The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-01-14 00:00:00

THE ANTI-CORN LAW AGITATORS.

(From the Staffordshire Gazette.)
We think it right to warn our readers of the efforts which
are now being made for the repeal of the corn laws. Itinerant
lecturers are proceeding from town to town, on the whining
pretences of patriotism and benevolence, 'denouncing these
laws as oppressive to the labouring classes, and even injuri-
ous to the farmers, for whose immediate protection they
were enacted. But let us not be deceived by the artful
speeches and false reasoning of these Wily orators, who, be
it known, are not impelled by their sympathy with hungry
multitudes, to tickle their ears with their high-seasoned elo-
quence, but by the PAY of certain master-mountebanks, who
pull the wires by which these puppets are made to dance.
We are not disposed to be very severe upon these lecturers
for the performance of their duties to their employers ; still,
when an.audience is thus called together, surely something
like truth and reason is due to them, unless they attend for
the purpose of being deceived, abused, and insulted. But
this is an age in which clever men ale driven to seek employ-
ment in a great variety of ways, as well as an age of .unions
and joint-stock companies. A project being conceived, an
association is formed, and talented persons are emPloyed, as
agents and speech-makers, to carry out their plans, as the.
'phrase is—one of which plans invariably is, to make honest:
John Bull pay the piper, either in proprietary shares, admis-
sion to 'the lecture room, penny subscriptions, or in some
more indirect and less apparent way. Some months ago, in.
the busy town of Manchester, a dozen or two of patriotic
cotton-spinners, groaning and struggling under what they
call immense loads of oppression—thereby meaning large ac-
cumulations of capital, which they could not employ so as
to produce them quite 20 per cent.—and ready as Pat would
say, to spend their last shilling to save the remainder—
met and formed one of these unions, called " The Anti-
Corn-Law Association ;" the avowed purpose of which was
to effect a repeal of the corn-laws, but its ulterior and main
object being to bring about a signal and general reduction of
the wages of labour, by means of which the conspirators cal-
culated on making princelyfortunes ; to further which lauda-
ble objects, most of these patriots, out of their extreme
penury and distress, contrived to subscribe the pretty little
son of ONE THOUSAND POUNDS each ! They have their spa-
cious office, with their clerks and itinerant orators, all of
whom are, of course, well paid ; and the work assigned to the
latter is to collect audiences as they best can, and by flatter-
ing their worst passions, to delude them into a conviction
that a free trade in corn would operate as a remedy for all.
they complain of. Now, as we said before, it is some apology
for these travelling impostors, that they are only the hired
advocates of a bad cause—just as a clever lawyer is engaged
in the defence of a murderer ; his peculiar. duty on such an
occasion is, not to tell the truth, but to try to conceal it : he
is retained and paid for the express purpose of saving the
murderer's life, if he can ; and this he attempts by all means
in his power, at the expence of truth and justice, and the
public good. Now, as this is the acknowledged rule of the
profession, we do not quarrel with the individual for following
it. But if we were on the jury, it would be our business to
attend to the evidence, and to form our opinion on the facts
elicited, and to take special care not to be led away by the
sophisms of the learned advocate.
It is thus, then, that we would estimate the weight of these
anti-corn-law lectures, the false arguments and distorted
facts in which we must not suffer to deceive us. But we
should look at the facts as they are. Is it not evident that
this country, taxed as it is, cannot compete with foreign
countries, comparatively untaxed, in the production of either
corn or manufactures, without our having secured to us, by.
means of protecting duties, a preference in our own markets ?
Are not all our manufactures fostered and protected in this
way ? And why, then, is the landed interest alone—that on
which our very existence depends—to be left unprotected ?
when every sound statesman knows, that if our domestic
agriculture were destroyed, no possible amount of importa-
tion could, in years of general scarcity, secure us against
famine. No one doubts that, in years of plenty, foreign corn
could be brought here at a less price than we can grow it for,
any more than that foreign silks could be imported for less
than they can be manufactured in this country. But what
then ? Are our millions of labourers employed in these pro-
ducts to be deprived of their daily bread on this account ?
A nation ought to be regarded as one great family, whose
interest it is to buy as little from foreigners, and sell as much
to them as possible. Other Countries are not so blind in
their policy as to buy from us more than they want, and
what they really want they will take at all events. Under
this view, then, if we purchase foreign corn and pay our
money for it, we, as a nation, become so much the poorer ;
but if we grow our own corn, it costs us nothing but our
labour, which could not be otherwise employed to the same
advantage, nor perhaps to any real benefit whatever. Con-
' sider the fact of the five or six millions of our gold which

have been recently paid for foreign grain, and the great stag-
nation of trade which this drain of our wealth has produced
amongst us. Why was not this grain paid for in woollens,
and cottons, and hardware, and crockery ? Simply because
those who supplied it did not want such goods, and there.
fore would riot take them. What they want, and what the
continental nations in general want, is our gold, to enable
them to manufacture for themselves, They have already
our machinery and our workmen ; and give .them a portion of
our capital in payment for their corn, and they will soon rival
our manufacturers .in our own markets. Behold, then, the
precious fitrits of free trade—Must we shut our eyes while
these political quacks delude our ears? Undoubtedly, one
effect of a repeal of the corn-laws would be a great reduc-
tion of wages ; because a large proportion of the agricultural
labourers, being deprived of their accustomed work, would
necessarily enter into competition with the manufacturing
labourers ; and this redundancy of hands would cause a cor-
responding scarcity of employment. This would answer the
purpose of the great manufacturers, by enabling them to fill
up the measure of their proposed wealth in double-quick
time ; but it would be ruin to the labouring classes. And
what is. the national benefit of these already opulent mann-
facturerS becoming so enormously rich ? Have we not ex-
amples enough of them ? They are gradually supplanting the
old race of land proprietors ; and do we not usually find
them harder task-masters than the hereditary aristocracy ?
. .

But who ever heard of a farmer thriving at this rate, or in-
deed of his raising himself, even in the course of a long life,
above mediocrity ? And can any moral reason be offered
why a farmer, with a certain amount of capital, should not
have an equal chance of enriching himself with a manufac-
turer of the like capital ? But farmers have not their thou-
sands to subscribe for purposes of agitation ; nor is it their
practice to conspire to enrich themselves at the expense of
other people. They are plain matter of fact men, who would
scorn to hire ranting speech-makers to travel the country, on
their behalf, to persuade the ignorant and unwary that black
is white, as is the case with the " Anti-corn-law Associa-
tion." But the trick is out, and we would earnestly guard
all honest men against being gulled by the manoeuvring of
these combined manufacturers to• procure a repeal of the
corn-laws, merely to enable themselves to draw enormous
profits out of the reduction of wages, which they foresee
would be the consequence.
One of the emissaries of this worshipful association, call-
ing himself Mr. Sydney Smith, bas lately been lecturing in
this county ; not the Sir Sydney Smith, of whom we have
formerly heard, whose name is immortalized by his brave de-
fence of an Acre ; but, as we suspect, a very dpposite charac-
ter, who under the guise of a distinguished name, comes to
declare perpetual war against all our acres. It is one of the
known habits of all parasites to attach themselves to diseased
subjects; and-we accordingly, find this slimy gentleman fix-
ing his fangs on the morbid beads of radicalism and political
dissent—political dissent, we say, for we would not insinuate
aught against conscientious religious dissent, however we
may lament its existence. It would be only a waste of time
and words to expose and refute all the mis-statements and ex-
aggeration of this long-winded lecturer ; but to show bow
little his statements are to be trusted, it may be necessary to
treat our readers who do not see the " North Staffordshire
Mercury," with a sample or two of his accuracy and consis-
tency. After a large measure of low abuse and calling of
names of the landowners, he states that Peel's famous cur-
rency bill destroyed, at one blow, half the property of the
merchant and labourer, whilst the value of landed property
was doubled. Had he said the value of funded property was
doubled by it, he would have been-nearer the truth ; but this,
would not have suited his purpose. He then states the average
wages of farm labourers in several counties, at ss. or 6s. per
week only ; and in another part of his lecture he hints, what a
good exchange they would make by going into the large town
to receive 30s. per week.; here we see his real object peep
out—namely, to allure country labourers into the towns, in
order to reduce the factory wages. Even in Manchester, he
says, they might earn 245. But amongst the people he- was
then addressing, and whom he dignifies with the title of the
" Aristocracy of labour," a girl of nineteen or twenty could
earn 19s. or 20s. per week. The odour of this, however, was
a little too strong to be between the wind and their nobility :
murmurs of disapprobation arose ; and a gentleman present
—not one of the aristocrats—was so good as to set the lec-
turer aright in this trifling mistake, by informing him that the
average earnings of such young women did not exceed 12s.
per week. But, suppose we were to admit the truth of all
this man's statements, in whatlight would they show the disc
tress of the manufacturers? Would they not make out a very
strong case in favour of greater protection being given to the
agricultural interest, and less to the manufacturing ? So
much for the lecturer's accuracy, and now for his consistency,
a single example of which may suffice. He repeatedly states
the present price of wheat at 80s. per quarter ; and the pre-
sent rate of duty on wheat imported, he says, exceeds 10s.
per quarter. Now, he knew, or ought to have known, that
when the average price of wheat rises to 735.-per quarter, the
import duty can only be is. per quarter. In short, his whole
lecture is a tissue of false and garbled statements, only cal-
culated to mislead those who know nothing of the facts. And
it is for this impudent attempt to deceive, and for the quack-
ery of prating about what he does not understand, that we
are induced to show him up. On the horns of this dilemma,
then, we leave him, and let him take shame to himself, either
for having; undertaken to lecture on a subject of which he
was grossly and culpably ignorant, or for having asserted as
facts what he knew to be absolutely and mischievously false.

ABOOT CORN-LAW HUMBUGGIN.

To th' Edditor of th:Mancheyer Courrier, from a Chap e

Chesher.

Suu,—Seeing neebur clodhopper last papper but one, we
his better laming, had a spel at yore corn-law brawlers, pre-
tefidin to kno all aboot their own intrest, an non ahoot ourn,
of which they care no moor than the wisp o' a cat's tail. It
strikes me, that being born we so mich gab in their heed,
they mun at ther burths a saved ther muther's an th' gruntin,
by givin mouth thersels. Rare chaps these fellies! It seems
to ha cum at jitrest quite natrul, an to ha groun up we em—
an- religion an respect for providence they tack no heed-for;
an if bad corn times cum, they set it au doon to us clods, that
ha a fou life to geet a lifin among em—an tauk as if price
wur to -be at th' lowest -when we ha the wurst crops. If yo
notis, Mr. Edditor, they allus float at top, like. cream, at
such times, an as hussy as bees when swarmin—ay, an
they'd sting as hard if yo'd let 'em. They's whissy chaps,
ba'nt 'em ? If we tellies in Chesher cau'nt turn up ten thoo-
san clods a minnet, and mack furros we plughs as fast as
wildfire runs—mack grass gro, an mack itself into hay with-
oot help—feed cows we a whirligig—mack 'em milk oneanu-
ther, an gro corn under umbrellas, an ripen it we stem, they
think nowt on us, but sets a taukin aboot forrin parts, when
they get th' extinguisher of failin seesons on our heeds as
they thinks—an grumbles if we put on Saxon stockins. Yo
see Mr. Edditor, they wants to feed up ther own guts, and to
mack fiddle strings o ours, if we'd let 'ern ; but doo what yo
con for us, if yo pleeasen, Mr. Edditor, for it's plain they'd
loike to see au th' land in th' queen's dominyuns growin
rushes, that they moight donee to 'em, while ther green.
God help 'em, they allus macks t' moost stur when wee's t'
worst off ; and when they e' th' same case abrooad, an we're
lucky we plenty, ther gabs are as close as shutters at midneet;
vomits,goo
Inc!, dinner
e- o'rer e it,
pump a n ;
b an
as if turn aboot, under th' blessin o' th' Almighty, wur not
as fair for one as another. But leave 'em to 'rnsels, they'll
a
e sic
thenfu wheno'tl; e
theisdum stuff
, tollis
they
off ther stornmaks, they'll be th' better for 't ; for yo sees,
Mr. Edditor, t' biles bin
cummin on a lung toime this bout,
an when they's weel enuff, they'l praps wank off wee ther fac-
trys on ther backs to forrin parts, loike Scotch peddlars of
oud, an we'll get rid o' th' windy whittlers ; or let some o'
'em buy lond e Chesher, and cum we ther whirligigs to work
it, all they'll foind us no so weel off as they'd thinks for. If
they dos corn, they'll larn summut moor than they know,
I'll warrant 'em—praps to moind ther owd bissness, andtcr
work it better, if they havant got to a star still areddy.
Good by, Mr. Edditor, till yo meets agin we - •
WILLY WEASLE,
If a poor ch bees worth yore notis in or
oike as me Y papper.

One of the trawl boats bej4Pgii7g to this port saw, one day
this week, just outside the Lizard, a 4ne whale, blowing up
tke.water to a tremendous height. This is the second whale
leas been seen by the crew of the same Yel3§Pl during
the last fortnight.—Falrho44 Patket; • • ' • •