The Sun. — London, England, 1845-12-24 00:00:00

ON A W J R. ,ST FOWL. spoken ou t inner whic h the monnpir ;o a meeti n g en Fourteen hours. Pt t." f ÜbSCribed is mown in tii i the purpor'!, • the stun 0 . 1 e., to " libe' IVed rap, artiefi lue peal °4' tang r d t so 0 frO sat 011 awe a Ol ICOOCO' 00d 69 .af , aitr i°W ll4 s pr on pi o .sent 0' be f° t he Tober De° - 0 4 foxy, aria o n ' Pr ey " 03 eo a t,e s tioLl ith nee ;d 0 3 ' io the' 5 19 9 3 - c 10 6 13 1 0 1 19 4 12 0 J 7 14 6 16 6 4 3 J ll °s. M ason and Sons, Ashton larlo w and Brothers, • Tweeciale, Rochdale • • CCrossfield, Liverpool • • Howarth, R oc hd a l e • • lh.aLlclaosward, Hyde • - An admirer of Sir Robert Peel (Laughter) ... B. George Wilson (Ch a i rman o f th e C ounc il) .. Smith and Sons • • i- „ a rr• Curti s , an d C o . ••• • • . • Johns on , j un . ••• henry B ag l ey •• • • •• A• Merry, Liv er p oo l ... Tho;. Harvey, Liverpool ••• W• B. Watkins (Mayor of Manchester) ... 8 . P. Robinson A• W. hats Thornel, of Ai gapti w y id Now, htcli • LEAGUE FUND, £lOO,OOO. Dr. (B) January 1. To amount of receipts as per statement rendered December 6. To amount of subscriptions and bazaar receipts from January Ito this date 35,678 8 10 December 8. To discount and interest re ceived this year 320 4 £122,508 1 0 Cr. December 6. To balance in hand January 1. By amount of expenditure, as per statement December 6. By amount of expenditure to this date as per statement ... Balance 51,141 2 5 12,033 11 1 £122,508 1 0 WILLIAM BICKHAM, Members of the Finance SAMUEL LEES, Committee. 'one WILLIAM RAWSON, 'reasurer. Examined and found to be correct, WILLIAM EVANS, Member of the Council. The report was received with loud applause. kr. Alderman CALLENDER moved that the accounts Were satisfactory, and be approved.—(Cheers.) He had b een connected with the League from its commence- I l eat. There was not a single farthing, except petty Was not without a vote of the Committee. There ; 4 8 not a farthing expended without full value received. ' b eY were now in sight of the accomplishment of the reat measure which they wished to see repealed, and here was no measure which to sueh an extent promised t t ° forward holiness, godliness, and homely comfort to 'l(li)Qopi. of this country.—(Cheers.) i „ ilEywonTii, Esq., of Liverpool, in second ing motion, said that he was one of fifty gentlemen - 'l O guaranteed 1,0001. each two years ago. He had Paid more than a thousand pounds. Would it become ; e in, now that they were in sight of their much-to-be ,esired obje c t, to be sil e nt ? No ; it would ill-be. t ree Englishmen. They must not only get that, but °Y must also give the franchise to the bulk of the L'eoPle. These things could not be done without funds, " 1 . !,( 1 the meeting must come forward liberally. The aristocracy even would be enriched by free trade. Had trade been unprecedentedly profitable during the 1 1 1 14 t twelve months, in consequence of the cheapness of ; 441 ? He appealed to every gentleman present to say ' , ether that was not the fact. ~rhe Chairman put the motion, which passed unani "'ously. kr. Alderman NEILD moved a resolution to the effect Nat the meeting, composed of the merchants, traders, and e ther manufacturers of Manchester, repeated their so ,:!.°11 protest against the laws which prohibit the free im ratation of grain and other provisions, believing them be opposed to the interests not only of the people of manufacturing classes, but also of the agricultural to irest, and pledging itself not to relax in its exertions PPport the League. He considered that they bad to a g rea t mora l v i c t or y upon this question. Had c e corn-laws been abolished by a mere numerical vote of►te the House of Commons in six or twelve months, the t ery would not have been so great. After an earnest irPeal to the meeting to support the League, he said that kthe corn-l aw s w er e once repealed, every man must h that they were abolished for ever. He called , i nin the mee ti ng to show that the men of Manchester 'le in earnest upon this momentous question. 1 ,4 1 r. R. ASHTON, of Hyde, seconded the resolution , PAS passed amidst great cheering. th l / 4 7r. H. ASHWORTH, of Bolton, moved a resolution, ex tfics°ing the greatful sense in which the meeting viewed e exerti ons o f th e 4 N a ti o nal Anti-Corn-law League in the Cause of freedom of trade ; and, in order to enable the council to make renewed and increased exertions, a Z es cription of 250,000/., be entered into. — (Loud eerB .) He had seen a subscription of twelve millions t t ptered i nto f or t h e p ur p ose of saving an hour in the I , l4 tanee between London and Manchester, and he called tru n the m ee ti n g t o come forward with their subscrip els towards the funds of the League. He dwelt upon th e necessity of the League turning their attention to j u e registration courts. No man had suffered any in rY from the purchase of a freehold, for he could get Bea ter i nterest f rom hi s i nves t men t than he could get o th e savings' banks. They had once seen the ports Cn--not to let in grain, but to let it out. The Govern -4 had sent out doctors, not to repeal the corn - laws, 14; nth see whether they could convert rottenness into A lderman KERSHAW seconded the motion, observing that he had known the League when it was no bigger t tu l° a man's hand, and he could truly say that no insti -114" no much deserved public support. He rejoieed to th. the importance of the meeting duly appreciated by 4 People t of Manchester, who had met once more, and, he understood, once fur all, to express their th Zust and disapproval of the laws which affected bell industry of the people.—(Loud cheers.) He of a ped this would be the last time that the League ko 4 appeal to the people, and he never subscribed t iri ZeY with so much; pleasure as to the fund of the hc, gue, for he considered it the best investment which ho d e They must back their 1/ 0 ,7 4 who had to meet a band of monopolists in the Lit h ; s e of Commons. They must attend to the registra es,pq counties, and the fate of those laws was sealed for ,C — (Loud cheers.) I,4elotion for a subscription was then agreed to. ina ) ,2 CHAIRMAN said he would set the example. For (T i c 't and brothers he would subscribe 1,0001.- 114d er ib _endous cheers.) Last time they gave 5001. He 844 4tood that twenty-five gentlemen would do the The applause.) ne following subscriptions were then an llnced , Chadwick, of Eales 1,000 ;,Iturence Heyworth . • • • ••• • • 500 rerunes Thomasson, of Bolton .. 1,000 Il shaw and C o. . . 1,000 ••• • • • °lnas Hoyle and Sons • • • • 1,000 7kr. C OBDEN sa i d that h e h a d b een comm i ss ioned by Brooks to sa y, that he would not be " second l i:J to any one, and if any one gave a larger subscrip fe than 1,0001., his name must be put alongside of it. t dust he at present .. 1,000 VtiutZt Ashton, of Hyde ••• 1,000 Itiftlayles and Brothers, of Staleybridge ... 1,000 ' e lt Platt, of Staleybridge .. 1,000 4. be rt Lees and Son, Dukenfield . . 1,000 W hittaker and Sons 1,400 g t * L'right and Brothers 1,000 I,Cliel Ashton and Brother... .. 1,000 44 ems Ashton and Sons, Hyde ... ... 1,000 le n es king and Son, of Rochdale .. .. 1,000 1:1; 33 rn. Booth and oyle, of Rochdale ... 1,000 )tt: e r Dixon and Sons, Carlisle ... ... 1,000 v. ,Joseph Eccles, Mill-hill, near Blackburn 1,000 g 'les, Shorrocks, and Co., Darwen ... 1,000 lli e li nrY and Ed. Ashworth, of Turton .. 1,000 a igaton, Brothers, of Blackburn .. .. 1,000 ' , tn es Buckley, John Buckley, and Brothers, A i • Buckley and Sons ... .. 1,000 4. 411 d S. Henry and Co. .. ... 1,500 Af f a ars. Mather and Family, of Liverpool .. 700 a . b r ed Reyner and Brothers, of Ashton .. 1,000 4 0 t ) . Smith, Manchester .. ... 500 Cheetham, Staleybridge .. 500 4 naard Matley ... 500 4„ a , r dner and Bazley'... ' ... 500 Cm Ashton, of Hyde .. 500 4 41 , 1 ender, Beckham, and Co. .. 500 ,j t fleywood, Acresfield . - 500 4 ( t ) un Fenton, of Crimble .. 500 try 4 0 ,‘-ionnel and Co., Manchester .. 500 4 ,11 and Thomas Potter ... 500 annerman and Sons ... . • •• 500 r,"ard Cobden—(Loud cheers) .. .. 500 t C 8 —lt goes against my conscience to take e' l keheers.) Armitage and Sons ... 500 roert Johnston, Manchester ... 500 • A' Steiner (of Church) ... 500 Sl 11 Yrnous, per J. Bright .. .. 500 •eletcher, Son, and Co. ... •.. ... 500 t u e llAlßmArr—l receive this with the. greater plea- I t te, for it is the first time they have come forward. 1 1 „ tv as always a matter of regret to me that they did t o - : Come forward, and join us in all our ebgage ets-- (Cheers.) V r tge Foster, of Sabden 4t,bl.Ross ••• • • ••• ••• Qt HMunns ••. e, Sons, and Sowerby, Dukenfield 300 Nv ° ,roinson, Brothers, and Son .. 400 ells, Cooke, and Potter ... 2.50 J• •alcrris . • 250 ',Rawson, and Hall and Rawson .. .. 400 JMason and Co. ... £250 •A• Tbicknesse, Wigan .. . ... 250 A r ilea Carlton (new subscription) .. ... 250 Iv ••• • • • • • • ••• 250 11 1 .` Ilargreave, of Grange ... 200 Tayl or , Wigan ... . 200 V a essrs. Murray ••• . • • • • • 100 be r t Stuart ••• ••• • • . 300 '.,_,lldlay an d S u t c liff e ••• . 200 Chr istie and Son ... , 200 li t " Ql tellead and Brothers .. 500 and J. M'Call ••• .. 200 'tan s and Miss M'Call ••• ••• 100 and Nicholson • • ••• 200 41 PEen, Thomson, and Co. • • 250 e r zons and Hunter ••• ••• 250 w l3 eattie and Co., Rochdale ••• 200 41 - Alkard, Warrington ... 250 J. and •Allen, Warrington 250 an d P. Schofield, Littleborough Brewer an d C o . .. 250 250 b. °b ert Crewdson 50 T h :la) Dean, and Co. 150 500 . 500 Heald and Wilson ... ... ... ... Stanley and Hardwich, Ashton ... ••1 James Ogden, Dukenfield ... • • ••• Thos. Hunter .. • • • • .. ••• 1 Benj. Nicholl ... •.• • • ••• Curry Powder, per J. Wilson—(Laughter).. W. Ed wards .. .. ••• .. ' Charles Potter, Darwen ••• • • ••• H. Potter, Darwen ... .. • • .. Edward Potter, Darwen ... • • • • Henry Lee, of Glossop • • ... ••• F. R. Atkinson .. .. ••• E. Potter and Co. ... .•• ... ••• R. Holroycl and Co. ... ... .. .., Nicholson and Evans .. ... .. .. A. Walker, M.P., Bury .•• ••• ... J. Grundy, ditto ... ... ••• • • R. Ashton, ditto ... ••• ... •• T. and J. Wrigley, ditto .. • • .. J. and E. Grundy, ditto .. ... ••• T. A. and J. Grundy, ditto ... ••• ••• Walker, Smith, and Co., ditto • • .. J. Walker, ditto .. •• ••• .. Edward Grundy, of Park-hill, ditto .. ••• J. Wrigley, ditto .. . • ••• ••• L. and R. Openshaw .. ... ••• ••• Forth and Howarth, Todmorden ... ••• W. Hallawell, ditto ... ••• •• .... A. Ormerod and Brothers, ditto ..- ... J. and A. Stansfield, ditto ••• .. J. and W. Barker, ditto ••• • • ••• R. Hibbert and Sons, Godley ••• ••• R. Clarke ao4i Sons ... ... •• • ... Procter and Co., Rochdale ... .. ••• 'l'. Chadwick, ditto .•• ••• . • .. S. Taylor, ditto ••• • • -•• ••• J. Chadwick, ditto ••• ••• ••• Henry Kelsall, ditto ... • • • • -.• 1 R. Kelsall, ditto • •• ••• ••• ••• Robert Heap, ditto ... ••• .•• ... Robert Schofield, ditto ••• George Howarth, ditto ••• ••• • - Joseph Crook, Bolton ••• ••• ••• P. R. Arrowsmith, ditto .. - • ... Joseph Whitworth and Co. .. .. ... Henry Walmsly, Fulsworth ... ... J. Barrett and Sons ... • . ... ... E. and J. Jackson, Manchester .. ••• J. Midgley, Rochdale .. ... ... .. Jacob Tweedale and Sons, ditto ... ... Joseph Fenton, ditto ... . • ••• ••• Thomas Shaw, ditto ... ••• .. .. B. Heap, ditto ... ••• ••• Ogden and Co. ... . •• .. J. and J. Bancroft, Ashton ... ... John Turner, of Godley (new subscriber) ... Prentice and Cotterell .. .. ••• Petty, Ernest, and Co. ... •• Edwin Moorhouse, a working man, from Ashton ... ... .. ... ••• J. and J. Platt, Oldham ... ••• .. Harvey, Tysoe, and Co. J. Heginbottom Ashton 25 100 200 100 W. Richardson and Co., Stand ••• ... 200 J. C. Dyer ... ... .. ••• ••• 50 Thos. Roberts ... ... • • .. 100 J. Gatley and Brothers • • .. 100 .. F. Schwann, of Huddersfield ••• ... 400 Mr. Bright said, Huddersfield will send at least 5,000 Crossfield and Co., St. rielLn's ... ••• 50 0. Ormerod, Rochdale .. ••• .. 50 J. Howard ... 20 .. ••• ••• • • Sugden ... ••• .. • • ••• 5 C. Littlewood .. ... ••• • • ••• 25 R. Taylor .. „• ... • • 20 . J. Cropp, of London .. .. .. • • 25 A Friend ••• ... ••• ••• ••• 50 Ryland .. 50 .. ... ... ••• Mullmeux .. ••• 25 ••• • • •• R. Wray ••• ... .. ••• ••• 25 Jos. Acton, Wigan ... ••• ••• ... 100 Johnson and C o ., ditt o ••• ••• ... 100 JD. Fernl e y, St oc k por t ••• ••• ... 100 W. Johnson ... ... ••• .. ... 100 J. Evans, Wigan W. Riley, ditto J. Aspinall, ditto J. Acton, ditto J. Aspinall, ditto L. Parker and Co., ditto R. Rawson and Co. ..• ••• ••• ... ••• ... 18031. 15s. 6d. ... _ 1 H. Wood's workpeople, and others .. J. B. Pearson ... W. White, London .. J. Chadwick J. Hampson, Stockport Dixon and Galloway ... D. Morris ... ... Ken worthy Booth J. Yates R. Owen Professor Newman Mr. COBDEN announced Lord Ducie's name for l OW., and to be doubled if necessary E. Walmsley, Stockport .. Silas Leigh, Worsley ... ... Evan Leigh, Ashton ... ••• Jos. Brotherton, M.P.—(Cheers) W. Sagan ... ... Clarke Brothers ... ... ... J. and W. Fielden T. Bottcmley J. Mason J. R. Barnes and Sons W. C. Chambers . J. Nuttall L. Wilson J. Stanfield E. Whittaker .., Three others .. C. J. Darbashire E. Royle J. Standing ... T. Harvey, Liverpool T. Simpson .. T. Leigh ... P. Walker, Eccles Gaskell .. Two others .. From Todmorden Small sums from ditto J. Branson J. Mallenson and Sons J. Pollock, Esq. •• .. .. •• J. Chadwick and Brothers, Eccles .. ... J. Marshall, Horsforth, near Leeds .. ... H. Stanfield, of Leeds, says their subscription will be doubled . R. Romney ... ... ... W. 'Wilson, Stockport ... G-. and E. Waters, Manchester Ellis Cunliffe, ditto B. Whitworth, ditto W. 111‘Cartilei, ditto .. Thomas Johnson E. West John Kay, Huddersfield . • .. .. Crossfield, ditto .. ... ... •e• Edw. Heaps, ditto .. ••• ••• • Foster Shaw, ditto .. ••• ... ••• R. Welsh ... ... ... • • ••• C. H. Jones G. Cooke and Sons, Ashton ... R. Dewhurst, Huddersfield .. 100 100 50 50 Mr. COBDEN, who was received with the most deafen ing plaudits, which lasted several minutes, addressed the meeting as follows :—Two years ago, when we held a meeting in the small room adjoining, and when 14,000/, wcts subscribed to the great League fund, an influential London paper designated us, in its own graphic mode, " a great fact." Now, Gentlemen, I believe to-day our subscription already amounts to upwards of 50,0001., and that, I suppose, may be designated a still greater fact.— (Cheers.) Without the slightest exaggeration (we are apt, in addressing public meetings, sometimes to ex aggerate a little), I believe I may say that this meeting, in the middle of the day, on a market-day, in Manchester, is unprecedented in its numbers and the influential cha racter of the individuals who compose it.—(Cheers.) I take it, no one will dispute that the amount subscribed in this room to-day far surpasses any subscription ever entered into in one room for any public object whatever. —(Cheers.) I am glad to witness altogether the tone of this meeting. There has not been the slightest reference made to the changes that have been going on at Govern ment head-quarters almost as rapidly as the entrances and exits of pantomime on the stage. We have not lost our time by speculating on what this or that Administration is going to do for us ; we have resorted to a much safer mode of defending ourselves.—(Cheers.) This meeting will afford to any Administration the best possible sup port in carrying out our principles. If Sir Robert Peel has an intelligible and straightforward course to pursue —if he will promulgate plainly and candidly that he purposes fully to carry out the principles of free-trade— if he will only avow his determination to practise what he preaches, he will see there is strength enough in the country to support him ; and I am sure I should not be speaking the voice of this great meeting did I not say that if he will take that straightforward and honest course he will have the support of the League as fully and as cordially as any other Prime Minister her Ma jesty could appoint.—(Loud cheers.) This subscription has been entered into by all present without a full ex planation of what mode we intend to adopt in collecting it, or how we intend to apply it, and I am glad the money has been put down without that explanation, inasmuch as it shows that you are determined, at all events, what ever comes, that funds shall not be wanting to fight the battle. But, as what passes here will be read by our friends throughout the country, and with interest through out the world, it is quite right that we should explain the plan we have in view in calling for this large sum. We are not bankrupts—as you have heard, we have a sum of money in hand ; but we who take a prominent part in the executive department of the League wished to have the assurance that, however much this battle may be prolonged, however obstinate the resistance that may be offered to our just demands, there is a de termination in the country to back our exertions with adequate funds.—(Cheers.) I knew, Gentlemen, we should have your support ; I never doubted it. I would nct have given 1 per cent. to any one to guarantee me the full amount of the quarter of a million when we ' galled for iti--(Choori.) Who pia that his inn pro 10 posed is this :—To, Beall for an instalment of 20 per cent 1 0 on this subscrioum at ghee, and the rest when neces ,o sary. You arse as well able to judge as lam whether it Cs t the contest will be prolonged beyond ano- O t be he l r ikey ee l ss'2 For my own part, I think that our oppo o nents (with any sense o f pru d ence or p o li c y—l mean with regard to their own interests) cannot carry it on beyond the next session. I don't believe they will find men of intellect sufficient to lead them and undertake the O departments of the Government to maintain this system. • —(Cheers.) It is quite clear that the Queen has been ns wanting servants simply because nonc could be found 10 worthy to serve her Majesty, and willing to do the work 10 of the Duke of Richmond.—(Cheers.) We are go verned in this country not by enlightened men like Lord John Russell, or Sir Robert Peel, or Sir James 0 Graham, fit to take office and serve the Queen and the 0 country—we are governed by the ignorance of the coun try—we have an inert mass of landlord political power to O deal with, impervious to reason, inaccessible to argument, O and unconscious of defeat in argument, or they would not O have resisted us so long as they have done. The O monopolist landlords of this country recognise but one O power—the power of force. They will yield to nothing O but power, and that power you have armed us with by 0 the subscriptions of this day.—(Cheers.) I have said I 9 think it would be wise in them to yield next session ; hut let us tell them what we are prepared to do if they _.) do not yield honestly.—(Cheers.) Allusion has been made to day instinctively, by all the speakers almost, to ) the necessity of increasing our exertions in the county ) registrations. The county qualification is the leverage ) by which we can wholly overturn the ignorant authority ) of these monopolist landlords—(Cheers)—by which one ) can transfer the power from the Duke of Richmond, and ) the Duke of Norfolk, and their peers, to the intelligent, middle, and industrious classes of the towns of this country.—(Cheers.) I have no hesitation in telling them, and I think they will now believe what I say, when backed by such a demonstration as this, that if they resist the settlement of this question—if the next session does not bring this question to a just settlement, we will ' plant our registration agents in every county in the kingdom—(Cheers)—and I pledge myself, from a long study of the subject and a wide investigation of it, that in less than three years from this time, armed with the funds you have placed at our disposal, I can unseat 100 monopolist county members, and place in their stead men who will vote in accordance with the interests of the great body of the people, instead of the interests of an ignorant class.—(Cheers.) They know what I am telling them to be true ; they have felt it already ; and I have no hesitation in saying that the speedy settlement of this question will be brought about (more by the demonstra tion we have already made in the counties, and the suc cess which has attended our efforts in four or five of the most important of them, than by anything else we have ever done or attempted to do.—(Loud cheers.) Gentle men, as we are here speaking to our friends all over the country, I should wish just to add a remark upon the mode in which this subscription must be raised. Many of our friends elsewhere may probably expect that Mr. Bright and I might be in a position to pay them a suc cession of visits, as we did two years ago, and hold public meetings throughout the country, and assist them in making their subscriptions ; but that is, unfortunately, impossible. Mr. Bright and myself can be nowhere so serviceable for the next Six months as in the House of Commons, and as it is not in our power to visit our friends elsewhere, I hope, and feel confident, :when they see how Manchester, at one meeting, has subscribed a quarter of the whole sum required, they will, in other places, by their own spontaneous exertions, make up the remainder.—(Cheers.) I may add, that I have not can vassed a single individual for one farthing of this sub scription ; therefore, so far as I am concerned, gentlemen have come forward in this noble manner without any personal trouble to myself. I mention this that others may mark the spirit which has prevailed here, and act themselves accordingly.—(Cheers.) There is another point to which, in all frankness, I must allude. It is the opinion of many sanguine minds that this question must now be settled within the next two ur three months ; I am not so sanguine, although I don't see how the mono polists can tide over another session ; but we must be prepared for all accidents. These sanguine friends, how ever, may ask, " Shall we be liable to pay all this money we have put down our names for if the corn-laws are abolished in the meanwhile ?" It is quite fair that the most explicit understanding should be had on that point. Our object in associating together was to procure the abolition of the corn and provision laws, and of this we believe there is but one fair and candid interpreta tion—we meant corn, we meant beef, butter, cheese—in short, we meant the primary elements of human subsist ence grown on our own soil.—(Cheers.) We said, " We don't want a league to put down the sugar or coffee mo nopoly," feeling assured that the landowners themselves, stimulated by a sense of their own interests, would do all that for us, when once we deprived them of their own monopoly.—(Loud cheers.) The total abrogation of the corn and provision laws would at once dissolve this League, and altogether exonerate every gentleman from any further claim to contribute to its funds.— (Loud cheers.) I think it may be useful to some of our most candid opponents that they should know that now. It has been reported that this is a body seeking anarchical objects ; that we want to do away with primogeniture; that we want to root up the Church; that we are opposed to all law and constituted authority in the country; but I defy our opponents to find in the House of' Lords itself a body of men so interested in public order, so identified with the maintenance of our institutions, as the body of capitalists I see before me in this room.—(Cheers.) We have no such objects. Our object is bond fide. We are united for one object; we are a rope of sand on any other question. Mr. Bright, Mr.,Wilson, and myself, differing on a dozen other ques tions, are united for this only, and therefore I tell the monopolist landlords, who are afraid of what we are doing in the counties, if they think this may go on to more than corn—if they think the qualification we are now procuring may be good for other questions as well as corn, they may now stop and dissolve us by the aboli tion of the corn laws.—(Loud cheers.) But if they want to keep alive this association—if they want to give some of those gentlemen among us who have ulterior objects, and I don't know but there may be some who have—if they want to give them the power of keeping our bond of union intact, then they must keep up some wretched rag of their system of monopoly.—(Cheers.) If Sir Robert Peel wants to root out his friends in the counties more than they are, let him come down to the House of Commons with some new " dodge" at the opening of the session. —(Loud cheers.) We say distinctly we will have no conditions.—(Long continued cheering.) If they ask us to pay for the abolition of the corn-laws by a grant of money, by transferring their taxes to our shoulders, if they can find any they pay exclusively, we say, "You have been challenged to show your peculiar burdens, and uniformly ran away. We ask you to show us one tax you pay which we do not, and we in return will undertake to show five taxes we pay from which you have exempted :yourselves."—(Cheers.) They have abolished the duty on your yarn. By far the largest industry of all your manufacturing processes is the spin ning of cotton yarn. The 10 per cent. duty on that article was abolished last year ; as if Sir R. Peel wanted to furnish a strong argument against the corn laws, he did away with the 10 per cent. wich some might have considered a protection to you, in order that we might say we not allow the ag riculturists to have protection at our expense.— ( Cheers.) We say, then, we will have no conditions, no qualifications.—(Cheers.) Let this matter be settled fairly and j ustly,without terms or compromise, and the League is abolished.—(Cheers.) Bear in mind, if we talk of compromise or concession, we will admit that the corn-laws have been a benefit to those who have maintained them ; that I altogether deny.—(Loud cheers.) I challenged their advocates twice in the House of Commons, but they dared not go into committee, for I could have prove] from the mouths of the best agriculturists they have never been a benefit to either farmer or landlord.—(Cheers.) We do not proceed on the nar row basis that this question is one merely affecting our interests, We say that the land of this country main tains a value only in proportion to . our wealth, and the prosperity of manufactures and commerce ; and to ad mit that the corn-law had been beneficial to its upholders, to come to any terms of compromise, would be to give p u r p ou o d u l r y I w f h ee o l being lein ca s .—C her surroundeds')men prepared to make such magnanimous sacrifices to case.—(Cheers.) here cannotby a s ay bodyh how the cause of free-trade.—(Cheers.) You have been complimentary to us for the exertions we have made ; but we should have been nothing without the magnificent support you have given us.— (Cheers.) I cannot help feeling gratification at this movement, which has taught the leading men in this country—the most useful and important in the kingdom—the power they possess ; and I hope they will use it to elevate themselves in the social scale.—(Cheers.) You, Gentlemen, are not promoting any narrow interest—you are promoting the cause of the whole kingdom, of the whole world—(Cheers)—and in carrying out your principles Manchester will hereafter be recognised as the birthplace, the cradle of free-trade. As Jerusalem is identified with the origin of our faith, as Mecca is with that of the Mahomedan, so in history will Manchester be recognised as the birthplace and spring of that great movement, the greatest since the invention of printing, which will have the greatest effect in the world's history of any struggle that ever took place in the annals of civilization.—(Loud and vehement cheering.) Mr. BRIGHT, M.P., then said—l am at a loss for words to express the delight which I feel at the event which takes place this morning in this town. lam surrounded by some gentlemen who have attended meetings in Man chester for the last thirty or forty years, and they have never met in their experience any circumstance of a public character in this town at all to be compared with that which we have all here witnessed. No man here after can say there was anything unsubstantial or insin cere in the character of the great movement with which we are connected. Past meetings have demonstrated that we are in earnest, and, if confirmation were necessary, we have now read that confirmation in the fact of these subscriptions, It is a fact which will tell most power fully . on public opinion, and most powerfully also on the decision at which the now-forming Cabinet must spee dily arrive.—(Hear, hear.) We have told the world that trade in this district is resolved no longer to work in fetters ; that we are determined to emancipate our in dustry and ourselves. We are held to be valuable as creators of wealth, and held specially valuable by the most powerful class in the kingdom so long as we will create wealth for that class to enjoy ; but the moment we raise ourselves and look up from the circumstances of suffering and oppression in which we are placed, then that class and its organs in the press heap slander and obloquy upon every person connected with manufactures in this part of the country. I have in my hand two extracts, which I am desirous of reading to the meeting, to show what is the feeling with which we are regarded by that class with whom we are now coming into serious collisicn. On the 16th of this month a morning paper —supposed to be, assuming to be to some extent, the organ of the late Ministry, and hoping also, I presume, to be the organ of the present Government—the Morn ing Herald--(Hisses)—published the following para graph:—" It may be, however, that Sir R. Peel contem- P l lO 5 the accompaniment of a modification of the THE SUN, LONDON, WEDNESDAY EITENING, DECEMBER 24, IS4 corn-laws by a repeal of the malt and hop taxes, an assignment of county rates to the consolidated fund, and a snore just and equal distribution of the poor rates between the agriculoststs who produce and mature the labouring pooa t 'lnd the manufacturers who kill them an d conitrt them into helpless paupers ; a change that ought to be made without any reference to a change in the corn-laws."—(oh, oh, and laughter.) On the 26th instant there appeared an other paragraph, which, after speaking of the effects of a repeal of the corn-laws on manufacturing industry, says:--" This would:of course stimulate the manufactur ing system, but we are not afraid or ashamed to avow that we would regard any important increase of the pre sent manufacturing system with serious suspicion and alarm, and cannot believe that any good man would wish to see such a system aggravated. It is a system full of danger to the State. We are aware of its vital impor tance as a creator of wealth, but we also know how very easily such a system is thrown into disturbance ; how very much our manufacturing population is already out of all proportion to the population and extent of the en tire country. Neither can we leave out of the account those moral and religious considerations which do indeed present an awful and tremendous idea to the mind of every pious and honest man."—(Laughter followed the reading of these extracts.) Now the pith of these two paragraphs comes simply to this—that we are a very good sort of people so long as we work, and get money and pay the taxes, and buy the Duke of Richmond's dear corn, and do that without grumbling, but the moment we look up and say Justice shall be done to us by those laws as well as to that class by whom those laws were made, there is no term of reproach too bad, no slander too foul, to be heaped upon the industrious and honourable people of this country.—(Cheers, and "Hear, hear.") The monopolists have pitied us all along, and oppressed us; but the result of this day's subscription enables me to promise that, at any rate, they will not oppress us much longer.—(Hear, hear.) 250,000/. may be thought a large sum, and, compared with former subscriptions, it is, but no man in this room acquainted with trade but knows that since the failure of the harvest and the news of the impending famine in Ireland, many times that sum has been lost to this district in the operations of trade. The Hon. Gentleman then gave an exemplification of this fact by stating that three or four months ago a certain print sold at 6s. 6d the piece, wheat then being at 465. the quarter, that is, the manufacturer had to give seven such pieces to the farmer for one quarter of wheat ; now wheat had risen to 665. and the piece of print sold at ss. 6d., which compelled the manufacturer to give 12, instead of 7, pieces for the wheat which had risen in price. —(Hear, hear.) Wages fell with the price of the manufacture, and the artisan had to give 12, instead of as before 7, days' work. The present depression in the district is only to be removed either by an abolition of the corn laws or an extraordinary good harvest in 1846; but as two or three bad harvests—as two or three good har vests generally came together, he could only pre dict that in the winter of 1846 they would be in a more dreadful state than now (in 1845), and that they would have in Ireland a repetition of all the appalling dis asters and miseries with which the people of that country were unfortt.nately so familiar.—(Hear, hear.) The Hon. Gentleman concluded by expressing his con viction, that no Minister, no Parliament could resist the effects which such a meeting as that must have upon the mind of the country.—(Cheers.) Mr. J. HEYWOOD, who was announced as a subscriber of 5001., said a few words condemnatory of the system of the corn-laws, but indicating a desire that some con cession should be made in order to induce the agricul tural body to come to a fair and honourable compromise. This suzgestion was received with universal disappro bation. The speaker could scarcely afterwards regain a hearing, and Mr. COBDEN at once declared he must adopt the lan guage used on another subject by Sir James Graham, and say that " concession had already reached its ut most limits."—(Loud cheering.) They would come to no terms and no compromise whatever.—(Cheers.) Mr. BROTHERTON, M.P., next spoke. This was a demonstration that would inspire hopes in the free traders, and alarm amongst the monopolists. It would show that they were not free traders merely in the abstract, but in reality. Either the corn-laws were right or wrong. If wrong, they ought to be repealed, and of this he felt quite certain. The agriculturists said they paid all the taxes, but when trade was bad the Exchequer began to suffer.—(Hear.) They had strengthened the hands of the Members of Parliament, and they would listen to no compromise whatever.—(Loud cheers.) The following additional subscriptions were then an nounced:— .E. s. R. and J. Kercher, Ashton .. 150 0 S. Lee, Ashton ... 100 0 Mr. Burton, Ashton... ... ... 100 0 J. Chorlton, kshton ••• .. 10 0 James Smith, Liverpool ... 25 0 Dr. Massie .. Robert Hayward, Bolton ... 100 0 P. Martin, Bolton .. 100 0 H. Hollins, jun., Bolton .. .. 50 0 W. Betty ... 10 0 Schunick, Souchay, and Co. .. 500 0 A Friend from Bury • • - .. 50 0 • - - The CHAIRMAN here said that the subscription ex ceeded his most sanguine expectations, but if they could say that they had raised 60,0001, the days of mo nopoly would be numbered. Mr. BRIGHT then addressed the meeting at some length, observing that public meetings had convinced the world that they were in earnest, and would confirm the decision to which the now-forming Cabinet must arrive. They must show the world that the trade of the country would no longer work in fetters. After an address from an American gentleman, whose name we did not hear, The CHAIRMAN read some other subscriptions, and then stated that the Committee would meet in the even ing to receive su b scr i pt i ons. Th e amount now sub scribed was 59,160 POUNDS. —(Rapturous applause.) The Chairman then left the chair, which was taken by his Worship the Mayor, when the thanks of the meet ing were given to the late Chairman, with great applause. COURT CIRCULAR. WINDSOR, TUESDAY.—The Qaeen held a Court and Privy Council this afternoon at Windsor Castle. There were present his Royal Highness Prince Al bert, the Duke of Wellington, the Duke of Buc clench, Sir Robert Peel, the Earl of Aberdeen, Lord Stanley, Mr. William Ewart Gladstone, Sir James Graham, Mr. Henry Goulburn, the Earl of Had dington, Lord Granville Somerset, the Earl of Lin coln, Mr. Sidney Herbert, the Earl of Dalhousie, the Earl of Liverpool, and the Earl of Jersey. Lord Stanley had an audience of the Queen, and delivered to her Majesty the Seals of Office as one of her Miesty's principal Secretaries of State. The Queen having been pleased to appoint the Right Hon. William Ewart Gladstone to be one of her Majesty's principal Secretaries of State (for War and the Colonies), he was, by command of the Queen, sworn one of her Majesty's principal Secre taries of State. Mr. C. Greville was the Clerk of the Council in Waiting. At the Court, Mr. Sheriff Chaplin and Mr. Sheriff Laurie, the Sheriffs of London and Middlesex, ac companied by the city Remembrancer, were pre sented to the Queen, at an audience, by Sir James Graham, her Majesty's principal Secretary of State for the Home Department, to receive her Majesty's commands relative to the address of the Corporation of the City of London on the subject of the corn laws. Her Majesty was graciously pleased to appoint Saturday, the 3d of January next, at Windsor Castle, for the reception of the address. The Earl of Warwick and Mr. R. Ormsby Gore were the Lord and Groom in Waiting. The Council broke up at half-past three o'clock. Sir Robert Peel, the Duke of Buccleuch, Lord Stanley, the Right lion. H. Goulburn, the Earl of Dalhousie, the Earl of Jersey, the Earl of Hadding ton, Lord Granville Somerset, Right Hon. Sidney Herbert, the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, the Earl of Lincoln, Sir James Graham, and Mr. C. Greville, travelled from town to attend the Council by the Great Western railway. fieldsay e . M os t o f The Sheriffs appeared i n st ate avvt t e h l e lin C g o t u n r n t. left in th hi After aetcr aa vb trav e l l ing - carriag e Cabinet the i ei nt g C . nonur Ministersrtri , agthee for ne D rft usktther the of t h Castle at the same a special train on The Earl of Liverp ool also left after the Council. t t h i m e e G , r a e n a dt Western e e t s u t r e n r n e d R t a o i l w t to . n by Sir Robert Peel remained at the Castle, on a visit to her Majesty. The Earl Delawarr was prevented by indisposition from arriving at the Castle yesterday. From the same cause the Noble Earl was absent from the Privy Council to-day. The Queen and Prince Albert took their accus tomede early walk to -da y . T he Prince afterwards weenortg Edward Anson , Colonel Bowles, Sir Edward on a shooting excursion, attended by Mr. G Bowater, and Mr. R. Ormsby Gore. The Prince of Wales, the Princess Royal, and the Princess Alice, took their acc ustomed exercise in Their Royal High• pleasure-grounds Fro ness g e of the Castle this morn in g . m a wore7e ga ta r k d e e n ns a t n hi a s ir m in o g rn i in n g t . he Sir Henry Wheatley left the Castle this afternoon. The Royal dinner party this evening will include her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent, Lady Fanny Howard, and the Baroness de Speth. The band of the 2d Regiment of Life Guards will be in attendance during dinner, and her Majesty's private band will afterwards attend at the Castle. The Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone, after returning from attending her Majesty's Privy Council, trans. acted business at the Colonial-office. Mr. Charles Wood, M.P., has left Farrance's Hotel Belgrave-street, for his seat in Yorkshire. LITERATURE. THE CRICKET ON THE HEARTH; a Fairy Tale of Howe. By Charles Dickens. Winter has now fairly arrived—the frost and snow have commenced, and the face of nature is bleak and desolate, yet all is not cheerless : as the outward world grows more gloomy, the inward becomes more bright. Yesterday the snow began, but in another day we shall have Christmas! It was a kind Provi dence that fixed that day in the drear and desolate season ; it comes amid the frosts of winter with its warm sympathies and kindly feelings, cheering as an oasis in the desert. All things announce that this glad season is at hand. We have already noticed those gorgeous volumes, the annuals, par excellence, destined as gifts of friendship and affection ; now we must speak of another annual, truly Christmas in its character, that tells of home and domestic enjoyment, and the fond delights of the fireside—" The Cricket on the Hearth." Two winters have passed since the ap pearance of " The Christmas Carol," the first of Mr. Dickens's annuals ; its success was undisputed—it was received with that instantaneous and unqualified applause ever accorded to books that echo the feelings of the multitude. It was a tale most appropriate to the season, showing the mighty power of Christmas associa tions even upon the most stern and cold. The character of Scrooge seemed ill-suited to a Christmas carol ; stern and repulsive in demeanour, cold to his relatives, harsh to his inferiors, without a single Christmas attribute, his very description chilled all sympathy; we could expect from him nothing to interest or amuse. This was a fitting subject to show Mr. Dickens's power : like a potent wizard he can throw a charm round all he touches, his power lies in his knowledge of the heart; he showed us that even this wretched man possessed human sympathy, and that there he was assailable. His thoughts were led back to the Christmas of the past, he recalled the bright scenes of his youth ; the days of his happy childhood passed before him, and the stern man was subdued by their memory ; then his thoughts were turned towards a future Christmas when he should sleep in the cold grave, the prospect inspired an awful apprehension, fear and memory alike combined to change his heart, and with new and happier feelings he prepared to bless the " Christmas present." Such was the tale of the power of Christmas, its truth was owned and ap plauded by all. Next year appeared " The Chimes," very different in construction, yet, evidently written with the same intention of calling forth kindly sym • pathies. Theltheme was very dissimilar; it embraced a wider field, and told of the sorrows of the poor. It showed us their manifold woes and sufferings, their misery and oppression, yet it told how, through all their dreary path of life, the stream of love ran pure and deep, fertilising all around. " Men may differ, but affection Dwells in rich and poor the same." The dreadful privations of the true-hearted Meg and her fond enduring affection, told through the medium of her father's dream, :poke to the hearts of all with the powerful language of nature. The third story, which has just appeared, is unlike either of its prede cessors, except in the same constant endeavour to awaken Christmas feelings. The tale is very simple, but the moral is all-powerful--its object is to increase domestic happiness, and to show the mighty influence of the fireside. Like the blithe little creature whose name it bears, it is lively, cheerful, animated, and amusing ; yet one passage is of more than ordi nary power, full of deep and earnest feeling. It is when the poor carrier fancies his wife has betrayed him ; and, apparently, he has good reason for the belief. His enemy is beneath his roof—thoughts of revenge and murder fill his soul—when the voice of the cricket, chirping on the hearth, awakens the memory of his domestic bliss, and chases the dark shadows from his heart. The following is a brief ex tract from this powerful scene : Though the power of Omnipotence had been his to wield at that moment, he had too much of its diviner property of mercy in his breast, to have turned one feather's weight of it against her. But he could not bear to see her crouching down upon the little seat where he had often looked on her, with love and pride, so inno cent and gay; and when she rose and left him, sobbing as she went, he felt it a relief to have the vacant place beside him rather than her so long cherished presence. This in itself was anguish keener than all: reminding him how desolate he was become, and how the great bond of his life was rent asunder. The more he felt this, and the more he knew he could have better borne to see her lying prematurely dead before him with their little child upon her breast, the higher and the stronger rose his wrath against his enemy. He looked about him for a weapon. There was a gun hanging on the wall. He took it down, and moved a pace or two towards the door of the perfidious stranger's room. He knew the gun was loaded. Some shadowy idea that it was just to shoot this man like a wild beast, seized him; and dilated in his mind until it grew into a monstrous demon in complete possession of him, casting out all milder thoughts and setting up its undivided empire. That phrase is wrong. Not casting out his milder thoughts, but artfully transforming them. Changing them into scourges to drive him on. Turning water into blood, love into hate, gentleness into blind ferocity. Her image sorrowing, humbled, but still pleading to his tenderness and mercy with resistless power, never left his mind; but staying there, it urged him to the door; raised the weapon to his shoulder; fitted and nerved his finger to the trigger; and cried, " Kill him! in his bed !" He reversed the gun to beat the stock upon the door; he already held it lifted in the air ; some indistinct design was in his throughts of calling out to him to fly, for God's sake, by the window— When, suddenly, the struggling fire illumined the whole chimney with a glow of light; and the Cricket on the Hearth began to chirp! No sound be could have heard; no human voice, not even her's; could so have moved and softened him. The artless words in which she had told him of her love for this same Cricket, were once more freshly spoken; her trembling, earnest manner at the moment, was again before him ; her pleasant voice—oh what a voice it was, for making household music at the fireside of an honest man!—thrilled through and through his better nature, and awoke it into life and action. He recoiled from the door, like a matt walking in his sleep, awakened from a frightful dream ; and put the gun aside. Clasping his hands before his face, he then sat down again beside the fire, and found relief in tears. The Cricket on the Heath came out into the room, and stood in fairy shape before him. " I love it," said the fairy voice, repeating what he well remembered, " for the many times I have heard it, and the many thoughts its harmless music has given me." " She said so!" cried the carrier. " True !" " This has been a happy home, John ; and I love the Cricket for its sake!" "It has been, Heaven knows," returned the carrier. " She made it happy, always—until now." "So gracefully sweet-tempered; so domestic, joyful, busy, and light-hearted!" said the voice. " Otherwise I never could have loved her as I did," returned the carrier. The voice, correcting him, said " do." The carrier repeated "as I did." But not firmly. His faltering tongue resisted his control, and would speak in its own way, for itself and him. The figure, in an attitude of invocation, raised its hand and said: " Upon your own hearth"— " The hearth she has blighted," interposed the carrier. " The hearth she has—how often !—blessed and brightened," said the Cricket: " the hearth whit), but for her, were only a few stones and bricks and rusty bars, but which has been, through her, the altar of your home; on which you have :nightly sacrificed some petty passion, selfishness, or care, and offered up the homage of a tranquil mind, a trusting nature, and an overflow ing heart; so that the smoke from his poor chimney has gone upward with a better fragrance than the richest incense that is burnt before the richest shrines in all the gaudy temples of this world!—Upon your own hearth; in its quiet sanctuary; surrounded by its gentle in fluences and associations ; hear her! hear me! Hear everything that speaks the language of your hearth and home!" And pleads for her?" inquired the carrier. " All things that speak the language of your hearth and home must plead for her!" returned the Cricket. " For they speak the truth." And while the carrier, with his head upon his hands, continued to sit meditating in his chair, the presence stoed beside him; suggesting his reflections by its power, and presenting them before him, as in a glass or picture. It was not a solitary presence. From the hearthstone, from the chimney; from the clock, the pipe, the kettle, and the cradle; from the floor, the walls, the ceiling, and the stairs; frem the cart without, and the cupboard within, and the household implements; from everything and every place with which she had ever been familiar, and with which she had ever entwined one recollection of herself in her unhappy husband's mind ; fairies came trooping forth. Not to stand beside him as the Cricket did, but to busy and bestir themselves. To do all honour to her image. To pull him by the skirts, and point to it when it appeared. To cluster round it, and embrace it, and strew flowers for it to tread on. To try to crown its fair head with their tiny hands. To show that they were fond of it and loved it; and that there was not one ugly, wicked, or accusatory creature to claim knowledge of it—none but their playful and approving selves. His thoughts were constant to her image. It was always there. No writer possesses more power over the emotions than "Boz." When we read his pages we surrender the dominion of our feelings ; smiles and tears are alike at his disposal. His pages are bright and sparkling, full of warmth and merriment; the most common-place affairs interest and amuse when graced by his lively fancy, yet ever andanon, amid all this wit and gaiety comes some passage of deep and touching melan choly, some heart-sorrow, pourtrayed with such mournful beauty, such earnest faithfulness, that our smiles all vanish, and uncontrolled emotion attests its truth and power. Such changes are frequent in the page of "Boz." The few who know him, but by name, may speak of him as an author formed for.wit and liveliness, but those who are familiar with his works will own that his vivid fancy and lively illustrations are only second to the deep feeling that pervades his writings, to th , .=e touching pictures, his pen is power ful to pourtray,—the extremes of wit and feeling seem united on hl3 page—this, indeed, is the secret of hiti power. Let it not be supposed from this that "The Cricket" is a melancholy story—far from it ) it is a cheerful, pleasant narrative, as a tale of home should he; The characters are all perfect. Little Dot, the carrier's wife, will be a universal favourite, so brisk and blithe, and animated and cheerful —just the thing to make a fireside happy. And then the eccentric little nursemaid, and the baby, who, to use its mother's words, is "two months and three days ! considered by the doctor a remarkably beautiful child, equal to the general run of children at five months old; takes notice in a way quite wonderful ; may seem impos sible to you, but feels his legs already !" All these, and Boxer, we must not forget Boxer, who contri butes greatly to the happiness of the family ; all these, described in the language of " Boz," render the carrier's home and hearth a picture of domestic com fort. There are other individuals well worthy of notice ; Gruff Tackleton, the toyman, who despises the harmless articles he manufactures ; and, above all, there is Caleb and his blind daughter, Bertha, one of those unfortunate yet happy creatures in which " Boz" delights. The poor father, anxious to render his daughter happy, adopts the expedient of representing the world not as it is, but as it should be. The fol lowing is an account of his fond, affectionate deceit : I have sail that Caleb and his poor blind daughter lived here ; but I should have said that Caleb lived here, and his poor blind daughter somewhere else ; in an en chanted home of Caleb's furnishing, where scarcity and shabbiness were not, and trouble never entered. Caleb was no sorcerer, but in the only magic art that still re mains to us ; the magic of devoted, deathless love. Nature had been the mistress of his study ; and from her teaching all the wonder came. The blind girl never knew that ceilings were dis. coloured; walls blotched, and bare of plaster here and there; high crevices unstopped, and widening every day; beams mouldering and tending down ward. The blind girl never knew that iron was rusting, wood rotting, paper peeling off; the very size, and shape, and due proportion of the dwelling, withering away. The blind girl never knew that ugly shapes of &If and earthen ware were on the hoard; that sorrow and faint-hearted ness were in the house; that Caleb's scanty hairs were turning greyer and more grey before her sightless face. The blind girl never knew they had a master, cold, exacting, and uninterested: never knew that Tackleton was Tackleton in short; but lived in the belief of an eccentric humourist who loved to hare his jest with them; and while he was the guardian angelof their lives, disdained to hear one word of thankfulness. Caleb and his daughter were at work together in their usual working.room, which served them for their ordi nary living room as well; and a strange place it was. " So you were out in the rain last night, father, i❑ your beautiful, new, great-coat," said Caleb's daughter. " In my beautiful new great-coat?" answered Caleb, glancing towards a clothes-line in the room, on which the sackcloth garment previously described was care fully hung up to dry. " How glad I am you bought it, father!" " And of such a tailor, too," said Caleb. " Quite a fashionable tailor. It's too good for me.". The blind girl rested from her work, and lauglaed with delight. " Too good, father! What can be too good for you?" " I'm half ashamed to wear it though," said Caleb, watching the effect what he said, upon her brightening face; " upon my word. When I hear the boys and people say behind me, Hal-loa I Here's a swell!' I don't knew which way to look. And when the beggar wouldn't go away last night; and, when I said I was a very co , umon man, said, No, your Honour! Bless your Honour, don't say that!' I was quite ashamed. I really felt as if I hadn't a right to wear it." Happy blind girl ! How merry she was, in her exul tation! " I see you, father," she said, clasping her hands, " as plainly, as if I had the eyes, I never want when you are with me. A blue coat " " Bright blue," said Caleb. " Ye;, yes! Bright blue!" exclaimed the girl, turning up her radiant face ; " the colour I can just remember in the blessed sky! You told me it was blue before! A bright blue coat " " Made loose to the figure," suggested Caleb. " Yes! loose to the figure!" cried the blind girl, laughing heartily ; " and in it you, dear father, with your merry eye, your smiling face, your free step, j? and your dark hair: looking so young and handsome! " Halloo! halkah!" said Caleb. "I shall be vain, presently." " I think you are, already," cried the blind girl, pointing at him, in her glee. " I know you father! Ha ha ha; I've fund you out, you see!" How different the picture in her mind, from Caleb, as he sat observing her! She had spoken of his free step. She was right in that. For years and years, he never once had crossed that threshold at his own slow pace, but with a footfall counterfeited for her ear ; and never had he, when his heart was heaviest, forgotten the light tread that was to renderhers so cheerful and courageous! Heaven knows! But I think Caleb's vague bewilder ment of manner may have half originated in his having confused himself about himself and everything around him, fur the love of his blind daughter. How could the little man be otherwise than bewildered, after labouring for so many years to destroy his own identity, and that of all the objects that had any bearing on it! The " Cricket on the Hearth " is a " fairy tale of home," and it does ample justice to its title. It is consoling to think that if " Millions of spiritual creatures walk the earth," at least some of them are occupied with our domestic comforts. The crickets, it appears, are a potent tribe of spirits, whose object is to promote the delights of the fireside, and render the domestic hearth a scene of love and happiness. Taking this " Cricket "as an example, we shall not hesitate to agree to the hypo thesis, and can only wish every hearth in the king dom blessed with such a faithful monitor. THE FREE HOSPITAL. Yesterday the adjourned inquest upon Susannah Ste phens, was resumed by Mr. Wakley, M.P., at the Lion, Gray's Inn-road. It will be recollected that about a month ego, two young girls, labouring under pulmonary disease, in the last stage, came up from Windsor, and applied for admission into the Royal Free Hospital, which was refused them, as the beds were completely occupied. They then obtained shelter in the Lion, but he elder girl, named Erle, aged twenty-two, died at five o'clock the following morning, and the other, the subject of the present inquiry,Twho was only eighteen years of age, died in the Holborn Union workhouse last Friday week. The case excited general sympathy. The inquest-room was crowded yesterday, and amongst the gentlemen present were Mr. Pritchard, high bailiff of Southwark ; the Rev. Dr. Worthington, the Rev. Mr. Packenham, &c. An attorney, attended by Mr. Wingrove Cook, the barrister, was in attendance on the part of the Hospital. Hannah Fisher, nurse in the Holborn workhouse, ex amined—Deceased was brought into the workhouse on the 20;:11 ult., suffering from weakness and cough. She bad wines, broths, and other stimulants. She was sen sible the whole time, and was anxious to recover. She died last Friday week. She told witness that she came from Windsor to be admitted into the Free Hospital, and that she and her deceased companion applied for admission the previous morning. They were kept in a cold room, in which there was a sink, and the floor of which was stone, for two hours before a doctor saw them, who told them that there was no room for them. As it was raining they could not go out, and were almost pushed from the gate. They asked the porter for some food, and he got them what he called broth and bread. The broth was nothing but salt and water, the porter in formed them that it was against the rules to give them food. While they were standing in the porch at the hospital gate, two other women were brought in and received. They were desired to go to Bartholomew's Hospital, but were unable to do so. They had only 2s. 3d. when they left Windsor, of which they paid 2s. to the waggoner, and paid 3d. for coffee. After being re fused admission to the hospital, they were afforded food and shelter by the landlady of the Sun, where the other died. Dr. Marsden said that 300 men were daily relieved by the hospital, and that from Finsbury alone they had annually 20,000 patients who got relief. CORONER—If that was proved to the satisfaction of the inhabitants of Finsbury, they would willingly sub scribe 20,0001, annually towards the hospital. Mr. White, surgeon to the workhouse, proved the deceased died of a pulmonary disease, and condemned the conduct of the medical officers of the hospital towards deceased. Mrs. Tiffen, landlady of the Lion, reiterated the evidence given by her on the inquest of the girl Gill, and corroborated the evidence of the last witness, adding, that when they entered her house they had death in their eyes. Mrs. Dynses, the landlady of the Calthorpe Arms, ad joining the hospital, stated that after they had left the hospital they came to her house, and that from their ap pearance she was convinced they were dying. She gave them food and Is. 6d. to procure a bed. Margaret Triguno, her housemaid, confirmed her tes timony. William Evans, assistant relieving officer to the City of London Union, and his son, deposed that three females from the Peckham workhouse, labouring under a certain disease, were admitted from the workhouse to the hospital on the day the two deceased persons were rejected, the latter were offered to be conveyed thence to Peckham house, of which they refused to avail them selves, stating that they had enough of workhouses, and that it was an hospital, not a workhouse they wanted. Mr. Thwaites, relieving officer of the City of London, Union, said that during the year between forty and fifty thousand casual poor were r elieve d by it, and that many were sent to the Free Hospital during the year for medi cal and surgical a ssistance. The porter of the Hospital, Mr. Cook, the assistant surgeon, and Alice Warner, the cook or the Institution, gave evidence contradicting the statements of deceased. The Rev. Dr. Worthington, chaplain to the Hospital, having been sworn, charged the Coroner w ith unvar i e d h os tility against the Hospital, and designated him a " partial judge, when The CORONER threatened him with committal if he repeated such language, at the same time ordering him to quit the room ; with which order the chaplain complied. The jury, after a short deliberation, returned a verdict of " Natural death." Dr. Marsden inquired if they censured the conduct of the officers of the hospital? The foreman replied that the majority of the jury found fault with them for having refus ed admission to the deceased to an hospital professedly established for the iHlll9a desalts and hotsidni. Another juror said that no blame was attributable to the officers. A third juror said that the landlady of the Calthorpe Arms was more adapted to be a surgeon than the medical gentleman of _the hospital who refused them admission. The other jurors declared that they concurml in the strictures passed upon the hospital by their foreman. THE CONDITION OF THE AGRI- CULTURAL LABOURER (From the Dover Chronicle.) " Protection to native industry" is the plea urged by monopolists for the continuation of the corn-laws. In the teeth of evidence the most clear and irrefragable, they will tell you that free trade would destroy the agricultural labourer—that, in other words, the onl7 way to avoid the danger of starvation to the working man, is to create an artificial scarcity. Of course, the paradox involved in this opinion is scouted by every one who, possessed of the least grain of common sense, has thought it worth while to examine never so slightly into the subject. But there are many persons who have been content to let others think for them en tirely on this head, and who have consequently been cajoled into the belief that the corn-law .repeaters are anxious for a free importation of corn to displace home cultivation, instead of to supply the deficiency caused by the inadequacy of our home cultivation to the waits of our increasing population. With this belief—entertained without the least examination of the premises—they jump at once to the conclusion that the labourer must suffer by a free importation of corn, and, therefore, that the corn-laws are a benefit to him. Not a single fact or argument can be urged to justify the assumption that free trade will throw the labourer out of employment ; on the contrary, the most undeviating experience, as well as the most unvarying testimony, is against it. Food was grown in this country before food grown ins foreign countries was taxed, and will continue to he grown wile') the tax on foreign food is removed. If the condition of the agricultural labourer was such that the patriot and the philanthropist could look upon it with complacency—if plenty smiled upon his cottage, and the result of his labour was a sufficiency of food and clothing—if he enjoyed a fair proportion of the good things which are produced by the wormanship of his hands—then w )uld there be some slight grounds for de scribing the corn-laws as " protection to native industry," at least, so far as the cultivation of the soil is concerned; and however urgent might be the claims of the other branches also of " native industry," for the destruction off all favour to any one branch—however irresistible the de mands for consideration urged by the alarming vicissi tudes to which our manufacturing operatives are subjected, there would be a more cautious approaching of the great question—there might be a lingering fear in the minds of many that the repeal of the corn-laws might banish the rural felicity enjoyed by our ploughmen and shepherds, and bring destruction upon the Arcadian bowers of peace and joy wherein they dwell. But the fact is—and it cannot be too strongly dwelt upon in the important anti•corn-iaw agitation now progressing— that the condition of the protected is not a whit better than, scarcely indeed so good as, that of the oppressed. The man who works in the fields is, notwithstanding the! laws professedly enacted to favour him, as badly off as his brother who works in the factory ; nay, I question much if he be not worse ; for while occasional gleams of prosperity visit his manufacturing brother, when food is cheap, and give him hopes of approaching days that shall he permanently better, his own wages are re duced, and a gradual deterioration of his social position takes place. I have availed myself of a few weeks' residence in district purely agricultural—in the neighbourhood Of Guildford, in the county of Surrey—to make myself ac quainted with the condition of those whose occupation consists in tilling the land. I have conversed with them in the field, and visited them in their homes ; and, from what I have heard and seen, the irresistible conviction has possessed my mind, that the abolition of the food monopoly will confer the greatest possible blessing on the agricultural population. The field labourer, lam fully persuaded, will have cause to hail with the deepest gratitude the day that witnesses the repeal of the corn laws. Let me illustrate this by an example of their pre sent position:— In the course of my rambles I became acquainted with an old man, over whose head more than sixty winters have rolled. To those who are callous stud indifferent to the sacred claims of humanity, his ap pearance would be considered a fit subject for ridicule; but, to those of better feeling, it unfolds a tale of pro tracted human suffering, and a long career of unre quited toil. I will endeavour to describe it as I first saw it. His face was thin And long ; and from his _ pointed chin depended a beard whiChhad not had an acquaintance with a razor for some months, and which imparted to his sallow, wasted, and wrinkled features, a greater expression of forlorn woe than they would otherwise have borne. His dress consisted of corduroy breeches (the original material of which was almost concealed by sundry patches and darns), and a discoloured jacket of thin flannel, similar in appear ance to those worn in the field by gentlemen cricketers ; and might, for aught I know, have been given him by some charitable and condescending partisan of Young England. In order to obtain greater warmth than this jacket would afford, the poor fellow had obtained an old sack, which he had ingeniously contrived to fix on his person, by making A slit in the bottom of it through which to insert his head, and one on either side for his arms. But he was I not so extravagant as to permit a whole sack to hang pendant from his shoulders : he had taken enough from the top (now the bottom) to fasten round either leg as a substitute fnr stockings. In the course of conversation with this specimen of a " bold peasantry—his country's pride," I ascertained that, after toiling a week, he could earn the munificent sum of six shillings, which he was allowed to appropriate in the best way he could, to ob tain food, clothing, and lodging. The repeal of the corn-laws being now, as it should be, the all-engrossing topic, I asked him what he thought would be the result of such a measure ? His reply was, "Some of our people: think the corn•laws doan't ought to be done away with, but it makes no odds to I." “ Why not ?" was my in quiry. " 'Cos measter says I are getting too old to work, and must soon go to the parish." " Then the corn laws have not enabled you to lay up in your young days sufficient to keep you from the union:now you are old ?" " Na, Sir ; things is been gettin' worse every year since I wur a boy ; and this year it's worser than ever, 'cos the 'caters are bad." "But," said I, " the farmers pay their men greater wages this year than they did last, in consequence of their realising from 15s. to 20E5, per quarter more for their wheat?" "Na, indeed ; I' doesn't get so much, 'cos they say I doesn't work so hard ; but the others doesn't get a bit more, and work as hard as ever : if wheat wur twenty poun' a load (80s. .a quarter), they might get a shilling a week more.' "That is, in consideration of their paying from 2s. to half-a-crown more per week for their bread alone?" " That's it, Sir." A glorious prospect. truly, was before the eyes of this old man ! Many a year has he lived alone in the world, for he was never married—no opportunity has ever been afforded him of cultivating the social and domestic affec tion. His life has been spent, and all his energies wasted, in calling forth the hidden resources of the earth, and producing food tbr the use of man ; performing thus a far greater and nobler service to his country than he who takes a shilling from a recruiting sergeant., dons a red jacket, and goes abroad with murderous intent, to blow out the brains of his fellow-creatures who have never injured him. And the reward of his honest labour is a poor-house for life ! Happy it may be for England that asylums, in the shape of poor-law unions, are pro vided for enfeebled age ; but how much happier if such a state of things existed as enabled the bard-working man to reserve a fund for his support when kis frame becomes too old for toil ; and exist they would, if labour had its open market. The condition of the labourer in the full possession of his physical powers is scarcely better than that of my aged friend in the sack. If married, he receives about los. per week, of which front 2s. to 2s. 6d. goes out in the shape of rent for his cottage. Food and clothing for themselves, their wives, and families, have to be pro vided with the remainder. I have, the course of my sojourn, become acquainted with many labourer's fami lies, whose expenditure for food is necessarily limited to a halfpenny per head per meal. I have sometimes yen tured to suggest to the heads of families, that it was' to be regretted that they had so many children to keep. The answer was, that they could not get so much wages if they had not, and they should also be without the hope of ultimately realising something by their chil dren's labour. The objection to our manufacturing sys tem—that it fosters child labour—can be urged, I find, with as much truth against our present system of agri cultural industry. In no instance can I find that the labourer has re ceived even a nominal increase of wages in consequence of the increase in the price of provisions. He receives the same sum per week this year as he did last, while he has to pay for bread alone from one to two shillings more weekly ; and he has to contend, moreover, with the failure of his little garden crop of potatoes. Simultaneous with the gradual deterioration of the condition of the labourer, has been the gradual increase in the rent of land. Only a few years ago, good land could be rented in this neighbourhood for 20s. an acre. It is now realising from 365. to 405., and the tendency to rise continues. The fact that the rent-receiver grows richer and richer, while the land-tiller grows poorer and poorer, owes its existence to the wickedness and perversity of the men who, by a legislative act, have limited the supply of food, and created an artificial scarcity on the one hand, and enhanced the importance of capital on the other. Away with the corn-laws They are a libel upon God's providence, and an abomi nation upon the earth. FRIGHTFUL ACCIDENT AT ST. KATHERINE DocKs.—Yesterday afternoon, at half-past three . o'clock, a frightful accident occurred at the St. Katherine Docks, which, it is feared, will be attended with fatal consequences, to a labourer named Robert Bland , aged fifty-nine years. He was at work in A and B vault, when he fell through a loop hole, a height of sixteenfeet. He was found totally insensible from frightful injuries sustained . about the head. Both upper and lower jaws were fractured in a shocking manner, and he received other sev ere injuries about the head and body. He was removed to the London Hospital. DESPERATE ATTEMPTED SUICIDE OF A YouTH IN OXFORD-STREET, BY THROWING HIMSELF OUT OF A WlNDOW.—Yesterday morning, at half-past eight o'clock, a desperate attempt at suicide was committed by a young man named James Bowles, eighteen years of age, residing at No. 68, Oxford-street, next door to the Princess's Theatre, by throwing himself into the street from the second -floor window Several persons who were passing ran to his assistance, and raised him from the ground in a state of insensibility. He was removed immediately to the Middlesex Hospital, where he lies without hopes of recovery. It is reported that Mr. Deane, the Chairman, and another Commissioner of Customs, will shortly retire from the Boyd.