The Sun.
London, England, 1839-12-21 00:00:00

Poor-law Amendment Act.

I now state to your honours, that I sin a labouring man,
belonging to the parish of Guestling, in the county of
Sussex. I lived in the parish of Brede for nearly forty-
seven years, and I oftimes applied to the Hastings Board
of Guardians for some assistance to support my family.
But they alway s denied to give me anything. But they
told me they could not relieve me unless I was in my own
parish, and then they could relieve me, as I have a family
of nine children, and six of them lay on my hands for sup-
port. I hired a cottage in the parish of Guestling, in the
Hastings Union, and I moved into the parish of Guest-
ling on the 17th of June last, when I had but one shilling
in the world ; and I sent one of my children to the shop
with that one shilling to get food for eight in family, and
I went to the relieving officer, and told him the distressed
state I was in; and asked him to relieve me—but he would
not relieve me ; and, on the 20th day of June, my wife
went before the Board of Guardians, and asked them for
relief. But they would not relieve us at all, and we wasall in a strange place; and I have oftimes applied to the
Board of Guardians since—but they always deny me.
They say they do not dare to relieve me, for the Commis-
sioners will not let them relieve me, or else they
would be happy to relieve me. The Guardians of
Guesilin,,r, parish tells me they should be very happy to
give me four or five gallons of dour per week, if they dared
to give it me—for you, the said Commissioners, would not
let there relieve me.

Please your honours my shoes are quite worDoutth,i37d
my feet go on the
Guardians
and have done for
weans. I have applied to the Board of uairdra pairianso of the
Hastings Union, for this last three weeks, o
half-boots, and some flour or money to help support may
famlly ; but they will not give me neither. sh?es,nor say,
nor money. They deny to relieve me in anyway, and
that you, the said Commissioners, will not let them.
Please your honours, when I work all the week I earn.
123., but I oftimes lose a day or two in a week ; but, if I.
work the whole of my time, my income is only I:2i. pet
week for eight in family to subsist on, and we are all so
weak and feeble that we are troubled to get about, and I
°''' very much troubled to get to my work.
Ple
vrieek..,aasenavo:lilhonorenobmoutteirs, the flour that I require for my
family is your
gallons at 13. sd. per gallon, and thet
amounts to I Is. 4d., and the rent of my cottage is 2s. per
wwictehkt,hatloluera,unroent
tgaentdfirifintginutzn,der 2s. per week, wuico,
amounts to 15s. 4d. per
teisr_o_nnolysiil23. per week, and how can
I pay ins. 4d. with 12s. ? And then we have nothing; for
m.i..at, cheese,
~.far nor tea—and my wife
a chiA to suck, and no tea nor sugar, it is a very hard
case, and not asixpnnce for clothing, there. And I most
sineorcly hope teat you, the !tight Honourable Commis-
sioners, will have the goodness to return me a few. lines
in answer to this, so that I may kuow whether the laws of
England are for a working indostres, and sober man to go

bare footed and allmost starved, or not. Direct to me to
Thomas Turner, Guestling, near Hastings. November
18th, 1839.-1 remain your honours' humble subject.

THOMAS TURNER.

Now, after such a letter as that, he thought it would
appear pretty obvious that the labouring classes could
not feel a very great interest in having the taxes re-
duced on such luxuries as soap. This was, indeed, im-
portant, and it was a luxury, too, but there were other,
and, if possible, much more pressing wants.—( Hear,
hear.) They were reduced below the means of getting
molasses. They could get no tea, coffee, sugar, or
butter. If they could only get bread enough for their
families, it was the most important thing that they
seemed to desire.--(Hear, hear.) And what was the
condition of Ireland ? There were seven millions of
people with nothing but potatoes to live upon ; and
when they could scarcely get lumpers and sea weed,
was it to be supposed that they could feel an extraor-
dinary interest in repealing the duties on tea and
sugar ? Then there was another point which came nearer
to his own case. They had been told by those great poli-
tical economists, those lights of Manchester, they had
been told that if they got corn cheap their wages would
be reduced. Now, unfortunately for this assertion, they
almost all of them lived in the year 1835, when flour was
not about one half its present price, and he was sure
There was too much sense among a body of men, like
those there assembled, to adopt any body's theory, when
they could resort to their own experience. Now he
would ask them whether their wages were lower in 1835
than they were at present ?—(" No, no," and cheers.)
Then he would ask them, was not the sd. loaf in 1835,
taking the quality of ;the meal into account—was not
the sd. loaf then fully equal to the 9d. loaf now ?
(" Yes" and " No," and cheers.) He had had an op-
portunity of knowing in his own trade some facts which
were of importance in illustrating this question, and he
would briefly refer to them. He had paid, during the
last seven years, more than 20,0004 a year in wages,
and they were paying now precisely the same wages in
1839 which they were paying in 1835.—(Hear, hear.)
He appealed to others who knew the fact ; and he chal-
lenged any body to deny that whilst the men, in his
trade, in 1835, were almost every one of them employed
and getting full wages, there were immense numbers of
them now unemployed, or only half employed, while
bread was nearly double the price it was in 1835.
(Hear, hear.)
Mr. WILLIAM BUTTERWORTH asked if this amount
of manual labour had not been superseded by new im-
provements in machinery ?
Mr. COBDEN replied in the negative. But he had
promised he would not speak at length, and he
would fulfil his promise. He took his stand there
as an advocate for a sufficient supply of the
necessities—the dearest necessities of the poorest
of the poor of the country. He did not talk of the
taxes upon tea and sugar now ; but whenever a motion
could be made, and petitions signed, he would be one
• that would petition for the taxes being taken from such
articles, and a property tax substituted in their stead
upon the rich.—(Loud cheers, which were continued
for some time.) But if anything that he had said on
that occasion should have had the effect of convincing
Mr. Wroe, or the reverend seconder of his amendment,
that there was some reason for the course that was pur-
sued—of getting a repeal of the bread tax in preference
to all others, then he had sufficient faith in their can-
dour that they would withdraw their amendment—
(" No, no," and cheers—and then they might come to
the issue with the other party, who, although they pro-
fessed to be anxious for a repeal of the Corn-laws, were
so warm, so energetic and zealous upon the subject, that
they could not take a single step because Mr. Sheil was
President of the Board of Trade.—(Great laughter and
cheering.) He put it to Mr. Wroe to withdraw his
amendment.—(No, no.) Then he must warn them
that if upon this occasion the direct attack upon this tax
was got rid of by any side wind, he was sorry to say it
would be industriously put forth to the world that it
was mot rid of because they were not feeling so earnestly,
thein matter as they ought to do. He would add no-
thing further, but would leave the matter in their hands.
—( Renewed cheering.)
Mr. ELIJAH DIXON next proceeded to address the
meeting. He said he remembered being in that room
A few years ago when a meeting was called to take into
consideration the distressed state of the people of Man-
chester, and on that occasion almost a thousand causes
were assigned for the distress of the people of this
country. Mr. Potter himself, the present Mayor of
this borough, together with many others, were for an
alteration of these laws for the benefit of the working
classes. They proposed their measures, and he then
moved an amendment to the effect that they could enjoy
no effectual relief until they had reduced the taxation of
the country to what it was at the peace establishment of
1792. That amendment was carried against every half
measure that was proposed. Had they become less
honest now than they were then ? Would they give
less proof of their growing intelligence during the painful
years that had transpired since that period ? He trusted
they would show that their intelligence had grown with
their sufferings, and that they were still the same,
willing to remove the common distress of the country
by a "long pull, a strong pull, and a pull alto-
gether." He would tell them that if one party
pulled one way and another another, they would pull
the old ship Britannia to pieces, and they would all go
to the bottom with her. Then, if they would pull all
one way they would pull at the true cause of the distress,
both of the agriculturists and the manufacturers, and
they would do right.—(Cheers.) Now let them exa-
mine this matter. They had been told that the land-
lords of England paid forty millions a year as a corn tax.
Why all the rent put together that was paid did not
amount to more than about forty-five millions—that
was it did not average above one pound an acre, but
18s. 6d. was nearer the mark. Now suppose the land-
lords were to make them a present of this ; why that
Government would take more than that ; and the rea-
son why they were distressed and oppressed, and could
not meet the foreigner in a foreign market—the reason
was, that our Government was so enormously more ex-
pensive than any other Government. It was vain to
say that the landlords pocketed forty millions a year out
of the profit upon corn, when the rents altogether were
only forty-five millions. This was nonsense ; and he
would ask Mr. Cobden what had brought him away
from an agricultural district to print cottons, if the
profits were not less remunerating than those that arose
from printing calicoes ?—(Hear.) What tempted him
to leave those fields in his native country to come here
to be a printer. Profitable as agriculture was, it was a
great deal more so to print calico.—(Hear, hear.) He
asked them plainly and honestly to think on the subject
as if they were interested in giving an honest decision
in the sight of God and man, for they might rest as-
sured that they might promise themselves success ; but
if those promises of success were not based on those
eternal, immutable, and unalterable laws of our being,
we should have increased taxation for our pains. Now
let them look at this matter. It was notorious that
within these half dozen years the productive power of
machinery in Lancashire had increased sixfold. It was
equally notorious that we might go on making machines
until there was no power on earth to supply the raw
produce to satisfy those machines, much less power to
to supply the mouths of the population if the machinery
did not exist. Now as corn rose and fell in value, as
it was plentiful or scarce, he would ask whether the
labour rose and fell by the same law ? Now, he
would tell them that in 1835 they had much more
money, and corn was half as cheap again.—(Hear,
bear.) But the Corn•law did not make it cheap.
The cotton tax had been taken off, and the Ameri-
cans actually gave us less cotton for the same amount
of cloth than ever they did.—(Hear, hear, and cries of
" Question, question.") The Americans, therefore,
had discovered the secret of our weakness, and they
would as surely find out the secret of giving us less corn
for our cloth, unless we could have as cheap a govern-
ment as they have. He supported with all his heart
the amendment of his friend Mr. Wroe, and he would
also prophecy and warn them.
Mr. SMITH—A prophet has no honour in his own
country.

Mr. DIXON_I am aware of that ; but if you at-
tempt to gain an advantage in the mere exporting of the
cloth for grain, merely to benefit the manufacturer, God
in heaven will avenge the wrongs of your brother upon
you —(Hisses, cheers, laughter, and groans.)

MARK PHILIPS, Esq., again advanced and observed—
With respect to Mr. Birley's amendment, he had been
pleased, in proposing it, to deal largely in opprobrium
upon her Majesty's Ministers. But he would ask
Mr. Birley, or any other gentleman present, whether
he ever knew of any Administration which had so many
Members in it that would vote for an alteration in the
Corn-laws, as there were among the Members of the
existing Government ?—and if Mr. Birley would show
him a Ministry more intimately connected with the
landed interest who would do more for us, he should be
.
extremely glad to listen to what they had got to say ;
and he thought it meat probable that they would have
his vote along with them. Now, he had nothing to do
with party in this question, for it was no party question.
He had one remark to make in connection with what
had fallen from Mr. Read ; he would put it to the can-
dour of that gentleman whether he thought it was alto-
gether fair for him to travel out of his way to make
an attack upon Mr. Poulett Thomson ; because
he could assure him that he was in error
respecting that gentleman.—(Hear, hear.) It was
Mr. Thomson who made this an open question in
the Cabinet : and he (Mr. Philips) knew that he was
prepared to have brought forward a motion in the House
i c M
r.
Commons for a moderate fixed duty, and Ile believed
his Opinions were in favour of a continually decreasing
a
duty.--(Deafeningl cheers.)
AD—On
.our authority I shall be happy to
m
il'irLhLoin:ss—Titere:llave been a great many
on
all the allowance be claims.
speClarh.esPmade for the landed interest. I have only to
urge you o
any of those specious addresses
v..hich hm:e been delivered on the present occasion.—
g.ntiont cr
t ainly is .ourt be turned aside from that which cer-
es.f, by
(Cheers.) It is truly a question of subsistence ; and all
I can say is, that so far as I have the power, so long as
I have the office, and so far as I have the strength to
cal ry your wishes into the House of Commons, I will

faithfully endeavour to obtain for you a remission of that t
tax which, of all others, I am convinced presses upon
you the most heavily, and the most fatally.—(lmmense
and long continued cheering,)
The CHAIRMAN then took the sense of the meeting
on the motion and amendments, when there appeared
for Mr. Wroe's amendment about thirty or forty hands ;
for Mr. Birley's, from fifteen to twenty ; and for the
original motion, a forest of hands appeared, which was
immediately followed by the most enthusiastic cheers,
waving of hats, and clapping of hands, for several
minutes.

The decision of the meeting on this resolution
being all but unanimous, the greater portion of the
factious party walked off, and left the rest of the bu-
siness to be proceeded with without interruption.
ALFRED CHARLES WALKER, Esq. (amid loud
cheers), was then called upon to move the next re-
solution :

That the Corn-law violates the sacred principles of
religion and morality, by interposing a barrier between
the bounties of Divine Providence and the wants of
the industrious millions of this country ; thus depriving
them of the means of independent subsistence, and sub-
jecting them to the evils of disease, demoralization, and
premature death.
The Rev. W. GADSBY was introduced as the se-
conder of this resolution. The Reverend Gentleman,
being aged, wore a dark-coloured velvet cap. He said
he hoped they would excuse him for wearing his cap
while he said a few words, for it was one in which he
designed to pass sentence of condemnation upon the
Corn-laws.—(Laughter and cheers.) He considered
them directly and immediately opposed to the word of
God, and the introduction of them was plainly telling
God to his face that they would not have him to rule
over them.—(Hear, hear, and cheers.) He did not
stand there as a political man. It was well known to
them that he was no Tory—(Loud cheers)--and if the
present proceedings of the Whig Ministry were true
Whiggism, he was no Whig—(Renewed cheering)—
and if the proceedings of a great many who called them-
selves Radical were true Radicalism, he was no Radical
—(Cheering)—so that it puzzled him to find out what
name he must give himself in political matters,
and perhaps they could give him a name better
than he could do it for himself. In reading the
word of God, in the book of Genesis, it was said
" And God said, behold, I have given you every herb
bearing seed which is upon the face of the earth."—
Mind that—" and every tree which is the fruit of a tree
yielding seed : to you it shall be for meat." Now, that
was God's Corn-law.—(Cheers.) But the aristocracy
made a law which said : " No ; the labouring and in-
dustrious people of England shall not partake of all the
fruits of the earth, if we can help it ; for we are deter-
mined to pocket the greatest part of the labour ourselves,
and we will be the gentlemen that shall have the fruits."
—(Cheers.) Where did this tax begin ? Really he
could hardly tell them ; but. he had looked at one or
two of the branches of it. First, it was needful that
the carriage of it should be paid to bring it to this
country. Secondly, it must be put under what they
called bond, and the Lord knew that that was a very
good term, for it was bound enough.—(Cheers.) Well,
then there must be money laid out to:build warehouses
to put it in. Then there has been a tax upon the
bricks, and a tax upon the wood to build these ware-
houses to take care of the corn, and keep it out of poor
people's mouths and stomachs.—(Hear.) Then there
must be a taxed exciseman to lock it up—(lmmense
cheering)—so as to make the " bond" so much the
firmer.—(Cheers.) Now, lock at the aristocracy, how
they were taxed. They had land, but there was no in-
surance from fire there—there was no 3s. a hundred
there—no, no. Well, then, there was the tradesman.
Perhaps he bad saved a little property. Well, there
was a tax upon the probate of his will, and a tax
called legacy duty. He knew they would like them
to call it a duty, but he never would if he was in
his senses—he called it a tax.—(Cheers.) Now, if
a Nobleman died, he might leave his ten, twenty,
fifty, or hundred, or, perhaps, two hundred thousand
pounds u-year property in land; his heir took it, and
there was about as much tax upon it as there was
upon straw.—(Cheers.) Therefore, in all the bearings
of this question the aristocracy ruled with an iron
hand to tax the working people and the industrious
classes of the community.—( Hear, hear.) He was
sorry he had detained them so long, but he had a pas-
sage or two he should like to read, for he must come
to the old standard of the Book of God. In Proverbs,
the 11 th chapter, 26th verse, it was written—" He
that withholdeth corn, the people shall curse him."—
(Loud cheering.) Now, the Lord said the people
should curse him that withholdeth corn. Their corn
was withheld when it was locked up by Act of Parlia-
ment.—(Cheers.) He considered the Corn-laws as
steadily opposed to every principle of religion and mo-
rality, and as insulting to both God and man.—(Cheers.)
The resolution was then put and carried with accla-
mation.

Mr. Alderman CORDEN was called upon to move the
next resolution, and was received with deafening shouts
of applause. He said the resolution he had to Ind:
pose was—
" That, at the present time, the baneful influences of
the Corn-laws are exerting themselves with peculiar seve-
rity upon the middle and working classes of the commu-
nity; :njuring the banker by the derangement of the cur-
rency ; oppressing the merchant and dealer by the exces-
sive rate of interest ; annihilating the profits of the capi-
talists, and reducing to pauperism the industrious artisan
and labourer; and, unless repealed, this destructive law
will, by banishing our manufactures to other countries,
and throwing upon the soil the entire burden of supporting
a destitute and idle population, involve the landowners,
with every other class, in cne common ruin."
—He was glad that this resolution referred to the
middle and working classes ; it showed that we were
identified in one common interest. It might be that
the distress that fell upon this community might teach
the working classes that the pressure of the times has
been felt severely by the middle classes ; just as in an
attack of severe cold we feel it at our extremities before
it reaches the heart ; but they might depend upon it
that if one class of the community was suffering, the
interests of the other must be suffering at the same
time, for they were like a chain—so bound that one link
could not receive an injury without the vibration being
felt throughout the whole.
Mr. RANSOM seconded the resolution.

The following business was then transacted :
Moved by Mr. GEORGE HADFIELD ; seconded by Mr.

CALLENDER:-

That the following petition, founded upon the forego-
ing resolutions, and praying for the entire and immediate
abolition of the Corn-law, be signed by the authorities
convening this meeting on behalf of the same, and be pre-
sented to the Queen, and to both Houses of Parliament.
The humble Petition of the Inhabitants of the Borough
of Manchester, assembled at a Public Meeting, duly
convened by the Municipal Authorities of the said
Borough,

Humbly Showeth—That a free exchange of the pro-
ducts of industry for the corn and food of other countries
is the natural and inherent right of the people of every
nation—a right clearly recognized by the Creator himself,
in awarding to various climes the different productions of
the earth for the common benefit of all his creatures.

That the Corn-law violates the sacred principles of reli-
gion and morality, by interposing a barrier between tho
bounties of Divine Providence, and the wants of the indus-
trious millions of this country; thus depriving them of the
means of independent subsistence, and subjecting them
to the evils of disease, demoralisation, and premature
death.

That, at the present time, the baneful influences of tho
Corn-law are exerting themselves with peculiar severity
upon the middle and working classes of the community_
injuring the banker by the derangement of the currency_
oppressing the merchant and dealer by the excessive rate
of interest—annihilating the profits of the capitalist—and
reducing to pauperism the industrious artisan and labourer;
and that, unless repealed, this destructive law will, by
banishing our manufacturers to other countries, and throw-
ing upon the soil the entire burden of supporting a desti-
tute and unemployed population, involve the landowners,
with every other class, in one common ruin.
Therefore your petitioners most humbly pray your right
honourable House, that the Corn-laws be entirely and im-
mediately abolished.—And your petitioners, as in duty
bound, will ever pray.
Moved by Mr. J. B. SMITH ; seconded by Mr. GEORGE