History of the Anti-Corn Law League/Chapter6
CHAPTER VI.
MEETING OF THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE.
The outward pressure acted upon the Manchester Chamber of Commerce. A requisition to the president, George Wm. Wood, Esq., M.P. for Kendal, to call a special general meeting, "to take into consideration the propriety of petitioning Parliament for the repeal of the existing Corn Laws," was signed by Henry Tootal, William Atkinson, J. C. Prescott, Alex. Henry (afterwards M.P. for South Lancashire), James Atherton, John Macvicar, John Smith, Richard Marsden, Henry Romilly, E. Gladstone, Thomas Townend, William Nield, John Bradshaw, jun., George Sandars, (afterwards M.P. for Wakefield), Thomas Bazley (afterwards President of the Chamber), Rupert Ingleby, Richard Birley, and William Gibb. The majority of the requisitionists were understood to be favourable to a moderate fixed duty, or a modified sliding scale of lower duties, such as Sir Robert Peel afterwards proposed, and, with the exception of Mr. Henry and Mr. Bazley, none took any very active part in the subsequent agitation for total repeal, and Mr. Sandars was rather opposed to it. At a meeting of the directors, a series of propositions, declaratory of the evils resulting from the existing laws, was submitted to their consideration, and received their approval; and the president was requested to draw up, in accordance with the declarations, the prayer of the petition to Parliament.
The general meeting of members was held on the 13th of December, and was the largest which had ever assembled in the chamber. The president made a good speech on the injury to commerce inflicted by the existing laws, but without any indication of his opinion as to the necessity of their total repeal, and from the great stress which he laid upon the repeated and excessive fluctuations of price under the then sliding scale, it might be presumed that he would gladly accept such modifications of that scale as would permit corn "to flow in regularly as wanted." Mr. Samuel Fletcher, after some sensible remarks on the absurdity of supposing that we ought to make ourselves independent of other nations, hi matters of exchange, and the expression of his belief that "a reduction of the duties on corn" would not be injurious to the interests of the landowner, moved that a petition for the repeal of the Corn Laws be presented to the House of Commons. The motion, seconded by Mr. John Macvicar, was then put and carried.
The President then read the petition which, embodying a series of declarations of the evils occasioned by the existing laws, met with the approval generally of the members, but the prayer with which it ended was considered as a most lame and impotent conclusion "Your petitioners address your honourable house on this subject in no spirit of partisanship. They do not desire the exclusive advantage of a class, but the equal good of all they wish to see the trade in corn conducted, as far as possible, on the in a sober, regular course, and principles of other trades; not by perpetual jerks and impulses, arising out of extraordinary emergencies to see it flow in a regular, equable current, supplying the wants of the country without overwhelming it. Your petitioners hope, that your honourable house will take the measures in accordance with these sentiments, and with the opinions they have ventured to offer to your notice." Mr. William Nield, in moving the adoption of the petition, argued the fairness of subjecting agriculture to the same competition which trade had to encounter, and declared his belief that land had not been so productive as it might have been if the owners had exercised their energies in increasing its productiveness. Mr. Richard Birley seconded the motion and the President rose for the purpose of putting it to the meeting, when Mr. John Benjamin Smith rose and said that he had understood the President to say, that the petition spoke the sentiments of the whole of the directors. He was a director, and he begged to say it did not express his sentiments. The President said he certainly understood that Mr. Smith had agreed to the petition on the day before. Mr. Smith replied that he did agree to what he then heard, but some passages had been added since; he believed that it was in the prayer of the petition that passages had been added from which he could not but dissent. "The inference to be drawn from that prayer was, that the chamber approved of a protective Corn Law of some sort—an inference which he could never allow to be drawn from any document purporting to bear his sanction. He did not hesitate to say that he could not approve of any protective duty on corn, and that in his opinion the whole course of legislation on the subject had been, from beginning to end, one of the most scandalous instances of landowners legislating for their own benefit, at the expense of the people, that was to be found in the history of legislation in any country of the world." The cheers that greeted this declaration showed that a change had come over the spirit of the chamber Mr. Smith went on at considerable length to advocate the principles of entirely free trade, and concluded a very effective speech by saying that he thought he had shown that our Corn-Law legislation had been "one of most shameful injustice, and that they should so state in their petition, with the addition that while the members of the chamber sought for abolition of the Corn Laws, they were not so unjust and inconsistent as to ask any protection for manufactures."
Mr. Tootall said that without intending to give any offence he must say that Mr. Smith had given his assent to the petition, provided that a few sentences were added to show that they did not ask for protection to manufactures. Mr. Smith again said that his objection was to the prayer of the petition. Mr. S. Fletcher thought that it was hopeless to draw a document that would suit the views of every individual. The President said he had understood make such alterations as were in that he was allowed to accordance with the sentiments of the directors, and that he had done so and he deeply regretted that Mr. Smith had not stated his objections. Mr. Smith replied that "he had expressed his opinion that they might embody in their address their wish to give up all protection on manufactures, and thus anticipate the objections of the agriculturists."
The President's rejoinder was that Mr. Smith certainly did express his wish that the manufacturers would abandon all protection, but, added he, "I did not know that all the members would coincide with it, I did not know, for instance, if it would be thought expedient to give up the 20 per cent, now exacted on hosiery." Mr. J. C. Dyer followed in a short and pithy speech, embracing the general principles of free trade, and urging the members to take a lead in calling a public meeting on the subject.
Mr. Cobden then addressed the meeting in his quiet and argumentative manner, in a short speech, abounding in familiar but" forcible illustration. In reference to the protection of farmers he said: "In a country, such as this, where a boundless extent of capital was yielding only three or four per cent., it was folly to suppose that by any artificial means any trade could long be made to pay more than an average rate of profit. The effect of all such restrictions would only be to narrow the field of industry, and thus, in the end, to injure instead of benefiting the parties intended to be protected. But look at the very opposite position in which the owners of land stood. He would suppose that a law could be passed to raise the price of wheat to a thousand shillings a bushel; now what would be the effect of this, but that the capitalists who now get their ten per cent, profit in London or Manchester would immediately urge their sons to bid fifty per cent, over the farmers of Norfolk, and if these were still in the way of getting higher profits than other trades, then other competitors would appear to bid fifty per cent, over them, until Mr. Coke's farms had reached the full market price, and yielded only the ordinary rate of profit of all other trades.(Hear, hear.) But mark the difference in the situation of the landowner and the calico printer; while additional mills and print works might be erected to meet the demand for calicoes and prints, not an acre of land could be added to the present domains of the aristocracy, and, therefore, every shilling of protection on corn must pass into the pockets of the landowners, without at all benefiting the tenant or the agricultural labourer; whereas, on the other hand, no extent of protection could possibly benefit the manufacturer."
Mr. Cobden's speech was rendered the more telling by the description of what he had observed, during his recent tour on the continent, of the effect of our Corn Laws in encouraging the establishment of rival manufactures. After entreating his hearers not to suffer themselves to be deluded by any other plan which the aristocracy might, with a view to lead them upon a wrong descent, propose to do, whether by war or diplomacy, to benefit trade; but exhorting them to keep a steady eye on the Corn Law, which was the real and only obstacle to a steady and a large increase of their trade, he concluded by proposing, if it met the views of the directors, to offer a resolution, without at all meaning any disrespect to them, that the chamber should meet again, on the following week, to pass a petition praying for the total repeal of all protective duties whatever.
Mr. Edmund Ashworth, of Bolton, seconded the amendment that the meeting stand adjourned, and that a committee be appointed to prepare a petition for adoption. The petition now proposed, he said, had been approved of by Mr. Fletcher, because it was it was moderate; his own objection to it was that it wanted energy, and he asked, if that chamber really was in earnest, why it should not speak out? Mr. Fletcher thought the adjournment would be disrespectful to the directors. Mr. Gibb said he would only ask for half the loaf, when they knew they would be refused the whole one. Mr. W. Rawson remarked that a 15 per cent duty, would be as fatal as one of 50. The President said the petition went the whole length of those who asked for an adjournment, only it advocated a gradual transition to entire freedom of trade. Mr. Cobden thought the quotation from Mr. Canning had been peculiarly unhappy, for nothing could be more absurd than the concluding sentence about an "overwhelming" supply of corn. Mr. Tootal agreed with Mr. Cobden as to entire repeal; he only differed as to the time and mode. It was no new thing for the chamber to move in the matter of the Corn Laws.
Mr. Dyer: "How often has it petitioned since 1825?"
Mr. J. B. Smith: "Not during ten years up till 1837."
A long discussion ensued, in which the President, Mr. Sandars, and a very few members opposed the adjournment, mainly on the ground that it would be a loss of time further to discuss the question, and ultimately it was agreed that the original motion and the amendment should be withdrawn, and the meeting be adjourned to that day week.
The proceedings of this meeting, reported at great length in the Manchester Saturday's papers (now employing excellent short-hand writers), and copied into the London daily papers, then giving considerable attention to the expression of Manchester opinion, excited much discussion throughout the kingdom, and much curiosity was manifested to know the result of the renewed debate in a body that had been overtaken by the vice of old corporations—inaptitude to move—into which a new spirit had been infused, struggling for, but still doubtful of victory. The adjourned meeting, held on the 20th of December, was still more numerously attended than the preceding. A change in the designation of some of the members will be observed. In the interval, the first municipal elections under the Charter of Incorporation had taken place, and the great majority of the Town Council consisted of free traders. It was to be seen by that day's trial whether the Chamber of Commerce was or was not to be brought into unison of opinion and sentiment with the public and the new corporation, and whether the stand-still graduality of Mr. George W. Wood, member of Parliament, or the entire and immediate free-trade policy of Mr. Richard Cobden, alderman, was to prevail.
The President, who seems to have considered that as the main objections to his petition (for he acknowledged the paternity) had been directed to its concluding prayer, had prepared one, earnestly conjuring the honourable house that the existing Corn Laws might be repealed; but the use of the word "existing," still leaving the inference to be drawn that the chamber would sanction some other law, was unacceptable to the more decided reformers of commercial legislation. Mr. J. C. Dyer pressed for a decided declaration of opinion, and said that the moderators and juste-milieu men were mischievously obstructive to the introduction of a wise and just policy. Mr. Alderman Cobden reiterated his disappointment that the directors had not incorporated some of the facts that had been stated at the previous discussion, without which the arguments in the petition would have no more weight, however ingeniously urged, than a thesis drawn up by some tyro in political economy at a university. "Why," he asked in allusion to the discontent of the dense working population which had begun alarmingly to manifest itself, "why were incendiaries enabled to get up their torch-light meetings? People did not quit comfortable homes, containing good beds, and furniture, and tables with something to spread upon them, to attend out-of-door night meetings. No, there were causes for those evils, and it behoved them to represent strongly what those causes were, and to warn the legislature of the dangers that were hanging over them. Surely it behoved them to read the signs of the times. If their trade should be ruined, this neighbourhood must become the theatre where a fearful tragedy would be enacted,—which it became their duty and their interest to avert, by a timely effort to repeal the Corn Law." In accordance with these views, he had prepared a petition, which he would read, and leave it in the hands of the meeting:—
"To the Honourable the Commons of Great Britain and Ireland, in Parliament assembled:—
"The Petition of the President, Vice-President, Directors, and Members of the Chamber of Commerce and Manufactures of Manchester, agreed to in a Special General Meeting, held on the 20th day of December, 1838,
"Humbly showeth,
"That your petitioners deem it their imperative duty to call the immediate attention of your honourable house to the consideration of the existing laws affecting the free importation of food.
"That your petitioners would premise that you are already acquainted with the nature and extent of the cotton trade; combining, as it does, a larger amount of capital, with greater enterprise and skill, and giving more extensive and better regulated employment than any other branch of manufacturing industry. This source of increasing population and wealth, which is now become essential to our well-being as a nation, owes no sort of allegiance to the soil of England; and if it has grown up with a rapidity unparalleled in the annals of trade, history affords us many examples to show how speedily it may, by misgovernrnent, be banished to other shores.
"That your petitioners view, with great alarm, the rapid extension of foreign manufactures, and they have in particular to deplore the consequent diminution of a profitable trade with the continent of Europe; to which, notwithstanding the great increase of population since the termination of the war, the exports have actually been less in value during the last five years after the peace; and whilst the demand for all those articles in which the greatest amount of the labour of our artisans is comprised has been constantly diminishing, the exportation of the raw materials has been as rapidly increasing.
"That several nations of the continent not only produce sufficient manufactures for their own consumption, but they successfully compete with us in neutral foreign markets. Amongst other instances that might be given to show the formidable growth of the cotton hosiery of Saxony, of which, owing to its superior cheapness, nearly four times as much is exported as from this country, the Saxons exported annually to the United States of America alone, a quantity equal to the exports from England to all parts of the world; whilst the still more important fact remains to be adduced, that Saxon hose, manufactured from English yarn, after paying a duty of twenty per cent., are beginning to be introduced into this country, and sold for home consumption at lower prices than they can be produced for by our own manufacturers.
"That further proof of the rapid progress in manufacturing industry going on upon the continent is afforded in the fact that establishments for the making of all kinds of machinery for spinning and weaving cotton, flax, and wool, have lately been formed in nearly all the large towns of Europe, in which skilled English artisans are at the present moment diligently employed in teaching the native mechanics to make machines copied from models of the newest inventions of this country; and not a week passes in which individuals of the same class do not quit the workshops of Manchester, Leeds, and Birmingham, to enter upon similar engagements abroad.
"That the superiority we have hitherto possessed in our unrivalled roads and canals is no longer peculiar to this country; railroads to a great extent, and at a less cost than in England, are proceeding in all parts of Europe and the United States of America; whilst, from the want of profitable investments at home, capital is constantly seeking employment in foreign countries, and thus supplying the greatest deficiency under which our rivals previously laboured.
"That, whilst calling the attention of your honourable house to facts calculated to excite the utmost alarm for the well-being of our manufacturing prosperity, your petitioners cannot too earnestly make known that the evils are occasioned by our impolitic and unjust legislation, which, by preventing the British manufacturer from exchanging the produce of his labour for the corn of other countries, enables our foreign rivals to purchase their food at one-half the price at which it is sold in this market; and your petitioners declare it to be their solemn conviction that this is the commencement only of a state of things, which, unless arrested by a timely repeal of all protective duties upon the importation of corn and all foreign articles of subsistence, must eventually transfer our manufacturing industry into other and rival countries.
"That, deeply impressed with such apprehensions, your petitioners cannot look with indifference upon, nor conceal from your honourable house, the perilous condition of those surrounding multitudes whose subsistence from day to day depends upon the prosperity of the cotton trade. Already the million have raised the cry for food. Reason, compassion, and sound policy demand that the excited passions be allayed, otherwise evil consequences may ensue. The continuance of the loyal attachment of the people to the established institutions of the country can never be permanently secured on any other grounds than those of commercial justice. Holding one of those eternal principles to be—the inalienable right of every man freely to exchange the results of his labour for the productions of other people; and maintaining the practice of protecting one part of the community at the expense of all other classes to be unsound and unjustifiable, your petitioners earnestly implore your honourable house to repeal all laws relating to the importation of foreign corn and other foreign articles of subsistence ; and to carry out to the fullest extent, both as affects agriculture and manufactures, the true and peaceful principles of free trade, by removing all existing obstacles to the unrestricted employment of industry and capital.—And your petitioners, &c.
In further enforcing the necessity of a clear expression of opinion by the chamber, Mr. Cobden said it was desirable that Mr. Poulett Thomson should be left in no doubt as to the wishes of his constituents, and confessed his belief that that gentleman, whilst representing the free traders of Manchester, had attempted less than Mr. Huskisson had done while representative of the monopoly interests of the old borough of Liverpool. Mr. R. H. Greg (afterwards one of the members for the borough) seconded the motion for the adoption of Mr. Cobden 's petition ; and when a man of his character and intelligence, and at the same time one of the most extensive spinners and manufacturers of the country, spoke of the possibility of being obliged to carry his capital arid skill to foreign lands, from the belief that the repeal of the Corn Law had been so long delayed that the country must gradually sink into utter ruin without an instant change, a great impression was produced on the assembly. Mr. Smith spoke at great length, and as effectively as if he had sat at the feet of the great economist whose name he bore. Mr. William Rawson rendered good service also, by his illustrations drawn from the state of the Nottingham stocking trade, in which he was engaged. After some little discussion between the President and Mr. Cobden, about the conduct of Mr. Poulett Thomson, the latter put Mr. Cobden's motion as an amendment, and it was carried almost unanimously, there being only four or five hands held up against it. The result was received with loud cheering. In my paper of the 22nd of December, I said of this meeting:—"The Chamber of Commerce has aroused itself from its seven years' sleep. The proceedings of the meeting last week have engrossed so large a share of public interest, as to have almost thrown into the shade the proceedings of our corporation elections. The adjourned meeting on Thursday last was even more crowded than the former, and our readers will perceive, from our very extended report, that the debates were not less interesting or important. The facts stated by the different speakers, coming as they did from some of the most intelligent of our merchants and manufacturers, appeared to make an impression on the chamber such as we have never before witnessed in any assembly, and we are confident that they cannot fail to produce a similar feeling throughout the whole manufacturing and commercial community of this kingdom. Here were assembled our most eminent merchants, manufacturers, and spinners, who, after a debate of five hours, at their first meeting, adjourned their discussion for a week, to give time for reflection and consideration upon the course which they should pursue, and then after another debate of five hours duration, solemnly, for no other term will convey to our readers so correctly the deep interest manifested by the chamber during the whole of their protracted sittings, declaring, by a majority of at least six to one, that the great and peaceful principles of free trade, on the broadest scale was the only security for the welfare of the community."
The effect of the outward pressure upon the chamber, gave some promise that a continuance of the pressure might not be ineffectual when directed upon parliament. Personally, I greatly rejoiced in the prospect of an effective expression of public opinion, for I had sometimes despaired of being able to excite it. I was compelled to be an agitator when agitators were scarce. It had always been an effort with me to overcome my reluctance to take part in public meetings. I rejoiced to see that my voice on this great question would not be needed, except, perhaps, as an occasional and humble substitute for some one of the popular leaders who were rising up. But I resolved that my pen should allow no landlord fallacy to appear unanswered, and that my newspaper should be devoted fare of every portion of the to record the proceedings of the new movement—not as its organ, but as an independent coadjutor in the good work. Hence an occupation of space for eight years, more probably than any weekly newspaper ever devoted to a single object. During that long struggle I was often told that it would be more to my interest if I made the Manchester Times more of a newspaper. It mattered not. If journalism was not to effect public good it was not the employment for me; and now, at the end of fourteen years, calmly looking back upon the past, I not only do not regret the course which I took, but am deeply thankful that no temptation induced me to swerve from a straightforward, and, as I believed, a righteous purpose.