The Sun.
London, England, 1844-02-09 00:00:00

WEEKLY

ANTI-CORN-LAW LEAGUE

MEETING

AT COVENT-GARDEN THEATRE.

The weekly ireeting
of • the Anti-Corn-law League was
was
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platform •—George Wilson, Esq., Chairmain ; Hon. Charles
Pelham Villiers, M. P. ; Richard Cobden, Esq., M.P. ;
Thomas Milner Gibson, Esq., M.P. ; Sir William Baynes,
Baronet ; George Moffatt, Esq. ; Richard Moffatt, Esq. • John
;
Potter, Esq., Manchester • Richard Baxter, Esq. F. Ricardo,
Esq. ;;11. L. Ts eedale, Esq. ; ft. R. R. Moore, Esq. ; F. H.
Toone, Esq. ; John Egan, Esq. ; R. W. Cole, Esq. ; J. T.
Norris, Esq. ; John Williams, Esq. ; P. Wells, Esq. ; M. B.
Sampson, Esq. ; S. Lees, Esq., Manchester ; J. E. Parry,
Esq., North Devon ; J. B. Smith, Esq., Manchester : E. W.
Squarey, Esq., Salisbury ; A. T. Squarey, Esq., Salisbury ;
Crosby, Esq., Liverpool ; Bridges Harvey, Esq. ; J. Ero-
therton, Esq. ; Cowden Clark, Esq. ; General Sir De Lacy
Evans, K.C.R. ; W. A. Wilkinson, Esq. ; Samuel Lucas,
Esq. ; Ralph Ricardo, Esq. ; William Leaf, Esq. ; J. P.
Burnard, Esq. ; Foster, Esq ; John Lyons, Esq. ;
J. Ivimey, Esq. ; Richard Napier, Esq. ; .1. Coppock, Esq. ;
Dr. Cooke Taylor ; Francis Place, Esq. ; D. Dewar, Esq. ;
P. A. Taylor, Esq. ; -- Keeling, Esq. ; Thomas Ilodgkin,
Esq. ; J. D. Cummings, Esq. ; A. Pattison, Ems. • P. 11.
Le Breton, Esq. ; Arthur Adams, Esq. ; John M‘Leed, Esq. ;
Joseph Fletcher, Es. ; M. Andrews, Esq. ; George
Wansey, Esq. ; Ifemmant, Esq.; Alexander Morris,
Esq. ; George Moore, Eq. ; Thomas Harbuttle, Esq.,
Manchester ; Charles Lattimore, Esq., Wheathampton,
Herts ; J. B. Scott, Esq., Manchester.
The minutes of the last meeeting having been read by the
Secretary, on the motion of Mr. Leaf, seconded by Mr. S.
Lees, of Manchester, they were confirmed.
The CUAIRMAN then said—Ladies and Gentlemen, another
week had rolled away, opening up and developing events
which although, perhaps, not of a striking character, would
have no unimportant influence upon this question at some fu-
ture day.—( Hear, hear.) Parliament had been opened—her
Maje.ty's speech had been read, and he did not know whether
or not any one there present had expected that it would con.
tain an announcement that the corn-laws were to be abolished ;
but if any did he had certainly been doomed to great disap-
pointment. The Premier had stated, in his place, that it was
not his intention to make any -alteration in the corn-law ; and
a Ministerial journal said that the announcement was received
with loud cheers from a great majority of the House of Com-
mons. Now, that such should be the fact, and yet that Act'
not by
.any means overwhelm them with astonishment, could
surprise no one who had paid the slightest attention to the sub-
ject.—( Hear.) They never expected that Sir Robert Peel, as
a great statesman, was going to put forth his hand
to heal the wound which monopoly had inflicted, and was in-
flicting, on the industry of this country. They never con-
ceived that, situated as he was, placed in power by the very
parties who now told him they would remove him from power
the moment he abused the confidence they had reposed in him,
pledged to maintain their interests intact, watched en every
hand, all his speeches conned by rote to be cast into his teeth
should any change take place; they never supposed that, under
such circumstances, Sir Robert Feel would come forward and
abolish the corn-laws.—( Hear, hear.) He had consented to
serve his party, a party which a single word from him could
shatter into a thouaand fragments in a moment. Ho had con.
sented to become the instrument of a party which distrusted
him.—( Hear, hear, and loud cheers.) A party which placed
ne reliance on his word, as they might gather from the minis-
terial journals and the speeches made at the protection
meetings. It would not be long, he trusted, before
another party would rise up in this country, which
would be able to put an end to all the merles
polising factions which had ruled over it for so many ages.
—(Cheers.) Monopoly was a hard task-master ; it spared
neither young nor old, neither rich nor poor. It would -not
spare Sir Robert Peel if he consented to serve it, and became
its willing instrument, any more than it would spare those who
were its unwilling instruments. It had no respect for talents,
however high and commanding ; it exacted from all, rich and
poor, high and low, all that they could cod tribute to swell its
enormous gains, and it made no restitution on account of the
poor and the defenceless, according to the principles of mercy.
'1 he monopolists, the rent-leaguers, had, no doubt, been well
satisfied by the declarations in Parliament, and yet they had
had their field days in the country since those declarations were
made.—( Hear, hear, and a laugh.) The tenant-farmer's
farces had been acted over again during the present week.
They had seen how suddenly the tenant-farmers had become
conversant with literature, how anxious they were to engage
in correspondence with their -brethren, who were tenant-
farmers in all parts of the kingdom, and; at the same time, they
had seen that the tenant-farmers had no complaints to make at
these meetings. They had heard of special burdens on land,
hut, there appeared to be no burdens under which the farmers
were labouring, neither rent, nor tithes, nor tenure, nor any
other burden which might have been supposed to affect the
tenant-farmer. The only expressions which were heard at
these meetings were denunciations against the Anti-Corti-law
League.—( Hear.) Why the whole thing was extremely well
managed, well dressed up for stage effect • but it would scarcely
pass muster for all that.—( Hear, hear.) The hand was the
hand of Esau, whatever hand might be presented for examina-
tion. Strip any one of these meetings of all deceptive appear-
ances; take from the speakers the landlords, the parsons, the
land stewards, the bailiffs, and all those who were interested in
maintaining the present law ' • and what would be the roll of
the tenant farmers, who took part in this movement ?—( Hear,
hear.) They had had, from all the parts of the country, letters
giving them information as to these meetings. Nine out of
ten were scarcely worth notice on account of the smallness of
numbers. He had a letter in his pocket respect-
ing a meeting, in Lincolnshire, where it was said
in a morning paper, one hundred tenant-farmers were pre-
sent. The writer of this letter said he counted the parties in
the room. There were forty-nine persons. There were two
clergy men--( Laughter )—there were four lawyers—( Great
cheering)—there were six publicans—(Roars of laughter)—
there were four butchers, there was a banker, there were two
reporters and the writer, all, of course, tenant-farmers.—( Con-
tinued laughter.) The speakers were gentlemen who had
taken an interest in a meeting held on the previous day, in a
distant part of the county. The chairman was the gentleman
who, on the previous day moved the first resolution at the
other meeting ; and the gentleman who moved the first resolu•
tion at this meeting took the chair the day before.—( Loud
laughter.) There was a complete change of persons ; and
some one in the room, more indiscreet than the rest, ob-
served that " it was better that this arrangement should take
place, in order that it might appear as though it were another
meeting."—( Laughter.) That was a sample of the meetings
of which they saw such glowing descriptions in the newspapers.
—( Hear, hear.) The landlords and squires were not satisfied
with their majority in the House of Commons, or their still
greater majority in the House of Peers; but they were ob-
liged now, in acknowledgment of the power of the League,
to prepare against the next general election.—( Hear, hear,
and cheers.) They knew they were growing weaker day by
day ; that, array their forces as they might, all they could
muster were canvassers, candidates, the old electioneering Com-
mittees, and the political parties wisp were most interested in
the results of an election. They knew well enough that,
when the question was stripped of a political character, in the
counties, as in the boroughs, the landlords were in a mi-
nority.—( Cheers. ) Since they last met, there had been an
election for the borough of Devizes. Under ordinary circum-
stances it would have been held to be one of the most absurd
things in the world to contest that borough with the mono-
polists ; but Mr. Temple, a leading member of the legal
profession, and Queen's Counsel, declared that if there were
but twenty good men and true in Devizes, he would meet
them on the day of nomination, explain his opinions
in reference to free trade, and abide the result.
—(Cheers.) Mr. Temple stood, and, as was expected, lost
the election. But good seed had been sown. The monopolists
might learn, that if they contested Devizes, a town in the
middle of North Wiltshire, they would certainly contest those
boroughs where they were more likely to .he successful.—
( Hear, hear.) They would contest all boroughs.—( Immense
cheering.) They might have a Devizes next week, and next
week a Mr. Temple would be found to contest that borough on
the principles of tree trade.—( Cheers.) They knew what was
the case at Durham, at Walsall, and at Stockport ; in each of
which places the advocates of free trade, after being once re-
jected, were eventually successful.—( Loud cheers )--Sinee they
last met a number of Anti-Corn-law meetings had taken
place in some of the smaller towns in Lancashire and York-
shire, where considerable subscriptions had been received for
the League Fund. A meeting had also been held in the Town-
hall, Birmingham, to receive a deputation from the Council of
the Anti-Corn-law League. The meeting was open to all ; it
was held in the middle of the day, and 4,000 people attended ;
Mr. Cobden, Colonel Thompson, and Mr. Moore, addressed
the audience, and upwards of WV. was collected in the room
towards the great League fund.—(Cheers.) Birmingham had
now taken up its proper position, and joined the other towns
which, allied together, composed the National Anti-Corn-law
League. Everywhere independent local efforts were being
made in support of the League. They would noe'deceive
themselves, they would neither over estimate their own
strength, nor underrate the strength of those who were banded
together by interest against them ; but they knew that the
time was gradually approaching when the commerce of this
country would be unfettered, and the labour of the people re•
ceive its just reward.—( Loud cheers.) -
The Hon. C. P. ViLt.zeits, M.l'., then rose to address
the meeting. He said that when he saw the pro-
gress of their cause, he felt with the Chairman
that there was little cause for dismay, at the new
and would-be threatening attitude which their opponents had
recently assumed. If their cause were based on truth and jus-
tice, he anticipated no disadvantage from the general discus•
sion of the subject which they were inviting, and if it were
true that those who were doomed by Heaven to fall were
doomed to become foolish first, he did think that in this recent
movement their opponents had some intimation of their fate.—
( Hear. ) They were making themselves known to the coun-
try; they were telling the people who they were, and what
they were, for whom such great sacrifices hail been, and were
yet being, made, in their trade, their industry, their
wealth, and their greatness.—(Bear, hear.) They seemed to
forget how much their power was rooted in rho imaginations
of men, and how much they profited by a confusion in men's
minds between what was great and what was good—what was
rich and what was respectable. There were many who thought
that men of high station and descent would be above sacri-
ficing the interests of the community at large for their own pri-
vate purposes ; but how could these people remain longer un-
der that delusion, when these men declared, in fact, that they
would serve their own interest at the expense of every other,
and that they would, under all circumstances, adhere to a law
passed to the injury of the community at larges—( Hear, hear.)
They had now entered the lists with those whose proceedings
they had pretended to condemn, and he ventured to predict
that they had not the qualities which were essential for the
struggle.—(Cheers.) They were strong in rank • strong, it
seemed, in language ; and unless monopoly had foiled them,
they would be strong also in pecuniary means ; but, strongest
of all must they be, in thsir imagination, if they fancied that
by mere bluster, by the use of no better weapon than vulgar
diction, they could dissipate a power which had been brought
to light by necessity and a sense of wrong, and which received
its support from that indomitable love of justice which
bad ever pervaded, as he trusted it ever would per-
vade this nation.—(Loud cheers.) He believed their
opponents would first disagree and then disappear,—( Laughter. )
It was a most diverting scene, he heard, to see these great men
in their waggons and at their windows, teaching their tenants,
what it seemed they had yet to learn, how much good they had
done them, how much they had been protected by Parliament,
how prosperous they were, and, above all, what a vast advan-
tage would accrue to them from suppressirigmen who venturedtthe
to dispute these things. They had, in fact, found as .
whole machinery for maintaining monopoly vrasdgitvombge
theway,
chida d
that part of it which they distrusted mostl
b seemed
eeeLoerd told a meet-
screw of the Prime Minister. A
labourers of Essex were
,nauHderthtfeordshire that the farmers
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adiiirsenoawkthosehuotpwrictmehoe:irf
the farmers " showing their~_ls
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corn, or whether " speaking t w
)d t pretend to say.—(Laughter.l )
most wish to ma•e,
mouth which dike labtowuroeurs inno their present condition woud
lately
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League.undertaken meeting
He said—" These persons," alluding to
those who attend these meetings, are reviving a society
which arose wider Dir. Fitt; it was originated by the bloody

Jacobins of France, and these fellows who attend the League
meetings are great grandchildren of these bloody fellows.
They want to destroy the landlord in order to pick the
pocket of the 'tenant, and then send the labourer
to the devil."—( Roars of laughter.) The mildest word
applied to them was blasphemy. But there were some of
them who wanted to put down all discussion on the subject.—
( Hear hear.) Twenty-eight petitions had been presented to
the House of Commons to stop these mischievous discussions.
This reminded him of a benighted village, in which, whenever
there was a storm at night, the clergyman used to be called
up to read a chapter out of the Bible.—(Laughter.) They
had no intention of being put down; they had no idea of sur-
rendering one jot of their principle.—( Great cheering.) Their
business was simply to increase, by every means in
their power, their efforts to forward the cause.
The recent movement had thrown new light upon the
subject, and had shown what were the real grounds upon which
their enemies proceeded. The Morning Post was the faithful
organ of their views ; as such it had received many agates of
thanks at their meetings.—( Hear, hear.) On the day before
Parliament met, that journal said, " The business of farmers
is to resist, to the utmost of their power, the hypothesis that
any, supply from abroad is necessary." It further said that
the business of landlords was to take care of their own interests,
and that the agriculturists of England had a right to the mono-
poly of supplying England with food ; and that the sliding-
scale was founded on that hypothesis. This, at least, was in-
telligible language.—( Hear, hear.) The same journal ridi-
culed improvements in agriculture, on the ground that their
effect was to increase the quantity and lower the price of
corn, as well as on the ground of their expense.
He had lately heard of a new plan on the part of the monopo-
lists being started for •the maintenance of monopoly. That plan
was no other than a system of exclusive dealing. It was only
two days ago that this plan was suggested in the organ of the
Government, the Morning Herald, If any tradesmen yen-
tared to condemn the present system of monopoly, all support
was to be drawn from him in his business. Let the tradesmen
be an honest man—let him have a large family to bring up—
yet, if he dared to express his opinion in favour of free trade,
he was to be marked as a person undeserving of support in his
business. How could thesemonopolists have the face after this to
talk of the morality of the people or of their spiritual destitu-
tion ? This last attemptuf the monopolists was most odious
tyranny.—( Cheers.) The free trade party might, if they chose,
adept the same course, but he wouldnever recommend any man,
who was a friend to the cause, to pursue such an odious system.
Every man had a right to his opinion.—(Cheers.) He
trusted that this odious and detestable attempt at tyranny on
the part of the monopolists would only encourage the free
traders to fresh exertions.—( Cheers.) The monopolists,
amongst other foolish arguments, had made use of one which
had caused some sensation amongst parties who were inclined
to be free traders. They said that if the corn-laws were re-
pealed, we never could meet the demands of the public cre-
ditor. He ventured to say. that out of all the fallacies which
had been started by the monopolists, there had been none
snore worthless or groundless than this one. Did not they
hear repeatedly in the House of Lords, that they could not think
of taxing the bread of the people for revenue?—(Hear
and a laugh?) Why, how was revenue raised, but upon what
the people consumed ? And if bread were cheap, as a matter
of course they would have more money to lay out in those
articles which were taxed for the purposes of revenue. Mr.
Huskisson, in the very last speech which he made in the House
of Commons said—and his words had been prophetic—that if
the corn-laws were maintained, the only means of maintaining
public faith would be by an income-tax. How true had his
anticipations proved. To illustrate the position he had taken,
he would refer to the revenue received during three years of
scarcity and three years of cheapness. The years 18.35, 1836,
and 1837, were cheap years, and the years 1838, 1839, and
1840, were years of scarcity. In the cheap years, the ave-
rage price of corn was 475. the quarter, and during the years
of scarcity it was 675. being a difference of 40 per cent. It
must be borne in mind that during the last three years, the
population of the kingdom increased one million, and it would
be reasonable to expect that in that account considerably ex-
ciseable articles would have been consumed. The amount of
_revenue cella cted during the cheap years' was 159,800,000/ ,
and the amount during the dear years, when the population
had increased one million, was only 159,200,0001.—( Hear,
bear.) Now in what was it that this falling off was
• most perceptible ? Why it was in the Castoms and
Excise Departments. During the cheap years the
revenue from the Customs was 117.000.000/. while, during
the dear year, the amount received from tne dustoms and Ex-
cise was, notwithstanding the increase in the population, only
116,0QC4000/.—( Hear, hear.) During the cheap year the
ri-Arefine received upon spirits, tea, and sugar, was 51,000,0001.,
--While during the three dear years, notwithstanding the increase
in the population, it was only 47,000,000/. Now, if the same
amount had continued to have been received there would have
been received annually 2,300,000/. Now what was the deficit
which Sir R. Peel wished to make up by his income-tax? It
was 2,344,0001., being only a difference 44,000/.—(Cheers.)
He mentioned this fact to show that the present income-
tax was merely imposed to keep up the present
corn-laws. He did not knew whether this was a
great or a - small fact—( Cheers)—but it seemed to
him ttsbe a very important one. He recollected the present
:minister, when he was bringing in his tariff, in which he
proposed to reduce the duty on cattle, being warned of the
results of his so doing by one of his own supporters—a county
Member. This county Member read a letter, in which the

Writer told him what- a trade there would be between the

United States and England if the duty on cattle were reduced.
--He showed that provision would be abundant and cheap in this
country if this reduction took place. He (Mr. Villiers) re-
membered entering the House at the time, and he was asto-
nished to hear this good information given by a county Mem-
ber, he being a Monopolist ; and he was not a little surprised
at hearing him say that all these benefits would certainly befal
the country if the reduction in the duty on cattle were to take
place.—(Laughter.) Why, the Chancellor of the Exchequer
himself, only last year, said that he was free to confess that,
whenever there was a good harvest, and prices of provisions were
law that the receipts from the Excise were sure to increase.
Mr. Gladstone had said that he had no doubt that if the trade
in food were opened with other countries that the supply would
be paid for by the manufactures of this country, and that it
would consequently give a great increase to the employment of
the people.---( Hear, hear.) Why, Sir Robert Peel himself
had said that he had no doubt that if they lowered the price of
provisions sufficiently, the people would hardly feel the income-
tax at all. How could they say, then, that the repeal of the
corn-laws would render the country unable to keep faith with
the public creditor. The people had never shown any dispos'-
tiqn to cheat the public creditor.—( Loud cheer?) The
Duke of Richmond had asserted at a public meeting that the
advocates of free trade only wished to defraud the
public creditor. He (Mr. Villiers) was there to say
that there was not the slightest foundation for that
calumny.—(Cheers.) He said the public creditor never
would be in any danger, except from the class to which the
Duke •of Richmond belonged. —( Loud cheers.) Such a
charge came with a peculiarly bad grace from the Duke of
Richmond, inasmuch as he was a Member of the Govern-
ment that proposed that there should be a duty imposed on
transfer of stock.—(Hear, hear, and cries of " Give it him.")
Ile wished there was more to be said in their favour.—
( Hear, hear.) One. Noble Lord at Hertford had stated that
if the corn-laws were repealed, it would tend to diminish the
enjoyments and luxuries of persons of his class. Nobody
grudged them their luxuries, only let them get them in a
proper manner. Why should the corn-laws be maintained for
their exclusive benefit. Just as well might the doctor or the
lawyer claim to haveiaa law passed to perpetuate disease
and litigation.—( Cheers. ): He. would only wish those who
were not convinced of the soundness of the principlei`of free
. trade, to consider the arguments of those Who were the oppo-
• nents of those principles. The motto of the free traders was
. "no surrender."—(Cheers.) And he believed that their
efforts would succeed for their cause was not like of their op-
ponente powerless, spiritless, and selfish.—( Loud Cheers. )
Mr. Comsat* nett rose to address the meeting, and was,,re-
ceired with a burst of cheering which lasted for some minutes.
"He said, that since he teat lead the' pleasufe-of meeting them
there, he had had the honour of addressing many large assem-
blies of their fellow-countrymen ; •but he assured them that
he looked upon that' meeting with surprise and gratifieati-in
on account of the enthusiasm even at present prevailing in the
metropolis. He felt very much disposed to give something
like an ABC of the question over again. He had been told
that on that evening they were favoured with the attendance
of many visitors who were neither very well informed nor of
course convinced on the subject. He would therefore first
-give the young pupils a lesson in the elementary principles of
free trade, and endeavour to send them away good missionaries.
Now what was free trade? Not the pulling down of all the
custom-houses; but by free trade they meant the abolition of
all protective duties. They did not propose to do away with
istdTrect taxation, and to obtain revenue by means of direct
taxation. There were a class of men who had taken
possession of the Custom-house, and had installed
their clerks therein to collect the Customs fer their particular
benefit, and the free traders intended to remove them out of
the Custom-house. He would remind his young friends, the
students, that monopolies existing now were analagous to the
monopolies which existed under the Tudors and the Stuarts,
when the Sovereign granted monopolies to the creatures of the
Court for the exclusive sale of sugar leather, salt, and other
articles. One by one, those monopolies were abolished, until
a law was passed by which it was enacted that no Sovereign
should have the powerof granting monopolies of any sort. There
was 'no difference, however, in the present monopoly which
existed. It was just as much a monopoly as though Queen
Victoria had granted it to any particular person. The mono-
poly in the sale of sugar was still as great, for our sugar came
from a mere spec of the world, as compared with the South
American continent, the East Indies, China, and the Indian
Archipelago. He believed that many of his auditors that eight
were of the agricultural interest. They would probably be
curious to know why the free-traders called themsehes the
Anti. Corn-law League. The reason was, they advocated the
abolition of the corn monopoly, believing it to be the foster-
parent of all other monopolies.—( Cheers. ) If they
destroyed that, the rest would follow.—( Hear, hear. )
When Sir R. Peel proposed the alteration in the tariff, he
(Mr. Cobden) looked to see if the article of corn was there,
but he could not find it, and on his asking why it was not
there, Sir R. Peel said that corn was different to everything
else in the tariff. They were told by the Earls and the Dukes
that the corn-laws regulated wages. Now, he would ask the
working people present if, when they were making a bargain
for employment, any reference was ever made as to the price of
corn ?—(Cries of " No, no.") Why the hackney-coach and
the waternten's fares were all regulated by Act of Parliament,
and yet he dare say, that when those fares were made no re-
gard was paid to the price of corn.—( Hear, hear.) He had
heard something of women stitch, stitch, stitching for three
halfpence a shirt.—( Hear.) He wished to know if the price
of corn regulated their wages.—( Cheers.) When Sir R. Peel
brought in his corn-law two years age, he (Mr. Cobden)
- moved an amendment to the effect that before passing a Corn
Bill they ought to consider how far it was practicable to raise-
-in proportion the wages of the labourer.' Sir R. Peel, in an-
swer to that amendment, said it was quite impossible that they
could fix the rate of wages in this country—it could only be
settled by competition with the world's market. Ile (Mr. C.)
went to a division ; and Sir R. Peel and his friends went out
at one door, while about twenty or thirty went with him (Mr.
Cobden) out of the other
'And yet thoseparties who rejected
minutes afterwards
that motion, in a few
.veenced passing a law by whichthey
itiegulated the price of
earn. Why,
spinners were in the House of Commons toa majorityfinof cotton
that they bad
proposed to qx,the price of printed cottons, only, if they were to
do so, th4Ovould be hooted from thbeadmetrbozonlis. In
the iron trade large fortunes
some years ago iron was 151. 108. per ton. Now, kg.
only Si. 10s,, yet no one in the House of Commons, it
psoposd
was
measures to protect persons engaged in this trade. l'o-show
e
the fallacy of wages being regulated by the price of corn, he
(Mr. Cobden) was paying more wages to inexperienced la-
bourers than the best agricultural labourer got in Dorsetshire.
—(Cheers.) If they had a repeal of the corn-laws, that must
increase the demand for labour, both in this country and
abroad, and therefore it must benefit the labouring population.
Why, if it did nothing else, it would relieve the country of
the burden of two millions of paupers, who would then obtain
work. So far from throwing land out of cultivation, he ap-
pealed to the opinions of the Earl of Ducie, confessedly at the
head of the arable farmers of the country, and the Earl Spencer,
who Was at the head of the grazing farmers of the country,
and they stated it as their belief that the repeal of the corn-
laws would call all the poor land into cultivation. It had been
said that if the cern-laws were repealed, the foreigners would
send over their corn, but they would take nothing in re-
turn. Why this, if it said anything, said that the fo-
reigners were ready to give in their produce for nothing.
'Why take new the case of a tailor and a provision merchant
at home. A middling person pipes between them, and be sees

' the tailor every week carying home butter and cheese from the
provision merchant's, and he goes to him and sar, " You are .
importing largely from the provision merchant, and yet you
send no clothes in return. Ihe tailor replies that at all events
he was all right.—(Laughter.) Upon this the middling in-
dividuals would go to the provision merchant, and say " You
are sending largely to that tailor, but you get no clothes in
return." And the provision merchant would answer, " No,
but I get money." The middling reciprocity man would take
another crotchet into his head and go back to the tailor and
say, " Why this is a pretty drain of bullion—you pay in gold
to the provision man, how are you to get that? that cannot
last you know ?" So then the tailor replies, " Why, I get the
money from the grocer and the baker, and you know my children
cannot live on gold." And so the reciprocity man leaves the house.
He wanted the farmers to understand what the motives and
objects of the Anti-Corn-law League were. He did not choose
to allow the landlords to hack their old arguments. There was
not one new argument adduced—no new " young England'
stood up with the cuckoo cry of protection; in fact, the term
of " protection" put him in mind of that beautiful tale of the
Vicar of Wakefield, where Mr. Jenkinson talks of the cos-
mogony of the world, and, on the strength of that word, takes
in poor Moses, and eventually Dr. Primrose himself.—(Cheers
and laughter.) He did not—neither, he was sure, did
the meeting—like to deal in vituperation ; but still
they all liked to abstract amusement from sources
such as this, and their intention was to publish—he did not
know whether he could call it " elegant extracts"—divers por-
tions of the monopolist speeches as specimens of morals, man-
ners, and humanity ; and he thought that there was one gen-
tleman who had given such a specimen of his oratorical and
descriptive powers in speaking of the League, that his phy-
siognomy should be placed as the frontispiece of the work.—
( Loud laughter.) 'I his individual had called the League Jaco-
bins, Jonathan Wylds, and Jack Sheppards ; and that the
Anti-Corn Jaw League were composed of a mass of ragga-
muffins. Those were the words of Sir Charles Knightley.
Another gentlemen—a Noble Lord, too—had asked what
this agitation meant. He (Mr. Cobden) did not believe before
that there was so much titled ignorance or coroneted vul-
garity as was manifested in this " nobleman's " speech, when
he asked this question. He certainly did not expect to see
much of what might be called -cogent argument come from
such a source, but still he thought that he might expect de-
cency of manner at all events.—( Hear, hear.) The League
had been accused of violence ; the League was small at first,
and then there was some excuse for their violence, because all
bodies which were powerless were generally addicted to the use
of hard words, and such was the reason for which they could
excuse the epithets now applied to them by their opponents.—
t Cheers.) In this state of the agitation they had such high
prospects that he should not wonder if the League were com-
pelled not to admit any individual except they belonged to the
upper classes.—(Cheers, and laughter.) For they had—let
the meeting be aware—marquises and earls joining the League.
—( Cheers.) But their opponents proposed to counteract the
efforts of the League, by the dissemination of pro-corn-law
tracts, and having lecturers to hold forth in favour of mono-
poly. How he should like to attend the first meeting !
( Laughter.) Let his (Mr. Cobden's) audience faney a
leoture upon starvation, and then fancy how very beautiful
must be the exordium upon such a subject. The meetings
which had been held had been styled the meetings
of tenant-farmers, but they were nothing more
than assemblages of persons, who could be called nothing
else than auctioneers and valuators of land, and to whom all
changes and rise of rents would be a benefit. Such a class of
men as this were scarcely known in Scotland now. The Anti-
Corn-law party had abstained carefully from interfering with
the meetings, because they thought it unjust for any one to
interfere with the meetings of others, but still this feeling on
their part did not reach their opponents. He was now labour-
ing under a hoarseness contracted from this cause. In the town
of Birmingham there were large yellow placards from Mr. F.
O'Connor, calling upon the men of Birmingham to come for-
ward and oppose these " Mill Tyrants." He (Mr. Cobden) was
glad of the challenge, in order that he might have an opportu.
nity of testing the good sense of the men of Birmingham. At
that large meeting four-fifths were working men, yet a body
of fifty in the centre of the meeting, acting upon the signal
of a notorious individual, who sat in the organ
loft, and acted as fugleman, disturbed the whole meeting. He
appealed to the ladies in the gallery, and asked the men present
if they would allow such venal tyranny as that to be exercised
over them there; and in less than five minutes after his appeal
some few of the most disorderly were removed, and the rest
showed themselves (in the usual manner) quite as great cow-
ards as they .vere bullies before, and were as quiet as mice in a
church.—(Laughter.) He knew that men could be found
quite ready to degrade the sacred name of liberty. Their
organs of the press—even the Morning Post—(a laugh)—were
trying to put down the Anti-Corn-law League; but let any
man come to the Theatre, and see the order, the decorum, and
the enthusiasm which pervaded the vast multitude he surveyed,
and then see what the materiel was upon which the League
rested.—(Cheers.) If a meeting were called to take the sense
of a particular town, county, or borough, he thought it was the
duty of every man to attend and state what his ideas were of
the means most likely to conduce to the general welfare. He
invited the monopolists to:come and meet him as his object was to
Make converts by reasoning. On the 24th of this month, he in-
tended proceeding to Gloucester, where, and with all sincerity,
he invited the monopolists to come and meet him, and then'
and there discuss the point at issue. The monopolists at-
tempted to say that the acts of the Anti-Corn-law League
were alone countenanced by the rabble of the towns ; bat was
it not fifty of the rabble of Birmingham who tried to break.
up the meeting then ? All that was wanting "was for the
working and industrial classes to enter into the matter heart
and soul, and then monopoly would be broken up. If the
people of London were to speak trumpet-tongued upon the sub-
ject, there was no Minister of the Crown who dared to maintain
office, if he supported the system of monopoly by which the
people of this country were crushed to the earth. Mr. Baring
had designated all those who voted against him as rabble, and
be (Mr. Cobden) was very glad to say that he should be one
of this rabble, for he should be registered very shortly in his
right as an elector of the City of London.—(Cheers.) The
moment that the public voile became strong and unanimous
that moment must monopoly fall to the ground.—(Cheers.)
General EvArrs next rose, and apologised for speaking after
the eloquent gentlemen who had just addressed the meeting.
When two parties are opposed to each other, that party which
most continually shifts and changes its policy and tactics is most
sure to be in error. At first, the Anti-Corn-law League were
treated with derision, but now its opponents recommended to
the agriculturists that they should, in order to compete with
foreign countries; study all the various branches of agricultural
chemistry ; and the First Lord of the Treasury had offered
the services of one of his bulls to improve the breed of cattle.—
( Laughter.) The Anti-Corn-law League had gone into the
agricultural districts, and now they heard of farmers' dinners
and the like, at which were Dukes and Earls, to counteract the
reasonings of the League amongst the tenant-farmers. He
should not much longer trespass upon the attention of the meet-
ing, for they had heard from Mr. Cobden the A B C of this
great question. With respect to the cry which had
been raised by their opponents, that it was necessary this
country should _be independent of foreign countries,
he would ask was it right that any one country should be in-
dependent of another ? He denied most distinctly that those
laws which by taxation prevented this country from trading
with foreign countries afforded the slightest benefitor protection
to the tenant or occupying farmer. If the agriculturists
claimed the right of protective duties, why were not all other
trades in the community entitled to a similar right ? Another
bant phrase was very general—the " wooden walls of Eng-
land," but all dispassionate and thinking men must see that the
source of this glory and bulwark of England lies in the com-
mercial navy of the country. Even if free trade were to be
considered simply as a matter of mere revenue they would find
that the abolition of all restrictive duties had the effect of in-
creasing the income. When the duty on coffee was reduced to one-
half the consumption was increased in three or four fold. The same
was the case with respect to wool. Again, although the French
Government increased the duties on English manufactures,
yet when the English Government reduced the export duties
the amount of duties increased from 600,000/. to nearly three
_millions, or nearly five fold. In conclusion, he should say that
he hoped the great mass of the people would still adhere to the
firm determination which they had already manifested, and
the result would be ultimate reform of those laws which pressed
so heavily upon the industry and energies of the people.
After the Chairman had announced that the next night of
meeting was fixed for Thursday, the 15th inst., the assembly
separated.