The Sun.
London, England, 1844-03-07 00:00:00

GRAND WEEKLY
ANTI-CORN-LAW LEAGUE

MEETING

AT COVENT-GARDEN THEATRE

The usual weekly meeting of the members of the
Anti-Corn-law League, was held at Covent-garden
Theatre last evening. The doors were opened at
half-past six o'clock, and the theatre was crowded in
every part within ten minutes afterwards. At seven
o'clock, Dr. Bowring, M.P.; W. J. Fox, Esq. ; J.
T. Leader, Esq., M.P. ; J. Bright, Esq., M.P., ac-
companied by many of the influential friends of free
trade entered the theatre, and were greeted with loud
applause. They were immediately followed by the
Lion. Charles Pelham Villiers, M.P., who, on making
his appearance, was loudly cheered. Among those
present we observed Thomas Milner Gibson, Esq.,
M.P. ; Sir Valentine Blake, Bart., M.P.; P. A.
Taylor, Esq.; T. A. Shaw, Esq. ; W. A. Wilkinson,
Esq. ; Samuel Lucas, Esq.; John Ashton Yates, Esq.;
Cornelius Nicholson, Esq., of Kendal ; Cole, Esq.;
Joseph Ivimey, Esq.; Joseph Fenwick, Esq.; Robert
Clarke, Esq.; Colonel Tucker; Thomas Carr, Esq.,
Frome; Henry L. Keating, Esq.; Henry White,
Esq.; P. A. Taylor, junior, Esq.; Cowden Clark,
Esq. ; Samuel Harrison, Esq. ; E. J. Salisbury, Esq.,
Thame ; Richard Andrews, Esq., Southampton;
John Tigar, Esq., Beverley; Norman Wilkinson,
Esq.; Butterworth, Esq., Rochdale; W. E. Hut-
chinson, Esq., Leicester; W. Stevenson, Esq. ; Dr.
Maschet; W. Roberts, Esq., Rochdale; S. 1). Brad-
ford, Esq., Manchester; R. G. Welford, Esq.; Arthur
Pattison, Esq. ; William Lockett, Esq., Manchester ;
James Brotherton, Esq., Manchester ; Robert P.
Collier, Esq. ; James Chadwick, Esq., Eccles ; Richard
Warre Cole, Esq. ; T. Cordingley, Esq.; C. 0.
Boyse, Esq. ; Henry Russell, Esq. ; Captain Dawson ;
Henry Lancaster, Esq.; Henry Edward Erle, Esq. ;
John Jones, Esq. ; F. H. Toone, Esq.; Adam Smith,
Esq. ; W. Ibbotson, Esq., Sheffield ; W. A. Thom-
son, Esq., Buffalo ; W. Hannay, Esq.; J. P. Bur-
nard, Esq. ; W. E. Hutchinson, Esq., Leicester ;
Rev. John Pyer, Devonport ; John M'Leod, Esq. ;
J. N. Collins, Esq. ; W. A. Thomson, Esq.; J. Cox,
Esq.; James Banner, Esq. ; E. Patterson, Esq.; R.
L. Tweedale, Esq.; Martin Thackeray, Esq.; Henry
Lloyd Morgan, Esq. ; Thomas Hubback, Esq.
In consequence of the absence of George Wilson,
Esq., the Chairman of the League, who, it appeared,
was attending a League meeting in the Free-trade
Hall, Manchester, the Hon. Charles Pelham Villiers,
M.P. for Wolverhampton, took the chair amidst the
acclamations of all assembled.

The Secretary then read the minutes of the last
meeting.
On the motion of John. Bright, Esq., M.P., se-
conded by John Temple Leader, Esq., M.P., the
minutes were confirmed.

The CHAIRMAN then came forward and said that as
Mr. Wilson, the Chairman of their conspiracy—
(Cheers and laughter)—was unable to attend that
evening, he (Mr. Villiers) had in consequence con-
sented to become a criminal in his place.—(Cheers
and laughter.) He was hippy to inform them that it
was not for the purpose of being innocent—(A. laugh)
—er of being idle—(Cheers)—that the Chairman of

the League was absent on the present occasion that
evening.—(Cheers.) On the contrary, he was assist-
ing at a meeting, attended by many spirited brother
conspirators of theirs in the country—(Cheers)---men
who had no fear of Dukes before their eyes—(Loud
cheers)—and who believed that they should be want-
ing in the respect which they owed to themselves so
long as they should abstain from pressing for the re-
real of a law which provided for the luxuries of
great men out of the necessaries of poor men.—
(Loud cheers.) The Chairman of the League
was that night presiding over a meeting in
Manchester, which was being held in the
great hall which had been built in that town for the
express purpose of this conspiracy.—(Cheers.) The
men of Lancashire had been in the habit of meeting
in that hall for the express purpose of endeavouring to
make trade free and bread abundant—(Cheers)—for '
the same purpose for which those present met in that
theatre—(Loud cheers)—and that was to give effect
to those principles which the first Minister of the
Crown had propounded to the country when he had
been first admitted to office.—(Cheers.) Their ob-
ject was to give encouragement and credit to that
sound system of household philosophy which Sir R.
Peel had propounded when he first assumed office.
The substance of what Sir Robert Peel had stated on
that occasion was, if he recollected right, that when
people had occasion to purchase what they wanted
they should not give more than was necessary; but
that when they had to dispose of the products of their
industry they should not be forced to take less than
they could get.—(Cheers.) If he was not mistaken
that was the principle which Sir Robert Peel, in an
unguarded moment, perhaps, had propounded.
It would scarcely be believed in times to come that
so simple a proposition should have given rise to so
much controversy—(Cheers)--that it should not, im-
mediately on its announcement, have been received
with implicit credit throughout the kingdom; but he
was afraid that, if history were fairly written, it
would appear that that which had of late years agi-
tated the whole frame of British society, and had al-
most exclusively engaged the attention of the British
Legislature, had been the great difference of opinion
which existed on the subject of this very simple
matter.—(Cheers.) Doubts had been expressed as
to the words of Sir Robert Peel. Difficulties had
been raised in the way of the adoption of the princi-
ple, and such was the importance attached to the
subject, that, two days ago, the organ of the Govern-
ment, in discussing the proposition, had come to the
conclusion, that if Sir R. Peel had ever given utter-
ance to such a principle, he did not mean it.—(Cheers.)
The disclosure of that principle had brought upon Sir
Robert Peel the charge of treachery to his friends,
and it had sown the seeds of discord in the Conserva-
tive camp.—(Cheers.) It had occasioned the Anti-
League agitation, and an Hon. Baronet, one of the
supporters of the present system, had, the other day,
declared that, in order to expose this fraudulent
theory, it was necessary that they should speak out.
—(Cheers and laughter.) At a county meeting held
in Hertfordshire the other day, a Noble Lord had
stated that it was for the purpose of suppressing this
pestilent fallacy, that he had come to St. Alban's.—
(Cheers and laughter.) These Anti-League meetings
were held for the express purpose of putting down this
pestilent doctrine ; and the Tory papers congratu-
lated the country because the Duke of Richmond
took the chair in his own house every day.—(Cheers
and laughter)—and the Duke of Buckingham took his
seat opposite him.—(Renewed cheering and laugh-
ter.) Such was the account, and the only one
they could get, of the chief occupations of the
Richmonds and the Buckinghams ; and if such
was the case, how little chivalrous—how
excessively ludicrous— was the position which the
British nobility chose to assume in the present age ?
—(Cheers and laughter.) It was, however, less ludi-
crous to insist upon the assertion of these principles
than to submit to the enforcement of them.—(Cheers.)
It would be found that the friends of free trade were
not idle.—(Cheers.) They would profit by the con-
fessions and take advantage of the course which their
antagonists had thought proper to pursue.—(Cheers.)
Those antagonists had at length announced what
course they meant to pursue. They had spoken out,
and had said what they meant to do, which, while
they entrusted the defence of the cause solely to the
hands of Sir Robert Peel had never been done.—
(Cheers.) As long as Sir Robert Peel was entrusted
with their defence, no man living could tell the exact
grounds upon which they rested their case. The
League were accused of wishing to destroy the
Church, to destroy the Constitution ; but no one ex-
actly understood what were the charges brought
against the League, or what were the grounds on
which the corn-laws were defended.—(Cheers.)
There was a remarkable degree of mystery on the
subject.—(Laughter.) The landowners, however,
had now repudiated Sir Robert Peel's help, they had
taken their case into their own hands—they were
their own counsel—they had become clients to them-
selves—(A laugh)—and they could not have much
worse clients.—(Cheers and laughter.) The League,
however, would derive considerable advantage from
the attacks made upon it by these parties. It re-
minded him of an anecdote which had been re-
lated by Swift. An author had written a
pamphlet for the purpose of attracting the at-
tention of the public to certain principles which
he considered to be of paramount importance. The
pamphlet, however, attracted no attention ; and he
wrote another pamphlet, in answer to himself, in
which he heaped on himself, as author of the first
pamphlet, all kinds of abuse, imputing to himself
all sorts of vile motives, and the commission of every
horrible crime that could be imagined.—(Laughter.)
People who read this last pamphlet began, naturally
to inquire what it could have been that the man