Being Letters to

THOMAS THORNHILL, Esq.,

Of Riddlesworth, in the County of Norfolk;

FROM

RICHARD OASTLER,

His Prisoner in the Fleet.

WITH OCCASIONAL COMMUNICATIONS FROM FRIENDS.

"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. 35.

LONDON, SATURDAY, AUGUST 27, 1842.

PRICE 2d.

The Fleet Prison.

THOMAS THORNHILL, Esq.

SIR,-Yes, if there be justice in England-if her chief governorship is not hereafter to be made the sport of fools-if she is not content to become the derision of the world-the melancholy fact, that Sir Robert Peel has had the effrontery to continue the Poor Law Commissioners five years in office, after having declared that "one cause of the manufacturing distress was the immigration of labour from the rural districts into districts the seats of mannfacture," must be the means of removing the Dictator from his high station. That never-to-be-forgotten fact will silently work against the Minister, in spite of every counteracting expedient. Were his talents, influence, and reputation. higher than they are, it must be impossible that he can long make head against the convictions of truth, operating, as infallibly they must do, upon the public and the royal mind.

The Whigs were sunk by the New Poor Law, but they never, while they supported the Commissioners, charged them with being the authors of distress! That point of infamy has been reserved for the treacherous Conservative Minister, who entered office under the pledge that "he would walk in the light. of the Constitution!" For the present I must, however, leave the consideraiton of this part of the subject.

I had intended, in this letter, to have finished my quotations from the book of Dr. Kay-they will keep till next week. It is necessary that I should, in this number, find room for a few words on the New Poor Law harvest which we are now reaping in the North-a harvest not of peace and plenty, but of want and war! One extract from the Doctor's pamphlet I cannot, however, withhold, because it has a direct connexion with the cause of the distress. The passage which I allude to is as follows:

"The hand-loom weavers, existing in a state of transition, still continue a very extensive class, and though they labour fourteen hours and upwards daily, earn ouly from five to seven or eight shillings per week. They consist chiefly of Irish, and are affected by all the causes of moral and physical depression which we have enumerated. Ill-fed-ill-clothed--half-sheltered and ignorant;-weaving in close, damp cellars, or crowded, ill-ventilated workshops, it only remains that they should become, as is too frequently the case, demoralized and reckless, to render perfect the portraiture of savage life. Amongst men so situated, the moral check has no influence in prevent

ing the rapid increase of the population. The existence of cheap and redundant labour in the market has, also, a constant tendency to reduce its general price."

Sir, I must now pause! Dr. Kay tells us truly, that in 1832, the hand-loom weavers were only able to earn, though they laboured fourteen hours and upwards daily," the small sum of "from five to seven or eight shillings per week!" and "that the existence of cheap and redundant labour in the market has, also, a constant tendency to reduce its general price!"

Do turn to the 4th number of this volume of the Fleet Papers, at pages 30 to 32, and read there the evidence of Messrs. Myerscough, Makin, and Needham, given before a Select Committee of the House of Commons in July, 1834. You will there learn to what a deplorable condition the hand-loom weavers were then reduced. They were, as you will see by the statement of their masters, in 1834, earning only "48. 44d. per week, for food, clothing, and other incidental expenses!" Now, do mark that fact, and then refer to page 29 of the same number, where you will find Mr. Edmund Ashworth, of Turton, (the notorious Anti-Corn-Law-Leaguer,) absolutely envying the poor hand-loom weavers the small pittance which they were then receiving for their excessive toil, which he calls an "advance of 10 per cent.," and, in a letter dated June 9, 1834, “suggesting" to Mr. Edwin Chadwick (the favoured of the Poor Law Commissioners, because his heart is steel) the propriety of still further reducing ("equalizing") the wages of these poor hand-loom weavers, by the immigration. of agricultural labourers into the manufacturing districts, for the avowed purpose of increasing the quantity of "cheap and redundant labour in the market."

Talk about treason, Sir, the wretches who could coolly plot and execute that diabolical scheme, are traitors of the deepest dye-they thus declared war against God and the poor! The avenging hand of an offended Deity is now upon England for that national crime!

That letter of Ashworth's, as also one of Gregg's (another mill-owner and Anti-Corn-Law-Leaguer) on the same subject, will afford abundant matter for future animadversion. I cannot, however, because it is too important at the present crisis, when the bitter fruits of that disgusting scheme are reaping in riot and blood-shed, I cannot refrain from again quoting that portion of Ashworth's letter to Chadwick, which you will find in Vol. 2, No. 4, of the Fleet Papers. Here, Sir, is the seed of that harvest of misery which we are now reaping! That seed was sown by sordid, hard-hearted, selfish Covetousness-it was watered by the Poor Law Commissioners!

Those letters are standing proofs of the origin of the present unhappy condition of the people of the North! What pity, that, in an evil hour, the aristocracy of England should have listened to the advice of the avaricious. and cruel-the hard-hearted misers of the Anti-Corn-Law-League!

Until that great moral national crime is atoned for, peace can never make her abode with us! The thousands who have been slain, the millions who have been ruined, in consequence of Ashworth's thirst for cheap labour and for agricultural blood, cry aloud to God for vengeance-military force cannot stifle that crythe arm of man cannot stay the answer of Deity!

I exerted myself in every way to prevent the adoption of the scheme of immigration. I warned you, your "order," the Queen, the Government, and the manufacturers-my reward is, this Cell, from which I solemnly implore Sir Robert Peel, the Poor Law Commissioners, the Anti-Corn-Law-Leaguers, and every inhabitant of the disturbed districts, carefully to read those words of Ashworth, then they will cease to wonder, that "those who have sown a storm should now be reaping a whirlwind!" He called for blood and blood has answered him!

J

At the very time when that most excellent man, John Fielden, Esq., M.P. for Oldham, backed by the petitions of the thousands who were starving, was seeking, by legislative means, to raise the wages of the hand-loom weavers, Edmund Ashworth was contriving, by means of the accursed New Poor Law, to reduce their wages still lower! Fielden was laughed at-that was his reward! The poor petitioners were denied relief; while Ashworth was applauded and supported in his war against the hand-loom weavers! Ashworth's plan was adopted, wages were reduced-hence the present distress and commotion in the manufacturing districts! This, Sir, is the reason why the Queen's body-guards are called upon to protect life and property in the manufacturing districts! The Quaker's prayer for cheap labour has issued in the sword! While I write, the Queen's Guards are on the railway, to quell the riots which have been. created by the suggestions" of Ashworth!

There can be no mistake about the matter. Sir Robert Peel himself acknowledges the truth, when he asserts, that "one cause of the distress is the immigration of labour from the rural districts into districts the seats of manufacture!" That "immigration" originated in the sordid mind, it issued from the hard and callous heart of Ashworth, who thus, in a letter dated from Turton, near Bolton, on June 9, 1834, propounded it to the flinty Chadwick:

"Full employment in every department was never more easy to be found than now, consequently, wages have advanced in most operative employmeats, particularly so in the least skilful.”— Hand-loom weavers have been much wanted, and their wages advanced, on an average, 10 per cent. This bespeaks a scarcity of labourers here; at the same time, great complaints are made of the surplus population of the agricultural counties.""-"The suggestion which I particularly wish to make, is, that in the New [Poor Law Ammendment) Bill the greatest possible facility should be afforded to families of this description [agricultural labourers], who should be willing or desirous of removing from the agricultural counties, where work is scarce, to the manufacturing districts, where it is abundant.”—“I am most anxious that every facility be given to the removal of labourers from one county to another, according to the demand for labour; this would have a tendency to equalize wages, as well as to prevent in a degree some of the turn-outs which have been of late so prevalent."

Pity that such a wretch had so much influence! Deeply is it to be regretted that that diabolical "suggestion" was listened to, and that the wise, Christian, and patriotic advice of Fielden was despised and laughed at! I immediately warned you and the Government what would be the inevitable result. My honest and energetic warning gave offence, hence I am here. The present alarming state of the manufacturing districts proves that I was not mistaken-the "turnouts" have not been "prevented!"

Is it to be wondered at, that the poor people, who have borne privations such

as man is not called to bear patiently, when inflicted by the avarice of his fellow-man-is it, I say, any wonder, that these poor sufferers should lose their patience, when they know the cruel plans which have been contrived by their worse than Egyptian task-masters, and adopted by the Whig Government, to lower their scanty wages?-or when they see that their hopes in a Conservative Government have all failed, and instead of redress for their unmerited sufferings, they behold the avowed authors of them rewarded, fostered, and supported by the self-same Prime Minister who charges them with being the promoters of the existing misery? The poor creatures who are driven to madness by such oppression should be pitied-the blame rests with their oppressors. Instead of turning the army of the Queen upon her famished people, the power of constitutional law should be applied to the impeachment of those traitors, who, having sworn "to walk in the light of the Constitution," have fostered and encouraged those whose business it is to carry distress and misery into the cottages of the poor, “by forcing them to live on a coarser sort of food!" It must never be forgotten, by the opponents of the New Poor Law, that that Act was not the offspring of a mistaken, but of a wicked philosophy-it was purposely contrived and enacted to produce the results which we now see operating in the North--to famish the people! Much as I deplore the misery which it has occasioned, I do not regret that the industrious people refuse quietly to starve to death in the midst of plenty. Well may the brave troops of Britain shed tears, (as I am told they have done,) when, to uphold the enemies of the Queen and the Constitution, they are required. to fire upon and sabre Her Majesty's misled, famished, but still loyal people!

Sir, I am digressing-the gloomy circumstances which overspread my country. are my apology. I was reminded of the origin of the Migration scheme, while my native country is reaping its bitter fruits-hence I could not resist, thus early, au allusion to Ashworth's atrocious "suggestion." I shall afterwards, in duc order, continue my remarks on his never-to-be-forgotten letter to Chadwick.

I was stunned by the sound of cannon and musketry, and the clashing of sabres, mingled with the howlings of despair from the maddened victims of “immigration'! Let that be my apology

These are not times, Sir, to be mealy-mouthed. Impeachment of the traitors, or constant restlessness and insubordination amongst the victims, must follow in the wake of the accursed New Poor Law immigration! This is, as you well know, no new thought with me. How often have I grieved you,

by reiterating this cry. Again I warn the aristocracy and the Queen, that their

"orders" canuot long exist with the Poor Law Commissioners and the unrestrained use of machinery. And why?

A sudden intruder explains the whole affair. "Look there," said a friend of mine, as he opened the door, and placed before me a pattern of checked tweeds, 27 inches wide-" Look there, and wonder no more at the riots in the manufacturing districts! Three years ago, I gave 4s. 6d. a yard for such goods, even when I was buying for a London slaughter-house; now I can buy them for any body at 18. 10d. per yard!!" I examined the pattern, and could not avoid asking, “Is it any wonder, if people cannot earn bread in their looms, or get it from the overseers, that they should, when driven to desperation by the Poor

Law Commissioners, riot and plunder?" And then I added, "At this moment, the soldiers of Her Majesty are most likely sabreing those poor hungry weavers, while Her Majesty is surrounded by some of the guilty authors of the riots at her Council table!"-I then looked at the pattern again, and found the whole thing explained by 1s. 10d. instead of 48. 6d.!!

Yes, Sir, that little fact settles the whole question. Therein you see the result of the principles of Free Trade, which have been so eloquently expounded by Sir Robert Peel, and responded to so heartily by the Leaguers! Cheapness and competition have thus snapped the last social bond, and the famished, distracted victims are now leaving their profitless looms, and levying contributions wherever they appear! Think not that the difference between 19. 10d. and 48. Cd. is only felt in the cottages-that "cheapness," upon which the Leaguers build their hopes of prosperity, will as surely remove the foundation of your mansions and castles, as it has already emptied the cupboards of the poor! For rents and taxes must soon follow in the same diminished ratio! The army is vainly engaged in forcing the poor weavers to be content to work and starve! The guilty authors of all this wretchedness arc, indeed, now seated in high places, but their day of trouble draweth nigh!

Say what we may, the Prime Minister knows the cause of the manufacturing distress, while he honours and rewards its avowed anthors, and punishes and destroys by the sword those whom famine (created by man) has driven to madness.

If I suspend the recital of my proceedings against the New Poor Law until next week, the disturbed state of the northern districts will furnish my excuse. Had you not foolishly locked me up in this prison, I should, long ere this time, have hastened to my own district, where I have reason to believe that I could have rendered my country essential service.

That I know the temper and condition of the inhabitants of the West Riding of Yorkshire, and of those of the disturbed districts in Cheshire and Lancashire, you will not deny. That I have some influence with them, I know that they will not dispute. That I am well acquainted with the causes of their sufferings, and consequent discontent, my writings and warnings, which have been continued through a long series of years, and now seem almost to be prophetic, are a lasting proof.

I am not taken by surprise, the whole thing-cause and consequence-bas often been explained by me. The Governments, both Whig and Conservative, have repeatedly been urged to look into these things, and then prevent this state of confusion and distress. The cure is not difficult, but it is in the contrary direction to the policy of the Whigs and the Conservatives. The suffering is consequent upon the want of regulation, protection, and restraint in all our concerns, but especially in those immense efforts of skill and ingenuity (the factories) which were by many supposed to be enriching us, while, as I have always asserted, they were, for want of regulation, draining the very vitals from the people. Their destructive agency has been fostered and accelerated by the Migration system, the general operation of the New Poor Law; by the withdrawal of those few restraints, which, within a few years, existed in our laws; and lastly, by throwing our labour into competition with that