The Sun.
London, England, 1844-11-23 00:00:00

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south of England arises from their havin
been foo'ish enough to engage to pay refits
calculated upon wheat at 60s. a quarter, while
they only get 425. for it. And all that
you hear about the malt-tax, and other devices
that the farmers are apt to run after, is just
merely a pretence to keep these poor farmers amused,
and prevent them inquiring into the subject of rent.
—(Applause.) But, mark me ; if the farmers are
distressed, they cannot be cultivating their land.
You hear of forty labourers in one parish trooping
off to the union workhouse.—(Hear, hear.) Another
case is where an unfortunate suicide occurred the
other day, in the parish of Byslip, which contains
700 acres, and where there are only 100 men em-
ployed, at Bs. or 10s. a week. Suppose it is 10s.;
this only amounts to 501. a week, or 2,500/. a year, of
wages paid upon 700 acres of land. Why the
smallest of your individual concerns pay about as
much wages as that parish of 700 acres. Do you
suppose that land can be well cultivated? No ; there
can be neither proper ploughing, harrowing, nor
sowing going on. And what will be the conse-
quence ? Just the same as has always ensued. In
three years after an abundant crop, without an ex-
ception, I believe, since 1815, when this system of
corn-laws began, we have had a reaction, or some-
thing like a famine ; and you have the seeds of that
scarcity sowing now. It will come as assuredly as
we exist; and when it does come, in consequence of
the increase of the population, and the extension of
your mills (for they are building mills elsewhere as
well as at Rochdale), you will be caught with a
severer check, a much greater amount of suffering
and disaster than you have ever been before. Now,
this is the motive why you should work while you
have the sunshine, and not neglect the present oppor-
tunity —(Applause)—and I am glad to know that in
good seasons or in bad seasons, in prosperity or in
adversity, the people of Rochdale are always true to
this as to other sound principles, and that you at least
are determined, if your exertions can avert it, that
the system of corn• laws shall not continue to bring
upon this district those heavy disasters which only
within the last three or four years it has been our
misery to undergo. The Hon. Gentleman sat down
amidst enthusiastic cheering.
Winuam BROWN, Esq. (late candidate for the re-
presentation of South Lancashire), was next called
upon, and received with great enthusiasm. We give
an extract from his speech. During his late canvas,
he stated, on several occasions, some facts regarding
the commercial position of this country with the
United States of America, and with their permission
he would now further allude to the subject. In
1805, 1806, and 1807, our exports to that country
were nearly 8,000,000/. par annum. The popula-
tion of that country was then six millions. It was
nearly one-third of the whole export trade of the
kingdom, if we took the official value. Embargos,
orders in council, and other decrees, interrupted the
trade for several years after that ; and in 1815 came
those abominable corn-laws, which were daily shut-
ting us out of the best markets of the world, and, by
inducing retaliation, were a positive injury not only
to the manufacturers of this country, but to the par-
ties for whose protection and advantage they were
designed.—(Applause.) Looking at the intercourse
of this country with the United States from 1833 to
1837, hp found that eur exports had increased from
7,900,0001. to 8,400,000/., while in the succeeding five
years it had fallen to 6,467,086/., and in the succeed-
ing year (1842) to 3,528,000/.—(Hear, hear.) Apd
when he told the meeting that our cora-laws, and our
heavy duties on tobacco and timber, had induced them
to retaliate, by encouraging manufactures at home, so
that it had been recently ascertained, on the authority
of statistics collected by Government itself, that these
home manufactures amounted to 50,000,000/. sterling
per annum, and that they had engaged at work no
less than 2,585 fulling mills, and 1,420 woollen ma-
nufactories, it would be seen to what an extent we
had been injured by our unwise and insane protective
policy.—(Hear, hear.) But the markets of the United
States would not have been long limited to even this
population ; the population there was increasing at
the rate of 35 per cent., and ere the end of a century
would probably be equal to about 100 millions ; and
these were people we should not have sacrificed our
trade with, when the only obstacle to their continuing
to deal with us was the condition that we should take
in payment that which alone they were able to pay
with.—(Hear, hear.) He might give them some idea
of what our trade with the States might ultimately
have reached, when he told them that one of its rivers
alone (the Mississippi), with its tributaries and
streams, had a shore to which our goods might have
been carried of upwards of 58,000 miles.—(Hear.)
And did the landed interest pretend that our trade
with that country would not have promoted their
prosperity ? Why, commerce had made them what
they were—(Hear, hear) and upon what principle
would they argue that its further prosperity would
work to their injury ? It might be interesting to
consider what a people under prosperous circum-
stances could consume of agricultural produce, and
he found it stated that the consumption of the people
of the United States amounted to about 27 bushels of
grain per head, with five bushels of potatoes, while
the consumption of this country was only 16 bushels
of grain, with a proportionate amount of potatoes.—
(Hear, hear.) The landowners fell into the error of
supposing that the consumption of the people was a
fixed quantity ; the example of the United States
showed that the consumption of a people in food, as
well as in other things, was in proportion to their
ineans.—(Hear, hear.) He found that the total
number of houses in the United States was 1,300,000,

while in England we had 849,147—n0t half the
quantity in proportion to the population. He denied
the argument of the monopolists, that as we relaxed
in our restrictions on commerce other countries would
adopt a more stringent course, and as evidence he
would point to the opinion expressed by the Prussian
Minister on the subject, and to that of Mr. Adding-
ton, the American Minister; and even if Mr. Clay,
who was in favour of the retaliative system, were
lected President, he much doubted if he would be
able to Carry out his object.—(Hear, bear.)

Mr. BRIGHT, M.P., was received with most vehe-
ment cheering. After it had subsided, he said,
amongst other things, the passing of the Reform 841
did little or nothing to promote the repeal of the corn-
law. After that Bill passed, Lord Melbourne him-
elf declared that no Ministry could touch the corn-
laws without settling its own doom ; and from the

experience we have had since we may be quite sure
that what he said was perfectly correct. But the
scene seems altogether to have changed now. We
have no sense of hopelessness now ; everything around
us betokens that we are coming to the end of our
labours.—(Applause.) 'We find accessions to our
ranks every day, every hour, and defections from the
ranks of our opponents; and we, who formerly durst
scarcely raise our voices in favour of this great prin-
ciple of industry, now find that there is no intelligent

in-an in the country who upholds any opposite grin-
ciple, except upon some ground of temporary expedi-
ency. Political questions such as those which oc-
cupied the minds of this people some twelve or fifteen
years ago, are of that exciting character as rather to
drive the people from contemplating, with all the at-
tention which they deserve, questions of an econo-
mical character ; and yet it may be asserted, without
fear of contradiction, that on questions of political
economy the existence and the prosperity of this
country depend. We may have a government main-
taining order—that I hold to be its first duty—and
distributing justice with somewhat of impartiality to
all the people ; that I hold to be also a very high and
important duty of a government; but we must have
a government also which understands questions of
political economy, and those principles which serve
to preserve the national industry free; or, whatever
be the theory of the Constitution, it is utterly impos-
sible that we should advance and be permanently pros-
perous.—(Loud applause.) Now we must bear in
mind that the tyrannies of this age are not of the
same character as those which existed in ages that
are past. Our forefathers had to contend sword in
hand for the liberties which they possessed ; they
were aitacked by the sword, and they defended them-
selves by the sword; and many liberties, no doubt,
they preserved, which, under the circumstances, per-
haps, could not have been otherwise secured. Bar-
barous ages had barbarous means of action. In this
age, however, wrong and bloodshed are, to some ex-
tent, avoided, and we have tyranny coming before us
in another shape, feebler as it becomes older ; bnt if
feebler much more subtle.—(Applause.) IVe have
tyranny, cunning plausible, deceitful, insidious,
through the means of Acts of Parliament; and, under
the pretence of benefiting a people, the most precious
of the national rights are invaded.—(Applause.) Now,
our grievances are, for the most part, of a class that
may be termed economical. We shall have other
questions to settle, doubtless, when the corn-law
question is disposed of ; but there is no question in
which the people of this country have so immediate
and direct a concern as in the question of that tra,le.
—(Dear, hear.) There are other public questions in
some degree affecting the liberty of the subject, or
the libeezy of conscience, but they are not actually
questions of that concernment that you cannot live
until they are settled; but this is on?, without the
settlement of which a large proportion of the people
are pauperised and pressed down, so that from a
vast multitude of persons you can receive almost
no assistance in the battle you are waging with
those above you for other rights of which you are de•
prived..—(Applause.) The existence of monopolie
and the unfair distribution of the national imposts,
appear tea me to be those evils with which we have
more to do than with anything else. We have liberty
in this country equalling the liberty of all other
countries in some respects. We have the t l'be f
liberty o
thought ; we are free to speak, free to write, free to
meet to discuss all questions of national importance,
and we may agitate and combine, and, by all peaceable
means, force the Government into the views which
we entertain. But though we have all this liberty—
' a libert,zi which few nations possess to so great an ex-