The Sun.
London, England, 1842-10-24 00:00:00

ADDRESS TO FARMERS AT
OVER, IN CHESHIRE.

On Wednesday week, on the invitation of a num-
ber of gentlemen at Over, Mr. Prentice met a:depu-
tation from Northwich, for the purpose of holding a
friendly conference with the farmers in the neigh-
bourhood of the former place. Considerable pains
bad been taken to prevent the meeting taking plac
The members of the League were denounced as tak-
ing a part that was immoral, irreligious, and, at the
present moment, seditious ; but, notwithstanding, the
Market Hall was well filled, and of the hundreds who
were present a considerable proportion consisted of
farmers. Mr. Slater, of Woodford Hall, who farms
nearly 300 acres of land, was called to the chair, and
introduced

Mr. PRENTICE, who said—l have been informed
that some persons have been saying that to have a
friendly discussion here on the way in which the
Corn-law affects farmers would be immoral and irre-
ligious. I will reply to those persons in the words of
the Rev. Gilbert Elliot,Vicar of Kirkby-Thorpe, near
Kendal, whose speech happens to be amongst the
number of tracts I have brought with me for distri-
bution. Mr. Elliot, at an Anti-Corn-law meeting
held in Kendal, said—
" Even conceding that the landed interest might not
reap such advantages as they at present do, and that
the manufacturers might not be so materially assisted
as they anticipate, were the Corn-laws to be modified
or to be repealed, I should still be against them on
the strongest possible grounds, that of religion. I
cannot, I dare not join myself to those who insist
upon upholding those worse than questionable laws ;
and from this time forth, when the declaration and en-
couragement of so many able men in Parliament gives
hope that peaceful agitation may succeed in modify-
ing them, I never shall cease to use my utmost in-
fluence to aid in having them swept from our statute
book. I have, indeed, heard that the clergy of the
Church of England are against any alteration in these
laws. I have heard that one of them has found out
that they are sanctioned by the Holy Scriptures, just
as one of them formerly found out that those Scrip-
tures gave support to slavery; but I cannot believe it
of the bulk of the clergy, that they are so opposed to
such an effectual change in these laws as shall remove
the complaints and miseries of the poor. I know it
may be said to me, that those who support the
laws do so because they think them ultimately best
for the interests of the poor. All I can say is, their
views may be right, but that mine at least appear
most consistent with the language of our Liturgy,
and that of some of the Fathers of the Church.
I am, in our Liturgy, bound to thank God when
there is abundance; to pray earnestly that he will
protect us from dearth and famine ; but how those
who support these laws can, with any sincerity, in
such years as those through which we have lately
passed, go with this prayer to the footstool of God's
Throne, when one little stroke of the pen, one little
Act of Parliament could avert it, I cannot divine.
But what says Cranmer—Cranmer, an Archbishop,
and an early founder of the Church—in his Exposition
of the Cathechism? When speaking to the command,
Thou shalt not steal,' he thus explains it, as to the
farmer or landowner, If they sell their corn, cattle,
or other victual at an unreasonable price, to enrich
themselves thereby, they be very thieves before God;'
and again, If he set so excessive a price upon his
corn that the multitude (whom his duty it is to feed)
is not able to buy it, then he is guilty of theft before
God.' This is the language 1 have been taught—
this is the language I teach. The case may be that
my income shall suffer by a change of the Corn-laws,
but God forbid that I should seek a gain which robs
the poor man of his bread, or is wet with the poor
man's tears ; and I cannot but hope that there are
thousands prepared to view the matter as I do, that is,
as a question of Christian charity and religion."
The reading of this extract elicited loud cheers.
Mr. PRENTICE went on to say—l believe that the
Vicar of Kirkby-Thorpe is quite as religious a man as
any Vicar you have in Cheshire, but if any one should
balance the opinions of one Vicar against another, cast
the Archbishop at once in his teeth.—(Laughter and
cheers.) As to sedition, the slanderers are worth no
other reply than that the members of the League have
quite as great a stake in the country, and as much in-
terest in the preservation of the peace, as any of the
Cheshire squirearchy. The League recommends no
measure of injustice. It does not ask that a burthen
should be taken from their shoulders to be thrown on
the shoulders of other classes of the community, be-
cause that would be a continuance of the injustice.
Its object, and my object here to-night, is to show
that the great and ruinous injury which is done to the
trading and manufacturing interest is without any,
the slightest, advantage to the farmer. Surely this is
a subject which we may discuss dispassionately ; and
probably you will not be less disposed to enter into a
friendly conference with me when I tell you that
I am the son of a farmer, whose ancestors were farmers
on the same estate from the time of Queen Elizabeth.

You have a deep interest in the prosperity of towns
where your produce is consumed. You cannot be
prosperous when they are depressed. Your markets
are such towns as Manchester, Stockport, and War-
rington, and when trade is bad and wages are low,
and when many are out of employment, you cannot
expect to have the same price for your produce that
you had in prosperous times. Have you had no re-
duction in the price of cheese ?—(A Farmer—Yes ;
the best quality is down 10s., and the second 20s. a
cwt.) What is the cause of this reduction ? Not Sir
Robert Peel's tariff, which has left the duty on foreign
cheese untouched. Had he taken off even a shilling
a cwt. we should have had an outcry that this had
caused the fall of I.os. and 205., which you are now
suffering. We must look, then, for some other cause ;
and you will find it in the deep distress of your cus-
tomers.—(Hear, hear.) You will observe that the
fall is greatest on the inferior quality, which has hi-
therto formed a considerable part of the meal of the
working man, but now he cannot purchase wholesome
wheaten bread and good cheese, but is reduced to the
necessity of living on potatoes ; and you will have a
still less demand from him during the winter, which
threatens to be one of greater privation and suffering
than has ever yet been endured by a much suffering
people.
And this distress in the manufacturing towns reaches
you in another way. Part of your population, tempted
by better wages than you could afford to give them
here, have settled in the towns, where they have sup-
rate—top butas s ne
do wh,
nbbneel
ported themselves without being chargeable to you ;
dpetorhatpshe,
fbnurrldifeen.—o(fiLoarur,
hear.)poor'
iepn,agutreat.asbd:e to find employment, they are
Let me ask you, how your poor's rate is now, com-
pared with what it was this time last year ?—[The
' Chairman : It is advanced forty per cent.]—Forty per
cent! Forty per cent. reduction in the price of your
cheese—forty per cent. increase in your poor's rate—
and both these effects from the distress of the manu-
facturing districts. And yet you have men amongst
you who say that an inquiry into the cause of conse-
quences so disastrous to you, the farmers of Cheshire,,
is seditious and irreligious.—(Loud cheers.)
Farmers have a further and deep interest in tra le
and manafactures, as affording the means of pro
viding for their families—as affording openings for
the settlement of their sons and daughters, who cannot
all be farmers or farmers' wives. In one of the tracts
which I shall leave you, you will find a statement that,
in a certain number of f'amilies known to the writer,
there were, out of eighty individuals who grew up to
men's and women's estate, only four of the sons who
mbeacrarmiede fitfarirnmeresr,s.
This
was
only
one-tenth of the
anNdinoot:tlyenftohusr
of
ff
the
ee doatuhgenhtehrsadwhtoo
whole number.
i
seek employment elsewhere.ay of h
n Many of
daughters
sonsthe
in the large towns, and n
were
married to persons in the large towns, many sons
emigrated to Canada,the daughters, the United
lvh
oS
Nt
\a.
ot
ue States,
notAustralia,of
edu-
cating
&c., and many of marry
their station, remained unmarryioeud.
depend For
son
prosperity
e f
mediate subsistence—for the means
oneest in
yourour farms—but when they are to be settled in
yourubep nonea beneath
children up to a certain age
erematoraenthiannteorne
trade as you have in the prosperity of
agriculture, and
much greater if you have a large film'?
yliofeu, ihfai:eouaisiagy
Thus even
were the Corn-law a benefit in the ly. first instance to
the farmer, it would he no be
a diminution of other benefit if accompanied by
in the world, means of settling his children
But I deny that there is even any immediate and
direct benefit. Either the Corn-law raises the prices
does not. If it does not, how
?
can it benefit you If it does—if it raises prices
permanently, so that high prices can be calculated
upon, it only raises rents.—(Hear, hear.) And there
is a peculiar hardship in your case. You take your
Ifarms calculating on a certain average price, say, for
wheat, 60s. ; but although the average for the year be
60s. you do not receive so much. The corn holders,
for a couple of months before harvest, may be selling
at 705., and you may be expecting to have the same
price, but your harvest comes into market at the very
moment when, by Peel's sliding juggle, it has to
compete with two millions quarters of foreign growth,
and down tumble prices, just when you have to sell,
and instead of 70s. you have 50s.—(1Year, hear.) But
the average is 605., and the landlords tell you of this
high average, and they make you pay rent as if you
had actually received this average. Tell them that
you do not like averages that give others all the be.
nefitof highear ) prices, and compel you to sell at the
lowest. (
And tell them when they speak of protection for
themselves that they have moral and geographical
protection which ought fully to satisfy them. They
have a moral protection in the attachment which men
feel to the place of their birth, to the scenes of their
childhood and youth, to the Church where they were
united to the partners of their toils, and even to the
graves of their fathers, where they
bones to be laid.—(Hear, hear.) expect their ownhn
these local attae
ments prevail even against prudence, and men who
feel them, and almost all men feel them, will rather