The Statesman.
London, England, 1821-06-27 00:00:00


.

, '

~•y

fir 40-
. eitip.44l-'
IM
Tbs B Inlet read a third duo,
gsvestion was put s' that the Bill should pass."
Lasi MILTON said, he thought that at all events
The Comasiatiosers ought to be persons already holdiag
.tees, sod whine time was nut sulkiently *tripled
by their edictal ditties. Three years ago the House
appointed tkonstissinners for inquiriug into the abases
wf Charities. and drelered that so toe sof them should
receive emoluments for their services. He believed
there were seventy priori is tie. Hoare holdiag plant
under the Crown, and sorely some of those might b.
•feend with leisure time sulkiest to enable them to
pirferm the labour of the Commissioa. For their
present salaries. he was assured, they did little or no.
this'. Besides, be thought a salary in prospect was
much mere dangerous in principle than a salary in
advanec. The Noble Lord then rescinded by moving
.a clause similar in effect to that which had bees moved
by Mr. Dermas, incapacitating the Members of the
Commission from receiving salaries for their labour.
The House immediately divided, niter, there ap-

.~ -

• ,pearcil—
• For the Chose, 35—Against it. 81—Majority, 46.
NEW LANARK.
Ur. MAXWELL rose, pursuant to notice, to move
:for the appointment of a Commission to examine into
• the in sibility of Mr. Omen's plan. The Hon. Member
spike as' follows is painful to contemplate the
tinkesluess sad famine in the midst of plenty—to bear
that the shower of May and the sunshine of Jnly are
curse ; so know that those who clothe our fields with
:Inttni•innee, and animate the landscape with their
••••flOcksl/2.must withdraw their eyes from the smiling face
of itatitee to the bitter perspective of a bankruptcy
and a dungeon. When we behold the ignorant Stoicism
of those who have induced such disorder in practise,
and such impiety in theory, like Nero looking with
unpitying eye on the sorrows they have caused, ire are
tempted to exclaim in the words of an amiable French
woman, on tracing the ravages of the modern Brennus
in Switzerland, " bra monlagnes forent rercluyantes
engine autrefois lee prairies florissuntes commie pais,
ie ester d'hoane seal puerquoi ti'etoi, if qn'un de.vri."
The calamities which have sprung from corn laws,
inequitable to the consumer, and. useless to the agri-
culturist—from a sacrifice of the present generation
• by a Vansittart, to atone for the folly of a past one
under the auspices of a Pitt, have travelled through
the labouring classes, and the productive capitalists,
and are now settled on the land-owner, and those who
could not appreciate the effects upon others, doomed
labour to die down to level of wages, or visited
t heir convulsive movements with the stern Com-
ression of military power. are subjected by the
perfect justice of Providence to a more con-
vincing evidence, by its action upon themselves.-
1 hope they have nearly expiated their offence against
11-e-Iven by their neglect of the manufacturing districts,
and that the time is fast approaching when the monied
icterest will find it right to yield the inequitable increase
which the Legislature with good intentions, and great
fully, have ignorantly bestowed upon it, and to lower
their rent upon the community from five to four per
rent.; to obviate the tardy but certain application of
the sponge of necessity. 1 lament the sufferings of the
Landlord, of the Merchant, and of the Manufacturer;
but their interests will be protected who hold Buroughg,
or thrust themselves on the House through the tralick-
i:og privileges of the Citizens of Cornwall. My object
is to call the attention of the House to the unrepresented
labourer of the British Empire. who has drained his
best veins for the House of Hanover, and now with Ur
pared force, but unshaken fortitude, is working Ike,
weasel of the state out of that maelstrom into which a
rash and ignorant pilot bad steered it. I shall endea-
vour to prove, not that the poor man has been ill-treated
hv the Legislature, or that he has been neglected by the
llovernment, bat that his interests have been misotnoler-
s'oud, and his condition overlooked, both by one and
the other; and that the indignation whirls he feels
against his wealthy neighbour, and his want of loyalty
to the institntions of the country, is misdirected, and in
Some degree misnpplieol. The inclosure of commons
s••.ee the year IND, has been stated by a judicious and
intelligent inquirer into the principles of labour, and of
Poor Laws, to amount to 3,500, and that the increase of
th? Poor Rate appears to have kept pace with the less of
their common rights—the green meadows, which our
benevolent and wise forefathers had destined as the life-
rect property of successive generations of villagers, the
solace of their earning homes, and the arena of their in-
fantine gambols has become the haunt of the petty-
fogging Attorney, or the unsightly viila of some sordid
money lender. The poor man• dependant on his ern-
ployer, became the menial of the farmer and tradesman,
instead of his independent and unshackled domestic. But
Mr. Pitt, by arestri (lion on the issue of a metallic currency,
and along and expensive war, soon rendered the nominal
;hitting of tlreat Britain, the real 'sixpence of barter,
and the employer found it better to give money than
subsistence to his work *pie. . Unable to maintain his
fan ily in the decency of a happier era of his life. the
uncomfortable and mortified man sought refuge in
the crowded assemblies of. manufacture, where, if his
mean appearance was loss noticed, and his Ismaili*.
tien unknown,- a less cleanly' cottage, and equal
wises, were gladly exchanged 'for those altered scenes,
that humble positipn which degraded his mind
and wounded his.spirit. But here, alas he was dooqsed
t;raiteet with new miatortunes, anti no sooner had, the
eafiavagaids'ystemisf Mr. Pitt *carried transmit° a
gisin point, thadartilicial labour evading hit burdens,
wallauncheolin faildaxea eliaticity, to tear the ahum
iatit• supply of bread, which loans at home, and ex-
desire- einunsiree abroad, ;vas beginning to bring
Kist the wor:.min's reach,, as it ii alteudv done. to
be othvr Oasis° el iniert. Ag-aiti,l!',utaglit back to
•• • .
•

which he was before
with his fellow
employer ; but Isis
t was lawful to
the manufacturer
scalding leaven
audacious bead. Dis-
. with Isis employer,
machinery, and, caught
or transported to
_ coldinement or ha-
banero sent back to
or ma pivot and
Tasty steam engine,
the 'degradation
of human nature. This I believe to be a faithful pic-
ture of the unrepresented labourer, who will, whilst I
have a seat in this House, never want a feeble, but I
hope, a sincere advocate; and I ask the man who bas
the common courage of his species, if these wrongs
might not have tempted him to take up " arms against
a sea of troubles, and by opposing end them," as my
misguided and suffering countrymen did at Bonny-
Nair. If any one can doubt that this is the situation
it the labourers of this country, let then, inspect the
hulks, the jails, the bridewells, the penitentiarks—
let them read the press which writes for the poor—let
him visit the manufacturing distriets—let him
examine the most religious and loyal part of the
artisans and mechanics of the island, and his scepti-
cism will disappear. Crime and disaffection could n..t
grow as they do, in spite of the exertions of the reli-
gions philanthropy of the public, if ##### e great injus-
tice did not exist in the distribution of the profits of
labour, or in the imposition of the public burdens :
the violent language of the press.conlil not be relished
if the people ofthisenlightened land *la not feel them-
selves deeply injured by the privileged and infhtential
classes of society. The orations of a demagogue, anti
the inflammatory style of an editor, are the effects and
not the cause of public dissatisfaction; both are
the barometers of the sentiments of their readers, and
their interests makes them, as much as their specula-
tive opinions, a faithful index of political feeling.—
Having made there remarks to shew the motive and
impressions which have led me to take the petition of
the County of Lanark, I shall proceed to point out
what appears to me to be the nature of Mr. Owen's
schemes. Although my practical efforts have been
and will be directed to another change!, and devoted
to reduce taxes, not only to relieve the lahour of the
country from the fetters of a forty per rent. property
tax, but to save it from the undue influence of the
Crown, and from misgovernment. Mr. Owen con-
ceives, that the sabstitiition of the spade to the plough,
and are-union of rural labour to the task of the arti-
san and mechanic—with a judicious combination of
the general stock of industry, and with the savings of
fuel, of the profits of retail and of time in the manage-
ment of a family, added to A system of education, eti-
forcing the practice of honesty, sobriety, industry, and
benevolence, smith % permit the working' classes of so-
ciety to derive most of the necessaties and a greater.
share of the happiness of life; and retette theta from
the degrailadon and its consequences—vice and dist-
lofalty, which now has become their lot. How far his
conception is just, how far his theories might be re-
ducible to practice, it is iinpgssible to say ; but he
undoubtedly has rendered that establishment over
which he presides unusually and peculiarly exempt
from bad feelings and from profligate lives, without
in any way wasting the property over which lie is su-
perintendent and joint proprietor, aid gh restricted
in his plan by want of laud, and inroevenienced by a
too numerous population and an imperfect habitation.
The tentlen..y of his piaii would unquestionably be to
increase the consumption of the poor, and consequently
to augment the value of all articles of home production
—of course, to render taxation less oppressive, and to
diminish the expenses of tiovernment, by reducing the
dumber of starving and dissaifected persons. The
Hon. Member condusieJ by moving that an Addresss
be presented to his Majesty, praying that he will be
graciously pleased to appoint a Commission to be sent
to New Lanark, to examine into the condition of the
working classes, and to inquire into any further
arrangement proposed by Mr. Owen for the benefit of
the labouring classes ; and to assure his Majesty that
this House will pay the expense of the same.
Mr. DAWSON seconded the motion. He regretted
this motion had not been lironght forward at an
earlier period of the Session, as an opportunity would
then have been afforded by the result of the investi-
gation. of removing the objection of many Honour-
able Members on this subject. The time however
was so far apropos, that the adoption of this motion
was sure to los grateful to the suffering nation. They
had got through the principal liminess of the year t
they had voted the Supplies ; examined the estimates
with patience and attention ; and discussed the
causes of the distresses of the country. The Supplies
were retained nearly at their maximum; the nation
bad sunk deeper in its difficulties, and therefore be-
came less s- to support their burdens ; hot no re-
medy had been attempted to he practised. They had
an agricultural Report, and lie wished he could Pay
that none such had been made; for, with all doe
respect for those who had produced it, he could not
help regarding it as most inefficient to its purpose.
After answering all the theories of every specula-
tive political economist, it summed up by declaring,
that the merchant must be content to rartail the ex-
tent of his commercial undertakings, the landlord to
receive less rents,, and the shopkeeper less custom.—
['his Report had completely disappointed the expec-
tation of the nation.. It was when the country was
in this lathentable siate—when there Was no hope for
the labourer and des,mir fir the landlord, that an
Honourable and Learned Gentleman opposite (Mr.
Seirlett) brouglit in. a Bill to regulate the adminis-
tration of relief to the poor, which was not only
of a most inefficient nature, but dial calculated hs
stultify the humane spirit of British legislation.--=
Flom . the state in which the country was in he
thought the House was bound to inquire into every
plan presented to it•tviach held out a promise of re-
lief. The Honourable Member eulogised in forcible
laoguage the •system- prise:lied at New Lanark.
With regard -to those, . who opposed Mr. Owen's
Plat, he woidil say to the sceptic, that no state of
thinito cools' bit worse, nod the prejudiced he. would
hid look at the progressive advancement into the ire-
neral use of steam engines and .gal. Mr. Owen's
Plan was-at least aaprovekts, 7 Sisti,trotts, who
had Petitiiioed to that elfect.• •

•• . V

~

-....

41.ppklremasuaaumosaNP''''an'a•Inam""e""""'"""e"I.."PIP"r irite-,,iii;__ ' Nw... -'
any ifisakev of the Haase from receiving payment as niti ad Pelnailana with whlei
Cillembrimsee undo, the Bill. let Mitered iota combinations
'Oho CHANCIII4OR of the EXCHIQUER said iaetkosen, id imitation of his rich cop
a dhe slams world &serer the 0 itssiektmedotabowed him that what
the
eipittristi the Noose bad airessig: agreed to, sod riabna-nnia Matti " poverty, and th
sh
woill reader the Bill nugatory. showered Ms his bernogh throat the
Mr. DENMAN shoo wielder, hie &newt Ate'a tim CombinallimLaws on his ended
meat, sad mid hi swam toe the mom of the Haim nested with his rulers, enraged with,"sent,
en 16610041 w Of the BLit sad abash& awry the ad. hie istligsait feelings attacks machine
itaiiiiisror DM (Mats anifilltsinidey. la the act, he is immured in a cell, or
. *tisitirnti Welt then .ordered to silfisiraw, and tae New forth Wales. Tile term of cos
House divides, igoodlii. Detuaies' sal AlAsdiDeat, nlslunest arrives, and his grey hairs,"
Whin iheioAppe6ett- - r • . • • whiten on therpittatsee of poor rates, a
for ibe Amendment, 31—Against it. 7S--Majo. automaton of some smoaked and gross
- eitt).l4.- •
- -- - • of human nature. This I believe to I,