The Sun.
London, England, 1841-09-29 00:00:00

EVENING SUN

address to his constituents, and he would give the House
his opinion upon the Poor-iaw. He said if the Poor-law
Bill required any attendmentT, he would be ready to
consider them. He was decidedly of opinion that every
security should be given that it should be administered
with tenderness to the poor. If such security did not
•exist, he was desirous that it should 1-)e provided.—
(Hear, hear.) There was one thing which struck him
in the taunt cast out by lion. Aleml;ers on the other

side, namely, that the dis•Cussion would show the county:i
what the opinion of Hon. Members was. - Now, when
the division was approaching lust night, . he saw several
lion Members who left the House without voting; and
he would give a list of them, in Order that their consti-
tuents might know what their sentiments were.--
,siCheurs and laughter.) There were the two Hon. Mem-
, :be4s.-t'or Manchester, who departed previously to the
divisitins -•The Hon. Member for Leeds • and the Hon.
Member Air •Sal Cord did the same. The lion. Member
for Stockportahio did it.—(" No, no," l'roin Mr. Cobden.)
Although they Charged his-side of the House with having
made use of this question fin' the purpose of exciting the
people to carrving their election, he would ask the lion.
Member for Indifax if his party had never brought for-
ward subjects tosexcite-the passions of the people ? He
(Mr. Ferrand), had seen a chimney-sweeper with chains
about his legs representing a negro slave.--(Laughter.)
Ho had seen a scavenger dressed up as a Bishop-
-o.aughter)—and during the excitement of the Reform
Bill, when some extra steam was required to make the
people of this country believe the assertions of the
•Whigs, it was asserted in the City of Wisitminster, "that
a fairer head than Adelaide's had fallen on the block. 7
In the borough of Leeds, during the excitement of the
• Reform Bill, there was carried in a procession, (and
he begged to- call the attention of the lion.
Member for Manchester to this) a flag, on which
was painted, the King wearing petticoats and the Queen
in breeches—(Loud laughter)—and an axe was stuck
in the King's neck ; moreover, he had heard that the
son of the late Member for Leeds, who sat on his side of
the House during the late Session, proposed three groans
for the Queen, and if so. he was the worthy son of a
worthy sire. His (Mr. Ferrand's) opinion of this New
Poor-law was, that it was unconstitutional in the highest
degree, and that it did not afford adequate relief to the
poor to which. they wore entitled by the constitution of
the country.—(Hear, hear.) It also to a great extent
dried up the sources of private charity, and gave an ex-
cuse to Hon. Members of that House as well as the
people of the country, not to relieve the poor in the
manner in which they were called on to. do. He had
received that day a letter from Captain Morris, R.N.,
who was a stranger to him, but. who had communicated
his feelings to him on the subject, which he (Mr. Fer-
rand) would communicate to the House. He (Captain
Morris) suggested the necessity of having a clause
introduced into the Bill, giving a right to a
pauper fur some years resident in a parish
not his own, to receive the relief that
would be afforded by his own parish. Captain Morris
instanced several cases to prove the necessity for such
a clause, one of which was that of a man in the Brid-
port Union, who had brought up eight children without
parochial assistance, except one instance fourteen years
ago,- when he had broken his leg, but when he appeared
before the Board of Guardians at Bridport he was refused
relief, and was obliged to travel sixty-six miles to his
parish, although he had formerly received assistance at
Charmouth, where he lived. In another Union he
mentioned that it was a usual thing for persons from
sixty to eighty years of age, to have to travel in winter
a distance of seven, eight, or nine miles to the Board of
Guardians, and then to stand out of doors in the wet and
cold until their turn came, for they were let in one by
ono ; after all not receiving more than sixpence or a
shilling, and that from a Board of Guardians frequently
composed entirely of manufacturers. He (Mr. Ferrand)
himself identified the New Poor-law with the factory
system. He believed that the labourers in Yorkshire,
being so reduced by death and disease, the cotton spinners
in Lancashire ,found it impossible to career on their con-
cerns with those they possessed, and that this Poor-law
originated in a deep-laid scheme between the cotton-
spinners of Lancashire and the Poor-law Commissioners
themselves.—(Oh, oh.) He would give his evidence di-
rectly, for he had asserted nothing that he could not
prove. When the Member for Manchester, in language
that must have struck deep into the hearts of every man
of feeling within those walls, described the misery and dis-
tress of his constituents, ho had called to his recol-
lection the description of the " rich man," possessed of
the world's goods, clothed in purple and fine linen, and
faring sumptuously every day. He refused to the poor
the crumbs that fell from his table, and came to the
House and charged the landed proprietors of England
with being the cause of the distress of these poor
wretches. Only two years ago a public dinner was given
at Manchester by the cotton spinners, and to give eclat
to it they invited the Honourable Member for Cork (Mr.
O'Connell), who told them that " the rich man's
venison was sweetened by the widow's tear, and his
claret dyed with the orphan's blood." At that meeting
they said their possessions were sufficient to purchase
all the landed estates in England. If so, he (Mr. F.)
thought that "property had its duties as well as its rights."
-rerad their (the manufacturers') property performed its
duties ? Had they, while sending through the country
those agitators and lecturers who were paid their salaries
by the amount of their foul calumny against the land-
lords of England—had they, instead of setting the land-
lords and farmers and tenants against each other, desired
these men to inquire into every district where a no-
bleman or landed proprietor had estates what was
their cot:duct to their distressed poor —it would
have been found to hold out an example
which if they were honest and wise they would have fol-
lowed.—(Hear, hear) But they excited the people to
no effect throughout the country, and then came back
and charged the landed proprietors with being the cause
of the distress. The manufacturers had made their im-
mense fortunes by. the sweat of the poor ivan's brow.
The Member for Stockport stated that the Corn-laws
wore baptized in blood ; he (Mr. F.) told him that every
farthing he possessed was baptized in the sweat of the
factoll Slave. And when they had glutted the market
they east the poor wretches off to die, " unpitied and
forlorn;" and when they petitioxed the men Ivlio had ac-
quired their ws.'altli in A few years through their exer-
tions to hold out the hand of charity to them,
they were refused, while those who refused them
came down to that House to deceive them by
throwing the blame on th© landed proprietors of Eng-
land.. 'the Hon. Member then quoted the authority of
Ur. Marshall, Dr. Kay, and Mr. Oasticr, on the desti-
tute condition of the poor in marmfaeturing towns, and
Its effect upon the health of the population, and pro-
ceeded :—He must again repeat that the Hon. Members
for Manchester and Salford, and oepecially for Bolton,
had expressed the kindest feelings of sympathy for the
poor, but lie (Mr. F.) did not want their sympathy, nor
did the working classes ; but if the lion. Members had
subscribed I,ooel. for their relief, their sympathy would
have been of some use. But they did not attempt this.
Gentlemen connected with the factories would allow their
labourers to pawn their day chethee to get their night
clothes, and their night clothes to get again their day
clothes, and told them of their distreee without tel
thous that they had done any thing to relieve it.—(
.hear.) He should have thought them honest if they had
shown thee they had subscribed until they would be ruined
if they subscribed more ; but they did not say
this, nor did lie tell these what lie believed to be true,
that they had nut subscribed a farthing;.---(011, oh.)
The Hoe. Member for Stockport asserted that the land-
lords had compelled their surplus population to go into
the manufacturing districts. He (Mr. 1?) found in the
Report of the Poor-law Conitniesieeere for 1835 a letter
on the subject, written by E. Ashton, Esq., near Bol-
ten.. a gentleman who belonged to a class that made
great professions Of philantlirOpy--(011, ott)--in which
tie said, that of the leading features of the now Poor-
law Bill he most cordially approved, while in sotto, of
its details ho feared it would be found practically dee
tective. Fall employment in every department was
never more easily found than then, since all
she mills were in the most active employment.
Mr. Ashworth went on to state that there was at the
time a scarcity of labour in the district, and tie ex-
',reseed a wish that labourers should be removed from
one district to another in order to equalize the demand
for employment, and in order to put and end to the pos-
se, ility of the men turning out when there wee any
„rie, -ance of which they complained. Again,
(74,•frz, in a letter to the Poor-law Coinntissioners,
;011.1pi,jsied of the difficulty of obtaining labourers in the
north
England unless at extravagant prices, and he
eleo recourniended the removal of labourers front dis-
trictso tillit4al.lteitr,lsriehhooombfjeet.ist of these men. was to
to district,
in order to pin them
drive the poor from
ate>crtt fu file
UirSrnul bought and soldt ').'isehtliet the unhappy
'')-4"---ers were
the cotton spinneyrst of
Coin-
r,,;ssioners athnet
duty of the Right lion. ll'athroean'Aliraet. thIC
woo is!
sbl,o Clovernment, who had shown such a sym:
head ,s poor in a recent case of destitution and
patny wn Lily
his care during the rext month,-
of de aath, to ext l'`,l e •
he jiving, Responsibility would le.
from the dead to the' jiving,
six months front the Cona-
n?. next .
withdrawn during, ti
e 11•etrouet—(fmar, hear, and
enissioners to the light I
°the -Right netenurable Gen•
hughter)—and he hoped
his
trivet. The Right
eleuean would duly discharge
s eeeh he had recently
'Honourable. Baronet, in
aordsp:—" I ate one of' those
delivered, used these se
from the industry of the
who have derived our fortunes
hat
others who owe their
operative classes, and I trust
tel as I do, that it is
prosperity to the same cause will
b aking, on ourselves
our duty to relieve the public, I s from which our
the charge of a just requital to the c as
wi,ihed
many
'Prosperity has come."—(Hear, hear.)
I:en. Gentleman opposite would remember those words,
.
and eat on the principle they recommended Let them,
if they eeedd, remove the present distress with their own his
enormous WA:7slth; and if one of them could lay down ~
head upon his allow without saying-, he h: ci dote his
duty ho envied him not.—(Hear, hear, and late7:-nter.)
He would vote for the instruction then before the 'rouse,
es he had voted for the instruction although
he. did not think they had been o tunely leeeieellt
forward. The existing PP
system was decidedly objection
able ; and the landed •
proprietors were alone bearing
those burdens to which the manufacturers should contri
bete their share.
Sir JAMES
GRAHAM rose and said, dint ho'could
assure the house that before he had been informed by
the Hon. Member for
lenaresborough, who had just sat
down, he was painfully aware of the responsibility which
attached itself to him upon '
the present occasion; but he
could assure that Hon* 'ember that no eagerness of
manner and no w
re him from endeavouring of
declamation could
his public duty ; and
in the
faithfully to discharge
consciousness of that duty
he should not be lead to abandon a measure, the import-
- awe of which ho felt so deeply ; and although the sub•
pct might require due consideration, and although the
law might he susceptible of amendment, yet to the prin-
ciple of the measure he for one felt that he was conscien-
tiously- pledged—(Hear)—and from that principle he
could not recede.—(Hear.) Having stated this much, he
hoped that the House would permit limn that an to by
the measure which he had that night
brought under dis-