28 DECEMBER 1839, Page 3

Mr. Thomas Attwood's resignation of his .s.ezt for Birmingham was

mentioned in our second edition last week. It was formally commuuie cated to the " Electors and Inhabitants of the Borough" in a letter published in the Birmingham. Journal of Saturday. The following ex- tract front this characteristic document will explain Mr. Attwood's reasons for retiring from Parliament He had laboared in the cause of the People to no purpose-

" For seven years I have toiled on under the influence of the righteous hope that I might probably be of service in assisting to restore real and permanent prosperity to the industrious classes, and real and solid liberty to the people. All my hopes have been disappointed. I !Alive found it utterly impossible to do any good to my country by honest means, either u•ithiu the walls of Parlia- ment, or teithow the walls of Parliament. This latter failure has been to me a bitter mortification. When I found that all hope was rain within Partial- in:nt, I tamest to the people out of doors. 1 had dune every thing in may power to give the Reform Bill a titir triad. I had waited, year after year, in the hope of its produ.•ing fruit meet. fir the psylc. It was not until all hope was aban- dor: d, that I cried out to the ly:aple, • Cut therm the tree : why cumbereth it the ground ?'"

ending unions between

• •••,. 0.1,ers were reyoni- V.'1.11st I was pointing out L. victory to time people, bilst I was recom-

mending peace, law, order, Toya1ty, and in, • •:, „ -mil friendship be- tween masters anil workmen, and mutual between all the industrious e!a-ses generally, others c ca., discord, jealousy, suspi..ion, and .11e1 nit, separation of Ht.., .1-1 • • f between masters and workmen, mid ,•• •aeral hatred. .I1-'a' :_ 1 ••,.. among all elasses of the

community. 'rite deluders of the pe.mle ,a; • , I leading the people astray. file irresist11.10 I had ',or, • eoliv,erted into hope- less and fee1.1.• exliih1t1,ms .d' • a/pree. .1'.• had no !Aye what- ever, except in ot .rut /Orr ; Ur, r, ''i.' s complratively cer- tain. 7Yeis they veers I aufdit- to despises .,1, ' •t. 'Tim •t• did not possess the means of availing tliclimseINTS of 'rags it th.i• had possessed than, it wuld..1 certainly have done them • •••••.I; and yet upon this broken rral they were taught to i,!■. grand op- pression which rendered reform me.: •-• :. the money to buy bread for thent=elves and their tram hc.•, gravely recom- mended to buy arms for their cough r. 11''.••1 wa, ism. sty, and the remedy which rich no s may eau 111., ,11,;),,I■deli to them. They were 0111111potvlit ander the /(Z.:'. ii,Calits 'against the law. They were sc.I■ice,1 v what is the

result? The people are delivered up int.. 11 . ••• oppressors,

" Yes, my friends, Ibis is the inidaucholy sta, • . oar eroliory. The de- luders of the people, by guilt or by folly, have delivered the hands of their oppressors. They have rendered it notv 1...i• to form large combinations, or to hold large as,einhlage, tit the 1,, •.;•1• 11111.••.• have recom- mended measures notorions/y //Axil; urgin; the 1',•••;.1,• • ,, ',ruts fm the int/pose of either of tacking, caotc..Wfiny, 01. They have thus set the hoe zvain=t them. Ti..•y hay.. s. • • .y .j,fry in England against them. They have set every nt,zo. /toms and almost every ratinnal mull, against them. 13y unjust calumnies they have set the

middle classes against them. sanguinary threats they have set the upper

classes against them. 'Time mgitcr has been set sgaiu,t workman, and the workman against the master. My friends in Birmingham, wlto for ten years have been the very life oml sou' et iho Reform interest, have been rudely thrown aside as leadeis of the people, for merely standing on their known rules and regulations, and refusing to lead the people astray : in fact, for refusing to lead the plop!' into that very line of roadiw, which has now ena- bled 'Ike ht wyee 11o. s,,hree bn,o7; th• u' u.Irr all their ex- ertions ruin.' Discord. suspieioll, 111Ve berm scattered everywhere. The legal, and suldime 11?1,0f! 111,7remera! of the nation which I was contemplating, has been shattered and hroken up into a thousand fragments; and 1 have lint the means of resturiwz the public confi ?once, the (Map, the aterofitif, sitstrict Ayala y which are absolutely nevess.,ry to give it a chance of success."

The rest of the letter is chiefly occupied with a dis.plisition, or rather deelamatiou, on the mischief of a gold currency el of paper redeemable in gold ; on the iniquitous league he:v.-evil the I.:11,liords and the "money lords ; ;ire necessity of " 11;tatbling the barbisians of the North ; " and the utter disregard of all his warniugs and advice by Ministers and Parliament. These subjects are strangely jumbled to- gether by Mr. Attwood- " The Corn-laws and the new Poor-laws are in reality one and the-grin

Ile had attempted to rally the people' for a grand movement for ft•rther reform—fin' a " great work, seven times greater than that of ;" but the tdfbrt had totally failed-

! Opposed on every side by mith or filly, supported nowhere but in Bit.- mid almost unknown 'in ma ii.mtli•es and object, is every other part • of the country, all my labours iwesm,.. w..rw. thaw it?eks,•••• 'MN 'a amble warn- ings were unheard and unseen. Tile l'';',1ltt Whig, Tory, or throughmit the whole nation. • • .....•1-1 them from the public eye. All things went wrong. Whilst I. ••• • ..1•!.. op in the 'big. others were /gelling down it the night. WCOAlltell ,rqUi/H4 Or workmen

• the just and righteous and effectual itic%!1-

others ogre ifFDI.S and p!!, with the ...ittonot:laws., j • They are all three like the Siamese 'twins. • If you :destroy one of a:mm.0e other two die a natural. death. And the new Police- laws are inticli of the same character. I have often told you, as I have told the House of Commons, that the landlord and the money lord have entered into an unholy league together. They first passed corn-laws to make scarce the food' which supports man's ; they then passed money-laws to make scarce-the money which purchases the food. When the People of England, ground between these twin iniquities, like wheat between the upper and nether millstone, seek refuge in the workhouse, the melancholy patrimony of their fathers, their oppressors then pass new poor-laws, to close the gates of the workhouse against them, and to open the bastiles in its stead ; and, foreseeing that oppressions like these would drive the people to despair, they arc now

preparing rural police.lawe, to nip sedition in the bud.' * * *

"How different would have been the situation of England if this 'cursed thirst of gold,' this 'beggar's vice,' had never prevailed! The people would have been happy at home and omnipotent abroad. Poland, Turkey, and Cir- cassia would have been safe as Aligionistan is. The Russians would have been humbled in the very dust ; or, at least, they would never have dared to build the fleets which now threaten the dominion of the sea.

"These barbarous Russians, lir the last twentv-five years, have had no loyal money whatever, except paper money, and yet 'they have recovered from the devastations of Napoleon, and have suddenly become the most flourishing, the most prosperous, and most powerful nation of Europe. England has been engaged for the last twenty-five years, through all manner of miseries and dangers, in establishing her gold money, and in thus quadrupling the burdens of industry; and what has she become ? This glorious England, but late the mistress of the world, now miserable and distracted at home, and feeble and contemptible abroad, has become the football of the barbarians to-day, and not improbably, will become their plunder and their conquest to-morrow. " Strange it is to reflect, that whilst despotic Russia, despotic Austria, and despotic Prussia, have each been acting upon a wise, benevolent, and patriotic policy, and have thereby made their people prosperous, happy, and contented, constitutional England and constitutional America have each been acting upon a policy directly opposite, producing directly opposite effects. In these latter countries, no Harilenbergs, no Nesselrodes, no Netternichs, are now produced. In both of them, industry is bunted down, under the name of speculation. The democracy in America are tit this moment cutting their own throats as madly, and working the very same wild havoc among the industrious classes there, as the Jewish aristocracy are working here. In their wild efforts to convert a:fic- tion of the law into a reality, they ore abolishing credit and paper money, which have been to them more valuable than the land which they occupy, and more vital, if possible, than the very air which they breathe."

This is the affectionate conclusion-

" My deur friends and fellow townsmen, I thank yen from the bottom of my heart fur your long-continued and well-tried confidence in me. I have never solicited the vote of ally one of you, and I know not that I have ever thanked any one of you, individually, Ai• his vote. Your own virtue and public spirit, and your own, too friendly, I fear, appreciation of me and of my character and disposition, have been my only passports into Parliament. You have selected me with a noble and high-minded patriotism. I have had no honours end no emoluments to offer you, and no hopes to allure you. The seat which you gave me, 1 have always held at your command—' et the com- mand of the deetors or of the non-electors of Birmingham.' 1 now retire from your service, exhausted, disappointed, and mortified, but rejoicing in the reflection that I have never :.old you, nor betrayed you, nor deceived you. I do most sincerely hopo, that in the choice which now devolves upon you, you will succeed in finding a representative who, with equal honesty of purpose, will be snore successful than I have been in relieving the distress of the people, and averting the fioeet which overhangs our country.

My dear friends and fellow-townsmen, I. remain, under all circumstances, ever and most sincerely your faithful friend and servant,

"St. Helier's, Jersey, 9th December 1839."

"THOMAS ATTWOOD.

[We should explain, that the Italics, with which the address is so copiously and curiously illustrated, are Mr. Attwood's own : for in- stance, lie uniformly assign:; the Italian character to the word " Ra- dical" —which seems to imply a sentiment the reverse of respectful towards that nondescript class of politicians.]