The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1848-06-20 00:00:00

the spirit and letter of the act of 1833 may be fully carried
out. lam speaking of English merchants; and I fear-
lessly maintain that they are a pride and credit to the
country to which they belong. Is not the name of a
British merchant a synonym for taintless honour ? Does
it not awaken the thought of intelligent enterprise, in-
domitable industry, incorruptible integrity ; and are not
these terms the most mighty and exalted amongst men.
(" Question.") I am speaking to the question. I am
speaking of those merchants who are the upholders of
ships, colonies, and commerce ; and allow me to beseech
you and all around me, by the name of your common
country, to adhere to the principles which have made
England great amongst the nations ! Yes! the greatness
of England depends upon the manner in which she holds
by the faith and integrity of her representatives in foreign
lands, the honour, spirit, truth, and valour of all those
names which are unmeaning until you localise them in
association with the name of England ! Remember
that God that made England great! Seek your own
real interests by studying His will ! Remember Him and
say—"o, that we had walked in the way of His com-
mandments. Then our righteousness had been as a
river, and our peace as the waves of the sea. Happy are
the people that are in such a state ; yea, blessed are the
people that have the Lord for their God !" The rev.
gentleman resumed his seat amid vehement applause,
which was repeated at almost every sentence of his
admirable address, of which the above gives but a few
detached portions.
THOMAS THORNELY, Esq., M.P., said :—Sir, the rev.
gentleman who has last spoken has addressed the meeting
with great feeling and ability, but I do say that that gen-
tleman has gone very far wide of the mark by supposing
that Lord George Bentinck's committee, in the measures
founded on their report, are to exclude slave-grown sugar.
I am as old an abolitionist as any man of my age, and
from my infancy I detested slavery ; but I declare that it
is totally impossible to destroy the slave trade by prohi-
biting the importation of foreign produce. We, of the
town of Liverpool, who are the greatest importers of the
cotton of the United States,—why, we import three-
fourths of the whole produce of the slave labour of Ame-
rica. And we import a very great quantity of tobacco,
the produce entirely of America ; and the rice grown in
the southern states of America is also the produce of slave
labour. Sir, I have as strong a sympathy as any one for
the distresses of the West Indians, but let me remind this
meeting that these distresses are by no means of recent
date. And let me say a word about the management of
the West Indian estates. Why, the West Indian estates
were always under mortgage. I never heard of one that
was not mortgaged ; and some houses in Bristol to whom
they were mortgaged sent their own ships out, charged
high freights (higher than they can charge when the navi-
gation laws are repealed), and these charges were so
great that it seemed to me extraordinary how the sugar
could be grown for the price it was and the proprietor
not be in embarrassed circumstances. And indeed there
is something about the cultivation of the West Indies
that deserves a passing notice. Now I have many friends
among the West Indian proprietors, and they have com-
plained to me about the embarrassed condition of their
estates. "Did you ever see your estate ?" said Ito them
"Oh dear, no !" they replied. " Well," said I,
are a planter there—that is, a farmer; you have never
been within five thousand miles of your estate, and yet
you expect that estate to bring you in a great revenue."
Why, the thing is almost impossible. What would you
think if a farmer in the neighbourhood of Liverpool was
to live in Jamaica ? I admit the difficulties of the West
lulian proprietors, but there are parties at home also
suffering great difficulties. The cotton manufacturer is
in great difficulties. "I believe his present embarrassment
is owing to the unsettled condition of Europe. But in
their embarrassments they do not tax the West Indiatis,
and why should you tax all the people of England for the
sake of any particular interest ? Now, in 1842, the du-
ties on British sugars being 225. per cwt., our prices
besides were 245. above the price at which sugars of equal
quality were selling in this market. The revenue paid
that year was £4,000,000, and an additional payment of
£4,000,000 for the West India planters. Now, in that
year I received a letter from Wolverhampton, the borough
which I have the honour to represent, from a grocer; and
the grocer said—" I beg to inform you that, owing to the
enormous price of sugar, there is no demand for it for
preserving fruit, and the people living about here are
unable to get any remuneration for the fruit they have
grown, inasmuch as they cannot afford to buy sugar to
preserve their fruit." We got over that evil, and got
over it as well as we could ; but the time has gone by for
taxing one section of the country for the support of ano-
ther. I grieve over the distresses of the West Indies ; I
grieve over the distresses of any part of the country, at
home or abroad; but I do protest, on behalf of the peo-
ple of the country at large, and on behalf of my own
constituents, against paying a tax for the sake of putting
a certain amount of money into the pockets of the growers
of sugar. I wish just to make one remark upon the re-
port of the Parliamentary Committee, which has been
already quoted from by Mr. Hodgson. I beg the meeting
not to understand that that report is the unanimous re-
port of the committee. I believe the main report was
carried by but a small majority.—Mr.Thornely concluded
by moving the amendment.

Mr. C.-ROBERTSON, in seconding it, said the simple
question before the meeting was this—are the consumers
of this country, men, women, and children, to pay on
every pound of sugar a tax of one penny for the support
of parties connected with West India property ? and is it
a measure demanded by a sense of justice at home, by
the labouring population of the colonies, and by the
colonies at large ?
The resolution was carried.

The Rev. Dr. AVNEILE next addressed the meeting at
great length, and amidst repeated bursts of applause. In
MON ing the resolution, he said, " I beg to say in the first
place that it is not as an opponent of the principles of free
trade that I address the meeting. (Cheers.) On the
contrary, I am free to say, that if this world of ours was
in such a condition that the principles of free trade could
be carried out fully, fairly, and universally, I would not
only most gladly agree with it, but most cordially rejoice
in it. If it could be carried out fully, without reserve ;
fairly without partiality ; and universally, without excep-
tion. (Hear, hear, and applause.) The most captivating
theory has been presented to this nation, with a very vi-
cious, because partial, application of it. (Applause.) The
effect has been electrical. I don't wonder at the success
that has attended the hon member for the West Riding.

(Hear and applause.) He propounded the theory I allude
to, to the nation, with a very partial application made at
the time—the exponent of that partial application confin-
ing it at the time to one particular subject, corn. (No,
no ; yes, yes. A voice—read his speeches ; another voice
—he has read them long ago, to your sorrow.) The
sophism, the sophism I say was not perceived. That it is
a sophism I think it will presently appear, because to this
hour the hon. gentleman is not prepared to go the whole
way. (" Yes he is.") Very well; I must continue my
story though. The nation did not perceive the sophism ;
The practical difficulties in the way of carrying out thetheory
were not felt to be such as should abate the stimulus given
by the theory itself. (Hear.) The golden prize appeared
within reach ; the right hon. Baronet the member for
Tamworth was converted—(oh, oh, and cheers)—and the
majority of the House of Commons was surrendered at
discretion ; perhaps 1 might say without discretion.
(Laughter and loud applause.) I wish to speak in excel-
lent good humour, as well as good taste ; therefore I shall
say, they surrendered to the peace-promising, illustrious
Richard. (Loud laughter.) Well, sir, what I complain
of is this, that the hon. gentleman did not propose to go
the whole way with his theory. (A voice, " Yes he did.")
He applied it to corn, as he thinks, with success; he is ap-
plying it. and is sanguine of success, to shipping ; but why
stop with corn and shipping—why not apply it to sugar ?
(A voice, "He does.") He is willing to apply it to sugar ;
be it so. He says, " Have free trade in sugar, and you
will have cheap sugar as you have cheap corn." Now,
the gentleman who seconded the last amendment made an
enumeration of this kind. I was surprised at his stopping
with sugar also. Why stop with sugar—why not apply it
to the machinery with which cheap sugar is produced ?
(Hear.) Is he prepared to go the whole way now,—free
trade in slaves ? (A voice—" No, no,"—" Yes, yes."
Reiterated cheering.) (A voice—" Slavery is not free
trade.") Is the hon. gentleman, or any of his friends
who move and second the amendments at a great public
demonstration of this kind, prepared to come before the
public and avow what one has now said, go all the way
with free trade, even to the machinery which makes sugar ?
(A voice—" Certainly.") Then let England know that—
let the people of England understand that. (Applause.)
Has the hon. gentleman such entire confidence in his
system, in his principle, that he is willing, I ask again, to
apply it not only to the produce, but to the mode of pro-
ducing ? Why then, if so, and if his friends be true to
those principles, let him rise in his place in parliament,
sure of the support of the country, and let him call upon
the government to remove our blockading squadron from
the coast of Africa altogether. If he be sincere in saying
that restriction in anything must be protection to some-
thing, why then let him remove the restriction from the
West Indies. They do not and they cannot smuggle men
from the coast of Africa, and that restriction is a protec-
tion to the Portuguese, who do smuggle men. (Loud ap-
plause.) Let those gentlemen, then, call upon the govern-
ment to repeal the Negro Emancipation Act of 1833,
which they are bound to denounce as an iniquitous inva-
sion of the liberty of the West Indies, to get the cheapest
labour they can find. (Cheers.) Now, I will suppose at
the early period of the hon. gentleman's career to whom I
have already alluded—when he was making an honourable
independence at Stockport—l will suppose he had dis-
covered a species of machinery unrivalled for the produc-
tion of printed calicoes, much desired both in the home
and foreign market ; I will suppose for some reason or
other an act of parliament was passed suppressing that
machinery, and that a posse of constables was sent to the
mill at Stockport to prevent its introduction into the mill.
Sir, with what indignant eloquence would not the hon,
gentleman have denounced such a restriction as an abomi-
nation—a treason against free trade in machinery, as well
as in printed calicoes. (Hear, hear.) What, then, it will
be asked, do I advocate the extension of free trade so far,
as to advocate the revival of the slave trade ? (Hear,
hear.) No ; but I tell you what I do. I show, I think,
very fairly, by thus driving the argument to the extreme,
its absurdity, if fully carried out—l show that the princi-
ple of free trade, fully, fairly, and universally carried out,
is inapplicable to a world like ours—a chequered world,
where adjustments are to be made—where compensations,
balances—considerations delicately to be investigated, and
carefully to be harmonised, are to be taken into account,
the utmost we can do is to approximate the desired per-
fection. (Loud applause.) And if you can only approx-
imate in the removal of restriction, you should only ap-
proximate, and should attempt no more in the removal of
protection. (Hear, and loud applause.) Suppope it has
been found, as a vice of the machinery I alluded to just
now, that it cut the fingers of every man, woman, and
child employed at the mill; and suppose that the people
or the parliament of England rose in their majesty and
said, " We won't have printed calicoes, however cheap, if
stained with human blood. put them away ;" they would
make the cases parallel. And would that be a case for