The Press.
London, England, 1857-02-21 00:00:00

4ittrovolitan.

ANOTHER MEETING OF THE UNEMPLOYED POOR
was held at Smithfield on Tuesday, when Mr.
Ernest Jones availed himself of the opportunity to
tell the people "how to obtain relief, and how to
become independent of it very boon." Starting with
the assumption that the labour market was over-
stocked, the cry of the people was—" Where shall we
go ? What shall we do to live ?" He would tell
them. They had not yet taken one step to better
their condition. Emigration, workhouse relief, and
a national subscription had been recommended to
them ; but emigration was impracticable, workhouse
relief was insulting and degrading, while a subscrip-
tion was in its nature only temporary, and what they
required was some permanent remedy for the evils
they were enduring. The only good thing recom-
mended to them by the " Association" which had
undertaken to advise them was the cultivation of the
waste lands of England, and that was a plan he him-
self suggested ten years ago. There were 30,000,000
acres of land in this country which had never felt
the touch of plough or spade, 20,000,000 of which
were good average land and capable of tillage. But
how were they to obtain possession of it? They were
advised to petition Parliament, but Parliamert con-
sisted of the very men who owned the land, and
whose interest it was that no more acres should be
brought into cuitivation ; for that would cheapen food,
and cheap food would reduce rents, and the land-
owners needed high rents to pay the fixed charges
on their property, nearly all of which was heavily
burdened with mortgages and other charges. What,
then, were they to do ?
They must obtain a Parliament of their own, and that
could only be achieved by universal suffrage. Let them
rally, then, around him, and go for the People's Charter.
He would lead them. When they had once obtained par
liamentary power his plan would be to create out of the
unemployed 1,000,000 independent farmers by settling
them on the waste land. These farmers, so created, would
require cottages and clothing, and thus would be absorbed
the labour of all the bricklayers, the masons, the carpen-
ters, the shoemakers, the tailors, and other trades who
were now raising the cry, " IVhere shall we go ? What
shall we do to live?" Agitation hal obtained for the
middle classes a reduction of the income tax; let the
working classes weld themselves together, and then Par•
liament would see what millions of stout hearts, led by
honest and intelligent minds, could achieve.

Mr. Jones continued this mode of address for up-
wards of an hour, and in the course of it he on two
or three occasions called for a show of hands in con •
firmation of the doctrines he was endeavouring to
inculcate. He declared his present object, to be to
warn the Government and the Parliament. If they
conceded the waste lands to the working classes he
would retire into private life, and all agitation should
cease ; but if they disregarded the just claims of the
suffering millions, then he would come forward and
aid in the formation of a mighty political organisa-
tion, whose demands neither Parliament nor Govern-
ment would be able to resist.—At the close of his
speech Mr. Jones hurriedly retired, and the people
quietly dispersed.
MR. PARNELL, an outdoor district surgeon of
Marylebone Workhouse, has been dismissed from his
dace by the Board of Guardians for grass *malty to

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