The Sun.
London, England, 1842-07-21 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, JULY 21, 1842.

ANTI-CORN _I, ti VI, CONFERENCE.

lately held by Sir R. Peel—language which seemed to
show that he wished to cater to the vicious taste of those
who were anxious to throw the odium of the present
ac ful distress upon the improvements which had been
effected in our machinery. He had lived in Manchester
for the last 50 years, and he had been in business there
for the last 40 years, so that he must know something of
the state of trade in that town. The branch of business
to which he had served his apprenticeship, and which he
since carried on, was the manufacture of fustian, which i
was one of the staple manufactures of Manchester.
Between the profits made in that trade in days
long gone-by and the present time, no comparison could
be made. At the period when he had entered upon
business, the profit upon the best quality of fustains was
Is. a-yard, the profit upon those of the second quality
was 10d. a-yard; and the profit upon those of the third
quality was Bd. a-yard. But a mighty change had since
taken. place, and the profits were now but is. upon the
piece. Their goods had formerly been manufactured
by hand-work ; but they had for some time employed
the power-loom. His own machinery had cost him
nearly 33.0001., but he did not believe it would now sell
for 8,0001. A party in his neighbourhood, who
had lately become a bankrupt, had a mill, the
the machinery of which had cost 40,000/. That machinery
had been valued about a year and a half ago at 22,0001.;
hut it was sold the other day, and did not quite realize
7,0001. Another party, who had also become a bankrupt,
had a mill filled with excellent machinery, which ten
years ago had cost 6,0001., it was sold the other day for
1,5001. He had lately had a communication with the
Manager of a Joint-Stock Bank, who gave it as his de-
cided opinion, and in that opinion he himself entirely
coincided, that .if the manufacturers and mill-owners
of the country were to sell their mills, machinery,
and stock at as a high price as possible, there was
not one in five of them who would be solvent.
He had himself been always decidedly opposed to the
practice of reducing wages. He considered that practice
attended with two great evils ; first, it deprived the
working man of the means of purchasing goods ; and, in
the second place, it knocked down the value of all the
stock the manufacturer had en hand. .No sooner was a
reduction made in wages than it became known to pur-
chasers, who insisted on a corresponding diminution in
the price of goods. He had himself taken, in the year
1840, a large amount of stock at a reduced price, expect-
ing to make a profit, but he had subsequently sold it at
a loss. The last time he had taken stock, namely, at
Christmas last, he had hoped that trade would revive,
and that he would make a large profit ; but he found he
had been greatly deceived, and he had sold it at a liTss of
from 71 to 10 per cent. He had of late reduced his
hands by one-half, and lie should have stopped
his mills altogether were it not that he had a
considerable number of workmen living in his cottages,
for whom he wished to find some employment. He
was a Director of the Birmingham and Manchester
Railway Company. At the time they were about to
open the line to Crewe ; they wanted about sixty clerks.
porters, and watchmen, and for those situations they had
upwards of 1,200 applicants, independent of private
applications to individual Directors. Those applicants
were in general men of good character, and of the con-
dition to which they were reduced some opinion might
be formed from the fact of their having made those ap-
plications. He had been informed by. a friend of his
engaged in the distribution of soup tickets to the dis-
tressed operatives, that on Monday morning the crowd
of applicants was unparalleled, and some of them had
come to the door to wait for relief on the preceding
Sunday night. He could state as a fact, that some of
the ministers had lately visited a family of eight in
number, all grown up, who had but one bed and one room,
and that one room a cellar. Now, he had no hesitation
in saying that such a state of things must affect even
the morals of our population. Young people of various
classes could not thus. be mingled together without
danger to their moral character ; and for his part, he
was persuaded that twenty years of prosperity could not
repair the injury done to the character of our people by
the distress of the last few years. He was himselt con-
nected with a Sunday-school, and though the expenses
attending it were very limited, the contributions for its
support had so diminished that he was afraid it could
not continue to be carried on. The late annual collec-
tion had not realized one half the usual amount. , Again
they had a dispensary and a penitentiary which were
nearly brought to a stand for want of funds.—(Hear,
hear.) Altogether the town was in a most de-
plorable state. It would move the hardest heart
to see the number of persons once in respectable
circumstances now depending on precarious and charit-
able relief. He begged to
.state, as another indication of
the general decline of the trade in Manchester, that he
had learned that morning that a mill adjoining his own,
which employed seven or eight hundred hands, had
stopped. He had himself a few thcusands pounds left ;
when that was done he must stop working his mills,
and those he now employed must go out of employ ; for
the goods they now sold were not enough to pay wages.
He was sure nothing but the pressure from without
would forcg the Legislature to attend to their complaints.
—(Loud cheers.) He was the last persOn in the world
who would wish to excite people to break the law, but
from what he knew of the situation of the country, and
of the trade of the country, he feared the worst. Every
market was glutted. Mr. Smith, from Canada, had been
with him recently, and had bought forty pieces of goods.
He ought to have bought four hundred or five hundred.
That gentleman had told him that he could buy goods
10 per cent lower in Canada than he could in England.
Another person who used to take a great quantity of
goods, now desired that no9,e might be sent out, because
he could buy them lower than they could be sent out.
If Sir Robert Peel judges of the prosperity of the country
by the amount of exports, his judgment must be a most
erroneous one.—(Cheers.) On many of the goods sent
out, the manufacturer would never get 15s. in the pound
back again. Every piece of goods which left this country
without leaving a profit behind it, took part of our soil
away, and if that state of things continued the country
must ultimately go.—(Cheers.)
Mr. FINCH, in addition to his statements re-
specting iron made yesterday, stated that in the Staf-
fordshire district there were • 150 blast furnaces,
of these only 74 were now in blast, These furnaces em-
ployed from 150 to 200 persons each, so that from
12,000 to 15,000 persons were thrown out of employ in
consequence. Many of the iron mills in Staffordshire
were only in work three days a week. As an illustra-
tion of the complete prostration of the iron trade, he
would just state that in 1835 he was selling bar iron at
11/. per ton, and this week the price was 5 guineas. A
gentleman who had had great experience as an exporter
of iron, had told him that he could not put his finger
upon a single part of the globe where he could sell iron
at a profit.
The CHAIRMAN having announced that the Delegates
intended to attend a meeting of .the London merchants
and dealers at the London Tavern, the Conterence ad-
journed until to-day at eleven.

(Centioned from our Afternoon Edition of yesterday.)
Rey worth then read the following document :
v" HOW DOES CHEAP BREAD PRODUCE HIGH
AGES AND PROMOTE GENERAL PROSPERITY?
kthe"tnlsVehlve:s,' food is cheap, the industrious classes clothe
and the increased demand in the home mar-
at Produces great manufacturing and commercial pros-
rilY : more hands are required, and, to obtain them
,bier wages are given. On the other hand, when corn
is dear, the whole of the wages of the working-classes
ire expended in providing food for their families, and
their demand for manufactures ceases : our exports are
increased, and foreign markets are glutted with the very
Coeds which should have clothed the wives and families
"f English workmen, and have made their homes com-
fortable. Ruinous forced sales of them abroad are
effected, at a loss, that our mill owners may obtain re-
mittances, and continue to pay the operatives their
weekly wages bankruptcies follow, mills stop, opera-
lives are without employment, or work only half time;
consequently, wages fall, or, what comes to the
'lame thing, their weekly earnings are diminished. The
`naeraplova • • . •
driv ~, operatives, &Laving pawned everything, are
en, destitution, from their cottages, which are left
With n'
tenants. No additional buildings are. wanted.
,„„15813fis, bricklayers, plasterers, plumbers, joiners, and
vaulters are, therefore, thrown out of work. No new
f4llolll3,are erected, no machinery is required. Mechanics,
,4_9(trymen, labourers at iron works, miners and their
Z 1 makers, are also deprived of employment. Shoe-
...!,kers, tailors, shopkeepers, and, lastly, bread-bakers
:_qa dairy-farmers, lose their former customers, and be-
:2l4e themselves victims of the all-pervading evil. A
7areity of bread and dear food sinks them, too, into the mi-
eswrable ranks of the non-producers, to augment the
en,elling numbers of dependent, pauperised consumers.
atis universal distress, experienced in every trade when
vesuPPIY of so" necessary an article as bread (being
. monopolised by the law-making landocracy, is
Igly illustrated by the ill-favoured kine in Pharoah's
,;*4lll, which eat up all the fat and well-favoured.
," Indeed, it is an invariable rule, that, if the parties
Vnaeing any article of common consumption have po-
ical (ever to limit, by law, the supply of that article,
the
wnl. raise its price in the market to the extent of
•t4t`'r 'wicked, privilege, which will diminish the con-
-4,lption of other things in proportion, and, therefore,
t,41,1! Contract and depress every other trade, as exp
'„e shows the Corn-laws hiwe done. If to protect ma-
itacturers in the maintenance of high prices for their
0,,C4% misguided legislation should have interfered to
etiev!tit the development of the mighty mechanical in-
elkticins which, by the peculiar blessing of God on this
etiv,,intl7l commenced seventy years ago to pour forth
manufactures to clothe the naked of every
"; to provide an inexhaustible source of employ-
,irt for labour, and to diffuse wealth amongst
classes throughout the empire, with unheard-
she
Prelusion ; and if to arrest this influx of
ap Clothing, Parliament should have prohibited by
"• theofmachinery,the scarcity and dearness of
v.,use
isou''a, woollen and linen goods consequent thereon,
etih,,la not only have kept down the consumption of these
ties to the lowest point, but the costliness of the ne-
Ai„sarY garments made of them would have withdrawn
ith;fra, means of consuming all other commodities and pro-
of. --„“ins to an extent that would have kept in a state
ken, deepest depression all other trades and employ-
en'ins, agricultural included ; labour would have be-
h:a a drug, wages would have been reduced almost to
Meiling, and
,England, instead of being, as she is now,
wealthiest nation on the earth, would have remained
-eak
,_lll Poverty, the merited victim of her wicked and
this 8" legislative policy. Hence it is that, yielding to
infallible rule, a high price of food according to its
ta4reltY, devised and maintained by Act of Parliament,
tr,t3 gradually produced a universal and constantly in-
''earign in every trade, during the last four
~.; • Whilst in 1835, for instance, when wheat was at
,tlt; than 40s. per quarter, we had a period of great
-Nraftl,aracturing and commercial prosperity, with good
itti.:?:es, for the simple reason, that besides everybody
'caving: plenty of food, upwards of 15,000,0001. were
Allied to the labouring classes on wheat alone, which,
L,ng spent in manufactures, increased the demand for
L,7lr and raised wages. During' the recent period of
prices for food, great has been the distress of the
tis!!turacturing districts, and all over the kingdom in all
f"se trades whose tens of thousands mainly depend
be employment on the ability of the working classes to
I,...their customers ; in which the capitalists have also
Trsgely shared by a considerable decline, nay almost a
truction of profits, and even, in many instances, of
taPitalalso, •
of which, alas ! the present universal low
,„'Lges, or diminished weekly earnings, want of employ-
iiettinlltt,ray renad, destitution of the labourers throughout the
necessarily, the consequence. The repeal
tor Corn-laws would secure a steady supply of cheap
,in exchange for eur manufactures, by which we
superabundance
upt;roarbeui gn
shouldnto foreign
perform a Christian duty in ministering to the
our ndannacteions, and clothing their naked out of
eee
food for the tho ive in return, of manufactures, and we should
out of their superabundance, cheap
thousands who are now famishing with
hunger ; and God's command, to do unto others as we
would they should do unto us," would, through the pro-
,!!-Is of this beneficent interchange, be obeyed. His
!blessing would follow, the national distress would be re-
, Inoved, ,she prosperity of trade would be restored, by the
'People having it again in their power to become general
Z,Tsumers of all other articles, and the competition of
4310yers for labourers would raise wages and give
irtant employment to all classes of labourers, for the
tweet t of revived commerce would soon reach the agri-
tst,,Pral labourer, and the higher wages obtained in
- kiti4te4 and manufactories would, as a .matter of course,
la wages in the-farming districts, as it always has done.
tlea, ottclusion, let the inquiry be made, what is the
toon ~11t. which substantially represents the wealth of the
Zeet eijed interest in the kingdom. Is it the precious
lieh'eas, which in the currency amount to about 22,000,000/.
gr 1,,..,,--.4..represents this enormous wealth ? Is it the con-
Eoier`ed masses of buildings in the metropolis, or the
°f these islands ? No ! it is the power of the
ustrlous masses, by the aid of machinery, to produce,
tlier•ti."l°st miraculous abundance, all the useful comino-
t tIC-3 of life, combined with the essential requisite that
‘-11),
▪ ey have the ability also to be the general consumers of
tai„,l. If these powers be paralyzed, the wealth of the
im."eYed interest will dissolve away and depart from its
" tessors, as surely as the shadow follows the substance.
"'erkmen of England, Merchants, Manufacturers,
things.
and Landowners ! meditate seriously on these
„tthings• The deep-felt and wide-spread misery brought
'l4).a all by the Corn and Proviston-laws demonstrate
4 Ir selfish and sordid origin and denounce their iniquity.
As Christians, who ask God to give daily bread to all,
111111114 y calls upon you to express, on all occasions,
tour utter abhorrence of these and all laws whose object
I,.:lesignedly to create scarcity. As sincere, religious
it is' who pray that " His will may be done on earth as
k, hi heaven," consistency requires that you should put
forth
• unceasingly your combined efforts to obtain, by
air, lawful means, the total and immediate abolition of
other's
which interdict men from ministering to each
• ti wants and necessities, out of their relative super-
dance. LAWRENCE HEYWORTH.
th had thus endeavoured to place before the meeting
Whole cycle of reasoning on this important subject,
1•
,-" „siv,„e hoped the arguments when placed before the
would have the effect they wished for. It' they
le-fuld be refuted he was open to conviction, if not, then
f" the truth prevail; this was all he wished with regard to
question: He might state that in his journey up
al Liverpool, he met a gentleman of large landed pro-
Cot Y in Kent, who was a firm supporter of the present
:Ltlith-vo 3, and, during a conversation on the subject, he
1-1411tee.d the present document in his hands, and he allowed
had considerably changed his opinions ' • that he
Iv convinced there must be some change, and that he
abolition
ready to concede that that change must be an
of the Corn-laws, or the wealth of the king-
d°in'would depart from it. He was in hopes that a
ear7,,"ar conviction would come home both to the mann-
-
lig and landed interests, on the impolicy of all re-
:rietions on the importation of any commodity, but more
sPeeially on such a vital commodity as corn. To make
Bach
restri t. s was to legislate for the purpose of
kto. c ion
eking the kingdom poorer, for they had the same
e,et as an hostile army preventing the entrance of pro-
-5'005 into a beleagured city. Their direct operation
0,, necessarily to impoverish the kingdom ; let them
look at the question in this broad light, and surely
spit
would come to the conviction that of all madness,
,"it of legislating on such principles was the most ab-
o„,,-urd and idiculous. There was a constant waste and
1,-s'aumption of the commodities of a country, and to
;e'ent the importation of them was to produce a state
1-I(4,lhings under which the nation must become poorer
Poorer.
HOLLAND HOOLE (Boroughreeve of the town of
othLahord) then addressed the meeting. He said he had
"t°ll sent up for the special purpose of accompanying
gentlemen to a meeting .of merchants in the City,
'yneh would be granted to them that day. He was a
CD manufacturer, or at least he ought to be one, but
gt„ was sorry to say that at present his works were
0,-„l),P,,ed- He would ask them under what conditions
it`"-e, a man occupy premises, and employ 700 or 800
en, when he could not even realise the expenses of his
!tablishinent, and pay the chief rent and local taxes
t
lie
place he occupied ? Such was the fact at pre-
a
hie. and perhaps he was singularly fortunate in being
his stop his works without the total destruction of
trade which must be the case with the
reai„
cet'"l'LtY of persons engaged in the same business, in
great spinning. Ile looked forward to the winter with
ere, apprehension, not only on account of the great in-
bet e. of misery it must produce amongst the people,
vu, fur the strong probability that outbreaks would oc-
ftte',' which would extend themselves over all the maim-
, maturing districts. He believed that the exertions of the
pie
had contributed much to the preservation of the
shji:•",of the country, as well as to advance the cause ;
or b tun people were still waiting with some expectation
yli.,enefit as to the result. It mattered not by what Mi-
etra,
4$ mthese changes were effected but femorall
if ; "un ere was no other prospect, beforehe them butruiny 4
~t,h(3`!°°3e great and important change were not made in
ht;,‘ al commercial, system. By his office in the town of
Itfo4f (11115 he was enabled to make observations of the state
lh
People better than many other persons, and he
f .7: assure the meeting that their condition was
[A short conversation ensued, during which
5t,....,r1Ler.11001e stated, that he had abandoned all idea of re-
s
'ln,^sPta ewg his working till some great change had taken
]
1011: he CHAIRMAN announced the receipt of two sums of
at "
*`-'•" IL, from " A Friend of the Cause," and
e—(Applause.)
Alderman CHAPPEL, in referring to the statement
v
ir It. Peel, respecting machinery, detailed an inter-
e had e Right Hon. Baronet the Home-
P=i office
fin Sir 1835, when th
some disturbances we reat apprehended
6r• the
manufacturing districts, on which occasion
that Robert Peel declared, with great feeling,
u " machinery should and would be protected."
v 9 different was that language from the language

COURT CIRCULAR.

Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent visited her Ma-
jesty yesterday at Buckingham Palace.
The Queen and the Princess of Saxe Coburg Gotha took an
airing yesterday afternoon in an open carriage and four, his
Royal Highness Prince Albert and the Hereditary Prince of
Saxe Goburg Gotha riding out on horseback at the same time,
the Hon. Colonel Grey and Colonel Bouverie, the Equerries
in Waiting attending her Majesty en horseback, and Lady Ca-
roline Cocks and the Hon. Miss Devereux, the Maids of Ho-
nour in Waiting, following in anotheropen carriage.
The Royal dinner party at Buckingham Palace yesterday
evening included her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent,
their Serene Highnesses the Hereditary Prince and Princess of
Saxe Coburg Gotha, the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch,
Lady Charlotte Dundas, the Earl Delawarr, and Sir R. Peel.
Mr. George Edward and the Hon. Mrs. Anson had the
honour of joining the Royal circle at dinner on Tuesday evening.
The Viscountess Jocelyn has succeeded the Viscountess Can-
ning as the Lady in Waiting on the Queen ; and Viscount
Sydney and Captain Hood have succeeded the Earl of War-
wick and Admiral Sir Robert Otway, as the Lord and Groom
in Waiting on her Majesty.
The Princess Augusta of Cambridge, attended by Lady
Augusta Somerset, visited the Duchess of Kent yesterday, at
Clarence-house, St. James's.
The Duchess and the Princess Augusta of Cambridge ho-
noured the Italian Opera with their presence on Tuesday
evening.
Lady Charlotte Dundas has succeeded Lady Anna Maria
Dawson as the Lady in Waiting on her Royal Highness the
Duchess of Kent.
A Deputation of Gentlemen connected with the northern
part of the Principality of Wales, had an interview with Sir
Robert Peel and the Earl of Lincoln yesterday, at the official
residence of the former in Downing-street, on the subject
of the Welch Landowners' Memorial. Amongst those present
' were the Earl of Powis, Lord Clive, Hon. Robert Clive,
M.P., Mr. W. Ormsby Pore, M.P., Mr. Richard Richards,
M.P., Mr. W. Bulkeley Hughes, M.P., Mr. J. R. Ormsby
Gore, Colonel Vaughan, Mr. W. P: Richards, and Mr. Wil-
liam Jones.
Baron de Moncorvo, the Portuguese Minister, transacted
business yesterday, at the Foreign-office.
Sir William Gomm and Mr. Burnley had interviews with
Lord Stadley yesterday, at the Colonial-office.
Mr. John Wood, the Chairman, and Mr. Dehany, the So-
licitor to the Excise, had an interview with the Chancellor of
the Exchequer, yesterday, at his official residence, in Downing-
street.
An appeal from Bengal, " Baboo Deep Narain v. Lal
Chutterput Singh," occupied the Judicial Committee of the
Privy Council, yesterday. Mr. Loftus Wigram, Queen's
Counsel, was heard by their Lordships.
The Lords present were the Lord President, Lord
Brougham, the Vice-Chancellor Knight Bruce, and the Judge
of the Admiralty Court. Sir Alexander Johnstone and Sir
Edward East sat as Privy Councillors.
The case was adjourned, and their Lordships rose at four
o'clock.

DISTRESS OF THE COUNTRY.
In consequence of the following requisition, a meeting
of merchants, &c., was held yesterday, at the London
Tavern, Bishopsgate-street, for the purpose of taking
into consideration the present depressed state of trade,
and of devising some means to alleviate the consequent
distress prevailing in the country:—
King's Arms, Palace-yard, July 13, 1842.
We, the undersigned, on behalf of a Deputation from the
manufactUring districts, at present assembled in London, are
desirous of having a meeting of the:tnembers of the leading firms
in London, fer the purpose of conferring with them upon the
subject of the long-continued and unequal depression which
exists in almost every branch of trade, and of the fearful dis•
tress which is spreading over the entire country. The state of
the north of England, and the gloom which overspreads the
future, must be our apology for this proposal.
The members of your firm are therefore respectfully and ear-
nestly requested to attend at the London Tavern, Bishopsgate-
street, at half-past two for three o'clock, on Wednesday, the
20th instant.
We subscribe ourselves, with the greatest respect,
HAMER STANSFIELD, Leeds.
JOHN BRIGHT, Rochdale.
WILLIAM RAW SON, Manchester.
The Chair was taken at half-past three o'clock by
Mr. LEAF.
The requisition convening the meeting having been

'cad,
Mr. BRIGHT, of Rochdale, said that the extreme dis-
tress of the working classes—in fact, the necessity of the
case, was the only apology he had to offer on the part of
himself and brother Delegates for calling the merchants
of London together on the present occasion. He assured
them there never was brought before the' public a
question e hich had less material in it for party to work
upon than the present. He disclaimed, then, party feel
Tugs having anything to do with the present movement.
No doubt they had all heard of the distress existing in
the country, but all that had come to their knowledge
from discussion's of the subject, both in and
out of Parliament—all that had been said by
the Anti-Corn-law Delegates—all that had been
written in the newspapers on the subject of the
distress of the country—fell far short of the real state of
matters. The sufferings of the people were not confined
to the cotton and woollen manufacturing districts—they
extended also to the two manufacturing districts of Shef-
field and Birmingham, and to the mining districts.
There was no property in Lancashire and Yorkshire
invested in machinery for cotton and woollen manufac-
tures which had not fallen one-half or two-thirds of
what would be its real intrinsic value in times of ordi-
nary prosperity. That was the effect of the depression
which trade had sustained for the last four years. Parties
engaged in trade had on their hands numerous stocks
which had continued falling in value, and would so con-
tinue, sinless a decided check was gi'ven to that down-
ward progress, and which they wJuld never be able to
dispose of even at great sacrifices, while the cause of de-
preciation continued in operation. Year after year pro-
perty was wasting away. The. weakest were daily
giving way, and those who, from the possession of large
capitals, were able now to bear up, would be shortly
overwhelmed by the tide of distress. The counties of
Lancashire and Yorkshire contained a population equal
to one-ninth of that of the hole United Kingdom.
Lancashire alone had a population exceeding that of six-
teen other counties of England, and, at this moment,
one-half of that-population were in a state bordering on
starvation, in consequence of the depression of trade. A
large prop•rtion of the inhabitants of those counties was
in a state of utter destitution. It was impossible that
this state of things could long continue without the mer-
chants of this great city, whose customers the manufac-
turers were, feeling the effect of the universal paralysis
under which trade and commerce were suffering. The
public peace of the country was endangered by such a
state of matters. So strong was the conviction of think
ing men on this matter that several Magistrates in the
north of England had determined to resign their offices
rather than have to say, during the ensuing winter, in
their official capacity, to Government that they disre-
garded the famishing cries of their starving countrymen,
and that they would act in accordance with such dis-
regard.
Mr. CHAPPEL, of Manchester, said that he had been
50 years connected with manufactures. He was satis-
fied that a mill and machinery, which cost 34,0001.,
would not now realize 8,0001., in consequence of the de-
pression of trade. Another mill in his neighbourhood,
on which the owners, who had since become embar-
rassed, had spent 40,0001., had been lately valued by a
broker at 22,0001, to an incoming tenant. No tenant,
however, could be obtained, and the property was sold
by the Sheriff for 7,0001. Another mid and machinery,
which were sold by the assignees of the property, which
had been working for ten years, and were in very
good condition, sold for 1,500/. ; this was only a
fortnight ago. From these facts, they might judge
what property in mills and machinery was worth.
A gentleman who had managed two mills had
told him in conversation that it was his firm
opinion, that if the owners of mills could even realise all
that they possibly could, not one millowner would be
fouud solvent. He was at present keeping one-half of
his hands, simply because their families depended en-
tirely upon him for support. At Christmas, 1840, he
took his stock, and sold it at a loss of from 5 to 7f per
cent. Last Christmas he again took stock, and he was
at present not selling itk but offering it at a loss of from
7 to 10 per cent. At prisent the calculation wasswhich
would cause the greatest • losS, carrying on business or
stopping the mills altogether. He was occupying an
establishment of his own, he lived in a district that was
extra-parochial, and had not to pay rent or local taxes,
yet with all these advantages he could not continue
working without a loss. The distress of 1825 was-
nothing to 'tie present ; that was merely a panic, and
when confidence was restored they soon regained their
former prosperity. But at present there was not a mar-
ket of the world which was not glutted and overstocked
with their produce. He had been assured by a gentle-
man from Canada, that he could purchase English
goods in Canada cheaper than he could here. He
would now offiv a few words as to the effect
of this state of things on the morals of
the population. There were thousands and tens of
thousands of people out of employ—thousands of young
men and women who were turned adrift in the world—
and what must be the consequence ? He had been a
superintendent of their Sunday Schools for five-and-
twenty years, and for the last two years the subscribers
had been falling off, and they were now a quarter in
arrear with their rent, though the expense of educating
the children was only 41d. per head, per annum, because
they got their Bibles and Testaments from that noble So-
ciety—the Bible Society. He was likewise connected with
the Manchester and Birmingham Railway, and the Direc-
tors had received 1,200 applications for situations on the
Railway, as porters, policemen, and messengers, besides
the applications that were made, 'to the Directors in
private. He had been assured by a minister that one
family had but One bed in one room, and that room a
cellar. Such was the desire to obtain work, that to get
the warps which were distributed on Monday mornings,
numbers of persons were to be found assembling during
the Sunday night. He would give them no more state-
ments ; he thought he had said enough. The speaker
sat down evidently much affected by the distressing
nature of the details he had given.
Mr. HENRY .ASHWORTH (a Magistrate of Bolton) then
addressed the meeting. He said it was an extraordinary
sight that they should see men of business from the
North of England assembled here to tell their tales of
woe, and to speak of the losses and privations they were
undergoing. He, himself, felt humiliated by it,
but yet he believed he could not have remained com-
fortably at home had he avoided availing himself of such
an opportunity as this, to convey to them 11hat was the
present suffering condition of the people among whom
he dwelt. But, in order that they might more tho-
roughly understand what was the present condition of
the people of Lancashire, he would draw their attention
to a few observations relating to the past history of that
county. The busy part of the county of Lancashire
was mostly comprised in the Hundred of Salford, and
this portion of the county was formerly a waste, a desert,
a morass in which William the Conqueror was nearly
fastened, and found himself unable to proceed in a journey
from York to Chester. From that period till the time
of Camden, who surveyed the county in 1607, there was
scarcely any record existing of what was its state.
Camden, more
.than 200 years ago, when he had sur-
veyed the county of York, moralised before he attempted
to cuter the county of Lancashire. lle described it as
lying toward the western ocean, barbarous, and hardly
civilised. With respect to the people, he approached
them with some kind of dread, and hoped it might bode
no ill ; but that he might not seem wanting to this
County, he would run the hazard of the attempt, and he
hoped that the Divine assistance, which had hitherto
favoured him, would not desert him in this.
In his survey he describes Rochdale as " a market town
of .no small resort ;" Bury, as another, "in no way
inferior to it;" Manchester is described as surpassing
all the towns hereabout in its buildings, its populousness,
its woollen manufactures, its market-place, and church "
Liverpool is merely mentioned under the name of
" Litherpoole," as one of the "most convenient of the
places for setting sail into Ireland." Preston is called
a " large town, handsome and populous for these parts."
Blackburne was merely mentioned ; but Ashton, Bolton,
Oldham, Salford, and many other places, now contain-
ing from 'ten to fifty thousand inhabitants, were
not even mentioned, existing as they did, if at
all, merely •as obscure and insignificant villages.
He quoted these remarks that they might have some
idea of the progress Lancashire had made in the period
of 200 years ; a progress due to the industry and in-
domitable energies of its people. At the present time
those manufactures found a genial soil. Chemistry
and mechanics had been applied to manufactures with an
FIRE.—Yesterday morning, between five and six intelligence previously unknown. Liverpool, which two
o'clock, a fire broke out at the country residence of centuries ago was a small fishing station, was now one of
Mr. Shuttleworth, the auctioneer, named West Green the largest commercial ports of the world. In the time
Lodge, Tottenham. In a very short time after the dis of Camden the rental of Lancashire was valued at
covery of the fire, the parish engines belonging to 57,0001. a year ; it was rated during the last year at
Tottenham and Stoke Newington arrived, and 6,200,000/. or au increase of 6,300 'per cent.—(Hear,
were got into active operation, and in thq hear, hear.) In the Hundred ,of Salford, the
meantime messengers were despatched to the various increase had been upwards of 10,000 per cent.
metropolitan fire-stations for _ assistance. The fire, i This was the improved value given to the land by
it is supposed, originated in a kitchen, at the back the increase of the manufactures of the country. He
par: of the house, and was caused by a defective flue, and had drawn their attention to the past state of the coun-
the flames raged with such violence that, although try, and he would now say something of its present po-
considering th distance from town, several of , sition. By the census taken in the lest year, their were
the engines belonging to the brigade, and the 23,600 uninhabited houses, besides mills and workshops,
West of England, under Mr. Connorton, arrived and the number must have greatly increased in the
in a very shot t time, the whole of the back twelve months that bad since elapsed. This change
portion of the premises, consisting of kitchens, bed- could not have happened without producing some effect
rooms, and out-offices, together with the furniture, was ion the people. In Bolton, the amount of wages had de-
entirely destroyed. The fire was, however, fortunately I creased 200,0001. a year, and, with the rise in the price
prevented spreading to the dwelling-house. The very i of food, the people laboured under the additional disad-
valuable furniture and paintings have sustained consider- vantage of 119,0001. a year, making altogether a de-
able damage by hasty removal. Mr. Shuttleworth is in- icrease of 320,0001. a-year in the means of subsistence.
sured in the Alliance. The damage sustained by the jln addition to that, those classes which contributed to
destruction of the building and the furniture is very great. the poor-rates were also suffering to a very great extent.
During the week, from the Bth to the 14th inst., Shopkeepers, and parties in that class of life, were daily
inclusive, the number of passengers between France and and constantly failing ; and those which had been rate-
England who embarked from and landed at Boulogne payers were falling off in consequences of houses and
was 1,226, of carriages 10, and of horses 13. At Calais workshops becoming uninhabited, and property yielding
the numbers during the same period were 475 passengers, nothing ; so that the rates, which stook at 84,0001.,
10 carriages, and 4 horses. a year on the books, did not yield on the collection more

missioners. The economy was too great, and the supplies
given from the very first have been inadequate for human support.
" We implore of Government the privilege of obtaining for
our distressed people the necessaries of lifeduty free ; and we re-
turn grateful thanks fur the great good which was done our
community by the remission of duty in two instances on Ame-
rican beef, sent by a benevolent friend at New York. What
was thus done on a small scale, and without any loss to any one,
may be done in such a measure as to prove a source of prompt
supply, as well as a means of soothing wounded feelings.
" We bear cheerful testimony to the peaceable and orderly
behaviour of our townsmen. Much as they have suffered, and
dark as are their prospects, they have conducted themselves as
became good citizens. Those who are not in the daily habit of
mingling with the working classes cannot form any idea of the
severity of their sufferings, or of the becoming spirit with
which they have borne them.
"We deprecate experiments on the feelings of men. There
is a point beyond which patient endurance may not go ; and
we earnestly emplore her Majesty's Government to interpose
with effective measures of commercial and charitable relief
for industrious working men, before it be too late to do so.
In flue ; as Ministers of God for good to our fellow-towns-
men, we would repre3ent to Government the serious obstacles
which stand in the way of all our moral and religious efforts, by
reason of the great number of able-bodied and industrions men,
who cannot find employment; the deep poverty of so many
(undies; and the spirit of disaffection and discontent which is
beginning to pervade the community."
fie concluded by reading a statement of the prices at
which American beef might be sold in tl:e English
market.
Some discussion followed in consequence of a Captain
BARRETT remarking that the worthy Provost had not
convinced him of seven eighths of his statements; after

than 31,000/. The pressure of the poor-rates were, by
this means, falling on little more than three-fourths of
the rated inhabitants of .the town. An inquiry had
been made in December last into the condition of up-
wards of 1,000 families, consisting of 5,300 individuals.
These 5,300 persons it appeared, were earning 3101.
a week, which made an average of about 14d. a head.
It was found that 950 families had beds, 50 families bad
no beds, and there was among them only 456 blankets,
making 10i people to every blanket ; 53 families were
wholly without beds, and 425 people were sleeping on
the floor. The furniture was mostly pawned or sold ;
and, among the 5,300 people, there were only 3,000
seats, or about two chairs for every three persons. The
meeting would perhaps be anxious to know how the
tradesmen of the town fared. He would mention, as
a sample of the returns from business, that a manufac-
turer told him that, after having taken stock on the
Ist of July, he found he had lost to the amount of
one penny in the pound upon all the cotton he had con-
sumed, which was about 20,0001 b. per week. His weekly
loss was, therefore, 831., or 4,3001. a year. The party to
whom he alluded was not a large manufacturer, but he
was a very industrious, skilful, and intelligent man.
Ile added, that his losses at the present moment were
greater than they had been, and if his losses bad for-
merly been Id. per lb. he would not answer that they
were not now nearer 2d.--(Hear.) He would mention
another fact. Last week he had been present at a con-
versation among buyers and manufacturers of goods, and
one of them remarked upon the practice of a certain
well-known manufacture at 4s. 10id. per piece. An
estimate had been gone into regarding the 'cost, when it
appeared that the loss could not be less than 10d. upon
each piece. The correctness of this estimate had been
fully corroborated by a relative of the manufacturer,
who had joined in the conversation. That manu-
facturer produced 6,000 pieces a week ; and his loss •at
10d. in the piece was therefore 250/. a week,
1,000/. a month, or 13,0001. a year.—(Bear, hear.)
Now the manufacturerer in question was one
of the most celebrated in the trade, commanding the
highest prices; and if such were the . state of his busi-
ness, what, he would ask, must be the condition of the
inferior manufacturers ? How long could such a state
of things continue ? Manufacturing business could be
conducted so long only as capital was found to work it.
How long that capital could be commanded time would
show. It might be asked, how it was that manufac-
turers, who were now carrying on business at a loss, did
not put a stop to their works ? But it was not so easy as
some might imagine to stop a large manufacturing con-
cern: First of all, machinery would waste away daily
and hourly whether it were employed or not, so that in
any case the interest upon its outlay would be sacrificed.
Again, it should be remembered that manufacturers felt,
that if they stopped the working of their machinery,
they e ould find it very difficult, if not impossible, to re-
gain hereafter the customers whom they would lose by
that means. Besides, many manufacturers had, like
himself; a great number of cottages attached to
their mills tenanted by their labourers, and if they
ceased to employ those labourers, they would also be ex-
posed to the loss of the rents of their cottages. The
merchants, the bankers, and the bill-brokers in London
might imagine from the amount of their transactions
that there was no large falling off in the trade of the
country. But those gentlemen should remember that
bills of Exchange did not always represent bona fide
transactions. They frequently represented nothing but
emergencies and difficulties. Last September Or October,
the people of this country were anxious lest the harvest
should turn out unpropitious' lest some mishap should
o-cur to the Bank of England, lest it should be called
upon to pay more gold for corn than it had in its coffers.
A gentleman now, he believed, in London, but who
during last September was at New Orleans, told him
that at that very time the people of the interior had sent
down to New Orleans a quantity of barrels of flour, of
barrels of beef, of barrels of pork, and of other provi-
sions, with instructions to devote the proceeds arising
from the sale of those articles to be laid out in
the purchase of manufactures and clothing for them-
selves. So large was the quantity of provisions sent
down, that the warelv.uaes of New Orleans would not
contain them ; they were piled upon the quays of the
place. The sun was hot at the time—it set these pro-
visions fermenting—the wind set in towards a particular
part of the city from these quays. and produced yellow
' fever and mortality. Thus these provisions were suf-
fered to be destroyed and to produce disease, while the
people of this country were starving for want of food,
and the people of America were in want of our manu-
factures for clothing.—(Cheers.) He would leave it to
the meeting to decide hpw far that law could be right
which interposed between man and the gifts of his
Makor--(Cheers)---which ordered that the goodness of
the Almighty should be trodden under foot rather than
ths, people of England should be fed and the people of
America be clothed.—(Cheers.) They heard a great
deal of commercial. treaties with Spain and Portugal,
while free trade with the State of New York alone
would be worth more than the whole trade of the
Peninsula together.—(Cheers.) In allusion to the
transaction which he had related as having occurred
last year at New Orleans, he would just observe that on
that side of the water 16,000,000 of persons, and on this
side 26,000,000 had suffered in consequence of the
existence of these laws, and if any persons
benefited by their existence, their numbers did not
exceed 30,000. Did they think that 40,000,000 of
people would permit this havoc to be played with their
interests for the benefit of the 30,000 ?—(Cheers.) He
came not to this meeting to offend, but to speak the
language of commonsense and truth.—(Cheers.) If the
advantage of 30,000 persons were to be suffered to out-
Weigh the interests of 40,009,000, he would say let him
nut be an inhabitant of that country to be one of the
40;000,000 who should suffer.—(Cheers.) He would
now return to 'the case of the man to whom he had
before alluded, as baying left his employ to go to
America, and join the Mormonites, but who had since
returned. He had taken out with him certain articles of
clothing, of crockery, &c., which he had been told were
dear in that country. He took out With him his wife
and children, and finding that he had been deceived by
the representations of the Mormonites, he determined to
return, and ig order to raise funds he disposed of various
articles Which he had brought out with him. His
crockery lie sold in small quantities at six times the
price he had given for it in Bolton. Articles of
clothing fetched three or four times as much as they had
cost, thus showing that in America food was plentiful
but clothing was scarce. He had purchased a pound of
sugar in New York for 3d. He Mr. Ashworth
had in Bolton purchased a pound of sugar of equal
quality, for which he had paid Bd. (The two respective
pounds of sugar were produced, and the pound of three-
•penny American sugar was of rather superior quality to
the pound of Bolton eightpenny sugar.) 1-te had inquired
of a general shopkeeper how the poor were getting on ;
he said very poorly ; that he scarcely ever took more
than a penny or a halfpenny from any customer. He
(Mr. Ashworth) asked him what he could sell for a half-
penny, and he produced a halfpenny; worth of tea, of
sugar, of coffee, of bread (a thin half round). They
could now see the reason why the Government issued a
coinage of half farthings.—(Cheers.) He was sorry he
had detained them so long—(Cheers)—but it was a
subject deeply interesting to all of them. He would
detain them uo longer, but let it rest with them, and
rely upon their exertions to secure the industrial free-
dom of the country.—(Loud cheers.)
Mr. WILKINSON rose, and was about to• address the
meeting, when
Mr. .P. A. TAYLOR rose to order. It had been
arranged that the gentlemen from the north should first
lay their statements before the meeting. lie suggested
that they should first hear their statements, and then
nothing could be more in order than for Mr. Wilkinson,
or any other gentleman, to address the meeting as to the
remedy.
Mr. Provost HENDERSON, of Paisley, would shortly
allude to the state of the-inhabitants
of Paisley.countr The
inhabitants of Paisley .occupied a part of the y
which, with the exception of Middlesex and Surrey, and
of Lancashire, was the most populous district of the Bri-
tish islands. The people there were living upon oat-
meal mixed with saw-dust, and had even eaten cattle
which had died of disease. That rumour had been
doubted. But he would repeat, that such things had
occurred. In Scotland that species of meat had been
sold in the market under the name of Braxey. Let
those of the aristocracy who doubted if these things
could be, try the experiment of living as these people
lived. Let him tell his butler to shut him up in a room
with 301 b. of meal for a month, and a quantity of meat
obtained from an animal which had died of disease, and
then at the end of the month let them see if he would
not hove eat up. the unwholesome animal food. They
had been trying in Scotland and in England, under the
Poor-law, to ascertain the smallest quantity of food on
which human beings could exist. They now in Scot-
land supported them on little more than 2d. a day-
-10,000 persons were maintained on 11,000 shillings
a week.—(Cries of " Shame.") He had been sent
up by the Magistracy of Paisley to represent to the
Government the necessity of increasing the allowance
to the poor of Paisley. On their road up, his colleagues
and himself visited many of the distressed districts.
and yet the Government talked
!—(Cheers.) Ir, Stockport, he was
clothing, and
they the local authorities,
-They visited twenty houses in Bolton and twenty houses
in Stockport, inhabited by persons who had once moved
in a respectable sphere. In not one of those houses
was there a scrap of blanket to be found. Here were
ago, had been 52/.,
a reduction of
with latest improvements,
2tsw. o
nyeearreswas
personspusnfr
present
soeavnedressing
r.
a%ept'
sra;)
machine,lsiuganclget
What would merchants say if such a re-
duction were made in the value of their capital ? What
would landlords say if such a depreciation were to take
twhaesokringbienkael
knocked down
wont' wfbliric4hl.,
place in the value of their estates.—(Cheers.) They
had waited on the Government, and the Government
would do nothing. The Secretary of State had said to
the deputation, "You seem to imagine that the Govern-
ment is bound to find food for the starving people. The
Government will do no such thing. They leave it to
you and the Relief Committee to settle the matter be-
tween you."—(Cries of " Shame.") The clergymen of
the town had sent up by himse:f and his colleagues a
memorial to the Government, from which lie would
read some some extracts The Hon. Gentleman then
proceeded to read the following extracts from the memo-
rial :-
MEMORIAL FROM THE CLERGYMEN OF PAISLEY TO HER
MAJESTY'S GOVERNMENT.
Their resources were now at an end and yet the distress
continued, and they apprehended ills of such a nature and to
such an extent, as to render national measures and contri-
butions absolutely necessary. They, therefore, earnestly im-
plored her Majesty's Government to sanction these, and to
bring them before both Houses of Parliament without delay.
They deprecated the melancholy. results which would follow a
prorogation of Parliament previous to the adoption of means
for relief of the suffering people, on a scale far more large and
effective than any which have as yet been adopted by the Le-
gislature.
"We beg leave farther to give, as we hereby do, a flat and
pointed contradiction to the averments from whatever quarter,
of a want of economy and care in the distribution of the funds
offigetared ill racy prior to the arrival of the Special COM.

which,
Mr. LAWRENCE Heywonns addressed the meeting to
the same effect as the statements made at the meetings
of the Conference. .
Mr. Room:, of Salford, said that he had been forty
years in business, twenty-nine of which he was engaged
in manufactures. He had, till within the last two
months, between 700 and 800 men in his employment,
on premises which cost him 100,000/. The amount of
wages which he paid weekly was 4bol, or 20,0001. per
amors. But he found it impossible to carry on his
business so as to remunerate him for his time and
capital, while the present restrictive provision and com-
mercial laws were in existence. They caused the high
price of food, which prevented the manufacturing popu-
lation being able to obtain subsistence.
Mr. WILKINSON read a petition from the Cobbett
Club, which had been presented to the House of Com-
mons, calling upon the Legislature to furnish a sum of
money to alleviate the distress of the people, as twenty
millions sterling had been granted to put an end to
lavery. He moved a resolution, to the effect that the
House of Commons be called on to adopt the course re-(
commended in the petition ; but no person having
seconded the motion, it dropped.
1)r. SLEIGH proposed a resolution to the effect—That
it was of importance that the question of the cause of
the distress should be fully discussed, and that, there-
tore, an impartial and dispassionate public discussion of
the subject ought to take place, with as little delay as
possible. He admitted that great and alarming distress
prevailed throughout the country, but he did not think
that that distress had ever been traced to its true causes,
or that the subject had ever been fully discussed. He
thought that an inquiry should be instituted into the
matter. The Learned Gentleman who stated that he
was the tepresentative of " the Society for the Protec-
tion of British Industry," complained that, on various
occasions, the advocates of a repeal of the Corn-laws
had refused to enter into a discussion with him, as to the
merits or demerits of these laws.
Mr. We. STOCKS, of Huddersfield, seconded the reso-
lution. He had been himself a manufacturer and a
tradesman ; and he believed that it had never been shown
what was the source of the decline of our trade, and that
it had never been fairly traced to the Corn-laws. He
thought that an inquiry should be instituted into the
subject.
Mr. BRIGHT, of Rochdale, observed that the same
means of discussing the connection of the Corn-laws with
the distress of the country were open to the advocates of
those laws as to their opponents. He would remind Dr.
Sleigh that lie had himself gone down to Manchester to
lecture in favour of the Corn-laws, and if he could not
gain an audience there, it was because the inhabitants
had already fully made up their minds to the fact, that
the Corn-laws were the main cause of the decline of
their manufactures. He also wished to remind the
Learned- Gentleman that he had declined to meet Mr.
Brown at Bristol in a discussion on the subject.—(Hear.)
He believed, too, that Dr. Sleigh had the honour of being
the particular friend of the Duke of :.Buckingham.—
(Hear.) He wished further to bring to the recollection
of the gentlemen present, that a large meeting having
been lately held at Stevenson-square in Manchester, to
pronounce an emphatic condemnation of the Corn-laws,
a cheque for 150( was cashed at the time in a bank in the
town, with the name of the Duke of Buckingham ;
and it was confidently asserted and believed, that the
money was distributed among ill-disposed parties to in-
duce them to disturb the proceedings at that meeting.—.
(Hear, hear.) Dr. Sleigh complained that the question
of the Corn-laws was not discussed ; but the fact was,
that it was fully' to talk of discussion now ; for nineteen
out of every twenty members of the community were
perfectly Satisfied that the Corn-laws were 'unjust and
wicked, and that they were rapidly undermining the
prosperity of the country.—(Hear, hear.) No extension
of foreign trade could increase the amount of food grown
in a country ; and therefore, unless a free importation of
corn was allowed, no extension of trade could materially
alleviate the condition of the country. Nineteen-twen-
tieths of the people of Manchester believed that the re-
peal of the law would relieve their distress : 63;900 of
them had signed a memorial to the Members of the town,
begging them to prevent the granting of the supplies, b)
every means in their power, and to prevent the proroga•
tion of Parliament until the question of the Corn-
laws should be taken in consideration.—(Loud cheers.'
If the Corn-laws were repealed, and the price of food
lowered, that class of operatives which was now enabled
to earn sufficient to purchase food, but stood in need of
clothing, would have immediately a surplus for the pur-
chase of clothing; and the First article that was bought
in consequence of that fall in the price of food would be
the first step towards a revival of trade.—(Cheers.)
When in 1838 the price of food was raised, the working
men had immediately less surplus wages to expend in
clothing ; the falling off had begun then, and had con-
tinued until now increasing.—(Cheers.) Nothing would
relieve a hungry people but a supply of food.—(Cheers.)
Could anything be clearer than that ?—(Cheers.) They
talked of British industry and British agriculture, as if
the weaving of cloth was not as much British industry as
the digging a hole in the ground and putting wheat in it.
—(Cheers.) How came one branch only to be thus fa-
voured and protected. Surely it could only be because
some one got a profit out of it.—(Cheers and laughter.)
Why not regard other branches of British industry as
well as the agricultural ? Unless the people bad the
means of obtaining food, the evil- would extend until it
reached London. There was intense suffering in the
agricultural districts : true, the inhabitants were scat-
tered, and had not the means of meeting and making
their sufferings known, but the suffering was increasing
in those districts. He had only on Sunday last met with
an agricultural labourer from Wendover, in Bucks; that
man had told him that great distress existed in that
county ; that the labOurers were much better off six
years ago, when food was cheaper; although wages had
now been increased ls. a week, yet corn had increased
so much more in price, that the labourers were infinitely
worse off.—(Cheers.) He likewise had told him (Mr.
Bright) that married men were allowed higher wages
than single men. The fact was, the agricultural labourers
were kept in a state of serfdom—(Cheers)—treated as
horses, oxen, asses—given just sufficient food to sup-
port them, and nothing more. The manufacturing
labourers, if it were attempted to treat them in
this way would leave work directly.—(Cheers.) He
opposed the motion of Dr. Sleigh, because no good
coul4 arise from it. Every one had made up their minds
on the subject.—(Cheers.) The question was, as re-
garded the supporters of the Corn-lawa—the question of
might against right.—(Cheers.) They believed that the
opinion of the vast majority of the inhabitants of London
was, that the Corn-laws were bad—they were desirous
of obtaining an expression of that opinion.—(Cheers.)
Ile knew they could not stir up a large city as they could
a small village ; but if the City of London would once
stir up a repeal of the Corn-laws, they would produce
such an effect upon the Government, that the laws must
be repealed.—(Loud cheers.) He would not submit any
resolution to the meeting. The meeting had been called
for the purpose of laying before the merchants and
traders of the City of London, a statement of the distress
existing throughout the country. No resolution had
been prepared to be submitted to the meeting on the
subject, by those who had made the statements. Having
heard those statements, it was for the meeting to come
to any resolution they might think fit on the subject.
Dr. SLEIGH then rose to explain, but as he frequently
wandered from the point, he was subjected to almost con-
stant interruption. He made a long rambling
statement about a letter written by his son to Mr. Brown
at Southampton the week before he proposed meeting
with that gentleman in Bristol, which letter contained
the reasons for his failing to keep his appointment.
The Learned Doctor, at the conclusion of his explana-
tion, took occasion to deny that he was connected either
directly or indirectly with the Duke of Buckingham.
Mi. COAZES, of the Tower Hamlets, was chairman of
an Anti-Corn-law Association in that district, where
they were most anxious to discuss the question, and he
would undertake to give Dr. Sleigh an evening if the
Learned Doctor would give good and substantial bail
for his appearance.—(Cheers and laughter.) He did not
think the people of Bristol had lost much by the absence
of the Learned Doctor.—(Laughter.)
Mr. WILSON, of London, thought the object of the
meeting had been somewhat lost sight of in the discus-
sion which had been raised by Dr. Sleigh. Those manu-
facturers were merely desirous of laying a statement of
the ease before the merchants and traders in London.
They did not take upon themselves to propose any reso-
lution. The resolution proposed had not come from any
of the merchants or traders of London, and therefore lae
hoped it would be rejected.
The resolution of Dr. Sleigh was then put and nega-
tived almost unanimously, only one hand being held up
in favour of it.
Mr. SMART moved a resolution, which he had intended
to move as an amendment if Dr. Sleigh had pressed his
resolution. It was, that the meeting was of opinion that
the cause of the lamentable distress was the existing
Corn-laws, and therefore pledge themselves to use every
legal means to procure their abolition.
The resolution was seconded by Mr. SHAW and sup-
ported by Mr. ROBERTS; when put to the meeting it was
carried unanimously.
Mr. BRIGHT moved a vote of thanks to the Chairman,
which was briefly acknowledged, and the meeting
separated.
' It is probable that a second, and more public meet-
ing, will be held in the City. .

It is stated from Altona that the Jews of the Duch
of Holstein have been admitted to the rights of burgesses.

NEW NOVEL by the AUTHORESS of " THE FLIRT." deprive them of a market in the BranlLfor4W-W "I%
They, therefore, are the best auxilinliesigf the 401"L".1144
Now ready at all the Libraries, in 3 vols.,
THE AI AN(E II VRING MOTHER. ...., -,
A NOVEL. for getting those duties lowered art,kbolislied. 4-4 E)
..:•)',r..
~..e
By the Authoress of French wine-growers have a similar Ws rest in keel ptng_ fr ,
:4
" THE HISTORY of a FLIRT." down the duties on our linens ; and ',wee ,are, ther4.*, .:
Henry Colburn, Publisher, 13, Great Marlborough-street. induced to tbink, that, by lowering the dutii: ow Freva 11
ti
i?..-
wines, and showing the wine producers that. th'fY "Fft. °ll- 4 \ -
deprived of our market by their own kiwi, rig'svirlt)! 4„
them getting equivalents for their wines, our n:ai 'tufts 0 mi
turers would find in the French wine-growers the twat
powerful
auxiliaries to obtain a repeal of the duties s on
linen yarn. At least, we are sure that suck a tours sof
policy would be more consistent with the principles i .of
free trade, most in conformity with the wisdom A pd.
science of SMITH, and most conducive, we believe, to
the permanent welfare of our community.

HAMBURGH, JULY, 1842.
HIS MAJESTY the EMPEROR of
AUSTRIA.
AND HIS MAJESTY THE EMPEROR OF RUSSIA,
having AUTHORISED and GUARANTEED several DIS-
TRIBUTIONS of MONEY DIVIDENDS, by which
LARGE FORTUNES may be obtained. HEINE BRO-
THERS, at HAMB
RURGRANTED H, are
SELECTED now t.:elling Genuine and
W ti
BONDS for the said DISTRIBU HONS.
Persons desirous to purchase may receive. PREVIOUS
to giving any order, the PROSPECTUS with full PARTI-
CULARS, upon wielressint, WITHOUT DELAY, a line to
HEINE BROTHERS, at HAMBURGH.
As we receive frevently aoplications r CERTIFICATES,
we r• ust beC ti observe, that a CERTIFICATE is QUITE
DIFFERENT from a BOND, and tiat there is a great dif-
ference again between BONDS and SELECTED BONDS
—the SELECTED BONDS ONLY TAKING PART IN
THE DISTRIBUTION WHICH FOLLOWS THE SE-
LECTION, and which should never be overlooked, being of
the greatest importance.

THEATRE-ROYAL, ENGLISH OPERA-HOUSE.
THIS EVENING, JULY 21.
Will be presented the Musical Play of THE EXILE raron Al.
tradotf, Mr J. Bland ,• Count Calmar, Mr. Parker; Petroff Servitz,
Mr. Harley ; Derail, Mr. J. Vining ; Alexina, Miss Faucit; Cathe.
fin , Miss Murray
After which, the Farce of WHERE SHALL I DINE 7—Sponge,
Mr. Howe d; Diggory. Mr. Oxberry ; Dorothea Grumpy, Miss
Pincott.
Co which will be added, the New Drama of THE LONE HUT
Principal Characters by Messss. 0. Smith, Diddea W. H. Bland,
and Harley, Miss Murray, Miss Crisp, and Miss Faucit.
To conclude with the New Burlesque • allet, called G 11 IZELLE I
- 4 liaracters by Signor Oxbeirini and Madlle. Louisotta Fairbro.
trerini.
Boxes, 4s. Pit, es.— Gallery, Is. Doors oven at Half-past Six ;
commence at Seven; Half-price, a Quarter before Nine.
Private Boxes to be bad of Mr. Grogan, at the Private Box-office ;
and of Messrs. Andrews, Mitchell, Sams, and Baily, at their Libraries.

The public was so continually informed, wben the
Whigs were in office, that they were mere blundering
blockheads, while the Tories were all expert clever
fellows, that it became a part of the general ere c& It
was as steadfastly believed as the principles of...religion.
The Tories mere never tired of sounding their own
praise, and the public acquiesced in it, as the ieiblic
credits every quack who is diligent and unscrupulon, in
mendacity. Since they (the Tories) have been in offies
however, sundry little proofs have crept out that they
are not quite such expert men of la,tsiness as they have
given themselves out to be. In truCt they are greater
bunglers than the Whigs.
In imposing a new duty on spirits it. Ireland, they
committed a gross blunder, which Lord MONTEAGLE
detected, and they were obliged to foist a ci,a.tse on an-
other Bill, granting drawbacks on malt to correct
their error. They passed a Bill regulativ the
proceedings at Quarter. Sessions, which suspesided
the functions of her MAJESTY'S Justices, and expoa.'d
every Magistrate who might pass a sentence on a certain
da,y, when the Courts were all sitting, to be prosecuted
and amerced, for executing the law on the person of a-
common thief. When the error was pointed out, they
were obliged to suspend the Standing Orders, to prevent
more mischief. In addition to these gross blunders, we
have now lying before us a Bill " to amend an Act of
the present session of Parliament, for amending the laws
relating to the Customs," which corrects some emers
of
that Tariff Act which the Tories have just carried
triumphantly through the House of Commons.
They have found, it appears, that the enactment COll-
- the timber duties is so loosely worded, that it is
doubtful when a part of them is to come into operation,
and they are obliged to pass another law to inform the
public that they mean to levy a duty of 7d. per foot
of cubic contents, and 10/. for every 1001. value,
from and after October 10, 1843, and not from and after
October 10, 1842, and that a duty of 9d. per foot of
cubic contents, &c., shall be payable from and after
October 10, 1842, and only till the 10th of October,
1843. Again, the Act recently passed prohibits the
importation of gold and silver plate, not being battered,
and already the Tories have found out that this prohi-
bition is not expedient, and they propose to repeal that
prohibition so far as concerns plate manufactured pre-
viously to 1800.
Further, by the Act which the clever Ministers passed
only a few days ago, they inflicted a duty of 6d. per
cwt. on cement stone, and great injury on those who got
it, which they now find it expedient to repeal by this
Bill. Beyond this the new tariff gave a boon to the
shipping interest by putting an end to declarations and
bonds, that provisions taken on board from a bonded
warehouse were to be exported, and not used on board
the ship. The operation of that part of the tariff is, by
the new Bill, postponed to October 10, 1842. To amend
the mistakes and blunders of the law they have jest
passed, they are obliged to pass this other law, gene-
rating as much confusion as ever was caused by a
half-drunken General giving numerous and contradictory
orders.
This Bill " to amend the Act of the present session"
is not, however, true to its title, for besides correcting
the blunders of the Tories, it alters the Warehousing Act
of William IV., and prohibits copper ore to be delivered
from the warehouses for being smelted, with a proviso
in favour of copper ore imported before March 1, 1843,
which, on payment of duty, may be delivered for home
consumption. It also repeals a clause of an Act of William
IV., " to regulate the trade of the British possessions
abroad," which prohibits all direct intercourse between
the Islands of Jamaica and St. Domingo, and ao longer
makes that innocent and useful intercourse a crime pu-
nishable with the forfeiture of ship and cargo.
' The Bill, by these two last clauses, adds
very materially to the other blunders of the
Tories, for it places in an Act to Amend the
Customs Act of the Session, two important enact-
ments, amending two totally different Acts of Parlia-
. ment, both passed in the reign of William IV. As our
\Legislature heaps Acts on Acts, so it heaps blunders on
blunders, till in the long run no intellect is able to un-
ravel the vast web of mischief.
That in so large an Act, embracing so Many topics
as the tariff, there should be verbal errors and mistakes,
is not surprising ; such a work required the most active,
patient, and minute attention, and the great blunder
of all is now undertaking to revise the
old tariff. The country required relief ; it was cla-
mortets for some great improvement on two or three
questions ; men's minds were agitated ; party spirit ran
high ; and in such a season Sir R. PEEL thought proper
to raise a jumble of discussions about corks, shoes, onion
seeds, woods, ores, oils, blubber. apples, &c. The
taking up all these matters, at this time, was a gross
blunder ; and the blunders in detail are its natural and
necessary consequence. They might have been avoided,
and the public spared the great inconvenience of
Acts amending Acts passed in the same session, which
only create a jumble of confusion that would be tolerated
in no business of life, except the very solemn business of
legislation, by reforming the 1,200 articles of the tariff
in a season of repose ; or the mass of absurd regulations
and petty fogging duties might have been left, till, in the
fullness of time, the bosom of reform had swept. them
entirely and for ever away.

ROYAL SURREY THEATRE.
n conseouence of the iRITY ense overflows that have been attracted
by the performance of " La Sonnambula," supported by the first
musical talent this country can produce, it will be repeated
THIS EVENING, JULY 21.
The performances will commence with Beliini's LA SONNAM-
BU L A.— Amina. Miss Romer; Liza, Mrs. Serle; Rodolpho, Mr.
Leffler; Elvino, Mr. W. Harrison; with an increased Band, and a
powerful Chcrus, conducted y Mr. G. Stansbury.
Atter which, Shakspere's Tragedy of MACBETH; with all Looke's
spit ndid Music, sung by the entire Opera Compauy.
Pines and Private Boxes may bet ad of Mr. J. Kerschner, at the
Fox Office, from Eleven tilt Four daily.

ROYAL SURREY ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS.
GRAND FLORAL FETE.
ON TUESDAY NEX r, JULY 26,
The ROYAL SOUTH LONDON FLORICULTURAL SO.
CIETY will hold their SECOND SUMMER SHOW for 1542 in
the above admirably adapted Grounds, on the same scale of splendour
that has always distinguished these popular Fetes.
SEVENTY PRIZES of SILVER CUPS, GOLD and SILVER
MEDALS, and the LINNEAN MEDAL,
Will be awarded to the succes fui Exhibitors.
Besides the Exhibition of Floral and Horticultural products, which
from the fineness of the season and other favourable circumstances,
is confidently expected to be unusually rich, varied, and extensive,
the whole of the popular Entertainments for which this Establish.
inert is so widely celebrated, will be given on a scale of grandeur
eclipsing all previous ends. Admission One Shilling. Gates open
at One Concert at six. Fireworks at half-past Nine.
The Evening Fetes, with all the usual attractions, every Monday,
Tuesday, and Thursday. Opeh from Ten in the Morning. Feeding
Hour Five o'clock.

All Advertisements of a Disgusting Character,
or Immoral Tendency, are excluded from
the Columns of " The Sun."

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