The Sun.
London, England, 1844-06-20 00:00:00

GhA.IND WEEKLY

AN'TI-CORN-LAW LEAGVE
MEETING
41' COVENT-GARDEN THEATRE.

Tbse usual weekly meeting of the members, friends,
sae'. supporters of the National Anti-Corn-law League
took place last evening at the Theatre
-Royal Covent-
Garden. The house was more ctusialed than it has
been on several recent occasions, and there was a very
full attendance of ladies in the boxes,. The doors
were open at seven, and within ten minutes 'after the
boxes and pit were crammed; and 'hefdre the come
snencement of the proceedings the gallery also was
completely occupied. At half past seven o'clock G.
'Wilson, Esq., the Chairman-of the League, entered
the theatre, and was received with loud applausse
• Ile was-accompanied by several active mcrabcra of the
league, among whom were Mr. Cobden; M.P., Mr.
rlilner Gibson, M.P., Mr. Geo. Thompson, and Mr.
. W. J. Fox, who were loudly cheered by the meeting.
Among those present, we observed the following :
Menjatnin Smith, Esq., M.P.; the
,Rev: Thomas
Spencer, of Hinton Charterhouse, near Bath; Col.
- Tucker ; George Thompson, Esq.; Rev. Dr. Davis ;
Rev. Mr. Roberts, New Bedford, Massachusetts;
rrofessor Wright, Boston, United States; Rev. Dr.
,Jenkyn, Coward College; Summers Harford, Es
1V illiam Felkin, Esq., r.L.S., S.P., Sec.; Professor
Key ;
.General Briggs ; Rev. S. Edwards, Notting-, hand; Ed. Wm. Gray, Esq., Newbury;
,Messrs. John
Rawsthorne, of Manchester ; Charles Mackay ; W.
D. Starling, Stourbridge ; J. D. Cummings, Thomas
Hoyle, Rochdale; Crew, Shelley House, Essex ; •-Warland; R. Palmer; H. T. Stanton; John Bloor,
Tuthury, Derbyshire ; Samuel Lucas ; W. A. Wil-
kinson ; J. P. Burnard ; A. Bauer ; Frederick Far-'
rand; Sidney .Kennedy; P. A. Taylor ; Thomas
-.Carman ; J. Carlton ; T. Johnson, Sunderland;,
Samuel Rogers Isle of Man ; Duff, Isle of Man;
Gerrett, jun., Isle of Man; 'William Leaf; Press
Granger ; Oliver Wilcocks; W. Thornlamow;
111,
Curtis, -Manchester; J. Ridge ; Charles Cobb ;:
George Dilly, Newbury; J. Elkin ; John ;
Jonassohn; George Wood ; W. Greaesin; John
Howarth, Rochdale ; W. G. Thomson ; A. Thomson;
Thomas Thornton.
The proceedings commenced by the CHAIRMAN
calling on the Secretary to read the minutes of the
preceding meeting, which, having been done, the .1
minutes were confirmed, on the motionof Mr. G.
TuoatrsoN, seconded by Mr. M. GIBSON, M.P.
.The CHAIRMAN then came. forward, and addressed
the meeting as follows :—Ladies and Gentlemen, we
aft again assembled here to discuss the. great and un-
redressed grievance of monopoly
the parent of
scarcity, which still continues to weigh down our
industry—to express our hostility to its long continu-
ance, and the fixed purpose and determination of the
League• to, increase its efforts, if that- be' possible,
for its speedy and final overthrow.—(Loud cheers.)
Before we meet again in this place for the promotion
of the objects of free trade, our excellent friend, Mr.
Villiers, will have submitted this question to the con-
sideration and decision of the House of Commons.—
(Cheers.) I will not now stay to inquire as to the
probable manner in which the Members of the House
of Commons may treat that motion i it is sufficient
for us to know, that after their eleCtion to Parliament
for the purpose of upholding and continuing monopoly,
the rank and file of the monopolists, who think it
right to sacrifice every interest of the
.coun-
try to their own, are not likely to
make
any concessions now; but we trust there
come a time when, although the mo-
nopolists now think that their lease is a long one,
this matter shall be put an . end to.—(Cheers.) In
the meanwhile, our endeavour is, by producing a
timely aetion on the constituencies, to prepare them,
when the proper time shall arrive, to vindicate their
• own rights, and the rights of the industrious classes
of this countree—(Cheera.) Before I sit down, I have
to make an announcement with .respect to a subject
which was some time ago brought under your notice
in this theatre—l mean the bazaar. It was originally
proposed that it should be held in the month of July.
We have, since that announcement was made, had
several applications from our friends, more especially
from our friends in the country, expressing a great
anxiety to furnish contributions to the bazaar, but
Stating that.the time was too limited to enable them
Vto do justice to the work which they had undertaken.
ow, as there is no pressing reason why the bazaar
ehould be immediately held, the Council of the League,
taking these representations into' their consideration,
have come to the determination of postponing the
bazaar until the month of January, in thesnext year,
and I hope that by so doing we shall 'satisfy our
friends here as well as those friends who have sent us
np -these representations from the country.—
(Loud cheers.) I have another announcement to
make with respect to an alteration in the proceed-
ings of this meeting. It was originally announced in
the advertisement convening the meeting, that Dr.
Bowring, the Member for Bolton, would address
you; but, owing to other engagements, he is unable
to attend. But lam quite sure, that when I state
that Mr. Cobden will take his place—(Loud and long-
continued cheering, which drowned the remainder of
the sentence)—l will, then, without 'further pre-
face, introduce to you the Hon. Member for Stock-
port.—(Loud cheers.)
Cola. EN, M.P., then came forward, and was
Teceiyed With repeated- bursts of cheering.—lt was
only within the laskiwo hours that an announcement
had been made 'tao' him. >that Dr. Bowring, who had
proposed addressing,. the meeting that night, was un-
avoidably absent; therefore' he appeared before them
on that stage, to till up the vacancy which had oc-
cureed. Under these circumstances, he did not know
but that he might have found himself at a loss for
some topic on which' to address them, were it not
that- the "question of free trade was so
,prominent
everywhere, that each week turned up some
new topic, or some new.phase of an old topic, so as to
iayest -the question with new interest. Last week,
they had had two discussions in the House of Coin-
mons--(Cheers laughter)—and. if party spirit
had not elbowed poor political economy aside, those
discussions must have been made the school for the
instruction of the public mind on a subject which
was but little understood=-he meant the subject of
differential duties. Unfortunately, however, many
Members, on both sides, were possessed of ass idea
that, instead of being merely a question of a duty of
4s. a cwt. on sugar, it was a question of place, and
power, and patronage, and the, question had conse-
quently been discussed with mutual recriminations
and invectives. Retrospective attacks, were made
upon the past conduct of parties, extending back as
far as 1835. Those who were in feared they should
have to go out, and those whose were out manifested
only one anxiety, and that was to get the others out
-esseed themselves in.—(Cheers) Now; that meeting
Was a pretty large school, and he would endeavour to
give them a little instruction on the subject which
was really the topic which ought to have been dis-
caesed before the House of Commons the other night,
although other and less important matters, as he
thought, had superseded
.it in the discussion there, to
the great disadvantage of the public interest. He
wanted the public to understand the meaning of dif-
ferential duties, and he would give them an illustra-
tration which, he thought, would enable any child
there to understand the subject so completely, that it
enight go home and explain to its grandpapa what
was the meaning of differential duties. He would sup-
pose
.a „certain number of market - gardeners
bolding a limited surface of land—say the
parish of Hammersmith,. for instance. Sup-
pose the market - gardeners of Hammersmith
proceeded to the Duke of Bedford, who was the pro-
prietor of Covent-garden Market, and induced him to
lay a duty of 10s. a load on all other cabbages brought
into the'rnarket except " Hanunersinith cabbages,"
including; of course, Battersea among the places
excluded. ' Now what would be the consequence of
this .2•• 'As the parish of Hammersmith did not raise
as masy cabbages as the people of the metropolis re-
quired to eat, the effect would be that the market-
gardeners of Hammersmith would. hold back "their
sepely until they could get the same price for their
eibbages as the Battersea iaeople got, who had to y
an additional 10s. to the Duke for permission to brinpag
their cabbages into the markets- 'What would be the
effect ? The Duke would receive lOs a load upon all
the Battersea cabbages, while the ITammersmith gar-
deners would get 10s. a load extra -for .their cab-
bages, which they would put into their. own
'
pockets, the public paying the 108 extra,
for both.—(Cheers.) Suppose the Duke wanted snore
revenue, and still wishing to favour the Hammersmith
eib'sage-grovvers, put a duty of 10s. a load upon
Hammersmith cabbages, and raised the duty upon
the Battersea cabbages to 20s. What would ,be the
effect of this change ? The Hammersmith pople,
would hold back until they got the same pries as
the-,l3attersea people, so that they would still put
10s. into their pocket. How would that affect the
public ? They would have to pay 20s. upon all
cabbages; the Duke would get 20s. upon Battersea
cabbages, artist 10s. upon Hammersmith . cabbages,
while the Hammersmith people would pocket another
10s. But the Hammersmith people, having had a
taste of monopoly, wanted a little more of the same,
but they. considered thst it would not he expe-
dient ti go to the Duke and ask. hint to
put a" higher duty. upon Battersea cabbigese
but they raised the cry of " Cheap
.cabbages,"
and said to him " Reduce our duty of los. to Gs,, and
leave the duty on Battersea cabbages RA it is now ;"
and having raised this cry on patriotic grounds they
would go to Lord John Russell and ails him to in-
terest himself with his brother, the Duke of Bedford,
to help them to carry it out.--(Cheers.) If they
changed the word "Cablange" for the word " Sugar."
they would have an
of the motiono
which had been made by their old opponents', the:
W est India planters. Tho Government brought