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

ing scale.—(Loud cheers and laughter.) The aris-
tocracy, he contended, were but the plunderers
of the people. They were increasing their own incomes
by 20 per cent., at the expense of a distressed and suf-
fering people. He believed that this country could not
much longer bear the oppressive weight of the Corn-
laws. He felt assured that they should be repealed, or
suspended during the approaching winter. Ho himself
had of late found his business in the home market ra-
pidly declining, and he had been thus obliged to expert
more largely to foreign countries. But still he had been
compelled of late to give his men but four days/ employ- I
ment in the week. He found that there had been 3,000
bags of cotton less consumed lest year in this country
than during the year before. It was his conviction that
if the Corn-laws were not speedily repealed they would
ruin the trade of the country. We could not do without
a foreign trade—(Hear, hear)—and since we could not
do without it, the want of it would ruin England. It
was not the corn monopoly alone they had to complain '
of ; there were also monopolies of sugar, coffee, and
various other articles. The monopoly in sugar especially
was monstrous. If no duty were imposed on foreign
sugar it could be sold here for 4d. per lb. in the docks, !
and for sd. per lb. to the consumer. But it was said
thatit was necessary to protect the West India interest.
They might, however, depend upon it, as had been said
by Colonel Thompson long since, that protecting one
party merely meant robbing another.—(Hear, hear.)
And when it was said that the West India planters were
protected, it was another way of saying that the public
were robbed for their benefit.—(Hear, hear.) A duty of
25 per cent, was imposed on our goods in the Brazils,
while we imposed a duty of 392 per cent. on their sugar.
It was alleged, however, that it was not desirable to
admit Brazilian sugar at a low duty into this country,
lest we should thereby offer tin encouragement to slavery.
Now, he was no advocate for slavery; but he verily be-
lieved that the negroes of the Brazils were better off than
many of our unfortunate people. He was convinced that
if the extent and the depth of :he national distress were
fully known to her Majesty's Ministers, they could not
for its trying at once every possible means
removals If the Devil was in them they could not
stand it.:-_(Laughter.) He really believed that Sir Ro-
bes Peel would repeal the Corn laws at ence, if he
found that in doing so he would be supported by his
party. The new Corn•lavv, he was persuaded, was
not in any way more favourable to the consumer
than the old one. The present measure was more strin-
gent in its operation than the preceding one ; and he had
been told by many speculators that if the law had not
been altered, we should now have foreign corn intro-
duced at a duty of Is. instead of Bs.—(Hear, hear.)
Mr. ASHWORTH next addressed the meeting, and pro-
ceeded to detail the interviews which took place with
Lord Stanley, Lord Wharncliffe, and Sir J. Graham,
and which were given in The Sun of yesterday.' The
Hon. Gentleman commented upon the different observa-
tions which had been made by these Ministers, and
dwelt upon the satisfactory manner in which they were
met by the different members who composed the deputa-
tion. The lion. Gentleman then went on to state to the
meeting the result of the interviews with Lord Ripon
and Mr. Gladstone. The distress of the country and the
prostration of trade were exhibited in the clearest light,
but nothing was done. They wished to go to the House
of Commons to attend to their duties. He tMr. A.)
told them that their first duty ought to be to re ieve the
distress of the country.
Dr. BOWRING then addressed the meeting, and
said that the present composition of the House of Com-
mons was to be attributed rather to those who were
'electors than to those who were elected.—(Hear, hear.)
It was there the fault lay. Nothing had been left un-
done on the part of the deputies to impress upon the
Government the real condition of the country, and the
proper remedy to be applied. They did every thing in
their power, disregarding their own personal interests
and convenience, to impreis upon those who occupied
high places a proper sense of the position of the country,
and they had some opportunity of seeing the extent of
the impression they had produced. They had conversed
with those who were considered the most distinguished
and eloquent speakers of the House of Commons, and
they saw how desirous they were to take advantage of
every slight exaggeration, and thus lead persons astray
from the great question at. issue.—(Hear.) But even
those were not the persons whom they had most to fear
from. Thev had most to fear from the silent Members.
It was said •by a Noble Lord, they resembled those
victims in Constantinople who were strangled by a set
of mutes.—(Hear, hear.) Their perdition lay at
their door, at the doors of men, too, who
themselves represented suffering districts, and who,
one would have supposed, ought to have found
a voice thongh their hearts had been made of stone or
steel.—(Cheers.) The party with which he (Dr. B.)
acted, had been accused of misrepresenting the state of
the country for selfish ends. They were told that there
was every prospect of a fine harvest, and that the crisis
would pass away. These were the answers which were
made to them in the House of Commons ; and the depu
ties, when they went home, must state to the people in
the country how weak they were in that House, and
under what expedients the cause of monopoly was sus-
tained.—(Hear, hear.) They must explain that no
eloquence—that no argumentation had any effect, and
he believed that if prophets or archangels themselves
were to appear, they would not be heard in the present
House of Commons, which had no sympathies in com-
mon with the people. What then had they to hope on ?
He believed that nothing less than that hunger which
was said could break down stone walls, would be able to
penetrate the House of Commons. They could not re-
main in their present state. The light must penetrate
at length, and the darkness must be expelled.—((tear,
hear.) Ile was acquainted with a country which was for-
merly, and still continued to be, a land of abundance, lie
meant' Egypt. Yet he saw that land suffering frOm
want of corn. Why ? Because they had no oppor-
tunity of disposing of their surplus produce, and
the capital of agriculture was directed to other
purposes. Corn in Egypt was at present from
265. to 28s. a quarter, but it could not be imported to
this country in consequence of the Corn-laws.—(Cheers.)
The province of Tamboff h'td, of late, acquired remark-
able notoriety from the quantity of corn it was said to
produce—(Laughter)--but he was told last night by a
gentleman in the House of Commons that Tamboff was
sometimes in want of corn itself, and was obliged to be
supplied from other provinces.—(Hear. hear.) He had
great hopes from the pFseverance and industry of the
English people. He believed there was no part of the
world which did not owe many of its comforts to the in-
dustry of the English nation.—(Hear, hear.) Of such a
people, possessed of such energies, he had great hopes ;
but when he saw their interests neglected by the House
of Commons, and that it did not respond to the wants of
the people, he confessed he felt apprehensions to which
he would scarcely dare to give expression.—Cheers.
In reply to a question from Mr. EDWARDS,
Dr. BOWRING said, that the greater portion of the
supplies were voted, and that it was generally expected
the House would be prorogued this day fortnight.

Mr. EDWARDS iaid that, in that -case, he
would move, an Address to the Crown, before
the Conference separated. He had no doubt
that if the people were unanimous, as they were when the
ship-money was demanded, that nothing would be able to
withstand them.—(Hear.)
Dr. BOWRING remarked, that when the ship-money
was sought to be enforced, the House of Commons had
then reposed on the feelings of the entire English peo-
ple. At present there was not such a feeling in Eng-
land. W hen he was requested to take extreme mea-
sures and stop the supplies, he asked of those who so
requt sted him, whether they were ripe for such a mea-
sure, and the reply was that they were not, but that
they were ripening.—(Cheers.)
Mr. RAWSON here read to the meeting the speech
which he addressed to Sir James Graham on the occa-
sion of the late deputation from the distressed manufac-
turers and merchants to the Right Hon. Baronet.
Mr. WILKES, of Leicester, who had addressed the
Conference a few weeks ago, declared that trade was
worse, and distress greater. He contemplated with the
deepest alarm the approach of winter, if there were not
some relief to trade, from the repeal of the Corn-laws and
the removal of the restrictions upon commerce.—(Hear )
Mr. Brookes had told the meeting that the landlords
were "robbers."—(Hear, hear.) But, about his neigh-
bourhood, the people called them murderers—(Hear)—
and said that the blood of the starved poor was on their
heads.—(Hear, hear.) Those things were openly said.—
(Hear, hear.) He hoped that there would be in his
county, Leicester, and in every county in England, an
established "county lectureship," to inculcate, from day
to day, upon the minds of the people, the evils of the
Corn-law and the necessity of repealing them.—(Hear.)
The meeting then adjourned till 11 o'clock to-day.

A letter from Palermo, in Sicily, says —" The
King, Queen, and Royal Family, having intimated their
intention of being present at the approaching celebration
of the Feast of St. Rosalia, the Municipality is making
prepapreparations for displaying an unusual magnificence.
rations
Grotto iu Mount Pellegrino, near Palermo, in
which St. Rosalia lived and .died, has an altar, above
which is a statue of the saint, recumbent and in medita-
tion, her head supported on her left hand, the right hand
holding a crucifix. It is coloured, and dressed in
sumptuous attire, the donation of King Charles 111.
It comprises a robe of rich velvet, adorned with a
profusion. -of pearls, which at that time were worth
C 150,000 a 'diadem,formed of diamonds, and a neck-
lace of antique cameos of the highest price ; bracelets of
oriental topazes ; diamond rings on every finger, and
sandals set with amethysts, A statue of the Virgin
Mary, of white marble, at another altar in the Grotto,
will also be invested with a, splendid dress, which is being
made for the occasion. The Grotto of St. Rosalia is the
Gretna Green of Sicily, for the priest who officiates et
the altar is authorised to solemnise marriage be.twecti all
couples who come there and desire to be united; provided
they take an oath that they are not already bound by
matrimonial chains. In general, those who come to claim
t his office do so secretly, or in Opposition to their parents
and guardians ; but at the festival about to take place,
upwards of 20u marriages between persons who have ob-
served all the legal formalities will be performed, and
among them, it is said, will be some belonging to the
most noble and distinguished families of the king-dom."
THE CAMBRIDGE AssizEs.--The Assize business,
of which a detailed account is given elsewhere, closed for the
county of Cambridge on Friday last. It is most gratifying to
state that with two exceptions, that of the two Hullers for
forgery, and One prisoner fqr. sheep stealing, there was not a
charge upon the ealendar that could be considered as of suffi-
cient importance to call for particular observation. The com-
paratively moral state of this county in a time of such pressing
necessity, leads us to confer at once high praise upon those en-
trusted with its local executive, and upon its distressed labour-
ing population, who have forborne even to murmur, and will
.forbear—till forbearance will be no longer a virtue— Cam-
bridge Advertiser.
ry . . _

His Excellency Earl De Grey; accompanied I„,y his
private secretary, Mr. Magennir, arrived at his mansion, in St.
James's-square, shortly after five on Tuesday evening from Dub.
lin Castle.. The Noble Earl tulces 11iajletu aAri day;
for Germaoyoo drink the waters for the benefit of his health,
which is sinewhit"impaired by; rilieated attacks of Out.