The Sun.
London, England, 1842-08-02 00:00:00

ANTI-Cf)RN-LA 'E7ONFERENCE

The Delegates reet yercrday rearning at the esue'
hour, at Herbert's Hotel, Palace-yard, P. Tave.on,
Esq., in the Chair.
The CHAIRMAN opened the proceedings by the follow-
ing address said—This Conference is drawing to
a close—our mission is fulfilled—our work is accom-
plished. It remains to review its proceedings, and to
give an account of them to those by whom we were de-
puted. Our object was two-fold ;to give a just and com •
plete statement to the public of the real conditions and
prospects of the places from whence we were sent ; and
to press upon her Majesty's Government the necessity
of affording immediate relief. The former has been
most powerfully and completely effected ; and the me-
lancholy and heart-breaking accounts of destitution and
misery which have day by day been communicated by,
the Delegates, must have convinced the most sceptical
that it is not as human nature to bear the continuance of
such suffering, and yet it is to be feared an increase
of that suffering is approaching, although, as the De-
puty from Nottingham expresses himself, " No one dares
talk of the winter." Every thing that could be done
to represent to the Government the condition of trade,
and the destitution of the people, has been attempted
at various interviews with its members, and the result
has been nothing. They have been told by individuals
from all parts of the country, and engaged in every
description of manufacture—that their trade is de-
clining, their capital diminishing, and their unem-
ployed work-people starving ; that foreign countries
are offering us food, for want of which the people
are perishing, in exchange for those manufactures
for which there is otherwise no demand, They
have been conjured' by the claims of justice,
by the rights of humanity, not to sufEn- their own sordid
interests to trample upon the enjoyments, the comforts,
the very existence, of thousands, or tens of thousands, of
their fellow creatures and fellow countrymen, and they
have been conjured in vain ; they seem resolved upon
maintaining the iniquitous Corn-law, which aggrandizes
their own wealth, and deprives the people of employ-
ment and food, a ndkeeping the peace of the country—i. e.
by repressing the frantic attempt of the famishing to
supply themselves and children with food by force. Our
duty is done ; we have exposed the evil, suggested the
remedy, denounced the wrong, and warned the Govern-
ment of the consequence of persisting in that wrong ;
and it remains for us to return to our constituents
and ted them that all our efforts to obtain
justice for them have failed, and that we cmn
hold out to them no prospect of improvement,
and no hope of relief. It is fearful to con-
template the future. That aegreat and highly civilised
nation will finally suffer its prosperity to be blighted,
and its progress obE tructed, by a faction of
landowners, is nut to be believed. That the
millions of industrious and intelligent artisans
who ought to be the glory of our country, as they have
been the creators of its wealth, will quietly submit to
the destitution they are now enduring, to the utter ruin
which seems rapidly approaching to gratify the grasi:ing
rapacity of a landlord legislature, is neither to be an-
ticipated nor desired. I trust they will use no violence,
but not submit to be starved—that they will respect pro-
perty and life, but not suffer their children to perish by
famine ; and if, when the time arrives that " pri-
vate property has become a nuisance," the struggle
for existence is repressed by bloodshed, by
whatever name that bloodshed may be cha-
raeterised in a British Court of judicature—in the
eye of reason, of justice, of posterity, and of God, it will
receive its true appellation, and be stamped with the
guilt of murder.—(Applause.) I have only to say, an
address will be submitted to you for your approval, and
this Conference will then be dissolved. The Chairman
then proceeded to read the following documents :