The Sun.
London, England, 1846-02-28 00:00:00

fRE SUN LONDON, SATURDAY E'VENING, FEBRUARY 28, 1846.

it was determined to do it could effect. But you will probably
tell me that although we have this power, that we have not the
mass of the people with us—rather democratic that. You never
heard me advocate the superior claim- of the:working classes—
ho ever. what aro the evidences that the great body of the people
are not with us? You say that our petitions are not hence ly signed.
I cannot disprove that assertion; let us come, therefore, to some
other test—let us take the old Saxon mode of testing opinion,
by calling public meetings. Now, if you really ate desirous of
fostering democratic influence, this is the way to elevate them—
bring them into public assembling, let them elect their own
chsirman, let them pass their resolutions, and there can be
nothing found superior to such a course for laying the founda-
tions of public liberty.—( Hear, hear, and cheers.) Call then
your public meetings to support the corn-laws. Call one—l
challenge you to call one anywhere. It is not surely in the
manufacturing districts you can call them. Since the
first of November last there have been public meetings held in
every large town—not the meetings of any class, but meetings
for the purpose of deciding whether the town should petition
fir tree trade or not. I received a complaint freen a gen-
tleman, that the protectionists called a m'zing at
Ep.worth, to which only protectionists were admitted,
and consequently the free traders had no power to interfere.
At a meeting in Haddington they fled from the room, and the
room was full witlamt them.—( Cheers.) Were not these
evidences of public opinion ?—( Cries of " No, no.") Then
what will teach you public opinion? Must you be tossed in a
blanket? Must you be swept out of this house into the Thame,s?
—(Cheers and laughter). Why it would be giving
them over to destruction if the public opinion was
not to be tested by the course which I have pointed out.
Yes, your political power is based on the 150,00 e tenantry of
the country. Let it, then, come to the worst ; carry on this
opposition for three or four years more, and the plan that is
now in operation—which plan is much maligned—(" Hear,
hear," from the Opposition)—and still much more maligned in
a certain place, because where the shoe pinches there the
party will wince the more—( Cheers from the Opposition side
of the House)-1 say the plan that is now in operation will
compel you to yield.—(" Hear, hear," and cheers.) We are
calling into existence the true old mode of exercising the
English constitutional franchise.—( Cheers and cries of
Oh ! oh !") We are calling that principle of 500
years' antiquity into existence by which we hope to countervail
all your new fangled innovations.--( Renewed cheers, and
ofi, oh.") You look on this as something revolutionary
and novel.—( Hear, hear.) I tell you you are the revolutionists
and the innovators.—(Cheers.) However, I believe it is
perfectly understood by the longest heads of your party that we
ha-re the power, and that we will exercise it.—(Renewed
cheering. If, therefore, you prolong this contest for four
years, which you cannot, let the worst come, we have the
means, we have the power, we have the money subscribed—
( A laugh)—and we are prepared to meet and overcome every
difficulty.—(Loud cheers.) You may think there is some-
thing exceedingly repalsive to your notions of supremacy in all
this; but 1 say that the man, whether the small shOpkeeper or
farmer, who has the prudence to save a little money, and lay it
out in the purchase of land that will bring him forty shillings a
year freeehold—l say, that is the man to whom I would wish to
give the franehise.—( Hear, hear, and cheering.) Let it be
understood that these matters are not of my introduction, for
no gentleman can complain of my even being guilty of intro-
ducing irrelevant matter into the discussion of this question.
( Hear, hear.) You have chosen now to say that you will not
settle this question by fair and upright argument, by an appeal
to facts, or by taking the sense of the House. No ; you will,
forsooth, appeal to the country.—(Loud cheers from the pro-
tectionists.)el have given you some idea of your prospects in the
country, and I ask you how the mischief wet be averted?
Look over the registration returns—count the number
of persons in possession of the franchise, and then come down
and admit candidly whether public opinion is with you or
against you.—(Cheers and counter cheers.) So much argu-
ment has been applied to the investigation of extraneous
questions, that I shall not pursue this line of observation
further, though, indeed, the little argument adduced on the
opposite side has been so fully answered—( Oh, oh)—that I
need scarcely apply myself to that branch of the question.—
( Renewed cries of " Oh, oh, and " Hear, hear.") I tell
you what my thoughts were during the last ten or eleven
days, whilst confined to my home, and reading over your
speeches. in which I found many antiquated fallacies that I
thought I had knocked on the head seven years ago—
( Laughter)—why I thought that all the country was laughing
at you. —( Hear and cheers.) You cry, " Are we to depend
on foreigners?"—( Heer, hear.) Now, who would think that
so palid a ghost would have been raised up to terrify the free.
traders ?—( Near, hear, and a laugh.) Another clap-trap is
that an advance in wages will lessen the means of pro-
curing bread.—(A laugh.) That the land will be
thrown out of cultivation, and that corn will be sold for 253.
per quarter.—( Great laughter.) \\Thy, you forget that the
working classes take a very different view of the question alto-
gether.—( Hear, he 3r.) The working classes formerly be.
hewed that wages rose and fell with the price of wheat; and
though the leaders of the protectionist party may accuse us of
" clap-trap," yet the epithet will not apply to the
Ministers who introduced the present measure, for
they could have no clap-trap motive in doing so.---(Hear,
hear.) Now, if you attended less to the gossip
of your clubs, where you congratulate each other on the smart-
ness of your speeches, in which you assail the Ministerial policy.
If you, I say, attended less to these matters, and applied your-
selves to the nroper study of the question, you would not have
been making the speeches you were for the last twelve nights.
( Hear, hear, and cheers.) With regard to the farmers, lam
not denying that many—l will admit a large portion of them are
with you—(Protectionists' cheers) —because you have told them
that they would walk headlong down some precipice, or that
some fogy would run off with them.--(A laugh.) That is what
you have been telling them.—( Hear, hear, and " Oh, oh.")
But although they 'nave not the strictest faith in you, they have
the prudence to know, that if they go against their landlords
they will not get a fair adjustment from them afterwards.—
( Hear, hear, and cries of " Oh, oh.") If the landed proprie-
tary said to the farmers that the question was
a tenant one, and they would bear the farmers
harmless, no matter what their' views on the question,
I strongly doubt if they would not decide in favour of free
trade.—(Cheers.) But you have given them some hints to
the contrary.—(Cries of " Oh, eh,' from the protectionists. )
I do not think that, generally speaking, the farmers agree in
all that you have been telling them. I believe rents are as
high now as ever they were.—(No, no.) There is something
remarkable in all this. I have been remarking since the
Right Hon. Baronet proposed this measure, and I have
directed my attention to the point. I have inquired of
landed proprietors, lawyers, and land agents, if
land has suffered any depression in value in consequence ef the
introduction of the measure, and I cannot learn that it has.
It is a very remarkable fact that silks have been rendered un-
saleable, while the land is actually letting or selling at a higher
price.—(No, ne. ) The Hon. Member for Somersetshire
made an offer to sixty farmers to take the land off their hands
on adequate terms, and yesterday, being the last day for ac-
cepting the offer, he thought some of them would come
in to take it up. Now, what is the consequence? Why,
that not one of them came in.—(Hear, hear, and cheers. )
Now this followed immediately after the farmers had been told
that the land was se reduced that it would not produce sufficient
to allow of rent being paid at all. Now if these farmers, after
having been so lately told that all the evils w uld follow which
had been trumpeted by the protectionists, were not inclined to
part with their farms, what did it tend to prove, but that there
is no danger to be apprehended from the repeal of these laws.—
( Hear, hear.) Now, the opinion of a gentleman who was a
large land agent, said that farmers had applied to him, offering
to take the land in which he was interested, and offered
15 per cent. far the land, besides guaranteeing to make such
improvemements as would materially improve the value
of the land. Now this gentleman was a protectionist and a
supporter of Sir John Tyrrell, and is not his evidence in
favour of that Hon. Gentleman's measure ? Now I should
like to know if the gentlemen, who have estates to let, are
willing to let them at one-third less than they have had for them
up to the passing of this measure, notwithstanding the
great impoverishment of their land by the repeal
of the protective laws. I am sure they are not
willing to part with them for even one-fourth less than
they were twelve months ago. This, then, is the proof
that nip such injury can take place as is said to be the result of
a repeal of the corn-laws. There is not a more monstrous case
than that of saving, that the farmers are about to be ruined,
when it cannot be said that they are willing to part with their
farms, or even asking for a reduction of their rents. I wish
to settle this question with the gentlemen who are opposed to
it in the most amicable manner. Let them come to the Free-
trade Mall at Manchester, and hold a public meeting, and
then let them say, upon the arguments, which is
the best measure for the people, protection or free-
trade. Now I am going to read you an authority that will
astonish you. I am going to read to you an extract from a
speech of the Duke of Wellington in the House of Lords on
the 17th of April, 1832; it is his opinion on taxation:—" He
thought taxes were imposed only for the service of the state. If
t a e sayit is, that youw hwedionil
they were necessary for the service of the state, in God's name
let them be paid, but if they were not necessary they ought not
to be paid, and the Legislature ought not to impose them."
Now there that Noble Duke, without having had time to
study Adam Smith or Ricardo, by that native sagacity
which is characteristic of his mind, came at once to the
marrow of this question.—( Hear, hear.) We must not tax
another for the benefit of one another. Oh, then, divest
the future Prime Minister of this country of that odious
task of having to reconcile rival interests ; divest the office,
if ever you would have a sagacious man in power as Prime
Minister, divest it of the responsibility of having to find
food for the people ! May you never find a Prime Minister
again to undertake that awful responsibility ! That re-
sponsibility belongs to the law of nature ; as Burke
said, it belongs to God alone to regulate the supply
of the food of nations. When you shall have seen
in three years that the abolition of these laws is
tigeueea,r, hear," from the pro-
inevitable, you will be obliged then to meet the wishes of
as in good faith it will be
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in conjunction with the League.—(Cheers. ) You are in a
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e truth Members
position to gain honour in this struggle; but as you are going
or: at present your position is_ a false one, you are in the
wrong groove, and are every day more and more diverging
rom the right point. It may be material for you to get
right notions of political economy ; questions of that kind
part of the world's legislation for lo
ng
time form a great a
time to come.—( Hear, hear.) We are on
the eve of great
changes.—(Cheers and counter-cheers.) Put yourselves in a
position to be able to help in the work, and so gather honour
and fame where they are to be gained. You belong to the
human kind—not the •
aristocracy of the privileged amine-
but the
cracy, I don't mean that, aristocracy of improvement
and civilization. We have set an example to the world in all
ages ; we have given them the representative system. Why, the
very rules andiregalafiens of this House have been taken as the
model for every representative assembly throughout the whole
civilized world ; and having besides given them the example of
a free press and civil and religious freedom , and every institution
that belongs to freedom and civilization, we are now about
giving a still greater example : we are going to set the ex-
ample of making industry free—(Cheers)—to set the example
of giving the whole world every advantage of clime. and lati-
tude and situation ; relying ourselves on the freedom. of
our industry. Ives, we are going to teach the world that
other lesson. Don't think there is anything selfish in this,
or anything at all discordant with Christian princieees. I
can prove that we advocate nothing but what is agreeable
to the highest behests of Christianity. To buy in the
cheapest market, and sell in the dearest. What is the mean-
ing of the maxim? It means that you take the article which
you have in the greatest abundance,
and obtain from others
that of which they have the most to spare, so giving to man-
kind the means of enjoying the fullest abundance of earth's
goods, and in doing so carrying out to the fullest extent the
Christian doctrine of " Doing to all men as ye would they
should do unto you."—(Loud and prolonged cheering.)
Mr. SPOONER said that the Hon. Member for Stockport
had spoken upon this subject in terms which would lead any
stranger entering the House to the belief that those who had a
right now to tee extended franchise had not the pleasure of
enjoying it.—( Hear, hear.) It was not the habit of the tenant
to ask the assistance or advice of his landlord, though he
ought to do so, but at the same time it was as much the duty
of the manufacturers to give advice to their symesenen. The
lion. Member then went on to quote passages from speeches
of the Honourable Member for Stockport, in order to show
the inconsistency of the lion. Member, and to illustrate the
fact that his opinions' upon the cone laws had changed verk re-