The Sun.
London, England, 1844-04-13 00:00:00

GREAT
FREE TRADE BANQUET.

(EXPRESS FROM LIVERPOOL.)

LIVERPOOL, FRIDAY, MIDNIGHT.
One of the greatest Free Trade displays ever witnessed in
the town of Liverpool, took place to-night at the Amphi
theatre, which was filled by an-elegantly-dressed company of
ladies and gentlemen. The speakers were the Chairman
(Thomas Thornely, Esq., M.P.
.for Wolverhampton), the
Hon. Fox Maule, William Ewart, Esq., M.P., Richard Cob
den, Esq., John Bright, Esq, M.P., Colonel Thompson,
and other gentlemen. To save the post, we are obliged to
give only the principal points of the leading speakers. The
proceedings did not terminate'until near midnight.
Tomas THOR,NELY, Esq., M.P., the Chairman, on rising
to open the proceedings of the evening, at seven o'clock, was
greeted with loud cheers. He said—Gentlemen, you will
please to fill your glasses and drink to " The health of her
Majesty the Queen, Mr whom we all entertain the highest
honour led regard." (The toast was then drank with musi-
cal honours, the band playing the national anthem.)
The CHAIRMAN again rose and said—The sooner, Gentle-
men, we drink the health of the. Consort of her Majesty the
Queen the better. You will please, therefore, to fill. your
glasses, and we will include in - the toast " The. Queen
Dowager, Prince Albert, and.the rest of the Royal Family."
—(Loud cheers.)
The CHAIRMAN again rose and said--Gentlemen, our meet-
ing this evening is not upon any particular occasion, but it
has been thought desirable by many of our friends that occa-
sional meetings should be held of the free traders of Liver- ,
pool, and if we have the good fortune, as we have this even-
ing, to be honoured by the attendance of distinguished
strangers, of Right Hon. -and Hon. Gentlemen who hold a
high place in their country's regard—gentlemen of great in-
telligence and:standing in the nation—and gentlemen who
see the beatings of the free trade question, and come forward
before' the public to show their adherence to the prin-
ciples. of free trade,—l. say if occasional meetings like
this be held in a -commercial community like Liverpook
great good must be the inevitable result of such meet-
ings.—(Loud cheers.) I have great pleasure in witnes-
sing the attendance of strangers, such as I have faintly de-
scribed, at a meeting like this, because I want these gentle-
men to know, that although the voice of Liverpool" as now
expressed in Parliament, is exercised on the side of mono-
poly, yet I desire these gentlemen, who stand before Parlia-
ment and before the world as free traders, should know that
in this community there is a body of enlightened intelligence
which earnestly seeks he extension of commerce, and desires
to enforce on the Parliament the principles of free trade.
To these strangers I appeal to the present meeting. How
can it be otherwise that a community like Liverpool, which
has its agents in every part of the civilised world, and by their
exertions in remote regions extend the commerce of Liverpool-
-how can it be otherwise but that those agents find all the
intercourse they would establish in foreign. countries is
crippled and restricted, and in some cases destroyed by
our present restrictive commercial system ? From the pro-
ceedings in Parliament I tnin-with the greatest satisfaction
to the great advance which free trade principles have made
in the public mind. Gentlemen, it is my great hope that the
public mind is being impressed with the importance of these
riuciples. I look back with great satisfaction upon the
Committee that my Hon. Friend Mr. Ewart and I sat and
served upon—the Import Duties! 'Committee—which brought-
to light a great deal of the embarrassment under which
the commerce and manufactures laboured, and which en-
lightened the public mind npon such subjects. Gentlemen,
you know how;much our respected friends Mr- Cobden and
Mr. Bright have done. And here at my right hand is my
Right Hon. Friend—if I may take the liberty of so calling
him,—born of one of the high-est familiei in the land, and
largely. interested in the agriculture of the country, from the
extensive estates of that family—here is the Right Hon.
Gentleman, who has held an important office under the late
Government has done us- the 'honour to meet us this day to
express his decided opinions in favour of free trade.—(Loud-
cheers.) Gentlemen, we did expect that the Earl of Ducie
would have doge us the honour_ to attend upon this occasion.

I have here a letter which that Noble Earf has addressed to
our worthy, secretary, Mr. Rawlins, in which the Noble Earl
expresses his regret at finding it impossible to undertake a
journey to Liverpool so soon after attending the meeting at
Bristol. The toast lam about to propose-to you was,
intended 4' have been given In the presence of the Earl
Duple. That Noble Lord; for the reasons I have mentioned,
is not present,- and I will, therefore, take the liberty, as it has
been suggested to me, of making an alteration in the toast.
in order to introduce, instead of the name of the Earl Ducie,
the name of a distinguished nobleman, almost a neighbour
Of ours, the Marquis of Westminster.—(Lond cheers.) If yon,
.please, then, we will drink- the toast in this way-" The
Marquis of Westminster, and the Earl Ducie."—(Cheers.)
The Caantstasr—Gentlemen, I had hoped that one of the
best Members of the House of Cominons, and one of the belt
men out of the House of Commons, would have been here
this evening to acknowledge the toast which I shall now, by
your leave, propose to the-meeting. My respected friend,
Mr. Charles 'Villiers, had engaged to be here this evening.—
(Cheers.) On Monday last, there was a public meeting in
Wolverhampton to promote the cause of free trade—a meet-
ing at which my respected colleague, Mr. Villiers, and I at-
tended, along with Mr. Cobden, Colonel Thompson, and Mr.
Moore. Mr. Villiers had come down from London in a very
indifferent state of health, and he remained in Wolverhamp-
ton aday or two, in the hope that he would recover suffi-
ciently to attend this meeting. This Morning, however, Mr.
Rawlins received the following letter from him :
" Birmingham.
" Mr Dnin mith.great regret that I am com-
pelled to forego the pleasure of joining the free trade banquet
on Friday. I have been suffering from indisposition for three
weeks past, and it was not without considerable incon-
venience that I attended a dinner on Monday at Wolver-,
hampton, and it has so far postponed my recover, as to pre-
clude the possibility of my attending the dinner in Liverpool.
Believe me nothing eke would have prevented me from
keeping my engagement. I have written to Mr. Thornely to
beg him to make my apologise to the Committee.--I remain,
my dear Sir, very till}, yours,
" E.- Rawlins, Esq.' - "C. P. VILLIERS."
Now, I have seen enough
.of Mr. Villiers' state of health to
know it would have been extremely imprudent for him to
attend this meeting this evening ; and I could not, as his
friend, and as a friend to the cause of free trade, desire him to
come down to Liver.pool. at the risk of his health. Now,
gentlemen, I beg to introduce to you, not for the first time—
because he was a public man in Liverpool before I had the
honour to fill any situation of the sort—<Hear)—l beg, I say,
to introduce to you our,*petted friend Mr. Ewart.—(Great
cheering.) gefitlemen, Mr. Ewart has been so-obliging
as to allow the toast to stand, in the way it is printed in the
list.-` The Chairman concluded by saying, " And'now, if you
please, we will give three cheers for Mr. Villiers."—(Three
tremendous cheers were then given for that distinguished
gentleman.) -
WILLIAM EWART, ESQ., M.P., rose to respond, and was
received with loud and long7continued cheers. When it
subsided, he said—Gentlemen' I remember that it is re-
marked by a character in. Shskspeare, "that some men are
born to honours, some men achieve honours, and some have
honours thrust upon them." In the last of these characters
I` appear before you this evening ; but I have a peculiar plea-
sine in being present this night, being only, as it were, the
shadow of my friend, .Mr. Villiers—the man to whom we all
owe -so much, whether, as. a legislator or as a citizen.—
(Heir; hear.) If, gentlemen; I am to be considered but
as the shadow, you will. recollect that the shadow proves
the substance true ; and, however defective my reflective
powers as a shadow may be, they prove the increasing value
and lasting fame of my Hon. Friend Mr. Villiers.—(Cheers.)
But I am called upon to respond to this toast in another
capacity; because it includes the free-trade Members of the
House of Commons.—(Hear, hear.) Would you Could num-
ber, not only .a more zealous, but a more numerous band of
supporters, in that House—(Hear)—for, unfortunately,
whilst they command the esteem of a great portion of the
people of this country, their numbers are neither pro-
portioned to their --cauie, nor, with the exception
of myself, their talents ; but they are . now, I
believe, making considerable progress in the country,
and the country will eventually. carry them through, and
ensure a final and effectual triumph to the principles of free
tracie.—(Cheera.) Gentlemen, when lam called upon to re-
spond in behalf of those Members of the Home' of Commons
who-have recorded their votes in favour of free trade, I turn
found; and ask who they are ? Many of them the most
distinguished that ever graced the annals of any country.—
FHear,. hear.) And, aranngst them, is my Right Hon.
riend on my right—your chairman—one known to you by
local connexion, as .well as, by national celebrity—(Cheers)
—and also those around me, whom .I may truly call the epos.
ties of free, trade—!Mr. ebden and Mr. Bright-(Loud
cheers)—men, my sense of whose services, I want words to
express my approbation. I now see before me some of the
real representatives of free trade in the House of Commons,
but are there no latent and concealed free trade representa-
tives, who ought by proxy also to thank you? Why, if pro-
fession is to be relied on; the Prime Minister of the present
Government is a free trader ; for to borrow an expression
from a candidate for,the City of London, he is " a free trader
in the abstract."—(Hear, hear.) If profession is to.be relied
on, the Right Hon. Secretary for the Home Department is a
free trader in the abstract."—(Hear, hear.) If the
Right Hon President of the BOard of Trade is to
be measured, not by the profession of his princiPles,
but by what he- has published, he is " a free
trader in the abstract." These men only want moral courage
to carry out their principlea; and I must say, if they would
only come forward' With ''some.great and comprehensive mea-
sure, suckles a boldvirit like the elder Pitt, Lord Chatham,
would have prodimd; they would carry with them all the
sympathy, at well as support, of the present generation, and
would command the gratitude of all posterity.—(Applause.)
This I maintain and modestly profess, not only on behalf of
the advocates of free trade generally, but also on behalf of the
latent friends of free trade.—(Loucl:cheers.) But how stand
we in the House of Commons? Not many years ago, • meet-
ing with my Hon. Friends Mr. Cobden and Mr, Thornely,
in Palace-yard, near the House of Commons, I was
called upon to declare by what means we could carry free
trade in the senateof Great Britain? I took the liberty to
state that you could only be successful by the use of one
lever, and that must be the mechanical power exerted with-
out—that nothing could be done till the country took up the
cause.—(Cheers.) Has not that prediction "been verified?
Has not the country taken up the cause, and has not its in-
fluence been felt, even within that almoist impenetrable se-
nate, the Commons. House of Parliament ?—(Hear, bear,
and cheers.) We
_owe this to those friends of ours
who have perambulated the country ; and what-
ever may be the • effect on the country, I can as-
sure you the effect within the walls of Parliament—those
walls of tenfold brass—is but slight indeed. Conviction,
reason, eloquence, must bring home the truth, not only to the
Minds, but also to the feelings of the Members of that House,
where not only a great portion of the capital, but also of the
intellect of the country is to be found.--(Cheirs.) But, gen-
tlemen, however much I may respect the sincerity of ' those
who luxuriate on the verdant Treasury benches of the House
Commons, and
mhozewvehromszcash Ifarmaasy
men
ne
acorrectnesssee
yet
ofor iheirCom
I maintain, they aught not to be the judges of this question.
They are in fact the advocates on one side,
and
as one-sided ad-
vocates, and one-eyed judges, they will never have their
vision completely restored until purged by the invigoratin
g
influence of the public mind —(Applause.) Thus i looltto
the House of Commons, and see the Ministers convinced, but
not changed. Thus they will remain- until we have stirred
up, not only the' manufacturing interests, but the-co
and agricultural also. And here I turn round mmercial
operation of the Anti-Corn law and look at the
Coen-law League has achieved this League—the Anti-
great triumph. It
has broken, down the false barrier— the adamantine*
which has long separated the manufacturingwall
rural inhabitants of this country. It hasigo themwn
and
that the interests of the rural, and tile commercial, and the
manufacturing classes are one.---(Loud cheers.) .To me it
appears as plain as the noon-day sun, that the rural popu--
lotion of this country is not a whit less interested than the
manufactiring in repealing 'laws which make
subsistence
dear, and retard employment.—(Hear.) The Anti-Corn-lasi
Leagtte kavegent 'amongst thispopUlatied. They hive a,ealed
to tip tout furaervi-Lmallgcl, tTou tlitatodow4l.