after the meeting. A gentleman who had been in the United States three or four years ago, and who was complaining to one of his customers there that they had sent him no orders for hosiery lately, was told, “Oh, we get it so much cheaper from Germany." The English merchant, supposing that the low price arose from the market being overstocked at that time, and that people could not sell goods at that price without being ruined, persuaded his American customer to give him an order for L.500 worth of English hosiery, and to order that amount of Saxon hosiery at the same time. This was executed; and the reply to his inquiry as to the result was, that the English hosiery cost his American friend 25 per cent. more than the Saxon. There were gentlemen present in the Manchester trade, who had been in the habit of selling largely to American houses; and they told him that since the revival of the demand for America, many Americans had called on them to purchase goods, and they had shewn these Americans various articles which they had been in the habit formerly of selling to them, and had received the reply as to one article, "That article we now manufacture at home:" as to another, "What is the price?" "So and so." Oh, we can beat you at home." "What is your price for this?" "So much." "Oh. we can't afford to give it." Such were the answers, in very many instances, of the American buyers. He was informed by one of the largest exporters in this town to the American market, that all descriptions of low broad cloth had now ceased to be exported from this country, being manufactured in America. He knew that the article of negro clothing, in which he (Mr Smith] dealt largely himself, when in business, was now manufactured in the United States, and its export thither from this country had almost entirely ceased. The Americans no longer took our grey unbleached cloth, sheeting, shirtings, and bed-ticks, no longer took our printed goods under the value of twelve shillings, except blacks and whites: what we now exported were all of finer qualities than those, and they were every day getting of finer quality, while the Americans were daily improving in their manufacture of prints, as would be seen by the specimens in his hand. In the low qualities of hardware they manufactured many articles superior to the English, and as cheap; and we were losing that trade in consequence, as to the lower qualities. They made also a low fancy pantaloon stuff, not yet sufficient for their own consumption, and hitherto that deficiency had been supplied from this country; but his informant stated, that this year that article might be bought so much lower in the German than in the English market, that all orders for it this season had gone

to Germany. The Americans were beginning to manufacture kerseymeres for themselves, and what the same gentleman told him of the decrease in our exports of this article seemed so prodigious that he almost doubted the statement; and when he got home, he referred to such documents as he possessed, which were not the latest, but they convinced him that the statement was correct. He found from the tables of the board of trade, that in 1820, we exported to America 13,217 pieces of kerseymeres; and in 1831, only 3,500 pieces. Of flannels, we sent to the United States, in 1820, 1,525,000 yards; but in 1831, only 104,000 yards. That article we had lost the sale of in America. Such was the progress of cotton spinning in the United States, that his information led him to expect that, in four or five years, they would be powerful rivals to us in the exportation of cotton twist. (Hear, hear.) It was an object at which they were aiming; and he had no doubt that they would accomplish it, notwithstanding the dear corn they ate, of which Mr Sandars has spoken. For the last three years, the harvests in the United States had been failures, in consequence of which they had been importers of foreign corn, a very extraordinary circumstance in that great agricultural country, and therefore prices ranged from eight to ten dollars, instead of, as usual, from four to five, a circumstance of which perhaps Mr Sandars was not aware. He (Mr Smith) would not now longer occupy their time, but he might mention, that it was the intention of the Anti-Corn-Law Association to establish a museum for the purpose of exhibiting articles of foreign manufactures, and placing them side by side with English manufactures of similar qualities, with the prices of each affixed, in order that all Thomas-a-Didymusses who were hard of belief on this question, might have ocular demonstration of the truth. (Hear.) It was also their intention to have specimens of foreign coffees and sugars, and of every article upon which there was a discriminative duty, exhibited with its price, in order that the people might see the amount to which they were plundered by monopolies. It was disgraceful to the government and to the legislature of this country that such societies were necessary, but as they were so, it was to be hoped that every gentleman having this cause at heart would see the necessity of becoming a member, and subscribing to this institution. He would conclude with observing, that there was no interest, in his opinion, in the whole country, so much interested in the repeal of the corn laws as the agricultural interest. (Hear.) Even the landowner, who looked beyond the receipt of his next year's rent, must see that the destruction of the manufactures of this

country was the inevitable destruction of himself. (Hear.) What must be the result of destroying our manufactures, but to throw the greatest part of the people out of work, and reduce them to a state of pauperism? How were they to be supported, when manufactures no longer exist, but by the land? And what, then, will be the value of the landowners' estates, which the starving people will eat up like locusts, and even find these insufficient to save them from misery and destitution? (Hear, hear, and cheers.) He would not longer take up the time of the chamber now; their president, he believed, was unwell, and perhaps it would be desirable if this meeting were adjourned, if other gentlemen wished to speak on the question, to give them an opportunity, and to give time for the better consideration of the petitions now before the meeting. He had found it difficult himself to follow the reasonings of a petition when hastily read over, and he would su gest, that if the two were to be printed and placed in the hands of members till the next assembling of the chamber, whether they might not be able to come to that calm and dispassionate decision upon them which was desirable.

Mr Henry Ashworth said, that, after hearing all that had been now and at the last meeting of the chamber said upon the corn laws, he could not help thinking that they reflected strongly on those who had framed and enacted them. Various opinions had been expressed as to the best way of getting rid of them. He thought petitioning was the most legitimate and proper mode. Some had talked of famine; but God forbid that the remedy should come in that form. The destructive effects of these laws had been fully described, and surely when they looked at the peril with which they were threatened from them, they would agree that it was not a time to send a petition to parliament on the subject only half expressed. The petition submitted to them at the last meeting was less convincing and energetic in its tone than the speeches delivered by members on the occasion. Though a misunderstanding seemed to have taken place as to the object of the adjournment, he for one had to say, that he understood the directors were to call in the assistance of other members of the chamber, to aid in the preparation of a suitable petition. He hoped they would not be led away by a misplaced feeling of courtesy to vote for the directors' petition. They justly boasted of the unrivalled industry and skill of their working classes, and would they stand by without seeking to rescue them from the cruel oppression of these laws? He trusted their claims would not be forgot. The long hours of labour, of which they justly complained, were

not fixed on them by their employers, but by the landowners, for whom they were obliged to work four hours of every day. He would vote for Mr Cobden's amendment; and before sitting down he would beg to inquire of the president if the directors of the chamber were unanimous in their sentiments on the question of free trade?

The Chairman: I am not inquisitor-general as to the opinions of the directors.

Mr W. Rawson (hosiery manufacturer of Nottingham, with a house of business in Manchester,) rose to correct an error into which Mr Cobden had fallen, in stating the proportion of the cotton hosiery yarn spun by the people of Saxony. His statement might indeed be correct as to the period, which was but recent, when he was in the country. But we could not tell what a day would bring forth, for a Saxon gentleman had told him a few days ago, that they were now spinning a portion of their hosiery yarn. He was himself a sufferer from this turn of affairs, and a gentleman had told him at the conclusion of the last week's meeting, that a sufferer was not a good judge in his own case. Now he thought, that the bare fact that suffering existed was a sure proof of the reality of the evils of which they complained. Up to 1824 he had been engaged in making cotton hosiery for the Saxon market, when they were obliged to yield in the battle of competition. From 1824 to 1833 they had struggled on, but at the latter period they had lost all the South American continent in every article of cotton hosiery made by the Saxons. In fact, they could not stand before Saxony a single moment after she had entered the field of competition. In consequence of our long wools, they had not much interfered with the Leicester manufacture, which consisted of worsted and woollen hosiery. But Mr Smith, in his late visit to Leicester, was informed that worsted and woollen yarns had been purchased there by the Saxons, sufficient to employ 10,000 stocking makers for a year. He believed he could not be contradicted when he asserted, in reference to our white cotton hose, that not an article in that line had been sold during the last three years, from one extremity of South America to the other, at a loss of less than 30 per cent. From 1834 Saxony had, in this department, commanded every market in the world. If, as we had seen, they could beat us in our own market, after paying the importation duty of 20 per cent., and 5 per cent. expenses, it was evident we could not have the slightest chance when we met them on common ground. After what he had seen last week of Saxon manufacturers, and comparing them with what they were in 1814, he felt like a person

awakening from a feverish dream. They could sell us goods of equal quality to ours at little more than half our price. He had given orders for a lot of goods from their market, which he would have at the proportion of 3s. 3d. to 5s., duty paid. They were a kind of goods on which about 80 per cent. of the whole value was expended in labour; and it was cheap labour, arising from the cheapness of food, that caused this, to us, alarming difference in price. In the hosiery trade, with which he was connected, this element operated to a greater extent than in many others, but he, and others in that trade, were only a little in advance of the rest in the road to ruin. They might be compared to persons living in a valley in which an alarming flood was rising. The inhabitants of the table lands around were sceptical as to the progress of the flood, so long as it did not threaten immediately to invade their own dwellings. Unfortunately for them, they lived far in the valley; but he would tell them who might think themselves secure, that the rising tide would soon reach them also. This overwhelming tide of foreign competition would never ebb, but would continue to advance so long as the cheap food of foreigners enabled them to work at half the money price of labour. He feared he was trespassing too much on the indulgence of the meeting, for he knew that an assembly of hungry people (the meeting had now lasted from eleven till three) was not the place for a bad speaker to be heard. (Laughter.) Mr. Rawson continued: It would actually be better for the manufacturers of Nottingham, engaged in foreign trade, to throw their machinery into the Trent than to employ it while they laboured under their present disadvantages. But it required a great deal of moral courage to take such a step as that. They were, however, only the advance guard, and the evil, if not determinedly met, would speedily overwhelm them all. With all due deference to the merchants of Manchester, he thought the thundering of the labouring wains, incessantly pushing through their streets to convey the produce of their spindles to the looms and workshops of the foreign manufacturer, seemed as if destined to act as a continual monitor, not to be misunderstood. After the astounding facts which had been brought before them, to talk of anything less than complete abolition would be a mockery to the branch of manufacture in which he was engaged, and a false beacon of delusion to those in other branches who still indulge in a false confidence.

Mr Holland Hoole (of the firm of Lambert, Hoole, and Jackson, extensive cotton-spinners and export merchants) thought both petitions good ones, and could sign either or