The Sun.
London, England, 1844-10-26 00:00:00

precisely the observation which you have already heard,
that this meeting may be taken as a token of the
firm resolution which the inhabitants of this town and

district have come to, that, so long as there is an Asso-
ciation which has for its object the abolition of the corn-
law, so long will you be found amongst its warmest
supporters.—(Hear.) And, although, just now, in this
district, there is not that imminent ganger which we

hare seen, and although some are disposed to argue
that, because we hare good harvests, therefore corn-
law repeal is not necessary, and that therefore no agi-
tation can be maintained, yet I am prepared here
to contend, that we are now in a better and more
advantageous position with respect to the carrying out
of our object than we have been at any former period ;
and, more than that, we may derive consolation and
delight from witnessing how beautifully, how har-
moniously the seasons are working round to carry con-
viction to the minds of the most bigotted, and to demon-
strate to the whole country and the world, that every
principle which we have propounded on this question is
well founded, and that experience constantly confirms it.
—(Applause.) We read of old of an invader and an
usurper, that the stars in their courses fought against
him; and may we not say, also, with respect to those
who invade the rights, the dearest rights of the popull.-
Lion of this country, who usurp a power to which they
have no just title—the power of feeding, or, if need be,
of starving a great empire—(Loud applause)—may I not
say that the seasons fight against them, and that year
after year, as it rolls over us, is but weakening their
power and strengthening that public opinion which we
are rallying as fast as we are able for the overthrow of
the worst species of tyranny with which any country
was ever cursed?—(Loud applause.) We are entering
the seventh year of our labours in this great cause, and
there may be some who at the thought of this may
despond. If there be any who have a right to despond,
or who may be forgiven if they feel faint-hearted, it is
surely those who have laboured hard in this cause ; but
so far as the Council of the League are concerned, I can

state to this meeting and to the-public, there never was
a time when they were more convinced that they were
right in the beginning and right now, and that in their
cause, as in all others, right must finally triumph.—
(Applause.) If you feel despondent upon this question,
think for a moment what it is you are fighting for. It is
for no paltry triumph of a faction. It is not to eleva'e
this man or that man; or to set waving this flag, or to
pull that flag down. No; but you are fighting for one
of the greatest and the noblest causes which ever
united the exertions of any body of men; you are
fighting for the liberation of the industry of twenty-
seven millions of your fellow-countrymen, and not for
the liberation of their industry only, but as everythine
that is established here becomes a fashion for the world,
you are also working out the liberation of the industry
of the whole human race, from all the tyranny which
monopoly in every clime and in every age has inflicted
upon it.—(Loud applause.) Six years ago this country,
and this district especially, had been passing through a
season of great commercial prosperity and of extraor-
dinary commercial excitement. At that period we found
this prosperity decaying, and this excitement being
changed into its extraordinary a depression. We were
led, as most men are led, who feel themselves getting
into danger, or in a dangerous position—we were led to
inquire why it was that this change was taking place.
We knew that Adam Smith had written, and that °the-
men had propounded the great doctrines of free trade,
and we knew that there were laws upon our statute-
book which in every sense infringed those great prin-
ciples. We had not, however, had our attention so
directed to this question, as to make much ado about it,
until danger was at our door. We then began to in-
quire, and wo came rapidly, but still most surely and
safely, and, I believe, wisely to the conclusion, that the
cause and the source of the miseries which then threat-
ened this district was to be found in an Act of Parlia-
ment which did not hesitate to starve the people and to
cripple commerce, merely for the aggrandisement of a
class to whom your class would seem to be of no value,
and who despise commerce from their very hearts.—
(Applause.) Well, we pointed out the cause. It is of
no use living in a free country unless the free man has
the right to advise the people when he finds anything
wrong in the public affairs of the nation.—(Cheer'.)
We advised our countrymen that the source of their
evils was in the corn-law. We pointed out how,
during the good harvests of 1834, 1835, and 1836
prosperity had increased, and how the moment
that we were deprived of good harvests, the very
first season, this prosperity received a very sensible
check, and we began to go from that to the other ex-
treme of depression and embarrassment. But monopoly
refused to believe. So it always has done, and so it al-
ways will.—(Hear, hear.) There is ;nothing harder—
no, the nether millstone is not to be compared in hard-
ness to the heart of monopoly.—(Applause.) Monopoly
never believes till it is grasped in earnest, and compelled
to disgorge.—(Applause.) Monopoly did not believe us,
but made a variety of excuses, some of which had some
little effect at that time, but now appear to be simply
childish; and those persons who did predict in their
favour must be very sorry that what they said was ever
written or printed.—(Applause.) They said that manu-
factures were subject to great fluctuations. Well, that is
quite true, in this country, so far as our experience of
the last thirty years goes, and so far as our experience
of the period before that goes. But then the time before
the last thirty years was almost a continual course of
war, which interferes with the regular course of industry ;
and since the war the corn-law has also interfered with
the regular course of industry; and we have no proof
whatever that any such fluctuations as we have suffered
arose from the nature of things, but rather from the
violent interference with the nature of things which ha-
been inflicted upon us by war in one case, and by
interference in the other.—(Applause.) Well,
and they had the audacity to say, also, that we were
badly off because we competed with each other. Why,
if we had not competed with each other, we should have
had no prosperity at all.—(Applause.) They said there
are too many people come to Manchester Exchange,
and they bid against each other. We said, " There do
not come too many to sell, but there come too few to
buy."—(Applause.) Why, there is more competition
now on Manchester Exchange than there was
then, as far as the number of sellers is con-
cerned, and the entire of the quantity sold is con-
cerned; but there are more buyers than there were
then, and those who buy are buying in larger quanti-
ties, while they give a little more for their goods.—
(Applause.) They said, too, that machinery was the
cause of our calamity ; and Sir Robert Peel—l call him
in this respect a great little man—did stoop to a mean-
ness utterly unworthy of a man occupying the position
which lie occupies—that of attempting to spread this
delusion amongst the people, and amongst the working
classes. Such a notion must be very dangerous—that
machinery and improvement in machinery were the
causes of SO many of the labouring population of this
district being thrown out of employment.—(Hear, hear.)
And is it not notorious that there is more machinery at
work wow than ever in this district ? is it not notorious
that it is more perfect, costly, and exquisitely finished
than ever it was before ? Is it riot notorious that it ie
turning out a greater quantity of work for the same
amount of wages and of manual labour than before ?
And yet, for all this, there are no persons turned out of
employment now by the invention of new machinery,
and w?hout anything being done to remove these par-
ticular closes to which they have attributed our distress.
_-(Applause.) Some of them had the effrontery to say
that this state of things arose from a greatly extended
foreign trade, and the columns of some of the monopo-
list iiewepapers were filled with arguments—no, not
with arguments, but with assertions—to prove that ii
we only stick to our home trade and our colonial trade,
we should be extremely well off. And is it not
potorioue that these very people, the moment the
China war ceased, and the China trade was thrown
open to to, began to rejoice in the extension of
our foreign trade, and have all along attributed
a considerable portion of our prosperity to the
opening of that foreign trade ? We have more
foreign trade now than we had three or four years ago.
This year there has been a great extension of export in
almost every staple article of British manufacture ; and
yet
notwithstanding the increase of this evil, to which
,
the monopolists pointed us, we find we have a return of
prosperity.—(Hear.) Then, they said again, that one
great cause of the evil was, that there was so much agi
tation in the country. I have no doubt at all that their
uneasiness arose from that source.—(Applause,) But
it must be borne in mind. that during the last two years,
during the latter period of 1843, at any rate, and the
beginning of this year, the agitation in favour of the
repeal of the corn-'saw was carried on with more energy
than it had been at any former period ; and yet, during
the time that the agitation was increasing in intensity,
the cause of the evils in their eyes being increased, still
the evil was gradually diminishing, and we were return-
ing to prosperity at a rate none of the slowest.—(Ap-
plause.) Well, now, it is worth remarking that not a
single cause to which monopoly ascribed our distress has
been removed, and yet the distress itself, in this district,
has, to a very great extent, vanished.—(Applause.)
Well, I should suppose, then, the monopolists were mis-
taken, but I dare say they won't acknowledge it, and if
people won't swallow the things that were said two or
three years ago, they'll have a new stock for you, and
if you are not intelligent and inquiring some may
be taken in with their new excuses. But what
did we say wish respect to the distress ? The
very first time that the Manchester Chamber of
Commerce met, or the very first time that the associa-
tion met, which afterwards became the Anti-Corn-
law League, the corn-law was pointed out as the cause of
the distress, and we hare never varied a hair's-breadth
from it from that-, time to this.—(Applause.) Well, the
distress has abated, and the corn-law is not repealed,
and therefore my argument with respect to the monopo-
list excuses might be turned against me, only that a e
have always said that if we had good harvests, by which
food could be abundant and cheap, or if we had a repeal
of the corn law, by which food could be abundant and
cheap, then the distress would abate. We have not had
a repeal of the corn-law, but we have had abundant
harvests, and that is tantamount to a temporary aboli-
tion, or a great relaxation of the corn-law ; and under
this the distress has abated, and prosperity has returned.
—(Applause.) Well, now, I considerr our case to be
tolerably well proved. I think, if we take twelve men
from any county in England, excepting even Buck-
inghamshire, and put them into ajiiatrytox, and have
an impartial man from any country
at e world to try
the cause, and we bring the facts and arguments which
we have brought before the public of country
be-
fore those twelve men, 1 think they would have
dif-
ficulty in making up their minds as to the real cause
,of the sufferings which this district, and the popula-
tion of the country generally, have endured during the
last five or six years. Then, if our case has been
im,,,eeed, and if we have all that from the past, what
say of the future ? _ You have been told al-
shall vcq
:;it would be a proof that you had not capacity
ready, thai
of ordinary instinct if you were to for-
equal to the lever-
(1' re and the lesson it has taught
get what is past, to . g
future. The P
you, and to neglect
.to prepare for the ro-
oter' two or ood h, ma
vidence wheich
or have,
v, or three more three;
bugt we mustarvests bear in
gie us on