The Sun.
London, England, 1846-01-14 00:00:00

AGRICULTURAL MEETING AT

WILLIS'S ROOMS.

Yesterday, at the above-mentioned rooms, some two
or three hundred persons assembled, consisting of mem-
bers of the Central Agricultural Society. His Grace
the Duke of Richmond, President of the Association,
took the chair shortly after one o'clock. Several dele-
gates from all quarters of the country were present, and
among the noblemen and gentlemen on the platform
were—The Duke of Buckingham, Lord Sondes, Lord
Beaumont, Viscount Ossulston, General Sir J. Cock-
burn, Mr. Miles, M.P., &c.
The CHAIRMAN, in opening the business of the day,
said, it was not necessary for him to detail to them at
any length the opinions which he entertained on the
subject of the corn-laws. He had often enjoyed op-
portunities of laying these opinions before his fellow-
countrymen, and it was not his psactice to retract
any, opinions which he had once deliberately and pub-
licly expressed: But, though it was not necessary for
him to enter into any discussion of the general merits
of the corn-laws, he nevertheless thought it abso-
lutely necessary for him to say a word or two for
the purpose of explaining shortly the reasons which
rendered it necessary to call the present meeting. Of
course, they all knew as well as he did that no person in
that room possessed the least means of knowing what
were the intentions of the Queen's Government with '
reference to the corn.lawa. No man out of the Cabinet
could say what the measures were which the Ministers
intended to submit to Parliament ; the general impres-
sion, however, was, that those measures would involve
an infringement of the great principle of protection—that
principle which it was the main object of their associa-
tion to promote and defend. He lamented to say that
there was too good reason to apprehend the dangerous
tendency which the policy of Ministers had recently
assumed. He feared that the great principle of protection
was now to be departed from, but why that principle was
to be abandoned no man now present could answer.
Some people thought, but that was a considerable time
ago, that the panic respectingfamine might not have been
without its influence in exciting the fears and warping
the judgment of her Majesty's Ministers ; but recent
events had proved that all the fears respecting famine
were utterly without foundation; and yet, though nothing
could be more baseless than such a ground for attacking
the corn laws, the agricultural interest were to be sacri-
ficed—and sacrificed, he would ask, to what ?—to the
money of the Anti-Corn-law League. The gentle-
men of the League told the Government and the Legis-
lature, " Give us just thus much, and we shall be satis-
fied. Let us only be permitted to succeed to this small
and limited extent, and with that small amount of good
fortune we shall be, and for ever remain, perfectly satis-
fied." He would ask any Englishman with any preten-
sion to common sense, and with the least imaginable
amount of political experience, whether there was a
shadow of probability that the gentlemen of the League
would stop suddenly short after having thus taken the
first step in their progress? When was it ever known
that success among politicians produced moderation?—
(Loud cheers.) The gentlemen of the League began by
assailing the corn-laws ; their next step, of course,
would be to assail every species of protection, and to
establish free trade in the most unlimited sense of the
word, the ultimate end being to create a democratic
ascendancy in every par of England. They knew per-
fectly well that the yeomanry and farmers of
this country constituted the strongest bulwark
of our ancient institutions. They knew that
they must destroy the landed interest before they
overturned the constitution. Was it necessary for him
to inform the meeting then assembled of the means by
which the gentlemen of the League intended to effect
these objects? Was it necessary to repeat that which
had been published by every newspaper throughout the
kingdom, namely—the intention of the League to use
the ample funds at their command for the purpose of
eorrupting the constituencies of England ? If the
League had combined for such a purpose as that, was it
not fair for other men to associate in order to counteract
designs which were not only unconstitutional, but self-
evidently unjust?—(Hear, hear.) By one of the rules
of the Agricultural Society, that association was dis-
abled from interfering, in any respect, with the business
of the registration courts; looking, then, at the condition
of the country and the conduct of the League, he took
upon himself fearlessly to ask that meeting whether they
were not prepared to rescind a regulation which disabled
them from meeting their adversaries upon equal terms?
—(Loud and continued cheering.) He would ask them
if they did not think the time had at length arrived
when it became their duty to enter the registration
courts with as bold a front as their enemies ? The
gentlemen of the Anti-Corn-law League boasted openly
that they were determined to carry the county elec-
tions of England by fabricated votes. This threat, he
doubted not, they would endeavour to execute to the
utmost extent of the means at their disposal ; but he
himself had no reason to fear their influence in that part
of the country with which he was more immediately
connected. The men of West Sussex might defy the
Anti-Corn-law League.—(Hear.) The farmers of West
Sussex were not made of such slippery materials as to
change their tone at the bidding of the Anti-Cern-law
League.—(Loud cheers.) They were not made of the
same slippery materials as those who, elsewhere, were
prepared to act upon the suggestions of Mr. Cobden.—
(Renewed cheers.) They had raised their standard for
agricultural rights, and he felt convinced that nothing
would induce them to lower that flag, and his entire per-
suasion was, thet to a man they would adopt for their
motto, "No compromise and no surrender." He doubted
not that every man felt as he did, that the protection
that agriculture had hitherto enjoyed was a protection
not alone operating for the benefit of the landed interests
themselves, but for the evident advantage of native in-
dustry in all its branches. Having thus shortly stated
to the meeting that the principal object for which they
were assembled was to alter that portion of the rules
which excluded them from the registration courts, he
should now call on Lord Beaumont to move the first re-
solution.—(Hear.)
Lord BEAUMONT said a crisis of the most alarming
kind had arrived. Those who, in times past, had
strenuously maintained the corn-laws seemed now dis-
posed to abandon for ever the agricultural interest. At
such a crisis, therefore, as the present it behoved men to
come forward and support the opinion which they con-
scientiously entertained. Ile fearlessly avowed himself
a friend to protection. When he talked of protection, he
never meant a system which would have a tendency to
diminish the supply of food, or to increase its price. If
it had such tendencies he did not hesitate to say that all
idea of protection should be abandoned. It was be-
cause he believed the contrary that he raised his voice
in support cf the existing corn-laws, and it was because
lie believed the contrary that he should still exert the
small influence which he possessed to maintain those
corn-laws, and it was for that reason that he should
call on every one then present to go and do likewise.
To his mind nothing was more evident than that if free
trade were established, there must be a general revision
of all taxation ; that there must be also a general revi-
sion of all the local burdens that pressed upon land, and
which burdens were considered to contain a compen-
sating principle for that which was called the evil of the
corn laws. He did not believe in the utility, or even the
existence of such a compensating principle ; but it was
quite evident that an alteration of the corn laws involved
all extensive revolution, and in that change what was to
become:of the poor? From various quarters of the country
they were told that the masses demanded a removal of
restriction, but he confessed he saw no foundation for
those statements. He saw no ground for thinking that
the people of England were so Lull of the idea of free trade
as the gentlemen of the Anti-Corn-law League thought
proper to represent them. The Noble Lord concluded
by moving the first resolution, in the f'ollowing terms:—
"That protection against foreign competition is abso-
lutely necessary to the productive classes of this country,
and that the removal or diminution of the protection now
afforded to the agricultural classes will be followed by
the removal or diminution of every protective duty im-
posed for the benefit of the home or colonial producers."
Mr. CurasTornEn, M.P., in seconding the foregoing
resolution, said, that for as long a time as we had
colonies, or very nearly so, it had been the practice of
tEn
eegln
t oati. England
which
hho
eghi
agriculturalvet to protectionse eo n
interest,
to
nuetce those
treedst,
witha colonies
iolfannids the
at
tt
main thepr ex-
pense
epseron
t
enjoyed were to be removed at the dictation of the
League,
surely no one would contend that the high pro-
tection which the colonies enjoyed at the expense of the
farmer should any longer be continued. In the county
which he had the honour to represent, there were thou•
imnri, of 21C1-.e capable of growing tobacco ; now if they
removed the protection which had hitherto been enjoyed
by those who grew wheat, they ought to remove any
impediment to the tree cultivation of tobacco. He
did not very precisely know what was intended, but he
was sure every one would feel it to be rather a sus-
picious circumstance that a Ministry which had been
placed in office by the agriculturists had just recently
allowed themselves to resign the seals of office into the
hands of a Noble Lord who was known to be adverse to

agricultural protection. Now he thought that that fact,
if it stood perfectly alone, would fu►ly justify him in
apprehending that further attacks upon the agricultural
interest were intended. They enjoyed a certain amount
of protection at this moment, and he should never
consent to surrender one jot or tittle of that protection,
be the consequences what it might.
Mr. MILES, M.P., ventured to say that at the next

general election it would be felt that they (the agricul-
turalists) were the majority of the nation. But he would
recommend the various constituencies throughout the
county to demand an instant appeal to the sense of the
population, if they saw that their representatives wavered
for a single moment. It was in vain that we thought of
proceeding upon free-trade principles; every step that we
took to advance those principles would be met in foreign
countries by tariff after tariff, and our best laid plans
would end in disappointment and disaster. He concluded
by moving the second resolution, as follows:—" That
this meeting, being convinced of the great benefits de-
rived by all classes from the protective system, and being
satisfied that every branch of national industry will be
most seriously injured by the abandonmentof that system,
pledges itselt to use every constitutional means to support
that principle of protection under which this country has
risen to its present eminence."
Mr. T. M. GLADSTONE, amidst much cheering, rose
to second the foregoing resolution. He began by saying
that, though a manufacturer, he was a friend to protec-
tion. Among other things, he observed that, while the
farmer and agricultural labourer could not depart from
the shores of England, the manufacturer could carry his
capital and his machinery wherever a prospect of profit
presented itself. On these grounds, then, he contended
that the condition of the agriculturist was entitled to the
highest consideration.
The resolution was then put and agreed to.
Mr. BAKER contradicted the statements made in a
pamphlet issued bti• the League, in which the steward
upon Inrd Ducie's estates maintained that the protec-
tion which the agriculturists enjoyed (viz., ss. Bd.) was
too trifling to disturb the tranquillity of the nation about.
He then reverted to the following resolution, which he
concluded by moving :—" That the foltowing words be