The Sun.
London, England, 1842-03-31 00:00:00

DISTRESS AT GREENOCK.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.
SlR,—The baneful effects of Class Legislation and
radically wrong and unjust state of society, has at
length reduced this hitherto busy and prosperous
town to the same wretched and melancholy state in
which the other cities and towns of the empire are de-
scribed to be. Shipowners, manufacturers, and mer-
chants, have been regularly following one another this
some time past, into the gulf of bankruptcy and ruin.
Our streets, dock-yards, and workshops, lately
crowded with industrious and well-employed artisans,
are now quite deserted, or only echo to the footsteps
of those whom want of employment has reduced to
heartsickening idleness and poverty. And as this pe-
riod of the year has ever, hitherto, been the season of
general and full employment, the present complete
stagnation and gloom is considered the more ominous,
and many minds, unsupported by hope, are giving
way to gloomy and angry forebodings. I say angry,
for want and adversity makes men reason closely and
keenly, and it is generally understood and believed
that the misgovernment and an unjust state of society
is the cause of all these evils. A meeting of the unem-
ployed was held here on the 25th, and they assembled
to the amoutit of between two and three thousand, and
they agreed to memorialize the Provost and Magis-
trates, stating their situation, and soliciting that re-
lief of some kind might e afforded them. The
Provost has promptly responded to the call, and has
convened a meeting of the inhabitants to-day, to con-
sider what is to be done.

This is an awful state of things to exist in an em-
pire, of whom it is boasted that on her dominions the
sun never sets—an empire to which the tribes and
people of every dime and region of the earth have
been taught and accustomed to look up with vene-
ration and awe—an empire which boasts, and boasts
justly, of knowledge and power, capable of increasing,
to an unlimited extent, all the comforts and necessa-
ries of existence.

Sir, it requires no great stretch of the reflective
powers to perceive that our knowledge and power as a
nation is grievously circumscribed and misdirected,
and that there is no just or wise distribution of that
wealth which we, of the working classes, create in
such boundless profusion.
Our knowledge of the governing principles and
laws of nature, and consequently our power to avoid
want, and produce abundance, infinitely transcends,
and exceeds all that was ever known in former times
and nations ; and yet our forms of Government, and
system of society, are as miserable and defective as
ever they were. It is, therefore, clear that they are
the source of the misery and wretchedness that now
exists.

Immutable and just principles govern, with un-
erring precision, the most minute, as well as the most
stupendous, of created powers. It is reasonable; there-
fore, to infer, that the social condition of man is also
gcr,:znued by immutably true and just principles, and
that the decay and destruction of all former nations,
and our own wretchedness, has been, and is caused
by ignorance of, aP4 want of obedience to these laws.
The desire of happiness is indestructible in man ;
and I believe, that in a just state of society, this all-
powerful propensity shall be directed to, and find un-
limited elements of gratification, in advancing and
increasing, with all its might, and all its strength, the
weal, comfort, and happiness of the whole community.
Hitherto that great and good principle, misdirebted
by ignorance and folly, has been the bane and de-
struction of all the communities and nations of the
earth.

At the present moment, confined to miserably sel-
fish and grovelling purposes, it is crushing millions
into misery. -and the dust, rending asunder all the
kindly feelings and sympathies of our nature ; for a
man is considered wise and prudent, according as be
can steel himself to throw them overboard ;, in a word,
the present system of society is a mere selfish scramble,
where thousands are trampled under foot, and,alf the
ties of nature broken and dissevered, while, 'at the
same time, untold wealth—wealth sufficient for all—is
wasted and destroyed in the maddening excitement,
and insane career of ignorance, selfishness, and folly.
Trusting, however' in the progressive intelligence of
our race, I believe that, ere long, error, ignorance and
folly, must give place to truth and justice.
1 am, Sir, your most obedient servant,
A WORKING MAN.
Greenock; 28th Aga/ 1842.