The Sun.
London, England, 1868-03-09 00:00:00

" WAA WANT!"

A meeting of a peculiar character took place in St.
James's Hall, Piccadilly, on Saturday evening last. A
few placards headed " Want, Want !" but bearing no
names upon them, had been posted in London, calling
upon the unemployed to meet and discuss the causes
of the lack of work and the means of remedy. In
response, about 150 persons attended, in a ball capable
of holding 2,000. Soon after seven, a Mr. O'Brien
came on the platform, accompanied by two or
three other individuals. He expressed regret that
a distinguished gentleman who had promised to
preside had not come ; but in his absence the chair
would be taken by Mr. Roberts. That gentleman, having
been forthwith installed, entered upon a speech which is
only worthy of mention on account of its contrariety to
all that is accepted as constituting the prosperity of
nations. Having denied that the depression of trade was
due to combinations of workmen, the panic in the City,
or the want of technical education, he laid down as the.
real cause the competition of foreigners ; and he distinctly
held that we ought to shut them out—in fact, to stop
free trade altogether. If ships were built abroad at less
price than here, we could have no ships to build. He
enumerated some fifty or sixty articles of commerce
which are imported from foreign countries, including
artificial flowers, straw hats, machinery, barometers. and
cannon, and he gravely asked if we need be surprised that
the working men of England were unemployed ? There
were persons in the meeting who applauded him., but it
soon became clear that there were also men present
who felt that this was hardly a reasonable course to
pursue, and who plainly told the chairman so, whereat
he became highly indignant, and, of course, informed the
dissentients that if they could not understand him it was
not his fault. Mr. O'Brien followed, in a long oration,
the drift of which was that while we kept our ports open
to foreigners they closed theirs against us, and that we all
knew what must become of a gentleman who continually
entertained his neighbours without ever being received
by them •in return. While doing some justice to
Mr. Cobden's character, he held that the French recipro-
city treaty was all on one side. We gave them coals and
iron, and got in return griping wine, which had killed
more men than ever Frenchmen did. He concluded by a
lament on the days when England was " Merrie England',
indeed, and when masters united more with their men.
He moved a resolution to the effect that the admission
without restriction of manufactured articles from foreign
countries is the cause of many men being out of employ-
ment. A Mr. Barber, obviously labouring under a mistake,
went on the platform, and defended the administration of
the West-end Relief Fund in Bethnal-green, of which
fund he is one of the dispensers. The resolution was seconded
by. a working man who gave the name of Hartley, and
who described himself as a plasterer, of Waltham-
stow. Mr. Ashley, a plumber, and two or three other
persons, asked the chairman to tell them more definitely
what he meant, and how they were to cure the disease.
He said, in reply, they must keep out the foreigner, who
came to take away their bread. (Cries of " Stuff, non-
sense.") The plumber made a speech refuting the argu-
ment that want of employment was due to that Free
Trade for which we had laboured so long. He was not
one of those claptrap men who would cut people's throats
because they were born rich. That was an accident, and
if it had happened to any of them they would have tried
to keep their wealth. They might as well blame a tree for
its hulk as a man for his riches. Nevertheless, he thought
the rich ought to be more highly taxed for um relict of
the poor, and that English workmen, being the best in
the worm, ougnt to nu utter paid. The next speaker
attributed our national misfortunes to our sins, entreated
the meeting to go down on its knees, and wound up by
advising -all present to purchase family bibles. From
this time the pr, c eclings became quite irregular. One
man, clearly a labourer, said he had been out of work
three months, and had a !family of five ; what would
they do for him ? The chairman said he was the man
they wanted to hear. Another of the audience com-
plained that he had to break half a bushel of stones in
St. Gil CS'S Wcrkhouse before breakfast. Charles
Hod, a labourer, gave, as the result of thirty years'
observation in Thames-street, his conviction that the
iron trade was going out of the country. Crawshays',
who had wade £7,000,000, kept on their place for some
time for the sake of their men, but had been obliged to
shut it up. Yet there was plenty of money in the City.
The Bank of England was "gloated." (Laughter.) Mr.
Ronald, of Millwall, followed. Then came a respectable-
looking man, who gave the name of Johnson. He attri-
buted the depression of trade in a great measure to the.
absence of the Court, to the non-invitation of forme-.
potentates to this country, and to a going abroad of tea
nobility in quest of that gaiety which they could not timl
at home. He regretted that the Earl of Ducie had avowed
himself a dealer in soap and candles, and he reprimanded
ia
clergyman for saying a trader could carry on business with
only 5 per cent. profit. Affairs having by this time got into
hopeless confusion, the chairman said the hall would cost
them ss. for gas for every half-hour longer ; he therefore de-
dared the meeting dissolved. It would not dissolve. The
firstresolution having been lost sight of, he endeavoured ti.
introduce a second, recommending the establishment of
penny dormitories; but the meeting, with few exceptions
indignantly repelled it. Mr. O'Brien endeavoured ta
regain order, but without effect. He put it that " those
eminently intellectual gentlemen" (the reporters for tho
press) had only one night in the week for domestic coin-
fort, and that was Saturday. On their account he e*
treated the meeting to dissolve. Still it remained indisso-
luble. Here the chairman abdicated almost unobservece
and disappeared with Mr. O'Brien and some othertS
Cries arose that it had been a "mockery." One of thi
audience proposed a vote of censure ; another asked for
rive shillings ; a third mounted the platform and de-
clared the casual wards were full, and that he himself had
seen 500 in one house. The plumber put a resolution about
taxation, and carried it by a show of hands. At length,
as the gas was visibly lowered, one by one of the small
assemblage left the hall.

TURNPIKE 'lnnsTs.—Mr. Knatchbull - Hugessen
seems to anticipate opposition to his Turnpike Trusts
Bill, the second reading of which has been deterred
until after Easter. He says :—" Statements directly
at variance with the evidence taken before three
Select Committees, and with the reports of those
committees, have been extensively circulated, and
a stereotyped form of petition adopted by
frightened ratepayers, who are taught to believe
that it is sought to impose upon them a new and
unjust burden. But what is the fact ? No new
burden is to be imposed, but an old one is to be
shifted, reduced, and its weight lessened by the exten-
sion of the area of taxation by which it is to be borne.
If no legislation takes place within the next twelve
years the vast majority of trust Acts will have expired,
and unless renewed at great expense, or continued by
their insertion in an annual Continuance Act by the
Home Secretary, the trusts will conic to an end, and
their road repairs will fall upon the individual parishes
in which the roads happen to be situate. Within the
last eight years no fewer than 280 Trust Acts
have so expired. Every year, therefore, further voin-
plicates the system, and the promoters of
the present Bill believe that the time is come
when a general measure should provide for
the gradual and certain abolition of turnpike trusts
upon a definite principle. Now, the main principles
of the bill introduced by Mr. George Clive Mr.
Ayrton, and Mr. Goldney jointly with myself are
these :-1. Abolition of tolls. 2. Enlargement of
the area of taxation by which the road repairs are
to be borne. 3. Supervision and management of
expenditure to be in the hands of the ratepayers or
their representatives; instead of an irresponsible body
of trustees." The proposals of the present bill were
actually, with one . exception, adopted, either unani-
mously or by large majorities, by the Select Com-
mittee of last year. This one exception was the
source from which the debt should be defrayed, and
herein lies the real great difficulty of the question.
We wish to ascertain the real value of the debt in
each case —to charge that real value upon the district
rates in the shape of an annual payment for a limited
period, to be fixed by the Secretary of State, during,
which period tolls may be continued under the direc-
tion of the local authorities, bo that the ratepayers will
rill have any extraneous assistance which they may
e now receiving until the debt and tolls drop
gWathgr,l

PREFERENCE SHARES.
Great Western, Orig. 4/ per cent., 76
North Eastern, Cons., per cent.,
Ditto, 4/ per cent. r.d., 92/
Stockton and Darlington B, 6 per cent., 1291
rstlAßEs AND STOCKS
Great Eastern 4/ per cent.,
Ditto, new 5 per cent., 1863, 601
FOREIGN RAILWAY'.
Antwerp and Rotterdam, Of
tistna and San Franciac, gua. 7
pericent., 11
Ottoman (Smyrna to Aidin), 3

FOREIGN MINIM
Chontalea Gold and Silver Mininm lint., a
of --,
reatarena United Gold, lint., 21
St. John del Rey, lint, itSi:
United Mexican, lint., 11

BANES.

Agra, lim., A, 10}
Ditto, B, 71
Chartered Bank of India, Australia, and Chin,. is
English, Scotch, and Australian Chartered, 174
Imperial Ottoman, VI
London and County, ---
Ditto, new, 341
London Joint Stock, 33
London and \N estminster, 621
Ditto, Scrip, 47 6}
National Provincial of England,
Ditto, ,d and :id issue, 37
Oriental Bank Corporation, 421
Union of Australia, 50
Union of Loudon, 34 3/
MISCELLANICOUS.
Anglo American Telegraph, 20.1
Atlantic Telegraph, 54
Dit,o, S per amt., 105 21
Credit eoncier ot England, lim., 3 1-13
Hudson's Bay, 14/
IVillwaairreehold Land and Dock, 321
Peninsula and Oriental Stearn, 514
Rio de Janeiro City Improvements•, 17
Itoyal M,ti Steam, 871
Viceroy of Egypt (3lortgage) Loan) 74

COP.NISII CIIAMBER OF AGRICULTUP.E.—A largely
attended county meeting of landowners, tenant-farmers,
and others was hold at Lostwithiel, Cornwall, on Thurs-
day, for the purpose of considering the expediency of
establishing a Chamber of Agriculture for the county
The High Sheriff presided, and it was unanimously re-
solved to establish a Chamber without delay.
TIIE PROPOSED ANNEXATION OF HAMPSTEAD
TO TILE BOROUGH OF MARYLEBONE. - On Friday tho Hamp-
stead vestry passed a resolution to petition Parliament
against passing any bill that would give effect to the boun-
dary commissioners' recommendation that Hampstead
should be annexed to the borough of Marylebone. They
also resolved to promote a similar petition from the inha-
bitants of Hampstead.

HULL WEST DOCK.—This important addition to
the works of the Hull D.,)ck. Company will be opened be-
fore the close of the present year. It is expected that the
Prince of Wales will attend the opening ceremonial, an in-
vitation to his Royal Highness to do so having been for-
warded through Lord Wenlock, the Lord-Lieutenant of
the Lag Aiding, on Dohalf of the }lull Dock Company.