The Sun.
London, England, 1841-07-29 00:00:00

THE TORIES CAUGHT IN THEIR

OWN (CLAP) TRAP.
(FROM A CORRESPONDENT.)
HULL, TUESDAY.—During the election for this town
we had repeated over and over again the absurd
lie that cheap bread meant low wages. The Tories
iacessantly dinned this into the ears of their au-
diences (where they durst face any), not that they
persuaded any thinking working men that such
would be the fact, for their fallacies were generally
exposed before their faces and they laughed at. It was
not the low wages fallacy that gained the election, but
hard cash, with—worse—intimidation the most extensive
ever practised here. Well, the Tories are beginning to
have their cuckoo cry realised in a way they had never
anticipated. One instance, and a significant one it is, oc-
curred yesterday. The workmen and " lnmpers" em-
ployed by one extensive firm in the timber trade went to
their masters and told them that at the election Sir John
Hanmer assured them that if bread were cheap they
would hare low wages, but that good wages would attend
dear bread. Now said they, "We have come to you—who
might and main supported the Tories—to test the princi-
ple thus avowed by them. Bread has last week increased
4d. to 6d. a stone in price. Now is the time for you to
show that your Honourable friends are in earnest in what
they said—We want a small pittance a day more to
enable us to purchase the dear bread—we ask sixpence
a-day increased wages." What answer did their consci-
entious Tory masters make ! They refused to advance
them a single stiver, they might starve upon dear bread,
for no more money would they receive. Therefore about
100 men left the yard, determined not to work until they
received a money equivalent for the difference in the
price of their bread. These timber merchants are deeply
engaged in the Canada trade, and of course vehemently
opposed to the Ministerial plan to admit good timber
from the Baltic. The " lumpers" in their employ (ever
tinployed in discharging their ships) have threepence per
boor wages; they are not employed by the whole day, but
only by the hour, and they cannot work more than nine
hours and-a-half a- day (that being the period the officers
of customs are on duty, and of course ships cannot dis-
charge in their absence), thus they receive 2s. 41d. per
Jiera, or 14s 3d. a week, even supposing them to be em-
ployed every working hour in the week, which is very
ra rely ease.
How Will the Tories keep up the Corn-laws when
these men come 't suffer from want during a long and
severe winter, for ant of 14s. a week in summer, and
bread verging upon 3s. a stone, they cannot save for any
contingencies. They say now they would be much
obliged to Sir Walter James to furnish them with even
some of the black bread of the foreigners he so much de-
rided at Bull. It would be a luxury compared with the
privations they dread they will have to encounter now
that the wages bubble has burst, and they hive the re-
fu'cel of 6d. a-day more to keep their families from starving.

THE EFFECTS OF THE CORY.
LAWS.
The reductions' which have recently taken place in
the !nate of iron in this district, and the consequent dis-
charge of large numbers of men from the Works, has
produced an extent and degree of distress among the
working classes truly afflicting. During the week we
have seen more than one gang of unemployed men,
who, after seeking for work at the different establish-
ments in this and the adjoining counties without
sucoess, have travelled through the Forest of Dean,
through Staffordshire, and into Shropshire, without
being more fortunate. They then, its a last resource,
-returned to this neighbourhood, and we heard one of
tee poor fellows earnestly imploring employment for
his meta only. This -is truly a dreadful state of things,
hut are the prospects fur the future more cheering ?
We regret to state our belief that they are not ; and
the hopes which we indulged of a favourable re-action
in trade, from the proposed alteration iii the CoTP-
laws, are dashed by the unfavourable issue of the elec-
tions. We shall not spectlate here on the course
To be pursued by the supporters of free trade, and the
enemies of the Corn monopoly, but we will l'Oeani
farl that illustrates, in a very forcible manner, the
ill
etli..ets of the sliding (or, more properly, swindling)
scale. The price of flour has risen in this district, within
;t few weeks, several shillings per sack, at a period when
we are on the eve of a harvest which promises to be at
T.ll-st an average one. 'This will grievously add to the
,utfteriegs of the poor—already too severe !—and will
furnish another instance of the evil of a law which
enables a few great speculators in London and Liverpool
by fictitious sales, and various other dishonest means,
to enhance the price of the first necessarp of life
to the labouring classes. This incident reminds us of
an argument relied on by the monopolists in the course
of the recent discussions in Parliament on the Corn-
laws, and which was also the great gun of the sup•
porters of those cruel and emaciating laws at every
•itistings in the empire, viz., that the reduction in the
price of corn, which would result from the partial
rpeal profosed in the corn tax, would be followed by a
gorresponding fall in the wages of labour ; and that,
cmsequeutly, the labourer and the artisan would be
o jtter off for the alteration, or even the total repeal
n
fall when a reduction in that
if the wages of labour, then, depend on the
of the
if they
Yit follows as a try,tter of course,iat
price of corn, emd
erice takes place, surely
of this clap-c-
-ihat when an advance occur, they must rise in the same
proportion. We put it_t, then, sei,iously to those gentl,
men who have availed diem' SO liberally
trap, to state the advance they have. matte on the wages
of those in their employment, since the. late rise
in the
tensive manufacturer,
price of bread. We ask those
and agriculturists who still supportex these odious laws,
whether they are prepared to give the best proof of. their.t
in the soundness of their strunent—carrying
artisans end
flto practice, and raising the wages of their.n
labourersin proportion to the recent advance tue,prim
ithout
lirany'a N
future
s-e.,cessary of life. If they act thus, they
inconsistency, use this argument in tto be
occasion ; but if they do not, they must su
bcoab.%
'pu
considered as men who have defrauded the lahcerer ot
his wages, or as persons who, for factious and dishonest
eurpose::, have made use of an argument which they
knew to be fallacious and unsound.—MonmouthMerlin-

THEATItICALS.—A rumour prevails in this
city, which, if authentic, cannot but promote much dis-
may behind the curtain. It is to the effect that our ex-
cellent and spirited manager, who has so long and so
dauntlessly opposed a valiant front to difficulties and
perils which would have disheartened, or, it may, be,
crushed, many a man less resolute and enterprising,
has been at length compelled to post a notice in the
green-room stating that he will be happy to receive pro-
posals of engagements from ladies and gentlemen for the
ensuing season, but that he grieves to state that, in con-
sequence of the almost total desertion of the theatre of
late by the public, he will be obliged to form his salaries
on a scale greatly lower than that which he has hereto-
fore been in the .iabit of awarding. This announcement
will, we fear, cause the secession from our corps dra-
matique of many of its most valuable members. That
it should come to this in the second city of the British
empire ! Mr. Calcraft's zealous and most enterprising
efforts in support of our national theatre must win for
him the applause of every man who has the honour of
our eountry at heart , and it is indeed disgraceful in the
last degree to the people of Dublin that they have
not seconded his able endeavours. The mere fact
speaks libraries for our lack of taste, discernment, public
spirit—nay, more, and of common intellect. It hag
' been well remarked that the prosperity of the drama in
a state is ever proportionate with the civilization of the.
people.—Dublin Paper.
Up to Sunday afternoon we have had a saeaes-
sion dull, cold days during the past week constantly
attended with heavy showers. We are sorry to learn
that there is still a considerable breadth of hay out, the
greater part of which is already unfit for use. On San-
Mondayho was as
however, the weather cleared up about mid-day, and
could desire ; our hopes
warm, and sunny as our hearts
thus raised were some= of favourable harvest weather
air at disappointed by the showery
morning and damp
of yesterday.—Cambridge Ad-
wertiser.