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

ST. SAVIOUR'S, SOUTHWARK.

Yesterday afternoon a meeting• of the members of the
New Reform Parochial Institution of St. Saviour's,
Southwark, took place at the Peacock, Ilolland-street.
Blackfriars, for the purpose of considering the propriety
of calling upon the Reformers and others throughout
the United Kingdom passively to resist the payment
of the assessed taxes, should the memorials which are
about being presented to her Majesty not to prorogue
Parliathent before the Corn-laws are taken into consi-
deration not to be attended to.
Mr. Pearse was unanimously voted to the chair.
After the notice calling the meeting together was
read.

The CHAIRMAN said that he fully concurred in the
object for which they were assembled, for, looking at the
reports of the debates in Parliament, it was evident that
Sir Robert Peel had no intention to 'introduce any bene-
ficial measure as regarded an alteration in the present
system of the Corn-laws ; the present meeting had not
assembled for the express purpose of opposing the Go-
vernment, but to suggest to the country at large the pro-
priety of making such a demonstration as could not be
withstood, provided the memorials to her Majesty, from
all parts of the empire, not to prorogue Parliament until
the present Corn-laws were taken into consideration were
nut listened to. A resolution and address would be pro-
posed, and it would remain with the meeting whether
they were adopted or rejected.
Mr. FORD then rose to move the first resolution,
which was as follows :—" Resolved, That :while we
yield to no class of persons in loyalty and affection to
her Most Gracious Majesty, we cannot help regretting
the apathy of her Majesty's present advisers in post-
poning bringing forward those measures which are
beneficial to the people. That for past years all impor-
tant questions which have
.beeri advant tgeous to the
community have been forced from the Minister of the
day ; and this meeting being convinced that no altera-
tion will be effected in the Corn and Provision-laws with-
out a similar demonstration to that which caused the
Catholic Emancipation and Reform Bills;' induces the
present meeting to , hope that their fellow-citizens will
refuse paying their . assessed taxes until the great and
important measure regarding an alteration in the present
highly injurious and. tyrannical Corn-laws is effected ;
and we earnestly call upon all classes of persons, who
are convinced of the iniquities of a law which is so
highly injurious to all, to unite with as in carrying out
the above principle, thus .establishing the, axiom that
taxation and representation is the first principle of the
English Constitution." Such was the resolution which
had been entrusted to him to move, and he felt happy
in not being obliged to say much upon it, as the subject
was so well understood from one end of the country to
the other. That the people of England were in a state I
approaching starvation could not be denied, although the
Duke or Wellington had stated the reverse to be the case.
Let them look at Bolton, there families were worse
fed than the dogs of the aristocracy. What was the
condition of the nd-loom weavers and the artisans of
Sheffield ? Why, they were literally starving. This dread-
ful state of things led to the question, ought it to be so ?
n
asinitie negative, nor would. it exist
one honestly. towards the
people,tan de
bn ri
the
n ~ answeri,ie a
r the
Government•
e was an abundance of foreign corn in the
nlastra week 300 vessels discharged their
agranaries at this moment were groan-
ecorugnterys,,
and for onlythe g
groan-
ing beneath the weight of the produce of other countries.
In these granaries it would, however, remain,;.:.mitil the
monopolist was enabled by the sliding scale to bring it
nut at the full price. Now, if a Government which
really had the welfareof the nation at heart was in ex-
istence, that corn would be sold to the people pt the low-
est possible price. And to show the evils which the
.
Corn-laws produced ten years ago, when a much less
population was in existence than at present, he would
read an extract from one of. the leading articles of the
Times of the 27th of August, 1831. In alluding to Mr
Jacob's report, the writer says--..“ But admitting at
once the ascertained growth of population, and
the dearth of demand for labour, as , affirmed
on the tables to which we have been adverting, that
is to say, granting ' that the power of buying
fiLodosdnlias so m s not
ekoeptbipnaeil pace
with the want of it, was ever
- with inhumanity as in the
legislation of the British Parliament with reference to
have become more .
numerous, as mouths have multiplied, while according
more attainable to
England for
to
rd
to the poor man's
many years past has been stationar
.Y, if not declining,
thethseuspeprl)e•toufrncsortn.he? p
rAodsuocuerof people
the soil
0 f
En
our lawgiver have been straining every effort to make
door, they have been expelling it—first by open iitninsr
bdreoa
prohi-
bition, next, and. to this moment, h
--,Y severe .and pinch-•'
ft)ioedpoomro.reFianracfcreosmsiblien;v
ing duties. They have striven to check population by
artificial famine. Why, such a system is no better than
deliberate rebellion against Providence,
. and is of itself
enough to draw down some signal visitation • upon us if
instant means be not taken to retrace a course so inde-
fensible." Such -was the language of the Times ten
years ago, when it was the organ of the
Ministry. It.
was now in the same position, with some.of the men in
power ut
ATLIUg SgPo so
on whoM it passed severe a censure in 1831.
Mr. A T
nded the resolution,
A GENTLiimarit said that be bad always been a. warm
admirer of Sir Robert Peel, and hailed with pleasure his -
return to office, for he fully expected that lie would have
brought forward measures which would have been bene-
ficial to the country at large. It was with deep regret