440 



Mr. Sadler's Speech, 



[Oct. 



with which they attempt to sever the vari- 

 ous interests of the country, managing the 

 successive depression of each, by appeaUng 

 to the selfish feehngs of the rest. Thus I 

 think I well remember a certain individual 

 (to whom, however, I have never once be- 

 fore alluded personally, notwithstanding the 

 attempted wit that has been so misapplied 

 on that supposition) I say, I think I re- 

 member him, holding forth to the Liver- 

 pool shipowners, that they might probably be 

 compensated for the loss of their protection 

 by a similar withdrawal of that of tlie agri- 

 culturists ; the granary of tlie empire 

 might, partially, at least, be placed, it was 

 hoped, abroad ; and then the shipowners 

 would, of course share in transporting liither 

 the constant supplies : (httle chance of this, 

 however, I ween, under the reciprocity 

 system!) But both shipowners and agri- 

 culturalists were to get other commodities 

 cheaper by the free trade system ; silks for 

 instance, — and the silk manufactmer, in his 

 turn, was to be propitiated by the sacriiice 

 of the throwster, itc. The object of these 

 changes was all the while low jnices, other-' 

 wise we pay little compliment to the saga- 

 city of their promoters ; and, after all, a 

 more insane attempt than to eiTectuate that, 

 could never have entered into the head of 

 man, when it is considered that we have a 

 fixed encumbrance, or debt, to a vast 

 amount, on which the cheapening of the 

 value of property, and of labour in the 

 country wliicli has to sustain it, operates as 

 an enormous augmentation. The fund- 

 holders, tlie jobbers, the brokers of the 

 community, may and do feel the advantages 

 of these changes ; some of these dictate the 

 carrying of them still further into effect, 

 but it will be well for them, even with a 

 view to their own permanent interests, to 

 pause, or they will find the mis«liief they 

 meditate " for others will fall upon their 

 own pate." Eight hundred mil- 



riOJfS OF DEBT, AND CHEAP PRICES, 

 ARE iiOT CONVERTIBLE TERMS; nO 



more than are Foreign Competition and 

 British Comfort ! Seen in the light of true 

 politicalphilosophy, all the diiTerent branches 

 of industry in a community are united in 

 the bonds of mutual inte-est, as well as 

 amity ; and if one be weaker tlian the rest, 

 the others are willing to extend to it a help- 

 ing hand ; but the new system sees things 

 in a different light ; " buy where you can 

 buy cheapest" is the motto — though it is 

 one which would divest us of all our 

 local duties and attacliments, and even 

 of patriotism itself. Hence those engaged 

 in various pursuits which can never be 

 wholly dissevered, are taught to eye each 

 other with feelings of jealousy and hosti- 

 lity ; they must still cling together, indeed, 

 but with the desperation of drowning men, 

 who drag each other down to destruction ; 

 These, gentlemen, are my general views on 

 the subject ; general, I may call them, for 

 they embrace the interests and pursvdts of 



every class amongst us ; and, I rejoice to 

 say, they are becoming imiversal among 



the operatives The noble Enghsh maxim, 



'• Live and let live," is revivmg. Whether 

 it regards the labourer at the plough, or 

 the manufacturer at his loom, I have always 

 felt, what I have somewhere expres;jed, 



" Lot those tli.it till and those that weave, 

 Still by honest labours live." 



And I shall never exchange this feeling 

 for some dry and imfeeling dogma of poli- 

 tical economy. 



But is the country in the distressed .state 

 in which it is now represented to be ? I 

 fear it is. And were I to become a political 

 tourist in order to ascertain the fact, I 

 woiUd seek it amongst the many. I should 

 not fix my views on the mere surface, or 

 rather summits of society : these may still 

 glow with the gleam of setting prosperity, 

 which hke the luminary from whence I 

 take my illustration, casts a richer ray, the 

 lower it is on its decline ; while its warm 

 and cheering beams withdrawn from be- 

 neath, have left the narrow, humble vale of 

 poverty in darkness and destitution. I 

 say, I would not collect my information — 



" Where luxury 



In palaces lies straining her low thought 

 To form unreal wants ;" 



nor from flatterers at feasts ; from the dis- 

 cussions of economists, at the boards of our 

 merchant princes, groaning with delicious 

 viands and sparkling wines of every vintage ; 

 but rather from the father of the cottage, who 

 sits idle and distressed, brooding over the 

 fate of those from wJj.om his eyes are 

 averted — his suffering family, but over whom 

 his heart is yearning, and breaking ! I 

 would not seek it in the dazzling ^awing- 

 room, full of curious and costly foreign 

 decorations, where the lady's splendid robe 

 which sweeps over the turkey carpet, is the 

 glowing labour of the Lyonese loom ; and 

 the person, even to the hand and the foot, 

 is adorned with the products of other than 

 English industry. No ! I would rather 

 read it in the condition of that poor home- 

 less being, of the same sex, shivering in 

 the portico below ; whom the introduc- 

 tion of those very luxuries has perhaps 

 deprived her of honest employment, and 

 driven her to await, in the wages of prosti- 

 tution, the preservation of a life worse than 

 death itself. In a word, I would take my 

 ideas of the principle and progress of the 

 system from the inmates of the cottage, 

 rather than the mansion. As to myself, 1 

 had to present a petition from one of the 

 populous hundreds of the Coimty of Lan- 

 caster, and I learned on the unimpeachable 

 authority of the highly respectable gentle- 

 men through whom it was handed to me, 

 that thousands of the people ate subsisting 

 on fifteen -pence a head per week, and even 

 that pittance is earned by extreme and long 

 protracted labour. 



