The Sun.
London, England, 1844-05-16 00:00:00

could, by deferring to the tone of public opinion in counties,
have found just the right man connected with the agricul-
tural interest, and even connected with an aristocratic family
in South Lancashire, Mr. Brown would have been the first
man to say, " Take him in preference to me, and you will be
most likely to conciliate the greatest amount of support."—
(A. pplause.) And I may tell you, what lam sure Mr. Brown
himself will very readily tell you, that we did apply to a
gentleman in London—Mr. Pascoe Grenfell, the brother-in-
law of Earl Sefton—and had he not been at the time we
called upon him under the hands of his medical attendant,
and confined to his house by a very painful disease, he would
have been inspirited to enter the breach on this occasion ; for
a more ardent repealer, and one more thoroughly devoted to
the principles of the League, I never found in all my travelslin
England.—(Applause.) Under those circumstances we chose
—1 speak of the electors who took a part in it, for I was not
in Lancashire at the time—the electors chose the first com-
mercial man in Lancashire.—(Applause.) He is a man who,
if you want to test what he is, will answer to the question
which Napoleon used to put when anybody talked to him of
a man as a great man, a distinguished man, or a man of vast
superiority ; Napoleon always put the question, " What has
he done. ?"—(Hear.) Nov, Mr. Wm. Brown has built up
one of the most gigantic commercial establishments that ever
existed in this or any other country—(Hear)—and he has in
the various ramifications of his bus:ness probably contributed
more to the facilities of commerce, to the interchange of the
productions of this district, than any other merchant, or pro-
bably any other half-dozen merchants, in England.—(Ap-
plause.) Next to the reverence we have for aristocratic
origin, is probably the homage which in England we, wisely
or unwisely, pay to wealth. On the score of wealth, Mr.
Brown must be acceptable to the most money-loving among
us. If great riches give a guarantee, in the estimation of
timid men, that the possessor of those riches is not likely to
be a destructive in politics, why then Mr. Brown has given
you that guarantee, and will commend himself to the most
timid amongst us. I know of no objection that has been
alleged to Mr. Brown as a candidate for our suffrages, unless
it be one which has originated in idle gossip, in the absence
of anything really tangible to oppose it. It has been alleged
that Mr. Brown is not a British-born subject. lam happy to
tell you, from the highest authority, that Mr. Brown was
born in the county of Kilkenny, in Ireland—(Applause)—
thathis family were extensively connected with the linen
trade there; that Mr. Brown came to England, and was
educated ; that lie left England in MOO, and went to America ;
that he returned from America in 1808, since which time he has
been a resident in Liverpool.—(Applause.) And as the owner
of large estates in this country, he has given that proof of his
naturalization which will both be a satisfaction to our oppo-
nents, on the score of his citizenship, and will also recom-
mend him as being an extensive landowner.—(Applause.)
There has been, also, I believe, (I don't know whether there
has or not), some other allusion made to Mr. Brown—but
we really don't talk about religious subjects here—but Mr.
Brown, I may tell you in brief, is a Churchman; and if he
had been anything else he would have been equally unex-
ceptionable in this Free Trade Hall, for we do not meet here
to entertain theological questions.—(Applause.) This is the
description of a candidate which is presented to you, the elec-
tors of the southern division of Lancashire. If any of you
know the weight of a bale of cotton, you are only one remove
from a near acquaintance with Mr. Brown, who has in his
hands one-sixth part of the trade between this country and
the United States.—(Loud applause.) There is hardly a
breeze can blow, or a tide can roll into the Mersey, that does
not bring a ship freighted with cotton, or some other costly
commodity destined to fill the warehouses of Mr. Brown ;
and there is scarcely a railway or a canal in the kingdom
that does not bear some of his produce on its way to be
shipped to China, or some other part of the world.—(Loud
applause.) Now, Gentlemen, short of being himself one of
the landed proprietors of Lancashire, Mr. Brown is more
deeply interested in the land of Lancashire than any other
man can be. lie is not one of the aristocratic families of the
county; but a gentleman having the important concerns in
Liverpool to which I have alluded, and being, as he is,
so intimately bound up with every transaction in which you
are engaged in Lancashire—l say that, second only to the
ownership of as enormous estate in this county, Mr. Brown
may be considered most securely anchored amongst you, and
he has given the greatest possible pledges, by interest and
identity, that he is bound to regard and foster the welfare of
this county.—(Applause.) Mr. Brown does not appear before
this county as a party politician. He has not been known
either in Liverpool or elsewhere as a party politician. If he
has mixed with parties at all, it has been to moderate the
party feeling; and, I will venture to say now, in his name,
that Mr. Brown would deeply regret if this contest were
carried on upon any other ground whatever, than that of
strict principle, and that there is nothing which he would de-
plore more than if his friends should narrow the ground on
which he seeks your support.—(Applause.) Mr. Brown,
much to his honour, has taken a prominent part in Liverpool
in aiding the labours of the Anti-Monopoly Society there.—
(Applause.) His adhesion to that Society was an event about
as important to that movement in Liverpool, as the ad-
hesion of Mr. Samuel Jones Loyd was to the proceedings
of the League in London.—(Applause.) And this step was
taken, not in anticipation of any such honour as you are now
striving to place in his hands; but it was done from a con-
viction of the baneful tendency of monopolies in general, and
from a desire to aid his utmost, by the influenceof his great
example in Liverpool, in putting an end to a system so de-
structive to commerce. And, I may tell you that Mr. Brown
is not an anti-monopolist of yesterday ; for there is one fact
to be stated so highly to the honour of Mr. Brown, and so
strongly proving his disinterestedness, and his willingness to
assail monopolies, even when he himself was supposed to be
interested in them, that I cannot help mentioning them.
During the time of the monopoly of the China market by
the East India Company, Mr. Brown was one of those in
England who had the monopoly of the private trade with
China, which was carried on through American houses. No
English private trader could trade with those countries; but
the Americans took up the trade in an indirect way, and
Mr. Brown was the agent of that commerce, and it was a
very important branch of his business. When the proposal
was made to abolish the monopoly of the East India Com-
pany in the China trade, Mr. Brown went to London. and
gave evidence, before a Committee, in favour of an open
trade with China, though it was depriving himself of the
monopoly which he had before enjoyed.—(Loud applause.)
This then, Gentlemen, is the candidate you have before you ;
he is a free-trader in corn ; but as a proof that he does not
consider a free trade in corn would be injurious to land, he
has invested largely in the land of this country; and 1 know
that, at this moment, he is prepared as wilhngly to invest
money in land with a prospect of the repeal of the corn-laws
to-morrow, as he would be if the corn-laws were likely to be
perpetual.—(Applause.) And let me remind you that Mr.
Brown's possessions in land may be quite as extensive as
those of many of the landowners who make so great a talk
upon this monopoly in corn, and who in appearance may have
a much wider expanse of surface in their possession ; for, when
a merchant invests his accumulated gains in land, the land is
his ; but those men who are making the greatest outcry for this
in corn, and who are the most prominent in opposing
the League, are merely the nominal possessors of those broad
acres.—(Great cheering.) Gentlemen, I have stated who Mr.
Brown is, and what he is ; and now what is his opponent ;
I'll not deal in personalities by alluding to Mr. Entwistle,
in any other way than as regards his public career ; but
putting the test which Napoleon put, when a man was spoken
of, I ask you, what has Mr. Entwistle done in public or in
private to entitle him to the honour of representing you in
parliament?—(Hear.) We are not opposed on this occasion
to one who, owing to high aristocratic connections or exalted
descent, is considered in this lord-loving country of ours as
entitled to a sort of presumptive right to represent a county.
—(Hear, hear, and laughter.) That claim, at all events,
does not stand before us. We know Mr. Entwistle as a private
gentleman, of respectable character, and we know him as
po
nothing else.—(Applause.) I have not had the oprtunity
myself of listening to his speeches or hearing his views ; but
there is a part of what he stated the other day to his Com-
mittee, with regard to the operation of the corn-laws, which
certainly does go far to convince me that Mr. Enfwistle can
not have given the slightest attention to the subject of the
corn-laws. Gentlemen, we don't hear such fallacies as those
of Mr. Entwistle even in the House of Commons now ; they
are ashamed of them there.—(Applause.) I can assure you
that if Mr. Entwistle comes to the House of Commons, he
will have to learn his lesson before he speaks there, or he
will be laughed at as soon as he opens his mouth.—(Ap-
plause.) I suppose, brother electors, we shall have an oppor-
tunity of hearing Mr. Entwistle's views on this subject ; but
as he has decidedly declared himself for a sliding-scale
as against a fixed duty, I must confess I have been astonished
to see the name of one gentleman prominently connected
with his supporters—l mean the name of Mr. Hugh Birley;
for I very well remember four or five years ago, when we
were met at the Town-hall for a total repeal of the corn-
laws, that gentleman met us with an amendment, declaring
that nothing but a moderate fixed duty would restore the
commerce of this country; but that, as the Whigs were then
in power, in whom he had no confidence, he was determined
not to petition Parliament for a fixed duty. And now it
seems, if one may believe the newspapers, that Mr. Hugh
Birley has been one of the principal men in bringing for-
ward Mr. Entwistle to stand on the principle of the
sliding -scale.—(Hear, hear.) Now, really, I don't understand
this kind of inconsistency. It is perfectly incomprehen-
sible in this Free-trade Hall.—(Applause and laughter.)
There is one question to which I would more especially like
to call their attention, and that is the great excitement
! which has been created against the long hours of work in
this district. I have watched very attentively the pro-
ceedings in Parliament upon Lord Ashley's motion on the
Short-time Bill ; and I have heard it admitted by the
leading men on both sides of the House, that the
corn-laws and the the other monopolies were the cause of
the long hours of work in this district.—(Loud applause.) I
was walking down Parliament-street one day, just when
Lord Ashley had brought forward his first motion, and I was
mentioning the subject of the Ten Hours' Bill to a gentle-
man who was with me, a shrewd man, and one of few words,
and he shook his head and said, " It will be quite impossible
for the working classes to support the aristocracy with ten
hours' work a day."—(Loud cheers.) But I did not expect to
hear such specific admissions from the leading men on both
sides of'the House as I did hear upon this subject. After
Lord Ashley had carried his first motion by a majority, Sir
James Graham was speaking against it with a view to
reverse that decision ; he tried every kind of argument, and
at last, at the conclusion of his speech, he turned round very
significantly indeed, with a look which he can so well put on,
to the squires behind him, and he said, " Let Honourable
Gentlemen beware what they do ; this restrictive system of
ours is an artificial system—(Hear, hear)—it is like a house
of cards—if you touch one, the rest will fall."—(Cheers
and laughter.') I was sitting behind a rabid protectionist,
a Member for a rural district, and tapping him on the
shoulder, said "Do you understand that ?" " Yes, I do."—
(Applause and laughter.) Translated into plain common
sense and plain English, what did Sir J. Graham's admis-
sion amount to ? This—if you pass a Ten Hours' Bill, the
corn-laws, and the sugar-laws, and the coffee-laws cannot
be maintained. But why ? lie did not see, whilst lie was
ranking this appeal to the 'squires behind him, or he seemed
to forget that there was a Leaguer present, and that we should
interpretate his argument, and carry it out in the Free-trade
Hall. For it amounted to an admission by the Home Se-
cretary that the working classes were working two hours
day to maintain the monopolists.--(Loud applause. Al ,
when Lord John Russell and Lord Howick rose on the
other side of the House, they declared that a '
Bill could be passed with perfect safety, provided the
corn-
laws, and the sugar, and coffee, and other monopolies were
removed. (Now this is very important in more senses than
eople after ;
one ; it shows us that we are the real
tours
all ; and certainly the attempt to. make ept that the
impudent
Leaguers are long hour men, will be the most
and audacious argument that ever was used.oas.fterthis ad- '1
mission.—(Hear.) But does not that admission by Sr
Ii
James Graham and his leading opponents involve a sacred.
duty on the part of the employers of this district,. to unite
together to remove that unjust law which compels the
people in their employ to work two hours a day to maintain '
the monopolists? I would appeal to employers of every party
in this country, and ask them, in the first place, from a
sense of justice to those they employ (for I would not put it
upon any lower motive), will they lend themselves to a sys-
tem which is crushing down the men, women, aye, and the
children, who are living around them and are dependent on
them; or will they now take advantage'of this opportunity,
when they, as the constituency of South Lancashire, have
votes in their hands, and the working classes have no votes
at all, to put down by a right use of those votes, a system
which thus oppresses those who arc dependent upon them ?
—(Loud applause.) If I wanted to appeal to a lower motive
Ulan a raere Ouse of,juatioe, I mould ask thew to look at the