The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-02-03 00:00:00

THE LIVERPOOL STANDARD.

rics of wealth for selfish millionaires. Yet what, we
ask him, is the whole scheme of that "great propo-
sition" to which he refers—of the whole measure
announced by Sir Robert Peel—but an interference,
not only with the adult labour of the country, but of
every description of labour ? There is not one
branch of labour or of industry which it does not
affect and unsettle.

We trust that the Legislature will not, on this
question of humanity, justice, and sound policy as
well, be again dragooned by the minister into stulti-
fying themselves, aad stifling the utterance and im-
peding the realization of their own convictions.

The true interests of the agriculturists, and of the
labouring classes, have never found a more trusty,
an abler, or a more chivalrous advocate than Mr.
W. B. Ferrand, the member for Knaresbro'. With
unflinching courage he has ever, in Parliament as
well as out of it, thrown himself into the breach,
when the destructive and selfish policy of the day
has sought to level a blow at either. He has faced
the League in their strongholds ; and, with a
vigourous hand, has torn the mask of hypocrisy
from statesmen and hollow-hearted philanthropists,
whose policy, disguised by professions of superior
virtue, is to "grind the faces of the poor," and to
rob the labourer of his hire and his independence.
During the past week, this sturdy champion has
been adding largely to his claims upon the ad-
miration and the gratitude of his fellow-countrymen,
by his efforts to arouse the Conservative feeling of
the electors of the West Riding, and to secure to
the Conservative party the representation of that
important district of the County. But for his
spirited interference it is exceedingly doubtful whether
Lord Morpeth would not have been permitted to
walk over the course. By the aid of Mr. Ferrand,
however, Mr. George Lane Fox will be brought to
the poll; and, whatever may be the result, it is
certain that the League will be called upon to dis-
burse a portion of their quarter of a million fund,
if they mean to carry their favouritd candidate. In
the mean time, the Honourable Member is engaged
in the work of explaining to the working classes of
the large towns throughout the Riding the character
and objects of the League agitation; and holding
up to their view the probable effects of its success
upon their own condition. On Wednesday last, he
addressed a meeting of operatives and others, to the
number of about 4,000 persons, in the Music-hall,
in Leeds; and, although every effort was made by
the League millowners to interrupt the proceedings
—although overlooker,, managers, and clerks at-
tended to overawe their assembled workpeople, and
to give a signal for disturbance, he succeeded in
carrying with him the feelings of the majority of
his audience, and striking a heavy blow against the
supporters of oppressive poor-laws and low wages,
whilst the members of the League, by their inter-
ruptions, succeeded in exciting general disgust, and
an impression that they were afraid of allowing their
dependents to have the truth publicly elicited.
Another result of this meeting, and of the de-
termined stand made by Mr. Ferrand, has been to
warn the advocates of League policy in the Riding
of the necessity of vigorous exertion to save them-
selves from defeat. An extraordinary edition of the
Leeds Mercury, published on the night of the meet-
ing, calls earnestly upon the Free-trade electors and
canvassers, in a tone of evident alarm, to use in-
creased energy in behalf of their candidate. Another
circumstance has occurred to increase this alarm.
On Thursday,—

" Mr. Anderson, of York, the Under-Sheriff, waited
officially upon Mr. Ferrand, to ask him whether it was
seriously intended to contest the election, he wishing to
know, in order that he might direct the necessary arrange-
ments to be made ; and if so, whether he was prepared,
on the part of the gentleman to be put in opposition to
Lord Morpeth, to pay the usual legal expenses. Mr. Fer-
rand said he was prepared, on the part of Mr. George
Lane Fox, to say, that not only would a poll be demanded,
and kept open to the latest day, but that his party were
determined to win; and also that he was prepared at that
moment to give a check for their portion of the legal ex-
penses, estimated, in the whole, at about £2,500. Mr.
Anderson declined then to take a check, being satisfied
with Mr. Ferrand's answer, and immediately communi-
cated the result of his interview to the High-Sheriff."
There is no mistake, therefore, about this, or any
other matter which Mr. Ferrand undertakes. He
is not the man to turn back on account of ordinary
obstacles.

In consequence of the unfair and cowardly treat-
ment which he experienced from the League hire-
lings on Wednesday, the honorable member issued,
on the following day, an address commenting
upon their conduct, of which the following are the
concluding passages :
" Thank God, their opposition and uproar were as pow-
erless as they were cowardly ; the working men not only
beard my voice above their uproar, but they shall have
my address distribut-d among them throughout the riding.
" They heard me challenge the League to an open air
discussion in the Leeds Cloth-hall yard, upon the follow-

1. That their party should be represented by a mem-
ber of parliament, because Mr. Cobden had always re-
fused to meet a working man in public discussion.
"2. That all the mills should be closed, to allow the
operatives to attend the meeting.
" 3. That the overlookers of the League mills should
not be allowed to compel the workmen to accompany them
to the meeting, nor to force them to hold up their hands
against their own conscientious convictions, as they have
long been accustomed to do.

r 4. That no working man shall be discharged, or mo-
lested, or fined, for attending the meeting, and holding up
his bands in favour of my resolutions.

" 5. To secure this protection to the working men, that
the League manufacturers and their ovellookers shall be
excluded from the Cloth hall yard, so that the operatives
may not be entered in the black book.'

"They heard this challenge given, and they saw the
Leaguers slink away from accepting it.
" The brutal treatment which 1 received at the hands
of the League last night has completely opened the eyes
of the few workpeople who supported them, and will cause
my address to be read with ten times more attention.
" Leaguers, I thank you for your services—follow me
to Bradford to-night, and to Huddersfield on Saturday
night—repeat the same brutal conduct, and bring the
junior editor of the ' Leeds Mercury' with you again to
propose ' three groans for the Queen,' which will be an
appropriate conclusion to your reign of oppression and
plunder.
" Fellow-countrymen, I am, yours faithfully,
" W. B. FERRAND.''

We shall see whether the League will accept his
challenge, on these very fair and reasonable con-

ditions

On Thursday, Mr. Ferrand held a meeting of
operatives, according to his promise, at Bradford,
and there, notwithstanding every effort made by the
League party to interrupt him, his indomitable
courage bore him through, and the telling facts
which he adduced of the selfishness of the League
manufacturers and the tyranny of the system carried
his audience with him ; and here once more he dared
the League to meet him in the open air, in Bradford,
before an assemblage of operatives, on the conditions
that neither masters nor overlookers should be pre-
sent. As a proof of the disgraceful conduct of the
League, we may mention, that both at Leeds and
Bradford, it was found, at the close of the meetings,
that they had destroyed the bulk of the furniture of
the places in which they were held.
We trust that the example of Mr. Ferrand will
not be lost upon the Conservative gentlemen of
England. We are arriving at times in which every
Englishman must he prepared to make sacrifices of
ease, of comfort, and of money too, in defence of the
institutions of his country, which are menaced by the
march of innovation—by the treachery of rulers and
the weakness of the people. If we are to witness the
destruction of the best interests and the liberties of
Englishmen, let us, at least, have the consolation to
reflect that we have done our best to avert such a
calamity.

Mr. Cobden is nowhere and nobody, if not en-
gaged in the game of agitation. The vanity of the
man keeps him in a constant fret. He must be
before the world—he must be doing something to
keep the quondam Sussex farmer's son and com-
mercial traveller from sinking into the insignificance
of his original position. One would have thought
that the concessions contained in the proposed mea-
sures of Sir Robert Peel would have been sufficient
to gratify any ordinary amount of craving after the
world's adulations. The minister, however, whilst
granting the boon of total repeal, postponed its oper-
ation for three years, substituting, meanwhile, for
the present law, a greatly reduced scale of duties ;
and Mr. Cobden, happy, we dare say, that he is not
shelved for ever, by the immediate carrying out of
his one idea, has eagerly seized the opportunity for
a fresh career of agitation, by addressing a letter to
the farmers, prompting them to ask leave to come
and be killed at once instead of dying by degrees,
which appears to he their most likely fate under the
newly adjusted three years' scale.
The following is the somewhat singular argument
which he employs to enforce his appeal :
" The Government measure proposes to abolish the
corn law in February, 1849, putting on for the three in-
tervening years a new scale of duties, sliding from 10s. to
1 4s. The moment this law is passed, the duty will drop
from 15/. to Is. Here will be change the first, fright the

first, and with many I fear, panic the first. Btit there
will be no settlement. You will not be able to foretel
whether the duty during the years 1847 and 1848 will be
4s. or 10s. It is quite probable that in February 1849,
the duty will be 10s. ; if so, on the first of that month it
will drop again suddenly, from 103. to Is. Here will be
change the second, fright the second, and possibly panic
the second. The fall of duty in these two changes would
have amounted to, first, from 15s. to 4s. ; next, from 10s.
to Is., making, together, 20s. ; but mark, if the duty were
immediately reduced, from Iss. to Is., the fall would be
only 14s. So that by this clumsy contrivance you are not
only to be kept for three years in a state of suspense and
embarrassment, and exposed to double panics, but are lia-
ble to a drop of 20s. instead of 14s. duty; you are actu-
ally subjected to the shock of the withdrawal of Gs. more
of protection 1"

What a notion the man must have of the intellect
of those to whom he addresses this balderdash !
Drop the first, from 15s. to 4s.—and drop the
second, from 10s. to ls. make up, it is true enough,
20s. as the amount of the two drops. But then,
most ingenious disciple of Loyola !—most jesuitical
of leaguers !—neither one "drop" nor the other
regulates the price or the amount of protection de-
rived during the intermediate three years. If Mr.
Cobden's prints "drop" 10s. a piece in this Febru-
ary 1846, and 10s. more in February 1849, is it
thence to be inferred that Mr. Cobden will have
been losing 10s. a piece upon his goods for the three
years, or that he will lose 20s. afterwards ? The price
of printed' calicoes may rally after the glut or any
other cause which has led to their suddtm drop ; and
the operation of Sir Robert Peel's new scale, we
fancy, is likely to effect the same rise for wheat. If
the duty under that scale is now likely, owing to
high prices, to be 4s. instead of 158., the low prices,
induced by a low duty and extensive importations,
is tolerably certain to bring into operation the other
end of the scale before many months are over.
A still more precious argument, however, Mr.
Cobden advances to himbug the farmers.
" From the moment that the new corn-law is passed"
he says, " foreigners and coin importers will begin to make
preparations for the day of its extinction ; they dread a
sliding scale in any shape, owing to former losses, and
will keep their :eyes steadily fixed upon the Ist of Feb-
ruary, 1849."

Whereas the following, he contends, would be the
operation of an immediate repeal :

" There would then be no stock of foreign corn waiting
for the opening of our ports. Nobody expected last year
in Poland or America that the English corn-law would be
repealed—nobody prepared for it ; not a bushel of grain
was raised upon the chance of such an unlooked for con-
tingency. Is there an intelligent farmer in the kingdom
that will not at once exclaim, If we are to have a repeal
of the corn-law, give us it this spring, when the foreigner
is unprepared for it, and when not a single quarter of corn
sown after the news reaches him can be brought to this
market in less than eighteen months.'"
Of all the absurdity that ever we read, this is the
most eminently absurd. With an immediate repeal
we should have, in 1849, no stock of foreign corn
"waiting for the opening of our ports," for the very
palpable reason that we should ha-e had as much of
it as our markets would sustain some two years
previously; and presuming it to be correct that,
"not a single quarter of corn sown after the news
reaches the foreigner can be brought to this market
in less than eighteen months," what is that to the
purpose so far as the farmer is concerned ? His pro-
tection, meanwhile, will be much more efficacious,
and the duty will go into his pocket, instead of that
of the league speculators in grain.
We should most strongly advise Mr. Cobden to
lay aside such pitiful efforts as the present to impose
upon the British farmer. Let him stick to declam-
ation and frantic abuse of the aristocracy. That is
his forte. If he has anything in the shape of argu-
ment to advance, let him express it in the house of
commons, where he may have a chance of being
answered.