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 being far worse 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 Man- 

 chester, on the 17th of August, Mr. BAXTER, the 

 Chairman, said, that some of the POOR had been 

 starved to death, and that tens of thousands were 

 upon the point of starving ; and, at the same meet- 

 ing, Mr. POTTER gave a detail, which showed that 

 Mr. BAXTER'S general description was true. Other 

 accounts, very nearly official, and, at any rate, being 

 of unquestionable authenticity, concur so fully with 

 the statements made at the Manchester Meeting, that 

 it is impossible not to believe, that a great number of 

 thousands of persons are now on the point of perish- 

 ing for want of food, and that many have actually 

 perished from that cause; and that this has taken 

 place, and is taking place, IN ENGLAND. 



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

 disgraceful and horrid facts ; but that which is as hor- 

 rid as are the facts themselves, and even more horrid 

 than those facts, is the cool and unresentful language 

 and manner in which the facts are usually spoken of. 

 Those who write about the misery and starvation in 

 Lancashire and Yorkshire, never appear to think 

 that any body is to blame, even when the poor die 

 with hunger. The Ministers ascribe the calamity to 

 " over-trading";" the cotton and cloth and other mas- 

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

 money" or to the Corn-Bill; others ascribe the ca- 

 lamity to the taxes. These last are right ; 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 carry 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, 



