The Sun.
London, England, 1844-08-08 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY M0RN171416; AUGUST 8, 1844.

and that he was suffering deep dietress ; but when he ask themselves, whether agriculture alone could
quoted the authority of a clergyman it had the effect, bring about a happy and prosperous condition ,
iio twithstanding that he was a gentleman of the for the great body of the population.—(Hear, hear.)
highest character, of known fidelity' in the discharge It was unnecessary for him to dwell in that intelli-
of his sacred functions, of calling up the Secretary gent assembly on such an absurdity.—(Hear, hear.)
f?r. the Home Department—(Groaas)—who said that 'Eine was when every little Baron was a sort of
this gentleman was a " popularity-hunting parson"— bandit in the county in which he lived, when there
(Groans)—so that when a clergy man came forward was nu law to protect the weak from the aggressions
' oin his class and spoke with candour of the wants of' the strong, when commerce had not civilised
of the labouring- population, if he ventured society, and knit them together by the ties of a corn-
to expound that text of Scripture, that the labourer mon interest. Then was the time of a purely agri-
was worthy of his hire, he was told that he was a po- cultural .ystem. It was too late in these days to ,
polarity-1 unting parson. He (Mr. Gibson) had bring back what would soon be forgotten, or will, at
sometimes thought it was never intended that they least, have passed away with the relics of feudal bar-
,
should_ be in earnest in those matters, that they barism. The corn-law was the last of those relics—
rould not keep up Inure then a mere show, and he no, riot the last, but it involved the abolition of all the
"visen merely as instruments of the great, and it con- rest; it was the keystone which, once removed, the
hiseed him very much that there was some truth in arch of monopoly, restriction, privilege, and unfair
whoe'Necture, when he was told that a clergyman legislation, must inevitably fall.—(Cheers.) They
be came forward in the purest spirit of the religion professed in the House of Commons to take great
hPraessed, to complain of the wants of the labourers interest in the cause of the agricultural la-
iSue' tcur eN
0 surrounded him—when he was told that such a bourers. They told them that they had been
amendment
tvaarsycalled in the British Senate, by the Home amending the new poor-law. The .
manofState—thet he wee a " popularity-hunting might or might not be beneficial, but the great point
puart.ily The Rev. Godolphin Osborne was the clergy- at which the Anti- Corn - law Association and free-
ehe' alluded to.—(Loud cheers.) He wished most traders in general aimed was to prevent men from
hunting that there were more of these popularity becoming paupers.—(Cheers.) It was good to be
parsons.—(Loud cheers.) He "ished their charitable, but it was better to be just. They wished
(Laughter
would even condescend to imitate them.— justice to be the pervading principle of the laws, and
and cheers He remembered that a cele- the • believed that if men had the opportunity of
rayed writer had said 3
that he thought a very good supporting themselves, they would not see such an
society
much wanted might be established, and that it was very amount of pauperism as now alarmed every
wanted, for the purpose' of converting the Bi
shops to Ce • •Bi- thinking man who took up any of the reports of the
Re w . Christianity. (Laughter and cheers) .
Poor-law Commissioners, and calmly meditated on
th as quite sure it was consistent with 'he sit of their contents. Let them look at the condition of the
e Christian religion—that it was, in fact, indirect
accordance • poor, notwithstanding all the attempts to improve it.
free t. rice with the Gospel, to advocate the cause of It was strange sort of policy, to saA, the. least,_ to
trade ; and he verily believed that that general make the pauper better off than the independent
ntercouree between nations, which was what was labourer, and, indeed, such was the condition of the
.111eant by free trade, would be the means of spreading independent labourer that they could not, without
y,ugion and civilisation throughout all the nations of absolutely starving the pauper, bring him into a worse
me earth ; and he did not believe that any missionary condition. What was the scale of living in this
tff °l•ts, however well intended, or that any attempts, country among the working population, or among a
eo_ sever well supported, could be comeletely suc- 'lumber of different classes who did not enjoy
eesiful, while Govern:nents kept nations separate from any good living? First in the list stood the trans-
eaeh
tariffsother by those barriers in the shape of hostile ported thief; second, the convicted thief; third, the
•_a, , and breathing towards each other feelings of suspected thief; fourth, the soldier; fifth, the able-
471ousy and not of love—of those mutual interests, bodied pauper; and, last of ali, came the independent,
whichadopted
would he so much promoted if free trade were Protected labourer.—(Hear, hear.) That was the
fanned
; but feelings of animosity, which were easily Present state of things in this country—the present
into a flame, and sometimes ended in open
e,scale of food.—(Hear, hear.) The transported thief
Pte
hear.) He had heard of had a greater number of ounces of substantial food
amongst the 1 than the convicted one ; the convicted thief had more
deal -anded party a great
jealousy of
tional h what was called the na- than the suspected ; the suspected thief had more than
what extremeorlour.—(Laughter.) It was extraordinary the soldier ;the soldier had more than the able-bodied
dsensitiveness and the able-bodied pauper had a great deal
tletnea who grew up amongst the gen • pauper ;
the importance of
„ in Hess
to more than the poor, protected, independent labourer.—
The m maintain. Hear, hear.) He believed that the calculation was
They seemed to be in the national honour. ( labourer.—
maintaining
a fighting c . training to get themselves into that the transported felon had 330 ounces per week
this mean a olndition.—(Laughter.) What did all of substantial food, and that the average of
Vh • •
--(Cheers. 3', it meant this—" War was rent."
independent labourers did not get more than 122.
home tot)h • Ile did not know whether the idea went He could not accurately carry the figures in his
A highel/. minds.—(Hear, hear.) It did to his. mind, but he was not far out in his calculation. Was
countryb •e
of corn was the consequence of this it to be wondered at that when the labouring classes
nation, Aeing engaged in hostilities with a foreign were informed of this fact they should begin to
bands of
Ministers,
deal of patronage would fall into the suspect that there was not much sympathyion the
it.nisters, and those landed gentlemen, the part of the more powerful classes of the community
it. Rows—(Laughter)—would have a large slice of with their condition ? What must be the reflection
pnver
ih
dever much the community might be im- of a hull-working man when he saw that with all his
be to the by taxation, however great the woe might toil and with all his willingness to earn a livelihood,
hostilit nation at large, depend upon it, in case of he could not place himself in as good a position as a
t°l•3 would a foreign country, the landed proprie- felon who was sent out of the country, perhaps for
Profit b , be the parties, if any body, who would the worst of crimes ?—(Hear, hear.) Such was the
the suryi it
They also said they would get rid of plain fact—it defied contradiction. They were told,
There vela us population. He believed in his conscience as he had already mentioned, that a great deal was
as a large party, represented by that well-known being done for the poor, but how did their opponents
to Periodical,ereot the Morning Post who would give anything meet this staggering fact ? When the subject of the
in ordere hostilities between this country and France, poor was before the House of Commons, he was told
si___
._e _ that the price of corn might rise. What that he had been enjoying himself in the country
.I,P;sd it to those gentlemen ? they did not fight ! whilst others were working hard to benefit the labour-
pri":_
fur
others out to battle, but they got a high in g men, by amending the New Poor-law. There
would endeavour
corn ; and when the war was over, they could be no doubt that Ministers had a great deal of
higr pdeavour as they did before, to maintain that hard work, especially when they reflected that their
od teP, ice by a new corn- law, and they would have the mornings were occupied in inspecting the correspon-
\vhie",m,g over agaira—(Hear, hear.) Another thing dence at the Post-office.—(Cheers and laughter.)
w„_l.l, led them to be so jealous of the national honour When his Hon. Friend the Member for Stockport
ee7._,Tat it would direct pubic attention from certain told the Ministers of his successes in the country, he
ill'ea_i
.r. movements, which made them very uneasy. dared to say it was no news to them. They had read
div'eY__ thought that a good war would be a very good it all in the morning.—(Cheers and laughter.) When
a cr,s,loll, and he had been told within a few days by a messenger repaired to the Foreign-office to commu-
loenTimguished individual, whose name he could not nicate some important intelligence to Lord Aberdeen,
t° do" at a public meeting, as he had not authority it was no news to him—he had read the eontents of
the
nfso, that notwithstanding all that was said about the letter in the morning.— (Renewed laughter.) If
41,... 'series of war—notwithstanding all that mo- this, indeed, was the occupation of Ministers—if this
tioel'_tsand philosophers wrote of the evils of na- were the occupation in which the people of England
a "8 being engaged in hostilities, he verily believed desired that Ministers should be employed—(Loud
gdid war was what
th the country wanted to relieve cries of "No, no,")—all he could say was, that they
anewnl from their difficulties.—(Laughter. That was had a great deal to do and some excuse to offer for
titrn d doctrine, but he believed they would have the doings() little for the poorer classes in the Legislature.
110_,°.,t difficulty in getting the country to engage in He must say he had observed since he had had the
in 311tilitieS ; for he believed there was that good sense honour of being in Parliament, that a complete apathy
enga, country which would prevent them from was exhibited whenever the subject of the distress of
It would ine so foolish a thieg.—(Hear, hear.) the labouring classes was brought under its conside-
bcdY of theta"e a great deal to convince the great ration.—(Hear, hear.) Gentlemen had been so long
their whii people of this country that it was worth in the habit of dinning it into the ears of the country
the evils we submit to excessive taxation, and to all that the corn-laws were maintained exclusively for
Playing theh war brought about, for the sake of the benefit of the agricultural labourer, that
ready m.aif, game of courts, and of enabling an al- they did not know where they were when
Foes of ~,,E.BY aristocracy to fatten still more on the the alarming statement was made that, notwith-
Post ii -"e eommunity.—(Cheers.) The Morning standing the protection given to the agricultural le-
ad
supposed,discovered, in order to prepare them, he bourer, he was in as bad a condition as any human
trade
and for hostilities,_ that they could do without being could be to exist at all. It might be supposed
in the o commerce. Now, who would believe that, that he was exaggerating: he did not say that such a
some tir'neteenth century, a metropolitan paper, of description would apply to every part of the United
tell the ilation, should have' a leading article in it to Kingdom, but in Wiltshire and many other counties
tion if 'm that England would be in eta
better condi- lie believed the wages were absolutely insufficient,
abolish her manuf t •altogether whatever might he his industry and diligence, to
ed. , ac uring system were
"'artier --(near hear.) There was one hand of enelsle the labourer to bring up his family and
them
,ee indeed that the applying forparochial
monopolists did hold out to keep him from the necessity of .
Said Zit was the trade •
, we in guano.—(Laughter.) They relief. It appeared to him that they had now arrived
guano are to have an which it was very
to importation of at a position in that question in.
..
eo , which is enormous
, grow e to be spread over our acres, and is important that they should direct their attention
ne food hear.)
days, aquafor our increasing population.' We exclusively to the agriculturists.—(Hear,
lof hel' seen a calculation within the last few They of all parties appeared to him
to be the most
*"Yed ' -`v many ships sailors interested in the totalabolition of the corn-laws.—
t and would be em-
had in o r
rde
the .strucle h• to bring this guano to their shores. (Hear, hear.) Until the corn-laws were entirely
ee Ships Ev,, IS excellent friend, Mr. Cobden, that swept away, the farmer could never carry on his
t,`Pled, if the the money might be quite as well oc- business upon a safe and stable footing, and at the
the g""
toy brought the wheat itself"' instead of present moment undoubtedly the uncertainty which
e, .1 there "-' grow it.--(Renewed laughter.) But prevailed was one reason why the farmer was neces-
07nalie this was to be another step taken in order to sarily prevented from giving the employment to the
a'wa°o conteFuano available. They said that the labourer which he otherwise would de. So long as
are glned elements
ver of which people were not the corn-laws existed, so long would there be anti-
eat a loss (Laughter.) They said that chemists corn-law agitation—(Cheers)—so long would there
that comae to ascertain what were the elements be uncertainty ; and therefore he maintained that the
it "ow Wheu this guano, and that it was necessary shortest road,with reference to those interests of which
sueees , at those elements were, in order to apply they heard so much, to a safe and permanent settle-
What
ra. sillily to different
an,,,, 'gilt
...,, kinds of land ; . because ment of the question, was by the total, immediate, and
°Lner-....ut one species of land, would not suit unconditional abrogation of the corn-laws.--(Hear.)
Might what
might
be pre., be beneficial to the heavy clay, He believed that it would be the least dangerous
t,thermsts had Judicial to the burning sand, so that the of any steps that could be taken. Anything short of
ale thi,,g
aget first to analyse this guano. But that would still leave some something to be agitated.
tuneult part 8 not then half finished. The most There would still reman uncertainty, and agriculture
ruled • of th
se le ' for the operation remained to be per- would not rest upon that safe foundation which could '
ea, th when the chemists had satisfied them- alone be sound by letting prices depend on the natural
1t°45111 eY had ot
in th turists h g to teach the farmers ; the worthy operation of supply and demand. .If they looked at
e rhYster• ad to go to school, to inform themselves the moral effect of sweeping away this great injustice,
ar,They roust
kies of organic chemistry.—(Laughter.) it was impossible to contemplate it without gratifica-
arviDeetred to hnisavv something of these elements. It tion ;when they reflected that it would do away with
sej„leories thnl that when gentlemen talked of vision- one of the most prolific sources of discontent that now
mixes WhetheeY should look at home, and ask them- existed in this country; that it would bring the agri-
Ae,d in the it this rising trade which' they were pro. culturist, and the manufacturer, and the commercial
po„le,a was likely to
of guano from the coast of man together ; that so long as this grievous interfer-
-I‘,l.!ation oe''.,ly to be. so beneficial a thing to the ence with the rights of industry existed, these classes
meat,\-Li ear, he'arlus country as they had represented ? must be separated by an almost impassable barrier ;
the ships brin • Let them try Mr. Cobden's experi- but that when this barrier was swept away all classes
produlPs and the men be employed in bringing the to feel that the laws were based in justice, and that
, that verY for •
the the foreign clime to the shores of Eng- all this would tend to spread throughout the world
cess:rrrite't poP°Pulation of this country might enjoy the blessings of civilisation, and to place them on a
able th 8 of lifeSBible amount of the comforts and ne- good foundation.—(Loud cheers.)
the t" ern to ic. 5 Which their own industry would en- Mr. COBDEN, M.P., then came forward, and was
the true pete4rehase.—(Great cheering.) That was received with loud cheers. He spoke as follows :
the,n-sLrY. Let
Away with guano ; away with Ladies and Gentlemen, You have heard a great deal
than not atternet industry take its own course. Let of allusion to-night to an organ of the press, which
eveolceels in which
to direct capital into the particular always excites considerable merriment when its
let th' be Teh inter ested men chose to think it name is mentioned here. But I was reading
ow them leanest for them that it should flow ; but this morning a leading article in another paper
eachPleeediaduitry,,, and all to enjoy, through their the Morning Herald—(Hisses and laughter)—where
Poet witlan te7 full reward which Providence had I see it announced in distinct and leaded type, for the
thern,e,onteined7 ir reach.—(Cheers.) The Morning fourteenth time during the last six months, that the
'rile e,l4•t it 'houlda, Passage which he would read to League is positively defunct.—(Laughter.) I wish
ado itor have escaped their notice —(Hear ) Grandmama was here this evening. Now there is
„ Pted e. quoted Dr. Southey,' him. •
, always ts oPinio and in quoting such a thing as a paper being defunct. I have known
"Oar had the n• " Dr. Southey," he said, many instances since ive began this agitation in
ttrolise that our sense to see, and the courage to which papers that had announced our death have them-
f°reia evil for th manufacturing system was a mon- selves expired shortly afterwards. There was one
ceas:n countrie_ e people, and he always wished that paper in Manchester which announced to its readers
(La to but, " might, from some cause or another, on one Saturday that the League was extinguished,
ughte .7
Thanuf_ r.) VL,manufactures from Great Britain."— when, on the following Saturday, that paper itself
glad
to
fe'ony, if foreign countries ceased to buy gave up the ghost.—(Laughter.) Now, I have
the co''° knows'', rn Great Britain, he should be very heard that lately Grandmaina changed hands—at
th'
, mforts e "e°w Great Britain couldpurchase all 11 events, I believe the Herald has been
•8 cdint "ll° all th
to kno . ry now e e luxuries which the people of united to the Standard, perhaps on the principle
gold Lwiltere the nloyed.— (Hear.) He would like which has been adopted on the coast of Africa, where
Sion had tne silver Morning Post professed to find the they collect a very heavy description of wood, which
of
the
been
exp.esabout which so much apprehen- will not float, and they get over the difficulty by
Licl th'cQuntry -to sed of late, lest it should go out tying a log of this heavy wood to a log of lighter
or in Ls gold arday for corn. Would they timber, in order that both may swim together.—
ihr the jet,'" safe bo„ silver in the cellars (Laughter.). If the light pinions of the Standard can
W her_ Sotection oe I of the Central Societ keep Grandmama above water, its vitality will be
loi_
ese didf. it come fro British, Agriculture?—(Hear.) greater than ever I have given it credit for. No, the
And
wo. the Brazils—al • Why, it came from the League is not defunct.—(Loud cheers.) The League
by hY did it come 2 came from distant regions. is living—(Renewed cheering)—and it will live—
}eerie their manufactures •Because it was purchased (Continued cheering)—just for that length of time
guano itself
their tuna's+. not Noby their wheat or their durino• which it is necessary that such a body should
.I,a.i.ts. elf would nopt e ; the assistance even of live, in order to accomplish the mighty object for
had gn'er) It was enable them to purchase it.—which it was originally formed.—(Loud cheering.)
enabled. p
the the manufacturing
as well oe Population of this system which It was not in the nature of things that an association
as the
edintrie • Y country to be even which •
was intended to obtain a repeal of the corn-laws
Poland'
s winch
w_ were'—(Hear, hear.) Look to —to 1 • down the t tmonopoly which was ever
iand, AY, look
ere purely agricultural.
rpulation, 3sri; f ook
to Ireland. What Look to maintained by a powerful aristocracy, whose power
ar as thethe
a wretched alone could ever have given it the effrontery n.eces-
.l.l.e was concerned enjoyment of
tion capable, as they found in I comforts of sary to maintain such a system—it was not in the
Man was ca as they knew, Ireland— a popula- nature of thin s that such an association should ac-
as capable—(pe of everything ofwhich • g • .
riot to none (Hear, hear
hear) a
or aelear, hear).--and _ population infe- siderable period of time.—(Cheers.) We have to
presiveendeavouring to obtain red whose great leader, teach not merely a whole people—we have to teach
Curies , grieva„ces ,redress for some of the o w labo under which they had p- t o generations—those who are passing away and
(Uear) hearted, was now sufferin •
) laet them look at n
.for cen- those who are rising up, in order to enable pg n mom
P nent.— porgy to understand the question. Nay, more! we
that country, and I had to secure the experience of all classes on our side)

farmer that for every quarter of wheat that he
takes to the market, he pays twenty shillings at
the very least to the landlord for rent. Now,
you must know, that in a good system of
husbandry only one acre out of four, sometimes only
one acre out of five, is devoted to the growth of wheat
for ten consecutive years, yet the farmer still con-
tinues to pay rent, whether the land be sown with
turnips, lies fallow, or is merely green sward. The
firmer seems not to have discovered this trick. It
has been proved to demonstration that if the farmer
paid no rent at all he could sell his wheat at 275. the
quarter, get as good a profit on his capital, pay his
labourers, and feed every horse about his farm just as
well as he does now, and yet the landlord continues
to bamboozle him in this way. There is one little
incident which I think is likely to bring the farmers
to a favourable consideration of this question. We
have lately had a free trade in wool, and whilst wheat
is tumbling down, wool is improving in price. Now
the manufacturers do not complain of the high price
of wool. They do not complain in Leeds, where so
much cloth is made; and in Bradford and Huddersfield
they are all getting quite saucy with good trade.
They do not complain of the high price of wool, so
that it be a natural price, and, in that case, they care
not whether it be sd. or ls. 3d. a pound. Now, Ido
hope that this wool question may be the the means of
opening the eyes of some of the farmers. I perceive
that some of the county Members have become some-
what enlightened lately. I have got a newspaper—a
Hertford newspaper--which gives ,an account of a
meeting held at Hemel Hempstead, at the wool fair,
which was attended by Mr. Dudley Ryder, whom I
never heard in the House of Commons, but who is, I
am told, exceedingly valuable when abusing the
League. But do not let us abuse him, for Ido not
despair of seeing him become a capital free-trader.
Mr. Dudley Ryder, and his friend Lord Grimston,
attended the wool fair last year, and it so
happened that, on the day the wool fair
was held, a motion came on in the House of Com-
mons, made by Mr. Wood, the Member for Halifax,
fur the abolition of the duty on foreign wool. Mr.
Dudley Ryder, on addressing his friends and consti-
tuents at Hemel Hempstead, said "This very even-
ing, there is a motion brought forward in the House of
Commons, a proposition for lowering the duty on
wool. Lord Grimston and myself intend to go back
to town by the six o'clock train, in order to oppose that
motion ; for I do not think that with 45,0001b5. of
wool in Hemel Hempstead, we want much more from
abroad."—(Loud cheers and laughter.) Well, back
went these two distinguished senators by the six
o'clock train, and they arrived in time in the. House
of Commons not to hear arguments, for that they
did not want, but they arrived in time to vote against
Mr. Wood's motion for taking off the duty on wool.
That was last year, 1843. A few weeks ago, there
was another fair at Hemel Hempstead, and attended
by the farmers there, and these two Hon.
Members attended, I suppose ; but in the
meantime the Government had brought for-
ward a motion for the abolition, totally and imme-
diately, of the duty on foreign wool, and these two
consistent senators had supported the Government in
that measure.—(Laughter.) Mr. Dudley Ryder, it
appeared, had primed himself for a speech. His
health was proposed, and in replying, the Honourable
Gentleman said—" That the question to which their
attention was specially called on that occasion referred
to wool. At this moment it was rather an important
question • because, it was known that the Government
had introduced a measure for the purpose of doing
away with the duty on foreign wool." He then told
them that foreign wool obtained higher prices than
our own. I think he must have fortunately stumbled
on one of the articles of Mr. 'Wilson, the economist.
For he goes on to state that he " had arrived at the
conclusion that it was to our interest to obtain our
wools from abroad at the lowest price. It appeared
that in Hertfordshire the produce was almost exclu-
sively, if not entirely, short stapled wool.—(Cries
from the meeting of No, no.') He went on to
say that he did not believe they produced much of
either kind." Mr. Dudley Ryder, however, did not
seem pleased with the interruption, and he went on
in a rather abrupt and brusque manner, saying—" I
took the liberty of stating a fact, for, after all, this
question must be decided by facts alone, theories
might be very fine, but in dealing with a question
of this kind, experience, and not theories, must de-
cide. He said that it was an incontrovertible fact
that in proportion as they admitted foreign wool at a
low rate of duty the native wool rose in price ; and he
did not think that that happy union between native
and foreign wool-growers ought to be dissolved by a
Doctors-Commons fiat, or that the mutual engage-
ments should be destroyed." Now I call that a
rather odd sort of wool-gathering in the course of a
year. One little fact is rather striking, that Mr.
Dudley Ryder, who was sent up in 1841 to protect
the agriculture of Hertfordshire, should not know
whether long wool or short wool was grown in that
country.—(Cheers.) It goes far to confirm my
opinion, formed when quietly stock-taking on the
benches of the House of Commons, that the county
Members in the House of Commons—there are a few
splendid exceptions, such as Mr. Pusey, for instance
—who are sent up to protect agriculture, are about as
ignorant of the political state of the country as any man
in it. This Mr. Ryder seems to be a choice specimen of
that class, though he was not equal to one I have
heard of in a county in the north of England in the
course of my tour. A young gentleman was brought
down fresh from Oxford to be a candidate ; he rode
with a farmer round his farm, who showed him
spacious fields of turnips, of twenty or twenty-five
acres in extent, in the Scotch fashion. The young
gentleman was surprised, and said, "
knew that
turnips were eaten with boiled mutton, but. I had no
idea that people consumed so many of them."—
(Great laughter.)
But I have no doubt that very
great progress in the right direction will be made in
the course of the next six months, in the agricultural
districts, upon one question. And we must afford to
wait, whether we like it or not ; we cannot pro-
gress faster than the nature of things permits us.
But I am sorry to say that the false doctrines pro-
mulgated by some of the monopolist organs appear
to have had some very serious and dangerous ten-
dencies in the agricultural districts. I have read a
striking instance of it in a trial at the late Suffolk
assizes. A mall named James Lancaster had been
reading the Morning
Post, for that was stated speci-
fically in the reports ; he could read it seemed, but
he could not write, and that is just the class of intel-
lect likely to read the Morning Post regularly.—
(Laughter.) Well, he had been reading the Morn-
ing Post, and there he saw it stated that wages rose
as the price of corn rose, that a great abundance of
corn made prices low, and consequently made wages
low also. Now James Lancaster appears to
have had a logical
mind, but unfortunately he had
applied it exclusively to the study of the Morning
Post—(Laughter)—and he determined to carry out
allprint. He the principles laid down in that eminent
reasoned in his mind thus :—"Wages de
pendrac ti
on the price
of corn ; the price of corn is low,
practically
because it is abundant ; the only way to make
corn dearer, is to make it scarcer; and as
we can only get higher wages by making corn
scarce, I'll go and set fire to farmer Hobbes's corn
stacks."—(Hear, hear.) Now, do not suppose that I
am making up this story. I have ilot added a syl-
lable to what has appeared in the public papers ; and
Baron Alderson said, with his wig on, and with all the
gravity of a Judge, " Thiss a most strange and ex-
traordinary application of the doctrines of political
i
economy.' But for the people who can read, but who
can't write, and who, therefore, only read the Morn-
ing Post, it was a logical deduction. James Lancas-
ter against farmer Hobbes ; he would
n
his horses, or his cows ; he had
read
would
n
bread alone regulated wages, so he
vo
cheese-room or his cellar, but he
Not
uh atoucha nto otc hisob
corn
u nenmityr house,
nand
his
took his torch and applied it to his wheat stacks, and
set fire to them, in order to make corn scarce, and
thereby raise wages. I think the doctrine of the
Morning Post may hereafter be called the philosophy
of the lucifer match.—(Loud cheers and laughter.)
But
si to be transported
ther imes
term
of the onf cato propagate the
fordoctrines
Australia. Now,
I want to ask you seriously what the difference is in
anes L ash:s Morning
r,ni itiig naturalseep m
life,ost
in
principle—for I know the law makes a very great
difference—between creating an artificial
scarcity, by
preventing that corn, which the Almighty has •
given
to the nations of the world, and has spread over the
whole surface of the earth in bountiful abundance,
from coming into the country, unnaturally obstruct-
ing the supply, and making it •scarce by burning
Farmer Hobbes's stacks ?—(Cheers.) Their plea, in
both cases, is the same. The law-makers, who make
a law to keep out American corn, say they do it to
keep up wages. James Lancaster made the same
confession of faith, on the treadmill, to his fellow
prisoner, while the gaoler of the prison was
pretending. to be asleep ; and where is the
difference in effect between the two principles ?
The effect is the same on the poor starving
wretch who wants food and cannot get it,
because of this law, as if that want was caused by the
burning down of Farmer Hobbes's corn-stacks. And
I suspect that, in the sight of Heaven, half of the men
who support the corn•lavvs, will stand acquitted less
than James Lancaster.—(Loud cheers, several times
renewed.) Yes, I repeat it; the men who know
what they are doing—and many men who support the
system do know, and can see the consequences of
what they are doing, for a selfish object—are more to
blame than that poor wretch, if he was sincere in the
object he avowed he had for his crime.--(Cheers.)
You have heard from our worthy chairman that
though we are departing, though we are taking our
leave of you, and like another class of performers on
this stage, we are going into the provinces—yet, do
not believe that we intend to be idle during our ab-
sence from the metropolis. And we hope we may
leave with a conviction that those friends of the
cause who have constantly attended our meetings,
will not, in their individual capacities, either. as poll-

and experience can only be gained by time. What is
experience to one class of the community is not so to
another; while some are already convinced it may
require another cycle of years to prove to all
classes of the community that the corn-law is an
evil which presses down the energies of the nation.
We began our organisation five or six years ago in
the midst of unparalleled manufacturing distress.
That distress was said to arise from a sudden scarcity
of food ; creating an artificial famine. I would ask,
whether the price of wheat, rising forty-five or fifty
-,er cent in some instances, was not sufficient to de-
range the whole commerce of the country ? We were
told of joint-stock banks, of speculation—of a market
being closed to us somewhere in Central Asia, and
all sorts of things ; but it was denied that a scarcity
of corn had anything to do with the manufacturing
distress. Well, we came round again to a time when
l'rovidence in His bounty gave a plentiful supply of
corn. We came to that period w hen there was a
comparatively natural price of corn—not probably,
entirely natural, but nearly natural, and the conse-
quence w as a continued, rapid, and steady rise in the
prosperity of the manufacturing districts. And you
have seen that just in proportion as the price of pro-
visions, and the cost of the first necessaries of life
din:inished in the country, so did the condition of every
man in the manufacturing, mercantile, and commercial
community tend to rise into comparative prosperity. We
are now coming to a time when, unless the elements do
now at a most critical moment greatly disappoint us.
We are now coining to a time, and within six months,
when we shall have an opportunity of appealing to
the farmer whether the last three years of his ex-
perience of the corn-laws have not been sufficient to
satisfy him that protection to agriculture, as it is
called, has been any protection to him. I say, unless
the elements do not greatly disappoint us, we have on
the earth's surface—we have in these islands, such an
abundant crop of wheat, which, if all gathered, will,
in my firm conviction, in six months, bring down the
price of wheat lower than it would be if we had
a perfectly free trade in corn. How will the
farmer be situated ? There will be a rebound—a re-
action from famine and distress—amongst the manu-
facturers—a re-action—a retribution brought home
to the farmer himself—and how wilt he like that
position? Will the landlord tell him to wait for a
year or two when he would have prices up again ?
Why, what will the farmer say ? We had prices up
before, and you put up our rents, and we had those
rents to pay when prices were low ; but the very fact
of our having high prices and scarcity for three years
has caused distress and ruin to our customers ; and
when we are now blessed with plenty, our customers
are without the means of consuming our produce.
And if the farmers have that intelligence, which I
would fain Ove them credit for, they would
say to the landlord, The remedy you pro-
pose for our distress—another scarcity—another
artificial famine—will only prepare the way for
future distress, by again ruining the customers on
whom we depend, when we are again blessed with a
plentiful harvest. Now, Ladies and Gentlemen, a
great deal has been said about the condition of the
agricultural labourer at the present moment. He is
said to be badly off. The monopolists speak of it as
though it was something new for the agricultural
labourer to be badly off. I am prepared to maintain
that when we in the manufacturing districts were
badly off—during the three years of high prices and
continued scarcity—the agricultural labourer was
then as badly off as the manufacturing labourer was ;
but owing to a sudden climax of distress occurring in
the north of England, a cry was raised in that densely
populated district, which stifled the cry that would
have sprung from the agricultural districts, if no such
agitation bad occurred in the north. I mention this,
mind you, with an eye to official documents. The
proof is to be found in the poor-rates. The poor-rates
increased in the agricultural counties more in propor-
tion in the dear year than they did in Lancashire, or
the West Riding of Yorkshire themselves. The
agricultural labourer never benefited by a scarcity of
food. The farmer may, perhaps, when there is a
scarcity, by selling his corn for a higher price, be
benefited for a year or two, but the agricultural
labourer never can. No working population, in any
country, can ever by possibility be benefited by giving
to that country an artificial scarcity of the first neces-
sary of life. Now we are taking our leave of
you to. night, and turning our back upon this scene.
We shall drop the curtain for at least six months. It
may be well before we leave, for us to anticipate a
little as to what we may expect will be going on
during the next six months in the two sections of the
community, the agricultural and the manufacturing.
Now, in the manufacturing districts, if provisions re-
main at the moderate price which they were even last
year, but especially if the present harvest should be
favourably gathered in, then the prices must come
down, and in that case you will hear of great activity
in all the branches of our manufactures. You will
hear of great activity in the iron districts and amongst
the manufactures of cotton, in woollen, and linen—
and you will hear of great activity in the shipping
ports, and amongst the home traders generally. You
will hear of strikes for advance of wages, when only,
three years ago thousands and tens of thousands of la-
bourers were asking for work on the roads, and ob-
tained subsistence only from the parishes. We have
already had two strikes in Lancashire; both of which
have been successful.--(Loud cheers.) The spinners
in two places have struck for an advance of wages, and
they got it. (This sentence was received with a loud
and lengthened burst of cheering, intermingled with
cries of "Bravo, bravo.") I say "bravo" too.—
(Cheering.) I have always given this advice to the
operatives of the north—" Never strike when provisions
are up—when wheat is 708. the quarter—because, if
you do, you will not succeed. Wait until wheat
comes down to 455. or 505., and you will never fail."—
(Hear.) You will hear what we have lately heard
of workmen being brought before the magistrate for
suddenly leaving their employment, and those men
saying—" Well, I'll pay the fine if I can get better
work elsewhere." You will hear less of pauperism,
less of crime, and less of disease and mortality in the,
manufacturing districts. You will find "Mechanics
Institutions" thriving and increasing in number.
Lyceums will be established, and book clubs will be
extensively formed. I see that in Lancashire in one
town upwards of 100 fresh members have been added
to the Mechanics' Institution in one week.—(Loud
cheers.) To-morrow there will be a public meeting
in Manchester, with the Mayor in the chair, to devise
the means of raising a public subscription to lay out
a park and pleasure-grounds for Manchester.—
(Hear.) You will find the energy and activity
of the masters and the middle-classes of
Manchester exerted for the extension of education.
You will find similar institutions to the Athenaeum
established, together with others for promoting reli-
gious and scientific pursuits—you will find the manu-
facturers giving to moral objects that energy and
exertion which, during the last three years, have been
obliged exclusively to be devoted to the miserable
question of getting bread enough for the people.
That is what is to be seen now in the manufacturing
districts, and do not let our enemies say that "these
Leaguers have been false prophets." We told them
four years ago that high prices of provisions, or
rather unnatural prices—for we care not about high
prices, if they are natural prices—that unnatural
prices of food caused our distress; and we told them
that a more natural supply of food would cure the
evil. Already they find that we have been true pro-
phets. Now what is going on in the agricultural
districts? Some of the farmers are selling wheat in
the country markets at from 40s. to 455. a quarter.
Ere long we shall hear of the farmers rising up in all
parts of the country and proclaiming their unparal-
leled distress. 'Why are they distressed? Because
they have been bargaining to pay rents, calculating
wheat at 645. per quarter, and selling it at 40s. to
455. They trusted to a law which can for a time
cause a scarcity price of corn ; but it is not in
the nature of things that it can .permanently main-
tain it. What will the landlords say to them? Now
that is a thing I should not like to turn prophet upon.
—(Cheers.) I should not like t,) venture to predict
what the Central Agricultural Society for the Protec-
tion of Agriculture will say in November or Decem-
ber next, when its members are scattered over the
country, and have to face the farmers to explain what
they have been doing in Parliament. Will they
throw it all on Sir Robert Peel, think you ? Will
they propose to set up Stanley in his place ? They
must find some new "dodge."—(Laughter.) My
dependence is upon the intelligence of the
farmers, who have had their wits ground on the stone
of adversity, and I believe that they all begin to doubt
the efficacy of this so-called protection. They will
see that this protection is only to give the farmer
higher prices for his corn, in order that he may pay
higher rents. The fanner is now selling his corn at
a price lower probably than it would be if there was
a free trade in corn. What excuse will the political
landlords use to these farmers? They have admitted
that they cannot by Act of Parliament secure high
prices, and I take credit to myself for having extracted
that eonfession from them.—(Cheers.) They have
declared that they cannot secure a price for corn to
the farmers, and the farmers should turn round and
say—" We cannot secure you your rent."—(Loud
cheers.) The landlords most likely will say to the far-
mers, proportion in your
" Oh, rent forms so small a
havek
o m p e
lt
ae t
hxoewt
elrhyis:
rtttiheini
lgsati
oihqdil)peudgt
hfsorobest rteeaeacrsis
saga:
because
assreanearrtdn.
thfecaoaretrl
htSt
fo'aehohlverftaeetßrol
yrldrreoti
antht ytews
rhoeeounnfwat t
farmer
yrliaisnceeh
t
e
outgoings, that if you had land rent-free you could
x
nt
hoetyc
olq ‘nu
growslahy ryt:pe rat
ahyboes
of
uMws
bushels, he pays but one pound. Now, this was as-
suming that the farmer grew wheat and sold it all the
year round. I am sorry to say—and as a farmer's
son I am ashamed to say it—that nine-tenths of the
farmers belit.-ve this statement of the Morning Post,
and they believe anything the landlords tell them:
But I tell the farmer, and a good many of them are
rather inquisitive as to what we say here—l tell the

mons a body of representatives sufficiently compact,
well-principled, and decided, as to make it impossible
for any monopolist fiction, '\Vhig or Tory, again to
govern this country. And if le influence of this
movement was visible in the political parties of the
Legislature, it might assuredly be traced, broadly and
distinctly, in the public mind. In the world's his-
tory no subject of a similar nature had, ever been so
variously and ably elucidated ; and he believed, in
consequence, no subject had been so generally under-
stood, or so well appreciated, as that of free-trade.
He would put the meetings that had been held there
in evidence, the kind of topics and arguments in
I which the audiences had manifested a lively interest,
and the quick response that had been given
to points which, some few years ago, would have
been a matter of hesitation eien to the great mass of
educated men. Of political economy it might be
said now, as it was said of philosophy of old, that it
had been brought down to the habitations of men, to
mingle with the every-day thoughts of the great
mass of the population ; and as public in-
telligence was thus generated, it must soon
banish utterly from the world the prejudices, and
sophisms, and falsehoods, by which mankind had
hitherto been deluded. How short a time was it
since the two rival statesmen, Pit and Fox, made the
world ring with their conflicts; and it was a matter
of question which of the two was the most pro-
foundly and utterly ignorant of the doctrines of
political economy. And now there could not
be a lisping dandy sent down as a candi-
date for a pocket borough, for the purpose
of representing his own relations, but he must
be crammed for the occasion from the works of Adam
Smith—Mr.Cayley's edition.—(Cheers and laughter.)
A people thus instructed, could not be trifled with ;
and it was a proud boast for the League, that to-
gether with intellect, and exertion, and acquire-
ments, it had been the means of diffusing throughout
the country a spirit of intellectual independence
also.—(Hear, hear.) Whenever he found a dis-
position to break through that gross servility
which had so long been a stain on a great
part of the people of this country ; when he found a
disposition to call things by their right names, how-
ever plausible might be the appellation by which they
were distinguished ; when he saw the same standard of
right and wrongapplied to the high and low; when he
saw the peer judged by the same principle that was
applied to the peasant; when he found a desire to bear
testimony to the value of great and wise prin-
ciples, and a lively sympathy felt in the
wants and wrongs of the poor and helpless
classes—in all this he saw the influence exercised by
the Anti-Cern-law League, spreading throughout the
different classes of society a determination to work
out the right and to put down the wrong, by peaceful,
and legal, and honourable, but certain means, the suc-
cess of which would be a noble consolation and en-
couragement to the minds of those who originated
this institution, which had been the instrument of
diffusing these principles throughout the country.
They had evidence of that—evidence which they
would not shrink from looking fairly in the face. It
was continually brought up that the League had lost
several important elections. They were taunted with
this by the public journals. It was said that they
dared not show themselves in several boroughs, and
contest them. They had not been able to contest
Cirencester and Horsham. Well, now he (Mr. Fox)
held that no evil at all. He believed it to be a real
good; that a cause like this should have such corn-
plaints was not at all surprising. There were a
vast number of persons who had not been hitherto
connected with political agitation, not accustomed to
long and toilsome processes which must be gone
through for achieving any great work of social or po-
litical improvement. He held it to be , a great good
that the minds of the people should be dispossessed of
such a notion that they had only to tell the people
what was true and right, and then that there would
be a speedy and complete triumph. If these elections
had resulted differently, what would have been the ef-
fect on a great portion of those who had for the first
time in their lives joined in any political agitation
when they became connected with the League? Why
the lesson would have been that opinion was free ;
that action was free • that there was no intimidation
at elections ;no bribery ;no active sinister influence
to pervert the consciences of voters and drag them to
the polling booth to vote against their interests and
against their feelings. That was the lesson so easy a
triumph would have inculcated, but that lesson would
have been a gross falsehood.—(Hear, hear.) It would
have seemed by such a result that monopoly was
ready to give up the contest without making a despe-
rate and unscrupulous effort; that class interests
would have struck, and readily yielded to the voice of
public opinion, and that they might not have appre-
hended from it a tooth and nail resistance and a
struggle to the death. That lesson would have been
taught, and that lesson, too, would have been a gross
falsehood. It would have been judged by such a re-
sult that party spirit had subsided ; that having
learned wisdom and rectitude, the aristocracy would
not, for the sake of pragmatically asserting some ill-
grounded political theory, have further persevered in
their opposition, but would have yielded to the voice of
justice, but that result, too, would have been a false-
hood. It would have appeared by such results that
the present arrangements were all-sufficient for the
rights and interests of society, and that the arrange-
ments of elections, and all the electoral and political
machinery connected with them, were as good as could
be imagined—all that could be desired ; that lesson,
too, would have been a gross falsehood.—(Hear, hear.)
Those who cried out defeat, therefore, cried out pre-
maturely. The opposition they had experienced had
disciplined the public mind, and would eventually
most powerfully tend towards the interests of the en-
tire community.--(Loud cheers.) For those who
pointed with exultation and scorn to such results as
he had mentioned, he would say they laughed too soon.
The people were organising and combining in an agi-
tation which nothing could resist, and the elements of
that agitation were, education, instruction in the first
principles of political economy ; and when such an
education was perfected, and when the energies of
such a people were directed towards one point, when
they were put forward in sustaining one mighty prin-
ciple, their force would be resistless, and the founda-
tion of the national character would be laid, and of the
greatness and prosperity of the empire. Another
thing the nation had done, and which was well worth
doing, it had unmasked the monopolist class.
Every one knew the features of that class
now, and they could never
„be disguised
again. There was a mystification at a parallel
recently introduced between peers and men of station
and persons of an humbler class, as if a different
blood ran in the veins of the lord from that which
flowed in the veins of the peasant, and it was only
when free trade principles came into that constant
and close discussion which they had been recently
doomed to undergo, that those feudal associations
were proved to be all fallacies; that in reality this
lordly class was as much a trading class as if they
kept shops in Cheapside, and that coronets were only
emblems of the quantity of acres and the numbers of
quarters of corn which they grew.—(Hear.) Yes) they
were traders, wholesale traders, in land and in corn.
They were traders in food for all sorts of beings, from
the loaf which a man eats to the seed which the
canary bird picks in his cage.—(Cheers.) They
traded in fish and in pheasants. They traded in
ground for gambling booths and in race-courses.—
(Renewed cries of " Hear, hear," and cheers.) They
lost money on races themselves, and then brought in
Bills to suspend the payment. They traded in stars
and in garters, especially in blue ones; but what was
worst of all they traded in legislation, by which the
peasant was made more miserable, and converted
into a source of profit.—(Hear, hear, and loud cheers.)
Yes, they were hucksters, with the power of law-
makers, for the enhancement of their prices.—(Hear,
hear.) There was a great outcry raised against the
petty linen-draper who taught his 'prentice boy to
shave the ladies, whilst those noble legislators
did infinitely worse, for they shaved the nation, and
much closer, too, than the poor linen-draper.—(Great
laughter and cheers.) Their fallacies had been ex-
posed, and if they had not been the original authors
or the real patrons of the doctrines of the Morning
Post, there was an immediate connection between
them, as Mr. Cobden had well remarked. It watAicth.
doctrine—rick-burning in practice, was
, only
hear,"
i
mondism in theory. —(Loud cries of
be Hear,a
completer
and great cheers.) There notcould ,
parallel than that between Ricb mondism and rick-
burning. If the one wantonly destroyed property,
so did the other.—(Hear, hear.) If the one endan-
gered human life, why, human life was worse
than endangered, and that, by wholesale by those
abominable starvation laws. If some rick-burners
innocently suffered, why, so did a very large class of
the community, and most of all those who were poorest
and most helpless. If the one destroyed the gifts of
Heaven, so did the other.—(Loud cries of " Hear.")
A much larger quantity of corn, than the fires of
Suffolk, and of the adjoining counties, had consumed,
had, in the course of recent years, been suffered to rot
under lock and key, had rotted in bond, and had been
at last shovelled into the river.—(Loud cries of
o Hear, hear.") Why, had not that been the case at
hull within a few months ago ?—(Hear, hear.) Then
where was the mighty difference ? In the elements
of destruction, why should that be wicked which de-
stroyed corn by fire, and that be virtuous
which destroyed corn by water ?—(Hear, hear.)
Even without reference to that more awful tribunal
which had been appealed to that evening, he believed
they would not escape their punishment either, and if
the incendiary were transported for life, the future
historian of this country would consign to the detes-
tation of posterity those selfish law-makers. In an-
other way the League had exposed the monopolist
class. It had elicited their virtue.—(Laughter.) It
had stimulated them to philanthropy, for how bene-
volent of late had they shown themselves? The ques-
tion of the distress of the poor was in constant agita-
tion. Every political section set up some beneficent

advance- ouraanseoras citizens, fail in doing what they can to
great cause, by spreading information,
and loOkin g after their own and their neighbours' re-
gistraf tcro, and disseminating sound information in
every :possible way. As soon as this system is
thor,suguly understood by the people, there will be
noY.tifference of opinion about it, and we are coming
to the time when men will be taking credit to them-
seisms for having always been free traders. We all
kncsw that Clarkson began his agitation for the aboli-
tio n of the slave trade in 1786, and devoted himself
-and, if it had been necessary, his life—to the ac-
e omplishment of his holy object; and I say it to the
honour of the town where I reside, that it was in
:Manchester he called the first public meeting that
was held for the consideration of the slave trade. He
was at work for twenty years before he accom-
plished his object; and when the slave trade
was abolished, the conflict was renewed to put down
the institution of slavery itself; but it was twenty-
six years before the great work was accomplished.
And now when the work is accomplished, and when
there is no sinister interest to offeed in advocating
the principle of freedom to the negro, we see the men
who, when these benevolent men were labouring to
accomplish their object, voted against them on every
occasion, even against the abolition of the flogging of
woenen, going down to Exeter Hall and singing paeons
over the freedom of the negros in the West Indies.—
(A voice, "Hypocrites," Hear, hear.) And may it
not happen perchance, that a few years hence—per-
haps not a very long time either—the very men who
now oppose us in a cause as holy in its nature, as be-
neficial in its consequences, as heavenly in every
property as the abolition of slavery itself, will,
ere long, look back and say—the League
accomplished this great work ! Then. they will at-
tend our meetings, and take credit for being free
traders, and, by means of their envoys and ambassa-
dors, they will spread free trade principles through-
out every nation of the world! Be it so! We will
not deny them any honour they wish to participate
in—and we, who have taken a prominent part in this
agitation shall be forgotten.—(" Never !" and cheers.)
We may, at least, believe that we have left some me-
morial of our existence on the earth, by having con-
tributed something to securing the peace, the pros-
perity, and the happiness of our fellow-creatures.—
(Loud and long-continued cheering.)
Mr. W. J. Fox then came forward, and was re-
ceived with loud applause. Ile said—Their excellent
Chairman had introduced the business of the meeting
by describing to them the operations carried on by
Council of the League throughout the length and
breadth of the land, the object of which was
to prepare a better and more complete
registration, and to lead the way to such
an electoral effort on the first opportunity of choosing
a new Parliament as might secure the success of the
cause of free trade. These operations, quietly con-
ao st eh e
uffgo
hr tsf
wrwLa
lhheadeai ctngf
time
et
el:
there
theyhare
ese
sstehdwt
oehmeauendel
dte_imt
ytnhohgesa ttsv
timeew ctrhoe
ernoaess
deptt
that
caioeuntpeo
ea
suttrhhsae
ducted, were as material to the advance of their cause
aasndth
yetAe
pon sttti to-crmo
trohnrer. oiHavv:,
tions going on throughout the whole country would
prepare for a season that would show as obviously as
at the present moment, that the League was all alive
—(Cheers)—and that its supposed death was so often
proclaimed, that those who got their information from
no other source, must think its ghost still walked the
world, working wondrous mischief. These men
would find that its death was but an assumed one, like
that of the seed which the farmer put into the ground
and covered up and buried there, but which, by the
immutable laws of Divine Providence, was germi-
nating, and in due time would spring up ; and for
them, as for that seed, the harvest-time would come,
with a full ingathering of that glorious fruit, for
which, as men, they had toiled and laboured in these
years of struggle.—(Loud cheers.) But the League
need not be judged either by the operations carried
on apart from public observation, or by that future
on which it relied in the strength and certainty of
their principles, and for which, as Mr. Cobden had
that night predicted, the coming months would bring
the surest of all tests. But not by the unseen or the
future need the exertions of those be tried who
formed this League, and contributed largely to its
success. And his purpose that night in ad-
dressing them was, to advert to the memo-
rials which the League had already created for
itself, and which need not be explored like
hieroglyphics, but which were written broadly,
on the face of the county, and which would form ma-
terials for the pages of the future historian. In every
direction he found some impress of what the League
had done. The few years it had existed had been
marked by two Administrations of the Government of
he country, and both the great political parties had
shown in their policy the influence exercised by the
free trade agitation. It had modified the policy of
the late Administration, although it was then in its
youth ; though at first the head of that Ministry was
disposed to treat as the merest madness the talk of
the repeal of the corn-laws ; yet what but that, at the
close of his administration served him and his col-
leagues to lay hold of, as the most graceful thing on
which they could retire from office ? They fell by
that, and in so doing made their fall more honourable
than had been much of their existence in power.
—(Hear, hear.) And they had their recompence
too • it was the progress which the free
trade agitation had made at that period, which
caused Lord J. Russell to be returned as Member for
the City of London, and that gave him now his
chance of returning to office, provided he would carry
out the principles on which he held his seat, and
possessed his prospects of office. A fixed duty might
serve the Whigs to fall by, but they could only
rise by a total repeal.—(Loud cheers.) The in-
fluence of the free trade agitation on the Ministry
which succeeded it, and on its policy, was even yet
more marked. The men who were in office now,
had been for ten years consolidating their party on
the principle of no change, no infringement, no
surrender of the corn-laws, on which they would
yield not a jot or a tittle. It was for this they
rallied their strength, for this it was that they resisted
every attempt at movement made by those who then held
office, for this it was they moved a vote of want of
confidence in that party, which effected their over-
throw. What was the language of Sir R. Peel, on
the first of those great divisions by which the Whigs
were expelled from office, he meant when they intro-
duced their Budget of 1841, and when Lord Sandon's
motion on the sugar-duties gave a blow to the Whig
Ministry from which it was never able afterwards to
recover ? When they gave symptoms of resigning,
and of resigning too by making an appeal to
the people, Sir Robert Peel taunted them with
resigning on a mere fiscal question ; he
said no Government need resign on a mere
fiscal question, yet within three years he was
beaten by his own party on this very question of the
sugar-duties, and he only reduced that party again to
allegiance by threatening to resign unless that vote
was rescinded.—(Loud cheers.) On the motion of
Lord Sandon, in May, 1841, Sir R. Peel spoke thus;
he was then looking forward to the change which ha
obviously become inevitable, and he said, "I am not
contemplating a re-accession to office, on principles
with regard to the corn-laws, other than those I have
maintained in opposition. You ask me then how is it
possible I can consent to any relaxation in our conl-
, mercial relations, if I am still to maintain the corn-
laws. You say that now this is the master interest,
and that it is utterly impossible there can be any revi-
sion of our tariff, or any relaxation of our commercial
code, without also making a revision of the corn-laws.
I utterly deny that proposition ; I say that Mr. Hus-
kisson would have spurned the proposition that a revi-
sion of our commercial system was inconsistent with
the maintenance of the present system of the corn-
laws." Such was the language addressed to the mono-
polist Parliament, in 1841. It was then modified for
the purpose of election and hustings speeches, and
when the new Parliament was called, the new Minis-
try was formed; and within fifteen months from the
time pf this 'very declaration utterly denying the
proposition that it was impossible to revise the tariff
without also revising the cern-laws, Sir R. Peel hinae
self revised the tariff and the cern-laws together, to
the utter astonishment of those who placed bim in
Downing-street.—(Cheers.) And whence came all
these unexpected measures ? Whence this new
tone, but from this cause—that public opinion was so
influenced by this agitation that Sir R. Peel felt it
clsosteon
laays
outthe
onohpe wasolist
body,
some lines in another direction, and claim as much
prudent, notwithstanding
of
thegreat monopolist
credit as he could for following a free-trade policy—
that he might be enabled to boast that he had, within
one year, done more to relax commercial restrictions
than the opposite party had effected in the whole ten
years they were in office, thus making himself, too, a
monument of the influence of this anti-corn-law
agitation.—(Hear, hear, and cheers.) Mr. Cobden,in the House of Commons, in reference to his
own success as the leader of this movement,
might use the language inscribed on the monument
of the great architect, Sir Christopher Wren, in St.
Paul's Cathedral, where the spectator is told if
,he
seeks the monument, to " look around him.
(Cheers.) A certain foreigner, whose taste was not
exactly hit by the form of the dome of St. Paul 5,
I see only
once remarked, " I do look around, and y
one great fool's cap." When Mr. Cobden looked
Commons, he might
around him in the House of Comm t
s' caps, one for the leader of the Ministry,
tion foole
caps, fitting the heads of those who had perception
and agood principle,
see the influence of the League there, in !o great
fool
the other for the leader of the Opposition—fools
enough to see a great, a wise,
in legislation, i throwng
themselves on the good sense,
and on the true in-
terests of the people for support. He had further to
observe, that in a short period of time, though
but lacked the consistency, and the npral courage_
to adopt, and carry it out
with, free-trade had obtained in the House of Com-
the League had had immense difficulties to struggle