Zbe Wrobintts.

The news of peace with China has already given a stimulus to trade in the manufacturing-districts. It was received at Liverpool with firing of guns and ringing of bells ; and the cotton-market at once assumed a -brisker appearance. In Manchester prices of goods suited to the 'Eastern markets were raised; and as the stocks of goods and yarns are 'now low, every impulse tells strongly.

A "great Free-trade festival" was held at Liverpool, by the local Anti-Monopoly Association and their friends, in the Royal Amphi- theatre, on Friday, and a copious report of the proceedings appears in the _Liverpool Chronicle of Saturday ; tea and coffee being the staple re- freshments. Mr. W. Rathbone was in the chair. It had been announced that Mr. Daniel O'Connell and Mr. Joseph Hume would be present, but they were prevented ; Mr. Hume by a domestic calamity. But Mr. James Silk Buckingham and Mr. Cobden were there ; and the theatre was crowded with willing listeners, to the number of more than 3,000, including several ladies. Among the special decorations for the occa- sion was a transparency, with this inscription—

SIR ROBERT PEEL'S DECLARATION IN FAVOUR OF FREE TRADE.

"It is a principle admitted by all, that we should buy in the cheapest mar- ket and sell in the dearest."—See Speech, 10th May 1842."

The Chairman, who addressed his auditory as " fellow-sufferers," read a letter from the Earl of Sefton, declining to take the chair as he .had been requested, on the plea that he had long given up attending public meetings ; but expressing his good wishes, and his willingness to be enrolled as a member of the Association. Mr. Buckingham deli- vered a speech on the general subject of free trade, which his resources of illustration scarcely redeemed from the triteness of so hacknied a theme.

But it is in Mr. Cobden's speech that we find matter of the most mark. He alluded to the case of the distressed shirtmakers, and the recent meeting in their behalf in Shoreditch- " You may have noticed that the case drew a severe censure on the parties who paid this monstrous and miserable reward for labour. Well, but those who answer us when we agitate for free trade in food, let them answer us now, how it is that those poor females are getting only sixpence a day for twelve hours' labour in toiling at their needle ? There is no machinery there. We have not yet managed to spin or weave shirts. How do . they answer that? Why, to hear the advocates of the Corn-laws in reference to the wages of labour, you would fancy there was something inherent in the Corn-laws that while they were maintained wages would be maintained ; but when these sempstresses make their case known, what is the redress we hear from the whining philan- thropists? Why, the very parties who are upholding monopoly denounce the people that employ them, and call them Jew slop-dealers,' and say they

ought to give better wages: and so the only remedy those poor people have from the upholders of the present system is not an act of Parliament, nor to go to the

Duke of Buckingham ; they are handed over to the tender mercies of their employers, who, we are told at the same time, are hard-hearted Jew atop- dealers.' " ( Great laughter.)

He made good use of a local occurrence, a recent meeting among the Liverpool ship-carpenters to complain of distress in their trade ; and .among their resolutions was one declaring "that they would not allow any more of humbug in religion or politics in their trade " ; a resolution

• ;the necessity of which surprised him-

" Well, but I perceive that some of your shipbuilders here have gone to work to mend their trade, a little after the fashion of their betters. I find they have ' been declaring that other men should not work, and threatening them to con- fine themselves to their own localities. Now, that is just the design of the Duke of Buckingham. They want to send away all who are not born here. But the shipbuilders at Whitby, Portsmouth, and other places, are just as bad as they are. We will suppose they all sent away their men ; and what the better will they be after that ? But it seems the most active of the monopo- 'lists (the leaders Buckingham and Richmond) have been brought up before Mr. Rushton; and I certainly read the speech of Mr. Rushton, which sur- -prised me, and I think he will be fortunate if he escapes the notice of the At- torney-General for sedition : why, be declared it is rank tyranny and despot- ism to turn away a man from his labour in the market where be can dispose of

'it: he has declared that the Magistrates of Liverpool will send to gaol for 'three months anybody they detect preventing the people from selling their labour to advantage. Now I think they will have a goodly set of culprits at their bar before long, if they carry out their threat. From what I have seen of the vigorous manner of your worthy Magistrate, I should like nothing better than to see the monopolists—Buckingham at the head—placed before him to answer before the Magistrates of Liverpool for an offence against the act of George IV. cap. 2 or 4, I think it is : I should like to see your sugar and corn 'monopolists answer for having dune this for which the ship-carpenters were made liable to three months' imprisonment." He gave the electors some advice-

" There will be little chance for good government or good trade unless the people who have the electoral franchise will look to their duties irrespective of the two great political parties. (Cheers.) They must not a-k whether a man .ts a Whig or a Tory, but whether he will vote for measures that will benefit .them and the rest of the community ; and if he will, no matter whether be be a Tory or a Whig, vote for him, and if he be a Whig and will not, then reject ' 'him. (Renewed cheers.) And just now I heard from my friend in the chair, that we had some present who do not usually attend : I think he said they were gentlemen of a particular party. I never mention the names of parties at Anti-Corn-law meetings. I hope every Free-trader will banish from his vocabulary the names of the old parties by which the country has been so long pestered."

He entered upon a controversy with the Times as to land being thrown out of cultivation by repeal of the Corn-laws; quoting a work by Mr. Balaton, of Car i Canton n Yorkshire, and several figures, to show

that rents would never be reduced below Is. an acre for the worst land and 20s. for the best : but he believed indeed that they would not be reduced at all. What was the thing wanted- " I believe that in less than twenty years the rent of the agricultural land in this country would be higher than it ever has been, and far higher than it ever would be without a free trade. But that would be not by grinding or wringiug too much out of unwilling poverty, but by obtaining it out of the rich cons. men—the only way to raise up an agricultural interest in this country. I do not stand here as an enemy to the agricultural interest, or to say that the land- lords shall have less rent because they repeal the Corn-laws ; but 1 say that they have not a shadow of a ground for starving your ship-carpenters. In the coun- try, every intelligent agriculturist will tell you that what is wanted is vast im- provement in every direction in the soil—more draining, better hedging, better fencing, better ploughing, better sowing, better every thing than it is; and if you have that done, you must have more labour to do it." The meeting broke up at half-past-ten o'clock.

A great public meeting of merchants, spinners, manufacturers, machine-makers, and other capitalists and employers of workmen in Lancashire and Cheshire' was held at the Town-hall in Manchester on Tuesday, to consider the steps to be adopted in consequence of the ruinous effect of the Corn-laws and our restrictive commercial policy; the substantial object being, to back the League in raising the 50,000/. fund. It was convened on a requisition by about forty leading firms, in consequence of an address from the League, pointing out to manufac- turers and others the effect of our restrictive policy and consequent decay of trade in destroying the value of their fixed capital, which is only of value while at work. Mr. Robert Hyde Greg presided ; and there were present Mr. Cobden, M.P., Mr. Joseph Brotherton, Mr. James Kershaw, Mayor of Manchester, Mr. William Lockett, Boroughreeve of Salford, Mr. Alfred Orrell, Mayor of Stockport, Sir Thomas Potter, Mr. George Wilson, Mr. John Bright, Mr. C. J. S. Walker, and several leading men of the League and of the district generally, to the number of 500. The chairman began the proceed. logs. by giving some statistics of the manufacturing districts— There had lately appeared a Report from the Factory Inspectors who had inspected this district and the nighbouring district of Yorkshire. He was unable to detail the exact particulars of the report, but the substance was, that 10 per cent of all the cotton-mills in this part of Lancashire and Yorkshire were standing; that 12 per cent of all the woollen-mills in this part of Lancashire and Yorkshire were standing; and that of the 90 per cent in one case, and of the 88 per cent in the other, of the mills that were in operation, 25 per cent, or one-fourth, were going on short time. All knew what a disastrous state of trade that implied— the absolute stoppage of 10 per cent of all the mills and one-fourth of the re- mainder working short time. To manufacturers the fact spoke for itself, and he need not say any more than that such was the fact. Looking at their own town, they had seen the disastrous fall of the Bank of Manchester, respecting which he would make no other remark than this, that a capital of about 800,000/. had been lost in the course of about two years—principally in one year—almost entirely owing to the disastrous state of trade, and through trusting manufacturers and millowners, who had not been able to redeem the engage- ments into which they had entered.

After alluding to the hostile French tariff, the result of our meddling in Syria, and the German and United States tariffs—retaliations for our exclusive policy—Mr. Greg referred to the recent news from China-

" The word peace must sound sweetly in every ear, and doubly so in the ears of those who believed it would give them an improving trade. But let them not be led away by the delusion that opening the empire of Chins to our manu- factures and produce -would give the relief we required. It would give no effectual relief, connected with our present system of Corn-laws. We might import ten times the quantity of silk that we did, and silk gowns might be- come as cheap as cotton ones, but in what respect would that benelt us? The possession of a silk gown would not make a cottager a bit happier or better fed. It would be an amazing benefit to us if we could exchange the surplus of the silk, china, or tea, which we brought from China, and which we could not consume ourselves, for the food of other countries. But so long as the people had not food enough, no accumulation of luxuries in this country would benefit the great mass of the people." Resolutions were moved, and carried unanimously,"declaring it neces- sary to arrest the progress of ruin for employers and workpeople by the repeal of the Corn-laws ; and pledging the meeting to subscribe and appoint a committee of canvassers for contributions. A subscription was opened on the spot ; Mr. Munn, of Bacup, leading the way with 250/. Sir Thomas Potter promised to imitate him. The Mayor gave 200!.; Mr. Thomas Ashton, of Hyde, 2001.; Aldermen Brooks, 3001.; Mr. John Bright, 3001.; Richard Cobden and Co., 2001.; H. and E. Ashworth, 2001.; Mr. Greg, 1001., besides his yearly subscription of Mi.; Jacob Bright and Son, 3001.; Mr. John Lord, of Bacup, 1501.; six subscriptions were announced of 1001. each, and some others of 501. and 25!.: in all, the subscriptions amounted to 3,700/.

At the meeting of the Ilminster Agricultural Association, on Wed- nesday week, Z. Bickham Escott entered upon a vindication of the Government and their measures, in a short speech, of which we copy a considerable portion, as raising some points of interest- " I have stated it in the House of Commons, and I have stated it here, that the Income-tax will be paid by the great bulk of the community, who are all consumers, from the decreased cost of the necessaries of life. I am glad to hear you assent to that : let any consumer calculate what he saves in bread, in meet, and other articles, and he will find that it more than counterbalances his share of the income-tax. But upon whom, then, will the burden fall? It will fall first upon the hoarders of money, upon those who have inure money than they want to expend, and upon which surplus they will have to pay their three per cent. But there is another class upon which this tax falls; it touches us as landowners and occupiers of land. (" Hear, hear I") The tenant, as you are aware, pays less in proportion, according to his rent, than the landowner. Now, I have always been accustomed to speak plainly, and I mean to say that every landlord is bound to consider the circumstances of his tenant, and in the long run does consider it ; and that in case the occupying-tenant's proportion of sk per cent is too much for his means according to his present rent, then the land- lord should himself bear it. He must do it. I say that if the 3i per cent atm the tenant makes his expenses more than his farm is worth, the landlord should bear it, inasmuch as the tenant wau less a party to the arrangement. (" Hear, hear! ") It may be said, that from the Income-tax and the new Tariff a blight will be cast upon agriculture : I have, however, come to a conclusion, alter con- sidering the whole bearings of the subject, that the great protective power of the agricultural classes of the country rests in the renewed prosperity of its trade and commerce. And with respect to the Corn-law, if you look at the late Corn-law, which has been superseded, there WAS a much greater panic and much greater distress among the agriculturists when the old law was in operation, than there is at the present time. Call your attention to 1835-36, and ask yourselves what you then sold your wheat for? Was it not Is. or Is. 6d. lower than at present ? (" Yes, it was.") Is it then fair to say that the measures of the present Government have produced ruinous consequences to you ? I certainly had entertained great doubts as to the propriety of conceding the ex- tensive alterations proposed to be made in the Corn-laws, but at the same time I never entertained the idea that a certain fixed scale of duties could be always adhered to; and who, when he heard of the state of the starving thousands in the manufacturing districts, and felt that something must be done—who was bold enough to take upon himself the responsibility of making no alteration ? I confess I could not do it. As to the grazing department of agriculture, I know there are many suffering, who bought in their cattle at a high price, and are now selling them at low prices. This is an evil such as I do not wish to pal- liate or deny. But I will ask you if the prices of cattle have not been such as could not be maintained in this country with fairness to the community? The fact is, that unsteady prices are prejudicial to all. I believe, looking at all the circumstances of the country, that the late measures will give a great stimulus to trade and commerce, and that this will react upon the agriculture of the country. But to you—the oeerative agriculturists, if I may call you so—I think that, although you will not have high prices, you will not have ruinously low prices, but that you will have the advantage of a more fixed price ; and should such be the case, then the late measures will be of the greatest benefit to you, the tillers of the soiL ("Hear, hear I") What is the object of a corn-law ? It is to protect the growers of the people's bread, by encouraging the home growth of our country ; but, if the home growth is not sufficient for the consumption of the people, where is the farmer who would stand between an altered corn-law and the destitution of the people ? I have supported a corn-law because I believe it to be necessary; but if the present law does not answer its object, then we are free to consider the law again and to repeal it. (Cheering.) Let us not, however, as agriculturists, think we can in times like these sit with folded arms. No' too much has been dons to allow us to sit still. We mast take our parts in the progress of the great des- tinies of England."

With an eloquent peroration on that head, Mr. Escott sat down amid vehement and long-continued cheering.