The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1842-07-19 00:00:00

MEETING IN CLAYTON-SQUARE

Yesterday, a meeting was held in Clayton-square, con-
vened by some of the Liverpool members of the Anti-Corn-
law League, for the purpose of memorializing her Majesty
not to prorogue parliament till inquiry has been made into
the distress of the people. The proceedings commenced
shortly after twelve o'clock, at which time the attendance
was but slender ; but from one to two o'clock it presented a
considerable increase of numbers. After two o'clock, till
the close, about three, the meeting became very thin.
Amongst others present, we observed Mr. R. V. Yates, Mr.
Richard Rathbone, Colonel Williams, Mr. William Rath-
bone, Mr. Shiel, Dr. Reynolds, Mr. James Mulleneux, Mr.
William Earle, Mr. Hugh Hornby, Mr. Blackburne, Mr.
Joseph C. Ewart, and several other men of note from the
Reform camp. The speakers addressed the meeting from
the centre window of the Union Hotel. Mr. HUGH
HORNBY was called to the chair.

The CHAIRMAN, after a few introductory remarks, said, the
meeting had been called for the purpose of taking into con-
sideration the propriety of praying her Majesty not to dissolve
parliament until it had taken into consideration the dis-
tressed state of the country—a state of suffering, as regarded
the working classes, unexampled, both in extent and duration,
in the annals of this nation. ' They were, perhaps, aware that
a motion to this effect had already been made and lost in the
House of Commons. Some of the honourable members of
that house opposed the motion on the ground that the evils
under which the country was labouring were irremediable ;
but surely it would have been better, it would have been
more decent, it would have sbecvn some sympathy upon the
part of the representatives of the people for the sufferings of
their constituents, if they had agreed to make that inquiry,
and at least attempted to discover the cause of those suffer-
ings. He would ask whether this prayer of the working
classes of England was an unreasonable prayer? They did
not come to our legislators asking for the aid of charity ;
they did not seek to subsist upon the wages of idleness.
No; they were willing cheerfully to submit to that condition
which the Almighty had fixed upon mortal existence—
namely, to earn their bread by the sweat of their brow. Nor
did they ask for any exclusive privilege for themselves : they
asked for no protection for themselves at the expense and to
the injury of the other classes of the community; but they
did require that their labour, their only possession, should
be unshackled, that they should have the liberty of disposing
of the produce of their industry without restraint—that they
should not have this or that market assigned to them by
legislation, but that they might have the whole world for
their market. Id short, they asked that they might not be
prevented by vicious legislative enactments from obtaining a
fair and legitimate return for their toil and their labour. In
the statements of the resolutions which would be moved and
seconded, he believed and hoped they would all cordially
concur ; they suggested, as appeared to him, the only effectual
remedy which, under Providence, could be applied to the
evils under which the country was suffering, namely, a repeal
of all those impolitic and unwise restrictions which oppressed
and injured our commerce. In conclusion, he begged to
observe, that those who had originated this meeting had not
done so from -a desire to excite and inflame their feelings by
a detail of the horrors which the population in some parts of
this and the neighbouring county were now undergoing; but
they had called it for the purpose of giving those present an
opportunity of exercising the privileges of citizens of a free
country, and to discharge those duties which they owed, as
men and as Christians, to suffering industry, by petitioning
the crown to have investigation made into the causes of
those sufferings, and if possible to apply a remedy.
. Mr. WILLIAM RATHBONE, in moving the first resolution,
wished that he might be able to do full justice to the subject
—a subject which ought to be no appeal to the passions, but
to sober reason—the determination of the people to have
their rights, whilst they respected.the rights of others. The
resolution lie had to propose would require few words from
him to convince the meeting of its truth. It was—" That
the state of the country, even at this most favourable period
of the year, is one of privation and distress unparalleled in
its extent and in its severity, becoming daily more appalling
in its effects upon the physical, the social, and the moral
condition of all the people.' Did they want anything from
him to convince them that the distress was indeed appalling,
that it was indeed increasing? If they did, let them go to
the parish-office, to the pawnshops, to the docks. Let them
go to the graving-docks, and ask the carpenters whether they
were employed. Were they not, a large portion of them—
he believed he should be correct in saying a majority of them
—receiving parish relief ? Let them ask the ropemakers,
the sailmakers, and the labourers, whether they were now
in full employment ? Let him ask', too, whether, whilst la-
bour was scarce and food high, wages were high also? . Was
there any man among them who was deluded now, as they:
all were twelve months ago, by the wickedness, the inten-
tional wickedness, of those who told them that labour and
food depended upon each other? Was there any one among
them so stupid as not to feel that food was high and wages
low, and that they had very little labour? Sir Jas. Graham
had been amusing himself by making a calculation that there
was now only as 8 to 13 of the distress that existed before;
but, admitting the calculation to !se correct, which he did
not, might not Sir James have been better employed in look-
ing out how to remedy the evil than with examining its pro-
portions ? Sir Robert Peel had told them, that we must be
independent of foreigners. We were independent of fo-
reigners with a vengeance. Our trade with foreigners had
been cut off; it was daily and hourly decreasing ; and what.
was the consequence ? Why, that when we had three on
four bad harvests, we were entirely thrown upon the home:
trade, at that time when the borne trade was at the worst.,
That was a pretty independence for statesmen in a commer-
cial country to look to! Be independent of foreigners that
you may be thrown into misery at home—was that the inde-
pendence they looked for? (No, no.) It was said, however,.
by them that trade was improving ; but to test that, let them
look at the amount of wages to the people generally paid
here, in Manchester, in Birmingham, in Leeds, in Leicester,
and all through the manufacturing districts, and, as a
clencher, if they were not satisfied of the existence of dis-
tress, let them go to Paisley and ask if there was any im-
provement of trade. And how had they borne their suffer-
ings ? Let him just say, in parenthesis, that these people
had set an example to all other people, for when they could
not fill their bellies with food, they were filling their heads.
with intelligence, by learning to read and teaching others to
read, that they might ascertain whence the causes of their'
distresses really arose. The causes of their distresses might
be found in the fearful competition of other nations, and the
accumulation of bad commercial legislation for many years ;
ain to say, although a good harvest might miti-
gate the evil in some degree, that anything but a sound
system of commercial legislation could ever bring England
to that glory which her ability, her capital, her industry, and,
above all, her integrity entitled her. After insisting upon
the necessity for the free importation of corn, Mr. Rathbone
warmly reproached the people for having elected a House of
Commons which had passed the present corn act, and called
upon them in future to elect honest men.
Colonel WILLIAMS seconded the resolution in a most gar-
rulous speech.
Mr. WILLIAM EARLE moved the next resolution, " That
the measures adopted or proposed by the legislature are alto-
gether inadequate to the relief of the existing difficulties, and,
have entirely failed to inspire the merchants and manufac-
turers with that confidence without which commerce cannot
revive." He by no means condemned the new commercial
tariff as far as it went, and it would be unjust to say that the'
change which had been made was not a movement in the right'
direction ; but he contended that the strongest arguments
which had been urged in favour of those reforms and changes,
could be applied in a still stronger degree to the introduction,
at a low duty, of sugar, coffee, and corn ; against the intro-
duction of those articles the most contemptible twaddle had
been urged, and nothing else.
Mr. EDWARD BRODERICK seconded the resolution in a
long and vociferous treatise on the interchange of commodi-
ties between nation and nation.

and it w