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426 [Hear, hear, and laughter.] But, Sir, I law excitement throughout the country. wish this were all I have to bring before He has let the working classes in the the House, connected with this placard. North of England know their real motives, It is my painful duty now to mention a and what would be the real consequence fact that will soon stop the derisive cheers of a repeal of the Corn-laws,-that conof hon. Members opposite. The chairman sequence would be the reduction of their of this very meeting, the man who pla- wages,-to the same level as wages on carded the parish of Bingley with these the Continent; the filling of the mills resolutions, pointing out the landed pro- with power looms, and the casting off the prietors as the persons who had brought work-people, "to wander through the misery and distress on the work-people, day in search of work, in a state of misethis man was at the time on the point rable despondency."-Sir, these Antiof taking a fresh mill. He soon after Corn-law agitators, assert that great numfitted it up with power-looms; but did bers of the manufacturers in the country that gentleman go into the market-place, are insolvent, and that the Corn-laws are and say to the people, "Why stand ye the cause of that insolvency. Sir, I have idle all the day long? why eat ye the enquired into the truth of this assertion, bread of idleness? Come into my mill and I am sorry to say that as far as the and I will give you work!"-No, Sir, he insolvency goes, it is but too correct. did not do this, but he sent into the The Corn-laws, however, are not the cause, county of Lancaster, where that infamous -the reason is, these men were never conspiracy had been entered into between solvent in their lives! I will now, Sir, enthe Poor-law commissioners and the Greggs, deavour to describe to the House, who Ashworths, and Anti Corn-law League for are the manufacturers in the north of the purpose of equalising wages, and re- England in the present day. They are a ducing the 107. per cent. that had been remnant of that high minded and honouradvanced upon the wages of the poor able class of men, who raised the trade of starving hand-loom weavers. Sir, I say, this country to the highest pitch of comhe sent into the county of Lancaster, and mercial respectability; -a remnant of there picked up a large number of poor those men who walked the streets of their starving families, families who had been market towns with an erect front, and reduced to such a state of misery and dis- stood upon change, with honour written tress by their former task-masters, that in their countenances, whose word was they had been thankful (as the hon. their bond, and whose dealings were as Member for Bolton, Dr. Bowring, as- unsullied as those of the nobles of the serted) to eat their food from off the very land. There are a few, Sir, who still endung-hills. Yes, Sir, he brought these deavour to tread in their steps, but they unfortunate and ill-treated families to have to contend against men, who are Bingley, there to amass another fortune gambling speculators in trade, and who in another mill, and then, no doubt, again know no bounds to their insatiate thirst to be driven away and left to wander for wealth, a body of men trading with through the day "in search of work, in a false capital under the shelter of Jointstate of miserable despondency." [Hear.] Stock Banks, many of which are themIn his anxiety to reduce wages, he selves little better than societies formed forgot the claims of the working classes for the protection of swindling. These of Bingley, he forgot those men whom men get their names entered in the books he had excited to a pitch of despera- of one of these banks, they then wait tion he forgot that he, along with upon a woolstapler, and offer to purchase other manufacturers, had reared and bred a quantity of wool, making use of this them in the parish; he forgot those very Joint-Stock Bank as a reference for chamen for whose sufferings he himself had racter and capital,-the reply of course just been petitioning the Legislature.is:-" Oh, they are highly respectable,Hon. Members opposite do not now cry "hear, hear," and laugh. No, they blush at such a disclosure;-they tremble at such an exposure;-for this man has sprung the mine too soon for the Anti Corn-law League, at Manchester:-he has laid bare the secret of this great Anti Corn

they have their accounts in our books,you are quite safe." They then purchase the wool at three months credit, have it converted by their power mills into goods, and dispose of it at market during the ensuing week for ready money. The consequence is, that they have to sacrifice a

for Cork asserted that "the landlords" venison was moistened with the widow's tears, and that their claret was dyed with the orphan's blood,"-rather a cool assertion, Sir, for a man to make, who has himself existed for many years on the pence exacted by the priests from the poorest peasantry in the world!But, Sir, I would ask, what have the farmers to expect from these cotton Lords, when they have bought up the landed property of the country? It is their practice when they purchase land to have it immediately re-valued. They carry the principle of the ledger into their rent-roll,

the rents are doubled; and I have known many families in my part of the country ruined by the oppression of these

large amount, not only to the merchant, but also to the wool stapler, who is not paid in cash at the end of the three months, but in two months bills. These men go on very prosperously so long as there is a brisk demand for the goods in the market, but when there is a stagnation in trade, caused by their recklessly overglutting the market, they inevitably become bankrupts: - and what scenes are witnessed in the bankruptcy courts! Numbers of honest manufacturers and tradespeople of various callings, who for years have bean industriously saving up their honest earnings with frugal care, find themselves in one moment ruined, by the artful villany and swindling of one man, it is no unusual thing to find that the money which some confiding neigh-men. I remember an instance where a bour had, on his death bed, placed in their poor farmer, (the father of a large family) keeping, in the fond, but alas, deceitful, had his rent raised in this manner. He hope, that his property would be con- struggled for a few years to meet the adsidered a sacred trust, and administered ditional demand, for he could not bear to to the uses for which he left it,-it is no leave the spot where his forefathers had unusual thing I say to find that such mo- dwelt before him. The few hundred ney has been risked, and lost, in their own pounds he had saved during a long life private trade by speculating manufacturers of industry, under his former kind and inof this description. Well, these men be- dulgent landlord, were soon exhausted, come bankrupts, but they have scarcely and when the time approached that his crossed the threshold of the bankruptcy cattle and his corn were to be seized to court, before they again start in trade, pay the exorbitant demands of this "new their previous capital had been the labour proprietor of the soil," he died of a broken of their work people; the capital they heart. His wife soon followed him to that now possess has been obtained by some 'bourn from whence no traveller returns.' friend's having been the petitioning cre- Their eldest son, just bursting into manditor, to a large amount, under their for- hood, endeavoured still to keep the family mer bankruptcies, and by these means ob- together, but the last time I heard of him, taining a dividend on the sums claimed, reason had lost her empire o'er his brain, which ought to have been divided amongst and he had become the inmate of a lunatic their bona fide creditors. I will now, Sir, asylum. The manufacturing members of inform the House what are the ultimate this league also want to increase their designs of this Anti-Corn-law league. profits by reducing the price of wages; They commenced their operations three they also want to become the corn meryears ago. At first they only attempted chants of England; to convert one floor of an alteration of the Corn-laws; but find- their mills into a granary, and employ ing very few supporters in the country, part of their machinery to grind the they held out a promise to the enemies of corn. [Laughter.] Hon. Members may the Established Church, that if they laugh, but you cannot deceive the would assist them in obtaining a total re-working classes; you have tried to make peal of these laws, they would then join them believe differently, but all your them in an attack upon that Establish-hired agitators have failed to do so. ment, a treaty being ratified between Yes, the poor of England would have to these parties, the hon. Member for Cork (Mr. O'Connell) was immediately invited over to take a seat at their first banquet. They there declared that the League was possessed of sufficient capital "to buy up" the landed property of the whole English nobility: and the hon. Member

go down to these men in the manu facturing districts with money in their sacks' mouths to buy corn, for there would be a great famine in the land. But this was only a part of their designs : now mark what would follow. Have hon. Members never been told of the Truck

and manufacturers on the continent! men who live, and move, and have their being, for money alone; they care not how they obtain it; what cruelty and oppression they inflict, so long as they amass wealth from the sweat of the poor man's brow. They refuse him the price of his labour;

fits; they declare, that there is no religion in trade; in short, they are, to use the emphatic language of Mr. Burke, a set of men whose ledger is their bible, whose counting-house is their church, and whose money is their God! Sir, I have heard a great deal said to-night, on the blessings of

System? Have they never heard of the | the landed interest rallying around them, labourers being paid their wages in goods? as they ever had done, and warding off Lest they should not, I will now explain the deadly blow. Sir, these are the more minutely the manner in which the men for whom the landed interest of poor are treated by many of the manufac- England is to be destroyed! — these turers, &c.; and 1 will expose to the are the men for whom the yeomanry of House such a system of tyranny, oppres- Great Britain (their country's strength, sion, and plunder, committed on these and England's pride), are to be driven half-starved operatives, as is a disgrace to from their home! these are the men who any Christian country. Sir, when the are to become the possessors of the Engpoor labourers go to receive their work lish soil! these are the men who are ruinfrom these manufacturers, they now finding the character of the British merchants that it generally consists of a very inferior article. They find the wool difficult to comb, and the warps full of flaws. On the Saturday evening-that period which ought to be the sweetest hour of the week to the working man-when the reward of his labour-the worth of his hire-the price set upon the sweat of his brow-they look for nothing but enormous proought to be as freely given as it would be ever gratefully received-when the honied drop should sweeten the bitter cup of gall which the poor man has so often to drain to the very dregs-even this is pilfered from him. He takes his work to the mill, and who do you think receives it? Not the master of the mill-no; but an over-free-trade, and that by it alone, this counlooker, who pretends carefully to examine it, and, of course, finds fault with it. He says to the poor fellow, "You have done this work ill: I must deduct so much from your combing." And the poor weavers, who are perhaps only receiving 3s. 6d. or 4s. a-week are constantly mulcted in this manner by these overlookers, who have their own wages paid out of what they can deduct from these plundered wretches, and a per centage on the amount. Then, again, mark what follows; they have not even the small amount paid in money, it is paid in goods-in rotten corn-in "cheap flour;" and when the poor man carries it home to his wife and family, after in vain endeavouring to induce his master to pay him his wages in money, he finds that the flour which he had received as wages in the previous week still unconsumed, the quality being so bad, that the stomachs of his sickly children had been unable to retain it. [“ Oh, oh, from the Opposition.] Sir, I assert that all this is true, for I have heard these statements during the course of my life from hundreds of the working classes; and what is more, they say that they have no hope of relief or succour from the Anti-Corn-law League: the only chance they have of being rescued from their oppressors is, by

try can be saved. It happened, that during the recess, the two noble Lords, the Member for the City of London, and the Member for Tiverton (Lord Palmerston) like the poor Bingley operatives, were wandering through the country "in search of employment in a state of miserable despondency." Some charitably-disposed persons at Bridgenorth and Plymouth took pity on them, and presented them with addresses of condolence.

I have not a

copy of the one presented to the noble Lord, the Member for the City of London, nor his reply; but I recollect he asserted, that the principles of free-trade were sound, and that the right hon. Baronet (Sir R. Peel) would have a very easy task in governing the country, as the Whigs had left nothing for him to do. I suppose, Sir, the noble Lord has been trying to prove the correctness of this assertion, by his own conduct during these last few days. But, Sir, I have the address to the noble Lord, the Member for Tiverton, and his reply. The former said, "We confidently hope, that the period will speedily arrive, when it will please her Majesty to restore you and your colleagues to power." The noble Lord, no doubt, hoped so too, but he said, "we have attempted to apply to commerce those principles of trade,

which mankind have acknowledged as the only sure foundation for permanent prosperity." Now, Adam Smith, Ricardo, Malthus, M'Culloch, and other leading advocates of this theory have admitted that the subject was one involved in the greatest difficulty and obscurity; but it was reserved for the hon. Member for Wolverhampton (Mr. Villiers) to dispel the clouds, it was left for the hon. Member for Bolton (Dr. Bowring) and the hon. Member for Stroud (Mr. Scrope) to become bright constellations, it was destined for the hon. Member for Dumfries (Mr. Ewart) to become the evening star: ever singing, as he twinkles, "the blessings of free trade," and for the two noble Lords to become the sun and moon, in this expansive, well-defined, social system. With the permission of the House, I will give them M'Culloch's contradictory opinions as to the soundness of free trade. In page 13 of his work, entitled "Commerce;" he says:

"It is clear, therefore, that in estimating the comparative advantageousness of the home and foreign trades, it will not do to look merely at the number of transactions in each. The real question is, which occasions the greatest subdivision of employments, and gives the most powerful spur to industry? This, however, is a question that does not, perhaps, admit of any very satisfactory resolution."

Adam Smith, too, in the second chapter of his 4th Book on the Wealth of Nations, asserts, that

"By restraining, either by high duties or by absolute prohibition, the importation of such goods from foreign countries as can be produced at home, the monopoly of the home market is more or less secured to the domestic

industry employed in producing them. Thus the prohibition of importing either live cattle or salt provisions from foreign countries, secures to the graziers of Great Britain the monopoly of the home market for butcher's meat. The high duties upon the importation of corn, which in times of moderate plenty, amount to a prohibition, give a like advantage to the growers of that commodity. The prohibition of the importation of foreign woollens is equally favourable to the woollen manufacturers. The silk manufacture, though altogether employed upon foreign materials, has lately obtained the same advantage. The linen manufacture has not yet obtained it, but is making great strides towards it."

tributed to keep up the rate of profit in all the different branches of British trade, higher than it naturally would have been, had all nations The monopoly of the colony trade as it necessarily drew towards that trade a greater portion of the capital of Great Britain than what would have gone to it of its own accord; so, by the expulsion of all foreign capitals, it necessarily reduced the whole quantity of capital employed in that trade below what it naturally would have been in the case of a free trade. But by lessening the competition of capital in that branch of trade, it necessarily raised the rate of profit in that branch. By lessening, too, the competition of British capitals in all other branches of trade, it necessarily raised the rate of British profit in all those other branches. Whatever may have been at any particular period since the establishment of the Act of Navigation, the state or extent of the mercantile capital of Great Britain, the monopoly of the colony trade must, during the continuance of that state, have raised the ordinary rate of British profit higher than it otherwise would have been, both in that and all the other hranches of British trade."

been allowed a free trade to the British colonies.

Malthus, too, in his "Principles of Political Economy," revised by himself, just before his death, states that,

"Since that era of these distinguished writers, the subject had attracted the attention of a greater number of persons, particularly the main propositions of the science have during the last twenty or thirty years. All been examined, and the events which have since occurred, tending either to illustrate or confute them have been repeatedly discussed. The result of this examination and discussion seems to be, that on some very important points there are still great differences of opinion. Among these, perhaps, may be reckoned, 1st. The definitions of wealth and productive labour; 2nd. The nature and measures of value; 3rd. The nature and extent of the principles of demand and supply; 4th. The origin and process of rent; 5th. The causes which determine the wages of labour and the profits of stock; 6th. The causes which practically retard and limit the progress of wealth; 7th. The level of the precious metals in different countries; 8th. The principles of taxation, &c."

And at page 418, he adds:

"With regard to these causes (alluding to the causes of distress), such as the cultivation of our poor soils, our restrictions upon commerce, and our weight of taxation, I find it very difficult to admit a theory of our distresses so inconsistent with the theory of our In the 7th chapter you will find the comparative prosperity. While the greatest following passage, referring to the follow-while there were more than usual restrictions quantity of our poor lands were in cultivation, ing policy of the country ;

upon commerce, and very little corn was imSecondly, this monopoly has necessarily con- I ported, and while taxation was at its height

the country confessedly increased in wealth, with a rapidity never known before. Since some of our poorest lands have been thrown

out of cultivation, since the peace has removed many of our restrictions upon commerce, and notwithstanding our Corn-laws, we have imported a great quantity of corn, and since seventeen millions of taxes have been taken off from the people, we have experienced the greatest degree of distress both among capitalists and labourers."

Had it not been so late a period of the evening, I could have quoted Mr. Huskisson to show that during the last few years of his life, he too clearly perceived, that the principles of free trade, as defined by hon. Members opposite were wild and visionary; he even went so far as to declare in his last speech on the Corn-laws, that the farmer is not only justly entitled "to remuneration and protection," but that a permanent fixed duty was out of the question." The noble Lord has quoted these" enlightened men" as his authority to show that the "soundness and truth of the principles of "free trade have long been demonstrated in reasoning;" but, Sir, I think they prove quite the reverse, and I have therefore trespassed thus on the time of the House, in order to correct his error; as my doing so may be beneficial to himself as well as to the country. Before I sit down I will once more appeal to the landed proprietors of England. I ask you whether you intend to join in assisting the anti Corn-law League in their deep design of tyranny and oppression against the working classes. The labouring poor have never yet appealed to you in vain-you have ever been ready to relieve them in their distresses, and to stand by them in their necessities. They now look to you ;-—to you, and the right hon. Baronet, so long as he continues to walk in the light of the Constitution, and I feel convinced that they will not look in vain; I feel convinced that they will find you now as they ever have done, their best friends and protectors. Debate adjourned.

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CORN-LAWS-PETITIONS-THE AVERAGES.] The Marquess of Normanby presented a petition from Hull, signed by upwards of 7,600 persons, praying for a repeal of the existing Corn-law. The petitioners stated that the only legitimate object of taxation was for the purposes of revenue, not of protection, and they wished to see all taxes for protection removed.

Lord Brougham said, that he entirely agreed with the petitioners in wishing for a total repeal, but he could not agree with them, if they meant to sanction any duty on food for the purposes of revenue.

The Marquess of Normanby explained that the petition he had presented the other day from the corporation of Hull was favourable to a fixed duty, but this was for a total repeal: it only drew a distinction between duties for revenue purposes and for protection.

Lord Brougham admitted, that the only legitimate object of taxation was revenue, but placing a duty on food was the very worst mode in which that revenue could be collected. The exigencies of the State required a revenue, but the Government could not tell whether any would be produced or not by a tax on food, and this applied to all duty, whether it was fixed or levied by a sliding scale. Any duty, on food imported, not only raised the price of that brought in, but also the price of every quarter consumed by the people, so that the people lost on the whole food consumed, and the revenue gained only on the food imported. It raised the price of every quarter, and if the whole calculation that the people consumed a quarter per head per annum were to be maintained, it was nothing more than a poll-tax to the amount of the duty per quarter. If the amount of revenue, say one and a quarter million, must be raised, it would be far better to impose a tax of 1s. a quarter on the wheat ground, which would just make the amount; for although that would still be a poll-tax, and operate most prejudicially against the poorer man, who paid more for food in proportion to his income than the rich, yet it would be preferable to a tax on imports, for it would not raise the price of food beyond the amount that went into

the public treasury. He certainly was far from approving of a fixed duty; but he did not on that account like the sliding scale, for he considered that a sliding scale was liable to most of the objections

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