A meeting, attended by 10,000 persons, was held in the
Town-ball of Birmingham on Wednesday, to receive and consider the report of a committee of bunkers and mercantile awn on the distressed state of the trading interest. Both the Members, Mr. Attwood and Mr. Scholefield, were present. The High Bailiff having taken the chair, the following report of the committee was read ; asd agreed to, on the notion cif Mr. Richard Spooner.
" Your Committee f el it their painful duty to state that the distress of this town and neighloon !mod i. very great ; that they see no reason to anticipate any speedy or eff.ctnal: e;:vf. The alternations of great apparent m ()verity and sudden, deep d,a , which have invariably attended the expansion or cuntrae- tiou of the currency, prove beyond doubt, that to our monetary system is mainly to be attributed the present general and alarming distress. In the opinion of your Committee, no permanent relief earl he given while that syareni which has been proved so liable to fluctuations is suffered to contiligte. Your Committee cannot but express its decided conviction, that the effectual and permanent re- lief of the geaeral distress is a question paramount to all others ; and that nothing can accomplish this great and important object but such a revision of our pre- sent laws as shall tend to the adoption of a monetary system adequate to the wants of this great commercial community."
Mr. Samuel Hutton said, that the revenue in Birmingham bad de- clined 10,0901. during the last quarter ; a proof the distress existi g there.
Mr. Corbet said the distress was all owing to the bad monetary system.
A memorial to Lord Melbourne, describing the distress to which the town of Birmingham had at different times been subject, and attribut- ing it to Peel's Bill and other operations on the currency, and to the Corn-laws, was unanimously adopted, on the motion of Mr. Thomas Attwood. The memorial to the Minister concluded as follows-
" First, is it the intention of her Majesty's Government to continue to act upon the tampering and temporizing policy which, for twenty-two )ears, has made the industrious classes the victims of perpetual fluctuations ? Or, secondly, is it the intention of her Majesty's Government that the present monetary system shall he rigidly and permanently enforced, in combination with the Corn. laws? Or, thirdly, is it the intention of her Majesty's Government that the present monetary system shall be relaxed permanently, according as the just rights and interests of the _people may require? We are convinced that there is no hope of redress from Parliament, unless we first obtain the support of her Majesty's Government. Give us that support, my Lord, and your Lordship may yet save our country from along train of calamities. Through the exercise of wisdom and virtue on your part, the ter ongs and sufferings of the industrious classes may yet be redressed ; the government of our young and interesting Queen may be carded triumphantly through all its difficulties; and you, my Lord, may establish in history a never-dying claim upon the gratitude and respect of a prosperous, loyal, and contented people."
After a few words from Mr. Thomas Attwood, Mr. Edmonds, Mr. Hadley, Mr. W. Chance, and Mr. Van Wart, thanks were voted to the Chairman ; three cheers given for the. Queen; and the meeting dispersed.
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