The Sun.
London, England, 1844-02-29 00:00:00

sition, and will not be able to address you this even-
ing; but our excellent friend, Mr. Bright—(Loud
cheers)—is here, and will address you in his place.—
(Loud cheers.) The Chairman concluded by calling
upon Mr. Ashworth, of Turton, near Bolton, to ad-
dress- the meeting.
Mr. HENRY ASHWORTH then came forward to the
platform. He said it was no common sight to witness
manufacturers from the North leaving their dwellings
and their occupations to appear before an audience
like the present. The manufacturer had usually other
employments to attend to, but he would appeal to his
fellow-countrymen when he felt himself wronged. The
manufacturers were unused to agitation ; they belonged
to a class who studied practical science and the mechani-
cal arts and their machinery, and they were therefore
busily engaged at home, if pernicious legislation, al-
lowed them to be so. n appealing to them in the
character of a manufacturer, he felt a confidence
which arose from the fact, that the body to which he
belonged sought to possess nothing but their own.
Manufactures were engaged in making hard bargains,
and so were all prudent persons, themselves (the
meeting) among the rest.—(Hear.) But it could
not be laid to their charge that they had got a com-
mercial house in Parliament-street where they could
surround the community with their toils, and enable
themselves to make both sides of the bargain.—
(Hear, hear.) Manufacturers enjoyed no protection.
They sought none, and they disclaimed the protec-
tive system altogether; all they asked, was to have
all her Majesty's subjects put upon an equal footing.
That was not an unreasonable demand. But the
landlords said they must have protection—that they
were entitled to a certain amount of protection for
certain specific purposes. He would not now remind
them of what those purposes were, but refer them for
the information to Lord Mountcashel and Sir
Edward Knatchbull. Those gentlemen could tell all
about it. They said they must have pro-
tection to enable them to compete with
foreigners. He was not yet aware in what respect
Englishmen were inferior to foreigners.—(Hear,
hear.) He was persuaded that the British farmer and
farm-labourer would do as much work, and were as
capable of competing with foreigners, as any class ;
and none, he was persuaded, could better compete
with them in agricultural labour, if the landlords
would allow him to buy his food rather cheaper. The
manufacturers were exposed to foreign competition—
and why not the landlords? Manufacturers enjoyed
no privileges—they required none. They possessed
no advantages of machinery, which were not common
to all the world. They obtained from other countries
inventions and improvements in machinery, which
they embodied in that machinery which they manu-
factured themselves, and then allowed those produc-
tions of their own skill to be taken out of this country
and sold in any country in the world, at as cheap a
rate as they had got them themselves.—(Hear, hear.)
The law which prohibited the export of machinery
had been repealed a year or two ago, and although
they were suffering severely in their business, and
although many were of opinion that the export of
their machinery, superior as it was of its kind,
would he hazardous to them, nevertheless, with a spirit
of fair dealing the manufacturers never demurred to
the Act permitting the export, but allowed it to pass
without hesitation or disturbance. Having, therefore,
given up, in favour of foreigners, all protection, if
ever they had any, the manufacturers claimed to be
freed from restriction of every kind. They took it
that since they were exposed to foreign competition,
it was unjust that any other class—especially the
wealthy landlord class—should enjoy advantages not
common to all. With respect to manufacturers and
other classes of the community, they were told that
the home market was an important market for their
productions. He was prepared to speak to the value
of the home market, as regarded his own trade, which
was the cotton trade. That was chiefly an export
trade, there being only one out of every seven bales
consumed wrought for home consumption ; and thus,
all the employment with the cotton trade, derived from
every class of British subjects, amounted to only one-
seventh of the whole, or about one day's work out of
the week. That applied to the consumption of classes ;
and, therefore, when one came to analyse what was
obtained from the aristocratic classes, who put forth
the value of the home market in such vaunting terms,
it was found to amount to only some fractional parts
of one day's work in a week ; and for that they
were thankful as far as it went. As to the home
consumption, the city of London alone consumed more
cotton manufactures than al Ireland, and Manchester
more than the entire county of Buckingham.—
(Hear, hear.) With respect to the export trade,
from what he had already mentioned, they would see
that they depended upon foreigners for six-sevenths
of all the work they did, and those six-sevenths of
their prOductions being sold in the open markets of
the world, they were unable to enjoy any description
of protection. Let them now look to the landlord,
and the manufacture which pertained to his occupa-
tion—the manufacture of food. There was no export
trade in that article. He had the best market
in the world at his own doors, and protection,
too, into the bargain. There was a time
when the landlords of this country exported their
own produce, but that day was gone by, and the po-
pulation of this country now consumed all the food
they could raise, and required much more if they
could get it. As much of this food was consumed
by the large portion of the community engaged in
manufacturing goods for export, it—that was, corn,
wheat, and other agricultural produce—became the
raw material of their manufacturing labour, and thus
the goods exported consisted virtually of corn,
wheat, &c., as much as of manufactured cotton. The
landlords, who were merchants in their way, were by
that means become possessed of a medium of ex-
change for their products in foreign countries without
the trouble and annoyance otherwise necessary to
convert their food into money. Hence it would be
seen that the manufacturers of this country, manu-
facturing as they did under the corn-laws, were
compelled, in the first instance, to pay an artifi-
cially high price for the food they and their
labourers consumed, and afterwards, in the course of
his export trade, to re-sell it in foreign markets,
where, if sold in the shape of food, it would not fetch
more than half theprice it brought in its altered form.
Thus they found that the manufacturers became the
implements of the landlords to dispose of their goods
and chattels at twice as much as they were worth,
and at a loss of one half in the process. On the sub-
ject of the export trade, they would have no difficulty
in seeing that it was a general axiom in relation to it
that importers were customers. The manufacturers
who dealt with foreign countries took, as the crite-
rion of the prosperity of this country, not the
amount of exports, but of imports. He repeated that
imports were to be considered in the light of cus-
tomers. A vessel who approached our shores, no
matter from what country she came, was the
impersonation of the foreign merchant with money
in his pockets, for the vessel's cargo was easily con-
verted into money, and that money was put at the
disposal of the merchant's agent to purchase goods •
and thus, in a new shape, it was re-embarked and
sent away again. Therefore, the more of those ves-
sels that came to our shores, the greater the number
of customers for our manufactures. Goods imported
into this country did not go at once from the ship to
the merchant's warehouse, but were detained at the
Custom-house to pay certain revenue duties. That
was only right and proper; but a distinction should
be made between duties levied for the purposes of
revenue and duties imposed for protection. Imports
ought to be as free as the winds in an enlightened
country. If they were to go to a distant country
and see an armed body of men, with muskets in one
hand, and telescopes in the other, for the purpose of '
acting as a preventive service to restrict the import
of foreign goods, would they not say that such a
Stith was acting in a most suicidal manner ?
The laws of which he had spoken admitted of the
introduction of luxuries from foreign countries, of
wines, of silks, and of lace, which were chiefly con-
sumed by the rich ; and whilst the importation of
those articles which were required chiefly by the
labouring classes was prohibited by the Legislature,
they protested against the protective laws as unjust
to the rest of the community.—(Cheers.) Landlords
told them that this was a manufacturer's question.
They found that manufacturers were very actively
engaged in efforts to get rid of restrictive enact-
ments, and therefore they attempted to make out that
it was the manufacturers alone who were interested
in the result. He denied that it was exclusively a
manufacturer's question; it was the labourer's question;
the tradesman's question, everybody's question.
There was a time when the manufacturers viewed it
them, and
theyand searchedt they
as their own question. The law bore hard upon
soughtmto tothe
obtainquestion,rel the str
onger
was Bußut
the
more
was their conviction that those who were engaged in
other employments were suffering 11withequa y them-
selves ; in some instances they believed that even
greater injuries had been inflicted. It was not a
question affecting any one part of society alone, but
a general question, affecting the whole community.—
(Hear, hear.) When the manufacturer found that
his business was crippled, and that his work-people
were starved, it became his duty to complain,
as it would become any one to do when
he saw that he was the subject of hard
dealing.—(Hear, hear.) The landlords, not con-
tent with raising one cry, had started that of over-
production. showing a great number of figures,
they exclaimed, " Why, those manufacturers would
clothe the whole world !"—(Laughter.) It would be
quite as well if they would give them the opportunity
of clothing the whole world.—(Hear, hear.) If, by
so doing, they brought trouble upon them, it would
be time enough to complain when the trouble came.
—(Hear, hear.) It would be as well, perhaps, to
examine this question a little more closely. Suppose
ft to be possible for them to clothe the whole world.
Still they could not make everlasting calicoes.—
(Laughter.) Calicoes would sometimes wear out, and
they must then be renewed.—(Uear.) Hence there