་ describing the effects of that fatal mea- your lectures will spread among all sure, but in a meaning strictly (alas! classes in this country will, we hope, too strictly) literal. If you walk through have the effect of rendering us unaniour streets and view our manufactories, mous in favour of at least one question, you will see in the former, groups of a provision for the poor of Ireland. We tradesmen standing idly, and showing trust that you will return to your place by their hollow cheeks, their despairing in the Senate armed with such an abund looks, and wasted, broken-spirited ap-ance of facts and other information, as pearance, that poverty has followed may decide the legislature on at once want of employment, and that wretch-passing some law by which the poor edness is the only portion they can be- population of this country will be restow on their starving offspring. In our lieved from all future danger of the ills factories you will see looms that are not attending hunger and poverty; and by used because our manufacturers are un-which the cold-hearted beings who at able to keep them going; wheels that present, at home and abroad, are living are seldom turned except to preserve in luxury, regardless of the misery in them from rotting through disuse; and every shape which their poorer fellowwindow-sashes in which there is no countrymen are enduring, may be forced glass, for a necessity does not exist to to contribute a portion of that wealth keep the wind and the rain from places which God did not give them for their that are unoccupied. Things were not own use exclusively to the support of thus before the effects of the union had those who are reduced to depend on time to take place. Then, our trades- others for subsistence. If, sir, you and men were employed, our factories never your countrymen will assist in passing empty, and our fellow-citizens prosper- such a measure, you will deserve, and ous and comfortable, if not happy. And you may rest assured will obtain our yet, sir, Mr. Spring Rice made a state-gratitude. personal welfare, and a hope that you may live in unbroken health and spirits to see the day when your exertions, and those of the other great men who are labouring with you in the cause of freedom, may be crowned with triumphant success. ment of our prosperity, a statement After the fatigue of your travelling, which was totally untrue, and the mo-hither to-day, we shall not detain you by tive for making which his country will a further expression of the pleasure not forget. With the fact in contra- your presence gives us; but you must diction to his falsehood, and that fact allow us to breathe a wish for your easy to be maintained, a man who had expressed a desire to have the very name of his country blotted from history was believed, when he asserted that our trade was in an improving condition!! Thus, sir, has Ireland ever been the victim of misrepresentation, and it was only when men who like yourself were possessed of an enlightened understanding, liberal feelings, and a desire to know, and to publish the truth, came over from England, and saw our real state, and perceived that our complaints were not groundless; that Englishmen who only require to know the truth that they may be guided by it, began to feel that Ireland was labouring under wrongs which justice called on them to redress. ANSWER. Gentlemen,-In answer to your kind' and generous commendations on me I have, first, to offer you my most profound and sincere thanks; and then, on your Address, so pregnant with important matter, to observe From your visit to our country we 1. That if by increased intelligence expect with confidence that both Eng-of my countrymen you mean the inland and Ireland will derive the utmost crease in their quantity of reading and advantage. The information which writing, the facts are these: That 1 and harmony during the last thirty years of that pro-fect freedom and happiness to Ireland, digious increase the quantity of crime and in rendering its in England has increased tenfold! And perpetual. that, as to comfort, the decrease has been peace WM. COBBETT, ben in an exact proportion to the increase City of Kilkenny, 30. Sept., 1834. COPY OF AN ADDRESS OF THE MANUFACTURING AND OPE- 2. That with regard to your loss of manufactures and trade, it is in the nature of our fiscal and paper-money system to create monopolies and to draw all property into great masses; and, as Caligula wished that the people of Rome DEAR SIR, We, the manufacturing had but one neck, that he might decapi- and operative weavers of Kilkenny, beg tate them all at a single blow, so our leave to approach you with feelings of Government, from ignorance rather than mingled exultation and regret of exulfrom evil design, seems to aim, in all its tation at the arrival amongst us of one measures, at getting all wealth into of the most useful, indefatigable, and great heaps, and as near to itself as pos- enlightened public characters, and one sible, that that wealth may be, with the of the most generous and sympathising least possible trouble, available for its friends to our afflicted country; of refiscal purposes; while landowners, act- gret, that the depressed and almost ing upon the same principle, have been ruined state of our trade renders us moulding twenty farms into one, driving wholly unable to offer to so distinguishthe small holders into the ranks of ed a man that reception which his long wretchedness, rendering that estate a and useful services to Ireland so emiwilderness which before contained a nently merit. But, sir, the conscioushappy community, and by the misery which they have thus created challengiug an inquiry into their own rights of possession. ness of doing good is its own reward, and there is no man inore, entitled than you are to the felicity arising from such a conviction. Permit us, sir, to offer to 3. That with regard to a legal provi- an Englishman, conspicuous alike for sion for the destitute, to deny the jus- impartiality and love of justice, a brief tice and necessity of such provision is to but genuine statement of facts relative set at nought the dictates of reason, the to our trade, which has been representlaws of England, and the laws of God. ed as in a flourishing and prosperous As a matter of policy, here, gentlemen, condition, by the Right Hon. SPRING is the only effectual remedy for non-Rice, with that unblushing effrontery residence, for monopoly of land, and and indecent disregard to truth which for the evils arising from drawing ma- characterized the greater portion of that nufactures into great masses. The land-gentleman's speech in the House of owners, compelled to feed and clothe, Commons during the last session of Paror to employ, the millions whom they liament. ruin by their grasping and short-sighted The facts, sir, are these: 1. That the policy, will THEN, for their own interest, manufacturers of the city of Kilkenny, put an end to the evils that they have before the passing of the act of Union, created. were able to employ 3,000 operatives Gentlemen, I am sure that your wishes with families in comparative ease and for my happiness come from your hearts, comfort, until the system of absenteeism and I assure you, that few things would and the withdrawal of capital, consecontribute more to that happiness than quent on that baueful and ruinous meamy being able to assist in restoring per-sure. 1. 2. That the taking off of the pro- tinue to you a life so valuable in the tecting duties in 1921, the leaving of a diffusion of general enlightenment and poor and impoverished country distitate so advantageous to Ireland, is the heart of the fostering aid of a parental legisla- felt wish and prayer of the ne ture, are the prime and sole causes of Manufacturing, &c. of Kilkenny. the misery and destitution of our native manufacturers, and not any combination of tradesmen, as the member for Cambridge has falsely asserted. ANSWER. Gentlemen,-With great pride and 3. That out of the 3,000 individuals alluded to, but 350 are now employed gratitude I receive this address from whose average weekly wages have suf-you, whose occupation and whose good fered a diminution of three fourths, the sense and public spirit call my mind average weekly wages amounting to back to the same occupation, and the but eight shillings, whereas, originally same qualities in myexcellent constitnents the same average amount, was thirty-of Oldham. In answer to the address, two shillings upwards; that even be pleased to receive from me the folthis employment is wholly partial, inas-lowing observations, accompanied with much as that 3,000 stone of wool was my sincere thanks : originally the weekly manufacturing 1. That with regard to the strange consumption; whereas 400 stone is now assertions ascribed to Mr. Spring Rice, the extreme weekly average amount. as my constituents have placed me in a 4. That heretofore, and before the situation to say TO HIS FACE any thing which I shall deem it my duty to say in passing of the act of Union, the spinning mills and factories of LACKEN, disapprobation of his conduct, I abstain, BLACK-MILL, BLEACH-GREEN,, and in this case, from saying, more of that MOUNT EAGLE, Were in full and active conduct, than that I lament that his employment; that since the passing of that destructive measure, employment in these establishments has totally failed. 5. That a CARPET MANUFACTURE has 'been attempted in Kilkenny about four years since, and that also wholly failed 6. That more than one-half of the operative weavers are at this moment in a state of destitution; and out of forty manufactories, but five at present exist, and these exhibiting but the mere semblance of employment; and out of forty master manufacturers, but eight at present exist, three of whom have been long since obliged to throw themselves on the eleemosynary bounty of their fellow-citizens, and are at this moment the wretched inmates of a poor-house. Such, sir, are the facts relative to the woollen, once the staple trade of Kilkenny. Your stay amongst us, sir, though short, will enable one of your vast and capacious mind to weigh the authenticity of these statements against the unfounded assertions of the Right Hon. the member for Cambridge. That Providence, sir, may long con statements should have been so very contrary to the facts, and that I would fain hope, that those statements must have arisen from misinformation or from. error in judgment, rather than from a deliberate and premeditated design to deceive and mislead the House of Commons and the people of England. 2. That with regard to the Union and its effects on the condition of the people of Ireland, while it is impossible to recollect the means by which it was ef fected, and to believe that the end can ever be good; while it is notorious that the lot of the Irish people has been growing worse and worse from the day of the Union to this day, while common sense tells us that the Union must of necessity produce absenteeship, and draw away a considerable part of the means of employment of industry in all its various branches; and, in short, while it is too much for insanity itself to adopt the belief, that eight millions and a half of people can, for any length of time, continue in a state of colonial relationship to twelve millions, about two or three millions of whom they supply. with food; while all this presents itself and that that change may be peaceable to the mind of every really sane person and equitable, is the ardent prayer of in the whole kingdom, still there is another cause, beside the Union, which cause we must not leave out of our consideration, if we would arrive at a correct conclusion, and suggest an effectual and peaceable remedy. Ar Your grateful And obedient servant, #WM. COBBETT. A J CITY OF WATERFORD. a numerous and respectable meeting of the citizens, held by public requisition, in the Arena, in the city of Waterford, on Tuesday, the 30. of September, 1834; Alderman Henry Alcock in the chair ; The following resolutions were unanimously agreed to. 3. That this cause is the drawing of all property, and especially manufacturing property, into great heaps; that the Statute Book tells us, that, five hundred years ago, there was a Cloth Hall, regulated by law, in each of 32 out of the 40 counties of England; that within the period of my life, every labourer's house in the eastern, southern, and western counties of England, contained a manufacturer; that now, the then dispersed and happy millions are huddled together Moved by Alexander Sherlock, Esq., in dense masses, and condemned to toil seconded by Daniel Dunford, Esq., for swollen-up masters who rival lords That William Cobbett, Esq., M.P. in wealth, and who surpass them in for Oldham, by his long and zealous arrogance and haughtiness and cruelty-advocacy of civil and religious liberty; In the first happy period the existence of by his strenuous exertions in the cause a soldier in time of peace had never ofradical reform; by his uncompromising been heard of; in the second place the support of the rights of the people gearmy amounted to an average of less nerally, and especially of the defenceless than ten thousand men, and there were and oppressed; but in a more particular only three barracks in England; now manner by his generous, efficient, and there are in time of peace more than a important lectures, to dispel those hundred thousand standing soldiers, bigoted prejudices against the faith and and more than a hundred barracks; principles of Catholics, which crafty while the miserable operatives, whom tyranny had cultivated in the minds of these are intended to keep in order, have the English people; by his unyielding frequently for their Sunday clothes the opposition to the atrocious Coercion cast-off habiliments of these very sol- Bill; by his frequent and impressive diers, and who have not each a third claims for substantial justice to Ireland; part of the food of one of these sol diers. and by his emphatic support of the repeal of the Union; is entitled on his visiting our city, for the first time, to a marked expression of the respect, the confidence, and gratitude, of the people of Ireland. 4. That the accursed instrument, by which this desolating and enslaving change has been effected, is that papermoney, which made its first appearance a hundred and forty years ago, which has, by slow degrees, brought us intu our present state without any set of our rulers ever seeming to have perceived the danger, which has gone on making the rich man more rich, and the poorings to Mr. Cobbett, be presented to him more poor; which has, at last, divided on his arrival in our city. Moved by Daniel Dunford, Esq., seconded by the Reverend Thomas Clarke, That an address expressive of our feel societyinto two classes,distinct in interest, An address having been then read by and hostile in feeling; in which state of the chairman, it was society, justice, reason, and human nature herself say there must be a change; Moved by Patrick Sheehaue, Esq., M.D., seconded by Owen Carroll, Esq., X eldagoeng ed yam syredo tant ters baglosti gjosegu mila da That the address how read be adopted the citizens of Waterford, and he begged leave to assure Mr. Cobbett, that in no part of his Majesty's dominion were there to be found a more patriotic, independent, and loyal body of men than in the Urbs lat acta.. as the address to be presented on this That the following gentlemen be appointed a committee to carry the foregoing resolutious into effect. The Chairman and Secretary.' Patrick Sheehaue, Esq, M.D. HENRY ALCOCK, Chairman. ARRIVAL OF MR. COBBETT. THE ADDRESS OF THE CITIZENS OF TO MR. COBBETT, M.P. FOR OLDHAM, Sir,--The people of Waterford hasten to join the ranks of those of their countrymen among whom you have already. appeared; and to do credit to themselves in their honour to you, by showing that they know how to give you a welcome to Ireland suitable to the extent of their own obligations to you; suitable to the number and importance of the services which you have rendered to the cause and to the principles of freedom, whenMr. COBBETT arrived here yesterday ever they have to maintain a struggle about eleven o'clock, direct from Kil-with oppression; suitable to the honour kenny. He drove immediately to Mr. due to that high-souled sense of justice Doyle's, in Michael-street, where he in- which, guiding all your conduct, has tends remaining during his stay. A per-placed you, by the common consent of sonal description of him has been so your countrymen, the first among the often given that it would be unnecessary inost patriotic defenders of English li to go over the detail again. His first berty, and at the same time challenge lecture commences this day at theArena, from us the acknowledgment, that of and is expected to be numerously at- Englishmen you are the most generous tended. Subjoined we give the address assertor of Irish rights. presented to him by the citizens. While we present to you, sir, our afA most respectable body of the citi- fectionate welcome to the shores of Irezens, headed by their chairman, Mr. Al- land, the feelings that are uppermost in cock, waited on Mr. Cobbett after his our bosoms must necessarily be assoarrival. Mr. Alcock, on behalf of the ciated with the recollections of the benedeputation, expressed himself as fol- fits you have rendered us, to the majolows: rity of us as Catholics, to all of us as Sir,-We were deputed at a meeting Irishmen. It is impossible to look back` of our fellow-citizens, convened by pub-to the dark ages of unmitigated bonlic requisition, and held a few days dage through which we have passed, to since, to present to you, on their be-the code of blood by which we have half, an address, and as that address been persecuted, to the rods of scorpions contains fully the sentiments of this with which we have been scourged in committee, I shall without further pre-the land of our fathers, to the black face request of our worthy secretary to artifices by which bigotry steeled the read it for you. conscience of oppression, and taught it The secretary then read the address, to deem injustice a virtue, without reand having handed it to Mr. Alcock, collecting that in you, sir, we welcome that gentleman delivered it to Mr. Cob-him who, in defence of the prejudices bett, saying, that, he felt much pleasure of his countrymen, instilled from childin handing him this address on behalf of hood, and transmitted from generation |