An Anti-Corn-law meeting was held at the Court-house, White- chapel,
on Wednesday evening. " The Chartists" assembled in con- siderable numbers ; and Mr. Coates having moved a resolution, stating the injurious effects of the Corn-laws on all who live by labour, whether agricultural or commercial, Mr. Savage moved this amendment- " While the meeting deprecate the Corn-law as unjust, it is of opinion that a repeal of the duties on corn, unaccompanied by a proper adjustment of the Funded Debt and by the enfranchisement of the whole male population of twenty-one years of age and upwards, of sound mind and untainted by crime, would be of no advantage to the working classes, but tend rather to degrade them."
Mr. G. F. Young said, that when a Member of Parliament he had voted with Mr. Hume for a fixed duty on corn ; but lie was decidedly opposed to the repeal of the Corn-laws, as he believed that it would tend to lower the wages of labour- ite bad lately travelled extensively in the North, and conversed with master manufacturers on the subject; minetecn-twentieths of whom had said that they looked forward to the repeal of the Corn-laws as a means of re- ducing the price of labour. These points deserved to be well weighed. Re would solemnly assure the meeting, that, while the repeal of that law would entail an injury on the agriculturist, it WOBid by no means render the good to the working classes which certain persons were deluding them with the hope of Mr. Clay and Dr. Lushington attempted to address the meeting, but were repelled by uproar and hisses. The Chairman, Mr. Peter Martineau, declared that Mr. Coates's resolution was carried ; but the minority was very large.
Previous page
