The Sun.
London, England, 1842-07-23 00:00:00

the men were out of work, and their wives and children were
without food.

Within the last six months many persons, both childen and
adults, have died, whose illness was occasioned by want of food.
The distress appears to be Increasing every week, and what
the end of these things will be God only knows.
Liverpool, July 18, 1842.
Sir,—Being desired to give a short account of the state of
the poor in my district, I beg to state that I labour as your
missionary on the east side of the town. The state of the poor
in this neighbourhood was extremely destitute during the last
winter. I have scores of families on my list, who are reduced
to the last degree of destitution; many of them are unable to
walk for want of food, and had no prospect but to
remain at home and die on their beds of straw, till I re-

presented their condition to some benevolent gentlemen who
came to see a few cases for themselves, and declared that they
never should have believed that such a degree of misery ex-
isted in Liverpool, bad they not seen it themselves ; they
thought my statements were highly coloured till they witnessed
the cases for themselves. These individuals relieved a great

many from their own private resources, and I obtained relief
for numbers from the public charities of town.
I expected, that when the season advanced, people might
obtain employment, and that the distress would be diminished;
but, alas I during the summer months, the wretchedness and
destitution have increased iu a great degree ; employment is
more scarce, private resources and the public charities have
become so exhausted, that they are unable to meet the de-
mands made upon them.
have been recommended to send the people to the parish-
office, which I have persevered in doing; but they almost in-
variably declare to me that having waited there for whole days
successively, with empty stomachs, they have been dismissed
without even being permitted to state their case.
I have at present on my district men who, with large families
dependent, have been for three, six, nine, and some twelve
months without employment, and have pledged every available
article they had for which they could get a penny for food.
I have persons who attend at my meetings who have pledged
and sold their coats from their backs, and their hats from their
heads. •

One man had pledged his coat and afterwards sold his hat for
threepence to get bread for his children, and yet these people

continue to attend religious meetings, although they have
now nothing hut absolute starvation staring them in the face.
I fear that if some change for the better be not speedily pro-
duced, some awful crisis is near at hand.
I fear that I am not able in a few words to describe the
misery that exists, but if any gentleman wishes to witness for
himseif some of these scenes of wretchedness, I shall willingly
accompany him. that he may judge for himself.
Yours, &c. TOWN MISSIONARY.

[The name is omitted lest it might injure the body of which
he is a missionary.]
Mr. O'CONNELL, who was loudly and enthusiastically
cheered, said he gladly availed himself of the permission
to address them. It was not his intention to trespass
upon their attention at any length. He knew that he
had not the power to afford them any instruction, and he
was sure that it would not give them any satisfaction
that he should unnecessarily consume their time. He
came there he should say, on his own behalf. He came
there to express his decided opinion that it was the duty
of every representative of the people, to give his counte-
nance, such as it might be, to their exertions, and his
vote in favour of the plans which they had suggested.—
(Hear, hear.) He had the honour to represent the
largest constituency in Ireland—the Yorkshire of Ireland
—an agricultural community in which, it might be said,
there were no manufactures ; and yet, both he and

his constituents were as anxious for an abolition of the

Corn-laws as any of the gentlemen around him.—
(Hear, hear.) He was exceedingly anxious for the suc-
cess of their patriotic attempts to put an end to all taxa-
tion upon human food. Among the means of accom-
plishing that object the people of Ireland had always
reckoned the putting of Parliamentary representation
upon a lager, and therefore sounder, basis. They had
taken the liberty of suggesting that to the members of
the Conference ; but in doing so, they had not the
slightest notion that they would be considered presump-
tuous in offering their advice, and they had not the least
idea of annexing any condition to giving them their
assistance. He was not there conditionally-. He
was there absolutely.—(Hear, hear.) He was there,
therefore, unequivocally t') support their measures ; but
those measures he would tell them could never be carried

into effect unless their moral power was increased. How
were they to persuade the landowners ? They might
remember the anecdote of an old Scotch Member, who

said, in times gone by, that he had heard many a speech
in the House of Commons that changed his opinions, but
he had never heard a speech that changed his vote.—
(Heir, and a laugh.) They might convince the landlord
as long as they pleased, but the sound of their pantaloon
pockets would carry their votes. The prospects of the
country were lamentable. On the one hand the people
were starving, and on the other hand the landlord class
were obdurate and unfeeling. He had been blamed for
calling them a sordid aristocracy; but he wanted to kno iv
what else they were ? He had no hesitation in saying
that those who took their bread out of the mouths of
the famishing were but a sordid aristocracy.—(Hear.)
It was a frightful prospect. On the one hand, one class
could not get employment or wages ; on the other, the
landlords insisted that they should give their price for
their corn. If the principle were applied to trade in a

town, John Bull could insist upon setting up a rival
shop.—(Hear, hear.) It had been said that the aristo-
cracy did not believe in the distress ; he should probably
have to insinuate to-night, that they did not believe it.
There was one being, the enemy of mankind, who " be-
lieved and trembled ;" the aristocracy believed also, but
they did not tremble yet. He hoped they might not be
in peril, but it was their duty to act as If they were so,
and endeavour to secure their safety, in spite of them-
selves. It was not the aristocracy who resisted the tyranny
of Charles, and broke down the monopolies of the
trade of that day, which confined it entirely to those
who had Court interest ; it was the middle classes, and
they were that middle class now, with the advantage of
being more powerful than at that time, for political in-
formation had descended to the operative class ; they
were a thinking class, and, alas, now a suffering class
also; and it was necessary that, in spite of the aristo-
cracy, that class should have the means of subsistence.
He was afraid to indulge himself in saying what extent
of peril the aristocracy was in. He had been taunted
with a wish to effect that which he prophesied ; this was
the common case ; those who told others of their dan-
ger, were accused of creating what they only foretold.
Their danger was created by themselves. What had
occurred this week with regard to bonded corn ?
—(Hear, hear', hear.) It had been proposed to take
a certain quantity of corn out of bond, only
on condition that other corn should be put in place of it.
Twenty-nine sagacious land-holders silia they could not
consent to it ; that frauds would take place ; that in spite
of their bolts and locks, frauds would be committed.

What did they, call fraud ? Why that the poor man
might get an additional biscuit for a penny. It appeared
to him insanity • the greater, for what they heard last
night. Peel made a must artful speech, as when did he
nut ? Only when it was not the interest of his party to
do so. He told them not to suppose that he had dis-
tinct hopes of amelioration, but he said here is the Globe,
here is the Manchester Guardian—papers op-
posed to my party. I do not read them to
excite hopes. Oh no ! But his party had all
the benefit of the inference, without his running the
hazard of the assertion. He spoke of the increase
of the consumption of sugar during the past
year, but the people would consume a thousand times as
much, if it were free of duty. Another part of his speech
showed great oratorical talent. He admitted repeatedly
that distress existed in different localities ; he did not
attempt to say that it was confined to those localities,tut he
repeatedly dwelt on its partial and local nature, and though
he had not the resolution to deny that the distress was
general, yet his party had the benefit of the suggestion.
That was why the aristocracy were hardened to their
complaints. They still believed there was a glimmering
of hope. Peel said, give my tariff a fair experiment ;
but while he made the experiment, the people were
starving—starvation could not postponed. He feared
the interval between this and the next session ; it must
increase the distress, and even if it did not grow worse,
ought they to remain as they were ? Grow worse it
must, in consequence of the change in the temperature,
which would require more material to keep life in the
human being. He really shuddered at the prospect be-
fore them ; ho shuddered most of all to think that those
classes of the community who were circled by luxury,
who were " clothed in purple and fine linen," who en-
joyed every delight that the world could give them, had
no feeling for the famished father, the starving mother,
and the pining child.—(Hear, hear.) At all events they
would have acted their parts ; they would have freed
their souls, and done all they could to avert these calami-
ties. They talked of the distressed districts being disturbed
by agitators; there never was a change proposed by any
one but he was called all that and worse ; it was their ,
hire and salary ; and the man was not fit to lead a move-
ment of the people who could not bear that, and ten
times as much. The pertinacity of the Anti-Corn-law
League delighted him. They were bound to continue ;
the metropolis had not assisted them as it ought—(Hear,
hear)—it was not to be wondered at. All the wealth of
the world was congregated in the west-end of London,
and it was one of the worst symptoms for a nation when
the wealth was concentrated in the hands of a few in the
midst of a distressed population. The distress was uni-
versal ; he could answer for its existence in Ireland
though it was not so conspicuous, from there being just
enough provisions in different localities to keep away
absolute famine. In other districts provisions were also
cheap, but if bread were a penny a pound it would be useless
where the people had not a halfpenny to purchase it. Ire-
land, therefore, had an interest in their strife; it was to feed
those operatives of that country who had been many
years settled among them, who had no settlement here,
and many of whom had rather die than be sent back to
the misery they must experience in Ireland. They were,
therefore, interested in assisting them, and would be
equally ready even if they had not that interest in so
doing. If the League was compelled to adjourn over
the session, he would state that there was no legal,
peaceable, or constitutional act which the Irish people
were not prepared to do to assist them.—(Cheers.) Su
far as the voice of the people could assist them, they
might command them, and he only regretted that they
could not serve them more effectually. It was the
cause of humanity, charity, and social order, for social
order could not exist with a total want of employment and
want of wages. The higher classes might b,3
secure for a time, but the evils that rankled the heart
within the skilful workman, and brought down the
genius capable of every invention mechanical science
gave scope to, which dulled the eye and stupified the
mind, had an unfortunate up-rising quality ;like the
flame of destruction, the fire might glow more intensey
below, but at last it would mount to the highest summit.
They were bound to continue to act in behalf of
humanity, and if they did,thesoheL
sordid aristocracy would
at last yield to their efforts.—(Cheers.)
his adherence to the
Mr. EWART rose to give in
C(OltUrr.seullicaornkneedll
accept
yceptht peopleen t e
Hfoorn.thGe
it me.) They must stand _
by the people of Ireland, and
ethßeifilitlte,
good, when
began, that intellect and common
they will stand by us- It was
the popular head, and if the • aristocracy
sense should put itself at its
had raised a commotion, it was right that some power
ferment.
should "ride the whirlwind and direct the storm.' And
who could better do this than the smug and influential