The Sun.
London, England, 1841-11-23 00:00:00

PRICE 5d

cently furnished from all parts of the kingdom, that
vast multitudes are in a condition of actual want—that
domestic suffering in every conceivable form prevails—
that disease has f,llowed upon the heels of famine, and
that death is making havoc among the most destitute
portions of the community. I need not mention places
—I need not state partieu:ar facts—l may be permitted
to say, however, that I have myself had but too frequent
opportunities of ascertaining the truth of these appalling
statements. I have had much to do recently in the
molt, thickly-populated parts of our country. I have
Leon brought into near contact with all classes of
socie:y. I have seen with my own eyes the miseries and
privat ons of the poor.—( Hear, bear ) I have heard
in private the complaints of merchants and manufac-
turers. I have beheld the stagnation and gloom of
once busy and flak ing towns. I have conferred with
deputations of starving operatives. I have perused
many hundreds of letters from ministers of religion, 0!
all denominations, on the state of the labouring poor,
and the causes of their miserable condition, and I own,
that while touched with compassion for the physical
suffering brought under my notice, I have been unable
to look forward without apprehension and dread to the
slow, it may be, but sure growth and. ultimate deve-
lopment of those passions which arc stimulated and
called into action by hunger and destitution.—(Hear.)
hear.) I greatly question if ever, in the history of our
country, there was an equal amount of wretchedness
and suffering among our labouring fellow-subjects, or
ever a time when those who are in employment, and
lifted for the present above positis e want, were more
miserably remunerated for the labour they perform. I
have paused to inquire if the calamities around us, and
the more dreadful consequences with which we r.r.
threatened, are to be regarded as inevitable—as the
natural results of uncontrollable causes—as the just
judgments and visitations of the Almighty. I have
looked at my country in her geographical position, her
physical futures, her political relations, her moral in-
fluence, her resources of science, industry, skill, and
energy, and I have stood astonished at the fact, that in
this home of Empire, tYs seat of Legislation, this work.
shop of the world, there should be found a mass of
wretchedness and want, without a parallel in any other
part of the globe. I have gone to the word and to the
works of God, and have been taught by both, that a
bountiful and unfailing provision has been made for
everything that hath life ; that to man bath been given
dominion over everything created ; that every green
herb on the face of all the earth, hath been given him
for meat ;

" That God's free bounty bids this globe produce
More than enough for all his creatures' use.
* * * That earth's prolific fields,
For man and beast alike, abundance yields."
And that yet, notwithstanding, there are thousands in
this favoured country whose condition is as bad as that
of the debased Australian, upon whose path the light
of science and civilization has never shone. What a
spectacle is this! while there is all this pauperism and
want and misery at our doors, the ninth part of the
land of the whole globe is ours—we have a dominion
embracing every variety of climate, in every pa:i. of the
earth—territories studding the Atlantic, hemming in
both the Arctic Oceans—enclosing a whole empire in
the East—marking every place of commercial import-
ance in the Indian and Pacific seas—we are exalted in
arts, invincible in arms, fearless of invasion, our com-
merce is commensurate with the habitations of man,
we are powerful in foreign alliances, we arc free in our
political institutions, we possess unrivalled means of
production, our dominions abound with natural riches
above and beneath the soil, either at home or abroad,
embracing every healing balm, every fragrant berry,
every luscious fruit, every nutritious grain, every costly
gem, every precious metal, every useful mineral, every
animal fur, every vegetable wool. All mankind are, or
would be our customers—we might clothe the Orientals
of the east, and the Anglo-Saxon races of the west—
we might be first in the markets of Europe. And yet,
Britain, that can hold the world at bay—that can
maintain the integrity of distant empires—that has
spent twenty millions in the cast, in three years, in wars
twelve or fifteen thousand miles away.
" With armaments that thunderstrike the walls
Of rock-built cities, bidding nations quaVe,
At:d Monarchs tremble in their capitols ?"
With nations all around her, waiting to exchange the
fruits of their fertile plains, for the products of her toil-
ing artisans, Britain cannot feed her starving children!
No wonder that, a voice comes to us across the Chan-
nel, " Britain ! raze, fro:n your shield the lordly hoc,
and put in its place the starving operative, vainly sup-
plicating a sufficiency of food." Under these extraor-
dinary and afflicting circumstances, it is surely the duty
of every thinking, patriofe, and Christian-minded man
to turn his serious attention to the causes of our na-
tional distress. if there ever was a time when party
strife should be hushed to repose, when names nod
distinctions should be laid aside, when the nomencla-
ture of faction should be forgotten, it is now—now
when no man can, without guilt, look with indifference
or apathy on the condition of his country, when
the aspect of public affairs is fearfully ominous of col-
lision and animosity between the different classes of
the community, when we are brought to the point
at which we have to decide, whether this nation
shall continue its onward progress, or commence the
melancholy task of retrocession, when all efforts of in-
dividual benevolence, all outpourings of eleemosynary
bounty, all devisings of good men, apart from le-
gislative interference and a change of system, arc
obviously ineffectual to the relief of prevailing misery.
The time to look at causes as well as consequences is
come, and first in the list stands the law that restricts
the supply of food to the people. This Corn-law bears
upon its face the mark of injustice, cruelty, and impiety.
It is a law that shuts men up to a limited and scanty
supply of food, and snakes them pay for that an exorbi-
tant price. It is a law that places a whole people upon
short allowance. It is a law that circumscribes the
bounty of the benevolent Ruler of the world. It is a
law that robs the poor to increase the gains of the rich.
It is a monopoly in the hands of a few, and those few
the class best able to do without a monopoly. It is a
law which says to the labourer—You shal slot have fair
play ; you shall not exchange your labour for the fruits of
the earth, according to their real value, but you shall
be compelled to take your loaf from us, or die of star-
vation. Here, then, we take our stand. We plant our
feet upon the immutable principles of justice and equity.
On Scriptural grounds we denounce all human restric-
tions upon the supply of food to the people. We
claim for the poor the benefit of the Divine provision.
We say, with reference to temporal supplies as well as
to our sphere of religious usefulness, " the field is the
world." We say that the Corn-laws are in opposition
to, if they do not effectually frustrate, the merciful and
wise designs of God. They violate a sound and health-
ful and fraternising principle. They turn the key upon
the store-house of the Divine bounty and benificence.
l'hey say to the cheap and wholesome supplies which
other lands would give us, " Hitherto shall ye come,
but no further "—until the pockets of the rich are fill-
ed, the shelf of the poor man shall be empty. We will
not, in the first instance, discuss the question with re-
ference to the probable price of corn under another
system. We will not discuss the question of the amount
of trade, if commerce in corn were free. We will not
attempt to determine the precise amount taken from
the mechanic, the shopkeeper, the merchant, the ma-
nufacturer, or the national exchequer, by these laws,
We object to them ab initio. We say they are unnatu-
ral. They are at war with the designs of God—at war
with the rights of human industry—opposed to common
sense and justice—founded on selfishness—framed for
the benefit of the few—necessarily and inevitably un-
equal in their operation—a departure from the spirit
and mandates of the Divine law ; and that therefore
Itvhi ellyd op ussg
eh t
mo
y bef
rtioetpal
dsl o and for
11, take
ke thisever i aew bolished. sthheeds Ye
ou
;
otherwise you are at the mercy of
.every quibbler.
Having thus denounced the injustice of r tri t-
tpbr
eo efeaecde toof sohuorwbeitlosvienjdulraionuds, oapnedrawtaionnt. W
ing the supply of food to the people of thias country,awes we
00 over
cl
k
of food—want of clothing—want of
shelter,ployment—want
stares ush i
and fuel,
face in every direction. ,
Want of em
and pure air ; and all the usual concomitants of idle-
ness,; hunger, and domestic destitution—disease, reek-
essuess, immorality, disaffection, sedition, and threat-
ened revolution. I ask, is this state of things inevit-
able ? What are the natural sources of relief? Arc
they at hand, or are they not ? Has Providence placed
the :means of abundance within our reach? Let us see.
The sources of abundance are, rich soils, favourable
climates, skill in cultivation, and facility of conveyance,
in respect of the products of land, whether they be for
the food of man, or of animals for the service of man,
or be the materials of manufactures. And, in respect of
other commodities, the sources of abundance are, r 4
materials derived from the most productive places, skill
in converting those materials into the articles wanted,
machinery
'
machinery for saving human labour in the. process, and
by
strength for setting that machinery in =non, r
wearies.
science from some power of nature which never
ihneesde
ba
)r,e sourcestbe
least
t fromp possible
s bwi he icb
exertion
antolabbnontibr-.
t never before granted to
by thiscountry, a abundance
ofhu human
Now, I fearlessly assert, that all these means are pos-
sessedfanceexotefnthe earth. The elements
world is our market—
of the earth are at our feet. The
oa fn y
greatnessnth other
naatri :no ours—notnt hte
one is wanting. The riches
all mankind are our customers ; but to secure the advan-
tages of our position there must be mutual consumption
—an interchange of commodities—in a word, free-
trade. Let any man compute the productive powers
of the world in the present state of knowledge, and
then refuse, if he can, to rely on the sources of abun-
dance ; let him reflect on the appalling extent of