The Sun.
London, England, 1844-05-09 00:00:00

committing such an act, or if such a one
could be found, who would not be discharged
from his employment, and denounced by his fellow
labourers.—(Cheers.) It was an attempt to impose on
that great cause the highest authority on one side as
an authority on the other side ; and that individual
members of the Committee should say that they dis-
owned it, and washed their hands of it, as he under-
stood some of them did say in private, was not
enough. More than this was due to a sense of public
justice and of public decency. Of the violation of
decency he would say nothing ; but it was a stain on
the character of British gentlemen, that they should
be mixed up in any way with such a
subornation of false witnesses.,—(Hear, hear.)
It had been said that the advocates of a repeal of the
corn-laws held - out to their supporters the promise
that it would be a cure for all the evils of the com-
munity. He denied that the League had held out
such a promise. But he would contend that it was
no good objection to a medicine to say that it could
not heal all diseases, when it professed to cure only
one.—(Applause.) A medicine might do much to
mitigate disease, although it could not confer immor-
tality.—(Cheers.) It was said, that if those barriers
were broken down, other evils would still stand in
the way of improvement. He denied that there were
any such evils inherent in human nature, or that any
such barriers were necessarily conditions of society.
So long as there was the most insignificant portion of
land in Europe uncultivated—so long as there was
uncultivated land in the remotest parts of the earth,
so long it was idle to talk of those insuperable bar-
riers.—(Cheers.) Those barriers would never be
reached until mankind had peopled those regions
where the finest fruits were so abundant that
the cattle were killed by the eating of too may
peaches.—(Applause and laughter.) The friends of
free trade might look forward -to the period when a
change would take place in the civilised world as
great as that which took place in Europe upon the
shaking off of feudalism—when the position of a land-
lord became a trade and ceased to be a dignity.—
(Cheers.) It was asserted by the opponents of free
trade that one effect of it would he to make this coun-
try dependent upon others. But, after all, what was
better than that mutual dependence which gave to
countries an interest in the welfare of each other? In
modern times, Greece had obtained her independence
by her reliance upon her ancient glories—the Low
Countries, by their reliance on the rights of religion—
the little state of San Marino, by following the ex-
ample of America, and resisting the attempt to impose
taxation without representation.—(Cheers.) But it
was left to the landed aristocracy of England to
assert the independence of the country through the
agency of the Custom--house officer.—(Cheers and
laughter.) But he would never admit that the
strength of the oak depended upon its being rooted in
the dunghill of protective duties.—(Hear, hear.) He
would say let the independence of England be her
reliance on her own power—on the capital which she
had amassed—on the indomitable power which marked
her children—on that power which they possessed of
rendering to other nations services, which, without
her, they could not render to each other.—(Applause.)
He begged now to call the attention of the meeting
to a most important subject—the matter of the regis-
tration of Parliamentary electors.—(Hear, hear.) In
no case had the people attended to the registration so
as to obtain from the Reform Bill all the benefits it

was intended to place within their reach.—(Cheers.)
In London the friends of free trade had succeeded,
and he hoped that now in South Lancashire they
would again succeed ; but it was necessary that it
should be impressed upon their minds, and carefully
attended to, that the registration was of the highest
importance to their cause.—(Hear.) The Western
Times told us the other day, that on the occasion of
the Attorney-General's offering himself again
as a candidate for the representation of Exe-
ter, a young workman who had a vote was
required by his employer to give it to Sir 'William
Follett. There were six workmen in the shop who
had votes. Five of them voted for the Attorney-
General, and the sixth, who refused to obey in that
respect the command of his employer, was discharged.
—(Vehement expressions of indignation.) Such,
then, was protection.—(Great cheering.) Such was
the protection of the aristocracy in election times.—
(Cheers and laughter.) The man might go to the
workhouse, and whilst he was there, some monopolist
Lord might get up a meeting for the assistance of the
distressed needlewomen, of whom the wife of the
victim might be one.—(Hear, hear.) He confessed
that he viewed with disgust the conduct of those
who seemed to think that all principle was super-
seded by the struggle of an election, and by the
prospect of a seat in Parliament, who priced their
land, reckoning that land by a certain number of
votes—who exercised the cruelty of their authority
in threatening dismissal from their holdings of those
who were not obedient, who directly or indirectly
applied the screw to the tradespeople and the la-
bourer, thereby demoralising their character, and
subduing their spirit of independence. He (Mr.
Fox) did not hesitate to say that the poor outcast that
walked the Strand for the wages of infamy, contri-
buted less to the amount of public vice than many
persons who were dignified and noble, and who would
less pollute by her presence the sanctity of a
Court, or the presence of Royalty.—(Hear, hear,
and cheers.) He had another thing to say to
their friends from the country, and that was, let
them take care of the tricks that were practised here.
There was thimble-rigging and ring-dropping in other
places than at Epsom or the pot-houses of the metro-
polis. Let them beware of knavish humanity.—
(Cheers and laughter.) He would net utter one syl-
lable to steel any man's heart against a grief that
should be felt, or to close his pocket against liberal
alms-giving. But when it was attempted to blind
the country to the claims of justice by interposing
some shadow of charity, by putting forth compara-
tively imperfect, pitiful, and paltry donations,
which were got up in rooms, he said that
it was time to cry beware, and to mark the
character of the charity which, however aris-
tocratic the names which adorned the list, was a false
and bastard charity—a charity which, at the
same time cnt down the hours of work in mills, and
the worth of wages in the market—a charity which
gave guineas to individuals and drew millions from
the community—a charity which bestowed half an
inch of court plaister for a scratch on the finger of
society, while it drove the iron of oppression into the
very soul—a charity which gave to hundreds of chil-
dren a penny bun, while it made millions of men
pay ninepence for the sixpenny loaf—a charity which,
having set the land in a conflagration of misery and
wretchedness, brought its silver thimble to put a drop
of water on the flame, and he said that this
charity was unworthy of the regard of a right-
minded man.—(Great cheering.) Let such persons
give over talking sensibility and voting monopoly.—
(Cheers.) Let them render justice to the poor, and I
take care of the poor man's children. Let them pay
their own workwomen, and they would do more by
that means to benefit the condition of those work-
women, than ever self-appointed patrons could do
Those who were present then from the country, rel..
haps had some of them come to London in conn,,,ction
with many of those institutions which were ti nn hold-
ing their anniversaries. They had come to talk of a
subject more sacred than that which occupied them that
night, but he must say to them that if such were the
case, the state of their minds was such as to enable
them fully to enter into the spirit of that meeting
because he believed that the doctrine of free trade
was essentially connected with giving peace on earth,
and diffusing good will into the minds of mankind.
They needed no greater bar to the progress
of religion than monopoly. Let them behold the
richness of the harvest when the golden fields were
waving in heaven's light, when the poor labourers
heart should be gladdened—let them behold this scene
and they would find that as the feelings of thankful-
ness rose in the poor man's heart, there came the
shadow of overgrown monopoly brooding over the
scene, and interposing between him and his share of
God's bounty.—(Cheers.) While such a state of
things lasted, there would be an incessant struggle
with the possessors of power. By enter-
ing into that strife those to whom he
was addressing his observations would be only aiding
the cause of morality and religion, and they would
therefore desire to follow in that long list in which
they found such illustrious names as those of Clark-
son and Howard, for they would be carrying eman-
cipation to the slave—they would give the voice of
gladness to the tongue of the widow and the orphan, and
they would place kindly feeling and social order where
now was to be found only strife and contention.
(Cheers.) In this good work, then, lie asked for their
concurrence there and their co-operation when they
returned to the several places in which they lived..
For himself he had to thank them for the cheering
sympathy with which they had met him, which in
some measure rendered unnecessary the apology with
which he had commenced. Whether in sickness or
in health there was no cause that laid a stronger
grasp upon the heart and mind than did that great
cause of justice and humanity. It was one for
which the exertions of a life were well spent, and a
dying breath could scarcely be poured forth more
appropriately than, in a last protest against that in-
- sidious system which denied to man the right of his
lahour, the charter of his being, and the bounty of his
Creator.—.(Great cheering.)
The r.eeeting then separated.

MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF A YOUTH AT WOOLWICH.
--On Monday an inquest was held at the Mitre public-house,
to inquire into the death of a youth unknown, found drowned.
-The case excited the greatest interest, from the extraordinary
manner in which the arms of deceased were pinioned and
fastened. Thomas Ball, of 5, Little Bennett-street, Green-
wich, said he was rowing past the Justitia convict hulk, off
her Majesty's Naval Arsenal, when he saw the body of de-
ceased floating. He laid on a rope to the body. and brought
it ashore. It was now in the seine position as when he
found it—the arms were tied behind. The jury, after consi=
derale discussion, adjourned for a fortnight, to allow time to
make inquiries.