The Sun.
London, England, 1846-02-25 00:00:00

benefit of the country, as the Right Hon. Baronet, the First Lord of
the Treasury had done upon a former occasion, when he was opposed
to the Whigs.—(Cheers and laughter.) At that time he (Mr.
'errand) was only in the rank and file of politics, but he received a
large number of those speeches, and he took care to have them most
Industriously circulated at a penny each.— (Laughter.) Why, the
Hon. Baronet had sent them to him he did not know, but he knew not
from whom else they could come. But in reference to this speech
of the Right Hon. Baronet the Secretary of State for the Home De-
partment, he would just quote one or two passages which appeared
to have been received by his constituents with great laughter and
cheers. The Right Hon. Baronet was reported to have said upon
that occasion, that "he would never shrink from the expression of
public opinion."— (Laughter.) Then he (Mr. F.) would say, "Go
down again to your coestituents."—(Laughter.) The Right Hon.
Baronet went on to say, " The Whigs are down, to rise no more."—
(Laughter.) Should O'Connell or Roebuck or Bowring dare to say
that the democratic principle should ever take the lead in this great
ompire."—(Great laughter.) Now, let him (Mr. Ferrand) ask who
supported ithe Right lion. Baronet in this House?—(Cheers.) In
what position now stood " Roebuck, and Bowring, andO'Connell, the
conspirator?"—(Renewed laughter.) The Right Hon. Baronet went
on to say that his conviction was that the full development of the
democratic principle would be destructive to this country.—
" Oh," continued the Right Hon. Baronet—
" May I be cold before that drcadful day,
Oppressed with loads of monumental clay."
(Shouts of laughter.) And the Hon. Baronet then continued to
say, after this poetical effusion, that it remained now for his con-
stituents to decide whether they would return him to Parliament or
not."—(Laughter.) He (Mr. Ferrand) would like to ask the Right
Hon. Baronet whether his now considered himself the representative
of those constituents?—(Hear, hear.) One more quotation from
those election speeches and he had done with them, but the last was
the severest and most tremendous cut of all.—(Laughter.) It was
from the speech of the Right Hon. Baronet, the First Lord of the
Treasury—(Laughter)—and he would tell that Right lion. Baronet
that his personal honour was also at stake.—(Cheers ) The Hon.
Member then proceeded to read extracts from a speech made by the
Right Hon. Baronet to his constituents, which were to the effect
that he had adhered to the promises he had made upon the last oc-
casion he appeared before them. " Who paid the tithes ? He would
not say altogether, but principally, the landowners of this country;
and if corn could be produced by other landowners at a cheaper rate,
it would not be just to the English landowner to admit their corn
on equal terms." This was at the poll in the borough of
Tamworth, and after these pledges made by the Right
lion. Baronet they returned him to this House. He (Mr. Ferrand)
on the other hand, said that the Right Hon. Baronet was wrong
when lie violated his pledges to the University of Oxford when he
resigned his seat. Ile would prove to him that he was bound, in
honour, to resign his scat now. What did he say at the poll on the
3d of June?—" You placed me in the proud position of your repre-
sentative in Parliament, and you may depend on it I will be faithful
to my professions. I will remain untiringly devoted to the Con-
servative principles, which in the face of this constituency I have
professed. I will, 'at the same time that I pay due respect to those
differing from me in religious opinion, uphold and defend the histi-
tutions of my country." The Right Hon. Baronet pledged, in the
face of this constituency, of his own free will, to stand by his prin-
ciples; and he (Mr. Ferranti) called for him—not as Prime
Minister, not as the leader of the Conservative party, er as the man
who once led them, but as an honest Member that house— toresign
his seat and go down to his constituency.—(Cheers from the Minis-
terial side.) He had said that he had made his last quotation, but
would the House allow him to throw in as a kind of makeweight the
speech of the Right Hon. Baronet's colleague, Captain A'Court, who
had said "It is certain that the prosperity of Tamworth depends on
the prosperity of the agicultnrist, and I will never consent to take
from the British farmer the protection he requires.—(Hear, hear.)
I will not reduce the English labourer to the same level and con-
dition as the continental labourer." What figure did he cut when he
looked at those Hon. Gentlemen—honourable by courtesy, and
honourable by their characters and principles—who still held his
opinions. CoiOd he and his colleagues look that House in the face,
and say that they had conducted themselves with common honesty ?
They should not tell him that they accepted office not with the view
of carrying this measure through that House. They were not bound
to carry it ; but when they found that they were unequal to carry out
the principle of protection, they were boned as honest and honourable
men to appeal to the country—(Cheering from the Ministerial side)
—and to ask their constituencies for their approval of their conduct.
If the Right Hon. Baronet had pursued that course at first, they
might have rallied round him a great part of the country; but now
the population of Great Britain and Ireland had a contemptible
opinion of his position.—(Cheers from the Ministerial side.) lie
would ask, how had the Right Honourable Baronet been supported
during this discussion ? He (Mr. Ferrand) knew that Hon. Mem-
bers, who were on terms of personal friendship with the Members on
the Treasury benches, wept for them when they rose to speak, so
much did they feel for their .depraved condition.—(Cheers from the
Ministerial side.) Ile knew some Hon. Gentlemen, opposed to the
principle of protection, who had made some endeavours to address
the House, but their consciences and their hearts had failed them.
The Hon. and Learned Member for Bath felt his case so bad that he
broke down in his speech —so much for the democratic Member for
Bath. The Hon. Member for Colton had calmly said a few words,
but had ventured to do no more. Without following this subject
any further, he would say that no man, to whatever party he might
belong, would say that this House had any right, in common
honesty, to decide this question.—(Cheers from the Ministerial
side.) It was not at all improbable that au address might
be moved in the House, praying her Majesty to send th m where
'they ought to have been long since—before their constituencies. if
that did happen to be the case, lie would tell Hon. Members the
course he intended to pursue was as soon as the division was over to
look at the list and find the names of those men who were snugly
ensconced behind the Right Hon. Baronet and who voted for this
measure. He would then go to Peel's coffee-house in Fleet street—
(Langhter)—and look over all the country papers of Great BMW!'
and Ireland and see how the pledges of lion. Members to stand by
their principles of protection had been redeemed; and when the ques-
tion came before the House again he would show up those parties
who had failed to do so, and then even the most democratic would ha
inclined to go back to their constituente es. It was a most extra-
ordinary fact that during the whole of that discussion the manufac-
turing population of this country had hardly even been alluded to.
They were told by Hon. Members that as the population increased
it was necessary to extend the manufactures. What was the effect
on the moral and social condition of the people ? He would go
back 60 years and bring before them the sufferings of the manu-
facturing population. It was his intention to read one
or two brief extracts teem the debate of April 3, 1816. Mr. Ro-
bert Gordon said, that the parish officers in London contracted with
the manufacturers for the disposal of their children, and they agreed
to make one idiot for every 19 sane children, and these they sent to
be at the disposal of the manufacturers, and that was now the course
adopted by the new poor-law. The late Sir R. Peel (Cries of " Or-
der, order.")—had said that the insane were most employed, and he
had more than 1,030 of them as kis apprentices. He had also said
that young children were dragged from their beds, some hours be-
fore daylight, and confined for fifteen hours, and put to labour that
no children of eight or nine years of age could bear. Only three
years after, the present Prime Minister had said, that it was true
that children were employed In Lancashire for fifteen or seventeen
hours at a stretch, and that often occurred three times in a week,
and on Sundays. They were employed from six in the morning till
twelve at night in cleaning the machinery. He says that the popu-
lation spent their wages on Sunday in the most profligate manner,
and got beastly intoxicated with ale and beer. Both boys and gir:s
drank gin and other liquors to an enormous extent. The consump-
tion of opium was also very great in the shape of pills, laudanum,
and other kinds of opiates. The labour was also stated to be
very severe, being to the extent of twelve lions without interinision.
In a word, besides the evils here described, the workers were repre-
sented as breathing continually foul air filled with fine dust, which
debilitated the frame and laid the foundation of a great variety of
distressing and complicated disease. The women were obliged to
attend the factory to the neglect of their domestic duties, and the
children were in consequence neglected, while opiates and other
drugs were administered to lull them in the absence of those who
ought to attend to :heir wants. The heavy and exhausting toil of
the parents were visited on the children, and a general physical de-
generation took place. The Hon. Gentleman was continuing to read
the extract further, when he was interrupted by
Mr. ROEBUCK calling out "Question, question,"
Mr. FERRAND, with much warmth, said that it was the ques-
tion. The question was the increase of manufactures, and the prOPO-
- to sacrifice agriculture to benefit- the manufactures. It was,
therefore, right for him to show the effects of the manufacturing
system on the working population—(Hear, hear)—and he would
pursue his own course in spite of the lion. and Learned Member
until called to order by the Right Hon. Gentleman the
Speaker of the House. lie did not wonder at the
Honourable and Learned Member for Bath calling out order
but he (Mr. Ferrand) would call him, if he was capffile, to attend to
what lie had to read.—(Hear, hear.) That Hon. and Learned Gen-
tieman professed to represent the people; but he seemed, like the
three celebrated tailors of Tooley-street, to represent al: England, as
centred in himself.—(Cheers and laughter.) The lion. Member then
proceeded to read the extract he was employed on when the inter-
ruption took place, which represented the disease and mortality that
pervaded the children who were engaged in factory labour. He
would now, he said, ask the attention of Hon. Members on the Op-
position side of the House, representing the Anti-Corn-law League,
to the name of the gentleman from whom he (Mr. Ferrand) had been
quoting. It was from Mr. Rathbone Greg, a great authority on their
side, and a leader of the Anti-Corn-law League, who were now call-
ing on the Government to give the death blow to agriculture, to en-
able the great millowners of the north to use up the surplus popula-
tion that might thereby he created in the agricultural districts.—
(Hear, hear.) That gentleman says that this has been the case—
and could Hon. Gentlemen have a better authority?—(Hear, hear.)
There was another witness on this question, to whom
he would re'er. Doctor Kay Shuttleworth confirmed the whole of
the statement ; yet this authority was one belonging to this side of
the question, He says the working people of Manchester are berder-
ing upon savage life—that the moral check regarding the increase of
population has no effect upon them—and that the population are
generally in a most deplorable condition. Ile also states that the ob-
ject of importing labourers from the agricultural districts, was to
break down prices in the manufacturing labour markets. Ile read
another extract from Dr. Cooke Taylor, of Belfast, who is also a good
authority with the League. It was taken from the League newspaper
when it was the Anti. Corn-law Leasue Circular, and is from No. 96
of that publication, It states that the writer had seen scenes of the
greatest misery and wretchedness in the huts Ireland
during the prevalence of the cholera —that he had witnessed
the cellars of Liverpool, and been through the narrow
and dirty wynds of Glasgow, but nowhere had he witnessed
mi.ery equal to that In Lancashire. It was there, and there only,
that exti eme of wretchedness was to be seen. It was there that he
beheld the immolation of th population of the country. And he (Mr.
Ferran:l) would s:y the same—it was an immolation of the work-
ing classes at the alias of Mammon a sacrifice to the demon of
wealth.—(Hear, hear.) Yes, the best of the population were immo-
lated ; and he would say, advisedly, murdered by the factory eystem.
Let them establish competition as they were seeking to carry out
the principle of free-trade, and see how it would operate in the
midland counties. Mr. Greg had stated that the hosiers of this
country, though protected by a duty of 20 per cent.,
could not successfully compete with the Saxony manufacturers.
—(" Oh, oh," from Mr. Hawes.) The Hon. Member for Lambeth
might express dissent from this, but he (Mr. Ferrand) was prepared
to prove it ; and if this was the case, under the present amount of
protection, what would become of the hosiers of Nottingham and
Leicester, coder a complete system of free trade? Competition
would he enfeebled, and ruin would inevitably ensue.—(Hear.)
Ana this was the result of their free-trade principles, backed as it
was with a protective .duty of 20 per cent. Even with this duty
they were reduced to this frightful state of misery.--(Cheers.) One
fact proving this mass of misery, which he had brought
before the House was worth a thousand statements of
three months' converts.— (Continued cheering.) It was hr
the year 1843, that he (Mr. Ferrand) presented petitions to that
House signed by upwards of 25,000 frame-work knitters in the coun-
ties of Nottingham, Leicester, and Derby, showing the frightful suf-
fering.; they were undergoing, and praying the House to prohibit the
importation of foreign hosiery until at least foreign eottntfles took the
prohibition off English hosiery ---(Bear, hear.) When he had pre-
sented this petition, the Right Hon. Gentleman the Secretary for tke
Colonies (who, Unfortunately for the Government, could not find a
place in England to return him to this House, and whose absence he
(Mr. Ferranti) deeply regretted), employed Mr. Muggridge as a Coin'
miesioner to go into the Midland Counties, to inquire whether the
statements of the frame-knitters were true; and now he (Mr. Ferranti)
would read to the Holm extracts front the report furnished
by Mr. Muggridge.—(The Honourable Member then read extracts
the purport of which was as follows:—That daily labours eltendva
from fifteen to eighteen hours—their wages were as low as 3s. 7d ;
a great number of children were also employed, and one-third of the
married women were working on frames. The employment of
these women effected a great reduction in wages. And, nose, he
would ask the opinion of the House whether this waB not a frightful
state of things ? Mr. 3luggridge had examined Dr. Shaw, an emi-
nent medical practitioner of Leicester, and he said that the mortality
of the children under live years of age was about 49 per cent of the
whole population. This was owing to the neglect of the mother s, who
were employed in the stocking trade, they not being able to have them
out as in some others in the manufacturing branches. In speaking
of the debility of the framework-knitter, he said that was caused
from deprivation of the necessaries of life, their common articles of
subsistence being bread, cheese, gruel, and tea, but the latter to no
great extent. They had earned greater wages in former years with
a great deal less labour. It was also a too common practice among
the poorer classes to administer Godfrey's cordial to infants, the
object being to keep the child quiet while the mother was at work.
lie was now going to justify his statement, that a wholesale
system of murder was carried on in the manufacturing districts.
He quoted from an eminent surgeon, examined by Mr. Muggridge,
He had known infants killed by administering three drops of lan- .
danum, but there was nothing said about it. The infants went off
quietly, not like grown people. He said that he could prove that,
owing to the existing starvation, the poor murdered their children by
wholesale. He knew one family, in which four children had died in
the same way. The infants that died in a more insidious manlier
became pale, tremulous, and at last slink. He would ask the
House of Commons to copy this report of Mr. Muggridge's,
and to read it, for he would lay his life that they had
never heard anything more frightful than the whole of
this evidence. And now let them hear what the pawnbrokers said,
and he only wlseed that the Hon. Hember for Durham were in his
place. Ile (Mr. Ferrand) perhaps knew the reason for that Hon.
Member's absence —(Lauiditer and cheers)—but were he present, he
thought that the Hon. Member would admit that the misery of
Gatuloiut iretetixiaipeuergie,
sfsuevraousr
ririegsurteeoit.
h and
ebroughtTaneys oeial pledgedcrhoen,them
tuitouhitie
ub
of t blankets
framework-
knitters night,eiwi
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r
bawereadisvoa,fifort ht3ellasOwsinatoslnsttioseuirnia!leat.:
knultrters was, owing to the depression tinder which the trade had la.
'lltlauetihr
the condition
character;cdolvne,ililtl
og -houses
none, and public worship was altogether neglected by them.
worstmlansits andiomi
theyinquire
cnlootfhtihnge
manufacturing districts, and did time allow him, he would produce a
frightful statement with regard
county of York. He had to the manufacturing system in the
bordering on
Savage
life,
savage
exhibit ed the midland counties in a state
egN;trhat they were even indifferent to
the murder of their offspring
manufacturing population were
the
ine e they to be told that when the
would the agriculturists consent Zo
uc a frightful state as that,
laourer to f the man
hand over the agricultural
inthe languagethe oftender, Mr.mercies Cookeo Taylor, to be'tintriletris' ana
allow
thew'
cotton lords might grow richer ? The Right lion.
lated, that certain
Sectctary of State for the Home Department had stttlalitleinan the
was greatly reduced in this country. He (Mr. Ferrand} would
crime
him that that was not the fact, [.ll this Point of the lion. tau
tt 1
man's address Sir James Graham was engaged in earnest converse-
lion with an Hon. Member.] Perhaps when -Ise (Mr. Ferrand) told
the Right lion. Baronet that the protectionists were 462 a-head
• •