The Sun.
London, England, 1838-12-29 00:00:00

. -
of a steady drain of precious metals might not have been easil)
foreseen. • The Bank, according to the last average published,
bad 9,339,0001., and why, in the name of common sense,
should the Directors, with such a profitless incumbrance upon
their hands, feel themselves so much endangered by the with-
dr mai of one or two millions for a well-defined and specific
object from their coffers?

NATIONAL CHARTER.

A meeting of the Association took place last night, at
Chesney's Rooms, Foley-street, Portland-place, for the
purpose of forwarding the objects of the National Charter,
and to elect a delegate for the Marylebone District. The
meeting was very numerously attended.
•FEARGUR O'Cosnston, Esq., was unanimously called to
the chair, and proceeded to address the meeting. He
said—On last Tuesday week they had had a most glorious
meeting in that place ; and as the chairman called upon
to preside over that meeting, it was his duty to report
progress to them up to the present time. Since then they
had held four glorious Radical, ultra-Democratic meetings in
London, and one glorious one at Bristol. As the corres-
pondent of the Times newspaper had taken it upon himself
to give what he called an account of that meeting, he Mr.
O'Connor) O'Connor) felt it tis duty to give them.a fair represeitta
tion of it.—(Hear, hear.) He would first promise to
them that these meetings were gall and wormwood to 'the
Times, and all the classes whom the Times represented.
On the 26th of December, the day before yes-
terday, it was announced that a meeting of the
working classes would take place at Bristol, and, notwith-
standing the Tory Mayor and Corporation of Bristol set
all their engines to work to intimidate the people from
attending, they mustered, amidst frost and pelting rain, be-
tween eight and ten thousand. The correspondent of the
Times says 'there were about 500 ragamuffins.—(A laugh.)
Now all the persons who did not receive tuition from the
Times were called by the Times ragamuffins ; and the cor-
respondent says further, the meeting was principally com-
posed of women and boys. He (Mr. O'Connor) had asked
the Chairman of the meeting at Bristol why there were not
more women there, because he liked to see the women pre-
sent, and the fact was there were only four women at the
meeting.—(Hear, hear.) The reason assigned was that
the authorities sent their emissaries and spies to the women,
warning them not to permit their husbands to attend.
There were no boys present, because the day was cold ; the
meeting was held at a distance from Bristol, and the
place was not adapted for a play-ground. Therefore the
Times correspondent lied, and he know he lied. He
stated that there were only one hundred and thirty in
the procession, but they had taken the precaution to
count the numbers in the procession, and there were near
3,000 ; and when it bad joined the meeting, it did not
seem to compose more than one-fourth of the entire.—
(Hear, hear.) So much for the Times and its Corre-
spondent. There was one statement in it which was cor-
rect, namely, that the Duke of Beaufort and the Glouces-
tershire yeomanry, with their heavy ploughshares in their
scabbards were present ; the 14th Hussars were also there,
with their gallant Colonel Brotherton, who would not allow his
men to sabre the people during the Bristol riots.—(Cheers.)
They rode through the procession ; but did the people in-
jure them ? No ; they took off their hats and cheered
them.—(Great cheering.) But there was a hoax played
off upon the dragoons, for it was announced that a torch.

fight meeting would take place at Clifton, and the troops
were sent down there under the pelting rain to apprehend
the parties.—(Great laughter.) These gallant fellows rode
down to Clifton, and every ship they with a lantern at its
bows, they said, " there's Feargus O'Conner, and his torch-
light ragamuffins."—(Hear, and laughter.) They thought
the people were holding a meeting in the sea, and that they
would be obliged to turn themselves into horse-marines
in order to apprehend thern.—(Roars of laughter.) But
at Bristol they held a glorious meeting, and had elected
delegates, and the best test of, the value the peo-
ple placed on the acquisition of their political rights, was
that they paid down out of their hard earnings, a sum of
251. for their dinner. That was a pretty good proof that
a spirit was abroad in Bristol, similar to that which existed
in other parts of the country—north, south, and east. He
(Mr. ('Connor) had succeeded in establishing a great
union of the working classes in the \Vest of England. That
was the object of his visit. Let the Times and its corres-
pondent state that if it thought proper. He would now re-
port progress further, and tell them that their enemies were
alert and awake. On the morning after the first meeting held
in that room a policeman of the A division cal!cd upon Mr.
Chesney and asked if it were true that Mr. O'Connor had
been there on the previous evening ? Mr. Chesney re-
plied " Yes ; why do you ask ?" " Oh, nothing, only that
Sergeant Campbell sent me down to be sure of it." " Had
he any reasons ?" " None, whatever ; we were talking
about it, and he sent me down to ask." Now it was clear
that Sergeant Campbell must have had some motive for
sending down all the way from St. Giles's to make the in-
quiry.
That very morning, before Chesney was up, two
gentlemen had called and seat to ask him if be was going
to have another meeting at his rooms ? He replied " Yes."
They said it would he better for him not to allow the raga-
muffins to meet there.—(A laugh.) That be was too re-
spectable a man, and it would be better for him not to
allow them his room. Such were the machinations by which
they were to be put down. Parliament met in' six weeks,
and exactly in proportion as they stood together, should
they be able to obtain what belonged to them, or should their
enemies he able to put them down. If they were
only united, and no sham Radical came amongst them,
their cause would be glorious and they would triumph.
Nothing would strengthen the Whigs more than their dis-
union—nothing would strengthen the Tories, for they were
down already.---( Hear.) New parties were springing up,
not with a view to relieve the working classes of their dis-
abilities, but with a view to obtain their own ends. First
there was Lord Durham and the Household Suffrage party
—next, there was Mr. Ward, the Member for Sheffield,
and a few other landed proprietors, who had not a single foot
of land in the world, seeking for a repeal of the Corn-laws,
and saying how generous they were in calling upon the
Government to give up what was called a monopoly.—(A
laugh.) Would they allow these two parties to divide
them ?—(No.) If the Household Suffrage party obtained a
fragment of their force it weakened them and gave the others
no power. If, on the other hand, the Anti-Corn-law
party divided them it would weaken them, but give the
other party no force to carry the project into effect. The
views of these parties, therefore, was not to carry the mea-
sures they proposed, but to prevent the people from attain-
ing that which was meat, drink, and clothes to them.—
(hear, hear.) There had been an anti-Corn-law meeting
at Manchester, and a similar one was about to take place
ia London, and he would, therefore, give them his opinion,
and tell them in what way the repeal of the Corn-laws would
be of great importance to them. If they had Universal
Suffrage they would then be enabled to divert the savings
effected by the repeal of these laws into the pockets of the
workine. classes.—(Cheers.) He (D.lr. O'Connor) had
been called a Destructive, a revolutionist, and a firebrand ;
but it would be his duty to prove to them the blood-thirsty-
ness and the anarchical feelings of those who were the ene-
mies of the repeal of the Corn-laws ; and he would further
show them that their repeal, without accompanying
measures, would only lead to bloodshed, strife, and
civil war.—(Cheers.) On the other hand he would
satisfy them that in seven days after the other measures
had been obtained, the repeal of the Corn-laws would
follow as a matter of course. The Corn-laws had been
granted to the landlord as a boon, when the produce of
their lands ceased to fetch a war price. Under the law of
primogeniture, the law of settlement, and the law of entail,
the land in that country was mortgaged to the Jews and
money-mongers, so that they could not obtain sufficient
from the land for their own support, and to pay the
Jews and money-mongers. When they found they
could not obtain the same prices as during the war, al-
though all the debts contracted by them were made ac-
cording to the fictitious value the land obtained during the
time of war, they being old representatives in the House of
Commons, said to the Minister, " We will not give you
our support unless you place us in the same position we
were in during the war." The landlords immediately got
the protecting duty on their corn, four years afterwards ;
that was in 1815, and in 1819 the money-mongers got
their Peel'sßill; and in 1838:there were thehand-loom weavers
and the operatives, who, because they were not represented
in the House of Commons, were told their ease was not
yet ready for hearing. Commissioners were abroad to
collect facts already too notorious, and yet the Legislature
had not been guilty of a single act to place the people in the
same position they occupied during the war time, although
the landlords and money-mongers had been more that twenty
years in thatfictitious position. He would supposefor argument
sake that a property which when peace was proclaimed was
worth only 10,0001., was now worth 150001., that pro-
tection gave the landlord 5,0001. more than he would
otherwise possess—that made him independent of jointures,
marriage settlements, and money-mongers. If they dis-
turbed that 5;.;,.t,! of this, ~ ;;',Fore thoy obtained ITr''''''al
S..t:ir:.,,_!, ..,:ww., detro2,ill:-.; the law of primogeuiture, the
law of settlement, and the law of entail, they would only
set the landlord against the tenant, and destitution and