The Sun.
London, England, 1845-11-26 00:00:00

wish to cut the throats of their best customers.—(Hear, '
hear, and cheers.) But to return :—Men talked of " the
Government" giving a grant for the purpose of providing
employment for the people in Ireland ; but when they
talked of the Government granting money, they ought to
remember that the members of the Cabinet did not con-
tribute money from their own pockets, but that it came
from the pockets of the people, in the shape, of taxes on
butter, cheese, tea, coffee, sugar, and similar articles
of eonsumption. If people were thus provided with em-
ployment in Ireland, they would require more food than
if they were idle ; and where, then, was that food to he
procured ? Why, at the Duke of Richmond's shop.—
(Cheers and laughter.) He would supply them with
food, if they had money enough. A supply of food was
required by certain members of a family, and one member
of the same family who had sufficient to supply them
with, stated to another member who had money, that
as he gave the remaining members sufficient money to
buy food from him' they might have it, but no sooner.
That was the case on this occasion. He had no doubt
that when Parliament assembled a large sum of money
would be required for the purpose of dividing amongst
the Irish population, but the true way of supplying the
wants of the Irish people was by allowing into the
country a supply of foreign corn.—(Cheers.) It was a
strange thing that opening the ports was the coarse
adopted in every country but England, in order to pre-
vent a scarcity of fend. In Belgium the corn harvest
was a good one, as the King stated in his speech at the
opening of the Chambers ; hut there was a failure in
the p.e.ato crop, and in consequence of that failure they
let in corn. The same course was adopted by the Dutch,
by the Germans, by the Russians, nay, by the Turks, for
they had no Sir Robert Peel in those countries—(Cheers,
and a laugh)—to say before 658 picked men in the House
of Commons, that by letting in foreign corn free of duty
corn would be made dear in this country. The people of
this country were treated worse than Russians, Belgians,
Dutchmen, Germans, or Turks. Why, that very fact of
itself ought to make them stand up for their rights. He
liked-the people of England to be well kicked, for John
Bull required a great deal of kicking to make him exert
himself.—(A laugh). In Liverpool a requisition was
signed by 68,000 people, calling on the Mayor to con-
vene a meeting, in order that they might take into con-
sideration the propriety of memorialising the Govern-
ment to open the ports, and the Mayor refused to accede
to the request. He (Mr. Cobden), when he heard of
that in Liverpool, said that he was glad of it, and added
that they were not treated so in Manchester, for they
elected a Mayor of a different description--the people
of Liverpool deserved it, and when they conducted
themselves better, they would secure a Mayor who
would also conduct himself better.—(Cheers.) The insult
to this country, of refusing the people an opportunity of
obtaining food, would nut be to palpable, if foreign na-
tions did not adopt the course which they now asked the
Government to take. He bad been recently speaking
with a gentleman from New York, who told him that he
saw lots of ships at New York, loading with corn for
Belgium and Holland, long before any orders had arrived
from England.—(Hear, hear.) How pleasant it must be
to see our neighbours on the Continent making such
preparations, whilst our people were in danger of starv-
ing. After some remarks on the same subject, he thus
concluded. You cannot have good government unless
you work properly the constitution which has been
vouchsafed to us. For myself, I would rather live in
Prussia, under t 3 mild despotism which is tremblingly
alive to public opinion, and is so far dependent on the
good feeling of the masses—l say I would infinitely pre-
fer such a government to that of this country, unless the
middle and lower classes insure the proper working of
that government which we ostensibly live under. Now re-
collect this county qualification literally costs you nothing.
It only costs 401. or 501. to purchase it. You get the interest
of your money, and it is yours to sell and bequeath.
You need not be rated to the poor—there is no for-
mality of the kind necessary. I say, then, these are not
hard terms. We cannot bring the franchise clown to
every Englishman, but we can bring a vast number of
the working classes up to that franchise, in the possession
of which they proclaim they have such an interest.
—(Hear, and cheers.) I say, it is perfectly practicable,
too, for such manufacturing towns as this (for it is the
towns make the counties, and not the counties the towns)
to possess themselves of an overwhelming majority in the
county representation, and that for such an object they
will use their utmost exertions I have no doubt from the
experience I have already gained of their zeal and public
spirit.—(Cheers.) It has been said that Sheffield has
stood hitherto at the head of the polling districts of the
West Riding. But I have heard it mentioned that Hud-
dersfield added a hundred votes at the last registration,
and our friends are confident they can do much more at
the next. You have, then, a hard battle to fight, or, I
shoal rather say, you have a powerful rival to contend
with, and I advise you not to be supine, or you will find
yourself second at the next election. Bradford is
equally alive. Leeds is about to take that step which it
ought to have done. You may wish to know what we
in Lancashire have been doing. In 1841 the Whigs
thought of contesting South Lancashire, but they found
if they attempted it they should lose by 2,000. They
gave it up. Three years ago the League took the
matter up. We have changed the 2,000 minority into a
majority of 3,ooo.—(Loud cheers.) And whereas Lord
F. Egerton and his colleague walked over the course in
'4 1, I predict that it will be a walk over for Messrs.
Brown andieliers in '46 or '47.—(Cheers again.) Well,
we have w he West Riding on the present register,
but we want you to plitee our cause in the same position
as we have it in South Lancashire. We want you to go
to work now, and induce as many as 2,000 or 3,000 to
qualify before the 30th January. By that means you
will have no contest to fsar. To contest the county it
will take 8,0001. from each party, but you may do the work
at one-fifth or one -sixth of that money. There will be no
content ifyou increase the registry to-the number I men-
tioned, and it is of the utmost importancethat there should
be none. We shall want you in the neighbouring
county of North Nottinghamshire. You should do as
we do—help your neighbours. Every man having a
good coat in Manchester (where there are of course
fustian jackets as well as broadcloth subscribers to the
League) takes four county qualifications—South Lanca-
shire. every man in decent circumstances with us has
these qualifications. We have an eye, too, on South
Cheshire, and we are making up our minds to take West-
moreland from the Lowthers.—(Loud cheers.) We hope
to get such an infusion of strength from Glasgow, New-
castle, Sunderland, Carlisle, and Lancashire that the
Lowthers will find some difference between fighting the
League and fighting Henry Brougham.—(Cheers.)
Now this principle has been extended to at least thirty
counties during the present year. We are carrying on
the process. But Yorkshire is of incomparably
greater importance than any other county.
Your registry next year will be nearly double that
of any other. It was a saying of Charles James
Fox that Yorkshire and Middlesex together made
up all England. Now when we see Yorkshire, Middle-
sex, and Lancashire of one mind, I defy any Minister to
carry on the Government in opposition to their prin-
ciples. I see the Standard has been putting forward a
boasting paragraph that we have won but four counties
out of forty. Now, I tell the Standard that these coun-
ties are of more importance than all the others—that
Yorkshire, Lancashire, Middlesex. and Cheshire con-
tribute infinitely more to the wealth and power, as well
as the intellectual and moral greatness of the country,
than all the others put together, and that no Govern-
ment will ever be seen opposed in principle to the voice
of those counties.—(llear, and cheers.) It has always
been so. Mr. Wilberforce was, thirty years ae,o, Member
for Yorkshire. He always voted with the Government.
'lbis county was considered of so much importance
tbat I remember reading lately, in his life, that when Mr.
Wilberforce went to hold a meeting in Yorkshire, at
the close of the last century, and at a time of great ex-
citement on the subject of the French war, so anxious was
-Mr. Pitt to get the adhesion of this county to his prin-
ciples that he would not allow Mr. Wilberforce to wait
until his carriage was ready for the journey, but sent
him off in his own. Mr. Pitt sent an express with fur-
ther directions to his supporter at Stamford, and begged
that the result of the meeting should be communicated
by express to London. When at the time of the Reform
Bill, too,, Yorkshire returned Henry Brougham, it was
the signal of the downfal of the boroughmongers; and
in 1841, when Mr. Wortley succeeded Lord Morpeth,
the defeat of the Whigs was at once taken for granted.
And when Yorkshire sends up her Members to vote in
support of Mr. Villiers for the total and immediate re-
peal of the corn-laws, then, take my word for it, the
corn-laws a:11 be found to be not only " doomed," but
dead —(The lion. Gentleman resumed his seat amid
cheers which listed for some time.)
The CINARMAN having announced that they had col-
lected in the room, independently of any subscriptions
from Lancashire or the West Riding, 931. 10s., and hav-
ing stated that this shin should be placed at the disposal
of the Free Trade Association of the town,
Mr. BRIGHT was introduced, who came forward amid
Istel cheers, and said—l should apologise for going
through any arguments on the question of the corn-laws
on suet an occasion, were I not convinced that at every
meeting of this kind there are many persons who have
not attended any other, and it becomes therefore neces-
sery e, re-state facts (which ought, indeed, to have oc-
curred to every man), and thus to saturate the public
mini with principles necessary to the public safety.—
(Cheers.) The first charge I brought against this law,
when .I began to speak on the subject, was, that it could
not do good to any human being, unless by the mode of
creating a partial famine. The simple object of the law
is to get up a scramble atnongst all classes for a supply
of food that is insufficient for the whole, in order that
by such a scramble we may give more of our labour,
profits, and capital, in order that the rents of land
and its produce may be unnaturally increased.
But this law not only. produces scarcity, but lam pre-
pared to prove it was intended to produce that scarcity.
In n 1815 the Chancellor of the Exchequer defended it °n.
the ground that if wages could not purchase food at the
price it was raised to, there might be brought to aid
them .the poor rates. A law which thus placed food
above the reach of some portion of the people necessarily
brought about a scarcity which could only end in °ma-
gone! famine. The makers of the law were uneasy in
1815 as to the reception which their pet child might
meet with amongst the people, and they sent scouts
out to inquire what the people were saying about
it. Policemen in plain clothes, spies, were sent
int) the public-houses in London, to mix with
the people in the tap-reoms and parlours—to ascertain
what they said and thought, and to discover whether
it would be safe to pass the Bill. These spies were
paid ss. a day as wages, and 3s. for their expenses,
in performing their patriotic task. Indeed we have the
identical vouchers, signed by Sir Richard Birnie, then
head of police in London, showing not only the sums
paid to these men, but also the duties for which they
were so paid. In these papers it was stated that they
were to attend at the places before alluded to, and other
public places, for the ur ose of ascertaining what
were the opinions of the peoplei in reference to the pend-
ing Corn Bill, and to report to Government the results
of their observations.—(Hear, hear.) Nuw, the Govern-
ment is never known to take this trouble to ascertain
the opinions of the people when they are passing men.