The Sun.
London, England, 1846-01-01 00:00:00

T l ~.

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what will come to you. In those countries, as you have
bet n told already, the labourers are worse off thin la-
bourers in any other part of the world; they are worse
fed, clothed, and housed. Some time since an Irish la-
bourer came to London, and with his only sixpence went
to purchase some eggs. The shopkeeper gave him
four. " Why," exclaimed he, " I could have a dozen for
that money in the county of Mayo." " Then,v asked
the shopman, " why did you not stay there ?" " Why,"
said the Irishman, " because I could not get the 6d. to
parch- se the eggs with."—(Load laughter, and cries of
" That's new, where did he get the, 6d. then?") Now,
y,,u will ofeerve, that is exactly what, in my humble
opinion, will be the case of the labourers of England,
and more particularly of the agricultural labourers.
Gentlemen, you know well, fee- many of you were em-
ployed upon our poorer s ils in this neighbourhood,
that it is impossible for us to keep that land in
cultivation, if we get only 91. a load for our
wheat. But that land would be thrown out of
cultivation ; and I would ask ar•ly labourer here
e bethcr the most distressing situation iu which be could
be placed could be worse than this—that when you are
ready to maintain by the sweat of your brow your wives
and children, you would ba answered thus, " Aly man,
I am sorry for you, but no work can I give you, be-
cause I cannot afford to employ you." Would you not
then be in the same situation as the Irish labourer ?
What is the use of bread at 6d. a loaf if you have not
the 6d. to buy it with ?—(Hear, hear.) I am one of
those who have ever expressed views of the deepest corn-
anisseration for the labourers.of this country ; and there-
fore, I ask you, gentlemen, to come forward and support
those whom you know to be your firmest and fastest
friends.—(" Cheers" at command.) I ask you not to
compromise this great
question, because if we once seek
to compromise it we get rid of, the principle altogether.
I ask yuu also to remenilierthat in the event of war with
a foreign country, if we grow not.nearly as ranch wheat
as is necessary for the consumption of. our OW, pe6pie,
whether France, Germany,, Russia, or Pole.nd, will not
be able to defeat us, not on the plains of Blenheim and
aterloo, nor in the actions of Trafalgar and theiliiii€4.,
but in the task of providing food for our people ? Gentle-
men, I can only tell you that in presentingyour petition I
shall be happy to express to her Majesty the deep value
II I entertain for the yeomanry and labourers of England,
and to assure her of my deep sense that the public opinion
is very different from the bought and popular clamour
which has been excited in some of the manufacturing
distriets.—(Cheers.) Gentlemen, you as well as I have
interests to protect and support. I ask you all to make
a pull, a long pull, a strong pull, and a pall altogether.
(Cheers, and some ironical cries.) And, then I ask,
have the respectable inhabitants of this county made that
pull in vain ?—(Hear.) Gentlemen, I thank you for
your attention. I wish I had strength to say more,
but I can assure you, for one, that I am determined
to pursue that straightforward and honest path which,
whenever strayed from, must end in ruin and desola-
tion.—(Cheers.)
Lord W. LErixox said that he 'could vouch for one
thing—that their representative, the Earl of March,
would have great pleasure in presenting their petition to
the House of Commons.—(Hear, hear.) He wished
some of the Leaguers were present —(A Voice—" Oh,
you would be frightened," and laughter.) He wished
the Leaguers had been present to hear the sentiments
that day uttered in that room.—(" Oh, you would run
away.") The Leaguers talked of free trade, which
meant only low wages to the labourer, and the taking of
money out of the pockets of the agriculturists to put into
the pockets of the manufacturers. The sentiments
uttered by the Leaguers were calculated only to
bring anarchy and confusion, to set the labourer
against the farmer, and the farmer against the occu-
pier of land, and the occupier against . the owner
and landlord ; so that in the general scramble
the Leaguers might come in for a share of the profits.
—(Cheers and hisses.) Those Leaguers, too, were
very abusive. What said Cobden ?—(Cries of " Ay,
that's the man.") Yes, that was the man.(Cheers
and laughter.) Cobden said, "If you landlords will as-
sent to the repeal of the corn-laws, and to have all your
lands thrown out of cultivation, then we will not ask
you to disgorge all your ill-gotten gains." Why, where
was the farmer who had any such gains ? There was
no such person in the world.—(Laughter and cheers.)
The manufacturers pretended to sympathise with the
agricultural labourers in respect to what they were
pleased to term their distressed condition ; but did
they think that by throwing those labourers cut of
employment they would improve their condition ?
Had those who heard him ever read the accounts
given before Parliamentary Committees of the cruel
manner in which young children were treated in facto-
ries ? He himself once saw the late Mr. Sadler produce,
in the House of Commons, a sort. of knout or stick, to
which a thong of leather was fastened, with- which the
poor little creatures we re beaten when they fell asleep
from over-fatigue ; and yet those manufacturers were
the persons upon whose tender mercies they were now
called on to rely. He considered Sir R. Peel had for.
feited his word, and violated the pledge he gave when
he went into power under the banners on which was in-
scribed, "Protection to Agriculture." In the words of
the poet :
" An open foe may prove a curse,
But a pretended friend is worse."
(Cheers and laughter.) They had that in Sir R. Peel,
and the sooner they got rid of him and those that sup-
ported him the better.—(Cheers.) He was at a loss to
know where Sir Robert Peel would take his seat in the
House next session. The Radicals would have nothing
to do with him. Cobden had said at the Covent-garden
Parliament lately that no man of respectability and
honour ought to speak to such a man. The Premier's
own friends were disgusted with him. He (Lord W.
Lennox) was in London during the Ministerial inter-
regnum, and he could assure the meeting that a Conser-
vative would be immediately recognised by the long face
he pulled.—(A laugh.) " The greatest political scoun-
drel that ever existed," was a mild term to some that
he heard applied to Sir R. Peel.—(Laughter, and cries
of "Oh, oh 1") He thought they must have him on
the floor of the House ; and he recommended the agri-
culturists to send up an empty sack marked " English
Agriculture," and tell Sir Robert to bolster himself up
with full sacks from foreign ports. In conclusion, he
would read to the meeting some lines written by a late
president of an agricultural society, Sir John Sinclair :
" Let this be held the farmer's creed,—
For stock seek out the choicest breed,
In peace and plenty let them feed.
Your lands sown with the choicest seed ;
Let it not dung nor dressing need ;
Enclose and drain it with all speed,
And you will soon be rich indeed."
—(Great laughter.) To those lines he had added a few
others :

" Turn out Sir Robert with all speed.
(Cheers and laughter.)
His Cabinet from free trade weed.
Don't trust to him—a broken reed,
"Who's faithless both in word and deed.
Protection seek, and thus agreed,
The farmers may be rich indeed."
(Cheers and laughter, during which a voice added—
" The worst of verses 1 ever zeed."
and another—
" The worst of readers I ever heard read.")
As the Noble Duke quoted a part only of the hand-
bill which seemed to give him so much offence, it may
be as well to give the whole of it:—
" Labourers of Sussex,—A glorious power is this day put
into your hands by your masters, who think by the show
your numbers will make to keep up rents and high prices,
and consequently keep you poor. Don't sign their papers,
but, iwstead, petition for a free trade in everything, which
will give you—whatever the Duke may tell you to the con-
trary—more work, better pay, and better living. You kncw
you want this, and, having the example of strength shown
you, try fur it. Free trade, I sav, and no curry powder._
" ON'E OF THE MILLIO
N.
of
A man who had been employed to distribute p
this handbill amongst the crowd was seized h!..xaceonp.
pearsoen,
named Pasco near the door of the. corn
_ _
roughly handled, and kicked out;_ but it said that the
matter will not end there, as the friends of the bill-dis-
tributor, who, it appears, made no noise, nor interfered
with the proceedings, are determined that proper pro-
ceedings shall be taken tu bring the perpetrator of the
assault to justice.
On the motion of the Duke of Richmond, a vote of
thanks was presented to the Chairman for his services.
This was followed by three cheers for the Duke of Rich-
mond, in which was intermingled an unwelcome alloy of
hisses and groans ; and to Sir R. Peel was paid the ugly
compliment of three groans by the landlords and their
smock-frocked followers. So pleasant an exhibition,
however, could not be allowed to close by those who got
it up without the addition with which many other almost
equrally ridiculous affairs terminate—a display of fire-
woks. Two of the lowest ruffians in Chichester—one of
them known at Petworth—had been employed by one of
the Duke's political dirty-work-men, the aforesaid Pasco,
to bring in and parade before the hustings, just as the
proceedings were about to end, a copy of the Times
newspaper, at which the Duke's toadies on the platform
looked with ill-disguised astonishment, and cried " Take
it away ! Down with it !" The display of the broad
sheet would have been little understood by the majority
of the multitude had it not been for some strips of paper
pasted thereon, upon which sti ips was printed its title,
7he Times," in large capitals. Upon the name being
generally recognised so many complimentary cheers
were given that the chawbacons who surrounded the
framework to which it was fastened looked inquiringly
at their fuglemen and paymasters on the hustings for
the signal which should direct the next part of the
performance. This was soon telegraphed, and the paper
was instantaneously set on tire and consumed, the Noble
Duke and his friends feasting their eyes in silence on the
flame, which spared the frame-work, or gallows, as it
was termed, to which the paper had been affixed ; a
ghastly symbol of the fate which may attend those who
follow up this public and authoritative lesson in incen-
diarist)). The landowners and occupiers, one would
think, had already experienced enough of the consequence
of their labourers learning the use of pocket lucifer-
matches without the further instruction and encourage-
rnent afforded to them by this glaring act of folly. We have
good authority for stating that the majority of the citi-
zens of Chichester regard this as a most contemptible
proceeding, and the meeting itself as an insult, as the
I)uke or Richmond and his friends well know that they
do not agree with their opinions on the corn-law, but
particularly because a large number of agricultural
labourers were hired to attend the meeting,
and bawl at command. Same of them were allowed the
arid to c.