The Sun.
London, England, 1842-07-11 00:00:00

THE DISTRESS 01±' THE COUNTRY.

LordWIIARNCLIFFE presented a petition which
was agreed to at a public meeting of the inhabitants of
Leeds, held in the Town-hall on the 29th of June last, the
Mayor in the chair, complaining of the distress of the
country, and praying for inquiry.—(Loud cries of Hear,
hear, from Lord Stanhope.)
RAILWAYS BILL.

On the motion of the Earl of LIVERPOOL the Rail-
ways Bill passed through Committee.
RATING OF STOCK IN TRADE BILL..

This Bill also passed through Committee without
amendment or discussion. _

The LORI) CHANCELLOR laid upon the table a
Bill for abolishing certain offices in the Court of Chan-
cery ; the Bill related to the six Clerks, and the sworn
Clerks. It was then read a first time.
DISTRESS OF THE COUNTRY.
Lord BROUGHAM ruse and said, that the motion
which he Was then about to submit to their
Lordships, originated, as they were aware, in
a petition which had been pesented some ten
days ago signed by the deputies, or at least by the
Chairman of the deputies, sent from the manufacturing
districts of the north of England. In the prayer of
that petition the men of the midland districts heartily
joined. They had come to him, from a recollection
of his old connexion both with the one and the
other of those districts—with the midland districts
ever since the year 1808, and still more in-
timately since the distresses of 1809 ; and in
the northern districts, from having ad the honour of
having represented them for a short period in the other
House of Parliament. Ile had yielded to their request
with great reluctance. He should then proceed to per-
form the promise which he had so reluctantly made, with
a degree of unwillingness• which one ought no per-
haps to feel in discharging an important • duty. But
nothing could be more embarrassing and more vexatious
than to feel that he must disappoint those hopes of re-
dress and relief which they expected, if not at his hands,
at least through his endeavours, and nothing could to
more painful than to have to state to their Lordships a
me so lamentable as theirs. They were men largely
connected with the trade ,of the country, deeply inter-
rested in almost all the branches of its -manufac-
ture s ; some of them were ministers of religion,
i ho felt for the distresses of the flocks committed
to their cure, as did the other petitioners fur the indivi-
duals who worked under theta, and of whom they felt it
their duty to be the guardians. It must be as painful to
their'Lordships to hear the statement which those par-
ties expected him to make, as it was for him to make it.
He should therefore take them as swiftly as he could over
the ground; and he might the more easily do that and
dispense with the necessity of entering at length into
those afflicting details, as unhappily it was no
matter of controversy whether such distress existed or
not ; for all who knew the state of the country. and none
he believed more than his Noble Friend opposite, were
prepared at once to allow that this distress was wholly
without a parallel. He, like those petitioners, or at least
the oldest, among them remembered ie distress
Of 1408, and of 1812, and afterwards of .1816 and
1817 ; but he protested that when he cast • back his
eyes, end compared those periods with the pre-
sent ; end when he refreshed his recollection with
the result of the inquiry then made, and com-
pared it with what it had been his most painful
duty to leorn, within the last three or tour weeks,
of the present state of things. He might almost
without exaggeration say, that those times presented a
compaaatively prosperous state of things. lie would
keep the promise he had givenof passing over the ground
as quickly as he could, and he would begin at once to
state the case. In the west of England for years past,
he might say for ten or twelve years past, there
had been' a , gradual change—gradual at first,
es always happened in such cases, but proceeding
afterwards with an accelerated pace to the almost ex-
tinction of this branch of their manufactures—looms
still—houses untenanted—rents falling from one-third to
one-half, sometimes even more—cottages to the number
of three out of four untenanted, and every appearance
of a transfer of our former flourishing manufactures front
Gloucestershire, Wiltshi.te, and other parts. It had been
hoped that that was a mere transfer, and that what
these counties had lost the north had gained ;
but it did so happen, that coeval with the decline of
the manufactures in the west, had been the commence-
ment of the distress which now affiie ed the north.
Then when they went to the Midland Counties, to
Leicestershire, to Shropshire, to Staffordshire, to
Warwickshire, and carried the eye to Lancashire and
Yorkshire, the state of distress was almost the same as
in those counties were the woollen manufacture was in
existence—houses untenanted, rents fallen, industrious,
able-bodied, healthy—at least at one time in health—
skilful as men could be, both win).- and able
to work, and only desirous fur hardly a pittance
to support them, thrown out of employment by
thousands, and those thousands receiving only such a
pittance that it could hardly be believed how life was
sustained.—(Hear, hear.) Wages were down to a Id.,
the poor's-rate was increased—in some places double, in
other places three-fold and four-fold, and even eight-fold.
And in some districts there was a defalcation in property,
20 or 30 or 40 per cent. more than it was two years . ago.
When he came to the details, with which he wai
afraid to deal, from the general statement over Ivhich he
was running not going, they were perfectly frhtful
Thousands of persona was without food for dafs, he
could not say a day without a morsel to eat.-.--(Hear,
hear.) In some cues the people were unable to leave
their beds of straw, tblnking they would be the better able
on that account to stifle the pangs of hunger. They
lived on what ought not be eaten by men, and actually
envied the husks to swine. Clergymen and medical
men gave the same testimony as to the insuffi-
ciency of the food, but he must say that in the midst
of those scenes, the kindliest dispositions were el inced
by persons but a little removed from those whom they
attempted to relieve.—(Hear, hear.) In one case, a
woman famishing with her infant found shelter in a mi-
serable cellar, and in three hours at ter her infant died actu-
ally from want of being able to find sufficient nutriment.
In another case, a man who had been without work
fifteen or sixteen weeks, obtained employment, and
worked 10 hours without food, but he was obliged
to give up he came back to his house, flung himself on a
bench, and his wife burst into tears, knowing he had not
tasted any food that day, But some kind persons gave
them a little money, and he thanked him, and said it was
a sorry sight to see the poor in that state, and
wished that be may never know what anger was. These
things quite unmanned one, and were excruciatingly
painful.—(Hear, hear.) But it was cheering to know that
in the midst of this distress the people exhibited the greatest
patience, and did not violate the • law of
their country—(Cries of " Hear, hear")—and that all
attemptswhereby ill-meaning or no-meaning persons have
proved ineffectual to turn them from their duty to
dick country, to their families, and to themselves.
Who were those persons, of whose sufferings he had
spoke, they were no wore or less than the work-
ing classes at large of the country. It was
the working classes and their cause that the
petitioners submitted to the consideration of their Lord-
ships ; the working classes, to whom the country owed
every thing, and who had raised the commercial
gruttness of the country to its present stupendous height.
In his opinion the patience and tranquility of the work-
ing classes ought to work powerfully on their hard-
ships ; and added to this, it must be remembered, that
the working classes had no hand in making the
laws by which they were- governed.—(Hear, hear.)
The millions did not contribute a single vote in the
choice of the men by whom their laws were
made. Upwards of five millions were entirely excluded
from any share in the representation ; such being
the case, if their Lordships were not then
actual representatives, which they undoubtedly
were as much us any Member of the other
House of Parliament.—(Hear, hear.) He must intreat
of them to be their actual protectors.—(Hear, hear.) Ile
would not say a word that would wear the appeal ante of
party, because the present was no party question.
• (LEFT SP) AKING).

TATTERSALL'S-THIS EVENING.
Six O'CLOCK.

LIVERPOOL CUP.
7 to 1 agst Knight, of the Whistle
11 to 1 agst Una—taken
11 to 1 ngst Th irsk— tak en
10 to 1 agst Prince Caradoe

COODW OD CUP.
7 to 1 on the livid
10 to 1 agst i‘londa
10 to 1 agst Setunew

COODWOOD STAKES.
8 to 1 on the field
8 to 1 agst Tapsley
9 to l agst Una

Lusus NATUR.E.-A female child, about • three
months 4;ld, is now. exhibiting in Chapple-street, New-
road. She has two heads, the body and all_ the limbs
being in every other respect perfect. The child is.
pained
.41ixabethBeelbary,,and was born at WandsWOrth,
II Sur' ey on the rail of April laat.• fithor.
custeramaiger

NAVAL INTELLIGENCE. •
(From the Hainpshire Telegraph.)
PORTSMOUTH, JULY 9. The Vesuvius steam-i,ip• C°l2.
wander Ommanney, sailed from Genoa, on the 26th of June,
fur England.
_ The Geyser steam-frigate, Commando Carpenter, arri°,l4
on Thursday, from the River. She received.or&ra -to-day 01.
the Mediterranean, came into harbour to coal; and will lot
ceed to-morrow morning with about ten officers,--and-Upwar'
of one hundred seamen, to join the ships on that station.
The Talbot, 26, Captain Sir Thomas Thompson, arrived 031
Thursday from sheerness, and will proceed in-a few day! t°
South America. The Talbot proceeds to the•Pecifia Stei
She calls at Rio Janerio, and report says, Maderia, 50 enter,
a Prince of Prussia, for a voyage to South 'America.
will be paid advance on Tuesday, and proceed,tba,t, evening or
the following morning. .
The Venal, 28, Captain Parker, sailed on,
Sheerness, to be paid off; and the Sparrow ketch,SarielSe last,
on Thursdalt
for the same place, to be likewise paid ofor.
The Imaun, 74, bound to Jamaica as receiving andilag•lhYl
there, is fast getting ready ; she is bein; filled with stern of
sot Is, naval, military, and ordnance, mod, curious to say, Iv"' °'
her cargo are :20,00 gallons of rum. 10th
The Grecian and Sulphur, arrived at St. Helens, on the
,t,
of June, the termer fi om the West Coast of Africa, the fat'
on her way to England.
The Philomel, at Plymouth, will sail about Monday eels,
for the Falkland Islands. • for
The Satellite, 16, for the Pac:fic, and the Albatross, lb,
North America, wi'l go out of labour next week, and will yr°•
teed to sea in a few .clay s.
The Lightning steamer arrived on Sunday from Sheererg'
with the Larne's seamen and marines, and returned to the river
in the evening.
The Great Liverpool steamer arrived here jesterday at
Ge'
thirty hours before the letters she landed at Falmouth were
Leered here to the public.
The Volcano steam vts,el, Leut. Featherstone,•sailed te-dal
for Bermuda, with Capt. Lenison, of the Royal Enginefr:,
who is deputed to examine and report upon the state of the
ticatiezis of that island. He will return to England in

Volcano. tea
The East India ship, the Lord Hunger ford, is daily expec
at Portsmouth, to land the late Governor- General oi,lnd la, the
Earl of Auckland and family.
'the Briti:h Queen, Belgian steam-ship, leaves Southaoll.
to-morrow afternoon at three o'cleck ( Sunday), for New Yld
The Marquis of Hastings convict-shin, having been
up, by being lightened and manoeuvred by trimming to
getbi,
the leaks, without docking, was towed to Spithead again
morning by the Echo steamer.
The American packet-ship Gladiator, Captain Britton, Inn
leave Spithead to-morrow or Monday, for New York, with 11..'
steerage and 20 cabin passenger.. The emigrants are Princ,::
pally agriculturists from the neighbourhood of London, v'itm -
few tradesmen and mechanics.
AT SPITHEAD.—TaIbot, Lady Rates freight-ship, and Igar.
quis of Hastings convict-ship.
„. nos'
IN HARBOUR.-St. Vincent, Victory, Excellent, -
George, Pique, Geyser steam-frigate, Satellite,‘,Albatrcr,
Echo steam tug, Adventurer naval transport, and Sylvia 0,41'

PROMOTIONS AND APPOINTMENTS.
0. thl
PROMOTION.—Nate— Geo. H. Ricards (late Mate ..t,
Sulp' ur surveying ship for six years), to the rank of Lienten7i;
and to the Philomel, about to be employed surveying the ,
laud Isles. to the
A PPOINTMENTS. —Lieutenants—W. C.
Agincourt.
Master—Mr. J. W. R. Jenkins, to the Salamander.
Assistant Surgeon—Jas. Henry, to the Salamander.
Purser—Charles Hellier, to the Salamander.
Alates— H. J. Grant, to the Illustrious.
First. Engineer—George Blasland, to the Salamander. it,
Mr. Edward Parry Martyr is appointed additional Clerk
the Agent's Office, Royal Hospital, at Haslar. -SO

THE MARKETS.
COI'NTRY MAR" NTS

• • AM 1 •• 1 AV/ Li 14- •
Eerie). . deans.
her Quarter., a. to a. a. to a. a. t a. a. to s. C•
°0
3ath
&landlord 60 69 20 27 .0 23 39 42
Isridport 57 - 31
'Marti 52 8.1 23 30 18 22 32 26 3' : •
4xeter
dioucester ,51 64 11 30 16 ' "4Q
duildford 1.1 73 .6 3.1 •.?8 30 38.
Newbury -.2 72 t 6 1'.2 Isl ,43 34 •47 • sl
Reading al 76 12 1,8 2i • • 49.1
Salisbury 60 18 32. 36 40 -50 •-• •••'.O
Abtrbortie- • :)8 6,1 2-1 10 18 24 40 .
ifteptonMallet 5 t 4 24 32 21 24 34 'L 44, 3 44.
Uxbridge 37 43 28 ,11. .0
Warminstei -1 44 lii •.:3 29 20 26 !38 44
Worcester 64 CS 32 3i • '..C42 30 0
I (cavil 5l 64i 24 28 2 2.1 32 44

LEEDS CORN M llf NET.
Wheat, Norfolk and Sta.lk, .......
York. and Lincoln. 6011, ....... Ole. •
Norfolk and Sul%lk .

tils. to 6921:4
59§ tO "•,!'
%;96 to Sr •
293. LO
s. to
393. to
'233, to Y..* r 6
:3d. per `jam,
to 20 Per