The Sun.
London, England, 1841-06-01 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, TUESDAY, JUNE 1, 1841.

1 agricultural interests required no protection, and more,
that they des'redrione; atleitst so far lisle (Earl Spen-
cer) wa; concerned.—k Cheers.) It rested with them
to carry into effect the great changes prOposed by Go-
vernment—a change which did not meet all his wishes,
hut which he took as an instalment for something more
to come hereafter.—(Cheers.) The present was merely
the commencement of the-changes in the policy of the
country, and he only hoped his countrymen would buck
the views of the Government, and, by . signing
the petition numerously, &ive it that effect in both
Houses of Parliament to which it was entitled.—(Hear.)
He would only add that the seed was sown ; it was f?-;
them to reap the corn. It rested with them to do their
duty, and let them not fear but that the corn would in
that case be well housed, and that they would have
cheap bread and universal prosperity.—(Much cheering.)
Alderman Sir MATTHEW WOOD then moved a vote
of thanks to the Lord Mayor, for his readiness in calling
the meeting, and for his impartiality in presiding over it.
Mr. GROTE came forward to second the motion. He
could recollect that in former times Lord Mayors
of London used often to make :'.,great objections
to call the citizens together, requesting that the
subjects for which meetings Were called should
be conformable to their own opiniohs, before they
allowed them to be held.—(Hear, hear.) Those times,
however, were now gone by, and the worthy gentleman
who at present filled the chair, had set a most laudable
example, by his readiness in calling them together, which
he hoped would in future be imitated. He rejoiced to
find the kindness and the obliging readiness of the Lord
Mayor had been so well justified by the becoming con-
duct of every one present at the discussion of so import-
ant a subject.—(Cheers.).
The vote of thanks was then put, and declared by Sir
Matthew Wood to be carried unanimously amidst loud
cheers.
The LORD MAYOR then came forward, and said that
lie felt under a great obligation to them for the hand-
some manner in which they had received the vote which
Sir Matthew 'Wood and Mr. Grote had been kind enough
to propose. He had not had sufficient opportunities to
induce him to hope that his voice could be heard at
the further end of the hall. He, therefore, would not
detain them longer than to thank them for their kindness
and to say that if, during his year of service, he could in
any manner benefit his country nothing could afford him
greater pleasure.
The meeting, having given three hearty cheers, and
one cheer more for Lord John Russell, quietly separated.

CORN LAWS•

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

SlR.—There is no doubt that the many respectable
men who advocate the Corn-laws, do it, believing that
they really encourage British industry, and thereby pro-
mote the best interests of their country. I hope there-
fore you will allow me, through your columns, to call
attention to Earl lladnor's speech on the 14th of May,
saying, " that as more corn had been imported in the
eleven years preceding 1839, than during any former
eleven years, he thought these laws. had not answered
those landlords whose rents have risen -under the Corn-
laws. They have good reason for supporting them, not
only for their own sakes, but for the sake of all amollgst
whom their gains from them circulate. But those
whose rents have fallen, like mine, under these laws,
or have not risen in proportion to the rise of corn,
have reason to doubt their efficacy, and inquire,
as Earl Fitzwilliam recommended, into the cause,
which will probably prove to be the hope these laws held
out of gains from high prices, without the pains of well
weeding and stall-feeding, as on the Continent, enough
stock to provide sufficient manure to insure good crops ;
and this has been effected by tenants adding farm to
farm till they had more than they could profitably super-
intend, or had capital to stock, and till well ; when, by
denying work their land needed, they drove so many
willing able hands into the union houses, that England
did not produce food enough to feed them, and the price
opened the ports for foreign corn to the great gain of
foreigners. But, as the Poor-law Continuance Bill is
given up for this Session, if we are ever indulged in South
Britain with the same Peer-laws as in North Britain, and
landlords pay all the Poor-rates, they will feel the ex-
pediency of letting, to all able-bodiedmen, small portions
of land on which to maintain themselves and their fami-
lies till the great tenants take them into their yearly ser-
vice as they did formerly in England, and do still in
Scotland ; and, by so doing, landlords would be in all
ways gainers, for the rates would sink much below the
amount allowed for before their tenants hired their land,
their rents would then rise to the fair amount without
Poor-rates, more because labourers' allotments of
land are so much more productive than great farms—
that landlords would learn that their land is worth, if well
cultivated, which few landlords now know ; and when
once landlords know this, who would deny himself the fair
rent of his land when requiring it, would also serve his
country by stimulating his tenants to so weed and stall
feed, to produce manure, as would make bread as cheap
in England as on the Continent, and so bring back manu-
facturers and absenteees to supply customers for all far-
mers can raise.

I am not a theorist. I began, in .1830,
.to let allot-
ments of land, to • serve the labouring class, who have
obtained such abundant crops from land my great
tenants called worthless, that they have offered and paid
double and treble these great tenants' rents to obtain
more allotments, and not one penny has been deficient
in those little tenants' rents in ten years ; nor has there
been one conviction amongst 400 men admitted without
reference to character ; and the West Kent Labourers
Friend Society._ have given the following satisfactory ac-
count of the amendment of felons. It was at first said
they were too poor to have manure, skill, or capital, to
cultivate their hind well ; it will be racked out; but the
reverse has been the case, for, in fact, those who have
nothing but u pair of able, willing hands, if they take no
more land than those hands will well till, bestow on it much
more labour than most great farmers have capital to pur-
rhase. And what is capital but the result of labour
stored up ? and which is useless till again returned to
the land in the form of labour. Great tenants, who have
not capital adequat3 to their farms, wish it to be thought
that in England corn cannot be raised as cheap as on
the Continent, on account of the heavy taxes to pay the
interest of the National Debt ; but as no tenant can
give, as rent, more than the surplus proluce, after all
outgoings have ken defrayed by him, it is really the
landlords who pay these taxes, and not their t ; . and
the more the tenants raise the more they.cangive a rent
and the more the landlords will have 4/ ct.rculatQ 4PIRP`6
all trades and professions. It is the conviction that illidlorti§
will be ultimately the most
.benefited by increased pro-
duce, which causes those tenants to endeavour to mislead
their landlords into supportinc, laws which, instead of
encouvagiq industry, really only encourage sloth and ex-
travagance in those oft whose industry the food of the
country depends, and whose negfeet caused, in *IMO, up:
wards of ten millions worth of wheat to be imported to
the great g.tin of foreigners and loss of English landlords,
• tenanti, labourers, and consumers. But remove these laws
which have ut-A thereby stimulate industry,
and plenty raised will be found to pay keti,Pf t6lt 1441 P
and dear. J. 8;
May 28, 1841.

GREENWICH FAIR, the RIVER, &c,

The annual Whitsuntide fair, eommeneed on Itloutlay.
The same ‘vonders, the same booths, slows, swings,
roundabouts, anti cingerbread-stalls, which have formed
part of the fair for so many years, arc there, Richard-
son's theatre, and
.Algar's dancing-booth„ are is their
old situations. The people were vastly delighted with
the grand melo-drama and pantomime at the fo:mer
place, and the lovers of dancing
at Agar's immense
booth, though not quite so gracefulin their move-
ments as Taglioni a>Td Cerito, displayed a good
deal of agility and perseverance in tripping it
from morn to right, -with the thermometer at
90 degrees. The Park and the fair were ex-
cegbively crowded. Every year the visitors are more
numerous than the last, a: Pirtnitrigance which may, in a
great measure, be attributed to the eurtailment of slip
suburban fairs. It is impossible to give anything like
an accurate account of the number of people, but there is
no doubt that more than 200,000 persons visited Green-
with during the day. The trains on the railway were
running every quarter of an hour throughout the day,
and the number of passengers who proceeded to Green-
wich by this conveyance could nut have been less than
20,000, and more were brought back. But the most
extraordinary scene was on the river. . great deal
has been said from time to time about the overcrowd-
ing of the steamers during the holidays, and the' rock-
m
less cupidity of stea-boat proprietors, who, in defiawe
of the public safety, and regardless of the comforts of
the passengers, cram their vessels in a very alarming
manner, ye§terday the wharfs were besieged with
people, and ate4nuip after steamer carried away the Lon-
doners by hundreds and thousioids, Some ves:_Qls were
packed with. 500 human beings, others with 1,000, and
a few of the larger ones with 1,400 and 1,500 passen-
gas. There were not I. s; than forty steamers em-
ployed
in carrying the holiday folksdtool‘ainidthferormiv6Grrteleieny
raised -
, and
tarsemtheenydopzese4eldl
;he Thames was like a
up
tand
rough sea all day, and v,ewing the steamers from the
banks their appearance was terrific ; as the passengers
walked, or rather moved, from ono side to the othev the
steamers lurched, and frequently presented themselves
with one paddle-box in the water and the other out of
it. The heat was intolerable, and those standing on the
top of the steam-chest, or near the funnel,. were half
broiled. The Royal Sovereign took down 1,400 person-
ages at one trip on Sunday, and yesterday those on board
at one time exceeded that number. The watermen,
whose boats
andb wi tie holidays,
tsnselidtstuonbedso much in
are re n
g uio longer si tion during the
Easter
thought
of, and they looked idly. on, bewailing the want of fares,
and pondering on the mighty powers of steam.

ENCLOSING AGAINST THE POOR.—(From a
Cfor the Rights of-Common over
progressing through Parliment
under peculiarly hard eirotonstances, us regards the
poorer class of commoner; who l.ive rights thereon.
olrvrhesapdczlencti.i)a—sed,, k , Bill,is
""
champions of th iri'•
relief ;
These poor people have raised a small subscription to
them.abou 160, their oppo-
easure against them, are
.irial
petitioners
r
oi
Ipbulrlenloiltget etishicshteosyot,themselvesimrfesat:hda t. 1
aialltgivaetiin,p,settit_telilidrtNivie:\a;lii7tan,_arende
prove unavailing,
.—The second day
~...z me worthy e poor, who
...v"? seats in the House of Commons, will investigate
na getheirnaitns
,s.c
taus,theiilo,e and.a re Bill,c come and
iiligi t the
cl
numberclmii
aiiout 25, but they are rich and powerful.
have
after
rOthße
Nlrt.
reached us from the distant districts of the province, we
report upwards of. forty meetings, and we
Loltnwiesnt,(lwßhEeiLl AleNttoe)rs
could
scarcely
promise as
many more for our next. We must not encroach one
line upon the space so much better occupied, except to
call 'Aliphatic attention to this all-important fact that
111e§e„, {Meetings, chiefly ligriciilturid, have not only dc-
chaired against the rotors 0' the 'Pones to pc, . • b- -
w•ei , lit ter
Ttpeal of the Corn-laws, and N% It is still
Letter, a corn.
pike reform of the landlord told tenant system.l? ic #
—., evas&
14-03(.00K1 •