The Sun.
London, England, 1845-12-05 00:00:00

FREE TRADE MEETINGS.

- - -
EDINBURGH, TUESDAY.—TO day at one o'clock, in pur- I
suance of a numerously signed requisition of the citizens of
Edinburgh, a public meeting was held in the Music-hall,
George-street, " to consider the propriety of memorialising
her Majesty to direct her Ministers to give orders that the
ports of the United Kingdom be immediately and perma-
nently opened for the admission of foreign grain and provi-
sionsfree of duty." The hall was crowded to excess, and
many persons were unable to gain admittance. On the plat-
form we observed Lord Dalmeney, Mr. T. B. Macaulay,
M.P. ; Mr. W. G. Craig, M.P. ; Sir James Gibson Craig, Sir
Thomas Dick Lauder, Sir Charles Napier, M.P. ; Mr. David
Orr Ross, M.P. for Belfast ; Mr. Andrew Rutherford, M.P.
for Leith ; the Lord Provost of Glasgow, &c. The Lord Pro-
vost of Edinburgh was called to the chair.
The LORD PRovogr, on rising, was received with much
applause. He said, before commencing the regular proceed-
ings of the day, allow me to make some explanation regard-
ing the present meeting. First, then, it may be asked why
Edinburgh, which used to give the tone to other cities, has
so long delayed on the present emergency? I may re-
mind you that the Town-council, more than a month ago,
petitioned her Majesty that the ports might be imme-
diately and permanently opened for the admission of
foreign grain' free of duty; and such of you as think the
reports of the proceedings of the town-council worth looking
at may have observed that a fortnight ago a question was
put to me why no public meeting had been called for this
purpose. I then stated that I understood that a requisition
was in course of signature, and that when I received it I
would call the meeting.--(Applause.) From accidental cir-
cumstances some delay took plac,e in completing the requisi-
tion ; but knowing that it was sure to appear, I immediately
commuuicated,3vith our excellent representative, Mr. Gibson
Craig, who at once said he would be happy to attend the
meeting, and do what he could to promote its object.—(Ap-
plause.) I likewise wrote to Mr. Macaulay on the 20th of
last month, who I am happy to see here, requesting his pre-
sence at the intended meeting. when he wrote me, that from
the delicate state of his health and other hindrances, he
might not be able to come to Edinburgh, but if he did not,
he would send his views in a letter, which might be read to
the meeting, as he was convinced that there was no safety
but in complete free-trade in articles of food.—(Cheers.) I
think it necessary to mention these facts to show that this
meeting was called from a conviction of the importance of
the object, and independently of any other exciting cause.
Before proceeding, I may likewise state that I have received,
since I came into this room, a letter from one who is held in
high estimation by all who know him. I refer to Dr. Chal-
mers.—(Great applause.) He wrote as follows:
" Morningside, Dec. 2.
"My Lord,—l have been honoured by the presentation of
a platform ticket for the meeting of this day in the Music-hall.
" Had I been in the habit of attending public meetings, I
should certainly have been present at the meeting of this
day, and have lifted my feeble testimony in favour of its
object.
" I hold it quite monstrous that, in the present fearful
prospects of the country, the ports should remain shut for
a single day against the admission of human food; and,
though I am not so sanguine as many of a great and per-
manent economic good to result from the abolition of the
corn-laws, yet, on the ground that such a measure would
remove a topic of agitation and conflict, and so tend to the
restoration of a better understanding among the various
classes of society, I should rejoice, not only if all restrictions
were now taken off for the sake of the present emergency,
but if, from this time forward, they were exclusively done
away. I have the honour to be
"THOMAS CHALMERS.
"The Right Hon. the Lord Provost of Edinburgh."
--(Applause.) I may likewise state that I wrote to another,
in whose judgment and integrity the inhabitants of Edin-
burgh have the utmost reliance—l allude to Lord Dunferm-
line.—(Cheers.) You testified your confidence in him on the
first opportunity you had of electing your own representa-
tive in Parliament, and during the period that he held that
trust, your confidence in him continued unshaken. That
relation between us has now ceased, but his anxiety for our
welfare is unabated, and I know that your confidence in him
remains undiminished. He could not conveniently attend,
but has sent me the following letter, which, with your leave,
I will now read:—

" Collinton, Dec. 1.
"Dear Lord Provost,.—My disinclination to attend public
meetings is so well known to you and others that I adhere to
my purposes without any fear that my motives will be mis-
tonstrued by you, or by such of my old friends and former
constituents as may have wished for my presence at the
meeting over which you are to preside.
"If I had attended the meeting I do not think that I
should have had anything to retract or explain. The early
tendency of my opinions has been sufficiently indicated by
my votes against the Corn Bill in 1815, and by the vote
which I gave in 1833, as one of the Members for Edinburgh,
when Mr. Hume tested the opinion of the first Reform Par-
liament by proposing a fixed duty on corn. I should not,
therefore, have rested my opinion in the:present apprehension
of scarcity, but in a firm convictionithat free-trade in corn is
essential to the prosperity of the country.
" I should rejoice to see sectarian differences in politics
and in religion merged in a combined effort to support and
enforce the truths which have been diffused by those who
have devoted themselves with unexampled zeal and ability
to the exposure of the evils of the corn-laws.
" The power of acting as umpire between the contending
parties in the State has, by the change in the law, been con-
ferred on the constituencies, if they choose to exercise it ,
and an appeal is now made to the public at a most critical
conjuncture, and on a vital question. The alternatives are
either to repeal the corn-laws, or to prepare for a most
arduous and perilous conflict. Such an appeal ought to be
answered with firmness and deliberation, casting aside all
party and personal feelings, and looking only to the public
welfare and to the natural safety.—l am, &c.
" DUNFERMLINE."
(Great applause.) I can add nothing to the sound and libe-
ral sentiments- of this enlightened statesman. I have been
honoured with the enviable advantage of his friendship and
counsel, and have had occasion to know that such have long
been his views, and that his anticipations always were that
the principles of free trade must triumph.—(Cheers.) I con-
gratulate you that in surveying the battle-field we now see
the ranks of monopoly broken—many of their troops have
already turned their back—defeat, disunion, and disorder
have tilled the rest with consternation, while we are encou-
raged by the prospect of victory, and strengthened by daily
accessions of new allies and a phalanx of invincibles.—
(Cheers.) Such is the power of the truth. At first it may
be launched by an obscure individual, then the few who
adopt it are stigmatised as enthusiasts, fanatics, anddreaming
theorists; still its converts increase, its encounters become
more keen, its struggles more frequent and severe, till its final
triumph is achieved.—(Cheers.) How many arguments
which they considered incontrovertible were brought forward
by the men of the sliding-scale, and how long were they
allowed to pass current, true as holy writ, among a prejudiced
multitude?—(Cheers.) It was confidently :affirmed that
free trade in corn would leave us at the mercy of our
enemies. Issue was joined upon this question, and it was
proved, that so far from our being exposed to the dangers
and calamities of war by free trade, free trade was the
strongest bond of security for the maintenance of peace, and
the true source of good fellowship and national prosperity.—
(Great cheering.) Another shadow of an argument was
conjured up in the shape of the national debt, it being
affirmed that the burden was chiefly borne by the land, but
new light was brought to bear on the subject ; it was found
that the burden fell not on the land, but chiefly on the landless,
who thus had the double infliction of a heavy national debt
and the unnatural enhancement of the price of provisions.
Again it was glibly asserted that a larger share of the
national taxation was laid upon the agriculturists than on
the other classes, but when challenged to the proof, it was
demonstrated that, so far from this being the case, the Le-
gislature had exempted them from their fair share, which
consequently increased the proportion that fell upon the other
classes.—(Cheers.) Then it was attempted to excite the
jealousies of the working classes, by insinuating that the ob-
ject of the free traders in procuring cheap food was to lower
the rate of wages. A reference to experience, however, has
shown that in this country high wages are more frequently
found in connexion with cheap food, and low wages with
dear food.—(Loud cheers.) There is no doubt that the
corn-laws were framed with the view of benefiting the
landlords and agriculturists, but the vigorous intellect
and logical reasoning of Mr. Cobden have proved, beyond
dispute, that even here they have failed of that object, that
under their operation the agricultural labourer has been
ground to the dust, the farmer has been reduced to a
wretched vassalage, and the landlord himself has been a
sufferer in the end.—(Cheers.) The God of all the families
of the earth, by the wise and beneficent arrangements
of his providence, designed that the ties of universal bro-
therhood should be maintained and strengthened by the
wants of each, rendering them dependent on all; for this
purpose. he has given a variety of climate, a variety of pro.
ducts, and a diversity of seasons, that all should be bound
together in the circle of mutual commerce. Legislators
vainly imagined that they could devise a better arrange-
ment, but when man attempts to improve on'the plan of his
Creator, his wisdom is folly his power impotence, and the
result misery.—(Cheers.) Thoroughly have the monopolists
been foiled in the field of argument, all the refugees of lies
have been swept away, defence after defence has been aban-
doned, they have sullenly retreated to their citadel, their
guns have been silenced, their ammunition spent, and their
surrender is near. In the words of the noble statesman,
whose letter has diffused joy and hope in the midst of gloom
and apprehension, " Let us then unite to put an end to a
system which has been proved to be the blight of commerce,
the bane of agriculture, the source of bitter divisions among
classes, the cause of penury, fever, mortality, and crime
among the people.—(Great applause.) Now that Lords John
Russell, and Morpeth, and Howick, join heart and hand with
Villiers and Cobden, and the host of free-traders, who can'
doubt that victory is certain and at hand ?—(Cheers.) I
have only further to state, that the different resolutions will
be moved by gentiemen ho have ever been ready to join in
every good work.—(Cheers.)
Mr. WILLIAIat Guissox CRAIG, M.P., rose amidst great
cheering, and said—My Lord Provost, I can assure you
that I second this resolution with the most perfect cor-
diality. But, Gentlemen, before proceeding to make any re-
marks upon the resolution itself, I must refer to a matter
personal to myself, as some communication has been alluded
to by my excellent friend who has just sat down, in which it
was stated by him that the reply either of myself or_ ma y
honourakle colleague did not give perfect satisfaction. . I
so anxious to satisfy you that my course has been consistent,
con-
and that you should believe that I am acting nowr .from
scientious motives, that, even at the risk of b. gup old
sores for a moment, I beg very. briefly and m a few sen-
tences to remind you of the
.opinen I have expressed on
this important question, and
Gentlemen, when the Anti-
Parliament upon it.—(Cheers')
Corn-aw League was established member, city some years
ago, I then declined to become a because at that
moment my opinion was that the substitution of a low fixed
would be the moat
duty for what Noss then the existing law,