The Sun.
London, England, 1841-08-23 00:00:00

mand obedience, if it do not take instant means
to Ascertain the causes of the present distress of
the working classes, resolved to remedy it. If
that be postponed to the petty paltry intrigues
of either Whigs or Tories, the power of Parlia-
ment will speedily come° to an end, and all
rights, which depend merely on the law of the
land, will expire with it.

Now that the Conference at Manchester is
over, we can venture to estimate its influence and
its utility. We rate them both very high. It
was composed exclusively of ministers of religion,
collected from almost every part of the empire.
Its debates were conducted with great order, but
they were distinguished by fervour and enthu-
siasm. The ministers came forward voluntarily ;
their's was a labour of love; they put themselves
to trouble and expense; they can get no pecu-
niary remuneration for their exertions; and their
whole conduct is impressed with the characteris-
tic of the most devoted sincerity. That circum-
stance will make their opinions be respected
throughout the community.
But these ministers are, in all cases, the repre-
sentatives of their congregations. They spoke
not only their own sentiments, but the sentiments
of many thousands, perhaps even of millions,
who are in communion with them. Such heart-
felt sincerity, speaking truly, backed by such a
mass of physical force, is sufficient to produce a
moral revolution in the empire.
The Conference has already dissipated many
errors and embellished some truths. By merely
meeting, it put down at once the assertion that
the Only persons vieho sought the abolition of the
Corn-laws were greedy manufacturers, who were
intent to beat down the wages of labour, regard-
less of the poor. The assemblnd ministers have
brought proof from all qua; ten of the empire
that t lie labourers now are in a most destitute
Con', ition, and they expressly advocate the aboli-
t-lon of the Corn-laws because that will benefit
the poor. In their admirable address to the
people of the United Kingdom they say :
Our attention has, in the first place, been directed to
the principle upon which the Corn and Provision-laws
of this country are based. The immediate effect of these
laws is to make the food of the people dear. It is de-
monstrable that this can be done only by rendering food
scarce. From the artificial scarcity so created the dif-
ferent classes of consumers escape, in proportion to their
wealth--the evil pressing with accumulating severity
upon the humbler classes, exactly in the degree of their
inability to sustain the burden. These laws operate with
continually aggravating force, in consequence of the
natural and inevitable increase in the numbers of the
people.

The most painful evidence of the truth of this principle
has been laid before us from all parts of the kingdom,
proving the poverty and privations of the working classes,
whose generalfortitude under their augmenting wretchedness
has awakened our sympathy, and called for our present
interference in their behalf. In addition to the existence
of domestic suffering, often in the most distressing forms
of misery and disease, proof of an increased mortality has
been forced upon us, and we have had the appalling fact
disclosed that famine is already doing its deadly work
among the most destitute portions of the community.
Such language at once relieves the manufac-
turers, and especially it relieves the Anti-Corn-
law League, from the imputations of selfishly seek-
ing their own profit, and of wishing to beat down
the wages of their workmen, which have been so
calumniously heaped on them by the Tories.
The Conference has fully and unanswerably
established, through the statements of pastors
engaged in agricultural as well as manufacturing
districts, that the wages of labourers are at pre-
sent miserably inadequate. It has, therefore,
exonerated the manufacturers, and it has demon-
strated the necessity of doing something to save
the people from perishing.
These, however, are but the smallest part of the
great services it has rendered to the public. It
has pointed out the demoralizing effect of the
Corn-laws, and shown that they are contrary to
the principles of Christianity. The address
above quoted has also this passage :
Them, ooruar/ efiseriic:isoefotnzdhceorarpti
consideration.
Provision-laws hive
occupied
It has been proved to us that the physical deteriora-
tion of multitudes of our countrymen has produced an
alarming amount ofdemoralization. Under this aspect
these
laws have
iltl uwalhaondare
appearedo to us to nquire the most
anxious attention
oi
eternal
interestsconcerned forotfh e
theirad -
vancement of the spiritual
••
fellow-creatures. As Christian • •above
all prizing
all other considerations the interests of morality. and re-
livion, we have been unable to anticipate, without apre-
hension and dread, stimulatedrowth and development of
. those
passions which are and called into action by
hunger and destitution.
The petition to the House of Cornmons says—
That your petitioners are only actin+ in the spirit of
their office when they remind your IL/curable House
that laws of human legislatures should 1* framed in
strict accordance with the declared will of God and the
beneficent designs of his providence ; and that all laws
which contradict his will, and counteract his bounty, must
of necessity be wrong in principle, and injurious in their
tendency ; and that it is the deliberate and solemn non_
viction of this assembly that this is the unrighteous cha-
racter of the operation of the provisio;:-laws of this
kingdom, under whoie baneful influence our beloved
country is severed from profitable intercourse with other
countries which are ready to exchange their products
for our manufactures—the skill and labour of the indus

trious classes of our countrymen are rendered of less and
less avail to their own subsistence, whilst immense num-
bers of them from day to day are thrown out of em-
ployment, and reduced to a state of utter destitution ; or

cast upon the rapidly decreasing resources of the humane
and charitable, who, in their turn, are sinking down into
the abject condition of paupers ; and famine, disease,
and death are spreading with fearful desolation through-
out the length and breadth of this once prosperous and
happy land.
Your petitioners, therefore, convinced of the sinful-
ness of these laws, which violate the paramount law of
God and restrict the bounty of his providence ; of their
injurious operation on the domestic comforts, and the
social, moral, and religious condition of the people of
these realms.

A great body, then, of Christian ministers have
branded the Corn-laws as contrary to Christi-
anity, which will burn deep into the minds of the
people. All the wit of all thd Tory scribblers
will not harden their consciences against this as-

•to party objects by the Legislature, they will
come first to despise that body, and next they
will refuse to obey it. Sir ROBERT PEEL is, we
believe, ambitious of exercising power quietly
through the means of the House of Commons,
and he is woefully mistaken if he thinks he can
afford to destroy its character by engaging it in
party disputes, and neglecting the interests of
the people.
What is now their state ? It is established, by
concurrent testimony from many quarters, that
they are in great distress, and great suffering.
While their ingenuity and industry are unparal-
leled—while the ALMIGHTY gives a favourable
answer to their striving by overflowing the land
with wealth, the average wages of labour is
barely sufficient to keep a family in existence,
and in many instances does not suffice for that
purpose. Thousands of the people are a prey to
famine. The Corn-laws may not be, as the
Tories say, the cause of this deep distress ; Lut,
whatever be the cause, the Legislature is bound
to ascertain it, and remedy the distress.

The Parliament passes laws to give a remune-
rative price to farmers, and it must therefore be
bound to ensure remunerating wages for labour. It
is careful not to allow the income of the clergy
to be lessened ; it endeavours to keep up and in-
crease the income of the landlords ; and it must
also in consistency keep up the wages of labour•
If it say that it cannot—that wages are regulated
by the demands of the market, the question will

be, why then does it interfere at all with the dis-
tribution of property, and above all, why does it
direct all its attention to securing an increase of
v ealth to the opulent farmers and landowners ?
St ch an answer might be accepted if the Legis-
lature did not interfere at all, but, interfering to
keep up the rent of land and the remuneration
of the farmer, it is also bound by all the princi-
ples of consistency to interfere with and keep
up the wages of labour. If it do not, if it
avow that it can and will do nothing for labour
but tax and oppress it, what claim can it possibly
have on the obedience of the labourers ?
If, in addition to refusing to do anything for
them in their present condition, it refuses to in-
quire into. the causes of their distress—if the ma-
jority of the House of Commons shall decide
that it cares nothing whatever about them, but
a great deal about placing the Tories in office,
how can the House of Commons dream of
securing the affection and obedience of the
labouring classes, of which it will be
so totally undeserving? It is not in human
nature, we believe, fur the Legislature to coin-