The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-06-29 00:00:00

WARD MEETINGS.

STREET AND EXCHANGE.
Tile electors of these wards met on Friday evening in the
scions assembly-room of the Queen's Arms Hotel, for the

CASTLI

purpose of heariog an explanation of the political sentiments
of Lord Sandon and Mr. Cresswell. The room was crowded
to excess, and many hundreds were obliged to remain out-
side, unable to obtain admission.

PETER HOPE, Esq., having been called to the chair, ad-
dressed the meeting in a very eloquent and impressive speech,
in support of conservative and protestant principles. He
quoted the speeches of all the monarchs of the House of
Brunswick down to George the Third, to show that they felt
that they sat upon the throne of these realms upon no other
principle. He particularly mentioned that George the
Third, in his first speech after his accession, used these me-
morable words—".l have resolution to descend from the

throne to a cottage ; I have resolution, if need be, to de-
scend from the throne and lay my head upon the block ; but
I have not resolution to depart from my coronation oath.

The worthy chairman
,concluded by reading from the ad-
dresses of Lord, Sandon and Mr. Cresswell some passages
breathing the warmest attachment to the protestant church
as established by law, and to our ancient institutions. On
these grounds he strongly recommended them to the electors
of Castle-street and Exchange 'Wards. (Loud cheers.)
Mr. GEORGE GREEN, in a spirited address, moved the
first resolution as follows—" That at a time when all the
great interests of the country are so recklessly agitated by
the present ministers, for the mere purpose of retaining
place, it is the duty of the electors of Liverpool to select men
of known constitutional principles to represent this import-
ant borough in parliament.
Mr. POTTER seconded the resolution, and it was carried
with enthusiastic cheers.
Mr. GEORGE GRANT moved the second resolution, which
was to the effect that the public conduct of Lord Sandon
and Mr. Cresswell had merited the high approbation of the
meeting, and that the electors present pledged themselves to
use all legal and constitutional means to secure their re-
election. (Loud cheers.)
Mr. WILKINSON seconded the resolution, and it was im-
mediately adopted.
Lord SANDON then presented himself, and was most cor-
dially received. After alluding to the enthusiasm with which
he and his learned colleague were received wherever they
went, by all classes of the peaple, the noble lord said he would
trespass for a few moments upon the attention of the meet-
ing with rather a dry subject. Topics of what was commonly
called political economy were not the most entertaining to
crowded assemblies, and even when introduced into the
House of Commons, gentlemen who were not compelled to
stay took up their hats and walked away. Little favour,
then, could such subjects expect to meet in still more nu-
merous assemblies ; but, at the same time, as falsehoods and
delusions were being attempted to be practised upon the pub-
lic mind, perhaps he should be excused for alluding to them.
(Hear.) The cry was set up for cheap bread; but the meet-
ing knew perfectly well that there was a very easy answer to
that, namely, that with cheap bread came low wages. (Hear.)
And however our opponents might choose to say, that that
was no answer, or one which only could proceed from those
who were ignorant of the first principles of political economy,
he would take the liberty of stating that such had been and
was the opinion of a great authority.
A VOICE.—IS it Colonel Williams ?

Lord SANDON.—No, it was not the authority of Colonel
Williams that he meant to set up ; but he meant to set up
the opinion of another colonel against him, and that was
Colonel Torrens. (Hear, hear.) Although that gentleman
was not perhaps so well known to the meeting as the gallant
officer who was so active in the political affairs of Liverpool,
Colonel Torrens was nevertheless well known as a political
economist, and he was a much-quoted authority upon the
corn-law ; he was no personal bigot to the landed interest,
but a regular free trader, and was considered one of the
greatest authorities upon that subject. He (Lord Sandon)
would then set the opinion of one colonel against the other.
Colonel Torrens had written a book upon the external corn
trade, and in that book he said, every reduction in the
money price of corn reduces the money price of labour." He
was not speaking of their going together day by day, but of
their following each other in the long run—" and if this be-
comes a country where corn is cheap, wages will inevitably
follow." Perhaps the meeting had heard of Malthus, a
celebrated philosopher, much quoted. In the beginning
of his life he published a much-admired production in
favour of free trade in corn ; but, later in life, having
seen the effects of various experiments in free trade in corn,
he came to an entirely different conclusion. (Cries of
hear, hear.) His argument was this—" Ido not abandon my
original position that free trade in cern, if it could be carried
into effect, would be a benefit; but I have seen enough of the
practices of foreign countries, to know that if we establish a
free trade in corn, we shall not be benefited; for just when
we want corn, they will interfere to prevent us having it."
(Hear.) He looked at France, Prussia, and Odessa, and saw
that when we most wanted corn they would absolutely pro-
hibit the exportation of it, or, by high duties, would make it
too dear for the English people ; therefore, he said that free
trade in corn, if it could be carried ont, might still be the
best plan, and that, for a time, it might be carried out ' • but
whenever we most wanted the principle to be carried into
effect, foreign countries would refuse to allow their corn to
be supplied. "I, therefore," said he. abandon the principle
in practice, although, abstractedly, I think it the best."
(Hear.) Now we, as statesmen, must look at this subject,
not as we would in our closets, abstractedly, but deal with it
practicaliy, as with the concerns of life. Malthus said,
" Wages will finally be determined by the money price of
corn, and by the demand for labour." " Upon the labouring
classes," he said. " the effects of opening our ports for the
free importation of corn will be greatly to lower their wages,
and subject them to much greater fluctuations of price."
(Hear, hear.) In addition to these opinions, he (Lord San-
don) had on another occasion quoted that of Mr. Huskisson,
who told us precisely the same thing—that the free importa-
tion of corn would not only lower the price of corn, but that
wages would be reduced with infinitely more rapidity.
(Cheers.) Therefore, whatever difference of opinion there
might be upon this much-controverted question, we might
shelter ourselves under the opinions of these great men, and
at least have some pretensions not to be considered fools,
dolts, and blockheads, if we did not fall in with the doctrines
of these new-light philosophers. (Hear and cheers.) We
were always told that in case of our taking corn from foreign
countries, they would infallibly take in return our manufac.
tures. We knew, practically, the reverse. (Hear.) For the
last three years we had taken an immense proportion of
reign corn, owing to our deficient harvests, and they had not
taken an increased proportion of our manufactures. We
knew it was not always the same parties who wanted our ma-
nufactures from whom we wanted our corn ; but that those
from whom we took our corn would take our corn, and with
the gold taking that which gave a stimulus to the whole in-
dustry of the country, and to the general rate of prices ; and
we know from experience, that if we did but furnish that gold
to foreign countries, they would employ it for the purpose,
not of raising fresh corn, but of establishing rival manufac-
tures. (Hear and cheers.) The noble lord here related some
facts illustrative of this assertion. But we were told that, at
any rate, whatever effect the export of corn might have when
it only took place occasionally under our existing system, if
we had a regular trade, there would be established a re-
gular exchange. That certainly was possible, and specula-
tion might be exercised upon the possibility of such a result;
but what would be the first consequence ? (Hear.) At this
moment the specie in the Bank of England amounted to
between four and five millions. How soon would that be
exhausted by a drain for gold, if we had to purchase a mil-
lion or two of quarters of corn for foreign countries? (Hear,
hear, and great cheering.) However much the system might
be changed, the first result must be the exportation of gold,
for the effect of a change of system could not be perceived,
nor an exchange of manufactures be at once established.
.The first result, then, must be, however it might answer in
the long run, that which had already happened under the
existing system : we must pay for our corn in gold, and the
drain for that gold must reduce the Bank of England to the
s ery brink of ruin. (Hear.) This feeling had so strongly
operated upon the mind of Mr. Horsley Palmer, one of the
oldest bank directors, although an advocate for free trade,
and who had signed a petition against protection, that when
he saw how fatal the result would be to the Bank of Eng-
land, he protested publicly in the strongest manner, on the
part of the bank, against those principles being adopted.
(Hear.) What would be the effect on the exchanges? Every-
body knew the difference between the times when money was
scarce and when it was abundant ; everybody knew the dif-
ference it made in trade in England, whether money was
cheap or dear—between the times when every man was
obliged to limit his transactions into the narrowest compass,
and when they were justified in entering into speculations.
Would not the effect be, when the Bank of England nar-
rowed its circulation, screwed down its issues, called in every-
thing owing to it, for the purpose of keeping the exchange,
be most disastrous upon the existing state of industry ?
Would it not absolutely crush those manufacturers which
were now, he regretted to say, labouring under considerable
depression? (Hear, hear, and continued cheers.) Our op-
ponents told us, that if we had a regular trade in corn we
should not have those sudden demands for bullion ; but let
him examine this question for a moment. Suppose, in the
common run of good years, that we, by an established trade
in corn, habitually imported two millions of quarters, and
that these two millions of quarters were paid for by British
manufacturers. So far so well ; there was no drain for
gold. But under any circumstances we must be exposed
to fluctuations and bad harvests, and we should want
more corn at those times. If in average years we wanted
two millions of quarters, in bad years we should want four
millions ; for this difference we should be obliged to send
out gold, as under the present system. (Hear, hear.) We
should not be able to pay for this difference in manufactures,
by the mere inability to send out manufactures for the extra-
ordinary demand for corn-which would arise occasionally.
(Hear.) Whilst he said these things, he did not intend to
say that the details of the existing system were the very best
which could be devised. He believed they were not. (Hear,
hear.) lie believed, that in the whole of this question we
were proceeding by experiment ; that the principle was cor-
rect, but not carried out as it ought to be. He believed the
protection was higher than it ought to be—that the transi-
tions in the duties were quicker than they ought to be, and
that better provision might be made for the prevention of
improper speculation; but these were details which required
calm consideration in the closet, and consultation with the
most experienced persons before adopted. (Hear.) He
thought he might truly say, that these were not the questions
which, after all, would govern the action of the constituency
upon this occasion. He might appeal to them in defence of
the principles he had taken the liberty of stating, not only to
the abstract discussions upon opinions, but to the manner in
Which 'himself and his colleagues had been received that
morning in the great corn-market in this town, as evidence
that they at least were not considered such heretics as to be
rejected by some of the most enlightened men in that par-
particular question that the electors were
ticular trade. (Hear, hear.) But, as he had said before, it
was not upon this
to try them. (Hear.) He believed their worthy chairman
and himself did not quite agree upon the sugar question.
The chairman would rather have a reduction in it, and he
(Lord Sandon) had had the honour of presenting a petition
from him and others to parliament for more than even the
government proposed ; but it gave him no great pain to see
that we differed as to a few shillings in the price of sugar,
seeing that the chairman would not for that abandon the great
principles of protestantism. But if he (Lord Sandon) and
others had sinned in sugar, might they not ask whether mi-
nisters had not sinned in tea ? if they had prevented the peo-
ple putting sugar so cheap into their tea as they might desire,
might they not blame the government for raising the price of
the tea into which they put it, and that too upon no principle
at all, but by the most gross neglect of one of the greatest
branches of trade, and one of the greatest interests of the coun-
try? The noble lord then described the Conduct of the govern-
ment in relation to the ad valorem duty on tea, which they
were obliged to abandon, and said they were always botching
whatever they undertook. They were always trying experi-
ments with great interests, thus unsettling the confidence of
all. He then asked in what matters of commerce the present
government merited confidence? Had they merited it for
their activity in getting rid of the blockade of Buenos
Ayres and Mexico, for their promptitude in settling the
differences about the duties on oil, or the still more important
question of the exportation of sulphur? As to the sulphur
question, it was the gross neglect of Lord Paluaeriton who
allowed it, in the absence of the minister from his station, to
get into such a position that we were on the brink of a war
with Naples, and it was only at the cannon's mouth that it
was amicably arranged. (Hear.) Had we' any reason to
thank them for the rapidity with which they had settled a
treaty of commerce with Spain and Portugal? Had we any
reason to thank them for the position which British trade
and navigation enjoyed with the trade of Portugal more
especially, from which we were almost entirely excluded?
He believed there was hardly a British ship which traded
between Portugal and Liverpool, or between Havana and
Liverpool, and that it was all owing to the want of energy
upon the part of her majesty's goverpment. (Cheers.) These