ABSTRACT
A meeting of commercial gentlemen was held on Monday afternoon at the Cannon-street Hotel. Mr. Alderman Knight in the chair. The object of the gathering was to memorialise the Earl of Beaconsfield in support of a Parliamentary inquiry or a Royal Commission with respect to the prolonged depression of trade. The Chairman, in opening the proceedings, said they had assembled to ask for an inquiry into the system at present adopted in this country as regards free trade in connection with the great distress which now existed, particularly in the manufacturing districts. Mr. Stokes said that he had waited single handed on the leading merchants of London, and he had obtained the signatures of 200 influential gentlemen of all views in politics in favour of an inquiry. Mr. Stokes then read the memorial which was proposed to present to the Prime Minister.
