The Sun.
London, England, 1845-12-18 00:00:00

every effort and sacrifice, in order to convey to men
who are in power the natnistakeable determination of
the people no longer to put up with a tax on their food.
Gentlemen, I had no intention of presiding at this meet-
ing ; I was not advertised to do so, and I will not stand.
for a moment in the way of other members who are
more eloquent than myself, anel who are anxious to ad-
dress you. I beg at once to cal,' upon Richard Cobden.
Mr. Cobden then came forward, amid reiterated
cheering, and attempted to speak, Wit for several minutes
he was totally inaudible. He attempted oft and again
to address the meeting, but every new attempt was
drowned in acclamation. Silence being somewhat re-
stored,
Mr. COBDEN spoke as follows :—I think some of the
protection societies would be glad to have our overflow
to-night.--(Cheers.) If this agitation continue we shall
have to build an edifice as large as St. Paul's to hold the
Leaguers.—(Enthusiastic cheering and laughter.) I be-
lieve to-day we have had applications for 30,000 tickets
of admission. There are many thousands around this
building who cannot be accommodated, and
there are a great many more inside than can
be comfortable.—(Load cheers.) But I have full
confidence in the disposition of all good Leaguers to ac-
commodate each other, and I must say, that I have seen
in front of me every disposition to be quiet ; but it seems
to-night, as I have observed it generally in my great ex-
perience of public meetings, that if there be any disorder,
it is always amongst the aristocracy on the platform. I
think this meeting is a sufficient proof of the circum-
stances under which we meet to-night. The manner in
which we are gathered together; the excited feeling which
animates all present, indicate something peculiar in the
present phase of our movement. I do not know how it in
but if I see others excited and inclined to throw up tine:,
hats, it makes me look grave and serious, because
always think there is most danger when the people are
least on their guard in this wicked a orld.—(Cheers.)
Doubtless we have brought ow' cause to a new position.
We have got it in the hands of tiee politicians ; the ins
and the outs are quarrelling over it ; but I am
anxious to impress upon you end upon our
friends throughout the kingdom (foe' what we
say here is read by hundreds and thousands elsewhere)
that it is not our business to form Cabinets—k 7 choose
individuals who shall carry out our principles. We
are not to trust to others to do cur work. Wie are
not to feel confident that the work will be done until ii:
is done, and I shall not consider that it is done until I
see the Act wet from the printer's containing the tat' 1
abolition of the corn-laws.—(Loud cheers.) Now e
have always expected that in the course of this agita-
tation we should knock one or two Governments on the
head before we succeeded.—(Cheers.) The Government
of 1841 can hardly be said to have been killed by the
corn-law ; it took the corn-law as a last desperate •
dose, in hopes to cure it of a long an.l egering die-
ease.—(Cheers.) But it proved fatal.—(Rernwed cheers
and laughter.) I think, however, that we may say that
the lest Government has died of the corn.la'v, and our
business must be to try and make the fete of the last.
Government a warning to the next.—(Cheers.) We
certainly do not yet exactly know why Sir Robert Peet
ran away from his corn-law. We have had no explana-
tion. I thought when I came from the country that I
might get a little behind the scenes, end learn something
about it. But lam as much in the dark now as when.
I was in Lancashire.—(Loud cheers.) I can't learn
why Sir Robert Peel " bolted."—(Great laughter.)
It was his own law. Ile passed it in.
1842, after considerable deliberation. It was not
asked by the people, for I know that some two or three
millions petitioned against it. It was his own handiwork,.
in defiance of the people ; and now, in 1845, with the
same Parliament to back him, he suddenly runs away,
and leaves his sliding-scale as a legacy to his successors.
—(Cheers.) Now, if he had carried his corn-law with.
him—(Cheers)—if he had only carried off his sliding-
scale to Tamworth—l do not think we should have made
many inquiries about him ; but he has left his law, sed
no one knows how he is going to deal with it
in future. When we meet in Parliament, which
may be early next month—at all events I
should say the sooner the better—(Cheers)—the first
thing for which I shall look with great interest will be
the reason of this sudden dissolution of the Cabinet. I
shall await Sir Robert Peel's explanation with great
interest. He, doubtless, will be able to tell us whether
the facts collected by his Commissioners in Ireland and.
in England were of a nature to impress him with the
idea that we were verging on a probable famine in one
country, if not in both? If that be the case, I suppose
he will tell us that he at least was ready to subvert his
own handiwork, the sliding scale. Well, that being the
case, I presume he will then assist us to do what
he could not himself accomplish with his refractory
Cabinet.—(Cheers.) I expect—l don't know whether I
am rash in expecting so much—but I do anticipate that
straightforward course from him.—(Great cheering.)
There are people who tell us that this corn-law must not
be suspended suddenly, that it must not be dealt with
rashly and precipitately ; but that if we are to have a
repeal of the corn-laws it must be done gradually. Well,
that might have been in the eyes of some a very states-
man-like way of doing the business six or seven years
ago. Some would have thought last year, when wheat.
was 40s. a quarter, that if a law had been passed then
providing for the extinction of the corn-laws in
two or three years, that would have been no very bad
measure ; but who would propose now to pass a law im-
posing a fixed duty on corn, next spring to take off 3s.
or 45., the next spring to reduce it still further, and so
on, till none was left?—(Loud cheers.) That won't suit
the exigencies of the present moment—(Cheers.) Our
wise Legislature would not deal wi!la the question
when they might have done so with advan-
tage to their own policy. We were pressing
on the Government to deal with the corn-

I;wslast - year, and the year before, when
wheat was 475. per quarter ; but we were told then that
we were rash men—that the corn-law had not had le
fair trial—that we must wait to see how it worked.
Now they do see how it has worked.—(Cheers.) But
there is no time for temporising now. Nature has
stepped in. Providence has stepped in—has inflicted a
famine on the land, and has set at nought all the con-
trivances, the delays, and the modifications of States.—
(Great cheering.) There is now but one course to pur-
sue. It is no use asking us for a feather bed to drop the
aristocracy on. We might if we had one to offer them,
but they can have no feather bed now.—(Cheers
and laughter.) They must have a total and immediate
repeal of the corn-laws; not because the League demand
it—not out of any deference to the Shibboleth of a club
like ours; no, we don't wish to inflict any unnecessary
humiliation on the landowners ; but they have put off
this good work so long that nature has stepped in, and
now they must bow to the law oi nature without de-
lay.—(Great cheering.) Well, we meet Parliament
next session with, I take it for granted, ant one propo-
sition before us, and that is the immediate abolition
of the corn-laws.—(Applause.) No Minister can take
office without proposing that measure. Whether
Sir Robert Peel or Lord John Russell, I defy them to
take office without coming to the House of Commons'
and in the Queen's speech proposing that measure.—
(Loud and continued cheering.) No one would exult
over them. It is not our doing after all. We have
merely prepared the public mind, in some degree, to
take advantage of a great national calamity. But it is
not so well prepared as if they had given us two or
three years more. The potato crop has tripped up the
heels of Sir Robert Peel; but it has also stopped our
registration agents. I should have liked another year
or two to have qualified for the counties.—(Cheers.)
We would then have shown the monopolist landowners
that we can transfer power in this country from the
hands of an exclusive class totally into the hands
of middle and industrious classes.—(Loud cheering.)
We shall go on with that movement, and I hope
it will never stop.(Cheers.) But we shall have to deal
with the crisis of the corn question next session.—
(Hear.) The Queen's speech, within a month of this
time, must recommend the abolition of the corn-law.—
(Great applause.) I want to get into the House of Com-
mons again, to have some talk about this question. It is
very different work there, I assure you, to talking in
these meetings every day, where there are no opponents.
I don't know how it is, but I have that quality of com-
bativeness, as the phrenologists call it, so inherent
in me, that unless I meet some opposition I am as
dull as ditch water.—(Loud cheers and laughter.) Now,
there is no man to be found at large, out of the
House of Commons, to say one word in defence of
the corn-laws. I am anxious, therefore, to meet these
protectionists in the House of Commons. Yet I don't
know—it will be an odd scene when we assemble next
session—for we shall not know where to sit.--(Great
laughter.) There will be such a gathering in the lobbies
—one saying to the other, " Which side are you going
to sit on ?" Then, the greatest subject of interest will
be, to see where Sir Robert Peel is to sit.—(Laughter.)
I should not wonder if we should have to find him a
chair, and put him in the middle of the floor.—(Renewed
laughter, and cheers.) Now, I shall be somewhat inte-
rested to hear the arguments that will be used by the
protectionists in defence of this corn-law. Recollect,
the debate will come on with respect to the present
exigencies of the moment. The corn-law must
be suspended instantly. If Lord John Russell
take office—he will be a bold man if he does—but
if he does, I suppose he will either suspcid the law the
next day by an Order in Council, or will call us together,
and submit his proposition to suspend that corn-law at
once—(Gnat cheering)—or, if he does not do that, he
won't hold office a week.—(Cheers.) Then the debai
will turn on the necessity of suspending this corn-law,,
and we shall have gentlemengetting up from Dorset-
shire and Essex
protesting that there is great abun-
dance? of everything in the country, that there is no•
scarcity at all, no potato rot, and a full average
quantity of wheat. Then I should not wonder it
we should have some very novel receipts for feeding
the people.— (Loud cheers and laughter.) Dr.
Buckland has lately been publishing a paper,
which he road before the Ashmolean Society at
Oxford, and he has shown, you know, that people can
live very well on peas—that they get on tolerably
well with beans, and if there is nothing else, they can
live pretty well on mangel wurzel.—(Great laughter.)
And he gives an instance, you know, of one good lady
who lived, I don't know how many days, by sucking the
starch out of her white pocket handkerchiel.—(RenTed
laughter.) hlangel Wurzel, starch, and beans, mixed
with a little curry powder, I should think, would make
a rich treat for starving people.—(lndignant laughter.)
Well, we shall have divisions as well as debates, and
I should like to see the names of those good
men in the House of Commons who will vote
against opening the ports—that is, of those men who
will declare that we shan't be treated as well as Rus-
sians, Turks, Poles, and Dutchmen.—(Cheers.) If
they out-vote us on that proposition we shall have a
general election, and I should like to see some of those
curry powder candidates that will go down. I would
advise you to get some curry powder ready; a little
hot water with a pinch of curry powder stirred
up makes a man very comfortable to go to bed with!
—(Laughter.) Try it on some of the protection can-
didates.—(Great laughter.) But really this is no
laughing matter alter 1111' Al my friend Air, Villiers