The Sun.
London, England, 1842-05-04 00:00:00

at the head of this Society ; but the Government, find-
ing that the existence of such an association was highly
inconvenient, took means to suppress it. In 1793, two
delegates were sent to Scotland from the Society, and
were arrested by the officers of Government. These
individuals, who were merely doing what in England
was done by the principals of the Society, were
tried and transported for fourteen years.—(Hear, hear.)
The Government, then finding itself successful in Scot-
land, instituted prosecutions of a similar nature against
some members of the Society in England, and, accord-
ingly, eleven persons were seized, four of whom were
tried by a London jury, which, not being quite so pliant
as the Scotch jury, an acquittal was obtained ; the re-
mainder of the prosecutions dropped, and a new stimulus
was thereby imparted to the cause of Reform.—(Hear.)
In 1798, the Society had become so formidable, that a
corrupt House of Commons, in which there was no
real representation, suspended the habeas corpus ; upon
which Lord Grey declared, in his place inParliament, that,
though he did not go the entire length with those indi-
viduals, he would, rather than that there should be no
reform of the House, vote for universal suffrage. And
no person could say, looking at the conduct of this
House with respect to the industrious classes, that they
had not a right to it.—(Hear, hear.) For the space of
nineteen years after the suspension of the Habeas Corpus
Act, the people remained supine, but the same feelings
remained in existence, and at the end of that time, the
cry for Parliamentary Reform became as loud as ever. In
1817, the Habeas Corpus Act was again suspended, and
he need not remind the House of what then took place.
He need not remind them of the Manchester massacre,
or that the whole country was in a state of rebellion.
Then came the year 1829, when the Right Hon.
Baronet conceded Catholic emancipation to the loud de •
mends of the Irish people, though at the expense of the
40s. freeholders. That was the next step to anything
like reform, because it entirely altered the Constitution
of the country. He need not call to the recollection of
the House, that in 1830 the state of the country was
such, that the Tories were obliged to abandon the
helm of government. Such was the feeling occasioned
by the declaration of the Duke of Wellington, that he
would oppose all reform, that the Sovereign was not
able to partake of the hospitality of the citizens of
London, in consequence of the unpopularity of his
Ministers. He need not remind the House of the
disgraceful proceedings which took place in Kent.
The Whigs then came into office, and their
first step was to introduce the Reform Bill.
He believed that the intentions of those individuals who
framed the Reform Bill, and introduced it, were per-
fectly honest and sincere ; he believed that they did in •
tend to improve the representative system greatly. The
people believed that great improvements would arise
from it, but they had been grossly. disappointed ; he
would not say they had been deceived, but they had
been disappointed to the utmost extent. They believed
the measure would do great good, and every Member
must recollect the excitement and enthusiasm that oc-
curred in favour of the Reform Bill • they must recol-
lect the black flags at Glasgow, and the fires at Bristol,
and all that was done to make that House what it ought
to be, the People's House. In that Bill the people were
greatly disappointed. At the first election, in 1834, the
people found great difficulties thrown in the way of ex-
ercising their franchise. Every difficulty was thrown
in the way of their registering their votes, and the sys-
tem had been kept up to the present hour. What was
the consequence ? Why, that there was one general
dissatisfaction against the Reform Bill. Everybody
believed that House to be more corrupt, more dishonest,
and more favourable to class legislation than before the
Reform Bill passed. And when they heard of their pro-
ceedings and looked at the Reports of their Committees,
when they knew all that had taken place at the last
elections, they were right in coming to the conclusion,
that corruption, intimidation, and bribery took place to
an enormous extent. They were now in the year 1842,
and he (Mr. D.) did not believe that the House or the
Government were fully aware of the state of the country,
or the public mind at the present moment. It was, there-
fore, his duty, and a painful one it was, to inform the
Right Hon. Baronet opposite, what was the state of the
public mind with regard to Reform and the distresses of
the people, as he did not believe the House was in full
possession of the distresses that existed, and the stroll.-
feeling that was against the political bondage which the'
industrious classes believed themselves to be under. The
House was not perhaps aware that the petition he had
the honour to present yesterday had been in the
course of signature for the last four or five months.
Associations had been formedithroughout the country
called National Associations, in favour Of giving those
rights to the working classes of the country which they
maintained the old Constitution gave them, and which
they (the House) had no right to deprive them of
There were at the present moment about 600 of these
Associations. There were at this moment nearly
100,000 adults of the industrious portion of the commu-
nity who all set apart weekly .a penny of their wages for
the purpose of carrying on this agitation in favour of the
franchise. Between 50,000 and 60,000 of these men had
taken what they called cards; in these cards they pledged
themselves that, as long as they received ls. of wages,
they would set apart Id a week, until their voices were
heard within these walls by their representatives. Now
if they believed that these signatures were fictitious,
and that the feeling which he had described was not
spreading through the country, they grossly deceived
themselves. Never were the people of this country so
determined, by every constitutional means in their
power, to obtain the franchise as they were at the pre-
sent moment. He did not believe they (the House)
would be able long to prevent them having a voice
within those walls. The distress under which they were
labouring certainly augmented the cry at the present
moment. It was natural, when they saw themselves
neglected—when they saw no hopes of obtaining justice
—when they saw them (the House) offering them
nothing snore than mere words, as in the Queen's
speech when they saw that great distress was
existing in the manufacturing districts, which
was borne with exemplary fortitude, this was all
they said—what then could they expect but that they
would do something for themselves. He would state to
the House the progress which the question had made
with regard' to the manufacturing districts. When
those individuals who were sitting in convention
for the purpose of seeing the petition presented
to that House, and which they had done, applied to him
respecting it, he asked them to furnish him with some
of the particulars of the state of the country. What
they told him appeared to be almost incredible. He
had received 500 communications on the subject. Out
of these communications he had selected a few, which
he hoped the House would do him the favour of listening
to. One communication was from Sheffield, and which
came with the Sheffield portion of the petition. From
this statement it appeared that the cost of the relief to
the casual poor, for the week ending the 26th of March,
was 2011. ; for the week ending the 22d of April, 2981.
So that for the last month, although the inclemency of
the season had passed, there was an increase in the relief
to the casual poor of 97/ in Sheffield alone. Sheffield
was tranquil at present ; that it would remain so for any
length of time with starvation and misery increasing daily
was very doubtful. In Wolverhampton it was stated
that the colliers, nailers, mechanics, and labourers were
in a state of poverty and destitution disgraceful to a
civilised country. There was a general impression
amongst the working men that their cause of complaint
could never be effectually removed unless they possessed
the power of choosing their own representatives. The
whole of this district was in an alarming state of
agitation ; Chartism was rapidly progressing ; in
towns and villages where, a short time ago,
Chartism was unknown, there were now Chartist
Associations; and unless some means were adopted of
relieving the distresses of the sons of industry the conse-
quence must be fearful. In Burnley numbers could not
earn sufficient for subsistence. The writer stated that
he never knew that district to be in such an agitated
state. The handloom weavers were compelled to turn
out on Saturday last, and beg from door to door ; the
police attempted to take them into custody, but the poor
fellows resisted, and they were obliged to make a virtue
of necessity. A young man had been brought before the
Magistrates who had been driven by desperation to break
two panes of glass in a shop window, in order to get sent
to prison. His mother was a widow with six children.,
for whose support 4s. a week was allowed by the Guar-
dians. On applying for relief or work he had been told
to go and steal, and as he preferred breaking windows to
stealing he was sentenced to be imprisoned in the
House of Correctioit for one month, and he thanked
the Magistrate for the boon of sending him to prison.
There was great distress existing iu Leicestershire, par-
ticularly in Loughborough.. Nothing could be worse than
the condition of the working classes at Clitheree, and a
strong feeling in favour of the Charter was spreading
there to a great extent. The metropolitan counties
were in the same state of distress, and he was afraid the
tariff of the Right Hon. Baronet would only make that
distress much worse. He would now direct the attention
of the House to the state of Scotland. In the Vale of
Netherloy there were scores of families who had never
tasted animal food for thirty-eight weeks ; their. food
was oatmeal, with boiling water sweetened with treacle.
Notices of ejectment were being constantly served, and
landlords refused to let their houses unless persons
would give security for the payment of the rents. At
Dumbarton the people were in a state of dreadful desti-
tution ; the carpenters were all out of work, and the
weavers, by working from twelve to fifteen hours a-day,
were only able to earn ss. a week. , The great body of
the people looked to Universal Suffrage as their only
hope, believing that until the House of,, Commons
should represent the whole people they would
never obtain any remedy for their grievances.
The letter containing those statements was signed
by W. Thomason, a Member of the Convention, and
the writer stated that although he did not know whether
he should be balloted for to speak at the Bar of the
House, in the event of the present motion being carried,
yet he would be happy to attend at the Bar to answer
any questions that might be put to him ; and he felt
satisfied that by his answers he could show the miser-
able condition of the people. He would now direct the
attention of the House to the state of Edinburgh. No-
thing could be worse than the distress existing there,
and nothing stronger than the desire to see a change in
the constitution of that House. In a paper recently pub-
lished, the British Statesman, a journal devoted to the
cause of the people, a letter had appeared, containing a
statement to the effect that in the neighbourhood' of
Burnley a cow had died of disease, and was buried, and
the poor were so pressed by famine, that they actually
disinterred the animal for the purpose of making use of
it as food. A statement had also been published in Man-
chester, signed by Mr. Howell, the Dean of Manchester,
calling on the inhabitants to contribute towards soup
tickets for the destitute poor. This was read from the
pulpits of Manchester, for the purpose of exciting the
charitable feelings of individuals. The Hon. Gentle-
man then read the statements contained in this docu-
ment, which detailed cases of -the 'most extreme Suffer-
sing, and provedthe great anxiety to procure the tickets
that entitled individuals to the relief of the supply of
soup. In that petition which he had presented, there
was a strong statement of the distressed condition of the