The Sun.
London, England, 1842-12-16 00:00:00

Glee—" How merrily we live who soldiers be."

The Noble CLIAIRII;AN would congratulate the
nieeting on the progress of the principles held by his
honourable friend and themselves (luring the lastyear.
(Loud cheers.) Notwithstanding the untoward
events of last election, there was no abatement of the
zeal of their friends, and he had letters from Lord
Mostyn, Sir J. Broughton, Mr. E.'J. Stanley, Mr.
Lloyd Mostyn, and many other gentlemen of influ-
ence in the county, some of whom were absent from
domestic affliction, some from business, and other
previous engagements, but all of them declaring their
unabated confidence in Mr. Wilbraham, and the
great principles he has always honestly supported.—
(Cheers.) And not only that, but their determina-
tion to support him if he thought proper to come
forward at next election.—(Great applause.) There
was no need of special pleading in this case. There
were no unredeemed pledges to be accounted for.—
(Great cheering.) There were no unhappy confes-
sions of professed "farmers' friends" to be apologised
for.—(Laughter.) His friend was not loud in pro-
mise and silent to perform.—(Cheers.) He had not to
apologise to his supporters for having permitted him-
self to be dragged through the mud.—(Cheers and
laughter.) He would be ashamed of himself were he
to have to find excuses for such conduct. During a
Parliamentary career of many years he had pursued
a conscientious, a consistent, and to crown all, a
manly course, which entitled him to the entire confi-
dence of his constituents and the country.—(Loud '
cheers.) He had three times—he might say four
times, in the course of eight or nine years, stood for-
ward to give the electors the opportunity of recording
their adherence to the great principles held by
his friend, and by this great and respect-
able assembly.—(Loud cheers.) 'These principles
were imperishable, because they were founded
on truth and justice—(Cheers)—and if they had re-
cently been only partially developed, it had been be-
cause they had been fostered by unwilling hands. Who
could have predicted last year, with the loss of candi-
date after candidate, such a great moral triumph as
had been achieved by forcing Peel to the abandon-
ment of the Corn-law and the adoption of his new
sliding scale ? The subject was extremely tempting►,
and he was much disposed to enter upon it, but he
felt that he would be exceeding the limits of a chair-
man's duties, and would therefore leave it to his Hon.

Friend. He would now beg to propose the health of
George Wilbraham, Esq. The toast was given with
loud-long-continued, and frequently renewed applause
Mr. WILBRAHAM on rising was received with pro-
longed cheering. He said, the events of that day, a
day memorable to him, had made so strong an impres-
sion on his mind, had so thoroughly absorbed all his
thought and feelings, that he might well stand excused,
if in answer to this last compliment he merely expressed
his grateful thanks for the high honour ; but when he
recollected the relative position in which he had so
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topics of the day. They had lost the services of a
en-
joyedM the full confidence of the country on account of
itsprinciples, and attachment to civil and religious
liberty ; but which had given way to the expressed
voice of the country ; why, he would not say—whe-
ther for any fault of its own, or for any mismanage-
ment, or from a versatility of disposition in the peo-
ple, who having obtained great and important mea-
sures from one party, were now anxious to get all
they could from another. He has given the late Mi-
nistry his confidence, not because he thought it always
right, for he had often expressed by his votes his dis-
sent from its measures ; but because he had the fullest
reliance on its principles, and knowing the honourable
public character of the men composing it—(Hear,
hear)—and also knowing the public character of the
men opposing it, he did not think' it was likely to be
succeeded by a Government willing or capable of
rendering greater services to the country.—(Hear.)
Look to the characters of the present men in power.
The Duke of Wellington, the ornament of that or any
other Administration : he and all other public men
must always look with respect on his services, whe-
ther as a warrior, a diplomatist, or in the civil charac-
ter of statesman, he was at all times manly and
straightforward.—(Hear.) To Sir R. Peel he was
at all times willing to concede all those high qualifi-
catiOns for public life his friends so liberally gave him
credit for : he was a man cognisant of the business of

office ; industrious, indefatigable, and versed in the
practical part of the business of Government, and
clever in debate. He would not throw a shadow of

imputation upon his character; but if they were to
look for that high, character for consistency—for
those high and consistent qualifications which ought
to be the characteristics of a British statesman, they
might indeed look—but they looked in vain.—(Hear.)
At a former period of his political life, he remembered
him being, in an adjoining county, feasted and compli-
mented by the exclusive party, and being also the
idol of the clergy and of all those who resisted to the
utmost all concessions to the Roman Catholics, or the
Dissenters ' • yet within three months of the time,
when an oak had been planted with much display, as
an emblem of the radical fir xnness of his principles in
resisting civil and religious freedom to his equally
loyal fellow-sgbjects, a4cl i?efore that tree could bud

forth its shoots, he astounded his party by bringing
into Parliament a measure, with all the weight of the
Government of which he was a member, giving
greater concessions than had even been imagined or
proposed by Fox.—(Hear.) He did not say Sir R.
Peel was wrong ; for on that occasion he gave him his
warmest support. He did not blame him, he again
said ; but where was that great principle of con-
sistency they had a right to expect from statesmen?--
(Hear.) Let them look to what had been done in
the last session of Parliament.—(Hear.) The ma-
jority had been sent, -in order to keep every thing in
Church and State as it existed. They recollected
the declarations against change which were
made on the hustings, and the principles upon which
the present. Government was raised to power. What
had passed induced them to suppose that their views,
like the Delphic oracle, might be read another way.
With respect to corn the antagonist party railed not
only against a fixed duty, but against any, even the
.slightest change being made in the law as it then ex-
isted.—(Hear.) The first thing the Government did
was to throw the existing Corn-laws overboard.—
(Hear.) He did not say that the Government was
wrong ; but again he asked, where was that high
principle for consistency which alone can be the
ground and justification for confidence in statesmen ?
—(Hear.) Would any man at that board or else-
where tell him that Sir R. Peel, supported as he was
by a monopolist majority, and placed in power on
monopolist principles—would any man tell him that
he would not go down to Parliament in Fe-
bruary next with measures for a further ex-
tension of free trade ?—(Hear.) Those could hardly
answer for him who had witnessed the see-sawing of
the last session ; at one time relying for support upon
some of the most ultra free-traders, and at another,
when he saw-ithe danger of being out-voted, falling
back upon his own party.—(Hear.) Of other gentle-
men, members of the present Administration, he spoke
with reluctance. He had known them as the greatest
advocates of the principles they now most virulently
opposed.=(Hear.) He did not blame a "man for
changing his way of thinking upon any great point
of national policy. He might possibly have learned
by experience that his 'former]
.opinions had been
hastily formed, and his conclusions practically wrong.
But he who from disappointed hopes, from personal
resentment, or from the meaner motive of acquiring
place or power, deserts the political friends to whom
he had always been attached, and transfers his alle-
giance to what he badj always been in active oppo-
sition, might well expect that the world would
note the change with incredulity and derision ;
nor could he have the right to complain.—(Hear.)
He would now take the opportunity of stating his
opinions first, on:the-Corn-law ; next, on the Tariff;

and thirdly, on the Income-tax. He was not one of
Those who thought that the stagnation of trade and
the existing distress were traceable to the Corn-laws
only; he thought other causes had been in operation,
such:as the state of the American markets and the finan-
cial derangements of that country; another cause was,
the competition of foreign countries.. Only two years
since a motion had been made in Parliament by Mr.
Villiers, for inquiry into the state of the manufactur-
ing districts, and how the existing distress had been
influenced by our commercial legislation, having a
direct reference to the Corn-laws. He voted for that
motion.—(Hear.) From that moment he knew his
fate was sealed—for it was represented to the farmers,
that because he had voted for that inquiry, he was
their enemy, and that vote was made the pretence
for organising an effective opposition to him. But of
all the votes he had given that was the one he had the
least repented.—(Loud cheers.) With respect to the
Corn-laws he had', come to this conclusion, that to
make the trade in corn safe, for .honest and prudent
men to engage in with confidence, the means of
easier and more extensive exchanges, that the food
of man should no longer be the subject of gam-
bling and speculation—that this is the first, distinct,
intelligible measure a statesman should now propose.
—(Loud cheers.) But in itself this would not be
sufficient to place our manufacturing system in a
perfectly satisfactory state. He had told them he
did not ascribe the whole eyils that now affected our
manufactures and commerce to the Corn-law; but
he would not hesitate to repeal that law, the prin-
ciple of which was the sliding scale—(Loud and con-
tinued cries of " Hear, hear")—as a necessary mea-
sure towards effecting the salvation of the country.
He said that, as a country gentleman, connected
with land, all his property being in land, and all his
prejudices iu favour of land. He had always been
the advocate of, and contended for a fixed duty; but
he would rather the law was repealed without a
fixed duty, than the present abominable, oppressive,
and tyrannical system should continue.—(Loud
cheers.)lWith respect to the Tariff, it was a mixture
of good and evil ; excellent in theory, but bad in
practice.—(Hear, hear.) ,The speech of Sir Robert
Peel, in introducing this measure, had' abounded

with excellent declarations of ultra-Liberal policy;
but it had been well said, that the assertion
of great principles had been followed by a
little measure.—(Hear, hear.) The measure ex-
eluded two of the . most important articles of
consumption, affecting the comforts of the la-
bouring classes—corn and sugar. It had done nothing
for commerce; six hostile tariffs had been, provoked
in one short year.—(Hear.) With respect to the In-
come-tax,:he consideredjit unprecedented under the
.circumstances, uncalled for, and tyrannical.—(Loud
cheers.) Any man who, even in theory, approved of
such a tax as this, was prepared to support a despotic
Government.--(Hear.) The feelings and prejudices
of Englishmen were decidedly contrary to it.—(Hear.)
It would be a waste of time to show how it operated
—how the professional man, whose income was de•
rived from his daily labour, had to pay as much as
he (Mr. W.) who had an income from land worth 30
years' purchase. But one argument that was much
resorted to, was that it did not affect the poor. That
might be true as respected the immediate operation;
but no tax could more materially touch them by an
'indirect process.—(Hear.) The wages of labour
were upheld and paid by the profits of capital; but
if the last were reduced by the Income-tax, it was
clear that the means of employment were diminished.
They were told that this tax was to last only three
years. He was incredulous on that point.—(Hear.)
That was, a question, however, to be decided by Par-
liament—or rather by Peel, for he was the Govern-
ment, the Parliament, and the State. But had they
confidence in the declarations of a Minister of Finance?
Age, which gave few advantages, at least brought ex-
perience. He was old enough to recollect this tax
being imposed in 1798, at the time when we had a re-
bellion in Ireland, a mutiny at the Nore, and when an
army of 100,000 men on the coast of France threat-
ened to invade this country. The people under these
circumstances cheerfully submitted to an Income-tax,
and it continued until the peace of Amiens in 1801. It
was then proposed to renew it as a peace tax ; but Mr.
Addington, now Lord Sidmouth, said that as the war
was at an end, he could not, as an honest man, propose
that it should be continued, and it was consequently
repealed. War broke out again, and the tax was re-
imposed, and continued till peace was again established
by the valour of British arms.--(Cries of " Hear,
hear.") In 1816 Mr. Vansittart, the Finance Mi-
nister, proposed that that which was put on as a war
tax should be renewed as a peace-tax under certain
modifications; under the plausible pretext of the
enormous- expenses incurred at its close. He men-
tioned these things in order to show the little reliance
that can be placed in the declaration of finance mi-
nance ministers, when they are permitted to put a tax
on. His great objection to this tax, was that it was
arbitrary and inquisitorial.—(Hear.) He would read
them the words of a celebrated man, once the pride
of his country, whose words were as manna—and
who was looked upon as the champion and defender
of the rights and liberties of the people—he meant
Lord Brougham. In 1822 speaking of the Income-

tax he said
"Let the people profit by the experience of former
years. Let them recollect the manner in which the
Income-tax had been introduced, the almost imper-
ceptible degrees by which it had grown up, and the
curse which it had eventually become. Let those
who had groaned under that pernicious impost, be-
ware, now that they had got rid of it, how they

opened a door to its-return. Let them judge if the
Chencellor of the Exchequer once gets his foot upon
that chosen ground, if he would abandon it,— tillhe

drained it of Their last shilling. If they had looked to
the returns of what the landed interest had paid, and

considered the many burdens with which they were
at present oppressed, it would be evident that such a
tax, however modified, would not be endured."—Tunes,

Feb. 18, 1822.

These were the opinions of Henry Brougham—
whether they were the opinions of the ex-Chancel-
lor, he would not venture to say.—(Hear.) if he
saw good measures from any quarter, he was not
so 'much bound up with party as to reject them,
because he did not or could not trust the men

proposing them.—(Hear, hear.) He would hail
any prospect of relief, come from where it might.
But look at every interest. Where were there the
least signs of that improvement, which was pro-
mised to be the immediate results of-Sir R. Peel's ac-

cession to power ? He would ask the landlords if their
rents were better paid—or did their mines, minerals,
and other property yield a better return ? Can the
farmer better meet his engagements than two years
ago ? Look at the state of the labouring population,
many of wham were happy. to obtain a place of mere
shelter. Were these the signs of returning prospe-
rity ? Had anything in reality been done for the coun-
try, or was there anything to hope for from the late
measures ?—(Hear, hear.) But be did not despond.
He knew the great enterprise of Englishmen, and that,
with but little to encourage them, they would resort
to great activity. The manufacturing classes ought to
have the earnest attention of the Government; and he
should have thought that the great insurrection of the
present year, would have stimulated the Government
to pay more attention to their embarrassments. But
t was this
he might be permitted to ask in what respec