The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1850-05-14 00:00:00

Tint LIVERPOOL STAADARD.

out protection

when laws have been enacted that r

THE PROTECTIONIST PARTY.—On Monday, the dele-
gates deputed by the various agricultural societies
throughout the United Kingdom, to confer with the
acting committee of the National Association, assembled
at the offices of the association, at the South Sea House,
London, the Duke of Richmond in the chair. An ad-
dress was unanimously adopted, of which the following is
the principal point :—" A dissolution of parliament can-
not now be remote, and may occur much earlier than is
generally imagined. If protection is to triumph, pro-
tectionists must be prepared for the struggle a dissolution
must bring. The two great points on which preparation
is indispensable to success are—close and untiring atten-
tion to the registration of electors, and a timely selection
of fit and proper candidates." The address proceeds
with recommendations " for the efficient performance of
these requisites," concluding with a hint that. though
nominally applied to county representatives, the sugges-
tions are equally applicable to boroughs. The meeting
was so numerous that an adjournment took place to the
great room at the London Tavern, where the proceed-
ings were continued under the presidency of Mr. G. F.
I("Dung. The principal speakers were the Duke of Rich-
mond, several tenant-farmers, Professor Avtoun, from
Edinburgh, a strong opponent of free trade in Blackwood's
Magazine, Sir Matthew White Ridley, Bart., the Earl
of Eglinton, and Lord John Manners. The delegates
from Liverpool were Messrs. Richard C. Naylor, H.
Cleaver Chapman, Charles Turner, Lawrence Peel, Thos
Bold. All the speeches were eloquent and stirring. A.
plain Cambridgeshire farmer, Mr. Edward Ball, of Bur-
well, spoke thus—" But we are told that our landlords
cannot now reverse this policy—that they have gone too
far to recede—and Cobden, in that celebrated speech of
his, which he made at the close of last year in Leeds,
said, `Only let the agriculturists come forward arid put
on one shilling in the shape of a corn duty, and I will
create such a tumult as shall shake the kingdom to its
centre.' (Lau.thter.) Most deliberately and dispas-
sionately my answer to that is—The sooner the better!
(Tremendous cheering, the whole of the vast assemblage
rising to their feet, and waving their hats and hands.)
I say that we have a conscience, that we have a superin-
tending Providence, that we have laws violated, that we
have all these things which will sustain and give endu-
rance to us in any conflict. that may approach ; and that,
therefore, we may laugh at all threatenings, and set them
at defiance. (Loud cheering.) But what have the
tenant-farmers to fear from the approach of discord ?
Can you be worse off (No, no.) Can any alteration
damage you ? (Renewed cries of No, no.') All is
lost ! Persevere in your free-trade laws, and there is no
concealing the fact that, as a class, we are swept away.
(Hear.) Persevere in those laws, our homes will be taken

severe in those laws. our wives will be with-
Persevere in those laws, our children

•.., , a uroiten-nearted man, passing into poverty
and my family degraded, that I shall fear the threats of
a demagogue ? (Much cheering.)" We ask, without
hesitation, whether the leaguers, in all their performances
at Covent-garden, ever produced a passageof mote heartfelt,
• ' uence than that ? But the same sflp.v."