The Sun.
London, England, 1842-02-09 00:00:00

part of the country, where flannel was the principal article of
manufacture, was also diminished. That produced a most ex-
asperated feeling in this country. Mr. Addington, the Ameri-
can Minister, wrote to the Minister of England of that day, to
inform him of the state of feeling in that country with respect
to the duty imposed upon its agricultural produce, and ex-
plained that the reason such a high scale of duty was imposed
upon English flannel, was, because there was a very heavy
duty on the produce of America.—( Hear, hear.) The Corn-
laws were the cause of the high duty imposed on English
flannel. —( Hear, hear.) In 1828, the weavers in his (Mr.
Bright's) neighlaaorhood had good wages and constant employ
insist, because the duties on flannels, the principal article of
manufacture, were low. In 1828, the duty was imposed—the
employment of the poor tradesmen was accordingly discontinued ;
the result was, a great many industrious, honest men were
obliged to emigrate from that neighbourhood and go to
America, where they could find the means of employment,
which they would have had at home were it not for those laws.
—( Hear.) Those honest, industrious men, who could have
lived at home in comfort and happiness, were driven to
seek a living in a foreign land—were subjected to a
species of punishment, and liged to undergo banishment for
the purpose of procuring the common necessaries of life, He
(Mr. B.) had a relative in the United States of America. He
was 'a large manufacturer of flannel, and lived within about
15 miles from Philadelphia. Almost all his labourers and
tradesmen came from his (Mr. B.'s)neighbourhood, where those
poor men had formerly procured abundance of employment before
the imposition of the duty on flannel, and who would continued to
have employment were it not for the operation of the Corn.law.
These people were driven in large numbers from their native
country. He (Mr. Bright) would just read what the cele-
brated Milton said upon such a state of things as that :—" Let
the astrologer be dismayed at the portentous blaze of comets
and impressions in the air, as foretelling troubles and changes
to States ; I shall believe there cannot be a more ill-boding
sign to a nation (God turn the evil from us) than when the
inhabitants, to avoid insufferable grievances at home, are forced
by heaps to forsake their native country. "—( Hear.) There were
thousands, hundreds of thousands, and millions of the people.
of this country looking forward to the result of this day's pro-
ceedings, anxiously waiting to see the resolutions adopted at
this Conference, and the effect those resolutions would produce
upon the country and the Parliament.—( Hear. ) He believed
the Parliament most miserably deceived themselves, or were
greatly deluded, if they thought for a moment that the Dele-
gates who composed that meeting, assembled there to ask for a
total repeal of the Corn-laws, in order by asking for a great
deal they might get something or othter, and that the country
would be content. No. The people would not be content
with anything short of the total abolition of the Corn-laws.—
(Cheers.) He (Mr. Bright) would tell the Parliament that
the Delegates came to that meeting with much higher objects
—they had assembled there for the accomplishment of much
greater measures—they stood upon a sounder basis than de-
perefing upon any party whatever; and if he knew anything of
the temper of the country, he could say that he was firmly con-
vinced that no man dared stand up in any meeting through-
out England and advocate anything like a sliding scale. He
knew every part of England, for he had attended a vast number
of meetings in England, and he knew the feeling upon the
subject of the Corn-laws well enough to enable him to say,
that nothing like a sliding scale would be sanctioned or ap-
proved of.—(Cheers.) He was an advocate for a fixed duty,
but it was not upon corn.—( Laughter.) He was an advocate
for a fixed duty upon every man's mind who had come as a de-
legate to that meeting, to do his duty zealously, and never
abandon it till he accomplished the objects which they all had
in view.—(Loud cheers.) After again adverting to the dis.
tressed condition of the poorer classes, Mr. Bright proceeded to
say that though they had raised a clamour throughout the ma-
nufacturing districts of England, it should not be supposed that
poverty and famine did not also exist amongst the agricultu-
ral classes, for in fact it was much greater, if possi-
ble, amongst the agricultural classes than it was tn the
manufacturing districts.—( Hear, hear.) The agricultural po-
pulation did not live in crowds as the manufacturing classes
did, and consequently the effects of the Corn-laws were not so
generally talked over amongst them as they were amongst the
manufacturing people. However their effects were gene-
rally known and felt throughout the entire land,
and the people entertained but one opinion that they
should he totally and immediately abolished.—( Loud cheers.)
Tke misery and wretchedness created by the Corn-laws was
spread all over the country, though the same amount of misery
might not offend the eyes in alliparts. One beggar might not be
seen, for instance, by a person passing through a particular
district of England ; 'but that was no proof of the condition of
the people. Then what was the vast accumulation of misery
and poverty in the mendicities and poor-houses ?—for instance
if the meeting saw the mass of squalid poverty in the mendicity
of Dublin, would it,not he a test of the miserable condition of the
people there? That meeting had an important duty to perform,
and he hoped they would zealously do it.—( Cheers.) He
was sure they would.—(Loud cheers.) The people of the
country were in danger, they should take the advice
of the celebrated Edmund Burke, who said—‘, Where
there is abuse there ought to be clamour—it is much
better to be aroused from our slumbers by the fire-bell than to
perish by the fire in our beds." It was for that purpose that
he (Mr. Bright) had come up to London to hold up his hand
in favour of the resolutions adopted by that meeting, and for the
total and unqualified abolition of the Corn-laws.—(Cheers.)
There was too much reason to fear that the House of Commons
would not do justice to the oppressed and fettered people of
this country.—( Hear, hear.) Look at the resolution he had
read, and ask yourselves, did not the system it described oppress
the people ?—(Cheers.) Was it not a violation of the rights
of man ?—( Cheers.) Was it not a fetter on industry ?
Was it not. this law that hindered the working man from get-
ting an honest living by his labour ?—(Cheers. ) He had
,
machinery, buildings, and some capital, which did
not much increase under this law, and he knew
a number of men whom, but for it, he couid employ at good
wages, and who could earn a good living under him. His ca-e
was the case of hundreds on the one side, and of myriads on the
other. It was clear then that the law which was called a pro-
tection, was in reality an oppression ; and it ought, therefore,
to be swept away forthwith.—(Cheers.) The resolution showed
that the law impoverished the people, and in so doing der,to_
ralized them. It might be the will of Providence fro strike
down a man with affliction—such as afflicted Job e-r
old, and
';t the person ;
such sufferings might be intended for the good
';t
people that
but it could never be for the good of a
they should be. trodden down with affli'ctions and privations
. condition must tend to
laid on by their fellovv-men, for such r
their demoralization, as it was une.restionable that pauperism
was destructive to the fabric of Society.—( Hear, hear.) Time
state of feeling in the country was such as to call for the
anxious investigation of every man in authority. No Earl or
Duke should think himself groat enough to shrink from the
examination. It was a fact, that in his (Mr. Bright's) neigh-
bourood not a working man would raise a finger in defence of
those institutions which we had long been taught to regard
as invaluable to the country-_( Hear.) The people were
divided into two parties—nn one side was a multitude suffering
and hopeless—on the other side a vast mass suffering also, but
vindictive and reve7,geful; and if these passions were once
to burst forth th.-„re was no telling who or what would he safe.
He would till the landlords who, under the sanction of the
general system, usurped the right that Heaven gave to all,
that if they did not take warning in time, they would soon
fall a saerihce to the Corn-law s ; and to the false principles
which upheld it.—( Hear, hear.) There was not a
single estate in England, however extensive, that three
years hence, :would be worth sixpence to its owner
under the present law ; but universal destitution would over-
spread the country—the paupers, like locusts, would eat up
every green thing ; and, as they must be maintained,
nothing would be left to pay the rents.__( Hear, hear,
and cheers.) That must be the consequence, for
no individual or nation could prosper on principles
such as were embodied in the present Corn-laws. Wherever
they looked they would see it grinding down hundreds of thou-
sands of people by the most horrible oppression. This was
what he had found., and in thus describing it, and in thus
demanding its r.,:oolition, he affirmed that he and his brother
delegates more truly represented the sentiments of
the country than did certain Hon. Members, who were
called tlke representatives of the people, in another place.—
(Laughter.) Let the present, representives then consider well
t)s,eir duty, Let them remember that their duty was to demand
' the unconditional repeal of the Corn-laws. If they could not
obtain that, they must return to those who had sent them
hither, and declare to them that the Parliament of England
way insensible to the call of justice—insensible to the cries of
suffering yet innocent millions—and that the people must re-
double their efforts if they meant to strike down the present
Insulting and cruel mockery oflegislation.—( Vehement cheers.)
Dr, Pa'a SMITH considered it a great happiness and honour
to second the resolution, which was in itself a demonstration.--
( Hear, hear.) He was astonished that most respectable, ami-
able, and even pions persons should shelter themselves from the
demand of justice, which was the demand of a repeal of the
Corn-laws, under the most flimsy sophistries. Some said that
this was a most difficult question—that there were two sides
—and that much might be said upon each.-- (Laughter.) But
ho wat4l remind these people that every midnight robbermight
say the same for himself, he might say that it was expedient
and necessary, to his comfort that he should prey upon the
country.---(Loud cheers.) Other people would hear no reason
at all. But before the present audience he need not speak at
length, for he felt sure that every man in that room had a
strong sense of the obligations that were imposed on him in
the face nf God and man, and knew that he must be indefa-
tip)* i,tk exerting every means he could devise to diffuse a
right knowledge, and to excite a right opinion amongst all
classes on the subject.—( Hear, heat, and cheers.) Tliev
were assembled there as servants, by profession, of the living
God —of the Lord of all righteousness —of ',ne God
who loveth righteousness, and setteth his face a,gainst
ini-
Lear, and cheers.) If there were any truth
in religinn.,..if there were an imperishable, principle in virtue
and vprality—he was convinced of the essential wickedness of
law which they were met there to attack.—(Cheers.)
Persons who, wrappitsg themselves in ignorance, could refuse
' the demand now made in the naple of justice, might with
equal reason r lie, to, comply with any principle of moral law ;
they miir,l-Ak refuse to, comply with any principle of virtue
or piptic ;: they might, in fine, abandon all religion ; but they
must Ornenabec they had an arduous task before them.
Was aid old tree, which had struck its roots deep in the soil,
std it would be difficult to eradicate it. Let them remember
' that prayers and offorts roust be used together, and then their
labours would be successful. He was proud and happy, and
he felt it an honour to add his little mite of approbation and
i entreaty in support of the present eloquent resolution, whist-,
spoke most important truths that ought to be circulate'
d i„
ever direction, and impressed on every mind.—(Cheer
had but another word to say. He could not ho'
any meetings after this, anti would his dear frier' 'c to s.attend
observe, this intention was not from inserts.' .is allow him to
it had pleased GA to, afflict him with a • but because
of hearing, iu\slaat he was altogether. -
p privation of the power
thing tit} w ssaa,s said; and of incapable of hearing any-
a, part iii, the prst ed: course, therefore, incapable of
he, had the cmi,o,lasir- "ings of a deliberate assembly. Still
whictlikwviaso„• to add, that there were some duties
IA" Ntuno able to attend. He trusted that the fact he had
~, would be a sufficient apology for not again coming
„ard in public meeting.—( Hear, with feelings of regret.)
Chairman said as the resolution was proposed anti seconded,
Mr. Falvy, a working man from Macclesfield. would speak
to it, that he would represent the opinions of his brethren
on this subject. It had been thought advisable not to pro-
pose a number of resolutions, but that a clear resolution was
proposed to the meeting that they might affirm a definite pro-
position, a simple resolution that every one could understand.
Mr. FALVY said, if he were only to consider his own feel-
' ings, he would express the gratifying, yet anxious sentiments
with which he availed himself of the honour of addressing an
assembly, consisting of the wealth and intelligence of a portion
of the community, who have left their homes and their busi-
ness in older to take into their consideration the best means of
removing those laws which press so heavily on the working
classes above all others, and on the trade and commerce of the
country ; but he had a higher and holier duty to perform; he
came to represent and speak in the name of the numbers, the
intelligence, and the intellect of the working men, whose delegate
he was ; and he could tell the wealthy classes, that when the