The Sun.
London, England, 1842-07-28 00:00:00

TE-1 lig TIN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, JULY 285 1842. -4

THE ANTI-CORN-LAW
CONFERENCE. 1
(THIS DAY.)

The members of the Conference met this morning at
the King's Arms Hotel, Palace-yard, at the usual hour.
P. A. Taylor, Esq., in the Chair.
The CHAIRMAN opened the proceedings by reading
the following communications :
" National Anti-Corn-law League, Manchester, July 26.
" Dear send you, as promised in my last, the
letter received this morning from Bloxwich.
" The Manchester market to-day has been, as I am
informed, much the same as last week, but I don't need
to tell you not to take the Guardian as an authority.
"I have great pleasure in forwarding to you a copy
of the Resolution passed at a meeting of the Association
this evening :
"Moved by Mr, Andrew Hall ; seconded by Mr.
Thomas Woolley :—' That the members of the Deputa-
tion in London be requested to take into consideration
the expediency. of creating, in such way as may seem to
them most advisable an interest in favour of our prin-
ciples in the Methodist Conference, now about to com-
mence its sittings in the metropolis.'—Carried unani-

mously.
"We had a good and full meeting this evening, with
some animating speeches.
" The insolent expressions of the coxcomb Stanley to
the Deputation of merchants, as reported in the Morning
Chronicle, is about to be published and placarded on the
walls of this town and North Lancashire.

" I am, Sir, yours very respectfully,
"JOHN BRINDLE,
" Secretary to the Manchester Anti-Corn-lawAssociation.

To ➢iR. HICKEN.

" Bloxwich, July 27, 1842.
" Dear Hickin,—l received yours this morning ; not
knowing you were in London I wrote to your chambers
at Manchester on Monday evening last, and lest they
may not have forwarded the letter to you, I repeat the
contents. On Monday morning the Birchills miners
and iron-men (being under notice to drop from 2s. 6d.
to 2s. 3d. per day) struck, and on the same day pro-
ceeded to visit all the works in the neighbourhood, and
actually succeeded in stopping them every one without
resorting to any kind of violence, except throwing a few
flats into the canal at the Birchills at starting for re-
fusing to go with them.
" Yesterday the town was full of working men, and
two troops of soldiers are quartered in the town ; the
Yeomanry Cavalry are also parading the town, although
there has not been any attempt at a breach of the peace.
As to the state of trade, it never was anything like so
bad as it is now since I have been in business. Trades-
men in general have not more than two days' work a
week. Some of the wiseacres attribute this state of
things to machinery and castings, but this is all a farce,
as awl-blades, chains, and other trades that neither
machinery nor casting moulds can touch, are in equally
as bad a state as the trades in which machinery operates.
Believe me, dear sir, yours truly,
"BENJAMIN WELCH.

" P.S. The works are all still, and likely to con
tinue so."

"TO THE CHAIRMAN OF THE ANTI-CORN-LAW LEAGUE
" Old Grafton House, Oxford, July 27,-1842.

" Sir,—l have to acknowledge the receipt of several
communications from your body, for which I and my
friends tender our most cordial thanks.

" On the return of our delegate, Mr. Towle (who sat
for a week at your conference), we called a public meet-
ing at our theatre, to adopt resolutions witn regard to the
immediate repeal of the abominable Corn-laws. After
several long addresses, which were listened to with
marked attention, an elector moved as an amendment, in
consideration of the present character of the House of
Commons that the People's Charter -is the most de-
sirable object to secure the present prosperity of the
people of this country,' which was carried by a large
majority.
" The last Anti-Corn-law meeting held in Oxford
(prior to this), several hundred citizens were asembled
in the Town-hall, when ittwas suddenly broken in upon,
almost at the commencement, by the members of the
University, who rushed from prayers at their respective
college chapels, and conducted themselves like furies from
the regions below, dealing blows and execrations on all
around, which lasted for some time ; windows, doors,
heads, and benches, were broken, and the city authorities
could only disperse these educated physical force, embryo
divines, by extinguishing the gas-lights, and thus leaving
the numerous combatants in impenetrable darkness !
"I have lived in Oxford about forty years, and never
knew it so dull and be-gloomed as at the present time.
Numbers of shops are closed in all the principal streets
(a thing unknown a few years ago), and in the lower
many more. I counted seven houses closed within a
stone's throw, in a new and once populous neighbourhood.
" Poor rates are increasingly heavy ; the workhouse,
too full for this season of the year, containing several
persons who once moved in most respectable circles; the
out-door relief last Thursday amounted to about M. for
the eleven united parishes.

In the large University printing-office,vvhe rethey used
to employ 60 or 70 press-men for bibles and prayer-books,
and where they use all paper duty-free, steam-presses and
machinery are introduced—their hard-working old hands
are paid off, and many of them, with their families, are
driven to the poor-house, when (Oh! most astonishing
selfishness and cruelty) these same wealthy heads of col-
leges refused both individually and collectively to bear a
just and equal 'burden of the. poor-rates ! ! Grasping and
selfish as landlords, overbearing and exclusive as cus-
tomers, haughty and disdainful as neighbours, though
they themselves are represented in Parliament, they ex-
ercise gross oppression and intimidation with the Iran-
chise of others. Toryism and Puseyism are the pre-
siding demons of this den of semi-Protestantipriesteraft,
where the tree of liberty is stunted in its growth, and the
souls and bodies of men are placed under te ban of fana-
ticism by a proud and sensual banditti, who hoiSt their
Church and State banner of passive obedience and non-
resistance.' I, myself, have been a grocer in Oxford
nearly twenty years, and once could put by a respect-
able sum annually; but owing to the reduced means of
the multitude through the exaction of a million a week
for misgovernment, and a million a week for the insolent
aristocracy, I am prepared to swear that my income is
now less than 1501 per annum, and shall suffer the spoil-
ing of my goods, rather than submit to be Peeled by a
Paul Pry Income-tax.—Sir, I rennin, your obedient
servant, "J. J. FAULKNER.

" Chairmfin of the Oxford Board of Guardititt

" P.S. As Mr. Towle will not have occasion again to
meet you, you are at liberty to make what use: you
please of this communication."
Mr. J. CROSSLEY (of Brighouse, near Halifax), then
addressed the meeting. He said that Brighouse till
within the last eighteen months was one of the most
flourishing little towns in the West Riding of Yorkshire,
but now they were participating in the general depres-
sion His own business of a grocer and tea-dealer' had
fallen off to a great extent, but he was happy to say that
the cause of the repeal of the Corn-laws was progressing,
and he should return to Brighouse determined never to
cease his exertions till they were abolished.
(The Meeting had not concluded when we went to Press.)