The Sun.
London, England, 1838-12-24 00:00:00

THE REFUGE FOR THE HOUSELESS

POOR.

The LORD MAYOR having been applied to on the subject
of opening the refuge for the houseless poor, invited the
Committee to discuss the question at the Mansion house,
and took the Chair upon the oecasion. A great deal of
interest was excited ; some of the parochial authorities of
the City of London having expressed the opinion that the
reception of the poor, according to the old plan, would in-
terfere most mischievously with the operation of the Poor-
law ; while others contended that the claims upon the
humanity of the public have become more powerful by
reason of the very operation of that measure.
The Secretary read the report prepared by the Sub•
Committee. It stated that there appeared to be no occa-
sion at the present time to open the asylum. and recom-
mended that to the House Committee should be delegated
the power to open it when they should see occasion. It
also stated that in consequence of the introduction of the
new Poor-law into the city more than the average distress
might be apprehended.

After a prolonged conversation, in which Mr. Campbell,
Mr. Marriott, Dr. Conquest, and others took part, it was
then agreed that the report should be sent to the Sub-
Committee for revision, and that the Lurd Mayor should
be requested to call a meeting of the subscribers, for whom
a report should be prepared.

The Committee adjourned upon the understanding that
the Lord Mayor should be applied to to call a meeting of the
subscribers in the month of January.
We believe that the General Committee will, if they see
an occasion in the meantime, open the asylum.

FOREIGN INTELLIGENCE.

PORTUGAL.
OPENING OF THE CHAMBERS.

LISBON, DEC. 10.—The Cortes were opened yesterday
by the Queen, with the usual formalities. A large force
consisting of several regiments of regular troops was placed
at an early hour in the streets leading to the Cortes, but
though the as;Pnblage was large, no attempt at disturbance
occurred, nor indeee;
could any manifestation of popular
feeling either one way or the other, be observed. The
senators and deputies in town met. on this occasion in the
chamber of the latter about. noon,
yi,,count Semodaes
(General Azeredo,) as the oldest senator present, taking
the chair, which was placed at the right of, and frontm; the
throne. A deputation of six senators and twelve deputies
was appointed to attend the Queen and her husband, who
arrived shortly after one p.m., escorted by a squadron of
cavalry ; their arrival was announced to the public by the
firing of rockets, discharges of cannon, &c., After taking
her seat on the throne, the King seated on a smaller throne
at her side, the Queen proceeded to read the following
address :

" Gentlemen—lt is with much satisfaction that I see for
the first time the national representatives united in con-
'ormity with the new Constitution of the Monarchy.
" I congratulate myself with you on the favour that
deigned to concede to me and to those kingdoms in giving
us An Infante, a new pledge of the succession of the crown
and of peace among the Portuguese. The Infante, D.
Luiz, has received the title of Duke of Oporto, according
to the past determination of my august father, of happy
memory, as a proof of the esteem which the heroic deeds
practised in that unconquered city merit, a precious legacy,
to whose honourable charge, I trust in God, my son will be
faithful.
" I continue to receive assurances of friendship from the
foreign Powers with which Portugal is in relation. His
Majesty the King of Greece has sent a Minister Plenipo-
tentiary to my Court. Diplomatic relations have, there-
fore, been established with this new State.
" I have every confidence that the period is not far dis-
tant in which, by the negotiations pending with the Holy
See, those relations of harmony which for so many ages
have existed between my august predecessors and the
visible Head of the Church, will be re-established—rela-
tions which always conciliated the rights of the Crown
and the dignity of the nation with its religious wants. If
by chance in these times of political changes, fanaticism
has sought to seduce incautious persons, the purity of the
Catholic religion has been always preserved among all the
Portuguese.
" I cannot announce to you, as I expected, the conclusion
of a treaty with Great Britain for the suppression of the
slave-trade, but I trust the day is not far off when a defini-
tive adjustment will be concluded. Negotiations have
also been entered into with France, tending towards the
same end. The interest of the monarchy requires the
entire suppression of this inhuman traffic, which impades
civil;ntion in our African provinces, and makes the pro-
pagation of the Gospel impossible there. It is fitting
that the maritime powers should mutually assist each
other in this work of justice and policy, and should agree
to treaties which, whilst efficaciously preventing the con-
tinuance of the traffic, may at the same time secure liberty
of commerce, and the respect due to the independence of
the contracting nations. I have still to regret the con-
tinuance of the civil war which devastates Spain. The
cause of the Catholic Queen, so intimately connected with
the liberty of the Spanish nation, excites my most lively
interest.

" The country enjoys tranquillity, although in some points
of the kingdom the state of public security is not satisfac-
tory. The two districts of the south continue to be in-
fested with small rebel bands, which, when encountered, have
constantly been beaten or dispersed by the brave forces that
pursue them.
" Experience has shown that some of our administrative,
fiscal, and judicial laws, require to be ameliorated. I am
sure that this experience will guide you in the necessary re-
forms so loudly called for by the state of the kingdom.
" I call your attention to the projects of laws which my
Ministers will present to you for this purpose.
" Ottr ultramarine provinces call also for your care. I
have Gr443l6sci that some projects shall be presented to you
respecting them also.
" By the reports which will be presented to you, you will
perceive what has been done between the close of the con-
stituent Cortes and the present Session, and how necessary
it is to recur with prompt and opportune measures to the
necessities of the country.

" The Finance Minister will present to you the state of
the public revenues, and the budget of resources necessary
to make head against the expenses and charges of the
state. It is particularly pleasing to me to be already able
to announce to you that the finances of the nation offer at
present a happy prospect, which ought to inspire its credi-
tors with confidence.

" The anticipations which pressed on the most important
revenues of the state arc for the most part redeemed, and
if the wants of the service should not require new sacrifices,
I trust that before the end of the approaching year 1839,
no charges of this nature will continue to affect the public

revenues. •
" The fulfilment of the obligations contracted for the
liberation of these revenues, and the execution of other
provident measures. due to the zeal and patriotism of the
constituent Cortes, have merited my particular attention,
and I can assure you that whenever the necessities of the
state have allowed it, my government has been solicitous
to maintain the national faith.

" The increase of the endowment of the junta of public
credit has happily allowed it to satisfy up to this time the
greatest part of its charges, and it is to be hoped that
shortly it will not only guarantee the payment of their
interests and annuities to the creditors of the internal
Consolidated debt, but will afford to the Government an
aruplii resource far new operations of credit, by which the
rights of the other creditors of the state may be attended
to as justice requires.
" The debt contracted in foreign countries, whose divi-
dends have not been able to be paid since the second half of
1837, is a subject of the highest importance, in which the
national honour and the credit of the Government are
pledged. A special commission was charged to propose to
me the means which it might judge most eligible for the
punctual fulfilment of this charge, and I hope that suit-
able proptosils still he shortly presented to you by the proper
Minister, whicli J< trust you will take into t he most serious
consideration.

" The continuation of the receipt and application of the
public revenues for the approaching year requires your sanc-
tion ; this transcendant object determined me to call you
together before the day marked out in the fundamental law.
" The extraordinary session of the General Cortes of
the Portuguese nation is opthedP
The King and Queen left the Coftos immediately after
reading this speech, escorted by the are deputation, and
the Session broke up. The Queen apptritted pale and
rather agitated on first commencing her speed:,- but sub-
sequently recovered herself and got through it as usual
Lord Howard de Walden and the other members of the
diplomatic body were present, and there was a prat; full
attendance in the public galleries. Very few senators
have yet come to town, and what with the double, triple,
and quadruple returns, it is doubtful whether there will
be enotigli to constitute a Chamber for some time. There
hv meeting of this Chamber to-day. The Deputies
were engaged in choosing Committees to verify the returns,
'';,,hop of Combra (D. Francisco) officiated as
L" being the oldest Deputy present.
teiiiptiftify President„
• •'''erto been ed with
Dec. 13.—The Cortes have tn..... have beenjtoo
merely preliminary matters. The Senators
Bark;::
Al-
few to form a house. Count Das Antas apt%
margem have resigned their seats.
The Deputies have
the powers
nominated a committee of five members to verify
of the members returned, and another committee of three
members to verify the powers of the members of the former
committee. These committees cioagaiiiac ntanms, Midosi, J. Es-
embers of both
the principal parties—lt. de F. 11
tevao, A. Carlos, and Lima, in the first ; and J. de Silva
Carvallio, Terceira do r aryalho, and J. A. de Campos, the
second.

SPIRIT OF THE PUBLIC JOURNALS

The adjourned meeting of the Manchester Chamber o
Commerce adopted, by a large majority, as an aniendment
the petition to the House of Commons drawn by Mr:
Cobden, which:calls for the repeal of all laws relating to the
importation of foreign corn and other foreign articles of
subsistence, and to carry out to the fullest extent,;both ast
affect' agriculture and manufactures, the true and peaceful
principles of free trade, "by removing all existing obsta-
cles to the unroetricted employment of industry and capital.*
This petition is ;,riven in another column. Manchester
will be immediately ieNlowed by all the other towns of the
north. The Leeds illeowy of Saturday last anticipates
that Leeds and all the other trading communities of York-
shire and Lancashire will commence a system of persever-
ing exertion for the abolition of the Corn-laws, and that
the six weel.s between this ~nd the meeting of
Parliament will be diligently enip!eyed in the hold-
ing of public meetings and the preparing of peti-
tions. Manchester, the great manufacturing capital of
the empire, very properly takes the lead in the agitation of
this all-important question. In that wealthy and intel-
ligent community are to be found men possessed of the in-
formation on the subject of which the Legislature is in
want, and the speeches delivered on the two days of the
meeting will everywhere be read with the deepest interest.
On Thursday last Mr. J. C. Dyer observed that the ques.
tion was a simple one—
" Between the whole community, whose capital, industry,
and talent were respectively used for the purposes of re-pro-
duction, and a class of men who obtaived rents, inordinately
raised beyond what they ought to be, by mason of a landlord
monopoly. All persons, then, whether engaged in manufactur..
ing or agricultural industry, or in the various useful professions
of life, in shop-keeping and other branches of trade, the
master-manufacturer and the eminent merchant—in short,
every person whose talent, capital, and labour were conjointly
or individually devoted to the production of national wealth, the
supply of the national wants, those parties were all deeply
interested in obtaining food from every part of the world at the
cheapest rate, in exchange for the exports of our manufac-
tures. The landlords, to whom the benefit of the monopoly
was secured, had a certain number of persons dependent upon
them, and these were neutral in the question. These persons
cared not whether food were dear or cheap, but all our domes.
tics, and the parties employed by us, were interested in our
prosperity. If we fell, they fell with us ; therefore it was
those who lived like vampires upon the blood of the nation,
that were interested in keeping up the monopoly. The uni-
versal people were interested upon the other side. The acts
Lneislation upon this subject were specimens of extreme
ignor-ant and selfishness, eminently disgraceful to the Legis-
lature:* that
ph:ssed them ; and, as an individual, he would not
consent to shrink from the expresSk. on of the indignation and
resentment which he felt, in ccruseq,uence of the mischief
thereby inflicted upon us."
This is strong language ; but is it not ,the universal feel-
ing of the country, that the land-owners, w), 0 constitute the
great majority of Parliament, have shamefully abused their
powers in legislating with regard to corn ; used ought not
the indignation and resentment of all the other classes of
the community to be directed against them, as the great
enemies of the nation ? It is true their views are characte-
rised by ignorance as well as selfishness, and in systemati-
cally planning the robbery of the other classes, for their
own separate benefit, they may not have foreseen the whole
extent of the mischief with which their measures were
fraught to the nation ; but they must be judged of by the
tendency of their acts. They have sapped the foundations
of that prosperity on which alone their own prosperity rests ;
but because they must suffer from a diminution of the gene-
ral prosperity, that can be no excuse to the nation which
they have injured. Mr. Cobden, after stating the astound-
ing progress lately made in Germany, in commerce and in-
dustry, observed—
" Surely these circumstances ought to be referred to as one
reason why we could not afford to be left in this adverse po-
sition as to the price of food. But there was one point he
would have kept prominently in view, arid that was the im-
pending evils that hang over the heads of the working classes.
That should be made prominent before Parliament, for in his
belief nothing but invoking the alarms of the landed aristo-
cracy would have the slightest effect upon their measures.
Surely they (the Chamber), sitting in the centre of those
multitudes of labourers who might very speedily be thrown
out of employment, and consequently without the means
of subsistence—surely, he said, it became them (the
Chamber), to read the signs of the times, before they could
be seen in London. Ought they not to be the first to give
the warning? Why was this incendiary language and these
torch-light meetings ? Think you men left their families
if they had comfortable homes, if they were well fed and
well clad, if they had a good bed, and were simply comfort-
able? No. They go to these meetings because their in-
dustry is unprofitable, though severe ; because there is an
immense mass of human, physical suffering abroad; therefore,
it became the interest, no less than the duty, of the Chamber
to represent to Government the evils of such a state of things.
He was not sanguine, though of a sanguine temperament, that
anything the Chamber could do or say would have the slightest
chance of avail with those who had the power of legislating
for their own exclusive interest, irresponsible to the people at
large. But unless an effort were made, commensurate with
the evils impending over us, the responsibility would not lie
with those who lived in London, or with those who were fox-
hunting in the country, or living luxuriously abroad, but with
ourselves. He had prepar2d a petition, which he would read
to the meeting, but not move its adoption."
Another gentleman, Mr. K. H. Greg, of Quarry-bank,
held the same strong language i--
" It had been remarked," he said, "by a great writer, that
no great body of men ever got justice except through the in-
fluence of fear ; and it was universally so—you could not
command attention unless you showed that you were in
earnest, unless you threatened. Catholic Emancipation and
Parliamentary Reform were carried in this way, and the same
plan would be necessary to effect the repeal of the Corn-laws.
That was a cause of life and death, not only with the masses
of this district, but with the whole population of England.
There was an immense mass of interest united against them,
and, therefore, he must say that he could see 710 chance for
the repeal of those laws except by the assumption of a deter..
mined tone."

Mr. Greg did not content himself with general assertions
but went into abundant details to show how hard we were
pressed in every quarter by foreign competition :
" We knew that it was impossible to compete in the
German market with the protective duty of Is. 6d. a
pound ; we knew that in America it was impossible
to compete with the protective duty of 20 per cent.,
therefore, whether we could compete in common markets
or not, it was evident we were being driven first from
one market, then from another, and that finally we should
be beaten from all. Now this was a question independent of
foreign competition. We merely supplied these markets till
they could supply themselves. In the beginning of last year he
bad furnished to him a list of foreign orders to this country for
machinery only to the amount 0" five hundred thousand pounds
This machinery was entirely for Belgium, Switzer-
land, and Germany, and the Chamber might readily
suppose that the gap which these nations felt in the supply
of their own markets would now easily be filled up. And
he might mention that the effect of this increasing compe-
tition had already begun to be felt in our own markets;
that last year, in his own concern, they had to break up 200
looms which used to supply one market ; and that this year
they should have to break up 200 more, which were used to
supply another market. With such facts as these to refer to,
a mild, timid, and reasoning petition was not likely to make
any impression, nor even to command attention. There was
still the common market of the world open after all this
foreign competition, but that was a very serious question.
We had seen that Switzerland now exported three.fourths of
all her manufactures, although no country was worse situated
for the purposes of exportation except Austria, for she had no
ports, yet she exported so much after supplying her own
markets. The increase of spinning mills upon the continent
had been most rapid, and his brother, who had last }'ear
visited a great variety of these establishments, reported, what
he (Mr. Greg) had previous information of, that their
le ours,
Thethat
ma-
chiaery was fully equal to ours ; that it was made upon the
spit; and
ng ttohtahtetho
immenseugh i t
profits
s something
hymore
the mechanists.thai
to say, their mills averaged fio:n 19 to 21 hanks of
produalio,..s of their spinning mills exceeded the production of
ours—that b
40's twist, and there were mills that turned off 19 hanks of 60's
twist in a day.
This might appear almost incredible; but a
mechanic, who had visited the mill he alluded to, told him it
was done bona fide, suli.,l said to him, " I had no conception of
the rate they are going oi,' in these countries ; and, my word,
before seven years are over
be beat." As to the medium.
)siti must look about you or you'll
doubt whatever that the articles'
nualities of cloth, there was no
f Switzerland and Germany
~.
would beat us out of any common nu
.
arket after they had sup-
plied the demand for their own consumi'd"' With regard to
America, they beat us absolutely in some particular articles,
lie would read an account of the exports one America for the
the last few years, to show the regular increu'se which had
been going on, and which could only be accou'nted for by
the handsome profits derived by the manufactursnrs• He
had here a large packet of American grey and crinted
cloth, on which, whilst his own concern in 1835 ;ere
clearing fivepence a piece, the Americans were clearing a
dollar. In 1835 the value of exported American eon&
amounted to two million eight hundred thousand dollars. He,
had no particular return for the last two years, but within the•
months he had the best means of knowing that
eenintheir exports was such that twenty thousand
thaeseir goods were sent round the Cape of Good Hope,
susand bales to South America. It was said
and sixteen tos.
ld nou not compete with us' in grey cloths,
that the Americans ,
ecting that the gentleman who went
btlhaatlsetsienoicgtr-le:1 .
--,0, and established the first mill
but he would inform the .7
from this country some years s.. t,
out 200,0001. by this species
in one of the states, had cleared au
of manufacture. This fact he (Mr. tti:eg) bad from the gen-
tleman's son himself, and it was not likely they would go on
exporting so largely if they bad no profits. And the Same
gentleman, when with him, said, ' We have pushed t bese
cabrics beyond the market, and we aro now turning our att,sn.
tiod io spinning low numbers of twist for the Germs* market.,
ut what alarmed him most was this, that our own
These were facts which filled him (Mr. Greg) with alarm ;
b manufac-
turers and merchants, men who ought to know better, were
not only ignorant of them, but were absolutely incredulous.
In his mind this was the most alarming feature of the whole.
It was not the interest of the landed gentlemen that bound
them so much together, but it was our own ignorance and in-
difference i and to such a degree had this ignorance and in-