The Sun. — London, England, 1816-07-30 00:00:00

I U 13'LIC Yesteeday belivg.tife'day named by We . u e of 'Wax for holding a Meeting et the City of Lon don Tavern, to take into consideration the best means of relieving the Labooring Poet., five or six Vundred peewits assembled in thelGteat Room, between twelve and one o'clock. The attentitm the populace Was attracted in a More than com mon degree to the proceedings of the day, anti the street was 'crowded on both sides the way by persons of the lower classes, who - waited not merely to see those distinguished characters arrive, wiso proposed to honour the meeting with their piesence, but to, eScertain as well as they could the course which the discussions were taking, and remained in attendance till the assembly broke Asp. At about a quarter past two, the Duke of York, accompanied by the "Dukes of Kent and Cam bridge, entered the room, followed by the Duke of Retiand, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Archhishop of Canterbury, the Bishop of Lon don, Mr. IVilberforce, and many other persons of The Duke of Yoeic addressed the Meeting. As the Committee bad done him the honour to place trine in the Chair, it became his duty to state the abject of their assembling that day I- he proposed to do this in a few words, as he taw many per sons in the room muftis more capable of entering at large into the subject than himself. 'rhe Meet ing had been Culled for the purpose of taking into tousiderntion the diStress under which many of the lower classes tit present lebottred. Every one %ho heard hint was too well acquaieted , with the existence of that distress to Make it at all neces sary for him to do more then call their attention to it ,by mentioning it,. and: this done, he was sure those he bad the honour to address, and who had to greatly distinguished themselves on former oc etssions by comingforward to assist the sufferers of all other nations, would in the present instance exert I.lltniselves with equal zeal and effect to re lieve the pool of their own cou n try.—(Applause.) His Royal Highness then called nowt Mr. Car ter (the Secretary to the Association of 1812) to read the Report' .f the Committee. Mr. ChitTett proceeded to read the Report of tl a Committee. Jr set forth at some length the good which bad resulted front the measures adopt ed by the AssoCiation fertned in 1812. S e v e r a l instances were particularlY referred to, in which the beneficial elfeets of these were most conspi enema. The Secretary was interrupted ,w,hile refining, by individuals in various parts of the room, who called out that " these facts were al ready known, and demanded ; that the business of the o present' Meeting should be forthwith entered upon." The tumult became general, and the Se cretary was obliged . to pause. • The Duke of KutiT regretted it was ifot_in the phteer of the Secretary to obtain that'attention to the Report, which, he was sure, bad Mr. Carter's lungs beets equal to the task of rending it, it would have obtained from its own intrinsic merit. Had the whole of that paper been read, some idea might have been , formed of the good which had been effected by the Association of 1812, which, it would be remembered had, lathe first instance, to' combat with every possible objection 'that could be urged against such an undertaking. *lt was then said' those coimerned with it attempted that which was impossible,' and that their object was not patriotic but political. He (the Duke of Kent) had succeeded in convincing one of the peoincipal Menibers of the Opposition of that day (Mr. Whitbread) that it did not deserve the clot, ratter given to it, and the result was, from being opposed to it Mr. Whitb rea d b a d b ecome one o f its most active friends, and every one had felt much obliged to him for his exertions in the cause --exertions, the loss of which, lie feared, woul4, he severely felt on the present occasion, and which, he 'was 'Store wouldf have been promptly o ff ered at this time, w ere that Gentleman still liv ing'. That a reat, deal of distress at present existed, 'wide I it would be desirable, If pos sible, to relieve, could not be doubted. Though in 1812 there were insurrections in various parts of the country, and though the bands which had been employed it) Malty manufactures had been thrown out of employ, lie would venture to as. sert, that the present distress was as great si that which thee called for relief, if not greater. newould not at this moment go into the causes of this distress. It was sufficient for the put... ! pose' of the present - meeting that it did exist it would he for them to hear plans Ingested for mi. ti-atiog . it, and to subscribe f o r th e re li e f o f t h e sufferers. In the first instanee, no fund equal to the relief of'all the distress complained of could be expected to, be funned; but it was intended that day to make a beginninr, and to, bring again that plan into operation which had been adopted be fore; and which had effected much good, as would be seen ssben the Hepoat, of which they bad heard a part read that day, came to be pub. tithed. The meeting had then hi the Chair an il lustrious relative of his, who was ever forward to assist in relieving distress ;—he saw another illus. trims Member of the 'loyal Family (the Duke of Canihrilge) who deserved the saute character . ; Ire saw the. Archbishop of Canterbury, - the Bishop Loudon, 'and a Gentleman high in the confi d'enee of the Prince Regent, whose preiseisee there proved that his Majesty's Ministers were friendly to the cause in WhiCh they were: that they assembled. And whet) be saw these, and with these many Noblemen, Members of the ' Houk of , Commons, and Gentlemen of keown benevolence, he was satisfied! the result of,. this day's Mectitig would ' be commensurate with their, most sanguine expectations ; and that the appeal now made to benevolence would not ba made ill vain. He was satisfied a few months ; would prove that which was now so .severely felt, to be but a temporary evil. By providing the poor wite taboo!, all would be remedied. But till this could be done,--4111 they could be enabled to support themselves, it was necessary that Mee sto es should be taken for affording them:Sonse re lief. If 'assistance could be supplied till they were enabled to resume their lahours,. bethought it would be bar& if the country did not soon re- gain that prosperous situation` which foiwerly made it the envy and athuiration of the rest of the tvorld.—(Applause.)—He now would propose a • It. resolution, Whi c h s.;rattlil seconded- by Mr. HARMAN of the Bank. He moved.- o That the sudden transition from a systeni of extensire War, to a state of Peace, has occasioned a stagi*lfrn of em ployment, and a revulsion of trade deeply affeqing the situa tion of many parts of the 'commmiity, and prti'duting siany in stances of great local distress." This he begged to observe was intended merely to give the meeting something to gd tipon.— When once they had resolved that relief 'Ought to be 'afforded, he was -confident they would not be long in finding the means of supplying it. Mr. HARMAN seconded the motion. A GENTLEIWIAI4, at. the lower end of the room, spoke in support of the Resolution, and contend ed, the gloom and despondency which now op pressed the. country Was; totally nnworthy of men who remembered the great struggle we had just passed triumphantly through. He strongly cen sured those feelings of despair which some seemed disposed - to indulge, and declared he was con. vinced, that with but little exertion all our diffi culties might be removed. The present stagna tion, he maintained, was no more than what We had a right to expect, and in fact no moire than hed.actually been foreseen. 'ln. consequence of the peace, a great quantity of our circulating medium had been removed ; it took a considerable time to replace it, and here all the present diffi, eulty lay. Happily the country was in a situation so majestic, that it possessed more facilities for supplying this defect than any other nation, and would speedily be enabled to relieve itself. All the means of the country, however, 'could- not 'be ton fully exerted on the present occasion, to dimi nish or remove the calamity which bad Fallen on it. He thought the Meeting ought to confine itself to the relief of individual distress, • Uhl , mately he hoped more, would be done, but this was all which it was fur them to attempt ; the rest ought t i o be left to the Government of the coun try. Individual distress they' would do well to apply themselves to relieve, and he trusted all hearts would be•opened on the oecasiOn. The Duke of Yonic then read the ResOlittion, With four others, which bad been prepared to be submitted to the Meeting. These set fOrth the objects in view. He proposed to open a subscrip tion, and to add Subscribers of 10th. and upwards to. the Committee of 1812. The first-Resolution . was then put, and was about to he carried, when Lord COCHRANE rose. He addressed the Chair, but was for some time .unable to proceed, his voice being lost in the ltuzzas and hisses which his .presence called forth. Having. at length ob tained silence,. he briefly stated his motiviS for rising. He declared it appeared to him that the first Resolution submitted to the Meeting was founded on an entire. fallacy. It was not the sudden transition from a state of war to a state of peace which had caused the stagnation felt in our manufactories, • and the agricultural Whites.. This was not the cause of the landlord being able to get no rent ; the real cause was the grievous and enormous load of taxation under which the nation at present laboured. Ike had brought. a book with him, from which he proposed to shew, on the statements which had beettmadehy the Chan cellor of the Exchequer, that the Resolution he fore them was founded entirely on a fallacy, and he was happy to see the Right Hon. Gentleman (the Chancellor of the Exchequer) present on this vcea3ioa, as he ,',04114 hare au opportunity of correcting any misrepresentations he - (Lord Cochrane) might make in referring to what lie (the Chancellor of the,Excherpier) had sai d . Tie Resolittio.n before them be again declared to be founded on a complete fallacy, and the adoption of It would. do no good those whom it Was proposed to relieve..--(Here the' Noble Lord was interrupted by loud.cheeting, hisses, and cries of order.) Mr. A. 13Howtr spoke to order. The CfIAIRM,‘N. decided the Noble Lord ought to he allowed to proceed. Lord Coon RANS resumed. He had no wish to throw any obstacle in the way'of the object'of that Meeting,; he only wished to place its pro ceedings, on a proper footing. The cause of the present stagnation, he contended, - was the enor mous taxes under which the nation groaned. To prove this, he wished to read a short abstract of ~of the state of our finances, ' , front the book which he held in. his hand. The whole revenue of the,kingdnm, dethicting the duties on Malt and Income, which had been given up, amounted to 62,267,001.; and the interest' on .the National Debt, including the interest on unfunded Excise• itiey Bills , amonnted to 42,163,0001. This eum we were compelled annually to pay as interest ott money advanced, 'end this caused all the mischief. It was the ,profuse and lavish expenditure, anti nothing else, sanctioned by Ministers, which had produced that state of,things which now so loudly called for relief. He :hen proceeded to skew, from various cillCUlstiOnt s that the Nation Wit° meet a charge of 11,578,4741. , heyond what it Could bear. Much opposition was given to this statement, which however Willi strenuously supported by large party in the room. A great tumult ensued, which was at length terminated by— The Duke of KENT, who'suggested, that if the Meeting would hear the statement of the Noble Lord, it would be for them subssequently to de cide whether or not they would sanction the course be might recommend to them to take. Lurtl COCHR4NE said, the truths he had ad .:, veneed were disagreeable to many present, Ile repeated the statement that the country had to meet a charge of 11,000,000/, more than it could bear► arid that independent of the list of Sine cure's which might be referred to, anal of the Bounties on Exports and Imports. Taking into consideration the expence of the army and navy, the deficiency which had occurred in the revenue in the last quarter, and the probable falling off in the remainder of the present, and.in the next year, be contended the nation could only meet the difficulties' with which it had to encounter, by ,putting down the whole army end navy, or 'by extinguishing half of the public debt:— The Noble Lard went on to chew the immense 11111114 Witiett would be required to meet the gencies of the times, if a radical remedy were not applied to the evil, He expressed Himself happy to see the Chancellor of the Exchequer where his statezuents would undergo such exantur -• ation receive horn that Meeting, for be was sorry to say, 'it was not in the House of Commons that his Atujestra Ministers could hear the sense of the people.- , lApplatise anti hiAses.) He was as anxious td promoter tlie ab ject 9f the preSeuttneeting as any Min could be; but if nobody eke would do it, lie ilibuld take upon himself to move tiii - Aniendmint to the brat Resolution. The interest of the national debt oppressed th'e ecitnitry . so that no class of 'per , son* eotilit receive interest on their property but tiikiftindltolder. The result would be, the hind bolder Must in time become the pOssessor of all the landed and other property in the country, or the landed •liiteteSt must exeil itself tO put down the: , preseiwsysteitc. Noble Duke, who took an active part < iii the proCeedings Of 1812, he understood, ‘kraA. Cipected there that day, Who received sixteen thousand piiiinds of the public money for dding nothing. He (Lord Cochrane) had thought;- perhaps, he might in , tend to throw this mite into the kale to relieve the public. He could visit all thoie who held sinecures, for which they received atinually 10 or 12,0001. would do so, and then iddie good might be done, but it was useless for them to come there and merely give half-a-crown in the pound back to the Public out of the "sums they received front the nation, To do this could be of no ser vice : it was a deception, he might say a fraud, on the country. He moved, as an Amendment,. that afterithe word '' that," 'the words of the original motion should be omitted to make room tar the words, " the enormous load of public. debt, together with the high military ,establisli-, moos, and the profuse expenditure of the piiblic money conntetranced by Ministers; were the real causes of the distress now complained of in the Coontry." , • Mr. Ktrowot seconded the amendment. From , the:AT/eight of 'taxation how borne by the country, he contended, we were unable to produce any article on equal terms with t he oations of the Con tinent ; this necessarily caused great distress, and •in consequence of our not being able to carry on our Manufactures as cheap as formerly, in many parts of the country thousands of iodustrioos persons were nut of work. At Stockport, near 'Manchester, out of a population of 16,000 per sous 41)00 were out ot employ. He was decidedly of opinion with the Noble Lord this was caused, •by the excessive weight of taxation., Mr. WILBERFORCE h,id been too long engaged in politics, and was too much olio) Eiigli.diman himself, not to be satisfied, that feeling warmly on any particular subject, an lOgiishinati had. a right to come lot ward and state his opinions at a Meeting like the present. Ile however could not but think, that the ,Noble Lord, and the (gentles man who .had seconded the Amendmeot:would, on reflection, at least entertain a doubt, if it would not better 'have answered their purpose, that of • amending the situation .of the countr y, to have confined thethselees; on this OgCßbiol),, to the oh:- feet for,which the Meeting had been called. Tfie ,Isloble*Lordadmitted the disease to be dangerous, tint objected to the remedy proposed. If however an individual %vete sick, and in great agony, would it not be better to let the charitable baud that ofered itself for that put pose othiiinisier Heart to enter into a dibtiLdicioli on the 'Lame and cause of the malady, and of the treatment it should have reeeivedr; while the patient fingered in pain ? With a similar feeling, he would object to drawing olf the attention of the Meeting from what they had assembled to Consider on the pre. sent occasion. He regretted that the Noble Lord should have been induced to make those 'Obser vations, which had escaped-hint Oti tile subject of the offices held by various distinguished Cliiracters. Because he received no more than thellOblE Lord a the public motiey, he did ( from iMt , rthile:iy m e e f r ur t f a e r el at t l i iscel o rc l i t n t i n s F ta k ti t c l e were w s e placed in a different • t d h u o u r situation. They all felt how much the Meeting Was obliged by the piesence of the 'loyal Dukes, and of the Noblemen who haul assembled in that room that day, to bear what could be proposed to alleviate , the distress which prevailed in the country. Considerable opposition had been given, in - 1812, to the Association then fornied with m i m ikr v i ews , but. those who offered this opposi tion had'seen reason to change their sentiments respecting it ; and Mr. Whitbread, from being against it, had become one of its most activ e friends, arid bad Weil as he (Mr. Whitbread) had himself told him (nr. Wilberforce), useful. In stirring up associations to forward th e o bj ects of the Committee, which could not hate been formed without his interference. The Resolu trims now submitted to the rAleeting, were recom mended to them by the success which bad clowned the Measures reiOrtCd to on a former occasibn. A number of persons now addressed the Chair at the same moment, and Lord COCHRANE rose to explain. Mr, WILBERFORCH, before he sat down, ap pealed to the Noble Lord, if, under existing cir cumstances it would not better answer even his owo purpose to withdraw his Amentlment.—(Ap planse, and cries of No, no !) Lord CocnitaNe. would willingly do so, if the non.•Gentlenittit would say that the Resolution which had been moved was' true, or that his Amendment was false, On these conditions, if any person of respectability would rise and assert the ,trut h of the one, or the falsehood of the other, he Would consent to withdraw it., A Mr. CoArs had never spoke to Lord Cochrane, and therefore was not influenced by him ; but be certainly deemed it proper that the eyes of the public should be opened, and that they should see who were their (toe friends. The Noble Lold's Amendment harmonised with his feelings, though Mr. %Wilberforce had, by a kind of side-nind, endeavoured to throw a slur on the Noble Lord (Loved cries of No, no !). ; at least to prove that he bad brought forward irrelevant matter. But to what was this opposition of the Noble Lord owing ? it was to their own Resolution. The questi o n was, should this Resolntion go forth to the public, fallacious as it was ? Should they state an untruth when speaking. of the cause of the dis tress experienced, or should they give the real cause.? The Noble Lord had expressed his wish that the truth should be fully and barlY stated ; hut ht.,- bad been attacked by Mr. IV. with some duplicity (greet disapprobation). lie deptecated political discussion at the present meeting as &Ruch , • as Ur, W. could 1 but to also wished the trial the.'whole truth, and nothing hitt the truth; to b stated. Whey were bound t() dO they war not to Batch up the Body politic, but ti adtipt effectual remedies, Which would strike a the spring and cause of thi malady. „ The Duke of 'Cilia' olise`rved, that the Resnln tiOti bad been lint into MS hands' as he entered th; room, and -lie hid certainly no wish to press thy the iniertioo of- the Words Uifikh had caused sucl agitation., From early life he had known thi - goodlieatiof the Noble Lord, and as the objec of the Meeting was unanimity, he was confident when the objectionable claiiSe Was ekottnged, tits Noble Lord would not refuse to Withdraii 4i l Amendritent. fie lieVer intended so have come tti a political Meeting. He would never enter tb arena dt politics with the Noble ,Lord; bt' t 4i, begged leave to airy, be edniiiiered himielf corn . . petcut to liked the cause of charity - . .There wepir other time and other places (Or Men to engage h 3 the discussitin of party politics,. and he therefor implored the Noble Lord not to distract theatten7 tints of the Meeting by the introdUction of these and to keep solely in view, that they had met as the friends of benevolence, bit as the advocates of a party,—(Applanses.) Lord CdctinAxe did not deeire any polit i cal di,cussion, and therefore complied with the i'c:' (pest of hiS Royal Ilighiies:S. The Amendinent war, then t' , ..ithdrawn, and the ofiginal Resolution (the partobjected to havino been expun g ed) was agree d to. The l)uke at CANtaatoGß, after the excellent and Appropriate speech of his Illustliotis Relative, which hart, indeed, left little to be added, shoula noftake up much of the time of the Meeting. Stunt gircumstanct however, he mail not avail noticing. Having been one of the origioel Mem bers of the ComMittee, in 1812, he lad witnessed, withpeculiar sat isfaction, the good t hich hatthcen effected, even with the very limited and minty means which were then in the power of that Com" - mince. After an absence of many months, it was. gratifying to hirii again to have an opportunit , of, meeting his coentrymen in a farther exertion of their patriotic benevplence, lice Batt not, anticipated any thing like- a*ditlifrence of feeling or °pluton,' and what might appear 'to be such trouht, he Was persuaded, prove only a slight rttis npprehenrsion of Jorms that would admit of being" easily adjusted, On the former occasion ,to which be had adverted, in 1812, he had at first, awl' ttis General Aleeting, had to encounter the opposition,' of a man whom be 'cotfld not name, tior the Public could not hear of, Without of respect and gratitude, he meant the Member for Bedford. The oppo,l 10 • . t• n of that Honourable Person, founded , as it always was on principles of truth and integrity, - consequeutly ainenahle to the correction of new intelligence ; and Mr. Whitbread afterwards , with that manliness•and, liberality which esseotially longed to him, not only ac k now l e d ge d the error he bad been in, but made a large subscription ini,moved an important' Resolution in favourof that measure, which he had at first disapproved 14 ' He could not but thank the Noble Lord; II"• the polite. manner in. which he had ‘l' I ° 9 ' lie was sore the Noble lio" 11 !1 no object but th a t o f 'participati ,g with 1 , 0 15 ' and the rest of the Meeting in an earne , l wisu i'" 3 endeavour to assist aud contribute, as far as 1 - 4 could, to the removal ar alleviation of a gre'' t evil, which was known and ackuowledged tively to exist. The question, in his t ry it, and lie wati persuaded in that of the givat " 14 :: jority of that nume r o u s assembly, was einirc'Y separate from party or politics—lt was the ea't" t of Charity—a cause in which he might, without undue assumption, offer himself, as a-z‘uiloos (1 1 " vacate. He had not formerly pleaded in vain t'; e cause of _charity, and t h' e principle h ai l iictt only w been felt and.acknoiedged i n G rea t Brit,iL,, but i tinder that influ ence an d w i t h „ that exannik; h, a spread itself abroad on the Continent, had ninffi fested itself i n G ermany, and inHolland: it tv` { ' :not the purpos e) an d i t cou ld not have entereentered theealculations of th e be nevo l ent m overs ; tile present biiiitiess, to eff ec t or attempt a ll that ' desirable but itwas not. a reason that becauseB ," that might be wished cou ld not h e act:Owl - dish"' something should not b e d one, and al l t h at w as "t present proposed, was to relieve or tighten; thtt distress which on all sides Wei fleknOWledged t :' moving the second Resolution. her. Rath, after a "few obscrvsations ttliieh ryes' did not distinctly hear) seconded the minion , Which passed unanimously. The Archbishop of CANTERSURY rose. Befote he should move the Itesolation which he held in his hand, he was desirous to makeone or two ob servations. The object of that Meeting was 1° Mitigate the distress under which it was univ er : sally known th e i n d ustr i ous and laborious p a r t of the penple laboured. A doubt, however, had prevailed, that from the magnitude anti excel' Of the evil, nothing effectual could be done, 0 " ." either trifling aid or utter failure was EtllaCiptlt elL But' it, under those cold and discouraging HIV E " !tensions, rio attempt WO made to sooth or relieva the public distress, if they were to wait until OA inea , ;s of full arid complete relief should be 8 ; hand, the disease would ;daily increase and beJ come at length -incurable. . Whatever suits act present to be effected, was by a mneneral connect; .lion and concurrenc e o f th e whole countryteg"- by a cordial consent arid co-operation among the' Various districts. All,. indeed, that was to tree , wished could not possibly be effected, but much that was useful, much that was soothing and Ira!' nefieial, might be-effected. The most Rey. Pre'', late then moved the third Resolution, which was • seconded by Mr: lieeston Long, who went i n to a recapitulation of the objects of the ISfeeting, re" r ferriug to the former exertions of British charitt, and munificence in 'the instances of the Public: Subscriptio n , f or F ore i gners, un i te d w i t h u s in . common cause, for the Widows and Orphans o. the glorious victims who fell Ili the achievemen t s of the Duke of Wellington. The intention (4 the Meeting . was to extend a limited anti temPo' rary, not an adequate anti complete remedy , on, ( _ l _ ha had no doubt the benevolent object a M 1M ild to tar effected. He was farther confident that the substantial means and teSources ot the court. try were such as to et - moulage a livdy boric that everything desirable would soon be accomplished.