The Sun.
London, England, 1841-06-10 00:00:00

ST. MARY'S, LAMBETH.

Last evening a meeting of the parishioners of St. Mary's,
Lambeth, was held at the National School-room, George-
street, Lambeth-walk, The meeting was called under the fol-
lowing circumstances :—The Churchwardens of the parish of
St. Mary, Lambeth, having refused to accede to a requisition,
numerously and respectably signed, to convene a meeting of
the rate-payers and inhabitants of the parish, to take into con-
sideration the propositions of her Majesty's Ministers for the
reduction of the protective and prohibitory (tulles on corn,
sugar, and timber, and thereby render unnecessary the imposi-
tion of new taxes, we, therefore request a meeting of the rate-
payers and inhabitants of the parish, at the National School-
room, George-street, Prince's-road, opposite the Workhouse,
on Wednesday next, 9th of June, 1841, at, five o'clock in the
afternoon, for the purpose of taking the above-mentioned pro-
eoseions into consideration, and agreeing upon the most ex-
pedient mode o f carrying the same into effect. Signed by up-
wards of 400 rate-payers.
At a few minutes past six o'clock the chair was taken, at the
unanimous request of the meeting, by Mr. William Hawes,
brother to the Member for the Borough. He said, unless the
measures proposed by the Government were speedily carried
into laws, there wood be less employment, less wages, and, of
course, increased discontent; in tact, he thought the se mea-
sures were the inevitable result of the Reform Bill ; the ques-
tion was whether they had been brought forward soon enough
(Cheers, and " Teat's the question.") That was the ques-
tion, but when they saw that after the public mind had been
prepared by the public press, they were scarcely able yet to say
that they could pas the measures, what cou,d have been done
before ? Sir R. Peel, from the whole tenor of his public life,
must naturally be the friend of the Monopolists, and backed as
he was by the agricultural interests, the people had a battle
to tight that would require the whole of their energies. The
question before them was ene of monopoly and place, against
free trade and a Government who, he fully believed, deserved
well of their country.—( Cheers.) Their great opponents
were not Sir Robert Peel, but Lord Stanley and Sir James
Graham, who formerly were the great friends of " No mono-
poly ;" but it was well known that the estates of the latter were
deeply mortgaged, and it was from that class of landlords only
that they met with the most opposition. The Fitzwilliams and
the Radnors, all whose estates were. their own, were in favour
of the measures of the Government, which were those of free
trade.—(Lheers. ) He requested that all persons who offered
themselves might have a fair hearing, whether in favour of the
resolutions to be proposed or not.—( Cheers. )
The two Members for the Borough here entered the School,
and were loudly cheered.
Mr. Ric HA itnsoN proposed the first resolution. They were
obliged to meet in that room. because—not that women were
the cause of all evil—but because, in that ease, the clergyman
was the party who had prohibited the Churchwardens from call-
ing a proper and legally constituted parish meet ing. —( Cheers. )
He moved—" That the propositions of in r Alajesiy's Mini,ters,
having for their object the reduction of the protective and prohibi-
tory duties on corn, sugar, and timber, are calculated to raise
the drooping commercial interests of the United Kingdom, by
throwing open the respective sources of each nation's pro-
ducts and wants, to be reciprocated by the demands and sup.
ply of the others, thus following our the great law and
action of nature. That British capital, skill, and industry,
unfettered by impost on the man and the material, can suc-
cessfully compete with the capital, skiil, and ineustry of aey
nation of the earth; and that a means whereby a mat ket fur
British manufactures can be obtained is eminently necessary,
in the present distressed state of the national resource s, and
the wretchedness and debasement of the great bulk of the
people. That all taxes, direct or indirect, upon human sus-
tenance, are opposed to the Divine law, and socially impolitic,
and that every approach towards the abrogation of such taxes,
by whomsoever proposed, or maintained, deserves, and is
entitled to our best, untiring, and most zealous support ;"
and supported it by relating that at a time whet, the poor
theu ar.ds in the north of Scotland were starving, hundreds of
thousands of quarters of wheat were thrown into the river.
The poor might starve, but the pockets of the landlords must
be tilled at the expense of the multitude. He stood there e s
a member of the Corn-law League, as an agitator, because he
could not see why the landlords of the country should live in
luxury, while the thousands, nay, the millions were starving.
The measures of the Government were calculated to benefit
the country, and he hoped they would receive the support of
the whole working population. The Hon. Gentleman read a
petition presented from a Birmingham artisan, in 1838, show ng
that he paid taxes to the amount of ss. 34d. ueon his neces-
saries every week, and praying for a property tax. He called
upon the meeting to study that petition, and they would find
that the Corn-laws were not only creel and unjust, but im-
pious. He hoped every one present would resolve to support
the present Government in their
.endeavours to ameliorate the
condition of the poorer classes.
Mr. MILES seconded the motion, and proved from the
census that the population of the parish of Lambeth had
doubled within twenty years, and was now rot less than
120,000, and the parish, in consequence of the provision lees.
were taxed to the amount of 60,0004 a year. The offered
protection of Bs. a quarter was, he was convinced, equal to all
the Poor .rates, tithes, &c., which were imposed upon land,
anti theiefore our farmers ought and would be Ale to compete
with the foreign grower. Suppose it were to throw some little
land out of cultivation, it would enable the grazier to give
beef and mutton to the working classes at rather less than a
famishing price. Including the timber duties he calculated
that the measures of the Government would relieve the parish
of Lambeth of at least 100,0001. a year, all of which would give
increased employment to operatives. The Corn-laws were in
operation in Ireland, yet the wages of the labourer were stated
to be only 2d. a day. He accounted for that by the
fact that manufactures were not extended in Ireland, but
contrasting it with the price of labour in America, it was
evident that the Corn-laws did not maintain the price of wages.
Let the manufactures of England be annihilated, and it would
not be long be fore the artisans even of London would find it
ruinous to them. He cordially seconded the resolution, and
pressed upon them the necessity of keeping up the agitation
upon the whole of the propositions.—( Hear. )
Mr. SOUTH WELL strongly supported the resolution, and de-
precated any Chartist or other interruption to the unanimity
which was so essential in such a strait as the country had now
arrived at. The people of this country would see better days,
when they were wise enough to have no taxes but for the pur-
poses of revenue. lie trusted that every man asnongst them
would be active—that each would put his shoulders to the
wheel, and the great political machine must work according to
their will. No roe er could withstand the united will
of 'a people un led upon sound principles. The auti-
tree traue principles were the cau e of unspeakable misery to
thousands of their fellow-citizens. Let them think on what
Lord Bacon said, " that know edge is power " Let them be-
lieve that doctrine, aid act upon it, and the Poor-law anti the
Corn-law would not stand one hour. The Duke of Rich-
mond, beaming with benevolence, threatened, if these laws
were r epealed, that he would go abroad with all his property.
They had then to make their choice—either make up their
minds to have no import of corn, or they must have an ex-
port of Dukes.—( Cheers and laughter.) But he, for one,
would prefer to have an import of corn, for although they
could do without Dukes, they must lean upon the staff of life.
—(Laughter.) There must be something essentially wrong in
our legislation, whet e thousands were allowed to starve and
wallow in rags, when nature had been so bountiful to this coun-
try. The usual organs of the Tories showed what their mind
was, and the Standard one of the most honest of the lot, a
few days ago said that the country would be as rich if
the whole manufacturing towns were annihilated and ploughed
over—those were the sentiments of the Tories. Then if the
working classes chose to support them, they deserved to re-
main in that bondage from which the Tories would not re-
lease them. He supported the resolution as an instalment; lie
looked forward to free and unrestricted trade in all things.
--(Cheers.) To do any good they must agitate, agitate,
agitate.—( Loud cheers.)
Mr. Hem, supported the resolution, and called upon the
working classes not to support the Whigs, but above all things
to shun a Tory, not as one suspected of having the plague, &e.
but es one a •treelly having it.—(Loud cheers.) Afti r re-
futing the fallacies respecting our being independent tin foreign
couturier, by showing that at the hottest time of the war in
1809 anti 1810 we were liberally supplied notwithstandieg the
edicts of Buonaparte. It was a well-known fact that trade
would at all times force itself—we even sent muskets to France
for the purpose of fighting ourselves—we would at all times
command muskets enough for a full supply.
Mr. Witeraets, the Chartist baker, then came forward, and
argued that a repeal of the Corn.laes could only reduce the
price of the 41b. loaf two-pence ; that might be a saving to a
working man, wills a family, of four-pence per day ; but he
would lose from eight-pence to a shilling a-day in his wages.
(The speaker went at considerable length into this line of ar-
gument, amidst the utmost impatience of the great majority of
the meeting.)
";Another Chartist, a mere boy, wished to address the meet-
, ; tot t €,T g it !-,er :i rate-payer, nor an inhabitant of the
part n, the n ee ing almost un edinously refused to t. ar him.
Ihe re,,olu io i was t hen, put, anti c. r. ie
Mr. 11PLEon n o ed the next resolutiou—
"That her Majesty's present Ministers having declared in