The Sun.
London, England, 1839-11-09 00:00:00

LONDON:
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 9, 1839.

The agriculturists of Worcester, we see by the
IVorceiter Chronicle, had a grand field-day on the
Ist instant. The Earl of COVENTRY was in the
Chair ; and, apart from grumbling a little that he
had not been made Lord Lieutenant of the county,
the Nobl• Earl seems to have made a passable
chairman.

We know not why the agricultural associations
should all take a strong Tory character, but they ge-
nerally do, as if agriculture were a servile and de-
graded art, which flourished only under tyranny.
If it be because they are generally composed of
country gentlemen, or thick-headed Peers, the
fact is explicable by the general ignorance and
awkwardness of these classes of men. Whatever
may be its origin, the fact is that the bulk of the
agricultural associations are Tories, and that of
Worcester showed its spirit by drinking the QUEEN,
and wishing her experience, almost in silence, while
the health of the DOWAGER QUEEN was drunk
with three times three, and prolonged applause ;
and, to her praise, the Chairman said that a better
woman did not exist. We admit that Queen ADE-
LAIDE behaved herself well, as the consort of WIL-
L/All IV. She restrained him, and guided him
prudently on many occasions ; but a Lady less de-
serving of popular approbation from the exhibition
of generosity, or any of the kindly virtues, consi-
dering her great income, can scarcely exist. She is
a prudent, care-taking woman, who is recommended
to her personal friends by their knowledge that she
may have something to leave them.
Passing from the loyalty of the Worcester agri-
culturists to their patriotism—from their respect for
Queens to their love for the people, General
LYGON stated that their great aim was the amelio-
ration of the social and moral condition of the rural
population, which they are to effect by establishing
a rural police. At least they will keep the people
honest. They give rewards also to labourers who
bring up their children without receiving parochial
relief. If that be creditable in the peasantry, how
disreputable it must be in the nobility to quarter
their offspring on the public purse, and make state
paupers of their children.
Another mode, too, the squires have of ameliorating
the moral condition of the peasantry, is to set them
the example of robbery. At the meeting every
speaker was in favour of the Corn-law. They
tax the bread of the poor to make the poor strong
and fat, and plunder them to make them honest.
The landlords afterwards reward them, when they
abstain from following their example. That the
effects of this system of combined plunder and star-
vation are most disastrous, is proved by Mr. PA-
ICINGTON, M.P. for Droitwich, one of the speakers
1 at the meeting, and Chairman of the Quarter Ses-
sions. He has just recommended the county of
Worcester to adopt the new system of rural police,
by observing " that the increase of crime was in an
enormously greater proportion than the increase of
population." Corn-law prosperity and crime, then,
go together. As the landlords flourish the labour-
ers are driven to despair, and neither life nor pro-
perty are safe.
All the landowners at the Worcester meeting
declared and protested that they would not support
the agricultural interest at the expense of any other,
that agriculture and commerce must flourish to-
gether, and both ought to be equally protected,
1 Poor innocents ! they would not for the world injure
their neighbours ; they only require to tax them.
What the landowners mean is, that both should be
allowed to enrich themselves at the expense of the
consumer, and that they will help the merchant or
manufacturer to enrich himself by levying black
mail if he help the landlord. But the commercial
and manufacturing classes find that they have
played this game too long ; and that the
protection
demanded for agriculture is their ruin.
When the
landowners say that commerce and agriculture are
sisters, they mean that the former is to be the
Cinderella of the latter, and do all thedirtyVCsairkw,
that her elders may enjoy themselves at balls,
1
woo the smiles and hands of Princes. A
the landlords are full of pride, from a futilpresent
b and
lout commerce and manufactures droop Purse ;
pine.
It is certainly true that commerce cannot flourish
but agriculture will profit by it ; at the same time
it is not true that landlords may be enriched by a
Corn-law and commerce be benefited by it. We
recommend Mr. PAKINGTON and the Worcester
squires to enjoy their plunder in silence, for so sure
as they open their mouths to defend it, so sure will
their words rise up in judgment against them.
The present difficulties of commerce, on their own
principles, are the condemnation of the Corn-laws.