The Sun.
London, England, 1844-01-26 00:00:00

GREAT

ANTI-CORN-LAW LEAGUE
• MEETING

AT COVENT-GARDEN THEATRE

The Anti-Corn-law League held its usual monthly
meetigg lest evening at the Theatre Royal, Covent-
firdea. The theatre having been fitted up for M.
Jullien's concerts, the pit was boarded over, and accom-
modation was, oonsequently, afforded for a much greater
number of persons than could have been accommodated
had 'it been fitted up in the usual manner. The orchestra
was thrown into the pit, thus affording additional
means of accommodation ; and the reporters, who had
heretofore been located in the orchestra, were seated at
tables running., along the front of the stage. The Chair-
man and speaker took their places in M. Jullien's raised
orchestra,

The doors of the theatre were opened at half-past six
o'clock, and within ten minutes the theatre was crowded
to suffocation la every part. The members of the League
availed themselves of the increased room afforded by the
boarding over of the pit. There was not even standing
room at a quarter to seven o'clock. This was one of the
largest meetings ever held in the metropolis.
At seven o'clock precisely G. Wilson, Esq., the Chair-
man of the League, took the Chair, amidst the loud
acclamations of all present. T. M. Gibson, Esq., M.P.;
Dr:: Bowring, ALP.; Hon. Edward Bouverie; W. Wil-
liams, Esq., M.P.; Hon. C. P. Villiers, M.P.; Rev. J.
Burnett ; and W. J. Fox, Esq., entered with the Chair-
man, and were received with loud cheering.
Among those present we observed D. Christie, Esq. ;
C: Thompson, Esq. ; J. Pattison, Esq. ; Arthur Patti-
soil, Esq.; J. Potter, Esq., Manchester; B. Baines, Esq.;
W A. Wilkinson, Esq..; David Carr, Esq. ; John
Macleod, Esq. ; John Anderson, Esq. ; W. A. Thom-
son, litsq.; J. Cox, Esq.; WM. Adam Smith, Esq.; P. H.
I4Breton, Esq.; T. Wadsworth, Esq. ; W. Pye, Esq.; W.
hinsith, Esq. ; D. Shephard, Esq.; Sir W. Baynes, Bart. ;
0.- Wilcock, Esq.; W. Thornborrow, Esq. ; Thos. Sharer,
Esq.; Charles Davy, Esq.; Henry Lloyd Morgan, Esq.;
W. Geesin, Esq. ; Richard Ware Cole, Esq. ; Edward
Edwards, Esq. ; George Ridout, Esq. ; Dr. Simpson;
Dr. Girths. Joseph Phelps, Esq.; J. P. Burnard, Esq.;
W. Hewitt, Esq. ; David Aumonier, East. ; J. Ridge,
• Esq.; A. Fees, Esq.; F. T. Purday, Esq. ; J. Crockford,
Esq. ; David Price, Esq. ; George Beacon, Esq. ; Dr.
Cooke Taylor; -Francis Place, Esq. ; Cowden Clarke,
Esq.• Cummings, Esq. ; J. Welford, Esq. ; James
Fordate, Esq. ; E. Bicknell, Esq. ; Sir John Easthope;
James Wilson, Esq.; S. Harrison, Esq.; Professor Kay;
P. A. Taylor, Esq.; Effingham Wilson, Esq.; and John
Adolphus, Esq.
The SECRETARY having read the minutes of the last
meeting, they were adopted, upon the motion of the Hon.
Mr. Villiers.
The CHAIRMAN then rose, and said he had no doubt
thiit the first question which would suggest itself to the
present meeting, and to every friend of free trade, would
be what had been done by the League, and what pro-
gress they had made in this great cause since they all
had last assembled within those walls. He would tell
them what had been done. In the first place, it would
be unnecessary to state that the corn-laws had not as
yet been abolished—that the Duke of Buckingham
had not as yet joined the League—(Laughter)—neither
had the Duke of Richmond ; and that Sir Edward
Knatchbull still advocates the necessity of upholding
the system which supports mortgages, and enables the
aristocracy to endow their daughters with marriage set-
tlements.—(Loud laughter.) He might also state that
Colonel Sibthorp—(A laugh)—had given the immense
sum :of 501 to the Pro-Corn-law League.—(Loud
laughter.) In opposition to those facts he could state
that, the Anti-Corn-law League had been obliged to put
up with a subscription of only 5001.—(Loud laughter)—
from a Nobleman who was rich enough to buy them
altogether—he meant the Marquis of Westminster.—
(Loud and long continued cheering.) They also had
had some meetings, and gained many advantages, which
he was sure the meeting would agree with him, could
neither be overlooked nor considered lightly.—(Hear.)
In the first place, they had had meetings at Liverpool,
when a sum of 4,600 L had been raised for the Great League
Fund, which sum was subsequently raised to 6,000/.
Then they had a meeting at Ashton-under-Lyne----a bo-
rough about seven miles from Manchester. At that
meeting speeches were made by the Hon. Mr. Villiers,
Mr. Cobden, and other members of the Council of the
League, and 5401 was raised, which, with 3,8001. pre-
viously subscribed, amounted to 4,3ool—(Loud cheers.)
Next, a meeting was held at Leeds, over which the
Mayor of the town, Mr. Stansfield presided, and ad-
dressed the meeting. Messrs. Marshall, the largest ma-
nufacturers in the kingdom, gave 800/. to begin the
League Fund with—(Loud and long-continued cheers)
being 500/ for the firm, and 300/. for the senior partner.
—(Renewed cheers.) They then had a meeting in Ha-
lifax, in Yorkshire, where 2,300/. was subscribed.—
(Cheers.) The next was a meeting at Huddersfield,
where 2,2001 was collected. At Bradford, 2,000/. was
collected. Several small villages in Lancashire, the
names of which he would not now trouble the meeting
with, had also liberally subscribed. Then there was the
town of Bolton, so well represented by his Hon. Friend
Dr. Bowring—(Cheers)—where 1,200/. had been raised
in an incredibly short time for the League Fund. They had
had several meetings in the Midland Counties, at Derby,
Leicester, and Nottingham. At Derby 1,2001. was sub-
scribed, then, at the next meeting at Leicester, 8001.
was collected, and at Nottingham a sum of 180/. was
subscribed to the League Fund. Then, at Btwnley, an-
other small place in Lancashire, 100/. was paid over
to the Fund, and again, at Oldham, upwards of 1,000/.
was subscribed. At Todrnorton, a small village, 6111.
were given to the League Fund. From the town of
Colnbrooke Dale, in Shropshire, a county which is re-
presented by the " twelve apostles "—(A laugh)—the
SOM of 400/. was collected. The Chairman then read
the names of' several small towns in Lancashire, from
which various small sums, averaging from 50!. to 2001.,
were-rollected for the same great national purpose. From
Stroud the sum of 5581 was sent to the League Fund. A
deputation, consisting of Messrs. Cobden, Bright,Moore,
Colonel Thompson, and others, proceeded to Scotland,
and there their endeavours were crowned with like suc-
cees. At Glasgow the Lord Provost took the chair
at the Anti-Corn-law meeting, and a sum of 3,000/. was
subscribed fur the fund. In Edinburgh, a similar
meeting being called, the Lord Provost also took the
chair, and 1,500/. was collected. At Dundee 5001 was
subscribed, at Leith 3501., and at Paisley 230/. These
facts, then, were indisputable evidence of the progress
which this great question was making in the public
mind. It was a proof that a new compact and agree-
ment had been entered into between the various mem-
bers of the League in Scotland and the North of Eng-
land, and that they had pledged themselves to each
other, and this meeting, that so long as they were
blessed with health, so long would they persevere
in the course they were now pursuing, not-
withstanding the calumnies and vituperation which
mil igh t be poured out against the objects of
the League. They had been told that gratifying
as had been their progress, yet that they had to
meet with obstructions in the Southern counties of Eng-
land. They had had their attention directed to many
associations rising around them on every side, the ob-
ject of which was to support the present system of corn-
laws, and it was alleged that these associations had been
organised by the farmers. Now he did not believe one
wor of this. Three-fourths of the speeches at
these meetings were generally composed of vitu-
terations against the League ; but the tenant
farmers had no such ill-feeling against the League
—they neither made speeches at those meetings,
nor did they occupy the chair. No, it was
the M.P., or the Reverend, whose names figured at
those meetircs. The farmers knew from the first that
the League never deceived them—they knew that, in
1841, that the League never marched them to the hus-
tings with the watchword of " No surrender" on their
tongues, and in the midst of their rejoicing turned round
'and gave them a new tariff and an income-tax.—(Loud
cheers.) No, the League told them openly and fairly,
tkrough Cobden and Bright ;that they:(the League) were
for the total repeal of (the corn-laws—that the farmers
could gain no benefit front the imaginary protection of
the corn-laws—that they would impoverish their
consumers, and they themselves must suffer in re-
turn.—(Hear, hear.) Those were the doctrines the
League broached to the tenant farmers, and they heard
and appreciated such arguments, and it would not do now
for the lords or the squires to come and tell them to the
contrary.--(Cheers.) He had heard somethin,, of those
meetings which occupied so many pages in the news-
papers. A meeting of that description to which he had
alluded was held at Colchester, when it was stated in
the public press that 500 or GOO persons were pre-
sent. One of the members of the League, who was a
tenant farmer, was present, and counted the number of
pergola, who attended the meeting on that occasion, and
there were not 500, nor 400, nor 300, nor even 200. There
were only 186 persons present, including 14 reporters.
Another meeting was held in the next county, about
which a great deal had been said in the newspapers, but
onlreleven persons were present, and as many columns
appeared in one of their favourite papers. They had
also been told that a great deal of money had been col-
lected on their behalf. They would have occasion for it.
Now, what had the League to do after those meetings ?
They should copy the names of every man possessing
the franchise front the Sheriff's list, and send addresses
to every voter throughout the country. They would
never disturb these meetings, for they respected meet.
'aniftds, no matter front whom they might originate ;
respected more especially the meetings
might emanate from those who lived by the
sweatwhicht ho
f their brow ; but at the same time they should
take care that every fallacyput forth by past speakers
should be refuted in the publications of the League,
and ttanstaitted through theh kingdom. But it had been
said, does the Leaguaeguweasopr:ved now ?He would tell
them. The Le
dialing with thed electors.
It had pledged itself, and would fulfil Life as far as
was practicable, to contest every election when vacancy '
may occur.—(Loud and long continued cheering.)
They might be defeated, but they should return
. again and again to the combat.—(Cheers.) They emightu
...Joe close boroughs, like Salisbury, in which vacancies
. might occur over which they had no control, but this
would not make the slightest difference in their exer-
tion.. They had laid it down as a rule that no mono-
polist should take a seat in Parliament without meeting
the eoncentrated strength of the League directed against
him—(Loud cheers)—and the strenuous efforts of the
League will never cease until the feeling has become
general through every county in the three kingdoms.
Was the League prepared to oppose the lord and the
squire ?—(Cries of "We are.") They had the array
of the intelligence and good sense of the country on
their side, and were sure to prosper. He know they
might be defeated once or twice, bet no great question
ever sank into the mind of the middle classes of the
people of England, which ultimately did not became
the law of the land, and receive the sanction of the
Crown.—(Hear, hear, and cheers.) They might have

to wait some time before this great question was settled.
No period of distress or suffering should ever be per-
mitted to recur again, equal to that which pressed upon
the manufacturing interests for the last five years. No
Ministry should ever be again allowed to pl it.e the
manufacturers in the same state as they were during the
bad harvest two years ago. Knowing that numbers had
been against them, that those numbers were increasing
while their opponents were diminishing, and that their
resources are now treble what they have been, the
League bid the people have hope, and take courage, for
they were every day coming nearer the termination of
this system. He should conclude by introducing to the
meeting the Hon. Mr. Bouverie.—(Great cheering.)
The Hon. W. BOUVERIE came forward, and after the
applause hadsuLnd
bsoidedo,nsasitda,gae_.Alvih
s(thrisNgas
their)_le sh
his first appear-
anceoudl on the
request the indulgence of the meeting during his remarks upon
this occasion. He needed this indulgence the more because
amongst the gentlemen around him were many who had fought
long and boldly in the battle whilst he was but a young recruit,
who consequently handled his weapon without their power.
Still this was not the first time he had been amongst them. On
the late occasion at Salisbury they fought the common fight, and
though not enlisted under the banners of the League, yet he was
possessed of unity and determination of purpose. They had
been defeated on that occasion, and singularly enough they
were defeated by free trade. He was an advocate
for free-trade, but still he should dissent from
that species of free trade which allowed one man to buy the vote
of another.—( Hear, hear, and laughter.) But, in spite of this,
he rejoiced to think that the great cause of the League had
been making such a progress ever since. It had been going
on from month to month, &cm strength to strength, gaining
greater power, influence, and weight. He rejoiced that the
associations and the counter-associations to the League had
been formed, and for this reason—the object they had in view
was to see truth asserted, and all they asked was in-
quiry—( Cheers )—they did not want to mince the
truth.—( Cheers.) The more the subject was agitated the more
likely were the people to become converts.—( Cheers.) He
felt, however, bound to say that it appeared to him, as far as
he had heard the accounts of the meetings in opposition to the
League, that the gentlemen who formed these meetings had
not taken the best course to elicit the truth. Ile had read
several of their speeehes, and the calumnies that had been
uttered, the violent abuse that had been used, the choice Bil-
linsgate expressions that had been adopted towards gentlemen
connected with the League, he had never seen equalled ; but,
strange to say, not one single fragment of argument had crept
into any of the speeches, calculated to convince either those
who heard them, or the country at large, that they were
right.—( Cheers.) He found, however, amidst all the great
mass of calumny, slander, and aspersion, one little salutary
fact had been stated by a Noble Peer ; he had stated as an in-
stance of the dreadful sufferings indicted on the agricultural in-
terest by the tariff, that the west of Scotland was suffering from
the duty on cheese.—( Cheers.) Now, this might appear a
little matter, but what was the fact? Why, the tariff did not
make any alteration in those duties.—( Laughter and cheers. )
The truth was, that Sir R. Peel, satisfied with the little he had
done, as a sop to the agriculturists, left butter and cheese alone.
—(Cheers.) The truth was, there was no alteration in the
duty on cheese, and there was a considerably less quantity im-
ported into this country, as he would ;shortly prove. In 1841,
when the tariff was not in existence, there was imported into
this country 246,000 cwts. ; in 1842,175,000 cwts. ; and in 1843,
when the tariff was at its full play, 158,000 cwts.—( Cheers. )
Now, what was the reason of this? Why, they had used up
their customers.—( Cheers.) The manufacturing classes, the
working classes, used this commodity, and if they were out of
employ, they had not the means of buying, and that was the
reason why the farmer was unable to sell his cheese.—( Cheers. )
Now, they were on the eve of the meeting of another great
pro-corn-law association, he alluded to the near assembling of
Parliament, and little enough, he thought all present would be
of opinion, was to be expected from that body.—(Cheers.)
First of all they had the Protectionists, the majority of the
House of Commons, headed by Sir R. Peel. He had some
hopes of seeing Sir Robert Peel in that place ere long
as a member of the League, and some day or other
he would be perhaps kind enough to offer to same of them
for the season, the use of his bull.—( Roars of laughter.)
er perhaps he might offer to destroy the rabbits in his garden
at Whitehall—(Renewed laughter)—and all this he would,
doubtless, say he did for the benefit of the people.--( Cheers.)
He would tell them why he thought they would soon have him
in that place as a member of the League; it was because, during
the whole of his life the measures he ultimately adopted were
always those which in former life he had opposed.— ( Great
cheering.) Now, he would bring him to book upon this point.
—(Laughter.) Some twenty years ago Sir R. Peel had op-
posed certain resolutions brought forward at that time by one
of the leading Members on the Liberal side of the House of Com-
mons, he alluded to Mr. Horner, on the great currency question.
Now, eight years afterwards, what would the meeting believe
Sir R. Peel did ? Why, is 1819 he brought forward a mea-
sure based on those very resolutions, and in his place
in the House of Commons, without a particle of
shame that formerly he had opposed the very resolutions he
was then calling upon the House to adopt.—( Cheers.) An-
other great question on which he had altered his mind was the
Catholic Emancipation question. There he had altogether
changed his opinion ; and how any mortal man, with the or-
dinary sense that God had had given him, could put truth or
faith in him again, he was at a loss to conjecture. In 1827,
when Mr. Canning came into power, Sir Robert Peel stated
as his reason for giving up his seat in the House of Commons,
that Mr. Canning had always been favourable to the Catholic
claims, and as the granting of these claims would be injurious
to the Church, he felt bound to oppose them; and yet two
years after that he granted these claims, and that too in his
character of a Minister of the Crown.—( Hear, hear,
and great cheering.) But he (Mr. Bouverie) had not dote
with him yet.—( Laughter.) In the year 1833 Sir R. Peel,
the leader of the Opposition, in the course of the functions
cast upon him, made a speech on the financial state of the
country, and on the income-tax being adverted to, he ex-
pressed his opinion upon it. He was not so fond of expressing
his opinions now, because he had been several times made to
eat his own words.—( Cheers and laughter.) He had now
great difficulty in expressing his opinions ; but upon that occa-
sion he did express his opinion, and said that nothing but a
case of extreme necessity could justify Parliament in times of
peace subjecting the people to the inquisitorial proceedings of
the income-tax—and that having recourse to that machinery
for the purpose of raising the revenue two or three per cent.
was most unwise.—( Cheers.) That with respect to II eland,
it would be grievously felt, and would be most injurious; that
it was his most anxious desire to see Ireland treated as much as
possible like England—( Cries of " Shame")—but that to sub-
ject England and Scotland to a property-tax, and not Ireland,
would be most unjust; and yet, after all this—after all these
statements, he had clone that very thing which years back he
believed to be unjust.—( Cheers). Now, surely, after a public
man had so gone back from what he had publicly stated, and
that, too, after great consideration, in his place in Parliament—
no honest man could trust either him or his declarations.
While he (Mr. Bouverie) said the time might come when
they would see Sir Robert Peel enlisted is their ranks, he
could assure them, that ho should not much rejoice at it.—
(Cheers,) Of this he was sure, that when time had rolled
on, and they were all gone to their accounts, their descendants
would be shocked to find that in former days there were such
leaders of party as Sir Robert Peel and Mr. Alderman Gibbs.—
( Great laughter.) With respect to the great party who were
for agricultural protection, and supported Sir 11. Peel un-
willingly, they contended for no other proposition than this,
that, supposing there was no custom-duties required at all,
that supposing the revenue could be raised by some internal
resource of taxation, such as Crown-lands and so on, that
supposing that state of things existed, they would still have to
maintain the whole army of Customs Commissioners, tide.
waiters, overseers, revenue cutters, and so on, for the purpose
of keeping out foreign produce.—(Cheers.) In short the agri-
culturists demanded that as a right. Now, why did they do
so? They admitted that the Anti-Corn-law League had, ab-
stractedly, principle on their side.—( Cheers.) Mr. Gladstone
had said that free trade was connected with common sense.—
(Cheers.) Mr. Baring was for free trade in the abstract—
( Great cheering)—and a gentleman who had spoken at a
meeting in Sussex was for the principle of free trade in
theory, but net in fact.—( Laughter. ) Of this he (Mr.
Bouverie) was convinced, that the more they knocked
off the shackles that at present were bearing on
the country, the more moral would they make it.—
(Cheers.) But then these gentlemen, the agriculturists, con-
sider the burthens upon the land ! What comparison, he would
ask, was there between them and the burthens placed upon the
country to maintain the protection laws ? One was only a
burthen of pounds, shillings, and pence, while 4ip other was
that of suffering, privation, misery, starvation, and death.—
(Great cheering.) One could not be weighed against the
other.—( Cheers. ) They could not put in one scale, tears,
misery, and wretchedness, and in the other gold.—( Great
cheering.) There was no comparison between them, and in
his opinion' and in that of all thinking men, the pecuniary one
ought to be put out of consideration.—( Cheers. ) Now what
were the burthens of which there was so much said ? Why
Sir R. Peel had enumerated them at Tamworth ; he said,
look at the tithes. Now, how he (Mr. Bouverie) would ask,
were they a burthen upon the land ?—( Great cheer-
ing.) A thousand years ago a provision had been
made for the clergy, and the party took the land subject to
that provision.—(Cheers.) It was a burthen on the land if
they pleased, but not to the party taking it, because he got
the land cheaper.—(Cheers.) Then, with respect to poor-
rates and highway rates, they were said to be burthens, and no
doubt they were in some measure so; but did not the occu-
piers of houses bear equal burthens ?—( Cheers.) Then they
came to what really was a burthen—the land tax ; and what
was the amount of that ? Why he found that in 1841 it pro-
duced 1,214,0001. ; he had looked up the items of the receipt
of income, and he found the greater portion to be legacy and
probate duty. Now the land paid neither of those dirties at
all.—( Cheers.) If he was to succeed to-morrow to an estate
of 50,0001. a year he should not pay a shilling duty, but if the
land had been sold, and the party had left him the money he
should then have to pay 10 per cent. duty.—(Cheers.) Now
this he thought was a good set off against the land tax.—
(Cheers.) There was another section of the House of Com-
mons who said they disregarded the notion of protection
altogether, but they said they must have revenue, and it ought
to be upon corn as well as any other article. Now the free
traders said to that, No, it is one of the necessaries of life, and
upon that ground it would be impolitic to place a duty on it.
Duties ought to be regular, and corn could not produce a re-
gular duty on account of the change of seasons and other mat-
ters.—(Cheers.) The free trader also said that a tax should
take as little as possible from the pockets of those who had to
pay, and should give as much as possible to the Government;
and that corn would not do that.—(Cheers.) He agreed
with the Chairman, that of the ultimate success of the League
no one could doubt—(Cheers)—they were sure sooner or later
to succeed. —(Cheers. ) Let them look at all the great ques-
tions of political importance that had been decided in the coun-
try, and they would find that where the people pronounced in
favour of them they had become the law of the land.—(Cheers. )
Who, he would ask, obtained the Reform Bill ? The aristo-
cracy? No,:but the people.—( Cheers. )They asserted it was right ;
it was resisted for a time, but it was ultimately carried. Was it
the upper classes that brought about the abolition of slavery ?
No ; but the people willed it, and the slave trade was abolished.
And, to come to a practical question of some importance to all
of them, though perhaps not so important in its bearings as
that to which he had just referred, was it the aristocracy of
this country who proposed, or who willingly carried, for the
benefit of the people; the penny postage measure ?—( Hear,
hear.) He contended that both the Whigs and Tories were
opposed to it ; it was the middle classes who carried it—the
middle classes, who, if they exerted their strength, would be
sure to succeed, and who saw the great benefit which would
accrue if the measure was carried.—( Cheers.) But he need
not confine himself to that measure. If they went back to the
past, if they travelled back 200 years, they would find that this
as
now,re
ands tl ot
wfi fight
nthatagainstty
years
monopolies
ago monopoly.
battle was fought at that period. The miadle classes had then,
Thedredws abolished.
a. sp theaTsswe
odr e,shuol
hun-
dred
de-
claring that all monopolies should be abolished. He
doubted not that the same thing would be witnessed
perhaps in such general terms, but an Actitaoomfe nt passed,Parliament notde
again ; that they would see an Act of Parliament
thatr eahedortnh-altawtshewy
esrheolunlirttersefore from that time
oc de-
claring a
theri n
gcount the best interests
be repealed.—(Loud cheers). wanerAe ade bt whato

Mr. W. J. Fox then came rorward to address the meeting.
As the Hon. Gentleman was commencing, considerable con.
fusien took place through the breaking down of a barrier near
the speakers. Order having been at length restored, he said
he had to address them on the first meeting of a new year of
agitation ; at a time when confusion, anxiety, and uncertainty,

were prevailing throughout the country; when the Legislature
was expected shortly to meet, and the people looked on rather
with sullen expectancy than with any degree of hopefulness;
when the League had gone on marshalling its strength, aug-
menting its funds, and multiplying its numbers; when political
parties were on the look-out to see what chances might
turn up for retaining their position, or for getting
into the position of their adversaries ; when ienti-
Corn-law League Associations were forming in different
counties; and when, therefore, on all accounts, it was appro-
priate and desirable to reiterate, though in terms that had been
often heard, they could not be too often repeated—to reiterate
the League principles, the one aim and object of that Associa-
tion, that for which they were banded together, without which
they would never be content, till they attained which their or-
ganisation and their exertions would continue; the one broad,
simple principle of free trade, and, as applied to the greatest
possible case, the total, the immediate, the unconditional abo-
lition of the corn-laws.—(Cheers.) That was the star by
which they steered ; to that single point they bore right on,
heedless of all other considerations. They cared not for par-
ties, they cared not for demonstrations of faction, new or old;
they cared not for the consistency or the inconsistency of this
or that leader, or of any portion of the House of Corn-
mons.—(Hear, hear) The total, the unconditional, and the
immediate abolition of the corn-laws was what they asked of
all. They sought no more, they would take no less, from Sir
Robert Peel, on the one side, or from Lord John Russell, on
the other side. They sought no more, and they would take no
less, from Lord Melbourne on the one side, or from the Duke
of Wellington on the other side, or from my Lord Brougham
on all sides.—(Great laughter and much cheering.) They
waged no further warfare with those who conceded this prin-
ciple ; they waged everlasting warfare with all who would not
grant this principle; and, because it was a principle, in their
minds, which admitted of no compromise on any grounds what-
ever.—( Great cheering.) That was their watchword.—
(Hear, hear.) If a certain class in the country reiterated its
cry of "No surrender," they replied by "No compromise."—
(Cheers.) If this movement were, what it had sometimes
been mistakenly represented ; if it were a mere manufac-
turer's combination—an endeavour to put certain portions
of the trade and commerce of this country on a different,
and a safer, and a more profitable footing, and that
were all ; if this were a mere party movement—an action of
hostility towards one set of politicians, and an endeavour to in-
troduce into their place another set of politicians ; if this move-
ment were a class feeling ; if they really did the absurd thing
that had been ascribed to them in the published resolutions of
societies if they hated agriculture (an inconceivable absur-
dity, for how could any man hate that through which he got
bread to eat ?); or, if this were a mere popular caprice, a cuckoo
cry set up by individuals for their own personal aggrandise-
ment, or for purposes of faction, like " no popery," and similar
cries, which had so often led multitudes astray, and brought
confusion to the country, why then there might be compromise
in the matter.—( Hear, hear.) But with them it was the very
stuff of conscience ; it was a principle to which they had made
up their minds, as embracing a right of man anterior even to the
existence of civilised society ; for if anything could be called a
natural right, it was that of man's exchanging the produce of
his honest labour freely in the world's market for whatever he
might desire as a substitute, welcome to him as ministering
either to his subsistence or his comfort.—(Loud and long con-
tinued cheers.) This was not a question that admitted ofdegrees ;
it was not a thing to be settled piece-meal.—( Hear, hear.)
They respected all rights, but they had no respect for wrongs.
—( Hear, hear, and cheers.) They understood not the doc-
trine of tolerating a certain robbery, of iniquity, of oppression
on the community, and on individuals.—( Hear, hear.) They
took up their position on the right and wrong of the case. For
property, of all sorts, as realised by skill and labour, and as
sanctioned by human laws and institutions, they avowed every
respect ; and they held in sacred regard the property
of the class which most opposed itself to their claims.—
(Hear, hear.) The broad acres of the landholder were his ;
they meant not to touch them ; they set up no scramble for
their division—they interfered not with his retention of that
which, whether conquered by the sword or gained by purchase,
belonged to him. Let him do as he would with his own—he
was amenable to public opinion if he violated decency and mo-
rality; but, so far as he kept within the limits which the great
objects of human society prescribed, they respected his rights
even there.—( Hear, hear.) Let him have his game, or let
him decimate his hares and rabbits—let him grant leases or let
him refuse leases—let him cut down the ancient timber on his
estate to put cash into his pocket, or let him have a great re-
spect for, and be conservative of timber and of institutions—they
meddled with nothing whatever of that kind; let him have his
whole rights—the land was his, the produce of the land was
his, or those to whom he hired out that land; but there was
one thing which was net his, and that was the industry of
other people.—( Cheers.) Their labour, their skill, their per-
severance, their bones and sinews, their daily toil, and the
bread which they earned by that toil, and which he had no
right to diminish by taxation.—( Deafening applause.) They
were his fellow-countrymen, and not his slaves.—(Renewed
cheers.) The labourer's bones and muscles , were his own
property, and not a landlord's.—( Continued cheering.) They
claimed for themselves that which they conceded to him, the
fair produce of whatever powers, privileges, or advantages they
possessed.—( Hear, hear.) Here their principle claimed the
same respect, the same sacred veneration, for the rights of pro-
perty in the man who had nothing in the world but the phy-
sical strength with which he went forth in the morning to earn
his dinner at noon, and in the inheritor of the widest and most
princely domains that could be boasted of in this rich country
of Great Britain ; and in their regard for this principle, they
were opposed not only to the present form of invasion of the
industrious man's property, but to any other mode or plan of
invasion that might be substituted for it by any other parties,
or fur any other purposes.—( Hear, hear.) The principle was
as opposed to a fixed duty as it was opposed to a sliding scale.—
( Hear, hear.) The one was as much an invasion of the com-
mon rights of the people as was the other. For what was its
tendency, under whatever pretext it might be levied? There
could be no doubt that any duty on the importation of corn
must enhance the price of food; and whatever enhanced the
price of food took away from the fair earnings of the industrious.
And when they called to mind the condition of great multitudes of
the industrious classes; when they thought how they rose up
early, and sat up late, and ate the bread of carefulness, by what
miserable and wearing toil their poor pittance was won from
the world ; when they remembered how many there were whose
history, the whole history of their lives, was summed up in the
well-known verse—
,. Work—work—work,--
Till the eyes be red and dim!
Work—work—work,—
Till the brain begins to swim !"
When they looked on such a destiny as that, if a fixed duty
would take but a farthing out of a pound, they said it should
not be taken from these wretches to augment the stores of the
Dukes of Buckingham and Riehmond.—( Great cheering.)
Why, there were cases in which the imposition of a fixed duty
on corn, whatever the amount, would lead to more objectionable
results, perhaps, than those which belonged to a sliding-scale.
It had been often urged, and he believed it had been
felt, as an objection, " What will you do with your fixed duty
of 10s., Sc., or ss. ; what will you do with it when food rises,
as it is subject at times to rise, to a famine price ?" Why, it had
been said that it must then be relaxed. What power should
determine the relaxation, and by what test?—( Hear, hear. )
Only let them realise, in their imaginations, for a moment,
the condition of a Prime Minister who had to watch the coun-
try to see whether the time was come, or coming, at which
the fixed duty on corn must be relaxed, by a speciaal interposi-
tion of the Government, because food was reaching a famine
price ! Why, he must notice in the papers how many were
picked up fainting in the streets for want of food.—( Hear,
hear.) How many cases of starvation would prove that
bread had risen to the rate at which the relaxation
must take place? What amount of disease, how
much typhus, would be a justification of the re-
laxation of the duty ? These were the inquiries a Prime
Minister must make in such a case.—( Hear, hear.) He must
watch the country, and feel its pulsation ; as the regimental
surgeon stood by when the soldier was flogged, finger on wrist,
eye on the bleeding wounds, ear open to the sound of the cat
upon the bare back, and, with a stop-watch noting whether the
instant had yet arrived when he was to interpose and say,
" Hold, enough."--( Tremendous cheers.) Was that a fitting
position for the chief of the legitimate government of a free
nation?—( Loud cries of " No, no.") One violation of jus-
tice always led to another.—( Hear, hear.) Forget justice,
and charity would not long be remembered, and humanity would
cry in vain.—(Cheers.) A fixed duty ! Why it was protec-
tion under another name, that which was called protec-
tion ; and protection was the very thing against which
that League waged warfare, and which it existed in
order to put down and to annihilate for ever.—(lrnmense cheer-
ing. ) They had no more charity for protection in one form
than in another. What was it ? The protection of agriculture.
What portion of agriculture ? what class of persons? Strip it of
devices and sophisms, and circumlocutions, it was the protec-
tion of rent, and nothing else. The protection of the tenant
farmer! Had it ever enriched him? The protection of the la-
bourer ! What had been his history for many a year past ? He
had been protected downwards from one stage to another of de-
scent ; protected out of his whole clothes into rags ; protected
out of a cottage into a mud hovel, with but one filthy room in it
for his wife and family, all to pig together ; he had been
protected till his children and wife were obliged to
tell him that they could not go to the church for
the rites of religion ; he had been protected out of the
fields into the union workhouse, or, perhaps, into the court of
justice, or the gaol ; and, at last, he had him protected into
that narrow home " where the wicked cease from troubling,
and the weary are at rest," finding in the cold shelter of the
grave more of the reality of protection than he ever got from the
corn-law.—( Great cheering.) Protection ! Why, what should
they protect? Not a losing trade, for that was taxing all the
community for the advantage of a class ; that was pursuing an
object that could not repay labour; not a thriving trade, for
that needed no prutection.—(Cheers.) And why should any
one class be singled out? What was there in the recipient of
rents that he was to be protected at the expense of
all the rest of the community ?--(Cries of " Hear, hear.")
Why not protect other classes of the community ? Were not
the artist and the poet as worthy of protection ? He dared to
say that there were in that great meeting perhaps some few
Scotchmen present--(Hear, hear, and laughter )—and they
might remember something of Robert Burns—(Cheers)—what
did he want of protection—what did he gain by it? Nature
made him a poet—aristocratic protection made him an excise-
man.—( Renewed cheering). His great protection, however,
was his stout heart and strong arm.—(Cheers. ) He knew that
himself, for he says—
" For me, so lew I need not bow,
The Lord be thank'd, I still can plough."
Yes ; and he boasted further, that he could even beg. For
the independence of a beggar was to him more desirable than
the pecuniary independence which was to be obtained by plun-
dering others of their rights and means of subsistence.—( Hear,
hear). It had bean said rightly by the gentleman who
preceded him that the food of the people ought
not to be made a subject of revenue. Indeed, what was a less
fitting source of revenue ?—( Hear, hear.) But then this ar-
gument was met by some advocates of the corn-laws with the
assertion that the duty was necessary for protection. Yet, when
you came to examine the arguments of the advocates for the
duty, you would find that those who talked of protection meant
revenue, and very often those who claimed revenue were strug-
gling for protection.--( Hear, hear.) Whether they talked of
revenue or protection, they were only leading us by a round-
about way to the same project of putting money into the pockets
of one class at the expense of the community.—( Hear, hear.)
They thought that the circuitousness of the process mystified
the purpose. They were like the dishonest churchwarden.—
(Cheers and laughter, and cries of " Gibbs.") No, no ; he
did not mean that person. There had been more dishonest
churchwardens than one.—(Cheers and laughter.) But still
he (Mr. F.) could not envy that person's position. However, it
was net to him that he had alluded, but to a chnrchwarden of
whom it was related, that, when he carried round the sacra-
mental plate to receive the offerings, he put saw-dust in his
pockets, to prevent the shillings he dropped in there from
jingling.—( Great laughter.) The corn-laws were the land-
lords' sawdust.—(Cheers.) But the money was not the less
fraudulently appropriated, because it was done noiselessly, and
by an Act of Parliament.—(Hear, hear.) With such men
there should be no compromise.—(Cheers.) That was not a
word that could belong to the League in its present condition.
—( Cheers.) If they would not compromise when they were
weak and few, it wa snot likely that they would now, when
they were strong and many.—(Cheers.) And he might be
permitted to say, that the people in London could scarcely ima-
gine what the strength of the League was throughout the
country. It would be worth while to send a depu-
tolatf hutiwotnoelidr dainctolelyztthritoehn North, to mark the feelings of the
people there, and the strength, intensity, and progressiveness
the to
deepestth e causs ey
sympathies
hf free
f human
t r a de. — (
nature Cheers.
0)
witness the multitudes of well) women, and shil4ken..of mas.