The Sun.
London, England, 1846-01-12 00:00:00

THE ANTI-CORN-LAW LEAGUE

• IN LIVERPOOL.
LIVERPOOL, FRIDAY.—To-day, at one o'clock, a meeting
of merchants and other inhabitants of Liverpool was held in
the Amphitheatre, Great Charlotte-street, "for the purpose
of considering the best means of aiding the operations of the
Anti-Corn-law Lague at the present crisis." About 4,000
persons were present, the galleries being densely, and the
boxes and pit, to which the charge for admission was Is.,
being also well filled by ladies and gentlemen. The only
extra decoration in the entire building on this occasion was
an immense inscription, stretching the entire length of the
stage, immediately over the chairman's seat, bearing the
words " We will stand it no longer."
At one o'clock precisely Mr. W. Brown took the chair ;
on the stage, surrounding him, were Mr. Richard Cobden,
Mr. John Bright, Colonel Thompson, Mr. Thomas Thornely,
M.P., Mr. William Ratbbone, Mr. R. E. Harvey, Mr. Vin-
cent Higgins, Mr. John Finch, Mr. John Finch, jun., Alder-
man Eyre Evans, Mr Lawrence Heyworth, Mr. James H.
Macrae, Mr. George Crossfield, Mr. William Gardner, Mr.
Blackburn, Mr. J. Cox, Mr. J. Ryder, Mr. Henry Romilly,
Mr. Charles Robertson, Mr. H. Jevons, and many other of
the leading merchants f the locality.

The CHAIRMAN, after the requisition calling the meeting
had been read, commenced the proceedings by saying that
they had met together to co-operate with, and to strengthen
and sustain, their friends of the Anti-Corn-law League—
friends who had, during the long and critical period of seven
years, fought for them with unflinching firmness and unabated
zeal the great and gl..rions battle of free trade. He hoped,
and, indeed, he was sure they would not let the present occa-
sion pass with the simple approbation of the manner with
which that battle had been fought; but they would, one and
all, unanimously and eagerly come forward and bear testi-
mony to their appreciation of such exertions by a large and a
creditable subscription—such a subscription as would, com-
bined with that of others, enable those friends fully to carry
out and accomplish the objects for which they had so long
contended. 'They had arrived at the crisis of their affairs,
and it now rested with them, and the demonstration they
made, whether they obtained total redress, or were offered
a disgraceful compromise ; and that the latter would
be rejected he had only to look around him in that vast
assembly to be convinced —(Hear, hear.) No less firmly
was he convinced that those who had hitherto taken an ac-
tive part in advancing and giving effect to the enunciation
of their principles would not surrendor the ship until they
had brought her safely into port.—(Cheers.) Mr. Brown
concluded by calling on
Mr. BATHIIONE, who rose to propose the first resolution:—
" Thai; we, the inhabitants of Liverpool, do hereby repeat
our solemn protest against the laws which prohibit the free
importation of foreign grain and provisions, or interfere in
any way with the natural operations of commerce, believing
them to be moat oppressive to the great mass of the people,
and destructive alike to the manufacturing and agricultural
interests of the country; that, relying upon the justice of our
cause, and intelligence and honesty of our countrymen, we
do declare most emphatically our firm determination not to
relax in our exertions until those laws be totally repealed;
that we hereby express our high sense of the invaluable ser-
vices which the National Anti-Corn-law League has ren-
dered to the cause of free trade, and in order to enable its
council to make renewed and increased exertions, a subscrip-
tion be now entered into in aid of the great fund of a quarter
of a million, 20 per cent. to be paid up immediately ; and
that the following gentlemen be appointed a committee, with
power to add to their number, to canvass for further sub-
scriptions in this town and neighbourhood."
That was a long resolution, and when there were long reso-
lutions he made it a point to make short speeches. As in
some way an illustration of the present proceedings, or rather
of the new aspect which those proceedings assumed, he would
take them back 50 years, and tell them that then Mr. Wil-
liam Roscoe, Mr. Edward Rushton, and many others, were
stoned in Williamson-square, not many yards from that
theatre, far protesting against the iniquitous and ferocious
war with France. At that time, they would all remember,
they had the life-and-prorerty men coming forward, and
conspicuously declaring that they would give away their last
shilling in support of Church and State, and all that fine sort
of thing—declaring that it was a glorious war. But how did
those same life-and-property men redeem their pledges?
When, in 1815, the war ceased, and the extent of the debt
became known, how did the agriculturists come forward to
redeem their pledges and give their aid in relieving the
people from the burden? By passing a corn-law which gave
them protection and added to the burden.—(Hear, hear.)
They will not share those burdens, but the free
traders will have justice. There is justice for Ireland
and justice for England, and, as there is a God in Heaven,
they shall have it.—(Great cheering.)
L. HEYWORTH, Esq., seconded the resolution. He said
it would be superfluous and unnecessary on that occasion to
expose the fallacies which had been put forward by the ad-
vocates of monopoly, and to show that distress and injury to
the national prosperity had been produced by the operation
of the corn-laws. The purpose which they had now in view
was one that affected not this country alone, but the whole
human family, for the various nations of the earth were how
opening their eyes to the importance of the subject.—(Hear,
hear.) On the last occasion upon which he addressed a
meeting of the inhabitants of Liverpool, he stated to them
that. General George M'Duffie in Ametica had, in a manner
creditable to him as a Christian and a patriot, declared his
abhorrence of all protective duties, and since that declara-
tion of General M'lluffie's appeared th-y had heard the sen-
timents of a member of the American Government, Mr.
Walker, to the same effect. Mr. Walker, alluding to this
subject, .had said, " Let outscommerce be as free as our poli-
tical institutions; let us with revenue duties only open our
ports to all the world, and nation after nation will soon follow
our example. If we reduced our tariff, the party opposed to
the corn laws of England would soon prevail, and aemit all
our agricultural products at all times into her ports in ex-
change for her exports. And if England would now repeal
her duties upon our wheat, flour, Indian corn, and other agri-
cultural products, our own restrictive system would certainly
be doomed to overthrow."—(Cheers.) It was plain, there-
fore, as he had eh eady remarked, that this was a cause in
which the whole world was concerned, and which every man
who was a patriot and a Christian might safely support—
( Hear, hear.) He hoped, therefore, that the inhabitants of
Liverpool would put their hands in their pockets, and come
forward in a proper spirit to support it.
The resolution was unanimously agreed to.
Mr. BRIGHT, M.P., who was received with much ap-
plause, spoke as follows :—I cannot for the moment help
looking back at the period when I first formed one of a de
potation from the Anti-Corn-law League to visit the town
and port of Liverpool, to invite its large, intelligent, and en-
terprising population to assist us in the great contest upon
which we were then entering. I recollect that, although
there was a large audience to greet us, it was felt by every-
body in the town, that amongst many very influential per-
sons there was extremely little sympathy with the object we
had in view. We have found, however, that here, as else-
where, by persevering labour, by honest devotion to one
great cause and to one good principle, we have gradually
stimulated our friends to renewed and increased exertions,
and diminished, to a very large extent, the opposition we
encountered from those who did not coincide with our views.
At present we have, I believe, the whole kingdom in favour
of the principles we have expounded.—(Cheers.) The
townspeople, as a ruse, are in favour of the emancipation
of the industry of the people.—(Cheers.) Intelligent land-
lords we have had from the beginning along with us, and
we find that the number of such who approve our policy and
unite with us increases every year. Intelligent farmers,
too, we have had from the beginning, and we find that.
farmers even who are not the foremost in their class for in-
telligence and general knowledge are receiving willingly the
principles we have expounded to them, and are beginning to
doubt, or altogether to disbelieve, the advantages which
their landlords have asserted they would derive from a
maintenance of the protective system.—(Cheers.) But of
the vast body of farm labourers throughout the kingdom,
I believe we may say that they are with us as unanimously
as are the labourers in the manufactories of Lancashire and
Yorkshire.—(Cheers.) We have succeedee, if not in con-
verting, at least in changing two Ministries since our agita-
tion began—(Cheers)—and we have rendered it impossible
that any party should now take office who is in favour of
maintaining, or will pledge itself to the attempt to maintain,
tire corn-law as it now exists, or in fact any corn-law, at all.
—(Loud cheers.) But there is a class of our opponents who
are still unchanged; I mean that class represented by the
dukes, the I igh aristocracy, and squirarchy, whose speeches
have recently occupied so much space in the columns of the
Morning Post. I have been charged with endeavouring to
bring the aristocracy into public contempt, and certainly I
have said harsh things of them, for I have felt harshly to wards
them.—(Cheers.) No man can see what I have seen in con-
nexion with this question holding the opinions I entertain, and
knowing that this corn-law has been supported by that class,
without feeling his blood at times boil within him, and feel-
ings not, I admit, the most Christian rising within him with
reference to the conduct of a class which has systematically,
for a generation at least, sacrificed the great interests of the
people to the selfish and miserable interests of a class.—
(Cheers.) But I defy any man living to point to any speech
made by any member of the Anti-Corn-law League which
deals such fatal blows at the permanence and supremacy of
the aristocratic element in the British constitution as the
speeches which have been made within the last month by
men who are so fond of that element and so devoted to that
supremacy that they would willingly sacrifice even the people
to maintain them. Most of you have read what has been
said by duke, lord, and squire, within the last month. Now,
I ask you, as representatives of a great commercial com-
munity, are you of opinion that there men are qualified by
their intelligence or their sympathy with right and the
people to rule ovor and to regulate the trade and vast mer-
cantile affairs of this the greatest of all commercial empires?
—(Cheers.) Are vou in Liverpool willing to fit st;11, and
that other towns should sit still, making, and earning, and
living just as you can, all merely permissively
ng
yourselves citizens of this great kingdom, and if law
did not interfere, having the power of gathering to your-
selves the riches of the whole earth, and adding incalculably
to the comfort and well being of the whole population—are
y n
willing
ignorance
and that these men, who have proved their gnorance
e
and incompetency so that every one must see sh.uld still
rule over and gi late for the commerce of this great king-
dom ?—(Loud cheering, and,, cries of Well stand it no
longer.") VN e said from the beginning, and all experience
has confirmed the opinion then expressed, that the corn-law
did good to no human being, unless it starved some human
being. I could` refer you to the report of a meeting which
took place a few days since at Lynam, in Wiltshire, where
1,000 labourers assembled by the lightof the moon to discuss
the grievances they suffered under this law. Talk of a reign
of terror in another country, what a reign of terror is it not
in this country when these 1,000 labourers come out from
their hovels almost at dead night to tell of the tyranny
under which they believed themselves to I..bour, and
proclaim to the world that the magnanimous aristocracy
who ruled the country let them cultivate their lands for 55.,
65., 7s. a week, while in Parliament and before the world
they had avowed for the last thirty years at least they had
maintained these laws ostensibly to protect these very
labourers.—(Cheers.) These are critical time. Mr. Hey-
worth
has spoken of the United States, and read a paragraph
from the report of Mr. ,-ecretary Walker, which ought to be
published in every newspaper in the kingdom, and be read
by every man in Great Britain and Ireland—a report which
extends the frimully hand of America to this country, asks
us to forget bygones, and be brethren, as we ought new to ,
be, —(Loud cheers.) A great reduction of the American
tariff must follow the abolition of our corn-law, and the abo-
lition of the ecrn-law will fur ever destroy all chance of war
between this country and the United States.-( Loud Ow-
ing.) Recollect, too, that the Prime Minister of England is
in a p ,sitlon of extraordinary difficulty—such a position as '
no Prime Minister, perhaps, has occupied in the memory
of any one now present. He is the leader of a party who
change not, whose obtuseness, whose infatuation, must even-
tually be their ruin. He is much wiser than they. He sles