The Sun.
London, England, 1844-04-25 00:00:00

plumes which decorated their heads; they did not
hear of any ostrich feather law. (Laughter.)
Again, let them take the shoes of the ladies. Why,
they had only to walk through the city of Westmin-
ster and they would see shop upon shop in which
they would find nothino. but French shoes. They
would find that those who sold French shoes in this
metropolis were doing a flourishing trade.—(Hear,
hear.) He was glad of it. He did not ob-
ject to their doing a flourishing trade, but what he ob-
jected to was, that while our legislators thought it
good fur their own families to admit certain foreign
articles, they did not extend the same liberty to the
working classes, for what they might think advanta-
geous for their families.—((;beers.) He had been
walking that morning in company with a Conserva-
tive friend of his—(A. laugh)—for he was one of those
who thought politics ought never to sever friendships.
—(Loud cheers.) He was walking with a Conserva-
tive friend of his down St. James's-street, and his
friend pointed out to him the great beauty of a mag-
nificent erection which was building in that street for
the Junior Conservative Club. That club, as they all
knew,was to he the place to which all the corn •la w sup li
-
porters—all those who were opposed 'to free trade—
were to resort. It was a great political club. There
those persons who were leagued together to support
the present system of corn-laws, and to oppose the doc-
trines of free trade, were to be gathered together.
His Conservative friend had looked up at the building,
and had directed his attention to the beauty of the
stone which was used in its construction. He asked
where that stone had come from, and it turned out
that that stone had come from Caen, in Normandy.—
(Cheers.) So that, in a place which had been erected
to enable theirs to do their best to put dawn the doc-
trines of free trade, and to destroy commercial pros-
perity, they had been actually doing this—they had
been engaging the commerce of the country to bring
from foreign countries the stone which they could
not find in this.—(Cheers.) He did not blame them
for doing so.—(Cheers.) He thought that if they
found the stone was better suited to their purpose
than the stone which they could procure in
this country, as the stone here was so bad, and could
only be procured in small quantities, they were
perfectly right in sending for it from abroad. They
would have done wrong if they had not done so ; but
he asked them to consider whether the people of this
country might not think that there were certain other
things besides these which they might get better from
abroad than the things they found at home ? Might
they not consider that there was so little corn in this
country, or that it was so bad, that it would be for
their benefit to have the corn of America or
Poland brought here for their use ?—(Hear, hear,
and cheers.) Let them apply the same doctrine to
others which they applied to themselves. So much
had been said in relation to corn in that place, that
he would not weary them with any further remarks
on the subject. Every person of common sense—
every man, woman, or child, who had thought on the
subject—had come to the firm opinion that it was
wrong to tax one of the first necessaries of life,
and that they were bound to take off the duty en-
tirely from corn, in order to increase the means of
employment for the labouring classes of this country.
He wished to say a few words relative to an article
which was almost equally a necessary of life with
corn—he meant sugar.—(Cheers.) He was desirous
of calling their attention to the subject of sugar, for
this reason : he thought there had been a great deal
of unnecessary cant, if he might be allowed the ex-
pression, made use of in reference to this subject.—
(Cheers.) He believed that it could be proved, by
reference to every Price Current of the day, that we
were now paying
.for the sugar, which the people of
this country were compelled to take from the West
Indian proprietors, threepence a pound more than if
we bought it in the free market of the world.—
(Cheers.) If they took the consumption of sugar by
the people of this country at its present amount, it
would be found that, at the extreme price we were
now paying the West Indian proprietors for
the sugar, we were paying about 5,000,0001. annually
for sugar more than we should have to pay if we
were permitted to purchase our sugar in the Brazils,
or in the open market of the world. These five
millions a year were paid to those persons who had
been already compensated for getting rid of slavery
by the payment of 20,000,0001.; and yet they were
now paying to those persons an equal amount of
compensation every four years. When the people of
this country came forward generously with that
amount of compensation to do away with slavery,
they never intended to pay that amount over and
over again.—(Hear, hear.) They intended that for a
final settlement of the question.—(Cheers.) And he
would engage to say, that if any person had pro-
posed when these 20,000,0001. were granted, to add
to that a tax by which the same amount should be
paid to the West Indian proprietors every four years, he
would have been laughed to scorn.—(Cheers.) But the
Legislature had managed the matter in an easier way
—they had not appealed' to Parliament for compensa-
tion, but they had said we will take care to have a law
that shall give us a greater amount for our sugar than
for the sugar which is produced in any other country
—we will take care that every four years we will get
an additional 20,000,000/. into our own pockets.—
(Loud cheers.) There had been a great deal said in
relation to sugar on the subject of slavery. He was
one of those who wished to see slavery put down, in
whatever country or whatever clime it might be found.
—(Cheers.) Zt 'was the foul blot in the cause of hu-
manity. But how could they put down slavery by
not admitting the sugar of Brazil to consumption in
this country, when they .admitted it to be refined in
this country, to be exported to other countries, and
took the produce of it, and put it into their own
pockets ? They would not be keeping up slavery in
the Brazils by admitting their sugars into this coun-
try, because they knew very well that there were
countries which produced sugar in which there was
no slavery. There could be but one price for goods
in the market of the world, and as he believed that
free labour would always be found to be cheaper than
slave labour, he could not but believe that the sugar
which was produced in Manilla and other countries
by free labour, would undersell sugar, the pro-
duce of slave labour in the Brazils, and thus
the Brazilian planters would be driven, in
self-defence, to do away with slavery.—(llear, hear.)
He trusted that he had said enough on the present
occasion to give them good grounds at least for be-
coming members of the Corn -law League.—(Cheers.)
His Hon. Friend behind him said the Anti-Corn-
law League, but they knew not what he meant.—
(Cheers.) They were a league to put down the pre-
sent system of the corn-laws.—(Cheers.) He had
observed that great questions in this country could
only be carried by association. 'Within the last few
years many great questions 'had been carried by
association. The great question of Catholic Emanci-
pation had been only carried by the Catholic Associa-
tion of Ireland.—(Cheers.) Many efforts had been
made to relieve the Dissenters from the civil disabi-
lities under which they had laboured, but they had
only succeeded by associating themselves together to
obtain this emancipation by every legal means in
their power, and by the same means the removal of
other grievances had been obtained. They had suc-
ceeded by these means in obtaining, to a certain
extent, Parliamentary Reform ; and by the same means,
they might hope to obtain the repeal of those laws
which pressed so hardly upon the industry of the
country. While attacks were being made by the
monopolists upon the principles of the Anti-Corn-law
League, the people were becoming more and more
convinced of the truth of those principles, and by di-
recting their attention to those principles, and propa-
gating their opinions in every legal way, they would
be doing their utmost to benefit and promote the in-
terests of this great country.—(Loud cheers.)
The CHAIRMAN then came forward, and announced
that Mr. Moore would address the meeting.
Mr. R. R. R. MOORE then came forward, and was
received with loud cheering. There was some slight
confusion created at this period of the proceedings by
the attempts of persons to• press forward upon the
stage. Order, however, was speedily restored, and
Mr. Moore proceeded. One would think
there could scarcely be a plainer proposi-
tion than that we had a right to use as
much of the world's produce as our labour
could get for us in the markets of the world.—
(Cheers.) And yet about that simple proposition all
this agitation had been occasioned. What they asked
was, that the people of England should be allowed to
carry the products of their industry into all the mar-,
kets of the world, and there obtain the world's price
for those products ; and thereupon they were accused
of being destructives, revolutionists, violent, untamed,
wild sort of people, who had no regard for the rights of
property or for the sacred institutions of the country.
(Cheers.) One would have thought, speaking of the
rights of property, that it was one of those rights
that the producer should have, as the price
of his labour, as much of the world's goods as the
people of the world were willing to give.—
(Cheers.) But their opponents did not like to
look at this question in so simple a manner,
They did not like the idea of saying that wages were
property, and that that property was interfered with
when men were prevented from obtaining the most
they could for their wages in the market of the
world.—(Cheers.) They had made a mystery of
the question, and they called it protection when
they prevented labour from disposing of its produce
in the best market. He had recently read the speech
which had been made by Mr. Thomas Baring, the
newly elected Member for Huntingdon—(lronical
cheers and laughter)—in which that gentleman said,
speaking of the repeal of the corn-laws, " that there
was no getting over one fact, that a free and unfet-
tered importation of corn must diminish the employ-
ment of agricultural labour of this country to a me-
lancholy extent, and although it might diminish the
price of bread, what mattered it whether the
loaf were a penny, or sevenpence, if the
labourer had no money to buy it." He did
not know that Mr. Thomas Baring had, in