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Northern Star (1837-1852), 14th August 1841, Edition 4 of 4, Page 4, Untitled Article

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    • ANOTHER "PLEA EOR THE POOR."
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      Untitled Article

      TO MY UNREPRESENTED BRETHREN IK ENGLAND AND SCOTLAND . Lancaster CasUe , Anguat loth , 1811 . Mt dsaB Friesds , —I am invited to meet a great many friends in England and Scotland after my liberation ; that is to say , after the 24 th of September—the d * y on -which my term of eighteen month * impruonjnent expires , la some place * I am Invited to public dinners ; in others , to soirees , or tea-parties ; and in everal places , it is intended ( u I am informed ) to honour me -with what aw called " Demonstrations ; " that is , processions or public entries , preceded by buds of music , and -with the usual accompaniments of fiigs , tanners , portraits , mottos , ic * e . Now , my friends , it is to this latter point , I Irish to draw yonr attention—I mean the demonstrations and the public dinners .

      De-nonatmions and pnblic dinners are Tery costly things , especially the former . They are also , in my opinion , ( unles * on great occasional , Tery unnecessary « nd useless things . The late demonstration in Haa-Aester . Dundee , Glasgow , and many otbar place * cost , « n an aTerage , more than forty guinea * each . Some of tho Kersal-moor and Peep-green democetratkxis cost one hundred guineas and upwards . If all the money that has been expended upon demonstrations sines the morement began in 1838 , were now forthcoming for useful and practical purposes , it would raaie a good rousd sum ! The wages that workpeople hare lost through attending demonstrations would stake a still larger sum ; and tie largest of all would be the rum of ¦ what workmen hare lost through dismissal or loss at

      empleyment consequent upon their attending demonstrafiona . Fifteen poor fellowi lost their employment altogether , for attending a demonstration once given to me by my warm-hearted constituents in Leigh , Chowbent , &c I was taken by surprise on that occasion , not haying bxl the remotestintelligence of what was w occur , until on my approach to Leigh , I saw half atn ile of a procession marching out to meet me . My friends in Leigh ¦ wi ll remember how ' pieved I was , at what they intended Car my gratification , and what too many others would bs but too proud to witness . But the sequel proved I was right When I Beard , on the following day , that fifteen poor fellows had been turned off by their

      employers , I cursed myself for having entered the town , and I made a solemn vow never again to have a demonstration got up fwr * w if I could prevent it , until the time should come when the people , after obtaining tome » i £ nal victory oTer their oppressors , might be able to attend demonstrations without entailing upon themselves the harrowing consequence of seeing their wives sod children without bread . To that vow—made though it was in the bitterness of spirit—I have ever since religiously adhered . I have never allowed any demonstration to take place for me that I possibly could prevent , and , with ( Jed's blessing , I never will , until either tyranny has ceased to lfre amongst us , or I have ceased to live ayself .

      I do , therefore , most earnestly intreat of yon . my friends , not to think of demonstrations so far as I am concerned . Do what you lie in respect of Mr . O'Connor s = d others . - it is your right ; and if you and they are satisfied , no other party has a right to and fault I am not one of those starched personages who object to demonstrations in honour of others , because I decline them for myself , or who would apply degrading nicknames to any form of procedure , or modut operandi , by ¦ which the people may choose to give pnblic expression to their feelings , and to vtnt their hoaest Bnthusiasm . It is your right to choose your own mod e cf doing honour to these to whom you think honour is due ; and if the persons so honoured are consenting parties to , and satisfied with , what you do , it is only envy or

      impudence that would presume to call into question your act . I may think demonstrations , in cert -in cases , to be " foolish and vain displays , " but others may think differently . In all such cases , it is for the people , and those they honeur , and for them only , to decide . I f * 3 TT ^ no right whatever to make suggestions , pro er ob , as regards demonstrations got up for others . My abjections apply exclusively te those intended for myself : I am , by constitution and tfemperamenl , Unfit to address large open-air meetings . Other people ai * not I consider that the expence of demonstrations , and the losses in wages and employment which they invariably einse , are seldom compensated for , by any effseta they produce . Others think d' . ffer-¦ e ntJy . I am of opinion that up to this moment , we have not obtained a single victory over our enemies , but on the contrary , have suffered many and grievous reverses through the folly and treachery of leaders in our own party , —and holding this opinion , I cannot ,

      and will not , be a consenting party to processions and M triumphal" entries , with bands playing " See the conquering hero comes , " 4 c . —all of which—in the case of a beaten man like me—I should consider io be so much Tarn-foolery , or something werse . If 1 could bring myself to consent to a public eratisa snywhere , it would be in bonnie . Newcastle , -where something like a victory has betn obtained in connection with my came . But even there shall decline every thing of the kind , until I see whether the victory can be turned to a useful -acc-nnt . On these and similar points , other persona , I s . m aware , hold very different opinions from miixs . Tiiej * consider the cause of Chartism to have had little else than a succession of triumphs from the commencement Kay , they actually regard the result of the late general election S 3 a triumph for the people . Well , let them try the cherished conviction . Such persons can have nous of my objections to trituntihsl demonstrations .

      I prefer Boirees to public dinners , because they are less expensive , interfere less with working hours , and » bove all , because working men cay more convenitntly take their wires and sisters to soirees than to public dinners . I do , therefore , my friends , once more urgently reqnest of you to ges up no demonstrations or public dirnit-T * , but as many soirees as you like for Tour ' s , sincerely , James B- O'Bkiex .

      Untitled Article

      mkdon , Masos ' s Chaster Association . — This body met on Saturday last , ai their Room , the Craven ' s Head Inn , Drury Lane . Mr . Wilson was called to the chair . A resolution , appointing a Committee to act as deputations to the various trades , was carried cnacnnously . Mr . Whitehorn having made a present of a silk waistcoat , to assist the O'Connor Banner Committee , received a vote of thanks , and the waistcoat was ordered to be rafn ? d . Two addresses to the trades were read , and on the motion of Mr . Scott , seconded by Mr . Walker , one of them was adopted for going to the trades in London , and the other for the trades in the country . The deputations to the different trades save in their report 3 which were received . Mr . "Watkins ' lecture , on account of the pressure of Society business , was deferred till Sa : urday next ; Mr . Wall's on the following Saturday .

      Middlesex CotrrrT Delegate Meeting . —This body me * , on Sane ay afternoon last , at 55 , 0 ) i BsZ-Iey ; ilr . Mills was called to the chair . The following gentlemen handed in their credentials and took their seat g , viz . : —Messrs . Wheeler and Ruffy Ridley , fur Kensington ; Messrs . Walton , Worthington and Wilson , from the mason body ; Messrs . Miiis , Drake and M'Grath , from the Tower Hamlets ; Messrs . Knight and Smith , from Fwsbury ; MessTs . Tnpill , Humphries and Goodfellow , from St . Pancras ; Mr . Pickersgill , from G 3 obe Fields ; Mr . Wiikins , from Is or th-street , Wiiitecfcapel ; and from the City of London , Messrs . Watkins and Laugswith . Mr . Drake opposed the reception of Mr . Picker * g ! I ] , but tha opposition was overruled . Mr . Wheeler wa 3 unanimously appointed secretary . Messrs . Wahon , W atkins , and Drake , were appointed a finance committee . Messrs . Tupsill , "Wilson , Gocdfellow , Ridley and Wheeler , were

      appointed a visiting committee . Messrs . Humphries , M'Grath , WiikinB , Mills and Fickersgili , were appointed a committee of observation . It was unanimously agreed " That no person be allowed to hold two office ? . " The minutes of the late Middlesex County Council were read . Mr . Fossill read a letter from Fear ^ us O'Connor , Esq , in answer to a letter directed by the Council to be written by him to Mr . O'Connor , in which he states that he feels proud-of the invitation which the men of London had given him to attend when liberated , that his conduct was approved of , &ad vh&t he should certainly attend to their invitation and communicate wjth ilessrs . O'Brien and Beabow on the Bame subject . Mr . Knight xaored u That the Sunday meeiints ba dispensed with , Mr . Drake seconded the motion , to which an amendment was moved and carried by a large majority , u That they be continued . '' The Dslej ^ atea s : ie r some little discussion agree d Exanimonsly , " That they do assist the masons in waiting on the trades . " Adjourned till next Sanday .

      Toweb Ha > h-ETS . —izr . Preston lectured on Sunday evening last , at the Charter G / fiee-houje , Bricklane , and ill . Wall , in consequence of Mr . Spurr ' s non-amval , occasioned by a death in his family , attended ai the Freemason ' s Arms . SaoEKttEas' Chaster Association . —This body held its first meeting on Sunday evening las :, at their rooms , Ropemaker-street , City . Thb Coxceet , in behalf of Bronierre O'Brien , on Monday last , a ; the Ciiy Rooms , Old ^ Bailey , was most numerously attended . Mr . Jocdyn presided . The concert wa * opened by the siigicg of the

      Marseilles hymc . During the evening a number of patriotic BODgs were song by Mr . and Jlrs . Jocelyn , Mr . Hornby , Mr . Cohen , and Mr . Tipper , who was eneored in " the song of " Emmett , " the company rising and joining in ehorns to the list verse . Miss Bishop gave two recitations ; Mr . Watkins gave the " Gladiator" from Byron ; Mr . and Mrs . Joceiyn , a scene from John Frost ; and Mrs . and Miss Ford , with Mr . Ford , gave John Frost , and many other ladies and geniiemen , among whom was Mr 3 . Crockford , favoured the company , which broke up at twelve o ' clock .

      Fiasbcet . —Mr . Calverhouse lectured here on Msaday evening last , to a nnmerous audience , his Subject being lw The prospects of the people under a Tory Government . " He waa much applauded on the conclusion of his lecture , A letter was read from the Executive , giviDg , as the ground of the rejection 0 frparr ' k * 6 n&ving thrown np his card at a public meeting . Farther subscriptions were made in fihaif of the O'Connor Bianej ..

      Untitled Article

      Kexsixgtok as » Chelsiu- — A public meeting -waa held on Monday last , at the United Coffeo House , George-street , Chelsea , Mr . Smsllwood in tho chair . The following resolution w » s nnanimonsly agreed to , and ordered to be transmitted by Mr . Wheeler to the Execntive Council :- " That we bare heard read with jrreat pleasure , the manly and straightforward address of the National Executive to the Chartista of Great Britain , and have tho greatest confidence that their future labours will be pr&daoUve of great benefit to the cause , though we cannot , at the same time , avoid expressing our regret at their not having acted upon the suggestion thrown oat by the Chartists of this neighbourhood , mad the metropolis generally , for securing the return of Messrs . O'Brien and Binns to the Commons' House of Parliament ; for we are well aware that if the subject be taken np by the Executive , it will be

      responded to with alacrity by erery true Chartist throughout the empire . " MjlRidlst , late M . O , delivered a lecture "On the EvilB of Class Legislation . " During the course of his lecture , which was most ably conducted , he described the baneful effects clasa legislation had on all classes of society , the deplorable condition to which it had reduced the agricultural population of Wiltshire and the surrounding counties , through which be had passed lately ou his lecturing tour ; and concluded by proving that the only panacea was the Charter . Thanks were voted to the lecturer , and to Mr . Whitehorn for his present to the Banner Fund , and which will be raffled for on the 26 th of August . The Chairman announced a lecture by Dr . Webb , on Monday next , at this place ; and one also on Sanday evening , by Mr . Stallwood , at the Gharter Coffeo House , Suretton Ground , Westminster .

      Ok Susdat Evening list , a meeting of the several divisions of journeymen beot and Bhoems-kers of the City was held at the Bull and Bell Inn , Ropemakers-street , Moor Fields , to establish a Charter Association separate from their Trade Society . A goodly number attended , and the interest and anxiety displayed during tie evening augur well for the establishment of a numerous and powerful Association , A deputation from the stonemasons attended to address the meeting on the cause of the Charter , and give any information repaired . It was resolved to form a branch of t \^^> a \ ional Charter Association .

      Another "Plea Eor The Poor."

      ANOTHER " PLEA EOR THE POOR . "

      Untitled Article

      TO THE HONOURABLE AND REVEREND BABTIST NOEL , MINISTER OF ST . JOHN'S CHAPEL , BEDFORD ROW . STB , —I wish I had the henour of being personally acquainted with you . I wish Tery much indeed that I had . I wish it , because I could then be the better judge -whether I should deal with your fallacies as the goodnatured whimsy of a good-natured man , or as the subtle pleading of an interested advocate . However as I have Dot the honour of being personally acquainted with you , I must deal with your assertions and conclusions as I find them in your pamphlet , very whimsically entitled " A PLEA FOB , THB POOR . "

      In a postscript to my last letter to the Irish landlords , I gave an extract from your pamphlet , as I found it in the Morning Chronicle ; and having read a great many highly complimentary comments upon your work in the two Morning and Evening " anti-monopolist " papers , as they very humorously call themselves , I -was anxious to discover whether or not judicious and fair selections had been made by the commentators from your text We barristers hold , and the law of evidence holds , that if one portion cf a letter be put in evidence ,

      the parties affected by it may insist upon all being read ; and , again , that the best evidence which can be procured should be procured . Upon those rules of practice and principles of the law of evidence , I ordered your pamphlet . I have read it ; and so far from finding any qualification of the extracted parts in the text , I find that the scribes have , as is their custom , withheld those very portions which , if perused by a common-sense band-loom weaver of eighteen years of sge , must have induced him to say , if there is no better advocate to support

      "A PLEA FOR THE POOR , " , " Preserve us from our friends ! " for , verily we Bhall perish under their tender mercies ! Now , the passage of all others -which struck me as being the most monstrous , appears to have gained for you the highest amount of Editorial praise . 1 quote it again . Here it is — " There is an opinion sometimes expressed by well meaning persons , that we ought to keep np the agricultural population , anO prevent the multiplication of great manufacturing towns , with all their disagreeable

      accompaniments of dirt asd smoke and noise- Bat this opinion is surely thoughtless . The land 1 b already so thoroughly cultivated that while the number of families in Great Britain employed in agriculture in 1 S 21 Wis 978 , 656 , the number employed in the same manner in 1831 was reduced to 951 , 134 . The land , therefore , cannot employ the additional population ; and to endeavour to prevent multiplication or towns and the extension of manufactures , is to endeavour to secure that the whole additional population of Great Britain and Ireland should be without employment and without food . "

      Hon . and Rev . 8 ir , selecting this single passage , ( so conclusive in itself ) for comment , -would , in any case , be perfectly justifiable ; but when I find in many other parts of your pamphlet very positive reasoning in aid of the above asetrtion ; and when I farther find you selecting all the serviceable bits from the works , the letters , and even from the rambling speeches of others , in support of this monstrous assertion , I am on those grounds still further justified in dealing with it as your most important position , and one which you appear resolutely determined to maintain . If then I can successfully drive you from your strongest fastness , I shall have but l ittle difficulty in convincing you of the hopelessness of an attempt to sustain your battle upon open ground .

      Rev . Sir , when I read the extract upon which I am now abont to comment , it brought to my recollection a frightful picture which you had previously drawB of the poor , and in which you described " 400 , 000 , living without God , and without hope ; " and , in truth , I no loDgei marvel that a &od so shepherded should have so strayed ; but I did wonder how it was that , in all the casualties , misfortunes , liabilities , 4 uc : uations , and divine visitations , which so constantly affect the flock ; how , in the midst of all , the shepherd stood scathless —uninjured by national calamity—umhoken by the storm—unhurt by others' sorrows ; and moved only to compassion when poverty become valiant , threatens them with the foul folding of these committed to their care .

      Sir , the shepherds have devoured every green thing ; and now you tell us that the flock has become too numerous for the pasture . Before I have done , I shall show yon that it is the shepherds who have become too numerous , too ignorant , too intolerant , too negligent , too luxurious , too proud , and too unlike the holy man whose picture Christ drew . You say that the land is already so thoroughly cultivated , that while the number of families in Great Britain employed in agriculture in 1821 , was , 878 , 658 , the number employed in the same manner in 1831 , was reduced to 961 , 134 , " THE LAND THEREFORE CA . XNOT EMPLOY THE ADDITIONAL

      POPULATIOX . " The land THEREFORE oannoi ? Wherefore , pray ? TTcertfore , I ask ? Have you shown , beyond assertion , that the diminution of persons employed in agricuitural pursuits at the respective periods , was owing to the fact of their labour not being required ? Or , if you were aware of the true reasons , why not state them . ' Were yon not cognisant of the fact , that causes simultaneously operating in England , Ireland , and Scotland within the very assumed ptriod , had a powerful , nay , an irre-Bistible influence in unfairly and artificially producing that state of things which you set down to the inability ef the land ( from its advanced state of cultivation ) having fairly , and natuially produced ? Were yon not aware that the very ten years which you have chosen for illustration was the jubilee of

      manufacturesthe triumph of art over nature ! Were you not aware that in England the rural villages vrere robbed of their lnneeent and healthful inhabitants , by the bloodhound * of the human r&ce , who stole , and sednced and kidnapped whole families , and sold them to the tyrant from whom they could never again purchase their emancipation . ' Were you not aware that the effect of that system was naturally to raise the wages of the diminished numbers in the agricultural market ? And , were you not aware that the effect of that was to throw much land out of cultivation into pasture ? And were you not aware that the result of that was a law to throw the unemployed " upon their own resources , " when the forced and unnaturally employed portion of the agricultural community were sent back ; to their parishes after being experimentalised

      Untitled Article

      upon , and -where they found the door of the Savings Bank closed against them ? Were you not aware that within these Tery ten years , two Acts of Parliament sent nearly one million of poor Irish agriculturists from the Seld to the cottonmill—to the road—or to death ? Yes , Rev . Sir , the Subletting Act , intended for the benefit of the small farmer , had the effect of inducing Irish landlords to knock those farms leased into Bmall lots into large farms , for the more easy collection ef rent , and , as they thought , for the purpose of reducing responsibility , by having only one instead of ten tenants to deal with . When a middle man took a

      thousand acres of ground at £ l per acre , he subdivided it into small farms , of bi ' sm just capible of catching all the little ready money which a thrifty labourer had amassed through many years of industry and privation , and which ( after bargaining for £ \ 19 s . per acre , with the middle man ) "hiB Honour" took by way of fine ; thus leaving him without capital . Many leases of thirtyone years made by Irish landlords ( who abandoned their country ) to middle men in 1797 and 1758 , during Mr . Pitt ' s Rebellion , expired within your assumed period ; and the small farms were , according to the Scotch principle , knocked into large farms . Mr . Goulburn ' a Tithe Composition Bill , passed witkin your ten years , had also a powerful effect as well

      in increasing the large farm system as in making many a gentleman theretofore engaged in the art of war , become farmers upon the more extensivo scale ; turning their " awords into ploughshares . " But above all , the disfranchisement of the Irish 40 s . freeholders , in 1829 , amounting to more than 200 , 000 beads of families , swelled the numbers of manufacturing population of Great Britain to the extent which you describe , and from which you would ingeniously , but very disingenuously , lead us to infer , that the remuneration for the operative "! labour was quite commensurate with the increase of numbers In that department ; the fact being that a kind of state-labour lottery was established in which all the prises were said to be on the side of artificial labour ; and all that

      trick , invention , and knavery could invent , was pat into requisition to induce the confiding , the innocent , and unsophisticated husbandman to sell his wife and little family , not for the chance , bot for the certainty of a prize , the prize being his own ease purchased by no more than the healthful exercise of his wife and children . Waggon loads , coach loads , ship loads , boat loads , horse loads , cart loads , and foot loads of speculators -were thus drawn from , and smuggled from the quiet vale of innocence into the valley of death ; they were consigned to the charnel house , and made conversant in the ways of sin , of vice , of crime , and of all sorts of depravity .

      Rev . Sir , my answer to your assertions shall not stand aa mere assertion to asssertion . No , no ; I will meet your every guess with an opposing fact ; and to begin , I meet your first assertion : — " The land iheeefobe cahsot employ any additional population . " Again , I ask " wherefore it cannot ? " and the only answer is , because the Honourable and and Reverend Baptist Noel says so , and it is the interest of influential men to uphold him in the Assertion . Now , then , Reverend Sir , have you bestowed one moment ' s thought upon the subject ? and if bo , has it never struck you that , allowing your numbers to be quite correct , the truth is easily arrived at And how

      are we to arrive at the truth ? "Why , simply , by giving you an additional 10 , 000 families or so in 1831 , to make you up a million for the sakecf round numbers . and which million divided into the cultivable lands of Great Britain , amounting to above 50 , 000 , 000 acres , leaves just one family to every fifty acres . Now , sir , it must be known to every person who understands tUe subject , taat those fifty acres would be in an almoit sterile and unproductive condition for want of a sufficiency of labour ; while the same fifty acres , subdi . vided into lots of five acres each , would improve yearly , and maintain in the outset ten families instead of one , leaving also a larger , a much larger , surplus for general use after consumption .

      Rev . Sir , estimating the population of Great Britain , in round numbers , at 20 , 000 , 000 , and allowing five to a family ( your own averages , we have 4 , 090 , 000 heads of families . Now , Sir , what I aBk for , as a means of making all rich , every one of them , ia simply 19 , 000 , 000 of acres of land , at any rent—I care not what amountbut in perpetuity , and at a corn average , for 1 , 000 , 000 of those beads of families—we will call them the freelabour husbandmen , if you please . 1 , 000 , 000 of the manufacturing families added to the free-labour bnsbandmen , would constitute one-half of the whole

      population . Then for trades , professions , shopkeepers , artists , money-jobbers , manufacturers , soldiers , sailors , and all that tribe who would rather not have land , say 1 , 000 , 000 families ; and there wi . l remain 1 , 000 , 000 heads of families , consisting of landed proprietors , and large tenants , and hired labourers , who would still speculate upon profit made out of land , after a fair standard price of labour bad been established in the free labour market . N ow to the latter 1 , 000 , 008 heads of families I assign 40 , 000 , 000 of acres for large farms , domains , pleasure grounds , deer parks , and so forth ; that is , four-fifths of the whole , and much more than they could compass .

      Now , Rev . Sir , by that arrangement , I make each man independent of all , and all labourers dependent upon their" own resources . " I require no emigration—no foreign aid to support them—no dreadful foreboding , about a night ' s mildew , or a night's wind—no capricious reliance upon the farthing-sliding-scale rule—no man with the power to say to another , " Work for me and for THIS , and at THAT , whether you like your master , your pay , or your job , or let it alone and starve ! " I open all the avenues of life for each to walk in , according to his taste .

      Rev . Sir , you say that already the land is 80 thoroughly cultivated , that it cannot emplo > any addi . tional population j and you jump to a conclusion , mistaking causes for effects , and effects for causes forgetting what you had vouched in your 25 th and 26 th pages . You establish your position boldly i' faith . You say that because a dimunition in the number of husbandmen , has taken place in the ten years , between 1821 , and 1 S 31 , that " therefore the land is thorowjhhj cultivated and cannot employ any additional population . ' Sir , you might with equal propriety have said that because a Lancashire manufacturer thought proper to dismiss his hands who refused to submit to a destructive reduction of wages , or from any other cause , IHERI . VOB . E that mill could not be set to woTk again . Bat 1 will have no light reasoning or wide fencing

      with you . You appear to be a good man , and I will therefore reason closely with you . Upon what data then have you presumed that the land is already " thoroughly cultivated ? " Is it upon the grounds that fewer hands now do more work than formerly , and that it was formerly thoroughly cultivated ? Is it upon the presumption that 15 per cent , added to the population since 1 S 31 , require fewer hands to produce food than the smaller number previously required ? Is it upon the presumption that horse power and steam power have been more extensively applied to agricultural purpose * within the assumed period ? Is it upon the presumption that more corn-producing ground has been laid down in grass land ? or is it from a comparison of land in its present condition as contrasted with its condition antecedent to 1832 ?

      Now , Sir , allowing you ths latter , as the most feasible means of judging , and allowing that you have from such data drawn your conclusion , then , I ask , when in the memory of man , was lani in its highest or in one half of its highest producing tilt ? I deny that it ever has been so ; and so far from your assertion being capable of proof from even the narrow limits of the narrowest and best cultivated locality , I broadly assert that there are not in all Great Britain lying together , and in the possession of , or held under any one landlord 500 acres , ( market-garden ground excepted , ) wkich are cultivated to one-half , aay , one-third part of their highest producing power ; and I assert generally , that taking tho whole of the available laud into calculation , that it is not

      cultivated to one-fifth part of its highest producing power . Rev . Sir , Buppose that Earl Fitzwillum should take it into hij head to covert some ten thousand acres of his Yorkshire estates into a large sheep-walk ; and suppose that those ten thousand acres had been previously divided into one hundred farms of one hundred acres each , and that each farm maintained the tenant and three agricultural families , or four families , at five to a family , that is twenty persons , or two thousand upon the ten thousand acres ; and suppose that the tending of the sbeep required no more than some twtnty shepherds and their families , making in all one hundred persons , would you in this case argue that a clear case of inability to support more than the one flnndred persons in labour was made out ? and

      Untitled Article

      that it followed aa a matter of course , that the land was thoroughly cultivated , and not capable of employing any of the nineteen hundred outcasts ? or would you say that it was most beneficially employed In fattening mutton for idlers , while the poor were starring for want of means to produoe food from tu « ll own resourcesf Again . Would you say that the 400 . 000 acres of Irish land which supported 200 , 000 forty-sbilllngs-freeholders and their families of five to a family , or 1 , 00 , 000 persona and which were converted into farms of 100 acres each , worked by twenty to a farm , or only 80 , 000 persons , instead of l , » 00 , 0 t 0 i would you say that " therefore" it followed that the 400 , 000 acres which did maintain a million , was by the new move rendered incapable of supporting more than 80 , 00 » , or not one in twelve ?

      Would yon argue that because my Lord A , or my Lord B , or Mr . C wished to knock several small farms , into others of sufficient size te produce a £ 50 tenant-at-will voter , who would be under bis immediate control , that it " therepvke" followed , as a matter of course , that the land taua stripped of its usual means of producing , lacked some of its former powers , and was , " therefore , " incapable of supporting the population ? for to nothing more does your assertion tend .

      Would you argue that Sir Arthur Brooks ' s estate had been cultivated to the highest , because failing to get Protestants hardy enough to displace bla Irish Catholic tenants , though offered tho tempting bait of a redaction of ten per cent , in the rent , be had converted it into a sheep-walk or dairy-farm ? As well might you say that the land bad conspired not to grow food for Catholics 1 Yes , Rav . Sir , just as well ; because you attribute to the inability of the land that which the unjust powers of landlords—unjustly and capriciously used , — will not allow to be done .

      Just refer for an answer to your own pamphlet , pages 25 and 26 ; and there you will find that the very expulsion of agricultural labourers from the land in the prescribed period , had caused a great rise in prices in the year 1831 , and had very nearly caused a famine by making us to require 1 , 491 , 631 quarters of wheat from the foreigner , which we could have better produced for ourselves . So that wbat you ascribe to the inability of the land from Its high state of cultivation in one put of your letter , you ascribe to want of speculation , and want of cultivation in another part !

      Hon . and Rev . Sir , having now answered , and I think conclusively , your assertion as to the present state of the land of Great Britain , and its inability to support any greater population , I should be justified in leaving the general question , weakened as it is by the refutation of your strongest presumption . However , as it is my intention to demur generally to your " Plea for the Poor , " I shall not yet desist ; and , in fact , Sir , the great fault with those who write for public instruction consists in leaving off at that very point where

      they feel satisfied themselves , instead of making the whole subject intelligible to the meanest capacity . With that intention , Sir , I shall now select a few of those passages from your work which hinge most closely upon the assertion that the land is thoroughly cultivated , in aid of which assertion they have been routed out from all sources and quarters . Rev . Sir , I shall select a few passages , which the press has thought proper to pass over , and from which I have drawn my conclusion that you are a kindhearted man .

      Tou say : — " The number of families employed in agriculture was , in 1611 , 895 , 998 , and in the year 1831 it bad only increased to 961 , 134 ; while the number of families employed in trade and manufactures , &c , had grown during that period from l , 129 , 04 i > to 1 , 434 , 873 : and on the whole , if Mr . Ward is corrrect , two millions of persons of agricultural origin , whose parents were employed upon the land , have since 1811 obtained a livelihood by manufactures . Should our manufacturing industry be repressed , the country labourers , already too numerous , must become an intolerable burden to the parishes ; bnt should our manufactures flourish , many will find employment as domestic servants , porters , warehousemen , artisans , and sailors . The effect of this demand for labourers must be the same as the effect of a similar demand in towns . "

      Rev . Sir , here exists a very cunous discrepancy between yourself and Mr . Ward , the vety first authority whom you quote—cautiously I admit , for you say " iv Hr . Ward iscorrect . " You make it appear that from 1811 to 1831 there was an emigration of some 65 000 agricultural families to the manufacturing towna ; while to the present time Mr . Ward estimates the number at no less than two millions . This great discrepancy between you and Mr . Word , who generally prefers a reliance upon prophecy ( and credit for the fulfilment of prediction which he foretels after it has happened . ) to

      vulgar arithmetic , militates no further against yon , it is true , than as proof of your credulity , andtheloose manner in which you have arranged your materials . However , Sir , in the concluding portion of the above passage , you hare again asserted that the agricultural labourers are already too numerous ; and you propose to obviate their becoming a burden npon their respective parishes by sending them to where they will become a burden to themselves , and a reserve for the masters ; a sure means to prevent the very object which you profess te desire—the establishment of a regular standard price for la our by power-loom service .

      You say , " in such case , " that is In case of the agricultural labourers going to work at manufactories in towns , " they can make their own terras . " A very curious theory that ! I sheuld have judged that the very reverse was the case ; that the increased number would enable masters to make tueir own terms . But your assertion , you will say , depends upon manufactures nourishing . To that I answer , firstly , that mechanical invention and improvements will flourish to an extent of fai greater proportion than would be required t j supply any increased demand : secondly , that agriculture , in case of manufactures flourishing , should flourish also ; and so for frcui the Sourish of manufacturers driving agricultural families

      to the towns , it should insure for them a more flourishing condition on the land : and thirdly , I am happy to find that we agree upon the necessity of establishing some just standard for the price of labour , while I deny however that it can be done in the artificial market ; so do you . But , then , if I mistake not , you further on denominate a manufacturing life as the tatural life of a Briton , and agriculture as an artificial state of existence 1 while you very whimsically reverse the case for all other inhabitants of this great globe , by making the land their natural element and manufacturing an artificial state of employment I shall now proceed to another passage . You say in pages 11 and

      12—" Left alone , they could feed and clothe themselves , educate their children , and provide for the decrepitude of age . Why shoald the law step in and say , you shall neither labour nor eat ? Gad has provided food for them in other lands ; and if no law prevented , they could easily buy it Can it be right that the law should intercept the bounty of Gad , and sentence them to perpetual want ? " If it be replied that grave interests require this interposition of the law , let me ask what interests ?

      it is not very likely that agriculture would suffer by a reduction of the corn d . nt y , since the Dukes of Bedford and Devonshire , of Sutherland and Cleveland , the Marquis of Westminster , Lord Leicester , Lord Spencer , and Lord Fitzwilliam , are all favourable to tho change . Too much interested in the question on account of their large possessions to adopt an opinion hastily , and too enlightened to be easily deceived , they yet believe that the ehange la safe ; and their opinion is surely entitled to the very highest respect "

      Rev . Sir , allow me to say that the words , " God has provided food for them in other lands , " savours strongly of Infidelism . From these words 1 wholly and entirely dissent , and against them I enter my strongest protest , inasmuch as I feel convinced that God in His all-wise dispensation , has not left him whom he created after his own image dependent on far-away and distant countries for the means of existence t I believe He has placed within the reach of all , enough for all ; in short terms , I believe that God gave ns land , but the devil gave us landlords and legislators . What ! Rev . Sir , ' God has provided food for ( hem in OTliEQ lands ! " What then becomes of country ? of patriotism ? of laws ? of kingcraft ? and of priestcraft ? Where is the father -land 1 Where the homestead ?

      Where the rallying point for Britons or irishmen , or men of any country ? Where the value then of the beautiful and divine injunction contained in the fifth commandment : — " Honour thy father and ihy mother , that thy days may be long in THE Land which THE LORD THY GOD HATH GIVEN THEE . " What , then , Rev . Sir , constitutes a better title to the tithe of English land than to the tithe of Polish land ,

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      Russian land , or American land ? - Aye , aye , the Eng . lish and Irish priests well know that In the erent of their land being put out of cultivation , they would soon establish a title to the " teens" of the thrashed com of America and of the world . Rev . Sir , would the shepherds bare advocated the non-production of grain from which they retetyed payment for their valuable services , if they bad not firstly transfened the demand to a general mortgage npon the whole land , yea , upon the rent or value whether rented or not , cultivated or not ? Ah J Sir , your order had the tithe of men ; now you have the tithe of beasts ! .

      Rev . Sir , pray , pray , pray erase the passage from any further editions through which your " Plea for the Poor" may pass . Believe me it , is betreodox , anti . national , unseriptnral , anti-seriptoral , unwise , and anttdeluvlan . Rev . Sir , as to the noble authorities upon whose wisdom you would rely , I think I might balance the noble scales by a very heavy counterpoise of nobility , and thus balanced , call in aid of a fair judgment those whe are much more " interested in tbe quation , " namely , the people for whose benefit the artificial is tendered in lieu of the natural resource . In good truth , Sir , if you bod searched the peerage and left out the nameB of Spencer and Fitawilliaru , you could not have more effectually damned yourself and your " Plea , " by authority .

      Rev . Sir , I now come to a most important and sweeping calculation . Tou say : — Meanwhile , the population of the United Kingdom is now increasing at the rate of 400 , 000 per annum ; and since nearly the whole of these must be maintained by commerce aud manufactures , the alleged increase of exports amounting to " the value of £ 14 , 000 , 080 in nine years , which is at the rate of £ 1 , 556 , 000 per annum , may still leave a vast number of persons unemployed , and allow a constant increase of permanent distress . To justify the present Corn Laws , it should be shown either

      that the amount of employment has grown faster than the population , or that if the population has been out . growing the means of employing them , that the want of employment has not in any degree arisen from th « operation of the Corn Laws . But if each workman can on an aveiage manufacture , annually , goods to the value of £ 200 , these additional exports have employed annually not more than 7775 additional workmen . And aa the whole additional population was ia each year 400 , 000 , it is obvious that population may still have outgrown employment "

      Here we have the fact that the population is now increasing at the rate of 400 , 008 annually , and the assertion that all of those must be maintained by commerce , as the land is not capable of supporting them ; and that also each workman employed produces annually £ 200 worth of manufactured goods . Now , Sir , suppose we assume that one-twentieth of the annual increase of population , all of whom are to be engaged in commerce , or 20 , 000 to be manufacturing operatives , —that is quartering nineteen drones upon one busy bee ; and suppose the

      repeal of the Corn Laws does , in truth , produce what we are assured of , namely , " plenty to do , high wages , and cheap bread ; " well , Sir , in that case we should require a new annual out-let for £ 4 , 000 , 000 worth of manufactured goods , being at the rate of £ 200 worth produced annually by the 20 , 000 new-comers . This you admit ; bteiuse you arrive at your £ 1 , 555 , 000 per annum of increased imports for nine years , making a total of £ 14 , 000 , 000 , by multiplying your presumed increase of 7775 auxiliaries by £ ' 200 , as the amount produced by each .

      Now , Sir , I have you ! and I take you all in ft lump , Mr . Ward , Mr . M'Culloch , Mr . Porter , and all ; and I take " PLENTT TO DO , HIGH WAGES , AND CUEA . P bread , " and even as few as 500 , 000 of producing operatives ; and mind , you speak of more , and so do all the school , —but I take 500 , 000 with " plenty to do , " and I multiply the 500 , 000 by £ 200 , the amount in value produced by each workman , and I have the frightful result of one hundred millions of English manufactured goods to be disposed of annually , with an annual addition of £ 4 , 000 , 000 worth , the produce of the operative portion of the annual increase of 400 , 000 of the manufacturing population .

      Now , Sir , I will take the average guess of M'Culloch , Porter , Hume , Colonel Torrens , and yourself—namely , that " rents will fall ;" aaud " they won't fall , " and' ' . they will not fall much ; " and " they will rise , in consequence of the increased demand for meat and vegetables ; " and " corn will always be a remunerating crop to the English farmer ; " and '' he won't be a worse consumer in the home market ;'" and if "he la , what matters ? surely ,-we have a thousand Poles , or ten thousand Russians , and twenty thousand . Chinese , instead of every John Bull 1 " Such , Sir , is the balance ef opinion of the greatest authorities I no two agreed—nay , not one agreeing with himself . '

      Suppose , then , the price of corn to be as you fttate it would be likely to be , in page 30 of your bo » k , 50 s . per quarter , if relieved front all restrictions —( indeed , while you speak of cheap bread , you coolly tell us that the foreign grower could not let us have it at less than 58 s ., with & 8 . protection , and become our customer ); and suppose we required four million quarters of foreign grain in aid of home produce , what would be the result ? Why , that 50 , 000 operatives at full work would produce enough , according to your own calculation , to buy all that great quantity of corn ! And pray wbat is the foreigner to give in return for the remaining ninetyfour millions sterling worth ? " O , tea , sugar , timber , raw material , and all those good things !"

      But , Rev . Sir , bear one thing in mind : you have argued one portion of your subject very candidly . You admit tbat prices of labour , of produce , raw material and all , will be reduced , while the respective scales of prices will nevertheless enable landlords , farmers ' labourers , operatives and all , to bold their respective positions , being rather served than injured , ia consequence of " plenty to do . " Sir , you have not said one word about the old and heavy ineumbrances to be discharged out of the small residue of reduced wages ;—what of that pray ? Will n » t all the Government expences of the poor remain tho same ? Will the army , the navy , the civil list , the debt , national and personal , the church , tho law department , and all the heavy commission departments -, will these not swallow up much more than the residue , after

      provision for all the increased comforts was made by the fully-employed labourer out of his reduced wages ? " O , no , " you answtr , " our increased imports and exports will do all that" Let us see ; I will just take one item , the shepherd ' s share : looking then at the amount paid inlands and money to the shepherds of the State flock , leaving out those ef the " stray sheep , " what do we find ? Why , the monstrous fact , that while -we are all by the ears looking for the means of producing a sufficiency of food for the flock , the shepherds of one flock actually receive about the exact price of tke greatest quantity of foreign corn , which would bo required for feeding the flock , —four million quarters , at 50 s . per quartern or ten millions sterling , annually . •! will they reduce commensurately with any reduction which a Repeal may cause in wages ?

      Hon . and Reverend Sir , I ask you once again , if it is so wonderful that there should be 500 , 000 of the flock " living without God and without hope , " and without bread ,-while the shepherds herd thetvwithout devotion and without fear , and while , having cropped the pasture and shorn the corn fields , they leave the flock to brouse up » n the bare one and to glean the few scattered ears from the other . Hod . and Rev . Sir , allow me now to submit for your consideration a passage from pages 25 and 26 of your " Piea . " You

      say—••• Besides the ruin which this brings upon farmers , it renders an exchange of foreign corn for English goods impossible . 1 , 491 , 631 quarters of wheat and flour were required in 1831 , but only 64 653 , in 1834 ; 28 , 483 in 1835 , and 30 , 046 in 1836 . Thus the stimulant given to the cultivation of corn by the high prices of 1831 , led to the low prices of 1835 , 1836 , and 1837 : by these low prices the foreigner is shut out of the market , and consequently can take no English goods . " Rev . Sir , can words more plainly admit , unless indeed you would make all convenient exception in favour of " natural steam power , " that the "STIMULANT GIVEN" to manufactures l » y the new

      combination of chances , backed by fictitious money , say in 1842 , would lead to low prices in 1845 , 184 ci and 1847 ? But here we have a very valuable admission ! no less than the fact that the land , which was brought to its highest producing power in 1831 , and which required a foreign supply in aid of home produce of 1 , 491 , 631 in that very year , and which could not produce more because it was then " tuq . ROUGHI . T cultivated ; " we have the admission that the same land , when called upon in three succeeding years , appears to have been adequate to the production of a sufficiency to create a glut and to produce iow prices . Now , Sir , is this not full proof tbat in

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      your , assertion , " the land thbbefobb cannot employ the additional population , " you have mistaken causes for effect *! I have always said that a Repeal of the Corn Lawt would give such an impetus for gambling , until a few failuxea had taken the first blush of novelty ; that we should appear to live in a second heaven ; but that at the end of one year woeful would be the disappoint , ment—and for this reason . Either warehouses would be full of surplus produce , while bills were being dishonoured ; or demand having shewn the utmost suppl y which the whole world would require , machinery would be increased to an amount more than cent per ceq k beyond the required means .

      Hon . and Rev . Sir , yon have yet to learn that although living man and his condition is necessarily lugged in as the humane object of all those who experim entalise upon his labour and forbearance , that nevertheless the grand object is to do without him , if possible ; and if ever England shall be able to maintain a force 8 U& dent to curb the indignation of a brave people rendered useless by machinery , and deprived of a provision from their own labour expended on their own soilaye , their own—that force will be raised : and then th « cog in a main wheel of a cotton mill will be considered of more value than a man ' s limb—nay , than a thousand men ' s lives .

      Rev . Sir , you appear to have taken a very stand-stttt view of the moving powers abont which yon write so fascinatingly for the press and the economists . You take no note of invention . Too make no calculation of increased powers . You have lost sight of the fact that while it required in 1836 , ( in round numbers ) 355 , 00 a hands to work 52 , 000 horse power ; bo great wag th » invention against man's industry , comfort , and happiness in three short years , that in 1839 it only required 423 , 000 hands to work 102 , 000 horse power ; s »

      that if tbe standard or relative dependency had been preserved between horse power and manual service—the number of hands required in 183 # should have been nearly 700 , 0 * 0 ; but we find that about 60 , 000 hands in 1839 , applied to machinery , were equivalent to 355 , 000 applied to its service in 1836 , just three years previous ! Aye , Sir , and repeal the Corn Laws , and then in the language ef poor Butter * worth , the matters would * ' go to bed by steam , " while the same power would steal the bed from under the displaced workman .

      The farther I proceed with yonr innocent admissions , the more I am convinced that you have but ill served the cause even of the manufacturers . You may rely npon it that wisdom left them but one course , and that was in exciting nothings . " fir sapit qui paucaloquitur , * was never more aptly applied than to the judicious manner in which Mr . O'Connell set the example for Corn Law repeal agitation . Believe me , Sir , be is a perfect " master of arts ; " and he knew fall well that the only argument of which the question would admit wast "O , GIVE THE PEOPLE CHEAP BREAD ; ABOVE ALt LET THE "POOH . MA . N HAVE HIS FOOD TJMTAXED . **

      " Mammy , I ' me huhgrv , give me some bread . " "HOULD TOUE TONGUE , MY JEWEL , SURE THBT taxes it . " Now , Sir , that ' s the way to argue a repeal of the Corn Laws : because no one thinks of asking Mr . O'Connell if the destitute mother had a farthing to bay a shilling loaf with , if she was made the offer . Exciting nothings , Sir , should constitute the chief reliance of anti-Corn Law pantomimic agitation ; for , believe me , that the moment the eonomists do as you have doneattempt to sustain their cause by argument , thai moment will reason step in and demolish all their airy dreams of the existence of an artificial heaven in an English rattle box .

      They might , perhaps , have added , and with effect the blood-sauce of the Globe to their " bread-pudding , * and thus sevve up another course of " BREAD AND BLOOD " to feed tbe heated imagination of a starving and insulted people ; but , believe me , thai argument will not do ; that is all upon the side of the la ^ d , for in that alone can man recognise an inheritance , a homestead , a fire-side , a country , a castle , and a sentry boi . Sir , after giving a quotation from M'Culloch by Biz B , Peel , in which he contends that a repeal of the Corn Laws would not throw land out of cultivation , nor yet sensibly affect rents , you then quote Porter in corroboration of the aamo assertion . Sir , I admit ,

      after the land had changed hands , that whether worth 10 s . or 30 s . an acre , it would be cultivated ; but if you rely upon M'Culloch and Porter , that rents would not fall and that prices would not be sensibly affected , then do I say at once that the whole thing is a hoax ; and for this reason : because , if prices do not fa ' . l to the continental level ; and if labour does not also fall to that level , then does your whole Bcheme fall to the ground . Just imagine , sir , what the great bone of contention is ; enough of corn and the great things which tbe inhabitants of corn-producing countrieswould take from us in exchange . Exchange , for what ? Why , for the produce of something less than one-fifth of a country

      of the same sizs as Wales . Yes , Sir , one million acres of the land of Poland would produce the wholequantity of corn requited in aid of British supply . You tuust not stir from this point , Sir . If you go to sugar , timber , tea , coiRje , spice and luxuries , to ship ping and so forth ; 1 ro to residue of low wages to pay heavy national and Government expences , and State-Church , and army , and navy , and "idlepauper ' sfund . " You have made corn the summum bonunu I take it ; and I show you , firstly , that the produce of even 600 , 000 operatives , with the annual appendage of a twentieth of 480 , 008 increase of population , would leave a surplusage of ninety-foar million pounds worth

      annually , after paying 60 s . a quarter for 4 , 800 , 000 quarters of wheat . I show you that the shepherds receive the full amount of what is required to feed the whole flock . I show you that old and heavy burdens muat be paid out of the residue of low wages . I show you , that if you have not low wages you can have no increase of foreign consumers—and that if you have low wages you must have low rents , and bad home customers at reduced prices . I show you that foreignerswill not give you the inside lining for more of the antside covering than they require . I show

      you that you must undersell the foreign slsve in his own market with yonr slave-produce , otherwise the foreigner will not barter with you . I show you that you will but have created a new medium of speculation for monied men in the article of food , I show you that if you repeal the Com Laws without putting your house in order , by first reducing expenditure to a proper level , you will have a blaze of stacks , the present proprietors themselves destroying them rather than see the Jews walk into quiet possession . 5 f < " * will have an end to a Church Establishment , receiving tbe same amount of tithe out of reduced amount of

      income . So , Sir , if you are for a revolution , in whicu funds , pensions , placemen , sinecures , private and national debt , army , church , and all , must go as a firstfruits , in God ' s name , at it ! for the people cannot be worse off !! but mind , upon your order be all the responsibility . The land mustceme to the people , whether for higher rent with restriction npon the importation of foreign grain , or for lower rent after those restrictions are taken off : and in tEat case will the scale and standard of

      M'Culloch ' and Porter be perfectly correct ; things will in such case change appearances ; three thousand a-year then will be equal to five thousand a-year now , becaus * the Budget end will be knocked off ; and after good and wholesome , and fresh living , tho residue of smaller wages will' be still a residue and a Savings' Bank for the labourer . Sir , how can you establish a free trade in labour in an over-taxed country , without making every labourer a mere stone ? I defy you to do it .

      Sir , I shall insert one passage in which you differ , toto ceelo , with both M'Culloch and Porter , in the first place , and with yourself in the second . You say : — " The lowered price of corn would tend to diminish rents , but as the prices of all other things irould fall in the same proportion , the diminished rent -would be as valuable as the higher rent had been , for tbe purchase of all the comforts and luxuries of life . So far , therefore , the laud-owners would be no losers . Bat in other respects they would be considerable gainers . "

      In the outset you say that the lowered price of lands would tend to diminish rents ; and then yon conclude by assuring us that the very same causes " would enable the farmer to pay a higher rent 1 " I trust , Sir , that in the simplicity of your kind heart you have not fallen into the error of supposing that although those different causes had led to the farmers' ability to p 3 y a higher rent , yst that the landlords' love of justice would forbid a demand for any increase ? A little farther on , in the very same paragraphi yo « assure U 3 tbat the facility which formers would have of procuring enough of manure for the lesser amount of land in cultivation , would enable them to bear " a * # W Maker rent f those are your very words , Sir ; so that n fact the conclusion to which you come is , that

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      4 THE NORTHBBU STAR . ^

  • Citation
    • Northern Star (1837-1852), Aug. 14, 1841, page 4, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/ns/issues/vm2-ncseproduct718/page/4/