The Sun.
London, England, 1845-11-27 00:00:00

SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY MORN] NG NOVEMBER 27, 1845.

—even if they in Sheffield found in the meantime no
visible or material falling off in their trade, they might
depend upon it that their wholesale dealers,'when they
sent their travellers and commercial agents into York-
shire and Lancashire, would have very different accounts
from them than those to which, for the last two or three
years, they had been accustomed. The depression
would, therefore, infallibly reach them in the end. In
six months' time it would be sure to overtake them. They
would then be in as bad a plight in Sheffield as their
neighbours in Lancashire were in already. The
time had come when the people of this country
would no longer stand the continuance of the pre-
sent state of things. The other day a gentleman in Old-
ham, where a meeting similar to the present one was
held, asked his friend (Mr. Bright) what resolutions
they should propose, when Mr. Bright proposed that
they should resolve " that they won't stand it any
longer."—(Cheers and laughter.) If such were their
resolution at every similar meeting, it would require no
great power of divination to foresee the result. A bad
harvest had, at last, comeupon them, and in this country
such an occurrence must necessarily be a great calamity.
—(Hear, hear.) Were corn with us a regular article of
commerce the evil would be much mitigated, and, he
would venture to say, entirely counteracted. But the
monopolists would not allow that corn should assume
such a place in our commercial transactions. They
kept no store of corn against the evil day, when a defi-
ciency came suddenly upon them, and when it did come.
it visited every interest with depression, caused pro-
perty, which was worth 50,0001., to drop down at once
to 25,0001., and forced the working people to resort to
the union workhouses for that sustenance with
which they could not supply themselves from having
no employment.—(Hear, hear.) Such were the
evils and convulsions superinduced by their re-
strictive laws, which prohibited them from stor-
ing up corn against the day of want, and
being prepared for the contingencies of a deficient har-
vest.—(Hear, hear.) Was it not a disgrace to them
that, with all the resources which they possessed for
commerce with the whole world, by restrictive laws,
they should set at nought and nullify all the improve-
ments and all the discoveries of recent times, and having
nullified all these, that the people of this country should
be reduced, by being limited in the supply of their food
to what could be raised upon their own soil, to the con-
dition of the Hottentot and the Red Indian?--(Hear,

GREAT FREE-TRADE MEETING.
REGISTRATION IN YORKSHIRE.
A numerous and highly influential meeting assembled
on Monday evening, at seven o'clock, in the great room
of the Cutlers' Hall, Sheffield, for the purpose of consi-
dering the urgent importance of making renewed and
more strenuous exertions for placing as many voters as
possible, favourable to the cause of free trade, upon the
register of the West Riding of Yorkshire.
At an early hour the door leading to the hall was be-
sieged by crowds waiting for admittance ; and although
admission could only be procured by ticket, for which ls.
had to be paid, the large hall was filled almost to suffo-
cation for some time before the commencement of pro-
ceedings. At seven o'clock Mr. Cobden and Mr. Bright
took their seats upon the platform, and were received
with the most enthusiastic cheers.
Mr. Edward Smith, of Sheffield, was unanimously
called to the chair ; and beside him we observed Richard
Cobden, Esq., M.P. ; John Bright, Esq., M.P. ; Dr.
Thompson; Henry Wilkinson, Esq. ; W. Fisher, Eaq. ;
Richard Solley, Esq.; Thomas Jessop, Esq.; Aldermen
Turton and N. Hoole ; Charles Wilson, Esq.; P. Nailor,
Esq.; T. Roebuck, Esq.; and Edward Vickars, Esq.
No inconsiderable portion of the audience consisted
of ladies.
The CHAIRMAN, in opening the proceedings of the
evening, observed, that be hoped that it would not be
long ere the people of this country would look with sur-
prise at the fact, that such a law as the corn-law ever
existed on our statute-book. What was there ever to
recommend it to their good opinions ? It had acted
injuriously upon the agriculturists of the country, ruin-
ously to the manufacturers, and answered no other
purpose than to serve as an excuse for enhancing the
profits of the privileged classes, at the expense of the
other orders of society. In order to secure these
profits to the privileged classes, the rest of the
community had to submit to a loss one hundred-
fold greater than the profits which were secured
by it. Why was such a law allowed to con-
tinue ? Why was such an imposition still laid upon the
people of this country ? Why, on the first whisperings
of a famine, were the corn-laws not swept from the
statute-book ?—(Hear.) Were they to be for ever ad-
mitting principles in the abstract, and not be guided by
them in their practical conduct ?—(Hear, hear.) Had
they yet to learn that the laws which they impugned
were hurtful to all classes of the community ? Even
now " coming events" were casting " their shadows
before," and the dread that there might be a scarcity of
food had already deranged all their monetary operations.
—(Hear, hear.) Let them look at the panic which was
now existing in the Share-market, and see how this dread
was also operating in raising the rate of interest ; and
they well knew, from past experience, what must result
from all this. When the rate of interest rose the banks
in due time would become careful in respect to the ac-
commodation extended to their customers, and trade
must necessarily suffer in all its departments. Had the
people of this country yet to learn that dear food
meant low wages, Scarcity of employment, interruption
to commerce generally, and depreciation of every
species of property? These lessons they had already learnt
to their cost, and they need not endure seven years
more of suffering to fix them deeply in their minds.
In respect to the question of the corn-laws, fallacy had
been accumulated upon fallacy by the monopolists, and,
for some time, with considerable effect. Now all these
fallacies had been detected and exposed. What, for
instance, had lately become of the cry of " Don't be
dependent upon foreigners ?" They should and would
be glad to be so dependent, if they could only find
those on whom they could depend for a supply of food.
Where, also, was now the cry about the peculiar bur-
dens upon land—those burdens which were invisible
when they were moved for in Parliament ?—(Hear,
hear.) Then was the outcry that, as the corn-laws
were doomed and must be relinquished, time should be
given to prepare the farmers for the change which was
to be effected. But how much time should be given
them ? How much time had already been given them ?
The corn-laws were passed when he was quite young,
and now that he was becoming grey he did not find
that the list of farmers who appeared in the Gazette
had in any degree lessened. There had been, in fact,
no attempt at the preparation which was sought to be
made if time were only given. The cry for
time for preparation was another fallacy which
like all the rest, had now entirely disappeared. All
parties seemed now agreed upon principles, and all par-
ties were ready to admit that the right of the cause lay
with the League. But they had relied too much upon
people knowing what was right, under the presumption
that when they knew whit was right they would do
what was right.—(Hear, hear.) They now ceased to
rely upon the mere diffusion of information; they had
given over talking, and were beginning to act.—(Hear,
hear.) In entering upon the sphere of action they were
willing to throw themselves upon the highest authority.
and cone was more so than that of Sir Robert Peel, who
said, " Register, register, register," and they would take
up and act upon his words, and " register, register," too.
The great battle had now to be fought in the registra-
tion courts ; for it was by perfectly constitutional means
that they must break the fetters which surrounded them.
—(Hear, hear.) It was by means strictly within the
letter of the law that they sought to meet their adver-
saries with the weapons which these adversaries had for-
merly wielded against them with success. With these
weapons they were now coming into the field. Indeed
they had already used them with some success. What
had been done last year through their instrumen-
tality ? It was a good beginning that ; but they
intend to do much better during the present year.—
(Cheers.) 'They were daily becoming more dexterous
in the use of that great weapon, the registry. Last year
they had been disappointed at not adding more than 2,000
to the registry in Yorkshire, but the result of the cam-
paign upon which they were just entering would be of a
very different stamp, inasmuch as they were now better
aware of what they were about, and could use their
weapons more adroitly, and, consequently, more to the
purpose than before.—(Hear, hear.) Their friends (Mr.
Bright and Mr. Cobden) had come there to lay the sub-
ject of the registry before them. They would give the
meeting most encouraging reports of what had been
done in other places, and they would point out to the
people of Sheffield bow easy and practicable was the
road to success. Let the people but carry out the sug•
gestions which would be thrown out during the course of
proceedings that evening, and the day of reckoning with
their spoilers nod oppressors would not be far distant. Let
them but work together, and with those who thought
with them throughout the country, and he was certain
that, at the dissolution of Parliament, many of those who
were now occupying seats in the House of Commons
would receive notice to quit, which they would
be forced to observe—(Hear, hear.) It was to stimu •
late their zeal in this matter, by showing them what
had been done elsewhere, in reference to the registry,
and by furnishing them with hints and obsorvations on
which they should act, that their friends on his right
and left had arrived amongst them ; and he trusted that
the men of Sheffield would now show some of that cou-
rage, spirit, and energy, which enabled their ancestors
to oppose such resistance to the Norman invader ; and
that they would manifest some of that independence of
principle and action which enabled Sheffield to stand
honourably at the head of the polling list of West
Yorkshire at the last election.—(Hear, hear.)
Had they lost anything of their former spirit? Were
principles once espoused now less valuable in their sight?
He believed not ; and he augured much good from the
spirit which seemed to pervade the numerous respect-
able assemblage now before him. He would trouble
them no more at present, bat at once make way for
Mr. Cobden, whom he now called upon to address
them.—(Hear, hear.)
Mr. COBDEN, on coming forward, was received with
loud and prolonged cheering. Silence being restored,
he observed that there must
.be something peculiar in
the present aspect of affairs to induce so large an assem-
blage as was then before him to meet together on that
occasion. He did not know exactly whether the people
of Sheffield were circumstanced as were those in Lanca-
shire at the present moment, who had just experienced
a great reverse in their trade. It would not be unde-
sirable that they should know how their neighbours were
going on, especially as it generally happened that,
within six months of the time when the cotton trade
suffered depression, the iron districts there and else-
where were sure to follow. Within the last six weeks
they had suffered in Lancashire a more sudden and severe
depression than had been sustained since the time of the
peace. It was not a difficult matter to account for the sud-
denness of this depression. They had had a wheat harvest
deficient in.quality and in quantity in this country, and
they had also the failure of the potato crop ; and these
evils together caused a rise of at last 50 per cent, in the
cost of their provisions. Every one before him, both the
wholesale and retail dealer, understood what were the
legitimate effects of a bad harvest. Everybody, there-
fore, was acting upon that knowledge, which, to no small
extent, was owing to the preachings and teachings of
the League. Everybody understood that the high price
of food, which was the result of a bad harvest, caused a
bad state of trade, and the wholesale and retail dealers,
immediately that they saw the prospect of a bad harvest
before them, ceased to buy large stocks of manufactured
goods, lest by-and-by these stocks should be left unsale-
able on their hands.—(Hear, hear.) Eight or ten years
ago, the principles on which they were now all agreed
were known only to a few. There was then a bad state
of trade, and many people were overthrown by the
tempest of adversity which swept over the land, who after
staggering on fir two or three years, found themselves
once more on their feet when the ordeal was over; but
none of them ever thought at that time of inquiring what
it was that had injured them. But everybody now un-
derstood the whole matter, and he had the strongest
hopes and the deepest conviction that within a twelve-
month's time the people of this country would apply that
remedy to their present depressed circumstances, which
their knowledge of the causes of the depression would
enable them to apply.—(Hear, hear.) They were on
the eve of a bad state of trade in Sheffield. Let them
not believe that his object in coming there was to make
trade bad. Let them hear what had happened in Lan-
cashire. If people paid 50 per cent. more for provisions
than they paid before—that was to say, if a family earn-
ing but a guinea a week had to expend ss. or 6s. more
than six weeks or two months ago,—they must neces-
sarily have less left to lay, out in other commodities ;
less to expend with the draper, the shoemaker, the
tailor, aye, and even with the ironmonger—(Hear)
and if they had thus less to expend for them, there must
then consequently be a diminished trade in the commo-
dities which these dealers had on hand. People's in-
comes did not rise to meet the advance in the price of
food. That was an old delusion, which went down
with people no longer.—(Hear, hear.) Working men
now understood that a high price for provisions did not
cause high wages, but, on the contrary, that high
wages and a low price of food invariably accompanied
each other. Indeed, they might take it for granted that
the.very reverse of what the monopolists told them was
the trutrhi
If Lancashire and Yorkshire were depressed

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 simiiar articles
of consumption. 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 be
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
I 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 course
adopted in every country but England, in order to pre-
vent a scarcity of food. In Belgium the corn harvest
was a good one, as the King stated in his speech at the
opening of the Chambers ; but there was a failure in
the potato 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 Mancnester, 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 not be so palpable, if foreign na-
tions did not adopt the course which they now asked the
Government to take. He had 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 tunless
you work properly the constitution which has been
vouchsafed to us. For myself, I would rather live in
Prussia, under a 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 down 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
should 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
'4l, I predict that it will be a walk over for Messrs.
Brown and Villiers in '46 or '47.—(Cheers again.) Well,
we have won the West Riding on the present register,
but we want you to place 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 fear. 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
contest if you increase the registry to the number I men-
tioned, and it is of the utmost importance that 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
food coat in Manchester (where there are of course
ustian 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.—(Hear, and cheers.) It has always
been so. Mr. Wilberforce was, thirty years ago, Member
for Yorkshire. He always voted with the Government.
This county was considered of so much importance
that 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 owe. 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 will be found to be not only " doomed," but
dead —(The Hon. Gentleman resumed his seat amid
cheers which lasted for some time.)
The CHAIRMAN 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 sum should be placed at the disposal
of the Free Trade Association of the town,
Mr. BRIGHT was introduced, who came forward amid
loud cheers, and said—l should apologise for going
through any arguments on the question of the corn-laws
on such 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-
sary to re-state facts (which ought, indeed, to have oc-
curred to every man), and thus to saturate the public
mind 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 amongst 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 I am pre-
pared to prove it was intended to produce that scarcity.
In 1815 the Chancellor of the Exchequer defended it on
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 occa-
sional 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-rooms 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 haveth
identical vouchers, signed by Sir Richard Birme,
sums
then
head of police in London, showing not
for
rnl thewyhich they
paid to these men, but also the duties
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hear.) Such a state of things was a scandal to the
country—a country which should, and might, be the
store-house and granary of the world.—(Hear, hear.)
It might, in fact, be the modern Egypt for meeting the
deficiencies of other countries, instead of being unable,
as it was at present, to make good its own.—(Hear,
hear.) He was now speaking of the quantity of grain
which might be accumulated in this country, and kept
here at a profit to the merchant when it was ultimately
sold, provided there was no law in existence to prevent
the storing up of corn. Wheat was a thing which could
be kept for any length of time. Wheat, which had been
produced three or four thousand years ago, was now
growing in this country—wheat, which was perhaps part of
the identical stock which Joseph stored up for the famine in
Egypt.—(Cheers and a laugh.) Although it might not be
profitable to keep it so long as three or four thousand
years, it was still a satisfaction to know that an article
which formed the chief subsistence of the people should
be thus indestructible.—(Hear, hear.) It was possible
for wheat to be kept for three or four years, and with
a good profit too to the merchant, if the trade were
free. Suppose it were kept for three years instead of
one year, it would not be any great charge against a
casual deficiency which might occur in the fourth year.
—(Hear, hear.) But how stood the case in the present
year ? It appeared that we were now in Dautaic
offering 50s. to 60s. per quarter for wheat, which could
have been obtained by us eight or nine months ago for
from 28s. to 30s. What was the cause of that state of
things ? It was that we kept in this country no stock
on hand for the purpose of meeting the wants of our
people in a year of casual deficiency. In fact, the
avowed object of the corn-law was to prevent a free
trade in corn, with a view to keep the corn shop in this
country safe from any competition from the shop over
the water.—(Loud cheers.) It was that cause alone
which prevented us from having a sufficient stook of
corn on hand sufficient for the purpose of enabling us
to meet a casual deficiency. Why, it was a scandal to
the country that such a state of things should be
allowed to continue—(Cheers)--and he would not go
down to the grave with a feeling that he had acted the
part of a man if, with his present convictions, he did
not constantly exert himself to oppose its continuance.—
(Loud cheers.) Talk of the spirit of their ancestors who
resisted William the Conqueror l This was a worse
state of things than any which he endeavoured to esta-
blish in the country. Yes, he (Mr. Cobden) was satisfied
that. William the Conqueror never declared that he
would keep the people of England on short allowance.—
(Hear, hear.) Nay, on the contrary, he was sure that
one of the first professions with which he came forward
after the conquest was, that he would give to the people
better food than that to which they had previously been
accustomed.—(Hear, hear.) The men of the present
day in England submitted to a more odious dynasty than
that of William the Conqueror—they submitted to the
" little loaf dynasty," by whom the collar was put around
their necks, and tightening it so that they could not
have enough of food.—(Hear, hear, and cheers.) There
never was a state of things in any country which was
worse than this—a system by which hucksters were
enabled to sell bread—aye, and bad bread too—(Hear,
hear, and a laugh)—and to say to the people, we will
oblige you to buy this bread alone, and we will not
allow you to go to any other shop to purchase a
supply of better bread.—(Hear, hear, and loud cheers.)
It was the most cruel oppression that men ever submitted
to ; but the most cruel part of it was, that in a time of
casual scarcity, such as this year, we were deprived by
it of the advantage of having the means of obtaining a
sufficient stock of food. Who were liable for this state
of things ? Distinctly they were liable who passed a
law to prevent a free trade in foreign corn in this coun-
try.—(Hear, hear.) That law alone was the cause of
this want of means to supply the existing scarcity.—
(Hear, hear.) If they took, for example, any other
article which we imported from foreign countries. Let
them look to cotton, which we principally import from
North America. For the purposes of manufacture, no
less than 3,000 bales of cotton were required every day—

Mr. BRIGHT—Five thousand.
Mr. COBDEN—His friend Mr. Bright, who was better
acquainted with the trade in raw cotton than he, said
that it required 5,000 bales every day. Well, great as
that demand was, the supply never failed.—(Hear,
hear)—there never was a deficiency of cotton expe-
rienced since the peace—there never was, since that
period, a mill stopped or a machine in danger of being
starved for want of cotton to feed it.—(Hear, hear,
and cheers.) We had at present eight months'
provisions of cotton in Liverpool, whilst the new harvest
of cotton was gathering, and almost gathered, in America,
so that in all we might calculate on having at present
twenty-one months' -or two years' supply of cotton. That
was the case with respect to an important article of our
consumption which was of foreign growth, but the trade
in which was free. Then there was the article of tea,
which we were allowed to lay in a stock of. Tea came
from a foreign land—from a country whose inhabitants
or extent we scarcely had any acquaintance with—yet
the supply of that article never fails, and we bad at
present a sufficient quantity in England for two years'
consumption. Take indigo, which was another article
of foreign production, but the trade in which was free ;
and it would be seen that we were always enabled to
have a sufficient stock of it in the country. In the same
way all other articles of foreign growth, the trade in
which was free ; and it will be found that our supplies
of them did not fail ; whilst the case was different in
the case of the articles which the foul finger of mono-
poly had touched, such as sugar and coffee, which were
articles of great importance to our people. We could
not get these in the same manner, but in all the articles
of foreign produce the trade in which was free, such as
indigo, spices, cotton, and tea, we had always from one
to two years' supply in store. Well, what a predica-
ment the country had been brought into from the ope-
ration of that law.—(Hear, hear.) What excellent
housekeepers they were who never looked to the state
of their larder until it was almost empty, and allowed
it to become in that condition before they inquired if
there was a market open at which they could get any
further supply.—(Hear, hear, and cheers.) It was said
that the potato crop had failed—so it had—but the
failure of the potato crop ought not to have been such a
calamity to a great country like England.—(Hear.) Why,
the potato crop had failed for three years succesively in
America, and it was thought so little of that in this coun-
try it had hardly been heard of, and when heard of it was
only through the means of scientific publications. Why
had they heard so little about the failure of the potato
crops in America for three successive years? Because no
man, woman, or child, in America, was constrained to live
on potatoes alone. if that were the case there, why, he
would ask, was it, that in England four or five millions
of people rejoiced on potatoes, as Dr. Marsham said, and
he deserved nothing better to rejoice upon for such a
speech?—(Hear, hear, and cheers.) The Americans had
an abundance of corn, and if we let them know that we
wanted wheat or Indian corn, they were able to supply
us with it, and would willingly supply us with it,
if they were informed that they could have in
return our cutlery, and our manufactured cottons.
—(Hear, hear.) If they could *Main those in return,
we should soon obtain more corn from America than
we could pay for. It was recorded in Holy Writ, that
the son of the Patriarch laid up corn in Egypt, in
order that a supply might be easily obtained
in a time of scarcity, and when a time of
scarcity arrived, his brothers went into Egypt to obtain
from him a supply of corn. Why should we not, in a
similar way, apply to our brother Jonathan, in America,
for a supply, as we had no brother Joseph in Egypt ?
(Laughter and cheers.) It was, he was quite sure, a
great deal better to go to oure.brother Jonathan for food,
than to go to fight with him.—(Cheers.) He (Mr. Cob-
den) did not like- to hear of people's minds being fami-
liarised with the idea of fighting, for be conceived that it
would be a great deal better to trade with him than to
encourage the idea of going to war with him.—(Cheers.)
Those states which produced cotton and tobacco, the ar-
ticles which we consumed, had no desire to go to war with
us—(Hear)—and it was only within a few days that he
read an account of a dinner at Charleston, in South Ca-
rolina, at which the health of the Queen was proposed,
and received in the most enthusiastic manner, for that
was one of the portions of the United States which
produced those articles which we took from America.—
(Hear, hear.) What were the portions of the states in
which there was no desire to go to war with England ? The
Atlantic cities, the State of Pennsylvania and New
England, those which were connected with England by
trade and commerce ; but in the states of the west,
where wheat and Indian corn, and pork and beef, were
produced, those articles in which we refused to trade
with them, the warlike spirit towards this country was
evinced.—(Hear, hear.) If we, however, took a different
course from that which we at present adopted—if we
took from states of the west their barrels of flour, and
pork, and beef, and butter, they would like us as well as
the southern states, inasmuch as 'people do not usually

sures which they have reason to suppose will be for the
real benefit of the people. It is a curious circumstance,
but wherever I go I find the people constantly and in-
variably attributing the present depression in trade to the
operation of the corn-law.—(Hear, hear.) This law,
which was passed ostensibly for the purpose of pro-
tecting the native industry of the country, and
to give us, who are manufacturers, a constant
supply of good custom from the home trade,
to give to capital fair profit, and to labour fair
wages ; th's law, which promised so much is now
looked upon by almost everybody as the guilty party in
causing the present almost universal depression.—
(Cheers). My opinion is that the present prospects of
trade in this country are anything but encouraging, and
that their being bad and gloomy is entirely traceable to
the existing corn-laws.—(Hear, hear.) Six weeks ago
there was, generally speaking, a fair trade throughout
the cotton districts, and, in some parts, the trade was
exceedingly brisk, and more than ordinarily profitable.
The demand was then constant, and suffered little or no
check whatever, until after a long period of rainy and
unfavourable weather, the harvest was found to be
deficient, and prices gradually rose ; and, in addi-
tion to this, an alarming rumour was spread abroad
of the almost total failure of the potato crop. Now
there is no other cause whatever, to which the present
depression of trade in the cotton districts can be
attributed, except to this. All the old things which
were formerly said are now no longer mentioned as the
causes contributing to this lamentable result. There
are joint stock banks now in Manchester as there were
four or five years ago, yet nobody uow thinks of attri-
buting the depression to them. There is at present also
far more machinery in Manchester than there was then,
but nobody is now foolish or mad enough to trace the
depression to the progress of machinery. There has
also been a larger production of manufactured articles
than before, but no man now saddles the depression on
over-production.—(Hear, hear.) The truth is, that
there is now a great and general cessation from buying
those productions, because the people are becoming im-
poverished as the price of food advances, and here lies
the whole evil.—(Hear, hear.) And sooner or later it
is to be feared we shall have a state of things to deplore
such as we had four or five years ago. lam inclined to
believe that those who fashioned and passed the corn.
law will find that their system is now working ra-
ther inconveniently to themselves.—(Hear, hear.) At
an agricultural meeting in Banbury, held a short
time ago, the Honourable: Member for Oxfordshire
observed, that he was extremely glad that they
had had a few weeks of good weather,
because had the bad weather continued, the price of food
would have risen so high as to be exceedingly incon-
venient to those who were anxious to maintain the corn-
laws.—(Hear, hear.) The object is, that the rise in price
should be just as much as the country can and will bear
without becoming dissatisfied and violent. It is a con-
stant system of tension, but they never intend that the
string should break.—(Hear, hear.) It is just that sort
of plunder which they hope, at any rate, with the help of
a good military force, and all the appliances which power
and tyranny can command, can be maintained without
risking the overthrow of the plunderers.—(Hear, hear.)
A very respectable inhabitant of one of the southern
counties told me, a few days ago, that he did not expect
that the corn-law would last for ever, for that the popula-
tion must eventually become so great as to render it im-
possible that the produce of this country could feed them.
I asked him when he thought the corn-law should be re-
pealed? He said that he could not fix the precise time,
but that he had no doubt it would be done when the
pressure became strong enough.—(Hear, hear.) There
was in that expression a deep meaning, which it became
them all to understand. When amongst the twenty-
seven millions of people feeding at the ill-supplied table
of this country, suffering, discontent, famine, crime, pe-
verty, disease, and mortality prevailed—when all these
calamities, heaped upon a suffering people, are become
so great that they can endure them no longer, then, but
not till then, do our agricultural friends think that the
corn-laws should be abolished.—(Hear, hear.) I was
once here, three or four years ago, when your artizans
were in a very different condition from that in which they
are at present. You, along with all the great towns in
the empire, suffered greatly during the years which in-
tervened between 1838 and 1842. Is there any man now
in Sheffield who pretends to give any other explanation
of the cause of that suffering than such as we furnished
by the League at the time, and such as the League offers
them now. It was the failure of your harvest that
wrought the evil, combined with the denial, on the part
of the Government, of the right to the people, which
they should unquestionably possess, of bringing supplies
of food from abroad, whenever they are convinced of
the necessity of so doing.—(Hear, hear,) If you wish
to assure yourselves of the importance of having
trade good, you have but to look at the effect, in
reference to crime alone, of its being bad. Sir James
Graham stated in the House of Commons, that in the
year 1836, the commitments in England and Wales
amounted only to about 20,000. In 1842 they had
risen to 32,000—(Hear, hear)—or something like 60 per
cent.—(Hear, hear.) The commitments in 1842 were
32,000, and in 1843, a year of good harvest, they fell to
29,000—last year they fell to 26,000, when there was a
good harvest. Sir James Graham stated that since the
period when statistical returns of commitments were
commenced, there never was an instance of such a dimi-
nution in the numbers of commitments in two years,
and I have no doubt that if the harvest had been good
this year, they would have fallen to 20,000, as they had
in 1836. According to the present increase in the
price of bread, the country is paying at the rate of
400,0001. a week more than it was paying six months
ago for food.— (Hear, hear.) That is only for the grain
consumed by the people for food, but when we re-
collect the quantity consumed by horses and in va-
rious other ways, it will be found that the nation is now
paying at the rate of 20 millions a year additional for its
food as compared with the price of food six months ago.
—(hear, hear.) Why, those twenty millions would
make twenty railways of thirty miles each—they form a
sum equal in amount to the whole of our colonial trade,
and more by one-half.—(Hear, hear.) Some time ago it
was said, in some of the papers, that our home markets
and our colonial markets were all that we required, and
that if we had them in a state of prosperity we need not
care much about the foreign market. The colonies take
thirteen and a half millions of value a year, so that the
landlords continue to suck up twenty millions a year with
this sponge of the corn-laws. They thereby do as much
mischief as if they destroyed two-fifths of our foreign
trade, or the whole of our colonial trade and half as
much again. The effect of this law is quite evident—it
is clear that whilst this scramble for bread is going on
there will be no scramble for cutlery.—(Hear, hear.)
There are 100,000 persons in your town, and supposing,
according to the ordinary and actual calculation,
that they should increase to the extent of 2,000 every
year, what must be the result of such an inerease if their
means of obtaining food are not also increased ? It'
2,000 persons are born more than die in Sheffield every
year, it is fair to say 1,700 or 1,800 of those will be of
the working class, who, when they grow up, will look for
work, and must have it, and thus will beat down the
wages of those who were here before them.—(Hear,
hear.) They will ask for food, and they must get it,
and this competition will raise the price of food upon
those who were there before them. What happens, then,
if the trade of Sheffield should not increase in equal pro-
portion ? It will follow that such an increase of the
working population will bring down the price of work,
or cause the population to be employed at short time, and
if no additional supply of food should be procured, the
chances are that the population will be put on a shorter
allowance than before. Under such circumstances, if the
supply of food should not increase, the condition of the
population must become deteriorated ; and what is true
of Sheffield in that respect is also true of every city in
the kingdom. The extension of trade at home is injured
by this law, whilst the extension of trade abroad is also
checked and retarded by it. In the next session it
is probable that there may be a modification of the
American tariff ; and speaking of that tariff, I may re-
mark, that whatever injury our trade suffers from the
American tariff is owing to our Government ; for if we
had no corn-law to wage war on American productions,
there would be no American tariff to wage war on our
productions.—(Hear, hear.) If the effect of the corn-
laws be then what I have described them ; if they pro-
duce famine and bad trade, what ought the people of
this country to do ? I am sure the people of England
will not submit to such a state of things.—(Cheers.) I

-...... . _
should have no hope in their resistance to any tyranny
that might be attempted, if they did not resist this.—
(Cheers.) And those opponents of ours, when we come
to measure them, are not such as we need be greatly
afraid of. We don't find their newspapers more clever
than those of other people—rather less so. We don't,
find their public orators—if they have any such—suc-
ceed particularly well. We don't find they send to Par-
liament men with whom any one of order or capacity
need hesitate to break a lance. You don't hear any
man of common intelligence in the House of Commons
get up to defend the corn-laws. Sir James Gra-
ham, Sir Robert Peel, or Mr. Gladstone never do so.
It is true a squire from Somerset now and then says
a word in their defence.—(llear, hear, and a laugh.)
He says when mutton and veal are cheap,farmers cannot
be remunerated—he did not add the rest—" and they
cannot pay us our rents." I don't wish to speak harshly
of landed proprietors. I don't think many of them have
examined the question. They have been brought up in
the notion that England is their country, and they, tell
us, " let those who don't like it leave it." They look
on manufacturers as mere shopkeepers, and as not hav-
ing any gentle blood as they have not along line of dead
ancestors to boast of. Now, I confess, I have much more
respect for that nobility which has been valiantly suf-
fering and working for others, than for that whose boast
it is that they made others suffer for it.—(Cheers.)
They fancy they were born to consume—w to wstate iork
s,
and their notion of trade in its propere
when those engaged in the work have suffered them-
selves to be plundered and don't grumble.—(Much
laughter, and cheers.) The House of Commons
in this country is held in shares. The people have a
small interest in it, but some how or other
they never get into the provisional or acting committee.
—(Renewed laughter and cheers.) We come to the
question,
" Are we to stand it any longer ?" The
Standard says we have gained four counties at 300,000/ ,
and that we must have as many millions to win all the
counties. Now, I say the money would not deter us if we
saw the prospect of such success.—(Hear, and cheers.)
But take the proportion Lancashire bears to the other
counties
Cultivated area of England
_ _

and Wales Acres 28,749,000
Ditto Lancashire
Rental of real property in
England and Wales £85,802,735
Ditto Lancashire
Rental of dwelling-houses in
England and Wales
Ditto Lancashire
I recollect perfectly well when Lancashire went over to
the monopolists there was a cry of reaction throughout
the kingdom, W hen free trade Members are returned
for that and some other large counties, the rotten-