The Sun.
London, England, 1846-07-09 00:00:00

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( THE COBDEN TESTIMONIAL. I - \
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The Mapke-of-M____anchester has issued the followhag-')
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" TO THE PEOPLE OF THE UNITED KINGDOM.
" The heartfelt and triumphant gladness with which
the nation hails the deliverance of its industry from the restrictions of a false and uarighteous legislation were
incomplete without the recognition of that individual
agenby to which this glorious consummation is essen-
tially indebted. Now that the battle is fought, the
victory won, and the charter of industrial liberty finally
recorded in the statute-book, and made part and parcel
of the law of these realms, it is felt that this struggle
ought not:to pass. away—cannot pass away—without
leaving behind .it some enduring memorial of national
gratitude :an& honour to the man by whose untiring
exertions, unsparing self-sacrifice, sleepless -vigilance,
immoveable fidelity to principle, and unrivalled wisdom
and prudence of-leadership, this great success has been
achieved. The British people need not be told that it is
to Richard Cobden, aided by his able, earnest, and
eloquent coadjutors, that this country mainly owes that
Act which will render the year 1846 memorable in our
annals.
"The historian of the national struggle, now victoriously
concluded, will dwell with grateful wonder on the record
of those labours of which every Englishman is now sum-
moned to testify his appreciation. As the annals of the
nation show no example of a social effort by which so .2. vast a sum of good has been purchased at so light a cost
even of transient and incidental evil, it were vain like-
wise to seek an historical parallel to those services
which the late League leader has rendered to his
country and to humanity. The name of Richard Cob-
den, as of the Anti-Corn-law League, stands alone. An Englishman, of the middle rank of life, whom nature
indeed marked for a statesman, and whom the circum-
stances of birth, occupation, and social position, have for-
tunately identified with the community of the in-
dustrious classes, undertakes, amidst infinite difficulties „
and discouragement, the task of creating a public opinion
in unison with pubic rights and interests, and of identi-,
fying the unrestricted intercourse of nati,ms with the
standard of the true philosophy of the wealth of nations. - •
Never was a more arduous enterprise—never a more -
brilliant
success. Within a period of little more than
seven short years our commercial reformer has indoctri-
nated the people and the Legislature alike with the bene- •
ficent and comprehensive principles of economical science
—stamped the impress of his own convictions on the --
mind of an entire generation of statesmen ; and, sup-
ported
by that extraordinary popular power, which his -
genius had schooled to self-organisation, wrested a
fondly cherished monopoly from the powerful dominion
of class legislation.
"Such a victory has, however, not been won but at a
heavy cost to the victor. The post of honour and
triumph has been also that of labour and self-sacrifice.
We speak of the " seven short years" in which the free-
trade movement has, from his first phase of unheeded
and hopeless seeming apneals to an uninformed, apathe-
tic, and prejudiced public, passed into final statutory
realisation. The interval truly is short in the history of
a people. Seven years are short indeed, considered as
the term of a nation's apprenticeship to political science.
Tried by another and a more limited standard of mensu-
ration, seven years are a large deduction from the life-
time of the individual. Seven years of unresisting toil,
and unrelaxing mental tension ; seven years abstracted
from the ordinary associations and enjoyments of life,
and given to labours which only the impelling sense of
duty and the animating consciousness of power could
have made endurallie ;—this is a sacrifice whose magni-
tude our moral arithmetic can less easily compute. To
say that this self-infliction has been as cheerfully sus-
tained, as it was spontaneously undertaken, is but to say
that the rights of industry have been championed by one
worthy of the noblest cause that ever fired the zeal and
braced the energies of a true man.
" It is now for the British people to consecrate this
great success by a fitting expression of gratitude and
honour to the man who, foremost of us all, has been the
organiser of that power of enlightened public opinion to
which industry owes its enfranchisement. A moral vic-
tory so pure and peaceful, so righteous and beneficent, so
fruitful of blessings that, in their ultimate scope, are
wide as the world and enduring as time—begin-
ning with one great and simple act of national policy
and justice, and tending, in its remoter aims, to regene-
rate the public opinion of mankind, to cement the bonds
of amity and brotherhood among nations, to promote
the intercourse that civilise and humanise, to supersede,
by community of interest and mutuality of dependence,
a difficult and irritating commercial diplomacy, and to
guarantee, by new securities, the reign of peace on earth
and goodwill .among men—such a victory, as it is with-
out example in the annals of states, should be commemo-
rated on a scale unknown to historical precedent. The
statesman who, unaided by a
party connexion or official
position, has succeeded in giving statutory validity to
just and noble principle--the civic hero who has mar-
shalled a people in bloodless strife, and conquered for
them the blessings of prosperous industry—the English..
man who has plaeed his country in the world's front
rank, and vindicated her ancient prerogative of " teach-
ing nations how to live"—this is the man whom civil-
ised and Christian England should delight to honour.
"To the countrymen of Richard Cobden appeal is
now made. The appeal is to all, for all are partici-
pators in the fruits of his beneficent toils. To all
classes, sections, and parties of this British people is the
invitation now given to testify, as such a people alone
can testify, a just and generous appreciation of services,
of which even future generations will reap an ever-
ripening harvest, but which it belongs to the present to
reward. On behalf of the committee,
" W. B. WATKINS Otter
Town-all Manchester, Jiil9.2
IA tuitaiEZEß ELLIOTT
TO THE COMMITTEE OF THE WEST LON-
DON CENTRAL ANTI-ENCLOSURE ASSO-
CIATION.

PRICE SD.

~~

"June 26th, 1846.
" Sirs,—l know not how to requite you for electing
ine 'useless member of your body; I am too poor to
suoscribe
v3tarLunds; and it says little for my wisdom
that I never
my advice. The Traaassociation willing to follow
ii:Cleti
when I advised them to help the d woul not follow it
Chartists, howling in my face, joined IRV and the
enemy. Trades unions may have benefited the union-isle
at the expense of victims like themselves, but I cannot
help thinking that their funds might have been better
employed than in breaking the hearts of starved mothers;
believing, as I do, that the money expended by them,
might have conferred the county franchise on a majority
of their members. One great
.object of all associations
aiming to ameliorate the condition of the masses, ought
now to be the county franchise; with, or without
such associations, that franchise, I believe, is within
the reach of almost all our mechanics, both in
towns and villages : by obtaining it theyi would
increase their usefulness, secure their well-being, and
command respect. Let the county franchise be once ob-
tained by them, and wealth rind station will be respected
as they ought ; but we shall see no more doffing of
Pay-All's hat to Squire Starvation and his apes, for the
honour of being robbed and insulted. One of the results
of the uncontrolled rule of the few is, that there is not an
acre of appropriated land in this country that has not
been at some time stolen by due course of law—so
called ; and it follows that no man now can buy an acre
or an inch of land that has not been so stolen. You
can honestly obtain the county franchise by buying
land according to the law of the land, as every man
must do who buys land anywhere ' • but the fact which
I have stated is unimpeachable, and the past cannot be
retrieved. Make good use, then, of the future. Unless
men ought to be stifled on the seventh day, because
their occupations imprison them the six preceding days,
all public footpaths should be held sacred ; at least
until the State shall have supplied every consider-
able town with free public walks and
.gardens, suffi-
ciently- extensive to secure (as far as out-aoor recreation
can) the public health. If free-trade should happily be
obtained in our day, the inclosure of waste lands cannot
be prevented ; every acre of such land, capable of pro-
fitable cultivation will inevitably be cultivated. Your
business, then, will be (if the enemy shall have left any
waste land uninclosed) to take care that such land shall
be cultivated for the public benefit alone ; and who can
have a better claim to waste land near the town than
the inhabitants ? Obtain the county franchise, and you
not only prevent the arbitrary closing of footpaths, and
the unjust appropriation of waste lands, but do other
good to yourselves, to your children, and thee age—to
unborn millions ! Oh, infinite, endless good, with evil
to none! If the insane never co-operate; if the instinct
of self-preservation sometimes forces the sane, when
oppressed, to co-operate ; if public oppressors always
co-operate, and if you already feel the might of honest
co-operation, look back for a moment on the authors of
your past miseries, and be convinced that institutional
power (for right or wrong) is like the Indian tree,
which, spreading its roots on all sides, throws up a new
stem at each ramification I Your enemies know this
well. Obtain the county franchise then, and defeat
them for ever ! "EBENEZER ELLIOTT,
"Great Houghton, near Barnsley."
[We are glad to see that Ebenezer Elliott is again in
the field. Be it never forgotten that Ebenezer Elliott,
" The Corn-law Rhymer," was the first to denounce the
iniquity of the corn-laws. Years before the League was
in existence, he was a " total and immediate repealer."
He is not a rich man. Let not his claims be forgotten
by his countrymen. We hope to see a subscription
opened for an Elliott testimonial. He is a good man
and true. He, in evil days, stood up for the glorious
doctrines of free trade, when to stand up for those doc-
trines was a service of danger. Let not his claims be
overlooked in the hour-of victory. Who will subscribe
for a testimonial to the author of " Corn-law Rhymes,"
the poet of the People ?] —ED. Sun.

THE COBDEN NATIONAL TRIBUTE FUND.—SiTICO our
last publication, there have been a number of goodly addi-
tions to the contributors and contributions to this national
testimonial. Mr. S. D. Darbishire and Mr. Edmund Potter
have severally enlarged their contributions from 1001. to 1501.
each. Messrs. Dixon and Sons, of Carlisle, and Mr. Thomas
Thomason, Bolton, have given 5001. each; Messrs. George
Cheetham and Sons, Stalybridge; Thomas Harrison and Sono,
Stalybridge; and William Bailey and Brothers, Stalybridge,
each firm 300/. ; Messrs. Critchley,,, Armstrong, and Co.,
Manchester, 2501,; Sir Benjamin Heywood. Mr. James Hey-
wood, and Messrs. T. and J. Wrigley, 2001. each ; Messrs.
Wells, Cooke, and Potter, Robert Platt (Stalybridge), and
Mr. William Ross, each 1501. The following additional
subscriptions have been given, each of 1001:—Messrs. Joseph
Whitworth and Co., Henry Tootal, Hardman and Price, 11.
Boden (Derby), John and. Samuel Alcock, Dufay and Co.,
Henry Newbery, Richard Potter (St. John's-wood), Thorn-
ton, Atterburv, and Co., Henry Walmsley, Langworthy,
Brothers, and 00., and Burton, Chippindall, and Co. Besides
these, there is a subscription of 80/. ; five of 50/. ; one of 401.;
three of 25/. ; and many of smaller amounts, making an in-
crease since Friday evening of about 5,000/. ; the aggregate
amount now exceeding Twenty-five Thousand Pounds! We
understand that the Ashton-under-Lyne subscriptions are to
be notified on Friday .next. In London, Liverpool, Sheffield,
Dundee, *and, other large towns, preparatory measures are.
being taken for originating subscriptions to this national tes-
timoafial.—Manchester Guardian.