The Sun.
London, England, 1841-12-09 00:00:00

ANTI-CORN-LAW CONFERENCE
OF MINISTERS IN NORTH WALES.
(Abridged from the Carnarvon Herald.)
IVP,narEsoAY ETENING.—The public meeting of the
conference commenced at six o'clock, in the new Mar-
ket-hall. There was an unprecedented assemblage, the
galleries being densely filled. The chair, as in the pre-
ceding meetings, was taken by G. Evans, Esq.
Mr. Missia was then called upon to move the first re-
solution. He trusted that the result of the present meet-
ing would be such that their next conference would not
be confined to members of the Baptist and Independent
denominations, with, the exception of a solitary Wesleyan
minister, but that it would have the co-operation, the
sympathy, and the countenance of the great body of Cal-
vinistic Methodists, the Wesleyans, and, he would add
also, the Clergy and the Bishops. Why not ? If the
cause now advocated was a just and holy cause—if they
advocated the cause of the poor on just and equitable
principles—why should not the Bishops and the paro-
chial clergy act in their declared vocation as ministers
of the poor man's church? Why should not the follow- ,
ers of John Wesley be first in co-operating with those
who sought to elevate the moral condition of the people
by emancipating them from the trammels of oppression.?
He stood before them to propose the resolution, which
was as follows:-
1. " That one of the plain duties of the Christian Mi-
nistry is to denounce, as publicly and effectually as pos-
sible, every measure injurious to the morals of the com-
munity, and to the physical condition of the people."
This proposition was not only plain and true, but im-
portant and comprehensive. It did not certainly say
anything about the Corn-laws, but it declared a general
principle of action, which, if true in all cases of public
sin, must be equally true of the Corn-law as of any
other national grievance which the Ministers of the Gos-
pel could be called upon to revoke. The question then
presented itself—What were the Corn-laws, and what
their origin and intention ? For whose benefit were
these laws made ? Not certainly for that of the farmers
nor their families. It was not to elevate their character as
a class, and make them more independent of their land.
lords. No ; the action of the law was directly the con-
trary. It increased the dependence and degradation of the
farmer, and procured for him no benefit whatever. In
number the landlords were only about 30,000, about 74
times the number of the persons he was then addressing.
For this number the laws were made. He did not, of
course, include their sons, their daughters, their nephews
and their nieces, their uncles and their aunts, who were
regarded as obligations, burdens, and incumbrances on
their estates, for whose death if they dared not to thank
God, they were inclined to be very thankful. This was,
however, the gross amount of those holding land under
the law of entail, but what was the number of their vic-
tims ? Why, from 29,000,000 to 30,000,000; and thus a
thousand out of every million, and one out of every thou-
sand, was to be advantaged by a law which acted as au
oppressive and a ruinous tax oa the 999 thousands in
every million, the 999 individuals in every thousand who
were plundered. The Corn-laws were injurious to the
morals of the community. They equally affected those who
enjoyed the privilege of taxing their neighbours, and those
who were forced to pay the tax. They increased the class
prejudices of the aristocracy, till they fancied themselves
to be made of finer flesh and sweeter blood than their
fellow-men and could not brook the presence of the people.
Among other instances adduced by Mr. Massie were the
following :—Two fathers, two mothers, and six children
were the inhabitants of one cellar, with no blanketin the
place, no bed, but a heap of mouldering straw, a tattered
rag alone to cover it. Two of the parents had just come
out of an hospital, and their poor neighbours had scarcely
been able to save them from the death to which the
Corn-laws and the Duke had consigned them. Wishing
to know the religious bearings of the case, he had in-
quired of one of the men whether he believed that there
was a God. His answer was, " Well, Sir, we ought, but
when we see all that we love starving around us, and
others having abundance that deserve no better than
ourselves, we begin to think that if there were a God,
things would not be so ; and that after all the social
system may yet be right." It was pretty evident
from this how moral degradation sprung from desti-
tution. The speaker then went oa to show that the
Corn-laws kept the children of the poor from the
Sunday school, a fact which threatened to perpetuate
the evils above describe. He then proceeded to show
that they struck at the tenderest sympathies arising from
domestic ties, and narrated a case of a poor mother, who,
after wishing to get an emigration document signed on
behalf of her son, who was going to Australia, wept at
observing, " my daughter is going too, she whom I had
hoped would be the prop and the comfort of my old age."
The present Government, he said, had found out a hap-
py way of getting rid of the complaints of the poor.
They were to be shipped off to distant climes, there to
bewail their widowed mothers, the bereaved parents whom
they left behind, the waters of the whole world rolling
between them, and the stars of another heaven looking
down upon them. The Rev. Gentleman concluded a
most stirring and eloquent address amidst the loud plau-
dits of his auditors.
The CHAIRMAN gave a short sketch of Mr. Massie's
speech in Welch.
The Rev. D. GRIFFITH, of Rhuabon, seconded the re-
solution.
The Rev. Jour; PRICHARD, of Llangollen, moved the
second resolution :—" That when such measures as are
alluded to in the foregoing resolution have received the
sanction of the Legislature, and are supported by the
dominant party in the State, they require a more empha-
tical and effective denunciation than can be given to
them from the pulpit."
The Rev. T. GRIFFITHS, of Rhydlydan, briefly se-
conded the resolution.
The Rev. DLL's HUGHES, of Holywell, moved the
third resolution as follows :—" That a public conference
of the Christian ministry, for any particular district,
without reference to denomination or sect, appears to be
the most expedient and effective means for bringing the
dictates of the Gospel to bear publicly upon public evils."
Colonel THOMPSON (who had arrived that evening a
short time before) then stood forward and seconded the
resolution.
The Rev. Joart PARRY, of Wern, described in power-
ful language the misery in the vicinity of the works at
Harwood and Brymbo. He knew of persons who had
actually perished from want of food.
The number present is estimated at from 4,000 to 5,000.
THURSDAY—AFTERNOON MEETING.—The conference
met at two o'clock in the afternoon.
The Rev. Mr. MASSIE, in presenting himself again, re -
,retted his inability to express the feelings which were kin.
led within him by
-the deep sympathies of the meetinr

He was glad to find there were 150 ministers in North
Wales who were as great enemies to the Corn-laws as
, himself. He wished the ministers, whom the law of the
land had placed as parochial pastors—a kind of spiritual
police—could see the Corn-laws in the same blackness as
his brethren did. They had, however, 150 faithful mi-
nisters, who he hoped would now unite to cause from one
end of the land to the other the cry of " Down with
them—down with them." In Lancashire it was com-
puted there were 800 inhabitants to every square mile.
, Those of them employed in agriculture did not raise
more food than would be consumed by one-tenth of the
community, and that was but a small portion of the in-
habitants. There were at present 74 factories closed,
in which not a single individual was employed. We
were peopling America with our best men, our creative
and productive artificers and inventors, and leaving at
home nothing but pauperism and wretchedness for those
who remained. Instead of having an independent pea-
santry, England was about to be reduced to a nation of
paupers, for pauperism was fast becoming the habitual
vice or misfortune of her population. It was their mis-
fortune. It was a misery brought on them by bad laws.
Would they bear it ?
Mr. J. Morris, of Carnarvon, the Rev. J. Prichard,
Llangollen, and the Rev. E. Williams, Bethesda, then
addressed the meeting. A hymn was then sung, and the
Rev. G. Thomas, Sarum, concluded by prayer.
EVENING MEETING.-At six o'clock in the evening
the public meeting was again held in the new Market-
hall, which was, as on the former occasion, densely
crowded.
Colonel Tuosirsort, in coming forward to propose the
first resolution, was received with loud acclamations. He
stated that he was requested to move and support, as he
was best able, the following proposition :—" That the
present Corn-law is a public evil, and essentially ad•
verse to the plainest injunctions of Holy Writ, op-
posed to the moral and physical welfare of the people,
and injurious to the religious interests of the whole
community." The resolution, though brief, embodied
several important propositions. First, that the Corn-
law was a great public evil, and was matter of uni-
veral acknowledgment. But he was now called upon, in
the second place, to show that it affected for evil the mo-
ral condition, no less than the physical condition, of the
people. It certainly did tend to produce all the evils
that are comprehended under the term immorality. The
greatest writer on political economy, Dr. Adam Smith,
had stated that there was a point of destitution which
was incompatible with virtue—a depth of misery almost
necessarily destructive of self respect in both sexes, and
productive of dishonesty in man, and degradation in
woman. The Corn-law not only tended to produce this
fearful result, but did actually produce it. He found it
laid down in that sacred volume—" Whatsoever ye
would that man should do unto you, do ye also unto
them." Let those who passed, let those who support
the Corn-law be tried by the test. Did they do unto
others as they would wish others to do unto them ?
Would they consent for one year, one month, ono week,
one single day, to bear the heavy yoke which they had
put upon the people? Would they like to be starved as
they starved the poor? Would they like to have the price
of their bread heightened, and the price of their labour
diminished by another set of people for a selfish and
unholy purpose ? Assuredly they would not. This
being the case, let us no more hear of the clergy and
ministers of the Gospel not having a direct call to de-
nounce the Corn-laws. They are ordered to denounce
whatever is unholy and injurious to the people; shall they
then unblamed hang back, and shrink from that contest
with the powers of evil which was now going forward.—
' (Cheers.) Ought they not to be foremost in the work,
the first to denounce oppression, the first to aid the
oppressed? He had found with regret that one sect
had kept aloof, having in early life been himself of that
sect, hearing the name of one of the co-operators of its
thunder and his parent in such close intercourse with
that founder, that it was more than probable that he
had been fondled on the knee of the great apostle of
their connection. Mr. Wesley had said that the worst of
all conceivable taxes was that which, for the benefit of
one section of the community, pressed heavily
the industry of the remainder. If great and upon
good
men have sometimes been favoured with something like
the gift of prophecy, it might, almost without extrava-
gance, be made a question whether John 'Wesley did
not foresee the Corn-laws. But one thing he certainly did
not foresee, which was the misconduct of his followers.
0, worldly wealth! 0, worldly wealth! It was a sad trial
to all, and to religious communities as to individuals.
He feared that the connection was too heavily laden with
wealth, and that, like the over-fed bee, it was smothered
in its own honey. John Wesley himself was the most