The Sun.
London, England, 1844-01-26 00:00:00

experiments should be made in a law that is connected with
phenomena such as this ! Are we to give Peel's Bill a longer
trial, or any trial of monopoly whatever? Are we to have more
experiments of privation—of disappointment—of suffering—of
crime—and of death ! It was an old medical maxim that expe-
riments should be made on vile and worthless bodies only ; but
here is a law which makes experiments even on the bodies of a
great sutT,?ring nation. This is enough to raise every
feeling •of our souls, and to create the indignation of
man, woman, and child, • of all ranks and classes, at
the iniquity, and a determination of liitening to no compromise
until it be put down entirely and fur ever. For this we have
bound ourselves. For this you, as the metropolis, must take
your rightful position, and go forward to the van, and lead on
the march. We are determined npt to cease our exertions
until we have realised our great object of emancipating labour,
and raising it above the ruins of all existing monopolies. For
this we strive, and whilst one atom is left of restriction upon
food—whilst there is any enactment curbing the rights of in-
dustry and of labour—whilst there is an imposition on the food
of the people, we will never desist from agitation—no, never,
never.—( Great and enthusiastic cheering.) From year to
year we have held onward, endeavouring not only to
obtain good for ourselves, but for other classes also,
however blind to their own true interests they might be. For
what is universal freedom ? It is the best security for the
largest proprietor, as well as the rightful and honourable encou-
ragement for those who have no property at all. We go for
commercial freedom—for the development of intellectual and
moral freedom—teaching different classes their dependence on
each other—uniting nations in a bond of brotherhood, tending
to realise the anticipations of that great poet to whom I have
before referred, whom this day gave to Scotland and the world—
, " Now let us pray
That come it may,
As come it shall for a' that,
That man to man, the world o'er,
Shall brothers be for a' that."

( The Hon. Gentleman sat down amidst the most enthusiastic
cheering.)
Mr. M. GIBSON, M.P., next rose and addressed the meet-
ing, and was received with much cheering. He said, he would
have preferred to have remained silent to have had time for
reflection, after the very splendid and effective oration which
they had just heard ; and he felt confident that he spoke the senti-
ments of that vast assemblage, when lie said that Mr. Fox had
conveyed to the world the full intention of the National Anti-
Corn-law League. He had nut gone beyond what they pro-
fessed, nor had he in the smallest degree come short of their
deserts. The principle they advocated was the total
and unconditional repeal of the corn-laws.—(hear, hear.)
They also advocated the abolition of all other protective duties.
They were not willing to reserve to any portion of the com-
munity that protection which they were resolved, if they could,
to take from the agriculturists, and standing there, in the pres
sence of that vast and intelligent assembly, he felt proud in
having it in his power to deny most emphatically the charge
that had been brought against the Anti-Corn-law League, that
it was a body seeking simply to attack the landed interest, and
having a desire to preserve the protection of the manufacturers.
—( Hear, hear.) Representing in Parliament the metropolis
of the manufacturing districts of-England, he there emphatically
denied the charge in the name of the manufacturers, and attested
before all, that those men who had petitioned the Legislature for
a repeal of the corn-laws had also prayed that Legislature to
withdraw all protection from the industry of the country. His
Hon. Friend, Mr. Fox, well said that petitioning the Legisla-
ture was a farce.—( Hear, hear.) He was glad that they were
no longer to waste their energies in getting up futile petitions
to a landlord House.—( Hear, hear.) They would be enter.
tained next session with petitions of another description. Land-
lords' petitions would be presented by landlords to a landlord Le.
gislature in the presence of the " collective wisdom." Those were
petitions with which the country must be entertained, and
they might believe that he stated the exact truth when he said
that the parties who get up these petitions will belong to the
same party that present 'them, and to the same party that re-
ceive them. It was difficult to conceive anything more ludicrous
than -the farce enacted in the presence of a great body of men.
These laws were enacted in what was termed the " collective
wisdom" of the community, and it was indeed humiliating to
think that any body of men could be found so stupid as to bee
'ileac that the people were represented in that august body. The
Anti-Corn-law League had, indeed, reason to congratulate
itself and the country upon the progress which
this great movement was making. The League had
been termed an odious conspiracy—(Laughter)—it was
sometimes called a petty clique of ragamuffins—( Great
laughter)—they had been also informed that the Association
was a formidable combination of marked men, which endan-
gered and threatened the existence of Church and State—they
were at another moment, a petty gathering of manufacturers,
without any legitimate influence, but endeavouring to influence
the community by the help of a little money.—(Laughter. )
The League could not be all those different things. Ile re-
membered a saying of the late Mr. Cobbett—he said, " Some-
. times the people call me the scum of the earth, and sometimes
they call me the dregs; now, I cannot be both the
scum and -the dregs."—( Great laughter and cheers.)
But let them understand what the Anti-Corn-law
AsSociation really was—it was not a formidable conspiracy of
Wicked men, nor a petty cabal of manufacturers—( Hear)—it
was the test of the union of the middle and intelligent classes
uf the community, who were determined that they should no
, ,
'l4;iiger live by sufferance—who resolved to vindicate their so-
cial position, and no longer allow themselves to be kept down
: jai the social scale. in order that the feudal ascendancy might
be maintained and the great body of the people kept down by
that remnant of barbarous ages which was embodied in the
corn-laws.—( Hear, hear, and great cheering.) The
spirit of the system on which the corn-laws were
founded was, that the trader, the manufacturer, the
commercial man had no right to have more trade, no more
wealth, no more enjoyments, no more of the comforts of life
than might suit landlord propensities to allow him. They pro-
ceedednaireit,et
oc ruatc
had
ardas
to the industrious classes—to restrict the comforts and enjoy-
r ight,buyp ionnhtehrei t aan"cueni
, tot regulateassumption
th at the
trade—tolan landed
merits of life, and to tell their fellow-citizens to what degree
they might ascend in the social scale. The League was a
great combination of rational men, who stood forward deter-
mined to abolish this feudal tyranny, and erase from the statute
book those remnants of feudal barbarism. They recogni ed no
'such inherited right in the aristocracy of landlords.—(Hear.)
'.As Mr. Fox said, they did not covet their acres, nor
'desire to interfere with their property—( Hear, hear)—all
they asked was, that the aristocracy should desist from inter-
fering with trade, and allow the great body of the industrious
community to have full enjoyment of the resources which Pro-
vidence had placed within their reach.—( Hear, hear). They
had been told that the lion of England had aroused himself, and
that he was shaking his mane. He was afraid this lion of
' England would resemble the lion in the fable—a donkey in a
lion's hide, and now that the animal began to bray, all the
rest of the creation discovered that he was not a lion, but an
ass.—( Great laughter). Was there ever in this world such a
'collection of wretched trash as the speeches recently delivered
at the Agricultural Association ?—( Hear, hear). There was
very little argument, a great deal of abuse, an occa-
sional allusion to special burdens on land, and the
dangers which impended over the Church and State ;
but all argument against the principle of free trade
was abandoned, and the landed aristocracy appeared to have
taken up the position that might constituted right. —( Hear,
hear.) There was one special burden mentioned, which he
would take the liberty of alluding to. It was mentioned by a
gentleman at the Northamptonshire meeting. He said that
ambassadors, diplomatists, and consuls were sent abroad at a
great expense to the country, and all for the advantage of the
commercial world ; and the agriculturists had to support the
expense in the main of this valuable body of diplomatic neve
tiatiors.—( Hear, hear.) That fell from a gentleman who in-
herited the name, but not, he feared, the abilities of that dia.
tinguished statesman—George Canning. Mr. Canning told
the so-called meeting of tenant farmers, (but who, in
fact, were not tenant farmers, but a collection,
for the most part, of those persons who usually
took a prominent part before election contests,) lie told those
tenant farmers, or whatever they were called. that ambassa-
dors were sent abroad, and constituted a special burden on land,
and entitled the landed proprietors to enact the sliding scale
for corn.—( Laughter. ) He bad allays thought that the
ambassadors, &c.. were chosen from the aristocratic body, and
that diplomatic situations were pleasant situations—large sine-
cures with large salaries, and quite suitable to the taste and
fancy of aristocratic legislators.—(Hear, hear.) But he had
never heard any reasonable commercial man say that
he considered any service had been done him by diplo.
matists. What intelligent traders said was, let not di-
plomatists meddle in our affairs. No diplomatist or
ambassador can direct the merchant how to employ
his capital, nor what exchange he ought to make. At this
latehour of the evening it would, perhaps, be thought that he
was trespassing on their time improperly—(Cries of "No,
no")—if he dwelt at any length upon those arguments—if they
deserved the name which Lad been used at the agricultural
meetings. Old fallacies had been patched up at the Northamp-
tonshire meetings, such as if foreign corn were admitted free
of duty, the foreigner would not take our manufactures, but
would only take our gold and silver. It was a surprising
anxiety the Northamptonshire farmers expressed about gold going
out of the country.—( Hear.) One would think they had
been instrumental in bringing the gold in. He should like to
know how much gold would be in England if they had
nothing but agricultural produce to send in exchange. Were
there gold mines in Northamptonshire, or was silver dug up in
Buckinghamshire, that there should be this excessive anxiety
about the gold and silver going out of the country? All the
gold and silver had been brought into the country by manu-
facturing industry_—( Hear, hear.) All that ministers to the
luxuries of the great, and that added to the splendour of the
aristocracy, had been purchased by manufacturing industry.—
( Hear, hear.) But when we asked to be allowed to purchase
cheap bread, to relieve the necessities of the poor, and in-
crease the comforts of the industrious classes, they said, " Oh
no, we dare not let you do that, for the gold and silver would
go out of the country."—( Loud cries of " Hear, hear.") They
were willing enough to allow gold and silver to be exported
for the gratification of the great, but none for the comforts of
the poor. If they would not allow gold to go out'
for corn, why should they allow it to go out
in exchange for the other imports, tea, coffee, sugar, and all
the varieties of commodities which were brought into the
country at the rate of fifty millions a year ? They yet find
that the amount of gold in England was stationary, and they
know that all the gold coin at present in the island would not
pay for nine months' imports. What peculiarity was there in
the commodity of corn that such dire apprehension should be
entertained of the scarcity of gold and silver, and that all our
domestic and financial arrangements should be embarrassed?—
( Hear, hear.) But it was vain to dwell upon such futile rea-
soning as that. The question they were now considering was
the question of abolishing the corn-laws. He (lid not want
to expose fallacies. They would not again muster their ener-
gies in attempting to kill the slain. If the middle classes of
this country stood by their order, as the aristocracy stood by
theirs, they would succeed in abolishing the corn-laws ; but if
they cringed to wealth, and fashion, and aristocratic power,
and allowed themselves to be wheedled into servility, the corn-
laws would continue, and all the speeches and arguments in the
world would not abolish them.—(Wear, hear.) It was the
consciousness, on the part of the ruling powers, that the
great body of the industrious classes understood their
true position, and were determined to vindicate their
rights, that would induce them to yield. They would
rot make a free gift--they would not yield without pres-
sure ; they believed that aristocratic privileges, as they
called them, and aristocratic rights, were cherished in the
hearts of the people, and that the day was far distant when
they would be compelled to resign that unjust assumption of
authority which curtailed the people's rights. He believed the
voice of the Aleinbers of Parliament would be of little avail
unless responded to firmly by those without—unless they knew
that the great body of time middle classes were determined to
stand by their order, and for their rights, as one man.—
( Hear, hear.) Unless, he repeated, this consummation took
place the corn-laws would not be abolished. It was in the
power of the electors of this country to abolish the corn-laws
if they pleased. They were not in such a minority as they
generally supposed. What was the fact, that out of 1)00 Mem-
bers which England returned, 330 were returned by the bo-
roughs and cities. The counties and Universities returned
only IGO Members. Ireland and Scotland returned a majority
in favour of the abolition of the corn-laws, and they' had but
to secure a majority in England to abolish the corn-
laws and all the other monopolies.—( Hear, hear. )
Let them all pledge themselves to endeavour, by every means
in their power, at the next general election, to return none but
men who would pledge themselves to a total, immediate, and
unconditional repeal of the corn-laws.-----( Cheers.) The time
was now come for action, they must attack the registrations—
( Cheers)—they must advance the cause with the electoral
body.—( Loud cheers.) The friends of the cause should exert
all their powers of persuasion And intNence IQ brine the Middle