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

GREAT FREE-TRADE MEETING.
REGISTRATION N 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 Is.
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, liege M.P. ; John Bright, Esq., M.P. ; Dr.
Thompson; Henry Wilkinson, Esq. ; W. kisher, Esq. ;
Richard Salley, Esq.; Thomas Jessop, Esq.; Aldermen
Turton and N. bole ; Charles Wilson, Esq.; P. Nailor,
Esq.; T. Roebuck, Esq.; and Edward Vickers, Esq.
No inconsiderable portion of the audience consisted
of ladies.
The CHAIRMAN, in opening the proceedings of the
evening, observed, that he hoped that it would not be
long ere the people of this ei untry would look with sur-
prise at the fact, that such .: law as the corn-law ever
existed on our statute-book. What was there ever to
recommend it to their goud 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 iu 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
Low " 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.) Lot them look at the panic which was
now existingin 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 what 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 sone 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 stump, 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 how 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 eeening, and the day of reckoning with
their spoilers and oppressors would not be far distant. Let
them but work to; ether, and with those who thought
with them throughout the country, and ho 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 obsorvationa 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 ihey 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, but 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 exactry 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 uncle-

sizable that.they should know how their neighbours were
going pn, 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 wore sure to follow. Within the last six weeks

they had suffered in Lancashire a more sudden and severe

dept ession 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 for 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 truth. If Lancashire and Yorkshire were depressed

—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,vrhen 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, bear.) 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 couid be raised upon their own soil, to the con-
dition of the Hottentot and the Red Indian?--(Hear,
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 fur 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 sow in Dautzic
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 band for the purpose of meeting the wants of our
people in a year of casual deficiency. Iu 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 stock 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 continuauce.—
(Loud cheers.) Talk of the spirit of their ancestors who
resisted William the Conqueror ! This was a worse
state of things than any which he endeavoured to esta-
blish in the country. Yea, 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 ; hut 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
lin 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 had 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
k, was i
taatsoesalonet:
that in and four If thatEwnegrlethecussr oetr five millions
of why, he
of people rejoiced on potatoes, asDr. Marsham said, and
he deserved nothing better to rejoice upon for such a
speech?—(Hear, bear, and cheers.) Tho Americans had
an abundance of corn, and if we let them know that we
wanted wheat or
rl
veslo.lrunbta.ypdtc
japihtaileanynawyrncamcorn, they were able to supply
us with, it, and would willingly supply us with it,
if they were informed that they could have in
unrnoofratmHnhc
easilytoouAsil
yareme
vEienrgoriybeicottons.return,
we
that
than
obtained
moor could
hodr
corn
ode': nur
nbe
pdtbaaenfi
corn
otww— br eede( returnecl Isrsoheouoanl
urdt uoldhapfretasaytorhco.
a)ufenot
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 /4
(Laughter and cheers.) It was, he was quite sure, a
great deal better to go to our: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 he 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 etatess inasmuch as people do not usually