst we claim an exemption from all pro-
tective import duties on foreign produce, we are pre-
pared at the same time to abolish all protective import
duties on foreign manufactures ; and we are anxious
that the idea of protecting trade or agriculture by means
of import duties should be altogether abandoned, and
that such duties should be employed only as a conve-
nient means of raising - revenue for the State, and their
amount be regulated with reference to that single object."

- _
THE HAPPY POPULATION OF
THIS MOST FREE AND MOST GLORIOUS
NATION.
I am a band-loom weaver, and have a wife and seven
children, three of whom can earn a trifle each. The
whole' earnings of the family amount to about twenty-
one shillings. This places me, you will perceive, with-
out the pale of relief from the Poor.law Guardians,
their standard being 2s. 3d, a week per head ; but they
do not take into consideration the outgo in fixing this
standard. But to give you and the public a proper
idea of ray real condition, which is that of thousands of
my fellow hand-loom weavers, I will enumerate and set
down that outgo, and no one acquainted with weaving
will dispute either the necessity or the amount of the
different items. I pay for-- s. d.
Rent and rates

Candles
Coals
Flour for gawks 0 10
Soap for washing and wetting bobbins
Clop
Looming
0:1 and grease 2 21
Sick and funeral societies

Total
Total earnings of family

. 10 4
. 21 0

Rtmaining for food and clothing for nine

persons

10 8

This is a farthing short of Is. 2td. a week por head,
for food and medical assistance in case of aced, or 2d.
a day each !

I have said above that 2d. a-day is all that we have
left for food and clothing per head. As to bedding and
clothing, I have not bought a particle of bedding the last
six or seven years ; nor have I had any shirts for that
time, but. what I have received from Popplewell's cha-
rity. We have only one old blanket for the whole
family, and three of the children (girls) lie on the fluor ;
and the generality of the bedclothes are not worth de-
scribing.
I have said that my case is the case of thousands of
my fellow hand-loom weavers. To illustrate this, 1
have only to mention that there are twenty-seven
(weavers) iu the same street, amounting in the whole
to considerably more than one hundred persons, and my
wife, being under the necessity to borrow one halfpenny
to purchase uornuthing necessary for breakfast, applied
to eight different houses without being able to obtain
the loan of it ; such is their destitution.
Assuring you, Mr. Editor, that the above ease is no
fictitious one, of which I shall give every one desirous
of asc,.:rtaliiing the truth a proof, by leaving my name
with you,-1 yours respectfully,
IA
SAND-LOOM WEAVER.
Little Bolton, Nov. 9, 1841.
—Letter in the Bolton Free Press.

We learn from Bremen that a boy, only 13
years of age,
the son
inof highly respectable liv-
ingparents, at Bayreuth,in Lavia, has been detected in at-
tempting to poison one of the masters of a school at
Bremen, where he was placed, by infusing in a glass of
sugar and water a quantity of arsenic. Fortunately the
intended victim, before drinking, stirred the water with
a spoon, and discovered a sediment, which he knew not
to be sugar. The boy, on being accused of the act, con-
fessed that lie had done it in revenge for having been
punished with two hours' confinement. lie asserted that
the poison was given him by the apprentice of an apo-
thecary in the neighbourhood, but this was proved to be
false. It is added, that he had previously attempted to
poison his sister, but she escaped after some slight s
it
tering. The delinquent is cominitted to prison, but tis
said he cannot be punished on account of his youth.