THE HUNGRY FORTIES.

Press, Volume LXVII, Issue 20273, 26 June 1931, Page 10

THE HUNGRY FORTIES.

CENTURY-OLD RESOLUTION BY LONDON COUNCIL. An interesting indication that good times are not', perhaps, no very far away, is contained in. a trade magazine," '' Spaldihg-'s Quarterly,'' handed to The Press by Mr Thornhill Cooper. A resolution passed the Common Council of London in 1842 is quoted as follows: — "Keaolved: That the continuous and increasing depression of the manufacturing, commercial, and agricultural interests of this country, and the widespread distress of the working classes, are most alarming—manufacturers without a market, shipping without freight, capital without investment, trade without profit, and farmers struggling under a system of high rents, with prices falling as the means of consumption by the people fallj a working population rapidly increasing, and a daily decreasing demand for its labour; union houses overflowing as workshops are deserted; corn laws to restrain importation, and inducing a starving people to regard the laws of their'country with a deep sense of injustice." "The above resolution," the editor of the magazine adds, was passed by the Common Council of the City of London not in 1931, but in 1842. Yet the 'hungry Forties' were outlived, to be followed by periods of unparalleled proggority.y v