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

Art. 3. The Government will regulate the conditions
calculated to insure the best application of the said sums,
and it will likewise stipulate the necessary securities for the
repayment.

Art. 4. To meet the said credits the Government is
authorised to issue Treasury notes to the amount of four
millions, on the conditions detertnined by the law of 16th
February, 1833, No. 157. " I think it necessary, gentle-
men," said the Minister, "to refer this project to a Com-
mittee, to examine attentively the above sum. Every mem-
ber, besides, may snake himself rcquainted with it. I shall
request the Committee to attend to it immediately." The
project was accordingly referred to a Committee.

" BRUSSELS, DEC. 21.
TO THE DIRECTORS OF THE ANTWERP BRANCH OF TYE

BANK OE BELGIUM.
" I hasten to send you a copy of the letter which the
Minister of Finance has done me the honour to write to
me. Please to insert it in the Journals of your city.
" Accept, &c.
" The Directors of the Bank.
(Signed)

" DE BROUCKERE."
" BRUSSELS, DEC. O.
" In answer to your letter, dated yesterday, I have the
honour to inform you, measures, a(lopted with respect to
the principal bank at Brussels, include the other two ; and
consequently the notice published on the 17th concerns the
branches of Liege and Antwerp also, the deposits in which
are likewise guaranteed by the General Society.
" I have the honour to be,
" The Minister of Finance,
(Signed) " D'HUART."
—Journal du Commerce d' Anvers, Dec. 23.

DISTRESS OF THE LABOURING
CLASSES.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
85, Cornwall-road, Lambeth, Dec. 22, 1838.
Sin,—Many important statements having lately appeared
in your Journal respecting the condition of the agricultural
labourers in Wiltshire and other counties, and equally
im-
. portant comments made thereon ; and your having also re-
, cently quoted from a speech made by me at a meeting in
Theobald's-road, with reference to the condition of the
agricultural labourers of Dorset ; and in your com-
ments appearing unwilling to believe the statement
there made, at least to its full extent, I trust
you will allow me to state, in detail, the actual
condition of the labouring population of Dorset at
present. My statement is the result of personal examina-
tion and observation, while in the county, for some weeks
in the months of October and November last, for the pur-
pose of forming Working Men's Associations in the villages.
I shall give facts, mentioning the name of two or three per-
sons, who can, if they please, attempt to disprove what I am
about to state.
On my arriving in the county I found the labourers and
their families in a state of poverty and misery, and groan-
ing under a weight of injustice and oppression beyond what
I had ventured to anticipate. The wages of the able-bodied
labourers averaged is. per -week, and the wages of the
youths under 21 (the majority of whom can do, and are
compelled to do, the work of a strong man), from 3s. Gd. to
4s. Gd. per week, out of which pittance they have to find
their working implements, and keep them in repair, in ad-
dition to house-rent, food, fuel, clothing, &c. The
farmers paying this rate of wages to their men, are
charging them from 9s. to 9s. Gd. per bushel for their
wheat, and the 41b. loaf is selling at 10d. and 11d. in all the
villages. Many of the labourers have no ground attached
to their cottage, on which they might grow potatoes ; this
is particularly the case at the village of Dewlisb, near Mil-
bourn, where some of Mr. Standing's able-bodied men are
receiving but ss. per week ; the same may be said of Mr.
Brewer, a large farmer at Milbourn, who has discharged
W. and A. Gilhard, father and son, because they " pre-
sumed" to join the Working Men's Association, and would
not sign a paper pledging themselves to work for 6s. per
week. This Mr. Brewer, with Mr. Fowler of Kingston,
Mr. Fooks of Whitchurch, and Mr. Besent of Kingston,
all large farmers of great influence, are mainly instrumental
in preventing the more liberal and humane portion of the
farmers from raising their wages. In some villages the
labourers arc " allowed" to rent a few " lugs" of ground,
on which to grow vegetables. But mark ! the farmer rents
a large field of six or seven acres from his landlord, at the
rate of one penny per lug—he re-lets it to his labourers at
twopence per lug, thus taking credit for his humanity, while
realizing large pre is in addition to that resulting from hit
farming produce.

In inP.'ily instances the labourers are compelled to pay
Poor -rates out of this paltry amount of wages. A short
t'Ame back, Mr. Northover, the overseer of Tolpuddle,
served notices upon several of the labourers in that parish,
to attend the Court-house at Dorchester (a distance of
nine miles, and to go to which place and return, causes the►tt
to lose a day's work), to show cause why they refused to
pay the Poor-rate. The poor men went, and the majority.
of them were ordered by the Magistrates, Messrs. Framp-
ton, Woollaston, &c. to pay, notwithstanding they declared
they had not enough money to provide themselves and
families with food. Mr. Northover also summoned Mrs.
Standfield, the wife of one of the Dorchester labourers► for
Poor-rates during her husband's absence, and while she was
subsisting on the money allowed her by the Committee in
London. By her spirited conduct, however, after haying
been compelled to attend Dorchester twice, sl.-fe got off.
The cottages of the labourers are generally desti-
tute of every comfort and convenience, and their
food almost invariably consists of potatoes, bade.
bread, with warm wrier coloured with the rasping:
the loaf ; and ,any a poor woman told me, with tears rol-
ling dowr, her emaciated heel:, her attenuated frame cu.
tifyin:s the truth of her statement, that where there were
4..w0 or three children in family they could not get a suffi-
ciency of that, I saw many families who frequently go
without food of any kind from Friday morning till Pia.
turday night, their little stock of potatoes which they
had grown having been consumed. not being able to get
bread ; and'at Milbourn I saw children shoeless, hatless, and
ragged, picking up the pvtatoe and turnip rinds which their
more fortunate feeigilhours had thrown on the road-side. I met
with a female, at Tolpuddle, the vrife of an honest in-
dustrious labourer, who had risen from her confinement but
six weeks, and, though suckling a child, bad not tasted any
food but a crust of bread and two or three potatoes for
three whole days.

But, Mr. Editor, I might go on detailing instances of
this description until I filled your paper ; suffice it
to say, that poverty and wretchedness the most
degrading—oppression and insult the most galling,
seem to be the lot of the labourers of Dorsetshire,
but who are at the same time honest, industrious, sober, and
intelligent. It is a curious fact that the number of females
in the labouring population of the districts, able to read and
write, is much greater than that of the males. I attribute
this to the poverty of the labourer, who is enabled to let his
daughter attend the parish or Wesleyan schools, but is
compelled to take his son into the fields to work almost as

soon as he is able to walk. Notwithstanding this want of
education, the men are very shrewd, and possessed of in-
quiring minds. It may be asked where are the
gentry and clergy of the country while this misery
is going on ? And what do they do to alleviate it ?
Nothing. The landowners think of nothing but fox-
hunting ; and, as long as the tenant pays his rent,
thinks little, and cares less, in what manner the money is
obtained—while the clergymen distinguished in this county

English Directors, and three Belgian Directors. The Bel-
gian Directors already named are men of opulence and sta-
tion, and I have heard that one is intimately identified with
the Government. The Bank, lam informed, is to be under the
patronage of the King and the haute noblesse of Belgium.
I have not heard the full details of the project, but I may
add that its announcement has tended materially to allay
the fears arising from the stoppage of the Belgian Bank, and
produces the strongest- anticipations for its success,

(From the Papers received this day.)
BRUSSELS, DEC. 21.--The Bank of Belgium having ob-
tained a delay on condition of conducting the administra-
tion conjointly with one or more of its creditors, according
to Art. 4 of the decree of N0v.25,1814, Messrs. Mettennius
Anspach, President of the Tribunal of Commerce, and
Evrard Galen, are added to the administration of the bank,
and entered on their functions yesterday.
The Council of Ministers met again on Thursday to de-
liberate on the measures to be taken in consequence of the
stoppage of the Bank of Belgium. Hitherto no measure
has been announced by the official organ.
We learn from La Campine that within these few days
very large purchases of butter have been made for France.
One Commissioner has purchased 80,0001bs.
The Frankfort Journal threatens us with a blockade by
sea and land. " Thus (it says) the victory will be gained
without fighting. What will Belgium do when its manu-
facturers and booksellers shall be unable to send abroad a
little cotton, or a single book."
If they cannot send them, they will perhaps resolve to
carry them themselves. '

BRUSSELS, DEc.22.—ln the Chamber of Representa-
tives to-day the Minister of Finance presented a project of
law relative to the Bank of Belgium :
Art. 1. A credit is given to the Government to the
amount of 2,400,000 francs, which shall be employed to
facilitate the payment of the Bank of Belgium. This sum
shall be advanced as it is wanted by way of loan to that
establishment, either in treasury notes or in cash at five per
cent. interest.
Art, 2. Credit is likewise given to the Government for a
further sum of 1,600,000 francs, in order to pay for the
Bank of Belgium, and on its guarantee, the sums which are
due, and which shall be claimed by the persons who have
made deposits in the Savings Banks instituted by the said
establishment. This second loan shall likewise be five per
cent. interest.