The Sun.
London, England, 1844-04-15 00:00:00

'REA r

FREE TRADE BANQUET

. • LIVERPOOL, .FP2DI,Y, MIDNIGHT.
0a...3 of ths, greatut 'Eno Trade displ.ayz over witnessed it
tho tow= of Liv2zpool, tccl: Lt tho Amphi-
theatre, which was Elle by an i!eza.ntly-dros:-.ed company cf
ladiee and gentlemen. The speakers were the Chairman
(Thomas. 'Mornay, Esq., M.P. for Wolyerhampton), the
non. Fox Mettle, William Es art, Esq., M.P., Richard Cob..
den, Esq., !LP., John Bright, Esti , M.P., Colonel Thompson,-
and other gentlemen .To save the post, we are obliged to
give only the principal points of the leading speakers. :The;
proceedings did not terminate until near midnight,
Tstoaras TtIORNELY, Esq., M.P., the. Chairman, on rising
to open the proceedings of the evening, at seven o'clock,Was
greeted with loud cheers. He said—Gentlemen, you will
please to fill your glasses and drink to " The health of her
Majesty the Queen, fir wheni we all entertain the highest
honour rad regard!' (The.toast was then drank with musi-
eal honours, the band playing the national anthem.)
s,
The CiflaratAli'again .rose. and said—The sooner, Gentle-
men, we drink the health of. the Consort of her Majesty the
Queen the better. You will please, therefore, to fill your
glasses, and we will include in the toast " The Queen
Dowager, Prince Albert,
sand the rest of the Royal Family."
-(Loud cheers.) "
The CHAIIII4N again rose and said—Gentlemen, our meet-
ing this evening is not upon any particular occasion, but :it
has been thought desirable by many of our friends that Occa-
sional meetings should be held of the free tradeni of Liver
pool, and if we have the good fortune, as we have this. even-
ing, to be honoured by the attendance of distinguished.
strangers, of Right lion. and lion. Gentlemen. who hold a
high place in their cotuitry's regard.—gentlemen of great ins
telligenci and standing in the nation—and gentlemen who
see the bearings el'the free trade question,. and come forward.
before the public to ahoy their adherence
,to the grin
ciples of free trade,—l. say if occasional.. meetings .like:
this be held in a commercial commtuaity Liveipool,,
great good must be the inevitable result .of such . meet-
ings.—(Loud cheers.) I have great pleasure in wanes-
sing the attendance of strangers, such as I have faintly des
Scribed, at a meeting like this, because I want these gentle.:
men to know, that although the voice of Liverpool, as now
expressed in Parliament, is exercised on the.side of Mono-
poly, yet I desire these gentlemen, who stand before Parlia-
ment and before the world as free traders, should_
know that

in this community there is a body. of enlightened intelligence
which earnestly seeks the extension of commerco, and desires
to enibrce on the Parliament the principles of free trade.
To these strangers I appeal to the present meeting. How
can it be otherwise that a community. like Liverpool, which
has its agents in every part of the civilised world, and by their
exertions in remote regions extend the commerce of Liverpool
—how can it be otherwise but that those agents find all the
intercourse they would establish in foreign countries 'is
crippled and restricted, and in "some cases destroyed by
our present restrictive .commercial system ? From the pro-
ceedingiin Parliament 1 turn with-the greatest satisfaction-
to the great advance which free trade principles have made
in the public mind. Gentlemen, it is my great hope that the
public mind is being impressed with the importance of these
principles. I look back with great satisfaction upon the
Committee that my Hon. Friend Mr. Ewart and I sat and
served upon-.-the Import Duties' Committee—which brought
to" light a great deal of the embarrassment under which
the commerce and manufactures laboured, and which en-
lightened the public mind upon. stick-subjects. Gentlethen,
you know how much:our respected friends Mr. Cobden and
Mr. Bright. have done. . And here. at my right hand is my
Right Hon. Friendif I May take the liberty of so calling
hins,born of one of the highest families in the land, and
largely interested in. the.agriculture of the country, from the
extensive estates of that farnily—here is the Right Hon.
Gentleman, who has held an important office under the late
Goternment has done us the honour. to meet us this day to
express his 'decided opinions in favour of free trade:—(Loud
cheers.) Gentlemen, we .did expect that the Earl of Ducie
would have done us the honour to attend'upon this occasion.
I have here a letter whicii that Noble 'Earl has addressed to
our worthy secretary, Mr. Rawling; in which-the Noble Earl
expresses 134: regret at finding it impossible to undertake a
journey to Liverpool
.so .soon after attending the meeting at
Bristol.' The toast I am about to propose .to you was,
intended to have been given in the presence of the Earl
Ducie: That Noble Lord, for the reasons I have mentioned,
'is not present, and I will, therefore, take the liberty, as it has
been suggested to' me, of making an alteration in the toast.
in order to introduce, instead of the name of the Earl Ducie,
the name of a distinguished nobleman, almost a neighbour
of ours, the Marquis of Westminster.—(Loud cheers.) If you
Marquis
then, we will drink the toast in this wav—" 'fhe
Marquis of Westminster, and the Earl Ducie."—(Cheers.,)
' • The CHAlRMAN—Gentlemen, I had hoped that one of the
-best Members of 'the House of Common.% and one of the best
. men out of the' House of Commons, world 'have been. here
this evening to acknowledge the toast which I shall now, by
your leave, propose to the meeting. My respected friend,
Mr. Charles Villiers, had engaged to be here this evening.—
(Cheers.)
.On Monday last, there was a public meeting in
Wolverhampton to promote the cause of free trade—a meet-
ing at which my respected colleague, Mr. Villiers, and I at-
tended, along with Mr. Gobden, Colonel Thompson, and Mr.
Moore. Mr. Villiers had come down frOm London in a very
indifferent state of health, and he remained in Wolverhamp-
ton a day or two, in the hope that he would recover suffi-
ciently to attend this meeting. This morning, however, Mr.
Rawluts received the following letter from him :—.-

" Birmingham.
" Mr DEAR Sta,—lt is with great regret that I am com-
pelled to ftnego the pleasure ofjoining the free trade banquet:
on Friday. I have been suffering from indisposition for three.
weeks past, and it was not without considerable incon-
venience that I attended' a dinner on Monday at Wolver-
hampton, and it has so far postponed my recovery, as to pre-'
dude the possibility of my attending the dinner in Liverpool.;
Believe.me nothing el:.e would have prevented me from
-keeping my engagement.- I have written to Mr. Thornelyto
beg him to make my apologies to the Committee.—l remain,
my dear Sir, very truly yours,
" E. Rawlins, Esq."

" C. P. VILLIERS."

Now, I have.seen enough of Mr. Villiers' state of health to.
know. it would have been extremely imprudent for him to
attend this meeting this evening ; and I could not, as his
friend, and as a friend to the cause of free trade, desire him to.
come down to Liverpool at the risk of his health. Now,
gentlemen, I beg to introduce to you, not for the first
because he was a public man in Liverpool before I had the
honour to fill any situation of the sort—(Hear)—l beg, I say,
to introduce to you our. respected friend Mr. Ewart.—(Great
cheering.) Aud, gentlemen, Mr. Ewart has been so obliging
as to allOw the toast to stand in the way it is printed in the
list. The Chairman concluded by saying, "And now, if you
please, we will give three cheers for Mr. Villiers."—(Three
tremendous cheers were then given for That distinguished
gentleman.) -
•
EWAitT, ESQ., M.P, rose to resfiond, and was
received with -loud -and long-continued cheers., .When it
subsided, hi said—Gentlemen •I -remember .that it is re=
marked by a character in Shaspeare,
."that some men are
born to honotirs, some men achieve honoUrs, and some have
honours thrust upon them." In the last of these characters
I appear before you this evening; but I hivie a peculiar plea
sure in being present this night., being only; as it were; the
shadow of my friend,..Mr. Villiers—the man• to whom we all
owe so much, whether as a legislator or as a citizen.--.L
(Hear, hear.) If, gentlemen, I am to be considered but
as the shadow, you will recollect that the shadow proves
. the substance true ; and, hoWever defective my reflective
powers as a shadow may be,' they prove the increasing value.
and lasting fame of my Hon. Friend Mr. Villiers.—(Cheers.)
But I am called upon .to respond to this toast in another
capacity, because it includes the free-trade Members of the
House of Commons.—(Hear, hear.) Would you Could num-
ber, not only .a more zealous, but a more numerous band of
supporters, in that HouseL--(Hear)7-for, unfortunately,
whilst they command the .esteem of a great portion of the
people of this country, their numbers are neither pro-
, portioned. to their cause,
.nor, with the
.exception
of myself, their talents ; but they. are now, I
believe, making considerable progress in the country.
and the country will eventually carry them through, and
ensure a final and effectual triumph to the principles of free
trade.—(Cheers.) Gentlemen, when I am called upon to re-
spond in behalf of those Members of the House of Commons
who have-recorded their votes in favour of free trade, I turn
round, and ask who they are? Many of them the most
distinguished that ever graced the 'finals of any country.—
(Year, hear.) And, amongst them, is .my Right Hon.
Friend prtrroy right—your Chairman—one known .to you by
local connexion, as well as by nationalselebrity—(Cheers)
—and also those around me, whom I may truly call the epos
tles of free trade—Mr. Cobden and Mr. Bright—(Loud
cheers) men, my. sense of whose services, I want words to
express my approbation. I now see before me some of the
real representatives of free trade in the House of Commons,
but are there no latent and concealed free trade representa-
fives, who ought by proxy alas to thank you? Why, if pro-
fession is to be relied on, the Prime Minister of the present
Government is a free trader; for to borroW an expression
from a candidate for the City of London, he is "a free trailer
in the abstraet."—(Herkr, hear.) If profession is to be relied
on, the Right-llon. Secretary for the Home Department_ is a
" free trader in the abstract."-,(Hear, hear.) If the.
Right Hon President 'or the Board of. Trade • is to
be measured, not by "the profession of his principles;
• but by what he has published, he is •" a free
trader in the abstract." These men only want moral courage
to carry out their principles; and I must say, if. they would
only come forward with some great and comprehensive mea-
sure,, such as a bold spirit like the elder Pitt, Lord Chatham,
would have produced, they would carry with 'them all the.
sympathy, as well as, support, of. the• present generation, and
would command the gratitude of all posterity.—(Applause.)
This I maintain and modestly profess, not only on behalf of
the advocates of free trade generally, but also on behalf of the
latent friends of free trade.—(Laud cheers.) But how stand.
we in the House of Commons ? Not many years ago, meet-
ing with my Hon. Friends Mr. Cobden and Mr. Thornelf,
in "Palace-Tard, near • the House of Commons, -I 'was
called upon to declare by what means we could carry free
trade in the senate of Great Britain ?. I took the liberty to
,state that you: could only be successful by the use of one
lever, and that must be the mechanical power exerted with-
out—that nothing could be done till the country took up the
cauea.--4Clieers.),
.Has not that prediction been verified?
Has not the country taken up, the cause, and has not its in-
iluence been felt, *even -withihthat almost impenetrable se-
nate,' the Corm:none House of Parliament ?—(Hear, hear,
and cheers.) We owe this to those friends of ours
who have perambulated the country ; and what-
ever may be the effect .on the country, I can as-
sure you the effect within the, walls _of Earhament—those
walls of tenfold brass—is but slight indeed. Conviction,
reason, eloquence, must bring hothe the truth, not only, to the
minds, but also to the feelings of the Members of that !louse,
where not only a great portion of the capital, but also.of the
intellect of the country, is to be found.—(Cheers.) But; gen-
tlemen, however mush I may respect the sincerity of those
who luiuriate on.the verdant Treasury benches of the House
of Commons, and howeVer much 1 may esteem the correctness
of iheir vision, as into who see as far as other spelt can ifee,,yet
I maintain, they ought not to be the judges of this question.
They are in fact the advocates on one side, and as one-sided ad-.
and one-eyed judges, they' will never have their
vision completely restored until purged by the invigoratinn,
influence of the public mind —(Applause.) Thus I look tt
the-House of Commons, and see the Ministers convinced, but
not changed. Thus they will remain until we have stirred
up, not only the manufacturing interests, but the commercial
and agricultural also. And here.' turn round and look at the
uperation. of the Anti-Corn law League—the Anti.
Corn-law League: leas achieved this
• -the. fare 1:;* - • grP4t triumph. It
bas 'broken done e• •.e amer,-the adamantine •
which bas. long separated thehas
manufacturing and
wall
rural inhabitants- of this countz.. It s shown them
that the interests of the rural, an the commercial, and the
manufacturing classes are one.—(Loud -cheers ) To me it
appears as plain as the noon-day sun,.that the r 9 i popu
lation of this country iS not a whit lessinterested an tile
tlt -
manufacturing • in repealing laws which make 'Subsistence
• dear, and retard employment.-z(llear.) The Anti...Corti-law
League have gone amongst this mulation. They have appealed
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