The Sun.
London, England, 1844-04-18 00:00:00

The first great Weekly Metropolitan Meeting of
the members of the-National Anti-Corn-law League
since the Easter recess, was held last evening at
the Theatre Royal Covent-garden. The doors were
opened at half-past six o'clock, and the house was
soon filled. The number of ladies in the boxes was
much larger than we have observed on many previous
occasions. At seven o'clock Richard Cobden, Esq.,
M.P., the Hon. Charles Pelham Villiers, M.P., John
Bright, Esq., M.P., H. G. Ward, Esq., M.P., George
Thompson, Esq., R. R. R. Moore, Esq., and Colonel
Peyronnet Thompson, accompanied by several other
active members of the League, entered the theatre,
and were received with loud cheers.
Among those present we observed :—Thomas
Milner Gibson, Esq., MP.; Colonel Tucker ; Dr.
Cooke Taylor ; W. A. Wilkinson, Esq. ; P. A. Tay-
lor, Esq. • the Rev. Mr. Clare ; Dr. Girdwood;
Norman iVilkinson, Esq. ; S. Kennedy, Esq.; W.
Harvey, Esq. ' • H. L. Keiling, Esq.; John Moir
Ware, Esq.; J. B. Kingdon, Esq.; Peter Martineau,
Esq.; R. Ireland, Esq.; R. Southall, Esq.; John
Lalor, Esq.; Major Reid Revell ; W. Lockett, Esq.,
Manchester ; Charles A. Amber, Esq. ; Charles Clif-
ford, Esq.; R. W. Cole, Esq.;- Henry Lloyd Mor-
gan, Esq. ; General Wyatt ; Robert Bagshavr, Esq. ;
C. Jones Esq. ; J. D. Donkin, Esq. • B. D. Dunkin,
Esq; John Macartney, Esq., Manchester ; John
Semple, Esq., Glasgow; John Haining, Esq., Strat-
ford-on-Avon ; George Peile, Esq., Whitehaven ;
C. Dixon, Esq., Wellington, Salop ; W. Thornbor-
row, Esq.; L. Wiltshire, Esq.; James Bailey, Esq.;
W. Edith, Esq.; Rev. H. Richards ; George Ridout,
Esq.: J. Towne, Esq.; Hugh Shield, Esq. • W.
Hepple, Esq., Bishop Auckland, Durham ; dames
Anderson, Esq.; Dr. King; and W. Geesin, Esq.
RICHARD COBDEN, Esq., M.P. for Stockport, took
the Chair, amidst the most enthusiastic cheering.
The SECRETARY read the minutes of the last meet-
ing, which, on the motion of J. BRIGHT, Esq., M.P.,
seconded by the Hon. C. P. VILLIERS, M.., were
confirmed.
'The CHAIRMAN then came forward, and was re-
ceived with loud cheers, which lasted some minutes.
All present rose and waved their hats and handker-
chiefs; when the cheering was subsiding, there was a
call for one cheer more, which was most enthusiasti-
cally responded to. Silence having been restored,
the Hon. Gentleman proceeded to address the meeting,
as follows :—Ladies and Gentlemen, during the short
cessation which has taken place in the holding of our
meetings in this theatre, I have been attending a few
meetings in the country—(Cheers)—and it may per-
haps be interesting to you to learn something of the
spirit and enthusiasm which prevail in the cause of
free trade elsewhere. I have had the honour of attend-
ing a meeting of free traders in Bristol, and I never
saw a more influential meeting, or a meeting of a
higher moral tone, or one more calculated to forward
the great objects which we have in view. At that
meeting 6001. was subscribed in the room to the
League fund.— (Cheers.) I subsequently had
the honour of attending a meeting with my Hen.
Friend Mr. Villiers, in the borough of Wolverhamp-
ton. I need not speak to you of the excellent spirit
which actuates the people of Wolverhampton, when
I tell you that they send Mr. Villiers and Mr.
Thornely to Parliament as their representatives.—
(Cheers) There was no room in the place large
enough to hold all the free-traders who were desirous
of being present at that meeting, and a pavilion was
consequently erected for the purpose of affording ac-
commodation to them. Upwards of 3,000 persons
met together in Wolverhampton, and the meeting did
not separate until they had subscribed 650/. to the
League Fund. I also had the honour of attending
a, meeting in the amphitheatre of Liverpool, where I
had the good fortune to meet a distinguished friend
of free trade from the North—Mr. Fox Maule—
(Cheers)—one who, unless common fame has misre-
ported, is heir to something like 60,000 acres under
the plough ; and he came there to bear his testimony
that a free trade in corn was as desirable for the
agricultural as it was for the manufacturing or trad-
ing interest.—(Cheers.) Since we last met here,
Ladies and Gentlemen, certain changes have taken
place in political life, owing to a certain death which
will involve elections in sundry boroughs. I must
say, however, that if we could have chosen the places
in which we wish to meet the monopolists in
election contests, we should not have chosen as
our battle-field with these monopolists such places
as Horsham, Huntingdon, or Woodstock. I be-
lieve, that in every instance in which a vacancy oc-
curs a contest will be fought, if a local
man can be found to put up for the representation,
even if we poll only 20 votes.—(Cheers.) We have
been charged with attempting to dictate to consti-
tuencies. We attempt no such thing; we only pro-
fess to co-operate with constituencies. We go and
other our co-operation to the local members of the
League in every borough to which we go, and if you
should hear of any contest passing over without a
League candidate starting, you may believe that it
•has been because the League Council do not wish to
dictate to the local traders, but, in deference to their
wishes, have thought it right that such boroughs
should be left for future organisation.—(Cheers.)
Exeter will be contested.—(Loud cheers.) I am
happy to say that General Briggs—an officer in the
,service of the East India Company, and a gentleman
distinguished for his philanthropy, public spirit, and
love of freedom in every form,—General Briggs
.1 am happ to say is a candidate for Exeter.—
(Cheers.) What may be the result of that contest I
know not, but I know that if in a borough of 30,000
inhabitants a free trader fights one battle en League
!principles, and loses, he is certain to fight the next
:great battle, and to win.—(Cheers.) I am anxious
that our friends here and elsewhere should feel that
we never waste the League funds in any large and
uneonstitutional expenditure in election contests, be-
cause I have seen statements to that effect made even
in some of the papers which give us their support.
We merely transfer our lecturers and our tracts into
a L serough at the time when .the inhabitants are alive to
polit, IN and simply avail ourselves of the excitement
which an election always creates, and the desire to be
informed Political "subjects arising from that excite-
ment, to imo4truct to inhabitants in the doctrines of free
trade,
and edo as much ,for the education of a bo-
rough in one N:Tek at the time of an election, as we
could do in a 1116,0 th under ordinary circumstances.
It is like a recruitinB- party gokng into a town with
drums beating and colours flying—like a recruiting
party going into a town At fair-time.—(Cheers and
laughter.) I state this that the public may not sup-
pose that the League are -spending their money in
boroughmongering and electioneering. We go to
prevent other people from bribing. You have, no
loabt, heard it said, and I know that many persons
the nk, that it cost from 1,2001. or 1,0001. at least, to
000 tot a borough. Now, in such boroughs as Hors-
ham, I,.jeodstock, and Huntingdon, if any candidate
spends ni,:re than 1001. in an election contest,
it is not spent honestly and truly; and,
if we do nothing else, we are doing good
by preventing
parties from pursuing a sys-
tem of denioralisettion
•ich has made contests in
boroughs little better than a tidal of the length of the
purse of the respective canilidates.--(Cheers.) I htetre
an announcement to make to you bettre I resume my
seat. Applications have been made to the Council of
•
the League to hold a bazaar in this theatre befog the
close of the season.—(Oheors.) Many ladies have
stated to the League Council that they are at present
at work in
,preparing materials for that bazaar, as
they are anxious to assist the cause of the League,
and to contribute in that pleasant manner to its funds.
--(Cheers.) The Council have determined to adopt
(4111 suggestion of our female friends, and all, there-
fore, wno feel disposed to aid in furnishing the stalls
are invited to use their diligent attention for the at-
tainment of that object. I have one suggestion to
snake from myself as to a part of the exhibition at
that bazaar.--(Laughter.) I do
not mean to exhibit
myself there—(Renewed laughter)—but lam anxious
that we should have n collection of specimens of every
species of manufacture in the kingdom._... (Cheers)—
that they should be brought, as it were, to a focus in
this bazaar.—(Cheers.) Everything that is made in
metal should be there, from a steam-engine to a
needle. Everything that is manufactured, from silk,
from the finest embroidered •garment to the humblest
and narrowest ribbon. Everything of cotton menu-
faciure--evelrything of woollen manufacture—every-
thing that we make : all that the manufacturers of
a Ens I nd produce should be brought together in the
exhibition in this theatre.—(Cheers.) And when we
have brought these materials together, we will
invite the monopolists—we will invite the
restrictionists, to see the collection • And we
will point to this es a proof of what the
ingenuity and o _
the unaided and unprcte te d
skill of the manufacturer can do—(Loud cheers)----'!
without prizes,-without protection, and without
Dukes of Richmond or Buckingham: —(Cheers and
laughter.) And when we have brought them to view
this exhibition we will put to them this question, and
this question only : "Do you think that the bands
that made these ingenioub articles ought to be hang-
ing idle at the aides of men, who are pining for want
of bread." —(Loud cheers.) Now, Ladies and-Gentle -
men, I have to introduce to you in the firstplace a
ur
distinguished friend of o c
ause, who has often ren-
dered as good service •in another arena where there
are few to match him, in, debate, although this is the
first time that he has appeared
upon these boards.—
Cheers.) I beg to introduce to u
my lion.
isr,:end Mr. Ward, the Member for Sheffield.
Mr. 5. G. WARD, who was received •
with very
loud and cc,`sitinued cheers, said that he could assure
them with .-rfeet truth that he appeared before
pt

Tons.
in the river 2,625,323 (same year:
Tonnage of collin,s

Colonies, 1,683 ships 0f... 417,139
Ireland, 907 ships of ~ 142,000
Coasting' trade, 20,205 ships of
(colliers included).
3,166 British, 2,335 Foreign
vessels

921,404

Total tons 4,167,164

From Russia, Ssireden, Germany, Holland, France, ,the
Mediterranean, China, and United States.
London has paid, upon an average, for the last ten
years, eleven millions in custom duties, out of the

I . c

GRAND WEEKLY I
them that night, as their Honourable Chairman had
said, for the first time upon these boards, with some
ANTI‘CORN-LAW LEAGUE little reluctance and a great many doubts ; and he
told them honestly that this feeling was increased
MEETING, instead of lessened—however ungrateful the ex-
pression might appear—by the manner in which
AT COVENT-GARDEN THEATRE.I they had been pleased to receive the announce-
ment of his name by the Chairman—(Cheers)—be-
cause their kind reception bespoke an impression
which the next ten minutes would destroy. He
should have come to their meetings, even if he had any
doubts of the justice of the principle for which they.
contended; but on the contrary, to the fullest ex-
tent in which words could express it, he concurred unre-
reservedly and unhesitatingly in the principle of free
trade—free trade in everything.—(Loud cheers.)
But if they would allow him to finish the sentence—
but above all and before all, as the keystone of the
whole position of their opponents, for a free trade in
corn. If, therefore, he had any fear, or reluctance, or
doubts in presenting himself before them, it was because
he knew that the men who had so well conducted this
great national cause—for a national cause it was—up
to the present point, whose perseverance had overcome
all obstacles, and whose ability was the presage of
future success, had not left those who came after
them, the labourers of the eleventh hour, any shadow
of new argument or new facts. He had always re-
garded the meetings giving such attention to a subject
which the House of Commons esteemed so dry and
exhausted that they could hardly get 60 members to
sit out an Anti-corn-law debate—he regarded them
as some of the remarkable phenomena of the
present times. He knew the benefit they derived
when his Hon. Friend the Member for Wolverhamp-
ton put an idea into the cruicible of his mind, and
turned it out purified from all alloy, and just what it
was worth.—(Cheers.) Although the subject was
the same, they could still appreciate the endless variety
into which their Chrirman cast the details of a subject
on which he employed his powerful mind; and yet the
constant recurrence of those meetings, the way in which
that house was filled, and the extreme attention
paid, was a proof of no common interest taken in no
common cause.—(Cheers.) They were right, and
perfectly right, to encourage by their generous sym-
pathies those who fought their battles. He recol-
lected the time when the three hundred delegates
crowded the lobby and Downing-street from Man-
chester, and Paisley, and Glasgow, and Sheffield; and
it was said, " Mark how London stands aloof." They
were told "It is inevitable that London should separate
itself from the country • free trade may be a very good
thing for Lancaster, but a very bad thing for West-
minster or for Marylebone—they know better, and
they act against free trade ;" and, as it was said the
other night by Sir Robert Peel, that a regard to self-
interest was the vivifying
_principle of this world,
so it was said, " All that the friends of free trade
can say, all their eloquence will not alter the
opinion of the people of London." Then it was
said not only was this the feeling in the West-
end, but " look at the City—there they have
practical men ; it is not likely that the merchants of
the City will entertain such a foolish notion ; they
know that a bird in the hand is worth two in the hush.
Out of the four seats in the City the free traders had
only one, and that was a modified edition of free trade ;
for if Lord John Russell held the principles of Mr.
Cobden, he would be thrown out." This was the talk
three years ago ; he did not think they talked so glibly
of City elections now.—(Cheers.) Somehow or other
they had made an alteration in the feeling. On the last
occasion of a City election, the corn-law men put
forward, as they admitted, their best candidate—so
good a candidate that they had sent him to Hunting-
don --(Great laughter)—a gentleman of the highest
commercial respectability, as fluent as Mr. Gladstone,
and almost as plausible as Sir Robert Peel— (Cheers)
—and yet things did not turn out as they expected.
Mr. Baring was not the Member for the
City; between Mr. Baring and Mr. Pattison the
difference was an enormous one—(Laughter and
cheers)—and he he did not mean any personal
allusion to Mr. Pattison in using that word.
Coupled with such a contest, their attendance there
did show a change of feeling, from which he
anticipated the most gratifying results. He
knew that this change must come. He was aware
that a fallacy was the most obstinate thing to
overcome if it were ingeniously put. There
were very few men who thought so. Most
men liked to follow like sheep at a gap. If the
words were put well together, there was nothing of
a fallacy which Englishmen would not swallow. He
had happened lately to be reading the work of an
intelligent observer, an American, whom they knew
under the name of Sam Slick. There could be
nothing wrong in quoting Sam Slick, and he
said, " A considerable large print that Bull
family is ; you may read them by moonlight ;
they will swallow a fallacy just as a turkey
swallows a grasshopper ; they take it right
down whole without winking, and then ask for more."
—(Much laughter.) Still there are some fallacies
which cannot be gulped down. He held in his hand
a pamphlet which had great influence in 1841. When
he last bought one he had been told that 42,000 had
been sold, and now he was told that there had
been 50,000. That day he had bought the
50,000 th. It was an appeal to the tradesmen of
London by one of themselves, and in that
appeal the whole question was put upon the
argument of the writer, that the interest of London
on the corn-laws was distinct from that of the coun-
try at large; it was said that " they all shared in the
taxes placed on corn ; that the landowners fleeced
others to enrich them"—(Cries of " Query.")
When that respectable individual, Sir Edward
Knatchbull, therefore, told them from the Treasury
benches that he could not live without the corn-
laws, and that he would be glad to part with them
if he could find a fund out of which to pay the join-
ture of his daughters and the settlement of his wife—
it was made clear that the tradesmen of London had
an equal interest in these laws, for they enabled.
Sir Edward Knatchbull to pay the London trades-
men for his liveries and for painting his coach.
Many then believed this ; and many, perhaps, be-
lieved still, that high rents in Kent meant
high rents in St. James's ; that the whole existence
of London depended upon the maintenance of those
laws ; that the whole which a tradesman would gain
by cheap bread would be 201. a year, whilst he
would lose 1,0001. worth of trade in one year ;
or more than the repeal of the corn-laws would
do them good in forty years. That, however, was
one of the falsehoods which could not be s wallowedlong.
It was ridiculous -to suppose that the greatness of
London was owing to the landed aristocracy who
resided in it.—(Hear, hear.) Its greatness con-
sisted of the aggregate savings of every body else,
for money saved was money spent.—(Hear, hear.)
The less a man paid for his bread the more he was
able to spend on other articles.—(Hear, hear.) Lon-
don had no great manufactures of her own ; her
business was to dispense every thing which the in-
dustry of others created. To say, therefore, that it
had a separate interest in the corn-laws, and that it
could thrive amidst the universal decay of the coun-
try, was reversing the old homely fable of the belly
and the members.—(Hear, hear, and laughter.) It
was to suppose that the belly conspired against the
hands and feet which supplied its wants.---(hear,
hear.) To what did London owe its real greatness
and prosperity ? Not to the residence of a few
thousands who lived there for one portion of the year
and left it for the remainder. If every Duke was as
rich as Creesus, if every squire was a millionaire, and
every younger brother had a Fortunatus' purse,
instead of the capacity of emptying the purses of
other persons—(Hear, hear, and laughter)—even
then he would defy their united efforts to produce
such a conamunity as this.—(Rear, hear.) London
was the greatest commercial city in the world—it
was the capital of an empire which, for the first
time in the iii story of the world, realised the Spanish
boast, that, on the Queen's dominions the sun never
set.—(Cheers.) It was the point of intercommuni-
cation between their widely-extended colonies, which
stretched from Canada to the Cape of Good Hope.
The indigo of India and the wool of Australia were
brought to enrich the people of Leeds. It realised a
height of greatness which would sewn fabulous to
the people of Venice, of Carthage, and .?f Tyre._
(Cheers.) The landed aristocracy had nothis to do
with the greatness of such a city. They did ring do
justice to themselves in imagining it.7-(Cheers.)
He did not wish to weary them with details, but he
begged to remind them of what London Was. Its
population had doubled since 1801.
In 1801 it was 888,198
In 1831 it was _
111.1841 it was
Two millions in round numhers.
Length from east to west 5i miles (if from Chelsea
to Blackwall 74). Breadth from north to south, 3/.
A Principality of Bricks. A river which has marked
ictosustefor the seat of commerce from the earliest times
crossed
obo3l.;aSoixubthritgaersiBoo,
5t050,00001. vO,Ol lo
00alte;
Waterloo
1d0.75-hoi:oidogoto,
London Docks copvieresloofowrz.
es, the vaults c.intala
49 acres
se 500
cellarage for 65,000
p
CWoems tmlenr
cd iiaa
ID
Do cokesk,
32,
9 (40 wvessaeties.r) used prin-
ciptlly for the Baltic trade.
St. Katherine's Docks, 24 acres (11f wate
Port of London, 1840.-2,950 ships of 581,000 tons
manned by-
,
32,000 men.

23,500,0001, to which the total customs revenue of the
United Kingdom amounts.
Value of produce that enters and leaves the ports
roughly estimated at 80,000,0001.
2,000 merchants and brokers have their counting
houses within half-a-mile of the Exchange.
100,000 houses of business, to half of which shops are
attached.
All the details upon the same gigantic scale.
Water Companies, 237,000,000 of hogsheads per year.
Gas Companies, 10,000,000 cubic feet every 24 hours.
Ale and Porter, 2,000 of barrels.
(A.D. 1839.)
Smithfield cattle, 180,780 ; sheep, 1,403,400.
70,000,000 of eggs annualy from the Continent.
Its paving and sewerage, 500,000 L at least.
Newspapers, 30,000,000 of stamps (per annum).
Steam-boats, 100,000 passengers daily (in pursuit of
business or health).
1,000 miles of railway, completed (47,000,0001.), and
59 canals (14,500,0001.), connect it with the most distant
ports.)
Monthly business transacted by London bankers
through clearing-house averages 75,000,000/. (It has
been as high as 87,000,000/0
He had gone into these details, because he thought
that they would convey a more precise idea of the
extent and greatness of London than any general de-
scription.—(Hear, hear.) Now he would ask, what
a drop of water in the ocean was the custom of the
aristocracy, however rich and numerous, compared
with the movements resulting from such a trade as
this ?—(Loud cheers.) What a singular delusion it
was to suppose that those gentlemen, amiable and re-
spectable in their position in life, created that great-
ness which they came to share—(Hear, hear)—
because it was they who attracted the landed owners
by making London what it was ; and it was not
landed owners who made London what it was for
them.—(Cheers.) This was explained on a principle
extremely simple, and as old, at least, as the days
of Rome. Mr. M‘Culloch spoke of London as Seneca
spoke of Rome. He says that the very magnitude of
London was the efficient cause of its great increase.
The greater the city became, the greater scope
there was for the exercise of every talent and
the gratification of every taste, and the more power-
ful were the motives by which it attracted all indivi-
duals, whether aspiring or idle, virtuous or profligate,
grave or gay.—(Cheers.) These were the causes of
the greatness of London, and it was this greatness
which attracted those birds of Paradise, whose gilded
plumage adorned their streets and parks every day.
—(Hear, hear.) But the tradesmen of London should
recollect that they had not to deal with the landed
owners generally, but with the landlords also, who
possessed three or four thousand a-year, who would
not venture upon a house in town.—(Laughter.)
How small a number then did they consist of; and
then they must subtract those landowners who spent
their money in Paris and Rome, and in the Holy
Land, and which they could much better spend at
home.—(Cheers.) The people of London, therefore,
must see that the pickings of the Duke of Northum •
berland's liveries, and the wax candles of Devon-
shire House, were nothing compared with what they
paid for their bread—(Loud cheers)—because they
must recollect that if the corn-laws were repealed,
it would be a direct gain to their merchants,
their hankers, their fundholders, amongst whom
28,000,000/. were distributed; their public an-
nuitants of every kind, their professional men,
their artists, their clerks, and all those who, after
having spent an adventurous life abroad, came back
here to enjoy an old age of comfort and of quiet ; not
to mention their operatives, of whom he would speak
17 and bye,—would be all direct gainers.---(Cheers.)
the result to them would be immediate and immense.
He did not wish to weary them with dry details, and
he had much rather quote another passage from
" Sam Slick" than have recourse to dry political
economists. They were aware that Sam Slick
wrote a work detailing his impressions on
coming to England; and he says that nothing
struck him so much, or gave him such a vivid
idea of the enormous and incalculable wealth
of London as the continuous line of equipages which
he saw on Ascot-day. That was before the Great
Western was opened. It was this, he says, which
created in his mind the idea he had of the wealth and
power of London, because the sight of them sug-
gested the reflection to him, where they all came from,
what supported this magnificient display of wealth ?
He then says (introducing carriages speaking)
" Australia keeps me—(Laughter)—China keeps
me—Botany Bay keeps me (Great laughter)
—Canada keeps me—Nova Scotia keeps me—
white bears keep me —(Great laughter)—and every-
thing on the earth, and under the earth, throughout
the whole world keeps me, for all the wealth of the
world is tributary to British enterprise and British
skill"—(Great cheers)—and yet there were some
wiseacres who within three years really thought
that nothing but the custom of some two or three
thousand landlords made London what it was, with-
out ever taking into calculation the additional price
which they were obliged to pay for their bread.
By this system, the people of London were mulcted
to the amount of at least 431,5571. And this asser-
tion was proved by the returns made upon this sub-
ject up to the 13th of March last. He had already
alluded to this question, as if it only concerned
London, but he thought he should also speak of it
so far as the landed interest was concerned. In
speaking of the landed interest, he should premise,
first, that although his estate was not a large one, yet
that still his interests, and those of his children, were
deeply involved in this question. All he wanted was,
to come to a right conclusion upon the bearings of
the subject.—(Hear, hear.) Being brought up as
one of those who were interested, he thought that
protection was necessary for the agricultural interest,
and, he shared in the errors of his class ; but since his
education he saw matters in quite a different light,
and he wished that others would take the same means
of informing themselves. He thought, if others were
to take the same cue to information which he did,
they would very soon come to a conclusion such as
he did with respect to the difference between the
relative positions of the English squire and
the German grandee. They would find, that
what established the superiority of the former
over the latter was the persevering industry,
and the magnificent and persevering enter-
prise of the English people, by which they were en-
abled to pay higher prices, by taxation, for every
article they consumed. He could not see how 1,000
acres of land in England could be rated at a higher
intrinsic value than the same compass of land on the
Continent, except by the industry and enterprise of
the people. He certainly liked his own interest—in
fact he would plead guilty to selfishness, and, there-
fore, he could not account for persons drying up the
sources of their- own • wealth, for experience had
proved, that if those restrictions which now
existed upon the commerce of the country were
abolished, the people would be in a much better con-
dition than they were at present.—(Cheers.) Eng-
land had got the start of the other nations of the
world in manUfactUres, and why did they not keep
it ? Why, simply because their commercial tariffs
and restrictions prevented that interchange of com-
modities which God destined between the nations of
the earth, and, in consequence, those countries were
now opposing them. They were now acting upon
the same false principles as those which induced the
passing of the American tariff, and the enactment of
the Zollverein in Germany. He contended that, by
the abolition of all restriction, interests of all classes
would be adva4ced, and consequently those of the
landlords. Mr, Ashworth has shown that land which
in 1672 (in a district now a manufacturing one)
only brought according to the county rates, a
yearly rental of 169/., was, according to the
same authority in the year 1843, producing a
rental of 93,916/. per annum. He was shown an in-
crease of 54,388 per cent., and to what did that in-
crease owe its origin ? Why, it was the fruits of
combined science, capital, and industry, with which
the soil of Lancashire had nothing to do, but which
the energy and industry of the oppressed and taxed
classes had brought into existence. If in the year
1815 this restrictive law had not been enacted, the
landlords themselves would have been wealthier, and
the condition of the great mass of the people much
better, their domestic comforts more amplified, and
the capacity to discharge their social duties far be-
yond the present state of things. He denied that the
law as it was at present established at all protected
the farmer, or gave him assurance of a steadiness in
the price of corn. The highest authorities could be
adduced to prove that the wages of the agicultural
labourers had rsit;or been kept up, nor increased by 1
the operations of these restrictive duties. His Hon. j
F riend had stated in the House of Commons that I
the usual pittance of an agricultural labourer in any
of the counties of England did not exceed 7s. a week,
and he gave data to prove this assertion ; yet when he
threw down the gauntlet his challenge was refused,
and the Government denied him the opportunity of
proving facts through the medium of a Select Cora.•
rnittee of the House of Commons, for the purpose of
inquirci;e• how those restrictive duties affect the agri-
cultural interest and the tenant-farmer. In reply to the
request of his lion. Friend to appoint this Committee,
Mr. Gladstone acknow.ledged that the object of the
motion was good ; but still !le should refuse it, be-
cause it came from a suspicioo3
quarter.—(Cheers
and laughter,) The Government taCitlY
acknowledged
that, notwithstanding an inquiry inth this question
was most desirable, vet that they were s'o impressed
the
tDO u
rekefte an with a sense of the delicate susceptibility
of the !` Agricultural Nervous System," and so
anxious.to follow up the conditions of their
pact
with
refuse any
ißichmond,nquiry.
And u
that theyn
compelled just
same ground Lord Stanley, the other night, refused a
just and equitable motion made by Mr.Hutt;
Mr. Gladstone •
, in his reply to
his
friend, Mr Cobden,
made use of a word against which ought—all of
them—to enter theirthey
protest.—(Hear hear.) He
talked of a compact.--(Hear, hear.) Now there
never had been any compact made with regard to the
corn-laws ; the scheme of corn-awslast 1 introduced

was considered as a despicahle measure, both by the
country and the House of Commons; one against
which every body protested, both those who thought
it too little, and those who thought it too much.
—(Hear, hear.) It was a measure pre-emi-
nently founded on false pretences, as he believed
he (Mr. Ward) had contributed to prove.—(Cheers.)
They would recollect that the ground on which the
corn-laws were said to rest were stated by Sir It
Peel, in his Tamworth speech, to be the peculiar bur-
dens to which the land was subjected. He said that
land was over-taxed in this country, that the land-
owner was a sort of much cow, to be drawn when it
could milk nothing else—(Laughter)—that other in-
terests bore nothing like their proper share of the
burdens of the country, but that they were all heaped
on the unfortunate landowner, who therefore had a
right to ask for protection on everything he produced.
He (Mr. Ward) doubted all this, and he ventured
very humbly to challenge Sir Robert Peel to prove
what he urged. He said give us a Committee on this
question of peculiar burdens ; we do not care how the
Committee is composed; you may have the majority
on it if you will, and may put Col. Sibthorp in the
chair if you like. It is all the same to us whether
you try to prove your own case, or allow us to dis-
prove it, only give us the Hon. ember for Wolver-
hampton and the Hon. Member for Stockport and we
shall be perfectly content to take that Committee, and
work out our position, and abide by the result. But
Sir Robert Peel would not abide by the result.
He recollected the old line from Shakspeare, "A
rotten case will not bear handling."—(Cheers.)
He much preferred the comfort and security of a vote
on the question, and on the vote he beat him (Mr.
Ward) of course. But what was the inference from
this ? Why, that the corn-laws were brought in by
a class, for the benefit of a class, supported against
the principles of the very Government by whom those
laws were maintained, and defended on grounds that
would not bear the light of day.—(Cheers.) And
now what would be the effect of a repeal of those
laws ? The first effect, and the one in which they
were the most interested, would be that it would
make the Thames thegranary of the world.—(Cheers.)
And this, they would admit, would give a great
stimulus to trade. More ships would be required,
more sailors to man them, more wharves to be built,
which again would give employmont to carpenters,
bricklayers, and other trades; there would be more
business for merchants, and more demand for mer-
chants' clerks and others. Everything would be set
in motion ; the mere 3d. saved in the price of every
quartern loaf consumed in London would give more
than a million per annum to be spent among other
trades.—(Cheers.) Then a repeal of the corn-laws
would not come alone. They attacked the corn-laws
first, because they were the keystone of the arch of
monopoly ; if they broke down that, the whole fabric
would fall in. The men who called on the Govern-
ment for protection in everything—he knew them
well, and they would be the very first to
call out for cheap tea, cheap sugar, cheap
wine, cheap coffee, cheap ships to bring them
over in, and good commercial treaties with any coun-
try in the world, that could contribute anything to
supply their wants. That was just what they wanted
to bring them to. Who could tell what the effect of
such a change would 'be in such a city as London,
which by its vast and enormous possession of capital,
already defied competition ? Who could estimate the
effects of such a change on the operative classes of the
kingdom ? and he cared for that infinitely more than
he did for its effects on the merchants and capitalists—
(Cheers)—because it involved the fate of those who
lived by their labour alone. Every one must feel
that the condition of the working population
could only he permanently improved by relaxing
the pressure on the springs of industry, and making
the condition of life in this country less hard than
it was. God knew that it was hard enough ; hard
enongh for all !-.-.(Hear, hear)—for it was not alone
the artisan, the man who worked with his hands, who
felt it; the mind also was taxed, in order to meet
others in the struggle for bread.—(Hear, hear.)
They might tele any trade, he cared not which—
they might take all the trades whose productions
their chairman hoped would be united in that theatre
in he free-trade bazaar ; let them take the workmen
in their skilful manufactures, down to the ruder
labourer who raised the fuel which put in motion the
vast machinery by which their manufacturing mar-
vels were wrought ; in all these trades and occupations
the same complaints prevailed throughout the kingdom;
they found that the labourers were called to toil too
early, and were obliged to labour too long. In the
manufacturing districts they' found that childhood
was blighted by premature exertion, that youth grew
up in ignorance, that manhood was but half in-
formed, and often debauched, in consequence of the
want of information. They had no time for the
social duties—no time for the enjoyment of any
relaxation—while their old age was too often con-
demned to wretchedness and want. And that desti-
tution arose from no want of prudence—it was often
such a destitution as no exertion could avert. He himself
had seen in Sheffield the sayings of twenty years swept
away during the last five, and that not from any fault of
the individuals so much as from the working of a
system of legislation, which the Government persisted
in supporting. The whole country was under-paid
and there was less food every year to divide among
more people, and there was less employment, because
they refused to take the very food they wanted from '
other nations on such terms as would form a regular
trade. What was the remedy for all this ? 'Why,
not that of short-sighted philanthropists, who would
prohibit by law that excess of labour to which nothing
could drive a whole people except the direst necessity.
The real remedy was to remove the causes that
created that necessity, if possible—(Loud cheers)—
and they could do it. It was his firm conviction that
they could do it, not by following the course of ig-
nora
and spuriousntandshort- m
sifuhteadnimtyr who indulged in a
cheap for
nothing could be
Cheaper than that humanity which indulged itself
at other people's expense.—(Hear, and cheers.) It
was not to be remedied by their calling on the people
to avert the evils which their own class legislation
created. They must go to the root of the matter—
they must grapple with the disease itself, and not with
the symptoms. They must assert the right—the natural
right—the inalienable right of the English working
man to exchange the produce of his labour for the
necessaries and comforts of life wherever he could get
them cheapest. Why, the corn-laws made the work-
ing man a serf without the' privileges of one, for it
was at least the poor privilege of the wretched serf to
be clothed and fed, and no one could say that was the
peasantry. Let
them
m emof
unasnhyackolfe otruardel,abaonudretrhsyane
might safely leave
prices to find their own level, and labour to seek its
was, that they co
te1,,1
o other way. Let them
not serve e r
the
a workingr d . Hi s
classesco n vi citni onn
not mind the jargon of those new philosophers who
talked of a new social condition arising out of ne w
Social changes—who told them that the world ought
to be put in leading-strings, because it did not know
how to govern itself.—(Laughter.) He believed they
Would find Parliament a bad substitute for their own
:discretion in these matters. With respect to these
new lights he must • say he had a foolish preference
for Adam Smith. He told us that the only way of
increasing the wages of labour was to increase the
demand for it, and the only way of increasing the
demand for labour was to increase the fund out of
which wages were paid; and that fund in this country
especially, on account of the peculiar constitution of
its social state, depended on the expansion of its fo-
reign trade. He was not frightened by the tales
they had heard of the cruelty of the manufacturing
system. They were told that the manufacturers were
men who almost ground up infants in their mills ; for
his Hon. Friend the Member for Durham was told
that he was one of a class who came into the House
of Commons with their teeth actually dripping with
infants' blood. It was a galimatias he did not under-
stand. He knew that corn was cheap in 1835, that
wages were high, and the whole population of the
country employed. He knew that bread was dear in
1842, and then Lancashire was in a state of suffering
and depression such as had hitherto been believed
could only be produced by a great war or famine, or
Some national calamity. With respect to that suffer-
ing he would read an extract from Dr. Cooke Tay-
lor's work on the manufacturing districts :—" I have
seen misery in many forms. I have been in the
hovels and huts of Ireland when visited by the
scourge of cholera—l have been in the cellars
of Liverpool, where human existence almost
ceases to be human—l have been ii the wynds
grid closes of Glasgow, where the scenes would try
the hardest heart and the stoutest stomach; but no-
where have I seen misery that so agonised the very
soul, as in the manufacturing districts of Lanca-
shire ; and why ? Because the extreme of wretched-
ness there, and there only, was found combined
dtitti a moral dignity, and a sense of propriety,
decency, cleanliness, and order, which are
the elements which have produced the wealth
I have described, and which do not merit
the intense suffering I have witnessed."
How came that anomaly of high prices and great
destitution in the most prolific and wealthy country
in the eworldl? It was explained by a writer whose
work he preferred to those of all the modern
philosophers. He said that, " when there was every
year an increased demand for labour, and a scarcity
of hands, competition would exist, and masters would
bid against one another—high wages would be the
consequence; but, when there was a scarcity of em-
ployment, the labourers competed with one another
—members of the superior classes sought employ-
eent in the lowest classes, whilst the lowest
class
overflowed, in consequence of the flux
"abundant labour in the higher classes; thus
of supe.
the compeel
sto the per miserable pittance that
to reduce wag- „
tio for employment became as
life could exist t •
Adam Smith ; and 'i
never saw an attempt o inter-
A great deal. of
Such were the opinions of
embodied in this quotation
fore with the principles'
which had succeeded.—(l. eklj
1';

- -
sympathy had been expressed by the newspapers some
time back, and was generally felt through the whole
community, in the fate of those unfortunate female.
who were milliners to the great, and slops
workers for the shopkeepers. (Hear, hear.)
Some benevolent gentlemen connected with the
Mansion-house, he forgot his name, suggested the
formation of a society which would not allow those
females to work longer than they could earn 15s. a-
week. What became of it? Why, it did not last
three weeks.—(Hear, hear.) It was impossible any-
thing could last which did not pay. The proper way
to benefit the condition of these poor girls was to
give them encreased employment and cheap food—
(Hear, hear.) This was plain common sense—it was
the carrying out of an obvious principle, and was
better than all the rhodomontade which bad
been uttered by all those exclusive ad-
vocates of humanity. Those short-time men
usurped our practical rights. He (Mr. Ward) would
say, give the people cheap food and plenty of employ-
ment, and then they would be able to work short
time. Lord Ashley's speech was full of kind feelings
and humanity—spurious humanity, as he considered
it. The speech was founded on superficial and
narrow views, and if it aimed at anything it aimed
at the subversion of the whole commercial system of
the country. It was not an accidental abuse the
Noble Lord deprecated, but it was a speech against
manufactures and against trade. He would
say the same thing of the speech of a
friend of his, Mr. Charles Buller, and he
disdained to say anything behind their backs
which he would not say to their faces, and which
he had not said before them elsewhere.—(Hear,
hear.) The theory of these men, if carried out,
would be the ruin of trade, and all concerned in it.
It was strange that those public journals which con-
tradicted one another in everything else, were agreed
in one point The Morning Post—(Laughter, and
cries of "Oh !")—was full of eulogy upon Mr.
Oastler. Now he (Mr. Ward) considered Mr.
Oastler a very well-intentioned fireman—(Laughter)
—a man who would set a stack on fire with the very
best intentions—there never was so well-intentioned
a mischief-maker.—(Hear and laughter.) Mr. Oast-
ler said it was the demon of competition that
produced that ugly monster "cheapness." Why,
it was the working classes themselves, whom
he pretended to advocate, that had the greatest
interest in cheapness. Nothing could be made
dear without its coming home to them. (The Hon.
Gentleman made some further quotations from Mr.
Oastler's speeches against the extension of trade with
China and India, whilst the people at home were in
want.) They should, he said, make clothing for
themselves at home, instead of ruining foreign coun-
tries, in order to force our trade upon them. And
such were the sentiments, the preposterous
doctrines, which the Post supported • and this
was the nonsense which the kst called
broad facts and enlightened principles of
political economy ! Mr. Oastler said if the British
manufacturers continued to export their goods, they
would rot in the store-houses of foreign countries.
Now, the character for common sense of the gentle-
men around him had been sometimes impugned, but
never to such an extent as that if they sent a cargo,
which rotted for want of customers in a foreign store-
house, they would send others with a prospect of
meeting with the same fate.—(Hear, hear.) Why it
was by foreign trade our people lived. What did
Mr. Gladstone say ? Why, that a reduction of 1-15th
in our foreign trade had produced all the calamities
which resulted from the depression of trade in Lanca-
shire and the other manufacturing districts, which
Dr. Taylor had so emphatically depicted. It was to
foreign trade the wives and daughters of Lancashire
spinners were indebted for garments and house furni-
ture, which would have been articles of luxury to a
Plantagenet Princess.—(Hear, hear.) He now came
to another great authority—the Northern Star—the
organ of the Chartists. What said Mr. Fear-
gus O'Connor ? He said that the factory ques-
tion was a measure in importance only second to
the Charter itself. It was not a Ten Hours' Bill he
advocated as a practical limit to labour. He did not
acquiesce in any such principle—far from it ; for,
although ten hours was a comparative improvement
on the Government scheme of fourteen hours, yet he
held the imposition inflicted by the amendment as
positively cruel and murderous. No full-grown man
could devote twelve hours a day to his business with-
out sustaining an injury to his health. The poor
should have regular holidays. He (Mr. Ward) did
not wish, any more than Mr. O'Connor, that the poor
should be subjected to any cruelty or hardship. He
dared say they would like ten hours better than twelve
—so would he, but he did not know the way by
which they could arrive at it without injuring
their condition. A man must work to live
in this country. The condition of the labour-
ing classes was certainly harder in this country
than in others which were less wealthy. But
he did not think the condition of the working-classes
could be improved by legislative enactments restrict-
ing the hours of labour. Suppose, for a moment, that
the theory of these men could be carried out—sup-
pose Lord Ashley's principle of restriction could be
acted upon, that labour was to be restricted—that
everything was to be regulated by Acts of Parliament
—and the whole business of the country managed by
the landed majority in the House of Commons. Did
they wish for that ? Had they not had enough of it ?
Lord Ashley's Ten Hours' Bill was striking the largest
rivet out of the labourer's fetter. It was recognising the
great principle of restriction, so said Feargus O'Con-
nor. He (Mr. O'Connor) cordially supported Lord
Ashley's principle of restriction, for, said he, if the
time of labour was not restricted the labourer could
not compete with the master. He (Mr. Ward) con-
fessed he did not understand this sort of reasoning.
The great object of the operative was to gain
a livelihood by his labour.—(Hear.) He heartily
wished that to gain that livelihood it was not neces-
sary for the operatives to work more than ten hours—
So did all those gentlemen around him, but he and
they perfectly well knew that dabbling with Acts of
Parliament would never effect so desirable a con-
summation. Just let them look for a moment at the
question as it really stood. Suppose they restricted
labour to ten hours. In that case wages would fall, it
was generally apprehended, 25 per cent., or, according
to the opinions of others, thousands of working men
would be thrown out of employment, and there
would be greater competition among the working
classes; manufactured goods would be dearer; people
would pay more for less ; and thus whilst there were
dear goods, there would be a fewer number of opera-
tives employed, and consequently a fewer number able
to purchase these goods. A million and a half were
employed in factories—suppose all these received
higher wages, then the natural consequence would
be, that the manufactured articles would be higher
priced. See how much all the other members of the
community would be affected by those high prices.
Again, the labourers in every other department would
expect similar restrictions in the hours of toil; they
Would ask for the same boon ; they would
call for Acts of Parliament, which the ad-
vocates of the restrictive system declared afforded
a greater leisure, and invigorated the health and
improved the morality of the people. There could
be no just reason for refusing to extend the prin-
Ciple, and what the effect of such legislation would
be on the interests of the country it would be easy to
determine.—(Cheers.) Let them not be misled by
false or vague theories. Let them not try ex-
periments which must eventuate in the most fearful
results. They had arrived at a most critical
period. They had come to a crisis. They
stood at what the Germans called entschiedenpunkt
—that was the point of discussion. They must
distinguish between the evil and the good
—between the real and the fictitious—and not allow
those absurd theories of restriction upon labour to
throw the country into the same state of chaos which
the maximum Bill produced in France. The wages
of labour in that country, it was well known, was
attempted to be regulated by the Government. They
issued a quantity of paper, called assignats, which when
the mechanic presented to the shopkeeper would not
be accepted for more than one-fifth or one-fourth of
the amount which they purported to represent. But
the Convention, as Lord Ashley would, soon found
out their mistake. The next step the Conven-
tion took was to fix the price of every saleable ar-
ticle—first they took bread, then cotton and sugar, and
they took care to keep the guillotine at
work for all who dared to question the propriety of
their policy. The consequence was that in six weeks
all the retail shops in Paris were shut up; not a
single man would venture to sell his goods for these
assignats. Within twelve months the law was ab-
rogated by common consent. The people of Eng-
land had a plain and simple course before
them. He advocated as much as any man
increased leisure and increased enjoyments to every
class, but with respect to the mode of arriving at it,
he called upon them in the most earnest manner to
protest against those newfangled do3trines which had
been so industriously circulated amongst them, and
to proclaim their decided conviction that there was
nothing could insure the prominent im-
provement and cmaktbrt of the people of this
Country, or ameliorate the sufferings, or lighten the
burdens of the working man, but that legislative
change whioh would enable him to exchange the pro.
duct of his labour, in a fair and equitable form, in
all the markets of the world.—(Great cheexing.) If
a more effective receipt than this could be shown him
for the present social disease, he would be anxious and
willing to support it; but, as such had not been,
pointed out, he would be guided by those priwiples
which clearly led to this object, instead of embarking
in a route of which he would never see the end.
The Hon. Gentleman concluded amid loud and
prolonged cheering.
The CHAIRMAN next introduced
Colonel THOMPSON to the meeting. The Gallant
Colonel, on advancing to the front of the stage, was
received with reiterated cheers. He said—it would

be known to many of them that he had come from
wandering to and fro on the earth, examining into
the feelings and fallacies that beset different portions
of the community; and when he arrived he found
that, during his absence, they had got a new flight of
grasshoppers or locusts let loose upon them ; and he
felt desirous to discuss at least one of them that had
been laid before them that evening. He surmised
that nineteen out of twenty of those whom he saw
before him would not shrink from bearing the ho-
nourable name of British tradesmen. They had been
told they had the custom of rogues. It was not he
that said it, but they. He had one searching question
to ask every tradesman there : would not the custom
of honest men do for them as well ? It was
not many years since they had horsemen with
splendid arms, displaying themselves upon the roads,
cavalry they were, and supported by a corps on foot.
These men robbed, but what they robbed they spent.
Many a good bottle of claret did they purchase from
the innkeepers on the road-side, but he never heard
that the citizens of London maintained these to be men
of wealth, for when they caught them they hanged
them.—(Laughter.) That was civic ingratitude.—.
(Laughter.) Oh, they were bearing people those
citizens of London. They were patient, and patience
was a virtue. But virtue had not always its reward
in this world. They of the popular side had some-
times been taunted with the misdoings of some of
their prototypes when they got the upper hand. One,
Mr. John Cade, for instance—(Laughter)—had been
often thrown in their teeth. Let them look at their
legislatorial Jack Cades of the present day.—(Laugh-
ter.) They had got a Jack Cade, who legislated for
them by virtue of his sitting as Member for East
Kent. What said he ? He said " There shall be
no maiden married until she pay me her mar-
riage portion." Thank God three centuries had al-
tered one word in that speech. They vowed
with all humility in their hearts, and on bended
knees, that they recognised the mercy of that aristo-
cracy that had indulged them in that change. It was
their daughters' marriage portion that they were now
content with, and God be thanked for it, and the pa-
tience with which it was borne. Did it not come
home to the heart of exery father present—ana nine
out of ten of those before him were fathers—had they
not considered that if they should chance to meet with
those losses to which every man in trade was liable, and
should death be added to those mischances, so that
they unexpectedly left their families unprovided for—
had it not come home to their hearts what the result
might be? Might not she, the child of their affection
—one whom they had set before them and viewed as
though she were an angel sent from heaven—might
not she, when her parent
" Oppressed with everlasting sleep,
Can neither hear her sigh, nor see her weep"—
be sent forth togain her thankless bread by striving to
instil some portion of her own virtues into the young
scions of the aristocracy—perhaps for some rich
libertine to gloat upon ? But all this was borne with
patience. Was there any one there, he asked,
who was not determined to add his mite
towards the general stock of assault upon those
miserable fallacies by which they were at present
governed, in order that they might not be governed
by such for the future ? He regretted that there
were some persons in the north of England running
after those Jack Cades to whom he had adverted.
They were offering to the men who oppressed them
to cut down the compensation for their labour, and to
allow them to further oppress them if they would
grant them a shorter period of suffering—if they
granted them a shorter number of hours per day;
and not a shorter number of hours during the brief
period of their lives. They had perhaps before heard
the story of a Turkish frigate which sailed on a three
weeks' voyage, with one weeks' water on board for
600 prisoners. The captain, Turk as he was, sold
that water to the prisoners. Those unhappy men
employed themselves by day, and also by night, in
their only species of manufacture—cutting tobacco
stoppers, which they would sell to the others, their op-
pressors, for draughts of water, to save their lives.
The Muftis went round the deck, and said, we pity
you, we shall shorten your hours of labour in
cutting tobacco stoppers to ten hours a day.
Did they not suppose that these unfortunate men
called out to them, " If you love us, take us under a
pump."—(Cheers and laughter.) The only thing
their commanders never meant to do. He for his
own part would not undertake to describe all the de-
grees of hybridization that might take place between
the two animals—knave and fool. But this he said,
that he did not believe the promoters of the Factories
Bill to be dishonest, because he had not the proof be-
fore him ; nor did he believe them to be honest, be-
cause he had not the proof before him. Meanwhile
his mind was in the condition of a sheet of white
paper on the subject, except that in one corner he
found it written, that in 99 similar cases out of 100,
dishonesty had been the rule.—(Hear, hear.) He
had told them they were governed by a miserable
system of quackery, and the Hon. Member for Dor-
setshire made it felony to drink small beer. If the
Hon. Member was at all honest, he believed that the
way to make men drink strong beer was to make it
felony to drink it small.—(Cheers and laughter.)
Why, the fallacies that they propounded were such
that any turkey-cock that would swallow them would
eat a crocodile.—(Laughter.) The Gallant Colonel
concluded by appealing to London, which had always
been foremost in the battle of liberty when it was
fought amid bloodshed, not to be back ward on the
present occasion, when, though no personal danger
attended the contest, there were yet great results to
be achieved for freedom. He eat down amid re-
peated cheering.
The CHAIRMAN introduced Mr. George Thompson
to the meeting, by a eulogistic reference to his
labours in .the anti-slavery cause. He (the Chair-
man) could never see the difference between stealing
labourers and stealing the fruits of labour.—(Cheers.)
Mr. G. THOMPSON, after some prefatory observa-
tions as to the state of his health and the lateness of
the hour, said he was free to confess that he agreed
with his Hon. Friend who had introduced him to
their notice, that the question of free trade, including
the abolition of the corn-laws, as the most important
branch of that question, was equal in its magnitude,
in the solemnity of its aspect, equal as respected the
comfort and happiness of the human race, and much
more than equal as respected the stability,
,as well as the honour, of the British em-
pire, to that great question which he had
had the honour of endeavouring to promote
in times that were past. If he had asked before that
man should be free, he asked now that food should be
free.—(Hear, hear.) God meant all men to be free ;
he believed that he also meant all men to be fed.—
(Cheers.) He believed it to be a crime to steal the
liberty of man ; he believed it to be equally a crime to
diminish the quantity, to raise the price, or to deterio-
rate the quality the food of man. And if, in addition
to stinting the amount, and raising the price of the
article, he found also that this corn-law, through end-
less ramifications, affected the amount of their wages,
raised the supply of labour in the market above the
demand, threw thousands, and hundreds of thousands
out of employment, and left for those who were for-
tunate enough to gain employment but half what they
would be able to realise under other cir-
cumstances, and then sent them into th-e
food-market, and made them pay double the
price for their subsistence which they would
otherwise have to pay ; the corn-law then stood before
him as a tremendous robbery, as a sin on the part
of the Government against society, for whose benefit
they ought to legislate ; and as an abrogation of that
charter which heaven in its beneficence had given to
man, that " of the fruit of the earth he should freely
eat," and that as seed-time and harvest, summer and
winter, never should cease, so man should never
be without the means, so far as the earth's
fertility was concerned, of obtaining that which
heaven designed when it made the earth
capable of yielding all that was necessp.ry
for man and for beast.—(Cheers.) They we, F. all
under infinite obligations to the Anti-Qorn-law
League for this great travelling university, lecturing
and preaching upon the great distinguislaing. maxims
of political economy. There was only quo thing
which
he regretted when he came that house,
'were not always
and that was, that they
compelled to pay something at the door
when they entered it. He would really put
it to their consciences whether, when they came into
that house under other circumstances, when any other
company was performing—(Laughter)—they received
more amusement or more instruction than when they
occupied the pit, the boxes, the gallery, and the stage
in ctmsequenee of the invitation of the Anti-Corn-
law League.—(Hear.) They had heard that night
an able and admirable lecture upon the political eco-
nomy of that question—for it was a politico-economic
question, and one of vital importance, not only to
their interests, but to the interests of society at large.
What was the great master principle of that system
of political economy which they were assembled to
propagate for their own benefit, and that of the worl,:t
at large ? Why this was the distinguishing doctrine
which the League was travelling through the Length
and the breadth of the land, to teach and to.rzreach—
that every class of the community should
be left to
its own free agency in the management of its own
commercial transactions, while those transactions
were in themselves honest and honourable ; that there
should be no legislative interference, still less any
legislative coot-ml, and, least of all, any legislative
compulsion, in the hours of labour, in matters of trade,
or An matters of commerce, They must never give
up that principle.—(Cheers.) He agreed with the
preceding speaker that the corn-law was the key-
stone of the dark, gloomy, oppressive, consolidated
arch of monopoly, and that if they could pull that
down, those whom they had assailed and de-
feated on the question of the corn-law would
be their most sincere and energetic compeers in
accomplishing the destruction of other monopolies.—
(Hear, hear.) Let them lay it down as a maxim,
sound and impregnable, that government abused its

power and exceeded its fthittions when it procgaSl
to interfere with, to control, or to coerce the lalYntirid
ing men, or their transactions in their individn
capacity, while they did not in their mercantile,
trading, and laborious pursuits commit an Of
fence against society.--(Loud cheers.) Now they
had all confidence in the soundness of that
doctrine. If they had wanted that confidence in the
beginning, it would have been inspired within them
by the fact, that just in proportion as that doctrine
had been proclaimed, argued, illustrated, and reenin‘
mended, did mankind receive that doctrine. Eve°
those who did not give them the benefit of their on
sistance, were compelled to do homage to the truth of
their maxims in the abstract.—(Hear, hear.) The/f
were told in high quarters that it was the right o.
men to buy in the cheapest, and sell in the dearese
market.—(Cheers.) They were told by an authority
t
almost equally high, at all events by one who sat a,
the feet of the Gamaliel whom he had already quoted'
that the doctrine of free trade was the doctrine of
common sense. Yet he persisted in violating the right
which be admitted, and his deviation from common
sense was sufficiently apparent in the discussion of.
the motion to which the gentleman who preceded
him had adverted.—(Laughter.) He was asked to:
admit corn from India, from Australasia, from the
Cape of Good Hope, and from other colonies 10,7
dependencies of this country. " No," said he,
refuse to concede this measure ; because frail
such and such colonies, which are not lraci
porting colonies, no corn can be sent, and
therefore the measure is not wanted ; end,
I will not concede it in the case of the °ther
colonies, because they can send corn, and we rust`
not excite the fears, or disturb the minds of the gen'
tlemen around us. "Lastly," said he, "I cannot
listen to the argument drawn from Canada, because
Canada, at the time when this measure was granted+
was in a peculiar- attitude. We were compelled
enter into an arrangement of a conciliatory natU
with regard to that colony, and this measure,
respect to corn, was part of that arrangement's
Now you do not pretend to say that either
our South Australian colonies, our South African
colonies, or our Indian dependencies, are in the
position of the Canadas at the time when
granted this measure ; therefore we shall deny
it." The plain English of the matter was that
Canada was in an attitude of rebellion, speaking:
not unintelligibll of a separation from the mother
country, and having actually put herself under arms;
whilst the other colonies were peaceable, loyal, et'
tached, and would be contented with a small measure
of justice. Therefore the doctrine of this distily-
guished gentleman was, that in order to get anything
from the present Administration, they must put them"
selves in a peculiar attitude.—(Laughter.) A Ndhile
Lord seemed to have found this out, and he
therefore, assumed the attitude of the celebrated Mr'
Cade.—(Laughter.) But they did not regard this
question in the abstract. They regarded it as a Prin.
tical one—as one of vast importance to this and ever"'
other country to the end of time. In its honest and
impartial application, this great principle would sweep
away all those restraints which had been so frequently;
exposed and denounced in that place, and whir •
formed the sole hindrance to the free exchange of the
products of industry. It would welcome to thesi,
shores the accumulated riches of every other country'
Like mercy, •

" It is twice blessed;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes." a
It was impossible to contemplate the events which had
transpired within the last three or four years without.
feeling, as lovers of' their country, the most sincere and._.,
poignant distress. While on the one hand, there Wlie__
much to minister to their pride as Englishmen ; tiler'
was still more to excite dismay, wonder, and comp".
sion. Their greatness as a nation was undeniahlt
and he wished for a moment to fix their eyes on that greGt
ness, that they might stand astonished at the strcalgli;
ness of that distress -which prevailed over the length
and breadth of the land. From the shores of their..
island they had embarked upon the wide ocean ; they
had spread their sails, and visited and explored the
uttermost regions of the earth. They had done raore;
They had conquered and colonised the most beautiful'
and fertile tracts of every region. They had added
to the number of those who owed and owned age"
giance to them, of every creed and, of every clime'
By the prowess of our sailors and soldiers, by the
skill of our naval and military .commanders, by the
talent of our diplomatists at home and abroad, web '
subdued—utterly subdued, many nations. Our 1111;
rivalled manufactures in every department had found'
t'
their way into the habitations of men in all quart?ra.,
of the world; and by the combined strength of- our '
moral, our political, and our physical influence, w!,
had made the whole world tributary to us, and cause'
the earth itself, with all its riches above and beneath, .
to lay its fruits and exhaustless productions at 011
feet.—(Loud cheering.) Look at the caeLta:
which existed in this country. At that
moment, in that very city, it was super;
abundant—it was almost superfluous, and any
m
ode of investment was grasped at wit'ich prornisv`` • the smallest amount of return with security to the
owner. Our ships were floating in all waters, ll,l'a
were to be seen in every part of the world. Ana '
they were only awaiti a 'system of free trade t° '
bring to our shores, and pour into our laps the tea"
ing riches of our universal mother earth—(Cheers)
mankind all over the world were ready to be our'
customers, and millions of them, as he could testiff
from travel, were deprived by our laws of the meg° of benefiting by our inventions and oav manufactures'
Our powers
,o'f production were ample, and our
facilities, florn our insular position, our high alni.nces+'
and our political power, were advantages possessed tt-
no other nation. Our valuable minerals were foal,' •
in such abundance, and in such close contiguity t"
each other, that, in many spots, the ore could o',
raised and smelted in the same district. Ten thotl.
sand streams flowed through our fields, working teff
times ten thousand machines for the 'production:
those descriptions of manufacture which were talc"
lated to minister to the enjoyments of
111,
kind. But in the midst of these, ragged
he was, impoverished as he was, begg,:,oi
as he was, hopeless, dispirited, moody, and T.T,I
contented as he was, and rebellious as he taigZe
be, stood man, the lord of all—a diadem over t,, ,
whole.—(Chr;ers.) It was on this fact that he % .
sired to fix their attention that night. Though at i,.,
present moment there might be found, in some park,
of the country, the semblance of temporary Pr.ata
perky, yet they would find, in the immedbri
neighbourhood of that splendid edifice, hearths ore
which the fires had expired—cupboards which were
empty—and young mothers rocking their childrellthe
sleep, with hearts wrung with the prospects of,, bi
morrow,.frightening hope from their breasts, and by
the dread of being incapable of finding bread
so
their children. Such scenes were to be met with
poi e;
over the country. He challenged any one to P°the
to any part of the world where, in proportion to ...I
population, they could find an equal number of hum'',
beings who were utterly destitute and without h°lf.;
It was in England alone that such scenes could.
i„,'''
found, and they were there to be witnessed undw tve;,
walls of custom-houses, close on the steps of palace
and on the approaches to the temple's. Thera
must be a cause for all t1.)1,5. wi'sa
land was plentiful it was not so—rrhere food "
cheap it was not so—where labour was scarce it,,hat,
riot so. Among barbarians it was not so—lart.",ig..
despotic territories it was not se,. It was in .1."-te.!
land, in Great Britain, alone tlaat such was the cal'; Should they lay their T:;everty, their rags 14
wretchedness, to the ch.arrge of Iflm who had ores
6i,"-0
them ? Heaven forbid that they should lay such
charge to Him who had made them what they w ei.
land who bad given them bread to eat. Did
.o.ol'
want corn ? They might get it from Arnerigrotti 1
they might get it from Egypt, or ' opo
India. From almost every State in Ef„or
they might have it. It was all round them. Thou"
sands of ships were ready to be sent to our 5,..`" itt
freighted with golden grain, and ready to tes!lai,
return the products of the labour of our skilful ah'ora.
sans. If they were allowed to do this, the °woo
would soon become useless, and would remain h 11,,, P.
sheath as worthless. It would be used only as si '
ploughshare, while the spear would be turned antol ,
pruning-hook. They had heard much of corns
ookl :
he had now one word to say about sugar. 11°,:rrtjot)
do this the more fearlessly, because he `thought of
no one would suspect him of having./ saf
particularly leaning in favour of slavery. But if one was to do so, he could but say, " read the il't poll
of my past life, and I think u will then see thact silt!
have done me an injustice.' He was the foe of
monopolies. Hr: was the foe of every descriPt' of
slavery, whether it was personal slavery or slavery: or
any othel• class, either ecclesiastical, political, the,
social.
•..._
of the sugar question ? His friends wry to'
--(Cheers.) But what were they to do 010 to
him and said, " We are free traders with respector
everything except sugar ?" Now, he (Mr. Iv
~..,, tv
;son) agreed with them that it was a °roo`
make a man a slave, and thereby to Wl°4 Ile.
a rational beings into things and chattels personat or 0
admitted that it was a crime to take the labour dime
man without giving him the wages which we vor.
to him for that labour. He admitted that theteirls
zilians were not guiltless in keeping human coffee
in bondage, and in raising sugar, cotton, andso ea'
at the expense of unremunerated toil. If aIl coo'
tertained certain opinions with respect to the
_d ifdlf
sumption of certain produce, let him do so ; 140
believed that other men ought to entertain the,.o con;
opinions, let him go to them and endeavour__," non/
vert them. But while ha (Mr. Thoferfrae"
maintained the right of the Brazilian slave to in e,ii°
he also maintained the right of every Ma" ,nvve'
country to be a free man also, and to have the t'° be
on the Saturday night of purchasing whate';', bito
pleased with his earnings, if his conscience 't0,14-'pWI
ori
that he was not doing wrong in making asocu
chases. Why was it that the G-overr linens Joe
taken such hold of the anti-slavery zeal r• lie