The Sun.
London, England, 1842-07-13 00:00:00

THE

which could do genii to a country plunged 'o deep in the mire
or calumnies and ayssice. Pad tile:: tleanselses dente their
duty. ? It a^s e roile that sere to (lame for ties present
'tan, of thee-, Thry mete tails if class legislation—was it ,
ries: legislal eel that sent in as Tons front Leeds? Was it class 1
isgislat i6ll that .eturned two Tories for Blackburn? Was it '
class lesislatiffil that, till the las, Parliament, sent a 'fury from
801 l on? Was it the same thing that made Stock; or t, schiel,
for the last six years hail been sinking under the Corn-laws,
never have the good sense until last year to return any but a
Tory ? When, however, they returned that excellent man
(Mr. Cobden) they had not, as a body, half done their busi-
ness. They heard Mr. O'Connell, who came there as
the solitary representative of 105 Members of Parliament. from
Ireland, say that he was ready to assist them. Would Ireland
join them ? agricultural Ireland— Ireland that was at present in
a state of starvation, that was infinitely worse off than Eng-
land—lreland, whose inhabitants had been shot down by the
military, when starvation compelled them to break in and take
other people's food when they had none themselves ? Ireland
would, he knew, must join them. Ennis, which had alone done
its duty, had sent to assist their Conference two
Members of Parliament. In Ennis was once to be seen a flou-
rishing trade, and all was happiness and prosperity ; the bane-
ful influence of the Corn-laws had reduced them now to little
better than a trifling village. But they had been told that the
people would not jain them ; if nut, he must say that he should
despair of any honest movement in this country. Let them go
to Ireland. He wanted to go to Ireland. They had
hardly agitated the agricultural districts at all, and yet
they heard every day of farmers arid agriculturists slipping in
and becoming converts to their opinions. They appeared to
to be beginning to understand, as they ought to have undsr-
stood lung ago, that if the harvest should be a bad one the dis-
tress must increase.; whilst, if it should be good, on the con-
trary, they would get low prices for their wheat, at the same
time that they had high rents to pay. When the farmers were
once fully convinced of this they would find little diffi-
culty in making way in the agricultural districts.—
( Hear, hear.) In the House last night Mr. Villiers,
who was the representative of the League in the House
of Commons, brought forward a motion for the total
repeal, and the Whigs voted for that motion last night for the
first time. Lord John Russell himself voted for their motion.
( Hear, hear.) The Corn-law was the battle-ground on
which the people had chosen to fight the aristocracy of the
country. They must fight it out, and they would gain
strength every day. They must nut mix up any
other consideration with this cause, and he would
say that he believed it was the constancy with which they
adhered to this single object which had given them the success
which they had achieved. They could not expect ministers of the
Gospel to aid them with their services if they made this a poli-
tical questiOn instead of a question of charity. He would im-
plore them again not to mix up this matter with any other
thing. They might join their suffrage societies if they liked, and
he should not object to join a suffrage society, but even that
should be distinct from the Anti-Corn-law League. as a league.
He wished to avail himself of that opportunity of laying before
them what he would call the statistics of national distress, or
the results of the prevailing evils upon the state of our popula-
tion generally. It had always appeared that the temporary
distress was a very small part of the question; and he con-
fessed that the worst apprehensions which he entertained
were derived from his sense of the effects which must follow
from the deterioration of the physical condition of our people.
He maintained that the greatness of this nation arose neither
from its institutions nor from any casual circumstances, but
from the inherent energy, industry, and ingenuity of
its inhabitants; and those qualities they owed, he
was persuaded, to their superior physical nature.
Now, what he most apprehended from the existing distress was
a gradual but certain deterioration of the very breed of our
people. History told him that when the physical condition of
a nation was undermined, its moral energies soon be-
came impaired. He found from statistical details lying
before him, that crimes had invariab!y increased in this
country in proportion as food had become dearer. Anti
further, it appeared, that in proportion as the price of food had
increased the value of human life had declined ; so that of late
years the number of deaths had been considerably greater than
in the vear,lB2o,. 'and the period whit`.( immediately followed.
Ie 183.9 the poor-rates amounted to, 4,630:000t, with wheat
at 70s. a quarter; in 1840 the rates rose to 6,014,000/.. Even
under the 'operation of the PoorAaies-the distress had been so
great as very considerably to increase the poor-rates.
That increase afforded the clearest indication of the
deteriorating effect of the POor-laws in destroying
the independent spirit of the people. These were some
general statistics which they should always bear in mind,' as
they afforded a complete answer to those who said that the
distress was partial. 'l hey proved that dear bread was at the
root of their misery, and that if they had cheaper bread
nothing could be more certain than they should obtain relief
from the misery into which they were plunged. One most
remarkable circumstance wasthat they had obtained from their
opponents a statement of the increase of the poor-rates of
the country for a considerable period bask. In the year
1748, when wheat was not more than 255. per quarter,
the poor-rates for England and Wales amounted only to
720,000/. In 1818, whin wheat had risen to 88s. 8d a quarter,
the poor-rates had risen to 9,320,000/.—( Cheers.) They had
been met by the allegation that there had been a great increase
in the population, and, therefore, they must expect an
additional claim on the poor-rate. But he was not
inclined to give in to this answer. An increase in the
population ought not necessarily to cause an increin.e
in the pauperism of the nation. It ought only to be viewed
as an increase in the number of customers to the producer. But
even this argument was not left to their opponents. In 18:16,
when the price of corn had fallen from 88s. Bd. to 395. 4(1 , the
poor-rate fell from 9,000,0001. to about 6,000,000/. There had be. n
gradual increase since that, in proportion with the increase in
the price of food. They might attempt to account, by the
transfer of the woollen trade from the west to the north of
England, for the depressed state of the west.
But if they took the woollen fabrics that employed
the most labour, they would find they had fallen off
two-thirds since 1820. The whole exports had fallen
off; the north had not received a trade which the
west had lost. Before he sat down, he wished to draw their
attention to a few important facts connected with the state of
Hungary and Transylvania. They possessed tracks
of land capable of affording inexhaustible supplies of
food ; their mining districts were rich and productive, while they
had a population of twelve million.. The nobility, who had
complete power to make their laws, were ready to adopt such a
tariff as would enable them to take our manufactures if we would
only take their corn in exchange. The agents for making these
arrangements were now in England, and if we did not embrace
their offers, they had another alternative. They said th y had coal,
iron, and all the elements of manufactures; therefore, if the
English manufacturers could not produce to advantage
in this country, they had their choice of situation and
every facility, if they could only bring with them
that which Hungary had not—capital and skilled la-
bour. Thus, if they did not take their agricultural produce,
they should perhaps be shut out both from a customer and a
market. The natural capabilities of the country might be judged
from the statement of the average yearly produce of Hungary.
The assistance of this country, too, was but trifling. Fiume,
the port of exit, could be reached in three weeks' voyage, or a
sn inth. There was one subject to which he would advert be-
fore sitting down ; it was the mixing up of the question of the
franchise with the subject of the present agitation. They
ought to keep the two measures separate. They would assist
each other if kept separate ; whereas they were sure to fail if
mixed up together.
After a few words from Mr. Johnson, in explanatisn of some
errors which had crept into the newspaper report of what he
had stated on the preceding day, a statement which he ex-
pressed his intention of sending to the papers,
Mr. IlawsoN wished to call the attention of the meeting to
a matter which had reference to the character of the Delega-
tion. Mr. Gaily Knight, the Member for Nottinghamshire, was
reported to have said in the House of Commons last night—
" He (Mr. G. Knight) adverted to the manner in which this
question had been brought forward, and particularly dwelt upon
the admission of the Icon. Member for Wolverhampton (.
Villiers) that the motion was not. his own, but the motion of
the Anti-Corn-law League. He (Mr. Knight) doubted whe-
ther the House should quietly submit to the dictation of such a
body." lie (Mr. Rawson) was surprised to fled such language
from such a person as the Hon. Member for Nottinghamshire.
There was another remark to which he wished to refer ; it was
the following :—" On a previous evening the Hon. Member for
Stockport (Mr.- Cobden) asked him (Mr. Knight) what was
the state of Nottingham. It was certainly not in such a state
a; lie could desire to see it ; but he had every reason to believe
that it was not in the appalling state that the Hon. Member
had described. In some branches there were already symptoms
of improvement. He hoped that this would be consolatory to
the llon. Member, and that it might induce him to'think that
the accounts he had received from other places were as much
exaggerated as that with which he had been furnished from
Nottingham." Now he wished to draw the attention of the meet-
ing to this. He knew that the Delegates that had come
to London were most respectable men, and he was sorry they
had left. There was a friend, however, of his, to his right
hand, who had come from Nottingham, to whom he wished to
put a few- questions. He should feel obliged if Mr. Sneath
would state whether the unemployed in Nottingham were less
than formerly, and whether, as he was a guardian. the appli-
cations for relief were on the increase or decrease.
Mr. SNEATH observed that there was an increase in the
paupers. Only last Tuesday they had a great quantity of
new cases that had never been on the books before.
Mr. Ha wsosr wished to know whether Mr. Sneath thought
they were likely to increase ?
Mr. SNEATU thought it extremely likely, as a great number
had Leen turned off within the last fortnight or three weeks.
He considered it reasonable to suppose that they would riot apply
for relief directly, but it was generally supposed that the in-
c rease of paupers would be great. They were now paying 1001.
more a week than last year.
Mr. RawsoN wished to know whether there had been any
falling off in the branch of trade to which Mr. Sneath be-
lunged? Had there been any falling off in the wages ?
Mr. SNLATII observed that the wages in his trade had cer-
tainly fallen off. The men were not getting anything like
half, they were not getting a third of what they did a year ago.
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repeal of the Corn-laws, but from competition among
manufacturers themselves." Now he thought it had been
shown that the fall of wages could be traced to the
Corn-laws. He thought the details that had been given by Mr.
Sneath were such as should induce them to double their energy
in the great cause in which they were embarked.—(Cheers.)
Mr. SIDNEY Smut considered it very important that
the country should be informed of the gross deceP
tion which last evening Sir Robert Peel had practised
either upon himself or upon the House, or upon both, rela-
tive to the prospects of the harvest. The Right Hon. Baronet
had congratulated the country on the fact, that on that day
the price of wheat had fallen 2s. per quarter, and that there-
fore the prospect of abundance was indicated by the clearest
test, that of the market. What ! Did he forget that the temporary
fall in the price produced would rise in the duty, and therefore
just postponed the liberation so clamantly required from bond "?
The truth.was, that the fall was indicative of a deficient har-
vest. It proved that the farmers laid their account with this—
that if they did not sell their wheat now they would be swamp-
ed with foreign wheat at the Is. duty. The best proof that the
harvest was short was that the price of wheat in bond was higher
yesterday than before. The importers knew that they would
get it in at the Is. duty with greater certainty than they
did before,and, therefore, should hold firmly at an increased
price. The 'farmers perceive this also, and therefore sell off
now, before the fall, which they dread it coming. The state of
the market, therefore, just proves the reverse of the Premier's
inference. He (Mr. Smith) really believed that the Govern-
ment was even more ignorant than callous, and ignorance, as
it was their best excuse, so it was their only apology for perse-
vering in a course of policy which was hastening the country
to destruction.
On the motion of Mr. RAwsoN, the following Resolution
was unanimously agreed to, amid much cheering :
" That the thanks of this Conference be given to the Right
Hon. Lord Brougham, for the able manner in which he brought
the subject of the national distress before the House of Peers.
That the thanks of this Conference be given to the Hon. C. P.
Villiers, M.P., and to J. Fielden, Esq., M.P., and to the
Members of the House of Commons who supported the motion
for a Committee of the House to reconsider the question of the
Corn-law, with a view to its total repeal."
Mr. RAWSON, just as the meeting was about to break up,
observed, " Don't forget that Lord John Russell voted for the
Committee."—( Cheers.)
The meeting then adjourned to eleven o'clock to-day.