The Sun.
London, England, 1833-05-21 00:00:00

ture and commerce,' the wretched state of both being as ncto.
rious as the sun at noon-day.
" They have persevered in the unjust:and cruel corn laws ;
they have refused to diminish the overwhelming burdens with
which the people are oppressed in any perceptible degree ;
they even perpetuate the house and window tax ; and although
the House of Commons had deliberately decided on the par-
tial abolition of the odious malt tax, they have literally caused
the House of Commons to rescind its vote, and to continue
to inflict the whole of that oppressive tax upon the people.
" What then, Sire, is the fruit which the people are to reap
from reform ? Such conduct on the part of the Ministers
proves that they are either insincere in their pretended advo.
cacy of reform, or that they were infatuated enough to imagine
that it was the name and not the substance, the shadow and not
the reality, which the people sought with so much labour and
so much perseverance to obtain.
" Such conduct proves that under their administration the
passing of the Reform Bill must be rather a curse than a bless-
ing to the very men by whose means and for whose good its
passing was effected.
" Such conduct proves that under their administration in-
dustry must go without its reward, and consequently property
without its protection ; that there must be no happiness for the
present, and no hope for the future.

" Such conduct is but too well calculated to break up the
bonds by which society is bound together, to extinguish the
last ray of hope in the breasts of despairing millions, and to
render your Majesty's dominions a melancholy scene of lawless
violence and irremedial confusion.

" It is in this fearful situation of our country that we ven-
ture to approach your Majesty's throne with this statement of
our wrongs, our sorrow, and our tears—the destinies of your
faithful people are in your Majesty's hands.
" We humbly, respectfully, and earnestly implore your Ma-
jesty to be graciously pleased to dismiss from your Majesty's
councils the men who having in their hands the power of re-
dressing the wrongs and healing the injuries of the industrious
classes, and thereby lulling into repose the storms of political
agitation, and spreading throughout the country the blessings
of tranquillity and content, have by neglecting these sacred
duties, proved themselves utterly incapable of extricating the
country from its dangers, and unworthy of the high station in
which it has pleased your Majesty to place them, and we im-
plore your Majesty to give your Royal confidence to no man
who is not determined to adopt prompt, decisive, and efficient
measures to accomplish the restoration of the national pros-
perity, and who does not deem it the first duty of a statesman
to secure to honest industry its just reward.

" We pray God, Sire, long to preserve your Majesty's life,
and to enable your Majesty to accomplish the great work of se-
curing the liberty, and of restoring the prosperity, of your Ma-
jesty's faithful and loyal people.
(" Signed by order of a general meeting of the inhabitants of
the town and neighbourhood of Birmingham, in their name and
in their behalf ")

The motion having been seconded, was unanimously
agreed to. The following were banded to us as the peti-
tions to be adopted tor: presentation to the House of Com-
mons. At the time our express left Newhall-hill, the
proceedings of the meeting had nearly reached their ter-
mination, and the immense multitude, which had conducted
themselves throughout the day with the greatest order and
good temper, were apparently about to disperse.

" To the Hon. the House of Commons, &c.
" The humble Petition of the inhabitants of the town and
neighbourhood of Birmingham, assembled in a great meet-
ing, on Newhall-hill, on the 20th of May, 1833,
" Showeth,—That the wages of agriculture and manufactur-
ing labour have been on an average reduced one-half or more
in amount from the level which existed in the country in
1825, and in the latter years of the late war, the time in which
the greatest part of the national burdens were imposed, and
that this fall is mainly to be attributed to the alterations which
have been made in the value of money by former corrupt Par-
liaments. That your Honourable House has refused to take
any steps to raise the wages of labour and the price of the pro..
ducts of labour to the former level ; but, on the contrary, has
expressed a determination to persevere in the present system,
which must beat down the wages of English labour generally
to the continental level.

" That your petitioners find, nevertheless, that it is intended
to present a system of corn laws, and other laws prohibiting or
restricting the importation of animal and vegetable food, the
object or effect of which is to preserve the price of food at
double, or nearly double, the continental level.

" That the tenantry and agricultural labours of the country
have suffered as much from this system as the manufac-
turing classes, inasmuch as the corn laws, by holding out
to them the delusive hope of remunerating prices, have tempted
them year after year to persevere in the endeavour to pay
their old exorbitant rents, although the diminished pecuniary
means of the consumers of agricultural produce inevitably
forces down its price to a level altogether incompatible with
such rents.

" That in the opinion of your petitioners a tax upon food
is unjust in principle, and that your petitioners can only look
at the corn law system, if persevered in, as a wicked and
fraudulent endeavour to preserve landed property from taking
its chance on equal terms with manufacturing and commercial
property, or rather as an endeavour to secure the rents of the
landlords by creating an artificial family amongst the labouring
population.

" That the atrocity of such a system can only be equalled by
its folly, as your petitioners apprehend its inevitable conse-
quence must be, if persevered in, to create such a grievous
sense of fraud and oppression in the hearts of the great mass of
the population as Will ultimately break out into utter anarchy
and confusion, and but too probably deprive the landed aris-
tocracy, not only of the increased value which has been un-
justly given to their rents, but also of their just and lawful
property.

"That it is evident that the simplest principles of justice
demand that the price of the bread on which the labourer lives
should be reduced at least as much as the amount of the wages
out of which he has to buy that bread.

" Your humble petitioners do therefore appeal to the honour,
the humanity, and the justice of your Honourable House;
and they earnestly pray that your Honourable House will be
pleased forthwith to repeal entirely the laws imposing duties
or restrictions of any kind upon the importation of animal or
vegetable food.

" And your petitioners will ever pray, &c."