The Sun.
London, England, 1845-12-18 00:00:00

they best could. The people alone originated this movement.
They had no official help—they did it all for themselves.
They saw the danger in prospect, and came to the rescue—
(Cheers)—and they proposed the only course that was
founded in truth and justice. They pledged themselves to
the principles of free trade—(Loud cheers)—and what has
been the progress? At first the subject was brought forward
in meetings of town-councils, who memorialised the Govern-
ment to open the ports; next they called large meetings for
an expression of opinion ; and now they met in multitudinous
assemblies in every large town of the country, in north and
south, in east and west, raising a voice of thunder that pro-
tection and injustice should have an end, and the people be
enabled to realise justice and possess their rights.—(Loud
cheers) Aud what were those doing who should have taken
charge of the people's interests? Where were they to suggest
a remedy ?—where is the great party which now deprived
the Whigs of office ?—where is the mighty party that
took ten years to build it up ?—where the Minister
who so carefully and assiduously called his forces and pre-
pared them for action, who had employed every toil and ex-
pedient to work out his end, where are all the gentlemen
who affected to sympathise with all the grievances of the
people—those who heretofore have been receiving suggestions
everywhere as to the best means of serving the trillions—
those who suited themselves to all the changing phases of
the times—who were all things to all men—whose great
object was to develop the art of pleasing—who
held out one hand to Roman Catholic Dissenters, and
another to Puseyisni—who supported monarchy in one breath,
and with the other referred to James 11., to show how easy a
thing it was to sacrifice a crown—where, I ask, are they?—
(Hear, hear.) When their leader was called into office, and
when his first trial of strength was made, it was ascertained
that he had a majority of ninety votes, and it was believed
that his term of office was secure for an indefinite period.
But now we find that he is shipwrecked in the plenitude of
power. At the moment when it was believed he was most
secure, we see him unable to maintain his ground, the huge
Babylon falls to pieces—it fades away like a piece of en-
chantment, and the master magician is left deserted by his
demon host.—(Loud and long-continued cheering.) There
he is left forlorn to endure the pelting of the pitiless storm
—and a more pitiless storm from all quarters has
seldom fallen to the lot of any public man.—(Hear, hear.)
And perhaps the day may come when it will be felt that it
has been too pitiless to him—when it will be found that he
has been too hardly dealt with. But it is the misfor-
tune, that whatever he may have intended whatever
measure of policy he has contemplated, the people eannot
make up their minds to believe him—they cannot place
confidence in Sir Robert Peel.—(Cries of " Hear, hear.")
I for one confess that I cannot place any faith in him. If,
however, it be true that he has broken up the great party at
his back—if he has given up place and power on account of
the condition of the country, and his desire to administer a
full measure ofjustice—and the only measure of justice I re-
cognise is the measure of free trade—if such is the reason of
his being thrown into his present position, and if he is
ready to co-operate with those who seek for an unshackled
freedom for the food of the country, then ought we to re-
ceive him and respect him.—(Loud cheers.) If we have not
confidence in him, if we do not believe in him, we shall at
least evince gratitude for the part he has taken—we shall ac-
cord to him that meed of thankfulness to which he is most as-
suredly entitled. Now to the other party, those who are not yet
in office, although the others are out—though by this time they
are aware whether they will come in or not—l will address
myself. I feel grateful to Lord John Russell as well as to
Sir Robert Peel—for the letter of the one, which is intelligible
—for the resignation of the other, which is not intelligible;
and I look with anxiety to the coming in of the Whig
Ministry to otfice. If they do come in, I trust and hope
that the people of the country will give them to under-
stand that their duty must be to repeal the corn-laws—to
leave commerce completely free and unshackled—that there
must be no compromise whatever.—(Loud cheers.) This ,we
expect of them, and that they will leave untried no lawful
means of accomplishing this object. There must be no
squeamishness, fop even if a coalition with Peel is neces-
sary for the purpose, it must be done. On many
a former occasion such has taken place for party purposes.—
let them now endeavour to found one for a patriotic object.
—(Cheers.) If even the creation of peers is required, the
country looks to have it done.—(Loud cheers.) There was
no delicacy in disclosing that at a former time when the
Reform Bill was in jeopardy—why place free trade in corn
in a worse position now ?—(Hear, hear.) If this will not
suffice to put an end to the corn-laws, then let them
try another course • if a dissolution of Parliament is neces•
sary, then let Parliament be dissolved ; and if one disso-
lution will not do, let them try another—let them try the
strength of the past registration as well as the one that is to
come—that which is to be as well as that which is.—(Loud
cheers.) Give a chance to those who may employ their
50/. in purchasing their freehold between the present
registration and the next.—(Hear.) Let this registration
be extended from the north to the south—into every county
of the kingdom, and then let the voice of the peoplebe taken,
for not till then shall we see the full force of popular repre-
sentation. If this does not succeed, let Lord John Russell
throw up office and take the place of the Opposition, and I
am sure, if he does not obtain the success of our
cause in the one position, he will be sure to gain
it in the other.—(Cheers.) To succeed they must identify
themselves more with you than they have ever done before.
—(Hear, hear. They must be told by the country that,
however glad they are to see ranged on their side some of the
most illustrious and titled of the land, the old familiar names
—or at least the old familiar faces—it does not accord with
the feelings of the people of England that these alone should
hold Ministerial power.—(Loud cheers.) They demand that,
however good and worthy the Whig Lords may be, that
at least an infusion of the commercial men of the country—
of the men of business—shall take place in their ranks. I
will not mention who these should be, but I hold it is right
that some of those to whom the country looks up should be
included in the Ministerial programme. It is necessary the
people should demand that the Commons of England be
represented in the Cabinet.—(Loud and general cheering.)
Thirty years ago, when these corn-laws were being passed,
the multitude of this metropolis showed they had some
inkling of the oppression to which they were about to be
subjected, and offered what obstruction they could to these
laws being enacted. Twenty years ago the question de-
scended from the philosophers who had explained the
principles on which it rested to the practical
men, the reviewers and the journalists, who inculcated it on
the many, familiarising their minds with its details and its
bearing. Ten years after it had come down a stage lower,
to the manufacturers and mechanics of Manchester, who felt
where the shoe pinched them, and they took their stand,
which they have continued so nobly to maintain.—
(Loud cheers.) Five years ago such demonstrations
were given as showed what advance the question had
made ; three years ago the farmers came in ; five-and-twenty
days ago Lord John Russell came • in, anticipating thereby
another event, the resignation of Sir Robert Peel by so many
hours. That great statesman has come in after the people
had brought the question to the present crisis. Now be-
tween him and Peel it seems to be a point who shall first
get to the goal, running, both of them, as fast as magicians
do on a certain night—l believe they call it llalloween—a
night when the devil has a right to take his own, both of
them actuated by the feeling of the " devil take the hind-
most." I will say of them as it has been said of a celebrated
race-horse, " he was behind before although he first was last."
This will not do. It will not do for them to sit like the
gods of Epicurus, in the clouds, enjoying their ease,
looking down on the troubles andistruggles of the people.
If they will benefit the country, they must come amongst
us—they must mingle with the industrial classes. Let
them subscribe their thousands of pounds to the quarter of
a million raised by these classes; or, if they like, let them
raise a quarter of a million of their own, and add it to that
raised by the manufacturers and the members of the working
classes to promote free-trade. They may then look to the
country for support; there is no help, no aid which they
shall not find from the people of this country. They
may count the cost and place against that the returns. Let
them count their stars and garters, and subscribe
accordingly. Let them count on the fertility of their fields,
and their increased produce under a new system,
with the additional income that must render them.
Let them count all these, and come to our aid heartily, there
shall be no lack on our part. There is a third party in this
g
case, or, rather, an old man, who carries a party in his
of European
laughter.) Such are the fail-
ings European honours and of
er
age, he carries with won-
de
pocket,r ful
of
ease.—(Hear,
aws
seho.
mc Ise( ,
He
characters
g
, i daenridnl a
European name; sad is it that such a one should be found
ears, he might be
struggling against the rights of the country, against the sup-
ply of
food
dictr thegh
t people
addressed—Man, about whose brows are the laurels of a hun-
dred fights, who have in your pocket the proxies alit) m reach
thatin a time
old of
man'snecessity and famine.
Oh, if a
Peers—
(Laughter)—who is the conqueror of Napoleon, whose statue
you have got in your hall, its marble lips seem to speak,
warning you of a fall deeper and more dreadful than his whom
y_ou have hurled from his high eminence. Oh ! conqueror of
Napoleon, you have many different contrasts in your cha-
raster ; you won the battle-field, but you won it with such
trained troops, troops who were the flower of the English
people. But he had to invent a new system of war; he had
to baffle the most skilled generals of Europe, with raw
recruits who had never before seen a battle-field, yet with
these he pursued his resistless career, and gained the victo-
ries of Lodi, and Marengo, and Austerlitz, and Jena—victo-
ries which will continue a monument to his fame.—(Cheer-
ing.) You, Duke of Wellington, have conquered territories
and broad estates in every country ; but he did more, he won
kingdoms and crowns and empires; you were the
servant of kings, and rendered them good service,
supporting them on their tottering thrones ; but he made
monarchs his servants, who, like menials, waited in his ante-
room.—(Applause.) You, by Catholic Emancipation, freed
a portion of your fellow-subjects from some of their dis-
abilities; he, throughout Europe, opened a career fur talent,
and enabled men to rise to the exercise of their abilities
to the most commanding spheres ; you have equestrian
statues erected to your memory; but into whatever
country in Europe one will look, he will see bridges, and
aqueducts,
:and roads, constructed at the instance of that
great man—the monuments which he has raised for himself
in .every nation, the monuments which commend his
name to the memory of the sympathy of the people.—
(Cheers.) Remember the date of the Berlin decree; that
was the commencement of the downfal of Napoleon;
powerful against arms, resistless against monarchs
he fought there against the laws of trade.—(lm-
mense cheering.) That moment men's hearts left him—he
had alienated their feelings. Those who appeared in arms on
the field were traitors to him, or they left him as deserters;
he was foiled in the battle-field, and his deposition, his exile
and his death at St. Helena soon followed. Duke of Welling-
ton, take warning, if the Berlin decree brought about the
downfal of Napoleon, the corn-laws will bring about the
downfal of the Duke of Wellington, and then, with withered
laurels and a blotted name, you will go down to the grave
coupled with him you defeated, when both shall have left
nothing but

more public emotion, no more interest, and no more
enthusiasm, than Sir Robert Peel would have done. It
is a proof of the vitality of the question we have been
advocating, that, without even joining the League, but
by the mere enunciation of a principle, from being ob-
scure and scarcely visible to the public, he has become
the most prominent man of the day.—(Hear, hear.)
His rise is a proof that there is now in this country
only one solid growing and consolidated power in this
country.—(Hear, hear, and cheers.) All that is good of
the IVhigs have joined us.—(Hear, hear.)
Free trade principles have broken the Tory
Administration to atoms.—(Cheers.) Nor is it
destined to terminate here, for league principles must
always prove the ruin of parties in power who are hostile
to their progress.— (Hear and cheers.) Let us, then, hold
on to the principles which has made us so strong as we
at present are, not swerving to the right or to the left,
and no Minister can expect to retain office without
at once abolishing these. laws.—(Hear, hear.) Li t us
maintain this ground for another six months, and then
we shall be near to that time which I so much desire—
when this League shall be resolved into its primitive
elements by the triumph of its principle=.—(The most
enthusiastic cheering followed, in the course of which
the Hon. Gentleman resumed his seat.)
Mr. Miscue, M.P., said that during the last month, as
one of a deputation from the Council of the League, lie
had visited many towns, and been present at many meet-
ings in Lancashire, in Cheshire, in Yorkshire, in Not-
tinghamshire, in Derbyshire, in Gloucestershire, in
Staffordshire, in Somersetshire, and now he was present
at one in Middlesex. That afforded a consolation
that the agitation which is now in progress throughout
this kingdon is one of no common, and of no unequivocal
character.—(Hear.) Notwithstanding what his friend
who had just addressed them said, that he hoped it
might not become a war of classes, he (Mr. Bright)
was not sure that it had not already become such, and
he doubted if it could be otherwise.—(Hear.) He
believed it to be a movement of the commercial and in-
dustrious classes against the lords and great proprietors
of the soil in this country.—(Hear.) Within the last
fifty years trade had done much for the people
of England. Their population had greatly increased ;
their villages had become: towns, and their small towns
large cities. The despised and contemned classes of
manufacturers and traders had assumed another and
very different position, and the great proprietors of the
soil now found that there were other men and other in-
terests in the kingdom to be consulted besides their own.
They had seen the course of party legislation that h ad been
pursued, and the way in which their varying for-
tunes had been managed during that contest. They
had already seen one somewhat feeble Administration
overthrown—another that every ene thought powerful
shattered to pieces.—(Great cheering.) What was it
that had brought the Whigs into office? What was it
that had driven the Tories from office? The corn- laws.
—(Cheers.) Now it was evident from these circum-
stances—it must be evident that the corn-laws made it
impossible any longer for any party to govern in England
on those principles by which they had hitherto been in-
fluenced.—(Hear, hear.) The Whig Government had
been blamed fir the manner in which they had
left the country in a financial point of view. But to
what was the deficiency in the revenue to be ascribed?
It was owing to bad harvests and a want of employ-
ment.—(Hear, hear.) Now, the landed proprietors
might conceive that trade was of small importance; but
they were now sure that no Government could maintain
its popularity, none could maintain its power, so long as
they had restrictions on the importation of foreign
grain. Social order could not be preserved with-
out the people being fed. Their revenue failing,
taxes must be imposed, general discontent would prevail,
and every Government, under such circumstances, must
first become unpopular, and finally become extinct.—
(Hear, hear.) They must, therefore, come to the con-
clusion that matters had arrived at that crisis that
the administration of public affairs could no longer
be continued with the maintenance of the corn-laws.—
(Hear, and cheers.) Lord John Russell had stated
that he and Sir Robert Peel had come to the same con-
clusion. But Sir John Tyrrell and Mr. Branston spoke
now of Sir IL Peel with disgust and aversion. They were
astonished at his perfidy; but he could tell them that it
was not the perfidy of the Minister they were to blame,
but the impossibility that existed of his being able to
govern with a corn-law.—(Hear, hear.) These were not
in the position of Sir Robert Peel. The country
would not hold themselves responsible for any calamity
that might occur ; and as to posterity, for the applause
of which it was well known that Sir Robert Peel was
most desirous, the notice it would take of him would be
some miserable tablet of some obscure parish church.
—(Loud cheers.) If there was anything that
could impress more strongly upon his mind the necessity
of the abolition of these laws, it was the condition of
the agricultural labourers.—(Hear, hear, and cheers.)
He had visited several of the agricultural counties in
England, and what he had seen there fully bore out the
accounts that had been given respecting their condition.
And, in fact, how could it be otherwise ? They were
in youth employed at work for a remuneration that
would not be given to a child in manufacturing dis-
tricts; and, after a life of labour, to be rewarded at
sixty years of age with 20s. and a cot, provided he had
not inflicted any burden on the parish. His fate might
be summed up in these words of the poet—
" A blessed prospect :
To slave while there is strength; in age a workhouse;
A parish shell at last, and that little bell
Toll'd hastily fur a pauper's funeral I"
In Ireland, too, which is purely an agricultural coun-
try, there was a state of misery bordering on starva-
tion ; and yet Mr. Benett, one of the Members for
Wiltshire, had said in a speech that he made the other
day, that after seventy years of all situations, if he had
the choice, he should select that of an agricultural
labourer—(Great laughter)—and this after he had been
some years possessed of a property of 10,0001. a-year.--
(Hear, hear.) And it was under this system that the
agricultural labourer had been brought down to his pre-
sent heart-broken and dispairing condition. They had
prevented their having a sufficient growth of grain at
home, and they had prevented their receiving an ade-
quate supply from abroad.—(Hear, hear, and cheers.)
The most demoniac malignity could not have invented a
scheme more calculated to bring the great masses of the
working millions of this country to a state of pauperism,
discontent, and insubordination, than this corn-law they
were then opposing.—(Cheers.) And while in this state
of things, what did they find a fat and sleek being,
who was a dignitary of the Church and a great philo-
sopher, recommending for the consumption of the
people ? He did not read a paper about the supplies
that were to be had in the great valley of the Missis-
sippi, but told them that there were still plenty of
sweeds, turnips, and mangel-wurzels to be had in the
country—(Cheers and laughter)—and the Earl Marshal
of England, as if to out-Herod-Herod himself, recom-
mended the hungry to have recourse to hot water and a
pinch of Cayenne pepper. He (Mr. Bright) rejoiced not
when he heard that the Duke of Norfolk had made this
recommendation, but he rather pitied the Noble Duke.
He did not, however, rejoice in his heart when ho saw
the speech the Noble Duke had made in Sussex, be-
cause it served to show the people of England that it
was not enough that they should be sufferings
under the pernicious corn-law, but the law itself
must submit them to insult and wrong at
tho hands of its supporters.—(Hear, hear.) It
was not enough that the law should have passed
—it was not enough that it made their toil value-
less—it was not enough that it made all their skill and
labour unavailing—it was not enough that it did not
allow them to procure a fair supply of the common ne-
cessaries of life, but when this iniquitous law brought
misery and want upon them, its cautious enactors in-
sulted their feelings, and told them, like they would the
beasts of the earth, to go to mangel-wurzel, or to something
else, which even the beasts themselves could not eat. And
he supposed this system would be continued till the peo-
ple should rise, and in one voice proclaim the downfall
of this odious system.—(Cheers.) This law was the
parent of the grievous fluctuations in trade under which
so much suffering was created in this commercial king-
dom ; and now a period was coming when one of these
fluctuations would occur which might be as bad, nay
worse, than the last, when many a man now feeling
himself independent and comfortable in his circumstances,
would find himself swept away by the torrent, and his
goodly ship made a complete wreck of.—(hear,
hear.) Capital in these cases sometimes availed
almost nothing, and they had seen with their own eyes
fluctuations occur in trade which no prudence could have
guarded against. They might be in the midst of great
prosperity and excitement in one year, and in the next
ruin might stare them in the face. At one time they
fancied they were getting rich in a moment, and imme-
diately afterwards they found themselves rapidly retro-
grading. These fluctuations might be all attributed to
the corn-laws; and not only was trade sacrificed by'them,
but the moral character of the country was injured..—
( Hear, and loud cheers.) Now, had they a
scarcity coming or not ? It was said that
to be forewarned was to be forearmed, and
that a foretold, famine never came; and so this famine
would not have come about at all, if at the moment they
saw it was coming they had power to relieve themselves
by obtaining supplies of food from abroad. But the rea-
son a foretold famine never came was, because, when it
was foretold men provided against it, and took care
that it should not come. Here, then, had a famine been
foreseen and foretold, but, instead of taking measures
againsi it, their wise legislators passed a malignant law
to accelerate it, and foreign supplies were not
allowed to come in for fear that it should
bring some injury upon the mortgaged landowners of the
country.—(Cheers.) Well then, these classes of whom
he had spoken had maintained this law for 30 years, and
from 1838 to 1842 amidst the deepest misery; and now
no feeling of mercy—no feeling of relenting—
no sympathy for the sufferings of the people,
would add one iota to induce or make them give up
this law now. They had now, however, nobody to take
office with a promise to maintain it, but they thought
they had somebody who would take office with a pro-
mise to repeal it ; but the promise of Lord John Russell,
or of any other Minister, was entirely conditional. Lord
John Russell could not repeal the corn-laws himself,
but he confessed that it must be done by the unequivocal
expression of the public will. How was this ex-
pression to he had ? Why, by meetings such
as that, and by such meetings as those which
they had held in all parts of the kingdom,
and by a preparation of a most active character for that
general election which, in all human probability, was near
upon them—(Loud cheers.) They had heard, he be-
lieved, that they had had a meeting in Manchester
the other day. It was attended by more of the
i
wealth andinfluence of that district than he had ever seen
assembled before in a meeting of the same number. It was
resolved next Tuesday to call a general meeting of all those
who were favourable to, or who supported the
League, to consider the best means to be
adopted in their present great final struggle. It had been
announced that the council of the League were willing by the
aid of their friends throughout the country to raise a fund of
250,0001. for the purpose of being ready in any emergency,
or for the sake, of maintaining before the ranks of the pm. ,
tectionists to the last the bold and resolute character Which

they had maintained for the last seven years. Now,
if the money required should be subscribed, he could promise
that meeting and the country it would be honestly and judi-
ciously applied for carrying out that great national
object for which the League had been established
and if the protectionists defer the final settlement of this
question till the warm weather came, they would not trouble
their friends to force themselves into half their natural size to
get within the walls of that theatre, but they would ask
them to meet there, and in Manchester, and in Leeds, and
in Glasgow, and in Sheffield, and in Birmingham, and: in
other towns, in numbers so great, with unanimity so re-
markable, resolution so undaunted, that the aristocracy of
this country, with all their wealth, boasted honesty, and with
all their feeling, would quail before the Administration that
should be made.—(Cheers.) Two centuries ago the
people of this country were engaged in a fearful conflict with
the Crown. The despotic and factious monarch assumed the
right to levy taxes without the consent of Parliament or
the people. That assumption was resisted, and this fair
island became a battle-field, and the kingdom was convulsed
from one end to theother. Now if their forefathers, 200 years
ago, resisted that attempt, should they (their children) he
bound by the threats of an aristocracy ?—(Cries of" No.")
" Shall we, who struck the lion down, shall we
Pay the wolf homage, off'ring lowly gaze
And bended knee ?"
Should they consent to be put down, or would they, by a
manful and united expression of the public voice, at once and
for ever put an end to this kind of wrong. Their cause at
least was as good as their forefathers?—(Hear, hear.)
They stood on higher 'vantage ground—they had
a larger number of followers at their beck ; they had more
of wealth, and more of intelligence, more of union, and more
knowledge of their political rights, and knew more of the true
interest of the country, and, what was better than all this,
they had a power and machinery to work with
which was a thousand times better than force,
and should they, with all these advantages, refrain
from that struggle which their forefathers had made before
them, under much more'adverse circumstances ?—(Cheers.)
The force they were employing he was sure would before long
be the means of their obtaining the object. The force, he
allowed, they had found in the 40s. freeholders, and that was
the great constitutional weapon which they intended
to take up, and by which they were sure to conquer—not,
however, as of old, in bloody fields, but in the registration
courts.—(Cheers.) Now he did trust that this law would
be repealed within six months, and if it should be then
necessary that the League should disperse, he did hope
that the people of England would bear in mind
what a great panic had been struck amongst the monopolist
ranks by this small weapon which they had discovered in the
Reform Aot and in the constitution of the country; and in
conclusion, ho implored the middle and working casses to
regard it as the instrument of their deliverance, and as the
strong and irresistible weapon, before -which the domination
of an hereditary peerage must be laid in the dust.—(Cheers.)
Mr. W. J. Fox then stepped forward, and was greeted
with several rounds of applause. When the excitement had
subsided, he said, I should rather have avoided speaking this
evening, had I not been announced to do so, not from any
indisposition to be in active sympathy with this magnificent
meeting, but because, in the unpleasantness of the present
confused state of public affisirs, and the uncertainty that
hangs over oulicondition— our Parliament not at its post—one
Administration having gone out, we scarcely know
why—and another Administration delaying to come
into office, we scarcely know why—friends and enemies
confusedly mixed, so that we cannot discriminate one from
the other—the whole political condition of the country a chaos,
a darkness which may be felt where nothing is seen ; a
night in which one cannot sleep, and where one longs for the
coming day to bring some decisive information, s• that
we may know who are to be the rulers of the country,
and what difficulties or new cause we are next to struggle
with, or what triumphs our question is next to attain—a
confusion one wants put speedily an end to, that we may
not have to think and speak hypothetically—that our desires
and wishes may not be contingent upon something yet uncer-
tain, and our whole course, like the old Castelian oath of
allegiance, which was, to obey the sovereign, if he preserved
the laws and privileges of the people, and if not—not; the last
negative being of much more importance than the positive
with which it was preceded; yet still there are facts in the
state of the country, and there are prospects before us,
where we find something like solid footing ; and
it is to turn the mind away from the uncertainties
of the passing day, and to fix it on those certainties, that I
would endeavour to direct your attention. Of these some are
sad and some are joyous; but still they furnish in their com-
bination elements and materials to which we have to look for
the completion of the great work so long honourably and
successfully carried on by the leaders of the League. The
first certainty which we can discover on looking around us
as the prior one, is that the country is short in its supply of
food, and that the means are not in the best eondition for
making good the deficiency. At first this allegation was
met, as many other truths had been met, by a
brazen denial. We were told by the Society of 17, Old
Bond-street, that it was an insidious and base
delusion, and that this cry of the coming
scarcity was got up for selfish and interested purposes. We
are told that nobody knew—they did not themselves know—
what the harvest would be ; but to contradict the representa-
tion that scarcity might be expected, they write to some of
our local societies, and get what they called satisfactory in-
formation on the subject.—(Hear, and laughter.) It is now
felt to be flying in the face of ascertained facts to
persist longer in the denial, and it is partially admitted
there is a deficiency of supply, that there is a peril of a
scarcity—and let it be remembered scarcity to a nation' is
famine and starvation to thousands of individuals.—(Cheers.)
There is peril, or why have a Commission of Inquiry to in-
quire into the state of the potato crop in Ireland? There is
peril, or why do some of the farmers rejoice that the season
can be made more remunerative than the last ; that is to say,
the price of food to be higher in consequence of the defi-
ciencies in the country? There is danger of a scarcity, or why
the suggestions of certain preposterous specifics for human
food? There is fear, or why have learned disquisitions on the
different arts that may be brought to bear, or compounds of
pepper and that sort of thing, to supply the place of human
food? There is truth in the apprehension, or why the break-
ing up of one Government, and the difficulties which exist
as to the formation of another Government ?—(Cheers.)
And what is it keeps down the supply of food, which the
great wealth that flows into this country from every
part of the globe cannot procure ?—(Loud cheers.) Why,
it is because, to keep up the high price of home produce, we
turn away wheat importation from our very doors.—(Cheers.)
We lately had a stock of wheat in bond, but, under the ope-
ration of this same law I have just mentioned, it leaves our
shores in the time of our own want, and amidst all our ap-
prehensions of a coming scarcity, to seek the more provident,
careful, just, and charitable regions of those who invite sup-
plies of food from all countries, who are willing to buy it un-
der the verge of the horizon. The: fields that should
supply us—rich, fertile lands, of which there are so
many thousand square miles on the continent of
Europe and vast prairies of America, are not barren—
and corn might be sown upon them to supply the popula-
tion of these realms with food more than adequate to their
wants; but they have not been tilled because our restrictive
system gives the cultivators no prospect of a market here,
however much food might be wanted. Here we see the
effect of the system, making acres upon acres sterile, arrest-
ing the arm of the cultivator, and robbing him of his profits,
and us of our proper supply of provisions. And this is the
boasted system that has been lauded as if it were the
perfection of human wisdom. Here ends the slid-
ing-scale—smashed in the moment of peril, ridiculed
by every one, and really ridiculous, because it is in-
efficient, and incapable of keeping away an emergency it has
created, but which it was intended to prevent, showing, that
from beginning to end, the system is false and founded on
fallacy, and false in its profession of.rendering this country in-
dependent offoreign supplies—false in its promise of establishing
cultivation, which should produce a supply adequate to the
demand--false in its promise of giving the farmer stipulated
and remunerating prices—false in its declaration of in-
creasing employment for the labouring classes, the
number employed in the cultivation of land having
been regularly diminishing—false in its promise of
increasing the stability of our means and sources of
supply, and from first to last made up of
falsehoods engendered by the sordid cupidity of
a class carried by interested majorities with inde-
cent haste under the shelter of bayonets, and in
direct violation of the voice of the people. It was sup-
ported by an Administration who commanded the ma-
jority of the votes of the House of Commons, and obtained
the sanction of those who formed the great body-of the House
of Lords, through being altered and tricked in various
ways in order to meet peculiar and interested views;
but still it retained its fallacies to the end as
it did at the beginning, and it deserves to perish,
as I trust it soon will perish, amid universal con-
tempt and execration.— (Loud cheers.) In times
past we have seen our manufacturers bearing up against ad-
versity, and employing that which they had a right to consi-
der and look upon as their private fortunes, for the sole purpose
of keeping on their workmen and artisans, but it is unreason-
able to expect them to do so in future, when we know that is
caused by a pernicious law, which is kept up for a class in-
terest, and when we know, and they know by its alteration,
both the master and the workman could hold on his course,
and with their own resources get through times of peril.
We have no right to expect credit for honest and truthful
intentions unless we look at the mode in which food is dis-
tributed. If we i.o not find enough in one part of the
country we find plenty in another. If the supply is great to
the wealthy it is little to the poor—it is food to one class and
hunger to another—meat here and famine there; it is like
the lion sitting down to prey along with the jackal], where
there is not enough to satisfy the demands of both.
Such is the condition of the people now—one class famishing
of hunger, and the other well to do—the latter not even
allowed to relish potatoes, but obliged to do without—and
we all know the punishment that such a condition in one
class inflicts on another—how the sufferings of the poor
re-acted on those who are well to do—the indigent
on the comfortable. If yott set up fever in St. Giles's,
the effect is) it will penetrate into St. James's—so if
hunger and despreratiou prevail in one class, it
will be felt in its influence among all those
placed in easy circumstances. Your house will not be se•
cure—your banks will be in danger—when you walk out
your pockets will not be safe—everywhere there will be
danger on account of the desperation of crime. If England
were subject to the privations of Ireland, we should have
imported into England the violence of Ireland. The
most comfortable men would find their slumbers
broken—secure sleep, even with pistols under their
head, would be rarely felt.—(Hear, hear.) They would
be calling at the same time for their bed-candle and their
blunderbuss.—(Loud cheers.) Through all classes injury to,
one class is sure to react injuriously on every other.—
( Hear, hear.) To be sure the race would not be extin-
guished, but it would be much depraved. No, though the
British Islands might not be swept of its people, they would
be plunged into desolation on account of the present
system of protection. We should see our sturdy
operative class with their frames attenuated, their
muscular strength gone; we shouldfind the country survive
it, but only the recollection of its people would be left, as
sad testimonials of an iniquitous system— a system which
encouraged and induced every kind of injury and wrong—a
churchyard, instead of being charged with dead corruption,
filled up with that which was alive.—(Load cheers.) If
a liyf s ewde,
findwe stehe
eouerosnenlvtryes tihnus lactbpieeeodndbityiona—viifcitoruesdesztestepma
and no application is made by the Legislature to interfere
to bring about a better condition of things—if the State is in
worfikn,dintofabcte,
theno case, Govern-
mentbydangerinanedx
instoenGee_oveirnf
this Government
at
we

directing all our attention in another direction, the prospect
of the country is one of the finest and proudest it ever occu-
pied.—(Loud cheers.) Such is the position of the country
—such the state of the population, however far behind may
be their rulers. For years the great truths of political eco-
nomy have been taught the masses.—(Loud cheers.) The
facts and doctrines of this important department
of human knowledge has been the study of the
population of the country; the subject of philoso-
phers has been made familiar to public meetings—and what
has been the result ? Opinion has gradually advanced,
and it has been declared again and again, in strength and

" A name at which the world grows pale,
To point a moral or adorn a tale."—(Cheers.)
And that moral is, that no party power, however great,
can resist without destruction the laws of free trade, which
Edmund Burke has told us are part and parcel of the laws of
nature. The growth of this agitation is like the glacier ;
the snows descend silently and softly, attracting no notice;
cloud follows cloud, and stratum is laid upon stratum; the
winds and the biting frosts knit it most firmly and com-
pactly together; the season of winter, which is prejudicial to
all other growth, aids this ; for ages it accumulates, till the time
of moving, when, loosed and wrenched from its place, it
hurls down as an avalanche, bearing all before it—the tro-
phies of thebattle-field, however celebrated—the palace, how-
ever grand--the church, however venerated—till it finds an
abiding place, where it remains an eternal monument of the
power of nature's laws, which are lasting as nature's God.
In the determination evinced by this meeting, in the growing
power of the popular voice, in the growing certainty of se-
curing results, the question is not now whether we shall
rely on Lord John Russell or Sir Robert Peel—we can rely on

ourselves. --G;l;;ePetitioned,You have remonstrated ; if
you continue to register, and to put yourselves in
possession of 401. freehold rights, you may count
upon your object.—(dear, hear.) When you have done
all this, when you have achieved such results, historians
will record the fact. You will have reared a monument, and
on the base of that monument shall be engraven the names
of the philosophers who promulgated the principles—our
Adam Smith, and such like. Above them shall be the
Cobdens and the Brights ; and above them all shall be
an inscription to the glory of the English people, whose was

power. At first the population petitioned the Parliament to
open the ports, but their urgent requests were neglected.
They petitioned in tens and twenties of thousands, but with-
out effect. The warning of danger was not given by the
rulers of the country, but by the people themselves ; and they
originated anewmoyement when left to work out the end as

THE gtTN, LONDON, TtITTRSDAY EVENING, DECEMBER 181 1845.

the power to effect the end. Wealth, and prosperity, and
universally diffused good feeling, will be the possession of
man. Then the cry of triumph on carrying this great
question, will echo back the chorus of heaven—" Glory to
God in the highest, and on earth peace."
The speaker sat down amid long and continued cheering.
As the meeting was separating, Mr. Cobden came forward
and proposed three cheers for " Free Trade," which was re-
sponded to with three time three from the whole audience.

might require In answer to this the most so-
lemn pledge was given that all would be ready,
and that no assistance was necessary. On the
20th of November intimation was first recaived from
the local agents that Mr. Giles could not be ready in
time. About the same time Mr. Giles applied for
2,000/. to go on with. After some hesitation about the
step, he was paid 1,0001., making in all 3,7001., which
he had received. Mr. Giles, seeing their dissatisfac-
tion, offered either to go on, if the money he wanted
was advanced, or else to stop where he was and hand
over to the Company all the plans and sections, as far as
they were prepared, asserting that they could be easily
completed in time. The Managing Committee thought
it best to adopt the latter alternative, having had enough
of Mr. Giles, and they received the plans and sections as
offered. These, however, when examined, were found fur all
practical purposes no better than so much waste paper ;
and it was at once decided to abandon all intention of
a Parliamentary application. Having made this state-
ment, he could now show how the account stood on the
other side. He had stated that tiny . had received
10,700/. The following were the liabilities of the Com-
pany
Paid for various matters connected with the

progress of the Company X4,300
Paid Mr. Giles
Bills due and remaining to be discharged
Sundry other expenses not yet ascertained, say 1,000

Total liabilities..

£17,000

Showing a deficiency of £6,300
Now, as it would be most unreat onable that those who had
paid the two guineas' deposit should have to bear all that
loss, and as it was at least desirable to pay them a guinea
back, that would take off 4,7141. 10s., leaving but 6,0001,
and show an actual deficiency of 11,0001. If the whole of
the applicants for shares were to pay up 20s. on each
share, -the debts would be easily paid off, and 21. returned
on each share to those who had paid two guineas, but to
get them to do so was the question.
After a lengthened discussion, it was resolved, on the
motion of Mr. PAYNE, seconded by Mr. WESTON, that
circulars should be sent to all the Provisional Directors,
and all applicants who had not paid any deposit on
their shares, calling on them to pay 2s. per share, in
exchange for which their letters of allotment would be
returned, and they would be absolved from all legal
responsibility ; but that in case they failed to pay, their
names would be advertised in the newspapers, as a
warning to future companies, and as an act of justice to
the present.
During the discussion referred to, it came out that
only five of the Provisional Directors had paid any de-
posit, out of seventy-five in the whole; and that seven of
the Managing Committee had each subscribed out of
their own pockets a sum of 2101.
After a vote of thanks to the Chairman and Managing
Committee, for their general conduct, the meeting was
adjourned, with an understanding that another should
be called as soon as the effect of the new application is as
ascertained.

RAILWAY SHARE MARKETS
LIVERPOOL, Dec. 17.

STOCK EXCNANGE.—The sales are—Birkenhead, Lanca-
shire, and Cheshire, 27s p.—Bolton, Wigan, and Liverpool,
103% p. ex n.—Clitheroe Junction, 11= p.—Derby and Crewe,
13/1 p.—East Lancashire, No. 2, 274 p.—Grand Junction, 234
—Ditto, New Quarter Shares, 32 p.—II u dderifield Canal and
Railway, 4 p.—Liverpool, Manchester, and Newcastle June-
tier), 15s. p.—London and Birmingham, 191/ p.—London and
Manchester, 1M dis.—Leeds and Dewsbury, 101 p.—Mid-
land, 141—Mold Junction, 15s. dis.—Newcastle and Darling-
ton, 54—North Kent, par—Sheffield and Manchester, 115._
Ditto, Quarter Shares, 6 p.—Ditto, ditto, No. 3 (scrip), 3 p.
—South-Eastern and Dover, 341/—Ditto, Half Shares, ss. p.
—South Wales, 10s. p.—West Riding Union, 31/2 p.—White-
haven and Furness, 105. dis.—Belfast and Ballymena, par.
MANCHESTER, DEC. 17.

, -
STOCK EXCRANGE.—The sales are—Boston, Newark, and
Sheffield, 2114—Leeds and Thirsk, 91A—Manchester' Buxton,
and Matlock, 77s.—Manchester and Leeds, Fifths, 1114—
Manchester, Midland, and Grimsby, 21-11anchester and
Southampton, 2%—Nottingham and Mansfield, 21/s—Shrop-
shire Union, 345. 6d.

SHEFFIELD, DEC. 17. .
STOCK EXCPLLIGE.—The only sale was—West Riding
Union, 51. 16s.

BRISTOL, Drc. 17.
STOCK EXCHANGE.—The sales are—Bristol and Exeter,
New, s%—Bristol and Gloucester, 51—Midland, New, 25%—
Vale of Neath, 3%.

LEEDS, DEC. 17.

STOCK EICIIINGE.—The sales are—Manchester and Leeds,
Fifth Shares, 10 p.—Leeds and Bradford, 181/2—Ditto, Ex-
tensions, 18—Leeds and Thirsk, 914—North British, New,
53/4—Ditto, New Carlisle Branch, 2%—Oxford, Worcester,
and Wolverhampton, 13—West Riding Union, 51,4—Grand
Union, 25. 6d. dis.—Lancashire and North Yorkshire, ls.
dis.—Leeds and York, ss. dis.—Leicester and Bedford, par—
Manchester, Buxton, Matlock, and Midland, 30s. p.--Wake-
field and Harrogate, 2s. 6d. p.
HULL, DEC. 17.
STOCK EXCHANGE.—The sales are—Darwens, 7—North
British, Carlisle, 21. 2s. 2d.—Grand Union, par—Trent Valid,
Continuation, 21,—Grimsby and Sheffield Quarter Shares,
33/4—Ambergate, 214 I—East Lincolnshire, 2—Direct North-
ern, 365.