The Sun.
London, England, 1850-01-10 00:00:00

LONDON WEDNESDAY CONCERTS.

The twelfth concert of this series took place at
Exeter-hall last evening, which was fully as crowded
as it has ever been on any former occasion. The
"stars" of the evening were Mr. Sims Reeves, who
sung the principal solo air in the Sonnambula with
his accustomed taste ; Herr Ernst, who played a
new fantasia. compossd expressly for these con-
certs, and Thalberg. The two last-mentioned
artists never performed with greater ability,
and the applause they met with was immense.
The vocalists associated with Mr. Sims Reeves were
Miss Dolby, Miss Lucombe, Miss Poole, Miss Eyles,
Mrs. Newton, Mr. Leffler, and Herr Formes. Prior
to the performance of the selection from the Sonnam-
bula the principal of the orchestral pieces in Men-
delssohn's Midsummer Night's Dream were executed
by the band. In the course of the evening Mr.
Richardson performed a fantasia on the flute, which
was much applauded.

THE STARVATION CASE AT SOUTHAMPTON.—
SOUTHAMPTON, WEDNESDAY, JAN. 9.—Lord Courtenay
has concluded his inquiries into the circumstances at-
tending the death of Ann Biggs, alias Harris, who was
starved to death from the assumed negligence of the
relieving-officer, Mr. Edward Henry Simmonds, in re-
fusing to afford relief when applied to by the deceased
for that purpose. His Lordship examined all the wit-
nesses in this case who had previously given evidence
before the coroner's jury, th., court of guardians, and
the magistrates, the latter of whom committed Simmonds
for trial, on a charge of manslaughter, on Friday last,
subsequently, however, accepting bail for his appearance
to answer to the charge. No new facts of any import-
ance were elicited from these witnesses by Lord
Courtenay that would tend to alter the general
complexion of the case as previously reported,eral
but, in addition his Lordship examined
of the guardians, with a view to
gain information
several
as to the present state of the workbouhseim,
and the method
to frame his
report upon the subject to the P
of conducting its business, to enableo-la
A meeting of the board of guardians last even-
ing wasw Commissioners,heu
fifteen members were present, the mayor in the
chair, when it was decided by a majority of nine to five
to take the necessary'steps for placing the administration
of the poor-house under the operations of the New Poor-
law, it being held that the increasing extent of
pauperism, particularly within the last twelve months,
has caused the present Act under which the poor-law
is administered in Southampton to be quite insufficient
to meet the requirements of the town. The sense of
the parish vestries are shortly to he taken on the subject,
and it seems to be the general wish of the inhabitants
that the New Poor• law system should be introduced, in
place of the present Gilbert Union Act, passed in 1773,
under which the administration of the poor-law has
been very inefficiently but expensively carried out.

MR. COBDEN AT AYLESBURY.

FINANCIAL REF(TRM MEETING IN
BUCKINGHAMSHIRE.

Yesterday Mr. Cobden attended a large meeting at
the County•hall, Aylesbury, consisting of tenant-
fanners of the county of Buckingham, and of persons
engaged in the ,agricultural and various handicrafts
of the neighbourhood, in pursuance of the intention,
which he declared at the large meeting at Leeds,
that he would visit this ancient stronghold of the
"territorial aristocracy," and explain to the Bucking-
hamshire farmers the true causes of the depression
they have been suffering under, and the remedy they
ought to apply. The hall, which is a very capacious
chamber, was densely thronged with people, who
received Mr. Cobden with tremendous cheering upon
his presenting himself on the platform. Mr. F.
O'Connor, M.P., arrived shortly afterwards, and
several gentlemen of distinction in the county were
also present.
Mr. JOHN WATSON, solicitor, of Aylesbury, was
called to the chair at five o'clock, ;and having briefly
explained the intention and objects of the meeting, he
sought a fair hearing for all speakers. It was only
for the purpose of developing the truth that they had
been assembled that day, and it was only the de-
velopment of truth which they required to give effect
to their cause.

Mr. HAmir.TeN, the secretary of the association,
stated that he had received many letters from various
individuals who had been expected, but who had been
unable to attend, amongst whom was Sir George
Drummond. Invitations had been sent to the county
Members, and those for the borough, and they had
been severally informed that the platform was free to
all corners. Mr. Cobden had had nothing to do with
the arrangements of the meeting, and before Mr.
Disraeli made his speech at Marlow it had been
appointed for that day. Mr. Disraeli resemblsd the
Buckinghamshire agriculturists in this, that he was
rather slow in his movements, and on that account it
had been thought desirable to appoint the meeting for
five o'clock, in order that he might have good time to
perform the journey in.—(Laughter.)
The CHAIRMAN said, that as the agent of Lord
Nugent, one of the Members for the borough, be could
assure the meeting that that Noble Lord would have
attended the meeting had he not been abroad.
Mr. LATTIMOBE said, that the object of this meeting
was to put the farmers in a better position. If they
did not succeed in obtaining prosperity it could not be
for the want of advisers, or of friends. Mr. Disraeli,
in addressing his constituents at Great Marlow, said
that the tenant-farmers lord a right to demand that
they should be placed on a footing of (quality with
their fellow subjects. He (Mr. Lattimore) quite
concurred in that demand, and would himself claim
for the tenant-farmers equal rights with the com-
mercial classes. The great question was bow to
attain that end ? He believed, as a practical farmer,
that Mr. Disraeli's mode of attaining it would prove
quite ineffectual —(Hear.) Mr. Disraeli, speaking on
the part of the territorial aristocracy, said that unless
they had protection they could not continue to pay
their share of the national taxation ; and he contended

that the whole extent of his plan would not produce that
equality of condition which he professed to be desirous
of promoting. He would exhort the farmers to consider
the question in a practical light. This was essentially
a question of income and expenditure, and as to free

trade, he wished them to recollect that there was no
example on record of the people of England retro-
grading on any great principle. There could be no
national antagonism between free trade and agricul-
ture. All the interests of the kingdom were closely
interwoven, and it was obviously justice that each
should stand upon a footing of equality with
the others. The point was, what was the mode of
effecting that equalisation ? There Mr. Disraeli and
he differed. It was quite absurd, that while other
classes of the community were enjoying the advan-
tages consequent upon recent changes of the law, the
tenant-farmers should be paying, even at this time of
low prices, the prices which were obtained under pro-
tection. The fact was that the landlords had made a
bad bargain of it in the tithe commutation, and now
the poor tenant farmers were made the sufferers.
They must look narrowly into the state of their rela-
tions with their landlords, and then he was sure they
would find much which demanded alteration, and that
alteration it would depend on themselves to make.
Mr. COBDEN, M.P , then came forward, and was
received with loud and prolonged cheering. When
silence had been obtained, the Hon. Gentleman said—
M‘.. Chairman and Gentlemen, it gives me peculiar
pleasure to follow a gentleman who has addressed you
in the capacity of a tenant-farmer—who, to my
knowledge in his own business, by the growth of
more corn, by the raising of more cattle, and by the
employment of more labourers on a given soil—ex-
cels most of his neighbours. It affords me great
pleasure to follow such a man, so well entitled to
speak to you on a subject that interests the agricul-
ture of the country. We are met here to-day under
the denomination of a Financial and Parliamentary
Reform Meeting, but it is well known to every one
present, that the general impression both here and
abroad is, that this is a meeting for the purpose, so
far at least as I am concerned in the matter, of
discussing the question of protection and free
trade, and especially with reference to the
interests of the tenant-fariners.—(Hear, hear.)
I remember addressing a meeting in this hall six
years ago, and, on that occasion, I went through
the arguments necessary to show that the corn-law
was founded in ienpolicy and injustice. I remember
then maintaining the proposition that the corn-laws
had not proved beneficial to any class of the com-
munity, and ventured to say that the country would
be more prosperous without the system of agricul-
tural protection than it had been with it. Well, I
stand here, now, to maintain that by every teat that
can proclaim the prosperity or adversity of a nation,
we stand better now without the corn-laws than we
did when we had thetn.—(Cheers, " Yes, yes," and
" No, no.") I say by every test, and lam glad to see
some dissentients from that proposition here. At
all events our opponents won't say that this is a
packed meeting. We have got some Protectionists
here, arid now I shall endeavour to make them
Free-traders before they leave us. And I have
said by every test which can decide the question
of national prosperity or adversity, we stand
in a better position than we did under the corn-laws.
—(Cheers.) What are the tests of a national
prosperity ? A declining or an improving revenue is
one test. Well, our revenue is better now than it
was under the corn-laws. Our exports and imports
are better than they were under the corn- laws
(Hear.) Then take the question of pauperism, and I
won't shrink from that test of pauperism even in an agri-
cultural district. I have the statistics of many of your
unions in Buckinghamshire and Bedfordshire, and I
warn the Protectionist orators, who are going about
persuading themselves that they have a case in the
matter of pauperism, that, when Parliament meets,
and Mr. Baines is enabled to bring forward his poor•
law statistics up to'. the last week of the year (for it
won't do to give us the accounts from the Blue
Books for last year, as the proofs on this
question)—l warn the Protectionists, that, in
the case of pauperism even, the Aylesbury districts
stand more favourably now, with bread at a mode-
rate price, than they did in 1847, when prices were
high, and the loaf was nearly double its present rate.
Now take the condition of wages, which is a test of
the state of the great mass of the people. Well, what
are the people earning now, compared with what they
earned in 1847, when the Protectionists were so well
satisfied with the high prices ? Well, as a rule
throughout the county, more money is being earned
now in every branch of business than at the former
period; and the working people are getting the com-
forts and necessaries of life in many cases at two-
thirds of, and in some at less than half, the prices of
1147.—(" Agricultural labourers.") I will come to
the agriculturists by, and by, but what I want is,
that you should agree at the outset that the agricul-
tural labourers are not the nation.—(A. laugh, and
" But they must be reckoned.") And if your
agriculture be an exception to the general rule, we
must find out the reason why it is so; but I will
come to that presently.—(Hear, hear.) I remember
quite well when I came here to see you before, how
my ears used to be dinned with the argument
that if we had free trade in corn, the gold would
be all drained out of the country, because you could
not bring in five million quarters.—(Some. interrup-
tion was here occasioned in the speech of the Hon.
Gentleman, in consequence of the densely crowded
state of the remote end of the ball ; and the Chair.
man, after a short pause, came forward for the pur-
pose of restoring order. He stated tnat the commit-
tee desired that everybody should be accommodated,
but if they were not quiet, no alternative would pre-
rent itself to him but that of ordering the person
causing
the disturbance to be taken into custody.)
The Hon. Gentleman then proceeded thus wish
to guard against the attempt to create confusion,
sometimes resorted to by certain parties, when they
have no other means of carrying out their views.—
(Here the confusion was renewed.) If any one wishes
to come upon this platform, let him give his name, and .
If he not give his name, you may be sure that be
is an impostor.—(Hear, hear.) Now I was speaking
of wages, and that I know is a subject which interests
many persons now present.—(Hear, hear.) I say that
in every branch of business the state of wages has
improved. You may say that there are exceptions to
that rule as to every other, but I do not make an ex-
ception of any trade in your district, not even of
traders employing women; for I made inquiries and
found that in the article of straw-plaiting, which is
carried on largely in Bedfordshire and Buckingham-
shire, families which in the year 1847, when the price
of bread was double its present price, did not earn
15s. a week, now in many cases earn 255. at straw-
plaiting.—(Hear, hear.) I know this is true, be-
cause we have some of the most extensive manu-
facturers now in this hall. Then again there is
I the pillow-lace trade, employing a great number of

women in Buckinghamshire, and I am delighted to
find that the pillow-lace-makers' wages have advanced
since 1847, and they are getting bread at two-thirds
of its former price. Why, even the poor chair manu-
facturers in this and the neighbouring localities—a
trade which hardly knows what it is to have a revival
—are becoming more busy, and their wages are im-
proving. In fact, I repeat, that without exception,
there is not a trade which has not gained advantage
by the moderate price at which food is now obtained.
—(Not to lace-makers.) —Yes, I say that the lace-
makers are getting more employment. But now I
want to come to a question, which interests you deeply
in this immediate neighbourhood, and it is this—
if every great interest in'l the State is reviving,
and nobody denies that it is, how is it that agri- 1
culture is depressed ? Now that is a question
which you will do well to consider with attention.
How is it that the interests of agriculture are thus
found in antagonism with the interests of the rest of
the community ? Why, they have been under
a false system.—(Loud cheers.) They have pro•
ceeded upon an unsaund basis. Landlords have b een
greedy to have legislative prices, when they ought to
have been contented with natural ones. Why else
should not agriculturists get on as well as other
trades ?—(Loud cheers.) We find meetings called,
purporting to be those of farmers complaining of dis-
tress. What is their remedy for that distress ? Is it
not to go and talk like men of business to the land-
lords, and ask them for fresh arrangements, in order
that they may have the raw materiel—the land—at
the natural price, and free from this restriction ?
(Cheers) The landlords talk at these meetings as
farmers, and for farmers, and they say, " we must
go t Parliament, and get protection on corn to pay
our rents with." That is what it amounts to. The
landlord, as Mr. Disraeli observed at Great Marlow
yesterday, is an individual who deals in the raw ma-
terial, and the farmer ie a capitalist who offers to
take this raw material. In feet, the landlord and
the tenant stand in the same relative situation as do
the cotton-spinners and the cotton-merchant. Now, I
never heard of the cotton•spinner and the cotton-
merchant joining together in common cause, and
asking for e.omething which would tend to keep up
the price of cot!on.—(Cheers.) I declare, when I
hear of these landlords and farmers thus joining
together, I cannot help feeling humiliated, and think
that there is a want of common sense, if not of common
honesty-, on the part of their leaders. Suppose ycu
were to 'meet with a combination of the grocers of
Aylesbury with their customers, to keep up prices,
would you not at once denounce it as ateurd ?
(Cheers and laughter.) Now, the plan which I re-
commend to tenant-farmers to be pursued towards
their landlords is precisely the same as that which
has been pursued by myself towards my own tenants,
and I will explain to you how I have acted. I happen
to stand here in the quality of a landlord, filling, I
admit, a most insign!fieant character in that capacity.
—(flaw much do you farm ?) I farm a small estate
of about 140 acres in West Sussex, which is ;ituated
in a purely tl:rming district, in the immediate vicinity
of the largest Protectionist proprietors in Sussex. The
land is inferior in quality, it is not within ten miles
of any railway, it has no chimneys nor growing ma-
nufacturing towns near it to give it value, end this is
precisely tee kind of land which we are told by Lord
John Manners cannot be Cultivated when wheat is at
40s. a quarter. This property came into my pos7cs-
siun in 1847. lam indebted for it—and lam proud
to acknowledge the fact in a public assembly—to the
bounty of nay countrymen ; anti I re juice that I am
enabled, by postes deg it again, to light up the hearth
of my fathers in the place where I spent my infancy.
And I say that no Duke or Lord, wi:,ll a ParliAmen •
tary grant, or one proceeding from the Sovereign,
holds hip property by a more henourable title than
I possess.—(Great cheering ) My first visit to this
property after it came into my possession was in
1848, and I then foresaw the competition to which
we should soon be exposed. I gave orders im-
mediately that every hedge row in it should be
cut down. I authorised the two occupying tenants
to remove every fence on the estate. If they pre-
ferred to grub up portions of it only, they were to
be at liberty to do so; but I said I would rather not
see a hedge upon my property, as it was surrounded
with hedges. It required draining, and that I have
done at my own cost. This small estate being near
those of great game preservers was particularly in-
fested with hares and rabbits. I authorised the
tenants on the land to kill the rabbits and the hares.
So troublesome had they become in one place that
they entered the gardens mei allotments of the
labourers, one of whom appeared and gave evidence
before the Committee of the House of Commons on
the game laws, in 1845 ; and stated that those rabbits
not only devoured the vegetables and destroyed the
cabbages and peas, but actually dug up his potatoes.
—(Great laughter.) At that time, in 1843, the pro-
perty slid not belong to me; but I made inquiries in
18-18, and explained to the man that if the rabbits
injured him and others on my property, the state of
the law permitted every man to destroy hares so
spoiling his produce,without taking out a licence. I ad-
vised him, in short, to set snares, and when they had
caught them, to be .ure, to put them in their own pots,
and eat them.—(Tremendous laughter, and cheers.)
That is the way in which I deal with my game.—
(Cheers.) I must confess I have no taste whatever for
the preservation of that hind cf vermin, which I
believe to be quite inconsistent pith good farming
( Hear.) I consider this point to present one of the
greatest obstacles to the improvement of the agricul-
tural labourers, and for my own part had rather see a
good fat hog than the best preserve.—(Cheers.) That
was the course I pursued in 1848, in anticipation of
the competition we are now engaged in. Prices then
ranged high. Nothing was settled about rent, but in
the course of last year I received a letter from one of
my tenants, stating that when he took a piece of land
from my predecessor, it was on the calculation of
wheat averaging about 565. a quarter, and it was now
little more than 405., and under those circumstances
he desired a :new arrangement as to terms. I wrote
him in reply, that the proposition he made
was a reasonable one, that be should have
the new arrangement he desired, but that
as I was willing to submit to the dis-
advantage of low prices, I must have the benefit of
good cultivation, and therefore that I would estimate
the produce of the land to be such as could be grown
by good farmers on that quality of land.—(Bear.)
Now, I say, that from that very moment of my con-
ceding a point so reasonable there was not the
slightest anxiety of mind, not the least difficulty es
to whether our relations came under free trade or
pretection.—(Cheers ) Why could not that be dorm
in all cases ? Farmers and labourers would then le
content. That is the question now. Now, with
regard to leases, I say let there be a tenant-right, or
a lease amounting together to a tenant right, let us
submit to an arbitration as to unexhausted improve-
ments when the land is left, and I will not bind you
with covenants on the land while you possess it. All
the answer I would make to Noble Lords and Dukes
going about the country, gathering here and there
expressions of agricultural discontent, all I can
say to them is, let there be new terms of
agreement between you, the landlords, and
your tenants, and 1 will undertake to assure
you that your lands may be cultivated better by far,
that farming shall still be as profitable to farmers,
and that labourers shall still be employed at as good
wages—if you will only let me state your new
terms.—(Hear.) Agitation—it ought to be called
" moonshine"—(Cheers)--is not without a definite
object. If I had been a Protectionist, I should have
made money by it, and in this way—when my
tenants came to me complaining of prices, and
demanding new terms, I would say to them, "That
is true, and we will have a meeting at Great
Marlow, or at High Wycombe— (Great laughter)—
and we will then get up a petition to Parliament to
pass . a la* to protect you: Well, we should have
had a meeting, and after three hours and a half of
talk, it would have ended in three groans for Cobden.
—(Here the Hon. Gentleman was saluted with re-
peated bursts -of applause and the most vociferous
cheering.) If I had wanted an excuse for urging
grievous complaints of the calamitous state of
affairs, I would say to them, go to 17, New Bond-
street, and then we will take steps to lay our
case, not before Parliament, but at the foot of
the Throne. And then my tenants would go
away to get ready their next half-year's rent, and
then some fresh excuse would be found, and instead
of memorialising the Queen, they would perhaps
agitate for a dissolution of Parliament—(Hear)—and
then we might have been safe with our rent for the
next three years.----(Cheers.) This is an agitation
that will last, and in
the meantime what will be the
consequence to the tenant-farmers ?
with the heart-sickening of Why, what
delay—what with the
hopelessness inspired into soulthhhc by these dreary
Protectionist speeches, in
they cannot cultivate their landswi which they are told that
tfrteoe—pawyhatht
the old
the constant drain on their means
rents with new wheat prices, one-half of the tenants
would very ' likely be ruined, end I m not , sure
whetber one-half of them will not be ruined
is there by these
Protectionist tactics.—(llear, hear.)
any pretence whatever for saying that the
will be ruined if the landlords tenants
will
pursue
same straightforward course which I have done the
(Cheers.) Then it is a mere question of rent, and
if the farmers cannot get on with their business, they
pay too high a money rent in proportion to the
. amount of their produce. We want, therefore, to
bring landlords and tenants together, to confront
them in their proper capacities of buyers and sellers,
to make them deal with each other 22 all men of busi,
ness do, and not to play any longer the comedy in
which tenants and landlords are heard crying out
" We sail in the same boat," when the fact is that
N 1.-.l%*y_:s.viii* afferent boats, and in different direetions
e-ere- . d roan of laughter.) Now there is a.
5.,..;:-zry
,larzr,-ke.l.x drawn across the scent of the far.
t .'..:,. me.rs .-,:-, ill ,1 r ectiost cannot be hid "just now, but
_ ...-;:::,,th at 111*., . while they
i
(---"'
)
must have half the local

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