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

MEETING

AT COVENT-GARDEN THEATRE.

The usual weekly meeting of the League was held
last evening in Coient-garden Theatre, which was
as densely thronged as it generally is upon those
occasions. Among those present were, John Bright,
Esq., M. P. (in the chair), The Hon. Charles Pel-
ham Villiers, M.P., Major-General Briggs, James
Wilson, Esq., R. J. Burnet, John Travers, Esq.,
William Leavers,. Esq., Dr. Cook Taylor, George
Offer, Esq., R. S. Johnson, Esq., John Lambert,
Esq., (Salisbury), Samuel Wilson, Esq., Colonel
Tucker, Isaac Mollett, Esq„ R. Woodgate, Esq., R.
Jupp, Esq., Francis Stokes, Esq., Press Granger,
Esq., Charles Geach, Esq. (Birmingham), Thomas
Gammon, Esq., Martin Thackery, Esq., Henry
Gunning, Esq., T.. Bailey, Esq. (Colne), Thomas
Besley, Esq., Richard Ware Cole, Esq., David
Blyth, Esq., Robert A. Blyth, Esq., Walton Little,
Esq., Samuel Tomkinson, Esq. (Liverpool), J.
Turner, Esq. (Othery, Somersetshire), Thomas Ro-
gerson, Esq. (Liverpool), W. D. Starling, Esq , Rev.
Richard Fletcher (Manchester), W. Geesin, Esq.,
J. B. Scott, Esq: (Manchester), F. Scheer; Esq.,
- . . .

Edward Foster, Esq. (Cambridge), J. P. Barnard,
Esq., J. Brownsell, Esq , Leslie, Esq., J. W.
Langtree, Esq., John Pike, Esq. (Oxford), John
Poulter, Esq., &c.
At half-past seven o'clock the chair was taken by
Mr. Bright, M.P.
The minutes of the last meeting having been read
and confirmed,
The CUAIRMAN advanced to the front of the stage,
amidst the cheers of the meeting. He said it had
been intended that the Chairman of the Council of

the League should preside over the meeting that
evening, but when he (Mr. Bright)should explain the
cause of his absence, he was quite sure the meeting

would be satisfied that he was -as usefully employed
where he was as he could possibly have been if he
were present there that night. He was engaged at
that moment in the preparations that were being made
in South Lancashire for the approaching election—
(Cheers)—and knowing, as he (Mr. Bright) did, how
many were his qualifications for the conduct of an
election, he was quite certain there was no man con-
nected with the contest who could be worse spared than
could George Wilson—(Hear, hear) —and when he
looked around upon that meeting, and thought how
often some of them had been there—how often that

building had been crowded with an enthusiastic
audience assembled—not for the purpose of being de-

lighted with the charms of oratoxy—but for the
purpose of exhibiting to the world their
full conviction that the League was right in the

position it had taken up, he was quite certain there
were thousands within those walls at that hour who

were anxious that that great contest which was now
. _

commencing in Lancashire should end in the signal
triumph of the free trade cause.—(Cheers.) There
were small boroughs from which an independent voice
was scarcely to be expected. They viewed that con-
test, then, as one of infinitelygreater importance than
the contests in a dozen, or a score of boroughs like
Woodstock or Abingdon. The present meeting sym-
pathised with that contest.—(Cries of " Hear,
hear.") It was anxious to convey to those electors
their sense of the importance of that contest ;
and he feared even they, anxious as they were,
did not regard that struggle as of all the importance
which it merited. He had met persons in the south
of England who spoke of Lancashire as if it were a
county of no more than ordinary importance—as
if they knew only this, that there were in that county
a number of grasping, avaricious, and some of them
rich manufacturers, with rather a dense population of
working men, brutalised, ill-paid, and degraded.
They seemed to think that Lancashire was merely a
county in which there were several considerable
towns of a very dull character, connected by rail-
roads ; that, in fact, every feature in that
county was one affording rather pain than
pleasure, and that it was to be looked
upon as a county only valuable for what
could be got out of it—one which the tourist and the
lover of the picturesque should on all occasions care-
fully avoid. Now, he (Mr. Bright) had been born
in that county, and he had lived there something like,
thirty years. He knew much of its population—
much of its trade, and much of its resources, and he
was quite convinced there was no other county in
England which could compare with it in real impor-
tance as affecting the welfare and power of this
empire.—(Hear, hear, and cheers.) It was the most
populous county in England; it was the most
manufacturing county, and, as far as its
' productive power went, it was the richest county in
England ; and what had it done ? Time was when it
presented a very different aspect from that which it
now did. Some 240 years ago it was considered a
wilderness. Camden, in his survey, after having tra-

veiled the country from York to Durham, men
tioned that he proposed to enter Lancashire, and
that his mind was filled with apprehension at the
prospect. . His remark was " And first of
the people of Lancashire, whom I approach
with a kind of dread"—(in those latter days
there were some persons also who looked upon
Lancashire with dread (Cheers and laughter)
—" may it forbode no ill. However, that I may
not seem wanting to this county, I will run the ha-
zard of the attempt, hoping that the Divine assistance
which has favoured me in the rest will not fail me in
this." Camden mentioned some of the towns. Roch-
dale, (to which he had come first from York-
shire,) Bury, Blackburn, Preston, and Manchester.
But he spoke of those only as being towns of trade,
and as being principally connected with woollen
manufactures. He mentioned Liverpool, or Lither-
pool, or, as it was sometimes abbreviated, Lirpool, as
a small place on the sea coast, and as the most conve-
nient spot for setting sail to Ireland. But, of Ash-
ton, Bolton, Oldham, Salford, and many other towns
now existing in Lancashire, he did not say one word ;
and they had no reason to believe that such towns
were known at that time. It might be worth while
for a few moments to examine, and see how wonderful
was the increase in the value of property in that,
county. In 1692, that was 150 years ago,-the whole
annual value was 97,0001. In 1841 the annual value
was 6,192,000/.—(Cheers.) Thus, giving an average
increase throughout that county, in the space of 150
years of not less than 6,300/. per cent. Now the
land-owners should look at that as showing how
trade was advantageous to them. Lancashire, as had
been truly said, contained just as much land as any
other county. That must be very clear.—(A voice,
"No, no.") He remembered a person standing on a
rising ground, andlooking over the neighbourhood, re-
marking to another who stood near him that they seemed
to have a great deal of land in that neighbourhood,
which remark occasioned him some surprise ; but he
(Mr. Bright) supposed that it might be made with
equal truth of any other neighbourhood. Lan-
cashire had landowners, and was divided into districts,
called " hundreds."—(A voice—" Yorkshire," and
some interruption.) Of these hundreds, three were
agricultural, and three were manufacturing ; and th 9
improvement in the value of the agricultural portion
of the county amounted, in the time he had men-
tioned, to 3,500/. per cent., and that of the
manufacturing districts to 7,0001. per cent.
In one estate in the neighbourhood of Man-
chester—Charlton Hall estate—there was a mar-
vellous increase of its value. In the year 1590 it
sold for 320/.; in the; year 1644, that was, fifty-
four years later, it sold for 3001., the value ius not
having increased at all ; and in 1794 that same estate
was sold for 70,000/. The annual value of the town-
ship in which this estate was situate was 19,0001. in
1815 ; in 1829 it was 66,0001.; in 1841 it was
137,000/.—(Hear, hear.) In a space of time of not
more than two hundred years, the value of this estate
had increased from 3001. to 3,000,0001.—(Loud
cheers.) There was another district in Lancashire
called the Forest of Rossendale, containing from
twenty-two to twenty-four square miles. In the
early part of the sixteenth century about eighty per-
sons lived in it; now it contained twenty-one thou-
sand. Land for farming purposes in that dis-
trict now let for ten times as much rent as it did
one hundred years ago ; and there were men
now living who recollected the time when they cul-
tivated certain farms which paid seven or eight
times more rent now than in their youth. The dis-
trict in which Liverpool was situate was then known
as West Derby Hundred. It was then assessed to
the land-tax at 135,0001. • its annual value was now
2,124,0001.--(Cheers)—being an advance of more
than 5,900 per cent.—(Hear, hear.) Liverpool, 150
years ago, was not larger than Wigan at the present
time. It was a mean fishinif village then—now it
was the largest sea-port in England, perhaps in the
whole world.—(Hear, hear.) What was it that pro-
duced this wonderful change in Lancashire ? Was
it the landed proprietors of the county ?—(No, no.)
About 44 years ago, Mr. Whittaker, in his "His-
tory of Whalley," describing the landed proprietors
of Lancashire as they were 2%.)0 years ago, says they
were men fond of the marriedlife.—(Laughter.)
He mentions they were fond of quiet, domestic com-
forts, and had little curiosity and ambition.—
(Laughter.) They resided much at home, and pur-
sued domestic amusements, which were more gross
than costly. He says he only met with one literary
character who was possessed of the family estate.—
(Laughter.) The landed proprietors, if they Were
men of this character, did not make Lancashire
what it was now. There were a number of old
houses there, where old families used to reside.
Those families were now extinct; they were passed by
s off'
s men.—(Hear, hear.)
in the race by a new cl l.
Their mansions were now inhabited by the thrifty
and industrious manufacturers, and the old families
had been swept away from the southern division of
the county; Not that there was any war against

them, for they had the same chances as other men,
but, being born to broad acres, they did not think it
necessary to cultivate their minds, and exert them-
selves, like other men.—(Hear, hear.) The inven-
tions of Watt and Arkwright enabled others to sur-
pass them, and those who were once magnates in the
country were now nowhere, and a new class of men
were leading on its dense population.—(Loud cheers.)
It was the industry and intelligence and perseverance
of the manufacturing population that made Lan-
cashire what it was. Its coal and iron were invalu-

able, but they were underneath the surface for ages
before. It was only in later times—in fact, in their
own generation—that they had learned to bring them
up, and manufacture from them those machines which
so many despised ; but which enabled the population
of Lancashire to stretch out their hands to every
district on the face of the earth, and make the riches
and prodmets of other countries supply their own
wants.—(Cheers.) And that little soft flakey substance
which they took from the pod of the cotton tree,
and which was first imported into this county (Lan-

cashire) about seventy' or eighty years ago L-ft was
the fibre which they got from this that had given that
county its greatness.---(Cheers.) Lancashire was a
child of trade and industry in its most remarkable
form.—(Cheers.) That trade was, not long ago, an
infant struggling into life ; it was now grown up, and
was become a giant of enormous proportions ; and yet
that giant, great and powerful as it was, was lying
prostrate under the 'fetters and shackles which an

ignorant, and short•sighted, and tyrannical legislation
bound around it.-7-(Loud cheers.) The question
now was, would the people of South Lan-
cashire _ any longer endure those fetters ?

or would they alloWthemselves to be bound by them
for ever? Would they allow them to be rivetted
firmly, or would they snap them asunder, and give
freedom to this giant to become more powerful, and
give a more extensive growth to that great county
and this great empire ?—(Cheers.) If the electors of
South Lancashire knew how much depended on the
votes they would give, would there be any man in
that county who would go to ask their suffrages for
that worst, and vilest, and most pestilent of all curses
—the corn-laws ?—(Cheers.) If these electors were
conscious, and he believed many of them were, that
the disasters of the last five years owed their origin to
that law—if they knew that that law had cast their
merchants from prosperity to ruin—that it had
driven many thriving shopkeepers and traders into
misery and ruin, and even expatriation—that it had
desolated hundreds of thousands of cottages, and car-
ried poverty and sorrow among millions of the
people. If they knew all this, did they think,
they would give their voices on this occasion in
favour of perpetuating the most blind folly that ever
entered into the minds of any legislators upon earth.
—(Loud cheers.) If those electors saw this meeting.
—if they had before their eyes 4,000 of their coun-
trymen who looked into their hearts and Consciences
—to see if there dwelt any care for their coun-
try's good—'was there one of them who would
have such callousness and hardness of disposi-
tion as to vote for the perpetuation of such an
evil? He had hopes that the result of the struggle
would be glorious to the country.—(Hear, bear.)
Free trade was gaining ground everywhere. It might
be they would not find that the minority now in Par-
liament would speedily become a majority—it might
be there were portions of the public that sneered at
their efforts—they wholly denied that they were
making any progress, and which, if they could,
would extinguish their efforts altogether. But,
notwithstanding, the wave was swelling on,
and in public and private life they found
that the delusions about protection were dispelled,
and that the truth of free trade principles was be-
coming apparent to all minds.—(Loud cheers.) There
was one subject of congratulation in looking at
what was now going on in South Lancashire. The
free trade candidate was, perhaps, the most ex-
tensive merchant in this country, and almost in the
whole world.—(Hear, hear.) He was a merchant of
long standing and experience, great wealth and high
character—he had a large property invested in
commercial undertakings, and was also a proprietor
of the soil. In business he was mainly connected
with the trade of the United States of America. lie
looked on him as the better candidate for that.—

(Cheers.) He had extensive establishments there,
and he knew how abundantly Providence had given
to that country the means of supplying the wants of
this, and how eminently the manufacturing skill and
industry of this country were calculated to give abun-
dant blessings to that country in exchange for what
they gave us.—(Cheers) Why, he was like a man
who stood on the shore of the island representing
the millions who worked in this country to clothe
the inhabitants of the prairies in America, and he
stood there to receive that which America produced,
and which this country asked for; and were it not
for this law, which he was going into Parliament to
uproot, how easily might they bring not only the
cotton, rice, and tobacco of America into this
country, but food, substantial food for the people,
for the want of which thousands of their fellow
countrymen were suffering the deepest privations ?
(Cheers.) Considering the responses which met the
sentiments he uttered, he might conclude that there
was no want amongst those who filled the theatre of
deep and earnest feelings for the success of this strug-
gle.—(Hear.) If they who were more immediately
connected with them might in thelineetings held there,
in the speeches they made, in the letters they wrote,
communicate to the 18,000 electors of Lancashire,
who were interested in this decision, the feelings
of the citizens of this metropolis, represented by the
thousands whom he saw present, he prayed—he im-
plored—he exhorted—and he besought them by all
they held sacred and valuable, to cast away all the
trammels of party feeling—all the old war cries of
faction—and declare that the flag under which they
would fight should be that which was inscribed with
Free trade all over the world, and perfect justice to the
people of this country.—(The lion. Gentleman sat
down amidst loud cheers.)
Mr. JAMES WILSON then came forward and ad-
dressed the meeting. He said he did not appear there
to amuse or excite them, but rather to endeavour to
throw some light on a few fallacies which, being
little understood, operated to the prejudice of free
trade in certain circles. As there was some ap-
pearance of reasonableness in 'those fallacies it was
the more incumbent on him to try and remove them.
The two points on which he wished to address
them were these—They were charged with saying
that the corn-laws were disastrous to trade in conse-
quence of the high prices which they inflicted on the
consumers, and then with saying that free trade
would not injure the interests of the agriculturists,
and would have even little influence on relative prices.
Now those were two statements which he was willing
to admit bore on the face of them some appearance of
inconsistency, yet he believed nothing was more easy
than to prove that both were correct.—(Hear, hear.)
It should always be borne in mind that dearness and
cheapness might be produced by two distinct causes.
Dearness might be produced on the one hand by
scarcity, and on the other by large consumptibility
on the part of the community. If dearness were
produced by scarcity, then price kept no relative
proportion to the means of the community to pur-
chase the article. If, on the other hand, dearness
were produced only by a large demand for the com-
modity, it argued, in the first place, a great con-
sumptibility and the wealthy condition of the con-
sumers in order to produce that dearness. Cheapness,
on the other hand, might be produced by two causes.
It might be produced by plenty, and then it was a
blessing ; or it might be produced, as it had been for
the last two or three years, by an inability on the
part of the consumer to command even the first neces-
saries of life. Now, what he contended was, that the
principles of restriction and monopoly had a tendency
to create the dearness which was objectionable, be-
cause it was a dearness arising from scarcity ; that
free trade, on the other hand, although, if followed out,
it might produce dearness, would only produce it in
consequence of this increased wealth and the
increased means of consumption.—(Hear, hear.) He
contended also that restriction had a tendency
to produce cheapness, but not the cheapness which
was derived from plenty, but the cheapness which
arose from diminished means on the part of the con-
sumer.—(Cheers.) The very object and aim of the
corn-laws, and of their commercial laws generally,
was to restrict quantity. If "they restricted quantity,
the first effect might be, he admitted, to raise prices.
But the first tendency of restricted quantity was to
restrict trade; the next tendency was to restrict em-
ployment ; the next tendency was to restrict the
Means of consumption; and the next, and last, ten-
dency an impossibility to consume, and
a
price.— (Loud cheering.) On
those[grounds, therefore, he contended that
neither di.mwin asished
the corn-laws nor any other commercial
restriction could ultimately be of any service even to
those for whose benefit they were intended. Although
such laws might first produce a high price, that high
price was delusion, it could not be maintained. Bar-
gainsnoetbed maintained;
contracts contrawctesrewemreadeentewreildieih could
into which ended
but disappointment; and the resources of this com-
munity were sapped to their foundation. How
clearly and palpably was this effect exhibited
in the case of this restriction, which they
were assembled to oppose. The first tendency
of the corn-law was to restrict quantity and
raise price. But the next tendency was to destroy
trade. The farmer, having made his contract, cal-
culating on a high price, found that the means of the
consumer had been destroyed, and the price fell, to
the disappointment of the Parmer, and to the ruin of
all around him,—(Hear, hear.) If they had free
trade in corn, the first tendency would be to increase
the quantity, and that would, perhaps,
diminish the
price. But, with an increased quantity, they
would have increased trade; with increased
trade, they would have increased employment
for their ships, for their sailors, for their millers, and
for all.those who were engagedtin the manufacture cf