THE PRESS.
THE REPRESENTATION—EAST RETFORD.
MoneneG JOURNAL—The consideration of the case of East Retford has been postponed till another session of parliament—a session which may never come; to a distant day—which day may be of a different colour from the present, and may shine upon other men than those who now hold the reins of power. But Mr. Peel, the member for Westbury, who is returned by one elector, and that one Sir Masseh Manasseh Lopes, who endured a long confinement in Newgate for bribery and corruption—this identical Mr. Peel, so returned, has said that he will, when the time comes, vote for the disfranchisement of East Retford. And why? Because a certain rennber of the burgesses are accused of having, in open day, and in the political vendue-room, sold their votes for twenty pounds each. The accusation may be proved—we do not know if it be—but we shall admit that it is proved, that these honest electors actually did sell their votes as is represented. This may be a grave charge; and it would, no doubt, be a heinous offence if it were committed against the liberties of their country, or if the insult were offered to an assembly of men whose honour is above reproach, whose purity is undoubted, who hold in utter abhorrence every venal act, and who, rather than pay for their seats, would scorn to enter the doors of the Commons Ilouse of Parliament. But can any man lay his hand on his heart and say that the representatives of the people are thus pure? Are there ten righteous men in Parliament who can, before their God, declare that they owe their election to the free, the unbought, or the unbribetl suffrages of their constituents I Can they aver that they have paid no money for their seats ? We shall not allow them to blink our question by a quibble. Payment is payment, whether it be in patronage, in sirloins, in claret, in cod's-head, or in sovereigns. Value received is value received, whether it be in silver crowns, or in Cashmere shawls—whether in bank notes or in brown stout. Now, if our proposition be admitted—and we think that even a Whig will admit it—the question comes to this, Do honourable gentlemen obtain seats by these means and these modes of present or subsequent compensation ?—We say they do. We accuse them of buying seats. We impute to them a notorious traffic in seats, from the simple form of paying money down, to the more refined mode of conferring titles and bestowing lucrative situations under the Government. And we further assert, that the men who do this cannot, with any decency or any justice, sit as jurymen, to try the conduct of openly offending parties, or inflict penalties on those against whom a charge of bribery may be brought by any faction whatever. We do not here question the rights or privileges of the House. God knows we have no wish to occupy the cell in Newgate once occupied by the patron of Mr. Peel. We, therefore, do not affirm that the House has not the power to punish corruption. We only say that a large portion of its members, and these the most distinguished of its patriots, are morally debarred from sitting in judgment on even flagrant offenders.
STATE OF THE COUNTRY—SPITALFIELDS, MANCHESTER.
Times—While the kind and benevolent Christians of this metropolis were taxing themselves for the support of Spitalfields-weavers,—totally, as they professed, out of employment,—these wretches werg *tanning an atrocious attack upon the property of the first masters who should! send them employment; and, which is worse, the very villains to whom, on the ItIval of trade, the employment was sent, were in league with the sham-rioters out of doors, and actually admitted them into their houses to cut the silk from the looms at which they pretended to work. Is this to be borne—that men are to be receiving relief with one hand, on the pretence of starving for want of employment, and with the other destroying the silk which is sent to them for the purpose of being woven ? Is this to be borne, we ask ? And now we cast our minds back to antecedent times. We look at the file of our journal, and we find that last year (no longer ago!) after a subscription of the same kind as that which is now on foot, the weaver e struck for prices. A body of men put a seal Oil each work! and the journeymen shot a shoot or two every eighth day, by which they thought 'they evaded the law, which punished them if they neglected their work for eight successive days; but on that occasion, when the committee ceased to afford relief (on which the journeymen who did not work subsisted) the weavers resumed their work ! We are therefore justified in saying, that were it not for the relief now afforded by the benevolent subscription, these acts of violence, knavery, and perjury, could never have taken place. Now mark this, Spitalfields weavers: you think you are eluding the justice of your country; you have, in part, deceived us ; but a heavier judgment hangs over you if you do not alter your con-. duct. It shall go bard but we will root you out of that place, and disperse your trade into other less populous districts. It is, in fact, a great mischief, and a great detriment to this metropolis, that any manufactures should be carried on in its bosom. No manufactures, we assert, ought to be executed in London. It may be said, there are riots and destruction of machinery in the country, and so there are ; but a disease in or near the heart is more dangerous than one in the extremities. For the present, we shall conclude with saying,—what we hope will not be disregarded,—that if the benevolent committee, or the soup committee, or by whatever other name any charitable institution may be known in Spitalfields, ex. pend one halfpenny more in support of the weavers, till the fullest evidence is brought forward against those who cut out the work from the looms of the jour. eeymen in Bethnal-green, the members of that institution—be they who they may—will be virtually in league with the offenders. And further, if the journey. men who let in the sham rioters to destroy the property of their employers, be ever suffered to throseiteiehuttle again—if they lie ever suffered to have any other than parochial support-the masters who employ them are greater scoundrels than those journeymen.
STANDARD—The people are starving. Let those who think that they could with equanamity contemplate the wasting limbs, or calmly hear the cries of wives, and parents, and children, dying of want—let those who could play the philosopher in such case, rail against the unhappy creatures unfortunately now Sr. rayed against the law. For ourselves, anxious as we are, and have ever proved ourselves, for the presentation of order, we wish the unhappy men reclaimed to subordination, more even for their own sakes than from any public consideration whatever. We are persuaded that if they can be prevailed upon to calm their present irritation, something may be dune for them, something at least which shall afford present relief. The mere change of a fashion of dress, if the public could be prevailed upon to follow it liberally by making present purchases, would do much ; and the public unquestionably is now sufficiently informed of the sufferings of so many hundreds of thousands of our suffering fellow subjects, to take the matter up seriously. But first let order. be restored. We entreat, we implore the manufacturers to reflect that their perseverance in insubordination may he made the ready pretext for rivetting a military establishment upon us all.
MORNING Cnitosicee—The are many well-meaning people in this country who are unable to appreciate the changes which the last hundred years, but more particularly the last forty, have wrought on the situation of this country. They talk of standing armies, as our forefathers did, who were spread over the face of the land, and who had comparatively little to apprehend from any distress occa. sinned by stagnation. A hundred years ago Manchester had not ten thousand inhabitants, Glasgow and Birmingham were little better than villages, and, excepting London, there was not a town in the island with more than thirty thousand inhabitants. Now the people are every where congregated in immense masses. The periodical absence of employment, which is inseparable from manufitcturing, plunges thirty or forty thousand persons in an instant into a state of dreadful suffering. Is it to be supposed for one moment, that thirty or forty thousand persons brought in thee of each other will tamely suffer destitution, while they see others enjoying plenty around them ? To guard against the paroxysms of despair, and preveut outrages which can only aggravate the distress of the sufferers, it is prescribed as well by a regard to the general safety, as by humanity to the sufferers, that every great manufacturing town should be constantly garrisoned by soldiers. Iustruct the people as much as you possibly can ; deal honestly by them; do not attempt to mock them by mystifications, the common vice of the higher classes of this country. It is the duty of the rich not to delude, but to instruct the poor. But instruction produces its effects at a distant period. Want and hunger are urgeri. and must be met by immediate measures. It is quite a mistake to suppose!eit distress is more frequent among manufacturers of late years, than at former periods. Let any man examine our domestic annals during the last century, commencing, for instance. with the reign of the first George, and he will find a constant succession of disturbances, among one class or other, of manufacturers. A change of fashion almost always carries with it distress to some class. When calicoes began to encroach on silks, the Spitalfields weavers used to tear the calicoes off women's backs, and to destroy the works at Printfields. At one time all the clothiers, walkers, Sm. in the West of England, were in arms against the use of stained linens. At another time the makers of coloured eerges rose against the makers of white serges. But the whole manufacturing population bore then no proportion to the present numbers, and could easily be dealt with. If, however, even in the infancy of our mannfiictures, it was necessary to call in troops, what must it be now, when, in a single day, large cities may be in Raines?
THE "PAPER BUBBLE."
COBBETT'S Remsemt—Evely one can now see, that things cannot go on in the present way for any considerable length of time; that there must he great reduction of taxation, or great alteration in the value of money, or great change in the application of revenues of some sort or other. Every one now sees this; and the subject of anxiety is, where and when the change is to begin. Many persons think that the Irish Church is destined to receive the first volley ; others think that the debt is to have the honour of precedence; some think that the Cmwn estates arc to be brought to the hammer. For my part I neither know nor care, where or when or how the attack is to begin. Begin I know it must, and end I know it must—end in the reform n of the Commons House of Parliament. To the people it signifies not much when this reform shall take place; but it signifies every thing to the aristocracy ; who, if the reform conic after the levelling changes are begun, will have to rue the day when Ogden and others had to endure the treatment of 1817. Some persons think, that a change of SOBle sort must take place immediately ; and that, at any rate, it must take place during this present session of Parliament. I am of a different opinion. Some little patching may be attempted ; sonic little tinkering work ; but my opinion is, that very little, if any thing, will be done during the present session, or be attempted to be done. Men invariably put off the evil hour as long as they can,; and in this case, the parties really know not what to do. Of one thing, however, they are assured ; or, if they be not, they may lie ; and that is, that they can .do nothing ; that they can neither make a change in the money system nor let that system alone; that they can neither stand still, nor move, without giving me as complete a triumph as ever was enjoyed by mortal man; and as, to avoid giving use a triumph, they would make almost any sacrifice, they are, 111 what one may truly ca'l a most comfortable condition : like the partridge between hawk and weasel : if they sit still the latter sucks their blood; if they move the former strikes them down, and tears them to pieces.
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