The Sun.
London, England, 1842-10-27 00:00:00

law, and endangering, to an alarming degree, Your markets are such towns as Manchester,
the general security. Stockport, and Warrington, and when trade is
Some of our Contemporaries have lately held bad and wages are low, and when many are out
up to merited reprobation the cruelties in- ,
of employment, you cannot expect to have the
same price for your produce that you had in
flitted on the prison ers in N orthl each prosperous times. Have you had no reduction
House of Correction, but if they cannot in the price of cheese ?—(A. Farmer—Yes ; the
remove the terrible destitution, they should best quality is down 10s., and the second 20s. a cwt.)
rather advocate still lower diet, still harder What is the cause of this reduction ? Not Sir
labour, still damper cells, and still more Robert Peel's tariff, which has left the duty on foreign
speedy and numerous deaths. The advocates of cheese untouched. Had he taken off even a shilling
restrictions on the people's industry anal of the a cwt. we should have had an outcry that this had
caused the fall of 10s. and 205., which you are now ,
ban upon their food, who also advocate more ca- suffering. We must look, then, for some other cause ;1
pital punishments, are consistent men ; and it is ' and you will find it in the deep distress of your cus-
puling and inconsistent humanity to limit the sup- tomers.—(Hear, hear.) You will observe that the
ply of food, and demand that prisons be made fall is greatest on the inferior quality, which has hi-
other than destructive of life. The slow process thereto formed a considerable part of the meal of the
working man, but now he cannot purchase whole-
' of starvation subdues the body to the uttermost
some wheaten bread and good cheese, but is reduced
depths of physical misery compatible with pre- to the necessity of living on potatoes ; and you will
serving existence, and subdues the mind to the have a still less demand from him during the winter,
commission of crime. It demoralizes and it which threatens to be one of greater privation and suf-
stints the human race. It dwarfs the body and fering than has ever yet been endured by a much suf-
it perverts the soul. It dooms the rising genera- fering people.
tion to the complicated evils of physical and And this distress in the manufacturing towns reaches
moral degradation. Better were it, far better, you in another way. Part of your population, tempted
by better wages than you could afford to give them
to revive the system advocated by the Post, and here, have settled in the towns, where they have sup-
rather feed the gallows annually with a few ported themselves without being chargeable to you ;
thousand victims, than continue to deteriorate but now, being unable to find employment, they are
the race by stopping their food. Better were it passed home, to add to the burden of your poor's
to adopt the hints of the Rev. Mr. MELVILLE and rate—to be paupers, perhaps, for life.—.(dear, hear.)
others, and at once blow up and level the half of Let me ask you, how your poor's rate is now, com-
our towns, than consign this and the next and pared with what it was this time last year ?—[The
Chairman—lt is advanced forty per cent.]—Forty
every succeeding generation to the vast and ter- per cent ! Forty per cent. reduction in the price of
rible evils of continual hunger. your cheese—forty per cent. increase in your poor's
The mode in which destitution leads to crime, rate—and both these effects from the distress of the
is most affectingly described in this Prison Re- manufacturing districts!
port. We copy the fair abridgment of it given With such teachers as falling markets, empty
by- the Chronicle's Correspondent : pockets, high rates, and the lecturers of the
"My parents were decent, honest people. I was League, the farmers must become converts to
married very young to a sailor. When he went to free trade principles.
sea, he assigned me part of his wages every month.
' 1 had sore trouble after he left, for work began to
get scarce, and my little child fell ill. I went to the
agents to ask for my husband's pay, for I was
sore distressed from grief and fatigue. The ship
was lost off China ; all hands were saved ; but, as
was the custom in such cases, the wages were stop-
ped. This was heavy news for me, for I had neither
work, nor money. I bore on for some time, trying
to get work, however trifling; but there was no work
to be had for me and hundreds more. I had heard of
a female house of refuge in Glasgow, and I deter-
mined to seek food and shelter there. I took my
little be in my hand, who is about nine years of age,
and walked the twenty miles to Glasgow. When I
got to the house of refuge, I showed them my mar-
riage lines, that they might see I was a donee, decent
body. The matron was very kind tome, and said she
grieved for me, but that the house was not for such as
me, but for poor, misguided women—prostitutes and
the like. My heart was fit to break, and I said to
myself, that I maun be wicked before I could get
a morsel of bread. The matron took pity
on me, and she let me stay one night, and
gave me a supper and a breakfast the next morning.
We walked back again the next morning to Greenock.
I had nothing to buy food or shelter with. My boy
was weakly, though nine years old, and I had carried
him many times on ray back, when he complained of
his feet. I sat down on a bank and cried bitterly ;
but my child, who was aye a donee clever lad, and
had been well instructed in the Sunday-school, little
as he was, was my comfort. When he heard me say,
'We shall die of want,' `Well, mother,' said he,
' then we shall go to granny, in heaven ; and we'll
want no food there. He took off his jacket, and
pulled off his little shirt, and said I should pawn his
shirt, for that would bring something ; and so it did,
and we got a night's shelter for that time. I suffered
much before I stole?'

Destitution, therefore, caused by a law which
makes it hard for the great multitude to live,
and renders charity for them almost impracti-
cable, is the parent of crime; and corrupts
minds which, like that of this woman, seem
capable of reflecting honour on our common
nature.

" Can anything (says Mr. Pigou) be more pathetic
than this—any words better chosen than those of the
poor Scotch woman ? Do they not go to every pa-
rent's heart—doth not the similitude of her case to
Hagar's, strike every one ; but with this difference,
that no angel came to her in her distress, showed her
no well, and she at length—who can wonder, and
who can blame—fell into crime, that her Ishmael
might not perish in the Christian ddsert
" Is it possible that, in the face of narratives such as
these, any other object can be thought worthy of
our consideration ? What avails the decoration of
our towns, the grandeur of our palaces, the strength
r. of our bridges, roads, arsenals • the wide arch of our
,empire ; our colonies, that stud and circle the world,
when our people seek shelter in our prisons and force
an entrance to them ; when they rather break into
them than out of them ; when their hardest labour,
their hardest fare, are sought as boons by the sons and
daughters of destitution ? What is it that our mer-
i chant navy is counted by a tonnage of millions—that
the navy of the State has borne 150,000 seamen, car-
rying conquest to the limits of the earth—that the
army has taken the capitals of our enemies—that our
exports are fifty millions—when wailing is in our
streets, famine in our cottage households, and our re-
fuge in prison ?
" Is it possible that any other object than a remedy
for such desolation, which the annals of each day con-
firm and augment, can fill the thoughts of our states-
men, who, retiring to their stately halls, can sleep
without dread visions of squalid and pining multi-
tudes sometimes expiring in silence, at other times
breaking out into feeble insurrection—their strength,
for good or evil, unavailing through long emaciation ?"

COURT CIRCULAR.

Is there not in such scenes, coming now so
frequently before us, enough to make every man
solemn and earnest, to banish smiles from every
face, and lightness from every heart? The
subject is so important, that statesmen must
consider it. Our hope of improvement rests on
the circumstance that these terrible evils begin
seriously to affect the upper classes. Their pro-
perty is invaded to maintain paupers and support
policemen and gaols, and they now see that gaols
and policemen cannot give them security. We
notice a list of subscriptions to pay the Yeomanry
of Stafford their expenses, which is headed by
Sir ROBERT PEEL with the sum of 1001. If the
Nobles of England, therefore, reckon the matter
only like pedlars, by paltry pence, they will
find that the expense they are put to far
exceeds any amount of rent they gain by
a law which inflicts destitution on the people,
and will earn for them the execration of
an enlightened posterity. They have, we
know, the political power of the State in
their hands ; but they cannot use it to limit
the people's food, and bind their industry, with-
out sacrificing their own security, their own for-
, tunes, and their own fame. It is for their
respectability, happiness, and honour, that we
call on them speedily, aye instantly, to take their
fetters off industry, and no longer make them-
selves responsible for the terrible calamities
which hunger and want of employment are
bringing on all classes of the people.

WINDSOR, WEDNESDAY.—This morning the Queen
and Prince Albert took their early walk in the Home
Park.

His Royal Highness the Prince, accompanied by
his Royal Highness the Duke of Cambridge, after-
wards rode to Swinley Lodge, attended by the
Marquis of Exeter, the Right Hon. Sir Robert Peel,
and the Hon. C. A. Murray. The Royal party en-
joyed the sport of shooting for some time, and had
most excellent sport.
The Prince of Wales and the Princess Royal were
taken airings twice to day, accompanied by the Dowa-
ger Lady Lyttelton.
His Royal Highness Prince Albert honoured Mr.
Francis this morning with a sitting for a bust of his
Royal Highness.
Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Cambridge,
the Princess Augusta of Cambridge, and his Royal
Highness the Hereditary Grand Duke of Mecklen-
burgh Strelitz, paid a morning visit to her Royal
Highness the Duchess of Kent at Frogmore Lodge.
Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent rode out
this afternoon attended by Lady Charlotte Dundas.
The Queen has a dinner party this evening ; covers
are laid for twenty-five. The company consists of her
Majesty the Queen, his Royal Highness Prince
Albert, her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent,
their Royal Hig,hnesses the Duke and Duchess of
Cambridge, her Royal Highness the Princess Augusta
of Cambridge, his Royal Highness the Hereditary Grand
Duke of Mecklenburg Strelitz, the Earl and Countess
of Dunmore, the Lady in Waiting on the Duchess of
Kent, the Lady in Waiting on the Duchess of Cam-
bridge, Hon. Georgiana Stanley, Hon. Clementina
Hamilton, the Dowager Lady Lyttelton, Hon. Mrs.
Anson, the Marquis of Exeter, Right Hon. Sir Robert
Peel, Viscount Hawarden, Hon. C. A. Murray, Sir
George Couper, Bart., Admiral Sir Robert Otway,
Col. Arbuthnot, Sir E. Bowater, and Dr. Prcetorius.
Her Majesty's private band, and the band of the
Horse Guards, in barracks here, will be in attendance
at the Castle this evening.

General Sancho, the Spanish Minister, transacted
business yesterday, at the Foreign-office.
The Hon. Edward Stewart, Deputy Chairman of
the Customs, had an interview with the Chancellor of
the Exchequer, yesterday, at his official residence, in
Downing-street.
Lord Granville Somerset, Chancellor of the Duchy
of Lancaster, arrived in town yesterday, from Tray
House, near Monmouth.
The Chancellor of the Exchequer had an interview
with Sir J. Graham
.yesterday, at the Home-office.
The Right Hon. Stewart Mackenzie transacted bu-
siness at the Home-office yesterday afternoon.

We insert the Address which the Anti-Corn-
law League has published, with a view to prepare
for a final assault on the Corn-law. We hope that
none will be necessary, but that the landlordswill
see the folly of continuing to coop themselves
up in a fortress in order to levy a black mail on
their countrymen. That kind of extortion wastes
a great deal more than it wins, and puts both
parties to great inconvenience. However, the
League is preparing to make another attack,
and as money is the sinews of war, the
Leagur asks for money. Political power is'
bonglit and sold in England, and the League
seeks the means of buying political power. It
does not intend, however, to corrupt electors,
but to enlighten them. It is about to distribute
Anti-Corn-law tracts amongst the farmers, and
send lecturers to explain them. By such a pro-
cess the League will effect a great deal more
than the repeal of one bad law—it will sow the
seeds of instruction, which will flower into
knowledge and ripen into action. It will
help to pull down a system. Other per-
sons seem acutely sensible of that possible
consequence, and they call on the Govern-
ment to stop with a strong hand the instruction
which
is too
el
,itheLeague is about to distribute. Sir R.
much of a free trader, according to
the Post, to quarrel with the League for spread-
ing through the community a knowledge of prin-
ciples on which he is disposed, it is said, when-
. ever lie can, to rest his power.
As a specimen of the success of the League,
we will refer to Mr. PRENTICE'S address to far-
mers,' at Over, in Cheshire, which appeared in
The Sun on Monday. It its only necessary- to
teach the farmers their true interests—aria the
following passages will show that facts combine
with the League to instruct them--:-in order to
secure the destruction of t67COrn-law:—.