The Sun. — London, England, 1845-04-10 00:00:00

I - A , E r.rrj OF THE LEAGUE ice f + i ; Ina O 1 ith the elo A NTI-c 4) F.;N-lAW COVENT GARDEN THEATRE. A general Metropolitan tneeting of the members of the Anti-Corn•laa League was held last ev, ning in the Theatre-Royal, Covent-garden. The doors were opened at half-past six o'clock, and notwithstanding the unfavourable stace of the weather, every part of the theatre was crowded to excess long before the eornmencement of the proceedings. Iteletel, :he thea tre was inconveniently crowded, and many persons unconnected with the public press were permitted to crowd into that portion of the house which has hitherto been appropriated to the exclusive use of reporters, where, by the pressure %i hich they created, and by the incessant buzzing of cony Teethes which they kept up, they were a source of serious annoy ance and inconvenience to those whose duty it was to take notes of the proceedings. At seven o'clock, F. Wilson, Esq , the chairman of the League, entered the house, and was greeted with reiterated plaudits. He was accompanied by Dr. Rowring, M.P., R. Cobden, Esq., M.P., Colonel Pey ronnet Thompson, Pox, B e e. , George Thompson, Esq., W. J. 1 and several other influential members of the League, who were loudly cheered as they ap peared upon the stage. Amongst those present we observed :--George Wilson, Esq. (in the chair), the Hon. Charles Pelham Villiers, M.P., John Bright, I t s q't M.P., J. St ewart, Esq., M.P., Alexander Murray, Pr tessor Grah am — s a ge M.P., Major-General Briggs, Professor Key, _ aughton (Bro om - 14.. , Dr. Willi am C oo k e T ay l or , J o h n 'LA Sunning-hill, Berkshire), The _Cape, Dr. Bateman, Dr. M acdonnell, Capta i n C ogan, Horton• Clarke, Esq., M ayor of Coventry, Messrs. John (Lincoln), Bowring, jun., C. H. Lattimore (Berkhatnpstead Willi am ), Abrah am B auer , G eorge B re ttle, Leaf, N. Overbury (W es tb u ry), William Ta for Leavers, David Dewar, W. A. Wilki n son, P. A. y, J. o.ffer, R. A. Lyon, Willi am H argreaves , G eo rge G. W e ll tord, P. Morand, E. A ran j o , Lindsay Travers, J. Po u lt er , C. J. Baker, Press for re ng*T, H. L. K ee li ng, C . Gil p i n, Sh ep h er d Sand kfd (Littl e M allingfield, Suffolk), Thomas Ball (South Shieldstlive sq ), W. Coxhead (Bath), H. Penny, J. W. F. Hardy, G. Hilditch, Clement Kemp, w• K. Morris, J. Fenner, Charles Spiere, John SY -1,_41°148, Benjamin Clark, W. Robinson. C. Fox, Wil "4. In Ellis, H. H. Duff, James Waterman, Henry Allen (Windsor), G. (Arundel), J. Clode, jun. 11 ,,. e wItins, J. Fenwiek, Robert Weir, G. H. Ashurst, ',J.. P. Burnard, Henry 4.410 yd m orgen, ..„. d Stone, Town Clerk of Leicester, Hull (ITxbridBe), Henry Edw ard Smith (Sheffield), Edward Smith, Samuel 8ai 1ey,,,,, Henry S co tt, Henry Elkington, T. K 4Jitellard, T. Dyson, D. Miles, P. Mackenzie, M. ylloolter W. Geeein, P. Douglas, W. E. Take, Jams* t . la rnard (C o l c h ester ) . G eorge Rid o ut, Ri c h a rd Bur dett, Richard Ware Cole, J. Biggs, ex-Mayor of Leicester, Fi tz h er b ert B ug hy (Stepney College). 161. iluzlago (A zores ), G. tx idge, T. Baldwin, A Anderson, William Evans (Manchester), Malcolm Ross, and Edward Walker (Manchester). G. WILSON, Esq., then took the chair, and called 4011 the Secretary to read the minu-es of the las' nutting. The SECRETARY having read the minutes, Dr. BOWEING, M.P., moved that they be confirmed Mr. KAY, the Mayor of Manchester, seconded th, it. 'notion, w hi c h was carr i e d by acc 1 ion. The CHAIRMAN then came forward, and wes received With the most enthusiastic cheers. After the applause had somewhat subsided the Hon. Gentleman spoke as follows :—Ladies and Gentlemen, we have permitr meeting and 1 greater length of time to intervene betw e en t s toe last than has usually been permittee to elapse, in • accordance with our previous arrange meats ; and although there can by no question that, a to very r emo te period stance would have been laid hold of by the mono- P°l ista as a proof of the declining state of the League. a " Would have given rise to prophecies of our speedy a nd utter extinction, yet I rejoice to say that I see no 4 ., 11 ,_ e h sYnaptoma on the present occasion. —(Cheers.) '4e I nonopolists have been silent on the subject. We I ba y Meet f requent l y or on l y occas i ona ll y, or even suspend our m ee ti ngs a l toget h er f or a t i me, b u t de ),n!Upon it en oug h h as b een d one to i nstruc t th e most ignorant, and to enlighten even the r : st obtuse o f t h e members of the Society for the o°tection of A gr i cu l ture—(Cheers)—as to the fo ll y e ' neeiving that any change in the nature of our publi c de eau4.... irionstrations or any diminution of them, : trect in the slightest degree the action which the Will exercises on the public mind, and which it ce rn _r nti nne to ex erc i se and to increase, unt il t h e w e • are aws shall be enti re l y a b ol i shed.—(Loud c h eers. ) met here eV ent CO which for th e l ast t i me previous to at. been directedl4 ich a great deal of p u bli c atten ti on has further ; and whi c h will have the effect of stil cent* propagating our principles throughout th• Now, i Yi --- 1 mean the Anti-Corn -law League Bazaa. or this any one think s that from revious exhibitions a description he P idea to that which we can form the slightest idea te deceives himself. Propose (el to hold here, he grossl. will not met e ers.) In the first place our: be a mere not rc ,'P°litan exhibition. It wil be a mere provir • ever y sense of the wotrdeu exhibition. It will be i: Coe— (Lo ud eheers)_ina strictly national demonstra• the T. —eagne--(Cheers) (Cheers)nand respect One worthy ce 'notion of which the Le — a n of the cause for the pro newed cheering.) we t i e , was establish,d.— (R''' eontributions of course have the usua' which are a asses i but, in addition, generally exhibited at ba title , We shall h us fats ever • have special contri '(Cheers ) y town in the kingdom of any mark. and Leicester, . • We shall have lace .o Sheffield from Nottingham hish „ and Birmingham will fur C `lll w ith hardware. ora wnit ; ~hewl We shall have minerals from Pre dneti en lode : , fro nl Paisley. Every variety of !et, aUfacturere tne ingenuity and industry of the Lnere, i n of England call into exertion will be exhibit.addition to all that is usually contributed tt I ions of a• • I en , i ...__ .0 u similar character. —(Loud cheers.) y ,. tioi;eeofta fund were the mere object we had it r a gener a l gu.amount might be procured by means ale e by this e a mount than we shall be likely It :lire the ii:nexririzion. But what we want is to se 4 , 4 , r Measur es wahco-opf.ration of those in supportine °la than _ °se co-operation will be more valu (Ch an' ..Y atto u eel%) . w . ut of money we may procure.— to frienti f r o e want to see assembled in this theatr, to • 4 m ef.Rye 1.1, al l parts of the kingdom. We want _e el „,_ ceaferr* a n opportunity of conferring together: each Ing with 1, other L 1' th e , e , ---( 0 one another—of knowing od cheers)—and we think that l it -, xnee _ % P e ttis t o ou t ' s we shall give an additional w e h iodivida r cause, and double the resolution of w e !lave i ll v i e w tO Promote the grand object which th in o . nv e the Le,w•-•:-(Loud cheers.) At the same time * hi% "Ilta r Vi i? lr g satisfaction of knowing tree o our us , not interfere in the slightest degree lest us course of 0 , 11 ,,t the al will be operations.—(Hear, hear.) 'gate •The r .oultur 1 diffusing knowledge through -11341 111 4 the d a • districts as usual.—(Cheers.) d eep (Cheera) afly meetings of the council as ul (Cheers to our - lnd the strictest attention will be I ye sierie;_,_ !egistration proceedings as usual.— `ll differe:seering.) Our regular agents will visit the ' boroughs and counties for ' plee, Would if this purpose, o r . ere......_ ish no such . h exhibition were taking 1 4 Pini on of i ks eel's.) There is not a single wheel eon the _t e machinery of the Lea !h . h ' tisintieluto°at perfect order, and wil e ' I lc il ls not i not tttinled t o i t be a°, as much as if our attention con 4ptior, f 0, exclusively, without sus ense I teeed f r n the proce cl. here, p or inter to tie fee a fort • e trigs ere. We shall thus ihteola andight in arresting public attention tho,:lel theatre,solirt•o the cause which this bazaar is tZi, t f r i e ....,_ w. 0 and it must be satisfactory to tt l i .ni. fayo__ _. h seven years ago were without Is nowe to r_r lu the country, and who assisted at te a l become _ om ay the foundation of this Lea ue which %jstwera eve the greateB and most influeri e most 0 1sf xt :_ y ever known in this country— itmustn ae be . 4 4 N 1 7 e r e.. to th.ese men to know that their t e_d 4Peotations t 11 of support from the people mos t sen 014 XP€otati of Support from the people are altslre than realis d (I eeri this eveni n •e . eoud cheers) The s _ . 0e.,...._,_0_ g will be Mr. Cobden---(lmtnense 1 4 1 1 e. pot ,t,.. , : . lonel will cheers) d IQ: will at (Cheers. I will not detain —an see, s _ o I once cal upon my Gallant you longer, 0 -I , :a 'to address yu. _Friend Colonel --(Loud cheers.) 10 4 7 1 nel P. 'r unup h ill pat e nthusias so; who was received with the la,,ltniurit in, supposed that it was in virtu e o f ea.) Y that he had b • AIS this was no Governs been pue forward. —(A o Grovernment procession, he saw no reason why the youngest should go first. Eighteen years ago— " True 'cis pity—pity 'tis 'tis truf.," eighteen years ago he was exerting himself alone in this grand cause. Nine years he was doing what one man could do to oppose in the House of Com mons that arrangement of the existing Government by which the interests of the English Church were bound up up with a continuance of the corn-laws. — (Cheers.) All would not do, however, and he was cashiered on the first opportunity.—(A laugh.) Had he had a fair chance, as other men had, he might have been alive still, and of service to them now. It was not him they saw before them, but only his wailing ghost —(Laughter.) He had been assassinated seven years ago in blarylebone.—(Cheers and laughter.) That gas a long story, and not to the present ques tion. But he was assassinated there, and some would find it so to their cost. When that was the way in which the people paid those who led them, no wonder if, year after year, they found a difficulty in carrying popular questions. But he brought no ill omen there. He brought rp.,thing but what wa. favourable He had been recently visiting their pld and tried friends in Scotland, who were as hearty as ever, nay, heartier than ever in the cause..—(Loud cheers.) Their Scotch friends knew, as well as they themselves knew. that the time was fast approaching when their came would he trumphant. Their friends were multiply ing everywhere. Their enemies were falling before them; or, better still, they were joining them, (Loud cheers.) Look at the Premier.—(lmmense cheering.) How much was he worth ?—(Renewed cheering.) Let them take note of his actions and his sayings. He saw that opposition was so foolish and so hopeless that, like a man of prudent character.as he was, he was only looking round to secure a safe port in time to put into it.—(Cheers and laughter.) And with him would come all those special waiters upon Providence who considered him as their God, the Eolus, and who, whatever wind he blew, were ready to make sail before it.—(Loud cheers) Their enemies were working for them.—(Cheers.) All that men could do to forward their cause their enemies were doing.—(Cheers.) They themselves could not do more than their enemies were doing for them.— (Cheers.) He had told his friends in Scotland that if they had paid their enemies to adopt that course which would most promote the cause of the League, and had laid down for them the course they were to adept, they could not do it half so well as their enemies were doing it for them. —(Hear, hear.) Let them look at the recent debates—grease, and lard, and butter—those were the things which had engaged the attention of statesmen on the monopolist aide of the House.— (Cheers and laughter.) The great questions of na tional interest had dwindled down into such smoky, greasy things as these.—(Renewed laughter.) He had told their friends in Scotland that when they brought the little boys into schools, and instructed them in the use of various things, they should ask them, among other things, what Government was for, and the little fellows should be brought to pipe out in answer—to put tar in our butter,—(Cheers and laughter.) He had been to Scotland to invite their friends there to make contributions to the bazaar ; and some men had said to him, what is your particu lar concern in tlis busires= ? How do you earn your livelihood ? lie answered, that it was aforaging party, tn'] why should not he take charge of a foraging party, if he were asked, as well as any other ? And, strange to say, they liked his foraging party, and they gave contributions according to their produce. Some gave yarn, some g.ve bed -ticking, some gave minerals.—(Cheers.) At Newcastle they gave coal., which it had been agreed should be sold from the sample. Tickets should be printed fir the bazaar ir ten chaldrons of coals; and why ladies should not sell these tickets for coals, he could not under stsnd. Depend upon it that nothing could he given hut that they would have ingenuity enough to find the means of disposing of it. One man had pro mised to send them a Shetland horse, forty inches nigh. Now he proposed that this horse should ilppear at the bazaar, and that over him there should be this motto, "This is what men and horses ome to, when they can't get corn."—(Loud cheers, and laughter.) Now there was more than a jest sanging upon that horse. The inhabitants of the Shetland Islands maintained themselves by the pro luce of their fisheries, which they send to Spain and Portugal ; and if they were permitted to bring home •orn, instead of being unable, as they were now very 'r(-quently, to obtain bread t) eat, they would have In ample supply of it. The corn of the Shetland rslanda was so bad that it had been suggested that it night be possible, if they went quietly to work, for them to be able to obtain for the Shetland Islands the same privileges as the Channel Islands now en joyed, and which had been obtained in some degree through the interference of their friend Dr. Bowling— (Cheers)—for the Isle of Man.—(Renewed cheers.) The course was the same in Shetland as in London. The hardship was equal in both places. Restriction was as hard at Lerwick as in London. It was felt the same in Manchester. Now, 100 pair of hands were employed in a factory as it was in the Shetland cottage by the fisherman's wife, who sat knitting in solitude those shawls which could not be sold to pro cure her family bread. The only difference was, that while Shetland was small, London was large, and as they were larger and possessed greater strength so they should aid the weaker, and make contribu tions in proportion to their greater means. They should aid that bazaar which was to be raised in their own metropolis, so that their friends might say that never yet had there been such an exposition of the produce of British ingenuity and British genius. For he knew well that although those who were here assembled were perfectly aware of the magni tude and importance of their cause, yet there were ome who were outside barbarians who required in- Formation on the subject.—(Cheers.) And he be .ought all of them, when they went forth from that souse, and returned to their homes, to become mis sionaries of the truth, and see how long it would be before they would stimulate their friends and convert their enemies, so that their power should be irresis tible.—(Cheers.) He understood that they were to have some unexpected aid that night, and he, as an old servant, would not detain them longer, but would et once make way, to afford them a taste of that which was new.—(The Gallant Colonel then retired, tmidst loud and long-continued cheering.) Mr. COBDEN then came forward, and was received with the utmost enthusiasm. He said, that he had tbund himself unexpectedly seated beside a gentleman who in times past had been a consistent and strenuous, but conscientious and amicable opponent of their _rood cause.—(Hear, hear.) That gentleman was largely connected with agriculture.—(Hear, hear.) Not only did he farm himself above 3,000 acres of land—not only was he connected as agent with some f the largest proprietors in the kingdom, but he him self W3S a large landed proprietor.—(Cheers.) Mr. rTaughton had been examined before the Parlia mentary Committee of 1836, and he (Mr. Cobden) was happy to say that Mr. Haughton had maturely considered this question, and that he was prepared hat night to address a few words to that meeting— (Cheers)—to explain, if explanation were necessary 'o them and to the country, the grounds on which he eid seen reason to alter the views he had fo merly , wertained upon that subject. He begged to be *l owed to introduce Mr. Naughton to the meeting. Mr. HAUGHTON then came ferward, but for a few minutes he could net obtain a hearing, so tumultuous .vas the applause which greeted him. When silence was somewhat restored, he said, that it had been said by one of the greatest men that the world had ever seen figure upon its stage, that men and women were merely players. He (Mr. Houghton) little thought that he himself should be a performer upon these boards.—(Laughter and cheers.) He little thought that he should there address such an assemblage upon such a subject —(Cheers.) He had been for 20 years the steady supporter of protective duties. He did sup port them conscientiously and firmly. It would not be necessary for him to take a review of his past adherence to those principles, in the same manner that Opposition Members in the House of Commons reviewed the past labours of the sessit n.—(Cheers.) But he would acknowledge that he had supported the system of protection which had now extended over a period of thirty years. He would give them his reasons for abandoning the sinking ship when she was no longer sea• worthy.—(Cheers.) They might, perhaps, be aware that not only WAS he a large land lord himself, but that he also had a great quantity of property in charge, and it was only from a thorough conviction—from a consciousness that it was his duty —that he did what he could to bring about the con summation of this great principle.—(Loud cheers.) He would first of all ask of any of his brother farmers who might be present how the protective laws had been of service to them ? —(Cheers.) When the . law was first passed in 1815. they were told that the price of wheat should be 80s., yet, in 1822, it was found that the half of that money was all they could obtain. In 1825 it was found per fectly impossible to carry out this law, so great was the famine that prevailed in the country, and Mr. Canning thought it hi s d u ty to g o down to the House ?f Jommons and let wheat out of bond without pay ing any duty at all. I n the year 18:35 he was one of the parties examined before the House of Commons, and it was then complained that 353. was all they could get. In 1840 there was a different state of things to be brought about—(Laughter and cheers) — sir Robert Peel was brought into power, and he said that he could insure the highest rate of wheat to the I farmer. He could assure him 565, They were at T R SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY ' that time obliged to sell it for 455.---( Hear, hear.) Anil he would say now, after ten years' experience, that it was an egregious fallacy to endeavour to con trol the seasons, or to state with certainty what should be the price of bread.—(Hear, hear, and cheering.) That was the case, and he would affirm that while it was already proved that while the amount guaranteed was 545., tile sum they sold it at was 455. Such was the effect of protection.—(Loud cheering.) Know ing this, it was necessary that all should come for ward on this occasion, whether landlords, or tenants, or labourers, and when at last the immense mass of the people would feel their interest in the cause, there could be no doubt of its being ultimately car ried.—(Cheers.) Why, it was the interest of the landlord, it was the interest of the farmer to do that —(Continued cheering.) And let them not forget that it was their bounden duty to fill the mouths of their vastly increased pauper brethren with the good 1 with which God had gifted them. They knew that the seasons had their cycles, and that while the only kind, the great and the bountiful Giver of all Good might he showering down his gifts on one portion of the earth, he might at the seine time withhold his favours from them, by scorching no what they had sown, or by drenching their fields with rain. Let them apply to every part of the globe for food.—(Cheers.) Let them carry their produce wherever it might find a market ; and let England be, as it was intended at first to be, the workshop of the world.—(lmmense cheering.) Let all in that assem blage do their duty ; landlords, tenants, and opera tives, until, like the phoenix from its ashes, they should arise, and show by their determination their desire to do away with the stigma which now attached to their country. He would mention what had oc curred to his own mind within the last three years, when Irish butter was introduced into this country, and Glasgow alone could be found to purchase it. He remembered lately that in Ireland he spoke to a manufacturer, and these were his words :—" Where is the sense of your giving us such prices for our butter, for all the farmers' wives want shawls now ?"—(Laughter.) In carrying out that principle, they need not mind whether other countries grew corn, for they, also, would try to grow it—(Hear, hear)—and, like the farmers' wives who wanted shawls, theywould find their wants grow in the same proportion.—(Cheers.) He had just left the shores of Ireland, and he had been told that the corn-laws had done a great deal of good for that country. He would now ask this simple question— Had it made the farmers of that country rich ?—had it increased the happiness of the popula tion ?—(Hear, hear.) It was no use to occupy the public mind of Ireland in this manner. It would make the country worse ; it would bring the people into a state of greater degradation. After seeing the state of the farmer in England with his thirty years of protection, he was compelled to ask, if he was in the position to which that protection entitled him ? He said no; and he did say that he was unwilling to give any protection. He had supported protection conscientiously, because all he had in the world was on land or in land, and he had the consolation left that let the wind blow high or blow low, he had acted throughout conscientiously, because, though he was interested in the question, he had changed his opinions, and he was not ashamed now to avow them. —(Tremendous cheering.) He would tell them this, that he had changed those opinions conscientiously. He would tell them more than this, he advocated these new opinions because he believed them, and he would advocate a free-trade not only in corn, but in sugar, and in timber also. He could not ask for sugar, because the Crown said it was to be protected ; but if he built a house, he might surely see what the quality of the timber used in it was, and he might wish to make _ _ that timber better. He asked for the abolition of the corn-laws, because it would enhance the comforts and the happiness of the people.—(Cheers ) Mr. COBDEN, who for some time was so voci feroesly cheered that it was impossible for him to obtain a hearing, at last, when silence was somewhat restored, said that he was sure that the expression of the feeling of every one in that assembly would agree with him when he stated how deeply they felt themselves indebted to the Hon. Friend who had just appeared before them, for his candid expression of his conversion from the princi ples which he had before then advocated ; and he thought it looked like the beginning of the end.—(" Hear, bear," and laughter.) They had, if he might say so, been going round the circle, and had just completed the journey. They had be gan with the manufacturers, then they had gone to the shopkeepers, and new they had got among the farmers. When the agricultural interest was intro duced to the notice of the House of Commons, and when its most distinguished supporters brought for ward a motion on the subject, it would astonish the landlords and their friends to find that nothing de serving the name of an argument had been advanced on the sub ect on that side of the House. He would not say that there were not Mem bers on the Government side of the House of Commons who could not make out a good case to the advantage of their own principles, and the questions which they themselves defended. He should not say that they descended to any unworthy practices in order to confer a peculiar benefit on a elms, but he, looking after the interests of the farmer and the farm laboneer, would meet them on the equal ground, that the corn-laws were more injurious to the farmer than to any other class in the empire.—(Cheers.) Now, really, when he considered the state of the House of Commons that it contained at least 200 county Mem bers, besides 140 Members more, sent up from pocket boroughs, he would ask them what they could possibly expect from one or two men ? It appeared to him, and he had a lively faith in the character and credit of Englishmen, that they would not allow the counties to send up Members to stop the advocates of the people in the body of the House. He had faith in the qualities of his countrymen, who had that staple in their composition, that out of one hundred, ninety-nine employed the privileges entrusted to them correctly.— (Cheers.) He could only account for the deficiency in argument on the Ministerial side of the House, by a reference to the considerations which influenced their opinions. They supported the Crown—they supported monopoly, and it would take the eloquence of Demosthenes himself to support, with any degree of fervour, the corn-laws. The Prime Minister of England ought to be wary that he did not induce his followers to stretch the bow too tightly, lest the present evil might be still further increased. Upon the subject of the kitchen stuffs of Sir Robert Peel's tariff, he (Mr. Cobden) never heard a man so eloquent as Mr. Bickham Escott. Even Colonel Wyndham was roused into a state of agitated elo quence, when referring to the little Parliament of No. 17, Bond-street.—(Cheers and laughter.) The question now arose, what were they to do between Peel and Russell ? There appeared to be a sort of rival bidding on either side, but he would not say which should have the honour of carrying out the great principle of free-trade.—(Hear.) If he (Mr. Cobden) were in the position of Lord John Russell, he would be very—very jealous or the honour of the House of Woburn, and would not like that the House of Peel and Co. should take it out of his hands.—(Hear, hear.) He would bid high for it. If put to the vote, probably a majority would be dis posed to give an old friend who had a hand in the Test and Corporation Acts the preference.—(Hear, hear.) And then he made the first bid also in 1841, but he did not bid quite up to the mark. He thought that after reading what Mr. Haughton had said that night, Lord John ought be very much disposed to put another foot forward in the matter. He did not see how statesmen could falter—how they could hesi tate for one moment, when agentleman like Mr. Haugh ton came forward, whom he knew to be employed and trusted by some of the noblest of the land in the ma nagement of their estates : who had been for three days under examination before an agricultural com mittee in 1835, and who was a great agricultural authority—when he saw such a gentleman come for ward and declare himself a free-trader after mature deliberation, he could not see why Lord John should hesitate in carrying out the principles of free-trade. It was a very remarkable fact that, go where they would, there was something in their cause that attracted all the men of sense, eloquence, and feeling to them.—(Cheers.) There was Mr. Haughton, and he saw another old friend of theirs behind him, Mr. Latimore—(Hear, hear)—and there were some other independent and intelligent farmers sitting just below him. If any of those who were listening to him hap pened to go into a farmer's dining-room, which was his ordinary, he would tell them how they could re cognise the free traders amongst them. Let them just take their hats, and see which were the biggest, and these would belong to the largest heads, who were free traders.—(Laughter.) If any of their opponents had heads above the average size, they would soon be found to desert the ranks of the pro tectionists, and come over to the ranks of the free they kingdom on their side. There was one of great pre tbraadder somes . (Hear,of the hear,ery best and pre eminence, whose name was hardly ever quoted, Mr. Coke, of Norfolk, afterwards Lord Leicester.— (Hear, hear.) He was a man, who sixty years ago went to Norfolk, where he found an estate which was little better than a rabbit warren. There was not a blade of grass for a rabbit to feed itself upon. W e ll he set to work with this estate, he sank wells, threw up clay, mixed it with sand and made a surface, so that this land, which was not worth 25. 6d, an acre when he got it, was worth 255. an acre in his hands. —(Hear, hear.) A property not worth 2,000/. rose to the value of 20,000/. in his skilful hands. Now, if any man ought to be afraid of foreign competition, afraid that any produce of the fertile lands .of the Mississippi and the rich central land of Poland would throw out of cultivation the comparatively barren land which he had cultivated, it was Mr. Coke. But he (Mr. Cobden) knew that from the first he was a strenuous advocate of tree trade in corn. When he was in Norwich lately, he took the pains of ascertaining, from Mr. Coke's- most intimate friends, what his opinions on the corn-laws were, and he had the authority of his personal friends for saying that he was from the first a consistent opponent of the corn-laws— (Hear, hear)—not that he took any great pains to study their effect upon the commerce and manufac tures of the country, but he opposed them because he thought they were eulculatett to make the farmers in dolent riigniltthielairdaagn3riicultural pursuits.—(Hear.) Now, not to go f ar th er than Lord Spencer--(Cheers)— agricul ture his study, to n t th a l l i l , : %N ato u h t ad a f u r i e 't e I t n r a ad ('i e e in corn being injurious to - the farmers, when he had the ex ample of Earl Spencer to guide him on the subject ? If any body chose to contend that it was beneficial to commerce and manufactures, why, he may be as competent to judge of it as Earl Spencer or Lord Ducie, but when some empty- headed person came out of his counting-house, or from behind his desk, and said that the League wanted to ruin the farmers, he would only point to the dicta of Earl Spencer, the best c razin g farmer in the kingdom— (Hear, hea r )— an d o f E ar l D uc i e , th e b es t arable farmer, a n d ask him how he had the pre sumption to say th a t, w i t h suc h prac ti ca l f a rmers to guide him, they were the enemies of farmers or agri culture ?—(Bear, hear.) Ile took an opportunity, the other night, in the House of Commons, of drawing the attention of his audience there— (Laughter)—to the evils, upon the industry of the farmers, which their law, which prevented the coarser kinds of grain used for the feeding of cattle from being imported, produced. But, would they believe it, Mr. Stafford O'Brien, who called himself a farmer's friend, got up and actually bullied the Ministry because he suspected that they were inclined to let Dutch clover-seed come in for the benefit of the farmer. There was a farmer's friend !—(Laughter.) Was it not a privilege to have such people for an audience, that one might be able to teach them something ?—(Laughter and cheers.) Why, if they had a free trade in grain, the farmers were the class, of all others, who who would participate most largely in the benefit. They could indeed eat American flour and . Polish wheat in the towns, but the farmers would be the great buyers of Indian corn and Egyptian beans, and Polish peas, if, as ought to be the case, they were allowed to import those things free.—(Hear, hear.) He would appeal to Mr. Haughton and Mr. Latimore whether, at the time the Protection Society was bullying the Ministry to keep up the restrictions upon the food for cattle, the tenants of those blind men, who were leading the blind, had not their cattle starving for want of provender ?—(Hear, hear.) The consequence was, that the farmers were forced to send their cattle_to market, and sell them at a sacri fice, thereby running down the price, because they had not fodder at home to feed them with ; and he heard yesterday of one proprietor who bought, as a favour, from his tenant, upwards of fifty cows to feed the hounds in his kennel.—(Loud cries of " Shame, shame.") The landlords now began to suspect, he verily believed, that other persons knew ' their business better than they did themselves—they had that virtue of modesty coming over them for the first time—(Laughter)—and that accounted for the more moderate tone they lately assumed. They had doubts whether they were not wrong altogether, and when they read the speech of Mr. Haughton he sus pected those doubts would very much increase,— (Hear, hear.) There was one part of his speech which he did not sufficiently dwell upon. He had shown that the farmers derived no benefit from pro tection, but there was one part of the protective sys tem, the monopolies of sugar and timber, by which they were injured.—(Hear, hear.) They paid dearly for those articles, merely that the landed proprietors might get up a partnership with the sugar and timber monopoly in the House of Commons.—(Cheers.) How many hundred tons of fruit were wasted every year, which would be made into preserves and con sumed by children (and nothing could be more wholesome), if sugar were sold at one-half the price at which it had been sold for the last five years ? (Hear.) But the most important part of all was this, and Mr. Haughton had not at all adverted to it, that the many grievances which the farmers had to com plain of would never be got rid of, as long as their attention was distracted by the cry of protection—as long as that ignis fatuns of protection was held be fore their eyes. The farmers were always led away by this artful cry. The landlord said to them, " Oh, we must take care of the corn-law, send men to Par liament to maintain prOtection, and we will take care of your interests." They were thus led to believe that if they sent a majority to the House of Com mons, that majority would enable them to pay what ever rent they agreed to give. They had thus no time to think how they would get fairer rents, or rid themselves of the nuisance of game. The consequence was, thatthe landlords, instead of meeting their tenants on fair, equitable terms, as men of business, threw something between them which mystified a very plain matter—" There is my land, what will you give for it." Were it not for this cry, the landlords would have been compelled to grant leases to their tenants, and to abate the nuisance of game—in fact such a nuisance would never have been imposed on the tenants. They would have laid out more capital on the land, and would have made it more profitable, were it not for the bug•bear of protection which mis led them.—(Hear, hear.) Now he would give an advice to the farmers, and that was, that they would not take leases at present--(Hear, bear) --unless they got them at a corn rent.—(Hear, hear.) A lease was necessary to the tenant—to the man who invested his capital in land; and if there was no corn-law a man might with great security take a lease at twenty-one years' money rent, because under a free trade supply and demand would be so regulatd that there would be very little fluctuation in the price of corn.—(Hear, hear.) But now that they had a corn-law every one knew that the greatest fluctuations in 'the price of corn occurred. That was a point on which every sane mind agreed. How had the Scotch farmer ma naged to evade the fl uc t ua ti on s in the price of corn ? They showed that th ey were twenty-three years in advance of the English farmers, in shrewdness and intelligence in this matter. In 1815, when the corn law passed, the Scotch, like the English farmer, be lieved that an Act of Parliament could secure to him 80s. a quarter for hi s corn , a nd he took land calcu lating upon that pri ce ; b u t when, in 1822, t he Scotch farmer found that the price fell to 403. a- q uarter, he eaid immediately thi s law is a failure, the system won't do. That class of farmers who took land, sup posing that the 80s. p er q uarter could be maintained, were of course swept away; but when those who succeeded came, they said to the landlords, we will not take your land at a money-rent, because Parl'a led to expect, but as there is one thing which Parliament cannot control— thement does not fulfil its promises, an d does not secure the price of wheat which we were can helpgrow— we will pay you a rent c alculated at a m oney-rent. quantity of corn which, by we the of na ture, and our own industry , corn-rent, instead of a thus the Scotch farmers showe d themselves much shrewder and more intelligen t than the En g lish farmers. lie did not want to fla tter the En g lis h farmer ; he wanted to say somet hin g homel y and un e a sharper and a wiser p m a a la n tab th le ai t i o ih,eimr,etaillllyhewb,aesc.._am(, Hear, hear," and a s • of the English farmers of knew what a corn-r en t there were not ten per cen • who • laugh.) He said it with reg ret, but he believed that the present day corn as the rent of his farm. give a 00 in quarters of was wheatta taken meant. The Scotch farmer bargained to give so many quarters of wheat• Scotland his farm. The price order to regulate the stipends of the every year in 0 ,, .pay to the s the year the average was clergy, and at the end Suppose he agreedf to county ; and it was the the year in the county that decided average price for farmer was to quarter averaged 603 then land lord : well, supposing e d rgamed to give 200 t s h t struck p c r k i c b e y w t hhei which h t e h r e i ffo At the en of the year, supposing quarters of wheat. of the bargained the price of wheat p er the farmer had to pay 1 but if " 600 e the price only averaged 405., then the Scotch farmer would h ave t o hear.) Now, pay only 4001.--(Dear, _ what . was the condition of the Scot" farmer under this system ? While they knew'Hous frome th of Commons evidence s given before a Committee of the 1835, that the English farmers declared themselves bankrupt, the Scotch farmer s on the contrary, who were sum moned before the Committee, said they were i n a state of prosperity with wheat at a price of 395. per quarter. The reason was,while that the Scotch farmer p a id a rent, calculated at 393, per quarter, the English farmer was paying a rent of 6 4 5. per quarter.—(Loud cheers.) What wa s the condition o f th e S cotc h , farmer at present? He lately saw in the Scot sman a report of the Fit Lothian Agricultural District Society in the first week in January. That report stated that the farmers were not in a mor e pros perous condition since 1835, actually the last time that wheat was dawn to 395. a quarter. Well, in that very sam e week, he read in the Mark lane Express, a report of the state of the agri culturists in Essex, written, probably, by Mr. Baker himself—(Laughter)—but however that may be, the report stated that the small farmers were being ruined—that they were sinking into the condition of labourers—while the large farmers were in a state of sullenness and discontent, partaking almost of the spirit of the labourers themselves—(lleer, hear) — that the union houses were full of unemployed labourers, who were actually sent to gaol because they were so insubordinate in the union houses. MORNING, APRIL 10, 1845: What was the cause of this difference, in the very same week, between the condition of the English and Scotch agriculturists ? It could not be the new tariff, or the Canada Corn Bill, or the new corn-law, for these affected the Scotch as well as the English agriculturist. The Reit Lothian farmer and the Essex farmer were, in this respect, precisely siiiiilarly situated.; and the Essex farmer had this advantage, that he had a richer soil and a better climate than the East Lothian. He had also a better market; for, by means of the rail road, he could bring his p-oduce to the metropolis, the best market in the world, within half an hour.— (Laughter.) And yet the Essex farmer was in a miserable, impoverished, whining state.—(Cheers.) And why were the farmers of Scotland in a state of such great comparative prosperity ?—(Hear, hear.) One of the reasons of this prosperity of the Scotch farmers over the English was, that they had long leases of their farms at a grain rent, added to which advantages they had the others—those bestowed by nature, education, and the kindness of their natutal protectors—namely, skill, intelligenc e , capital, and industry ; and th ese were th e reasons whyi the farmers of Scotland were prosperous, while those of Essex were not so, though possessing so many more advan tages of clime and soil over their Highland neighbours. —(Hean) These were facts that should hold good until they were disproved ; but who could disprove them ?—(Hear.) Yet this was a boast of the Scotch over the English farmer that need not exist if the disatility imposed on the latter by the law be only removed.—(Hear.) Put the English fanner—the farmer of Essex—on the same footing with Scotch farmers, and he would be abl: to accomplish quite as much.—(Hear.) But this the English farmer never could do, this improved and improving farmer henever could be, while he permitted himself to be treated as the down-trodden slave—to have the burden kept upon his back—to be dealt with as the weak and puling child, instead of the upright, independent man.—(Shouts of applause) Hitherto, Englishmen had been treated as if they were inferior to Scotch. men in intellect and intelligence, and they would deserve a continuation of such treatment if they bore with it.—(Hear, hear.) What he (Mr. Cobden) and those who acted with 11 7 m wanted was, to raise the English farmer from the state of degradation that had been forced upon him by law; and if those men only felt and appreciated the nature of their true position, it would not be long before they would be easily able to recognise in the League those who had their real interest at heart.—(Cheers.) He did not think that there at all existed that distinction be tween the farmer and the manufacturer that had been imagined. He conceived that the farmer should be in the same position as theartisan in the town, and the same remedy that gave relief to the one should also re lieve the other ; and he trusted that the time was not far distant when the farmers would be identified with the inhabitants of the towns in this one common cause for the advocacy of free-trade principles.— (Hear, hear.) Heretofore the farmers had been placed in a false position, from the fact of their hav ing joined the landlord class in hostile array to the working classes, under the mistaken and most erro neous belief that the interests of both were not iden tical.—(Hear, hear.) But this error was fast disap pearing, and he did hope that he would ere long, and before the League had had many more meetings, have the pleasure of hearing that numerous, indeed, were the names of those who had followed the ex- ample of Mr. Haughton and Mr. Lattimore.—(Loud cheers.) He (Mr. Cobden) congratulated those gen tlemen and the friends of the League upon hearing those gentlemen had enrolled themselves in so good, so noble, and so just a cause. They, as well as those who had long advocated the cause of free trade, were able to boast that they had never acted• towards the landlords in any other than a fair spirit, though the landlords could not say the same for themselves. —(Hear, hear.) Yet though the working classes had been shut out from the enjoyment of all those benefits which it was in the power of the landlords to confer, the latter should not have to say that they were kept out from the free•trade men • but they were always ready t o rece i ve their aid in the advance ment of this great moral struggle.—(Hear, hear.) But whether they joined them or not, the League would never change their principles—(Hear, hear) —they would go on steadily and perseveringly, and when they had at length arrived at the consummation of their labours, which, beyond all doubt, could not be far distant, it would then be acknowledged by all parties that they had, by their perseverance in this great and mighty struggle, achieved a great and tremendous triumph.—(Loud cheers.) It was not by ignorance of the duty they were called upon to perform that they could achieve this triumph ; but by acquiring and promulgating a thorough know ledge of those facts and arguments that spoke so strongly in their favour ; facts which were not de rived from any class or any country in particular, but which were applicable to, and should affect, all classes, all countries, and in all times. The Hon. Member sat down amidst deafening and prolonged cheering. Mr. W. J. Fox next presented himself, and was received with loud and continued plaudits. He com menced by saying that, now that those meetings were about to be suspended for a time, in order to give place to other modes of disseminating the an nouncement of the progress of their cause ; and as the topics of the day in con nexion with the free-trade principle had, here and elsewhere, been continuously and amply discussed ; it seemed to him not to be unde sirable that the general principle on which the League had been founded, and above all, the objects, the achievement of which it had in view, should be passed in review before the meeting.—(Hear, hear, hear.) They had assembled here to-night for the purpose of being reminded, that it was essential to keep ever in view the great truths by which their efforts had hitherto been guided, and by a close adherence to which they could alone expect success would crown their efforts.—(Hear, hear.) Founded in truth and justice, as their cause was, they had gained many converts to it ; and there could be no doubt but that it would eventuate in a most signal triumph.—(Hear, hear.) And, however varied might be the opinions of those who concurred with them in some points, and differed from them in others; still it should be ad mitted that the League were not a political or party body of men.—(Hear, hear.) They were n o t a body of men who advocated one line of argument to-day and another to-morrow, but they were men who belonged to all phases of politics and all classes of society.—(Hear,:hear.) The bond of their union was based upon principles as solid and lasting as those of the British Constitution, as enduring. as time, and as certain of success as was the inviola bility of the maxim that " truth was omnipotent and must prevail."—(Loud cheers.) The principles on which the League was founded were as simple, yet as true, as any proposition in science ; there was no thing in them calculated to entangle or embarrass the most sincere and earnest mind. One of those principles advocated the justice of the axiom that the working people should sell in the dearest market,. and buy in the cheapest—that they should assist their neighbours—and that the exigencies of the State should not be met exclusively from the earnings of the working classes.—(Hear, hear.) These were the principles of the League, and they were so plain and explicit that nobody could deny their truth, except some few who, in the mortification they felt, declared that they took more to heart their own cause than the cause of the people.—(Cheers.) Now, on the other hand, some of the most eminent men of the day had laid down as just, and had advocated as inviolable, the principles he had enumerated.—(Hear, hear.) A. gentleman from the United States, who now sat near him, had put into his hand a document which had just issued from the press in that country, and which advocated the same cause that the League did, with this difference only, that here in England the farmers advocated the cause of the landed interest, while in the United States they did the direct con • trary.—(Hear, hear, and cheers.) One passage iu this book put him in mind of the story of the fig growers in Columbia. In that country it was at one time imagiued that the fig would grow there as luxu riously as in Turkey, provided that " some protection should be given to native industry "—(Laughter)— " and if it were, America would be found to be even tually the greatest fig-growing country in the world, provided encouragement should be given to native in dustry in this particular, in order to enable certain parties to cultivate the soil to such an extent as that they could grow figs "—(Laughter)—or, in other words, if a war should break out, in which America should be compelled to act on the defensive, those who laughed at her for attempting to grow, under " protection, " that which belonged to their soils, should say, "Oh, a fig for America."—(Laughter and cheers.) However, there was some hope for the future in the fact that there was to be no figgery in England—(Laughter)--and if there was not, then the only difference that existed in this respect be tween England and America was, that in the latter country the people had declined the cultivation of a luxury, while in England, a class had refused an abundant supply, on fair terms, of one of the first necessaries to human existence.—(Cheers.) In fact, the principles on which the League was based were as old as political economy itself, and, therefore, the arguments in favour of the new doc trines of protection could not stand good against them ; and, therefore, to deny their truth would be to deny the truth of the political economy doctrine (not that he should wonder at such art attempt, for the hardihood with which such assertions were made now-a-days was proverbial.)—(Laughter.) But, in fact, the principles of the League were not only as old as those of political economy, but bore a date coeval with that of the first order of things, and were as true in their object, and as harmonious in their organisa tion, as that system of the movement of the heavenly bodies planned and directed by the Great Creator of the Universe, who first harmonised the order of the heavenly bodies—who had created the zones, frigid and temperate who had given to the enjoyment- of men those countries of the Rhine and the Rhone, and their pro ducts of luxury and necessity, in order that men should live to bless so beneficent a Providence.— (Loud cheers.) The principles of the League were those which advocated the advancement of free trade, and therefore he hoped they would prevail.— (Cheers.) But he should here allude to an article he had seen in one of the London papers, in which a hope was expressed that New York and other towns of the United States would he bombarded, awl sug gesting a plan for such a proceeding.—(Cries of " Oh, oh.") They were angry enough when the hot-headed young Prince de Joinville thought that Brighton might conveniently he bombarded. Messrs. Peel and Polk had been talking like two blustering boys about the Oregon territory. And what was that territory that was talked of ? There were some ;350,000 square miles of it, of which we claimed a barren 100,000. What were they worth ? What was all that land worth, without man upon it, his industry, and products ?—(Cheers.) Why, the Oregon territ or y was a desert. It. was the Sahara of America—the Botany Bay of the red man's banishment. There ore (continued the Hon. Gentle man) now upon it some few hundreds of Indians and half-castes connected with the Hudson's Bay Company. There are a certain number of squatters from the United States, and then there are Indian tribes there, who rejoice in such names as " Flat-head," " Slit-nose " awl " Pointed heart." The buff a l oes are t h e lords of the soil, un less the game-laws of the Indians shall make it other wise. It is a territory of no value, and to quarrel about this ? Why, you might just as well be in vited by Peel and Polk to fight about the mountains in the moon.—(Laughter.) Let man have some thing to do with it—let those who can find no pro fitable home go there and use their labour in the cultivation of the soil, and as the numbers increase, and a stimulus is given to exertion, it will soon become valuable, and when man has occupied it, when industry has then driven its car of peaceful conquest about the borders of that vast land—when towns have risen, and cities with their thronging numbers— when the Rocky Mountains are tunnelled, when rail and canal have united the Atlantic and the Pacific, when the waters of the Colombia swarm with steam boats, then will be the time to talk of the Oregon ter ritory ; and then, without a regiment or line-of-battle ship, without bombarding any town whatever, free trade will conquer the Oregon' territory for us, and will conquer the United States fur us, as far as it is desirable, either for us or them, that there should be any conquest what ever?—(Loud cheers.) Free trade will establish there all the insignia of conquest. The products of that part will come here, and we shall send the re sults of our labour there in return, and there will scarcely be a lab ourer t h at w ill not bear on his back, to his very shirt, the livery of Manchester. The knife with which he carves his game will have the mark of Sheffield on the blade, as testimony of supre macy ; in every handkerchief which waves on the banks of the Missouri will be waving the English banner of Spitalfields.—(Cheers.) Why they will be con quered—for they will work for us, and what can the conquered do more? They will grow corn for us, and they will grind it and send us the flour for our use. They will send us whatever they can produce, and that we want, and there would be no necessity for putting our hands in our pockets in order to pay a governor who is for ever quarrelling with the re presentative of the people, or for soldiers to bayonet the multitude.—(Cheers.) There is nothing on earth worthier the name of empire than this. It is a noble kind of dominion —less degrading both for the one party and the other, but less degrading than any sovereignty that rules over men by armies. But it is not only from nation to nation that the uniting influence of the principle extends, but from class to class, where the alienation is perhaps sometimes greater than amongst those who dwell in the most remote latitudes. We have very much need of the application of this principle to this country, as may be seen in the ex perience of the last three years. Let there be two or three bad harvests in succession, so as to send up the price of corn to such a price as it attained some years ago, and what b e c omes o f th e prosper it y of which there has been so much boast. It is for us to look in time to the prevention of a recurrence of those tremendous calamities which have already oc curred, and, in our prosperity, I confess that I see reason, abundant reason on every hand for further exertion to mitigate the am o u n t of' wretchedness with which that prosperity is likely to be attended. For in this metropolis what is the condition—l will nut say of hundreds only—but thousands and thousands ? What is the state of the habitations of the poor ? Nobody would live in a hovel that could hire a decent house. I met, a short while since, with the report of one of our religious societies—the City London Mission—the Spitalfields Auxiliary of that mis sion's report, at the commencement of the present year. The book, after alluding to the illness of one of the missionaries, goes on to say that a second missionary was shortly after seized with an virulent attack of fever. Another of these cases oc - curred from visitations, not from visiting a particular infected room, but simply from continually inhaling malaria in an undrained district. A third missionary wss in a bad state of health, by which he could only make his visitations at limited periods, as was the case with the fifth and the sixth missionary, and the seventh missionary, in Spitalfields, was entirely laid up for a period of eight weeks. That illness oc curred in spite of every precaution which was taken, for no missionary was received into the mission who was not in the prime of life, and who could not show that he was in a good state of health. Here, then, is the plague that requires to be stayed. I know that there are propositions for sanatory legis lation • but all the sanatory legislation in the world will be useless if you do not mitigate the poverty that is locked up in unwholesome situations. You are only touching the outward symptoms of the dis ease, without improving the condition of the sufferers, and you drive them into yet closer habitations. You keep them in pestilential courts and corners, and you give them no amendment to their condition. The missionary who makes this report makes the fol lowing statement :—The extreme poverty and fre quent destitution of the Spitalfields population pre sents further difficulties in the way of their instruc tion ; for when the cravings of hunger are in flicting pain on the bodies of the people, they are naturally indifferent to such matters. Very many are familiar with these circumstances ; and when the missionaries speak to them of religion, while they are wanting bread, think that he is making game of them. One missionary found, during the severe weather of the last winter, a poor woman very ill, without a particle of fire, with scarcely an article of clothing to cover her person, and literally perish ing for want, and lie dared not direct her attention to the Saviour, or the Bread of Life, until he had first saved her from starving, by furnishing her with the bread that perisheth.—(Hear, hear.) The case of that woman is in a curious way, but most un consciously on the part of the writer of the report, connected with the assertion that has been repeatedly put forth by the advocates of the League. How came the poor creature in such a condition, so that to speak of religious matters under the common simile of food was looked upon as a mockery ? The rero:t then tells us that the woman was a widow, aged 36, and was by trade a chair-bottomer and lucifer-match maker. She had one child thirteen years of age, and one married daughter. Her husband died about twelve years since, leaving her with three small children, one of whom shortly afterwards died. For the first six years she comfortably supported her self and family by slop-making, but at the end of that time wages were reduced, and eventually she was thrown out of work and a distress for rent followed; and for five weeks herself and family had to sleep in a cupboard. For six months previous to the report the utmost she d had earned in one week amounted to 3s. 6d., and sometimes it was only 2s. 6d., out of which she ad to n o pay the date. For the e f . or Trehnatt. poor Roman is l ,em re a g e ue le st st yohuerr husbandattention twelve winter eyfelaBrs447wo—hetnhatht the missionary ise t ie • n el e v hr e y six years after that she supported er f s 3 i ue lf anrd a s n hf d erro f m amily the price of corn was J . Bd., The twelve years bring ps u e s backt t o h t e h n e y 5 e 2 a e r . 1 1 8 1 3 d 2 .: when th 465. 2d., then 395. 4d., then 48s. 6d., and then 55a. 10d. That was for the firstsix years, when this poor woman managed to maintain herself and family in com fort single-handed. But, says the missionary, wa ges at the end of that time were very much reduced, and then followed the distress for rent, the seizure of the beds and the starvation that happened. In 1837 and 1838, when the distress commenced, the price of wheat had risen to 645. 7d. a quarter ; in 1839, 70s. Bd. ; in 1840, 665. 4d.; and in 1841, 645. 4d. There is the l h i is ty to i r n y o o n f e the ca s s e u , ffe andrin g t h o e f n t a h b i pr y r i in o t h m e a n oT h t e h r e — a t b h i e comfort of six years, and the misery of six years fol lowing. Well, there are men such as Sir R. Inglis, who support s i m il ar societies to this I have referred, who talk of cold-hearted and muddle-headed econo mists who go to the root of the evil under which this poor woman laboured. They are cold-hearted and muddle-headed because they do not look at the outward system merely, because they do not take a superficial view of the causes of the poverty and distress which exist amongst the population of this metropolis, and of the country at large. I cannot dismiss this report without adverting to another case, and fur a very dif ferent reason, One of the missionaries relates the case of a woman who had been out of work for some time; the superintendent made an order that she should have a shilling a week for six weeks, On her being informed of this she expressed her thankfulness for the N ~~ >"'` :~: '~7 kindness—" Sir," said she "I cannot think of tweets - ing it, as there arc so many who have famitiesto pert, rt and who arc as poor as I am, let it beitie - 11.to z • N 514 As one of them ; I have is, (;d. a- week to subsist - di); the promise of a f.iitliful God to trust to—(Loud cheers)—[ have always been able to earn my daily bread, and while I can do that my conscience will not allow o t ot take Noble wchraeta creature l many w need."—(Continued s e i c i d as they are called, by a stretch of courtesy, would imitate her magnaniiiiity.—(Clieers.) Nay, with all noblemen, d tilue cheering.) their broad lands and their well-filled coffers—they, with their hundreds per week, aN e, per day—they, with all their sources of wealth and emolument, ever flowing over them in a golden stream, do not disdain to take the very shilling that she refused. While there are such things as that in the country, it is for the League to be up and doing, to keep ever before the public mind the principle alive, by which such a plague can be stayed—it is for them also to teach the unscrupulous class their duties. I said that they do not disdain to take the shilling ; so they have no sympathy with that poor, but noble-minded woman, and certainly they have no sympathy with her, when she said that she would try to earn her own living, and tt ttst in Providence. That is net the course that their confidence takes. They are like the old Scotch woman who, when the water at the Quee..'s Ferry was somewhat rough, was told by the boatman to trust in P rov id ence , sa id " Nae I will not trust in Providence sae la ng as th ere i s *hi ig at Stirling."—(Laughter.) Th e y w ill not trust Provi dence so long as an Act of Parliament can be had. That is their bridge at Stirling, hut I think it will go very hard but Peel's Corn Bill will he little better than a bridge to carry them over to the shores of free-trade.—(Cheers.) Sach cases as these show the propriety of the appeals made by the League to the women of Great Britain. We have been told that the League ought not to drag their countrywomen through the dirty ways of party politics. I should like to know who made the ways of politics dirty ?—(Laughter and cheers.) The League never did that—they never perverted legisla tive power to sordid purposes—they need not be afraid or ashamed to call for woman's sympathy and woman's help, assured that she will honour herself much more by contributing towards the destruction of the causes of misery than by merely adding a little to charities here and there, which pull a l ea f or a t w i g of the poisoned tree, but leave it still to stand amidst its baneful influence, spreading desola tion around the s o il i n which it is placed. The spirit of the League has been found fault with, but it is difficult to please those people. I have some times had the honour of a personal notice—in fact, there is one journal that has stereotyped the report of what I say here, for is it always the same one sentence, namely, that I entered into my usual tirade against the aristocracy of the country. Now, I wish just to say a word upon this subject. I do not profess to be a very enthusiastic admirer of the aristocracy.—(Laughter and cheers.) For the legally constituted aristocracy of my country I have all that love, and all that reverence, which the laws of my country require ; and is it my duty to have more ? But I have never come here to express my opinion on the aristocracy or Suffrage question, or other great questions which are put into temporary abeyance by the Anti-Corn-law agitation—but an abeyance from which I trust they will:some day arise. For we are looking with expectation that is not the less valuable to us, as we see clearly that this question must be disposed of first, and the sooner it is dis posed of the better.—(Hear, hear.) But all that I have ever said here about the aristocracy, has been said of certain members of the aristocracy, not in their capacity of aristocrats, but in their capacity of tradesmen.—(Hear, hear.) In that character they Lre, I apprehend, most legitimate subjects of ani madversion here.—(Hear.) A man is not to have any special exemption because he keeps a chandler's shop and cheats his customers, though he should be a member of the aristocracy. This is what I com plain of. They keep a great chandlers'-shop; store everything most needful to the people in it, and then pervert their powers of legislation to make the community pay the more.—(Hear.) There was a time when trading was thought inconsistent with the position such men occupied. The feudal barons did not mind robbing with a strong hand, but would turn away contemptuously from tricking with short weights and protecting duties. So far back as the days of Elizabeth, the intellect of the country had marked out for derision the trading propensity of the feudal aristocracy, and in Beaumont and Fletcher's play of the Beggar's Bush, a' dispute between a cer tain military gentleman, proud of his aristocratic posi tion, and a couple of merchants is portrayed. The aristocrat tells them that of this he is certain, that " once you buy and sell your gentility is gone ;" and upon which the merchant retorts—" no, no, 'tis but a poor argument—don't you, the lord of the soil, buy and sell the grass, the corn, the straw, the milk, the cheese ;" and then the other merchant exclaims " and the butter —remember the butter—don't leave out the butter "—(Long continued cheering) and from that day to this it has been borne in mind that the butter should not be left out.—(Cheers.) The only itnprovement on the practice of those days is smearing all butter with the filthiness of tar, which is not of our own production.—(Hear, hear.) Now, when the Nobles became tradesmen—when Dukes became dealers in various commodities—when the tit betterll n e a e i t t t o eh r rbe y ap of peoplectet picture h r ae e t oiNtfo Pl t tahr a ik n s : t a countryl myselfagn lane—it e—a e s iE t are siuselirhevuiegonsfiflaoßitnri Richmond, c y yhe din t o teooatnlentdraym,k, but with with his coronet on his head, and a corn sample in his pocket—with a salmon in his right hand and a whisky bottle in his left, and enthroned upon a firkin of butter—(Loud laughter and cheers)—and then I study his figure as I would Quarle's Emblems, for his coronet is ornamented by legislative powers, and these are used to enact protective duties. 'the coronet is the symbol of high rents and high prices for grain. The coronet, thrown into the scale with salmon, makes the fish-eater pay more. The coronet fills the bot tom of the whisky-bottle ; and, last of all, the coronet pokes a hole into the firkin of butter, in order to pour in the pitch and tar.—(Laughter and great cheering.) Why is this abasement of all dignity of station, and of all majesty of legislative power? We cannot over look the character of the tradesman—we cannot for get one character in the other. 'We must consider the whole, and not isolated parts, and behold the peers of Parliam en t the compeers of pedlars—the con servatives of the Constitution the conservatives of canary seed—the lords of the land and the lords of the lard—the Knights of the Garter and the knights of the grease -pot.—(lmmense laughter.) It is well that there are men of different sorts of temperament in that body—that there are those who (slightly altering the burden of Robert Burns's fine song) can say to themselves, and a few noble cony. panionions— itnr alleu 1 tl h t a,O f " A Lord's a man for a' that." Those are the men who, conscious that society has done much for them, are desirous in their turn of doing something for society—who have a sense of the responsibility of their station, combined with a sense of the responsibility of legislators—who are not ennobled by their title, but who ennoble their title— who redeem the name of the class with which they are associated, and to whom the rest must be indebted that the name of " hereditary nobility" does not be come a foul stench in the nostrils of humanity.— (Loud and continued cheering.) But I must re turn to the point whence I started. There will he a cessation for a time of these meetings -they will be suspended, but the exertions of some whom you have so often heard here will be con tinued—these exertions will not be suspended, but from night to night, as the opportunity will arr ve they will endeavour to impress on the Members of the Legislature the principles which they declare in this meeting; their words will go forth by means of the press throughout the whole length and breadth of the land, teaching millions of the people of this last, struck by its r e ellad. country, and millions of the people oafnodthee:roesesuthe tries, their rights. These lessons will be tofand information, Will be that great object, shame determined p throughout iiwideeityA,t la n ittni earnestness,he and,ethec on pursuitt sim plicity, the spirit of party, and of all its grace and orna ment, deprive monopoly until at last, in deference to public Opi nion, they must give up those odious and ill- gotten, gains, and abandon this ill- advised measure.— meetingswill be suspende d, b ( ut the exertions of some individuals, and of others in co-operation with them, will not be sus d d pen e ,—as the season advances they will toil at the good work, passing with the rapidity of steam from one part of the country to another— taking advantae of that 1• g oomy s pi rit of dissatisfac tion—that 4, restlessness of inquiry, and that openness to conviction which is becoming more and more preva lent among the body of the tenant-farmers ; they will argue with those who will hear reason ; they will warn those who appear infatuated ; they will show that they have only the good of all classes at heart, and they will continue their labours untiringly, and may success attend them.—(Loud cheers.) These meetings will be suspended, but its prominent Members will not abandon the rights which Brig industry has a right to claim. Specimens of British industry, British skill, and enterprise and genius wig be presented here for contemplation as specimens of what our people can do ; demanding attention from those who can admire art and ingenuity, and pletsd ing with mute but eloquent arguments for the resto ration of industry to its rights, that those who are capable of so much skill and exertion may not pus without recompense, and that they may be let atone and suffered to compete with freedom with the inhabitants of other nations. These meet ings will be suspended, but the course of events will still proceed, , the alternatives of cheapness and dearness—of prosperity and ca lamity—the course of events which has already placed J ►i 'bo int Itt‘ oil ° SO' do', i 0' g al 0! t he th. lent ter ;Of )0 11 tar ia a to oa vet 'yea Oa w i l- W '