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

tress of the working classes—in filet, the necessity of the
case, was the only apology he had to offer on the part or
himself and brother _Delegates for calling the merchants
of London together on the present occasion. Lie assured
them there never was brought before the pubLe a
question ‘which had less material in it for party to work
upon than the present. Ile disclaimed, then, party fcei•
ings having anything to do with the present movement.
No doubt they had all heard of the distress existing ire
the country, but all that had come to their knowleAge
from discussions of the subject, both in and
out of Parliament—all that had been said by
the Anti-Corn-law Delegates—all that had beets
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 manafacturing 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 ana woollen manul'ac-
tures which had not fallen one-half or two-thirds of
what would he its real intrinsic value its times of ordi-
nary prosperity. That was the effect of the depression
which trade had sustained for the last four piars. Parties
engaged in trade hid on their hands numerous stocks
which had continued falling in value, and wouhi so con-
tinue, unless a decided check was given to that' down-
ward progress, and which they w..tuld never he tetito to
dispose of even at great sacrifices, while the cause of de-
preciation continued in operation. Year after year pa
party was wasting away. The weakest were daiV
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 proportion 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 offiws
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. CIIAPPEL, of Manchester, said that he had been.
50 years connected with manufactures. He was satis-
fied that a mill and machinery, which cost 34,000 L,
would not now realize 8,0001., in consequence of the de-
' pression of trade. Another mill in his neighbourhotd,
on which the owners, who had since become embar-
rassed, had spent 40,0001., had been lately valued by IS
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
ed
told him in
w
s
eithat they possibly cpahihis hands, simply ssi,ipt.
seniaono(tioiEtitfipt.l
their
leio)trisAanllnielafesntalttegmci two mills had
found solvent. He
Chrould
istmas,
aueeesnsrp,ng oeri
wouldnl
dBai-
depended
e,
if
fei
he
took opinion, that if the
ilies
tirely upon him for
took his stock, and sold it at a loss of from 5 to 7,1,- per
cent. Last Christmas lie again took stock, and he was
at present not selling it, but offering it at a loss of from
7:t to 10 per cent. At present the calculation was, which
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 the present ; that was merely a panic, and
when confidence was restored they soon regained their
former prosperity. Bat 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 offer 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 live-and-
twenty years, and for the last two years the subscribers
had been filling off, and thelowere now a quarter in
arrear with their rent, thougnhe expense of educating
the children was-only 4W. 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 1400 applications for situations on the
Railway, as porters; policemen, and messengers, besides
the applications thitt were made to the L)irecters in
private. He had Ijeen 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 hat 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 telore he attempted
to enter the county of Lancashire. He 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 rim the hazard of the attempt, and he
hoped that the Divine assistance, which had hitherto
ravoured 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
intelligence previously unknown. Liverpool, which two•
centuries ago was a small fishing station, was now one of
the largest commercial ports of the world. In the time
of Camden the rental of Lancashire was valued at
57,0001. a year ; it was rated during the last year at
6.200,000/. or an increase of 6,300 per cent.—(Hear_
hear, hear.) In the Hundred of Salford, the:
increase had been upwards of 10,000 per cent..
This was the improved value given to the land by
the increase of the manufactures of the country. He
beit census iis
houses,us taken
besides
in tlie last
millsyaenadr, workshopst heir were, r.
had drawn their attention to the past state of the coun-
try, and he would now say something of its present po-
sition.
li niliyilhttuiamber must have greatly increased in the
twelve months that had since elapsed.
This
could not have happened without producing some c
l leffect
on the people. In Bolton, the amount .of wages had de-
creased 200,0001. a year, and, with the rise in the price
evraenatsaegeofo3f2lol,o9o,7a/..yaeayreairn, iinngeaanlstoogfesthuebis•
of food, the people laboured under the additional disad-
the
isatendcee"..
In addition to that, those classes which contributed to
the poor-rates were also
suffering to a very great extent.
Shopkeepers, Id •a. parties in that class of life, were daily
and constantly
failing ; and those which had been rate-
payers were falling off in consequences of houses and
workshops becoming uninhabited, and property yielding
nothing ; so that the rates, which stook at 84,0001.,
a Year on the books, did not yield on the collection more