The Sun.
London, England, 1849-06-27 00:00:00

the meeting was, however, the gentlemen on the
platform, or rather on the stage, endeavoured to
make the most of it; and the mobocracy in the pit,
after the fashion of the Greek Chorus, interpolated be-
tween the harangues their explanatory acclamations.
By their noise, as much as by their unanimity, they
reminded one, while plodding on the path of Protec-
tion (a path, by the way, lately posted up "No
Thoroughfare")—of the Cavaliers renowned in the
verse of ROBERT BROWNING :

" Marching along, fi V score strong,
" Great hearted gentlemen singing one song."

And certainly they do sing one song with a ven-
geance, each successive speech being a mere repetition of
its predecessor. PAGANINI'S performance on one string
was nothing to it. Here are fifty political PAGANINIS
with one string for them all ! As for anything in
the shape of argument, you might as well hope
to find logic in the chaunt of a dancing Dervish, as
argument in the vituperations of a Protectionist. One
nobleman yesterday talked of "the hell-broth mixed
for them by the late Premier," and one of the com-
moners, in a similar strain of eloquence, declaring
that " the British lion is a loyal lion, but he is a
bold one ; and when you do set him on his legs he may
be easy to put up, but he is an awkward animal to deed
with when he is awake." We should rather surmise
that this said British lion is just now awake, and
pretty wide awake too, if only from sheet
astonishment at being spoken of in such
irreverent terms. Mr. BOSANQUET, to whom
the glory of this allegorical metaphor is
wholly due, was not, however, the only orator of
the class to enlighten the public yesterday as to the
policy requisite for good legislation. There were
" enough of them and," certainly, "to spare."
If we might attempt to extricate out of the absur-
dity of this farce, and out of the verbosity of this decla-
mation, the precise purport of the assemblage yester
day in Drury-lane Theatre, we should say that that
purpose was as follows :—To maintain that with free
trade the British empire was fast going to the dogs.
especially now that the navigation-laws have been re-
pealed, and that our only chance of redemption is it
an immediate return to the blessed and time-honoured
prieciples of Protection. Why the Young-Englanders
were nothing to this ! A game of skittles between
Viscount MARMADUKE PLANTAGENET and GAFFES
CLIAWEACON would be weak in comparison ! A pas
de deux between landlord and tenant en costume a la
mode Charles II , a mere event of every day occur-
rence ! Yet wild and impossible as is the notion 01
the return of the Legislature to the dear, old, hum-
drum doctrines of Monopoly, these good souls are san
guine enough to imagine, and not only to imagine,
but actually to believe in, ics feasibility. They have
drunk of its intoxicating draughts as those from
the effects of which the tinker SLY woke up to find
himself arrayed in the illusive magnificence of a
Prince. They have imbibed the inebriating eloquence
of the two great masters of rhetoric who have
condescended to become their leaders, and they wake
up to fancy themselves the arbiters of the destinies of
England.
The most amusirg part of the joke is, however, the
circumstance that the speakers yesterday laid it down
as an incontrovertible fact that with free trade things
have been all going wrong, and that but for free
trade things would have been all going right.
Not a word about bad harvests ! Not
a syllable about the potato disease ! Not
a whisper as to the agitation of public feeling in
Ireland ! Not a sentence about the revolutions which
have convulsed Europe, and of the wars which
have followed those revolutions, among all
the great nations of the European continent !
although those bad harvests have led to scarcity
in England—although that disease of the po-
tatoes has produced famine in Ireland
al though that proximity of rebellion has distracted
the attention of the Legislature—although those wars
and revolutions have resulted of course in the dimi-
nution of the number of our customers, and have con
sequently conduced to the partial cessation of labour
in our manufacturing districts ! So much for the
honesty, the logic, the veracity, and the rational
consistency of the Protectionists.

It is much to be regretted that the inquiry_asked
for by Lord NtoesT on Friday evening was not
conceded by the Route of Commons. The sum to
be provided for the maintenance and relief of the
poor, and the other charges incidental thereto, amount
in round terms to no less than 8,000,0601. sterling
' per annum, and it is unfortunately but too notorious
that thu burden presses most heavily on the poorer
districts, while the wealthier distric:s pay compara-
tively trifling sums in proportion to their resource.
These who ale themselves but little removed from a
state of pauperism—the inhabitants of cheap and
humble abodes in the most crowded and unwholesome
localities, are crushed by the enormous sums which
they are compelled to contribute towards the support
of those who are still more distressed than themselves,
often amounting to ss. or even 103. in the pound on the
value of their holdings ; while the possessors of
lordly ralaces or wide-spread domains, in the enjoy-
ment of every comfort and luxury that wealth can
afford, escape comparatively scatheless, and the for-
tunate inhabitants of " extra parochial " places are
exempted from any liability whatsoever. If it could
be asserted that the lower assessments were owing to
the care and attention bestowed on the poor, that their
condition had been ameliorated and remunerative
employment provided for them, there would, at least,
be something to allege in favour of a system that had
produced such results. But such is unfortunately
not the case. The comparative exemption is not
ascribable to any such meritorious and praiae•
worthy exertions. It is not because the labouring
poor are encouraged in these wealthy unions,
or because there is an anxious desire to in-
crease their comforts, and to enable them to earn
their own support by their own toil, and to eat
the bread of honest industry ; but because they are
driven from the districts where suitable houses can-
not be obtained, and where the erection of a
labourer's cottage is regarded as a crime of the
highest magnitude. "Procul, 0 procul este profani !"
appears to be the motto of those vigilant guardians
of their own purses. They do not seek to eradicate
distress and destitution from the land, but merely
endeavour to banish it from their own parishes, and
they claim credit for the admirable management that
enables them to transfer the burdens from their own
shoulders to others less capable of sustaining it.
Even the labourers who cultivate the lands of these
parties, who expend health and strength in their service,
have in many instances no claim for assistance in the
hour of distress, but must be supported in sickness or
old age by the less prosperous unions in which, by a
forced migration, they were obliged to reside.
From the last Parliamentary return on the subject
(No. 375), it appears that there are at present, in
Lnglarat and Wales, 1,650 parishes and townships
rated for the relief of the poor, at sums varying from
Is. 4d. to 6d. in the
pound, 3,372 from 6d. to Is.,
8,380 from is. to 45., and 382
from 4s. to 14s. There
are also no less than 536 extra-parochial places which
are not subject to any liability whatsoever. It will
afford hut little comfort to those compelled to pay
from 50 to 70 per cent. on the value of their holdings
to be told that many others contribute from one.
eighth to one fourth per cent. only on similar pro-
perty. Surely the existence of a state of facts so
inequitable and uijust imperatively demands a
searching investigation into the causes that have
led to such strange anomalies, and would have more
than justified the House of Commons in assenting to
a motion for a " Committee to inquire into the prac-
ticability of better providing for the maintenance of
the indigent poor of England and Wales, by an e'ual
and general apportionment of the burden of the

same."

But it is not merely the correction of this glaring
nequality that is required, the oppressive and tyran-

nical law of settlement should also be repealed—a law

which operates so injuriously to the humbler classes,
who are thereby prevented from carrying their only
capital—their labour—into the best and most eligible
markets. Under the present system a labourer is

debarred from seeking employment where it might
easily be obtained, and where his services would be
really useful to the owners and occupiers of land.
However high his character and meritorious his con-
duct, he will not be allowed to obtain a footing in a
different parish if there is any possibility of his sub-

sequently becoming a burden on its resources. He

is regarded with suspicion and distrust from the very
moment of his arrival, and woe to the farmer who has
the hardihood to afford him A single day's employ-