Page:History of the Anti corn law league.pdf/380

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364
INTERVIEW WITH LORD STANLEY

"Sir R. Peel: It is rather shallow to say that the poor do not care for cosmetics. It must be recollected, too, that I have made a great reduction of the duty on the importation of meat.

"Mr. Ashworth said that pork was purchased, at Cincinnati, for 8s. a cwt, whilst Sir .Robert Peel had imposed a duty of 14s.

"Sir Robert Peel 8s., not 14s. I think we had better not discuss the tariff.

"Mr. Ashworth said it was no wonder if we imposed a duty of cent, per cent, upon American pork, that they should impose a duty of 35s. per cent, upon our manufactures.

"Mr. Ashton merely wished to refer to the great emigration that was going on from this country to America. The best, the careful, steady, industrious men, were leaving all the manufactories in England. He thought it was absolutely necessary that the good hands should be kept at home.

"Sir R. Peel: Should you say they went to America to invest what money they had in hand, or to get employed?

"Mr. Ashton: I should say to obtain employment."

Sir Robert's reply to the representations made to him was: "I shall take care to convey the facts which you have stated to the rest of her Majesty's ministers, and to solicit their attention to the subject." The deputation left him with the conviction that he would wait the chance of a good harvest and a revival of trade to allay the existing discontent. From him they proceeded to hold an interview with Lord Stanley, at the Colonial office, not with much hope of effecting anything with the man who, in the previous year, had assisted that under free import the single province of Tamboff, in Russia, would swamp all the wheat growers of England by its enormous annual surplus of wheat. His lordship told them that there was a great variety of conflicting opinions upon the subject. Mr. Chappell said that the whole lay in a nut-shell; one man had goods to dispose of and another had corn to give in exchange for them, and all they wanted was liberty to make the exchange; to which his lordship replied; "Oh, oh, so you say; but I am of a different way of thinking with many of you, and, in the mean time, let each enjoy his own