The Sun.
London, England, 1846-08-22 00:00:00

S N 7 AUG UST 22, 1846.

Portuguese that I should have plenty soon. Then they
bound my hands behind my back, bid me sit on the rail, and
launched me overboal I managed to free myself from the
lashings, and made for the shore, which was plain to be seen.
I was in the water two hours.

Hector Munro Todd examined, on his former oath, says,
that the schooner was taken by surprise. There was another
Chinese boat in sight, but as we passed to windward of her,
cannot say whether she had, any hand in the business.

FREE TRADE DEMONSTRATION

AT STAFFORD.

_
STAFFORD, WEDNESDAY.—Yesterday was a gala day
in Stafford. The triumphs of free trade were celebrated
with every demonstration of enthusiasm and delight, and
the utmost harmony and concord prevailed throughaut.
The committee under whose management this demon-
stration came off, applied to the county magistrates for
the use of the Town-hall, but were refused it. They
then covered in what is called the Butter-market, and
made arrangements for holding a soiree, at which old and
young, rich and poor, might attend. The committee
also ofered to give the poor in the workhouse roast beef
and plum pudding, but the guardians peremptorily re-
fused to allow this to -bP done, and used tbeir influence
also to prevent the out-door poor from receiving it. The
rector of the parish also thwarted, as far as he could, the
efforts of the committee, refusing to allow the children
attending the Sunday parish school to join in a pro-
cession of all the other children in the Stafford Sunday
schools, which took place in the morning in honour of

the occasion.
Notwithstanding these disadvantages, the whole affair
was spirited, and did great credit to the free-traders.
About five hundred partook of tea, after which Sir
Joshua Walmsley, of Liverpool, on the motion of the
Rev. Mr. Hill, was called to the chair.
Sir JOSHUA WALmst.Ev, after some observations of a
complimentary nature, spoke at some length on the un-
expected success that attended the efforts of the Anti-
Corn-law League. He said, to appreciate their labours
it was necessary to bear in mind the forlorn condition
in which this question stood only a few years since ;
not that the great body of the people were indifferent to
its importance, or that they had not endeavoured to
throw off its burdens ; they had felt and suffered long
and deeply, but they had been cunningly misled. The
constituencies were tampered with—fallacies were de-
vised.; misrepresentations. _widely disseminated; until
the corn-law by many was considered a blessing—the
" ultimo. thule ' of legislation, an act by which the
people were benefited, their wages kept up, their moral
conduct improved, and through which their best
and dearest privileges were sustained.—(Hear, hear.)
Public opinion was so widely misled on this subject,
that, in 1841, Lord John Russell's Administration was
scattered to the winds for daring to propose even a fixed
duty of Bs, per quarter ; and that Minister, to whose
able advocacy we have since been so much indebted for
the passing of the Bill, then doubted, or assumed to
doubt, the wisdom of our demand.—(Hear, hear.) We
can scarcely be surprised that others were less enlight-
ened. The agricultural interest had long been induced
to believe that its prosperity was dependent on protec-
tion ; that without its aid our fields would cease to be
cultivated—our people to be fed. The wealthy and the
powerful had propagated these opinions. Fathers had
transmitted them to their children, landlords had im-
pressed them on their tenants, tenants on their
labourers, until the frequently-asserted fallacies, like
the oft-repeated lie, was at length believed by
its propagators themselves. The wonder, there-
fore, is not that contagion should have been
so widely spread, but that the poison should have
been so soon eradicated ; that the little band should
have overthrown the citadel of monopoly. Truth, how-
ever, is great, and will prevail. It is scarcely eight years
since, after a long series of endeavours to enlighten the
public mind in their various localities, a few men met in
Palace-yard as delegates from Manchester, Liverpool,
Leeds, and other towns, desirous of laying the griev-
ances of the people before the House of Commons.
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the public peace; by some considered insane, by others
the people, those who were desirous of their ameliora-
tion, were offended at the boldness of their demand.
At hat period I happened to be one of three deputed to
receive a distinguished nobleman who was one
of the foremost in his anxiety to advance the
condition of the people. Mr. Cobden was also
present. After a long discussion of the question,
and expressing himself much satisfied with our argu-
ments, and recommending their dissemination, he re-
quested to be informed what were our ultimate objects ;
and when informed that they were a total repeal of the
corn-laws, he answered, more in sorrow than in anger—
" As well might you attempt to overturn the monarchy."
It is no little gratification to know that this nobleman voted
for the repeal of the corn-laws, and I dare say he feels now
that the monarchy is no less firmly based on the affec-
tions of the people than it was before.—(Cheers.) In
the annals of our history as a nation, I am not aware of
any act calculated to produce so much good as the
repeal of the corn-laws. The effects of this measure
are already felt in the fall in price of the first ne,'es-
sary of life—bread. Its ramifications will extend to
every portion of the known world, and carry peace, civi-
lisation, and comparative comfort to the whole human
race. After some observations, showing the intimate
connexion of agriculture and commerce, Sir Joshua
Walmsley paid a high compliment to the various leaders
of the free-trade movement, referred to the
_present op-

position of the country party, expressing his confideiat
hope that it would soon die away, and then said—The
requiem of the corn-laws is the advent of the fall of every
other monopoly; already are they tottering to their
base. A little further struggle, and it will be all over.
I trust many of us will live to see the day when we
may congratulate each other upon the fact that the
words "customs " and " excise " are erased from the
statute-book--when all taxes that press upon the
proJuctive classes shall be removed, and that little
measure (the sliding-scale), so long redolent with
evil, be applied to its legitimate purpose, the re-
gulation of taxation to the power to bear it, and
property be made to pay its due cost to protection.—
(Cheers.) To achieve these things will require time,
and the force of public opinion must be brought to bear
on our representatives. The power is in our own hands.
Let us exercise our electoral privileges with vigilance
and honesty, not bartering our birthrights for a mess of
pottage, but remembering that we hold our electoral
privileges as a delegated trust for the non-electors also,
and shall not have done our duty until we have extended
their rights and privileges to them.—(Cheers.)
A. METYARD, Esq., delivered an eloquent address on
the general question of free trade, reviewing its whole
history—its present,position and future prospects.
R. Sidney, Esq., the Rev. Mr. Hill, and the Rev. Mr.
Graham severally addressed the meeting.
The meeting soon after separated.

CORNISH PILCHARD FISHERY.
(From the Penzance Gazette.)
MOUSETIOLE.—During the last fortnight the drift
boats belonging to this place have had very good
catches of pilchards—the last week, several of them
having taken from seven to eight hogsheads each. The
selling price has been from Is. 2d. to ls. 4d. per hundred.
A few boats have had good catches of hake—many to
the extent of three hundred and four hundred, which
sold at from 3s. to 3s. Gd. a burn (twenty-one.) Some
boats had their nets injured, in consequence of their
fouling the hooks of fishermen who had anchored their
boats and were fishing with lines in the wake of the
drift-boats. The greater part of the luggers are re-
turned from Ireland, a few having remained to see the
result of the herring fishery, as the prices are encou •
raging. Three or four of the Mousehole boats, on their
passage home, put into Milford Haven, owing to con-
trary winds, when they were overhauled by the revenue
officers. Some half-dozen bottles of Whiskey were
found, and the boats were detained. The magistrates,
however, considered the affair too trifling to make a
seizure upon; and ordered the boats to be released—no
forgetting to reprove the too nice interference of the
revenue officials.
PENBERTIL —Last Tuesday the sein at this Cove,
under the superintendence of Mr. Henry Poraery, took
up 400 hogsheads of fine pilchards, a part of which were
brought to Mousehole and cured.
MOUNT'S BAY.—The seins have not been very suc•
cessful; one or two have shot, but the fish secured have
been inconsiderable.
On Friday night last the " Old Lizard" sein at the
Lizard inclosed 1,000 hogsheads of pilchards, but owing
to the force of the tide nearly all escaped.
ST. IVES.—The boats have taken no pilchards since
my last report. A few hundreds of mackerel have been
brought ashore. On Monday and Tuesday the weather
was very rough. The seiners were put in pay this week.
There are 92 seins, employing some 420 men, which is
about half the number of seins and men engaged in the
fishery at this place last year.
FATAL ACCIDENT.—On Saturday se'nnight a young
man called Peter Downing, son of the late Mr. Peter
Downing, of the Ship Inn, Mousehole, fell over the quay
at Castletown, Isle of Man, and was killed. A young
man called Charles Choak died on board the boat Union,
of Mousehole, at Kingstown, on the homeward passage,
thus the boats have lost two hands in prosecuting their
labours this season on the Irish herring fishery.
Rot Tan SALT.—In consequence of the great demand
for this article for the purposes of fish curing, the price
has been advanced by the merchants. A further ad-
vance is anticipated, if there be good fishing, in the
absence of a large supply.

DUNBAR HERRING FISHING, AUG. 18.—Yesterday
the fishing was pretty fair, but this morning it is very par-
tial, and but for two boats which had separated from the
Sleet bringing in about thirty crane from new ground, the
fishermen would have been very desponding, as they fully
expected a good take this week. The herrings taken by the
two boats are of a very fine quality, and are evidently a new
shoal. None sold to curers to-day.—Caledonian Mercury.
FAILURE OF THE POTATO CROP IN THE WESTERN
HIGHLANDS AND ISLANDS.—We learn from an intelligent
Highland farmer that the potato failure is spreading with
disastrous rapidity in the Western Highlands and Islands,
and that the poor people whose chief, and in many instances
sole, dependence was on their crop of potatoes, are already
beginning to suffer privations, which, when winter sets in,
must be of the severest description. There is no prospect,
we believe, of there being a potato crop either for focd cr
seed. It would be true charity to these people wereit made
widely known amongst them that there is abundant em-
ployment to be had, at remunerative rates, in the low country
harvest. Already, we are glad to hear, there have been
large reinforcements from the highlands of reapers of our
inadequately supplied harvest fields. Hundreds more will
still be welcome. We trust that in this way many a decent
and industrious family will, by their own exertions, place
themselves beyond the reach of want or dependence, during
a winter which is looked forward to in the Highlands with
deep de3pondency.--Scottish Guardian.