The Sun.
London, England, 1845-10-31 00:00:00

MEETING OF THE ANTI-CORN-
LAN LEAGUE.
MANCHESTER, WEDNIZSDLII.
Last night a numerous meeting of the members and friends of
this body held their seventh annual meeting at the Free-Trade
Hall in this town. About one-third of the company was com-
posed of women in the middle walks of life, who appeared to take
a warm interest in the proceedings. There were between 6,000
and 7,000 persons present.
Mr. GEintos WILSON, Chairman of the League, took the chair.
He said that, if anything was wanting to convince him of the
attachment of the people of Lancashire to the cause which had
that night brought them together, that meeting supplied the deft.
ciency, for he believed that on no former occasion was their meet-
ing more numerously or respectable attended. It had been his in.
tention to lay before them the result of the recent registration, but
from some cause a portion of the necessary documents had not
reached him, though he should be prepared at their next meeting,
which he hoped would soon be held, to lay before them a de-
tailed statement of the result, and which would turn out to be
very satisfactory. Under these circumstances he would, without
further observation, call upon the Hon. Member for Stockport to
address the meeting.
Mr. Cosego, M.P., then came forward, and was received with
loud cheers, which lasted for several minutes. He said, many had
been the meetings which he had attended, but he might fairly say
that the present claimed pre-eminence over all others in its num-
bers, its intelligence, and, if looking at the platform, he should say,
its power, which constituted altogether the strength of the county
of Lancaster. As he came along the street to the meeting, he
could not help thinking what it was that thus drew them together.
There was nothing particular to announce; they (the meeting) had
probably nothing to communicate, yet there seemed to be some-
thing in the state of the question, and in the movements relative to
it, which instinctively drew them together. There was either a
sense of impending danger, or a sort of presentiment of coming good,
that had drawn them together, and it should be their business that
night, by taking the soundings, by making observations as to the
state of the question, and its position, to see if some consolation
could not be drawn from the present state of affairs, and if possible
form some plans to realise the fu!l amount of their objects out of the
dilemma in which their opponents were now placed. It
ought to be perfectly understood that they did not meet
there to exult over the calamity in which a large portion
of their countrymen were likely to be placed—over
the scarcity and famine which impended over the beads
of unhappy Irishmen. No, the object for which they
had laboured for seven years was abundance; " plenty" was
their motto, plenty always and plenty everywhere; and if there
should be famine or scarcity, they (the League) might, at all events,
claim to stand guiltless. Starvation seemed to stare Ireland in the
face; and what was the remedy to avert the horrors of such a
calamity ? Why "open the ports, and admit the bread of the
whole world to feed the people."—(Cheers.) That was the remedy
which an enlightened despot would at once fly to. Look at
Russia, Prussia, Germany, Holland, and Belgium ! Those Go-
vernments at once threw open their ports in times of famine, and
in some cases actually stopped exportation of food in order to sup-
ply their own people with abundance. Why had not our Govern-
ment adopted a similar course ? Why had they waited to be
taught Christianity from the Turk, or humanity from the Rus-
sian ? Was it because the Government was less merciful, or be-
cause the Prime Minister was afraid the people would not stand by
him if he took se necessary a step ? If that were his doubt, they
had met there together to give him all the support they could
afford—(Applause)—and he hesitated not to say, that whatever
opposition the aristocracy might give, there was power enough in
the country to support him in that act of humanity. They sup-
ported him there in that magnificent meeting, and whatever
they said South Lancashire would say when he appealed to it.
They spoke the voice of the West Riding of York, and
Middlesex would endorse what be uttered in that hall. A
Minister with such support at his back, ready to eqercise it
whenever called on, was a criminal and a poltroon if he hesi-
tated a whit. He had a power such as man never had before.
His party could not do without him. Let anybody look at his
side of the House, and, with the exception of Sir James Graham.
it might be called a dreary waste of statesmanship. Sir Robert
Peel was, therefore, despotic with his party, and with the power
which he possessed he must be content to take the moral respon-
sibility of it, if he failed to take the only step which could avert
the coming danger. Many people began to say if Peel opened the
ports and corn came in, that would not settle the question ;
that was a point to which he wished to call particular attention.
So far he (Mr. Cobden) saw a disposition on the part of many of his
friends to throw up their caps, and consider the question as settled,
but he did not exactly see his way clear to a settlement of the
question by such a step. The ports had been opened in 1826, and
the sliding scale was passed in 1128, with all its iniquities. It was
not necessarily because Ireland wanted food that they should have a
repeal of the corn-laws. Ireland had been in a state of semi-
famine for the last 30 years. In 1822, 250,0001. was raised in
England to save Connaught and Munster from actual starvation,
and yet nothing was said about the repeal of the corn-laws, not a
word about relieving the people of Ireland by a repeal of the corn-
laws. What he wanted, therefore, to impress on the minds of
the meeting was, that when the ports were opened they should
put their backs against them and keep them open.—(Cheers.)
But were there not arguments to be found at home ? He be-
lieved there were. People had been brought to the meeting
because they had get an idea that things were not looking so well
as they have been in Lancashire. True, they were not arrived at
the same state in which Ireland was, where a Commission of
learned doctors had just been sent over to see how much more
the patient could endure. The people of England were not yet
arrived at such a state of things, but they were fast on the way to
it. Oatmeal, which was a short time ago 215., was now 355., and
he believed that flour, which was ls. Sd. a dozen, was now 2s. 6d ;
therefore, every man who was spending half-a crown in bread was
just getting one-third less for it than he did twelve months ago.
Every man would, therefore, have one-third less to spend upon
whatever else he used. This brought him to the old story, if he
had so much more to spend in what he ate, be would have so
much less to spend on what he wore, and consequently there would
be less work and less wages. The cause of all this state of
things would not be got rid of by the people of Lancashire throwing
up their caps, or because a Noble Lord wrote a very ambiguous
letter, or because another Hon. Gentleman made a speech that
could not be well understood. They must not throw up their
caps and fancy they were going to have the corn-laws repealed by
any such adventitious aid as that. No, it would have to be done
by their own right arm, if done at all. The Hon. Gentleman,
after some observations on the state of railway speculation,
in the course of which he designated Mr. Hudson the " King
of Spades," proceeded :—About three or four years ago, the
League put out some placards, stating that the population was
increasing at the sate of a thousand a day. He was passing
by one of these bills when he heard a man, with a shovel over his
shoulder, reading it on the wall say, " That's a lie, any how."
But that incredible fact at that time had been so well established
since, that even Lord Stanley and Sir James Graham adroit it is
true, and confess it is necessary to make some provision for'ehe
increasing population. This was encouraging, and showed us ,ey
had only to persevere in their ellbrts to set themselves free. s' If
began now to be seen on all hands that the present corn.l9 ws
could not stand; but it also seemed to be very doubtful what kind
of law was to be got instead of them. The question was were
they to have another corn-law ?—(Cries of " No, no.") Another
sliding scale duty?—(No, no.) Only think of the number of
corn-laws they had bad during the last few years. The present
had been in operation nearly four years, and now it was said the
people are to get rid of it. Why is it so f Because there is a
prospect of scarcity, the people want food, and it stands in the way
of their obtaining it. It was a law at once unnatural, Impolitic,
and inexpedient, and meant only to suit the pockets of those who
were interested in its continuance.—(Applause.) There would, he
had no doubt, be attempts made to cheat them; he believed
both the great parties in the House of Commons were willing to
indulge in the same fraud, and unless the free-traders stood
true to their principles, there would be either a fixed duty
or another sliding scale. He thought they had made out a
sufficient case, and therefore must stand by it without any attempt
to compromise. They did not ask to be benefited at the expense
of any portion of the community : he had all along repudiated that
idea, and he thought he had fully demonstrated that protection was
the bane of the agriculturist. That was what Lord John Russell
said, and Peel sail ditto to it. He did not hesitate to say that
whether the ports were opened or not they would continue to urge
until no ground was left to the monopolist, or until every rag and
vestige ot the protective system was done away with.—(Cheers.)
The farmers had been told that they were robbing each other.
Since the close of Parliament he had had many opportunities of
consulting with that class of men, and had obtained a variety of
statistics and details on the subject, which went to show that the
farmer, instead of being a gainer, was a material loser by the so-
called protective system. It had been proved to him that the more
extensive the farmer was the more he suffered frem protection.
The large stock farmers were more injured by it than any other
portion of the community. They were the consumers of Indian
corn, cheese, butter, beer, and of all other taxed articles, for which
they were made to pay dear by protection. If that could be de-
monstratad, and he had no doubt it could, the cause of monopoly
would be hopeless. Protection had been in existence for
twenty-five or thirty years, during the whole of which
time the farmers had been made the dupe of every block.
head who chose to cry out "protection." It was enough
to demonstrate the evils of those laws; they could not be abolished
unless the people were energetic in obtaining the power to carry
out their principles, which they could best do in the registration
courts. They (the League) had called upon the West Riding of
York twelve months ago to qualify 2,000 people, to enable them
to rescue that division ot the county from the monopolists, and
they had nobly responded to the call ; they bad put 2,300 free.
traders on the register.—(Cheers.) They had converted the ma-
jority that formerly existed in favour of monopoly of 1,000 into a
majority of 1,600 for free trade; and he asked them to go again
and qualify 2,000 before the 31st of January next. A contest
for that riding would cost each party 10,0001., and the expenditure
of 10000/. between the present and the latter end of January
would secure the division at the next election. He asked them to
put themselves in the same position as South Lancashire, where
the free-traders had a majority of 3,000. After some allusions to
the state of the register in North Cheshire, and other parts of the
country, the Hon. Gentleman concluded by urging the meeting
never to relax in their exertions till success had crowned their
efforts. He sat down amidst loud cheers.
Mr. IiZNRY AstiWORTH, of Turton, near Bolton, was the next
speaker. As far as he could judge, the meeting was assembled
together for the purpose of again talking of the injurious effects of
question, the present system of corn-laws, which had the effect of keeping
up the price of bread, a circumstance which, from past experience,
had ever been the means of crippling trade. Those who had paid
attention to the operation of these laws could not have failed to
observe
7atnhdenconcl entereduded ibnyt ou
urging
nags argument ent
peopleto of Lancashire
prove this
to per
th-e
stio
lo
we' Ile then
whenever wheat was dear, trade was bad and wages
severe till their object was fully and fairly accomplished,
Mr. BRIGIIr, M.p., next addressed the meeting at considerable
speech
hin
occupied
length. He contended that the present state of feeling in the country
g a n
which
immediate
and the widespreading distrust which now prevailed were owing to
the apprehended scarcity which threatened the country, and urged
repeal
5 o f
minutes the
in delivering with this emphatic declaration :—We war not wi th
the necessity of the people averting the famine that threatened
elorernla.niadwain;d Englaandndconcluded
too, by demanding
any right of any man, we war with a law which all men are be.
ginning to doubt, and which most intelligent and good men hate.
We want to substitute for that law the original charter by which
men have a right to live and to earn, and to enjoy the fruits of
their earnings. " And God said, Behold I have given you every
herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and
every tree, in the which is the fruit of the tree yielding seed, to, you
it shall be given." Was the Scripture written only for our first
parents ? Was it intended only for those who should inhabit that,
to us, most distant lend, or was it not an universal promise and
benediction ? Was it not given by inspiration that mankind, till
the end of time, till the world should be wrapped in flame, should
trust in him who gave that promise, and if we thus believe how
dreadful our abandonment of duty, how awful the crime, not less

,• _ ___
:han even that of those who made the corn-laws, if we step back

from that duty, if we fail in the work we have set ourselves, which
is to abolish the law that restricts the bounty of Providence, and
to establish the original and heaven.given law which will give

plenty to all the earth.—(Cheers.)
On the motion of Mr. S. Brooks, seconded by Mr. W. Rawson,
a vote of thanks was carried, with loud cheers, to the gentlemen
who addressed the meeting; also to the chairman; after which
the meeting separated.

SINGULAR ACClDENT.—Wednesday morning a loaded
coal waggon was proceeding down Fleet-street towards Chancery.
lane, when it suddenly fell over sideways in consequence of the
sewer (just completed) bursting in, the mortar not being dry enough.
The ground fell three feet below the level ; the cost of the repair-
ing damage will be very greet.

An extract of a letter from Rome, of the 18th inst.,
states that, at a congress of the Cardinals, under the presidency of
Monseigneur Lambruschini, Secretary of State, it has resolved that
a •ew loan shall be raised to pay two more Swiss regiments, which
proceeding would augment that foreign force to 10,000 men. The
Swiss were to replace the natPre troops in all the chief towns of the
Rowan states.