The Sun.
London, England, 1848-01-31 00:00:00

7 JANUARY 31, 1848,

Henry, M.P., entered the room at this stage of the
proceedings, and were greeted with loud cheers.]
That. CHAIRMAN said—l dare say you have noticed
that we have just received an accession to our uum-
ber in the persons of our excellent Member for South
Lancashire, Mr. Henry—(Applause)—and in our
excell ant friend the Member for North Lancashire, Mr.
Heywood.—(Applause.) I should tell you that these
gentlemen had, previous to the public announcement
of this meeting, accepted an invitation to dine with
his worship the Mayor of Liverpool ; but that, .being
most anxious to be present this evening, a special
train has brought them from Liveepool, since they re-
ceived the hospitalities of his worship the Mayor of
that place.—(Cheers.) I will now convey to them,
in your name, our assurance of the great gratification
we have in seeing them present.—(Continued cheer-
ing.) I now beg leave to call on Mr. Bright to re-
spond to the toast.
Mr. BRIGHT, M.P., came forward amidst deafening
cheers, which continued for several minutes. When
the applause had subsided he spoke as follows :—lf
any person here present was in any doubt as to the
purpose of this meeting when he came here to-night,
by this time I apprehend his doubt must be entirely
removed.—(Hear, hear.) I have been asked why this
meeting has been convened when the political world
was so calm, and the object for which we have con-
tended in this room was for the most part accom-
plished. My answer has been that we were coming
together for the purpose of doing honour to a great
principle which has triumphed, and to another prin-
ciple which is marching on to a still greater triumph
—that which embodies the demand that in future
the opinions of , the people shall guide, and
the interest of the people shall be the object
ot government in this kingdom.—(Cheers.) Of the
first principle which we have so often spoke of in this
hall, I will not now speak in those terms of apology
which I have beard it treated with on some recent
occasions.—(Hear, hear.) If ever there was a prin-
ciple which was triumphant, if ever there was a po-
licy which was vindicated, if ever there was a course
pursued by a great public confederation which was
justified by the results,—l say we may point to the
principle of free trade, and to the course pursued by
the agitators from this platform.—(Loud cheers. Did
we not hear for years that we were to be, and that it
was the policy of this country to be, totally inde-
pendent of foreigners; and yet now we have to
make the confession, that, by the supplies of food
received from foreigners, some millions of our coun-
trymen have been kept alive during the last eighteen
months ?—(Hear.) Were we not told that the best
security for a full, for a permanent supply of food, was
by giving protection to the cultivators °four own soil;
and is it not proved, that after 30 years of strict pro-
tection, millions of our countrymen would have died
of famine if it had not been for supplies received from
abroad ? And were we not told that when we had
importations from abroad we should have abstracted
from us large sums in gold, and that these large sums
would go to build up rival manufactories in foreign
states ? 'Well, we have had large importations, and
large exportations of gold in payment for the eorn.
But where is the retention of the gold ? Is it not at
this moment coming back about as fast as it went ?
(A voice, " Faster.") And more than this, has not
the country which took the largest portion of the
gold, has not that country—the United States ot
America—doubled, I believe trebled, its purchase of
our manufactures within the last twelve months ?
(Hear.) If any man complains to me of free trade—
and I confess I meet with few men who do so, but
those obtuse individuals whom we were never able
to convince—if any man asks me if free trade has
triumphed, and if our policy has succeeded,Ll point
to 16 millions of quarters of grain which have come
into the country during the last 16 months.—(Ap-
plause.) I say, what would you have had ? Would
you have had the anarchy, the famine, the mortality,
the ruin, unparalleled in any age and in any country,
which must have overspread this land, if your policy
of restriction and exclusion had been carried out ?
(Great cheering.) There never was exhibited a
more magnificent proof of our position than that
which the last twelve months have shown. If a
man could have stood upon an eminence, and
looked over the whole world, what would he have
seen ? What would he have seen that the spirit of
commerce was doing for this nation ? We were
panic-stricken, we were. prostrate, we were famine-
t spirit of commerce responded freni every portion
of the earth.—(Applause) By the shores of the
Black Sea and the Baltic, by the classic Nile and
the sacred Ganges, by the St. Lawrence and the
:Ilississippi, in the ter-off islands of the Indian Ocean,
in the nascent empires of Australasia, we find human
beings, active, energetic, like yourselves—gathering
harvests, or dispatching the fruit of harvests for the
supply of the famishing people of this kingdom.—
(Great cheering.) And what is the lesson we should
learn from this ? That there is little dependence to
he placed upon human governments and human con-
trivances, we - - •• •• • • •
mon to the world, that our greatest dependence is in I
the laws of nature—(Hear)—in obed,ence to them,
and in the universal bounty of the common Father
of mankind.--(Cheering.) Butiwhat are the politi-
cal results ? For there are political results of no slight
moment which have followed the triumph of the free
traders of England. The repeal of the corn-laws is in
the political world to be likened to the breaking up
of a long frost. You find that when the river is
unbound vast masses of ice become dislocated and dis-
jointed ; they go in separate directions ; naw they
touch and now they separate ; but still there is one
tendency—they are all flowing on towards their kin-
dred ocean. And what is it in Parliament and out of
Parliament but that your parties—and that party,
one of the worst which ever was bound together, has
been disjointed, separated, weakened, perhaps dis-
united tor ever ; and there is in Parliament and out
of Parliament a general, a strong, and all-pervading
tendency in favour of liberal measures and greater
freedom in the Government of the kingdom.—
(Applause.) And to what are we tending? To
some things which have not been mentioned here to-
night. Take your own town. A number, not very •
large, but daily increasing, of sincere and honest, and
good men, are protesting against the misappropria-
tion of funds which the State has applied to religious
purposes. (Hear, hear.) Look again at what
has recently taken place with respect to an elevation
to the episcopal bench.—(Hear, hear.) I have never
said a syllable since I spoke in public against the
Church of England as a religious body.—( Hear, hear.)
But at this moment I can appeal to thousands of in-
telligent and pious churchmen, and ask them whe-
ther they are not themselves driving in the direction
which I have long travelled in ; are they not them-
selves of opinion that it would be better for religion
that Bishops were not made by Prime Ministers, as
Prime Ministers make them.—(ilear, hear.) I say
that it is derogatory to the character of a Christian
church that its highest dignitaries should be nomi-
nated with as little—l will not say consideration—
but precisely in the same manner as a clerk in a Go-
vernment office, or an exciseman, is nominated to his
place.—(Loud cheers.) There is the question of
tenure of land ; the mode in which land is transferred
from hand to hand and from sire toson; that question i
important to England and Scotland, as well as to Ireland.
These gross evils, which have so long existed, arose
in times when the population was thin and the people
were powerless. They are worn out now, and so
sure as Parliament has admitted foreign supplies of
food, so certainly before long, whatever aristocratic
influence may say to the contrary, will freedom be
given to the land as freedom has been given to the
produce of the soil. —(Applause.) But it is a curious
thing that at this meeting the speaking has all turned
upon a question which, but a few weeks ago, was
scarcely thought of at all—the question of the war-
cry which has been raised. I have not said much
about this war-cry, because everybody who knows
me believes that I must, from the mere fact of my
connexion with a religious society which as a
society is known to have been always a peace society
—that I must go along with the friends of peace.—
(Hear, hear.) I hear on every side that there has
been a panic ; but I do not believe it at all. There
is no panic ; there has not been a panic. My Hon.
Friend, the Member for the West Riding, has been
down in Cornwall. He has not been here. He has
read in the London papers, and he fancies we would
believe in the London papers.—(Laughter.) I will
just give you another instance of his credulity.—
(Laughter.) When he was in Spain he wrote to me
a letter, about the time that there was an apparent
quarrel between Lord Palmerston and somebody in
Paris, about the marriage of the Spanish Queen, and
he begged and implored that we would not go to war
about it, and that we would not get up a war mania
here. The fact was, that being in Spain he forgot
the character of the people he had left.—(Rene wed
laughter,) He read the London papers, and fancied
we were all writing leading articles for the London
papers. The fact is the panic has been entirely among
certain leaders of the military party in this country,
and among the "leaders" in the newspapers.— (Hear.)
There is another class that the panic has been among,
that distinguished body who go by the name of the
Yeomanry corps.—(Laughter.) However, I marvel
greatly they should be alarmed, because it is, or was
proposed to be expressly provided for them, that
whenever there was an invasion they should he per-
mitted to go abroad.—(Loud laughter and cheers.)

[PRICE SD.

Now, I assure you I am not in the smallest degree
afraid, and I believe that the whole of this cry and
this panic has been a sham.—(Hear, hear.) I would,
however, be permitted to state one ;thing, I believe
in my conscience that there is not a man in England
more innocent of bringing this war-cry upon this
country, or snore unwilling it should go on, than
the present Prime Minister of England.—(Hear,
hear.) It would be madness in a Prime Mini: ter, in
any man who has to maintain his reputation as a
statesman, and who wishes to see the country prosper,
that he should get up a cry like this, or in any way
advance it. Great taxation, a deficient revenue—
these are things which an honest and a wise Mi-
nister would avoid, and I believe that Lord John
Russell has no more sympathy in this extrava-
gant outcry, than any man on this platform or in
this room.—(flear, hear.) But the Prime Minister of
England is not a man exactly at his own disposal.
For example, we are trying to keep him in one po-
sition, or press him in another, and those who live
by military tactics are trying to persuade him to go
in another direction. I think I can give you the
secret of all this. In this country it is the custom for
men, the larger the property they have, generally the
less they leave to the majority of their children.—
(Laughter and cheers.) Now, an honest cotton
spinner or calico printer down here, if he makes
20,0001. or 30,0001. he generally divides it tolerably
equally among his children, when he leaves this'
world. I can't tell how any tnan' with natural af-
jections and common honesty, could do otherwise.—
(Cheers.) But the more property a man gets, and
especially if it is in green fields, he thinks it neces-
sary that the oldest should get it all ; and, I believe,
Col. Thompson gave a right explanation of this when
he said, "It makes one hand in the family so strong
that he can force the public to keep all the rest of the
family."—(Loud cheers.) Well, now, bear in mind
this, that among aristocratic families there is a
natural increase as there is in families of other sorts
of people.—(Laughter,) There is one child or two
children about the board at first, and by and by six,
eight, ten, or twelve, as the case may be. All these
children, for the most part, are brought up with the
idea that it would be lowering to their dignity if they
were seen offering anything for sale, or offering to
purchase anything on your Exchange. They don't
go to trade. They go to the public departments.
They are so overdone with patriotism, that nothing
will serve them but they must be continually giving
their services to the country.—(Hear, hear, and
laughter.) Well, the pasture is getting rather bare.
The middle classes are gradually throwing up more
and more of their number of active, clever, and intel-
ligent men, who become competitors for offices of
every description in the public service with the
aristocratic class. Well, the consequences are
very evident. The fact is, :as political econo-
mists, or as our friend Colonel Thompson would
say, if he was writing upon it, " The numbers are
pressing upon the means of subsistence"—(Laughter
and applause)—in fact, that they must have a wider
scope for their engines, those energies being princi-
pally employed in doing nothing, and eating taxes.—
(Renewed laughter and cheers.) But, then, bear in
mind, that during these thirty years of peace there
has been a process going on in this country which has
caused the utmost possible despondency among a large
portion of the aristocratic class. Take the last
twenty-five years, and any preceding twenty-five
years of our history, and you will find we have been
going through a revolution, a glorious revolution,
but a tranquil one, and the more glorious, infinitely,
because it has been tranquil. We have seen
changes in the law and institutions, we have seen
changes in the policy of Government, and changes
in the temper of our executive, such as, with many
nations, have cost bloody revolutions, and yet they
have not succeeded in securing them. (Hear,
hear.) Who knows what may come next ? "If
we are to have other 30 years of peace, with a Free
Trade Hall in every large town, I should like to
know what is to come next," says a member of the
titled and aristocratic class. I have no doubt some-
thing very serious for them, and they seem to be per-
fectly aware of it. There is a deadly feud between
the spirit of war, and political, and social, and indus-
trial progre-s ; and, therefore, it would serve the pur-
pose of this anti-national class, if it were possible to
get up the war-spirit in England. For let that pre •
vail—let war again overspread the earth, and there
will he no social, no industrial reforms wrung from
the Government of the United Kingdom.— (Applause.)
I know that if you look upon the page of history, the
last thirty veers do not show quite so brilliant a
picture as the thirty years preceding. So many men
have not grown up to be great generals and admirals;
we have not had so many victories by land and sea,
and the churches and cathedrals have not been—shall
I say ornamented—l will say desecrated by the ban-
ners anal trophies of war.—(Applause.) A dis-
tinguished French writer (Mons. Lamartine) has said
that blood shines more in history, it is true ; but it
taints: blood and liberty effectually exclude each other. I
;t`tolerylqi ifilVls allteank won, as you value all that is
before you, and that which you may yet attain, make
a firm, a resolute resistance to whatever comes from
the highest, from whatever quarter, that shall engen-
der a hostile feeling towards foreign countries, and
shall induce you to spend large sums in your military
armaments and preparations.—(Great cheering.)
What is this meeting called for ? Why, but that
men—a score of men here, who have been returned to
Parliament by free constituencies—should have an
opportunity of meeting this large assembly, repre-
senting the intelligent classes of this country, and of
discussing these great national questions with them.
The popular power is spreading every day. Let it be
enlightened, that this power may be a blessing to its
possessors.—(Hear, hear.) I can fancy what will be
the exclamations of the United Service, the Army
and Navy Club gentlemen, when the papers arrive in
London with an account of this meeting.—(Hear )
Oh! it is a glorious time that we are come to, when
thousands of us come here and meet together free—
for there is no greater freedom than that which we
enjoy to-night ; free fully and openly to discuss, free
to approve, and free to condemn the policy of those
who occupy the highest places in this great empire.
—(Loud cheers.) I have stood upon the sea beach
sometimes, when there was not a breath of air to
ripple the surface of the ocean, and I have seen the
tide rising, as though there were some hidden secret,
and irresistible impulse, by which wave after wave
leaped upon the beach. Let us, then, as a great and
magnanimous nation, as I honestly believe we are,—
let us have within our souls that hidden, that irresis-
tible impulse,—that love for freedom, that love for
justice, which will enable us now, and in all future
time, to move onward and onward, making triumph
after triumph, until this great nation may be what all
nations, I trust, may one day be, a community of
I happy people, to which all men will look up as an
example throughout the world.—(lmmense cheers.)
Mr. BROT II EirroN,M.P., rose amid general applause,
and said—Mr. Chairman, Ladies, and Gentlemen,—
In order to bespeak your indulgence, I promise that
I will not detain you more than five minutes. I have
the honour to propose a sentiment which I am sure
will be cordially responded to by this company; and
I will adopt the principle that I generally observe in
the House of Commons, that when I have heard my
sentiments expressed by others I generally remain
silent.—(Hear, hear.) My sentiments upon the
sub-
ject of this toast, if it may be called a toast, have
been already expressed by gentlemen who havepre-
ceded me, and particularly by the Hon. Member for
the West Riding of Yorkshire. Anything I
that I
can say cannot add any weight to the sentiment am
about to read :—" Free trade and peace : the best
guarantees of popular rights, the best promoters of
national industry, and the most effectual means
for the reduction of our national burdens." we
are at present at peace with all the world. The
question for our consideration is, how are we to re-
main- so ?—(Hear, and applause.) It is proposed
by one party as a means that we should increase our
army and our navy. It is proposed by another—the i
party on the side of peace—the: we should adopt and i
encourage a friendly intercourse with all nations, and
act upon the principle of justice and of a conciliatory
policy. A nobleman who has been alluded to this
evening, one of great influence in this country, and
from whom I had expected better things—(Hear,
hear)—" saluted " this country, I may say, through
the medium of the Times newspaper, on Christmas
morning, with these emphatic words, " Awake, arise,
or be for ever fallen !" This was not to announce
the birth of a Saviour, but the incarnation of a demon.
—(hear, and applause.) It was not to proclaim glad
tidings and peace on earth, and among men, but it
was to sound the trumpet of war and desolation.
Therefore, the question that I have to ask you this
1 evening is this,--Are you in behalf of war, and po-
verty and misery, or are you in behalf of peace and
plenty ? No doubt you are for the latter; and therefore
let us consider whether free trade is not the best
guarantee for peace. 1 would ask whether you wish
of
to see your people employed in the manufacture
food and clothing and in the building of houses,
you
in and
or whether adding to the comforts of the people;
wish to see your artisans engaged making guns
1
customers.
—s
(aHndeabr,uhlleeatrs.,)in
We
eer to shoot your best
maxim among warriors thatin ofirdnedr to that
secure peace
we should always be ready therees tke
for war. We consider
that for the last thirty years we have spent 500

millions in making preparations to secure
Tear, bear.) We have paid a very high premium
insurance, I think, in favour of peace. Again, it
is said there is no man but what will admit it is de-
:able that we should remain at peace ; that war is a
ery great evil ; but then will any man say that under
present circumstances, and in the present state of
public opinion, it is cafe to disband our army, and
to dismantle our fortications. That, as has been
put by Mr. Cobden, is not the question at this
time. The question is, whether we are prepared
to increase our army and navy. It is admitted on
all hands that war is opposed to Christianity, and
every man says, " Oh, we disapprove of war in the
abstract." I could hardly help smiling at our friend
Colonel Thompson, when he said he would not go the
full length; that he could not give up war entirely;
and at another gentleman who would give no pledge
that he would not vote against any addition. They
talked about throwing dust in the eves of John Bull;
but he thought that was a little like it. We find again
we have to deal with those who have always been in
favour of free trade in the abstract, and there are
many persons who very much disapprove of drunken-
ness in the abstract, and I don't believe there is a
thief in the New Bailey but is in favour of honesty
in the abstract—(Laughter)---but in the present state
of public opinion, and under present circumstances, I
am obliged to violate the law in order to provide for
my family.—(Laughter and applause.) And, Sir, I
very much incline to believe that among our military
gentlemen there are many who disapprove of war in
the abstract, and who are in favour of peace ; but, then,
under peculiar circumstances, it would not do to
depend upon any of these principles. Believe me,
ladies and .gentlemen, our best security is in acting
according to what we believe to be right. We have
heard a great deal about Christianity. We know
that any man who is really a believer in those prin-
ciples has a reliance and a faith that they are the best
means for attaining the end. We suppose that we
cannot brook insult. But I remember when I was
young I read an anecdote of Lord Chesterfield, which
relates that when he was walking on a footpath there
came a man who knocked him is the gutter,
saying, " I never give way to puppies." Lord
Chesterfield coolly replied, " Oh!
well, I do."
And depend upon it if you wrestle with
a sweep you are sure to be black. Now, nations
are only composed of individuals, and what is right
as regards individuals will be applicable as regards a
nation.—(Hear, hear.) And I know that love by
love is won; and if we do kindness to others we shall
be benefited ourselves; and if we only believed that
the good we do to the community was really a benefit
to us, and that the injury we do to others will ulti-
mately come upon ourselves, we should then believe
that it was our best interest as a nation to endeavour
to cultivate that general opinion that will have an
effect upon Governments ; and if we only have the
people really imbued with the spirit of peace, de-
pend upon it the Governments of the world must
conform to that opinion, and public opinion will
prove stronger than arms.—(Applause.) I will not
detain you at greater length, knowing who is to fol-
low me.
The CHATRMAN then put the toast to the meeting,
and it was enthusiastically responded to.
Mr. GEORGE THOMPSON, M.P., on rising to re-
spond to the toast, was warmly received. lie said—
Sir, if it were necessary for the last speaker to crave
the kind indulgence, for a few minutes, ;of this vast
assemblage, already detained here to I believe an un-
precedented extent, and yet with attention unwearied,
for I honestly believe that those who have departed
have unwillingly departed—how much more neces-
sary is it for me, rising at a still later period, to
solicit from you that which under any other circum-
stances I would not ask—your attention for a few
seconds.—(Applause.) I have been moved tonight to
an extent to which I believe I never was previously
moved by the proceedings of any meeting I ever at-
tended.—(Hear, hear.) If I am not greatly mis-
taken, we shall from to-night date the commence-
ment of a new era in reference to toreign politics in
this country.—(Cheers.) I never was so struck
before as to-night with the marvellous consequences
flowing from the agitation of the free-trade principle. If
'it should come to pass that the intelligence of this
country should take upon itself to inquire into the origin
and authors of wars; if it should assume to itself its
undoubted prerogative, since it is to furnish both the
treasure and the blood, to know the grounds of the
quarrel, who are to sustain it in the lists—who are to
be entered—whose hearths are to be made desolate,
and whose pockets are to be emptied; I say if this
should come to pass, then the other benefits flowing
from trade will sink in comparative insignificance be-
fore the majesty of a people, wresting a pen from the
hand of a foreign secretary, hitherto wielded to
plunge the nations into war and deluge the earth in
blood—and claim for themselves the right of settling,
by reason and the law of kindness, the quarrel hi-
therto determined by the power of the sword.
(Great applau=e.) A digher destiny and mission
seems to be re served for hitn who has led us in
t preceding struggle. God grant him life and
!lealth, and wisdom and courage, and men to sup-
port him.—(Applause.) Needl hope for that ?
tie will have this nation as one man, deduct-
mg those who live by public plunder, and seek to
inscribe their name upon the page of history with the
point of a sword dipped in the blood of their fellows.
—(Applause.) And yet, Sir, every preceding
speaker, although they have been of one mind upon
this question, has contradicted himself. They have
all been invaders to-night. I charge them with
vadine. nit: nestle . :,-,-
„.;.,.., . _v_._...,,_......j, assigneu to me,
guaranteed to me under the hand and seal of the
chairman.—(Hear and cheers.) They have violated
the treaty; they lave come without even a declaration
of war.—(Applause.) They have entered my citadel;
but I do not mean to follow one individual's advice ;
and because they hare entered in at one end of the
castle, march ingloriously out at the other. Now,
Sir, we have heard of wretched prophets. Who
knows that I may be among the number ? But I
would venture to fortel that the Free-trade Hall of
Manchester will be more than a match for Apsley
House and the Horse Guards together. One old
gentleman has taken his pen in hand to write a
letter. There is another old gentleman, whose phy-
siognomy you may see in every shop window where
periodicals are sold, that always holds his pen with a
sage looking dog by his side, and, my word for it,
Punch and Cobden will beat the Duke of Wellington
and Lord Ellesmere to boot.—(Applause.) Sir, I
heard something in London the other day, and that
may account for this outcry of an invasion. I heard
that there had been within a very short time 20,000
applications at the Horse Guards, which they had not
been able to supply with commissions. See you any-
thing in that? Can you not put that and that toge-
ther?—(Laughter.) Is it not just possible that there
may be 20,000 human beingawho require to eat, and
require to be clothed, and seek for a little pocket
money besides, for whom their parents and guardians.
desire such situations as will enable them to strutf me
brilliant scarlet, in gilded epaulettes, and live,
English
from charge to them, upon the pockets. of. the.
.E li
people ?—(Hear, and appltahuissei)
sible it may be so, but of . . tleetlhcmerktalitni,s jarugstuge4g,
not only fromsimthileartecmhpaerarctoefr,tthhiosumgheelteisnsginanndurnthberere,
tohtahterls have recently recently attended, that there is to be made
an appeal to the people of this empire, and their uni-
versal voice shall contradict every one of those lead-
ing articles to which reference has been made to-
night. Is it now that we are to war with others ;
now that we are to revive extinguished animosities ;
now that we are to adopt again the irrational phrases
and the dehumanising epithets of fifty years ago, when
France herself is setting an example which we may
do well to follow ? What were the toasts given at
those sixty reform banquets which have lately taken
place in France ? This has been given at one of
them, at all events,—" Fraternity, liberty, and equa-
lity."—(Great applause.) Let us echo from these
shores the shouts which have been raised—and, I am
sorry to say, stifled, as far as Paris is concerned, for
the banquet did not take place there ; let us send back
the echo, " Fraternity, liberty, and equality."
(Cheers.) Sir, this is a missionary town, proverbial for
the munificence of its offerings at the shrine of Christian
missions; though, unhappily,while we are putting mites
into the sanctuary of the Lord, we are putting ingots
into the altar of Moloch. But what, Sir, if some
converts that have been made to Christianity by our
various mission aries—and where have they not made
converts in all those lands referred to by my excel-
lent friend who preceded me, and in every land po. paw:
lated by the human race ? I say, what if a ship 1 d
of these converts were to come to these shores
swhenh,
the Duke of 'Wellington had accomplished his
and we—before any preparations—What,
what, if they should should see our channel filled with war-!teaifmetrhs—ey
in-
dications of war, ataldndseaesli.
and be told that, without adeclaration of war,
theirwimt firstth.es e landing
things the
meant,
ls—l a
nwdhs a t
and though
of an unfriendly
with-
out a quarrel, 'without asymptom
tcohathnenei
we had sent our miss
kind on the other s.
whichan n
overruling
1 hig came,
Providence, to tench
in
no
tputhe
con-
tinents from.
their trust in idieoonfarti ehse
omnipotence of their Maker, without whose permission
nota hair of their heads should perish—that we, prac-
tical Atheists as we should be, without one indication
of a hostile intention on the part of our neighbours,
or one upward look to that Being in whose arm is
omnipotence, were resorting to all these infernal
agencies to ward off an evil not to be perceived even
in the remotest distance !—(Applause.) But, though
the prospect is tempting, I will suppress what I might
otherwise have said.—(Cries of "Go on, go on.")
Gentlemen, the toast that I have to propose couples
peace and free trade with the cause of popular rights.
Yes, popular rights—(Hear, hear, and great ap-
plause ;)—and, on the subject of popular rights,
Ia word to the working classes. Brethren, before you
fight, know what you are going to fight for. I charge
the working classes from this platform, if there 0411