# History of the Anti-Corn Law League/Chapter25

CHAPTER XXV.
TEACHINGS OF THE LEAGUE.
From the termination of the turn-out to the end of the year was one incessant course of teaching on the part of the League. There was the determination that until the next parliamentary campaign, every effort should be made to indoctrinate the people with the principles of free trade, and it was carried out with great vigour and perseverance. There were no parliamentary debates to be reported—no outrages to be given in full detail. The most interesting intelligence which the newspapers could publish was the proceedings of the League, which had its adherents in every town, and in almost every village. During three months there were meetings almost every week in the League Rooms, and the proceedings were fully reported, and widely and attentively read. Of these proceedings, I must content myself with giving a list rather than a sketch:—
Meeting of the Manchester Anti-Corn-Law Association, Sept. 15th, Mr. Wilson in the chair. Mr. Wm. Rawson said that when he was in London, he had observed a marked difference in the temper of the members of Parliament when the great question was before the house, and out of it the improved feeling was still more manifest; and the greatest anxiety was shown to know the real opinion in the country, state of Mr. Brotherton, M.P., ​acknowledged the improved feeling spoken of by Mr. Rawson; but said that doubts as to the justice of the monopoly would not soon overcome the selfishness of those who thought they profited by it. Amongst those were the clergy, who prayed for plenty and cheapness, but had a pecuniary benefit in scarcity and dearness. Thus, a clergyman, who, under the Tithe Commutation Act, had 200 quarters of wheat allotted to him, would have £600 a-year when the price was 60s., but would have only £500 when the price was 50s. The other speakers were the Rev. W. Shuttleworth and Mr. John Brooks.
Meeting of the League, in a large hall added to their premises in Newall's Buildings, 29th of September, Mr. Wilson in the chair. The principal speaker was Mr. M. Philips, one of the members for the borough. In the course of an able speech, he expressed his conviction that agriculture was yet in its infancy. The owners of the land, unprotected by import duties, must make up their minds to the same competition which the manufacturers encountered, and his experience as a farmer inclined him to think that the competition would induce them to bestir themselves, and that, by better cultivation and more economical application of labour, they would find agriculture better remunerative than they imagined. Mr. George Hadfield followed, and congratulated the meeting that Sir Robert Peel had so far travelled on the road towards free trade as to adopt a greatly improved tariff. The League had but to persevere, and they would compel him to include corn and provisions. A short speech from Mr. Brotherton closed the proceedings.
Meeting of the League, October 6th. The chairman, Mr. George Wilson, reported that England would be divided into twelve districts, and that a lecturer would be appointed to each. Mr. Cobden said there had been a great deal of misrepresentation as to the fall in price of some kinds of agricultural produce, and with regard to the ​low price which cattle brought, denied that it was occasioned by importation under the new tariff. He said:—
"The fall has been because the farmers' customers have been ruined.(Hear, hear.) Why, I have made some inquiries on the subject, and I find that in Dundee, in Leeds, in Kendal, in Carlisle, in Birmingham, and in Manchester, the falling-off in the consumption of butchers' meat has been one third, as compared with what it was five years ago. (Hear,hear.) How is it possible that this great falling off in the consumption should take place, without causing a diminution in the price of the article? We, who are apt to cultivate our connections, to nurse our customers, to wish them well, and to be anxious for their prosperity, should take a very different view of the thing. If we find that our customers are declining, and that they have no longer the means to purchase, we know that we, as sellers, must suffer in consequence. The farmers have not learned that lesson yet; they imagine that they can be flourishing while their customers are ruined. (Hear, hear.) Now, at the Chester cheese fair I observe that there was a falling off of 20s. per cwt. on cheese, and the farmers said, 'We have had Peel in the market.' (Laughter.) Now, the absurdity of that is obvious, from the fact that there has been no alteration at all in the duty on foreign cheese. Yet in Cheshire the price of cheese, of butter, and of milk, Lave fallen; and why? Because their largest manufacturing town, Stockport, has been ruined, and is paying £7,000 a-week less wages than it did three years ago. (Cheers.) And with that fact staring them in the face, why should the Cheshire farmers go to Peel, or the tariff, for a reason of their adversity? (Applause.) But, I observe that the Duke of Rutland, at his meeting at Waltham the other day, denied that there had been such a decline in the price of meat, such a fall in the price of agricultural produce. Now, we must set his grace right. There has been such a fall, and his grace ought not to tell his farmers that there has not. Look at the government contract; there cannot be a better test than that. The government contract for the supply of the army and navy with beef has been taken this year for 20 per cent, less than it was last year. (Hear, hear.,) This is proof sufficient of the fact; and his grace ought not to attempt to mislead the farmers, by saying that there is not a great fall in the price of meat. There has been a great fall, and we know the cause. Now, it may seem very strange that I should be here to exculpate Sir Robert Peel from the attacks that are made upon him by his friends, on account of this falling off in the price of meat."
Mr. Cobden, after adverting strongly to the impolicy of the American tariff, announced the intention of the League ​to carry on the campaign with great additional vigour. It was spending 100 a-week in its work of instructing the country—be thought there was a necessity of spending ten times as much, at least, during the winter months, and of continuing it while the Corn Law remained unrepealed. "What," he asked, "is the conduct of our countrymen in reference to the more inglorious struggles by sea or land?"
The meeting was subsequently addressed by Mr. Duncan Mc.Laren, now (1852) Lord Provost of Edinburgh, Mr. Thomas Bazley, Mr. John Bright, and Mr. John Brooks; all of whom expressed their belief that the proposed £50,000 fund would be promptly raised, so as to permit an expenditure of a thousand pounds a-week for twelve months, if the Corn Laws existed so long. The protectionist press affected to laugh at this as a vain boast; and when the feat was accomplished, affected to believe that nothing but paper promises had been made, which nobody intended to pay.
Meeting of the League, October 13th,. addressed by Mr. Cobden, the Rev. Charles Baker, of Stockport, Mr. L. Heyworth, of Liverpool, and others. After this meeting, the council of the League issued an address, from which the following is an extract:—
Further and increasingly strenuous exertions, then, are necessary to set the seal of final success upon the past. The very ground we have gained demands and inspirits to redoubled effort. The pressure beneath which industry sinks is not heaved off; but the force applied has made it move, and perseverance will accomplish all. There must be more lectures, more tracts, more conferences, more agitation. Every county and borough elector in the kingdom must be personally visited, and a condensed library of evidence and reasoning against the Corn Law be placed in his hands. Monopoly will not yield without such efforts, and, it shall have them. We are entering on the fifth year of this struggle for truth, for justice, for existence. We ask of you to replenish our pecuniary means for sustaining it. Our appeal is made confidently, for the character of the agitation is sanctioned by its progress; and what is any outlay to the object to be gained? We have reported the amount already expended; and we now appeal to you to create confidence in our cause, and dismay in its selfish opponents, by enabling us to commence the ensuing year of Anti-Corn-Law agitation with a disposable fund of £50,000. We are confident we shall not ask in vain."
Meeting of the League, 20th October. The chairman. Mr Wilson, having described the various means by which the £50,000 fund was to be raised, stated that it would be closed in January, when a great aggregate meeting would be held in Manchester, at which the subscriptions from each district town and village would be announced, and to which would be invited all the members of the Lords and of the Commons who had voted for a repeal of the Corn Laws, and many other eminent individuals, including ministers of religion of all denominations, with deputies and members of the League, from all parts of the kingdom. The meeting was addressed by Mr. C. Hindley, ​M.P., Mr. James Acland, Mr. A. W. Paulton, Mr. Brooks, and Mr. R. R. Moore.
Meeting of the League, October 27th, very numerously attended, and very enthusiastic. Mr. B. Walker, M.P., after describing the state of the country, asked what must result from that state of things? "What we have seen will occur again—the disruption of social order, the magistrates of the district expecting momentary outbreaks, the peace only preserved by the presence of the military, our jails crowded with rioters, special commissioners in every manufacturing county, ships freighted with transports to the antipodes, and pauperism, instead of being the exception, will, if not intercepted, become the rule." Dr. Bowring followed in a speech of wide range, great eloquence, and most hopeful tone. After him came Mr. George Thompson, who spoke with powerful effect; and then Mr. Cobden and Mr. Mark Philips briefly addressed the meeting.
Meeting of the League, 3rd November. The chairman and Mr. Cobden gave favourable accounts of the progress of the subscriptions towards the £50,000 fund. The latter said:." An elderly person called on me on Tuesday, having the appearance of a country gentleman, and he put this paper in my hand, accompanied by a bank note: 'A landowner, possessed of several farms, subscribes £100 to the League fund. It is a money question, and the money speaks for itself. he subscription will be repeated, if requisite.' I never saw the gentleman before, and probably will never see him again. He did not wait for conversation, and I could get nothing more from him than:"It is a money question; it is a money question; and the money speaks for itself.'" The meeting was then addressed at great length, and with much effect, by the Rev. W. H. Bonner, of Bilston, who taught, from holy writ, that it was advantageous to nations freely to exchange their various productions, and that, doing so, they subserved the ​purposes of God. He was followed by Mr. Bright, who forcibly represented the necessity of taking immediate means to rescue the county and several of its boroughs from the disgrace of being represented by protectionists.
Meeting of the League, November 10th, addressed by Mr. George Wilson, Rev. Mr. Shepherd, of Bury, Mr. Buckingham, who spoke with the effect which had been produced in former days by his lectures on the East India Company's monopoly, Mr. Brotherton, whose plain and familiar illustrations much delighted the meeting, and Mr. Cobden, who informed the meeting that Mr. Buckingham had been invited to co-operate with the League—to "pursue the triumph, and partake the gale." He demanded NATIONAL co-operation, and said:—
Meeting of the League, November 17th, addressed by chairman, who announced that arrangements had been made to send deputations to a number of the large towns, Mr. W. B. Watkins, Mr. W. Harvey, the Rev. W. Roaf, of Wigan, Mr. Thomas Gisborne, of Derbyshire, Mr. Thomas Bazley, jun., and Mr. John Brooks.
November 24th. Addressed by the chairman, who gave an account of the progress, throughout the kingdom, of arrangements for collecting £50,000, and announced a subscription of £100 from Mr. E. Lombe, a landowner in Norfolk; Mr. Hickin, the secretary, who read a great many letters announcing movements, gave an account of the labours of eleven lecturers, and stated that the council had ordered 50,000 tracts to be stitched up with the magazines for October, 60,000 in the November numbers, and 120,000 in the numbers for December; the Rev. Mr. Hawkes, of Kendal Mr. John Bright; Mr. Acland; Mr. R. R. Moore and myself.
November 22nd. An important meeting in the Manchester Town Hall, attended by about 500 of the principal merchants, spinners, and manufacturers, machine-makers, and other large employers of workmen of the town and neighbourhood. Robert Hyde Greg, Esq., in the chair. The meeting was addressed by Mr. Benjamin Pearson, Mr. Acland, Mr. Moore, Mr. E. Munn, Sir Thos. Potter, Mr. Cobden, Mr. Bright, the Mayor (Jas. Kershaw, Esq.), and others. Thirty-six gentlemen were appointed to canvass for subscriptions to the £50,000 fund. Mr. Munn gave in his name for £250; the Mayor for £200; Mr. E.Armitage for £100; Mr. Thomas Ashton, of Hyde, for £200 Mr. John Brooks for £300; Mr. William Bickham for £100, and on behalf of his brother, £100; Mr. James ​Proctor £100, and Mr. D. Proctor £25; Mr. Thomasson, of Bolton, for £100. The chairman then read from Mr. Brooks' red-book the following: R. Cobden and Co., £200; H. and E. Ashworth, of Bolton, £200 E. Shorrocks and Co., £100; Benjamin Smith and Co., £100; R. Hibbert, £100 Jacob Bright and Son, £300. Mr. Foster, of Sabden, then gave his name for £100; Mr. James Chadwick, of Eccles, for 100 (afterwards to volunteer £1,000); Evans and Nicholson for £50; Mr. George Howarth, of Rochdale, £25; Mr. Jos. Scholefield, of Rochdale, £50 Mr. James Wrigley, of Bury, £25 Mr. John Lord, of Bacup, £150 and the chairman £100, in addition to his annual subscription of 100.
December 1st. A crowded League meeting. Mr. Geo.Wilson, the chairman, gave a gratifying statement of the progress of the fund. Mr. Hickin noticed the receipt of letters from every part of the kingdom. Mr. Cobden gave an account of his visit to Sheffield, and, with Mr. Bright,to Huddersfield, Bradford, and Halifax, where great meetings had been held, and subscriptions opened with great spirit. He was followed by the Rev. Mr. Giles, of Leeds, Mr. Terence Mc.Cullagh, and Mr. John Brooks. The inconveniently crowded attendance showed that it was necessary to engage a larger place of meeting.
December 8th. The chairman reported that Mr. Bright and Mr. Moore had attended a meeting at Darlington, where £100 had been subscribed; and one at Durham, where a similar sum had been raised; that on Tuesday forenoon, a meeting of the merchants and manufacturers of Leeds had been held, and a tea party in the evening, at which Mr. Cobden, Colonel Thompson, Dr. Bowring, Mr Aldam, M.P., had taken part, and at which £800 had been subscribed; and that one had been held in Rochdale, on Wednesday night, at which Mr. Cobden, Mr. Bright, and Colonel Thompson were present, and a subscription commenced, amounting to the large sum of £1,350. The ​meeting was then addressed by Mr. James Wilson, of London, Mr. Henry Marsland, M.P., Colonel Thompson, and the Rev. F. Bishop, of Warrington.
December 15th. Meeting in the Corn Exchange, capable of containing, part sitting and part standing, more than 2,000 persons. The chairman had again encouraging statements to make. At Blackburn, on Tuesday evening, a meeting had been held, at which £500 had been subscribed to the fund. At Bradford the subscription had reached £500. At Holmfirth, £100. At Preston a meeting had been held, and a subscription was to follow. On Saturday, Colonel Thompson, who had volunteered a month's services to the League, had attended a meeting, at Bacup, with Mr. Cobden and Mr. Moore. On Monday, Mr. Bright and Mr. Moore appeared as a deputation at a great meeting at Derby, in which Mr. E. Strutt, M.P., took a part. On Tuesday, a most influential meeting was held in the Friar Lane Chapel, Nottingham, at which merchants and manufacturers of the Midland counties' district were present. The Mayor of Nottingham and the Mayor of Leicester took part in the proceedings, and Mr. Bright stated the progress of the movement, and the uses to which the fund was to be applied. The sum of £997 was subscribed, increased to £1,335 at the evening tea party, which was addressed by Mr. Cobden, Col. Thompson, Mr. Bright, and Mr. Moore. The subscription was headed by £300 from Mr. Strutt, of Derby, and £50 from Charles Paget, Esq., the chairman, a landowner. On Wednesday, a large public meeting was held at Belper, which was addressed by Mr. Bright and Mr. Moore. In addition to these meetings, Mr. Wilson mentioned an important one which had been held in Glasgow, on Monday, called by the Lord Provost, which had passed a vote of confidence in the proceedings of the League, moved by Mr. Archibald Buchannan, who, some three years before, was disposed to dissent from much of what had been done ​by the council of that body, being then in favour of a fixed duty, but he said that since that time he had rejoiced in the progress which had been made in pressing for unconditional repeal. After Mr. Wilson's gratifying statement of progress, the meeting was addressed by Mr. Milner Gibson, M.P., Mr. William Ewart, M.P., the Rev. Mr. Baker, of Stockport, and myself.
December 22nd. Meeting in the Corn Exchange, exceedingly crowded. The chairman reported that an influential committee had been formed in the city of London, over which Mr. Travers presided, and another at the west and, over which Mr. Charles P. Villiers presided. An important meeting, of nearly 2,000 persons, had been held in Hanley, on the Thursday of the previous week, Mr. Ridgeway in the chair, which was addressed Mr. Cobden, Mr. Bright, Colonel Thompson, and Mr. Moore. On Monday, a large tea party had been held at Bury, followed by a meeting, addressed by Mr. Cobden, Dr. Bowring, Mr. Brotherton, Mr. Moore, and others, and a subscription entered into which amounted to £800. A tea party had been held on Tuesday, at Bilston, at which Mr. R. R. Moore was present. On Wednesday, there had been a meeting, at Dudley, which was addressed by Mr. Bright and Mr. Saul. On the same day, there was a tea party at Ironbridge, Shropshire, at which Mr. Moore was present. Amongst other subscriptions received, Mr. Wilson mentioned one of £50 from the Earl of Radnor, and one of £50 from Earl Ducie. Mr. Hickin read letters, giving a most encouraging account of progress, and Mr. Isaac Crook stated that £1,850 had been subscribed in Liverpool. Mr. Brotherton and Mr. Cobden then addressed the meeting, the latter at great length, and with most encouraging effect.
December 29th. Meeting at the Corn Exchange. Mr. Wilson, in opening the proceedings, said:—
"Our friends have been as untiring in their exertions during the past ​week as during any previous one. We had a meeting last Thursday evening at Stourbridge, we had another on Friday evening at Wolverhampton; one on Monday, at Colne; one on Tuesday, at Bradford; one last evening, at Burnley; and to-night, Mr. Cobden and other friends will be addressing a large meeting at Warrington.(Applause.) Next week there will he meetings at Bolton and Birmingham; and the week following will commence the great demonstration in Scotland. That at Glasgow will commence on the 11th, and I have great pleasure in stating that our excellent friend, Mr. Cobden, has had the freedom of the city of Glasgow voted to him by the Lord Provost. I rejoice that he has received this distinguished honour, because we all know that Sir R. Peel and Lord Stanley were not able to obtain such an honour at the hands of the men of Glasgow, when they visited that place. (Cheers.) I am also happy to state that the work of distribution of tracts is proceeding in several counties; we know it is successful, for we have evidence it is doing good in our correspondence. We have proofs of conversions having been effected by it in several quarters, where before we were met with open hostility. We have received subscriptions during the last week from men who never spoke of the League but in the language of opprobrium. (Applause.) I may also mention, and I do it with pleasing satisfaction, that the portion of the working classes who have hitherto hung back, are daily manifesting a greater disposition to join us, and I shall read a letter we have received—not the only one I could produce as evidence of the fact:—
"'Dukinfield.
"'TO THE COMMITTEE OF THE MANCHESTER ANTI-CORN-LAW LEAGUE.
"'Gentlemen,—We, the working people of Robert Ashton, Esq., Dukinfield, are much gratified to inform you that we have made a subscription for the furtherance of the great and glorious cause, the abolition of the Bread Tax; and we most cheerfully remit you the sum of £16 18s. 2d., resting assured that you will make the best use of it, by aiming a death blow at the most dishonest, dishonourable, destructive, demoralizing, and murderous laws that ever disgraced the statute book of any civilized nation a law, which if suffered to exist, will in the end reduce the honest tradesman to bankruptcy and poverty, and his dependents to misery and starvation. But we anxiously look forward to the time when masters and men can take each other by the hand, with a determination to crush down that foul fiend, monopoly, in whatever shape it may be found, so that we may in future dwell together in peace, love, and harmony.—Signed on behalf of the above.
"'George Bradley, Warehouseman.
"'David Jackson, Weaver.
"'Thomas Bowker, Dresser.
"'Barn Meadow Mills, 27th Dec,, 1842.'
​The reading of this document was followed by great applause. The Chairman proceeded to say, that he had only a few hours ago had put into his hands a number of tracts, which showed the disposition of their opponents. They were almost entirely made up, he found, from the Quarterly Review, and intended for general distribution, with the view of counteracting the good sound doctrines which this League—(cheers and laughter)—had been successful in promulgating. He knew the parties who put them in circulation; he would not mention their names, but he would make them this offer, that as the League were delivering their tracts in all parts of the kingdom, if the monopolists would pay one half the expenses, the League would willingly disseminate the monopolists' tracts with their's. (Laughter and applause.)"
The Rev. T. Pottinger, of Bradford, and Mr. Bright, addressed the meeting, the latter in a strain of argument, eloquence, and energy, that excited the audience to enthusiastic applause. He began by giving the following account of the meetings which had been attended by deputations from the League:—
Mr. Bright proceeded to advert to the retaliating tariffs of other nations, the distress inflicted upon the population of our own land by the diminution of trade, the constant struggle for daily bread, and the consequent competition in the labour market diminishing wages, the wretched culture of land under protection, the exemption of landowners from their fair share of taxation, the miserable condition of the protected farmers and farm labourers, the insecurity of property in the agricultural districts; and claimed for the League the merit of being the best friend to the farmers, and to the community generally, that they had ever known. After commenting on an article of seventy pages in the Quarterly Review, and of tracts published in defence of the landowners' monopoly, he said:—
'Not all that heralds rake from coffin'd clay, Nor florid prose, nor honied lies of rhyme Can blazon evil deeds, or consecrate a crime.'
(Loud cheers.) The League is feared by the parties upon whom rests the guilt of this crime, and it is hated with unmitigated malignity. They do not greatly fear or hate a man who is a scion of their own order, they tolerate a set speech on a popular subject once in a session, and look upon this species of agitation as an amiable weakness in those who take a part in it: but they know they have cause to fear when men engaged in trade step out from the ranks and proclaim the injuries which aristocratic misrule is inflicting upon their countrymen, and by the most persevering exertions, by sacrifices of time and labour, and money and health, show their unalterable resolution to gather together the elements of an enlightened public opinion, and to overturn the foul usurpations which they can no longer bear. They know that much as a peer of the realm may value his order, we value our order at least as highly, that we have no longing for honours for ourselves, and no disposition to suffer tamely the wrongs inflicted by the class upon whom honours are now bestowed. To the landed aristocracy, to the monopolist and bankrupt portion of them we say—we do not ask you to repeal Corn Law, and to loose your grasp from the subsistence of this most industrious and meritorious, and yet most trampled population,—we do not ask it from your sense of justice and from your love of right, for had you possessed either the one or the other this infamous law had never been enacted,—but we appeal to what is more honest and more virtuous, we appeal to the millions of our countrymen who are awakening to the wrongs they have so long and so patiently endured, and to the consciousness that it is you who have inflicted them,—we appeal to the honesty and intelligence of the middle classes of this empire, in the full confidence that the hour is at hand when their united voices shall be heard above the roar of the party, and shall decree the immediate and the utter and everlasting extinction of this odious and inhuman and most unnatural law."
At the conclusion of Mr. Blight's speech, the whole company rose and gave repeated shouts of applause, the ladies waving their handkerchiefs, and the assemblage ​presented one of the most extraordinary and exciting spectacles ever witnessed on such an occasion. Mr. Brotherton rose to move a vote of thanks to Mr. Bright and Mr. Pottenger. He declared his opinion that but for the Corn Law the national debt would now have been paid off, the labourer would have been enjoying the just fruits of his labour, and the commerce of the country extended to every part of the world. He expressed his conviction that the Corn Laws would be repealed; it was only a question of time. Mr. David Ainsworth seconded the resolution, which was carried with applause.
Numerous as these meetings were, there was not the slightest flagging of interest in the subject. At all times Manchester has visitors from every part of the kingdom, and those strangers were all anxious to hear the proceedings of a body, the fame of which was now spread throughout the land. Foreigners also were present, for the question at issue was one which might have a world-wide application.