The Sun.
London, England, 1842-07-08 00:00:00

the social state safe, if they remained thus ?—(Heits
hear.) He had listened v.ith gn at attention to 114
speeches of the Right Honourable Baronet, the Sc -
cretary l`f State for the Herne Department,
the Right lion. Baronet, the head of the Government
and the Noble Lord the Secretary for the Colonies; but
he could not find that they held out any hope
of relief. The spend' of the Noble Lord,
was characteristic—it was a reply, aud, of course, an
able reply—but it had no more to do with the distress
of the • people of this country, or of ally mode of
relieving that distress, than it had to • do
with the late Cabinet of Shah Soojah, or the convocation
of mandarins at present established in Canton.—(Laugh-
ter.) The Noble Lord gave a king catalogue of the causes
of this distress. What signified it what were the
causes—the grand question was how a remedy could be
be applied. The speech of the Right Hon. Baronet was
equally bare of hope. He. too, held out no prospect of.
relief. In his objections to the words of the motion he
was perfectly triumphant ; but there would be no
difficulty in getting rid of words, provided they
could get rid of things. The Right Honourable
Bart. concluded his speech by stating that the quantity
of corn admitted for home consumption this year was
equal to that admitted last your, and he went
t,n to tell them that some new mills were
about to be opened. It was a kind of mystification;
there was no hope afforded of better times.. He
answered to that mystification that the people were
starving. The Right Hon. Baronet boasted of the
superiority of his tariff to the plans of the late Ministry,
and he entered into several details upon the subject. He
answered to that tariff argument that the people were
starving. The wave which. overwhelmed everything in
its course formed an apt illustration of the evils under
which Ragland now suftered. Day after ',lay one
trade and then • another was declining.--(Hear.)
Day after day more operatives were discharged from
wot k, and more want and woe ensued. Nobody denied
that ; and yet, there they were, without having yet de-
vised any ,remedy for the evil. For his part, he could
not divest himself of the impression that something
fatal to this country was approaching. The House
should not forget that they were class legislators—that
they represented almost exclusively the wealthier classes,
and especially the farming interest. They should not
forget that the people were as well aware. of that as they
could be themselves. They should not forget that it was
generally alleged that that House was strong with per-
sons who owe their seats to the most barefaced and
scandalous bribery. Why, that was admitted on all
hands, although the admission might be qualified
more or less. Was it. a wonder, tken, that the people
should say that Members owed their seats to
the worst and foulest means ? He had seen some
strong language in print upon that subject—much
stronger than any he had heard in that House. They all
knew_ that Anti-Corn-law Delegates from the diffe-
rent town of the kingdom were at this. moment sitting
in London. He supposed there was no Member
present so insensible to passing events as not to have
read the speeches delivered before that body.—
(A laugh.) He was met with a laugh. Such a circum-
stance only confirmed his apprehensions that some strange
calamity was about to befal this country. The House
seemed disposed to treat with ridicule a description of the
public miseries. He would read an extract from a speech
delivered before the Delegates, to whom be had referred.
The Right Hon. mid Learned Gentleman then read the
following extract from a speech of Mr. Taunton, of Co-
ventry, delivered at the Anti7Corn-law Conference :
" Had not the working classes and the middle classes
reason to speak with unqualified contempt of the House
of Commons ? Had they not been returned by gross
bribery ? Had they not all declared such to be
the case ? Had not the aristocracy of England,
and also the money-bag aristocracy assisted in
bringing about that consummation ? Ilad they net
caused thousands of honest and independent minds to be
brought to commit nieatal and moral treason
against their country ? %Vould they not abominate
that system that scourged men into vassalage, that
cursed them with slavery, that maddened them into lu-
natics, drove them into rioting and incendiarism,
and under which, if they did nut etid their lives
on the - scatlbld, they were made paupers and buried
as such ?" It should be remembered that that
language by what are called professed agitators ; but
that was the language of men in the middle
class of life—of mea devoted to industrious
pursuits—who under the pressure of Le calami-
ties from which the country suffered, were driven
to the use of expressions, which under other circum-
stances they would never have employed.