The Sun. — 1842-08-02 (London, England)

ANTI-Cf)RN-LA 'E7ONFERENCE  The Delegates reet yercrday rearning at the esue' hour, at Herbert's Hotel, Palace-yard, P. Tave.on, Esq., in the Chair. The CHAIRMAN opened the proceedings by the following address said—This Conference is drawing to a close—our mission is fulfilled—our work is accomplished. It remains to review its proceedings, and to give an account of them to those by whom we were deputed. Our object was two-fold ;to give a just and com • plete statement to the public of the real conditions and prospects of the places from whence we were sent ; and to press upon her Majesty's Government the necessity of affording immediate relief. The former has been most powerfully and completely effected ; and the melancholy and heart-breaking accounts of destitution and misery which have day by day been communicated by, the Delegates, must have convinced the most sceptical that it is not as human nature to bear the continuance of such suffering, and yet it is to be feared an increase of that suffering is approaching, although, as the Deputy from Nottingham expresses himself, " No one dares talk of the winter." Every thing that could be done to represent to the Government the condition of trade, and the destitution of the people, has been attempted at various interviews with its members, and the result has been nothing. They have been told by individuals from all parts of the country, and engaged in every description of manufacture—that their trade is declining, their capital diminishing, and their unemployed work-people starving ; that foreign countries are offering us food, for want of which the people are perishing, in exchange for those manufactures for which there is otherwise no demand, They have been conjured' by the claims of justice, by the rights of humanity, not to sufEn- their own sordid interests to trample upon the enjoyments, the comforts, the very existence, of thousands, or tens of thousands, of their fellow creatures and fellow countrymen, and they have been conjured in vain ; they seem resolved upon maintaining the iniquitous Corn-law, which aggrandizes their own wealth, and deprives the people of employment and food, a ndkeeping the peace of the country—i. e. by repressing the frantic attempt of the famishing to supply themselves and children with food by force. Our duty is done ; we have exposed the evil, suggested the remedy, denounced the wrong, and warned the Government of the consequence of persisting in that wrong ; and it remains for us to return to our constituents and ted them that all our efforts to obtain justice for them have failed, and that we cmn hold out to them no prospect of improvement, and no hope of relief. It is fearful to contemplate the future. That aegreat and highly civilised nation will finally suffer its prosperity to be blighted, and its progress obE tructed, by a faction of landowners, is nut to be believed. That the millions of industrious and intelligent artisans who ought to be the glory of our country, as they have been the creators of its wealth, will quietly submit to the destitution they are now enduring, to the utter ruin which seems rapidly approaching to gratify the grasi:ing rapacity of a landlord legislature, is neither to be anticipated nor desired. I trust they will use no violence, but not submit to be starved—that they will respect property and life, but not suffer their children to perish by famine ; and if, when the time arrives that " private property has become a nuisance," the struggle for existence is repressed by bloodshed, by whatever name that bloodshed may be charaeterised in a British Court of judicature—in the eye of reason, of justice, of posterity, and of God, it will receive its true appellation, and be stamped with the guilt of murder.—(Applause.) I have only to say, an address will be submitted to you for your approval, and this Conference will then be dissolved. The Chairman then proceeded to read the following documents :