The Sun.
London, England, 1850-05-08 00:00:00

MOTIONS.
.. _

The SPEAKER called on several Hon. Members by
name who had notices on the paper, but none of those
mentioned answered.

There seemed to be an understanding on all sides of
the House to avoid entering upon any business which
might lead to a prolonged discussion.
ORDERS.

The orders of the day were then called on.
The Committee on the Wood used in Ship-building
Bill was postponed.
The Benefices in Plurality Bill as amended, was con-
sidered, read a second time, and ordered to be committed.
The Committee on the Elections (Ireland) Bill was
understood to be postponed until to-morrow (this day).
The House then adjourned, amid some cheering, at
near Half-past Eight o'clock.

NATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR
THE PROTECTION OF INDUSTRY AND
CAPITAL.
A general meeting of the delegates from all parts of
the country was held at the Crown and Anchor Tavern,
Strand, yesterday, the Duke of Richmond in the
chair, to consider the present condition of agriculture
and other interests.
Upon the platform we observed Mr. Bennet, 1.P.,
Colonel Sibthorp, M.P., Mr. Christopher, M.P., the
Marquis of Downahire, Earl Stanhope, Earl of Maloaes-
bury, Mr. Wortley, M P
---- e Sir John Trollope,
M.P., Mr.
Packe, M.P., Mr. Forbes Meckenzie, M.P., the Earl of
Eglinton, Sir Charles Burrell, M.P., the Earl Talbot,
Mr. G. F. Young, &c. &c.
The room was crowded to excess in every part.
The Duke of RICHMOND, who took the chair amidst
loud cheers, said he would take the liberty of addressing
a few observations to the meeting, as there were perhaps
few who were better aware than he was of the necessity
of imposing moderate import duties. It was said they
were trying a great experiment, and that they
should give sufficient time to test its applica-
bility to the circumstances of this country. Now
he contended that the experiment had been tried,
and that it had signally failed, and if continued the result
would be the ruin of landlords and tenants. They had
assembled there that day to hear an account of the pre-
sent state of agriculture from deputies from different
parts of the country. There could be no doubt
that distress was prevalent, but still he hoped,
by the perseverance of the farmers, redress and justice
would sooner or later be obtained. He hoped the ex-
pressions which would be made use of to-day would
show that they were all loyal to the Crown, and strongly
attached to the constitution of the country.—(Cheers.)
Mr. BOOKEH then came forward to propose the first
resolution:—
" That the difficulty and intolerable distress pervading
the agricultural, and other great interests of the country,
and the state of deprivation and suffering to which large
masses of the industrial population are reduced, are, in
,
the opinion of this meeting, fraught with consequences
the most disastrous to the public welfare, and, if not
speedily remedied, must prove fatal to the maintenance
of public credit
even plat* in peril the sieety of the state."
will endanger the public peat©, and may
Every one would agree that Great Britain and Ireland,
and our dependencies,
were in a most unsatisfactory con-
dition, and therefore it was no wonder that discontent
should generally prevail. He would assume three pro-
positions—first, that the agricultural interest was
the most
that it was in a state of great and greatly increasing
important interest in the state; secondly,
depreciation; and, thirdly, that the depression was wea-
-1 sinned and aggravated by the adoption and continuance
of the altered policy of the country which now pre-
vailed. The two first propositions would be conceded
everywhere, and as to the third, he hoped they were all
agreed.—([lons, hear, and cheers.) No one present
would venture to deny that the disasters, troubles,
and difficulties of their position were to be attributed
to that vile and suicidal
policy called free trade.--
(Loud cheers.) It had been said that a symptom of
prosperity
was cheapness of the necessaries of life and
cheapness of the skill and labour of men, but how came
it that with cheapness, distress now existed. why,
Mr. Huskisron, who was the great autho-
rity of the Free-traders geld that nothing could
be more delusive than to suppose that cheapness
of food was always a benefit, but, on the contrary, when
unaccompanied with a demand for labour, it was a sign
of distress. Then it was said that free trade had not
had a fair trial. He held in his hand a return of ins-
ports and exports, which showed that the home con-
sumption of cotton had decreased as much as 30 percent. IVns that a proof that the promises
of Free-traders had been or were likely
to be fulfilled? Had free trade, also, not had a fair trial
in the colonies,
and had not nearly every interest in
those countries be almost ruined ?—(Cheers.) And
what had been the effect of free trade in Ireland? Why,

the wretched condition:of the people in that country, and
the unfortunate position of the landlords, showed that, so '
ear as the Iris's were concerned, free trade
had had a sufficient trial. And what then
was the means by which they sought to ameliorate the
condition of the egriculterel population ? A return to a
system of protection—(Cheers)—and it was only by
combination and by energetic and unceasing exertions
that they would be enabled to attain that end. For his
own part he was reedy to subscribe his hundred or his
thousand pounds, if necessary, in support of the cause.
The Hun. Gentleman, after delivering a tirade against
the. free-trade party and Sir Robert Peel, concluded by
proposing the resolution.
Mr. CIOULER, from Nottingham, in seconding the
resolution, stated that the wages of labourers in his part
of the country had been reduced frcim 123. to .10s., and
in some instances to 95.; but this was not' all, for, in
consequence of piece work being done :away with, the
average reduction in their wages was about 4s. a
week. In Leicestershire, where there were not
many labourers, the farmers had been impo-
verished. He, of course, expected to find perfection
on the estates of Sir:Robert Peel—(llisses and groans)—
ho expected to find the labourers on his Kingsbury estate,
close to Drayton Manor, well housed and well fed,
but instead of that he ,found that steps had been taken
to depopulate the parish of the 'labouring popu-
lation. (Loud laughter.) He was astonished
that the Times' Commissioner had not been
there.—(Laughter.) But that was not the worst of the
matter, for he found that on Sir Robert Peel's estates
the Irish had superseded the English labourer—(Hisses)
—because they worked for less wages, and put up
with accommodation in outhouses. So there was a
system going on on that gentleman's estate to reduce
the English labourers to the condition of the Irish labou-
rers. But he would go to another lion's den. He alluded
to Mr. Villiers, M.P., who, it would be recollected, said
at the beginning of the session that ninety-one millions
had been saved to the country by the reduction in the
price of the necessities of life. Now he found that at
Wolverhampton the poor-rates in 1842 had not amounted
to half the sum which they had reached in 1850; so it
was pretty clear that the constituents of that gentle.
man did not obtain much advantage•by that saving.—
(Cheers.) The fact was that free trade measures had
resulted in benefit to one class alone. Great agitation
existed among the labouring population connected with
the cultivation of the soil; they might prevent any die.
turbance breaking out before harvest, but was it not
likely that they would combine and determinedly assert
their rights?—(Cheers.) The farmers were determined
to do their utmost to obtain redress; they would
mount their horses for the purpose, if neces-
sary, and if the landlords would stick to them
they would stick to the landlords.—(Loud cheers.) He
always regarded rent as a private bargain between in-
dividuals, and he would not find fault with his
landlord or landlords generally, because he thought
they were the best friends of the people;
but he thought they left teo much to the farmers in the
present period of difficulty.—(Cheers.) Sir Robert Peel
--(Groans)—had said that the food of the labourer
ought not to be taxed, but he found that there were
taxes on cheese, coffee, butter, and a aczen other articles
of food, which realised as much as 13,000,0001.; and
taking the duty on tobacco, which was chiefly
consumed by the working classes, they had
had a round SUM of 18,000,0001, or one-third of the
revenue of the country. The duty on malt was another
unjust imposition on the agricultural interest. He next
alluded to the Exhibition of 1851, which he said would
prove to be a failure, and would be very injurious to the
country by taking money out of it; because, if foreigners
brought articles of pro:Suction from distant parts of the
world, it was not likely they would terse them back again.
tie did not know how Lord Stanley, who was one of
the eommissiooers for that exhibition, would come out
of it unscathed, though ho must confess he had great
confidence in him.—(Cheers.) He concluded by ob-
serving th't if some alterations were not made in our
present policy, it would be perfectly impossible to pre-
serve the preiliesof the country.—(Clacers.)
The resolution was then put and carried by accia-
ma!ion.

Mr. BALL, of Burwell, Cambridgeshire, proposed the
next resolution :—" That the indifference with which
the just complaints of the people have been received by
the House of Commons, its disinclination to adopt any
measures for removing or alleviating the existing dis-
tress, and the want of sympathy which it exhibited to
the sufferings of the people,. have, produced a widely-
diffwe I feeling of disappointment, discontent, .and -dis-
trust, which is fast undermining their reliance on the
justice and wisdom of Parliament, which is the best
security for the loyalty to the Throne, and the
maintenance of the invaluable institutions of the country."
He observed they had not fallen in consequence of the
speeches of Cobden, the influence of the League, or the
treachery of a Peel, but because the aristocracy and
landlords who are all-powerful, and had the unanimous
voice of the oountry in their favour, had sacrificed them
to the discordant principles of demagogues and traitors,
instead of upholding. as they ought to have done, the
yeomanry of England.—(Cheers.)
Mr. JonN .ALLIN WILLIAMS, farmer, from Wilts,
seconded the resolution, and said he had been deputed to
attend on-hehalf of that county to protest against the
treatment of her Majesty's Ministers to the agricultural
interest, because' it the present system of free trad•
here not remedied inevitable ruin would come upon
all the tenant-farmers and occupiers of land in
the kingdom.—(Cheers.) After alltiding to the results
' of his own experience as to free trade, he urgod on the
farmers the necessity of strong and united exertions with
the view of obtaining redress, quoting, amidst loud
cheers, the words of Milton—
Awake, arise, or be for ever fallen."
The resolution having been carried,

Professor AYTOLIN, of Edinburgh, who was stated to
be the writer of the Protectionist articles in Black wood's
Magazine, proposed the next resolution:—" That this
meeting attributes the depression and distress of the
agricultural, colonial, shipping, and other interests to the
rash and impolitic changes in the laws which had long
regulated the importation of foreign productions; that
it is of opinion that those laws were based on the most
just principles and dictated by the soundest policy; that,
under their salutary influences, the British nation had
attained an unexampled state of prosperity and a proud
pre-eminence in the scale of nations; and that if their
objects and spirit in fostering and protecting native in-
dustry be finally abandoned, many of the most important
interests of the state will be sacrificed, and the national
prosperity and greatness be ruinously impaired."
The resolution was seconded by. Sir MATTHEW WHITE
RIDLEY Bart., and passed nem. con.
Mr. J. ALNATT, of Wallingford, Berkshire, next pro-
posed—" That no relief from general or local taxation,
which is consistent with the maintenance of national
faith and the efficiency of public establishments, can
enable the British and colonial producer to maintain a
successful competition with foreign productions, and
that the only hope of replacing the agricultural and
other British interests, in a state of prosperity rests on
the re-establishment of a just system of import duties."
Mr. HUGEL WATiON briefly seconded the motion,
which, like the last, was carried unanimously.
It wal then agreed, on the motion of Mr. GEORGE
BODINGTON, of Sutton Coldfield, Warwickshire, se-
conded by HENRY HIGGINS, Esq., of Herefordshire—
,. That a memorial to the Right Hon. the First Lord of
the Treasury ha prepared, founded on the foregoing re-
solutions, protecting in the strongest manner against the
continuance of the present system of miscalled free
trade,' aed.solemnlY casting on the Administration, of
which his Lordship is the head, the heavy responsibility
of rejecting the appeals of the people for the abandon-
ment of that system; and that a deputation be appointed
for the purpose of presenting the same to his Lordship,
and of representing to him the present critical and
alarming position of many districts of the country."
Mr. WM. CALDECOTT of Frating Lodge, near Colches-
ter, Essex, then proposed—" That the members of the
various delegations from all parts of the United Kingdom
now present cannot separate without recording their
deep sense of the invaluable services rendered to the
cause of protection by the Noble President, the respected
chairman of the acting committee, and the other mem-
bers of the committee of the National Association, in
whom the whole agricultural community repose the most
deserved and unbounded confidence; and they earnestly
recommend to their fallow-countrymen, who desire the
restoration of protection, as the leading principle of legis-
lative policy, to support the association; and, whatever
differences of opinion may prevail on minor points,.
unitedly to follow its energetic but prudent guidance, in
the great struggle in which they are engaged."
Tho resolution was seconded by Mr. W. RIDDEN, of.
Haverfordwest, and imaged ;
And after a, vote of thanks to the Noble Duke for his
conduct in the chair, the tneeti ne• separated.