ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses a great public meeting that was held in the Free Trade Hall, in connection with the recently formed Manchester Reciprocity Association, for the purpose “of urging upon the government the necessity of granting an inquiry into the present stagnation of trade and with a view to obtain justice for British industry.” Mr. Staveley Hill moved the first resolution, viz., “That this meeting desires to express its sincere sympathy with those of the working classes who are unable from want of employment to obtain the necessaries of life, and while deeply sensible of the advantages of free trade, if adopted universally among nations. The meeting also desires for working classes who looks with alarm on the exclusion by hostile tariffs of British manufactures from foreign countries, and considers that the present commercial policy demands an investigation by a committee of the House of Commons.
