ENGLAND.

New Zealand Colonist and Port Nicholson Advertiser, Volume I, Issue 39, 13 December 1842, Page 3

ENGLAND.

STATE OF THE COUNTRY. (From the Morning Chronicle.) We observe in the provincial papers accounts of meetings of the unemployed population of a character calculated to excite serious apprehension. Among others there were several large meetings last week of a portion of the unemployed, in Glasgow Green, where they discussed the causes of their distress, and the best mode of alleviating it. At one of these meetings it was determined to proceed en masse to the city, for the purpose of soliciting charity, and accordingly they met in masses at the Royal Exchange, to commence a tour of mendicancy through the town. These meetings and processions cause, of course, great interruption to business and great alarm, and the police have been busied in removing the obstructions and arresting some of the individuals causing the interruptions to business. The Glasgow Argus states “ that a benevolent man, whose sympathies were excited by the appearance of so many of his fellow creatures seeking bread, resolved on spending

a sum of money for the purchase of loaves, and proceeded, accompanied by the greater portion of the unemployed, to a baker’s shop in Argyllstreet, where he bought a considerable number of loaves, and handed them out to the crowd, by whom they were greedily accepted. The pressure, however, became so great that the police were forced to interfere, and, for the protection of the gentleman himself, who was pressed on all hands by the crowd, he was taken to the police-office, when he was, of course, at once set at liberty by the lieutenant on duty.” The same paper acids, “The relief committee have not as yet been able to overtake the neces-

sities of a large proportion of the industrious poor. At present about 4,000 rations of soup and bread arc distributed daily ; 300 persons are employed at labour, either in breaking stones or levelling a piece of ground on the Milton estate, near to the Lunatic Asylum. To-day an additional number will be set to these out-door employments, and about 200 webs will be given out for idle hand-loom weavers, thus extending the means of employment to 600 men. Even this will not meet the evil.”

Glasgow is a wealthy city, and possesses in greater abundance than most of our seats of industry the means of meeting distress. If scenes such as are described in the above extracts take place in its streets,, what must the state of things be in the manufacturing towns, where the number of unemployed is great, and the number of wealthy inhabitants comparatively few ?

These results were predicted ; hut the Tory aristocracy turned a deaf ear to all remonstrances. Town after town, as Mr. Cobden observed on Wednesday night, is handed over to the Government. The people are “ stretching out their hands for good,” and if the accounts from many places are to he relied on, they threaten in their extremity to take what they have not the means of purchasing. The most urgent representations on the subject have, we know, been made by the local authorities to the Government.

Sir Robert Peel is now impressed with the importance of the fact, that the population of this country is increasing more rapidly than the means of subsistence; and Mr., Gladstone, in the discussion on May 23, showed how much the country had suffered from the existing system with regard to the importation of food. He showed that the monopoly not only raised prices, but deprived the man willing to work of employment. The concluding passage of Mr. Gladstone’s speech cannot be too often brought before the public : “ He had heard honourable gentlemen say, ‘ Why interfere ? Why not leave the matter to the natural operation of supply and demand ?’ But it was the violent interference of the existing system, with the natural operations of supply and demand, which made it desirable that that system should undergo some modification (cheers). It did not follow, that because the operation of the tariff would be only to produce a moderate importation, that they were to consider the benefit of the change as measured by the 'actual reduction of prices. Suppose that 50,000 head of cattle were to be annually imported, such importation would produce but a small effect upon the prices of meat, but it would create an import trade to the amount of half a million of money—a trade, which in its nature would lead, bv a smooth

certain course of operation', to an export trade' in return of an equal amouut (hear, hear) ; which would contribute —he did not say in a moment, but in the course of years, to an increased demand for employment and labour.” This is all exceedingly good, but if ought to have been spoken sooner. Why, when the evils of the restrictive system were pointed out—when it was shown that commerce ultimately resolves itself into barter—that trade cannot be one-sided —did Sir Robert Peel endeavour to throw dust in the eyes of the House, by producing his accounts of exports of manufactures, and attempting to show that the existing system could not be destructive of industry ? It is now admitted that the system is bad, that the food imported not only lowers prices—an immense object in a country in which several great branches of industry are suffering from the success of foreign competition—but sets industry to work at home. But the numerous bankrupt manufacturers who struggled on, in hopes of a change, where their capitals were exhausted, the thousands of hands wandering about our manufacturing towns without employment—are justified in demanding why were these truths so long withheld ? Why was relief refused to the industry of the country ? The Tory members of the West Riding of Yorkshire voted on Wednesday night for a repeal of the duty on the importation of foreign wool, because that most important branch of our industry, the woollen manufacture, was on the decline, and in proof of it instances were given of the transferance of orders from houses in Leeds to French houses. But Sir Robert Peel, though he knew better, for party purposes, or worse, encouraged the Tories in the delusion that the complaints of the manufacturers were groundless. It was deemed an admirable ruse to encourage the Chartists to break up the meetings called to petition for a removal of the restrictions on trade, that the industrious might obtain food and employment. And what do we now hear from the present ministers ? Eulogies on the report of the import duties committee. We by no means underrate the importance of free trade; we only regret that it has been withheld till several branches of industry have suffered severely from the existing system, and distress in our manufacturing towns threatens the subversion of order. No man knows better than sir Robert Peel that - the prosperity of our agriculture is the consequence of successful manufactures : and it is the more to be lamented that he lias done so much to maintain the Tory aristocracy in the delusiou that the monopoly of food was not injurious to the country, and that the manufacturers (on whose prosperity their own depended)' could not be too much humbled.