It was not to the credit of some others (a very small number) who were advocates of the League, that they were as eager to set on foot subscriptions for themselves, as the public were for those who had really earned them. One individual, who hung about “the League rooms,” and made speeches often undesired by the committee, and when inconvenient to their arrangements, was very indignant that a subscription was not raised for him. Without eloquence in speech, temperance in council, or discretion in action, he became prominent only by overbearing boldness, and an ever-meddling officiousness.
AGITATION CONCERNING THE NAVIGATION LAWS.
Early in the parliamentary session, the government indicated an intention to repeal the navigation laws. In this they were supported very ardently by Mr. Hume, Mr. Ricardo, Mr. Cobden, Mr. Bright, Mr. Milner Gibson, and by many other ardent friends of the Manchester school. The time was ill-chosen for any movement on this subject, because the seamen as well as the shipowners were opposed to any alteration, and the disturbed state of continental Europe, and indeed of the British Isles, made it extremely unwise for government to irritate a class whose physical energy, peculiar position, and popularity with the people, gave them, if disposed, peculiar capacity to disturb the peace.
The party which desired the repeal of the navigation laws maintained that free-trade in ships and seamen was as necessary as in other matters, and the cotton districts called loudly for the change. The leader of the shipping interest was James Mather, Esq., of South Shields, a gentleman not connected with ships or shipowners, but moved by patriotic feelings alone. Mr. Mather possessed all the qualities necessary for a leader in the agitation of a great political and politico-economical question. With a highly cultivated intellect, conciliatory address, fearless spirit, and astonishing physical energy, he was just the man to please at once the educated mariners, and the rough, bold, hardy tars. The gentlemanly bearing of Mr. Mather was also calculated to impress his opponents favourably, and a graceful persuasiveness of mien and language, aided in qualifying him for that object. Mr. Mather grappled with the arguments of Cobden, Bright, and the other leaders of the cotton districts, whose influence at that time, fresh from their victory over the corn interest, made it important to confute the arguments they addressed to the public. Mr. Mather addressed a letter to the editor of the Shipping Almanack and Gazette, which produced a great impression where the arguments of the Lancashire leaders had been accepted as irrefutable. It is desirable to reproduce this document, as the controversy was one of the most important in its day, and the policy ultimately adopted remained longer open to question than any other of the anti-protectionist measures which were adopted. Mr. Mather’s letter was the more effective, because it exposed an artifice to which Mr. Gladstone especially resorted, but in which he was supported by the Lancashire members:—
“The combined attack of Messrs. Gladstone, Bright, Cobden, and two or three others in the House of Commons, upon the navigation laws, on account of their preventing the importation of a few cargoes of cotton lying at Havre, and demanding a suspension of these laws for the immediate necessities of the manufactories, and the advantage of British shipping, was as unfair and discreditable a proceeding as party men have for a long time been guilty of. For the sixty-five thousand bales of cotton at Havre, brought across the Atlantic chiefly by French ships, it is, they assert, of advantage to British shipping to destroy that amount of carriage on the long voyage, and allow this cotton to be brought from France to England, which a few trips of a steamer would easily effect. The very statement of the matter, in plain language, refutes the absurd assertion. You are losing the carriage of thirty cargoes of cotton, these gentlemen asserted. No, it is replied, for by preventing their admission from France, as there is a great abundance of cotton in America, we are gaining the carriage of thirty cargoes on the long voyage—a portion in British ships; and you will get cotton just as cheap, nay cheaper for the manufacturers, as the expense of transhipment will be saved.
“But the cotton is immediately wanted, they assert. Now this was a mere pretence, which the parties clearly understood, to give a momentary effect to a most untenable charge. Events have corroborated this.
“Within a few days thirty-three vessels have brought seventy-three thousand six hundred and forty-nine bales of cotton from America; and such is the great want of it, sufficient to annihilate or suspend the navigation laws, that the manufacturers only bought nineteen thousand six hundred and sixty bales, while nine hundred and seventy bales were bought for exportation; that, instead of requiring cotton, they are exporting it from the manufacturing district in which it was stated to be so much required.
“If cotton was in such demand, would it be upwards of thirty per cent, lower than it was last year, and would it be falling in price as it is now? Prices are at present within 1/8d. per lb. of the lowest they were ever reduced to. For two months it has been a falling market, and at the very moment these men were advancing such assertions, was the cotton market in a state of decline, giving the broadest contradiction to them. If cotton had been wanted, the price, as in any other article, would have been high, not low, and would have been advancing, not receding, especially with a limited supply.
“The importation last year was the smallest for ten years. Increasing previous to 1845 for fifty years, it has since rapidly decreased, and now it has been found that nearly one-third less stock is required than there was in 1843,1844, and 1845.