The Sun.
London, England, 1841-07-07 00:00:00

also, that be the causes what they may, considerable distress
prevails over a large portion of our land, has visited many
classes of its inhabitants, and affected many branches of labour
—(Hear, hear.) The practical question, then, for you and
the people is; what is to be done ?—( Hear, hear.) If you, the
gentlemen opposite, will have nothing to say to our doings,
what will you do yourselves ?—(Cheers. ) It is upon this sim-
ple question—upon this plain issue—that up to the. present
moment, whether in Parliament or on the hustings, in speeches
or in addresses, no shadow of an intimation—no creek of
light has been suffered to fall.—(Hear, hear.) The great
oracle of Tamworth has indeed again spoken, but no inti-
mation of the future has issued from the shrine.—(Cheers
and laughter.) Stress has been lail on the disturbed
condition of several foreign countries, as affording a
clue to the depression of your domestic industry. Well,
but what if the disturbed relations of these countries with us
and with each other should not mend,—what if they should
continue—what if they should even increase ?—( Hear, hear.)
Hostility is deprecated with America. I echo from my heart
that philanthropic prayer, but I wish to devise new an I addi-
tional guarantees for the harmony of nations.—( Loud cheers.)
We have enough of fancied and trivial causes for war. Give
real and solid motives for keeping peace.—( Cheers.) 'I fear
that peace will never be long secured by the arguments of phi-
losophers, or by the rear oning of political economi-ts, or by the
praises of poets, or evenl fear, as the world goes now, by the
precepts of divines. We can't make the lion lie down with the
lamb, but we may create a profitable trade between the n oollens
of Leeds and the sugars of the tropics. We can't make
mankind beat their spears into ploughshares, bat we can
exchange the" steel of Sheffield for the harvests of Poland,
and the flour of America.—(Loud cheers.) I believe states-
men will never be so safe as when they act upon general and
comprehensive principles.—( Hear, hear.) I believe that our
most effectual way of putting an end to the slave trade which
We are charged with encouraging, will be by proving to the
slave-owner that the labour of slaves is dearer than the labour
of free men.—( Hear, hear.) I believe that the best mode of
banishing from the world the scourge of war, is to make all
countries wish for each other's goods, and gain by each other's
welfare.—(Cheers.) Commerce, which is sometimes made
the subject of a sneer, is not in itself civilization—is not in
itself Christianity, but I believe it is destined in a great degree
to be the channel and pioneer of both.—( Loud cheers.)
But, Gentlemen, I was saying that we have at least this
advantage over our opponents, that while both confess
the difficulty, we do suggest a remedy.—( A cry of
" What is it ?") I will tell you. We did not
stand with our arms folded before us waiting to see what would
turn up next, hoping that the banks of North America will
correct their circulation, or that the blockades of South Ame-
rica will he brought to an end. —( Hear, hear, and laughter. )
What is it then that we do propose? We have made no secrets
of the measures we have brought forward. The deficiency in
the public revenue has been acknowledged to be greater than
any possible reduction of the putaic expenditure could succeed
in meeting.—( Hear, hear.) The distress also which prevails
in various parts of the country, and the depressed state of the
market for your labour and industry, bring obvious and being
admitted, it is our wish to supply the deficiency without adding
to the distress.—( Loud cheering.) We thought we
could not do this by additional taxation, because we
conceived that a small addition of taxes would be likely
to fail again, as it failed last year in supplying the deficiency
which then existed—( Cheers )—and because we thought that
a large addition of taxes could not be carried into effect with-
out, perhaps, in 'a considerable degree, adding further to the ex-
isting distress, trenching further on the already burthened
and labouring industry of the country, and driving capital still
further from our shores.—( Hear, hear.) It then appeared to
us, Gentlemen, that the high price which articles paying duty
on their entrance into this country, and entering largely into
general use, bore in the market, put them out of the reach of a
comparative number of the whole body of the consumers.—
( Hear.) We therefore wish to cheapen and steady the duties
levied on these articles, hoping ihat we should put a far larger
supply of them within the reach of all classes and all interests,
and that by these means we might collect a larger and a more
secure permanent income, if the articles were made at once
more cheap and more plentiful, than could be raised from the
same articles, paying indeed ahigher duty, but limited in their
quantity, and in their consumption. Ido not believe that
the calculations on which we founded our expectations of
arriving at this result, have ever been successfully found
fault with. On the contrary, when we say how small
an increase to the general consumption would remedy
the present deficiency, our opponents turn round upon us
and say, what a small benefit you propose to the people.—;
( Hear, hear.) But I believe that the relaxation of the re-
strictiors which we have proposed with reference to sugar, to
timber, and to corn, and the other articles to which we wish
to extend the same principles—(Cheers)—would not only in
a short time have remedied the existing deficiency, but would
in all probability have enabled Us at no distant day, to repeal
other burdens obnoxious to the people, and injurious to
their industry.—( Loud and continued cheering.) We
say that if you do not accept our mode of relief, you have
no other prospect of mitigating the present distress, hilt by
submitting to the necessity of imposing new taxes. I do not
wish to put forth any predictions of my own as to what our
plan will do, but w hen we say what we are prepared to do, and ask
our opponents what they can do instead, why, then, they tell
us—nothing.— ( Hear, hear.) The Parliament rejected our
measures. Well, then, we might have acted on the hint, and
taken that hostile decision as a signal for our dismissal
from the Government. But as we had brought forward these
measures, for what we thought to be the people's interest, and as
we conceived them to be the people's concern more than our own,
we thought it right that we should not consign the people,
as our opponents would do nothing, to no better prospect
than to their too shadowy hopes and their too palpable
_taxation.—( Loud cheers.) We determined at least that the
question should not be decided without a struggle.—(Hear,
hear.) In that struggle we are now engaged—to the people
the appeal is now made, and from you the decision must come.
The Government and the party to which I belong have struck
to the ground other monopolies before.—(Cheers.) There has
scarcely been a year in their Ministerial career which is not
marked by some great abuse overthrown, and by some baneful
restriction extirpated.— ( Cheers.) We have now come for-
ward to attack what I call the monopoly of the purse ; and,
gentlemen, although the struggle may be more violent and more
desperate than any of its predecessors, yet even, gentlemen,
with all the boasting of our opponents, the death-cry of this
monopoly is on the gale.—( Great cheering.) The Govern-
ment may fall in the high and generous attempt, but I believe
it has already passed on the watchword which will be the ral-
lying cry of the contest, and the crowning shout of our triumph.
—( The Noble Lord retired amidst enthusiastic and prolonged
cheering.)