The Sun.
London, England, 1842-01-14 00:00:00

authority to decide it. If it had been a mere subject
of fiscal regulation and commercial codes, it would not
have seduced so many of us from our homes, and we
would have been content to leave it to the conflicts of
faction, or the decision of enlightened discussion.—(Hear,
hear.) But it is a question of truth—of justice—of
humanity—of religion ; and God, the Sovereign Judge
of nations, makes himself a party to its settlement. His
Word speaks decisively upon it. Why are multitudes of
our country not forward in this movement, but because
they have overgrown it ? They have begun to search
deeper than their grievances,, to their cause ; - they have
learned habits of self-reliance, and are sternly applying
the measure-line of justice to all our institutions, so that
they look scornfully at secondary appliances, and breathe
a purpose of extensive changes. I know the habits and
feelings of these men well. I appreciate the noble virtue
and piety of many of them; I deeply sympathise with
their sufferings and their wrongs. I see their houses every
year stripping of comfort, and themselves sinking from
society into abasement and shame—(Cries of " Hear,
hear")—and I have shuddered at the horrid truth, as I
have heard them say, " We have struggled with po-
verty until hope has died within us, and we have learned
to form friendship with despair. Starvation is scaring
all religious sentiments within us. It is curdling the
flame even of natural affection in our bosoms ; and chil-
dren are born to us with regret, and we bury them with
a feeling of relief.—(Hear, hear.) What care we for the
land of our fathers, when it will not provide bread for
oar' industry, nor allow us even to purchase a tomb in
it ?" But, I ask, is a country sate which contains
smouldering elements like these ? Let oppressors be-
ware. They may trifle for awhile with hnman rights
and feelings ; they may find it their interest to have
demagogues who shall call off the attention of the
multitudes for a moment from their more urgent op-
pressions ; but shall this tampering long continue ? I
read but once that the blinded and bonda:ed Sampson
was called in to make sport for the Lords of the Philis-
tines, but history can tell what was the frightful issue of
these lordly oppressors.—(Loud and long-continued
applause.) The cause of righteousness must triumph ;
there may be a temporary recoil in the wave of the ad-
vancing tide, but we rest confident in his promise, "ye,
shall eat and be satisfied, and praise the name of the
Lord."—(Loud applause.)
The Rev. JOHN KENNEDY of Aberdeen said, amongst
other things—One of the first lessons which children re-
ceive in geography is, that there are certain divisions of
the globe which are called zones, the torrid, the tem-
perate, the frozen. They soon learn that each zone pos-
sesses its characteristic productions—offers of its own to
the others, and asks of theirs in return. Even countries
in the same latitude have their distinctive soils and pro-
ductions, their distinctive blessings and privations. It
is the same race that is spread over all lands, spring
from the same origin, presssed with the same general
wants, susceptible of the same comforts, and subject to
the same Government. They are one family, though-
divided and scattered ; and it is the obvious
design of their Great Father, not that each member
should be limited to the products of his own location,
but that, so far as the freest interchange can effect it,
they should have all things common. We find, in addi-
tion to this, that the Creator has bestowed an immense
variety of gifts and dispositions on men, to enable them
to elicit the equally various means of support and enjoy-
ment with which his works are stored. And when the
treasures of creation have been opened, we find the
means of transferring them from land to land at our
door. We read in prophecy of golden days to come—
and what are their characteristics ? Swords shall be
converted into ploughshares, and spears into pruning-
hooks—the implements of war into the implements of
peace—war at an end, because the unholy passions
from which it flows shall be dried up. But does the
same destruction await manufactures and commerce ?
Are they, too, doomed ? And shall men everywhere
return to the simple labours of the field ? Far from
it. The characteristic employments and resources of
every land, the most various and the most dis-
tant, shall be converted to the service of the
Church. The abundance of the sea, the forces
of the Gentiles, the dromedaries of Midian and
Ephah—yea, and the ships of Tarshish themselves, shall
all minister to a renovated world.—(Cheers.) And
in this certain prospect we have the proof of their legi-
timacy, their protection from the assaults of misguidd
men. My resolution, Sir, describes the Corn-laws as
opposed to the precepts of Revelation. And we con-
ceive that our Corn-laws, the fruit of unequal and selfish
legislation, are as distinctly included beneath this ban as
the conduct of the man who will not open his warehouses
to a famishing- people till his own selfish ends can be
most effectually secured.—(Cheers.) My resolution
speaks, Sir, of oppression in general ; and if there be a
book on earth which more copiously and unequivocally
than another denounces oppression, it is the Bible. Let
its voice be heard, let its principles be imbibed, and the
oppressor will oppress no more—the tyrant will cast his
rod away, and learn to do justly and love mercy. We
are strong in the strength of these principles, and they
must prevail.—(Applause.)
The Rev. Mr. LowE of Forfar, moved the second re-
solution, "That this meeting, composed as it is, consider
it both their right and their duty to express their opinion
of the injustice, impolicy, and immoral tendency, of the
Corn and Provision-laws : That in a free State the laws
ought to be made for the equal advantage of all classes of
the community, and that it is alike unjust and impolitic
to legislate fur the benefit of the few to the detriment of
the many : That this fundamental principle of legiela-
tion has been glaringly violated in these laws;, which are
the more unjust ana oppressive, as they were imposed,
and are continued, for the exclusive benefit of a small
body of landowners, who are indebted mainly to the ma-
nufactures and commerce of the country for the prospe-
rity of agriculture, and the_ greatly enhanced value of
their lands ; and that these laws have not even the
apology that they are required for the protection, or
benefit, of the farmers, or agricultural population ;" and
made similar statements as to the condition of the people
to those which the Rev. Gentleman made at Dundee, and
which appeared in The Sun on Wednesday last.
Bailie Muir, of Greenock ; Counsellor Bankier, of
Glasgow ; and Mr. Dawson, Editor of the Kelso
Chronicle, spoke in support of the resolution. The
latter gentleman, in along and eloquent speech, quoted a
number of instances of diminished trade and decay on
the Borders, and in the purely agricultural districts.
Mr. WILLIAM HOPE, farmer, East Lothian.—As a
grower of grain, a feeder of sheep and oxen, I wish to
proclaim to the public that I have no fear for the ruin
of my order from the pale-faced working classes of our
manufacturing towns being permitted their just rights,
to exchange the produce of their industry for food raised
in foreign lands. But even if it could be proved that we
should at first suffer from the change, I am certain that
in the end this case, as in all others, would still prove
the truth of the old proverb, " Honesty is the best po-
licy."—(Cheers,) And I have yet to learn that it is
in harmony with that blessed volume, the source of
our happiness here and our hopes for an hereafter,
or in unison with any rational interpretation of those
precepts of our Heavenly Master where we are
told it is our duty to feed the hungry and to clothe
the naked, still sternly to forbid the exchange it may be
o£ the broad cloth of the hungry manufacturer for the
wheat grown by the skin-clad shivering Pole. And for
what is this manifest injustice perpetrated ? Only to
add an additional dish or bottle to the already overloaded
table of the landowner, that he, and those connected
with him, may fare more sumptuously ; however much
they may aver that it is not so much for the landlord as
for their tenants and labourers, that the system is kept
up. But, Sir, how stands the case ? Does the foreigner
really possess such a fertile land and genial Clime, as to
be able to undersell the British farmer in his own market,
notwithstanding all his skill and science and boasted ca-
pital? From all that ever I could learn, the crops on the
Continent of rurope generally are seldom more than half
tho'se raised in this country. But that they can raise more
than is absolutely necessary for their own wants is cer-
t lin, while we, on the contrary; are unable to supply with
food our rapidly increasing population—a population,
which contains a large proportion of individuals engaged
in manufacturing goods for the foreign markets ; but
our legislators in their wisdom have decreed that we
shall not receive for these goods the article most' of all
wanted, food for starving people, while it so happens
that that food is almost the only thing they have to
offer us in exchange for the warm clothing which
they so much require ; still the exchange is forbid.
Our continental brethren are coolly told to warm them-
selves as they best may from the biting colds of their
severe winter, for British broad-cloths they shall
have no e, nor shall we admit a bushel of their
wheat into the kingdom until the famine shall be
sore in the land—ay, until the landowing legislators,
like Joseph of old, might compel the 'manufacturers,
like the Egyptians of old, to sell themselves to them
for a mess of pottage, if personally they could be turned
to profit.—(Great applause.) But leaving to others
more able than I am to show how 'permanently lower
prices for grain would affect the different classes of so-
ciety, I will proceed to show that it would have no effect
in throwing out of cultivation large tracts of land, thus
bringing ruin by depriving of employment both farmers
and ploughmen, as has often been asserted by the advo-
cates of the present law. Now, of all the arguments i
ever heard urged against the repeal of, the bread-tax
this has always appeared to me the most futile. I ask,
is there danger of any of the land running away ?
Surely not. And if at present the produce is sufficient
to give food for the labourer, and leave a surplus to the
landlord, what is to prevent it doing so, even if the
nominal money value of the produce should be lowered ?
In the county of East Lothian, where I reside and farm,
a' great deal of the land is only. once grass in
six years, and this is a rotation requiring a larger ex-
penditure in money and labour than if the grass were
allowed to remain for more than one year. What do
you think may be the actual outlay per acre in money
in carrying on the necessary operations of an average
farm, irrespective of the price of grain ? Why, not half-
a-guinea per imperial acre. All other charges and ex-
penses being regulated entirely and immediately by the
prices of grain. The landlord is paid his rent generally
iu wheat. The Labourers receive the bulk of their wages
in the
,produce of the farm, grass for their cows' and
specified quantities 'of the different kinds of grain. And
it can make no difference to the farmer what may be
the nominal value of the hay and oats raised by him-
self, and consumed by his horses and cattle. There are,
it is true, the tolls and expenses in taking farm produce
to market, some money-wages to labourers, the ac-
counts of the smith, the wright, and the saddler, besides
the women and boys for hoeing and weeding, harvest
wages, grass seeds, statute labour, and a trifling Poor-
rate. This is a goodly list ; but I say, take all these
items together, they. do not, for ordinary management,
exceed 10s. 6d. per imperial acre ; and many of them
would be -materially modified were any permanent
change to take place in the price of food. A tenant
whe may be draining, purchasing foreign manure, and
otherwise improving his farm, may, for an additional
outlay of loss sd. per imperial acre, cut a very respect-
able figure in his profession. I speak this ex cathedra ;
if actual experience is any guide to knowledge, I should
possess it. Now, unless it is contended that the repeal
of the Bread-tax would cause such a demand for labour