LETTER XLVII.

FURTHER PROOF OF THE INEFFICIENT MANNER IN WHICH OUR PUBLIC MEN TREAT GREAT PUBLIC QUESTIONS.

To J. R. M CULLOCH, Esq.

SIR,-There are some very important features of the correspondence between the two leading Ministers of the Crown and the members of the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, which cannot be contemplated by any thoughtful person without exciting in his mind dissatisfaction and deep regret.

The features to which I allude, and to which I will now call your attention, cannot fail to raise an apprehension that consequences of the most disastrous character must be entailed on the country, by the inefficient and lax manner in which it is thus made manifest that the great interests of the uation are treated by those to whose judgment they are confided.

It is well known to every man in the realm, that the measures which were recommended by Sir Robert Peel and his colleagues in the last session of Parliament, and which were adopted by the legislature, for the purpose of affording a remedy for national distress, embraced a very considerable advance in the direction of Free Trade.

Now, we are to assume. in the first place, as a matter of course, that the policy of these measures must have formed the subject of many long and anxious deliberations with the members of the administration. Also, that when the selected advisers of the Crown had come to the determination of recommending a particular policy for the adoption of the country, that they must have entertained in their minds a firm conviction that extensive benefit would result from it. As the measures themselves, or the changes which the Ministers proposed to effect, were of considerable magnitude, so their promoters must, from the very nature of things, have anticipated that consequences of equal magnitude would flow from the adoption of them; for whenever great causes are set in motion, it is inevitable that great effects, of the one character or the other, must ensue.

Having premised thus much with regard to the honourable fulfilment of duty by those to whose guidance the national interests are entrusted, it will then follow, that on every occasion on which different members of administration should be found making allusion to the nature of their policy, and to the results which may be expected to accrue from its adoption, they would be unanimous in holding out to the people a cheering prospect. That they would assure them, that after long, serious, and mature deliberation, they had come to the conclusion, that the remedy required was an extension of commercial action; that measures had been proposed and adopted which would permit this desired extension to be made; that these measures were actually in progress, but that a considerable space of time must elapse before they could be brought into full operation; and that when these measures had realized their effects, much more still remained to be done in the same direction; so that, in the light in which they viewed the national prospects, there appeared no reason at all for desponding over the pressing necessities of the state; but, on the contrary, as a very wide field for commercial exchange or enterprise still remained unappropriated and unexplored in the direction of Free Trade policy, so a far greater degree of relief could, with facility, be applied.

Such, Sir, I maintain, is the fair and straightforward view of the subject; and the prospect thus described would have been held out to satisfy the expectation of the people, provided the consideration of these great questions had been conducted in a manner, and with ability, commensurate with their vast importance. But now I will ask you to contrast the picture as it ought to be, with the picture as it is. The members of administration who took part in the correspondence with the members of the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, were Sir Robert Peel and Sir James Graham-the former occupying the high station of Prime Minister, and the latter holding the office which is generally esteemed as second in rank, namely, that of Secretary of State for the Home Department. The particular passage of the letter of Sir Robert Peel, dated Whitehall, August 9, 1842, to which I will ask your attention, is the following:

I beg leave to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of the 3rd of August, transmittting a resolution of a Committee of the Chamber of Commerce, Birmingham, and a memorial from that body, setting forth the depression of trade, and the distress consequent upon it, which exist in Birmingham and the adjoining district. I have not failed to submit this memorial to the other members of Her Majesty's Government. They participate in my regret at the statements contained in this memorial, and trust, with me, that the measures introduced by Her Majesty's Government in the course of the present session, in reference to the manufactures and commerce of the country, may have a beneficial effect in the important district to which these statements refer." Such is the prospect which the Prime Minister held out to the Chamber of Commerce in reference to the remedial operation of those important changes of commercial policy which had been adopted under his auspices, and the auspices of his colleagues in office. Although the terms used do not impart an encouragement at all commensurate with the largeness of the measures adopted, yet they convey an affirmation of the policy; and you will remark, that Sir Robert Peel has expressly included the members of the administration generally as entertaining expectations of beneficial results.

In the next place, I will ask you to peruse the following passage of the letter of Sir James Graham to the members of the Chamber of Commerce, dated Whitehall, September 6, 1842, and signed H. M. Sutton:

Sir James Graham desires me to state, that the Government cannot hold out the expectation that any measures are within their power which will permanently alter the condition of the working classes."

This is all that Sir James Graham had to say upon the subject of affording relief to the distress of the people, with the exception of recommending them to pay obedience to the laws. Thus, Sir, we have, taking these two letters together, very important meaning brought within a very narrow compass. The members of the administration introduced, upheld by all the arguments they could command, and eventually succeeded in persuading the legislature to adopt, certain most extensive changes in our commercial laws. Just after this great work had been accomplished, the Prime Minister assures the members of a commercial chamber that he, and the other members of Her Majesty's Government, trusted that a remedy for the general distress would arise from the new course of commercial policy which they had propounded to the nation; whilst the second Minister assures the same body of commercial men, at the same moment, and with reference to the same measures, that Her Majesty's Government could not hold out the expectation that any measures were within their power which would permanently alter the condition of the working classes; and this assurance of Sir James Graham's was made too at a period when the great laws, avowedly founded on the principle of Free Trade, which the Government had introduced and carried, had been brought into very little practical operation; and also when it must have been evident that a great scope still remained wherein the principle of Free Trade could be made far, very far, more available than it had been made by the laws which had just been enrolled among the statutes. However reluctant we may be to entertain the conclusion, yet it is impossible to reflect on these glaring inconsistencies in the conduct of men who ought to be, and who, for all purposes of good government, must be, of one mind, and such evident absence of proper communication between colleagues in office, as are thus exhibited, without being led to the conclusion, that the game which is being played by our public men is merely the game of party superiority; that the highest principles of human association are being tampered with; and that all the loftier positions of truth and honour, on which alone the welfare and security of the national interests can be founded, are intentionally abandoned.

Such an allegement as that which I have just made against the manner of conducting our governing power, however unpleasing and discouraging it may be, yet its recognition ought not to be shunned, when it rests on evidence so strong and so manifest. If too, at the present moment, we examine the sayings of men, of all parties, in Parliament, ample confirmation is afforded that the governing power of this country is being wielded without the influence of any sound principle whatever pervading it. Thus, in the debate on the state of the nation on which the members of the Honse of Commons have been so lately engaged, Lord Howick, who opened up the great subject, and who has ranged himself as an ardent supporter of Free Trade, has been reported as delivering the following sentence: If he were asked what was the CAUSE of the distress, his answer should be that it would be found in INTENSE COMPETITION, both of capital and labour, by means of which the profits of both were reduced to the lowest scale." Now, this argument administers a deathblow to the free principle which Lord Howick himself supports; for of this principle, competition is the life and soul; and Lord Howick, with his coadjutors of the free school, advocate the plan of setting all the world more and more in competition with each other.

The agricultural interest of Britain is, by them, to be set in competitive array against the agricultural interest of all other countries; and the manufacturing, commercial, and all the other general interests of the whole world, are, by the apostles of the free doctrine, to be goaded on in the eager race of increased and ever active competition: and thus does this wise statesman profess to cure the disease by adding increase and intensity to the very cause which he has declared to be the source of the disorder; and then-as we have it exultingly proclaimed on all sides-victory will be with the swift and the strong, with the clever and the cunning; and as for the multitude of weak creatures, who are either unwilling or unable to sustain themselves in this base strife of commerce. why, they are doomed to be cast out of the pale of civilized enjoyment, and the only prospect of relief and comfort they have to look for at the hand of debased humanity is that which is held out to them by such men as Dr. Bowring and Lord Ripon, who are willing enough to give them commiseration, yes, COMMISERATION!! but as for an attempt to arrest the course of the strong oppressor, or to assist the weak oppressed, no, not a finger will they move in that cause! but instead of it, this class of men, who abound, unhappily, in all rauks, are, under the impulse of a lamentable infatuation, seen to unite in cheering on the oppressors to pursue their trampling and destructive

career.

Again, in the speech of Sir Robert Peel, delivered on the same occasion, we have the following sentence reported:--" Can you imagine any greater evils than the sudden depressions of prices? With increased prices prosperity is sure to be contemporaneous."

Now this argument of the Prime Minister is of a character similar to that advanced by Lord Howick, and is equally destructive of the free or competitive policy. Viewing these great questions calmly, and from a position apart from the vortex of party passion, we cannot fail to be struck with astonishment, and ask if the Sir Robert Peel who gave utterance to the sentence above quoted be really the same Sir Robert Peel who has of late been the chief guide of our country, and whose policy has been founded on the great fact of DEPRECIATION.

It is an unpleasing-it is a painful task, to make such comments as those which I have made on the proceedings of public men, for whose political career it would be delightful to entertain feelings of respect and admiration: but, as you well know, when once we direct our minds upon a course of investigation, we have no alternative. Two ways only are open to us, the RIGHT and the WRONG. As conviction impels us so must we go. The means by which we have arrived at this conviction is an awful question, and on this head an unequivocating and full response will one day be exacted of us all. I remain, Sir, your obedient servant,

No. 16, Doughty Street, February 27, 1843.

WILLIAM ATKINSON.

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ROBERT POUNDER, Leeds.-Mr. Oastler is very much gratified to know that the interesting and edifying account of GRACE WALLIS was a source of comfort to him, his wife, and neighbours. Mr. O. is also rejoiced that the memory of that excellent man, MICHAEL THOMAS SADLER, is cherished by the Leeds operatives, for whom that persecuted patriot suffered so much. Robert shall hear again from Mr. Oastler shortly.

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AN OPERATIVE, Stayley bridge. Cheshire.-He is quite right. Those who have no money and who can obtain no labour, have a clear RIGHT to relief from the parochial fund. How much more wise it is, that they should peaceably apply for their own of the proper officers, than disturb the public peace or destroy property. If those poor destitute creatures are forbidden to beg, they are yet allowed to ask for parish relief. It is their DUTY to avail themselves of that RIGHT. If the rate-payers choose to compel the poor to enter the Bastiles, they will tire of the expense, when the destitute universally resolve to comply with that demand of injustice and tyranny. Thus will cruelty and fraud be self-defeated.

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"We find the following brief but affecting narrative in the last number of the Fleet Papers; it is given in a letter to Richard Pounder, of Leeds, one of those poor, but honest and well-affected men, who look up to Mr. Oastler as a father and a friend :February 10, 1843. ."-Hull Packet,

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The FLEET PAPERS.-For some weeks we have neglected our usual notices of the King's' little Fleeters, which, with an industry as untiring as his spirit is indomitable, Mr. Oastler continues to lay before the powers that be,' as well as before the public generally, by whom they are read with an avidity that shows how much a good man, even in bonds, is respected. The Fleeters are now addressed to Sir James Graham, Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Home Department; and truly, tyranny, whether in high places or low, is laid before the Minister in all its odious enormity. In a recent number the doings of the League have been brought under notice, and their desire to get rid of Feargus' is shown in palpable colours. After enumerating the shifts to which the League have been put, and describing the mode resorted to to obtain petitions, 'said to emanate from the people,' but which they themselves have got up, he thus proceeds: :

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"Next week we shall have other extracts from the succeeding Fleeter upon this subject. ; At present our space is full."-Northern Star, February 11, 1843.

KENSINGTON NEW POOR LAW UNION.

"Mr. Richard Oastler. appeared in No. 49 of the Fleeters, of December last, I informed your readers with what egregious "Dear Sir,-In my last letter on the subject of the Kensington Union, which "7, Camden Ville, Kensington, Feb. 19, 1943. folly the Poor Law Commissioners proceeded in their dealings with this parish, and how, after numerous printed letters from month to month, rescinding their former orders, this parish was ultimately invergled into an enormous union with the parishes of Paddington and Chelsea, each large enough to be kept to themselvss, and the parishes of Fulham and Hammersmith.

"What it cost the nation to print these successive contradictory orders I do not know; but as the auditor the three kings have given us has thought fit to object, I suppose with a view to stifling the expression of public opinion, to the trifling expenses the vestry occasionally incurs to print documents necessary for the information of the rate-payers, it would have been as well if they had endeavoured to make this absurd exercise of authority a little more palatable by their own example.

Among the first set of guardians sent to the board by the parish of Chelsea, a gentleman of the name of Ryder was returned, who, as you already know, has deserved the warm thanks and admiration of his neighbours and countrymen for the example he has set to them, and of his parishioners for the indefatigable exertions he made in behalf of the poor, and in behalf of the interests of his parish. This gentleman was returned by the friends of the New Poor Law, and came into office in good faith, believing both the law and the union to be a good thing. He had not, however, been long in office before the scales fell from his eyes. He considered it his duty to represent to the board of guardians the complaints of some of the paupers, and the neglect of their duty by some of the officers of the union. He found that the board rose against him, they censured him and the persons whose cases he advocated, and endeavoured to put him down in an unwarrantable manner. 'Good God,' said he, if this is the New Poor Law, and if these are the fruits of the union, the sooner we get rid of it the better.' He was compelled to bring his complaints before the magistrates, and to have recourse to the public prints. And he appealed to his fellow parishioners. They coincided with him numerously, and answered his appeal. They found, at the same time, their expenses increasing; the time of the guardians entirely engrossed by the accumulated business of other parishes on one day, on another the business of the union conducted by one or two guardians; whilst the paupers and their advocates were thus dealt with. They formed an association, entered into subscriptions, and they returned the next year and every succeeding year guardians who would insist on the parish of Chelsea being again entrusted with the management of its own affairs; and though they met with every kind of reproach and opposition-though the Poor Law Commissioners protested that they would never dissolve the union, they succeeded at last, in July, 1841, in establishing the independence of their parish, and in wringing an unwilling, grudging consent from their High Mightinesses-hese worthies, who are entrusted with so much power, not blushing to acknowledge that they yielded to clamour what they could not approve of in principle.

Thus this pet child of the trio of Somerset House, this abortion, after two false presentations, totters along at present in the shape of Kensington, Paddington, Fulham, and Hammersmith, with a population probably now of more than 80 000 souls!

Thus on two occasions, in two attempts to over-ride the Local Act of this parish and to form it into an union, the Poor Law Commissioners have proved themselves irresolute, incompetent, and devoid of judgment; and yet when our parochial officers opposed them, and had they continued to do so, the law exposed them to the severest pains and penalties for disobeying the commands of men such as these.

"I will continue the account of our proceedings in another letter; and in the meantime, "I remain, dear Sir, yours faithfully,

"JOHN PERCEVAL.

"N.B.-The rates of Chelsea parish for one half year, rose from Is. 4d. to Is. 9d. during the

union."

LETTER XLVIII.

ON THE PREVAILING POPULAR FALLACIES BY WHICH THE FREE TRADE SYSTEM IS SUPPORTED.

To J. R. M'CULLOCH, Esq.

SIR.-I had intended, in this letter, to have commenced my argument on the most important practical question which arises from an investigation of the science of human association and government. The question to which I allude may be comprised in a few words, which are these:-WHAT SHALL WE DO? Before, however, I enter upon a discussion of the allessential question of remedy, there are some points of immediate practical importance to which I desire to call your attention.

The points to which I refer are contained in the arguments which are advanced by statesmen, writers, and men of business, for the purpose of sustaining the policy they wish to see adopted. To show these points in their true light, I will suppose the following question to be put to persons whose interest arises from settled property, from trade, or from wages:-What is it you wish te have with regard to your property, your trade, or your wages? The answer instantly given will be-a good value or price. This answer, in favour of a good price and against a bad one, or the fact of depreciation, will be given by every person of the community; so that, by means of this answer, we arrive at a knowledge of what it is which is required to realize general or national prosperity. But now, on the other hand, when the question is put in another shape, and it is asked what it is that each man wishes with regard to the property of other men which is distinct from his own, and being that which he wants to purchase, an answer is instantly given of a character the very reverse of that which was given in the former case. The avowed wish, therefore, is, to have a good value or price for that which appertains to themselves; but, in the case of neighbours, that THEIR property, trade, and wages should be depreciated as much as they can be.

Now, this is the principle, vile and infamous though it be, on which the free and fashionable system is founded; and I will now bring to your notice a few out of the incalculable number of instances in which it is advanced.

One of the adopted leaders of the present Free Trade agitation is Mr. Cobden, who, undoubtedly, supports the cause with great ability and with persevering energy. On the 29th of August, 1842, Mr. Cobden delivered a long address to a large meeting at Manchester on the subject of Free Trade; and in the course of this address he advanced the following most important and comprehensive question, namely, “WHAT WILL ENABLE THE MASTER TO GIVE BETTER WAGES?" Now, this was a question leading to an examination and a recognition of the elements which compose the foundation of all social institutions, and, as Mr. Cobden justly observed, it was a question depending upon the same principle in England as it does in America, in Switzerland, in Russia, and everywhere else; and I will now show you in what manner Mr. Cobden gave his answer. His question being " WHAT WILL ENABLE THE MASTER TO GIVE BETTER WAGES?" His answer was-" BY GETTING BETTER PRICES FOR HIS GOODS!" This answer is most true and important. But now, Sir, I will ask you to consider, for a moment, the object which Mr. Cobden was then endeavouring to effect. It was that of bringing about a reduction of the prices of all the agricultural produce of the kingdom, which produce, as you yourself have lately stated in a pamphlet published on the Corn Laws, serves to keep in EMPLOYMENT and in WAGES nearly half the labouring population of Great Britain. So that by Mr. Cobden's own argument we have it admitted, that the depreciation of agricultural capital, which he, and those acting with him, are endeavouring to effect, must, if accomplished, necessarily reduce the wages of half the labouring population of the country, to say nothing of those who are connected with or dependent upon agricultural DEMAND. Notwithstanding that the arguments for Free Trade are thus so palpably bad and destructive, and shown to be so by their own supporters, yet they are allowed to pass current in the present age; and the members of the present administration are so fearful of showing any opposition to the principle, that, in their places in Parliament, they have just declared that the principle of Free Trade is now universally acknowledged, and that, in fact, it is the principle of common sense!!!

Again, I will ask you to notice a principle of social action which has been advanced by an organ of the daily press which unsparingly advocates the cause of the Free Trade party. I allude to the Morning Chronicle newspaper, the columns of which teem constantly with the loudest professions of attachment to the cause of the labouring classes; and yet, when it is found necessary to argue the favourite principle soberly and truly, and when all the assumed feelings of friendship are unneeded for the occasion, just behold what a different character the argument presents.

On the 3rd of March, 1842, the Free Trade writer of the Chronicle entered upon a discussion of the relationship which ought to subsist between the cultivators of sugar estates and the labourers employed by them. In the course of his argument, he laid down a most important and most comprehensive GENERAL PRINCIPLE, as applicable, in his opinion, to the dealings between man and man,-between the capitalist, the superior in power-and the labourer, the inferior in power. This principle is contained in the following passage:- The labourer is entitled to avail himself of all circumstances by which he can increase the return for his labour; and the employer of labour to avail himself of all circumstances by which he can reduce that return."

Now, here is a clear exposition of the FREE rule of action. It is nothing less thaa that man should resolve on being the persevering antagonist and persecutor of his fellow creature. The poor man, who has to procure his living by his daily labour, is to have permission to exert all his efforts towards increasing the earnings of his labour; whilst, on the other hand, the rich man, or the capitalist, who derives wealth by the employment of labour, is to exert all his power for the purpose of reducing the earnings of the labourer, in order that he may procure his commodities at