The Sun.
London, England, 1850-03-28 00:00:00

in corn, Mr. Van Buren, the President of the United
States, when addressing the people of that great
country, told them that nothing could compensate a
nation for being dependent upon another for the food
which it consumed.—(Bear.) Some three or four
years ago Mr. Clay, a❑ equally able man, told the
people of that country that free trade was a beautiful
vision. You have found it a dreadful reality.—
(Hear, hear.) Arid even among the manufacturers
themselves the bubble has burst.—(Hear, hear,
and applause.) In Lancashire they are closing their
mills and running short time. On this day fortnight,
in the town of Rochdale and its immediate neigh-
bourhood, 22 mills were entirely closed. (Hear,
hear.) We leave them to settle now in Lancashire
the practical results of free trade, even to the cotton
lords.—(Hear, hear.) But in what a state are you,
—not only the farmers of the Pontefract polling dis-
trict, but also in Great Britain and Ireland? You
no longer can
" Rise with the lark and sprightly hail the morn ;"
you now till a profitless soil ; your sweat drops
upon land which gives no longer a fruitful return to
you.—(hear, hear.) The more you till, the more you
cultivate, the deeper you sink into ruin.—(Hear,
hear.) Under these circumstances, you have met
here to-day to assert the right of every free-born
Englishmen, and to consult what steps you should
adopt to save you from this impending ruin. And
here let me call your attention for a few moments to
your present position, when standing before the
public of this enlightened empire. In 1041, when
Sir Robert Peel was bidding against the Whigs for
popular favour—the Whigs who offered you an Bs.
fixed duty upon all foreign corn, he told you in his
Tamworth manifesto, as he told the people of the
whole united empire, that no farmer, with the burdens
and taxation upon land and the burdens upon his
common country, could produce wheat under 565. a
quarter.—(Hear, hear)—and I have carefully watched
his career since he became a base and unprincipled
renegade, to find whether he ever alluded to that tie-
claration either in the House of Commons or out of

it. lie never has done so.—(Hear, hear.) lie knew
as well as either you or I that no farmer can produce
it in this country at a less price.—(Hear, hear.) Well,
you believed him. The people of this empire be-
lieved him.—(Cries of "We did believe him.")
They placed hint in the House of Commons with a
glorious majority of 91, to carry out protection
an-I not free trade.—(dear, hear, and applause.)
As soon as he had seated himself in the otlll‘.e of Prime
Minister, to ease the country from its awful position
at that time, he proposed to the people of this coun-
try the property and income-tax, but pledged his
word and honour, as a statesman, that it should only
last for three years.—(Hear, hear.) The Members
of Parliament believed his assertion ; they voted for
it ; they saddled themselves and the people of this
country with those extra burdens—the income and
property tax, to rescue the country from the terrible
position to which it had been reduced under Whig
misrule.—(llrar, hear.) But before the three years
passed—uncalled-for, undemanded, and unexpected—
Sir Robert Peel took off the duty upon cotton to the
amount of 600,0001. per annum—(hear, hear)—to
looser, as he said, the springs of industry. When
asked to do something for the farmers, he shook his
head and said nothing; and the Manchester cotton
lords laughed in their sleeves, ridiculed his folly, and
thanked him for presenting to each of them 1,0001. a
year. " Well," he said, " you have got your pro-
tection—) our sliding scale to protect you from the
introduction of foreign corn into this country.
Therefore, I think I am justified in giving the cot-
ton spinners this 600,0001." He did so ; but he
said, " I pledge my word that I mean to stand
by protection to agriculture."—(Hear, hear.)
Well, in a very short time, to the amazement
of the whole country, he brought in his Bill to repeal
the corn law.—(A voice--,,
Icesaid at the time that it was the " unadorned elo-
quence " of Mr. Cobden which induced him to de '
sis a traitor.) lie "
it.—(Laughter.) Yes, he has been laughed at and
ridiculed for making use of that expresSion. I think
he has been ill-used by the public, because it was the
unadorned eloquence of Mr. Cobden which did it ;
but what was that unadorned eloquence? It was Mr.
Cobden's celebrated speech in the House of Commons.
—(Hear, hear.) Scarcely had the grave closed upon
Sir Robert Peel's private secretary, Mr. Drummond,
who was murdered in the streets of London by a
man who had hardened his heart by listening to Anti-
Corn-law League advocatea, and who meant his victim
to be Sir Robert Peel himself, when Mr. Cobden
stood up in the House of Commons, and in language
unmistakeable gave Sir Robert Peel to understand
that he would be held personally responsible by the
people of this country, if he refused to repeal the corn-
law. Sir Robert Peel rose, and in a speech which
told with stunning influence upon Mr. Cobden, gave
him such a castigation as he will never forget to the
last moment of his life. Well, but what said Sir
Robert Peel now ? " Oh," he said, the other day in
the House of Commons, "it was the famine that made
me repeal the corn -laws r It was not the
unadorned eloquence of Mr. Cobden —it was
the famine.— (Hear, hear.) Well, to use the
language of our worthy chairman and Mr. Jefferson,
not exactly the language, but I will go further and
say that when Sir Robert Peel made use of that lan-
guage he either proved himself to be the most heart-
less wretch or the greatest fibber that ever stood upon
the face of the earth.—(Hear, and cheers.) The
famine I Why his own sliding scale under a system
of famine in this country would have introduced
foreign corn at a nominal duty of Is. a quarter; but
his Bill to repeal the corn•laws placed upon foreign
corn a fixed duty of 10s. a quarter for three years.—
(Ilear, and cheers.) Therefore, to prevent foreign
corn coining into this country in a period of famine,
he placed a fixed duty of 103. upon it instead of a no-
rninal duty of 15.—(Hear.) But, I always notice
how sensitive Sir R. Peel is when attacked out of
doors for his base and unprincipled spostacy. He
watches the opportunity when the Whigs are likely
to be hard pressed in the House of Commons, when
the division is sure to be rather close he stands upon
the floor of the House in opposition to Lord John
Russell, and talks about the purity:of his motives, the
honesty of his principles—and then he sits down. Up
rises Lord John Russell, not knowing which way to
go, and he speaks to his character. " lie is amazed at
the Right Hon, Baronet feeling so sensitive. Ile is sure
he acted upon the purest and must honourable principles
and motives, and he hopes he will not take any
further notice of any further attacks made upon '
him." Well, and they go into the same lobby toge-
ther—(Hear, hear, and laughter,)—Lord John
Itussell all the time in his conscience despising Sir R.
Peel, and prepared, if the country only backed him
with sufficient deterrninatiyn and support, to place a
fixed duty of Bs. a quarter upon foreign corn.—
(Hear, hear, and loud applause.) I know that
what I say is true. But now let us turn to the Free-
' traders. They asked three years' trial for their grand
free-trade system. Mr. Cobden declared that England
before three years were over would take the world in
its wake.—(hear, hear.) Well, there was to be uni-
versal prosperity. I ask the Free-traders to show me
any little petty state, any principal district that has
r. been dragged into its wake. Every little state that
r his the welfare of its people at heart looks down with
, amazement on the ignorance, the folly, the stupidity,
Why,and t hae
gmr
iacdunl et
us sr
eo of the English
is
sinking
toon
ruin. — (
laivei at
hr ' strides
, more rapid and more fearful than in a quarter of a
L century can be retraced back again to a state of pros-
'
perity. What it the price of wheat ?-235. A quarter