The Sun.
London, England, 1845-12-06 00:00:00

GREAT FREE-TRADE MEETINGS.
(From the Chronicle.)
DEMONSTRATION AT BRISTOL.
Last evening a free-trade soirée took place at the Public
Rooms, Broad Mead, Bristol. The spacious hall was crowded
with a vast assemblage of the most respectable inhabitants
of the city, many of the party consisting of ladies. There
were probably about 1,200 present.
Over the platform, enwreathed with flowers and ever-
greens, was exhibited the concluding sentence of Lord J.
Russell's free-trade manifesto, gorgeously emblazoned. On
either side of the room temporary elevated seats had been
erected, and these, as well as the permanent galleries, were
densely crowded by a most orderly but most enthusiastic
assemblage.
About six o'clock the eating and drinking part of the pro-
ceedings commenced. The appearance of tea being heralded
by a most unanimous rattling of tea-spoons, and presently
every body was busily engaged in the discussion of the
harmless beverage. The tea and coffee done justice to,
the actual business commenced by the Earl of Ducio
taking the chair. llis appearance was greeted with loud
cheers, and Messrs. Cobden and Bright, who immediately
followed him, were applauded to the echo. Among the
gentlemen on the platform we observed the Hon. F. 11. •
Berkeley, M.P., T. Milner Gibson, Esq.,M.P., G. Eddie Sanders,
Esq., and John Evans Lunell, Esq., two of the magistrates
of
,Bristol; W. Gore Langton, Esq., Hannan Nisgor, Esq.,
the American Consul, George Jones, Esq., Joseph Eaton,
Esq., W. D. Wills, Esq., Frederick Wills, Esq., Rev. J. Gran-
ville, Rev. G. Armstrong, MA., Rev. P. J. Roper, T. Thomas,
Esq., Rev. J. E. Thoresby, Edmund Thomas, Esq., R. Ed-
wards, Esq., John Wesley Hall, Esq., with many other ma-
gistrates, members of the Town Council, and influential in-
habitants of Bristol.
The Noble CHAIRMAN opened the business of the evening.
He said, we are met this evening under very different cir-
cumstances from those under which we assembled on the
last occasion that I had the honour of addressing you within
these walls—(Hear, hear)— and I think, when I look at the
meeting before me, I see indications of a very different feeling
from that which subsisted when we last met here.—(Cheers.)
There was then more of curiosity and more symptoms
of awakened inquiry. You expected to hear from us the
great principles which the League represent. You wished
to have them explained, that you might test their truth
and justice—but it appears to me now that there is more of
decision in your countenances—(Cheers)—that you have
found on sifting the arguments of the League, that they are
founded on truth, and that you are now come here decided
to act, and anxious to hear our friends, Bright and Cobden,
in order to know how you are to act so as to further the
grand object of the repeal of the corn-laws.—(Cheers.) On
the occasion in question--on the occasion of our last meeting,
we tried to show that more trade—that is free trade—(Hear,
hear)—would benefit this good town of Bristol.—(Cheers.)
We tried to show that more trade would be good for the
manufacturing interests—we tried to show that the well-
being of the manufacturer was of importance for that of the
agriculturist, as furnishing the latter with the best market for
the produce of his labour.—(Cheers.) We also en-
deavoured to show you how the existisg system of corn-
laws has been the primary cause of those periodically
recurring times of distress which have spread misery, star-
vation, and pestilence around.—(Hear, hear.) We tried to
show you that as like causes produced like effects, so—should
high prices again recur—would distress and crime track
their course.—(Cheers.) Gentlemen, these high prices now
seemed to be again threatening us. The prices of food have
risen, and the wages of labour have fallen.—(Hear.) On
the occasion in question we told you that the sliding-scale
might be a pretty plaything in the hands of the landlords,
but that it would be found totally inefficient in the days of
difficulty and distress.—(Cheers.) Our opponents—l hardly
know whether I should call Sir Robert Peel an opponent—
(Cheers and laughter)—but that Right Hon. Gentleman has
told us, that a fixed duty amounts to an impossibility. Now
what I want this meeting to do, is to furnish Sir Robert
with an unequivocal demonstration of your feelings, wants,
and wishes; I want you to tell him that you will no longer
submit either to the fixed duty or to the sliding scale; I
want you to tell him that you will be satisfied with nothing
but total and immediate repeal—(Enthusiastic cheering)—l
want you to tell him that you will have no more to do with
a scale depending upon averages, of which the index now
points to moderate prices, while provisions are dear; a sys-
tem which nothing on earth so much resembles as that of a
man who chose to ring his dinner-bell when there was not
a morsel in the pantry.—(Cheers and laughter.) When
we last met here we had not overcome our opponents argu-
ments—we had not silenced their fire—as my friend Cobden
says, we had not spiked their guns. Now it is different.
We have defeated them, argument by argument. They no
longer dare to meet us in the field of reasoning, excepting
indeed when now and then such an unsophisticated and chi-
valrous a gentleman as Mr. Cayley comes forward to break a
lance. He has broken one already, and I thought that the
result of the combat was, that he was forbidden by the Pro-
tection Society to attempt the splintering of another. But
now it appears that he wishes to enter into the lists with Lord
John Russell.—(Laughter.) I do not know if you have read
his letter; but it must have been written either by—l beg the
ladies' pardon—an old woman or an Irishman.—(Laughter.)
He first tells us one reason why the corn-laws do no harm,
because, foorsooth' as he says, did these laws do any harm,
the landlords and farmers would never have passed them.—
(Shouts of laughter.) And then he tells you—this con-
summate reasoner—why it happens that the abolition of
the corn-laws would do no good. Because, forsooth,
would the repeal of the corn-laws be beneficial to the
public, they would have been repealed by the land-
lords alreadv.—(Greet laughter.) Wonderful- logic this—
why, this Mr. Cayley must be a second Joe Miller lin dis-
guise.—(Laughter.) But he gets more facetious still fur-
ther on. In talking of the opening of the ports he goes on
to say either you can or you cannot by this means obtain an
additional supply of food. I do not mean to dispute this
dictum—(Laughter)—but he continues to argue that if you
could get a supply, then it would be injurious to have a large
quantity of corn thrown upon the market at lower prices, so
as to enable the people to consume more largely. Now, this
is the Ilibernian part of the argument--(Laughter)—and this,
in fact, is a very fair specimen of the arguments which the
few chivalrous knights who, like Mr. Cayley, yet take the
field against the League, are in the habit of employing.—
(Cheers.) Our position is now assured. The two great
leaders of the two great political parties of this country have
admitted it. The repeal of the corn-laws is only a question
of time—so say Sir Robert Peel and Lord John Russell. Now,
I want you to declare that this is the:time--(Loud cheers)—
and if this present time, or that which is just passed, had been
made use of, we should have had corn by this hour pouring
into our ports from America. (When we met you here last,
although the League was a great fact, it was an isolated fact.
It was strong in the union of men of all opinions; powerful
in the truth and justice of its cause ; great in the energy of
members; and independent in the fact of its being uncon-
nected with any political party in the State. Then, indeed,
the League flourished on the sound sense of the people of
England. Now, in one respect, the case is altered. We
have received the accession of the amiable himpeth—
(Cheers)—and not only of the amiable, but of the talented
and statesmanlike Morpeth—(Loud cheers)—and not only
have we his adhesion, but we have that of Lord John Rue-
sell--(Loud cheers)—a man so well known for his high po-
litical courage, that no one will dare to say that he has been
led to take that course which he has adopted from any
terror of popular outcry. Lord John Russell is a thoroughly
Conservative statesman, and most unwilling to submit to
change, unless he clearly sees that will be beneficial.—
(Cheers.) But in what he has done I believe that he has
done himself the greatest honour.—(Cheers.) Yea ; he
has covered himself with honour, in having openly,
fearlessly, and uprightly admitted his former errors.—
(Loud cheers.) llis conduct has been as honourable to
himself as it has been rare among statesmen—(Cheers)—
and I heartily hope that the great political party, of
whom Lord John Russell has been long the leader, will
now 'see the necessity of follwing in his steps.—(Loud
cheers.) Gentlemen, as an individual, I must confess
that I feel great satisfaction in thinking that there is a
probability that that great political party, with whom
I have long acted, but from whom I have been separated
on this one point of free trade, are at length about to
become, as they ought long ago on their own prin-
ciples to have become, the repealers of the corn-law.—
(Loud cheers.) But as a member of the League, and as
chairman of this meeting, composed as it is of men of every
shade of political opinion, I fed 1 may not utter a word that
can be supposed to express anything like a party feeling upon
this question. But it has been said by many, that in conse-
quence of Lord John Russell's letter—let Sir Robert Peel do
what he may—the credit of having carried free trade will not
lie his, but Lord John Russell's. Now, in the name of the
League, I entirely deny this position, and I hope and trust
that I may in the name of this meeting also give that pro-
position a flat denial.—(Cheers.) Gentlemen, I hold that it
is necessary for us, in carrying out our principles, strictly to
adhere to the rules which we have laid down, for the exclu-
sion from our discussions of anything like party politics and
feeling, and I wish you as a body to express that which 1 as
an individual feel, that should Sir Robert Peel—as it is said
he will—either open the ports or repeal the corn-laws, that
we shall receive the act as one emanating strictly from, and as
one :for which our thanks shall be solely due to him,—
(Cheers.) We are anxious to attain our great
end; and, in order to do so, we consent to throw aside all
party objects.—(Cheers.) It is said that the Prime Minister
is to do something. I hardly know what. If it be his in-
tention to repeal the corn-laws, we shall receive the conces-
sion gratefully at his hands; but having, as a body, so agreed
to receive it, let him also be distinctly informed that we will
stand no shuffling—(Cheers and laughter)—that we
will not be satisfied with half measures, that we will not de-
sist from our efforts so long as one ray of protection remains.
—(Loud cheers.) But it is possible that he may do nothing.
In that case the question will be referred to the country on
the next dissolution of Parliament, and then I hope and trust
that you, men and women of Bristol, will do your duty.—
(Ilean) I hope you will
lay aside al
throy asideai little,llreco y politicalllpecettitonsofpast
contests—that you will
animosities—and joining heart and hand in the good cause,
determine not only to return to Parliament. your excellent .
rad representative,erto s i
t heheside nryßreeurkl
eeul Berkeley,
sbeuhteegriisueg,lai.
dawthrieeeh-
tthe Noble Lord resumed his seat.
atriirsirtiflrueeanotlui)atlioßzistTolhemnoelhro
jcveleieantnleton)ft stood
for/Imlar.rdtit.o
Tmilo°v3elAsthe(
f4otisie freeholdinfluential most
counties
the
eentiourgth wo'fasEitigolpaurodnaioet,eertallieo
had been thus carried, and he hoped that in the west,
Bristol and Bath, by their united efforts, would be found
active enough and influential enough to win to free-trade
the counties of East Somerset and West Gloucester.—(Loud
c.,„„es.) Let the men of the west take a leaf out of the book
of tio men of the north.—(Cheers.) The Iron. Gentleman
then proceeded to review at some length the operation of
the corn-I.ws, with the view of proving that their influence,
while it failesi to benefit the class for whose advantage the
bread-tax had been imposed, had a direct and most inju-
rious etikt on the welfare of the people, illustrating his va-
rious positions with copious statistical details. Why should
they, he would ask, maintain laws which conferred benefit
on no one, and which were so injurious to the general body
of the community ?—(Cheers. ) Why should they be obliged
to witness so frequently the recurrence of artificial scarcity in
this country—artificial scarcity, such as that which they
Iv itnessed every three or four years ?—(llear, hear.) He be-
lieved that this artificial scarcity of the food of the people
did no good to those whose interest it was produced to serve.
On the contrary, it was of the most serious injury to them;
for, whilst it did them no personal good, it brought upon
them the obloquy of starving the people, and thus caused
them to lose their character.—(Cheers.) There were
no
parties, therefore, more interested in the question
they
abo-
lition of the corn-laws than the landowners, and ought
ra
tion.— Wear.) It had been state(
to take that subject into their matutrehrl(iliaciolivisitialitithicaomnseideteizg-
that they would not object to the establi~hnieut of
ciples of free trade in this empire, if we could _
gthete
other
nations to agree to the adoption of those primiciples. If the
pririciplOC were right and correc nolft see
any force in that
principles were right and
nations to agree to the adoptiontofhotwhoesveerp,
h he might say had always
should be the last to move in
a country
that England,
rtion
such a cause, or that she should not be the first to come
forward in the as se of this great principle.—(Loud
But there was no course which tended so
cheers.)
directly to the abolition of these protection laws
as
to other nations all the inducements
that of
which we had in our power by the abolition of tariffs, which
hostile to them.—(hear, hear.) It was by removing
amleirseuch'thiliculties as hostile tariffs that we could induce
other nations to adopt the principle' of free tricky aad it