The Sun. — London, England, 1844-01-26 00:00:00

wairsome time before this great question was settled. No period of distress or suffering should ever be per tained to recur again, equal to that which pressed upon the manufacturing interests for the last five years. No Ministry should ever be again allowed to place the Manufacturers in the same state as they were during the bad harvest two years ago. Knowing that numb,•rs had tteen against them, that those numbers were increasing while their opponents were diminishing, and that their resources are now treble what they have been, the League bid the people have hope, and take courage, for they were every day coming nearer the termination of this system. lie should conclude by introducing to the meting the Hon. Mr. Bouverie.—(Great cheering.) The Hon. AV. BOUVERIE came forward, and after the applause had subsided, said, as this was his first appear ance on the London stage—(Laughter)—he should request the indulgence of the meeting during his remarks upon this occasion. He needed this indulgence the more because amongst the gentlemen around him were many who had fought long and boldly in the battle whilst he was but a young recruit, who consequently handled his weapon without their power. Still this was not the first time he had been amongst them. On the late occasion at Salisbury they fought the common fight, and though not enlisted under the banners of the League, yet he was possessed of unity and determination of purpose. They had been defeated on that occasion, and singularly enough they were defeated by free trade. He was an advocate for free •trade, but still he should dissent from that species of free trade which allowed one nian to buy the vote of another.—( Hear, hear, and laughter. ) But, in spite of this, he rejoiced to think that the great cause of the League had been making such a progress ever since. It had been going on from month to month, from strength to strength, raining greater power, influence, and weight. He rejoiced that the associations and the counter-associations to the League had been formed, and for this reason—the object they had in view was to see truth asserted, and all they asked was in quiry—(Cheers)—they did not want to mince the truth.—( Cheers.) The more the subject oas agitated the more likely were the people to become converts.—( Cheers.) He felt, however, bound to say that it appeared to him, as far as he had heard the accounts of the meetings in opposition to the League, that the gentlemen who formed those meetings had not taken the best course to elicit the truth. He had read several of their speeches, and the calumnies that had been Uttered, the violent abuse that had been used, the choice Bil linsgate expressions that had been adopted towards gentlemen connected with the League, he had never seen equalled ; but, strange to say, not one single fragment of argument had crept into any of the speeches, calculated to convince either those who heard them, or the country at large, that they were right.—( Cheers.) He found, however. amidst all the great mass of calumny, slander, and aspersion, one little salutary fact had been stated by a Noble Peer; he had stated as an in stance of the dreadful sufferings inflicted on the agricultural in terest by the tariff, that the westof Scotland was suffering from the duty on cheese.—(Cheers.) Now, this might appear a little matter, but what was the fact? Why, the tariff did not snake any alteration in those duties. —( Laughter and cheers. ) The truth was, that Sir R. reel, satisfied with the little he had done, as a sop to the agriculturists, left butter and cheese alone. se-(Cheers.) The truth was, there was no alteration in the duty on cheese, and there was a considerably less quantity im ported into this country, as he would shortly prove. In 1841, when the tariff was not in existence, there was imported into this country 246.000 cwts.; in 1842, 175,000 cwts. ; and in 1843. when the tariff was at its full play, 153.000 cwts.—(Cheers. ) Now, what was the reason of this? Why, they had used up their customers.—(Cheers.) The manufacturing classes, the working classes, used this commodity, and if they were out of employ, they had not the means of buying, and that was the reason why the farmer was unable to sell his cheese.—(Cheers.) Now, they were on the eve of the meeting of another ereat Pro-corn-law association, he alluded to the near assembling of arliament, and little enough, he thought all present would be of opinion, was to be expected from that body.—( Cheers.) First of all they had the Protectionists, the majority of the House of Commons, headed by Sir R. Peel. He had some hope s of seeing Sir Robert Peel in that place ere long as a member of the League, and some day or other he would be perhaps kind enough to offer to same of them for the season, the use of his bull.—( Roars of laughter.) er perhaps he might offer to destroy the rabbits in his garden at Whitehall—( Renewed laughter)—and all this he would, doubtless, say he did for the benefit of the people.—( Cheers.) He would tell them why he thought they would soon have him In that place as a member of the League; it was because, during the whale of his life the measures he ultimately adopted were always those which in former life he had opposed --(Great cheering.) Now. he would bring him to book upon this point. —(Laughter.) Some twenty years ago Sir R. Peel had op posed certain resolutions brought forward at that time by one of the leading Members on the Liberal side of the House of Com mons, he alluded to Mr. Horner, on the great currency question. Now, eight years afterwards, what would the meeting believe Sir R. Peel did? Why, is 1819 he brought forward a mea sure based on those very resolutions, and in his place in the House of Commorp, without a particle of shame that formerly he had opposed the very resolutions he was then calling upon the House to adopt.—(Cheers.) An other great question on which he had altered his mind was the Catholic Emancipation question. There he had altogether changed his opinion; and how any mortal man, with the or dinary sense that God had had given him, could put truth or faith in him again, he was at a loss to conjecture. In 1827, when Mr. Canning came into power, Sir Robert Peel stated as his reason for giving up his seat in the House of Commons, that Mr. Canning had always been favourable to the Catholic claims, and as the granting of these claims would be injurious to the Church, he felt bound to oppose them ; and yet two years after that he granted these claims, and that too in his character of a Minister of the Crown.—( Hear, hear, and great. cheering.) But he (Mr. Bouverie) had not dole With him yet.—( Laughter.) In the year 1833 Sir R. Peel, the leader of the Opposition, in the course of the functions cast upon him, made a speech on the financial state of the country, and on the income-tax being adverted to, he ex pressed his opinion upon it. He was not so fond of expressing his opinions now, because he had been several times made to eat his own words.—(Cheers and laughter.) He had now great difficulty in expressing his opinions ; but upon that occa sion he did express his opinion, and said that nothing but a case of extreme necessity could justify Parliament in times of peace subjecting the people to the inquisitorial proceedings of the income-tax—and that having recourse to that machinery for the purpose of raising the revenue two or three per cent. Was most unwise.—( Cheers.) That with respect to It eland, it would be grievously felt, and would be most injurious; that it was his most anxious desire to see Ireland treated as much as possible like England—( Cries of " Shame" )---but that to sub ject England and Scotland to a property-tax. and not Ireland, would be most unjust; and yet, after all this—after all these statements, he had done that very thing which t ears back he . believed to be unjust.—( Cheers). Now, surely, after a public man had so gone back from what he had publicly stated, and that, too, after great consideration, in his place in Parliament— no honest man could trust either him or his declarations. - While he (Mr. Bouverie) said the time might come when they would see Sir Robert Peel enlisted is their ranks, he could assure them, that he should not much rejoice at it.-- (Cheers,) Of this lie was sure, that when time had rolled on, and they were all gone to their accounts, their descendants would be shocked to find that in former days there were such leaders of party as Sir Robert Peel and Mr. Alderman Gibbs.— (Great laughter.) With respect to the great party who were for agricultural protection, and supported Sir It. Peel un willingly, they contended for no other proposition than this, that, supposing there was no custom-duties required at all, that supposing the revenue could be raised by some internal 'resource of taxation, such as Crown-lands and so on, that supposing that state of things existed, they would still have to maintain the whole army of Customs Commissioners, tide. waiters, overseers, revenue cutters, and so on, for the purpose of keeping out foreign produce.—(Cheers.) In short the agri culturists demanded that as a right. Now, why did they do 10? They admitted that the Anti-Corn-law League had, ab - straetedly, principle on their side.— ( Cheers.) Air. Gladstone had said that free trade was connected with common sense.— (Cheers.) Mr. Baring was for free trade in the abstract— Great cheering)—and a gentleman who had spoken at a Ineeting in Sussex was for the principle of free trade in - Theory, but net in fact.—( Laughter.) Of this he (Mr. llouverio) was convinced, that the more they knocked .Oft' the shackles that at present were bearing on the country, the more moral would they make it.— (Cheers ) But then these gentlemen, the agriculturists, con- Easier she burthens upon the land ! What comparison, he would 11 k, was there between them and the burthens placed upon the tots:lv-7 to maintain the protection laws? One was only a hurtheis cs t pounds, shillings, and pence, while the other was that of s;deeing, privation, misery, starvation, and death.— ( great cheNing.) One could not be weighed against the other.—(Cheer's.) They could not put in one scale, tears, misery, and w retchedness, and in the other gold.—( Great cheering.) There was no comparison between them, and in his opinion, and in that of all thinking men, the pecuniary one Ought to be put out of consideration.---( Cheers.) Now what Were the burthens of which there was so much said ? Why Sir R. Peel had enumerated them at Tamworth ; he said, look at the tithes. Now, how he (Mr. Bouverie) would ask, were they a burthen upon the land ?—( Great cheer ing.) A thousand years ago a provision had been ? n, 'Ate fir the clergy , and the party t o ok t he land sub j ect to tuat provision.— (Cheers. ) It was a burthen on the land if they pleased, but not to the parts taking it, because he got the land cheaper.—(Cheers.) Then, with respect to poer -rates and highway rates, they were said to be burthens, and no doubt they were eta some measure so ; but did not the occu piers of houses bear equal burthens ?—( Cheers.) Then they came to what really was a burthen—the land tax ; and what Vas the amount of that ? Why he found that in 18a1 it pro duced 1,214,000/. ; he bad looked up the items of the receipt of income, and he found the greater portion to be legacy and Probate duty. Now the land paid neither of those duties at 4 11 •—(Cheers.) If he was to succeed to-morrow to an estate ‘'of 50,000/. a y ea r he should not pay a shilling duty, but if the Viand had been sold, and the party had left him the money he should then have to pay 10 per cent. duty.—( Cheers.) Now 'this he thought was a good set off against the land tax.— (Cheers.) There was another section of the House of Corn. atolls who said they disregarded the notion of protection Illtugether, but they said they must have revenue, and it ought to be uporit corn as well as any other article. Now the free traders said to that, No, it is one of the necessaries of life, and upon that ground it would be impolitic to place a duty on it. Duties ought to be regular, and corn could not produce a re gular duty on account of the change of seasons and other mat lers.—(Cheers. ) The free trader also said that a tax should lake as little as possible from the pockets of those who had to say, and should give as much as possible to the Government; alit that corn would not do that.—(Cheers.) He agreed vith.tt e Chairman, that of the ultimate success of the League mo one cold doubt—(Cheers) —they were sure sooner or later to succeed.—( Cheers.) Let them loo k at all the g reat ques tions of polities! importance that had been decided in the coun tSr), and they wo,ol find that where the people pronounced in •faveser of thins they had become the law of the land.—( Cheers. ) 1 4 90.0, he would asls, obtained the Reform Bill ? The aristo c, "ley t No,:but the people.—( Cheers. )They asserted it was right ; it s 'as resisted for a time, but it was ultimately carried. Was it th e ui -per classes that brought about the ab ol:tion of slaver y ? bu the people willed it, and the slave trade was abolished. And , toe ' , vas to a practical question of some importance to all o f the e perhaps not so important in its besaings as this count Which hi benefi t of rY th at to h\ bad j.t referred, was it the aristocracy of vied, ~•- , ‘r who willingly carried, for the postage measure ?—( Hear, the vies the Pe"i '- hear.) Hemiddle conten classes who carried it—the wh„Prol,ttha.t both the Whigs and Tories were ' "u to it • it vat the ts Inch would re to succeedthey exerted their stseogth,. would he a , d who saw the great benefit w r e e t r ue if ther;e as - ,;..re was orried.—( Cheers.) But he need confine himself to that meargre. If they went back to the as travelle d hack 900 yoatl=, they would find that this battlenowfought at t but period. To. in , i i d ir d h le at cl w as a s s e t s h h e a r d es th ol e t n ? , T h to fight ag a , sea.st naosaopoly' .4n- Ared a was, that that all mono ; tea were abelswihagsd. posted, hu d n e: cl ar i t 'au twenty year; ago an Act • past,il*goauib_, eieg:rdsut::/eit that t he sate " should be abolished. Tie thing Would be witnessed perhapsL• that they woo Id see an Act of Parliarment passed, not in such gens ' ral terms, but an Act of Parliament de facing the that the cor s-laws were injurious to the best interezts be , country, and tL'a t they should therefore from that tame 'P ea led. (L A oud sehe, , rs). As Ir. th ,• j. Fox t' cam forward to address the meeting. fusion e vis don. Gen tlern. sn w, :s commencing , consider able eon. the to°l Plate •hrou:s h the 'breaking down of a barrier near h e haPtitakers.. t O tddres% t Oisd hem oxx the 'first meeti been at lenngths of resa tore new year of Cation . d, he said g I.timo where contusion, anxiety, and uncertainty, LGU kTRE• 1 monthly , Covl up for ad a cconr ( .h g reates, mm odatea orchestra. a dditiona l , who 11 0 seated at The Chair' en's raise(' ,ff , i% -past ' a Ls c rowae he Leag ue 'ded by 0 n snoidivg one of the the Chair: they WO ]sq., 4 3 .; ; NV I"' ; • r.; the Chair s, stie, Esq i . ' hur Pat: t ines, Esq . ' sq. ; . A. Thj ill it Esq.; e , Esq.; a , D es rt ' I n os. , sharer ,. rgan. E sq d . Edvo r . slows ❑ d Jr a '•• loot . 7.1 C chi° ro Esq.; en q. ; L Eastiv22, fessor ; and 100- 1 36 of the D , of the 110 were prevailing throughout the country; when the Legislature was ex ! ected shortly to meet, and the people looked o❑ rather with sullen expectancy than with any degree of hopefulness; when the League had gone on marshalling its strength, aug menting its funds, and multiplying its numbers; when political parthts were on the look-out to see what chances might turn up for rot aini rg their position, or for getting into the position of their adversaries ; when Anti- Corn saw League Associations were forming in different counties; and when, therefore, on all accounts, it was appro priate and desirable to reiterate, though in terms that had been often heard, they could not be too often repeated—to reiterate the League principles, the one aim and object of that Associa tion, that for which they were banded together, without which they would never be content, till they attained which their or ganisation and their exertions would continue ; the one broad, simple principle of free trade, and, as applied to the greatest possible case, the total, the immediate, the unconditionel abo lition of the corn-laws.—( Cheers.) That was the star by which they steered ; to that single point they bore right on, heedless of all other considerations. They eared not for par ties, they cared not for demonstrations of faction, new or old; they cared not for the consistency or the inconsistency of this or that leader, or of any portion of the House of Corn mons.—( fl , ar, hear) The total, the unconditional, and the immediate abolition of the corn-laws was what they asked of all. They sought no more, they would take no less, from Sir Robert Peel, or. the one side, or from Lord John Russell, on the other side. They sought nu more, and they would take no less, from Lord Melbourne on the one sire, or from the Duke of Wellington on the other side, or from my Lord Brougham on all sides.—( Great laughter and much cheering.) They waged no further warfare with those who conceded this prin. ciple ; they waged everlasting warfare with all who would not grant this principle ; and, because it was a principle, in their minds, which admitted of no compromise on any grounds what ever.—( Great cheering.) That was their watchword.— (Hear, hear.) If a certain class in the country reiterated its ery of "No surrender," they replied by "No compromise."— ( Cheers ) If this movemen► were, what it had sometimes been mistakenly represented ; if it were a mere manufac turer's combination—an endeavour to put certain portions of the trade and commerce of this country on a different, arid a safer, and a more profitable footing, and that were all ; if this were a mere party movement—an action of hostility towards one set of politicians, aid an endeavour to in troduce into their place another setof politicians ; if this move ment were a class feeling ; it they really did the absurd thing that had been ascribed to them in the published resolutions of societies ; if they hated agriculture (an inc ,neeivable absur dity, for how could any man hate that through which he got bread to eat ?); or, if this were a mere popular caprice, a cuckoo cry set up by individuals for their own personal aggrandise ment, or for purposes of faction, like " no popery," and similar cries, which had so often led multitudes astray, and brought confusion to the country, why then there might be compromise in the matter.—( Hear, hear.) But with them it was the very stuff of conscience ; it was a principle to which they had made up their minds, as embracing a right of man anterior even to the existence of civilised society ; for if anything could be called a natural right, it was that of man's exchanging the produce of his honest labour freely in the world's market for whatever he might desire as a substitute, welcome to him as ministering either to his subsistence or his comfort.—(Loud and long con tinued cheers.) This was not a question that admitted ofdeerees ; it was not a thing to be settled piece- meal.—( Hear, hear.) They respected all rights, but they had no respect for wrongs. --(Hear, hear, and cheers. ) They understood not the doc trine of tolerating a certain robbery, of itsiquity, of oppression on the community, and en individuals.—( Hear, hear.) They took up their position on the right and wrong of the case. For prorrrty, of all sorts, as realised by skill and labour, and as sanctioned by human laws and institutions, they avowed every respect ; and they held in sacred regard the property of the class which most opposed itself to their claims.— ( Hear, hear.) The broad acres of the landholder were his ; they meant not to touch them ; they set up n• scramble for their division—they interfered not with his retention of that which, whether conquered by the sword or gained by purchase, belonged to him. Let hint do as he would with his own—he was amenable in public opinion if he violated decency and mo rality ; but, so far as he kept within the limits which the great objects of human society prescribed, they respected his rights even there.—( Hear, hear.) Let him have his game, or let him decimate his hares and rabbits—let him grant leases or let him refuse leases—let him cut down the ancient timber on his estate to put cash into his pocket, or let him have a great re spect for, and be conservative of timber and of institutions—they meddled with nothing whatever of that kind; lot him have his whose rights—the land was his, the produce of the land was his, or those to whom he hired out that land; but there was one thing which was not his, and that was the industry of other people.—( Cheers.) Their labour, their skill, their per severance, their bones and sinews, their daily toil, and the bread which they earned by that toil, and which he had no right to diminish by taxation.—(Deafening applause.) They were his fellow-countrymen, and not his slaves.—(Renewed cheers.) The labourer's bones and muscles were his own property, and not a landlord's.—(Continued cheering.) They claimed for themselves that which they conceded to him, the fair produce of whatever powers, privileges, or advantages they possessed.—( Hear, hear.) Here their principle claimed the same respect, the same sacred veneration, for the rights of pro perty in the man who had nothing in the world but the sical strength with which he went forth in the morning to earn. his dinner at noon, and in the inheritor of the widest and most princely domains that could be boasted of in this rich country of Great Britain ; and in their regard for this principle, they were opposed not only to the present form of invasion of the industrious man's property, but to any other mode or plan of invasion that might be substituted for it by any other parties, or fur any other purposes.—( Hear, hear.) The principle was as opposed to a fixed duty as it was opposed to a sliding scale.— ( Hear, hear.) 'I he one was as much an invasion of the com mon rights of the people as was the other. For what was its tendency, under whatever pretext it might be levied? There could be no dsubt that any duty on the importation of corn must enhance the price of food ; and whatever enhanced the price of feed took away from the fair earnings of the industrious. And when they called to mind the condition of great multiiaidesol the industrious classes; when they thought how they rose up early, and sat up late, and ate the bread of carefulness, by what miserable and wearing toil their poor pittance was won from the world; when they remembered how many there were whose history, the whole history of their lives, was summed up in the well-known verse— tern as well as men—that poured from the factories to give their support to this common cause. There was nothing to be seen of that tyranny that was spoken of elsewhere. Nothing of the kind existed in the places which he had seen. Wher ever he had been, the operatives came to the meeting, not choked with " Devil's dust," as Mr. Ferrand said—( Hisses, and laughter)—but ready to " down with their own dust" in aid of the cause.—( Cheers and great laughter.) He had seen the women, too, come forward eager to show their sym pathy with the oppressed, and the wrong that'was inflicted upon themselves by the law which 'Tiade the bread of their children scarce and dear.—( Hear, hear.) The children seemed to him to understand the interest which they had in the ques tion, and to look forward to the time ashen each of them would say with pride, " I too was a corn-law repealer in my infancy." When they saw this in London—when they saw London imitating the conduct of the people in the country on this subject, then the work would be accomplished, and these laws totally and finally abolished.—( Cheers.) Let it not he supposed, however, that the thought of compromise would not be as far from the minds of the Anti-Corn-law League if they stood alone.—( Hear.) This was shown by those seven men who met years ago at Manchester, and who still contended for the same principle as then—repeal, and no thing short of repeal.—(Cheers. ) They would have adhered to those principles if no public sympathy had been raised in their favour, and if none of those meetings had taken place. For their principle-, were of that class, which having once got hold of a mau's mind are never abandoned. It was for such principles martyrdom was suffered.—(Cheers.) Once adopted—once promulgated, they might be delayed in their progress, they could pat be defeated.—( Cheers. ) It was by the influence of such feelings and the operation of such principles the Reformation was effected. It was to them we owed the Christian religion itself.—(Hear, hear, and cheers.) If they who led the League were ever to falter in their course, their defalcation would have no effect upon the progress of the cause. They were but the foremost in the cause, which was proceeding as regularly as the rolling waters,- and if they did not keep in the advance, they would be overwhelmed in the progress of the country to the great consummation.—( Cheers.) There could be no compromise, for the landlords had thrown down the gauntlet—they had waged war with the League — they had challenged the League, and summoned it to the con test. They had. vowed they would put it down.—(Laughter.) But they were not the bold Barons of Runnymede.—(Great laughter.) No, no, the age of chivalry was gone indeed, and most especially in their case—for they were traders, and the worst of traders, who diminished the food of the people to raise their own profits. —( Cheers. ) They disrobed themselves of that which should be their dignity and their armour. What did they mean by standing aloof from the rest of the people, by uniting with whom they would promote their own real in terest, and secure wealth, peace, and happiness for all, in stead o f rancour and warfare, and the opposition of class to class ?—( Hear, hear, and cheers.) There had been no doubt great misrepresentations as to the large meetings throughout the country ution this subject as well as upon others. If the Morning Herald would oblige them—as it sometimes obliged the Government—with the private notes of its reporters—( Hisses, groans, and laughter)—they would know something more of the real state of the case.—( Cheers. ) lie had seen but one report (and that in a country newspaper) of a genuine meeting of tenant farmers. That was held at Eversham, and there were twenty-two farmers present. The subjects which they met to discuss were leases and corn rents. After a full and fair hearing of both sides, from two of their number wile had studied the questions, twenty voted in favour of leases, and two against them—(Cheers) —whilst eighteen voted for, and three against the corn-rest.—( Cheers). Such would be the result of all those meetings of the farmer tenants, if they had fair play.—( Hear, hear.) In the mean time it was a pity that the friends of protection did not summon an aggre gate meeting, and, small as was the theatre in which they ( the League) were then assembled, it would be ample enough. Their friend, Mr. Poulton, might find a private box for the Anti-League, and the managers' box might accommodate Sir Robert Peel and the advocates of the sliding scale.—( Cheers. ) But it would never avail for the landlords to drive the farmers to those meetings in the same manner as they drove them to poll at the hustings.— ( Cheers.) There was more suspicion, sulenness, and sulki ness in the farmer going to the meetings, than going to the poll. He understood, now, that there was great difficulty in getting them to the meetings ; and, then, there was great diffi culty in getting them to hold up their hands. At one of these meetings tne chairman repeatedly told them to hold up their bonds, but they seemed not to understand him. The chair man again called out emphatically that they must hold up their hands. But they (whether by a voluntary mistake, or not, he would not say) turned up their noses. ( Great laughter.) On the arguments brought for ward at those meetings he would say nothing, for out of nothing nothing would come. The only fragmentary grains to be found in these bushels of chaff, were such as could be refuted by every labourer of common sense. One was, that wages were raised in proportion as the price of corn was raised ; and that Is ages fell as the price of food fell. Another was, that the country ought to be independent of foreigners for the supply of food. This last was a doctrine which all the rest of the world had exploded, and it would be as well that it should here be crought to the test, and subjected to investigation. This independence was something very good for the landlords to speak of, whilst they were spreading guano over their lands— covering this England with a foreign surface, and subjecting it to that polluted dependence which they deprecated.—( Hear, hear.) In the contest at Salisbury, Mr. Bouverie met his opponent upon those grounds, and stripped him from head to foot—( Laughter )—showing that he had not got upon his person one article of clothing that was not foreign.—(Cheers.) A French cook dressed his dinner for hint—and a Swiss valet dressed hint for his dinner.—(Laughter.) He handed down his lady decked with pearls that never grew in the shell of a British oyster—(Cheers and laughter) — and waiting on her head the plume of ostrich feathers, which ' never decked the tail of a barn-door fowl. He sits down to a dinner composed of viands from different countries. His wines are from the banks of the Rhine or the Rhone. He goes into his c mservatories and regales his sight with the beautiful colours, which the flowers of South America present, and then, returning to his saloon, he refreshes his scent with the product of the northern continent. His picture gallery contains the master pieces of the Flemish school—and when he retires for his evening amusement, he hears Italians warbling German music; and afterwards enjoys a French ballot. If he aspired to judicial honours, his robe was decorated with ermine, which never before was worn upon the back of a British beast.—(Great laughter.) His mind itself was not more independent. His literature was a pic-nic from Greece to Rome. His mathematics were imported from Alexandria— his arithmetic from Egypt—his religion from Palestine.— ( Cheers.) Such was the man—such the class of men—who told the country " let there be suffering, want, starvation, amongst you ; you shall be dependent only upon us, and be inde pendent of foreigners, upon whom we depend for all our own enjoyments."—(Cheers.) The League was not going to the Legislature this session. They were not going to petition.— ( Cheers.) The Members of the Lords and the Commons might do as they pleased and how they pleased. The appeal of the League would be to the masters of those Houses—to those who created the Legislature.—( Cheers.) It was the business of the League now to teach the constituency, who made the article badly, and to instruct them how to make it better The great landed monopolists hunted up the tailor arid the shoemaker, and said, "have you not a little monopoly of your own ? Keep up our great monopoly and we will uphold your litttle monopoly—tickle me Toby, tickle me twice."--(Loud laughter.) The League had endeavoured to work upon the intelligence and principle of the:people, and upon that alone. Calling up not what was brutal, but what was most divine in humane nature, realising that spirit of independence without •xhich no institution in the form of freedom could ever be great or lasting. For this reason were the League held to be such monstrous interlopers. It was the cry at Salisbury and London, " Here are come amongst us men whose home is in Lancashire—they are utter strangers—they have no business here." There was the same sort of indignation felt by Doctor Caius in The Merry Wives of Windsor, when he found Slender in the closet ; and upon his asking Dame Quickly who it was, was informed " that it was an honest man." " But," said Doctor Caius, "what should an honest man do in ray closet?" So said the monopo lists.—(Hear.) Honest men shall not come into our closets. But the honest men had got into the closets, and with a search warrant in their hands. They had found that which would bring the monopolists to shame and contusion. They had laid bare their tricks. " We," continued the Hon. Gentleman, " can have no compromise in such a question as the corn-laws, because we cannot compromise with crime.—( Cheers. ) I hold that these laws are but one great crime, both in themsel‘es and in their consequences. It is a fraud. The monopolists say to the nation—exclude foreign corn—be independent of foreigners. Does not that imply that they—the home growers—will furnish a supply—are they not by the very fact of interposing to pre vent good provisions from corning from abroad, undertaking that there shall be ample and sufficient provision of their own raising at home? Can that be done? Have they produced, at prices at which the great mass of the community, however in dustrious, could afford to purchase, a sufficient quantity? Has there not been want and starvation in England and in Ireland ? While want and misery have been increasing, the wealth of the monopolists has not been ministering towards its al leviation. They could not produce a sufficiency of food for such an increasing population as our's, increasing, as it does, 23,0110 annually. No, they could not produce food enough if a county as large as that of Surrey were to be added to the country. 'How can they undertake to produce a suffi cient quantity of food ? Can they create a new Ireland, or can they keep the old Ireland ?—( Loud cheers.) I say that those laws with occasion the destruction of human food are a crime ? Not long ago, about the time that I was in Liver pool, a large quantity of American butter was brought out of the warehouse. A hole was bored in each firkin, and as it was found that it would not answer a commercial speculation, if the duty were paid, they poured pitch and other substances into the butter, in order that it might be rendered altogether unfit for human use. I believe it was actually made into grease for the locomotive engines. At Sunderland the same thing occurred with respect to wheat. The people were starv ing without, and the wheat was rotting within.—( Hear, hear.) It was brought out under the Government lock and key— brought by her Majesty's servants, the Custom-house officers. It was taken to the dunghill, amongst all sorts of substances, in order that it might be rendered impassible for use as human food, and it was then converted into manure, and this at a time when the people were talking about poor-laws, charitable sub scriptions, collections, and tender feelings for the suffering poor. It would be worth while to compare the table of com mittals for offences, with the prices of wheat, from year to year. The exceptions are very rare in which the price of corn is not accompanied b% an increase in the number of committals. In the years from 1834 to 1836, when wheat was 445. 3d. the quarter, the average number of committals was 21,000. From 1837 to 1841, when the average price of wheat was 635. 2d., the average number of committals was 25,000. Four thou sand criminals a year added by that horrible sliding scale of guilt and misery —( Hear, bear, and cheers ) But to take an extreme year. In the year 1835, when wheat was a little under 40s, the quarter, the number of committals was 27,300. In 1842 wheat was 575. 3d. the quarter; the committals were 31,300 in the year. This is the result of the experience of many years. This is the horrible operation of these iniquitous laws, which murder the soul as well as the body—which make the best tendencies of our nature subser vient to crime—which make the life of that man, whose fa mily depend upon him for support, a motive and an incentive to guilt—which create crime and make the repetition of the Queen's proclamation for the suppression of vice necessary by an Ant of Parliament for the produ ction of criminality. Oh, I do declare before high heaven and the world, that I would rather hold up my hand at the bar of the Old Bailey as a cul• pi it, driven to crime by a most iniquitous law, than be one of those who profit. by a law which was m ade to coin money out of the heart's life of our fellow-creatures.—( Loud cheers. ) Nor is this all. The annuable table of mortality is analogous as to numbers to the annual table of crime. With the price of wheat the number of deaths falls or rises. In 1798 and 1802 wheat was 595. the quarter, and the aver age number of deaths in London was 20,508. In 1800, the intermediate year, and therefore not liable to exception on the ground of increased po. pulation, when wheat was upwards of 605., the number of deaths was 25,670. Five thousand deaths in that year, being an increase analogous to the increase in the price of food, and directly tending to impress on the mind the connection of cause and effect. It seems as if the grim monster had forgot his impartiality—as if the bony tyrant had become the ser vant of monopoly, and though it is still in same measure true that the rich and poor lay down together in the grave, yet that the world, by its laws, sends the poor there first. and sends them there in numbers to prepare for their awn re ception. The effect of the classification of society is, that while in the middle and higher classes only one child in five fails to attain five years of age, in the working classes only half that number ever reach that period. Are we to be told that farther experiments should be made in a law that is connected with phenomena such as this ! Are we to give Peel's Bill a longer trial, or any trial of monopoly whatever? Are we to have more experiments of privation—of disappointment—of suffering—of crime—and of death ! It was an old medical maxim that expe riments should be made on vile and worthless bodies only; but here is a law which makes experiments even on the bodies of a great suffering nation. This is enough to raise every feeling of our souls, and to create the indignation of man, woman, and child, of all ranks and classes, at the iniquity, and a determination of listening to no compromise until it be put down entirely and for ever. For this we have bound ourselves. For this you, as the metropolis, must take your rightful position, and go forward to the van, and lead on the march. We are determined not to cease our exertions until we have realised our great object of emancipating labour, and raising it above the ruins of all existing monopolies. For this we strive, and whilst one atom is left of restriction upon food—whilst there is any enactment curbing the rights of in dustry and of labour—whilst there is an imposition on the food of the people, we will never desist from agitation —no, never, never.—( Great and enthusiastic cheering.) From year to year we have held onward, endeavouring not only to obtain good for ourselves, but for other classes also, however blind to their own true interests they might be. For what is universal freedom ? It is the best security for the largest proprietor, as well as the rightful and honourable encou ragement for those who have no property at all. We go for commercial freedom—for the development of intellectual and moral freedom—teaching different classes their dependence on each other—uniting nations in a bond of brotherhood, tending to realise the anticipations of that great poet to whom I have before referred, whom this day gave to Scotland and the world— " Now let us pray hat come it may, As come it shall for a' that, That man to man, the world o'er, Shall brothers be for a' that." ( The Hon. Gentleman sat down amidst the most enthusiastic cheering. ) Mr. M. Grasos, M.P., next rose and addressed the meet ing, and was received with much cheering. He said, he would have preferred to have remained silent to have had time for reflection, after the very splendid and effective oration which they had just heard; and he felt confident that he spoke the senti ments of that vast assemblage, when he said that Mr. Fox had conveyed to the world the full intention of the National Anti- Corn-law League. He had not gone beyond what they pro fessed, nor had he in the smallest degree come short of their deserts. The principle they advocated was the total and unconditional repeal of the corn-laws.—(Hear, hear.) They also advocated the abolition of all other protective duties. They were not willing to reserve to any portion of the com munity that protection which they were resolved, if they could, to take from the agriculturists, and standing there, is the pre sence of that vast and intelligent assembly, he felt proud in having it in his power to deny most emphatically the charge that had been brought against the Anti-Corn -law League, that it was a body seeking simply to attack the landed interest, and having a desire to preserve the protection of the manufacturers. --( Hear, hear.) Representing in Parliament the metropolis of the manufacturing districts of England, he there emphatically denied the charge in the name of the manufacturers, and attested before all, that those men who had petitioned the Legislature for a repeal of the corn-laws had also prayed that Legislature to withdraw all protection from the industry of the country. His Hors. Friend, Mr. Fox, well said that petitioning the Legisla ture was a farce.—( Hear, hear.) He was glad that they were no longer to waste their energies in getting up futile petitions to a landlord House.—( Hear, hear.) They would be enter. tamed next session with petitions of another description. Land lords' petitions would be presented by landlords to a landlord Le gislature in the presence of the" collective wisdom." Those were petitions with which the country must be entertained, and they might believe that he stated the exact truth when he said that the parties who get up these petitions will belong to the same party that present them, and to the same party that re ceive them. It was difficult to conceive anything more ludicrous than the farce enacted in the presence of a great body of men. These laws were enacted in what was termed the " collective wisdom" of the community, and it was indeed humiliating to think that any body of men could be found so stupid as to be lieve that the people were represented in that august body. The Anti-Corn-law League had, indeed, reason to congratulate itself and the country upon the progress which this great movement was making. The League had been termed an odious conspiracy—(Laughter)—it was sometimes called a petty clique of ragamuffins—( Great laughter)—they had been also informed that the Association was a formidable combination of marked men, which endan gered and threatened the existence of Church and State—they were at another moment, a petty gathering of manufacturers, without any legitimate influence, but endeavouring to influence the community by the help of a little money.—(Laughter.) The League could not be all those different things. He re membered a saying of the late Mr. Cobbett—he said, " Some times the people call me the scum of the earth, and sometimes they call me the dregs; now, I cannot be both the scum and the dregs."—(Great laughter and cheers.) But let them understand what the Anti-Corn-law Association really was—it was not a formidable conspiracy of wicked men, nor a petty cabal of manufacturers—( Hear)—it was the test of the union of the middle and intelligent classes of the community, who were determined that they should no longer live by sufferance—who resolved to vindicate their so cial position, and no longer allow themselves to be kept down in the social scale, in order that the feudal ascendancy might be maintained and the great body of the people kept down by that remnant of barbarous ages which was embodied in the corn.laws.—( Hear, hear, and great cheering.) The spirit of the system on which the corn-laws were founded was, that the trader, the manufacturer, the commercial man had no right to have more trade, no more wealth, no more enjoyments, no more of the comforts of life than might suit landlord propensities to allow him. They pro ceeded upon the assumption that the landed aristocracy had a right, by inheritance, to regulate trade—to mete out rewards to the industrious classes—to restrict the comforts and enjoy ments of life, and to tell their fellow-citizens to what degree they might ascend in the social scale. The League was a great combination of rational men, who stood forward deter mined to abolish this feudal tyranny, and erase from the statute book those remnants of feudal barbarism. They recogni , ed no such inherited right in the aristocracy of landlords.--( Hear.) As Mr. Fox said, they did not covet their acres, nor desire to interfere with their property—( Hear, hear)—all they asked was, that the aristocracy should desist from inter fering with trade, and allow the great body of the industrious community to have full enjoyment of the resources which Pro vidence had placed within their reach.—( Hear, hear). They had been told that the lion of England had aroused himself, and that he was shaking his mane. He was afraid this lion of England would resemble the lion in the fable—a donkey in a lion's hide, and now that the animal began to bray, all the rest of the creation discovered that he was not a lion, but an ass:—( Great laughter). Was there ever in this world such a collection of wretched trash as the speeches recently delivered at the Agricultural Association ?—( Hear, hear). There was very little argument, a great deal of abuse, an occa sional allusion to special burdens on land, and the dangers which impended over the Church and State ; but all argument against the principle of free trade was abandoned, and the landed aristocracy appeared to have taken up the position that might constituted right.—( Hear, hear.) There was one special burden mentioned, which he would take the liberty of alluding to. It was mentioned by a gentleman at the Northamptonshire meeting. He said that ambassadors, diplomatists, and consuls were sent abroad at a great expense to the country, and all for the advantage of the commercial world ; and th e a g riculturists had to support the expense in the main of this valuable body of diplomatic nego tiatiors.—( Hear, hear.) That fell from a gentleman who in herited the name, hut not, he feared, the abilities of that dis tinguished statesman—George Canning. Mr. Canning told the so-called meeting of tenant farmers, (but who, in fact, were not tenant farmers, but a collection, for the most part, of those persons who usually took a prominent part before election contests,) he told those tenant farmers, or whatever they were called, that ambassa dors were sent abroad, and constituted a special burden on land, and entitled the landed proprietors to enact the sliding scale for corn.—(Laughter.) He had els; ays thought that the ambassadors, &c., were chosen from the aristocratic body, and that diplomatic situations were pleasant situations—large sine cures with large salaries, and quite suitable to the taste and fancy of aristocratic legislatore.—( Hear, hear.) But he had never heard any rea s onable commercial man say that he considered any service had been done him by diplo. rnatists. What intelligent traders said was, let not di plomatists meddle in our affairs. No diplomatist or ambassador can direct the merchant how to employ his' capital, nor what exchange he ought to snake. At this latehour of the evening it would, perhaps, be thought that he was trespassing on their time improperly—(Cries of " No, no")—if he dwelt at any length upon those arguments—if they deserved the name which had been used at the agricultural meetings. Old fallacies had been patched up at the Northamp tonshire meetings, such as if foreign corn were admitted free of duty, the foreigner would not take our manufactures, but would only take our gold and silver. It was a surprising anxiety the Northamptonshire farmers expressed about gold going out of the country.—( Hear.) One would think they had been instrumental in bringing the gold in. He should like to know how much gold would be in England if they had nothing but agricultural produce to send in . exchange. Were there gold mines in Northamptonshire , or was saver dug up in Buckinghamshire, that there should be this excessive anxiety about the gold and silver going out of the country? All the gold and silver had been brought into the country by manu facturing industry.—(Hear , hear.) All that ministers to the luxuries of the great, and that added to the splendour of the aristocracy, had been purchased by manufacturing industry.— ( Hear, hear.) But when we asked to be allowed to purchase cheap bread, to relieve the necessities of the poor, and in crease the comforts of the industrious classes, they said, " Oh no, we dare not let you do that, for the gold and silver would go out of the country."—(Loud cries of " Hear, hear.") They were willing enough to allow gold and silver to be exported for the gratification of the great, but none for the comforts of the poor. If they would not allow gold to go out for corn, why should they allow it to go out in exchange for the other imports , tea, coffee, sugar, and all the varieties of commodities which were brought into the country at the rate of fifty millions a year ? They yet find that the amount of gold England was stationary, and they know that all the gold . coin at present in the island wouldnot pay for nine months' imports. What peculiarity was there in the commodity of corn that such dire app re h ens i on s h ou ld b e entertained of the scarcity of gold and silver, and that all our domestic and financial arrangements should be embarrassed ?.—. ( Hear, hear.) But it was vain to dwell up on suc h f ut il e r ea soning as that. The question they w ere now cons id er i ng was the question of abolishing the corn-laws. He did not want to expose fallacies. They would not aga i n muster t h e i r ener gies in attempting to kill the slain. if th e m iddl e c l asses o f this country stood by their order, as the aristocracy stood by theirs, they would succeed in abolishing the corn-laws ; but if they cringed to wealth, and fashion, and aristocratic power, and allowed themselves to be wheedled into servility, the corn laws would continue, and all the speeches and arguments in the world would not abolish them.—(Hear, hear.) It was the consciousness, on the part of the ruli ng p owers , th a t th e great body of the industrious classes understood their true position, and were determined to vindicate their rights, that would induce them to yield. They would tot make a free gife—they would not yield without pres sure ; they believed that aristocratic privileges, as they called them, and aristocratic rights, were cherished in the hearts of the people, an d that the day was far distant when they would be compelle d to resignpeople's rights. He believed the Parliament would be of little avail that unjust assumption of . those with ou t— un l es s th e y k ne w v a tuh u onai t ic ho te est o i es r t fey great stpwhoehni responded deo c mdt u yob r curtailed firmly d is oyf t b he y of and for d classes were determined to stand by their order, nd lor their rights, as one man.— ( Hear, hear.) Unless, he repeated, this consummation took place the corn-laws would not be abolished. It was in the power of the electors of this country to abolish the corn-laws if they pleased. They were not in such a minority as they generally supposed. What was the fact, that out of 500 Mem bers which England returned, 330 were returned by the bo roughs and cities. T he counti es and Universities returned only 160 Members. Ireland and Scotland returned a majority in favour of the abolition of the co rn -l aws , an d th e y h a d b u t to secure a majority in England to abolish the corn laws and all the other monopolies.--( Hear, hear. ) Let them all pledge themselves to endeavour, by every means in their power, at the next g eneral election , to return none but men who would pledg e themselves to a total, immediate , and of the corn-laws.--s( Cheers.) The time action, they must a tt ac k th e registrations— fylemalust advance th e cause w i t h t h e e l ec t ora l registrations— (Chas unconditional eash eneorw scometw r body.—( Loud cheers.) . The friends o f th e cause s h o uld exert all their powers of periumen and influence to bring the middle " Work—work—work,— Till the eyes be red and dim ! Work—work—work,— Till the brain begins to swim !" When they looked on such a destiny as that, if a fixed duty would take but a farthing out of a pound, they said it should not be taken from these wretches to augment the stores of the Dukes of Buckingham and Richmond.—( Great cheering.) Why, there were cases in which the imposition of a fixed duty on corn, whatever the amount, would lead to moreobjectionable results, perhaps, than those which belonged to a sliding-scale. It had been often urged, and he believed it had been felt, as an objection, " What will you do with your fixed duty of 10s., es., or ss. ; what will you do with it when food rises, as it is subject at times to rise, to a famide price ?" Why, it had been said that it must then be relaxed. What power should determine the relaxation, and by what test?—( Hear, hear. ) Only let them realise, in their imaginations, for a moment, the condition of a Prime Minister who had to watch the coun try to see whether the time was come, or coming, at which the fixed duty on corn must be relaxed, by a special interposi tion of the Government, because food was reaching a famine price ! Why, he must notiee in the papers how many were picked up fainting in the streets for want of food.—( Hear, hear.) How many cases of starvation would prove that bread had risen to the rate at which the relaxation must take place? What amount of disease, how much typhus, would be a justification of the re laxation of the duty ? These were the inquiries a Prime Minister must make in such a case.—( Hear, hear.) He must watch the country, and feel its pulsation ; as the regimental surgeon stood by when the soldier was flogged, finger on wrist, eye on the bleeding wounds, ear open to the sound of the cat upon the bare back, and, with a stopwatch notmg whether the instant had yet arrived when he was to interpose and say, " Hold, enough."--( Tremendous cheers.) Was that a fitting position for the chief of the legitimate government of a free nation?—(Loud cries of " No, no.") One violation of jus tice always led to another.—( Hear, hear.) Forget justice, and charity would not long be remembered, and humanity would cry in vain.—( Cheers. ) A fixed duty ! 'Why it was protec tion under another name, that which was called protec tion ; and protection was the very thing again-t which that League waged warfare, and which it existed in order to put down and to annihilate for ever.—( Immense cheer ing. ) They had no more charity for protection in one form than in another. What was it ? The protection of agriculture. What portion of agriculture? what clans of persons? Strip it of devices and sophisms, and circumlocutions, it was the protec tion of rent, and nothing else. The protection of the tenant farmer! Had it ever enriched him? The protection of the la bourer ! What had been his history for many a year past ? He had been protected downwards from one stage to another of de scent ; protected out of his whole clothes into rags ; protect , d out of a cottage into a mud hovel, with but one filthy room in it for his wife and family, all to pig together; he had been protected till his children and wife were obliged to tell ,him that they could not go to the church for the rites of religion ; he had been protected out of the fields into the union workhouse, or, perhaps, into the court of justice, or the gaol ; and, at last, he had him protected into that narrow home " where the wicked cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest," finding in the cold shelter of the grave more of the reality of protection than he ever got from the corn-law.—( Great cheering.) Protection ! Why, what should they protect? Not a losing trade, for that was taxing all the community for the advantage of a class ; that was pursuing an object that could not repay labour; not a thriving trade, for that needed no protection.—( Cheers.) And why should any one class be singled out? What was there in the recipient of rents that he was to be protected at the expel:se of all the rest of the community ?—( Cries of " Hear, hear.") Why not protect other classes of the community ? Were not the artist and the poet as worthy of protection ? He dared to say that there were in that great meeting perhaps some few Se9tchmen present—( Hear, hear, and laughter)—and they might remember something of Robert Burns—(Cheers) —what did he want of protection—what did he gain by it? Nature made him a poet—aristocratic protection made him an excise man.—( Renewed cheering). His great protection, however, was his stout heart and strong arm.—( Cheers.) He knew that himself, for he says— " For me, so low I need not bow, The Lord be thank'd, I still can plough." Yes ; and he boasted further, that he could even beg. For the independence of a beggar was to him more desirable than the pecuniary independence which was to be obtained by plun dering others of their rights and means of subsistence.—( Hear, hear). It had been said rightly by the gentleman who preceded him that the food of the people ought not to be made a subject of revenue. Indeed, what was a less fitting source of revenue 2—( Hear, hear.) But then this ar gument was met by some advocates of the corn-laws with the assertion that the duty was necessary for protection. Yet, when you came to examine the arguments of the advocates for the duty, you would find that those who talked of protection meant revenue, and very often those who claimed revenue were strug gling for protection.--( Hear, hear. ) Whether they talked of revenue or protection, they were only leading us by a round about way to the same project of putting money into the pockets of one class at the expense of the community.—( Hear, hear.) They thought that the circuitousness of the process mystified the purpose. They were like the dishonest churchwarden.— ( Cheers and laughter, and cries of " Gibbs.") No, no ; he did not mean that person. There had been more dishonest churchwardens than one.—(Cheers and laughter.) But still lie ( Mr. F.) could not envy that person's position. However, it was not to him that he had alluded, but to a churchwarden of whom it was related, that, when he carried round the sacra mental plate to receive the offerings, he put saw-dust in his pockets, to prevent the shillings he dropped in there from jingling.—(Great ,i ( us G t . r_e a laughter.) But T he t h e e o r n r , i - o l n a e w; s the e less w " a • s ere not th land lordsfraudulently appropriated, because it was done noiselessly, and by an Act of Parliament.—(Hear, hear.) With such men there should be no compromise. —(Cheers.) That was not a word that could belong to the League in its present condition. —( Cheers.) If they would not compromise when they were weak and few, it wa snot likely that they would now, when they were strong and many.—(C r heer.) And lie might be permitted to say, that the people London could scarcely ima gine what the strength of the League was throughout the people thee, and the strength, intensity, and progressiveness ch depu tation into the North, to mark . the feelings . ofthe of their devotion to the cause of free trade.—( eei a. ) It would call forth the deepest sympathies of human nature to ritlie s o the multitudes of mon, Women, and 411i144en-wcf mat. THE SAIN, LONDON, pIITDAY MORNING, JANUARY 2d. 1844. classes out of that servility to the aristocracy which had too long characterised them.—(Cheers.) Let them stand by their ordel . , and they would compel the aristocracy to surrender their unjust pretensions, and that very speedily.—(Cheers.) Let them instruct their Members to approach the Legislature, not " With bated breath And whispering humbleness," but to speak in the spirited tone of firm remonstrance, and their power would ere long make itself felt.—(Cheers.) They would find that it would befelt even in the present House of Commons. They would observe a marked difference before the close of Parliament in the tone and speeches of Hon. Members. Such was always the case when gentlemen knew that they had soon to meet their constituents.—(Cheers and laughter.) It was remarkable how the tone of their speeches altered when they knew that a general election was at hand. If they began the pressure now, and increased its activity and its force, as the time for a general election approached they would increase immensely the number of those Members who would vote in favour of the motion of his distinguished and Hon. Friend Mr. Villiers.--( Hear, and loud cheers.) The Queen's speech would soon be presented to the nation. He feared that there would be nothing in that speech to give hope to the mercantile and trading population of the country. It would, no doubt, be full of congratulations, and he admitted that the peaceful state of our relations with diffe rent fore;gn Powers was matter of congratulation, but he be lieved that there was no efficient guarantee for the continuance of those peaceful relations, but the extension of commercial freedom.—( Loud cheers.) Nothing would so much tend to pro mote the peace of the world as the free interchange of thoughts and commodities, and the abolition of that selfish protective system which created divisions among nations, and embittered hostilities. Every philanthropist, who wished for the spread of peace and civilization amongst distant nations, should, as the best means of promoting those objects, endeavour by every means in his power to establish entire commercial freedom.— ( Loud cheers. ) The Rev. J. BURNET agreed entirely with the Hon. Gen tleman who had just sat down, that the great object of the League should now be to consider in what way they could best carry out their great purpose —(Cheers.) There had been a time when meetings, such as the present, would have been dismissed at the point of the bayonet, or by the staff of the constable, as calculated to bring the Government of the country into contempt. Now, however, such meetings as the present were actually assembled in order to prevent, if possible, the Government from bringing itself into con tempt.—(Cheers and laughter.) They, however, behaved better to the Government than the Governments of former times would have behaved to similar meetings. They used no violence towards it. All they wished was to throw such a light upon the proceedings of the Government as to enable the members of the Government to guide themselves aright. Refe rence had been made to an opposition that was forming to the Anti-Corn•law League. He should much like to see that op position join the League and make the discussion a club busi ness. They could have the League one evening, and the Anti. League the next evening, and so on until the community at large were made fully aware of the bearings of the question ; and if the Anti-League could show that the League had been really misleading the country, why they could put it down at once, and the corn-laws would flourish for ever.—( Cheers and laughter.) It was said that the Anti-League embraced all the wealthy, and noble, and talented of the land, and that the League was composed only of insignificant individuals. If so why did not the Anti-League come in the manner to which he had alluded? What kept them in the back-ground, except the conviction that they should die in the fore-ground ? (Cheers.) It seemed difficult to comprehend what was meant by protection, and against whom the landowners sought to be protected.—( Hear, hear.) Those who sought for pro tection were generally considered as helpless indi viduals, who could not protect themselves.—( Hear. ) The landlords then, meant to say that they were so helpless that they were incapable of competing with the foreigner ; so ignorant of the science of farming, as to be incapacitated for doing so; and so devoid of genius as to be incapable of even improving their knowledge, that they rushed down to the House of Commons, and cried out for protection. Why, that was not the cry of men of influence, of property, and of power —it was the cry of the helpless; it was the cry of weakness; and yet this exhibition of weakness was most grotesquely mixed up with an appearance of exultation in their strength. They boasted that they could put the League down, and yet they told the Legislature that they could not keep themselves up.— ( Cheers ) It was difficult to find out against whom this protection was sought ; but the truth was, it was against the manufacturers of their own country.—( Cheers.) The agri cultural interest sought for protection against Manchester and Liverpool, and Birmingham and Glasgow. They were afraid that the manufacturers would go to the cheapest market to buy their daily bread. "If you allow that," they said to the Legis lature, " we shall be ruined ; save us from them."—(Cheers and laughter.) It was not against the foreigner that they sought for protection. Their nearness to the market, their practical skill, their knowledge of the science of agriculture, all these were protections against the foreigner. The sea was their natural protection. The foreigner had the ex penses of importation to pay before he could bring his corn into the market, and beyond that protection the agriculturist had no right to seek for anything further. The protection sought by the landlords was against the poor and needy of their countrymen, to prevent them from going to the cheapest shop to purchase their daily food. How low had the aristocracy sunk, when they were seen rolling in their carriages, and revelling in splendour and wealth, and yet ask ing for protection against the poor widow who has just strength enough to earn her daily food—to ask for protection against her, to prevent her being able to purchase more bread for her penny, than she could do at the present moment ?—( Loud cheers.) What a degradation was this for the proud lords of the soil—(Loud cheers)—and whenever the word protection was mentioned, let it ever be remembered that it was against the widows and the orphans that the landowners called for the protection of the corn. laws. It was the landlord only who called for this pro tection, for it was to the interest of the agricultural labourer and of the tenant farmer, that there should be freedom of trade in the articles which they produced. Was there any interest in the country which really and permanently derived any advantage from this protection against the poor and mise rable? Could the lords of the soil really feel comfortable in the enjoyment of their property, while they suffered their tenants to become the victims of the gambling of the corn-laws ? —( Cheers.) The farmer, under the existing system could form no idea as to what probably might be his returns—he risked his capital on the gaming-table of the corn-laws, and he knew not what might be the result. The consequence might easily be foreseen. They saw farmer after farmer break down, and the landlord did not rise up. If trade were free everything would be settled.—( Cheers. ) A fixed trade would be better than a fixed duty.—( Loud cheers.) It now became one of the great obligations of the League to take care that their opponents should perceive that, although their power had increased, they had nothing to hope from their indolence.—(Cheers.) If Sir Robert Peel should slide out on the sliding scale, it behoved them to take special care, that Lord John Russell should not slide in on the fixed duty.— (Loud cheers.) Men in power had been sliding and shuffling long enough.—(Loud cheers.) But they should give those men clearly to understand that they would have no man sliding, whilst the people were neglected.—(Loud cheers.) Let the League show that their determination was fixed and settled, and there would be an end to sliding and shuffling legislation, and an end to the corn-laws.—(Cheers.) What right had the agricultural interest to claim particular advan tages ? He would compare the community to a great machine ; all the wheels were properly set, and when the combined power was set in motion, woe be to the feeble hand that should at tempt to stop it—it would inevitably be crushed. So was it with the community. The various interests were but one wheel of the great machine, and if one of them attempted to step out of its proper course, and to take upon itself the control of the migkty movement, that interest would bring upon itself inevitable destruction.—(Cheers.) Although the corn-laws had been productive of much evil to the country, yet they had not been altogether unproductive of good. They were indebted to ;the corn-laws for much discussion. They had brought the people together, and in the course of the discussions to which those laws had given rise, they had been called on to consider prin ciples involving the well-being of the great body politic of the empire. Those discussions had been as a school, to form the minds of the rising generation—as an arena, wherein the men might try their strength and vigour—(Cheers)—and when the corn-laws should have passed away, every corruption which clogged the motions of the State machine would be removed by the same energy, the same resolution, and the same perse verance, which had been employed in the annihilation of the corn-laws.—(Cheers.) The corn-laws had taught them how the evils of a nation were to: be grappled with.—(Hear.) They had taught the country its own strength, and that too at a time when it had been reduced to the lowest point of weakness. They had taught the country to know its own moral power—not physical, but moral power—that power which could alone be wielded with safety both to those who felt and those who guided it.—(Cheers.) They had de termined not to petition. That was right.—(Cheers.) There had been a time when it had Leen considered an honour to receive even a nod from a Member of Parliament, and that even upon the eve of an election, and when to have been spoken to by one, was an honour to be transmitted down to one's grand children.—(Cheers and laughter.) At length people got a little more courage, and ventured to become acquainted with their Members ; further than that, they petitioned them on the subject of their grievances. First they ventured to write a letter to the Members, and then they asked him to present a petition to the House, and when that had been done, and the poor people saw an account of it in the newspapers, they thought that all the evils of which they complained were to be removed at once. They then went a little further, and asked the Member to sup port their petition ; and going still further, they at length ven tured to find fault with him if he did not support it. Then they Galled upon him to make a motion upon the principle of the petition, and examined the votes to see if he had supported similar motions of others. They then took him to task in pri vate on the subject, and at length ventured to catechise him on the hustings.--(Cheers.) Thus they went on, until they were thought of more and more in the House, and Mem bers, when speaking, would suddenly see the face of some one of their constituents appear before them, and would stam mer and hesitate, or wrap up the meaning in such perplexing phraseology, that it was impossible to detect their falsehood, and in phrases so obscure that they would admit of any inter pretratlon they might choose to put upon them.—(Cheers.) At last deputations began to wait upon them, and Members found themselves in the greatest possible dilemma betwixt the petitioners and their patrons—betwixt those who made them and those who paid them.—( Loud cheers.) They had now, however, to get rid of the difficulty, established themselves as a great and mighty party, which, ashamed of the old term Tory, called itself Conservative.—(Loud cheers and laughter.) The present Parliament had been chosen when it had collected all its strength and vigour to resuscitate Tory influence. Its grasp was powerful—like that of a drowning man—and the League had done wisely to let it exhaust its unnatural strength, without coming to blows with the giant, which would exhaust itself by its expiring efforts. They did wisely to let it die peaceably.—(Cheers.) But they had been threatened with a resurrection. Sir Robert Peel, it was said, would come round to the opinions of the League.—(Cheers and laughter. ) Well, let him do so. He despised no man for changing his opinion. He despised the man who changed it often, and without sufficient cause, but not him who changed it for the love of truth, and because he was convinced by evidence.—(Cheers. ) Sir Robert Peel was, it was said, a servant of all work, and he admitted that the Minister did look narrowly and watch atten tively the spirit of the times, and shape his course accordingly He did this well. He did this cleverly. He did this wisely To be sure nothing could be said in favour of the moral gran deur of his conduct ; but still he managed matters very cleverly Now if he were a servant of all work, all the League had to do was to compel him to occupy himself in their vocation— to make use of him.—(Laughter.) In political movements they were often obliged to work with most contemptible tools, all they did in using such instruments was to take care that :the did not permit themselves to be degraded, whatever might be the depth of degradation of the tools they were compelled to use. He would not occupy their attention longer at that late hour of the evening. They had no wish to keep late hours, he left that to the aristocracy.—( A laugh.) Before separating however, he would urge them not to let their exertions flag— to let no circumstances throw them off their guard—to main tain their position not only by being always ready for battle, but by always fighting—not only by being prepared to take advantage of whatever circumstances might arise, but by moulding cir cumstances to promote their purpose. Let them go on, and the corn-laws could not long remain. Let them go on with manly hardihood, and the day was not far distant when they would congratulate each other on the success of their efforts to secure the rights of the children of men.— (Loud cheers.) The CHAIRmAN gave notice that this was the first of those meetings which it was proposed to hold weekly in that theatre for some time to come. He was not at liberty to announce the names of those speakers that would address them next Thurs day, but they would be announced in the newspapers in the course of a few days. The meeting then broke up at half-past ten o'clock. WAGES AND CORN-LAWS. IVAGES.—Obscrvations on the Connexion between Corn- Law _Repeal and die Price of Labour; mith a Reply to some _Remarks contained in a Pamphlet signed " Britannicus." By Edward John Evans. Clarke. London, 1844. The object of these " observations " cannot be bet ter stated, perhaps, than in the "Prefatory Remarks" which precede the text. We subjoin an extract, of which, in discussing the important topics it alludes to, we scarcely think the worse, because of the de fects of composition that may be detected in it : " The question of free trade has now become one of the principal topics of the day, and the object of the monopolist party being to bring forward specious argu ments attempting to refute the statements of the free traders, and as many of their pamphlets may get into the hands of persons whose minds are still shackled with many prejudices upon this subject, this device would thereby so far succeed as to cause individuals to waver in their decision, when the necessity of a right knowledge is of the first importance. This circumstance suggested the necessity of establishing the 4 Metropolitan Free Trade Discussion Society,' where all questions of doubt and perplexity can be brought forward, and their various merits freely canvassed ; and I trust by those means we shall be enabled to fix the minds of many upon a firm basis, with regard to the great and important principle of free trade." We heartily concur with Mr. Evans in his sug gestion for the general amelioration of the farmer's position, as • an expedient preliminary, if we do not mistake him, to the permanent establishment of a system of free trade, including the abolition of the existing corn-laws. " I may be allowed (he observes) to state here that, leaving out the. exploded fallacy of mutual confidence, let him at once have a LONG LBASI ; his energies thereby will be directed to the improve ment of his -lands, and we shall And that by these means, and these alone, he will be enabled to raise double and even treble the produce he did in former years, with great profit to himself," &c. • Touching the reciprocating action of supply and demand in regulating the market of labour—and, indeed, all other markets—we meet with the following touch of native sagacity : _ . " A Lancashire operative very justly observed, and it has become a hacknied phrase, but not the less true, that when you see two men looking after one master, then wages will be low ; and when two masters are looking after one man, then wages will be high.' " This is a proposition more universally true than what here follows : " The effect of the corn-laws upon the farm labourer may be stated in few words : they raise the price of the commodity he has to buy, and Laver the price of the commo dity he has to sell." If the commodity to be sold be labour, this is ne cessarily true ; but not so if the commodity be live stock, for example, which it does not necessarily fel low that a farm labourer cannot possess. The chief averments in the pamphlet of " Britannicus" are well answered by the chronological statistics adduced by Mr. Evans, ranging from the years 1816 to 1843. Some extracts from our contemporary, the Economist, from Ricardo, from Senior, and other economical au thorities, are judiciously brought in aid of the general argument raised by Mr. Evans, that a lowered price and increased quantity of corn would inevitably tend to raise and maintain wages, and enlarge the opera tions of our productive industry. LITERATURE. THE ALBANIAN. Strange, London, 1844. There Is much vigour and animation in this poem, which is founded, it seems, on a romantic incident that occurred—or is supposed to have occurred—during the late hard-feught War of Independence in Greece. The poem opens with a graphic sketch of the scenery in the immediate neighbourhood of Corinth, and then proceeds to describe the appearance in the bay of a small Greek brig which is hotly pursued by a Turkish vessel of war. The account of the pursuit, and the subsequent conflict between the two ships, is given with considerable ability. But indeed the poem throughout deserves praise for its striking and appropriate imagery, and the ease and melody of its versification. The author is a gentleman named Charles James Col lins, and we trust this is not the last poem we shall have from his pen. We quote a passage or two : The creaking masts bend 'neath the heavy strain, — The spray flies o'er the deck as thick as rain ; The Turk appears within a musket shot, Of that most swift but doomed Ipsariete. The Reis with horror views the flashes bright, And coward like proclaims he dares not fight ; Howls to the wind as on the deck he stands, And prays the virgin with uplifted hands. Kalsandi listens to the coward's cries, One moment pauses—feasts his rage filled oyes ; Then bounding grasps the traitor by the neck. And hurls him powerless from the vessel's deck Into the swelling billows of the bay, While stand the crew in horrified dismay. The Chieftain calls upon his men to fly Each to his post, and meet the Turk or die. He thunders forth his mandates, but in vain, The fear-struck crew but fall to prayer again, Close round the Virgin's image congregate, And loudly pray her to avert their fate. Kalsandi as he paces o'er the deck, Views in his mind, his cherished treasures' wreck ; Heaps curse on curse, upon the coward Reis, Who lured him first to this doomed enterprise. Alternate feelings now his bosom tear, Rage, fear, hatred, hope, but not despair. Ilis treasures knock against his heart.—'tis woe, Indeed, to yield them to a Turkish foe. Each shot that whistles through the echoing air, Adds to the keeenness of the crew's despair; One form alone enjoys the stirring scene, And he had scarcely twenty summers seen ; He seems to glory in a scene so new, And laughs to scorn the terrors of the crew. TWO SUPPLEMENTS GRATIS, WITH THE "DISPATCH." GREAT NATIONAL TRIAL AT DUBLIN. --- The immense size of THE WEEKLY DISPATCH has, hitherto, enabled its Proprietors on all occasions to present copious, and, at the same time, interesting account of the events of each week. It is, however, now found utterly impossible to give anything like a faithful report of the Trial of Mr. O'Con nell and his repeal associates, without excluding a great mass of interesting domestic and foreign intelligence • the Proprietors, therefore, feel that their journal, which has been for years, and is new, honoured with more patronage than any other in ex istence, should be, in all respects, complete ; and, with that view, they intend to insert a summary of the proceedings during the progress of the trial in their usual columns, and present to their friends and subscribers TWO SUPPLEMENTS. GRATIS. One of these Supplements will be published on the Sunday suc ceeding the delivery of the Verdict, and will contain the Speeches of Mr. O'Connell, Air. Sheil, Sir C. O'Loghlin. the Attorney- General, and other leading Counsel ; together with the Summing up of the Judge, the Verdict of the Jury, and other matters of im portance that may arise up to the latest hour, for which the services of several short-hand writers of eminence have been specially engaged. The second Supplement (also of the full size of THE WEEKLY DISPATCH) will, in fact, form the early portion of the trial, and embrace the proceedings from the commencement to that stage at which the other begins ; so that every subscriber to THE WEEKLY DISPATCH will be in pos session of a complete and faithful report of this great national trial—a trial which must become a matter of history, and be regarded as an event of no ordinary importance in after time. A BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF AIR. O'CONNELL will precede the acconnt of the Trial, which will be written by a gentleman intimately acquainted with the " great Agitator," and consequently one who has treasured up many reminiscences that will render the Biography a paper of general and ab sorbing interest. The Two Supplements, forming Ninety-six Columns, will be printed uniformly with THE DISPATCH, and con. tain a quantity of matter equal to at least an octavo volume of 500 pages. THE DISPATCH is supplied by every Newsvender in London, and by the various Booksellers and News Agents in the country, to whom bills for circulation will be forwarded, with the name and address attached, on receiving a letter to that effect, directed to Mr. Wood, Dispatch-eflice,l39, Fleet-street, where orders are also received. MY FEELINGS.—Stephen Kemble went to a re hearsal one day at York without his coat. The manager asked what had become of it. " Sir," said he, " the landlord of the house where I was reading she London paper charged me double for my ale. I told him he had cheated me, and would not pay him. He seized me and pulled off nay coat ; so rather than submit to his extortion, I came away without it." " But Mr. Ketnble," said the manager, " walk through the streets without your coat I" " But," said Stephen, " pay sixpence for my ale 1" " But your coat, Mr. Kemble ?" Curse my coat, Sir ; think of my feelings !" ERUPTION OF MOUNT ETNA.—It appears from an official report of the Governor of Palermo, that the number of persons who were injured by the burning lava of Etna in the late eruption was 143. Among them were many strangers, chiefly English. The value of the cattle killed, and of the fruit trees and crops de stroyed, is estimated at a million and a half of ducats. THE RUSSIAN EMHAsSY.—We learn that Baroness Brunnow, the lady of his Excellency the Russian Minis ter, has been taken taken suddenly and sericnsly ill. ROCIIDALE FLANNEL MARKET, MONDAY, JAN. 22. —There has been a good attendance of buyers in the market to-day, and about an average quantity of business has been transacted. More pieces would have been sold; but the manufacturers could not afford to sell at former prices without a sacrifice, on account of the regular ad vance in the price of the raw material. The Wool market is much the same as it was the previous Monday, the demand good, and prices on the advance. We would once more emphatically call upon every . . pint,— member of the Liberal party to be in his place upn the brit them ?—:.l was. _ night of the meeting of Parliament. His friends report with But wasn .. 't that all from high fun ?---it was. : . confidence that Sir Robert Peel will " speak out," both upon Mr. O'Connell (to Mr. Hatehell) — A4 :hiz a did they the eorn.laws and upon Ireland. It is not improbable. His injure anybody. followers seemed determined not to tolerate either silence or Did they injure anybody ?—(it thurV eii ° t it : sees if evasion ; and possibly the Minister's deferent* to his party except to knock down a couple ofgittgObreall it4lls. ffitiiiii . may induce, him to frame a frank and straightforward speech - W e re th e re a ny p e r sons t h ere ' lig oaf these for his Sovereign. In this case, the'Address will certainly not things ?—Several. pass without an amendment being proposed ; and we trust the Were there many people s e uh ig g i uter b Te4 d ?..,, division will find every Liberal Member at his poito. , Chronicle. IRELAND. TIE STATE - TRIALS. NINTII DAY-BY EXPRESS. (FROM OUR OWN REPORTERS.) DUBLIN, WEDNESDA.T, JAN. 24. COURT OF QUEEN'S BENCH. THE QUEEN 'V. DANIEL O'CONNELL AND OTHEBIL The Lord Chief Justice, Mr. Justice Crampton, and Mr. Justice Perrin, took their seats upon the Beach at ten o'clock precisely. The traversers and jurors answered to their names. The Clerk of the Crown— , Direct the Crier to call Samuel Maunsell, of 42, Leeson -street...._ • - The Crier called Mr. Maunsell three dine" consecu tively, but there was no reply. Mr. Henn, Q.C., rose and said that he appeared ..ou behalf of Mr. Maunsell, with whom he. had an interview that morning, and who assured him that he had not been apprised until ie late hour on the night preceding that the Court had intimated any desire that he should be in at tendance. He promised, however, that he should be in attendance punctually at the sitting of the Court, and he (counsel) did aat know to what circumstance his ab sence was to be attributed. Mr. Maunsell requested him to address their Lordships on his behalf, and to state that it was,not his intention to attempt any justifisation for the letter which he had yesterday written, but to assure the Court that it was written at a thoughtless. moment, and under feelings of great excitement. Herhad also ex pressed a wish that he might be permitted to make an affidavit explanatory of the circumstances under which the letter had been penned, and was anxious to know whether, after the making of such an af f idavit, the Court would be satisfied with the expression of his regret for what had occurred ; but he (the counsel) had told him that it would be much better for him to attend the Court in person, and thus ascertain their Lordships.' feel ings on the subject. He concurred in the propriety of this suggestion, and after again expressing his regret for what had occurred, had distinctly promised to attend at ten o'clock. Judge Crampton—lt is very possible Mr. Maunsell may be here by and by. It is only ten o'clOck. The Chief Justice—l trust he may be in attendance, and I am very happy to find that he has had the good sense to place himself under Mr. Henn's directions. I trust that he now sees the impropriety of his conduct, and understands the predicament in which he has placed him self by writing a very improper letter to the High Sheriff in the execution of his duty, thereby offering an affront to a public officer, and committing kt the same time a very gross contempt of Court. Mr. Henn—l do not intend to make any excuse for Mr. bfaunsell's conduct, my Lords ; and a,ll I can say in ex tenuation, is what I have already stated, that he wrote the letter under great excitement. Your Lordships are aware that the letter had no connexion whatever with the present trials. Chief Justice—Oh, none whatever. !, James Healy, a police-constable, examined by the At torney-General—Was at the meeting which took place at Mullaghmast on the Ist October last. Came from Cork there. Can calculate on the numbers that were at the meeting, and thinks there were about 250,000 per sons there. Chief Justice—How many?—About 950,000 ; was in several parts of the field, and along the road. There were several bands came before Mr. O'Connell arrived, in a boisterous manner, and were screeching, driving all before them. The bands which preceded Mr. O'Con nell were in the greatest order and regularity. The bands came from Carlow and Kilkenny side, and from every direction. The principal portion of the people came through the long avenue. Can posi tively say there were about 30 bands there.. • Some of them were dressed in military uniform. Some of them had caps like Hussars, at least they resem bled them very much ; saw documents handed about there amongst the people ; saw this (a document) handed about. It was purchased by a constable. Pur chased one himself for a penny, though the price was only a halfpenny.—(Laughter.) Mr. O'Connell—That was very generous of you. Witness—Saw thousands of such documents distributed about the field, but the people were more attentive to Mr. O'Connell's speech than they were to the papers at the time. Tore up the paper which he bought. Saw this one purchased by John Dennehy, a sub-inspector of police. Thinks the papers he saw' distributed were the same as this one ; he read it twice ; they were distributed about from early on the morning till night fall. Saw Mr. O'Connell and Mr. Steele there. They arrived about three o'clock. Saw a great many persons with labels on their hats. They were" cards, with the words " O'Connell's police."- They had pieces of tim ber five or six feet long in their hands. Those pieces were not thick ; they were like wands, and quite small. Saw flags and banners there. One of the banners had the words. "No Saxon Threats" (the manner in which the witness uttered the word Saxon elicited a shout of laughter as he pronounced it Sock-son); another had the words " NO Irish Slave—No Compromise but Repeal;" it was a large flag ; I think it was the Castlecomerfik that had it ; I was informed that the Castlecomer colliers were there ; heard persons say so at least. Mr. Macdonough—Don't mind what you heard. any one say. The witness, in continuation to the Attorney-General, said—There was another flag on which was written, "The men of the border ceunties greet O'Connell with a Coati Mille Failtha ; saw several flags with the word Repeal on them; one had—"We tread the land that bore us ; does not remember anything else on that flag ; saw another with "The Queen, O'Connell, and Repeal" on it. There was another flag on which was "Ireland dragged at the tail of another nation."—(Laughter.) Attorney-General—What, witness ?—"lreland dragged at the tail of another nation."—(Loud laughter.) A Juror—Say that again, Sir ?—(Laughter.) Witness —"lreland dragged at the tail of another nation." Attorney-General (looking very sharply at the wit ness)—Are you sure that was it ?—Yes, Sir, " Ireland dragged at the tail of another nation." Observed one flag attached to a private carriage, with the words " Repeal, and no separation." There was another motto—" Mullaghmast and its martyrs--a voice from the grave"--(Laughter)—there was another representing a dog with a harp, and something I cannot well describe before him, like a tree without branches, and lions or dogs looking up, and underneath it was written— " No Saxon butchery shall give blood gout for a repast ; The dog is roused and treachery expelled from Mul laghmast." There were some other mottoes in the pavilion, but did not think it necessary to take them, as they were of no consequence. "The words God save the Queen ;" or "the Queen God bless her," were there also. Mr. O'Con nell arrived about three o'clock. The platform was occupied for about two hours. The people slid not all go away after the meeting broke up. Some of them stayed there until near morning. Heard no obser vations among the people except shouting for Repeal and Old Ireland, or words to that effect. Cross-examined by Mr. M.Donough—You heard no expressions among the people, except those you stated? —No. You mixed among the crowd very much that day in the discharge of your duty?—Very much. And very minutely and attentively observed what was going on?—Very much so. You listened attentively to what was said?—l did. You mingled with the groups of people:, and attended to what they were saying ?—Anything I could see or hear I noticed it. And all you did see or hear them say or do was to shout for Repeal and Old Ireland ?—That's all. Although you were there from eight o'clock in the morning until next morning ?—Yes, I was there the evening before, and all that day, and up to eleven o'clock at night. , And you were sent specially to. Cork for that pur pose. I presume it was because , you were a stranger that you were,selected ?—That may have been the rea son, but I can't say. Now, as we have what you heard, I want what you saw. Was not this a very peaceable assembly ?—ln deed, it was very much so, as far as I saw. No riot or breach of the peace?—All was very quiet in that respect. There was nothing wrong that I could either see or ascertain. When you told the Attorney-General that parties re mained there at night, did you mean to convey that they remained for the banquet?—Persons remained in tents and places enjoying themselves. In peace and quiet ?—Yes, in peace and quiet, as far as I could see. You stated that you saw bands coming from the direc tion of Carlow and Kilkenny. Do you know if they were temperance bands ?—I think they were. Now, as you aro from the south of 'lreland, you must have seen several of Father Mathew's processions f—l did, a great many of them. There were temperance bands at the processions ? There were,. How many bands have you seen at one of' them ? More than there were at. Mullaghmast ; a good many more. How many ?—I counted forty-five bands at one time at the great temperance procession, in Cork, on Easter Monday. And about how many persons do you suppose were there?—l suppose about 300,000. Were the temperance bands who were with that meet ing of 300,000 persons in uniform ?—Yes, some of them. Had they flags or banners?—A very few, and they were small ones. I presume they bore inscriptions?—They did, but they were all connected with the temperance movement. Those processions are, I believe, common in the south of Ireland?—Very common. Have you been long in the constabulary?—Nearly twelve years. Have the people improved in their habits in conse• quence of the temperance movement? should say they have. Very much so?—(After a pause.) In point of drunk enness, there's a great improvement among the pile —(Loud laughter.) Were you at the great procession at Nevagh .2--4 not. When the bands were coming to the grotind*tr om the e; direction of Carlow and KilkennlhOr.,ag. t ii • —They appeared to be very wild 44 fotsect : . 'before - them. that sed h Were you one of the people be. 'ore —. ' ore -