The Sun.
London, England, 1845-12-16 00:00:00

when he first brought forward his altehztions in the
tariff. Nobody knows what he intended to do.
We only know th9t he hag run away from

t‘trice—that he has lett the ship without a
helmsman.—(Loud cheers.) On the first signs of
danger his courage failed, and he retired.—(Cheers.)
Lord debt' Russell was now called in —(This was fol-
lowed by loud and long-continued cheering.) We are
all deeply interested in the public career of that states-
man; yet, notwithstanding that, I will say, as an elector
of the City of London, that I wish, for the sake
of our cause, that Lord John Russell was not her Ma-
-1 jesty's adviser, but that she should receive the Duke of
Richmond in his place.—(Hear, hear.) Let him try to
form a Cabinet, with Sir John Tyrrell in the Home-
office, and Colonel Sibthorp at the Horse Guards, and
see the issue. Let them try a Protectionist Govern-
ment, and see what they call do.—(Hear, hear.)
I am sure such an object -- such a Ministry
would kill us all with laughter. If Lord John Russell
undertakes the government of the country with 180 or
200 men only to vote for his measures, and support him
in his position, at all events I am sure he will act in a
much more dignified manner than the Minister who
has ran away with a majority of ninety behind
his back.—(Loud cheers.) Suppose he does accept
office, and stand by the people on this question—and that
he will do so I am firmly persuaded—and supposing
that he is defeated by the protectionists in Parham( nt,
what follows ? A general appeal to the country. In
that case what will you do in the City of London ? Why
send four good ones.—(Cheers.) We must have four good
ones and no shams.—(A Voice here called out, "We will
have you for one.") No, continued the Hon. Gentleman, I
do not intend leaving Stockport till I go in for Bucking -
hamshire.—(Loud and enthusiastic cheering.) With
you, electors of the City of London, it must be four or
none. It must not be as at present, half and half—two
voting on one side and two on the other—like parties in
an action, firing the half of their guns on their own
ftiends.—(Loud cheers.) When the election takes
place, you must do as they do in America,
have a ticket for four free traders, and go the whole
ticket.—(Cheers.)—Four good men must be got to re-
present you ; two of these you have already got ; two
others you must obtain.—(Cheers.) When the time
does come for taking the sense of the country, you will
have to set the example. Your election takes
place first, and you must make it such as
will be felt in every part of the country.
I know you will do it, for your registry has
been right well looked after these last two years. 'With
tegard to the metropolitan boroughs, I am sure they
will not return any curry powder candidates, but deter-
mined supporters of free trade.—(Loud cheers.) Middle-
sex will be safe, as will also every large town in the
North. We shall have Edinburgh and Glasgow; and do
not for a moment think that a protection candidate will
go for Bristol or Newcastle. Give us a general election,
and we will carry a repeal of the corn-laws.—(Loud
cheers.) We will command the unanimous voice of
the Members returned from every large and powerful
constituency of the country.—(Cheers.) Do the calf
representatives of Essex think that they can stand in
array against the power and the wealth of this great
country on such a question as this 2—(Hear, hear.) If
Lord John Russell stands to the principles declared in
his letter, and I am sure he will, the country will be at
his back. He will also have the support of a disin-
terested organisation at his back, who seek to obtain
neither place nor power, but whose only object is to free
industry—to emancipate the commercial, the middle,
and the working classes from an injurious monopoly—
(Hear)—and who, having once accomplished that great
work,will be fully satisfied with it as their reward.—(Loud
cheers.) The time has gone by for tricksters and chicanery
men to deal with us. The country wants honesty and
straightforwardness—an honest man to speak plainly
what his opinions are—to print them and put his name
to them, so that they might be brought to bear against
him in future times if he attempted to vaccilate. That
man we have long looked for, and we have him now.
—(Cheers., Now, gentlemen, it was said by one of the
speakers who preceded me, that four years ago the
League would have been satisfied with a compromise.
Gentlemen, I can only say, that for my own part, I
would never have been a party to any compromise of
this question.—(Hear, hear, and cheers.) I never
looked to a repeal of the corn-laws as a matter of ex-
pediency, or a matter of compromise. I looked to it on
the broad ground that you have no right to tax the food of
the people—no right to prevent the industrious man from
living by the fruits of his industry, and I say in principle
we are bound to remove the corn-law, and by God's help
we will remove it.—(Cheers.) But we seem to be
talking of a compromise still ; for I see by the Mornina
Herald—(Laughter)—I see according to that venerable
authority, that if Sir Robert Peel had brought in this
measure, he intended to have compensated the mono-
polists.—(Cries of " Oh, oh," and laughter.) And
this paper goes on to say that a country which
compensates slave-owners would never object to com-
pensate land-owners.—(Hear, hear.) Why, gentlemen,
the difference is this, that we are not slaves, and do not
intend to be so.—(Cheers.) I will telt,you the sort of
compensation I would give them, if compensation they
ought to have. They should take just that sort of com-
pensation which one of our city policemen would give
if he traced out a lost piece of furniture—perhaps a
last bit of furniture of some industrious artizan that
had been stolen, and he had traced to the hands of a
light-fingered gentleman. (Laughter.) The light-
fingered gentleman says, "I have been enjoying this
piece of furniture for the last thirty years. I have
been making arrangements founded upon its possession.
You will not, therefore, take it away from
me, without making me some compensation;"
upon which the poor artizan steps in, as we will step in,
and puts in the fflea of those who have been deprived of
their own property for a long series of years, and says,
" Compensation indeed, away with him to the police-
office, and let him have compensation there !"
(Applause.) There is one part of the resolu-
tion to which I am speaking which I look to
with great satisfaction, and I wish here to express
my gratification t you for having passed a
resolution wherein you direct, you request, and instruct
your four Members to vote for a total and immediate
repeal of the corn-laws.—(A. Voice, " We have not
passed that yet.") But, gentlemen, it is coming, and I
am sure you will pass it.—(Loud cheers.) It is the
sort of language which electors should hold out
to their representatives, and it is an ex-
ample that will be followed throughout the country,
and there will be meetings everywhere of electors to
instruct their representatives to vote for what is right
and just in this matter.—(Hear, hear.) This is the true
spirit which actuated our forefathers when they met in
this hall seventy years ago, when they had to deal with
the power of the great and arrogant dictation
of an autocrat Ministry. To show that they did
not quail before the crown of the Sovereign,
look to that monument (pointing to the monument of
Beckford) put up there to record an act of spirited
citizenship on the part of one of your Lord Mayors when
in the presence of a King. But, gentlemen, our strug-
gle is not with our most gracious Sovereign, she does
not wish to have the interest of the people sacrificed, she
does nut desire to reign over merely sordid men,
she desires only to live as the Queen and Sovereign of a
free and contented people.—(Applause.) No, your strug-
gle is not with the Queen ; it is with a section not most

intelligent—not most disinterested—nor a most useful
part of your country.—(Hear and laughter.) Your
struggle is against a large section of the landed
aristocracy of the country, whose everlasting struggles
are to keep you, the people of England, within the nar-
rowest limits they possibly cam for the exercise of your
skill and the reward of your industry.—(Applause.)
They wish rather to live great amongst a little and
impoverished people than to rise with the greatness
and increased power of thole who will rise higher
still if they will only allow claims to those beneath
them.—(Applause.) Your struggle is with the mono-
polising landowners of this country, who are but a hand-
ful of men. Confront them with the people•of this
country, and they are as but a cork upon the cataract
of Niagara. Confront them with the millions, and they
will shrink into their native insignificance. Founded
upon injustice, their power will shrink from under
them, and then they will forget to ask who will com-
pensate them. But they are not entitled to com-
pensation, because they will only be giving up that
which they never were entitled to. They passed the
bread-tax in 1815, but they never had a right to it, and
it was passed under protest from the people of England.
Why there are men living now, old enough to remem-
ber how the thousands assembled around the Mansion-
house to sign the petition against this tax, but it was
simply against the tax. They prayed in a body the Par-
liament to give time to consider what its effects might
be upon the nation. Upwards' of 40,000 names were
put to that petition in one day. London was moved from
its very centre, to oppose this infamous law. We say,
therefore, down with the idea of compensation—down
with the idea of compromise—we go for the total, im-
mediate, and unqualified repeal of the corn-laws.—
(The Hon. Gentleman resumed his seat amidst thunders
of applause.)
The resolution was then put and carried by acclama-
tion.

Mr. P. TAYLOR moved the next resolution, which was
to the following effect That our four representatives
be requested and instructed to support the re_
peal of the. corn-laws in the Commons
House of Parliament." Whether they would all
four do so he could not tell, but if they did not he
trusted they would follow the example of Sir Robert
Peel, and resign.—(Loud laughter.) Without mean-
ing to hold out any threat, he wished to commu-
nicate a little information to them. Mr. Cobden
had told them that great pains had been taken
with the registration of the City of London in the
last two years, and he !vas witness that there had been
great attention paid to it. He was happy to say that
there was not the slightest doubt that when-
ever an election took place, four thorough free•
traders would be returned for the City of- London
by a very large majority. Some gentleman said no, but
the proof would appear by and by. In the spirit of
these remarks he begged leave to move the resolution
which he had read to them.
Dr. BOWRING came forward to second the resolution,
and was received with loud cheers. When silence was
restored he said—My Lord Mayor and fellow-electors, I
have been delighted at seeing the work of conversion
going on even here. Against the first resolution three
men had the courage to hold up their hands, against the
second two, and against the third one. I believe now
that those who oppose this resolution will not venture
to show themselves at all.—(Hear, and laughter.) You
have done your duty nobly and bravely to day, and
the object of this resolution is to call upon those who
profess to represent you in the riotise of Commons to
do their duty. How delightful it is to wit-
ness the progress of this great question. When
I see my friend appear before you who, in a spirit the
most disinterested and most self•sacrificing, first came
forward to orKtinise that aclmirtible work vtliose effects
we now see visible in every part of the land, how
little could I anticipate that here, in the City
of London, his proposal could be received with