The Sun.
London, England, 1827-04-26 00:00:00

BURY, LANCASHIRE.

MEETING ON THE CORN LAWS, &c.
In November last a requisition, signed by sixteen '
iespeetable inhabitants of Bury, was presented to
the Constables of that town, praying them to call
an early meeting of the inhabitants of the town and
neighbourhood, to consider the propriety of petition-
ing the two Houses of Parliament for a revision of
the Corn Laws. This requisition was presented on
the 13th, and on the 18th large placards graced the
walls of the town, appointing the 24th instant for
the day of meeting; on which day Mr. HARRISON
took the Chair, and resolutions were passed to peti-
tion the two Houses of Parliament for a total repeal
of the Corn Laws. Another requisition was the
other week presented to the above Constables,
signed by twenty-four inhabitant householders, pray-
ing them to call another meeting, to petition the
two Houses for a total repeal of the Corn Laws,
Annual Parliansents, &c. Th's the Constables hav-
ing refused to do, the requisitionists themselves ap-
pointed a meeting on the '23d instant for the above
purpose. A meeting in consequence took place in
the Union-square on Monday last,, at which about
2,000 persons were present. Mr. WILLIAM SMITH
being called to the Chair, read the requisition, de-
tailed the object of the meeting, and exhorted every
one to be orderly. He then read a series of resolu-
tions, which, he said, would be submitted singly to
the consideration of the people present, and it would
of course remain with them whether they were ac-
cepted or rejected.
Mr.PAntes addressed the Meeting, and took a
survey of the effects produced on the manufactures of
the country, by the issues and withdrawal of paper
by the Bank of England, and of the mischievous
effects of the tithing system, and of the Corn Laws,
on the agricultural interest of the country. He observ-
ed, that tithes were less injurious when originally
instituted, than at the present day; for formerly, the
tithe was divided into three parts : one portion of
which was appropriated to the support of the poor;
another to the building and repairing the temples of
religion; and a third to the support of the clergy.
But now, the clergy seize the whole, compel the
people to build and repair the churches, and throw
the poor for support on the parish rates. He ap-
pealed to the Meeting if this was honest, on the
part of those who professed to show them the high-
way to Heaven. If any one stepped forward to ex-
pose abuses in the church, he was immediately de-
nounced as a deist, or an atheist, but he would have
the persons who heard him, bear in mind that there
was a material difference between attacking religion
itself, and those who under its pretended sanction
covered the grossest vices and impositions. The
clergy, however undeserving, take the whole of the
tithe, though the poor are starving; they roll in
their gilded equipages, and bid you be patient under
your 'sufferings ; tell you those sufferings are the
effects of the divine displeasure ; at the same time,
these men know that the Deity has blessed the land
with plenty, and that plenty is kept from youand your
starving family, by laws which have their sanction.
He should advocate annual Parliaments, universal
suffrage, and to prevent bribery, election by ballot :
a total repeal of the tithing system, an equitable ad-
justment with the public creditor, and the abolition
of all unmerited pensions and sinecures.
Mr. Fox then came forward, and congratulated
the meeting on the Corn Laws being made the pri-
mary subject of discussion. The tax on bread (said
he) is one most severely felt by the labouring popu-
lation of the country, for whilst they deprived the
industrious man of his food, they also shut out the
foreign merchant from our markets. Whom, he
asked, do they benefit ? Not the farmer ! not the
labourer ! not the nation at large ! none but the
aristocracy of the country. They raised their al-
ready enormous rentals, at the exponce of the whole
remaining community. They, together with taxa-
tion, had reduced the weavers to actual starvation;
and unless some speeder change took place, other
trades would be soon reduced to the same level.
They raise the price of food, shut out the foreign
merchant from our markets, and consequently deprive
the industrious man of that employment by which
only 'he can obtain an honest livelihood. Such laws
would have no existence if the people were repre-
sented. He did not doubt but some of the
tools of the boroughmongering faction were staring
him in the- face, but he cared not for them.
Parliaments, to be beneficial, ought to be an-
nual. In that case, if you get a bad represen-
tative, you can send him packing at the end
of twelve months, and twelve months were long
enough to be duped by a knave. Lord Cas-
tlereagh would have persuaded us it was im-
practicable to extend the elective franchise. But
when your self-styled representatives want you to
represent them in the field of battle they can number
and find you to a man. He was convinced that the
election by ballot was the only means of preventing
the exercise of corrupt influence. He here related
the practices of the Whig and Tory coalition on that
town on an election taking place. He saw by the
papers that the increase of revenue on printed goods
the last quarter was, 17,0001.; if that duty *ere
taken off, would it not increase the demand for prin-
ted goods ? if the duties on spirits were not so high,
would not their consumption be greater ? so it would
be with all taxed commodities. But in England,
the very light of Heaven is taxed.—Reduce the tax-
ation, and we can stand low wages, and meet any
foreigner, in any market yet. But there are other
abuses in the state—there is the disposal of the
Crown lands. Mr Lord Lowther, for instance, holds
lands for which he pays 501. a year, and 50,0001.
would be given for them any day; but, by some sort
of political hocus pocus, my Lord keeps possession ;
and if the Ministers of the day send down a note to
my lord, saying, "your presence in the House is re-
quested on such a day,"—away packs my Lord, if
it be twelve o'clock at night, and down goes any revi-
sion of the Corn Bill. The Clergy have been alluded
to; they are, many of them sons, relatives, or
dependents on the Aristocracy. Indeed, where is a
place worth having in Church or State, but you
find some of them, one son in the Army, another
in the Navy, and another in the Church, and all
reaping rich harvests from the pockets of the
people. They recommend charity, and see their
fellow-countrymen clothed in the black gaiters
and cast-off rigging of the soldier—that cloth-
ing his hard earnings have gone to purchase
when new. After making some remarks on
the state of Ireland, and the King's visit to
that ill-starred country, he hoped that the country
would right again. He was glad to see his Majesty
act independent of his Ministers, who had deserted
him in time of need; and thought Mr. Canning had
shown a disposition to follow a different line of
policy; and concluded by hoping that the present
would be a new sera in the annals of this country.
Mr. JOHN CAMERON then addressed the Meeting,
and detailed very eloquently the immense revenues
of the Church in England and Ireland, and the mis-
chievous effects the undue influence of the Clergy
produced in Ancient Greece and in Modern States.
He, for one, thought that eight or nine millions an-
nually to these patterns of piety, for showing us the
way to Heaven, was rather too much.Hrigehts,if
recom-
mended union among the people, and did not de-
spair of their ultimately regaining their
they acted with firmness.
Mr. CARGAN followed, and gave a statement of
the numbers of the Members of the Commons
House of Parliament returned by Peers, by Govern-
ment, and rotten Boroughs. The number of Church
Livings the Peers had in their gift ; the expences
of the Army, &c.; which our limits will not allow us
to detail. He gave his cordial support to a Radical
Reform in church and state, nothing short of which,
he was certain, would save the country from ruin,
and prevent our trade being driven from our shores.
The following Resolutions were each moved and
seconded by different individuals, and passed unani-
mously by the Meeting :-
I.—That it is the opinion of this Meeting, that this
country is suffering under a state of starvation, such as was
never before experienced in the annals of the nation.
2.—That it is the duty, as well as the interest of every
Englishmen, but more particularly of the labourer and

roe,,hanic, to search out the cause of those evils, and to
step forward in a fearless, manly, and legal wanner, to
assist in removing them ; and to attempt the restoration
of his country to prosperity and happiness.
3.—That it is the opinion of this Meeting, that it is the
want of a just representation of the people in the Commons
House of Parliament that has been the principal cause of
our distress ; and as it is the right, so it is the duty, of
every Englishman to endeavouf, by every practicable
means, to obtain and secure the right of nominating those
who are to make laws by which he is to be governed.
4.—That nothing less than a total repeal of the Corn
Laws can secure to the English manufacturers for foreign
markets the full enjoyment of the fruit of their ingenuity
and industry, nor place them on a level with the foreign
manufacturers ; because these laws greatly enhance the
price of our food, and diminish the means of foreigners to
pay for our manufactures.
s.—That a nation can neither be prosperous or happy,
when the industrious labourer who produces, and is the
only source and foundation of wealth, cannot procure for
himself the absolute necessaries of life ; and who must in-
cessantly toil, not to reap or enjoy the fruits of his own
ingenuity and industry, but to support in idleness and
luxury, a certain privileged class, who produce nothing,
but like unto a swarm of locusts, eat up, and devour
every thing ; from which unnatural state of things, the in.
evitable consequence is overwhelming taxation, and re-
strictions on Foreign Corn, levied for the sole purpose of
paying unmerited pensions and sinecures,—for protecting
the interests of the already opulent Landowners,—and for
the maintenance of a large standing army in the time of pro
found peace ; not to fight with foreign enemies, but on the
centrary, to appease the calls of a hungry and starving po-
pulation with bayonets, instead of bread.
6.—That this Meeting is unanimously of opinion, that a
church establishment, or a religion recognized by law, is
perfectly ridiculous, and has been productive of the most
ruinous consequences ; and further, it is the firm convic-
tion of this Meeting, that every system of religion ought to
stand or fall by its own intrinsic merits.
7.—That this Meeting considers the institution of tithes
as derogatory to every principle of justice, and utterly at
variance with the true interests and happiness of mankind ;
and that the further continuance of such a nefarious sys-
tem can only be considered as a gross imposition, an insult
and burlesque on the improved and improving intelligence
of the present age.
B.—That this Meeting is of opinion that, without a very
great reduction of the Debt, falsely called National, a total
repeal of pensions, grants, and emoluments, not merited by
well-known public services, an equitable adjustment of all
contracts between man and man, that the inhabitants of
this nation are doomed to suffer greater privations than
they have heretofore suffered, and greater than they ever
intend to bear, without making a strong effort to better
their condition by all legal means in their power.
9.—That this Meeting is of opinion that the Legislators
in both Houses of Parliament have completely set the people
at defiance ; and that it behoves the people, in all parts of
the nation, to come forward, and boldly demand their right
of voting for such a Legislature as shall feel an interest in
defending them from such an Oligarchy, and that will at-
tend to and carefully watch over their rights and interests.
10.—That petitions, embodying these Resolutions, be
presented to both Houses of Parliament, and that Lord
King be requested to present that for the Lords, and Mr.
Hume that for the Commons House of Parliament.

11.--That a vote of thanks to his Majesty George IV.,
be passed, for the independent manner in which be has
acted, in refusing to be ruled by his late advisers, and for
raising Mr. Canning to the Premiership, in opposition t,
their arbitrary will.
12.--That tke thanks of the Meeting be given to the
Requisitionists who calla the Meeting, and to those gen-
tlemen who have taken an active part in the business 0,
the day.
Six hearty cheers were then given, and the Meeting
dispersed peaceably.