The Sun.
London, England, 1842-07-27 00:00:00

Mr. SIBSON (not a delegate, and a gentleman who ap-
peared to be unknown to all present) then rose to ad-
dress the meeting. He said he had been a farmer, an
at cue time a strenuous advocate of the Corn-laws, but
!hat he had, by the force of circumstances, become con-
vinced that it would be for the benefit of the agricul-
turalists themselves that the Corn-law should be repealed.
Mr. CRABTREE, of Todmorden, read a statement for
the purpose of showing the intense distress existing
among the labouring population in that locality.
Children frequently went out into stables to pick up
beans and oats, and other portions of the provender
of horses, and ate them to supply the cravings of
hunger. Every trade was in a state of the extremest
suffering and destitution ; and if Sir Robert Peel pro-
rogued Parliament without the adoption of some reme-
dial measures, the consequences in the ensuing winter
would be awful.

Mr. SHAW, of London, said that he had known the
metropolis for the last twenty-four years, and had
never • experienced anything like the depression of
trade and the want of confidence from which
the trading- interests of London were suffering at the
present moment. He attributed all the existing distress
and misery to class legislation—(Cheers)—to those Acts
of Parliament which prevented the industrious artizan
from exchanging the fruits of his labour for the agricul-
tural produce of other parts of the world. To those laws
he attributed the great increase of pauperism, in conse-
quence of which the rate-payers themselves were
being gradually ground down into paupers, and
that state of things would continue, unless free
trade principles should be completely established.
Sir Robert Peel had said that machinery was the cause
of distress. Why, machinery hard never done tailoring
work, machinery had never done shoemakers' work,
machinery had never made a shirt, machinery had never
made braces, machinery was not employed in the agri-
culturul districts ; and yet the distress was as intense
among tailors, and shoemakers, and sempstresses, and
bracemakers, and agricultural labourers as it was among
any other class of the community. He had the other day,
in a large manufacturing town, said to some of the persons
out of employ, "I suppose it is machinery that has
thrown you out of work." "Oh, no, Sir was the
reply, " the machines are standing idle now ; while the
machines were at work we wore employed, now they are
idle, we are idle." " Well," was his reply, " now the
machines are out of employ, I suppose you will go to
your handlooms and work, and keep them out of em-
ploy ?" The labourers replied that they could get no
orders, there were no orders coming from abroad. So
much for the fallacy of machinery being the cause of dis-
tress. Then Sir R. Peel talked of overtrading. Why, as long
as we could get an equivalent for the goods exported
trading could never cause distress. Trading was the
glory of England, and if it had not been for the skill
and industry of the manufacturers and traders England
would at this moment have been a miserable agricul-
tural country, with only two classes existing in it—
landlords and slaves. What had improved the value
of the land? Certainly manufactures; and to them it
was that the aristocracy was indebted for the increased
value of their estates. Sir Robert Peel had quoted from
Mr. Buckingham's work on America, for the purpose of
showing that even in New York, where the price of
labour was high, and there was a great demand for
labour, . persons had died from destitution, and Sir
Robert had attributed a great
.portion of the distress in
America to the Americans having speculated in stocks,
shares, railroads, aid canals, instead of devoting their
energies to agricultural pursuits, which was the basis of
national wealth Why, it was the Corn-laws of England
which had obliged the Americans to speculate in this
manner, because England refused to take their agri-
cultural produce. Now, what was the cause of these
deaths from destitution in New. York? It should be
recollected that nine-tenths of the emigrants who went
to America landed at New York. He had known 7,000 or
8,000 emigrants land there in one month. Many of them
landed just at the commencement of. the winter, without a
shilling in their pocke:s, without any clothing—in fact
they were paupers who had bean shipped off from Eng-
land for the United States. At the commencement of
winter the rivers and canals were frozen over, provisions
were consequently scarce, scarcely a place could he pro-
cured for these poor creatures to sleep in, and many
doubtlessly died of starvation ; but what occasioned
this ? doubtless the English Corn and Provision-laws,
which prevented these poor people getting cheap food
at home, and forced them to emigrate. If they had
had the means of proceeding up to Ohio as soon
as they landed, and about 61. each would enable
them to do so, they would be in a country where a
carpenter would earn ss. 9d. a-day ; a stone-mason, or a
bricklayer, 6s. 4d. ; a weaver, !Is. 3d. ; and a farm-
labourer, 3s. lzd. In Ohio the price of a quarter of
wheat was 325. 4d., and the beef was only 2d. a pound.
In the "West the labourer would be far better off than he
would be here. He had known several labouring
emigrants, who, after being there three years,
had become possessed of twenty acres of land.—(Cheers.)
Unless the Corn-laws were repealed, England would
sink lower and lower. They were getting poorer and
poorer every day, and- the poorer they got the more
powerful did their oppress-Ors become. The object of
the aristocracy 'was: to reduce them all to a state of
serfdom. The cause of Corn-law repeal was making.
great progress in Ireland ; and if they would send over
a few lecturers there, the farmers of Ireland would be-
come enlightened on the. subject, as they were now be-
ginning to see that the Corn-laws were a fallacy.
Mr. LEWIS, of Stroud, said that throughout the agri-
cultural districts, the farmers were beginning to be dis-
satisfied with the Corn-laws, and were inclined to be in
favour of the repeal.
Mr. MooRE next addressed the meeting. He said
there was one point in reference to this subject which
they should endeavour to keep before their eyes—namely,
the necessity of quickly accomplishing the object they
had in view—the repeal of the Corn-laws. For'the last
four or five years, manufactures were steadily getting
into a worse state than they had been in hitherto. Sir
R. Peel might quote communications, and City articles,
from the newspapers, but the question was plain. Had
the people got bread—had they got employment—had
the number of persons who looked for relief to the work-
house become diminished ? No. Things were daily
getting worse and worse, while the Government were
looking to the chapter of accidents for a remedy for the
evils of the country—looking to a good harvest, from
which the relief to be derived was at least temporary.
They need not then look to the Government, unless they
roused the people. Let tkem agitate, agitate, during the
next few months, and success must follow their efforts.
The Government complained of the obstruction of pub-
lic business when the friends of the people in the House
of Commons endeavoured to draw attention to the dis-

tress of the people, and seek a remedy for it. What
was the meaning of such complaints ? Was it not the
business of Government to attend to the condition of
the people ? . What was the use of a Government if the
people under its protection was to be starved ? They
should be most urgent at the present time to attain their
object ; for if things continued as they now were, other
countries which were becoming our rivals in the prodiw-
lion of manufactures would exclude us from every fo-
reign market. Let them take care lest the repeal of the
Corn-laws should come too late to remedy the evils which
they had originated. Why not throw 'open our ports to
America—to the whole world? Away with the sophism
urged by the short-sighted advocates of the Corn-laws,
" Don't be dependent on foreigners." Why not look
upon the natives 'of foreign countries as brothers,
not -as strangers,. to be treated with suspicion—
strangers, to spite whom, we starved ourselves ?
He referred to an article in the Sunday Times, headed
" Will the military fire upon the pee ?" from which
he quoted the folloWing passage:—" his is a question
which those who are hinting at physical force being ti
panacea for the presentdistress should put to themselves.
It is a question which has been already answered by the
military themselves, who instead of preparing bullets to
feed the starving multitude with, have made collections
to assist them with food. The 88th, the bravest regiment
that ever faced their country's foe, whose bold and
daring deeds of valour have entitled them to have in-
scribed upon their banners the motto " Clear the way !"
have subscribed a large sum towardS the relief of the
poor of Castlebar ; and the paymaster of the, ;Ist regi-
ment, stationed at St. John's, Upper Canada, has trans-
mitted to Paisley SOL, tha amount of a subscription made
by the officers and men for the relief of the poor of that
town ! the subscriptions of the non-commissioned
officers and privates exceeded 621. When the con-
duct of the commandant of the garrison of Galway,
who would not allow the military to fire upon the
starving men, women. and children, who broke open
the provision stores in search of food, is coupled with
that of the 71st and 88th, the physical force quacks may
doubt the efficiency of their bullet nostrums. They may
depend upon it that the soldiers have the hearts of men,
and that they will not fire upon their own flesh and
blood—their fathers, brothers, and sisters, whom star-
vation has driven to madness. Even the majesty of the
law is checked in the vindication of its power, as evinced
by Mr. Bennett, Queen's Counsel and Crown prosecu-
tor, in the case of the Ennis riots, who, after the con-
viction of the rioters, prayed that the sentence should
not be passed upon them for acts committed by them
when suffering from starvation. Baron Richards, the
Judge who triedthem, expressed his delight at the accused
escaping, as he emphatically declared that it would be to
him a source of heartful pain to sentence men to punish-
ment, for breaches of the law which starvation forced
them to perpetrate. Those circumstances ought to open
the eyes of our rulers to the unnatural state to which
bad laws, and class legislation, have reduced the coun-
try, and ought to make them tremble for the result.
The facts here mentioned, should teach the Government
that there was a point, beyond which they could not go,
in trying the patience of the people, for they might find
that the power on which they relied might fail them.
However, he reprobated violence
con-
tended that, by preserving the peaces the people .
of any kind, and
hac
everything to gain. He
• the people had in
which the representatives of
insisted on_ the right
the ' House of Commons to stop the supplies till the
Iby every means in their power to embarass the Govern-
wants of the people were attended to. • They were bound.
men Goys egt that bad embaraseed the country