RUGBY AND DUNCHURCH BRANCH.--Messrs H. Townsend, John Perkins.
SUTTON COLDFIELD.--The Hon. E. S. Jervis, W. M. Jervis, Esq.,
Rev. W. K. B. Bedford, Messrs R. Fowler, R. Fowler, jun.,
Bodington, Sadler, Osborne, Buggins.
COLESHILL.--Messrs Cook, Gilbert, H. Thornley, John York, and
Dr Davies.
WARWICKSHIRE, SOUTH.
WARWICKSHIRE.--Messrs Edward Greaves, C. M. Caldecott, Luke
Pearman, J. H. Walker, W. W. Bromfield, R. Hemming, S.
Umbers, B. Sedgeley, John Moore, H. Brown.
WILTSHIRE, NORTH.
Messrs G. Brown, W. Ferris, J. A. Williams, R. Strange, J.
Wilkes, E. L. Rumbold, L. Waldron.
WILTSHIRE, SOUTH.
SALISBURY BRANCH.--Messrs Stephen Mills, F. King, George Burtt,
Leonard Maton, B. Pinnegar,--Lush.
WORCESTERSHIRE, WEST.
WORCESTERSHIRE BRANCH.--The Hon. and Rev. W. C. Talbot, F.
Woodward, Esq., Richard Gardner.
YORKSHIRE, NORTH RIDING.
KNARESBOROUGH.--Mr T. Collins, jun., of Scotton.
EASINGWOLD.--Mr Charles Harland.
YORKSHIRE, EAST RIDING.
EAST RIDING.--Mr John Almack.
MALTON.--E. Cayley, Esq.
HOLDERNESS.--Messrs Josh. Stickney and G. C. Francis.
POCKLINGTON.-- -- Cross.
YORKSHIRE, WEST RIDING.
BOROUGHBRIDGE BRANCH.--Wm. Josh. Coltman, Esq.
SCOTLAND.
SCOTTISH PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION.--Sir J. Drummond, Bart.,
Professor Aytoun, Professor Low, Dr Gardner, Messrs Geo.
Makgill, Jno. Dickson, Jno. Dudgeon, J. Murdoch, J. Shand,
Blackwood, Garland, Hugh Watson, Cheyne, Steuart of
Auchlunkart.
EAST LOTHIAN.--Sir Jno. Hall, Bart. of Dunglass, Messrs R. Scot
Skirving and Aitchison, of Alderston.
ABERDEENSHIRE.--Dr Garden.
IRELAND.
COUNTY DOWN.--The Marquis of Downshire.
The noble CHAIRMAN rose and said--Gentlemen, it will not be necessary
for me upon the present occasion to trespass but a few moments upon
your attention, because I am happy to say that there are gentlemen
much more able to discuss the question upon which we are met here
to-day than the individual who now stands before you--more able, I
say; but there is no man in the United Kingdom who is more deeply
impressed than I am with the conviction that, if this country is to
continue to be great and free, moderate import duties must be imposed
(loud cheers.) Though some persons have called free trade a "great
experiment," and wish us to wait and see what the result of that
"experiment" is to be, I tell them fairly now, that that experiment
has been tried--that it has failed--and that common sense always
said it would fail (great cheering.) But during the trial of this
"great experiment," have they calculated the amount of hazard which
they are incurring? Are they aware of the mass of landowners and
tenant-farmers of England who must be cast away if this experiment is
not immediately put an end to? (loud cheers.) We are met here to-day
to receive deputations from different parts of the country, and it
has been thought advisable to convene this meeting, because doubts
have been expressed in Parliament, whether distress was universal or
not. We are met to-day to hear from the tenant-farmers from various
parts of the country the prospects of their localities (hear, hear.)
Gentlemen, I fear those prospects are bad indeed. But still I will
say before you that which I stated in Parliament--that I have the
greatest confidence in the good feeling of the people of England
(cheers.) I believe that the tenant-farmers will follow the advice
which I have ventured to give them, and persevere (hear, hear.) They
know the justice of their cause. Let you, all of you, when you return
home, tell your neighbours to persevere; and depend upon it, justice
will, sooner or later, be done to you (loud cheers.) I will not
now detain you longer than to say I hope that the expressions which
may be made use of here to-day will be to show that, ill used as we
are, we are still loyal to our Sovereign, and firmly attached to the
constitution of our country (tremendous cheering.)
Mr T. W. BOOKER, Ex-High-Sheriff of Glamorganshire, of Velindra
House, near Cardiff, was then called upon by the noble chairman,
and amidst great applause stepped forward to propose the first
resolution--"That the difficulty and intolerable distress pervading
the agricultural and other great interests of the country, and the
state of deprivation and suffering to which large masses of the
industrial population are reduced, are, in the opinion of this
meeting, fraught with consequences the most disastrous to the
public welfare, and if not speedily remedied must prove fatal to
the maintenance of public credit, will endanger the public peace,
and may even place in peril the safety of the state."--Mr Booker
spoke as follows: My lord duke, my lords, and gentlemen,--It is, I
do most unfeignedly assure you, with the deepest diffidence, if not
with the deepest reluctance, that I stand before you thus early in
the proceedings of this most eventful day; for, gentlemen, I came
here under the sincere hope that I might be allowed to listen to
others instead of myself occupying your time. But there are times,
and this is an occasion, when I feel that it would ill become any
man to shrink from the discharge of a public duty which those with
whom he has an identity of feeling and a community of interest will
and wish should devolve upon him. Humble, therefore, though my name
may be, yet I will, without further apology, proceed at once to the
objects which have called us together. (Cheers.) At this time of day,
and on this occasion, I need not, I think, enter upon any lengthened
argument, nor need I adduce any elaborate statements of statistical
facts, to prove that the condition of Great Britain and Ireland and
her dependencies is, to say the least, most unsatisfactory. (Hear,
hear.) Your own experience will tell you that. Therefore to save your
time, and with a knowledge of those who will have to follow me, I
will assume three propositions. First of all, I will assume that the
agricultural interest is immeasurably the most important interest of
the state. (Hear.) Secondly, I will assume that that interest is in
a state of alarming and greatly increasing depression. (Hear, hear.)
And, thirdly, I will assume that that depression is occasioned and
aggravated by the adoption and continuance in that altered policy of
the country which now prevails. (Cheers.) I presume that my two first
propositions will be conceded to me everywhere; and as to the third,
here at least I presume we are unanimous, that the difficulties, the
dangers, the distresses, and the disasters that now accompany us are
attributable to that vile, suicidal policy falsely called free trade.
(Cheers.) Having gone thus far, and having arrived at this point, it
will not be of much advantage to you that I should dwell long upon
the nature and extent of the distress which now accompanies you, and
now environs you. That I will leave to others of those intelligent
practical men who, in such multitudinous numbers, have left their
homes and have come here to tell, in this central heart of England,
their feelings upon the distresses and dangers that have overtaken
them. But I will just glance at what is the prevailing symptom of
the distress of the present day. And, strange as it may appear, the
prevailing symptom is cheapness--cheapness of all the necessaries and
conveniences of life--cheapness of the bountiful gifts of Providence,
the productions of the earth--cheapness of the works of man, the
produce of his skill and labour. And how is it that this cheapness,
which augurs plenty and abundance, should not be accompanied with its
usual, nay, its invariable concomitants--ease, enjoyment, safety,
and repose? (Cheers.) There must be something fundamentally wrong in
a state which produces such startling results. It was the opinion
of one whose opinion, and whose memory too, ought to be an object
of veneration with every Free-trader, as unquestionably they are of
respect, from the sterling, amiable, pains-taking qualities of the
man--I allude to the late Mr Huskisson--it was his opinion, and he
delivered it in his place in the House of Commons so long ago as the
year 1815--it was his opinion that nothing could be more delusive
than the proposition that cheapness in the price of provisions is
always a benefit. On the contrary, cheapness, without a demand for
labour, is a symptom of distress. (Cheers.) The French, he adds, in
his day, had cheapness without capital, and that was a proof in them
of progressive decay. But this all-pervading state of cheapness is so
ably glanced at and set forth in a document which I hold in my hand,
and which has been transmitted to me since my arrival in town, that
I cannot forbear quoting some passages from it. It is the Address of
the Metropolitan Trades' Delegates to their fellow-countrymen, on the
interests and the present position of the labouring classes of the
empire; and if there can be words of solemn warning and import, they
are contained in this most extraordinary document. It commences:--
"Fellow-Countrymen,--There is not recorded an era in the history of
our country, nor, indeed, in the history of all nations, when the
great subject of the natural and social rights of those who live by
means of their labour was required to be so thoughtfully considered,
so clearly explained, and so zealously and faithfully supported, as
the present era."
It afterwards goes on to treat the question of cheapness thus:--
"We have it announced to us that it is under the operation of
unregulated, stimulated, and universal competition, we are henceforth
to live.
"Cheapness is proclaimed to be the one great and desirable
attainment. But the cheapness that is attained under this system
is not the result of fair and distributory abundance--being mainly
acquired by diminishing the enjoyments, or the consumption, of
those by whose labour productions are derived, and by that economy
of labour by which, in so many instances, the labourer is cast off
altogether from employment, because a cheaper, that is, a less
consuming instrument than his body, is invented and applied. The
labour of the working man thus becomes a superfluous commodity in the
market, so that he must either be an outcast altogether from society,
or else find some way of doing more work for less of materials of
consumption; and even then, if he should succeed in this course of
realising cheapness, he becomes instrumental in bringing many others
of his fellow-labourers down to the same degraded level to which he
is reduced. (Loud cheers.)
"Bad and appalling, however, as is the existing condition of so
many whose only means of supporting themselves and their families
is the exercise of their daily labour, yet we maintain that the
prospect before us is still more dark and gloomy. We declare to
you our conviction that a far greater degree of suffering and of
destitution impends over the labouring class and their families,
both of this and of all other nations, unless the falseness of
the free or competitive system be thoroughly penetrated, clearly
exposed, and a course of general commerce, very different from that
emanating from the free system, be entered upon." (Great cheers.)
In this manner do these practical men, who are practically groaning
under the evils of this altered system, dispose of the question of
cheapness. The men whose signatures are appended to that document,
have done me the honour also of communicating with me since I have
been in town, and of stating to me what their intentions and objects
are. They write me on the 4th of May inst. that "The delegates have
a desire to collect all the statistics in their power showing the
decline in the employment of the people, and also showing the gradual
falling-off of wages since the introduction of free-trade measures
to their respective trades; and also the condition of those trades
which have not been directly interfered with by foreign imports, but
which the delegates have reason to believe are indirectly affected
by the displaced hands, from other industrial branches, continually
forcing themselves into the above-mentioned trades--this is the
reason they have appealed to all who are friends to native industry
for assistance." But, gentlemen, it is said that free trade has not
yet had fair play. Most fortunately I am indebted to the kindness
and courtesy of a member of parliament, a personal friend of my
own, the invaluable member for Falmouth, Mr Gwyn, for the returns
of trade and navigation up to the close of last month, which only
appeared and were placed in my hands last night. I have gone through
these documents with all the business habits that I am capable of;
and I come to this conclusion and result, the truth of which I defy
any Free-trader to controvert. (Cheers.) The flourishing state of
the cotton trade is boasted of. Why, these documents prove to you
that the export of cotton goods has increased 10 per cent, but the
consumption of cotton altogether has decreased 20 per cent. (Loud
cheers.) And what does this show? That there is a decrease in the
consumption of cotton of 30 per cent. What! free trade not had fair
play! Why, our colonies have had free trade for the last twenty
years. For the last ten years they have had the blessing of free and
unrestricted trade, and let me appeal to any colonist, what is the
universal language which defies even contradiction--We are ruined!
(loud cheers.) Our own British possessions get their supplies cheaper
from the United States than they can from Great Britain or our North
American colonies. They expend the property of their own colonies,
and of ours too, which they get there, in fostering the trade of our
rivals to the destruction and exclusion of their own. Free trade not
had fair play! Why, what have been its effects in Ireland? (hear,
hear.) In the year 1844 or 1845, there were of acres cultivated in
wheat in Ireland, 1,059,620; but in 1847, the blessed year that
followed the consummation of free trade, the number was reduced to
743,871, and in 1848 it was still further reduced to 565,746, thus
showing a decrease in three years of the palmy days of free trade
of no less than 500,000 acres of wheat, equal to the production of
2,100,000 quarters, and in value, at what ought to be the price
of wheat, upwards of six millions sterling. (Shouts of "hear,
hear.") This shows with a vengeance that capital is flowing from
the banks of the Shannon to the shores of the Vistula (hear, hear.)
Free trade not had fair play! What will you, farmers, your wives
and daughters, say to this? In the year 1833, the export of salt
butter from Ireland was 25,000 tons, in value L.3,000,000 sterling,
and it would take 260,000 cows to produce that quantity of butter.
Now, let the Free-traders tell us what has been the export of salt
butter from Ireland during the last year (hear, hear.) Ireland has
broken up her old pastures, and has sown wheat upon them; and yet
with all that forced and ruinous cultivation, the foreigner beats
her out-and-out. But it is only a waste of time to go through the
extent and the nature of the distress which afflicts you. I will
no longer dilate upon it. I will leave its effects upon England to
those admirable men whose public spirit and whose private wrongs
have brought them here. And I will at once ask, what is to be the
remedy? You will answer me with one acclaim, There can be but one,
and that is a return to the policy of protection to native industry
(cheers.) And how is this remedy to be attained? Why, by a cordial
union of all classes whose labour has been invaded, and the produce
of whose skill, enterprise, and industry has been excluded by that
vile policy which has supplanted us in our own markets. I presume,
and I say it with all respect and deep humility, that you can have
no remaining hope from the present parliament (cheers), nor from the
present advisers of the Crown (tremendous cheering.) But we have
a constitutional sovereign, who well knows that her own peace and
happiness depend upon the welfare and prosperity of her people. She
well knows that upon that peace and prosperity, not only her own
happiness, but the security of her throne (cheers,) and the stability
of the monarchy that she administers, all alike depend (cheers.) Let
us carry to the foot of the throne the wishes of her faithful people.
Let us tell her of the distress and difficulties that are overtaking
the industrious cultivators of the soil of the empire which she
benignly governs. (Loud cries of "hear.") Let us tell her of the
dangers and disasters that environ the hard-working, industrious
occupiers of the territorial domains of the ancient nobility and
gentry of her land (hear, hear.) Let us tell her, as the noble
duke said, that, although oppressed, we are still faithful--still
uncompromising--still unswerving--still unseduceable--still loyal
and true to her; and I will stake my life on it, that she will be
compassionate and true to us (hear, hear.) The humble individual
who now addresses you is no proud aristocrat--he is no lordly
possessor of wide-spread territorial domains; but he has obtained
his fortune by the active pursuits of commercial industry (hear,
hear.) He affords daily employment to hundreds, and thousands are
dependent for their daily bread on his care and success (hear,
hear.) I hope, therefore, that I speak with a due sense of the
responsibility of my words and actions; and I desire--and, with
God's blessing, I shall use every energy and talent that my Maker
has endowed me with (loud cheers)--I desire, and with God's help,
I shall endeavour to transmit to my children's children unimpaired
those laws and liberties, those customs and institutions, which
have afforded me protection during my own career of successful toil
(cheers.) You will take one word of counsel from me. You, the owners
and industrious occupiers of the soil, will, I hope, from this vast
assembly hurl back with proud defiance that gross threat, that, if
success should attend your exertions for a restoration of protection,
the foundations of property would be shaken to their centre (hear,
hear.) Such is the language used by Free-traders in fustian, in
words as well as in merchandise (hear, hear.) Ay, forsooth, by the
apostle of peace, who would have the manly quarrels of nations, as
well as of individuals, settled by palaver and humbug, instead of
musketry and gunpowder (great cheering.) Hurl back, I say, that
defiance, and let your answer reach the ears of all who dare to
obstruct the exercise of free discussion, and the results of free
discussion in this hitherto free and prosperous land (hear.) But,
in the struggle that must of necessity ensue before we can obtain
the gracious accession of our beloved Sovereign to the prayers of
her people, it may and will happen that our friends who, amidst
treachery and desertion unparalleled (hear, hear,) had stood firm and
faithful to their principles and professions, may be inconvenienced,
and that their seats in the legislature may be jeopardised by the
miscellaneous onslaught of our ministerial and jacobinical opponents
(hear, hear.) But this must not, this shall not, be; for these men
must be protected at the hustings (hear, hear.) When I look at this
vast, this magnificent assemblage--when I consider whom and what it
represents--I cannot for a moment doubt that there are, in the ranks
of the protectionists of England, Ireland, Wales, and Scotland, a
thousand men who will put down their hundred pounds a-piece to form a
fund against all aggressors (hear, hear.) For myself, I shall at once
avow that I will be one, either of a thousand to put down my hundred
pounds (hear, hear,) or, if need be, I will be one of a hundred to
put down my thousand pounds (loud cheers,) for this national, this
necessary object. And then having done our duty, and having among
our hereditary legislators a Richmond (cheers,) a Stanhope (hear,) a
Stanley (cheers,) an Eglinton, a Talbot, a Downshire, a Malmesbury,
a Beaufort, and a host of others, who will forgive me if I now fail
to name them; and a Disraeli (great cheering followed the mention
of Mr Disraeli's name,) a Granby (hear, hear,) a Manners (hear,
hear,) a Beresford, a Stuart, a Newdegate, and many more such whom
we will send to aid them in the House of Commons, let us commit our
cause, the cause of peace and plenty, the cause of truth and justice
(cheers,) the sacred cause of protection to native industry and
capital (hear, hear)--let us commend that cause to our Sovereign, to
our country, and to our God (loud cheers.) My lords and gentlemen,
I must apologise for the undue length at which I have addressed
you. I thank you most cordially for the kindness and the enthusiasm
with which you have listened to me, and I now beg to propose the
resolution with which I have the honour to be intrusted.
The honourable gentleman sat down amidst the most deafening cheers.