The Sun.
London, England, 1844-08-08 00:00:00

TILTS gITN:"LONDONs THURSDAY EVENING, AtTOTTST 8, 1444.

ask themselves, whether agriculture alone could
bring . about a happy and prosperous condition
for the great body of the popnlation.—(Hear, hear.)
It was unnecessary for him -o dwell in that intelli-
gent assembly on such an absurdity.—(Hear, hear.)
Time was when every little Baron was a sort of
bandit in the county in which he lived, when there
was no law to protect the weak from the aggressions
of the strong, when commerce bad not civilised
society, and knit them together by the ties of a com-
mon interest. Then was the time of a purely agri-
cultural system. It was too late in these days to
bring back what would soon be forgotten, or will, at
least, have passed away with the relics of feudal bar-
barism. The corn-law was the last of those relics—
no, not the last, but it involved the abolition of all the
rest; it was the keystone which, once removed, the
arch of monopoly, restriction, privilege, and unfair
legislation, must inevitably fall.—(Cheers.) They
professed in the House of Commons to take great
interest in the cause of the agricultural la-
bourers. They told them that they had been
amending the new poor-law. The amendment
might or might not be beneficial, but the great point
at which the Anti-Corn-law Association and free-
traders in general aimed was to prevent men from
becoming paupers.—(Cheers.) It was good to be
charitable, but it was better to be just. They wished
justice to be the pervading principle of the laws, and
they believed that if men had the opportunity of
supporting themselves, they 'would not see such an
amount of pauperism as now alarmed every
thinking man who took up any of the reports of the
Poor-law Commissioners, and calmly meditated on
their contents. Let them look at the condition of the
poor, notwithstanding all the attempts to improve it.
It was strange sort of policy, to say the least, to
make the pauper better off than the independent
labourer, and, indeed, such was the condition of the
independent labourer that they could not, without
absolutely starving the pauper, bring him into a worse
condition. What was the scale of living in this
country among the working population, or among a
number of different classes who did not enjoy
any good living? Pirst in the list stood the trans-
ported thief; second, the convicted thief; third, the
suspected thief; fourth, the soldier; fifth, the able-
bodied pauper; and, last of all, came the independent,
protected labourer.—(Hear, hear.) That was the
present state of things in this country—the present
scale of food.—(Hear, hear.) The transported thief
had a greater number of ounces of substantial food
than the convicted one ; the convicted thief had more
than the suspected ; the suspected thief had more than
the soldier ; the soldier had more than the able-bodied
pauper; and the able-bodied pauper had a great deal
more than the poor, protected, independent labourer.—
(Hear, hear.) He believed that the calculation was
that the transported felon had 330 ounces per week
of substantial 'food, and that the average of
independent labourers did not get more than 122.
He could not accurately carry the figures in his
mind, but he was not far out in his calculation. Was
it to be wondered at that when the labouring classes
were informed of this fact they should begin to
suspect that there was not much sympathylon the
part of the more powerful classes of the community
with their Condition ? What must be the reflection
of a hard-working man uhen he saw that with all his
toil and with all his willingness to earn a livelihood,
he could not place himself- in as good a position as a
felon who was sent out of the country, perhaps for
the worst of crimes ?—(Hear, hear.) Such was the
plain fact—it defied contradiction. They were told,
as he had already mentioned, that a great deal was
being done for the poor, but how did their opponents
meet this staggering fact ? When the subject of the
poor was before the House of Commons, he was told
that he had been enjoying himself in the country
whilst others were working hard to benefit the labour-
ing men, by amending the New Poor-law. There
could be no doubt that Ministers had a great deal of
hard work, especially when they reflected that their
mornings were occupied in inspecting the correspon-
dence at the Post•office.—(Cheers and laughter.)
When his Hon. Friend the Member for Stockport
told the Ministers of his successes in the country, he
dared to say it was no news to them. They had read
it all in the morning.—(Cheers and laughter.) When
a messenger repaired to the Foreign-office to commu-
nicate some important intelligence to Lord Aberdeen,
it was no news to him—he had read the eontents of
the letter in the morning.— (Renewed laughter.) If
this, indeed, was the occupation of Ministers—if this
were the occupation in which the people of England
desired that Ministers should be employed—(Loud
cries of "No, no,")—all he could say was, that they
had a groat deal to do and some excuse to offer for
doing so little for the poorer classes in the Legislature.
He must say he had observed since he had had the
honour of being in Parliament, that a complete apathy
was exhibited whenever the subject of the distress of
the labouring classes was brought under its conside-
ration.—(Hear, hear.) Gentlemen, had been so long
in the habit of dinning it into the ears of the country
that the corn-laws were maintained exclusively for
the benefit of the agricultural labourer, that
they did not know where they were when
the alarming statement was made that, notwith-
standing the protection given to the agricultural la-
bourer, he was in as bad a condition as any human
being could be to exist at all. It might be supposed
that he was exaggerating : he did not say that such a
description would apply to every part of the United
Kingdom, but in Wiltshire and many other counties
he believed the wages were absolutely insufficient,
whatever might be his industry and diligence, to
ene'ale the labourer to bring up his family and
keep him from the necessity of applying for parochial
relief. It appeared to him that they had now arrived
at a position in that question in which it was very
important that they should direct their attention
exclusively to the agriculturists.—(Hear, hear.)
They of all parties appeared to him to be the most
interested in the total abolition of the corn-laws.—
(Hear, hear.), Until the corn-laws were entirely
swept away,: the farmer could never carry on his
business upon a safe and stable footing, and at the
present moment undoubtedly the uncertainty which
prevailed was one reason why the farmer was neces-
sarily prevented from giving the employment to the
labourer which he otherwise would de. So long as
the corn-laws existed, so long would there be anti-
corn-law agitation—(Cheers)—so long would there
be uncertainty; and therefore he maintained that the
shortest road,with reference to those interests of which
they heard so much, to a safe and permanent settle-
ment of the question, was by the total, immediate, and
unconditional abrogation of the corn-laws.--(dear.)
He believed that it.would be the least dangerous
of any steps that could be taken. Anything short of
that would still leave some something to be agitated.
There would still roman uncertainty, and agriculture
would not rest upon that safe foundation which could
alone be sound by letting prices depend on the natural
operation of supply and demand. If they looked at
the moral effect of sweeping away this great injustice,
it was impossible to contemplate It without gratifica-
tion ; when they reflected that it would do away with
one of the most prolific sources of discontent that now
existed in this country ; that it would bring the agri-
culturist, and the manufacturer, and the commercial
man together ; that so long as this grievous interfer-
ence with the rights of industry existed, these classes
must be separated by an almost impassable barrier ;
but that when this barrier was swept away all classes
of the community would be knit together, and made
to feel that the laws were based in justice, and that
all this would • tend to spread throughout the world
the blessings of civilisation, and to place them on a
good foundation.—(Loud cheers.)
Mr. COBDEN, M.P., then came forward, and was
received with loud cheers. He spoke as follows :
Ladies and Gentlemen, You have heard a great deal
of allusion to-night to an organ of the press, which
always excites. considerable merriment when its
name is mentioned here. But I was reading
this morning a leading article in another paper
the Morning herald—(Hisses and laughter)—where
I see it announced in distinct and leaded type, for the
fourteenth time during the last six months, that the
League is positively defunct.—(Laughter.) I wish
Grandmama was here this evening. Now there is
such a thing as a paper being defunct. I have known
many instances since we began this agitation in
which papers that had announced our death have them-
selves expired shortly afterwards. There was one
paper in Manchester which announced to its readers
on one Saturday that the League was extinguished,
hands—ate
when, on the following Saturday, that paper itself
heardgav that gave up thleately G
ghost.—an(Laughter.) Now,e I have
all events,- I believe the Herald has been
united to the Standard, perhaps on the principle
which has been adopted on the coast of Africa, where
they collect a very heavy description of wood, which
will not float, and they get over the difficulty by
tying a log of this heavy wood
to a log of lighter
timber, in order that both may swim together.—
(Laughter.) If the light pinions of the Standard can
keep Grandmama above water, its vitality will be
greater than ever I have given it credit for. No, the
League is not defunct.—(Loud cheers.) The League
is living—(Renewed cheering)—and it will live—
(Continued cheering)—just for that length of time
during which it is necessary that such a body should
live, in order to accomplish the mighty object for
which it was originally formed.—(Loud cheering.)
It was not in the nature of things that an association
which was intended to obtain a repeal of the corn-laws
—to bring down the greatest monopoly which was ever
maintained by a powerful aristocracy, whose power
alone could ever have given it the effrontery neces-
sary to maintain such a system—it was not in the
nature of things that such an association should ac-
complish so vast an object without the lapse of a con-
siderable periOd of time.—(Cheers.) We have to 1,
teach not merely a whole people—we have to teach
two generations—those who are passing away and
those who are rising up, in order to enable both pro- 11
perly to understand the question. Nay, more! we
had to secure the experience of all classes on our side, ' :