The Sun.
London, England, 1840-03-11 00:00:00

great metropolis, energetically to unite with us in this
great cause of wisdom, justice, and benevolence, and by
their efforts to give increased force and encouragement to
those of the whole country.
We invoke all :—We appeal to all !—Without hesita-
tion we approach the LANDED INTEREST, and ask their
aid :

First—Because if these laws, enacted with the intention
of benefiting them, were capable of fully effecting this
object, it could only be by greatly injuring the other inte-
rests of society, and, therefore, the advantage could not
be permanent. _

Second—Because these laws have not only most sig-
nally failed in their professed object, to secure high and
ur.iform prices; but, on the contrary, have produced great
and violent fluctuations, all the evils of which have been
most strikingly experienced by the landed interest.*
Third—Because experience has shown that monopoly
of every description, by creating reliance on protection,
however false and ineffectual, tends, nevertheless, to
paralyse and destroy the natural and healthy energy of
the mind, by which alone the true and lasting interests of
society are promoted, ingenuity encouraged, and improve-
ments secured.

Fourth—Because we agree with the Parliamentary
Committee of 1821, on the state of agriculture, when
they say, in their report—" Your Committee may enter-
tain a doubt whether the only solid foundation of the
flourishing state of agriculture is not laid in abstaining
as much as possible from interference, either by protection
or prohibition, with the application of capital in any
branch of industry."—And,
Fifth—As an unemployed population must finally come
upon the land for support, it follows that the landed in-
terest can be in a prosperous condition only so long as the
demand for labour expands with the increase of population.
It is equally clear that this demand can arise only from an
increase of manufactures, as the land cannot employ one
half of the present population, much less an increasing
number.f It is, therefore, evident, 'that injury to our
manufacturing interest is destauctive of the prosperity of
the landed proprietor.
We bppeal to the Capitalist,—tie Banker,—and the
whole Money Interest for co-operation. The occurrences
of the past year sufficiently prove the baneful tendency
which these laws exercise in deranging the currency,destroy-
ing the balance of existing arrangements, producing panic
acid distrust, and seriously affecting the vital functions of
commerce, and of national credit. t
We ask the whole mercantile world to be with us; to
aid and assist us. For if the price of the first great ne-
cessary of life fluctuate so much ; of that article of which
a sufficient supply must first be secured at whatever price,
before anything else is thought of, it follows that the fluc-
tuating character of the price of grain must necessarily
create similar fluctuations in the demand for all other
articles; especially those great leading articles contri-
butory to our manufacturing industry.—lt must also be
obvious that any laws which tend to circumscribe and
give a character of uncertainty to the demand for our
manufactures, must have a similar influence on the busi-
ness of our merchants, which can only be derived
troll) the exports of those products and the imports
received in exchange for them. If, therefore, by the ope-
ration of this law, there be a tendency in our manufac-
tures to sink in competition with those of other countries,
the tendency must be at the same time to renounce our
commerce in favour of those countries.

The commercial interests generally are peculiarly in-
jured by these operations ; first, by the derangement of the
earreney, by which money is rendered scarce and dear—
secondly, by reducing the usual demand for foreign pro-
duce, and thereby producing serious losses and embar-
rassment to our merchants. Consult the experience of
1839 § _ _

Our merchants are, further, deeply interested in this
cause. The importation of foreign grain which, because
it is accidental and uncertain is replete with these serious
evils, would, if uniform and regular, though only to the
same amount that it at present is, become a source of
healthy and profitable trade, courted, like all other busi-
ness, instead of exciting, as at present, the fears and alarms
of the whole money and mercantile interests.

To traders, therefore, of every class, we appeal for sup-
port • whatever their position, from the most extensive
merchant to the smallest retailer. To all it must be a
most important object that the price of food should be mo-
derate and uniform, which never can be the case under
laws of prohibition and monopoly.
To the Working Classes we appeal with feelings of the
deepest sympathy, convinced as we are of the great suffer-
ing and privation to which the operations of these laws
expose them. We rely with confidence on their aid and
assistance ;—we invite them to cc.me and join us cor-
dially ;—to come and co-operate with us in all lawful,
peaceful, but determined and persevering means, for a re-
peal of these laws :
Laws which abridge the market for labour, and lower its
price :
Laws which limit the supply of the first necessaries
of life to a rapidly increasing population, and enhance
their cost :

Laws which refuse to us the bountiful gifts which Pro-
vidence, in His wisdom, showers upon some parts of the
earth, while there may be a deficient season in this coun-
try ; until prices shall have risen so high, that the cost of
provisions tends materially further to diminish the demand
for !abour, and to lower the rate of wages when bread is
at the highest point :
Laws which tend to increase crime, and to enhance the
public burthens in order to suppress it ; and at the mo-
ment of the most severe pressure on the means of subsis-
tence, to demand fresh taxation.

Such are the laws we crave your asslitarLe to abolish ;
such is the misery we ask you to lend a hand to alleviate.
We have not the less confidence in your aid, because
the evils which have already visited your fellow men in the
manufacturing districts, have not yet visited you in this
metropolis in the same agonizing, heart-rending, appalling
form, they have assumed amongst them • you have many
friends amongst them, for whom you feel ; you read in
the Daily Journals of all political parties, the revolting
details of their misery and sufferings; you have sympathy
to feel for their distress; you have judgment and intelli-
gence to know that their lot to-day may, cre long, be
yours.

- Above all, we invoke the warm and cordial co-opera-
tion of the whole religious and benevolent public—of the
ministers of the Gospel, of all denominations—of the
philanthropist and friend of the poor—of the members of
the medical profession—we call upon all zealously to unite
with us, to ameliorate the condition of our fellow working
men, to put an end to those causes which ever and anon
reduce this valuable portion of society to the greatest po-
verty, destitution, and want—which impair their physical
condition, generate disease, and send thousands of suffering
children to an untimely grave—which destroy and break
down the great bulwark of virtue and morality—self-re-
spect; and give rise to an immense increase of crime, de-
pravity, and irreligion.
_ _ _

. -
Finally, then, Permit us, fellow-citizens, solemnly to
appeal to your sympathy—to your intelligence—zo invoke
your aid and co-operation :—for, deeply assured as we age
that our object, the REPEAL OF THE CORN-LAWS, is for the
welfare of all, it must be the imperative duty of all to as-
sist in its accomplishment.
* In 1835, when wheat was 395. per quarter, the home
growers supplied the whole consumption at this low price, ex-
cept 34,000 quarters, at a cost of 76,0001., paid for foreign
wheat.

In 1839, when wheat reached 70s. per quarter, the enor-
mous quantity of 2,700,131 quarters of foreign wheat was
brought into competition with the landed interest; and took
away from our shores upwards of seven millions sterling of
gold.

t In 1811, 895,998 families were engaged in agriculture in
Great Britain. In 1831, 961,134 families were so engaged,
being an increase of only 65,136 families in twenty years ; or,
reckoning six peasants a family, an increase of 390,816 indi-
viduals. And this is about the increase of the population
every year, showing that the population increases twenty times
as fast as the land has been able to employ them. In 1811,
1,129,049 families were engaged in Great Britain in trade and
manufactures. In 1831, 1,434,873, being an increase of
305,824 families, or nearly two million of individuals.
On the sth October, 1833 and 1839, the bullion and de-
posits in the Bank of England stood thus :

PLPOSITS. BULLION.
October 5, 1833
" 1839
with a debt incurred to a foreign bank of 2,500,000, to eke
out our means of paying for foreign wheat.
§3ln 1838 and 1839 the following quantities of the articles
enumerated, were taken into consumption, by official state-
ments, all bearing on the industry of the country.
1838. 1839.
Cotton Wool ... 460,756,013 lbs.
Shreps' W 001... 56,415,460 "
-...

Raw 'Silk .. ..... 3,683,738 "
Flax, &c........ 1,625,830 cwt. 1,228,894 cwt.
And all the contributory articles to manufactures show a cor-
responding decrease, in dye stuffs, &c. &c. ; and, therefore, to
this extent must have limited the demand for labour.

PRINTERS' PENSION SOCIETY.

The Seventeenth General Meeting of the Sub
scribers and Friends of this excellent institution was held
on Monday at the London Tavern, Bishopsgate-street, for
the purpose of receiving the Report of the Committee for
the past year, with the statement of the accounts; to fill
up the vacancies of the Committee; to appoint the several
officers of the Society, and to transact other business con-
nected with the institution. Mr. R. TAYLOR was called
to the Chair.
The Secretary then read the Report of the Committee
for the past year, which stated that the finances of the
inte
Society wore in a very satisfactory condition,earto h
Com-
mittee having been enabled during the year
Three-and-a-Half per Cents., 3611. 18s. Id., in addition
tt the 6001 already invested in behalf of the Society.
The expenditure amounted to 6131. I Is. 4d., and the re-
ceipts to 644/. 6s. 2d. The profits realised by the
excursion to the Nore amounted to 601., the steam
performance
at the Eagle Tavern, 251., and the thvveiaiterhical performance
at the Strand Theatre to 11/. 55.,
placed at the disposal of the Society. with
had been
respect to the
motion carried at the last annual meeting for the establish-
ment of alms-houses, the Committee stated that they had
been unable to make any progress in furtherance of the
plan, and left it to the trade to do with the subject as they
might think fit. The report concluded by urging upon
the Sub,cribers not to relax in their exertions to still carry
out the useful and benevolent designs of the Society.
The Report was unanimously adopted.
At four o'clock the ballot for four pensioners closed, and
the successful candidates were announced as follow :
T. Harris 3,031
Ward
Rhynd 1,825
Scott
Since the establishment of the Society, ;57 men and 35
women have been elected as pensioners ; and there aro at
the present time Is men and 24 women receiving the be-
nefit of the institution.

Mr. Figgins resigned the office of treasurer, in conse-
quence of ill-health, and Mr. R. Taylor was chosen to fill
the vacant office:
The vacancies in the Committee were then filled up;
and the usual routine business having been gone through,
thanks were then voted to the Chairman. who acknow-
ledged the same, and the meeting separated.