Being Letters to THOMAS THORNHILL, Esq., FROM RICHARD OASTLER, His Prisoner in the Fleet. WITH OCCASIONAL COMMUNICATIONS FROM FRIENDS. www The Altar, the Throne, and the Cottage."-"Property has its duties, as well as its rights." "The Husbandman that laboureth, must be first partaker of the fruits." He shall judge the poor of the people, He shall save the children of the needy, and shall break in pieces the Oppressor." VOL. II.-No. 15. LONDON, SATURDAY, APRIL 9, 1842. THOMAS THORNHILL, Esq. PRICE 2d. The Fleet Prison. SIR,-The speech of Sir Robert Peel on the Corn Laws calls for a few more observations. As I have before remarked, the Premier did not attribute to the present Corn Laws the manufacturing, commercial, and financial embarrassment which we all deplore, nor did he anticipate any amelioration in our condition, from that alteration in the Corn Laws which he proposed. He left us in no doubt as to the CAUSES of our distress and bewilderment, but, for a cure, he simply referred us to "the operation of NATURAL causes.” In preceeding letters, I noticed two subjects which were charged by Sir Robert Peel with having produced the national distress-Railroads and Joint-Stock Banks. Sir Robert, however, mentioned other causes of our embarrassment, to which I will now draw your attention. He said "If you look at the immense efforts made for the increase of our manufactories, and for the building of houses for the reception of those who were to labour in those manufactories—if you look at the immigration from the rural districts into districts the seat of manufactures, and the immense increase of mechanical power which took place in consequence in the years 1837 and 1838, you will hardly be surprised to find that the result which has before attended similar excitement and stimulus should again ensue." Here then we have a distinct avowal that the Migration system, which was established under the authority of the Poor Law Commissioners, is one great cause of the present embarrassed and distressing condition of our manufacturing and commercial population. Is it not strange, Sir, that the same Minister who thus distinctly charges the Poor Law Commissioners with being the authors of so much misery and poverty, should still, in defiance of the voice of the country, as exhibited in his own majority over the Whigs-is it not passing strange, I say, that he should still cling (in spite of the voice of the nation and of every principle of Christianity and the Constitution,) to these officers, and resolve to maintain them, though with the certainty that they must, in the end, be his overthrow? Such an anomaly is only to be accounted for on the assumption that the Minister is, for some wise purpose, permitted, against light and truth, to work out his own ruin, and the injury and degradation of his country. Have we not reason to fear that Almighty God hath "Taken away the heart of the chief of the people, and caused him to err in a wilderness, where there is no way;—to grope in the dark without light, and made him to stagger like a drunken man?” If I could rejoice in the miseries of my countrymen, the avowal of Sir Robert Peel would be cause of gratulation to me, seeing that I was prominently engaged in exposing the dreadful iniquities of the unnatural and barbarous Migration system, and in warning yourself, the Government, and the nation of the consequences; and that, nothing daunted by your displeasure, I persevered, until the Migration offices and officers were discontinued. I was not successful, however, before hundreds of honest industrious families had been transported, sold, and ruined, and very many had been prematurely hurried to their graves! The cries of these poor victims have ascended to the ears of their Heavenly Father, and I fear that, in consequence, the eyes of our governors are darkened, for verily blood guiltiness is upon this land. It is, in this Cell, one of my greatest consolations, that, despite of your dis-pleasure, I exerted all my powers to prevent the operation of the Migration system, and that, eventually, my efforts were successful in forcing the New Poor Law Commissioners to abandon that inhuman traffic. I do not forget, Sir, that it was for those exertions that I was first rewarded by your frowns. Your first tone of anger was elicited by the letters which I wrote from your house at Riddlesworth, condemnatory of that barbarous trade in the blood, bones, and sinews of my fellow subjects, your poor neighbours! Hitherto, my prognostications have been verified-I pray God that, in mercy, my worst forebodings may not be realized. It must seem strange, even to you, that justice required, as a recompense for such labours, that you should imprison me. But, Sir, it is all for the best. I am much more powerful against your foes in the Fleet, than I ever could have been, humanly speaking, in Fixby Hall. I was, a short while ago, visited by an old political opponent from Yorkshire, a Whig-Radical, a Chairman of a Board of Guardians, a banker and mill-owner. He said, "Oastler, it is too bad that you should be here; you do not deserve this from Mr. Thornhill!" I told him," I^ have done what I could for my country as a gentleman's servant, it was needful that some change should be made in my circumstances and position; that God saw this was the best way to give me more power to be useful, and permitted you to imprison me." It is this conviction, joined to the knowledge that I do not, either from you or my country, deserve punishment, which disarms imprisonment of every power to tease or to torment me. I shall remain a prisoner during God's good pleasure, not one moment longer. And during my captivity I know that He will find me work; in which employment there is so much joy, that all lingerings after liberty and home will be entirely suspended. It is God who keeps my mind in perfect peace-my reward is His approbation. And while I desire to express my unfeigned gratitude to those kind and benevolent friends who are now seeking for my release, I can feel no anxiety about the success or failure of their plans and exertions, because I am confident, that where I can best serve my country, there, in spite of every effort, God will place me. I could not believe in my own existence, if I were not sure that a constantly pre- siding, watchful, directing, and particular Providence, overruled all circum stances for my good. Forgive me for this short digression; see what my noble, disinterested friends are doing, and blame me if you can. But to return. "The immense increase of mechanical power" is, then, declared by Sir Robert Peel to be one producing cause of our wretchedness. The Premier also says, and it is well that we should remember his words, on a future occasion we shall find them big with importance "Extend your foreign commerce as you may, depend on it, that it is not a necessary principle, that the means of employment for manual labour will be proportioned to the extent of your commerce." "The necessary consequence of the sudden employment of machinery diminishing the demand for manual labour, must be to expose, in certain districts of the country, those who are dependant for support on manual labour to great privations and suffering." To a man of common understanding, like myself, it is incomprehensible, that one who thus admits and explains the causes of our embarrassment and danger, should, after all, assure us that no legislative remedy can be found; and afterwards, (for aught he shows to the contrary,) for the simple purpose of useless or mischievous interference, make a sweeping legislative alteration in the avowedly innoxious Corn Laws, declaring, at the same time, that no good is expected to result from his new enactment-it is, indeed, passing strange that he should refuse to take any step towards the restraint or regulation of those systems which he so truly charges with mischief, and resolve to interfere with that which he declares to be harmless. The Premier is regardless of the experience and warning of his clear-headed, long-sighted Sire-he will not listen to the advice and caution of that ever-to-belamented Christian statesman and philanthropist, Michael Thomas Sadler-he rejects the aid and influence of the noble and benevolent Ashley-he turns a deaf ear to the loud and imploring accents of hundreds of thousands of humble petitioners; and, to the victims of the most unbearable sufferings and cruelties, he says"I must say, that your general demeanour and conduct (exposed as you have been to great suffering and privation, and to attempts to inflame your minds,) has been such as to entitle you to the utmost sympathy and respect; but yours is the hard condition inseparable from a manufacturing country. I wish to discourage the too sanguine hope that any extent of legislative interference can exempt you from the occasional recurrence of distress. I, however, entertain a confident hope and belief that you may still look forward to the revival, by the operation of NATURAL causes, of our commercial and manufacturing prosperity!" A miserable comforter is Sir Robert Peel! The Premier may sneer at the Ten Hours' Factory Bill, but it is a fact, that very many of the wisest and most prudent factory masters have now come to the conclusion that that measure is the only one which can preserve our manufacturers from being devoured one of another. Nothing is more certain, although Sir Robert Peel may shut his eyes and his ears to the fact, that if he would rescue hundreds of mill-owners from impending ruin, he must, and that without delay, pass a measure to controul their gigantic operations, and thus prevent that ruinous competition, which the wisest of the mill-owners now foresee must result from their increasing stocks and the stagnation of demand. It is no longer a simple question of humanity-it is, at this moment, with hundreds of very opulent men, a life and death question of pounds, shillings, and pence! I know the truth of what I here assert, and I am convinced that this truth will find a response in the hearts of hundreds who have formerly been my bitterest opponents. But I refuse to argue the question, just now, as one of mere money-I solemnly ask the Premier, Is he content that the moral and physical powers of the people shall any longer be subjected to destruction by the unrestrained, unlimited, and blind ambition of those who conduct the manufacture and commerce of the country? I place the following facts before him, and as a man, a father, a statesman, and a Christian, I ask, Shall a system, which thus breaks up the moral, domestic, and social ties of English society, and which prostrates the physical powers even in the cradle, be allowed any longer to assert its baneful sway, in defiance of nature and of every Christian, domestic, and social claim? I implore him to remember, as he reads the following statements, that it is on the domestic hearth that patriotism or anarchy is reared! In my last letter but one I told you, that my friend Mark Crabtree had just returned from the West Riding of Yorkshire. Read, from the journal of that man, the following extracts: "Female clubs are composed of a certain number of females (married and single), generally about fifty or sixty in number, who hold their meetings weekly, at public-houses. The ostensible purpose of these clubs, is to protect each other from want in case of sickness, a provision being also made for assistance in case of death. These objects are laudable and praiseworthy; but, on a nearer view of the subject, we find evils attached to these clubs, which more than counteract any benefit resulting therefrom. "It may easily be imagined what will be the consequence of fifty women meeting together in a public-house, and enjoying themselves in drinking, singing, and smoking for two or three hours.. and then being brought in contact with a number of men assembled in some other part of the house, the husbands waiting for their wives to go home, and the young men through curiosity, or worse intentions. Immediately after the breaking up of the club, the women and men get intermixed in the tap-room, and other parts of the house, and then commences a series of discourses of the lowest, most brutal, and disgusting language imaginable; and if, as is sometimes the case, the husbands should bethink themselves of the family at home, and urge the wife to depart, she will generally show signs of vexation, and insist upon having her own way in these matters.. He, poor man, well knowing that н18 livelihood depends upon HER labour, is obliged to submit, and quietly wait her pleasure, or go to his neglected children alone. "The above refers to the nights on which the clubs are held; but similar scenes may be witnessed on any other night in the week at those houses frequented by factory workers. As an instance, my attention was drawn to one public-house much frequented by factory workers. I accordingly called about nine o'clock in the evening, and found in the tap-room six females-three married and hree single-also five men. The women were all workers at one factory-at combing machines. I entered into conversation with one of the women as follows: "M.C.-What time do you go to work in the morning? "Woman.—We begin work at six; but I generally get up at five o'clock, as I have upwards. of a mile to go. "M.C.-Do you get your breakfast before you go, or is it brought to you afterwards? "W.-No, I carry it with me, and also my dinner and drinking'-(a term used for afternoon tea), "M.C.-What time are you allowed for breakfast? "W.-Fifteen minutes. "M.C.-What time do you have for dinner? "W.-One hour. "M.C.-What time for drinking'? "W.-Fifteen minutes. "M.C.-What time do you leave at night? "W.-Half-past seven o'clock. M.C,-Do you feel fatigued after your day's work? "W.-I assure you, Sir, I do, for ours is very hard work. We have to lift above our heads four combs a minute, each weighing 24 lb. "M.C.-You mean to say then that you lift over your heads 96 lb. per minute the day through. "W.-Yes, Sir, and the week about; that is the reason you see us here drinking, for we cannot eat much, and we must have something. I brought this bread and butter with me this morning, and you see I have not eaten it. M.C.-Is your husband in work? "W.-No, nor has not been these eighteen months!! "M.C.-Does he get up in the morning when you do? "W.-No! I leave him in bed with the youngest child!!! "M.C.-How many children have you? "W.-Three, "M.C.-What ages are they? “W.-Five, three, and one; that at three years old, I have sometimes not seen from Monday morning until Saturday night, for it is put to bed, in another room, before I go home, and I leave it in bed in the morning. “ M,C.—What do you generally get for this sort of employment? "W.-Our wages vary from six to eight shillings per week. "M.C.-How long have you been a factory worker? "W.-Since I had my second child. “M.C.-How many females are there working in your factory at that sort of work? "W.--Thirty. "M.C.-How many of them are married? "W.-Ten. “M.C.-How many of the others have had illegitimate children? "W. Nearly the whole; and them that have none, will have, if they remain long, for they are wicked places! I wish I had never known them, for the sake of my children. I can assure you, Sir, I have known better days. She had been in respectable circumstances. Immediately after I asked those questions, there came in a man with a child crying in his arms: he said to one of the women present, who was his wife, ‘Come. Mary lass, come home, for I cannot keep this bairn quiet; and the other I have left crying at home!' His wife instantly said, 'I wont go home, thou idle devil. I have thee to keep and the bairns too, and if I can't git a pint of ale quietly it is tiresome: this is only the second pint that Bess and I have had between us. Thou mays't sup with us, if thou likes't, and sit thee down; but I wont go home yet—I shall be ready for the work in the morning if I stay here all night.' The poor man drank with her, and then went home with the child, apparently with a very heavy heart. "The appearance of these women was very much emaciated, and they were evidently fast hastening to a premature grave. The evils also affect the children to an alarming extent; and young persons take the same advantage of the parents as the women do of their husbands, frequently using oaths and harsh language, and in case they are corrected, will turn round to their fathers, and say, 'We have you to keep!' One poor woman came to me, almost heart-broken, and said, Because her husband had chided two of their daughters for going to a public-house, he had made it worse, for they had stayed from home two successive nights, and said they would not come home again, for they had the father to keep, and they would not be dictated to by him.' She also told me, with tears in her eyes, That the fac turies had been their ruin—their eldest daughter, being only sixteen years of age, had had one child, |