The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1840-01-10 00:00:00

ANTI-CORN LAW MEETING.

A Public Meeting was held in the Sessions House yesterday,
in pursuance of a requisition addressed to the Mayor, " to
take into consideration the propriety of petitioning the
Legislature for an alteration of the laws affecting the im-
portation of foreign corn." The place was crowded. Among
those present we observed Mr. Thornely, M.P., Colonel
Williams, and the principal leaders of the whig, party in
Liverpool. _

At twelve o'clock the MAYOR took his seat, and the pro-
ceedings commenced by the Deputy TOWN-CLERK reading
the requisition, and the names of the parties by whom it had
been signed. There appeared to be from 170 to 200.
The 'Micron said, that in compliance with the requisition
just read, he had deemed it no less a privilege than a duty to
summon the present meeting. It would scarcely be neces-
sary to remind them, that the subject to be discu-oed was
one of the most important that could be brought under con-
sideration, involving as it did, numerous and mighty inter-
ests, and that it required to be approached with the utmost
calmness and deliberation. (Hear.) He claimed for each
person who might be desirous of addressing the meeting,
whatever might be his views, so long as he confined himself
to the question, a fair and a patient hearing. (Hear.) If
their deliberations were conducted in that spirit, they would
go forth to the world with that weight and importance which
should attach to everything emanating from this great and
intelligent community. Whatever might be his (the mayor's)
individual opinions, and they had been too frequently and
too fearlessly expressed to be misunderstood, his present
duty was the exercise of the strictest impartiality (hear) ; and
in that he had no doubt, if need be, he should receive from
the meeting that support to which he was entitled from the
office which he had this day undertaken. (Hear.) He
called upon the mover of the first resolution.
Mr. THOMAS THORNELY, M.P., said the committee
which had taken the trouble of framing the resolutions and
which had done him the honour to place one of them in his
hands, had, with great propriety, framed the first with a view
to elicit the experience of the meeting as to the operation of
the corn-laws during the past year. It would be recollected
that a meeting was held in this court-room exactly a year
ago, and that petitions were presented to parliament for a
repeal of the corn laws. Now it was their duty to address
the legislature in confirmation of the opinions they then ex-
pressed—or at least to shew that they still desired an alteration
of the present system, unless the events which had occurred
last year had changed their opinions. (Hear.) The first
circumstance that occurred to him as proper for him to al-
lude, was the operation of the existing corn-laws upon the
Bank of England and the currency of the country. It was
well known that the Bank of England had been nearly ex-
hausted of gold—that it had been compelled to raise the rate
of interest, and that that advance had spread over every
banking institution in the United Kingdom. Indeed, the
danger had been imminent that the Bank of England would
have stopped payment, the gold in hand being reduced to a
very small aount. o-4 quite ant itg
issue, accoraimng to what tie authorities upon the 3uoject
considered it right the bank, if obliged to pay in specie,
should hold with regard to its circulation in paper. (Hear,
hear.) The danger was by no means over yet as regarded
the currency, for a deficiency in another harvest, or the
apprehension of it in the spring, might compel the Bank to
stop paying in gold—(hear, hear ;)—and he had heard out of
doors that when the directors were complained of for having
" put on the screw"—that was for throwing out a great deal
of paper offered to them for discount, and raising the rate of
interest, they replied " You call upon us to issue a large.
amount of paper, when your corn-laws are abstracting the
gold from our vaults, in order to meet payments for corn,
which by the present system cannot be paid for upon an
emergency in any other medium !" (Hear, hear.) He
(Mr. Thornely) must say that the whole commercial com-
munity were deeply interested in an alteration of the present
system ; and looking around at the meeting, seeing merchants
engaged in a very wide extent of business, men of all sides
and shades of politics ; seeing, as he rejoiced to see, many
labouring men in this community, probably many of them
out of employment, because the corn-laws prevented them
getting it, which they would if they were repealed or modi-
fied—he did say, that, independently of the banking interest,
the commercial and manufacturing classes, as well as the
labouring members of the community, were deeply interested
in representing to parliament the need of an alteration in the
system. (Hear.) It had been frequently said, that if you
altered the corn-laws, and lowered the price of corn, you
reduced the rate of wages. (Hear.) \% hat had been the
experience of the past year? Had wages in the manfacturing
districts advanced? Provisions had certainly advanced in
price greatly, but so far from the price of labour having ad-
vanced, it had actually fallen ! (Hear.) Last week he was
in Wolverhampton, and a manufacturer in that district told
him that the price of labour at that moment was lower than
it had ever been known before ; and within the last few
weeks the wen engaged in the iron-works of Staffordshire,
had had notice of a reduction in their wages ! (Hear, hear.)
•Why was this? Not, certainly, from want of feeling upon
the part of the iron masters ; but on the contrary, because they
had been obliged to lower the price of their commodities, and
however distressing it might be, to reduce the wages of their
labourers. He would say a word with regard to the labouring
classes, and he hoped no meeting of this sort would ever be
held without the expression of a feeling for their interest and
welfare. (Hear.) If freedom of trade was to advance the
trade and commerce of the country—and the principle was
very simple, that whatever a foreigner chose to bring into
this market, and which we chose to purchase from him, we
ought to be allowed to purchase—there ought to be no legis-
lative enactment to oppose it. (Hear, hear.) Whatever we
chose to export to foreign countries, if foreigners chose to
buy it, we ought to be allowed to export, and they to pur-
chase. The more you increased your intercourse with fo-
reign countries, the greater employment you gave to the
labouring classes, and the higher the rate of wages. He
must say that, independent of what was called " chartism,"
there was great discontent upon the part of the labouring
classes in the manufacturing districts. (Hear.) And he
called upon the meeting, by the resolutions they would adopt,
to show the labouring classes, all over the kingdom, that
they considered the interests of the rich and the poor, the
capitalist and the labourer, to be one and the same. (Hear.)
It was impossible for a commercial community to flourish
without wages advancing, and without the condition of the
labouring classes improving : it was impossible for capitalists
to employ their capital to advantage without benefitting the
labouring classes. Let them, then, throw overboard all divi-
sions into classes ; let them look only to the good of the people,
and see what they could do to advance the interests of all.
The corn trade under the present system, was a complete
lottery. (Hear.) Years ago parliament put state lotteries
down by legislative enactment, but they had nevertheless
established a lottery in tire corn trade. (Hear.) No man
knew whether at a given time the duty would be one sum
or another. The trade, therefore, was a speculative trade,
instead of one of fair and easy management. (Hear.) It
would be right to read, though it had appeared elsewhere,
a quotation from a speech of Sir Robert Peel's, in the House
of Commons, in support of a corn bill brought in by Mr.
Canning twelve years ago, when experiencing a great opposi-
tion lest the corn of other countries should come into our
own. It was on the Bth of March, 1827, that the bill was
brought in by Mr. Canning, and which, if passed, would
have placed us in a better position than we were now. Sir
Robert Peel then said [the hon. gent. read the quotation at
length] it was not for the landed interest to distrust a mea-
sure of reform in the corn laws upon the ground of foreign
supplies lowering the prices of this country. He felt we had
now arrived at a crisis in the trading, commercial, and ma-
nufacturing system of this country ; and if, said the hon.
gent., you persevere in the present system, distress and ruin
will low, but on the other hand, if you alter the corn laws,
you will diffuse joy and satisfaction throughout the land, and
give prosperity to the people at large. (Cheers.) Mr. Thornely
concluded by moving the first resolution, for which, and the
others, see advertisement.

Mr. WILLIAM EARLE, in seconding the resolution, said,
that practical experience of the effects of any peculiar law was
the best guide to a correct opinion, whether that law was in-
jurious to their interests or otherwise. Now all of them
there who were engaged in trade must know how injuriously
the corn laws had interfered with their commercial operations.
The injury inflicted by them upon the labouring classes came
home to many of them in a much more serious form, than to
those who were fortunate enough to be in better circum-
stances. Experience told the labouring man at this very hour
that he was, by these laws, obliged to purchase corn at a high
price, or resort to the sad alternative of purchasing inferior
and unwholesome wheat, thereby deranging the health of his
family, and depriving them of the means of gaining their
livelihood—for if sickness once attacked the poor man,
poverty, with all its awful consequences, inevitably followed.
He had, therefore, great pleasure in seconding the resolution.
The MAYOR was about to put the resolution, when
Mr. LLOYD, addressing the Mayor from the gallery, inti-
mated his intention to move an amendment. He had un-
fortunately been deprived of the advantage of listening to
the speeches delivered upon the resolution, and therefore, in
some measure, he was precluded from answering the specific
arguments urged in those speeches. But the question, in its
general bearings, admitted of discussion ; and he was prepared
to shew that this Anti-Corn-law agitation was, to use a plain
but not very complimentary term, a graMl piece of humbug
from beginning to end. (Laughter, hisses, and cheers.)
The MAYOR reminded the speaker that he might readily
find other terms than that he had just used to express his
sentiments, which would be more consonant to his own feel-
ings and those of the meeting.
Mr. LLOYD had never yet met with a Liverpool audience
that felt the slightest repugnance to hear the truth patiently
and candidly investigated ; and he was convinced the present
meeting, though perhaps differing from him, would give him
that hearing which a candid inquiry after truth demanded.
Perhaps he might have used a milder term than the one
he had employed. He would call it, then, a delusion—
a term which described the whole scheme. (Cries of " No,
no.") In aid of this delusion the Anti-Corn-law League
had engaged itinerant lecturers, who were going about the
country spreading discontent, and disseminating false infor-
mation amongst the labouring classes. (Cries of " No, no,"
and " yes, yes.") They had likewise summoned to their
aid the charms of poetry and of music, by way of still more
strongly influencing the public mind in favour of this grand
inaatOis ‘tiaae-a
bread
would be besieficial to the labouring classes, but what was
cheap bread? (Hear.) It was purely a relative term. Bread
might be as dear at 2s a bushel as it was at this moment at
9s. or lOs • and there could not be the slightest doubt that
the grand Object of those who had set the machinery of the
anti-corn-law league to work was to reduce the wages of la-
bour. (No, no, and yes, yes.) Otherwise the alleged ground
o! complaint was as baseless as the fabric of a vision • and
why ? [A Voice.—Prove it.] The very complaint of the
manufacturers was this—" We cannot compete with foreign
manufacturers ; they undersell us even in our own established
markets ;" and why ? Because they can get—[A Voice.—
"Their corn cheap." (Laughter.) Yes, because as had
been observed by the gentleman that interrupted him, they
could get their corn cheaper, and impose a lower rate of
wages upon their workmen. (Hear, hear.) That fact had
been undeniably established by the unchallenged statement
of the great political quack doctor, Dr Bowring himself. If
the corn-laws were repealed, and foreign wheat substituted fur
the growth of the British soil, at one half or one third of the
present prices, the inevitable result of such a change in the
price of corn would be the lowering of wages. If wages should
not be lower, the manufacturers would still be in the same
hobble—they would still be incapable of competing with their
foreign rivals, for, as he had before observed, it was the very ground of their complaints that they could not get cheap la-
bour. That was their real object, and not cheap bread ; and,
after a reduction of wages, bread would be absolutely dearer
to the labouring classes than it was now. (Hear.) It was
asserted that the corn laws had operated injuriously upon the
manufacturing interests of the country ; but he would put
that matter to a very simple issue, by referring to no docu-
ments but those which had the sanction of the government
imprimatur upon them. (Hear.) The documents he should
quote were returned by the present government in answer to
certain motions in the House of Commons, and if there was
any fraud in them government was responsible. The govern-
mentr inspectors of factories published returns of the number
of mills in the United Kingdom, and the hands employed
them, during the year 1835. These returns were very
mi
nute
in their character, and he believed their accuracy mightrin the
be
depended upon. Similar returns were also moved fo
past session.
year 1838, and laid before parliament in the
1838. the
Thesedi
condi-
tion of the manufacturing interests iu 1835
These returns had been recently printed—thecomposed two
Yinute
volumes, and afforded us the means of coltre
undting
were the results :
The cotton factories in 1835 were . .. •
1838
.... 220,000
in 1835 was .
The number of hands employed in cotton facto-
rieslß3B
Making an increase of 39,000 hands.

1262
1815

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