The Sun.
London, England, 1840-06-09 00:00:00

CONDITION OF THE PEOPLE.

Sir G. SINCLAIR has published, in a separate
and corrected form, the speech he delivered in the
House of Commons on May 22. How the Hotsßaronet, entertaining such sentiments as he ex-4
presses, coed. vote in favour of the most oppressive
and most unjust of all our fiscal regulations (the
Corn-laws) we cannot comprehend. Hailing him,
-however, notwithstanding his inconsistent and his
- • unrighteous vote, as a powerful auxiliary, we beg
leave to lay before our readers the following extract
from his corrected speech :
" The constant changes occasioned by our oppressive
embarrassments at horni; and oar complicated relations
with other countries, have deeply affected the well-
being of the working classes, who in almost every ex-
tensive manufacturing county have, at different times,
been overwhelmed with hardships and privafams, dur-
ing the continuance of which they have never received
from Parliament any sympathy or any suc'rour. We
all know that stagnation in trade and depress'son of wages
have, at no remote period, been successively experienced
is various districts ; and I am persuaded, that when-
ever any great degree of wretchedness preeails amongst
the working classes connected with any praticular trade,
there is . intactis quoque cura condie,one super cow-
vuuli. They know that their own tur n may not be far
distant, and the degree of attention b estowed by a re-
formed House of Commons upon tb e interests of the
sufferers in any quarter, is watched with painful solici-
tude by their fellow-operatives at Blanchester, at Be-
minginun, at Coventry, at Paisley, at Bolton, at Glas-
gow, at Stockport, or at Worcester.
" But evsn, Sir, in those towns, in which there is
no immediate want of employment, I believe that
the working classes are far frorn being satisfied,
or from having reason to be sa cisfied, with their
condition. There are millier s throughout the
land, who can (it is true) contrive to make the
two ends of the week meet, and earn a straightened, or
perhaps not inadequate livelihood, hut to whom life is
rather a calamity than a blessing ! Many rich man
seem to think, that such persons ought to be quite con-
tented, if they can only exist, and, like the Israelites in
Egypt, " get to their burdens," althourh they have no
leisure for improving their minds, or sup erintending the
education of their children, or indulging in innocent re-
creations, or passing a portion of their time in the circle
of domestic affection. In this respect how much are
we eclipsed and put to shame by Pagan legislators
of antiquity, who even deemed it a duty to provide
public games and amusements for the community,
and watched over their happiness with parental anx-
iety But how heart-breaking is, in numbeeless instances,
the mode of life, to which the labouring cl-uses, in this
country are compelled to submit ! as if because
they are bora to work, they came for no other purpose
into the world ! How wretched in meny places are
their hovels! How squalid their attire I How scanty
and unwholesome their food! How stunning the noise
which deafens them for so many hours ! How noxious
the atmosphere which they breathe! How gladly
would they compound for the same amoaint of comfort
and izdependence as is enjoyed by the free negroes in
St. Vincent's or Jamaica! They are, no doubt, often
• upbraided (and especially by sententious and self-indul-
`;', gent moralists, when lolling upon elastic cushions in
their gorgeous equipages,) with cringing to debasing
e •
habits of idleness, intemperance, and improvidence ;
but I, for one, must own, that I make great allow-
ance liar men, where retrospect offers no remini-
scences of past happiness, and whose futurity presents
no hope or future enjoyment, i 1 even within the
precincts of the gin-palace or the beer-shop, they
hasten, when jaded by present toils, and over-
whelmed by present necessities, for a brief
season " to steep the senses in forgetfulness," by having
recourse to antidotes, which, although (like the claret
and curacoa of the rich,) they are often in the end de-
s ructive, are at least for the time oblivious.
" How many honest and respectable fathers of families
are at issue, with those who maintain that the present
system is working well ! It does so undoubtedly, as
far as the Court, and the persons, who subsist on the
taxessare concerned. It is well adapted to further the
interests of oil, who have realised or inherited large
incomes, or who cars secure preferment for their bro-
thers, promotion for their uncles, legations for their
children, pensions for their widows, or power and
place and patronage for themselves. None of us
are gratuitous eulogists of things as they are.
We never know what it is to want ; we never devote
one hour to those harassing occupations, by which the
- lives of millions are embittered and abridged. It
is indeed, often asserted that our duties are multifa-
rious and fatiguing, but we can at pleasure modify, s-
pend, or relinquish them. The privileges and recrea-
tions of the legislator are as numerous, as the privations
and the hardships of the labourer are intense. The
former can retire from his sphere of exertion whenever
it suits his convenience or caprice, to take his ride in
the Park, or his rubber at Crockford's, or enjoy a heb-
domadal e feast of reason and flow of soul," at Gril-
lon's. The latter must perform the daily routine of his
drudgery without any alternative, and is a stranger
to t'-.e resource of pairing off for the night, or retiring
to enjoy rural leisure for the week. We anticipate in
all the refinements and embellishments devised by mo-
dern ingeeuity. We all expect, that we shall this even-
ing retire to comfortable places of abode, where those
whom we love, are surrounded by all the conve•
niences and most of the luxuries of life. But what
shall we say with respect to the destitute hand-loom
weavers, and the hundreds of thousands throughout
the manufacturing districts, "subject to like passions
as we are," and as anxious as we possibly can be for the
welfare and the comfort of their offspring. who, long ere
morning's dawn, are summoned to unremitting, un-
healthy, and unprofitable toil, or, perhaps, are cut off
from obtaining cmp'oyment at all ; who have no other
prospect than of returning at a late hour of the night to
their forlorn and cheerless homes in a state of bodily ex-
haustion and mental despondency ; and who can be-
queath no legacy to their children but a career as wretch-
ed as their own ? Is it consistent with reason or com-
mon sense that persons so circumstanced should
feel any strong attachment to the institutions un-
der which they live—or ought I not rather
to say, under which they are doomed to pine
in unrelieved and upitied wretchedness ? And
..may it not sometimes occur to them, however
erroneously, that those who have nothing to lose, may
have something to gain, even through the appalling
medium of anarchy and civil discord ? If a feeling of
7disperation and a thirst for vengeance should impel
:them to deeds of violence, and that some modern
"Menenius should say to them, " Will you undo your-
selves ?" Might they not reply in the simple and ap-
propriate language of the Roman citizen, e We cannot,
Sir, we are undone already." And to what quarter
can they look for compassion ? From whence are
'they to hope for assistance? To transmit their com-
plaints to this House is an empty ceremony and a vain
delusion ; as well might they address themselves to the
Congress at Washington, to the Chamber of Deputies,
at Paris, or to the Cortes assembled at Madrid.
Their petitions arc huddled together like so much
rubbish, and consigned in silence to the leathern
sepulchre of oblivion, if that indeed can be said
to be forgotten, wh:ch scarcely attracted the notice of a
single moment ! Should any rash philanthropist venture
to utter a single sentence on their behalf, how many pa-
triotic economists of the public time would grudge the
application even of a few moments to such a theme !
But Seven supposing., though not conceding, that their
wretchedness is in no degree owing to the selfish or un-
ssise legislation of former days) what benefit would ac-
crue to the sufferers from the most touching effusions of I
commiserating eloquence, unless followed up by actual
sneasuras for their relief? On such occasions we re-
semble the priest and the Levite much more than the
compassionate Samaritan. On what ground are the
former condemned in holy writ ? They had not
inflicted the wounds by which their unhappy fellow-
creature lay bleeding on the highway : they, per-
haps, were gifted with such exquisite sensibility
seal they were loath to harrow up their nerves by the
revol,.‘mg spectacle of human distress, and yet they are
exhibitesi es objects of unamimous execration to pos-
terity, not because they were the authors of the poor
man's agony,
but because, without attempting to suc-
cour him, they " passed by on the other side." Has
t been precisely similar, when we
not our own con'tlee
learnt that thousan.ds or even millions of our country-
men were steeped to t..`.e very lips in poverty, wretched-
ness, disease, and degradation? And what is it that
the working classes, when thus reduced, have presumed
to require at our hands ? Do they call for ribbands or
_regiments ? Do they ask for coronets or coaches and
mix? By no means. The sum and substance of their
remonstrances amounts to this, " You are the represen-
Wives of the people, a people, of which we form noin-
cous.:lerable proportion ; we desire not to eat the
bread n'eloth we are perfectly willing to work, but are
either alto,;et.her unemployed, or cannot, without such
an amount of drudgery as renders life a burden, secure
an adequate stn.' ;fseenee. We, therefore, as a last re-
source, appeal to you 4' htramity, or rather to your
justice, and pray that you will devisee such measures as
may enable us either to emigl-ate to foreigu
climes, or
(which we should infinitely prefer)to earn, within the
precincts of our country, for our wiv.:
s and children, a
decent existence, comelensurate with our
;,here of life."
Is there anything unfair anything unjust, anytL'ing
un-
reasonable in this? ti,,e unhappy and patient vitxtPlis
ask no more, and I see nest, in conscience, how bumaP
nature can be satisfied with less, or what satisfaction it
can afford to a starving family to see profusion, wttieh
they must not share."

A VESSEL BLOWN UP.—NN e regret to learn
that a dreadful disaster befel the ship T/tontas Parsons, of this
port, on the 20th of February last, while she was lying in the
larbriur at Old Calabar. An individual, it is stated,
was
„auticytulyTnoking a cigar near the magazine, when a .
spark,in-
vlsom, orother, got amongst the powder, whereby th
cm/. Wag—blown to pieces and the captain and all the cresa'
Jestrnved. Though the statement rests, at present, on the re-
port of a boaes'crew of Croomen, who had deserted from a ves-
sel at Old Calabar, there is every reason to fear that it is
too trite.—Lictrpcal

v. a

EVENING EDITION'._