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

son can persuade them that those who wish for cheap food
wish to injure them ; or, on the other hand, that those
who wish for dear bread wish to raise their wages. We may
now expect their co-operation to place the matter upon a
proper footing. In same quarters we have to congratulate
ourselves upon our union with those who are best fitted to
lead ua ; as also our union with a great population, whose
support behind us will be of immense value.—(Great ap-
plause.) A few years ago, when we had to discuss this ques-
tion, the friends of free trade were divided amongst them-
selves, until a statesman of great reputation adopted the idea
of compromising the matter by a fixed duty ; and behind we
were assailed by others who were disqualified by the efforts
of designing men from forming a judgment upon the question.
Now, believe, there is a complete and harmonious union ;
and, with the power of the aristocracy in our front, we shall
have the best support of the labouring classes in our rear.
So led, and so followed, we may look forward to the victory,
if not in,this, at all events in the next Parliament. But how
long soever it may be delayed—whether near or remote—
I assure you that, while I enjoy your confidence, it shall be
my constant endeavour, as respects this question, to prove
myself your trusted representative. (Mr. Macaulay con-
cluded by proposing a resolution to the effect that the corn-
laws pressed with especial severity on the poorer classes.)
The Hon. Member sat down amidst loud and protracted
cheering.
Mr. TAME'S M'LAaEw, Master of the Merchant Company,
seconded the motion.
Mr. RUTHERFORD, M.P., after a brief speech, moved that
the following memorial be presented to her Majesty :
" TO THE QUEEN'S MOST EXCELLENT
MAJESTY.
" The Petition of the Inhabitants of Edinburgh in public
meeting assembled,
" Humbly showeth—That your Majesty's petitioners have
heard with-pain the accounts from all quarters of the coun-
try; of the extraordinary failure in the crop of an article of
food, on which millions of your Majesty's subjects mainly
subsist, and they cannot contemplate without alarm the con-
dition ofsuffering to which multitudes may in consequence be
reduced. To mitigate this calamity, your petitioners hoped
that your Majesty's advisers would ere this have assembled
Parliament, in order to give facility for procuring supplies of
food from other countries, by removing all restrictions from
its importation. In this they have as yet been disappointed.
" May it therefore please your Majesty, to direct such mea-
sures to be taken, without delay, by assembling Parliament,
or otherwise, :as may be calculated to avert the menaced
scarcity and distress, by an immediate opening of the ports
for the admission of foreign grain.
" And your Majesty's petitioners will ever pray."
The LORD PROVOST announced that the memorial would
be seconded by the gallant Commodore Sir C. Napier.
Sir C. NAPIER was received with several rounds of ap-
plause. He said—My Lord Provost, ladies, and gentlemen,
because till the present moment the ladies have been forgot-
ten—(Cheers and laughter)—l have attended many public
meetings, but I can safely say that I never in my life at-
tended one with more pleasure and satisfaction than this
great meeting, assembled in the capital of the land of my fore-
fathers.—(Cheers.) In this town I was bred and educated,
and I now come back, happily, at a moment to assist the in-
habitants of Edinburgh to use their best endeavours to force
the Government to save the people from famine and starva-
tion.—(Citeers.) At such a moment I cannot understand how
any Government, especially any Government composed of
sensible men—( Laughter)—because we must allow that there
are many men in our present Government who are so—
(Cheers)—can be holding their Cabinet Councils—and I be-
lieve at the present moment they are holding their ninth
meeting to deliberate whether the people should have dear or
cheap food.—( Loud cheers.) I have at various times been
called on to pledge myself for total repeal of the corn-laws ;
but until the present moment, though I have constantly
voted for Mr. Villiers's motion for repeal in preference to a
sliding-scale, I have hitherto refrained from pledging myself
unreservedly to total repeal. But the time has now come
when all squabbling about fixed duties should entirely come
to an end.—(Loud and continued cheering.) Neither is it
suffieient to open the ports for the present moment only ; as
Mr. Cobden truly says, we must put our backs against the
door, and prevent its ever being shut again.—(Great cheer-
ing.) The arguments of my friends the Members for Edin-
burgh and Leith were so conclusive as to have rendered it
almost presumption in me to say a single word. (The Gal-
lantCoininodore sat down amid loud cheers.)
Sir G. MACPIIEPSON GRANT moved a vote of thanks to the
Lord Provcst for calling and presiding over the meeting,
which was cordially responded to.
The meeting, which had continued undiminished in num-
bers and enthusiasm to the close, then broke up.

AIARYLEBONE.

On Thursday, pursuant to notice, a special meeting of the
vestry of the parish of St. Marylebone took place for the pur-
pose of considering the apprehended famine, and the pro-
priety of memorialising her Majesty the Queen to use her
prerogative in convening Parliament and in throwing open
the ports. Amongst the members of the vestry present were,
the Right Hon. Lord Montford, the Right Hon. Lord Straf-
ford, Mr. Joseph Hume, M.P., Mr. W. Williams, M.P., Sir
John M'Taggart, Bart., M.P., General Sir De Lacy Evans,
John Bagshaw, Req., Martin Thackery, Esq., Hugh Biers,
Esq., John Williams, Esq., George Daniell, Esq., Alfred
Daniell, Esq., John Gomm, Esq., Esc. &c.
George Daniell, Esq. (churchwarden), was called to the
chair.
Letters were read from Sir C. Napier and Sir B. Hall, the
Members for the borough, expressing their regret that
they could not be in town in time to attend the meeting.
The CHAIRMAN having briefly opened the proceedings,
John BAGSHAW, Esq., proposed the first resolution,—
" That the extensive failure of the crops imperatively de-
mands that the most decisive and energetic measures should
be immediately taken to ensure a sufficient supply of food,
and to guard the country from the dreadful evils which have
ever followed in the train of scarcity 4 and which, in the pre-
sent circumstances of the nation, would fall upon it with
more than ordinary force."
Mr. HUME, M.P., said he felt great pleasure in seconding
the resolution. He thought the time was come when the
people of this country should rise as one man and demand
that the restrictions upon food should be at once and for ever
abolished.—(Cheers.) When they looked to what would in
all probability shortly be the state of the poor in Ireland,
when they looked to the state of our colonies, and our own
manufacturing towns, he could not say but he thought every
one must be apprehensive of the most serious results.—(Hear,
hear.) In the event of a famine occurring, either by means
of the failure of the potato crop, or other articles of con-
sumption, could it longer be tolerated that, merely to keep
up the price of corn and put money in their own pockets, the
landed aristocracy should drag fifteen millions annually
out of the pockets of the labouring and industrious classes ?
—(Hear, and cries of "No, no.") He (Mr. Hume) was de-
lighted to see the progress which had been made in public
opinion with respect to the necessity of opening the
ports. He was convinced, if that were effected, we should
not only have free trade in corn, but free trade in every-
thing else.—(Hear, hear.) He was of opinion that every
class of persons, and even the landed proprietors themselves,
suffered by monopoly, whilst it had a tendency to demoralise,
and to create crime as well as distress, amongst the poorer
classes of the people.—(Hear, hear.) He was not aware if
there was any foundation for the gratifying announcement
which appeared in some of the papers of that day, that cer-
tain members of the Cabinett had declared in favour of free
trade. He could only say, if such were true, he believed they
would receive the almost unanimous support of the nation.—
(Cheers.) Sir Robert Peel was bound by his oath of office
to do his duty to his Sovereign and his country, and having
declared that the principle of opening the ports was founded
in justice as well as common sense, if he did not, sow the
opportunity offered, use his influence to do so, a strong re-
monstrance from the people might have its due effect.—
(Hear, hear.) He (Mr. Hume) looked towards Ireland with
the greatest apprehension. He had received that morning
a document from Ireland, showing the result of an official
inquiry going on there, with the Duke of Leinster at its
head. 'With reference to the potato crop, every clergyman
in every town in Ireland had been communicated with, and
the number of persons who returned their potato crop as
havingfailed to the extent of one-third was 158 ; more than
one-third, 435 ; more than one-half, 134 ; and three-fourths
of the crop, 40. Now, if this were the case, it was
in his (Mr. Home's) opinion calculated to excite serious
apprehensions. In Norfolk, on land of his own, the failure
of the crop was to the extent of seven-eighths, and sup-
posing that failure to be general, it was sufficient to excite
the most serious apprehensions; not only with regard to the
state of our fellow-subjects in Ireland, but at home also.—
( Hear, hear.) It was quite clear that the people of
England could not think of shutting up their pockets and
allow their Irish brethren to starve.—(Hear, hear.) He (Mr.
Hume) perfectly coincided in the resolution, and hoped they
would not separate without either coming to a strong reso-
lution of remonstrance with the Minister, or go so far as to
force the subject upon the attention of her Majesty in an
address to to the Crown.—(Hear, hear.)
Mr. WILLIAMS, M.P., had great pleasure in giving his
support to this resolution, and he thought, when it was
considered that Marylebone had a population equal to one-
half of the counties of the kingdom, and was superior in
wealth to many others, that the opinion of the vestry, as the
representatives of that wealth and population, would not be
disregarded.—(Hear.) The country were deeply indebted'
to his friend Mr. Hume, for it was the returns obtained by
that gentleman in 1840 which threw the monopolists on their
backs, and which would eventually secure the entire aboli-
tion of the corn-laws. The Governments of Holland and
Belgium no sooner saw the prospect of a scarcity of food
than they threw open the ports and even the despot of Rus-
sia had shown in this respect more sympathy for his people
than had been manifested by the landed aristocracy of Eng-
land.—( Hear, hear.)
The resolution was carried unanimously, amidst great
applause.
Mr. JOSEPH moved the second resolution—
" That a failure of the crops, at all times most disastrous,
is enormously aggravated by the laws which, under the false
pretence of protecting the home grower, and encouraging
agriculture, prohibit the free importation of foreign corn, and
thereby render the first necessary of life scarce and dear to
a rapidly increasing and industrious population."
Mr. LEIN WILLIAMS seconded the resolution.
This resolution having been carried, without a dissentient,
Mr. Sonless proposed the next resolution—
" That it is the bounden duty of her Majesty's responsible
advisers to direct the ports to be immediately opened for the
admission of articles of food from foreign ports, free of duty,
and to advise her Majesty to summon Parliament at the earliest
possible opportunity, in order, at once and for ever, 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 dis-
sension amongst classses, and the cause of penury, fever,
mortality, and crime among the people."
Mr.G-LASSIN, in seconding the motion, congratulated the
meeting upon the unanimity which prevailed in it, notwith-
standing there were gentlemen of all shades of political
opinitin present.
Mr. H. C. WiLsox moved an address to the Queen founded
on the resolutions.
Lord gONTFORT, amidst loud cheers, seconded the pro-
position.
The motion having been carried, General Evans, and cane
or two other gentlemen, addressed the meeting, and after
thanks to the chairman, it separated.
The following is a copy of the address alluded to :
,6 TO THE QUEEN'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY.
e The, humble Address and Petition of the Representative
Vestry and Ratepayers of the parish of St. Marylebone,
in the county of Middlesex.
"Mott gracious Majesty.
" We, your Majesty's loyal and devoted subjects, the ves-
trymen and householders of the parish of St. Marylebone.
most humbly submit to your Majesty that the said parish
contains upwards of 14,000 houses and 140,000 inhabitants.
" That it has pleased Divine Providence to visit the British
h
isles with a deficiency of produce used as umaillNfrd by
vast multitudes of your Majesty's subjects, and in i?h for
many,' weeks last past has occasioned a gradual risethe
price of, all kinds of provisions consumed by the people, and
created great and daily increasing alarm for the future in the
734 Vs IF, t our Majesty's petitioners.
- your
alarm has been, and is, augmented by the
--1 s e s -ss s e an unwise law, which imposes grievous import
slitiCti corn and various articles of human food the
VrOclitoe of es• • beyond the seas. That this law vexatiously
_
4•nelly,t yvents your Majesty's subjects relieving them-
' **l akotsolircity and high prices by making purchase of
oreat(d ether produce in foreign markets, and your
tr.l}fimbly and dutifully submit to your Majesty
. tieh state of the law, at a period of national apprehen-
a.rpiety, is against the principle of common right,
jti And piety,