1829.] 



Mi: Sadler's Speech. 



441 



■ Till very lately, however, the prevalence 

 of general distress was insultingly and men- 

 daciously denied by many of our public 

 oracles. That impudent falsehood will now, 

 however, avail no longer. Patient as the 

 people of England usually are, under their 

 sufferings and privations, they are now, I 

 deeply regret to observe, beginning to be 

 turbulent. M'hen the weavers of Spital- 

 lields were refractory, these oracles coolly 

 recommended, not their redress, but their 

 desertion ! ITie business was to be re- 

 moved at their dictation, to distant parts. 

 Well ! Is Congleton at this moment any 

 better off? Has JIacclesfield been less in- 

 surrectionary ? Look at Rochdale, at Jlan- 

 chester, at Barnsley ; what is the state and 

 condition of those places ? Would to God 

 rny voice could reach them and might be 

 listened to ; I would most earnestly exhort 

 them to peace and obedience to the laws : 

 but I would not advise them to desist from 

 remonstrating concerning their grievances. 

 If the ministers could be buUied out of 

 their principles, as some of them professed 

 to have been, I think they might be im- 

 portuned out of their policy ; though I am 

 fully aware that, to the scandal of human 

 nature, whims are much more tenaciously 

 maintained than principles : and such, per- 

 haps, still think, that agitators for Eman- 

 cipation ought to be listened to ; — agitators 

 for bread, put down ! 



But now that the general distress can be 

 no longer denied, still this darling theory is 

 to be defended, by attributing our sufferings 

 to other causes ; and it must be confessed 

 they gave us abundance of choice. Some- 

 times it lias been laid to the charge of stag- 

 nation, more frequently to over-production ; 



now the bankers are in fault now the 



traders : our agriculturists have produced 

 too much ; they have produced too little. 

 M''e have a surplus of capital — we have had 

 a want of it — but now it seems that an in- 

 different harvest or two is the most conve- 

 nient apology for our distresses ; which dis- 

 tresses, however, commenced before the 

 harvests were deficient ; but had it been 

 otherwise, variations in our seasons have 

 always existed, and ever will recur, as cer- 

 tainly, though perhaps not so regidarly, as 

 the cycles of the planetary system. And 

 for these, as they must always be expected, 

 a wise and paternal government will never 

 be unprepared.' In a word, the people of 

 England, it has long appeared pretty plain, 

 cannot trade to the satisfaction of their 

 rulers ; nor does Providence appear to please 

 them cny better. These facts, however, are 

 certain ; first, that the distress is great ; 

 and, secondly, that its date is coincident 

 with that of the operation of the new tlieory ; 

 witness thestatisticsof misfortune, of poverty, 

 of crime, in the instant and vast increase of 

 bankruptcies, the multiplication of criminal 

 committals, the rise in the poor rates, all 

 taking their date from the identical period 



.M..M. Xew Scries V01..VIIT. .\o.46. 



in question. Can events of so striking and 

 tremendous a character existwithout a cause, 

 and one adequate to their production? It 

 were absurd to suppose it. One of the most 

 important duties of the government is there- 

 fore to search it out, and .nstead of with- 

 standing those public inquiries, for which 

 the people have s-o long and so loudly called, 

 to solict rather than reject, their evidence 

 and information. 



It pppears to me, we can best approach 

 this inquiry by a series of negatives. And 

 first, it is not Providence who is chargeable 

 with the miseries of the people — on the con- 

 trary, never was there a country so endowed 

 with whatever could administer to its com- 

 forts, promote its prosperity, or secure its 

 greatness. All the real elements of wealth 

 are centered within our shores ; all the 

 accidents which could favour their develope- 

 ment are also ours. We have a country 

 unrivalled in fertility and ample in extent, 

 only partially cultivated, and capable of 

 sustaining, as future generations will prove, 

 a vast accession of inhabitants in far greater 

 plenty than our present population enjoys. 

 Beneath us are minerals of the most valua- 

 ble kind. AVithout, our territories encircle 

 the earth, and accumulate on our shores the 

 products of all regions, and open a door 

 of access to all couniries. W^e have a 

 climate unrivalled in healthiness, and a 

 position among the nations the most fbrtu- 

 nate ; surrounded by the ocean, which is not 

 only the very element of British safety and 

 glory, but an inexhaustible mine of wealtli. 

 Such, without an hyperbole, is the condition 

 in which Providence has placed us ; such 

 the bounties the Deity has poured upon us. 

 The sacred and figurative language of the 

 East might be applied to England, as em- 

 phatically as to an equally distinguished 

 and unthankful country of old : — " He has 

 placed our vineyard on a very fruitful liill, 

 he has fenced it and gathered out the stones 

 thereof, built a tower in its midst, and 

 planted it with the choicest vines." — And it 

 may still be asked, as it was of old, " What 

 could be done more for his vineyard than he 

 has done in it ?" I defy any man to answer 

 this solemn question as it respects England, 

 so as to lay in any measure the misery of 

 this people at the door of eternal Provi- 

 dence. 



Nor, second, is it the character or the 

 conduct of the inhabitants to which the 

 present distress of the country are attri- 

 butable. — On the contrary, there is not a 

 population upon earth more prone to laliour, 

 m<ire active, enterprising or intelligent in 

 their exertions, more persevering in their 

 pursuits ; none who have so great an abun- 

 dance of capital, that idol of the )iresent 

 system, by whicli, according to its doctrine, 

 our national advantages can alone be deve- 

 loped or distributed. Whoever, therefore, 

 or whatever has occasioned the existing dis- 

 tress, tiie people are guiltless. 



Nor is it the numbot o( our pftiintrvnien 

 3 1, 



