The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-12-21 00:00:00

LONG "YARNS" OF THE ANTI-CORN-LAW

PHILOSOPHERS

When any

given number of wiseacres meet together to

make out a case of grievance, it is almost matter of certainty
that they will transgress the limits of truth and probability
in their anxiety to establish the object for which they have
clubbed their wits " and deserted for a time their shop-
boards, their counters, and their counting-houses. But
when our good neighbours in the manufacturing districts
congregate ; when " the League " whips up its " ministers
of all denominations," its simpletons of all degrees, or its
-story-tellers of every calibre ; we prepare ourselves for
something superlative in the inventive line, and expect to be
horrified into fits by their daring mendacity, or to be well-
nigh extinguished by laughter at their outrageous absurdities.
We had a gathering of this description in the town of
Manchester on Thursday last, which is reported at upwards
of twelve columns' length in the Manchester Guardian,
under the style and title of the " Great Meeting of the Cot-
ton Trade at Manchester." An examination, however, of
the names of the illustrious individuals who took part in the

proceedings, is quite sufficient to satisfy any one acquainted
with the district as to the said illustrious individuals having
one fraction more right to style their hobnobbing party a
" great meeting of the cotton trade," than the celebrated
three tailors of Tooley-street were entitled to call themselves
" the people of England." The whole affair was just au
additional wriggle of the sinking and contemptible Anti-
Corn-Law League; and though Cobden out-Cobdened him-
self—although John Brooks descended " deeper and deeper
still" into his native element of farce and vulgarity—although
Kershaw, Ashworth, Rawson, and the rest, brayed longer
and louder than they ever brayed before,—the only result of
their exertions, and those of their painstaking chroniclers,
is the production of a mass of varied absurdity, mendacity,
and inveterate stupidity, such as we venture to say was never
produced by any similar number of bipeds, at one sitting,
since the world began.

We shall not, of course, attempt to go through the tedious
rigmarole which these gentlemen call " speeches," or to ex-
amine all the one-sided cock-and-bull stories which they
designate as " statistical information." We may briefly,
however, inform our readers to what it all amounts. The
cotton trade of Manchester and its neighbourhood was very
good in 1835, and is very bad in December 1841. The peo-
ple employed in it were very well off and thriving in 1835,
but are not well off in December 1841. Poor-rates are higher
and wages are lower in 1841 than they were in 1835 ; and the
moving cause of this aggregation of calamities is—the corn-
laws, of course ! Not a whisper is breathed of the existence
of any other evil than that monstrous one, the " landlords'
monopoly" ! Why, any collection of old women over their

washing-tubs could have made just as extraordinary disco-
veries, backed by an equal quantity of reasoning—that is, by
none at all. And yet the rubbish collected together by the
" delegates " at this meeting—scraped up from all imagina-
ble sources in Bolton, Wigan, Rochdale, and even in towns
of lesser manufacturing fame, and spun into yarns of all
lengths, and to suit all capacities of swallow—is held up by
the scribes of whiggery as the quintessence of wisdom, phi-
losophy, lead truth, and as the moral engine which is to hurl
down conservatism, and the government of its choice, to be
trampled beneath the feet of rampant liberalism !
Not one new fact that we can discover—not one new argu-
ment—is contained in this tedious eight hours' talk ; but we
have suppressions of facts innumerable, and exaggerations
without end. A mass of statistics is brought forward to
shew the progressive decline of wages during the past ten
years ; but we are told nothing of the increased perfection
attained by machinery during the same period, or of the
number of pauper families spirited away from the South of
England to increase the amount of labour in the matuffac-
luring districts, and to produce this very decline. We are
told nothing either of the fact that, with increasing poor-
rates and declining wages, mills have gone on multiplying,
and production almost doubled itself. We are told of fac-
tories which are working half time or standing idle; but we
are not told how great a portion of these have been actually
erected or enlarged since the very period from which nearly
all their elaborately-wrought tables of distress take date.
We are told, in fact, of all, and more than all, the sufferings
of the manufacturing body ; but not a word is breathed of
the career of folly and overweening avarice which has brought
those sufferings upon their heads, and upon those as well of
the abused and unoffending labouring classes.
We are thankful, however, to the gentlemen of the League
for the sanction and authority which they have given, at this
meeting, to many facts and principles which their advocates
have hitherto been accustomed to evade whenever they were
likely to be used against them. We can now pin them, we

presume, to every statement made at this meeting, and to
the results deducible therefrom. We shall not enter into

any of these just now however, although there are a few upon
which we shall remark hereafter ; but shall content ourselves
with quoting the only attempt made, during the whole of the
proceedings (except by ignorant raving against the corn-laws)
for the existing position of the manufacturing interest. The
speaker, we must premise, is Mr. Robert Hyde Greg, late
M.P. for the borough of Manchester, an extensive manufac-

turer, and quite a great gun amongst the anti-corn-law gen-
try. Hear Mr. Greg, as reported by the Manchester,Guar-

" We must remember that, about ten years ago, we began
to feel the exclusion from the markets of America and the,
German league. In the next place, we began to feel the ef-
fects of foreign competition in the neutral markets ; but most
of all were we suffering from the want of returns for the ex-
port of our manufactures. At that period a very extraordi-
nary concurrence of accidental causes occurred. There was
a succession of abundant harvests, which gave us cheap food;
and there was a consequent increased consumption among
the people, and a great additional demand for our manufac •
tures arose about the same time in America, in consequence
of the extensive purchase by us of American bank stocks and
other securities. There were also those joint• stock banks
that we hear of everlastingly as the main cause of the dis-
tress. No doubt they gave a helping hand to it. It is, how-
ever, no less true, that state of things which now exists was
really coming on ten years ago. These difficulties were com-
ing on our manufactures and commerce under those restric-
tions, which, but for the extraordinary circumstances I have
mentioned, would long since have told a tale. These cir-
cumstances have not only blinded our rulers, but they have
elso blinded ourselves, and we are now suffering more than
we should have been, owing to that increase in our produc-
tion, and it must postpone the time of improvement."
Thus far Mr. Greg with respect to the concurrent causes
of our present manufacturing distress—" over-production"
and over-stimulation being not by any means amongst the
least. Add to these the effect of ten years of Whig misgo-
vernment, and the whole matter is pretty well accounted for,
without the necessity of " our rising from the dead," or a
new philosophy being discovered, to make it clear to every
one who has the disposition to open his eyes and see.

A commission de lunatic() inquirendo sat in Dublin on
Tuesday on the Right Rev. Robert Fowler, D.D., Bishop of
Ossory. The jury fonnd his lordship to he of unsound mind.
His property in ready money and the funds was proved to
be about £30,000, landed estates in Ireland and England
£B,OOO a year, the income of his lordship's see being £5,000
per annum.

ASTHMA.—The discovery made by Mr. Cronin, for the
relief of this distressing spasmodic affection, attracts, we
hear, attention. Medical writers, in general, assert that
asthma arises from the tronchial tubes becoming impervious.
Mr. C. avers that this disease depends not on impervious
action in the tronchial tubes, but on a spasmodic action,
peculiar to the abdominal muscles. The days the dispensary
to which this gentleman is attached is opened to the poor,
may be seen in another column.
MR. HARTLEY'S AND MR. GAGE'S PLANS.—The Dock
Committee at a late meeting resolved, in consequence of the
representations made to tbem by deputations from the seve-
ral mercantile associations, to take the opinion of Mr.
Walker and Mr. Cubitt, the eminent engineers, upon the
plans proposed by Mr. Hartley and Mr. Gage. The ques-
tions for these gentlemen to report upon are, we have heard,
which of the two is, under all the circumstances of the port,
the best ; and next, whether any improvements can be effected
in the approved plan, the preservation of the warehouses
being in all cases indispensable. The engineers have heard
a great variety of evidence upon the subject, and their in-
quiries terminated on Saturday. Mr. Cubitt left Liverpool
the sane afternoon, and Mr. Walker yesterday.

Mr. HEELEY'S CANDLE SPRlNG.—Without e, ception,
this is the neatest, cleanest, and most useful little invention
we have seen for some time. These springs are used for fix-
ing the candle in the socket, and completely prevent accident.
We recommend them to notice. Mr. Heeley is always in-
venting something good. We wonder what will be the next
article for which a patent is to be obtained.
_ _

WEST INDIA MAILS.—SOUTHAMPTON, THURSDAY
NIGHT.—During the whole day the very utmost exertions
have been used to despatch the Forth with strict punctu-
ality, according to the announcement of the advertisements ;
but at the hour of our writing she still remains at her
anchorage in Southampton Water. At about three o'clock
this afternoon she was pretty well prepared for sea, but
darkness closing in soon after, it was deemed prudent by the
directors, as well as Captain Fayrer, that she should continue.
at her anchorage during the night, and proceed to sea at an
early hour in the morning. This arrangement is undoubt-
edly the very best that could be made, insuring the greatest
degree of comfort and convenience to the passengers, and
enabling the vessel to start free from all confusion and in-
convenience of a hurried departure. The harbour of South-
ampton has been one scene of gaiety during the whole day,
innumerable boats arriving and departing from the Forth,
and all parties seem to enter into the feeling of pleasure which
must animate every one in the good prospects which seem to
attend the opening of this magnificent enterprise. The Sol-
way, under the command of Captain Britton • the Tweed,
Captain Frankland : and the Clyde, Captain 'Woodruff, are
all appointed to sail on Saturday, so that an extraordinary
scene of bustle and excitement is expected on that day. The
Tay, Captain Haydon ; and the Dee, Captain Oman, will
shortly follow in the route, to take up their respective
stations.
DEATH OF THE EARL OF WESTMORLAND.—At Brighton,
on the 16th instant, after a long illness, the Earl of West-
morland, K.G., in the 82nd year of his age. The noble
Earl was born in Jan. 1759; succeeded his father 9th Earl,
26th April, 1774, who was Chancellor of the University of
Oxford from 1759 to 1762 ; married 20th May, 1782, Sarah
(who died Oth Nov. 1793, daughter and heiress of Robert
Child, Esq. ; m. 2dly. 24th March, 1800, Jane, 2nd daughter
and co-heiress of Richard Hugh Saunders, Esq., M.D., and
sister of the Viscountess Melville. His Lordship was Lord-
Lieutenant of Northamptonshire; father of the Countess
of Jersey, grandfather of Hon. John George Brabazon
M.P. the
Ponsonby, M.P., Dowager Countess of Koneorrley, aonfd t
Viscount Lady
of Hon. Charles Ponsonby,
Lowther, M.P., Hon. Col. Henry Cecil Lowther,
Lady of Right Hon. Sir John Beckett, Bart., the Lady of
Lord William Powlett •, son of Duke of Cleveland, and J.
H. Lowther, Esq., M.P. Was Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland
from 1787 to 1794, and Master ,of the Buck Hounds to his
Majesty George IV. He is succeeded in his title and estates
by his son, General Lord Burghersh, G. C. H., K. C. 8.,
who served in Hanover, at the Dardanelles, Constantinople,
Roleia, Vimeria, Talavera, Torres Vedras, Bosaco ; and,
diplomatically, at the Italian and German Courts. His
Lordship was born on the 3d Feb. 1784; married, 26th June,
1811, the Hon. Priscilla Wellesley Pole, youngest daughter
of Lord Maryborough.