The Sun.
London, England, 1842-02-09 00:00:00

middle and working classes had become unanimous on thi
subject they could and would give law to the landowners. It had
been falsely put forth to the country by the bread-taxing por-
tion of the press, that the industrious classes were indifferent on
this great question, but the public meetings, the lateConferenee
held at Manchester, contradict, with one stern fact,
this assertion. The workmen knew and felt that
their own interests and that of their employers were
bound up indissolubly together, that the interests of both had
arison;mustdeeline and fall together,and that if trade falls,Eng-
land falls. He was proud to have the honour of supporting this
resolution,and declaring the:principles which actuated his conzt-
tuents, and the only opposition he had met with in advocating
these principles was the assertion that the middle classes would
compromise these prineiples,but this resolutionwould contradict
that. It was said that land should be peculiarly protected, but
he asked, what made the soil of England more valuable than
that of the Continent ? It was the trade and commerce of
England. What comprised the wealth of nations ? Ac-
cumulated capital, representing the accumulated human
abour which acquired it. The industry of man was
that which had made the land of England what it was;
things be protected
and he said that industry should above all
in its operations, arid allowed free scope ; all he wished was,
of the operatives. Land would ,
of the Corr-
lawsrepealpeople.the took place, more land would be thrown into tillage, and
hese laws were I epes.led
the hard-earning operatives. When t
arid they would not come into towns in numbers to compete with
to
Mf
see should have a better home trade and a better foreign
trade. This meeting was a marked sign of the times, not
the
Duke
be passed by or overlooked by Sir Robert Peel. In g,
when the rewains of barbarous usages oppres ed
Catholics, and excluded millions from their rights, the
of Wellington wrote to Bishop Curtis, intimating that
if time were given their grievances would be redressed, but
what was Bishop Curtis's answer ?—That it was more than his
station in society was worth to advise such procras-
tination, or put off the question. And what was the
result ? The conqueror of Napoleon was forced to abandon
his position, and yield to the opinion of the people.
He was glad to find that they had determined to tell the great
Duke that it was more than their position in society was
worth to go for anything less than a total abolition of the Corn.
laws.—( Cheers.) They had been branded as agitators, and
the working men of the country had been taunted and ridiculed
for daring to become politicians, but it was because politics
had been hitherto confined to one class. But what was the
principal cause of the working-men becoming politicians? It
was the injury they had sustained from the aristocracy,.__
(Cries of " Hear, hear.") They feel that their families want
suppport—that they want education for their children—that
they want religious instruction, and unless provisions
were placed by their price within the reach of their wages, in-
stead of being educated and moral, and religious and happy,
they must be just the reverse. That was what had made the
working men discontented and wretched. They knew very
well that it was an unjust attempt, on the part of a tyrant king,
to levy 20s. ship money from John Hampden, that brought about
a revolution which all men must be desirous of averting. yet
because he refused to pay that unjust demand, the nation
joined him, and rose, and put down both the tax and the King,
and the principle of legitimacy and the divine right of kings.
He did not wish to see such a state of things again—
no Englishman could wish to see such a state of things„
because, in all revolutions, their misery pressed the more
heavily on the humble and the poor, inasmuch as they were
the least able to support it. But if the attempt to take 20s.
ship-money from John Hampden without the consent of Parlia-
ment,brought about a revolution, surely,it was incumbent on theta to resist an unjust tax on the necessaries of life.—(Cheers.)
He remembered to have read a declaration made by the Essrs
of Chatham, in the House of Lords, against the at-
tempt made by the Government of the day to tax the
Americans. He said, " Rather than unjust principles should
hold good, let confusion reign for ever.' --(Cheers. ) If such
a declaration was made by Chatham, a name revered by every
patriot, honoured by every friend of his country, how much
more ought they to press on the country a resolution
asserting that the industry of man—( Hear)—that the
industry of Englishmen in particular, ought to be free to be
carries! into every market of the world ?—( Loud cheers.) It
would be tedious for him to go into all the authorities on the
subject. Dr. Johnson, in his blunt manner said," the man who
would tax the food of the poor speaks like a savage, and ought
to live among savages."—(Cheers.) Mr. Bright had told
them that he was in favour of a fixed duty, that he thought it
was the " fixed duty" of every Englishman to do his part to-
wards carrying out his views. He would tell them in the same
manner, that he was for a " sliding-scale."—(Laughter.)
That was a " scale" that would " slide" steadily and constantly
throughout all the fiscal regulations with which barbarous no-
tions had surrounded our commerce, till it stood perfectly free
and unrestricted.—(Cheers.) The good sense, the intelligence,,
and the industry of the working classes were with them.--
(Cheers). He knew that attempts had been made in varinua
parts of the country to disturb their meetings ; he knew that
there had been paid agents of the Duke of Buckingham •
that there had been itinerant lecturers distributed, throughout the country for the purpose of dividing
them; but the good sense of the people of England had over-
ruled all ; they had seen through these schemes, and bad
avoided that state of things which would have brought them
into collision with the middle classes.--( Loud chests.) In the strictures he had made on the landowners di England
he wished to say that he knew there were exceptions, noble
exceptions, exceptions that adorned humanity—instances of
gentlemen and noblemen willing to give up any selfish interest
they might have in the question, in order that the communitt
might live, and that the poor might have bread. He stated they
he had received a communication from D. Davenport, Esq. , one of
the largest landowners in Cheshire, in which he states that
even the landowners derive no particular benefit from the
Corn-laws, and that it was only the ignorance and stupidity of
the shopkeepers and others that prevented them from.
joining in with the exertions of the Corn-law Ile.. pealers. His reply to that was, that if the Corr...lases
benefited neither landowner nor farmer, nor
liabourer
nor manufacturer, he thought it was high time thr should be
y
abolished.-4 Cheers. ) He was sent to Lotuket to tell the
Prime Minister—(Laughter and cheers)...the -views of the
working men assembled at Mikileberster. He had no
doubt he should cut a ri`l.',culous figure in the
presence of the Premier, '
if lie told him strong and out no matter for that ;
opinion of " hisfic, w oils.tito- stern truths—if he told him the
man as to star ents-"—Peel was not such a bold•hearted.
is'.
and—( Cheers _ainst the united voice of the people of Er.g.
He had yielded before in the face of
previous d ' • . .
this a- .e.ilarations, and in the face of meetings like
4- ' _ld if the country determined to remove this obnox-
'"lss impost, he would yield again.—( Loud cheering. )
iA great deal hail been said throughout the country as to the
working-men being in favour of physical force ; this was a libel
on the people of England ; it was not correct ; he was deputed. from a town famous for th manufacture of silks, and when we
speak of repealing the Corn-laws, the Government says,
" Oh, you are protected by a duty of 30 per cent. ;" but
this was a nominal duty only, as they were cheated,
as they always would be cheated, by the foreigner. But
how did the landowners deal with them ? They-
refused
to remove the Corn-laws, but they were always
nibbling at their little protection. A Member of the Govern-
ment had defended, to a friend or his, the right of going=to the
cheapest market for the manufactured silks, and by the same rea-
soning what was good forone was good for the other, except that
silk was a luxury for whirls the rich might afford, to pay a high. and increased price, while corn was the great necessary of life.,
Out of a population of 40,000, they had now a petition ready,
signed by 6,000 adults, which was a proof that if they derived
any advantage from prohibition, it did not amount to
a set off or an equivalent to the injury they sustained
from the Corn-laws. All they wanted was a clear stage and no
favour, and in those circumstances Englishmen could compote
with the foreigner in any market of the world.— (C)seers ) It
was only untaxed food they wanted ; they had increased in
their skill—they had improved their machinery till they almost
left time and space behind—they were famed throughout
the world for the enterprise and integrity of their
merchants, and renowned for the skill of their artisans, yet they
allowed themselves to be the contempt even of barbarians, for
permitting themselves to be ruled by thirty thousand land-
owners.—( Hear, hear.) It had beer, said that they were too
hard on the landowners, that ",..fter all thee were but a
class ; but they were the class by whom the laws were
made, and they had therefore a right to condemn them.
He considered the good reeling that had prevailed in their ex-
ertions to procure a repeal of the Corn-laws, a proof that
Britons were entitled to enjoy every privilege to which they
had a right, and apologised for taking up so much of their
time, by stating that he was anxious to express to
them the opinion of his constituents.—( A laugh.)
This might be called the People's Parliament; there was, a
Landowners' Parliament, and they had a right to a little Par-
liament of their own. The question was too serious for them
to indulge to jokes and levity upon ; but they were
justified in being gay as well as serious, in pour-
ing forth ridicule as well as sublimity, on the heras
of those who taxed the food of the people. If the
King of Prussia had visited the cellars of Manchester—( Hear,
hear)—if he had visited the manufacturing towns of tho worth,
lie would not have left our shores with an exaggerated notion
of our greatness and our wealth. But how could he
form a correct notion of England when he was , I
ushered from his first landing from palace to palace, witness-
ing nothing but splendid mansions arta costly domes, and', 'L,,,,-
seeing nothing but the highest elegrra of luxury? He ought . •er
to have seen the dark side of the picture—he ought to have ':7tseen the perishing poor—the naked fathers—the weeping ~.
mothers, who knew not where to get bread for their children-- ',-)
and then he might have felt proud in knowing that in Prussia :.
the condition of the artisan was superior to what it was in
free and enNettened England.—(Cheers.) Yes ; England at
present peesetited a strange anomaly in the history of the
world. We have extreme luxury on one hand, and extreme
misery and distress on the other.—( Hear, hear.) The dis-•
tribntion of wealth had not been in proportion to Ira
aecumulation, and why ? Because the selfish interests. 0(
a few had been placed in opposition to the interesta'
of the masses, and of the great bulk of the comr.nunii,y.
He was proud to see the wealth and the respectability
e i
ering
country arrayed in this manner on the side of the Fe the
off
poor—(Cheers)—and that it was their determinat',on to see
justice done to the people.—( Cheers.) Thst nr.nufacturers
had been abused • they had been called Cotton Lords, and Silk
Lords, and he knew not what Lords. We. thought those were
terms of which the manufacturers ought to be proud.
—( Loud cheering.) It showed that they had acquired
their wealth, power, and statics, by honest industry, and not
by cutting down the people in wages. It showed that they had
acquired their wealth by legitimate means, by the labour of
their own hands, and in se doing they had added to the true
dignity of the nation, `;slhat had been the state of England
before she becaur
ti a commercial nation ? She was
conquered by the ,axon, by the Dane, by the Norman. Site
was the prey "fr,very marauding State which chose to attack her,
but her c,7inmeree arose, her navy was fitted out, and
now s!'" defied the world. The bread-taxers had recently
.beep. loud in their abuse of machinery. They mih
abuse machinery as they liked. He would tell them thgis t , that Watt, and Stevenson, and Arkwright had, by the it
mighty inventions, contributed more to elevate and improve the
condition of the people of this country, than ever the landlords
had done to degrade and depress it by their laws.—(Lond
cheers.) The Premier had talked of over-production--( A
laugh)—of machinery as a cause of distress. How could any
one tell that over-production was the cause of the distress
until every man, woman, and child in the kingdom had food
and clothing enough ?—( Loud cheers.) Let them give to every
man, woman, and child in the kingdom sufficient clothing; and
then, if they found they had too much, they might, if they
wished, stop the mills for a short time.—(Cheers, and hear.)
It was mere childishness to talk in such a manner ; it was
language unworthy the honour of a mighty nation, and f,t only
for the nursery. Of one hundred million human beings,
which was the population of the world, England could only pro-
duce manufactures sufficient for sixty millions. Let them re-
verse the landlords' position, as had been done by Mr. Greg.
the late Member for Manchester. Was it just, was it tike a
statesman, to make use of such ridiculous lange.ege_4:
had been done by the Premier, ?—( Hear, hearst) "
with
possessed immense powers of production, b
a limited sale. Let them reverse the case,
late Member for Manchester, had done.
.14 t
power, and
ay
and with
that England was a Continent,' with
nwooBut!daAnthPen increase in
as
eYe.: e r._eljzi,ceetlie
a limited water power—manufactures
as they
inhabitants of the
1 y, ut
they would foodnow.
vcountryal value a s
wouldthe p population ti=
ou increased,
l.ate.
manufactures
r:.s
esrt:.aisennd
It was said that V
__ ers. Repeal the Co produce
---ugls.nd.
That was the true stateoufghh
for her own consumption. II
could produce food
thatenough
position as an abstract theor b did
(Che ) R
it produce
aws
that would he the way to make England
would not dispute
and
pdu teen enough?—(Cheers.) ug h 2.