The Sun.
London, England, 1857-01-21 00:00:00

deration. No class feels more the high rate of
interest than those engaged in building specula-

tions.

It is but fair, however, that these unemployed
men should ask themselves how they have disposed
of their summer wages. Great numbers of them,
we fear, squandered in useless luxuries or dissipa-
tion what should, in a trade like theirs especially,
be saved, literally "against a rainy day." Let
us not be misunderstood as wishing to deprive
the working man of recreation and reason-
able enjoyments ; but we have so often had to
relieve in want those who had squandered good
pay when they had it on sheer animal gratifications
or low amusements, that we are compelled to put
it to the good sense of the better part among the
unemployed whether too many of their number
might not have saved themselves from want now
by a little self-denial in the summer ; by such
self-denial as must be practised by most of those
who have an Income Tax to pay—at least if they
pay it under schedule D.

However, men out of work, whether through
improvidence, or through causes quite unavoid-
able, cannot be neglected. They must be fed
and clothed. Their families must be provided
for. They cannot be loft to the temptations and
desperation of absolute want. If it can be avoided
it is even imprudent to compel them to resort to
the pawnbrokers, much more to require them in
such large numbers to enter the workhouses, as
a condition of relief. They proposed them-
selves, at their meetings, to resort in a
body to the parish officers, and to demand their
" ancient indisputable right to parochial relief,
unaccompanied by the insulting, debasing, and
infamous conditions at present persisted in."
But what would the men suggest themselves as
the test to discriminate between the idle spend-
thrift and the unfortunate man ? They could not
themselves wish that the ratepayers, thousands of
them having enough to do to maintain themselves,
should be saddled with the maintenance of men
who will not work, or who, when they get good
employment, throw away their money in reckless
self-indulgence. Every
one who remembers the
old outdoor relief system well knows the
endless impositions which were practised on
the parish. The poor rates were deemed
almost lawful booty by those who could cheat
the overseers. Paupers who would not have
defrauded their neighbour or the shop-keepers
had no scruple about defrauding the parish. It was
hardly thought so wrong as poaching or smuggling.
Is this state of things to return ? And if not, we
are confident all would rejoice in being guided to
any method by which immediate want could be
relieved, while the idlers and the wasteful were
severely tested. In any case we would earnestly
counsel the workmen not to prejudice their cause
by anything wearing the appearance of intimida-
tion.

Much was said by them about Government
ceasing its extravagance and undertaking
works of public utility. This is specious, but
will it
permanently meet the case ? Re-
claiming and draining waste lands were
specially pointed to as modes of Government
employment. But already Government advances
money from the National Exchequer for this
purpose, and we are quite sure that unless such
work was done by agriculturista responsible for
repayment of the advance, the system would be-
come the most useless and wasteful of all Govern-
ment jobs. After the lesson learned from the
failure of poor FICARGIIS Creornfoß's land scheme,
though doubtless he originated it with benevo-
lent motives, probably none will be insane enough
to set labourers without capital to starve
on small allotment& It were, indeed, well,
were it possible, to compel the owners
of waste land to part with it or to reclaim it. It
is a shameful waste of the resources of the country
that any one should be suffered to misuse the
land which belongs to the nation as a whole, and
which it suffers to be owned as property under
the implied condition that it is not as good as
thrown away. But we cannot easily think of any
test by which waste land should be sufficiently
defined not to render any general law on the sub-
ject liable to much abuse in its application.
Emigration was adverted to, and doubtless many
of these artisans of the sturdier class are the very
men to emigrate. For this purpose Government
and Colonial Land Companies have done
much to aid suitable persons. Our colonies
need labourers, and labourers with muscle and
sinew. That fine new England, Canada, is now
within a few days' sail of old England. If Irish-
men can get across in such numbers, could not our
English labourers do so with equal ease ? There
they will be at home—and at home amidst plenty
of work waiting to be done. Living is cheap. The
steady labourer is independent even as a work-
man ; and if he have brains as well as arms, he
may easily in a fevryears become proprietor of such
a farm as neither he nor his offspring could venture
to think of in his native land. If any consider-
able number of the unemployed really wish to
emigrate, if the workmen who met on Monday
last seriously think of emigration on a large scale,
they cannot do better than apply at once to tke
Emigration Board, and lay, through it, their case
before the Government.

In a few hours the tax-payers of London will
have an opportunity for showing what sort of
stuff, in the aggregate, they are made of. For a
fortnight or so past we have had to report meet-
ings held east, west, north, and south, in which
the iniquitous character of the Income Tax has
been forcibly denounced with the most hearty
approval of assembled hundreds and thousands.
In Exeter-hall, this evening, parish or local
enthusiasm will be subjected to the great metro-
politan ordeal. With what probable result ? As
we hope, and so far as we can judge, there will
be a demonstration so grand and imposing that
the doom of the tax, in its present form, will be
sealed. The array of speakers at the meeting
will be both numerous and formidable, but
stronger than any verbal eloquence will be the
hearty, united, and intelligent sYmP athy expressed
with the movement by a crowded audience evi-
dently met for the discharge of a. great public
duty. Let every intelligent tam-paYerf
then,
resolve to bo present, if poesiblei, and lend his
aid in a manner becoming his :responsibilities
and social position. It has appened that
a meeting has been, comparatively speaking,
thinly attended, from the conviction the attend-
ance would be overflowing. There must be no
mistake of this sort.
" so trusting to neighbours,
but go yourself," will insure a fnll hall, and if
numbers can't get in, the very fact will toll
against the continuance of the taa:. Let it not
be forgotten that the present time :is emphatically
the time for effort. The
meeting of Parliament
draws nigh, and any delay or imperfection in
making Ministers acquainted with. the real state
of feeling towards the Tax among +the inhabitants
of the metropolis must be misch ;,ievous. Chan-
cellors of the Exchequer are slow to believe, and
the provinces look a good deal to the metropolis
for guidance. A successful me( !Eng will carry
conviction with it,
and will proba Lily be honoured
with the parentage of a host of p atitions from all 1