The Sun.
London, England, 1844-04-18 00:00:00

9~~~~.

Tll X. S 1,4 ON :I.D Oqq-11:- ,I-17U7R 10,A, ,471

-

: GRAND WEEK
ANTI-CORN-LAW LEAGUE
MEETING
dT.C9VENT-GARDEN THEATRE.

tThe,: first great Weekly Metropolitan Meeting of
4nerabers of the National Anti-Corn-law League
lack the Easter recess, was held last evening at
lue Theatre R )3•al Covent-garden. The doors were
Ir!ned at half-past six o'clock, and the house was
"4„,'fliAilled. The number of ladies in the boxes was
*ger than we have ohsersel on many pre ions
1-easions. At seven o'clock Richard Cob& n, Lsq.,
itt:?„,:, the lion. Charles Pelliani Villiers, John
'11,18:ut, Esq., M.P., H. G. Ward, Esq., M.l ~ Creorg
-13'4'4430n, Esq., .R. R. Moore, Esq., and Colonel
Ironnet Thompson, accompanied by several other
utive members of the League, entered the theatre,
and-were received with loud cheers.
Miner
those present we observed :—Thomas
."41iner Gibson, Esq., M.P.; Colonel Tucker ; Dr.
°()lte Taylor ; W. A. Wilkinson, Esq. ; P. A. Tay-
-41.; the Rev. Mr. Clare ; Dr. Girdwood ;
etnen Wilkinson, Esq.; S. K'nnedy, Esq.; W.
lyalir:Y.,,, Esq. • 11. L. Keiling, Esq.; John Moir
4.sci.; 1. 13. Kingdon, Esq.; Peter Martineau,
/11 Ireland, Esq.; R. Southall, Esq. ; John
Esq. ; Major Reid Revell ; W. Lockett, Esq.,
fiaochester ; Charles A. Amber, Esq. ; Charles Olt.-
' 3arnd''..„Esq• ; R. W. Cole, Esq.; Henry Lloyd Afor-
e iv'scl•
.' General 'Wyatt ; Robert Bagshaw, Esq. ;
iso.llers; Es ; J. D. Donlan, Esq. ; B. D. Denkin,
geTh'i,t'nbu Macartney, Esq., Manchester ; John
foriPle, E3(14 Glasgow; John Raining, Esq., Strat-
el\hno-Avon ; George Pelle, Esq., Whitehaven ;
r(*lw-lith, Esq., Wellington, Salop; W. Thornbor-
, ; L. Wiltshire, Esq.; James Bailey, Esq. ;
Esq ; Rev. 11. Richards ; George Ridout,
Towne, Esq. ; Hugh Shield, Esq. ; W.
• .4,17•_• 'ei Esq., Bishop Auckland, Durhamam ;Frames
11,1750 n, Esq.; Dr. King; and WGee, q.
the rkRA.RD COBDEN, Esq., M.P. for Stockport, took
1,1-dnalt, amidst the most enthusiastic cheering.
'ne'SECRETARY read the minutes of the last meet-
utgi Which, on the motion of J. BRIGHT, Esq., M.P.,
(7, °,ndea by the Hon. C. P. VILLIERS, M.P., were
-4tu:Fned.
:4-11e CHAIRMAN then came for Ward, and was re-
- Vtict'vvith loud cheers, which lasted some minutes.
einresent rose and waved their hats and handker-
- when the cheering was subsiding, there was a
• Vel for one cheer more, which was most enthusiasti-
arfeponded to. Silence having been restored,
as fOn. Gentleman proceeded to address the meeting,
` ees;.°l,l"is •.—Ladies and Gentlemen, during the short
th,„2Lacn which has taken place in the holding of our
rii-7:41,12gs in this theatre, I have been attending a few
, :144,n_ngs m the country—(Cheers)--and it.may per-
. O'ne.interestin to you to learn something of the
• !Pirit.-a d.
n enthusiasm which prevail in the cause of
e-trade elsewhere. I have had the honour of attend-
: ingit meeting of free traders in Bristol, and I never
a more influential meeting, or a meeting of a
• „Pei moral tone, or one more calculated to forward
• ;I,iteee:B;leat objects which we have in view. At that
• dqg GOO/, was subscribed in the room to the
Leaguethe.. fund.,-- (Cheers.) I subsequently had
• nonour of attending a meeting with my Hon.
birlend 41r. Villiers, in the borough of Wolverhamp-
-4,.l,heed not speak to you of the excellent spirit
I, len aCtuates the people of Wolverhampton. when
.tel!iil.,e:lyyoittothat they send Mr. Villiers and Mr.
Parliament as their representatives.—
e,,° 1,i}!!..) There was no room in the place large
4,gli to hold all the free-traders who were desirous
to Den* present at that meeting, and a pavilion was
cluently erected for the purpose of affordirq ac-
romodation to them. Upwards of 3,000 rersons
• bl„_,44ogether in Wolverhampton. aid the memeting did
.Veparate unt 1 they had subscribed 6501. to the
44..sgt*Fund. I also had the honour of attending
meeting in the amphitheatre of Liverpool, where I
e7..-.,tne ood fortune to meet a distinguished friend
gre'e trade from the North--Mr. Fox Maule—
.' '',7l6"S)---one who, unless common fame has misre-
th%"4; is heir to something like 60,000 acres under
nial.4l‘4lfh ; and he came there to bear his testimony
ree trade in corn was as desirable for the__
--:erieultural as it was for the manufacturing or trad
ing I,4erest.--(Cheers.) Since
eshvaelaess havemetttaken
here,
iifs ‘
and Gentlemen, certain changes
Place in political life, owing to a certain death which7`;llitivolve elections in sundry boroughs. I must
‘ -6.,',7,4iwever that if we could have chosen the places
th„ rich We wish to. meet the monopolists in
election contests, we should not have chosen as
;'-.lf•':lllittle•field with these monopolists such places
Horsham, Huntingdon, or Woodstock. I be-
ev.'s that in every instance in which a vacancy oc,
a contest will be fought, if a local
-'lllln be_formd to put up for the representation,
ZYSI fan
we poll only 20 votes.—(Cheers.) We have
wen charged with attempting to dictate to consti•
,trUencies. Nye attempt no such thins; we only pro-
off: to, 0-operate, with constituencies. We go and
er to the local members of the
League in every eorougn to which we o, and if you
- should hear •of any contest passing ogver without.a
, League candidate starr
• has been because the
ucwisthaetes,tohathvee localthou traders,
League Council
oum ay ineovte
wish
ht
to
t
should be left en, but, in deferenceto
gt it right that such their
boroughs
Exeter will b tor future organisation.—(Cheers.)
e contested.—(Loud cheers.) I am
• IaPPY to
service
,distinguished for his
say that General Briggs—an officer in the
of the East India Company, and a gentleman
Rive of frA„„i philanthropy, public spirit, and
ppy,
-L(chaeerm. happy
' ,ctiOnci every form,—General Briggs
to say is a candidate for Exeter.--
.s.)What may be the result of that contest I
know not but I know that if in a borough of 30,000
Ilnl:lahitants a free trader fights one battle en League
grect battle, and to
.
Winciples, and loses, he is certain to fight the next
win.—(Cheers.) I am anxious
thin our friends here and elsewhere should feel that
ne•
neVer waste the League funds in any large and
11 (institutional expenditure in election contests, be-
-saase' I have seen statements to that effect made even
14.1„trioinnie of the papers which give us their support.
a erely transfer our lecturers and our tracts into
;ough at the time when the inhabitants arealive to
r.T.i.t!cs, and simply avail ourselves of the excitement
r:,.01.0i an election always creates, and the desire to be
. ;Itined on political subjects arising from that excite-
nt, to instruct the inhabitants in the doctrines of free
• li!4e, and we do as much for the education of a Ito-
, . rt:llKh in one week at the time of an election, as we
e(111- .14 do in a month under ordinary circumstances.
.L•la. like a recruiting party going into, a town with
grluns'heating and colours; flying—like a recruiting
' going into a town at fair-time.—(Cheers and
'Lighter.) I state this that the public may not sup-
9"lat • the League are spending their money in
elegthtuoiveritig and electioneering. We go to
n
44, Other people
beard it said, and I know that many persons
:Zinc; that it cost from 1,2001. or 1,0001. at least, to
• riltest a borough. Now, in such boroughs as Hors-
•l,,,nN,Woodstock, and Huntingdon, if' any candidate
ir4u:s more than 1001. in an election contest,
: not spent honestly and truly; and,
11,;,;;,,,e do nothing else, we are doing good
, preventing parties from pursuing a sys-
-2:4 Of demoralisation which has made contests in
• roughs little better than a trial of the length of the
••• of the respective candidates.—(Cheers.) I have
.-,...• flnoouncement to make to you before I resume my
• f-•
t. Applications have been made to the Council of
.• League to hold a bazaar in this theatre before the
• ,t'"'s of the season.—(Cheers.) Many ladies have
.::'72tted to the League Council that they are at present
;t7ikvork in preparing materials for that bazaar, as
are anxious to assist the cause of the League,
• . '•"-1 to contribute in that pleasant manner to its funds.
.
•-• kkal rs.) The Council have determined to adopt
_suggestion of our female friends, and all, there-
whotaitaiuent
efeeol disposed to aid in furnishing the stalls
use their diligent attention for the at-
of that object. I have one suggestion to
• `alte
front myself as to a part of the exhibition at
bazaar,(Laughter.) Ido not mean to exhibit
therel--:(Renewed laughter)—but lam anxious
• We:s ho u 1 d have a collection of specimens of every
of manufacture in the kingdom— (Cheers)—
!it they should be brought, as it were, to a focus in
‘iwales
bazaar. —(Cheers.) Everything that is made in
should be there, from a steam-engine to: a
f.l`nle• Everything that is manufactured from silk,
,-.•‘,..f,9111 the finest embroidered garment to the humblest
• aarroweseribbon. Everything of cotton mann-
.'!!ture7----everything of woollen manufacture—everr _ thing that we make : all that the manufacturers of
, -agland produce should be brought together in the
hibition in this theatre.—(Cheers.) And when we
• brought these materials together, we will
Invite the monopolists—we will invite the
will ,Irictionista, to see the collection; and we
i'point to this as a proof of what the
n
• Mauity and the unaided and unprotected
•
of the manufacturer can do—(Loud cheers)—
", . .-_V
.'_without prizes—without protection, and without
• Orill'i!,s of Richmond or Buckingham.—(Cheers and
ierguter.) And when we have brought them to view
exhibition we will put to them this question, and
tiffs ri4estion only : "Do you think that the hands
.7t made these ingenious articles ought to• be. hang-
'' -4g idle at the sides of' men, who are pining for want
menl!"d.—(Loud cheers.) Now, Ladies and Gentle •
,:iietsrtir4gl have to introduce to you in the first place a
Wished friend of our cause, tvho has often ren-
r,- e_;l good service in another arena where there
sale ,
Cen, to match him in debate, although this is tips
"siitune. that he has appeared upon these boards.—
, re I beg to introduce to you my Hon.
Fr. ) Air. Ward, the Member for Sheffield.
I_,lr• IL G. WARD, who was received with very
and continued cheers, said that he, could assure
perfect truth that he appeared before
.• • •

,~
,~'
4

---------
them :11-it night, as their Honourable Chairman had
sail. for the first time upon these boards, with some
litt e reluctance and a great many doubts; and he
told them honestly that this feeling was increased
instead of le-sened—however ungrateful the ex-
pression might appear—by the manner in which
they had been pleased to receive the announce-
ment of his name by the Chairman—(Cheers)—be-
cause their kind reception bespoke an impression
which the next ten minutes would destroy. He
should have come to their meetings, even if he had any
doubts of the justice of the principle for which they
contended ; but on the contrary, to the fullest ex-
tent in which words could express it, he concurred unre-
reservedly and unhesitatingly in the principle of free
trade—free trade in everythine;.—(Loud cheers )
But if they 'A ould allow him to finish the sentence—
but above all and before all, as the keystone of the
whole position of their opponents, for a free trade in
corn. If, therefore, he had any fear, or reluctance, or
doubts in presenting himself before them, it was because
he knew that the men who had so well conducted this
great national cause—for a national cause it was—up
to the present point, whose perseverance had overcome
all obstacles, and whose ability was the presage of
future success, had not left those who came after
them, the labourers of the eleventh hour, any shadow
of new argument or new facts. He had always re-
garded the meetings giving such attention to a subject
which the House of Commons esteemed so dry and
exhausted that they could hardly get 60 members to
sit out an Anti-corn-law debate—he regarded them
as some of the remarkable phenomena of the
present times. He knew the benefit they derived
when his Hon. Friend the Member for Wolverhamp-
ton put an idea into the cruicible of his mind, and
turned it out purified from all alloy, and just what it
was worth.—(Cheers.) Although the subject was
the same, they could still appreciate the endless variety
into which their Chrirman cast the details of a subject
on whiCh he employed his powerful mind; and yet the
constant recurrence of those meetings, the way in which
that house was filled, and the extreme attention
paid, was a proof of no common interest taken in no
common cause.—(Cheers.) They were right, and
perfectly right, to encourage by their generous sym-
pathies those who fought their battles. He recol-
lected the time when the three hundred delegates
crowded the lobby and Downing-street from Man-
chester, and Paisley, and Glasgow, and Sheffield; and
it was said, " Mark how London stands aloof." They
were told "It is inevitable that London should separate
itself from the country; free trade may be a very good
thing for Lancaster, but a very bad thing for West-
minster or for Marylebone—they khow better, and
they act against free trade ;" and, as it was said the
other night by. Sir Robert Peel, that a regard to self-
interest was the vivifying principle of this world,
so it was said, " All that the friends of free trade
can say, all their eloquence will not alter the
opinion of the people of London." Then it was
said not only was this the feeling in the West-
end, but " look at the City—there they have
practical men ; it is not likely that the merchants of
the City will entertain such a foolish notion ; they
know that a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush.
Out of the four seats in the City the free traders had
only one, and that was a modified edition of free trade ;
for if Lord John Russell held the principles of Mr.
Cobden, he would be thrown out." This was the talk
three years ago ; he did not think they talked so glibly
of City elections nolv.—(Cheers.) Somehow or other
they had made an alteration in the feeling. On the last
occasion of a City election, the corn-law men put
forward, as they admitted, their best candidate—so
good a candidate that they had sent him to Hunting-
don —(Great laughter)—a gentleman of the highest
commercial respectability, as fluent as Mr. Gladstone,
and almost as plausible as Sir Robert Peel— (Cheers)
—and yet things did not turn out as they expected.
Mr. Baring was not the Member for the
City ; bet,, een Mr. Baring and Mr. Pattison the
difference was an enormous one—(Laughter and
cheer)—and he he did not mean any personal
allusion to Mr. Pattison in using that word.
Coupled with such a contest, their attendance there
did show a change of feeling, from which he
anticipated the most gratifying results. He
knew that this change must come. He was aware
that a fallacy was the most obstinate thing to
overcome if it were ingeniously put. There
were very few men who thought. so. Most
men liked to follow like sheep at a gap. If the
words were put well together, there was nothing of
a fallacy which Englishmen would not swallow. He
had happened lately to be reading the work of an
intelligent observer, an American, whom they knew
under the name of Sam Slick. There could be
nothing wrong in quoting Sam Slick, and he
said, " A considerable large print that Bull
family is ; you may read them by moonlight ;
they will swallow a fallacy just as a turkey
swallows a grasshopper ; they take it right
down whole without winking, and then ask for more."
—(Much laughter.) Still there are some fallacies
which cannot be gulped down. He held in his hand
a pamphlet whiCh had great influence in 1841. When
he last.bought one he had been told that 42,000 had
been sold, and now he was told that there had
been 50,000. That day he had bought the
50,000 th. It was an appeal to' the tradesmen of
London by one of themselves, and in that
appeal the whole question was put upon the
argument of the writer, that the interest of London
on the corn-laws was distinct from that of the coun-
try at large ; it was said that " they all shared in the
taxes placed on corn ; that the landowners fleeced
others to enrich them"—(Cries of " Query.")
When that respectable individual, Sir Edward
Knatchbull, therefore, told them from the Treasury
benches that he could not live without the corn-
laws, and that he would be glad to part with them
if he could find a fund out of which to pay the join-
ture of his daughters and the settlement of his wife—
it was made clear that the tradesmen of London had
an equal interest in these laws, for they enabled
Sir Edward Krratchbull to pay the London trades-
men for his liveries and for painting his coach.
Many then believed this ; and many, perhaps, be-
lieved still, that high rents in Kent meant
high rents in St. James's ; that the whole existence
of London depended upon the maintenance of those
laws ; that the whole which a tradesman would gain
by cheap bread 'would be 201. a year, whilst he
would lose 1,0001. worth of trade in one year ;
or more than the repeal of the corn-laws would
do them good in forty years. That, however, was
one of the falsehoods which could not be swallowed long.
It was ridiculous to suppose that the greatness of
London was owing to the landed aristocracy who
resided in it.—(Hear, hear.) Its greatness con-
sisted of the aggregate savings of every body else,
for money saved, was money spent.—(Hear, hear.)
The.less a man paid for his bread the more he was
able to spend on other articles.—(Hear, hear.) Lon-
don had no great manufactures of her own ; her
business was, to dispense every thing which the in-
dustry of others created. To say, therefore, that it
had a separate interest in the corn-laws, and that it
could thrive amidst the universal decay of the coun-
try, was reversing the old homely fable of the belly
and the members.—(Hear, hear, and laughter.) It
was to suppose-that the belly conspired against the
hands and feet which supplied its wants.—(Hear,
hear.) To what did London owe its real greatness
and prosperity ? Not to the residence of a few
thousands who lived there for one portion of the year
and left it for the remainder. If every Duke was as
rich as Creesus, if every squire was a millionaire, and
every younger brother had a Fortunatus' purse,
instead of the capacity of emptying the purses of
other persons—(Hear, hear, and laughter)—even
then he would defy their united efforts to produce
such a community as this.—(Hear, hear.) London
was the greatest commercial city in the world—it
was the capital of an empire which, for the first
time in the history of the world, realised the Spanish
boast, that, on the Queen's dominions the sun never
set.—(Cheers.) It was the point of intercommuni-
cation between their widely-extended colonies, which
stretched from Canada to the Cape of Good Hope.
The indigo of India and the wool of Australia were
brought to enrich the people of Leeds. It realised a
height of greatness which would seem fabulous to
the people of Venice, of Carthage, and of Tyre.—
(Cheers.) The landed aristocracy had nothing to do
with the greatness of such a city. They did not do
justice to - themselves in imagining it.—(Cheers.)
He did not wish to weary them with details, but he
begged to remind them of what London was. Its
population had doubled since 1801.
In 1801 it was 888,198 ,
In 18M it was
In 1841 it was
Two millions in round numbers.
to
ABlia,crltiowoaipll2l7iity).
fßurreirtodktsl.l fr
Length from east to west 5f miles (if from Chelsea
Aomrinveorrtwhhtioohsobuaths
marked
it out for the seat of commerce from the earliest times
crossed 'by six bridges, cost 5,000,0001.; London-bridge
2,000,000/.; Southwark, 800,0001.; Waterloo, 1,150,0001.
London Docks cover 100 acres, the vaults contain
cellarage for -65,000 pipes of wine,
West India Docks, 295 acres, 500 vessels-
Commercial Docks, 49 acres (40 water) used prm•
cipally for the Baltic trade.
St. Katherine's Docks, 24 acres (111 water).
Port of London, 1840.-2 95 ' , 0 ships of 581,000 tons,
manned by 32,000 men.

• Tons.
Tonnage-of colliers in the river 2,625.323 (same year.

Colonies, 1,683 ships of 417,139
Ireland, 907 ships of
Coasting trade, 20,205 ships of
(colliers included) • 2,686,621
3,166 British, 2,335 Foreign
y.esels

Total tons 4467,16f

From Russia, Sweden, Germany, Holland, France, the
Mediterranean, China, and United States.
London has paid, upon an average, for the last ten
years,. . eleven millions in custom.. duties, out or the

23,500,0001, to winch the total customs revenue of, the
United Kingdom amounts.
Value of produce that enters and leaves the ports
roughly estimated at 80,000,0001.
2,000 merchants and brokers have their counting
houses within half-a-mile of the Exchange.
100,000 houses of business, to half of which shops are
attached.
All the details upon the same gigantic scale.
Water Companies, 237,000,000 of hogsheads per year.
Gas Companies, 10,000,000 cubic feet every 24 hours.
Ale and Porter, 2,000 of barrels.
(.t.n. 1839.)
Smithfield cattle, 180,780 • sheep, 1,403,400.
70.000,000 of eggs annually from the Continent.
Its paving and sewerage, 500,0007. at least.
Newspapers, 30,000,000 of stamps (per annum).
Steam-boats, 100,000 passengers daily (in pursuit of
business or health).
1,000 miles of railway, completed (47,000,0007.); and
59 canals (1.4,500,0000, connect it with the most distant
ports.)
Monthly business transacted by London bankers
through clearing-house averages 75,000,000/. (It has
been as high as 87,000,0007.)
He had gone into these details, because he thought
that they would convey a more precise idea of the
extent and greatness of London than any general de-
scription.--(Hear, hear.) Now he would ask, what
a drop of water in the ocean was the custom of the
aristocracy, however rich and numerous, compared
with the movements resulting from such a trade as
this ?—(Loud cheers.) What a singular deluSion it
was to suppose that those gentlemen, amiable and re-
spectable in their position in life, created that great-
ness which they came to share—(Hear, hear)—
because it was they who attracted the landed owners
by making London what it was ; and it was not
landed owners who made London what it was for
them.—(Cheers.) This was explained on a principle
extremely simple, and as old, at least, as the days
of Rome. Mr. M‘Culloch spoke of London as Seneca
spoke of Rome. He says that the very magnitude of
London was the efficient cause of its great increase.
The greater the city became, the • greater scope
there was for the exercise of every talent and
the gratification of every taste, and the more power-.
ful were the motives by which it attracted all indivi-
duals, whether aspiring or idle, virtuous or profligate,
grave or gay.—(Cheers.) These were the causes of
the greatness of London, and it was this greatness
which attracted those birds of Paradise, whose gilded
plumage adorned their streets and parks every day.
—(Hear, hear.) But the tradesmen of London should
recollect that they had not to deal with the landed
owners generally, but with the landlords also, who
possessed three or four thousand a-year, who would
not venture upon a house in town.—(Laughter.)
How small a number then did they consist of; and
then they must subtract those landowners who spent
their money in Paris and Rome, and in the Holy
Land, and which they could much better spend at
home.—(Cheers.) The people of London, therefore,
must see that the pickings of the Duke of Northum •
berland's liveries, and the wax candles of Devon-
shire House, were nothing compared with what they
paid for their bread—(Loud cheers)—lsecause they
must recollect that if the corn-laws were repealed,
it would be a direct gain to their merchants,
their bankers, their fundholders, amongst whom
28,000,000/. were distributed ; their public an-
nuitants of every kind, their professional men,
their artists, their clerks, and all those who, after
having spent an adventurous life abroad, came back
here to enjoy-an old age of comfort and of quiet ; not
to mention their operatives, of whom he would speak
by and bye,—would be all direct gainers.—(Cheers.)
The result to them would be immediate and immense.
He did not wish to weary them with dry details, and
he had much rather quote another passage from
" Sam Slick" than have recourse to dry political
economists. They were aware that Sam Slick
wrote a work detailing his impressions on
coming to England; and he says that nothing
struck him so much, or gave him such a vivid
idea of the enormous and incalculable wealth
of London as the continuous line of equipages which
he saw on Ascot-day. That was before the Great
Western was opened. It was this, he says, which
created in his mind the idea he had of the wealth and
power of London, because the sight of• them sug-
gested the reflection to him, where they all came from,
what supported this magnificient display of wealth ?
He then says (introducing carriages speaking)
" Australia • keeps me—(Laughter)—China keeps
me—Botany Bay keeps me (Great laughter)
—Canada keeps me—Nova Scotia. keeps me—
white bears keep me—(Great laughter)—and every.
thing on the earth,. and under the earth, throughout
the whole world keeps me, for all the wealth of the
world is tributary to British enterprise and British
skill"—(Great cheers)—and yet there were some
wiseacres .who within three years really thought
that nothing but the custom of some two or three
thousand landlords made London what it was, with-
out ever taking into calculation the additional price
which they were obliged to pay for their bread.
By this system, the people of London were mulcted
to the 'amount of at least 431,557/. And this asser-
tion was proved by the returns made upon this sub-
ject up to the 13th of March last. He had- already
alluded to this question, as if it only concerned
London, but he thought he should also speak of it
so far as the landed interest was concerned. In
speaking of the landed interest, he should premise,
first, that although his estate was not a large one, yet
that still his interests, and those of his children, were
deeply involved in this question. All he wanted was,
to come to a right conclusion upon the bearings of
the subject.—(Hear, hear.) Being brought up as
one of those who were interested, he thought that
protection was necessary for the agricultural interest,
and he shared in the errors of his class •, but since his
education he saw matters in quite a different light,
and he wished that others would take the same means
of informing themselves. He thought, if others were
to take the same cue to information which he did,
they would very soon come to a conclusion such as
he did with respect to the difference between the
relative positions of the English squire and
the German grandee. They would find, that
what • established the superiority of the former
over the latter was the persevering industry,
and the magnificent and persevering enter-
prise of the English people, by which they were en-
abled to pay higher prices, by taxation, for every
article they consumed. He could not see how 1,000
acres of land in England could be rated at a higher
intrinsic value than the same compass of land on the
Continent, except by the industry and enterprise of
the people. He certainly liked his own interests—in
fact he would plead guilty to selfishness, and, there-
fore, he could not account for persons drying up the
sources of their own wealth, . for experience had
countrywhich werenow
v, u tphoant
the f
etohionsme e r
er ee s t
or ifc t itohnes
abolished, the people would be in a much better con-
dition than they were at present.—(Cheers.) Eng-
land had got the start of the other nations of the
world in manufactures, and why did they not keep
it ? Why, simply because their commercial tariffs
and restrictions prevented that interchange of com-
modities which God destined between the nations of
the earth, and, in consequence, those countries were
now opposing them. They were now acting upon
the same false principles as those which induced the
passing of the American tariff, and the enactment of
the Zollverein in Germany. He contended that, by
the abolition of all restriction, interests of all classes
would he advanced, and consequently those of the
landlords. Mr. Ashworth has shown that laud which
in 1672 (in a district now a manufacturing one)
only brought according to the county rates, a
yearly rental of 1691., was, according to the
same authority in the year 1843, producing a
rental of 93,916/. per annum. He was shown an in-
crease of 54,388 per cent., and to what did that in-
crease. owe its origin ? Why, it was the fruits of
combined science, capital, and industry, with which
the soil of Lancashire. had nothing to do, but which
the energy and industry of the oppressed and taxed
classes had brought into existence. If in the year
1815 this restrictive law had not been enacted, the
landlords themselves would have been wealthier, and
the condition of the great mass of the people much
better, their domestic comforts more amplified, and
the capacity to discharge their social duties far be-
yond the present state of things. He denied that the
law as it was at present established. at all protected
the farmer, or gave him assurance of a steadiness in
the price of corn. The highest authorities could be
adduced to prove that the wages of the agicultural
labourers had neither been kept up, nor increased by
the operations of these restrictive duties. His Hon.
Friend had stated in the House of Commons that
the usual pittance of an agricultural labourer in any
of the counties of England slid not exceed 7s. a week,
and he gave data to prove this assertion ;• yet when he
threw down the gauntlet his challenge was refused,
and the Government denied him the opportunity of
proving facts through the medium of a Select Corne
mittee of the House of Commons, for the purpose of
inquiring how those restrictive duties affect the agri-
cultural interest and the tenant-farmer. In reply to the
request of his lion. Friend to appoint this Committee,
Mr. Gladstone acknowledged that the object of the
motion was good; but still he should refuse it, be-
cause it came from a suspicious quarter.—(cheers
and laughter.) The Government tacitly acknowledged
that, notwithstanding an inquiry into this question
was most desirable, yet that they were so impressed
with a sense of the delicate susceptibility
of the " Agricultural Nervous System," and so
anxious to follow up the conditions of their compact
with the Duke of Richmond,- that they were
compelled to refuse any inquiry. And on just the
same ground Lord Stanley, the other night, refused a
just and equitable motion made by Mr. Hutt; but
Mr. Gladstone, in his reply to his friend, Mr Cobden,
made use of a word against which they ought—all of
41eFo—to enter their protest.—(Hear, hear.) He
talked of a compact.----(liegr, hear.) Now there
never had been any compact made with regard to the
corn-laws ; the scheme of corn-laws last introduced

was -considered as a despicable measure:, bOth by -the)
country and the House of Counrion“ one against
which every body protested, both those who thought
it too little, and those who thought it too much.
---(Hear, hear.) It was . a measure pre-emi-
nently founded on false, pretences, as he believed
he (Mr. Ward) had cow tibuted to prove.—(Cheers.)
They would recollect that time ground on which the
corn-laws were said to rest were stated by Sir R.
Peel, in his Tamworth speech, to be the peculiar bur-
dens to which the land was subjected. He said that
land was over-taxed in this country, that the land-
owner was a sort of milch cow, to be drawn when it
could milk nothing else—(Laughter)—that other in-
terests bore nothing like their proper share of the
burdens.of the country, but that they were all heaped
on the unfortunate landowner, who therefore had a
right to ask for proteetion on everything he produced.
He (Mr. Ward) doubted all this, and he ventured
very humbly to challenge Sir Robert Peel to prove
what he urged. . He said give us a Committee on this
question of peculiar burdens ; we do not care how the
Committee is cOmposed ; you may have the majority
on it if you will, and may put Col. Sibthorp in the
chair if you like. It is all the same to us whether
you try to prove your own case, or allow us .to dis-
prove it, only give us the Hon. Member.for Wolver-
hampton and the Hon. Member for Stockport and we
shall be perfectly content to take that Committee, and
work out our position, and abide by the result. But
Sir Robert Peel would not abide by the result.
He recollected the old line from Shakspeare, "A
rotten case will not bear handling."—(Cheers.)
He much preferred the comfort and security of a vote
on the question, and on the vote he beat him (Mr.
Ward) of course. But what was the inference from
this ? Why, that the corn-laws were brought in by
a class, for the benefit of. a, class; supported against
the principles of the very Government by whom those
laws were maintained, and defended on grounds that
would not bear the light of day.—(Cheers.) And
now what would be time efTect of a repeal of those
laws ? The first effect, and the one in which they
were the most interested, would be that it would
make the Thames the granary of the world.—(Cheers.)
And this, they would admit, would give a great
stimulus to trade. More ships would be required,
more sailors to man them, more wharves to be built,
which again would give employment to carpenters,
bricklayers, and otheT trades ; there would be more
business for merchants, and more demand for mer-
chants' clerks and others. Everything would be set
in motion ; the mere Bd. saved in the price of every
quartern loaf consumed in London would give more-
than a million per annum to be spent among other
trades.—(Cheers) , Then a repeal of the corn-laws
would not come alone. They attacked the corn-laws
first, because they were the keystone of the arch of
monopoly ; if they broke down that, the whole fabric
would fall in. The men who called on the Govern-
ment for protection. in everything—he knew them
well, and they would be the very first to
call out for cheap tea, cheap sugar, cheap
wine, cheap coffee, cheap ships to bring them
over in, and good commercial treaties with any coun-
try in the world, that could contribute anything to
supply their wants. That was just what they wanted
to bring them to. Who could tell what the effect of
such a change would be in such a city as London,
which by its vast and enormous possession of capital,
already defied competition ? Who could estimate the
effects of such a change on the operative classes of the
kingdom ? and he cared for that infinitely more than
he did for its effects on the merchants and capitalists--
(Cheers)—because it involved the fate of those who
lived by their labour alone. Every one must feel
that the condition of the working population
could only be permanently improved by relaxing
the pressure on the springs of industry, and making
the condition of life in this country less hard than
it was. - God knew that it was hard enough; hard
enough for all !—(Hear, hear)—for it was not alone
the artisan, the man who worked with his hands, who
felt it; the mind also was taxed, in order to meet
others in the struggle for bread.—(Hear, hear.)
They might take any trade, he cared not which_
they might take all the trades whose productions
their chairman hoped would be united in that theatre
in he Tree-trade bazaar ; let them take the workmen
in their skilful manufactures, down to the ruder
labourer who raised the fuel which put in motion the
vast machinery by which their manufacturing mar-
vels were wrought ; in all these trades -and occupations
the same complaints prevailed throughout the kingdom;
they found that the labourers were called to toil too
early, and were obliged to labour too long. In the
manufacturing districts they found that childhood
was blighted by premature exertion, that youth grew
up in ignorance, . that manhood was but half in-
formed, and often debauched, in consequence of the
want of information. They had no time for the
social duties—no time for the enjoyment of any
relaxation—while their old age was too often con-
demned to wretchedness and want. And that desti-
tution arose from no want of prudence—it was often
such a destitution as no exertion could avert. He himself
had seen in Sheffield the s wings of twenty years swept
away during the last five, and that not from any fault of
the individuals so much as from the working of a
system of legislation, which the Government persisted
in supporting. The whole country was under-paid
and there was less food every year to divide among
more people, and there was less employment, because
they refused tolake the very food they wanted from
Other nations on such terms as would form a regular
trade. What was the remedy for all this ? Why,
not that of short-sighted philanthropists, who would
prohibit by law that excess of labour to which nothing
could drive a whole people except the direst necessity.
The real remedy was to remove the causes that
created that necessity, if possible—(Loud: cheers)—
and they could do it. It was his firm conviction that
they could do it, not by following the course of ig-
norant and short-sighted men, who indulged in a
cheap and spurious humanity, for nothing could ,be
cheaper than that humanity which indulged . itself
at other people's expense.—(Hear, and cheers.) It
-was not to be remedied by their calling on the people
to avert the evils which their 'own class legislation
created. They must go to the rout of the matter—
they must grapple with the disease itself, and not with
the symptoms. They must assert the right—the natural
right—the inalienable right of the English working
man to exchange the produce of his labour for the
necessaries and comforts of life wherever he could get
them cheapest. Why, the corn-laws made the work-
ing man a serf without the privileges of one, for is
was at least the poor privilege of the wretched serf to
be clothed and fed, and no one could say that was the
lot of many of our labourers and peasantry. Let
them unshackle trade, and they might safely leave
prices to find their own level, and labour to seek its
own reward. His conviction was, that they could
serve the working classes in no other way. Let them
not mind the jargon of those new philosophers who
talked of a new social condition arising out of new
social changes—who told them that the world might
to be put in leading-strings, because it did not know
how to govern itself.--(Laughter.) lie believed they
would find Parliament a bad substitute for their own
discretion in these matters. With respect to these
new lights he must say he had a foolish preference
for Adam Smith. He told us that the only way of
increasing the wages of labour was to increase the
demand for it, and the only way of increasing the
demand for labour was to increase the fund out of
which wages were paid; and that fund in this country
especially, on account of the peculiar constitution of
its social state, depended on the expansion of its fo-
reign trade. He was not frightened •by the tales
they had heard of the cruelty of the manufacturing
system. They were told that the manufacturers were
men who almost ground up infants in their mills ; for
his lion. Friend the Member for Durham was told
that he was one of a class who came into the House
of Commons with their teeth actually dripping with
infants' blood. It was a ~s:a/ima/ius he did not under-
stand. He knew that Ora was cheap in 1835, that
cv‘o'augnetsr3,7epoy
rmehlighed and the whole population of the
. He knew that bread was dear in
1842, and then. Lancashire was in a state of suffering
produced by
y a great war or famine, or
With respect to that suffer.
and depression such as had hitherto been believed
seinoogmulehd
eo
nationalnwlyoub
calamity.
read an extract from Dr. Cooke Tay-
lor's, work on the manufacturing districts :—" I have
seen misery its many forms. I have been in the
hovels and huts of Ireland when v7sited by the
scourge of cholera—I have been in the cellars
of Liverpool, where. human existence almost
ceases to be hamall—l have been in the wynds
and closes of Glasgow, where the scenes would try
the hardest heart and the stoutest stomach ; but no-
where have I seen misery that so agonised the very
soul, as in the manufacturing districts of Lanca-
shire ; and why ? Because the extreme of wretched-
ness there, and there only, was found combined
with a moral dignity, and a sense of propriety,
decency, cleanliness, and order, which are
the elements which have produced the wealth
I have described, and which do not merit
the intense suffering I have witnessed."
How came that anomaly of high prices and great
destitution in the most prolific and wealthy country
in the world'? It was explained by a writer whose
work he preferred to those a all the modern
philosophers. He said that, " when there was every •
year an increased demand for labour, and a scarcity
of hands, competition would exist, and masters would
bid against one ano
when there ig .
was a scarcity of em-
ployment, the labourers competed with .one another
—members of the superior classes sought employ-
ment in the lowest classes,. whilst the lowest
class overflowed, in consequence of the flux
of superabundant labour in the higher classes; thus
the competition for employment became so great as
to -reduce wages to the most miserable pittance that
life could exist upon." Such were the opinions of
Adam Smith ; and he never saw an attempt to inter-
fere with the principles embodied in this quotation
which had succeeded.-(Hear, hear.)- A great deal of