4 COBBETT'S [No. 



that they eat horse-flesh, grains, and have been detect- 

 ed in eating out of pig-troughs. In short, they are rep- 

 resented as bein'_ r far Avorse fed and worse lodged than 

 the greater part of the pigs. These statements of the 

 newspapers may be false, or, at least, only partially 

 true ; but, at a public meeting of rate-payers, at V 

 Chester, on the 17th of August, Mr. BAXTKK. the 

 Chairman, said, thai some of the POOR had been 

 Ktan'i-il f" f/rti'/i. and that tf>ix nf //<////.xv/////.v 

 iipnn tlir point of starving ; and. at the ^imo n, 



Mr. POTTER gave a detail, which showed that 

 .Mr. r.Avnin's general description was true. Other 



HUN, verv nearly official, and. at any rate. I,. 

 nf unquestionable authenti< -ity, concur s<> fully with 

 the siatr, .- at tiit- .Manche-trr Meeting, that 



it is impossible not to helieve. that a great mimh* 

 thousands of p re now on the point of perish- 



ing for want of food, and that //////,// hurt' actually 

 p> rixht'il fntm th<it cause; and that this has taken 

 place, and is taking place, IN ENGLAND. 



3. There is. then, no doubt of the existence of the 

 di^nraceful and horrid facts; but that which is as hor- 

 rid a- are the f^cta themselves, and even more horrid 

 than those facts, is the cool and unresentfid language 

 and manner in which the facts are usually spoken of. 

 Those who Avrite about the misery and starvation in 

 Lancashire and Yorkshire, never appear to think 

 that aut/ Itndy /* (<> M/./we, even when the poor die 

 with Inmjer. The Ministers ascribe the calamity to 

 ' nrrr-trtKlin'JC;" the cotton and cloth and other mas- 

 ter-manufacturers ascribe it to "a want of paper- 

 vionryS* or to the Corn-Bill; others ascribe the ca- 

 lamity to the taxes. These last are riijht ; but what 

 have these things to do with the treatment of the 

 poor ? What have these things to do with the horrid 

 facts relative to the condition and starvation of Eng- 

 lish people '? It is very true, that the enormous taxes 

 which we pay on account of loans made to earn' on 

 the late unjust wars, on account of a great standing 

 army in time of peace, on account of pensions, sine- 

 cures and grants, and on account of a Church, which, 



