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city for provisions. I expressed my horror at seeing human beings submit to such degradation, when the man assured me, with the utmost unconcern, that this was nothing of a load; that they went for oakum and various other things, among which he named rod iron to make nails, on which occasions, he said, you might see ten, twelve, or even fifteen in harness!" So, on almost every public road in England, the traveller sees women scraping up manure with their hands to sell for bread.

The following lines were addressed to the aristocracy by an operative:

"You pity not the squalid wretch; you loathe her and

condemn :

Sad victim she. Your daughters-wives: O, name it not to them!

Once she was pure as they; but, left forlorn life's path to tread,

By grinding poverty constrain'd, she sold herself for

Bread.

Through yonder prison grate an urchin's stolid face is spied;

His father, worn with fruitless toil, of want and sorrow died:

His mother, Heaven help her! roams without a sheltering shed;

And he, uncared for and untaught, is driven to steal for Bread.

That crowd of pallid artizans, who murmur loud and deep,

In vain they beg for leave to toil: their wives and children weep.

Beware those sickly, shrivell'd groups, whose heart and hope have fled,

Despair can nerve the weakest arm to desperate deeds for Bread."

How deep, then, must be that degradation which shall satisfy the English monopolist? when he is unmoved by the barbarous, accursed influence of laws which drive young maidens to "sell themselves for bread." Shame upon British landlords and legislators !

I know you often boast of your generosity to the poor; but, good Heaven! speak not of that. Are not your wines purchased with widows' tears? is not your venison sauced with orphan's hunger. Hear the indignant language in which a foreign journalist apostrophizes Lord Brougham.

"Member of the British Parliament! look around you: what do you see? an aristocracy for the most part vicious and disorderly. trampling without pity upon the other classes; at the utmost a dozen of colossal fortunes, and the mass of the population pining under the weight of hunger and misery. Coarse and insolent Britain! raze from your country's shield the noble lion, and place in its stead a squalid and starving wretch, vainly imploring a morsel of bread!"

But, the reader will ask, " Is there no hope for the people? Must they groan on, unpitied and unrelieved?" No, I answer, the day of their redemption draws nigh. There is not on earth a nobler company of men than the cornlaw Repealers. I honour them as much as I despise the framers and supporters of that outrageous law. They have displayed throughout the contest, a manly, a humane, and Christian spirit; they are willing to suffer and sacrifice all things for their oppressed countrymen.

Manchester is the head-quarters of Repeal; and every year the friends of Repeal assemble there by thousands, at a grand banquet. A short time ago more than 600 Christian ministers of all denominations met there, to lift up their united voices against the abominable cornlaws. They have thrown aside the absurd notion that pastors should have nothing to do with politics; for they have found that while they were preaching, their hearers were starving; that these odious laws oppose an insurmountable barrier to the progress of truth. They felt, therefore, that they could not withhold their influence from the Repeal and be guiltless; and they flocked from every quarter of the three kingdoms, to unite with men of all parties and pursuits, in one bold and resolute demand for justice to the people.

The Rev. Daniel Hearne, a Catholic priest (for, in some leading measures of reform, the Catholic Church of Great Britain and Ireland is doing nobly), observed : "I will leave to others the task of explaining why wages are low and corn high in this country, while in America wages are high and corn low. But I have come forward, to bear my humble testimony to that awful and continued distress which was raging in Manchester; and which threatened, unless means were taken to alleviate it, to bring about a disruption of the social order. A famine had been raging in the district where I have lived since 1838, which proved the evil could not be a mere passing one; and I attributed it to nothing else but the low rate of wages, which scarcely afforded to the poor labourer the means of feeding himself and offspring.

"The meeting could scarcely form a conception of the misery and destitution prevailing in the district, of which I am come to bear witness on this occasion. I went lately to administer the consolations of religion to a poor dying woman. On arriving at her bedside, she seemed to be alone; I asked if she was. 'Johnny!' said she, and immediately a sack in the corner of the room began to move; and then another began to move; and out of these tumbled the poor woman's sons, their bed being the inside of sacks filled with shavings.

"About 25,000 of my flock are living within half a mile of my chapel. Scarcely a single Catholic, unless in cases of sudden death, breathed his last without sending for the priest : and of these I speak from personal observation at least the half died from starvation!"

"Talk of war ravaging a country!" said he.

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