The Sun.
London, England, 1842-07-13 00:00:00

ambition

SUN-OFFICE, Seven o' Clock.

THE ANTITCORN-L liW
CONFERENCE•
(THIS DAT•)

(Continued from our Afternoon Edition.)

Mr. SHUTTLEWORTH said—l come from Manchester. lam
Manchester born. lam not young. I consider myself some-
what observant. I have stood closely connected with Man-
chester by friendship and relationship, through not a short life;
and though I have for a portion of my existence lived in dif-
ferent parts of England, have ever maintained an immediate
and extended knowledge of its state and condition, sustained by
constant correspondence and frequent visits. For the last eight or
nine years I have regularly dwelt in the place (as I had done at
a previous period for 26 years• in succession), mingling with
iis teeming, ingenious, and industrious population. I do
claim to have a somewhat enlarged acquaintance with the state
of my native town. Am I questioned as to its present com-
mercial condition ? I answer, I have more than once, twice,
or thrice seen it in a drooping afflicted state ; but I am com-
pelled to aver that I never, never, knew it in so low, and sink-
ing, and wretched a condition, as it now is ; and I declare
that, though I have long since been forced to feel that this is
the case, it has even since that period continued to sink
lower and lower, and that - its course is still a rapidly
downward one.- When and where it is to be stayed
God only knows—the prospect is appalling in the extreme. Our
unemployed artisans are wandering about our streets and
suburbs in thousands, anxious to find employment to sustain
themselves and families, but are utterly unable ; their tattered
garments and haggard countenances bespeak their deplorable
wretchedness, physically and mentally, and excites dee-) pity in
the hearts, and wring tears—l utter literal truth—and wrings
tears, from the eyes of many of our more considerate and hu-
mane inhabitants. And the real amount of our town wretched-
ness does not come under the notice of those who merely traverse
the streets, and the neighbourhood of our town. There are
amongst us who sympathise with our fellow-citizens, and who
enter those very localities, and those very cellars and garrets
where hundreds dwell—without food, without clothes, 'without
beds—who are sinking in obscurity and silence to the grave—
dying by inches. Our town missionaries and many other par-
ties can describe scenes of distress which come under their daily
notice, that would soften and melt hearts of stone. I aver, Sir,
that it is harrowing and ;afflictive to the spirit of humane men,
to be compelled to live among our manufacturing Population.
And this distress is not of yesterday—it has been long endured,
and has been regularly augmenting for years, and has not ap-
parently as yet reached its ultimatum. Remember, too, it is
rapidly spreading upward in Society. All classes are suffering
—from the merchant downward—and, Sir, it may soon reach
even those who, having the power to relieve us, I mean the
Government, pertinaciously refuse to abrogate those unrighte-
laws, to whose blighting influence these awful effects are
mainly to be attributed is—the deservedly exeerated Corn-laws,
Our lowest orders, as a class, are already a wreck, and the
wasting desolation which has first seized them, is reaching and
seizing those placed above them, and is dragging them
also down into the same vortex. Our shop-
keepers and traders are rapidly declining and daily becoming
bankrupt—they are at their wits end—stricken as with terror at
at the ruin which stares them in the face, and from which they
cannot escape. I spoke with one, a draper, the other day,
standing at the door idling away his time, in the principal street
in the town, and he assured me that he rmly believed he could
himself, with ease, do all the business that was done in
his line in the whole town—without the assistance of even
a 'prentice lad. The remark staggered me for the moment
but on reflection, and recollecting what I witnessed in the dra-
pers' shops in the heart of the town, I was not disposed to dis-
pute the statement. Our manufacturers are in an awful plight.
Oppressed with costly workshops and warehouses, and facto-
ries, from which they cannot relieve themselves, though in
many cases they are either closed or are only partially open, and
if operating at all, operating to actual loss, to say nothing
about common interest on capital sunk. Our merchants are at
a loss what to do or how to act, and are in many cases, to my
certain knowledge, waiting and watching for supposed favour-
able opportunities of diverting their capital out of ordinary com-
mercial transactions, or for quitting the country. All kiiids
and all grades of tradesmen are compelled to reduce their
establishments and expenses, and are even reducing the
number and the wages of their household and domestic servants.
Emigration to other lands is very prevalent:' and this is not
confined to such of the operative classes as 4nnot find employ-
ment and scope for their ingenuity in their native land, but is
the case with individuals of a higher grade, who are escaping
with that wreck of their property yet remaining, determined to
seek homes for themselves and families in distant countries,
though their habits and affections, and connexions, and associa-
tions, still bind them to the land of their birth: Others, again,
there are, who would fain quit our shores, and seek settlements
elsewhere, did circumstances allow—but they are bound, as by
chains of iron, to the spot on which they feel they must soon be
sacrificed, unless some speedy change takes place, bound by en-
gagements and bonds, and wasted substance, and are thus re-
luctantly compelled to surrender themselves to their fate. Our
workhouse, which has long been one of the largest in the
kingdom, is at this hour undergoing great and expensive
enlargements. It has become far too small to receive all the
applicants who legally claim' admission, portions of whom are
already stowed in large buildings taken for the purpose, in dif-
ferent parts of the town. Our Poor-rates have just received
a considerable augmentation ; and an official person informed
me, only a few Says before I left home, that it has since be-
come evident that the augmentation is not, by far, expected to
be adequate to, meet the increasing demands—nor need this
excite wonder—protracted commercial depression, must con-
tinually increase the number of those who cannot pay, and
consequently augment the number of paupers, and, of course
add to the amount of claim on those who have the ability to
pay. Remember too, that thousands of pounds have been
raised among our charitable, and more affluent townsmen, to
administer temporary relief to the wretched perishing poor
around them. That hundreds upon hundreds are dis-
posing of their clothes and furniture, and are expending
the little savings of their better days in order to sustain exist-
ence. And remember, too, that this is summer, and that its
claims are comparatively limited. Yes, seriously ponder this.
Let the thousands now pining in want, or who are only half
fed, and the thousands wile contrive to exist on precarious, un-
certain, charitable, or othE scanty supplies, be fed as the claims
of nature require, and as they ought to be. Let those who
have hitherto generously responded to the calls of hunger and
want by which they are assailed cease, as many of them will
soon be obliged to do, on account of their own reduced condi-
tion—let the houses of these who are now subsisting on what
they raise by disposing of their furniture and clothes, become
completely ;tripped—let the winter, with its cold and severity,
arrive, bringing in its train multiplied claims, as it shortly will,
what, oh ! what will be our sad condition ? Rates must be raised
to a fearful amount. Oh ! the coming winter presents to the
soberest mind n appalling picture ! At present we are in a
1 deplorable co tion, but no contemplative, right-minded citi-
zen in our di ict can look to the approaching winter without
trembling and alarm. Emphatically do I say, let the monopolists
beware—endurance. must have its bounds. Must our popula-
tion perish before our eyes ? It has been said that our Premier
has a heart; we know our beloved Queen has. They can
serve, they can save us. If we perish the blood of thousands
upon thousands will lie at their door. Depend upon it, men of
chat acter, men of intelligence, men of loyalty and moral worth,
men who constitute the stamina, the muscles of civil society are
beComing desperate. Needless national sufferings liko ours
will drive wise men mad. One township in our county has
been brought to a stand, and has found it utterly impossible to
raise its rates and feed its poor ; the claims of the masses of its
pauperised poor, have overpowered the capabilities of the rate-
payers ; and it has cast itself upon the Government. In this
wake we are_ rapidly following; and so are many of our
neighbouring towns. Stockport is doomed without a speedy
change. No kind of investments are safe. One general ruin
threatens to overtake and overwhelm us all. We are in a most
deplorable state. He is a besotted, stupid imbecile, or has a
heart cased in steel, who is neither awake to the existing unpa-
ralleled distress, nor willing frankly to own it. Party spirit
can do, and has done much in this respect, but the sprinklings
. of such stupid individuals is rapidly declining, and must shortly
vanish away. A friend of mine, who has been extensively en-
gaged in business, who is well acquainted with our merchants
and manufacturers, who is daily, and in these days of anxious
idleness, almost hourly walking on 'Change, speaking the other
day of his own losses, and those of his fellow-tradesmen, ob-
served, ‘• Let any man on 'Change tell me he is doing well,
and I dare not trust him a shilling." And he, Sir, is no
prophet who reckons on a very speedy recovery from our pre-
sent deplorable condition ; and he who can reckon at all on the
arrival of a permanent restoration to vigorous commercial
health without freedom to trade, is a novice who must not be
trusted. He talks of what he does tot comprehend. We may
cherish hope from the coming harvest ; nay, cn reflection, we
cannot. We must have trade, or our harvest, however abun -
dant, cannot find its way to the homes and the sto-
machs of our labouring poor. The wheat harvest, it is
said, by persons competent to judge, will not, in many parts of
the country, even under the most favourable circumstances,
prove more than an average crop, and should the weather be-
come unpropitious—and our cliir.e in England is fickle—may
even yet prove a failure. We have little, indeed no hope from
the new corn scale and the revised tariff. Neither of them will
revive trade, and without trade, and were they in themselves
as really good as they are notoriously bad, to trust in them
would delude 'and cheat. if flesh meat, if coffee,tif sugar,
were $0 per cent. lower than they are—and they might
be but for baneful monopolies—if flour, and meal, and rye,
were one-third or one-half less than they are—and they might
be but for the accursed Curn-laws —what would it avail if
working men had little or no employment ? To them
it is an insult and a mockery to talk of cheapness
if they have no money—a cart load of provisions for a penny
would prove too deax for them, if they have not a farthing in
the world. But the prime necessaries of life are dear, and will
be so—they are taxed for this very purpose—of this we do, and
will complans. Let, however, our impious fiscal restrictions
be removed, and our wicked Corn-laws be abolished, and our
trade will revive. The distant parts of the world will send us
their pork, and beef, and mutton, and coffee, and tea, and
sugar, and corn, in exchange for our manufactures. In thus
speaking I utter what is known and understood—l utter plain,
sober, truth—truth which must be rung in the ears of
our countrymen, till feeling its force, they rise up as one
man to assert their rights, and resolve to give their mono-
polizing oppressors no rest, till right, and reason, and hu-
manity, and Christian principles prevail, to deliver the poor
that groan and cry under the grasp of a few rich, pampered,
proud, selfish lordlings and their clan, by whom, at present,
they are wronged, and crushed, and indirectly murdered.
Strong language, say you. Oh, that it were stronger than the
case requires ! Were it, my spirit, and the spirit of thousands
of my countrymen, would be delivered from a load of anxiety
and sorrow which language cannot depict. Give me a hear-
ing ; I speak with a full heart. I come from a district, the pre-
sent history of which must be written in blackest ink, mingled
with wormwood and gall. It can furnish scenes of wretched-
ness as deep and as dark as ever were chronicled,
and, remember, the wretchedness is still gathering a darker
hue, and is still rushing onward in a rapid downward career.
And what is my conviction, and the conviction of thousands,
after mature and honest inquiry ? Why, that all this misery—
and we cannot enumerate a tithe of what really exists—is
Ina.nly attributable to class legislation, which has placed on our
statute-books laws which cramp our trade, render provisions
scarce and dear, and starve our people. Dwelling where I
do—knowing what I do—feeling as 1 do—l must, I will give
utterance to my honest convictions, and denounce, in strong
terms, those impious restrictions which have plunged, and are
still deeper plunging my country—my fellow-creatures—my fel_
low-countrymen, by thousands' into an abyss of wretchedness and
ruin. Justice, probity, humanity, philanthropy, cannot spare such
crying evils. Woe is me, if I denounce them not. 'I his heart
of mine must become recreant to my judgment, and to the
voice of conscience ; it must be converted into stone ere I cease
my species, of my country, of
to feel and speak strongly; I must become a monster and no-
possessed,
laws
nun, a hater of
which
hydi icdh notarme yd
e Qc
l uare ee n
how;if
with the clear conviction now
utterly, I loathe and abhor the Corn
overwhelm-
ing us with calamities not to be described. And
'here, Sir, tillew me to state, that I am a member of
the Anti-Corn-law ,Levue ; and that I am honestly
-proud of my associates, anS of the righteous agitation to which
iiey have given birth ; and I wish from the bottom of my heart
I hat; capabilities to serve the cause in a manner commensurate
to its ilPpgrtance and its holy purposes. The body has been

....

kfoully maligned. The object has been to bring it into disre- •
pute, and to stay its operations. Vain attempt. I know some-
thing of its workings, and of the men, too; by whom they are
conducted and sustained ; and I will say that, taken as a whole,
for integrity, humanity, intelligence, patriotism, loyalty, and
for religion too, a more honourable, right-hearted body
of men were never banded together to seek the attain-
ment of any great national object.—( Hear, hear.) A
newly-fledged, hair-brained Yorkshire senator has ventured
to assail the League, and been cheered on in his wild course by
the Bread-taxers in the House of Commons. And what then ?
He sought notoriety, and he has gained it. But such notoriety
very few men indeed would like to wear. Of this gentleman
I know little, but what he has taught me, in the inimitable
speeches he has delivered against the League and others. As-
suredly they are rare instances of his love for truth, and of his
ability to teach. He has, indeed, by his labours to enlighten
those once applauding friends who sit around him, most des-
perately scorched not a few of their own dear friends. He had
better be quiet, except he is reckless of his own character, and
that of those who most support his party. To serve his friends
he should be chained to his kennel, for he knows not when
to bark and when to bite. I know something, how-
ever, of the gentlemen who constitute that portion
of the League immediately connected with Manchester, and I
do thitsk, nay, 1 -am sure, taking the character of his
speeches as my test, not one of them Can suffer by a
comparison with him for prudence, truthfulness, and moral
worth. I have a strong opinion that their aggregate respecta-
bility would not be very much raised if they attached to their
cause the name he bears ; nay, I assure him this, I imagine,
would be true, even if he should prove a much more discreet
and intelligent person than his wonderful speeches warrant one
to suppose. If the League are a mistaken body, let their er-
rors be pointed out ; they fear not discussion—they rather
court it ; but honourable men, and valuable citizens ought not
to have their characters unjustly traduced. I rather think that
even their opponents begin to think that for such work Busfield
Ferrand is not the man. His notable inquiry has ended in smoke,
save and except it has covered him and them with its filth.
Of the League and its operations 1 will venture further to say
that it has: not only tended greatly to enlighten and disabuse
the public mind, on many subjects connected with our perma-
nent national welfare, but its influence has proved very bene-
ficial in calling forth the-patience, and in preserving the peace
of the country, and especially of those districts from which 1
come. Its existence and its movements ought to be hailed, in
this respect, as a signal national blessing. It has done more to
preserve the peace than all our rural and town police, with our
new-made magistrates to boot. In its existence our suffering
people have hope—in its teachings they see an infallible remedy.
While it lives they are favoured with a gleam of light to which li
they look with a faint expectation that it may per-
chance lead to the dissipation of the present darkness
'in which they are enveloped. Let it cease to exist,
and to, what can they look ?. I am sure they have little
confidence in Peel, nor can it be said that any of his doings,
since he assumed power, are calculated to inspire their confi-
dence. His tariff and his sliding-scale, though a kind of ac-
knowledgment of the correctness of free-trade principles, are so
miserably defective and partial, as to mock and insult them in
their sufferings. Let the League expire, and hope may be con-
verted into despair; and when a people become desperate, who
can say to what lengths their despair may drive them ? We ex-
hort to peace, we deprecate physical force ; we teach loyalty to
our Sovereign and obedience to our rulers, but we constitution-
ally tell the people andtell the Government, and tell our beloved
Queen, that legislation which protects the richest men in the
world and refuses to protect the poor, is an awful crime in the
sight of man and God, and that we will not cease to cry out
against the abomination until it be removed. We point to the
evils it inflicts ; and alas lvve do it now with aching hearts, cover-
ing, as it is, our land with mourning and sack-cloth. True, the
spirits of the people are breaking down, their patience is
becoming exhausted—long-retarded justice, with bungling at-
tempts at legislation, which mock and leave unrelieved their
sufferings, is fixing on their minds a gloom and despondency
not to be witnessed without alarm. Our advances are so
tardy, and long between, that at times they almost doubt
whether or not we have advanced at all. They are becoming
deaf to our appeals, when we try to inspire them with hope.
The attempt begins to agitate and rouse, at least, till we gain
their attention and appeal to facts. A time was, we say, when
we could not be heard in our so-called Commons' House of
Parliament—when the question was, comparatively speaking,
little understood, either at St. James's or elsewhere—when the
press was scarcely employed at all on the subject—when the
agricultural districts were hermetically sealed against the
repealers' agents and books—when the ministers of the Gospel
stoad aloof from any interference—when the subject was gene-
rally considered in the light of a mere political squabble.
Remember too, we say, the strength of that prepossession, and
prejudice, and ignorance, and selfishness, with which we have
to conflict—presenting an array of opposition, before which,
hearts, less actuated by principle, founded on conviction and
patriotism, than those by which many of the leading men of
the League are animated, would long ere this not only have
quailed, but fled. We still say there is hope; and assure them
that we will: continue to acquit ourselves like men, and never
abandon them, and their, and our, and our country's cause.
Now, we say, we will be able to secure discussion in the Parlia •
ment House. Now, we have seen even a Government propos-
ing a fixed duty. Now, we have heard the head of another
Government teaching the very doctrine long taught .by the
League, though, in practice, he strangely contradicts himself.
Now, the press is sending forth its publications on this subject
by thousands per diem, and is calling in the aid of poetry, liters-
ture, and science, to enable it yet more plenteously to meet the
cravings of the people. Now, we have a cordial reception for
our lecturers and tracts in the rural districts, not excepting the
lovely neighbourhood of the renowned :Sir James —. Now
the subject is taken up as one of humanity and piety. Now,
decided Christians join our ranks. Now, Ministers of religion
can meet in conference, and, with the Bible in their hands, and
the have of God and man in their hearts, enter into vows with
each other, and with Heaven, to seek, by prayers and labours,
the abrogation of laws, which, while unjust in themselves, are
wasting and destroying the moralityand prosperity of these realms.
I am sorry to learn from a recent speech delivered by Sir R.
Peel, that he affects to believe, and wishes the House to believe,
that his late measures are approved and lauded by the country,
because the people quietly endure their new acknowledged
sufferings. If such speeches are correctly reported—such is
the inference he affects to draw—he lays a flattering unction to
his soul, indicative of great ignorance of the real views and
feelings of the people. The Income-tax is justly execrated,
and will become more so when brought into operation
What then ! will he maintain and teach the doctrine, that
his measures are popular and joyously received, because
the people do riot break out into open rebellion?
What 1 will he allow no other proof of the obnoxiousness of
his measures, but riots, and civil anarchy, and confusion ?
What is this but a direct encouragement of what we dread?
Did the League ever thus teach ? Will they adopt this senti-
ment of England's Premier? Never. If I have mistaken the
Premier's meaning, I ask his pardon ; if I have not, I charge
him with teaching what I neither admire, nor will imitate.
Last night I was in the House of Commons. I heard the de-
bate on Mr. Villiers's amendment on the motion to go into
Committee on the Supplies. Principles were enunciated by
Sir Robert Peel himself, which showed that our cause is, to
say the least, slowly progressing, and so far there is en-
couragement. There was one in the Tory camp who had
abandoned the sliding scale, and would now vote
for a fixed duty. This is progress made, though not to the
extent of our principles. We must not, as I think, abandon
our principles, or cease to agitate for their adoption. l‘ly own
opinion is, that if we can prosecute our object, with our
wonted energy, and refuse to lay'down our arms, victory will
yet be ours. We have done much—we may do more—the
country, though much enlightened, still needs enlightenment.
The League must continue its operations, and prosecute them
with unflinching vigour. Never had a previous national move-
ment been more successful in the same space of time.
Never had a movement been originated more important
and philanthropic. Remember the awfully distressed condition
of the country. Remember distress is daily augmenting.
Winter with its horrors is advancing. We must do our duty.
Fix your resolve—and nobly say that yon will.—(Cheers.)
Mr. COBDEN, M.P. then rose to address the meeting, and
was most enthusiastically cheered. He was compelled to leave
early to attend a Conimittee over the way. He had nothing
particular to say, but TIT congratulated the Delegates on the
great benefits of their meetings.—( Cheers.) He hoped they
would continue them, and send to the country for recruits.—
( Cheers.) If their proceedings were only reported by the
public Press, they might depend upon it they would excite
more interest in the country than anything that was done in the
greet House over the way. But the meeting must remember
that they had still a great deal more to do befere they would be
believed among the higher circles. —( Cheers.) The present
state of the country was not yet understood in the metropolis.
The people here, at least the higher orders, were quite incre-
dulous of the statements of distress that had been made; and he
was not surprised at it, when he considered the splendour in
which they lived. How, he would ask, should they know any-
thing of the distress, when their own organs of the press studi-
ously avoided mentioning it.— (Cheers.) In the daily press—
he would allude to the Times—there was no allusion made to
the subject of distress, unless for the purpose of discrediting
the public mind on the subject.—( Cheers.) He had alluded
the other night to the fact of individuals eating carrion and de-
vouring nettles. This statement was disbelieved. He had
since, however, received a letter from the manager of his own
establishment at Chorley, relating an anecdote which was worse
than almost anything which he had before met with :
" Dear Sir,—There having been statements made at various
times lately of people being driven by distress to eat part of
animals that had died, and these statements having been
always denied, and treated as fables, by your opponents, I am
induced to send you the enclosed statement, that you may rely
en is a fact. as I know it to be so, it having occurred in this
neighbourhood, and I know all the parties concerned ; and I
know they would not have thought of doing anything of the
kind twelve months since, hot the fact is they are nearly
starved, and have been for some time, indeed the people in
this neighbourhood are in a shocking state of distress : it may
be said they can go into the workhouse ; but that they cannot
do in this parish, as all the workhouses are full, and no more
can be taken in ; there are several workhouses in the union,
and they are all crowded.
't The animal was a bull, belonging to a woman who keeps a
farm in this neighbourhood, her name is Clayton, the farm is
called Brook.house Farm. The bull was taken ill some tin. e
last week, and a veterinary surgeon in Chorley attended it ; it
died on Saturday morning last. The following men went to
the woman who owned it, and begged her to let them have it,
and she allowed them to take it away, instead of burying it; she
gave them Is. for taking off the hide, and they brought it away
early on last Sunday morning, and divided it near our Bleach-
works; part of it was quite black, I believe, from mortifieation
having commenced, this was cut off, and our watchman got it
for his dogs. The following are the names of the parties who
divided it amongst themselves, and then each one gave part of
Ins share to others, to those, as one of the men told me, who
had the most children, and, consequently, was in the greatest
distress.—Thomas West, John West, John Ratcliffe, Daniel
Ratcliffe, James Holden, William Ratcliffe.

" I send the statement respecting the bull, as I thought you
might be speaking on Mr. Wallace's motion.
" I am respectfully yours,
" Crosse Hall, Chorley, July 9. " J. HYLAND."
These individual cases would be less werthy of notice if they
were not an evidence of what must be the unavoidable opera-
tion of the Corn and Provision-laws.—( Hear, hear.) A law
was passed to inflict scarcity upon an empire containing twenty-
seven millions of people ; without producing scarcity it would
be impossible to keep up the price.--(Hear, hear.) How
could they spread scarcity over twenty-seven millions of people
whose inequality was so great, without producing starvation at
one end, whilst the other was whelly unaffected.—( Hear,
hear.) Our legislators affected a holy horror of individual
statements of suffering such as those which he and others had
made. 'They denied these facts; they shut their eyes against
Hear.) Whilst however, these facts were dis-
the clear unavoidable consequences of their own wickedness
general admission that great distressprevailed.
this country,
convenient to admit the general distress, but that
that tolife
be obvious to the people
and
in
wasdtc din'
jyttielsertyri eee"7"
(a
unless facts were brought to the Convention from all parts of
the country. It was on
distress would not
this
account.
were so exceedingly dissatisfied • h
with these proceedings.—
(Hear, hear.) Now, what had been the conduct of Sir Robert
in •
Peel? He would much rather speak ofd b him his presence
than in his absence, but his conduct had been such, that they
trumpet-tongued must speak of him everywhere. The only
causeßobert Peel hadalluded
during of the distress to which Sir
ir
Wallace
during the debate on the motions of I% •
Villiers—the only cause to which he had referred—was ma_
chinery.—( Hear, hear.) Now he had no hesitation _ in say..
in the way in which Sir
ing, that the alluding to machinery
Robert Peel had alluded to it, was as dangerous to the country
as it was reprehensible in the Prime Ministerhiraself,—( limo.

It would he reprehensible in any man, but in a man of Sir R.
Peel's character and origin it was especially blameable—he had
almost said it was especially wicked.—(Hear, hear.) Now
what were the effects which were being produced in this coun-
try by Sir Robert Peel's allusion to machinery? He had re-
ceived a letter on this subject from a friend at Burnley, which
he would read to the meeting :

" Burnley, July 11, 1842.
" Sir Robert Peel's machinery clap-trap is producing some
effects. During the last week a bundle of lucifer matches was
thrown into a cotton mill near Accrington ; part of the matches
were found consumed, fortunately they had not reached the
cotton, or the mill would have been destroyed. There is a com-
mon expectation among the poor suffering labouring people that
machinery is going to be done away with, and they refer to the
remarks of Sir R. Peel in the newspapers as authority."
These were the natural effects of the observations made by Sir
R. Peel. What more natural than that the distressed and
suffering people, driven to extremities by their sufferings, should
take up the opinion of Sir R. Peel, and attribute to machinery
all the miseries which they endured ? They were told that the
manufacturers were incendiaries. Now, he apprehended that
they were the last mon in the world, circumstanced as they
were, to do anything likely to lead to violence of any kind.
When a lucifer match would destroy not merely the produce of
their industry, but would destroy the capital also, was it. likely
that they would provoke violence in the manufacturing districts,
when the man, the pet, the protege, so petted by the Satndard,
who was called the King of the factory children, recommended
some time ago the children to destroy machinery with knit-
ting-needles, were they likely to provoke violence when their
property could be destroyed by knitting-needles? The real
revolutionists were not in that League, the real revolutionists
were the majority in that House opposite.—(Loud cheers.)
The real incendiaries were not to he found in that body, but in
the Home of Commons and the Cabinet.—( Cheers.) As he
said before he thought that their meeting had been productive
of the greatest advantage. He exhorted them not to separate
If they adjourned the meeting from time to time let it be
merely to bring up more recruits from different parts of the
country. Had they any gentleman from Nottingham? He
was met the other night in the House of Commons by Mr.
Gaily Knight, who said that Nottingham was not so flourishing
as he could wish, but it was improving. He (Mr. Cobden)
hoped they would take pains to bring before the Con-
ference the existing condition of Nottingham. He would
undertake, if they furnished him with facts, to bring
them before the House of Commons, and Mr.:Gally Knight.
It was very important that the condition of Nottingham should
be understood, as there had been no improvement in ma-
machinery there. He exhorted them not to separate—let them
continue there as long as the House of Commons sat, and if the
House should separate and leave the country in its deplorable
and declining state, then it would be for them to consider what
next they would do, in order to justify themselves before the
country. There were thousands and tens of thousands out of
employment, and who were starving for want of work, looking to
them, and they called upon them and the country to take any
and every step to force from the Government justice for them-
selves and the people. They must keep within the law, and
proceed upon morality and religion. He would make no other
exception, but he would embarrass the Government in every
possible way. The more they embarrassed such a Government
the more did they fulfil their duty to themselves and the country.
He said take no other guide whatever but the strict letter of
the law, and that greater sanction, the sanction of religion and
morality, and whatever they could do to embarrass the Govern-
ment they were bound to do. They owed them no respect,
they were entitled to none. They owed them no service which
they could possibly avoid. The Government was based upon
corruption, and the offspring of vice, corruption, violence,
intimidation, and bribery. The majority of the House of Com-
mons was supported by the violation of morality and religion.
He said for such a Government they should entertain no respect
whatever. He would assist the Anti-Corn-law League all in
his power to embarrass the Government. A Noble Lord, for
whom they entertained great respect (Lord Brougham) had
deprecated anything like endangering the credit of the country.
Why what a mockery to talk to men who had the gulf of ruin
yawning before them, who saw nothing but confiscation of their
property and starvation for their work-people, to talk to them
of the public credit ! He had no notion of preserving national
credit at the expense of national suffering. He would rather
see, a bankrupt exchequer than a starving population.
They were not in a position •to be chary of public
credit. What had been the conduct of the monied
interest in the City, whose policy revolved round their money-
bag ? Had they shown a sympathy during the last three
years, when property was wasting—when there was such a ruin
of capital as the history of the world never witnessed before?
Had they attempted to assist them ? Had they gone over their
counting-house door to inquire if their statements were
true or not? No. Why, they (the manufacturers)
could convulse the funds, and bring them down to-morrow
ten per cent. Then they would have Quaker men from Lom-
bard-street trotting up to Downing-street, and they would say
to Sir Robert Peel, " Thee must do something, for thou see'at
what is going on in the City."—(Loud cheers.) He (Mr.
Cobden) would be the last man in the world to advise any-
thing calculated to shake national credit, but he saw no alter-
native between the starving thousands and destruction of
capital of the manufacturing body. If there was no alternative
between that and shaking public credit, why let them shake
public credit to-morrow.--‘, Cheers.) That was the language he
would use in the House of Commons on every opportunity he
had. They were Voting supplies of money without any consi-
deration as to how that money was raised. They sat at three
o'clock in the morning, the felon's hour of midnight, and they
took money from the people, when half an hour before they re-
fused to inquire into their distress. He said that no despot
would ever treat a people as the majority of that House
treated the people of this country. The Emperor of Morocco
would not dare to issue a mandate at midnight, and at the
same time issue an edict to starve the people. —(Loud
cheers.) He told them before he had nothing
to say. He dared say those feelings had crossed
their minds as they had crossed his. He believed they would
do nothing with the present Government or the present Par-
liament. Sir R. Peel was nut called in to save the country or
to save them. He was called in to save the great monopolies
of sugar and corn—and lie had done his work admirably by his
sophistry and special pleading. He had done his work admi-
rably for his masters. They had nothing to hope from the pre-
sent Government or the Parliament. The remedy was in
their own hands, if they chose to exercise the power they pos-
sessed. It weuld be for them to consider what other means
ought to be resorted to. Whatever they did, they 'must be de-
termined, without the slightest reference to etiquette, to which
public bodies paid too much regard. Whatever they did, let
them keep within the letter of the law, and he would do all in
his power to assist them.--( Cheers. )
Mr. R. R. Moofte said, the night before last, in the House of
Lords, when Lord Brougham made a speech on the manufac-
turing distress, amongst others he was replied to by the Earl
of Ripon, and it would be useful to answer: some of the fal-
lacies and absurdities contained in that speech. The Noble
Lord admitted the distress, but he would do nothing to relieve
it, and contented himself with saying that the Corn-laws were
not the cense, and that their repeal would not relieve it. If he
could not tell them the cause they could tell him, that it was the
Corn-laws, and that it would have caused much more extensive
and intolerable distress, if it had not been for the unparalleled
energy, industry, patience, and perseverance of those whom
they (the aristocracy) despised—the manufacturers and la-
bourers of this country.—( Hear, hear.) Was it not enough
to show that the Corn-laws were the cause, when they
deprived us of the markets of the world, and sent out
our best workmen upon the world, to assist in raising
new competition against us in countries with whom we had
now to compete.?—(Hear.) Was it not enough that they made
bread dear, and left the people the less money to lay out on
manufactures. They (the Anti-Corn-law advocates) told
Lord Ripon that the Corn-law repeal would relieve the dis-
tress. Did he deny that it would open an increased trade
whit America, and with the Continent ?—( Hear.) Did
he deny that it would immediately, by giving confidence to our
capitalists, set thousands of men at work ?—( Hear, hear.)
Did he deny that it would bring in bread to this bread-stinted'
country ?—( Hear, hear.) But he (Lord R.) told them that
we already took all the surplus produce of the Conti-
nent actually consumed all the surplus produce of
the exporting countries of Europe. But we did not
receive it in the regular process of trade, but under such
circumstances as showed it to be in itself the sign and the
cause of embarassment and diistress. It was an uncertain
trade, in the hands of those who were jobbers in the bread of
the people, and it had to be paid for in money.—
( Hear, hear, hear.) The Noble Lord said that the repeal
would give no relief, because other countries, such
as Russia and Prussia, would not make any change
in their system. But if they did not, the loss would be theirs.
America and the rest of the world would trade with ns.--
(Hear, hear.) So that it was easy to see the absurdity of that
argument.--( Hear.) But, in answer to Lord Brougham,
the Noble Earl said that in the years when the Corn-
laws were in full force, our trade with America
was 12,000,0001., from which he argued that the law
did not injure the trade. But it was easy to
show that it had done so. In the first place, to go back to the
ten years before 1800, the Americans consumed English mann.
factures to the amount of 395. 4d. per head ; in the next ten
years, 41s. Bd. per head. In 1812, the war occurred. In
1815, our Corn-laws were passed; and, consequently, the
severe tariffs of America were enacted in 1816.—( Hear,
hear.) In the ten years commencing 1831, the consump-
tion of English produce in America was only 225. 6d. per head;
If America did not take our manufactures, it was because we
drove America to manufacture for herself, because we would
not take the produce of her fruitful lands—it was because we
were determined that our people should starve rather than
let them have our goods. What had given rise to the mone-
tary confusion of America but our Corn-laws. We had given
large loans, both in specie and in goods to America, which
were applied to opening up the great wheat country on
the banks of the Mississipi, in making roads, constructing
canals, &c., for the purpose of enabling that enterprising people
to cultivate that fertile district. But when the harvest came—
when the Americans had become possessed of the means of re-
paying us—our Corn-law interposed ; it forbade them the intro-
duction among us of that commodity which we most wanted—
the commodity with which alone the Americans could
repay us. The Americans could not sell us their
wheat, and hence the monetary confusion. Was it not, then,
caused by our Corn-laws ? Lord Ripon had lately said that at
no period of American history had the people of that country
so much urged upon Congress the necessity of an universally
protective system as at the present. But why was it so? It
was because our manufactures were sold cheaper than theirs, and
they wished to have their capital and labour protected. But would
such have been the case, if that enterprising spirit which led
them to open paths into the far West and cultivate its prairies,
!vas allowed to make the most of the land, in the hope of find-
ing a market for its produce. Lord Ripon said that the Ame-
ricans could not compete in any branch of manufactures with
the European States. Now the very thing we wanted
was to raise the valise of our labour—to raise its price.
What were the wages paid to labourers in America? In the
manufactories the wages paid common hands are 9s. per week
for females, and 20s. per week fsrr males, and their board. Day
labourers in the villages 4s. 6d. per day. Agricultural la-
bourers in ordinary times 3s. a day ; in harvest, 4s. 6d. to
Bs. The labourer who boards himself has an additional shilling
per day. In the country ls. per slay is the ordinary
price of board and bed in respectable families. Common la-
bourers are usually employed by the month or year.
at from 21. 10s. to 3/. per month, with board and lodging.
The taxes, direct and indirect, paid by an ordinary labourer of
all kinds, are usually 10s. per year. In the extreme western
parts of the country, where provisions are cheapest, wages are
higher by 10 per cent. than these given for the same kinds of
labour in other parts of the country." Such were the state-
ments of Mr. John Curtis, an American gentleman, who came
to this country to show us the great field for industry, which
the United States presented to our labourers. If our Corn-laws
were now repeated the factories at present established in Ame-
rica would find it impossible to continue any longer working,
The factories could not go on without skilled hands, and they
were few in number, and when they discovered that they could
get good remuneration and employment in the agricultural dis-
tricts, they would leave the mills and the factories; and the
factories of America would and could not be continued if our
Corn dews were repealed. Now as to wages. Why should not
we have as high wages as the Americans, if the Corn-laws were
repealed ? If they could, for raising food for us, afford to
give good wages, why not we by raising clothes for them ? Lord
Ripon, at the close of his speech the other evening, said that
he feared such a Committee as Lord Brougham proposed could
have no other effect than that of increasing the enmity that
already seemed to exist between the agriculturists and the
manufacturers. How an inquiry into the distress of the people
could set those bodies snore at variance than they now were,
he (Mr. Moore) really did not know, unless his Lordship
meant to say that the inquiry would prove that the agricul-