The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1841-07-13 00:00:00

Mr. TOLLEMACITE.—No: (Great cheering.)
Mr. WILBRAIIAM.—qphave it in black and white. (Hear,
hear.) I have it in letter's that his great object was to rescue
the county from the hands of the tories. (Hear, and some
uproar.)

Mr. TOLLEMACHE.—I have the letters too. You have
stated part of the truth but not the whole. (Cheers.) Speak
the whole truth ! (Renewed cheers.)

,—Gentlemen, I have endeavoured to
promote your interest in this county to the very best of my
power, and upon every occasion except one, and that is the
Weaver Churches Bill, Sir Philip Egerton and myself have
gone hand in hand. (Hear.) I opposed that bill because 1

Mr. WILBRAHAM

• . ..
thought it an encroachment upon your rights. (Cheers
and hisses.) I presented to the Ilouse of Commons in one
day two and twenty petitions against that bill, and I did think
it was my duty to oppose it, because it improperly put other

hands into your pockets—into the pockets of the ratepayers for
the purpose of building churches. (Much hissing, followed
by cheers.) I should be glad to know, as I understand there

are some gentlemen here who voted for me, and who brought
• - . • • •

up their tenants to vote for we at the last election against

Mr. Corbett, what I have done, what is the crime 1 have

committed, that they choose to go round and bring up those

very same tenants to vote against me upon this occasion ?
(Cries of " You have done plenty," and counter cheers.)
Have I done anything in opposition to my principles, have I
neglected my duty, have I gone into any extravagant mea-
sures ? (Hear, hear.) lam the same man I was when I first
appeared before you. lam as averse to the detestable doc-
trines of ultra radicalism, and I equally shrink from the
withering blast of toryism which would tolerate any defects
in our constitution, rather than apply the hated word of re-
form. (Hear, and hisses.) I should be glad to know from
them, and I wish to meet them here face to face and ask
them, what I have done that 1 should forfeit either their re-
gard or the general good opinion of the county ? (Cries of
" Plenty," and " You have supported Lord Melbourne.")
Apostates have the privilege of the female sex—they think
they have a right to change without giving any reason for it.
I do not wish to delay you any long time in giving you an ac-
count of my conduct and of my principles. My conduct in
parliament will speak for itself. I have uniformly supported
your rights, and the rights of the people without any ex-
travagance on my part. I tell you freely, and I tell all such
who are here, that I am no radical, but that I am a plain con-
stitutional reformer. You will, however, perhaps expect
that I should say a few words upon a subject which is inter-
esting to you all—l mean upon the corn-laws. (Hear, bear.)
I acknowledge that a protection is due to the British farmer,
not only on account of the heavy burdens which he bears
more than the rest of the community, but because, if you dis-
courage the growth of corn in this country to any extent, the
whole country will ultimately be the sufferer. (Hear, hear.)
I am, therefore, an advocate for a protection ; but I have al-
ways said, and for years back I have repeated it, that the
present system of the corn-laws does not give an adequate or
a proper protection to the farmer. (Hear, hear, hear.)
An ELECTOR.—What protection would you give ? (Hear.)
Mr. WILBRARA2.I.-1 cannot answer that question now.
(Much uproar.)

Atiother EticTon.—What protection would you give to
the farmer if the present corn laws were abolished ?
Mr. WILBRAHA M.-1 do not choose to tell you. (Great
disopprobation.) That will be a question for consideration
in a committee. (Cries of Oh, oh.) lam not bound to the
government, but I do say that the principle of a fixed duty is
infinitely superior to the present sliding or slippery scale, and
that it would be a great advantage.
An ELECTOR.—It would not remain one hour in a year of
scarcity. (Cheers.)
Mr. WILBRA Lt AM.—Perhaps some of you think that if any
change were to take place in your beautiful system of corn
laws you would have corn here at such a price as to ruin
the landed interest. (Hear, hear.) I say, no such thing,—
that it will be an advantage to the landed interest. (Cries of
" No, no.") You must consider what would be the price of
the foreign corn that would come into competition with
English corn. Do not fancy that in the countries whence
that corn comes it is to be picked up as cheap as you can pick
blackberries. No such thing. They have their rents, taxes,

and rates to pay—not quite so heavy as ours, I believe, but
yet they have considerable burdens upon them. By every
calculation that has been made it comes to this, that if you
were to have the best corn which is exported from Dantzic,
you could not put it on board ship under 365. the quarter.
I do not speak lightly upon this subject, for I have made
many enquiries from many parties concerned in it. You
could not, then, have to pay less for expenses of freight, cost
of landing, and remuneration to the importer, than 10s. a
quarter. This would make the price •16s. a quarter. Now,
if you add on a duty in round numbers of 10s., you make the

price 565. a quarter; with very little profit to "the importer
This would make the price is. the imperial bushel. or Ss.. 6d

or Bs. 9d. the large bushel of this county, so that this is the
whole which the farmer has to fear in the competition of
foreign corn. I have often heard it said " you may buy corn
at a much cheaper price." Yes, so you may; the sweepings-
out of the shop, and the emptyings of the machinery, will
sometimes be sold, and bad corn thrown upon the regular
trade; yet if we have s protective duty of 10s. a quarter you

_ .
. .
never can have prices less than 58s. or 60s. the quarter. You
naturally ask then—pardon me going into these details, for
they are of interest to farmers—" What advantage will a
change be if corn is not made much cheaper 1" 1 will tell
you. The object of a fixed duty is to settle and regulate the
price. Corn will never be allowed to rise to a very high
price, for if it gets above 60s. the rise will be checked by im-

. .
portation fronCabroad ; and should prices here, through an
abundant harvest, be very low (and I have known harvests
so abundant, and corn so cheap, as to be almost a misfortune
to the farmer), then you adopt the other part of the plan,
which is recommended in that most excellent little book of
Mr. M'Culloch, that is, giving a bounty or premium upon
exportation to the same amount that you pay for duty
upon the importation of foreign. (Hear.) So you will
always preserve the farmer from very low and ruinous prices,
and at the same time protect the consumer from very high
prices. (Cheers.) But it will have another good effect. It
will make that which now goes into the hands of jobbers,
speculators, and men of that sort—l speak with no disrespect
of them—to go to the revenue, and will save you from the
imp(Aition of other taxes, which the exigencies of the state
require. (Hear, hear.) I think no man can have visited the
manufacturing districts of this country without being struck
with the great distress that prevails there. Sir Robert Peel
denies it ; but he takes his views from printed statements and
reports given in, which are very often fallacious. (Hear.)

He does not take into account the great and increasing power
of machinery, nor does he consider the vast increase of po-
pulation; but he says they are not in a state of distress. If
that is the case, my information and my own eyes have very
much deceived me. It is impossible to see those manufac-
turers without knowing the contrast between the beauty of
their fabrics and the miserable state of those who produce
them. You see everywhere the most beautiful fabrics in the
world, whether silk or cotton, or a mixture of both, minis-
tering to the luxuries of the great, and supporting the com-
fort of the middle classes; but if you look into the state
of the workmen, you will find three or four families
in one miserable cellar, happy if they can obtain even
three or four days work in a week, and subsisting
in the most miserable way upon hardly a sufficiency of
food. (A VOICE, " They may thank the whigs for that.")
Can this state of things last much longer ? (Cries of "No.")
These men are intelligent; they are deriving knowledge every
day, and do you think it is likely to last ? (Cries of " No.")
I ask you, ought it to last ? (Renewed cries of " No.") I
then ask you, you the men connected with the landed inter-
est, you landed proprietors, to make some little concession
to the wants and distresses of these your fellow-subjects.
Do not let us put ourselves into the position of America,
where the southern and northern states have frequently been
upon the point of separation, because one is a manufacturing
and the other an agricultural district. Let us join together ;
do not let Englishmen dissever their interests ; let us assist
one the other. I ask you, gentlemen, for the sake of
humanity, to grant some little relaxation of the distress of
your fellow-subjects • I ask you, farmers, not to do anything
that will immediately injure your own interests. I could
shew you, if I had a less audience and could speak more
familiarly—l could demonstrate that your own interests
would not be hurt, but that, upon the contrary, they would
be promoted by the change proposed. And I must ask you
gentlemen manufacturers, if there be any such here, not to
be unreasonable in your demands. Do not press us too hard ;
we are willing to meet you • we know your distresses, and
we wish to remove them. I ask the landed interest not to
do any thing that will hurt themselves. You know as well
as I how much dependent we are upon commerce ; you know
that the first question, in all my part of Cheshire at least,
with all the surrounding farmers is, " How goes the Man-
chester markets ;" and if things sell not well there, our
cheese, our flour, our potatoes, all must fall in the same
proportion. Our interests are tied together ; they must
stand or fall together; and I beseech you, gentlemen of the
landed interest, to look fairly into this question, and, my life
upon it, it will redound ultimately to your advantage. (Cheers
from the whigs.) lam not of the opinion of the writer in
the tory organ, the Standard newspaper, who said some-
thing to this effect :—" What would it signify to you if these
manufacturing districts, Manchester, and Macclesfield, and
Birmingham, were all at the bottom of the sea ?" (Cries of
" Oh, oh.") s" What," says the tory organ, " would this
signify ?" Gentlemen, is this a proper sentiment to come
from the organ of a great and respectable party ? (Hear,
hear.) What would be the effect upon every one of us?
Our small farmers would fall first, and the whole landed in-
terest would be engulphed in general ruin. (Loud cheers.)
Now one word upon the subject of sugar. You have been
told that it is wrong for us to introduce foreign sugar, be-
cause it may be the means of encouraging slave labour.
(Hear, hear.) Why is not everything you have upon your
person, your cottons, and even the very gold you have in
your pockets, the production of slave labour? Is it not an
arrant humbug, is it not downright hypocrisy, to say that
the poor people of this country are to be deprived of the be-
nefit of cheap sugar, not because it will promote the interests
of the slaves, for, thank God. they are fully protected, but
in order to preserve a monopoly in favour of the West India
proprietors ? (Hisses and cheers.) I do not know much
upon the subject of timber; that is a subject understood
principally by the builderi; but this I say, that I have seen
no reason why we should not import good timber from the
Baltic instead of bad timber from the Canadas. (Hear, hear.)

And you would have many advantages from this

first place, it will tend, in some degree, to restore that reci-
procity of trade which once, to our great benefit, existed be-
tween this country and Germany, and other nations upon
the borders of thd Baltic. (Hear.) You have been deprived
of that commerce principally because you would take no-
thing from them ; and when the present treaties are

at an end, as they will be soon, can you expect they
should take your manufactures unless you, at the same time,
consent to their fair right of you taking something from
them ? (Hear, hear.) Look what the American President
said in his message the other day : " We will not give an
opinion upon our tariff yet—we will wait to see what England
will do." I fully understand him there. He means to say,
that unless we introduce something more of liberality into
our system of trade, they will put such a tariff upon our
goods as will absolutely exclude all our manufactures from
the whole continent of America. They look then to the
setting free of the trade of this country. (Hear, hear.) I
have now explained myself upon these three topics, and the
question yon have to decide will be this—will you have bread
at a fair and moderate, but not an extravagant price ? Will you
have cheap sugar? Will you have good timber and no addi-
tional taxation?—(cries of " Oh, oh!")—Or, on the other
hand, will you continue a system of trade which, from its
pressure, will roompel new taxes to be laid on ? (Hear, hear.)
Will you have a salt tax, or a house tax ? (A VOICE, "We'll
have a property tax.") A property tax, gentlemen, with all
my heart ; and if it came to the point that it was really
wanted to guard the interests of this great country, I should
be for any tax rather than a bad one. (Hear, hear.) Gen-
tlemen, the complaint of these slippery friends of mine is, that
1 have not abandoned my party, but that I support the very
government the support of which was actually by some of
them made the very condition of that support which, upon
principle, they gave to me. (Hear, hear.) If it is a crime
e
not to abandon one's friends and one's principlt' es I plead
guilty to that charge. I want a good goverhm n.
a
government; and when I find a government that liberal
will do
more justice to yon than the present, that in
government
can find a you I will
support. (Hear, bear, and hisses.) When
man of higher integrity, when you can find a more noble-
minded man, a man more full of constitutional knowledge.
were here given for
(three groans man that will carry
than Lord John Russell—
the noble lord,?—wben and at the same •
the glory of thisyou
countrycanhfii
time
great gnhdera,"
ou can find a man who can make the
preserve peace ; e than Lord Palmerston, then will
British lion morewrehsnp/oted
eri.t so constituted my support. (Loud
hissing.) Gentlemen, I am unwilling
I give a governLo
h_.ness of any of those public men with
tcoheesrsakanwditrahuhears.
whom I politically disagree. (Hear, and cheers.) I would
not use such words as " meanness" and " baseness,"
and others of that sort which I hear brought forward by the
opposite phrases so often. I will not condescend to such ex-
ptvisionsjor they bring more disgrace upon him who utters