ABSTRACT
“That many of us have not food sufficient to satisfy our hunger; our drink is chiefly the crystal element; we have not clothes to hide the nakedness of ourselves, our wives, and our children, nor fuel wherewith to warm us; while at the same time our barns are filled with corn, our garners with wool, our pastures abound with cattle, and our land yields us an abundance of wood and coal; all of which display the wisdom, the kindness, and mercy of a great Creator on the one hand, and the cruelty, the injustice, and the depravity of his creatures on the other. Nearly to this state of misery have your Majesty’s humble petitioners long lived, anxiously looking forward for better days; but to our great sorrow and disappointment, we find oppression daily press heavier and heavier on our shoulders, till at length we are driven to the brink of despair. This misery and wretchedness do not proceed from any fault on the part of your Majesty’s petitioners, as we use every exertion in our power to subdue those bitter evils; but experience tells us that ‘all is vain.’ “—Petition of Hampshire Labourers, carried to Brighton by Joseph Mason, in Oct., 1830.
