The Sun.
London, England, 1844-03-13 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY NIORNING, MARCH 13, 1844.

the expense of the rest of the community. The Hon. Mem- at anyrate he had stated it at two public meetings—that,he bad
bey for Roxburghshire said he was the poor man's friend. So ; the means in his possession of proving certain heavy charges
were they who supported the motion; it was to affect the poor which had been brought against the League, and that as a ma-
man's food that they were making exertions. He , gistrate he was cognizant of facts which proved some men to be
thought that the prosperity of the manufacturing and ; guilty of crimes of which, as far as the charge had been made
sericulture] interest ought to go hand in hand public, they had stated they were innocent. If that Hon.
and he was convinced, that what injured the one was detri- I Gentleman knew anything of that kind, he (Mr. Bright) said
mental to the other, for the removal of restrictions from trade ; that the Hon. Gentleman himself must be accessory to the
had always a tendency—always enriched—the best customer of crime if he, as a magistrate, concealed such facts from the
I
the agriculturist. He concurred with the Hon. Member for knowledge of the Right Hen. Baronet the Secretary of State
Stockport, that rents would not be materially decreased by the ; for the Home Department. It would be more honourable and
operation of free trade. However, they ought to have the ' much mere becoming in the Magistrate and a Member of Par-
Committee and investigate the truth, and if, after a careful in- !lament if he were to lay that statement before the Govern-
vestigation, they saw protection was necessarily just, and cal . ment, when it would be fully investigated, rather than making
culated to promote the general welfare of the community, then it at a meeting where only one side was allowed to be heard,
let protection be adopted; but if it should be shown to be un- and where the friends of the Hon. Gentleman and his party
I
jest, impolitic, and calculated to injure a great portion of the were only allowed to be present. It might be thought that the
He (Mr.
community, then let it be done away with. They only asked Anti-Corn-law League excited the people. excite theßright)
for justice, _ and he trusted the country would ultimately in- never denied that they did so. Theypeople,
and they should continue to excite the people. The pamphlet,
duce the House to give that justice to the country.
Colonel WOOD said that if the Hon. Gentleman who had which had been written by the Rev. Mr.
l.Osborne,. which
.b had
just sat down had, instead of confining his returns of the been often spoken of that night, gave
f a ittle insight t into
l
population to that of twenty-three counties, extended them to what amounted to the chargleaboexciting peop
ien.
the United Kingdem, he would have found that instead of the The writer said that agricultural
.ourers were discouraged
proportions which he had detailed to the House of the agricul- every possible manner from attempting to set forth the gricv-
tural to other classes of the population, the proportion of the antes of their condition. Did the labourers find any:gentleman
former to the manufacturing classes was as two to one, and he who might seek to bring to light any injustice towards him—
( Colonel Wood) was satisfied that they contributed to the ex- that friend met with nothing but remonstrance, and he was
penses of ;the Government at least in proportion of two to ene told that he was endeavouring to set man against master, and
as compared with the manufacturing classes. He deprecated endeavouringto drive the people to acts of violence. No man
agitation on the one side and the other, and he wished he could (continued the Hon. Gentleman) could go to the manufacturing
see an end of all associations. When the Hon. Member for or agricultural districts, and address large meetings of the
Stockport said that the expenses of cultivating 400 acres was people on the subject of their distress, and tell them what was
790/ and that the rent was 8001., he must be very little the fact, that that distress was attributable to certain acts of
acquainted indeed with agricultural matters to have believed misgovernment, without incurring the censure of exciting the
such a statement. He should like to know whether that was I people to insurrection. The Hon. Gentleman opposite had
the statement of a man farming his own land, or of a tenant- charged the League with exaggeration, and the League charged
farmer. them with exaggeration and with wrong-doing, and wrong-
Mr. BROTHERTON explained that he had not included doing with a full knowledge of the circumstances.—(Hear. )
the great manufacturing counties of Lancashire and Yorkshire The Members of the Government were not able to settle the
in his statement. public mind. At one of these meetings held in Yorkshire for
After a few words from the Earl of SHELBURNE, the protection of agriculture, a speaker expressed very serious
Colonel SIBTHORP said that the Hon. Member for Stock- misgivings of the fatal bias of the Right Hon. Gentleman the
port was.included in the list of stewards who were to officiate President of the Board of Trade, and the agricultural gentle-
at .11 certain banquet that night with their white wands. man would not be surprised at any change in the Right Ho-
( Laughter.) And if he (Col. Sibthorp) were honoured with nourable Gentleman at the head of the Queen's Govern.
such an office at any assembly he would have thought it his duty ment. How could this question be settled if not before a
not to be absent. Under the circumstances he (Col. Sibthorp) tribunal of the House of Commons. Why, his Honourable
did not expect such a motion to be brought forward, found the Member for Stockport had given them the option of
He trusted the Hen. Member was not ashamed to be present ; appointing a majority of protectionists on the Committee, and
for his own part he would say with Sir John Falstaff, " I would that their witnesses should be agricultural labourers, indepen-
not march through Coventry with them."—(Laughter.) As dent landowners, and tenant-farmers. The case of the corn-
for the Association to which the Hon. Member belonged he law repealers was based upon facts and upon experience ; the
knew not in what terms to speak of it. The language in the the case of the corn-law maintainers upon anticipations of
organ of that Association, he meant, The Anti- Corm-law cir., future evil if the corn-laws were abolished. The corn-laws of
eular, was past endurance. The usual epithets applied by that 1815 were a continued fraud upon the finances of the country
journal to the supporters of the agricultural interest were " re- He could show, from irrefutable documents—from reports of
lentless demons, " heartless fiends," " inhuman, merciless, Agricultural Societies—that, in 1815, the laudowners had
foot-pads"—(Laughter)—and such like. But the farmers and legislated upon the anticipation that corn would be 80a. a
labourers of England held the party in as much contempt as he quarter, and gave leases on that foundation ; but the average
in his capacity of an humble Member of that House did. lie prices of corn, from 1815 to 1841 or 1842, had not been more
was softy to say that, much as the agriculturists might be in than 60s. a quarter. The Hon. Member for Wiltshire declared
favour of a conciliatory course, a different feeling seemed to that no rent could be paid unless prices were higher than they
pervade the manufacturers. had been from 181.5 ; but yet high rents were maintained.
Mr. VILLIERS said that the Hon. and Gallant Mem. Nay, the rent of lands in many parts of the country had in-
bee for Lincoln had alluded to the formation of certain societies creased—greatly increased. They prophesied that low prices
within the last few years, and had said that some of those would threw land out of cultivation—they prophesied that
societies were formed in self defence for the protection of agricultural labourers would be thrown out of employ-
British agriculture. Now he (Mr. Villiers) thought that the ment—but the fact that additional land had been
world must be astonished to perceive no sign of the practical engaged in culture sufficiently disproved this part of the pro-
utility of those societies in any of the numerous counties in phesy. Those agricultural law-makers were very poor sooth-
which they had been forrnell, and also to find that the sayers indeed.—(Laughter.) The Hon. Member then read
Honourable Members for Dorset, Wiltshire, and those counties an extract from the Report of the Barnstaple Agricultural So-
most prominent for meetings, and at which strong language ciety, which stated that the Act, passed in the 55th year of the
was used, and ardent professions of interest in the condition of reign of George 111., had not answered its object, inasmuch as
the labourer and the tenant-farmer, had shown themselves per. it did not secure the grower 80s. for wheat, 40s. for barley,
feet mutes, and never came forward to express their opinions and 275. for oats, as was promised ; and further, that the prices
or make up their minds. When any one of those rose to ex- for corn were not one half as high as the agriculturists had a
press their opinions upon this question, the whole gist of their right to expect. It was stated that seven-ninths of the
discourse was simply nothing more than an expression of dig- people of this country were engaged in agriculture; but he
trust and discontent of her Majesty's present Ministers.— thought it would be found, by the census, that the tenant-
( Cric4 of " No, no," from the Ministerial benches, answered farmers did not comprise more than I per cent. of the whole
by " Hear, hear," and cheers from the Opposition.) Hon. population of those agricultural labourers employed
_ in the cut-
Gentlemen cried " No, no," but why did they call upon the turn of wheat, or 1 per cent. more. The Hon. Member for
Government to go back to its allegiance, and to remember Haddingtonshire had, at a meeting of that county, told his
from whom they derived their power? He approved of the mode constituents that if the corn-laws were repealed foreign corn
in which his Hon. Friend brought forward the motion.. He would be sold at 20s. a quarter, Now, that waa absolutely
(Mr. V.) had made a motion of a similar tendency upon untrue but if it were, did it never strike that Hon. Member
the subject of the corn-laws for many years, and the reasons what a gross injustice he was inflicting on the great bulk of
assigned by Hon. Members in that House for refusing a his fellow-countrymen by countenancing so vile a law?—( Hear. )
Committee was, that they thought the present law What was that but asserting that, when the farmer had the
tended to serve the tenant-farmers and labourers. The Right law in his favour he overtaxed the manufacturer for the food
lion. Gentleman, the President of the Board of Trade had said which he sold him. If he bought a larger quantity of the goods
that it was invidious to seek an inquiry into the state of the of the trader and the manufacturer, he did so with their own
tenant but not of the landlord. But he (Mr. Villiers) asserted money, and not with any extraordinary exertion of his own
that it was not a landowner's question. In another place a industry. The Noble Lord, the Member for East Suffolk,
Noble Duke, who was styled the farmer's friend—(Cries of stated, on a recent occasion, that " the object of the free traders
" Order, order," from the Tory benches.) He was in order. was to bring down the price of labour in this country to a level
That Noble Duke had asserted that the landowners with the amount paid to the labourer on the Continent.--( Loud
had not the slightest interest in this question, cries of " Hear, hear," from the Ministerial benches.) They
and that it only affected the tenant-farmers, had, however, he believed, already gone in that respect farther
What were protective duties? Nothing more than impedi. than the tree clever gentlemen who sat in Somerset House,
merits to commerce, making scarce the articles of food and general and who, it was generally admitted, did not overflow with the
consumption. They did not attempt to deny that those duties milk of human kindness. But with all their anxiety on the
were injurious to commerce and manufactures. He remem- subject, and with all the aid of the poor-law guardians through-
bered an Hon. Gentleman some years ago saying that this was out the country, they were unable to keep the paupers in a
a question of great national policy, and he (Mr. Villiers) said, state of health without incurring a greater amount of expense
in reply, that they were bound to show some evidence of' good than the labourers could afford in their own homes. Was there,
from such a great national evil. He therefore asserted that his he asked anything on the Continent worse than that, or ex-
Hon. Friend was perfectly justified in seeking for this inquiry. hibiting a greater degree of human misery than they had that
His object was togive Hon. Gentlemen opposite an opportunity night heard described as existing in Dorsetshire ?—(Hear,
of proving that the tenant-farmers and labourers were well off, hear.) Could there be anything discovered on the Continent
while, if they made such an attempt, he had ample more appalling than what he himself had been told while tra-
evidence to prove the reverse, and to show that yelling in Scotland two months ago? An extensive farmer in
in no part of Europe were the agricultural popula- Kirkudbright told him that he was able to pro tore drains to be
tion in a worse condition. The Right Hon. Gentleman cut in his land 19 feet in length, 30 inches in depth, and 18
the Secretary of the Board of Trade had said that the facts inches in width through a hard and stony soil, the labourer pro.
stated by the Hon. Member for Stockport were isolated cases ; siding himself with spade, shovel, pick-axe, and crow-bar, at no
but he (Mr. Villiers) said that they were most numerous and more than 3d. each drain.—(" Oh oh.") He would givegentle-
general through all the middle and northern counties, Why men further information of a like kind, if they required it, in
what did a clergyman in the county of Dorset state, in a letter addition to that of the farmer, who, he might add, did not
in one of the daily papers a short time ago? The Hon. Mem- agree with him on the subject of the corn-laws. That farmer
her for that county had left the House immediately after the had told him that he had one workman who was able to cut
speech of the Hon. Member for Stockport, because he felt the five such drains as he had described in a day, and thus earn
facts to be true ; and consequently, as he would not vote 15d., but it was considered good work for a man to cut four of
against his conscience, he declined voting at all. The Hon. them in a day. The Hon. Gentleman then read an extract
and Rev. Mr. Osborne, to whom he had just alluded, was op- from an Oxford newspaper, as quoted in the Times of the 14th
posed, perhaps, to the Anti-Corn-law League as much as any of February, in which some outrages committed on the property
Hon. Gentleman opposite ; but he addressed a letter to the of three farmers in that county were described, and it was stated
" great friend of the farmers," and proposed that in any Com- that a fragment of paper had been left on a plough that had been
mittee which might sit upon this matter, that a certain number broken on the occasion, containing the words, " A full belly
of witnesses from the agricultural districts should be examined, does not know what an empty one feels." He wished gentle-
and said that those most capable of giving evidence upon the men on both sides of the House, accustomed as they were to
condition of those persons would be the medical officers of the good and comfortable living, would bear those words in their
poor-law unions and the undertakers.—(Hear, hear.) The recollection. He also read several passages from a letter of
same Reverend Gentleman, in the same letter, went on Dr. hlarsham, containing the result of various visits which he
to say, that if they treated the agricultural labourers as well as had paid among the poor of Leicester, and describing the
they did their catttle, their lot would be a happy one, but that abject poverty which he had everywhere met with, and also a
no animal in England was worse off than the labourer. These passage from a newspaper with which, he stated, it was generally
were the words of a clergyman, and yet they asked what con- believed the Hon. Member for Berkshire was connected, de-
nection there was between the agricultural population scribing the poverty existing among the agricultural labourers
and this motion. Did any man mean to say that the present of Wiltshire, and likewise an account of a case at petty ses-
state of the country was satisfactory, or that there was nothing sions, where a poor man, earning but 6s. a week, was corn-
in it to excite alarm? For the last twelve years, from one mitted for a month to prison in default of paying 275.
cause or another, agitation pervaded the country • and he felt penalty and costs for taking a branch of an ash tree for
sure that they would not put an end to it by refusing an in- firing, at a time when his wife was in her confinement.
quiry.—(Cheers.) They admitted that those laws restricted On that occasion the magistrates, including a clergyman, in
commerce, and that some of those protective laws should be passing sentence, said, "If such offences as this were allowed
curtailed. The Government proposed no means of increasing to go unpunished, there would soon be an end to the rights of
the employment of the people, but said they would support a property." What could you expect that man to be when he
law which tended to restrict commerce, and prevent the ad. come out of gaol? Ile would now state to the House a series
mission of food into the country, and that because they were of facts which his Hon. Friend had omitted to lay before them.
afraid of their own supporters. He did not approve of urine- There were gentlemen in the House connected with Hampshire
eessary agitation, but still, if that House refused to grant an who could correct any error into which he might fall. The
inquiry, they would be doing that which would promote agita- statement was, out of fifty tenants who were thriving before
tion, but must also promote general anger, ill-will, and dis- the protecting duty was put on, the majority were ruined, or
content throughout the country.—( Loud cheers.) nearly so, during the eighteen years of protection. Ten of the
Mr. BANKES said, if he thought the Committee proposed tenants had died, arid their children were now labourers.
by the Hon. Member for Stockport would do anything to pro. Twelve of the tenants had been sold up, and were paupers.
mote the interests of the labouring classes, he would most cor- One was a bailiff, and one other had committed suicide. Thus
dially support the motion ; but, when he saw that no such twenty-four out of the fifty were provided for.—(Hear, hear,
result was likely to arise from it, and that it would tend to arise and a laugh.) But ten only of the whole number continued to
expectations, which could not be realised, of a numerous and be tenants, and these were badly off.--( Hear, hear.) He
most important class of persons, he felt bound to exercise his would ask, was it not a fit subject of inquiry whether the corn-
judgment, and notwithstanding the eloquent appeal of that law was not at the root of all the evil which these people had
Hon. Gentleman, to give his cordial and cheerful vote against suffered ?—( Hear, hear.) The Hon. Member for Dorsetshire
his proposition. He thought this Committee would be very had expressed his satisfaction at the altered tone of his Hon.
likely to excite that feeling, which was now fast subsiding Friend (Mr. Cobden), but he had not attempted to
throughout the country. He could confidently assert that, at contradict his statements respecting the condition of the
the present moment, there was not the slightest feeling of people in that county,—( Herr, hear.) It was proved
distrust towards her Majesty's Government in the minds that) the protection had not benefited Dorsetshire.
of the agricultural classes throughout the country. He could He could not see how it had benefited Lincolnshire. He attri-
state most decidedly that such was the case with respect to the buted the superior condition of the people of Lincolnshire to
county which he had the honour of representing. The Hon. their superior intelligence.--( Hear, and a laugh.) In the last
Member then proceeded to read several documents, to show sixty years the population of Dorsetshire had doubled, and slow
that wages in Dorsetshire anti Wiltshire averaged at least 1 ls. as was the increase that increase was still going on. Would
a week, besides other advantages or perquisites ; and con- there be more farms in ten years more ? This was a matter
eluded by avowing his determination of strongly opposing the which the Government ought to consider more than con-
motion.
eiliating those who asserted at public meetings that they
Mr. BRIGHT said, that when his Hon. Friend introduced would keep them up to the point.—( Hear, hear.) It was
his motion to the notice of the House, he felt convinced that said that the treatment of the manufacturing labourers was
every possible party feeling would be for one evening driven worse than that experienced by the Poles from the Emperor
out of the doors of that House, and that there would be an of Russia, and the Secretary for the Horse Department had
almost unanimous opinion in favour of the motion which had dwelt with rapture upon the enjoyments of the agricultural
been submitted to the House. He believed his Hon. Friend's labourers.--( Cheers and a laugh.) But if there were not those
statement to be perfectly accurate, and to be altogether un- long dull lines of towns at which the Right Hon. Gentleman
answerable ; and whatever fate it might meet with in that sneered, what would become of the increasing population of the
House, he was well assured of the fate it would meet with in agricultural districts?—( Hear.) This was ,a question which
the country. He would not have risen to take up any of the the Government ought to consider more seriously. But every-
time of the House, had it not been for speeches which had ' thing else was attended to, and that was neglected. The
been made since his Hon. Friend sat down. He, however, object of the motion was to prove that those tenants and la-
eonfessed that he found extreme difficulty in attempting to dis- bourers had been injured more than any other class by the
cover anything further that could be said on the question then system of protection.—( Hear, hear.) He asked the House if
under discussion. He thought nothing could be more reasonable they believed, whether the committee were granted or not, the
than the case which had been submitted to the House, corn-law would be maintained, Did they believe that the
that there should be a Committee of Inquiry into the alleged I Right Hon. Gentleman, the President of the Board of
Trade,
fact, that protective duties in general had been serviceable to ; with all his tendency in favour of free trade, would continue to
the tenant-farmers, and the farm labourers of this country. I support these laws ; that the Right Hon. Baronet, who they
e It was quite true that the questfon of sugar, and coffee, and it knew sprung from trade, would be so devoid of gratitude as to
litmight be of timber an
d e other articles, might come under continue to support those laws which were laughed
e consideration of such a Committee ; but they did not heal- at abroad—(Loud laughter)—but were anything but
tate to avow that the object w
a thorough investigation into" thecially that there should be a subject of laughter at home—rather a subject
classes of our eountrymen, bthe effect produced upon two of intense hatred to the greater portion of the community ? He
law which was passed with thes'
avowed
of that particular I and the Hon. Member for Stockport would again go through
twoelasses protection. Now, thatvrtehlisobject of giving these I the country and explain to the farmers how a motion for a
importance, no man in
tbar tion was one of Committee of Inquiry had been refused to them. The land-
extraordinarylts importance was admitted by Hon. House would deny. lords told their tenants that they had peculiar burdens to bear,
cause they thought that the repeal of the Gentlemencorn-law would
be. yet when the Hon. Member for Sheffield moved for a Com-
of
productive
great distress to the agriculturists cf
this would be mitres of Inquiry into those alleged peculiar burdeny of the
and to all persons connected with agricultnre. Out CinfuCl'try, landlords, it was refused. And why ? Because they were
there were some who thought with those Hon. Gentlemen, and
conseious that they had no case to make out. Passing from
I nnt,ie town, and from county to county, he and his Hon.
it might be that the majority of the tenant-farmers of this IF) should explain to the constituencies of the empire that
country, and the majority of the owners of land also thought i theirrepresentatives,
fe g
who had been sent to that House to le-
with them. They of the Anti-Corn-law League, on the con-
ginterests of the country, did not hesitate
Crary, thought that the prosperity of this country depended to vote as thouge= ere a corporation for the sole purpose
on the repeal of that law, and upon the adoption lof supporting their ovlnw'n
said
dest in the rental of land.
assertions
Hon. Member for Durham
of the principles of free trade, which they believed Mr. NEWDEGATE
packed and exclusive
to be the only just and honest principles upon which the Go- had accused him of making
general and miscel-
he asserted was
vernment could be conducted. Were there none out of that , meetings, which he would not rmiats
state that shortly
House that agreed with them ?—( Hear hear.) Let them laneous assembly. To show that whatna
not suppose that because their numbers were few in true, with respect to the League, be wou
that House, that therefore they were few everywhere ; before the disturbances which took place in 11 neighbourhood
else. Let them not, deceive themselves by believing that if occurred, three persons who were connected the Anti-
their speeches were not the most eloquent arid their arguments Corn-law League were down there, and took part in the pro-
not the strongest, that there were not men in every part of the ceedings which occurred before the outbreak. He had been
country as intelligent as any man in that House who felt con- unable to obtain their names, however, as he was not allo
vicneed of the justness of the principles which the Anti-Corn- to
inspect the list of the Council of the Anti-Corn-law Leered
law League espoused. Those men who believed in such
Dr. BOWRING laid that when the Hon. Member mend;
principles were not to be estimated by hundreds or thousands, the charge against the League, he called upon him to name the
lint by, millions in Great Britain and Ireland. If they wanted parties that were connected with the League, who had been
proof of it they should have that proof. There had been the objects of so grave a charge as that brought against them
deputations to the Government from various parts of the coup- by the Hon. Gentleman. This the Hon. Gentleman was un-
try—not from the manufacturing districts only, but from the able to do. The Hon. Gentleman now repeated the charge,
rural districts—deputations of 500 persons at a time—asking and said he could not get at the names of the parties without
the Government to consider this question •ind to repeal this ' inspecting the books of the League. Now the Hon. Gentle-
law. They had had petitions with 500,000 signatures one man could do this by subscribing 501. to the League Fund.
year—a million the next, a million and a half the third, and Allusion had been made to a meeting elsewhere.—( Cries of
.between
etween two and three millions the fourth. For all these peti. " Question," " Order.") A meeting held to express the sym-
tions they had cared little, but they had seen subscriptions patty of the English people in
favour of an injured man.—
three or four years ago amounting to 5,000/., to the ' (Renewed and vehement cries of "Question.") He repeated
funds of the Anti-Corn-law League. The second year they i that there was a demonstration in another place that even-
came to 12,0001., the third year they amounted to 50,000/., ing which might have proved a most instructive lesson to her
and this year they found that the League fund was rapidly Majesty's Ministers.—(Laughter, and cries of " Question.")
proaching 100,000/. That proved nothing with respect to the The Hon. Member had connected the Anti-Corn-law League
truth of the principles which the Anti-Corn-law League had with that meeting, and he (Dr. Bowring) had a right to reply
adopted—it merely proved that there was a great and growing to those observations" Question, question.") It might be
opinion in their favour among nearly all classes of the popula- very well for Hon. Members to disregard such demonstrations
tion of this country. Now, they were charged with exciting of public feeling.—(Great uproar.) He was aware that some
the people to violence and insurrectionary movements.— Hon. Members opposite had not their feelings under the most
(Cheers from the Ministerial benches.) One Hon. Gentle- perfect control, but they should at least consider that it was
man opposite, one of the Members of one of the divisions of not very becoming in them to refuse a Member the opportunity
Warwickshire, and a magistrate of that county had, stated, and I of speaking on a topic which had been already mooted betore
Ire (Mr. Bright) believed that he had stated it in that House— the House.—( Renewed cries of " Question, question.") He