The Sun.
London, England, 1842-07-20 00:00:00

Mr. SHU'rTLEIVORTH—What do you think would be
the immediate result of the repeal of the Corn-laws?
Mr. AntsanioN believed the immediate effect would be
relief. Not so 'much from the repeal of those laws as
from the confidence it would give to the manufacturers.
Mr. ASPINALL, of Huddersfield, next addressed the
meeting. The majority of the work in Huddersfield was
woollen fancy, and for that work, for which a man in 1824
could obtain sd. a yard, he could only now get 2d. ; and
flaw, owing to the fineness of the bobbin, which fre-
quently broke, he could only make two yards now where
he used to make three.
In answer to a question from the CHAIR3tAN,
Mr. ASPINALL said that the competition of foreign
nations rendered the employment of a coarser material
in the manufacture necessary. The people in his dis-
trict were in the most deplorable state of wretchedness,
and but for the benevolence of some of their more
wealthy members thousands of them must pine away and
die of hunger.—(Hear, hear.) He had attended the
meetings of the Conference only for two days, and the
pain ha felt at the appalling amount of suffering which
he heard was mingled with pleasure at the ability and
good feeling manifested by the advocates of the starving
people.—(Hear, hear.) But these accounts fell far short
of the reality ; and, indeed, a man must be endowed
with the two attributes which belonged exclusively to
God—omniscience, and omnipresence—to give a full
picture of the all-pervading misery.—(Hear, hear.)
lie was sure that if Sir Robert Peel could really see for
himself, and judge by his own senses of the awful
amount of suffering which the people were enduring, he
would no longer resist the repeal of the Corn-laws.
Mr. PAULTON said, it seemed to be a general impres-
sion that the distress was chiefly in the large towns which
were the centre of the manufacturing districts. But it
was not so. He' was convinced that privation and want
were the habit and the rule in the agricultural dis-
tricts • whereas such paroxysms of suffering as were wit-
ncese:l in the manufacturing towns were exceptions to
the rule and habit.—(Hear, hear.) In the course of the
last winter he had visited the counties of Devon, Dorset,
Wilts, Gloucester, Berkshire, with Kent and Essex, and
he found in all of them an indescribable amount of pri-
vation. He did not find a man who earned more than Bs.
a-week.—(Hear, hear.) Now, it was to be remembered
that Kent and Essex were two of the most agricultural
counties in the kingdom, and if the Corn-laws were goad
for the agricultural labourers, that class ought to be in
the most flourishing condition in these counties. But
what was the fact ?—(Hear.) According to the report
of the Poor-law Commissioners,. there were in 1840, no
less than 9,700 able-bodied paupers in Kent, and in
Essex 9,soo.—(Hear, hear.) Large as was that number,
it was increased in 1841—that is, in one year—to 12,800
able-bodied paupers in Kent, and 12,400 in Essex.—
(Hear, hear.) During the last session of Parliament
Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, one of the greatest
champion of the Corn-laws, the great friend and patron
of the agricultural labourers—was compelled to admit,
in answer to a question from Mr. Wakley, that the
average rate of wages was no more than 7s. a week. Mr..
Benett, of Wiltshire. also acknowledged that in his
county the rate was no more than Bs. ; and the Duke of
Northumberland in the House of Lords affirmed that no
agricultural labourer had a right to complain if he earned
what the Noble and philanthropic Duke considered the
exorbitant wages of 9s. a week.—(Hear, hear.) In
Gloucestershire the wages were no more than a shilling
a-day, and wet days were deducted. If a man went to
work on Monday and Tuesday he received a shilling for
each day. But if Wednesday was wet, he must go to the
relieving officer on Thursday for that day's food.—
(Hear, hear.) As to the peasantry of Devonshire, lie
believed them to be the most miserable beings under the
sun.—(Hear, hear.) He believed that the Red savages
of North America had more means of domestic comfort
than the men of Devon.—(Hear,- hear.) From Ti-
verton to Great Torrington, the wages did not,
exceed one shilling a-day, and the privations
of the labouring people were intolerable. At a lecture
which he delivered in Great Torrington, a number of
agricultural labourers from the surrounding districts at-
tended, and several men of forty years of age declared
that they had never known wages to be above eight
shillings a week, and many of them were receiving only
tenpenee a day. The diet of the agricultural districts
in every part of the country consisted almost entirely of
potatoes. In North Devon the only luxury the people
have is an article they call " flick," which consists of a
little piece of bacon melted down and dropped upon the
potatoes. In the middle of last winter he found that
the people lived almost entirely without fuel. They
were too poor to buy coals, or even food. They cooked
their potatoes with gorse or furze dried into turf, which
they blew into a flame, and when their humble meal
was cooked it was allowed to subside, and the rest of the
day the family remained without fuel. No wonder
that disease was rife amongst the poor people.—
(Hear.) In every district through which he (Mr.
Paulton) travelled, he endeavoured to obtain an
interview with the parish doctor. The parish doctor of
Great Torrington told him that throughout North Devon
a fever was prevalent in the winter, which carried off a
great number of their children, and ho added that he
could find no other name for it but " the starvation
fever." Mr. G. Knight stated in the House of Commons
a few nights ago, that this was not a question of dear or
cheap bread, but of cheap or dear labour. They had
now 15,000,000 acres of uncultivated land in this
country capable of producing good grain, and they had
also a large surplus population of agricultural labourers,
who, by pressing upon the agricultural districts, reduced.
the wages of the agricultural labourer to a horrible in-
adequacy.. They had now more land than they could
cultivate, they had more labourers than they could em-
ploy, and yet the people had nu food. He could trace
the evil to no other source than the Corn laws. The
landowners said that the waste land, if cultivated, would
not realise rent. They woul.l not feed the manufacturers.
Why would they not then allow the manufactures to
work for foreigners, and thus obtain food for themselves
and their families ? He could only sec one reason, and
that was indeed sordid and narrow-minded. The fact
was that the landlords profited by the distress of all
classes. They distressed the manufacturers, and at the
same time made them pay dear fur their bread—they
starved the operatives, and cheap labour for themselves
was the result.—( Hear.) The Report from which he had
already quoted, that of the Poor-law Commissioners,
stated the number of able-bodied paupers in the wealthy
county of Middlesex to have increased from 49,000 in 1840
to 73,000 in 1841, showing an increase of 24,000 able-
bodied paupers in one year. The total number of able-bo-
died full-grown paupers receiving parish relief throughout
the whole of the country had increased from 297,000 in
1840 to 345,000 in 1841 ; and the total of paupers
had increased from 1,199,000 in 1840 to 1,300,000 in
1841. In his route to London, he passed through Glou-
cestershire, and more pitiable distress than he witnessed
in the south-west district of that county he believed
never fell under the attention of any man. The chief

trade, whieli was the woollen cloth, had gradually dimi-
nished. The American market, which, a few years ago,
took the whole of the produce of this district, they had
entirely, Jost, and the population was reduced to a state
of great misery. The following extract of a letter, dated
W'otton, July 13, 1842, would convey some idea of the
distress, and of the sympathy which the lower classes
entertain for one another :—" Our poor are sadly pushed,
and I find that the poor borrow bread from one another.
On Saturday last, a case came under my notice, where a
poor woman with a family, having neither bread nor
money to buy bread with, went to a neighbour,
who was as poor as herself, to beg a little bread
for her famishinF children. The neighbour had
no bread to give her, but she took a sheet
from her bed, a piece of flannel from her baby, and a
frock and a pair of trousers, and desired the starving
woman to pledge them, and get food with the =nay.
The husband of the woman who borrowed the things is
now in gaol for stealing two pockets full of potatoes
on a Saturday night." In every part of the country they
would find the same distress, and that the poor could
look for no relief but from those who were in the same
condition as themselves. The facts which had come be-
fore him lately, the humble details of heart-rending dis-
tress and misery that pervaded the land convinced
him (Mr: Poulton) that at no time were they nearer to
a social disrupture than they were at present ; at no
time were the opinions of dissatisfaction so widely spread
over the length and breadth of our native land. The
time was come when patience unparalleled, when confi-
rmed endurance, appeared to have exhausted them-
selves, and the last ray of hope had indeed fled.
The two factions which had hitherto ruled the destinies
of their country, had proved themseves alike indifferent
to the sufferings, and insensible to the wrongs of the
people. Many years ado sagacious men had pointed to
the gathering storm which was rising up from the lower
depths of society. To the middle and upper classes that
storm then appeared to be distant, but it had year by
year risen higher until every class seemed involved in
the common doom of destruction. So long as they could
with safety, the aristocracy denied the existence of the
distress which was the result of their own selfish legis-
lation ; they now with an hypocritical sympathy,
more insulting than their former bold denial, mocked
the aufferings of the people, by professing admiration
for the fortitude and patience with which they endured
the very wretchedness which they had so recently de-
rided and denied. But though the Government and the
Legislature had admitted the universal distress,
they had taken no steps for its removal. The
people only demanded the free exercise of their in-
dustry, they had not asked for the bread of charity, they
had preferred no claims which were incompatible with
the rights of other men; they had threatened no inva-
sfon of the property of others, all that they had asked
was security for their own.—(Cheers.) No trickery of
party statesmanship could conceal or falsify the fact that
the people wanted bread, and all they asked was that no
impediments might be thrown in the way of their pro-
curing it. Was it not a most melancholy reflection on
the civilization of the 19th century, that the Legislature
and the Government of the largest the most civilised,
and certainly one of the most densely populated countries
in the world should at that moment be torturing facts and
coining fallacies to show cause why food should not be
brought in to feed a starving people ? Why the very
savages would revolt against such conduct.—(Hear,
hear.) What said the senators of the land ? "No more
food—increase your numbers as you may—no more
food shall be brought into this country unless • the
people pay the price for it which we shall fix by Act of
Parliament." And now, after years of patient forbear-
once, and trustful expostulation, what was to be done ?
Were they passively to sit down and see the consumma-
tion,hd they ia the last
forgottenlastcto that,f their
in thisiraa•fultragedy ?—(Hear, hear.)
country,
tyranny had
invariably trembled when the nation had spoken out
(Hear, hear.) Were all their old historical associations
shore of their power to arouse and re-animate, in mo-
dern times, the spirit that nerved, and the hot impa-
tience that fired the patriotism of their forefathers ?
Should they be less energetic, when not, the liberties
merely, but the very lives of the industrious population
were In peril. The aristocracy of this. country—such is
that effeminate civilisation which corrupted the habits,
whilst it depraved all the nobles attributes of human na-
ture—had lost every genuine sentiment of humanity or
justice, and in the exercise of poWer which they were '
educated to abuse, knew no law but the suggestions of self
interest, or the dictates of ambition. Thepresent season
had developed the most awful distress, they proposed
nothing for its removal. They were carrying on war
with two nations, one of which was engaged in asserting
its independence, and the other had done nothing to
offend us except by endeavouring to suppress an odious
and demoralising traffic. For what purpose are these
wars carried on ? To whet the wanton appetite of the
aristocracy for blood and carnage, and to provide busi-
ness for the scions of noble houses, who dis-
dained all employments but those of legalised assassi-
tion and wholesale plunder.—(Hear, hear.) Tens of
thousands were to be butchered aoroad, and hundreds
of thousands starved at home—for what ? Why, as
Sir Edward Knatchbull had plainly declared, to enable
the aristocracy to maintain their position.—(Hear, hear.)
Taken in connexion with the present awful and lazati.
house aspect of the whole country, the recent legislation
of our rulers seemed to him one of the most hideous in-
sults that tyranny had ever yet stamped on the records of
history.—(Hear, hear.) Was this to endure for ever ?
No ; desperation was growing up in the minds of the
people. They must wait the current of events ; but.
wait as they would, the current would rush forward, and
unless their legislators interfered to arrest its swelling .1
progress, they might rely upon it that not the property
of the middle slasses alone would be swept away, but the
privilegs,-the supremacy, nay, the very existence of the
aristocracy, would perish.—(Loud cheers.)
Mr. PALiVEit corroborated, with respect to the county
of Essex, what had been stated by Mr. Poulton. In that
county the labourers during the harvest emigrated from
their homes, and sought work where they could find it.
Years back in that county they could get for the skin,
the fat, and offal of a sheep 205., while at the present
moment they could not get more than 7s. That was
a reduction of 13s. a single sheep. He mentioned this
to show that the prices of the labour of the Marsh men
were lowered to the lowest possible. point. While land
remained at the same price, the wages of labour would
be reduced.—(Cheers.) 'With regard to the shopkeepers
in London, he was prepared to say that their trade was
exceedingly bad • they had great difficulty in getting
money, and they did not do at the present moment more
than half what they did some years ago. In Shadwell
the trade was exceedingly bad ; they were scarcely doing
any thing ; and the consumer came to their shops for the
smallest possible amount of the articles they dealt in.
It \vas, therefore, a great error to suppose that there
was not great distress in the metropolis. Even in the
watch trade, there was the most dep!orable distress. In
Clerkenwell alone, there were thousands out of employ-
ment, and many good workmen were compelled to resort
to the hawking of shrimps or fruit about the streets for a
miserable subsistence.— (Hear, hear,)
Mr. FINCH, of Liverpool, said he was an iron-mer-.
chant, a trade in which, perhaps, more was done in
'Liverpool than even in London, and the depression was
greater now than he had ever known it. They had
heard of the emeute in the Potteries, at the works of
Mr. Sparrow, an extensive iron manufacturer, who em-
ployed nearly 4,000 people. He (Mr. Finch) had met with
Air. Sparrow in the course of the last week, and that gentle-
man assured him that he not an order on his books for an ounce
of metal.—(Hear, hear.) The iron exported from Liverpool,
from the Ist January to the Ist of June, 1842, from the Cus-
tom-house returns, was— Tons.
Manufactured iron
Pig iron

39,691

Shipped to the United States
Mediteranean 5,424
British East Indies
Canada and British America ... 3,946
South AmericaandFureiga West Indies 2,850
China
France, Holland, and Germany ......
Africa
Portugal 547
Spain
British West Indies

39,691
being at the rate of 2,600 tons per week actually shipped at the
port ; about one-third of each of these quantities is in pig-iron
—the value of 39,691 tons at the average price of the last six
months of the descriptions shipped—will be in round numbers
240,000/., and the loss to this country by its exportation at
that value cannot be estimated at less than 20,0001. The
quantity here stated merely refers to the shipments from Liver-
pool, and has no reference to the actual business done in this
article by those engaged in the trade there, but as an approxi-
mation it may fairly be presumed that the actual sales effected
in Liverpool in the home and export trades for delivery at
Liverpool, Glasgow, Cardiff, Hull, Bristol, and other places
will exceed 200,000 tons per annum. It was asserted in some
of the Conservative newsFapers that at the interview which the
Delegates had with Sir Robert Peel on Saturday week last,
sportfoi
principally
crsoi.
pna
IfTiryowmoof
they were completely puzzled to find an answer when
he asked them had not the export trade of Liver-
pool increased. It had increased in consequence of
Liverpool manufactures,iaat y
ea
an
rd
were
e couldeff effected
ts
ea
dy
at htetaaorl taeigcteal iltBnehe2sessehrxnsi3hnpf
oisop:rosolt
fbs, ot
hoe/. (s
Hear,
the necessities of the iron-masters and the decline of home
class
hear.) The shipping trade
swat f
more. importance, perhaps,
at Liverpool, than, perhaps, at any other portance,
in the world,
but it never was depressed as at present. One of the largest
ships at any price. The most recent
ship sa'esmen in Liverpool informs me t.hat on the 10th of this
are, first-class North American,
British have ton. It is now a
month,yceaanras dniga
Canadian
et
build,
nob o
pricean
nfhdoirs
registering
tksi
was 101. per ton ; of EnglistsshehrfioAbnruragisld, 181. per ton. It is now
ssaaltral.esol Ostths .iamtt opho6as/vs.ei s
ships, as freights been so ruinously
misfortune to posses
low of late, the money received has not paid the ship's ex-
penses. A sale of eight large ships was attempted a few days
ago by a Liverpool house of eminence, but they were
bought in, there being no bidders. The shipping interest
was never so prostrate as it as at present, and no
prosret of any improveement. Out of 1,500 ship
carpenters there were not more than 300 now emploved.
He had an account of the ex;ienditure of 50 families in 1842
and in 1835, in Vauxhall Ward, Liverpool. In 1842, when
corn was high, the income was 4995. 3d. per week, and in
1635, when corn was low, the weekly wages were 8775. 6d. ;
so that the earnings in 1842 were about one-half what they
were in 1835. Expended in meat in 1842, by these 50
families, as compared with 1835, about half, bread about equal,
oat-neal about double, potatoes one-third more, left for the
purchase of groceries, clothing, payment of rent, &c. in 1842
as compared with 1835, about one-third.
Mr. MooRE wished to ask Mr. Finch if he was not connected
with a machine manufactory in Blackburn, and if so, if he
would state what was the condition of trade there.
Mr. Fr igc it said he was interested in a machine making estab-
lishment in Blackburn. Five years ago there were five estab-
lishments connected with making looms and spinning frames,
and at the present time his (Mr. Finch's) was the only estab-
lishment engaged in the trade. They used to employ 200
people, and paid from 1301. to 1401. of wages a week. Since that
time trade had fallen off to a great extent. Last week they only
paid 451. in wages. They only employed about sixty or seventy
persons now. One party who was in competition with them
. two years ago had gone to Belgium; another had been made