The Sun.
London, England, 1841-04-22 00:00:00

TO MR. H. VINCENT.

RESPECTED FRIEND,—The past and the present. as
regards your personal exertions in the cause of universal
libett7i lonvey ample cause for pleasing and useful reflec-
tions.

We look back to the early period, when year advo-
cacy of the people's rights in this neighbourhood called
forth the lethargic into the ranks of the industrious, to
the time when your mighty energies caused the besotted
to become thinking men, and when your astounding ell-
quenee made the passive slave blush for his insignifi-
cance, and the audacious tyrant to tremble for his
safety. We look back to the past, and trace still fur-
ther the accompanying results. We saw the iron hand
of injustice assailing you...ewe witnessed the struggling
contest in a court of law between the oppressor and
the oppresSeds We beheld right overcome by might,
and we followed yen mournfully to your prison cell.
We saw you, though captueed, not conquered !
though confined and manacled, free and unshackled !
elevated in mind, and into human grandeur by
your sterling virtues and manly independence.
We behold you once more. though beat artd bruised
by despotic authority, neither beaten nor disabled, but
reanimated and vigorous ; fighting the battles of the
people with those moral weapons with which you are so
powerfully equipped, and • laughing to scorn the puny
efforts of faction or force to impede your progress, or
the march of human enlightenment, or human emanci-
pation.
Tour past career conveys a useful and striking lesson
to one and all—to you, onreelves, and even to your base
and treacherous betrayers and persecutors. To your-
self as a convincing proof that, contrasting the state of
the public mind in the past, with that of its advance-
ment in the present, hart much good may be achieved
by industry and perseverance in the space of a short
period of time, the contemplation of which must give
fresh impetus to your exertions for the future. To each
of us, from the conviction of the necessity and worth of
self-improvement arid self-denial of individual exertion
and individual patriotism. To your persecutors, as
showing the utter contempt which follows the fiat of
their vengeance ; that the more they assail the more
they lash themselves—the more they persecute the
more converts they make to the people's cause—that
the more they martyrize individuals so in ratio does the
power which upholds them more and more wither and
die away.
We congratulate you on your release from the fangs
of your oppressors ; we hail once more your appearance
among us with feelings of the most acute sensibility,
with brotherly love, and the most welcome endearments.
Go forward, then, and prosper in the great work of
human emancipation. It is not the province of such
men as you to lie idle—propagate the doctrines of po-
litical and social improvement, dare tyranny to the
combat, and bid defiance to persecution. Desolation
sta'ks abroad, the cottage is beset—the dwelling places
ofthechildren of industry have been transformed into the
receptacles of want, disease, and wretchedness. Misery
has beset the man of labour, his habits have become
vicious through poverty and bad example, Go forth
and drag him from his haunts ; lay him naked
before the world's gaze! Force the mari of
pleasure into sobriety, and drench the drunkard
with his own shame. Much has been done, much
is now doing, and yet a great deal more remains
to be done. Go you forward and do it : and whilst bat-
tling with the evils which becloud the mind, forget cot
to prepare the mind with food to nurture and console
it, whilst you denounce intemperance on the one hand,
forget not to assail it on the other, Teach the sober
man to think properly by thinking for himself. Attack
alike the vices of drunkenness in the individual, and the
fanaticism equally which enslaves him ; make him to
feel the high office which be holds in creation, to be use-
ful to others as well as to himself, to secure his own
household from invasion, and to protect the rightful
inheritance of others.

We arc, dear friend, yours most sincerely,
THE WORKING MEN AND WOMEN OF CHELTENHAM.

LECTURE ON THE CORN-LAWS

AT OLDHAM.

Mr. Paulton, the talented Corn-law lecturer, was in-
vited to give a lecture in Oldham on Friday evening
last, the 16th of April. The large room was com-
pletely filled. George Barlow, Esq., was called to the
chair. Great interest had been excited in the town
and neighbourhood by the understanding that the Char-

tists, or, in other words, " Little Loaf Advocates,"
would oppose the lecturer. There was a general muster
of them. The platform was covered by the principal
tradesmen of the town and neighbourhood, and of di:-
ferent political views, yet anxious to support the repeal
question by their presence.

It was announced that after the lecture, the sense of
the meeting would be taken on the propriety of peti-
tioning. Parliament for a repeal of the present Corn-
laws, and the lecturer was permitted to go through the
lecture without much interruption, in a very lucid and
clever manner, clearly demonstrating that the Corn-
laws were destroyiuEz our trade, filing the country with
beggars, reducing the commercial classes and workmen
to poverty, sapping the foundation of our manufactories,
sending our artizans to other States, and raising up
rival and successful competitors, reducing the value of
property, and hastening a fearful crisis.
The Chartist advocates took the ground, that the
repeal of the Corn-laws would not reach the terrible
evils under which the labouring community suffered,
that taxation was of that fearful and grinding amount,
that the Charter could alone cure it ; that the present
House of Commons did not represent the feelings nor
the views of the toiling millions ; and it was agucd that
machinery, by supplanting manual labour, was a curse,
instead of a blessing ; and the speakers would tax it for
the common benefit.
Mr. Paulton ably replied to the views put forward,
especially on machinery.
Mr. Alexander Toylor, an old staunch Reformer,
proposed a repeal of the bread and provision laws, but
he was assailed with the most indecent and tyrannical
opposition. An amendment was also movo.d for the
Five Points, amidst great confusion.
The Chairman declared the petition carried, the Char-

tists, alias Little Loafers, insisting that the amendment
was. Towards tie close of the meeting, the interruption
and confusion were positively disgraceful.
As the Chartists appear determined to oppose any-
thing brought forward by any party differing from
them, would it not he better for such as mill-owners,
employers, illagers, and oth4A-s, who feel an interest in
the repeal, to get petitions filled up—say of 20, 30, or
even 50 names, and send them to some Member for
presentation 7 if ail the advocates would do thi,, (very
easy and practicable work) there would be such an
array of public opinion, that the supporters of mono-
poly and oppression would soon be compelled to give
way, and the country be, instead of (as at present) a
land of mourning and ruin, a land of prosperity and
comfort.