The Sun.
London, England, 1844-01-26 00:00:00

ters as well as men—that poured from the factories to give
their support to this common cause. There was nothing to be
seen of that tyranny that was spoken of elsewhere. Nothing
of the kind existed in the places which he had seen. Wher-
ever he had been, the operatives came to the meeting, not
choked with " Devil's dust," as Mr. Ferra.nd said—( Hisses,
and laughter)—but ready to " down with their own dust"
in aid of the cause.—( Cheers and great laughter.) He had
seen the women, too, come forward eager to show their sym-
pathy with the oppressed, and the wrong that was inflicted
upon themselves by the law which made the bread of their
children scarce and dear.—( Hear, hear.) The children seemed
to him to understand the interest which they had in the ques-
tion, and to look forward to the time when each of them would
say with pride, " I too was a corn-law repealer in my
infancy." When they saw this in London—when they
saw London imitating the conduct of the people in the country
on this subject, then the work would be accomplished, and
these laws totally and finally abolished.—(Cheers.) Let it
not Ise supposed, however, that the thought of compromise
would not be as far from the minds of the Anti-Corn-law
League if they stood alone.—( Hear.) This was shown by
those seven men who met years ago at Manchester, and who
still contended for the same principle as then—repeal, and no-
thins, short of repeal.—( Cheers. ) They would have adhered
to those principles if no public sympathy had been raised in their
favour, and if none of those meetings had taken place. For their
principles were of that class, which having once got hold of a
eau's mind are never abandoned. It was for such principles
martyrdom was suffered.—(Cheers.) Once adopted—once
promulgated, they might be delayed in their progress, they
could not be defeated.—( Cheers.) It was by the influence of
such feelings and the operation of such principles the
Reformation was effected. It was to them we owed
the Christian religion itself.—( Hear, hear, and cheers.)
If they who led the League were ever to falter in their course,
their defalcation would have no effect upon the progress of the
cause. They were but the foremost in the cause, which was
proceeding as regularly as the rolling waters, and if they did
not keep in the advance, they would be overwhelmed in the
progress of the country to the great consummation.—( Cheers.)
There could be nu compromise, for- the landlords had thrown
down the gauntlet—they had waged war with the League—
they had challenged the League, and summoned it to the con-
test. They had vowed they would put it down.—( Laughter. )
But they were not the bold Barons of Runnymede.—( Great
laughter.) No, no, the age of chivalry was gone indeed, and
most especially in their case—for they were traders, and the
worst of traders, who diminished the food of the people to
raise their own profits.—( Cheers.) They disrobed themselves
of that which should be their dignity and their armour. What
did they mean by standing aloof from the rest of the people,
by uniting with whom they would promote their own real in-
terest, and secure wealth, peace, and happinesa for all, in-
stead o f rancour and warfare, and the opposition of class,
to class?—(llear, hear, and cheers.) There had been
no doubt great misrepresentations as to the large meetings
throughout the country upon this subject as well as upon
others. If the Morning Herald would oblige them—as it
sometimes obliged the Government—with the private notes of
its reporters—( Hisses, groans, and laughter)—they would know
something more of the real state of the case.—(Cheers ) Ifs
had seen but one report (and that in a country newspaper)
of a genuine meeting of tenant farmers. That was held at
Eversham, and there were twenty-two farmers present. The
subjects which they met to discuss were leases and corn rents.
After a full and fair hearing of both sides, from two of their
number who had studied the questions, twenty voted in favour
of leases, and two against thern--(Cheers)—whilst eighteen
voted for, and three against the corn-rent.—(Cheers). Such
would be the result of all those meetings of the farmer tenants,
if they had fair play.—( Hear, hear.) In the mean time it was
a pity that the friends of protection did not summon an aggre-
gate meeting, and, small as was the theatre in which they
(the League)' were then assembled, it would be ample enough.
Their friend, Mr. Paulton, might find a private boa for the
Anti-League, and the managers' box might accommodate
Sir Robert Peel and the advocates of the sliding
scale.—(Cheers.) But it would never avail for the
, landlords to drive the farmers to those meetings in the
same manner as they drove them to poll at the hustings.—
(Cheers. )•• There was more suspicion, sullenness, and sulki-
ness in the farmer going to the meetings, than going to the
poll. He understood, now, that there was great difficulty in
getting them to the meetings ; and, then, there was great diffi-
culty in getting them to hold up their hands. At one of these
meetings the chairman repeatedly told them to hold up their
hnnds, but they seemed not to understand him. The chair.
man again called out emphatically that they must hold up their
hands. But they (whether by a voluntary mistake, or
not, he would not say) turned up their noses.
( Great laughter.) On the arguments brought for-
ward at those meetings he would say nothing, for
out of nothing nothing would come. The only fragmentary
grains to be found in these bushels of chaff, were such as could
be refuted by every labourer of common sense. One was, that
wages were raised in proportion as the price of corn was raised ;
and that wages fell as the price of food fell. Another was,
that the country ought to be independent of foreigners for the
supply of food. This last was a doctrine which all the rest of
the world had exploded, and it would be as well that it should
here be crought to the test, and subjected to investigation. This
independence was something very good for the landlords; to-
speak of, whilst they were spreading guano over their lands—
covering this England with a foreign surface, and subjecting it
to that polluted dependence which they deprecated.—( Hear,
hear.) In the contest at Salisbury, Mr. Bouverie met his
opponent upon those grounds, and stripped him from head to
foot—( Laughter)—showing that he had not got upon his person
one article of clothing that was not foreign.—(Cheers.) A
French cook dressed his dinner for him—and a Swiss valet
dressed him for his dinner.—( Laughter. ) He handed down
his lady decked with pearls that never grew in the
shell of a British oyster—( Cheers and laugh ter )
and waring on her head the plume of ostrich feathers, which
never decked the tail of a barn-door fowl. He sits down to a
dinner composed of viands from different countries. His wines
are from the banks of the Rhine or the Rhone. He goes into
his conservatories and regales his sight with the beautiful
colours, which the flowers of South America present, and then,
returning to his saloon, he refreshes his scent with the product
of the northern continent. His picture gallery contains the
master pieces of the Flemish school—and when he retires for
his evening amusement, he hears Italians warbline
German music ; and afterwards enjoys a French ballot:
If he aspired to judicial honours, his robe was decorated with
ermine, which never before was worn upon the back of a
British beast.—(Great laughter.) His mind itself was not
more independent. His literature was a pie-nie from Greece
to Rome. His mathematics were imported from Alexandria—
his arithmetic from Egypt—his religion from Palestine.—
( Cheers.) Such was the man—such the class of men —who
told the country " let there be suffering, want, starvation,
amongst you; you shall be dependent only upon us, and be inde-
pendent of foreigners, upon whom we depend for all our own
enjoyments."—(Cheers.) The League was not going to the
Legislature this session. They were not going to petition.
( Cheers.) The Members of the Lords and the Commons
might do as they pleased and how they pleases!. The appeal of
the League would be to the masters of those houses—to those
who created the Legislature.—(Cheers.) It was the business
of the League now to teach the constituency, who made the
article badly, and to instruct them how to make it better
The great landed monopolists hunted up the tailor and the
shoemaker, and said, " have you not a little monopoly of your
own ? Keep up our great monopoly and we will uphold your
litttle monopoly—tickle me Toby, tickle me twice."—(Loud
laughter.) The League had endeavoured to work upon the
intelligence and principle of the:people, and upon that alone.
Calling up not what was brutal, but what was most divine in
humane nature, realising that spirit of independence without
which no institution in the form of freedom could ever be
great or lasting. For this reason were the League held to be
such monstrous interlopers. It was the cry at Salisbury and
IVindsor, when he found
of
his asking Dame Quickly
w
London, `r Here are come amongst us men whose home is in
Lancashire—they are utter strangers—they have no business
here." There was the same sort of indignation felt by Doctor
was informed " that it was an honest
man." " But," said Doctor Caius, "what should anChaiou
Slenders
i in taitn was,
ze Merryoset ; Dives
u
honest man do in ray closet?" So said the monopo-
lists.—( Hear.) Honest men shall not come into our closets.
But the honest men had got into the closets, and with a search
warrant in their hands. They had found that which would
bring the monopolist* to shame ar.d confusion. They had laid
bare their tricks. ss We, continued the Hon. Gentleman,
" can have no compromise in such a question as the corn-laws,
because we cannot compromise with crime.—( Cheers.) 1 hold
that these laws Are but one great crime, both in themsels es and
in their consequences. It is a fraud. The monopolists say to
the nation—exclude foreign corn—be independent of foreigners.
Does not that imply that they—the home growers—will furnish
a supply—are they not by the very fact of interposing to pre-
vent gond provisions from coming from abroad, undertaking
that there shall be ample and sufficient provision of their own
raising at home? Can that be done? Have they produced, at
prices at which the great mass of the community, however in-
dustrious, could afford to purchase, a sufficient quantity ? Has
there not been want and starvation in England and in Ireland ?
While want and misery have been increasing, the wealth of the
monopolists has not been ministering towards its al-
leviation. They could not produce a sufficiency
of food for such an increasing population as our's, increasing, as
it does, 23,020 annually. No, they could not produce food
enough if a county as large as that of Surrey were to be added
to the country. -How can they undertake to produce a suffi-
cient quantity of food ? Can they create a new Ireland, or
can they keep the old Ireland ?—(Loud cheers.) I say that
those laws with occasion the destruction of human food are a
crime ? . Not long ago, about the time that I was in Liver-
pool, a large quantity of American butter was brought out of
the warehouse. A hole was bored in each firkin, and as it
was found that it would not answer a commercial speculation,
if the duty were paid, they poured pitch and other substances
into the butter, in order that it might be rendered altogether
unfit for human use. I believe it was actually made into
grease for the locomotive engines. At Sunderland the same
thing occurred with respect to wheat. The people were starv-
ing without, and the wheat was rotting within.—(Hear, hear.)
It was brought out under the Government lock and key—.
brought by her Majesty's servants, the Custom-house officers.
It was taken to the dunghill, amongst all sorts of substances, in
order that it might be rendered impossible for use as human
food, anti it was then converted into manure, and this at a time
when the people wero talking about poor-laws, charitable sub-
scriptions, collections, and tender feelings for the suffering
poor. It would be worth while to compare the table of corn-
mittals for offences, with the prices of wheat, from year to
year. The exceptions are very rare in which the price of corn
is not accompanied by an increase in the number of committals.
In the years front 1834 to 1836, when wheat was 445. 3d. the
quarter, the average number of committals was 21,000. From
1837 to 1941, when the average price of wheat was G3s. 2d.,
the average number of committals was 25,000. Four thou-
sand criminals a tear added by that horrible sliding
scale of guilt anti misery ! Hear, hear, and cheers )
But to take an extreme year. In the year 1835, when wheat
was a little under 40s. the quarter, the number of committals
was 27,300. In 1842 wheat was 575. 3d. the quarter ; the
committals were 31,300 in the year. This is the result of the
experience of many years. This is the horrible operation of
these iniquitous laws, which murder the soul as well as the
body—which make the best tendencies of our nature subser-
vient to crime—which make the life of that man, whose fa-
mily depend upon bins for support, a motive and an incentive
to guilt—which .ereate crime and make the repetition of the
Queen's proclamation for the suppression of vice necessary by
an Act of Parliament for the production of criminality. Oh,
Ido declare before high heaven and the world, that I would
praitith,edrr hold up utop
emiLheaTly aat
inthoestbar
iniquitousofthe law, than
Old Bailey
as a col.
be one of
those who profit by a law which was made to coin money
out of the heart's life of our fellow-creatures.—( Loud cheers.)
Nor is this all. The annuable table of mortality is analogous
as to numbers to the annual table of crime. With the price of
wheat the number of deaths falls or rises. In 1798 and 1802
wheat was 595. the quarter, and the average number of deaths
in London was 20,508. In 1800, the intermediate year, and
therefore not liable to exception on the ground of increased po-
pulation, when wheat was upwards of 605., the number of
deaths was 25,670. Five thousand deaths in that year, being
an increase analogous to the increase in the price of food, and
directly tending to impress- on the mind the connection of
cause and effect.
.It seems as if the grins monster had forgot
his impartiality—as if the bony tyrant had become the ser-
vant of monopoly, and though it is still in seme measure
true that the rich and poor lay down together in the grave,
yet that the world, by its laws, sends the poor there first.
and sends them there in numbers to prepare for their own re-
ception. Tho effect of the classification of society is, that while
in the middle and higher classes only one child in five fails to
attain five years of age, in the working classes only half that
number ever reach that period. Are We to be told that farther