of propriety, be called a measure
for the redress of the grievances of the people. If there be such
measures, let the noble viscount bring them forward again next session,
and I am sure they will receive from your lordships every attention.
But, my lords, I have taken another view of the cause of the
disturbances which now exist in the country. I think they have arisen
from a very peculiar state of circumstances; and I will venture to
submit them to the noble viscount, in answer to that part of his speech,
in which he was kind enough to attribute those disturbances to the House
of Lords. I believe that they have originated in the unnoticed and
unpunished combinations which have been allowed by the government during
so many years, to exist,--whether as political unions or as trade
unions, or as other combinations,--clearly illegal combinations,--amongst
workmen, to force others to abandon their work, by those who work at
prices different from those at which they are content to be employed, and
at which they have agreed to work for their employers. These combinations
have gone so far in some parts of the country,--and more particularly in
the north of England, and, indeed, throughout almost the whole of the
northern part of the island,--as to threaten destruction to the trade and
credit of the manufacturers; and at last they have arrived at that pitch,
and have spread to that extent, that the country is brought to the
situation in which we see it at the present moment. For, after all,
what are these Chartists, that are found marching about the country,
and engaged in the disturbances that prevail? I have inquired a great
deal into the subject, and the result is, that I believe they are nothing
more nor less than persons combined together for the purpose of driving
other workmen--engaged, whether in manufactures, in the collieries, or
agricultural pursuits, or in other districts--from their work; and for
the purpose of destroying the machinery, and the buildings, and of
interfering with the capital of the employers,--thus striking at the
very root of employment, and at the chief means of the sustenance of the
people,--striking at the foundation of the manufactures and the commerce
of the country, and of all its prosperity. This is my sincere belief; and
all this, I say, is owing to the want of early notice of the proceedings
of those combinations by the government,--to their not having carried the
laws into execution,--to th