The Sun.
London, England, 1841-03-30 00:00:00

" who shall he orphans, or who shall be deserted by their
parents, or whose parents or guardians shall be assenting
thereto." _ _

GRAND ANTI-CORN-LAW TEA

PARTY AT HUDDERSFIELD.

(Abridged from the Leeds Times.)

On Thursday last, a great Anti-Cern-Law Tea Party
took place at Huddersfield in the Philosophical Hall.
About 500 persons sat down to ta. A great number of
ladies graced the scene, which was exceedingly elegant
and animated. The guests were accommodated at a crass-
table on a raised platform, and immediately behind them
was raised a handsome triumphal arch, of painted marble,
and divergirg on each
d the arch was inscribed
side
mionutne t
tend
ebsyi
dthe
wings. Royal
usn,
the following Scripture quotations r—" He that with-
holdeth corn, the people shall curse him."—Prov. 9, 26.
On one side was inscribed " Rob not the poor because
he is poor."—Ptov. 22, 22; and on the other, " The
bread of tire needy is his life."--Eccles. 24, 27. A little
behind this arch was elevated a round tablet, inscribed,
" The 335 Electors of Walsall." An excellent band of
music played several lively airs while the company were
partaking tea. W. Brook, Esq., occupied the Clair,
The CHAIRMAN, on rising, was received with loud and
IF
prolonged cheering. He said the situation which they had
called upon him to fill was one which, when they considered
the object they had in view, any man might justly be proud
politics._(
.
of.—( Hear, hear.) That object was one which, he re-
joiced to say, could not, by any possibility, resolve itself
intoe o af
questionfa
( Hear, hear.) It was
o
than any question which_
could agitate the political world—it was a question of
whether the people of this country, who are proverbially a
nr greater of piamrtyynr
manufacturing people, should continue to be so or not.—
( Cheers.) Whether they regarded the structure of that
portion of the earth which they occupied—the great ele-
ments of lime, iron, and coal ; or whether they regarded
the physical structure of its component parts, all combined
to constitute this country, and the people of it, to he ma-
nufacturers to the greatest extent which the human mind
could imagine.—( Hear.) He must be allowed, in the first
place, to express the high gratification he felt at seeing that
assemblage honoured by the presence of so manyladies.—
( Cheers.) It was a happy omen when the ladies
undertook any cause, for success was ever the triumphant
issue. _(Cheers.) It was also a source of great pleasure
to him, to witness the number of operatives at this meeting.
—(Hear, hear.) He would her of them never to forget
that what affected the master affected the man, that their
interests were an indissolubly united together as it was pos-
sible for any two classes of society to be ; that they were
sailing in the same boa', and rho wave that swamped the
one would inevitably sink the other.—( Hear, hear, and
cheers.) Their presence showed to the meeting, and to
the country at large, that they were not insensible and in-
different spectators to what was going on, and that they
were capable of thinking as well as acting.—( Cheers.)
He regarded the Corn-laws as the greatest curse that ever
afflicted a country like England, and failing in their efforts
to get rid of them there was nothing to look forward to
hut ultimate ruin both to the commercial and manufacturing
population.—( Hear, hoar.) He bad no hesitation is say-
ing that on the question of the Corn-laws, ignorance the
most profound and unaccountable abounded both in the
humbler and higher walks of life, and whilst he
had no immediate hope, either by lecturing or re-
monstrances', of getting anything from the land-
owners, his advice to them was—petition, and
never let them cease petitioning, until they got all they
wanted; for petitioning, after all, was the only constitu-
tional mode of getting rid of any national grievance.—
( Hear, hear.) But they would never petition with cif et
until they made knorledge as univ real amongst the mass
of the people, as it was now unfottunately aid lamentably
deficient.—( Hear, hear.) Let knowledge spread, and
then John Bull, arising in his majesty, would tell the Le-
gislature that he had leng enough been shackled by cruel
and oppressive laws, which injured the rich and poor alike,
and that if they could not make up their minds to emanei.
pate him from that degree of thraldom, he would do it for
them.—( Hear, hear, and laughter.) Let the meeting not
misunderstand him. He (Mr. Brook) was not an a Ivo-
crate of physical force. _(Hear, hear.) He was a great
advocate for moral fore-, and if their cause could not
I e gained by its own intrinsic merits and its justice, he
would abandon it that very moment.—(The Chairman
resumed his seat amidst much cheering. )
W. R. C. STANSFIELD, Esq., Si. P., was received
with repeated cheering, and adciressieg them as Ladies
and Gentlemen, said that he ought to apologise for his
ahserce from his duty at the House of Commons, ai h
which he can occupied, when their summons to attend
that meeting reached him, but he thought the importance
of the subject about which they were assembled, would
enable him to justify himself in his conscience and to them
for that temporary absence.—(Hear.) It was very true,
as their worthy Chairman had told them, that his existence
and support in life depended on the produce of the sod,
he had inherited from his ancestor?, but he hoped that
interest would never induce him for a moment to act un-
justly towards others, by being a party in placing restric-
tions upon; the necessaries of life. —( Cheers.) In his
humble opinion, from what they saw daily passing in the
stream the impolicy of the present restrictions was almost
a self-evident proposition. Was it to be said, that when
the county of York had abundance, and the county of Lan-
caster was deficient, they were to be prevrnte i by re trie-
rions from supplying each others' wants ?—( Hear, hear. )
That when England had a deficient harvest, Ireland was
trot to send of its super-abundance here, and that they
should be proliit-A of from taking the beer tit cl the surplus
produce of Germany, of France, and cf America?—(dear,
hear.) It had been considered that a free trade in corn
would place them in a position of dependence upon teen-
enemies, inconsistent with the dignity and character of
the country. Hence it was said they must raise corn fur
tim-nsel,cs. How was it to be done? That corn could
only be produced at an extra cost, they must throw their
labour away upon unproductive soi's, and they thus checked
the great stimulus of commerce, and they checked the in-
tercourse betwixt country and country, which formed the
basis of n large manufacturing community.—( Ilear, hear. )
It was one greet fallacy of their opponents that cheap
corn would make cheap wages; aid the applica ion of
this principle ha ii been the means cf dividing the two -
greet masses of the community—the masters and
the operatives. Ho congratulated them on the forma-
tion of an Operative Corn-law Asseciation in Huddersfield.
By the dearness of provisions, the labourer was obliged to
force his young children to work for subsistence; the young
mind, before receiving those sound sentiment; inapt tote i
by educatien, and which were necessary to f urrn the ne-
tiouel character, saes seat uneducated, unformed, unpro-
temed, into the world. The market of labour was thus
broke down, the roaster had three bends where he only
wanted two, and he said I can only afford to give you the
same price fur the three as I could for the two, met ther
fore I must divide it amongst you. They knew that pre-
tection ruined the silk trade— they knew that protection
ruined the glove trade—and he was fully Convinced that
Protection had ruined the fanners,_Hesr, hear ) Leave
him tar his own resource, make him adopt the most ecene •
mic rl mode of bringing his goods to market, and see whe-
ther instead of considering, as in 1829, 80s , he will not
then coni-ter 50; or 60s. a fair remunerating price. With
a favourable harvest he produced more than was required
—the demand was not equal to the extra quamity thrown
into the market, and he was hest down by the very cause
he expected to Le the source of his osperity, and so much
so, that in flue year 1835 or 1836, ern fell from the bare
produce so unnaturally fostsimi by the protection of the
Corr-laws to a price of 395. per quarter. Hear, hear.)
Them flocturations could not he beneficial to the farmer,
hose cat itch was ievested in land. The Cern-laws were
only part and parcel of a system ;
Hero were restrictions
in other articles of food of all kinds. The reseal might
not be carried this year, or next year, hut he thought ere
long they would he able to rest from their labours, with the.
consolation cf having fought the good fight and conque el,
—( Repeated cheering.)
Mr. E. BAINES. jun., came forward amidst enthusiastic
cheering, to move the first resolution. There were many
questions, he said, which plain common sense, and a heart
in its right plscre conducted directly to the same conclu-
sion as the m -st enlightened philosophy ; and he believed
the question of the Corn-laws to be emilently one of them,
for Wain common sense told them that a man Ita. I a ri eht
to obtain his necessary food wherever, by honest labour,
he could get the mast of it, and the best and the most
profound political philosophers bad most clearly established
the point that it was for the interest of the nation tint Go-
vernment should leave their subjects to the sure gui lance
and instinct of self. interest, in supplying their wants and
directing their industry.--( Hear, hear.) He would trust
to the truth of these principles for the establishment
of perfect freedom of trade in every country on the face
of the globe. But he was prepared to show that Eng-
land, more especially, was interested in the utmost
possible freedom of trade, and more particularly in the
article of human food.—(Hear, hear, hear.) He thought
that all her disadvantages, and all her advantages, both
natural and acquired, combined to mako her so. Let
them consider, first, her disadvantages. They Lad a
limited territory, compared with the immense population
which was to be supported within it. They had a soil of
moderate fertility compared with the soil of many other
countries, so that they were not capable of growing corn
and many other agricultural productions so advantageously
as those which were produced in warmer climates.—
( Cr:es of " Hear.") They laboured, also, under a weight
of national debt, which, inasmuch as it pressed on all
kinds of industry alike, rendered it the more oncurnhent
not to impose any unnecessary burthens on industry, and
more especially that no law should exist which pressed
directl y on the springs of human life. _(Hear, hear.)
Another of their disadvantages consisted in what
might be termed the political position of Eng-
land with respect to her colonies, which, being
diffused over the face of the whole globe, ren-
dered her more exposed to collision with other
countries than many of her neighbours who did not
possess colonies to the same extent. But then the natural
and acquired advantages of this country equally pointed
out England as a country in which the true policy is to
make perfect freedom of trade. Hor exhaustless mines of
coal and iron, the happily situated sec-ports of the country,
the facilities of internal communication, the physical and
moral qualities of the people, her insular situation, which
exempted her from the danger of innovation, and protected
those great manufacturing establishments which, in other
countries, were so often broken up by the scourge of war
—all these circumstances pointed out England net only as
the workshop of Europe, but of the world, and as an ex-
ample to all other nations of the importance of perfect
freedom of intercourse. Hear, hear.) Another eircum_
freedom
of which pointed out most clearly that perfect
of trade was the true policy of England, was the as.
cendaney she had acquired on the seas--all ascendancy
which, at the present time, was as proud as_ at any
former time—( Hear, hear) —and which gave them the
assurance that whatever trade they might carry on, they
had the power to protect it.—( Hear, bear.), Another
there other and
a most important advantage was, that in E
was an immense body of disciplir.eJ manufacturing opera-
tins, trained in every minute sub-division of labour, to
the highest point of perfection and skill, for making all
those articles of manufacture, which wore sent to the re-
molest corners of the earth, and by which alone they could
produce (for they bad not agricultural produce to enable
them to do it), every production of every clime under the
sun, and bring them all to adorn and enrich this island of
the ocean. Another circumstance which he considered
of great weight, in pointing out her trade to be her true

THE SUN, LONDON, TURMAY, MARCH 30, 1641

policy, and especially in corn, was the great arnouot of
capital wide]] this country possessed in making England
the granary of the world—a depot for foreign corn, so
that they could both supply thamselvee, and be the means of
supplying other countries that might be labouring under
scarcity or dearth.— ( Hear, hear.) But it has been Intl-
mat d to them by their Honourable Re;‘resentative that
there were some, and he ( Mr. Baines) was sorry to say
a large class (though it would scarcely be believed, if the
fact were not known to he notorious), who imagined
that if the people of England depended, in any degree,
upon foreigners for the supply of food, it would be in their
power to starve them when they pleased; Sir James
Graham was excessively troubled with this apprehension.
—(Laughter.) Now hit (Mr. Baines's) fir st observation
on this point was, that we are already, in a degree, de-
pendent on foreigners for a supply of faod, aced he should
like to know what would have been their position if they
had not gone to foreign markets for their supply for the
last three years?—( Loud cries of " Hear, hear.") They
could not dispense with the aid of the foreigner. They
could not build a wall of brass round the island to keep out
foreign food, if they would do so.—(Hear, hear.) But
then it is said that war might cut us off from the supply of
food. Now one of the most delightful, oae of the most im-
portant fruits of free trade was, that it tended to destroy
that horrible aed impious scourge to the world—war.—
(Cheers.) It tended to bind together the nations of the
earth in the strong bonds of mutual interest, and, ther-
fore, would prevent them going to war, even if pre-
pared. But even if the war did arise, lie (Mr. Baines)
should be ashamed if Sir James Graham, who had filled
the situation of First Lord of the Admiralty, should tall
him or the people of this country that England, whose
fleets covered the ocean, need fear being cut off from sup-
plies of whatever was necessary for the population.—
( Hear, hear, hear, and prolonged cheers.) He repeated
he should be much ashamed to believe in the possibility
of any such thing. Every man they could meet in the
street exhibited about him a hundred illustrations of the
all-commanding power of demand to bring supply even
front the most distant quarter. He owed his hat to the
beever of Labrador, his coat to the sheep of Saxony or of
New Holland, his shirt to the flax growers of Russia, his
stockings to the cotton planters of the Mississippi, his
handkerchiefs to the silk worms cf Italy and China, his
shoes to the oxen of Buenos Ayres, his wa'ch to the mines
of Mexico or Peru.—( Hr ar, hear.) He breakfasted
daily on the produce of China, sweetened by the sugar of
the Indies ; his dinner was furnished either with substan-
tial food or its accessaries from the furthest East and
West : the timber of his house 'came from the forests of
Russia or of Canada; his furniture from Honduras or
Brazil ; in short, the stores of the whole world were poured
through innumerable streams, to cicthe, feed, and adorn
the very labourers of England. —(Cheers.) Now, all
these things were paid for by the manufactures of this
country; and as long as we can afford to pay for them,
surely they would be able to obtain all that they required.
But manufactures alone were the means with which they
had to pay, and if they destroyed manufactures they snip-
ped the main-spring of their national prosperity and great-
ness.—(Cheers.) Mr. Baines moved the first resolution,
and resumed his seat amidst prolonged ehearing.
" That this meeting, disclaiming any party political ob-
jects, declares that it aims exclusively at the total and im-
mediate repeal of the Corn-laws—re object which it
pledges its best efforts to obtain by every Constitutional
means."

J. T. CLAY, Esq , of Rastrick, seconded the resolu-
lutior, which, together with all the ether resolutions, was
passed unanimously.
LAWRENCE HEYWORTH, Esq., of Liverpool, said he
hoped they would look on this question—not merely as a
matter of pounds, shillings, and pence, but as a matter of
justice. All these restrictions on food were founded on
the principle of violating the law of God—" Thou shalt
not steal !"—( Hear, and laughter.) He begged them to
leok at the awful consequences of this tax in Bolton,
where he had recently been, and where there were 1,300
cottages, where, in consequence of the Corn-law restric-
tions on cue commerce having suspended the prosperity of
our trade, and from ittahilizy to obtain work to gain a
livelihood—( Hear, tear)—lei bread being dear, the poor
occupants a these cottages one after ariGther were
obi gerl—after heving rendered their homes desolate, by
pawning and selling every article they pesseised, to leave
their abodes. Could they suppose that these wretched
men could arrive at such a pitch of destitution without
death committing havoc among them?—( Hear, hccr.)
Ner was Belton a solitary instance. The very best men
in sociof, the working bees, were driven by their harsh
restriction from amongst them and obliged to emigrate.
It was not bread alone that was thus restricted. What if
he told them of thousands of cattle slaughtered annually
on the plains of Buenos Ayres, whose carcases were left to
rot there.—(Hear, hear.) Thus the people of England
were allowed to die of famine, while these cattle might be
transported into our island, and sold for 2d. or 3d. per
pound.—( Hear.) England had arrived at a crisis, and
unless she stretched forth her hand and put forth the
clergies of her soul, she was sunk as a nation. Mr.
Heywood concluded by moving the resolution, and sat
down amid loud cheers. " That as indifference to the
repeal of the Corn-laws must arise mainly frem ignorance
of their mischievous operation, it is the bounden duty cf
(very person present to expose generally, and especially
to the working classes, this chief cause of deficient em-
ploy neat, le.v wages, dear bread, and consequent poverty
and suffering.
M-. Rewsoer, of Manchester, seconded the resolution.
Mr. T. PUNT, of Leeds, moved the third resolution,
which was as fellows That this meeting, considerine
the strong epinions expressed by the leading men of all
poli:ic tl pertiee upon the desii ableriess and necessity of an
i nmediate niteration in the import duties of the kingdom,
kel greatly encouraged thereby to persevere in all consti-
tutional effirts te obtain the tool and immediate repeal of
the existing Corn-laver, the is:Tolley and injustice of which
lees every day's experience more and more demonstrates."
He n-.i.;ht be allowed to express the great pleasure which
he felt, that public at'ention was drawn so strongly to the
import duties of this kingdom, and a general opinion
prevailed among rrerca:itile men of all shades of politics,
that their ta-iff must be materially altered and improved.
ilea-.) At the same time, he must also be al-
lowed to express his fears that there was a c.trotie class of
persons ale) would be quit- ready to alter the to itr, but
by whoa, the main question would he shi-ked and era led,
and until that great act of injusii-e, that disgrace to
the stattve book, that act of legalised robbery of the
mass of the people— the Corn-laws—were ext ta,guished,
all other reforms in their tariff would fa 1 to se-
cure the well-being of the whole cernmunity.— ( Hear,
hear, hen-.) He for one was most anxiou;
that they should not, its their anxiety with regard to those
alterations, overlook or fneget that which was most itn-
portant of all.—( Hear, hear.) He would ask any intelli-
gent person, hew it was possible for wager to he higher
when corn was dear ? What was implied by corn being
dear, but that it was scarce ? Could they divide teelve
parts out of ten, for that was really the philosophy of the
matter ? If they could do so, then he would tell them how
a high rite of wages could exist pith the high p:iee of
food.—( Hear, hear.) The proposition was toe stupid
aed absurd to be cntertsio.'d for a moment. How ss e e
they to determine Cie !ate of wages, in the first in-
stance? By the quantity of proitice. In proportion
as a community were successful in all the arts of produc
thee, whether agricultural or manufacturing, in that
voy proportion that community would have high
war;e3, because the amount to distribute among them
woul' .1 be large. —(Hear.) They had been told that free
trale existed, and corn lowered, wages would fait. He
should like to know how wages would fall if co nmodities
mete increased.—( Hear.) If they had corn lo.er, it was
on the supposition that it was more abundant relative'y to
the mass f the population, and for this siaiplc reatwx,
that they would not produce corn by a large expenditure
of capital and labour, but by a smaller amount. The
fewer the number of pereoes employed in the culfvation
of feed, the greater the amount of comfort to the masses,
because it left a greater number of persons in the produc-
tion of manufactures. Thus they would perceive at once
the stupid fallacy, that if a repeal of the Corn-laws
produced a fall in the price of food, wages would
tall also. —(Hear, bear.) Most serially, hew ever, did
he subscribe to the doctrine that if the Core-laws
existed much longer wages inevitably must fall.—
(Cries of " Hear, he ar.") The latter speaker lead aduded
to the inct eoe of manufacturing skill on the Coini-
nent ; and he ( Mr. Plint) had learned some f-cts within the
last few days that would probably surprise some of them.
They were elicited before a Committee now sitting in
London_( Hear, hear)—and it came out that in Belgium
and France, they could make machinery equally perfect
with the best made in this country; and if to-morrow the
Government of this country were to threw down the 1 tve
which prohibits the exportation of machinery, they would
not take a s ingle machine more.—( Hear.) In all the
points of industry, skill, subdivision of labour, enterprise,
and ingenuity, the nations of the Continent were rapidly
overtaking them. What must follow ? A fall in the rate
of wages, because as the profits of the manufacturers could
not be reduced beyond what they now were, the difference
must come out of the wages of the labourer. He entirely
coincided in the observation which bad fallen from
Mr. Baines as to the wisdom and benevolence
of free trade ; and although indications bad been
given of late that the nations of Europe were disposed
on very insufficient grounds to go to war, and although
their brethren across the Atlantic had shown a very cell-
siderable hastiness of spirit and temper, yet it was nut
because these nations did not see the benefit of free trade,
but because England had failed, in consequence of her
restricted system, to link the nations together so that they
could not go to war.—( Loud cries of " Hear, hear.) If
these laws had been broken long ago, the connection be-
tween this country and America would have been so close,
that we could not go to war.—(Hear, hear.) This was
one ground of their hostility. If a system of free trade
were established, security would be given against war,
and then the people both at home and abroad would be-
come what they ought
.to be—the brethren of one great,
united, and happy family.— (Loud cheers.)
Mr. SCHWANN seconded the resolution.
Mr. MORRIS; of Halifax, moved the next resolution,
which was as follows:—" That considering the immense
influence of the press on the formation of public opinion,
and the impossibility that a bad lam can long continue in
defiance of enlightened public sentiment, this tnee.ing-
tendrrs its hearty thanks to those writers who honestly,
consistently, and zealously, expose the wickedness of the
bread tax."

Mr. Alderman COEDEN was received with repe;tnl
cheering, and said—ft had been his good fo. tune to at-
tend many meetings on the subject of the Cern-laws, but
he might say with perfect candour he had never at:eadcd
one he had witnessed with so much satisfaction as the pre-
sent. He had never seen one so largely favoured c‘i•h the
presence, and encouraged by the smiles of the fairest and
purest portion of the creation, nor had he ever known this
great and comprehensive question treated in a manner
mere able or exhaustive, than it had been that night. It
might be fairly said that there was no other great politi-
cal grievance which could so long have engaged the atten.
tier, of such an audience, and on which the strictures of such
speakers could have been listened to, without a single op-
pone2t to give life and vivacity
.to the discussion o
so great, comprehensive, and pressing a question as that
which had so long engaged their attention and their
talents that night. They had heard the laws of God yin.