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

benefit of the country, as the Right Hon. Baronet, the First Load
the Treasury had done upon a former occasion, when he was opposed
to the Whigs.—(Cheers and laughter.) At that time he (Mr:.
Ferranti) was only in the rank and file of politics, but he received to
large nulliber of those speeches, and he took care to have them most
industriously circulated at a penny each.— (Laughter.) Why, the'
ilon.Baronet had sent them tohim 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 " lie would never shrink from the expression of
public upii:‘ion."— (Laughter.) Then he (Mr. F.) would say, "Go
down again it) your constituents."—(Laughter.) The Right Hon,
Baronet went on to gay, " The Whigs are down, to rise no more."—
(I,aughter.) Should O'Connell or Roebuck or Bowling dare to say
that the democratic principle should ever take the lead in this great
ettiPite.'s—(Great laughter.) Now, let him (Mr. Ferrand) ask who
supported Vile Right lion. Baronet in this House?—(Cheers.) Ili
what position nOw Stood " Roebuck, and Itowring, and O'Connell, the
Renewed laughter.) The Right Hon. Baronet went
oc conspirator?"—(Renewed israayt o
thatr?"
his conviction was that the full development of the
demoCratic. principle would be destructive to this country. Should
that unfortu"ate day ever dawn upon the political horizon when the
principles of democracy will be paramount, degraded indeed will be
our fate,—
•

" ' The day when thou, imperial Troy l must bend,
And see thy warriors fall, thy glories end.'
But I will add,—
" May Ibe cold before that dreadful day,
Pressed with a load of monumental clay.'"
(The mock heroic tone in which the Hon. Member read this extract
convulsed the House with laughter.) And the Hon. Baronet then con-
tinued to s iy, of this poetical effusfon,thatit remained now for his con-
stituents to decide whether they would return him to Parliament or
not."—(Laughter.) He (Mr.' Ferranti) would like to ask the Right
Hon. Baronet whether he now commidered 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 lion. Baronet, the First Lord of the
Treasury—(Laughter)—and he would tell that Right Hon. 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 hie 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
Hon. Baronet they returned him to this House. He (Mr. Ferrand)
en the other hand, said that the Right Zion. Baronet was wrong
when he violated his pledges to the University of Oxford when Ise
resigned his seat. lie would prove to him that he was bound, in
honour, to res.gii 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 until tingly devoted to the Con-
servative princioles, 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 Primo
Minister, not as the leader of the Conservative party, or as the man
who osce led them, but as an holiest Member ot that house —toresign
his seat and go down to his constituency.—(Cheers frond the Minis-
terial side.) Ile had said that he had made his last quotation, but
would the House allow him to throw in as a kind of make-weight the
speech of the Right Hon. Baroaet's colleague, Captain A'Court, who
had said "It is certain that the prosperity of Tamworth depends on
the prosperity of the agiculturist, and I will never consent to take
from the British fanner 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. Coeld 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 bouad 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 lion. 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. Ferreted) 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 dm they feel for their depraved condition.—(Cheers from the
Ministerial side.) lie knew some lion. Gentlemen, opposed to the
principle of protection, who had made seine endeavours to address
the House, but their consciences and their hearts had failed them.
The lion. and Learned Member for Bath feltehis case so bad that he
broke down in his speech - so much for the democratic Member for
Bath. The Hon. Member for Bolton 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 an address might
be moved in the House, praying her Majesty to send the m where
they ought to have been long since—before their constituencies. If
that did happen to be the case, he 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—
(Laughter)—and look over all the country papers of Great Britain
and Ireland and see how the pledges of Hon. 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 be
inclined to go back to their constituene 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 them the debate of April 3, 1816. Mr. Ito-
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 Salle 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. Thp late Sir R. Peel—(Cries of " Or-
der, order.")—had said that the insane were most employed, and ho
had more than 1,030 of them as his 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 its the most profligate manner,
and got beastly intoxicated with ale and beer. Both boys and girls
drank gin and other liquors to an enormous extent. The consump-
tion of opium was also very great in the shape of pills, laudanum,
amid other kinds of opiates. The labour was also stated to be
very severe, being to the extent of twelve bons without Intennision.
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 their 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 .rues-
Den. The questions was the increase of manufactures, and the propo-
sition to sacrifice agriculture to benefit the mattufactures. It WAS,
therefore, right for him to show the effects of the manufacturing
system on the working population—(lcer, hear)-eand he would
pursue his own course in spite of the lion. and Learned Member
until called to order by the Right lion. Gentleman the
Speaker of the House. He did not wonder at the
Honourab'e and Learned Member for Bath calling out order
but he (Mr. Ferrand) would call him, if he was capable, to attend to
what hoe had to read.—(Hear, hear.) That Hon. and Learned Gen-
tleman 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 time 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 lion. 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 be created in the agricultural districts.—
(Hear, hear.) That gentleman says that this has been the ease—
and could lion. 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. Ile says the working* people of Manchester are border-
ing upon savagelife—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. He also states that the ob-
ject of importing labourers from the agricultural districts, was to
break down prices its the manufacturing labour markets. lie read
:mother extract from Dr. Cooke Taylor, 01 Belfast, who is also a good
authority with the League. It was taken from the League newspaper
when it was the Anti. Corn-law League 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 •.f 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
misery equal to that in Lancashire. It was there, and there only,
that extt erne of wretchedness was to be seen. It was there that ho
beheld the immolation of tin • population of the country. And he (Mr.
Ferrand) would say the same—it was an immolation of tine work-
shaecnliee to the demon of
populationweal wen e Immo-
tilated Felliineeteatsrisi-'oehealleaats.ra)eoef3a-3/eitsvlimst ehldnel;bne, best
—t
murdered Ite red by the factory system.
Let them establish competition as they were seeking to carry out
the principle of five-trade, and see how it would operate in the
manupfearctuereenr cent,
could midland counties. Mr. Greg had stated that the hosiers of this
bwyhha
the
eutsyex of 20
country, though proteripe
te could not successfully compete
—(" Oh, oh," from Mr. Hawes.) Thelion. 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
protections, what would become of the hosiers of Nottingham and
w2oofree-tradeupled r
en P inevitablyriEheviepiliee new u.ht eah.e—kt edeatrtiy)t
Leicester, under a complete system of free trade? Competition
woulAnt
was
his
d,t,hibett
sh
weanalseprotective
i Its ddeuf
trytt
their
they were reduced to this frightful State of misery;—(Cheers.) One
tact proving this mass of misery, whichll e had brought
before the house was worth a thousand statements of
three mouths' converts.— (Continued cheering.) It was in
the year 1843, that he (Sir. Ferranti) presented petitions to that
House signed by upwards or 25,000 frame-work knitters in the coun-
ties of Nottingham, Leicester, and Derby, showing the frightttnl suf-
ferings they were undergoing, and praying the House to prohibit the
importations of foreign hosiery until at least foreign countries took the
prohibition off English hosiery.—(hear, hear.) When he had pre-
sented this petition, the Right Hon. Gentleman the Secretary for the
Colonies (who, unfortunately for the Government, could not find a
place in England to return him to this )louse, and whose absence he
(Mr. Ferrand) deeply regretted). employed Mr. Muggridge as a Com-
missioner to go into the Slelland Counties, to inquire whether the
Statements of the frante-kt utters were true ; and now he (Mr. Ferrand)
would read to the House extracts from the report famished
by Mr. Muggridge—(The Honourable Member then read extracts
the purport of which was as follows:—That daily labours extended
from fifteen to eighteen hours—their wages were as loss- 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, now, he
would ask the opinion of the !louse whether this was not a frightful
state of things ? Mr. Muggridge had examined Dr. Shaw, an emi-
nent medical practitioner of Leicester, and he said that the mortality
of the children under five years of age was about 49 per cent of the
whole population. This was owing to the neglect of the mothers, who
were employed in the stocking trade, they not being able to have them
out as in some others in time manufacturing branches. ln speaking
of the debility of the framework-knitter, he said that was caused
from deprivations 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 Godtrey's cordial to infants, Dr.
object being to keep the child quiet while the mother was ath oz:
so
air
He was now going to justify his statement, that a
"d-istricts.
o
system of murder was carried on in the manufacturingr ggridge.
He quoted from an eminent. surgeon, examined. by Mr.
He had known intants killed by administering three drops of
lau-
danum, but there was nothing said about it.
Thethat,
infants went off
quietly, not like grown people. He said that h
a more insidious manner
owing to the existing starvation, the poorinurdered their children by
wholesale. He knew one femily,
in
whff,l l four children had died in
the seine way. The infants that died i
k. lie would ask the
and at last sun
became pale, tremulous,
his report of Mr. Muggridge' s,
House of Comments to copy
outid
lay
his life that they had
and to read It, for he w
frightful than the whole of'
never heard anything more ,
And now let them hear chat the pawnbrokers said,
this evidence. An
and he only wished that the Hon. liember for Durham were in his
place. lie (Mr. Ferrand) perhaps knew the reeson for that lion.
Mendeer's absence -( Latishter and cheers) —but were he present, he
that •
the Hon. .Member vm ou admit the misery of
thought than
Goat sere was nothing to this. They pledged their blankets in the
morning, for a subsistence, and brought them out again at I ight, at
an expense of 31. per week. The social condition of the framework-
'knitters was, owing to the depression under which the trade had la-
boured for years past, most miserable. Their dwelling-houses
were of the worst and most unhealthy character; clothing
they had none, and public worship was altogether neglected by them.
Afterwards the commission was to inquire into the condition of the
manufacturing districts, and did time allow him, he would produce
frightful statement with regard to the manufacturing system in the
county of York. lie had exhibited the midland counties in a state
bordering on savage life—so savage that they were even indifferent to
the -murder of their offspring. Were they to be told that when the
manufacturing population
were in such a frightful state as that,
would the agriculturists consent to hand over the agricultural
labourer to the tender mercies of the manufacturers, and allow them,
in the language of Mr. Cooke Taylor, to be mutilated, that certain
cotton lords might grow richer? Tue Right Hon. GentlemantLs