The Sun.
London, England, 1846-01-19 00:00:00

AT MANCHESTER.

TIIE ANTI-CORN-LAW. LEAGUE

THE LEAGUE FUND —A , : lasgo w paper announces
that the League fund in that city had reached 10,066/. 10s.
Of the sums subscribed, as stated by our contemporary, we
find that eight firms and individuals gave 560/. each, three
three 2001., and the remainder was made up in
earS4ss NV er sums, from 3/. and upwards to 150/.
/i EG ED ATROCITIES ON TILE HIGH SEAS.—
Straker, master of the Maria Elizabeth of Sunder-
, lailiU ch:Arged on Wednesday, at the police-court. before
ir,::...4.- >the A r and other magistrates, with having, on the nigh
jv
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;: teina.,.3,-
of
!Ile !.he_jurits:edd,l4.,ite, jurisdiction
tieoz.l;ircou,if:
ettn,n;,:niA
radtime,:ii
rrco.ma:l:ttnyhiT,:ibftetelt felonie
ously cot
i teietndht
:-..
1- ill°lll.ll,:r.:li::l'iFrsxae,-°ln'
.1 tain,for tiial Bail was subsequently accepted. n , cap- 1

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Possibly the. greatest meeting yet held by the League at
M incheater, took place on Friday in the Free Trade Hall,
Peter-street. Besides all the principal merchants and manu-
facturers who thronged the platform, every available corner
of the building was literally crammed.
Mr. GEORGE WIL4ON, the Chairman, in the course of his
address, mentioned the following additions to the Quarter of
a Million. Fund, viz. Leeds, 34;000!.: at Dundee,
2,0001. ; and at Stroud, Gloucestershire, 1,300 L, making
the subscriptions already made amount to 128,8011.
Mr. COBDEN then proposed as a resolution, "That mer-
chants, manufacturers, and other members of the National
Anti-Corn-law League claim no protection whatever for the
manufactured products of this country, and desire to see
ebli:erated fir ever the few nominally pr .tective dir les
against foreign manufactures which still remain upon our
statute-book." He acknowledged the receipt of a Tequisition
fur free-trade meetings about to be convened in Belfast and
Drogheda—the latter superscribed by the Catholic Primate,
Dr. Crolly, and all his clergy. He then'animadverled uron
the non-co-operation. of the Church of England, as a body,
in this great agitation for the abolition of important duties;
and concluded by predicting Sir Robert Peel's withdrawal
from the protectionist party, and the ultimate victory of the
present movement.
Mr. BRIGHT, who seconded the proposition, attributed the
recent discomfiture of the Ministry to the pertinacity of the
League, and the miserable advocacy of Peel's Administration
by the Morning Herald and the Standard. He declared that
the League would continue in existence as long as there WWI
one sixpence of duty on the importation of foreign corn.
After some very long and argumentative. speeches from
Mr. Fox, Colonel Thompson, and Mr. Brott.erton, the usual
vote of thanks to all who had spoken was moved and car;
tied ; whereupon the meeting separated.

MEETING AT SHEFFIELD.
MR. WARD AND HIS CONSTITUENTS.
Oa Thursday Mr. Ward met his Sheffield constituents in
the Town hall, for the purpose of explaining to them his past
conduct, and intimating his views as to the future.
Mr. Alderman Duvet was unanimously voted into the
chair, and introduced
Mr. WARD, who received a most warm welcome. He
spoke nearly as follows :—This was, he remarked, the seventh
time that, since he had been favoured with their confidence,
he had come before them in the intervals between sessions of
Parliament to explain and to answer, to vindicate the past,
to talk over the future, and to strengthen or to correct his
own political impressions by comparing them with those of
the constituency.—(Hear, hear.) The custom was a virtual
repeal of the Septennial Act, so fares Sheffield was concerned.
He looked upon the great questions new occupying the
public mind quite as much in the light of a struggle against
monopoly in votes as against monopoly in food.—(Hear.)
Why, if we had had a Reform Bill in 1815, we never would
have had the corn-laws.—(Hear.) And did any man believe
that we should have a corn-law now for any length of time,
were it not for the power entrusted by the vicious nature of
the present constitution to the smaller venal agricultural
rural constituencies, which put themselves up to auctions--
sold themselves to the highest bidder—and were Only secured
from disfranchisement by the universality or their cor-
ruption,—hut which counterbalanced the votes of such towns
as Sheffield and Leeds, and such counties as the West
Riding .—(Cheers.) Now, the first step towards making their
„
representative what he ought to be, was to act as they had
acted—to make the representation of their town a question of
principle, not of money. When he was here last, he had
told them that the conduct of the Conservative party in
power was such as almost made him look on inconsistency as
the most valuable of public virtues.—(Hear, and laughter.)
He did not mean that inconsistency which was always ask-
ing.for loopholes to creep out of; but that bold inconsistency
which scrupled not to claim credit for doing that which it
drove another set of men from office for attempting to do.—,
(Cheers.) His principles on direct taxation he had already
stated. He believed that no Minister in future Would beagle
to dispense with it. They would not be able as before,
to raise a revenue upon articles which formed the food
. of the people ; and he was, therefore, qpite will-
ine; to countenance direct taxation, provided he saw
every year fair terms offered to the country.--(Hear, bear.)
Afier taking a survey of the measures which had been
passed during tho last session, and his sentiments and be-
haviour with regard to each, Mr. Ward continueth—He was
here compelled to touch on a topic upon which the course
he had pursued had boon, he was aware, disapproved of by
some of his friends in Sheffield for whose opinions he enter-
tained the highest respect. He alluded to the 2daynooth
Grant.—(Hear, hear.) He had no hesitation in saying that
if the thing were to do again, he should act precisely as he
did last session.—(Cheers.) His principles on Irish matters
were perfectly well known. He thought that we had three
centuries of injustice to atone fur to that country, and he
would not stand upon trifles to effect that object.—(Hear,-
hear.) All that injustice had been put upon the ground of
necessity to maintain exclusive Protestantism in Ireland, and
last .session the same argument had been put forward when
the attempt to maintain this exclusive Protestantism had
degenerated into a "No Popery" cry that was disgraceful to
the country. For his own part he never would give way to
blind bigotry or unreasoning prejudices. There were two
classes of opponents to the Maynooth Grant. There were the..
Dissenters, who . maintained their own ministers, endowed
their own schools, build their own chapels, and who,' taking
those burdens upon themselves, thought they ought not to
be called upon to pay for a second State Church in addi
tion to that -which they were already obliged to sup-
port. With that class he sympathised. But there was ano-
ther class which took its stand upon this ground—that they,
a sin 11 section of the Christian world, enjoyed the exclusive
monopoly of Christian truth. With the first class, as he had
said, he sympathised, and had endeavoured to point out a
fund in the Irish Church by which the object might hevw been
attained in regard to Maynooth without pressing at all upon
the Dissenters. By the simple suppression of those parishes
where there were no Protestants, a fund of 58,0001. would
have been placed at the disposal of the Government, when
. only 26,000/. were required for. Maynooth. So irresistable
was this case, so unanswerable the argument, that if the Dis-
seutere, as a body, had taken it up and supported it, he did
not believe any party or Government could have resisted it.
- But instead of this, they took up the groutul of religious truth,
as being in their exclusivelsossessi The Church party in
England were not against the injustice of taxing the Dissenters
' fiir the maintenance of a Church to which they did not
bef,ing.,- but-against the application of Protestant money to
what they called anti-Christian, purposes, the promotiop of
idolater, and a defiance of heaven itself. The abhorrence of
the Catholic faith was made the bond of union in Exeter-hall
among those otherwise of most opposite opinions.—(Hear,
heir ) Now, it was all very well to talk about excluriive
Protestantism in the British empire, but the Queen of Eng-
land herself was one of the greatest Catholic potentates in the
eeorld.—(Hear, hear.) She ruled over eleven millions of
subjects in England, Ireland, Canada, In ha, and the
Meeliterranean. Those Catholics were men, and must be
governed, and they should be governed upon just and intelli-
gible principles. Every other evstem of government but this
• bad been tried. They had tried persecution, and. they had
tried proscription, bnt none of these courses would succeed. In
fact; there was no iniquity that had not been perpetrated tc.-
- wards that unhappy country, Ireland. Just one hundred
years ago that day, in the age of Addison and Swift, whfch
was called the'Augnstan age of England, an Act of Parliament
was passed, which for its monstrous enormity was almost
without parallel. It would be scarcely believed that by tat
Act, which was called the nameless statute, Catholic priests
were' rendered liable to an operation which, to put it
' as delicately as I
.can, I will describe as one
which
.qualified them to be. the guardians of the
Grand Seignior's seraglio.—( Hear.) That Act, which was
wily' repeated by the interveution of Cardinal Fleury, was
one of the remedies for -Irish Catholicism that had been re-
sorted to. IVould Englishmen sanction a return to.such a
state cf things, even if they had the power? Certainly they
Would not. The only policy, therefore, which was left to
adopt' towards them was to treat them with justice 'and
mercy, and according to the great principles of Christianity.
• A generous treatment on oar, side would inspire a generoes '
feeling in return. His motion last session was to endow, but
to endow from a proper source—not from the pockets of
English Dissenters—not to tax a man opposed to Catholicism
far the support of Catholicism, but to make as ample a pro-
' vision 3.47(foverntnent might choose to recommend from funds
at the disposal of the. State,. and which must ultimately
bs applied to the support of. the church of the
great majority of the country,— (Great cheering.)
That motion created no ordinary difficulty and alarm.
For a little time, and a little time only, he was a marl-of
great political importance-L.the* fate of Government seemed
to hang upon this Question. Ile had no reason to distrust
the importance of its effects .11e.had seen the appropriation-
principle break up two.Cabinetst and. it might have broken-
up a third. Well, under those circuinstaeces, he had thought
it better to give up the opportunity. presented to him than to'
damage a principle in which he concurred. And lie :did not
regret the course which lie had pursued; for when he looked
to the sort of opposition given to the measure, he could not
compliment his Dissenting friends on the company with whoM
they took their stand.—(Hear, hear, and a laugh.) Refer-
ring then to the manner in which this question had been
treated by Lord Winchelsea, the Duke of Newcastle, and
others, he continued :—Now he had gone over a good deal of
ground as to what was past, he wished to say a few word's
now as to the future.—(Hear, hear.) There was a great deal
at the close of last session to foreshadow what had since hap-
pened. There was a debate upon Mr. Villiers's motion, in
which he had had the pleasure of hearing from Sir Robert
reel—as ha understood him—the clearest postible notice to
quit given to the agricultural protectionists.—(Cheers.) Sir:
Robert Peer then said that the question was one of time only.
The advocates of free trade had in their ranks great intellect,
great names, great activity, but they wanted some of those
high aristocratic names of practical statement who must
form a part in the Government of this country. Thee,
wanted' Lord John Russell:—(Cheers.) They wanted Lord
liforpetli—(Loud cheers)—and the men of the West Riding
were now sending him—(Applause)—while-from Ltird John
Russell they had at last received a frank declaration of his
adoption of free trade principles.- The landowners would do -
better with free trade, because the manufacturers 'would do
better ; for what the landowners wanted was wealthy
and well-employed customers. To say that ,we
could not compete with foreigners in any part of
Europe was a libel upon English honesty and Eng-
lish ability, and pi vided the settlement of the, corn-.
law was comprehensive and final, he had no doubt
all the alarm now felt would evaporate and pass away.
He recommended, however, the free traders not to fancy their
victory Asia certain. They might have a majority in the
House of Commons; but it was rumoured that the Lords had
determined never to pass a measure of the kind without an-
other appeal to the country. If that appeal was made, every
map, must be prepared to do his duty, and take his part in
the great struggle. Let
them but be united and firm, and
they would be successful .
for there never was an instance in
history in which an aristocracy,t. contending for its own selfish
and sordid einolumen successful, when opposed to, the
g.eit body of, an intelligentwt anda united people.—(The Hon.
Gentleman resumed his seat
aniiiiiclsit prolonged cheering.)
Mr. Fisirmi, after passingeulogiurn upon Mr. Ward,
reeved a resolution to the MOW effect :—" That the.
thanks of this meeting be given to ourl respected repre-
sentative, G. Ward, Esq., for his annrnuuaPvisit to his eels- ,
stituents, arid the candid and explicit exposition he has
given of his Parliamentary conduct during the last session;
and that. he be eeipectfully requested to support to the ut
moat of his power any measure that may be proposed for the
total, immediate, and unconditional repeal of the corn-laws."
been seconded by Mr. JACKSON,
This resolution having
'was carried unanimously: and after the customary Wahl",
lied been transacted the meetin' separated.