The Sun.
London, England, 1842-07-08 00:00:00

In Ireland, when cattle were seized for tithes, it was common
for several thousai.d people to assemble for the purpose of
watching the sale, and frequently no person could be found to
bid. He knew that the people of this country were not suffi-
ciently unanimous to allow of a similar plan being pursued,
but there were other plans which might be successfully
adopted. The meeting had probably heard of John Hoskins,
the Birmingham blacksmith and the great teetotaller.—( Hear,
hear.) John having had smile chairs seized for Church rates,
got five or six of his shopmates to attend the sale. When the
chairs were put up to auction, some one bid three-pence for
them." Oh," said John, " they are worth more than that;
I will give five shillings for them." Some one then
offered ten pounds, and this was followed up by successive
biduings- of 201., 301., 40/., and 50., and this went on till at
last the bidding stood at 1,000/. John told the auctioneer that
if he knocked them down at that price, he should insist upon
the difference, and the result was that the chairs were restored
to him, and the Church-rate people had to pay the auctioneer
20/. or 301. for his work.—( Great laughter. ) Now, the very
same thing might be done with respect to the income-tax and
the assessed taxes, and if they did not stop the supplies by such
means, the fault would rest with those who refused to adopt
that course. These were measures which would
ac-
complish their purpose, if they had only courage,
perseverance, and fearlessness enough so to act. He
would not occupy the time of the meeting at much greater
length, but he wished to state one or two facts. He had in
one day visited twenty.five families in Salford, and of that
number of families the great majority had been four-and-
twenty hours without food of any kind. On that day they
were relieved from the workhouse. In one instance he, on
going into a cellar, found a man lying on shavings, with not a
morsel of covering. He had been lying on those shavings fur two
months, afflicted with dropsy and disease of the chest. Shortly
after he died in the workhouse, and on his deathbed he told him
(Mr. Moore) that on one occasion he had been thirty-six hours
without a morsel of food passing his lips.—( Hear. ) If the Go-
vernment could be brought into the cellars and garrets of the
back lanes of Manchester; it they could see men week after
week growing paler, and thinner, and weaker from starva; ion ;
if they cou!d see children with marks of disease brought on by
slow starvation, they would not dare to hurry on a motion of
supply. The first question would be how were the starving
and dying people to be supplied with food?—(Hear, hear. )
The land was full of abundance. All that stood between the
perishing people and plenty was the inhuman and tyrannical
laws of the country, supported by a few for their
cwn profit. It was their duty to take from the
dominant party the power to support those unjust
laws, and to inquire each one of himself what could be
done to withdraw from that inhuman pyty the power to
starve their fellow-men and to trample upon"the law of God.
Mr. G. THOMPSON said an Hon. Member of the House of
Commons had very often referred to the use of what he was
pleased to call devil's dust in the manufacture of cotton.
There (pointing to the shirt lying upon the table, and
referred to by the preceding speaker), there they had a satis-
factory and ocular refutation of the Hon. Member's charge
against the manufacturers. He confessed that he believed
that the only devil's dust was that which Mr. --- and others
were in the habit of throwing into the eyes of the community,
in order that they might not see clearly the cause of the
people's distress, but imagine that to be a remedy which they
proposed, but which was in fact no remedy at all. The mere
circumstance of that shirt having been worn for five years
was proof positive that all the cotton made in Lancashire was
not so plentifully supplied as had been stated.—( Hear, hear. )
Mr. WINKS, of Leicester, wished to call the attention of the
meeting to the present circumstances of the town of Leicester.
That county was partly a manufacturing and partly an agricul-
tural county. The staple produce in manufactures was gloves
and hosiery. The people had suffered greatly during the last
winter. They had met by groups in the streets, and some
slight disturbances occurred in consequence. Parties of half-
a-dozen men went from house to house, for the purpose of pro-
curing assistance. They came to his own shop, and when he
told them that it was impossible that he could relieve all who
adopted that method of applying Its assistance, they said " We
cannot help it, we have nothing to eat, our wives and children are
in the same condition, and we must beg ;" and though a notice
was issued by the Magistrates, stating that the practice was
illegal, it was still continued. When the Queen's letter ar.
rived in Leicester it was not favourably received ; but a public
meeting was held in the Town-hall, and a sum was raised which
was sufficient to afford relief for tour or five weeks.
SIR ROBERT PEEL'S ANSWER..

The CIIAIRMAN (interrupting the speaker)—l have just
received the following answer from Downing-street to the ap-
plication made, that Sir Robert Peel would receive the De-
puties to hear what they had to state :
" Sir,—l am desired by Sir Robert Peel to inform you, that
he will see the parties to whom your letter of the 6th of July
refers in Downing-street, ou Saturday next, at half-past eleven
o'clock."

Mr. WlNgs then proceeded with his address. The working
classes of Leicester were becoming reckless of consequences ;
they were in the habit of saying that they were worse off than
the inmates of gaols, or of union work-houses. He was per-
suaded that if he could produce to the meeting a number of the
ill -clad, half-starved stocking knitters, or frame-work knitters of
Leicester, they would pres, nt such a sFectacle as could hardly be
gathered from any otl.er place. The operations of the town-
ship of Hinckley especially were reduced to a state of wretched-
ness for which it would perhaps be impossible to find a
parallel. He would only say a few words in addition with
respect to the remedy for the evils under which the country
suffered. They had just heard the announcement
that the PI envier would grant them an interview.
That was very kind of him no doubt ; but he
(Mr. Winks) for his part, expected nothing from the
Right Hon. Baronet. It was his belief that they should not
trust to Premiers, nor to Parliaments, but to themselves.-
-(Cheers.) Whatever might be the determination to which
the Executive Committee might arrive, he was sure they
would proceed with prudence, and that they would adhere to
the resolution to which they might come. He would
remind them, too, that they should hasten as much as possible
the period at which they would arrive at their determination.
The people were starving—nay, they were dying; and they
could not wait for a remedy for the evils under which they
suffered. They should have relief sent to them as promptly
and as efficiently as posiilale.—(Cheers.)
The CHAIRMAN informed the meeting that the Executive
Committee had come to a resolution to invite those Mem-
bers of Parliament who had voted, or paired off in favour of
Mr. Villiers' motion, to a Conference with the Deputies,
at Brown's Hotel, Palace-yard, at two o'clock on Friday. The
meeting at the Crown and Ai;chor would take place as usual en
that day from eleven o'clock till two
Mr. DICK, a deputy from Paisley. then proceeded to address
the meeting. He believed it was very important that gentle-
man should point out, as sugge-ted by the Chairman at the
commencement of their meetit g, tie advantages which
would be likely to result from a repeal of the
Corn-laws. He believed that, if the Corn-laws were
repealed to-morrow a great increase of employment
would immediately take place in the borough of Paisley. He
had just received a communication from a friend in Dundee,
stating that it a repeal of the Corn-laws were to take place to-
morrow, the whole of the establishments in that town would he
put immediately into operation —( Hear, hear.) They knew
that they could at once obtain flour from America, and flour
was the very article which they stood in need of. The aristo-
cracy were said to be the authors of the evils under which the
country laboured; but surely those evils should in some mea-
sure be also traced to the middle classes, who allowed themielves
to be bribed and bought, and to become the slaves of power.
It was understood that they were now speaking of remedies;
and however feeble might be those he should suggest, he would
leave them in the hands of the Committee to itispo,e of them
as they might see good. The evil they complained of was mo-
nopoly ; but that was a very wide word. '1 here were various
kinds of monopoly ; but the giant one was the monopoly
of legislation. A practical scheme for destroying that
would be the thing to relieve them. 'I here were three con-
ventional crimes on the statute-book, which seemed to be over-
looked ; these were the crimes of treason, sedition, and blas-
phemy. He would tell them what his practice for twenty
years had been with respect to them. He had for twenty years
come to the determination, that no man charged before him, as
a juryman, with treason, or sedition, or blasphemy, should be
convicted. So long as the middle classes were put forward by
the higher classes to do their dirty wol k and convict men of
these crimes, so lung would the power of the aristocracy con-
tinue. When any one was charged with these crimes let the
middle classes inquire into the nature of the case, and oot con-
vict for them ; they would theti inspire the aristocracy with
terror. Though the middle classes complained of mono-
poly, they were themselves the monopolists of legisla-
tion. Let them declare openly for the Charter—let them
put down selfishness among -themselves, and by this means a
union would be established between the middle and working
classes, which would obtain for them that moral force which would
alone have influence on the at istocracy. The petitions of the
middle classes might be well written,beautifully recorded on paper,
but what was the result of them when they were presented?
When they should also be signed by the stiff fingers, which
!poke of men with string arms, accustomed to hard blows,
then they should have a mural force which would tell on the
aristocracy.

Thomas CLEW (Deputy from Hinckley) said he was a
stocking-maker, and his constituents wished him, if he
had the opportunity, to offer a few words on the state
of Hinckley. He had been connected with it for forty-two
Sears. They went on in prosperity till 1814, when the Corn
Bill was introduced, and he was one of those walked from
Liverpool to Nottingham, when the roads were placarded with
" No Corn Bill;" in fact. he might say that he was a
Corn-law Repealer, before there was any Corn-law at
all. It had been prophesied by a large Tory ma-
nufacturer, that the moa,ent the Corn-Bill was a law,
the sun of commercial prosperity in Hinckley would set ; and
as it was prophesied, so it proved. Trade 11:.d been falling off
for five and twenty years, and for the last three or four years
the state of things had been awful beyond description.
With respect to the means of alleviating the present distress, he
thought that unanimity of effort and perseverance ought to
mark all their exertions. They should never flag in their agi-
tation against the system of oppression which clogged the pro-
gress of free trade. Agitation had annihilated the Corporation
and Test Act—had given Emancipation to the blacks. Agita-
tion had enabled that great and good man Daniel
O'Connell to emancipate his Catholic countrymen. He
hoped that the Lord would take the heart of Sir R.
Peel into his hand, and remould and fashion it. He
could show him, if he came to Hinckley, such scenes as he
never witnessed in his life, and he believed that, unless he had
the heart of a Janissary, or was as stupid as a Bishop—(Tre-
mendous cheering)—that his heart would be touched. He had
visited houses in Hinckley, and the poor children had come
round him crying, and hoping he had brought salvation. He
had been sent to the Conference by his employers to show the
Conference the state of the country. There was not one in
Hinckley but was under distraint. All were in the deepest dis-
tress. He hojied soon to see these laws abolished, when the
rich and poor could live together in peace.—(Cheers. ).
Mr. BreiDWORTII, of I.eicester, had been working with the
last speaker for the last twenty-six bears, fighting the battles of
the poor, and had once nearly been transported, and twice in
prison. A working man had said to him, " You know
that the middle classes are not prepared to meet us."
Was that the case then ?—(Cries of " No, no.") The
working men said, if the Corn-laws were repealed, what
security had they, as the middle classes only wanted those laws
abolished, that then they would not desert the poor.—(No, no. )
He thanked them for that ‘• No" in the name of the working
people of Leicester. He had asked the manufacturers in his
neighbourhood if the were prepared to give up their luxuries,
and they said " No." He asked them if they would refuse to
pay the Income-tax, and they said " No " y
He (Mr. Blud-
worth) had never paid a Church-rate, and he never a ould.—
(Cheers. ) l'ilere were 100 persons in Leicester living upon
Is. 6d. a-week. They only worked two days in the
week. A man had met him in the street, and asked
for charity; he refused, for he conceived that charity
was only enslaving the minds of the poor. He ad-
vised the unemployed to go to the unions in a body, and
demand their rights rather than ask for charity. He did not
believe a repeal of the Corn-laws would give them all they
wanted. He was not only an Anti-Core-law man, not only a
Universal Sliffr,ige man, but a Universal Rights man.—( Cheers.)
If they wished the assistanee of the working classes, they must
let them see that they eared for their rights—that the mii.dle
classes wished to give them their rights.--(Cheers.) At, a
meeting the other day in Leicester not three middle class
gentlemen had attended. If Mr. Vincent were to go down and
call a meeting he would have 3,000 people assembled round him.
Why? Because the people believed that he was desirous of
gaining for thern their rights.--(Cheers. )
The CHAIRMAN ro,e to nrilgr. Ile fully agreed with the
speaker in his views on the Suffrage question, but they were not
met there to discuss that question, and therefore, as a point of