The Sun.
London, England, 1844-08-08 00:00:00

/11112 :14014'130141 TIITYRsDAy EYPINT/NG, AtTGUNT B, o44s

den, however, carried his resolution by a considerable
majority—(Cheers)--and this fact was testified by
the chairman,-a man of great influence in that part
of the country, but one in whom the Chartists placed
unlimited confidence.—(Cheers.) So much for the
the charge of packing. But while we are thus mak-
ing progress, I regret to allude to the losses which we
have experienced among our supporters since last we
met. We have lost Mr. Scholefield, the Member for
Birmingham, and Mr. Travers, the excellent chair-
man of Mr. Pattison's Committee at the last election
for London. I am sure that the loss of those two
most consistent supporters of our principles will
leave a void which it will be difficult to fill. No
men were ever more beloved in private life, or by their
virtues more secured the esteem and friendship of
all who had the pleasure of their acquaintance.—
(Cheers.) But these men possessed talents beyond
ordinary men ; for, while they conducted great com-
mercial operations, they at the same time felt the
strongest interest in the well-being of every other
class of the community, and did their duty by those
other classes—(Hear, hear)—and the best wish he
could offer to Birmingham and London was, that a
double portion of their spirit might rest upon each
one of their remaining citizens, and that when they
died their memory might be respected by as nu-
merous a body as that by which the memory of
Mr. Scholefield and Mr. Travers was now respected.
This, then, is the 24th, and last meeting of the
League, and I venture to say that the League is very
differently estimated now, compared with what it was
when we held our first meeting in Druryslane.—
Where is the man now who would charge us with
being abettors of assassination ?—(Cheers;) And
yet the Prime Minister and others scrupled not to
say as much.—(Hear.) Where is the man now
who would dare say so, or where are the organs of
public opinion who would say so; and, above all,
where are the persons to be found who would believe,
either him or them if they so charged us ?—(Hear,
hear.) It is true we were threatened with opposition
by the Society for the Protection of Agriculture.
Where is this body now ?—(Cheers.) Had they
accomplished all those things for which they were
established ? Had they increased the wages of the
labourer, or made him satisfied with Bs. a-week ?
The incendiary fires of Suffolk show that they are
not satisfied.- -(Hear, hear.) And if this Society
possess the power they profess to have, never had any
body a finer opportunity of exhibiting themselves to
advantage than those fires presented to them. But
they could not check incendiarism, there, for they
had no hold on the affections of the working classes.
.—(Hear, hear.) They knew that whatever mort-
gages and marriage settlements might be paid out of
the proceeds of the corn-laws, they themselves could
expect nothing but abject penury and went, and it
was on that account that this Society had not made
way in those districts in which it might reasonably be
expected they would have influence.—(Hear, hear.)
It will require greater strength than that of the
Protection Society to put down the League. We go
on from day to day, and from year to year, gathering
strength, sometimes from victory, and sometimes
even from defeat; and we are proceeding now steadily
to that great point which would be victory itself.—
(Hear, hear, and cheers.) This question has obtained
a greater progress than any other question ever had,
and we must ultimately be successful.—(Loud cheers.)
Mr. Gibson will address you this evening.—(Cheers.)
I regret to say that Mr. George Thompson is in
Scotland, but his place will be supplied by Mr.
Cobden—(Loud cheers)—and the proceedings will
be closed by Mr. Fox.—(Cheers.)
Mr. T. M. Ginsosl, M.P., then came forward, and
was received with loud cheers. He said it had been
his good fortune to have been present at many
meetings of the Anti-Corn-law League, but never
had he witnessed a more splendid assemblage than
was gathered within these walls this evening, and lie
said it was justly to be deemed matter for congratu-.
lation that their farewell meeting for the season had
received such a signal mark of public approbation.
It was impossible to conceive that a cause was retro-
grading—that a question could be less grounded in
the public mind, when they saw such a vast assem-
blage as that which was now gathered within that
theatre. There were many who would lead them to
suppose that, because public meetings were not so
frequent, and because there had not appeared so
many speeches of late in the provincial and metropo-
litan papers, that therefore the cause of free trade
was not occupyieg that place in the public mind
which it once did. There never was a greater mis-
take than that. It frequently happened that that
work was the most telling which was the most quiet,
anti from the description which they had just heard of
the proceedings now being carried on by the Council
of the League, it struck him that they were taking
that course which must ultimately lead to victory.—
(Hear, hear.) He was not one of those who felt very
confident in their present electoral institutions.—
(Hear' hear.) He was aware that they could not
hope for those full and generous effects which they
might have from a more liberal representation of the
people ; but this he did believe, that the great body
of the electoral class in the country were intelligent,
and that when they were once awakened to the merits
of any question, they would use the power they had
of returning a majority to the House of Commons
opposed to monopoly; and he trusted in God they would.
at the next general election, throw aside all partial
interests, and seek to promote the happiness, virtue,
and moral and physical welfare of the people, and
return a majority to the House of Commons, not to
support any particular set of partisans—(Hear, hear)
—any particular set of men, whether ins or outs,
who might be looking for the sweets of office—but
to support the great principle of free trade, and that
principle alone.—(Cheers.) Their excellent Chair-
man had alluded to the efforts of the Anti-Corn-law
League, and he intimated the want of success on the
part of the Protection Society, and that august body
the Central Society for the Protection of British
Agriculture.--(Laughter.) Now, it did happen that
there were some salient points which might be
quoted in proof of the little success of those bodies.
It might be shown to demonstration that their
progress had been bactwards, if there was any truth
in vulgar arithmetic, for in 1839, when not half the
effort was made by the Protection Society to get
petitions sent to Parliament that had been
made last year, the number of signatures ob-
tained was 318,000. What was the number
of signatures obtained during the present year P Why,
after all the great assemblages of distinguished and
titled monopolists, only 287,000 signatures had been
ebtained ; 4,000 petitions, with an average number
of seventy-four signatures to each petition, was all'
they could get.—(Cheers.) The number of petitions
showed that there was no want of zeal on the part of
the Protection Society, but the number of signatures
showed that there was a deficiency of zeal on the part
of the agriculturists themselves, for it was from the
agricultural districts that the petitions principally
came. It might be said that the Anti-Corn-law
League had not petitioned. That was true, they had
not petitioned for this very good reason, because they
found it was a useless and vain attempt.—(Hear,
hear.) It was thought that the efforts of the gentle-
men connected with the League might be better di-
rected. It was, therefore, given up, but when the
free-trade party had petitioned the Legislature what
was the result ? They began to petition in the
year 1839, and they sent in petitions with
500,000 signatures. They left off petitioning last
year, with 1,700,000 signatures.—(Loud cheers.)
This showed a constant increase of signatures on
their part, whilst the petitions of the Central Society
for the Protection of British Agriculture—(Laughter)
—showed a constant diminution of signatures. Let
them get rope enough ! He would say no more.
But he thought that any impartial man who looked
around him and asked himself what were the wants

of society—what were the cravings
which mani-
fested themselves, not only throughout the British
dominions, but throughout the greater part of Europe,
would find that they were intimately connected with
physical want.—(Hear.) He would find that not one
of the great wants of society could be met•till they
had first ameliorated the physical condition of the
great body of the people.—(Hear.) They heard of
desires to educate the people ; of complaints of their
ignorance; of their want of moral training in early
youth, but what was the use of attempting to educate
and sow the seeds of virtue among a people cast down
by deep distress, living in a state of hopeless penury; a
people in such a state were not in a condition
to receive either the admonitions of the preacher, or
the teaching of the moralist.—(Hear, hear.) Depend
upon it, if they wished virtue, knowledge, and reli-
gion should take root amongst the labouring popula-
tion, they must ameliorate their physical condition.
They must first endeavour to raise the agricultural
labourer from the hopeless condition in which he now
seemed to be placed. They would look in vain for a
diminution of crime unless that condition were bet-

tered. The labouring population could not look up
to those who held a higher position in society with
any feeling of affection, seeing they appeared to be
cast by or thrown aside as useless beings, and not
treated as well as the brute creatures fed on the farms

of the aristocracy. When they read in the papers of
fine shows of agricultural produce at Southampton,
and other places ; when they read of the glitter
and pageantry at those meetings ; and when they
heard of oxen too fat to walk or to be eaten ; they
must not suppose that this was emblematical of the
condition of the poor labourer in the poor districts
from which these fat animals had been brought.
They must turn their thoughts from the fat beasts
to the lean and neglected peasants.—(Loud cheers.)
They must carry their minds from all the glittering
pageantry to the incendiary fires and threatening
letters, and to all those symptoms of deep and sullen
discontent which now prevailed in the great body of
the agricultural population. He ventured, a few
days since, to mention these things in the House of
Commons, and he quoted the high authority of a
clergyman of the Church of England in support of
his position that the agricultural labourer was neglected,

and that he was suffering deep distress; but when he
quoted the authority of a clergyman it had the effect,
notwithstanding that he was a gentleman of the
highest character, of known fidelity in the discharge
of his sacred functions, of calling up the Secretary
for the Home Department—(Groans)—who said that
this gentleman was a " popularity-hunting parson"—
(Groans)—so that when a clergyman came forward
from his class and spoke with candour of the wants
of 'the -labouring population, if he ventared
to expound that text of Scripture, that the labourer
was worthy of his hire, he was told that he was a po-
pularity-hunting parson. He (Mr. Gibson) had
sometimes thought it was never intended that they
should be in earnest in those matters, that they
should not keep up more than a mere show, and be
used merely as instruments of the great, and it con-
vinced him very much that there was some truth in
his conjecture, when he was told that a clergyman
who came forward in the purest spirit of the religion
he professed, to complain of the wants of the labourers
who surrounded him—when he was told that such a
man was-called in the British Senate, by the Home
Secretary of State—that he was a "popularity-hunting
parson." The Rev. Godolphin Osborne was the clergy-
man he alluded to.—(Loud cheers.) He wished most
heartily • that there were more of these popularity
hunting parsons.—(Loud cheers.) He wished their
Bishops would even condescend to imitate them.—
(Laughter and cheers.) He remembered that a cele-
brated writer had said that he thought a very good
society might be established, and that it was very
much wanted, for the purpose of converting the Bi-
shops to Christianity. (Laughter and cheers.)
He was quite sure it was consistent with the spirit of
the Christian religion—that it was, in fact, in direct
accordance with the Gospel, to advocate the cause of
free trade ; and he verily believed that that general
intercourse between nations, which was what was
meant by free trade, would be the means of spreading
religion am4,civilisation throughout all the nations of
the earth ; and he did not believe that any missionary
efforts, however well intended, or that any attempts,
however well supported, could be completely ,suc-
cessful, while Governments kept nations separate from
each other by those barriers in the shape of hostile
tariffs, and breathing towards each other feelings of
jealousy and not of love—of those mutual interests,
which would be so much promoted if free trade were
adopted ; but feelings of animosity, which were easily
' fanned into a flame, and sometimes ended in open
hostilities.—(Hear, hear.) He had heard of
late amongst the landed party a great
deal of jealousy of what was called the na-
tional honour.—(Laughter.) It was extraordinary
what extreme sensitiveness grew up amongst the gen-
tlemen who dealt in provisions—(Laughter)—as to
the importance of maintaining the national honour.
They seemed to be in training to get themselves into
a fighting condition.—(Laughter.) What did all
this mean ? Why, it meant this—" 'War was rent."
—(Cheers.) He did not know whether the idea went
home to their minds.—(Hear, hear.) It did to his.
A high price of corn was the consequence of this
country being engaged in hostilities with a foreign
nation. A great deal of patronage would fall into the
hands of Ministers, and those landed gentlemen, the
victuallers—(Laughter)—would have a large slice of
it. However much the community might be im-
eoverished by taxation, hOwever great the woe might
be to the nation at large, depend upon it, in case of
hostility with a foreign country, the landed proprie-
tors would be the parties, if any body, who would
profit by it. They also said they would get rid of
the surplus population. He believed in his conscience
there was a large party, represented by that well-known
periodical, the Morning Post, who would give anything
to create hostilities between this country and France,
in order that the price of corn might rise. What
signified it to those gentlemen ? they did not fight !
They sent others out to battle, but they got a high
rice for corn ; and when the war was over, they
would endeavour, as they did before, to maintain that
high price by a new corn-law, and they would have the
old thing over again.—(Hear, hear.) Another thing
;which led them to be so jealous of the national honour
was, that it would direct public attention from certain
popular movements, which made them very uneasy.
They thought that a good war would be a very good
diversion, And he had been told within a few days by
distinguished individual, whose name he could not
mention at a public meeting, as he had not authority
to do so, that notwithstanding all that was said about
the miseries of war—notwithstanding all that mo-
ralists and philosophers wrote of the evils of na-
tions being engaged in hostilities, he verily believed
a good war was what the country wanted to relieve
them from their difficulties.—(Laughter.) That was
in old doctrine, but he believed they would have the
utmost difficulty in getting the country to engage in
hostilities; for he believed there was that good sense
in the country which would prevent them from
engaging in so foolish a thing.—(Hear, hear.)
It would take a great deal to convince the great
'iody of the people of this country that it was worth
their while to submit to excessive taxation, and to all
the evils which war brought about, for the sake of
playing the game of courts, and of enabling an al-
ready wealthy aristocracy to fatten still more on the
woes of the community.—(Cheers.) The Morning
Post had discovered, in order to prepare them, he
iupposed, for hostilities, that they could do without
trade and commerce. Now, who would believe that,
in the nineteenth century, a metropolitan paper, of
,ome circulation, should have a leading article in it to
tell them that England would be in a better condi-
tion if her manufacturing system were altogether
abolished ?—(Hear, hear.) There was one hand of
commerce indeed that the monopolists did hold out to
(hem—it was the trade in guano.—(Laughter.) They
.aid, "We are to have an enormous importation of
guano, which is to be spread over our acres, and is
to grow food for our increasing population." •We
have actually seen a calculation within the last few
lays, of how many ships and sailors would be em-
ployed in order to bring this guano to their shores.
ft had struck his excellent friend, Mr.. Cobden, that
:he ships and the money might be quite as well oc-
mpied, if they brought the wheat itselfr instead of
the guano to grow it.—(Renewed laughter.) But
hen there was to be another step taken in order to
-mike this guano available. They said that the
guano- ,eciaktained elements which people were not
aware of.—(Laughter.) They said that chemists
were at a loss to ascertain what were the elements
that composed this guano, and that it was necessary
to know what those elements were, in order to apply
it successfully to different kinds of land ; because
what might suit one species of land, would not suit
mother—what might be beneficial to the heavy clay,
might be prejudicial to the burning sand, so that the
chemists had got first to analyse this guano. But
the thing was not then half finished. The most
difficult part of the operation remained to be per-
formed; for when the chemists had satisfied them-
selves, they had got to teach the farmers ; the worthy
agriculturists had to go to school, to inform themselves
in the mysteries of organic chemistry.—(Laughter.)
They must know something of these elements. It
appeared to him that when gentlemen talked of vision-
ary theories they should look at home, and ask them-
,elves whether this rising trade which they were pro-
mised in the importation of guano from the coast of
Africa was likely to be so beneficial a thing to the
population of this country as they had represented ?
—(Hear, hear.) Let them try Mr. Cobden's experi-
ment, and bring in the wheat itself.--(Cheers.) Let
the ships and the men be employed in bringing the
produce of ePery foreign clime to the shores of Eng-
land, that the population of this country might enjoy,
the greatest possible amount of the comforts and ne-
cessaries of life, which their own industry would en-
able them to purchase.—(Great cheering.) That was
the true policy. Away with guano ; away with
chemistry. Let industry take its own course. Let
them not attempt to direct capital into the particular
channels in which interested men chose to think it
would be best for them that it should flow; but
let them leave each and all to enjoy, through their
own industry, that full reward which Providence had
placed within their reach.—(Cheers.) The Morning
Post contained a passage which he would read to
them, lest it should have escaped their notice.—(Hear.)
The Editor quoted Dr. Southey, and in voting him
adopted his opinion. " Dr. Southey,' he said,
" always had the sense to see, and the courage to
declare that' our manufacturing system was a mon-
strous evil for the people, and he always wished that
foreign countries might, from some cause or another,
cease to buy manufactures from Great Britain."—
(Laughter.) Why, if foreign countries ceased to buy
manufactures from Great Britain, he should be very
glad to know how Great Britain could purchase all
the comforts and all the luxuries which the people of
this country now enjoyed.—(Hear.) He would like
to know where the Morning Post professed to find the
gold and the silver about which so much apprehen-
sion had been expressed of late, lest it should go out
of the country to pay for corn. Would they
find this gold and silver in the cellars
or in the safe boxes of the Central Society
for the Protection of British Agriculture ?—(Hear.)
Where did it come from ? Why, it came from the
mines of the Brazils—it came from distant regions.
And why did it come? Because it was purchased
by their manufactures, not by their wheat or their
barley, or their turnips. No ; the assistance even of
guano itself would not enable them to purchase it.—
(Laughter.) It was the manufacturing system which
had enabled the population of this country to be even
as well off as they were.—(Hear, hear.) Look to
countries which were purely agricultural. Look to
Poland. Ay, look to Ireland. What a wretched
population, so far as the enjoyment of the comforts of
life was concerned, they found in Ireland—a popula-
tion capable,- as they knew, of everything of which
man was capable—(Hear, hear)—a population infe-
rior to none-7-(Hear, hear)—and whose great leader,
or endeavouring to obtain redress for some of the op-
pressive grievances under which they had for cen-
turies laboured, was now suffering imprisonment.—
(Hear, hear.) Let them look at that country, and

ask themselves, whether agriculture alone could
bring about a happy and prosperous condition
for the great body of the population.—(Hear, hear.)
It was unnecessary for him to dwell in that intelli-
gent assembly on such an absurdity.—(Hear, hear.)
Time was when every little Baron was a sort of
bandit in the county in which he lived, when there
was no law to protect the weak from the aggressions
of the strong, when commerce had not civilised
society, and knit them together by the ties of a com-
mon interest. Then was the time of a purely agri-
cultural system. It was too late in these days to
bring back what would soon be forgotten, or will, at
least, have passed away with the relics oifeudal bar-
barism. The corn-law was the last of those relics—
no, not the last, but it involved the abolition of all the
rest; it was the keystone which, once removed, the
arch of monopoly, restriction, privilege, and unfair
legislation, must inevitably fall.—(Cheers.) They
professed in the House of Commons to take great
interest in the cause of the agricultural la-
bourers. They told them that they had been
amending the new poor-law. The amendment
might or might not be beneficial, but the great point
at which the Anti-Corn-law Association and free-
traders in general aimed was to prevent men from
becoming paupers.—(Cheers.) It was good to be
charitabl, but it was better to be just. They wished
justice to be the pervading principle of the laws, and
they believed that if men had the opportunity of
supporting themselves, they would not see such an
amount of pauperism as now alarmed every
thinking man who took up any of the reports of the
Poor-law Commissioners, and calmly meditated on
their contents. Let them look at the condition of the
poor, notwithstanding all the attempts to improve it.
It was strange sort of policy, to say the least, to
make the pauper better off than the independent
labourer, and, indeed, such was the condition of the
independent labourer that they could not, without
absolutely starving the pauper, bring him into a worse
condition. What was the scale of living in this
country among the working population or among a
number of different classes who did not enjoy
any good living? First in the list stood the trans-
ported thief; se_cond, the convicted thief; third, the
suspected thief; fourth, -the soldier; fifth, the able-
bodied pauper; and, last of all, came the independent,
protected labourer.—(Hear, hear.) That was the
present state of things in this country—the present
scale of food.—(Hear, hear.) The transported thief
had a greater number of ounces of substantial food
than the convicted one ; the convicted thief had more
than the suspected; the suspected thief had more than
the soldier ; the soldier had more than the able-bodied
pauper; and the able-bodied pauper had a great deal
more than the poor, protected, independent labourer:—
(Hear, hear.) He believed that the calculation was
that the transported felon had 330 ounces per week
of substantial food, and that the average of
independent labourers did not get more than 122.
He could not accurately carry the figures in his
mind, but he was not far out in his calculation. Was
it to be wondered at that when the labouring classes
were informed of this fact they should begin to
suspect that there was not much sympathyion the
part of the more powerful classes of the community
with their condition ? What must be the reflection
of a hard-working man when he saw that with all his
toil and with all his willingness to earn a livelihood,
he could not placethhnself in as good a position as a
felon who was -sent out of the country, perhaps for
the worst of crimes ?—(Hear, hear.) Such was the
plain fact—it defied contradiction. They were told,
as he had already mentioned, that a great deal was
being done for the poor, but how did their opponents
meet this staggering fact ? When the subject of the
poor was before the House of Commons, he was told
that he had been enjoying himself in the country
whilst others were working hard to benefit the labour-
ing men, by amending the New Poor-law. There
could he no doubt that Ministers had a great deal of
hard work, especially when they reflected that their
mornings were occupied in inspecting the correspon-
dence at the Post-office.—(Cheers and laughter.)
When his Hon. Friend the Member for Stockport
told the Ministers of his successes in the country, he
dared to say it was no news to them. They had read
it all in the morning.—(Cheers and laughter.) When
a messenger repaired to the Foreign-office to commu-
nicate some important intelligence to Lord Aberdeen,
it was no news to him—he had read the eontents of
the letter in the morning.— (Renewed laughter.) If
this, indeed, was the occupation of Ministers—if this
were the occupation in which the people of England
desired that Ministers should be employed—(Loud
cries of "No, no,")—all he could say was, that they
had a great deal to do and some excuse to offer for
doing so little for the poorer classes in the Legislature.
He must say he had observed since he had had the
honour of being in Parliament, that a complete apathy
was exhibited whenever the subject of the distress of
the labouring classes was brought under its conside-
ration.—(Hear, hear.) Gentlemen had been so long
in the habit of dinning it into the ears of the country
that the corn-laws were maintained exclusively for
the benefit of the agricultural labourer, that
they did not know where they were when
the alarming statement was made that, notwith-
standing the protection given to the agricultural la-
bourer, he was in as bad a condition as any human
being could be to exist at all. It might be supposed
that he was exaggerating : he did not say that such a
description would apply to every part of the United
Kingdom, but in Wiltshire and many other counties
he believed the wages were absolutely insufficient,
whatever might be his industry and diligence, to
ene'Jle the labourer to bring up his family and
keep him from the necessity of applying for parochial
relief. It appeared to him that they had now arrived
at a position in that question in which it was very
important that they should direct their attention
exclusively to the agriculturists.—(Hear, hear.)
They of all parties appeared to him to be the most
interested in the total abolition of the corn-laws.—
(Hear, hear.) Until the corn-laws were entirely
giving
theo uledm
swept away, the farmer could never carry on his
otherwise business upon a safe and stable footing, and at the
present moment undoubtedly the uncertainty which
prevailed was one reason why the farmer was neces-
pdloo.ymseontlotnogthaes
w
Isaahrioluyreprrevented from
which
he
the corn-laws existed, so long would there be anti-
corn-law agitation—(Cheers)—so long would there
be uncertainty; and therefore he maintained that the
shortest road,with reference to those interests of which
they heard so much, to a safe and permanent settle-
ment of the question, was by the total, immediate, and
unconditional abrogation of the corn-laws.—(Hear.)
He believed that it would be the least dangerous
of any steps that could be taken. Anything short of
that would still leave some something to be agitated.
There would still reman uncertainty, and agriculture
would not rest upon that safe foundation which could
alone be sound by letting prices depend on the natural
operation of supply and demand. If they looked at
the moral effect of sweeping away this great injustice,
it was impossible to contemplate it without gratifica-
tion ; when they reflected that it would do away with
one of the most prolific sources of discontent that now

existed in this country; that it would bring the agri-
culturist, and the manufacturer, and the commercial
man together; that so long as this grievous interfer-
ence with the rights of industry existed, these classes
must be separated by an almost impassable barrier ;
but that when this barrier was swept away all classes
of the community would be knit together, and made
to feel that the laws were based in justice, and that
all this would tend to spread throughout the world
the blessings of civilisation, and to place them on a
good foundation.—(Loud cheers.)
Mr. ConnEN, ALP., then came forward, and was
received with loud cheers. He spoke as follows :
Ladies and Gentlemen, You have heard a great deal
of allusion to-night to an organ of the press, which
always excites considerable merriment when its
name is mentioned here. But I was reading
this morning a leading article in another paper
the Morning Herald—(Hisses and laughter)—where
I see it announced in distinct and leaded type, for the
fourteenth time during the last six months, that the
League is positively defunct.—(Laughter.) I wish
Grandmama was here this evening. Now there is
such a thing as a paper being defunct. I have known
many instances since we began this agitation in
which papers that had announced our death have them-
selves expired shortly afterwards. There was one
paper in Manchester which announced to its readers
on one Saturday that the League was extinguished,
when, on the following Saturday, that paper itself
gave up the ghost.—(Laughter.) Now, I have
heard that lately Grandmama changed hands—at
all events, I believe the Herald has been
united to the Standard, perhaps on the principle
which has been adopted on the coast of Africa, where
they collect a very heavy description of wood,. which
will not float, and they get over the difficulty by
tying a log of this heavy wood to a log of lighter
timber, in order that both may swim together.—
(Laughter.) If the light pinions of the Standard can
keep Grandmama above water, its vitality will be
greater than ever I have given it credit for. No, the
League is not defunct.—(Loud cheers.) The League
is living—
(Renewed cheering)—and it will live—
(Continued cheering)—just for that length of time
during which it is necessary that such a body should
live, in order to accomplish the mighty object for
which it was originally formed.—(Loud cheering.)
It was not in the nature of things that an association
which was intended to obtain a repeal of the corn-laws
—to bring down the greatest monopoly which was ever
maintained by a powerful aristocracy, whose power
alone could ever have given it the effrontery neces-
sary to maintain such a system—it was not in the
nature of things that such an association should ac-
complish so vast an object without the lapse of a con-
siderable period of time.—(Cheers.) We have to
teach not merely a whole people—we have to teach
two generations—those who are passing away and
those who are rising up, in order to enable both pro-
perly to understand the question. Nay, more! we
had to secure the experience of all classes on our side,

and experience can only be gained by time. What is
experience to one class of the community is not so to
another; while some are already convinced it may
require another cycle of years to prove ro all
classes of the community that the corn-law is an
evil which presses down the energies of the nation.
We began our organisation five or six years ago in
the midst of unparalleled manufacturing distress.
That distress was said to arise from a sudden scarcity
of food ; creating an artificial famine. I would ask,
whether the price of wheat, rising forty-five or fifty
;er cent in some instances, was not sufficient to de-
range the whole commerce of the country ? We were
told of joint-stock banks, of speculation—of a market
being closed to us somewhere in Central Asia, and
all sorts of things ; but it was denied that a scarcity
of corn had anything to do with the manufacturing
distress. Well, we came round again to a time when
Providence in His bounty gave a plentiful supply of
corn. We came to that period when there was a
comparatively natural price of corn—not probably,
entirely natural, but nearly natural, and the conse-
quence was a continued, rapid, and steady rise in the
prosperity of the manufacturing districts. And you
have seen that just in proportion as the price of pro-
visions, and the cost of the first necessaries of life
diminished in the country, so did the condition of every
man in the manufacturing, mercantile, and commercial
community tend to rise into comparative prosperity. We
are now coming to a time when, unless the elements do
now at a most critical moment greatly disappoint us.
We are now coming to a time, and within six months,
when we shall have an opportunity of appealing to
the farmer whether the last three years of his ex-
perience of the corn-laws have not been sufficient to
satisfy him that protection to agriculture, as it is
called, has been any protection to him. I say, unless
the elements do not greatly disappoint us, we have on
the earth's surface—we have in these islands, such an
abundant crop of wheat, which, if all gathered, will,
in my firm conviction, in six months, bring down the
price of wheat lower than it would be if we had
a perfectly free trade in corn. How will the
farmer be situated ? There will be a rebound—a re-
action from famine and distress—amongst the manu-
facturers—a re-action—a retribution brought home
to the farmer himself—and how will he like that
position? Will the landlord tell him to wait for a
year or two when he would have prices up again ?
Why, what will the farmer say ? We had prices up
before, and you put up oar rents, and we had those
rents to pay when prices were low ; but the very fact
of our having high prices and scarcity for three years
has caused distress and ruin to our customers ; and
when we are now blessed with plenty, our customers
are without the means of consuming our produce.
And if the farmers have that intelligence, which I
would fain give them credit for, they would
say to the landlord, The remedy you pro-
pose for our distress—another scarcity—another
artificial famine—will only prepare the way for
future distress, by again ruining the customers on
whom we depend, when we are again blessed with a
plentiful harvest. Now, Ladies and Gentlemen, a
great deal has been said about the condition of the
agricultural labourer at the present moment. He is
said to be badly off. The monopolists speak of it as
though it was something new for the agricultural
labourer to be badly off. ,I am prepared to maintain
that when we in the manufacturing districts were
badly off—during the three years of high prices and
continued scarcity—the agricultural labourer was
then as badly off as the manufacturing labourer was ;
but owing to a sudden climax of distress occurring in
the north of England, a cry was raised in that densely
populated district, which stifled the cry that would
have sprung from the agricultural districts, if no such
agitation had occurred in the north. I mention this,
mind you, with an eye to official documents. The
proof is to be found in the poor-rates. The poor-rates
increased in the agricultural counties more in propor-
tion in the dear year than they did in Lancashire, or
the West Riding of Yorkshire themselves. The
agricultural labourer never benefited by a scarcity of
food. The farmer may, perhaps, when there is a
scarcity, by selling his corn for a higher price, be
benefited for a year or two, but the agricultural
labourer never can. No work;ng population, in any
country, can ever by possibility be benefited by giving
to that country an artificial scarcity of the first neces-
sary of life. Now we are taking our leave of
3,70 u to-night, and turning our back upon this scene.
We shall drop the curtain for at least six months. It
may be well before we leave, for us to anticipate a
little as to what we may expect will be going on
during the next six months in the two sections of the
community, the agricultural and the manufacturing.
Now, in the manufacturing districts, if provisions re-
main at the moderate price which they were even last
year, but especially if the present harvest should be
favourably gathered in, then the prices must come
down, and in that case you will hear of great activity
in all the branches of our manufactures. You will
hear of great activity in the iron districts and amongst
the manufactures of cotton, in woollen, and linen—
and you will hear of great activity in the shipping
ports, and amongst the home traders generally. You
will hear of strikes for advance of wages, when only
three years ago thousands and tens of thousands of la-
bourers were asking for work on the roads, and ob-
tained subsistence only from the parishes. We have
already had two strikes in Lancashire; both of which
have been successful.---(Loud cheers.) The spinners
in two places have struck for an advance of wages, and
they got it. (This sentence was received with a loud
and lengthened burst of cheering, intermingled with
cries of "Bravo, bravo.") I say "bravo" too.—
(Cheering.) I have always given this advice to the
operatives of the north—" Never strike when provisions
are up—when wheat is 70s. the quarter—because, if
you do, you will not succeed. Wait until wheat
comes down to 455. or 505., and you will never fail."—
(Hear.) You will hear what we have lately heard
of workmen being brought before the magistrate for
suddenly leaving their employment, and those men
saying—" Well, I'll Pay the fine if I can get better
work elsewhere." Xou will hear less of pauperism,
less of crime, and less of disease and mortality in the
manufacturing districts. You will find "Mechanics'
Institutions " thriving and increasing in number.
Lyceums will be established, and book clubs will he
extensively formed. I see that in Lancashire in one
town upwards of 100 fresh members have been added
to the Mechanics' Institution in one week.—(Loud
cheers.) To-morrow there will be a public meeting
in Manchester, with the Mayor in the chair, to devise
the means of raising a public subscription to lay out
a park and pleasure-grounds for Manchester.--
(Hear.) You will find the energy and activity
of the masters and the middle-classes of
Manchester exerted for the extension of education.
You will find similar institutions to the Athenaeum
established, together with 'others for promoting reli-
gious and scientific pursuits—you will find the manu-
facturers giving to moral objects that energy and
exertion which, during the last three years, have been
obliged exclusively to be; devoted to the miserable
question of getting bread enough for the people.
That is what is to be seen,now in the manufacturing
districts, and do not let our enemies say that " these
Leaguers have been false prophets." We told them
four years ago that high prices of provisions, or
rather unnatural prices—for we care not about high
prices, if they are natural prices—that unnatural
prices of food caused our distress; and we told them
that a more natural supply of food would cure the
evil. Already they find that we have been true pro-
phets. Now what is going on in the agricultural
districts ? Some of the farmers are selling wheat in
the country markets at from 40s. to 455. a quarter.
Ere long we shall hear of the farmers rising up in all
parts of the country and proclaiming their unparal-
leled distress. Why are they distressed? Because
they have been bargaining to pay rents, calculating
wheat at 645. per quarter, and selling it at 40s. to
455. They trusted to a law which can for a time
cause a scarcity price of corn ; but it is not in
the nature of things that it can permanently main-
tain it. What will the landlords say to them ? Now
that is a thing I should not like to turn prophet upon.
—(Cheers.) I should not like t' venture to predict
what the Central Agricultural Society, for the Protec-
tion of Agriculture will say in November or Decem-
ber next, when its members are scattered over the
country, and have to face the farmers to explain what
they have been doing in Parliament. Will they
throw it all on Sir Robert Peel, think you ? Will
they propose to set up Stanley in his place ? They
must find some new "dodge."—(Laughter.) My
dependence is upon the intelligence of the
farmers, who have had their wits ground on the stone
of adversity, and I believe that they all begin to doubt
the efficacy of this so-called protection. They will
see that this protection is only to give the farmer
higher prices for his corn, in order that he may pay
higher rents. The farmer is now selling his corn at
a price lower probably than it would be if there was
a free trade in corn. What excuse will the political
landlords use to these farmers ? They have admitted
that they cannot by Act of Parliament secure high
prices, and I take credit to myself for having extracted
that confession from them.—(Cheers.) They have
declared that they cannot secure a price for corn to
the farmers, and the farmers should turn round and
say—" We cannot secure you your rent."—(Loud
cheers.) The landlords most likely will say to the far-
mers, " Oh, rent forms so small a proportion in your
outgoings, that if you had land rent-free you could
not compete with the foreigner. What do you think
they have lately had the assurance to tell the farmer ?
Why, the Morning Post says that the British farmer
only pays six shillings a quarter for rent on each
quarter of wheat sold, because for every acre, which
grows about three quarters and a half or twenty-six
bushels, he pays but one pound. Now, this was as-
suming that the farmer grew wheat and sold it all the
year round. .1 am sorry to say—and as a farmer's
son I am ashamed to say it—that nine-tenths of the
farmers believe this statement of the Morning Post,
and they believe anything the landlords tell them.
But I tell the farmer, and a good many of them are
rather inquisitive as to what we say here—l tell the

farmer that for every quarter of wheat that he
takes to the market, he pays twenty shilliiif'fs• at
the very least to the landlord for rent. Now,
you mast know, that in a good s3A-ern
husLand7 only one acre out of four, sometimes 0i.13
one acre out of five, is devoted to the growth of wheat
for ten consecutive years, yet the farmer still con-
tinues to pay rent, whether the land be sown with
turnips, lies fallow, or is merely green sward. The
farmer seems not to have discovered this trick. It
has been proved to demonstration that if the farmer
paid no rent at all he could sell his wheat at 275. the
quarter, get as good a profit on his capital, pay his
labourers, and feed every horse about his farm just as
well as he does now, and yet the landlord continues
to bamboozle him in this way. There is one little
incident which I think is likely to bring the farmers
to a favourable consideration of this question. We
have lately had a free trade in wool, and whilst wheat
is tumbling down, wool is improving in price. Now
the manufacturers do not complain of the high price
of wool. They do not complain in Leeds, where so
much cloth is made; and in Bradford and Huddersfield
they are all getting quite saucy with good trade.
They do not complain of the high price of wool, so
that it be a natural price, and, in that case, they care
not whether it be sd. or ls. 3d. a pound. Now, Ido
hope that this wool question may be the the means of
opening the eyes of some of the farmers. I perceive
that some of the county Members have become some-
what enlightened lately. I have got a newspaper—a
Hertford newspaper—which gives an account of a
meeting held at Hemel Hempstead, at the wool fair,
which was attended by Mr. Dudley Ryder, whom I
never heard in the House of Commons, but who is, I
am told, exceedingly valuable when abusing the
League. But do not let us abuse him, for Ido not
despair of seeing him become a capital free-trader.
Mr. Dudley Ryder, and his friend Lord Grimston,
attended the wool fair last year, and it so
happened that, on the day the wool fair
was held, a motion came on in the House of Com-
mons, made by Mr. Wood, the Member for Halifax,
for the abolition of the duty on foreign wool. Mr.
Dudley Ryder, on addressing his friends and consti-
tuents at Hemel Hempstead, said "This very even-
ing, there is a motion brought forward in the House of
Commons, a proposition for lowering the duty on
wool. Lord Grimston and myself intend to go back
to town by the six o'clock train, in order to oppose that
motion ; for I do not think that with 45,0001b5. of
wool in Hemel Hempstead, we want much more from
abroad."—(Loud cheers and laughter.) Well, back
went these two distinguished senators by the six
o'clock train, and they arrived in time in the House
of Commons not to hear arguments, for that they
did not want, but they arrived in time to vote against
Mr. Wood's motion for taking off the duty on wool.
That was last year, 1843. A few weeks ago, there
was another fair at Hemel Hempstead, and attended
by the farmers there, and these two Hon.
Members. attended, I , suppose • but in the
meantime the Government had brought for-
ward a motion for the abolition, totally and imme-
diately, of the duty on foreign wool, and these two
consistent senators had supported the Government in
that measure.--(Laughter.) Mr. Dudley Ryder, it
appeared, had primed himself for a speech. His
health was proposed, and in replying, the Honourable
Gentleman said—" That the question to which their
attention was specially called on that occasion referred
to wool. At this moment it was rather an important
question ; because, it was known that the Government
had introduced a measure for the purpose of doing
away with the duty on foreign wool." He then told
them that foreign wool obtained higher prices than
our own. I think he must have fortunately stumbled
on one of the articles of Mr. Wilson, the economist.
For he goes on to state that he " had arrived- at the
conclusion that it was to our interest to obtain our
wools from abroad at the lowest price. It appeared
that in Hertfordshire the produce was almost exclu-
sively, if not entirely, short stapled wool.—(Cries
from the meeting of No, no.') He went on to
say that he did not believe they produced much of
either kind." Mr. Dudley Ryder, however, did not
seem pleased with the interruption, and he went on
in a rather abrupt and brusque manner, saying—" I
took the liberty of stating a fact, for, after all, this
question must be decided by facts alone, theories
might be very fine, but in dealing with a question
of this kind, experience, and not theories, must de-
cide. He said that it was an incontrovertible fact
that in proportion as they admitted foreign wool at a
low rate of duty the native wool rose in price ; and he
did not think that that happy union between native
and foreign wool-growers ought to he dissolved by a
Doctors-Commons fiat, or that the mutual engage-
ments should be destroyed." Now I call that a
rather odd sort of wool-gathering in the course of a
year. One little fact is rather striking, that Mr.
Dudley Ryder, who was sent up in 1841 to protect
the agriculture of Hertfordshire, should not know
whether long wool or short wool was grown in that
country.—(Cheers.) It goes far to confirm my
opinion, formed when quietly stock-taking on the
benches of the House of Commons, that the county
Members in the House of Commons—there are a few
splendid exceptions, such as Mr. Pusey, for instance.
—who are sent up to protect agriculture, are about as
ignorant of the political state of the country as any man
in it. This Mr. Ryder seems to be a choice specimen of
that class, though he was not equal to one I have
heard of in a county in the north of England in the
course of my tour. A young gentleman was brought
down fresh from Oxford to be a candidate; he rode
with a farmer round his farm, who showed him
spacious fields of turnips, of twenty or twenty-five
acres in extent, in the Scotch fashion. The young
gentleman was surprised, and said, " I knew that
turnips were eaten with boiled mutton, but I had no
idea that people consumed so many of them."—
(Great laughter.) But I have no doubt that very
great progress in. the right direction will be made in
the course of the next six months, in the agricultural
districts, upon one question. And we must afford to
wait, whether we like it or not; we cannot pro-
gress faster than the nature of things permits us.
But I am sorry to say that the false doctrines pro-
mulgated by some of the monopolist organs appear
to have had some very serious and dangerous ten-
dencies in the agricultural districts. I have read a
striking instance of it in a trial at the late Suffolk
assizes. A man named James Lancaster had been
reading the Morning Post, for that was stated speci-
fically in the reports ; he could read it seemed, but
he could not write, and that is just the class of intel-
lect likely to read the Morning Post regularly.—
(Laughter.) Well, he had been reading the Morn-
ing Post, and there he saw it stated that wages rose
as the price of corn rose, that a great abundance of
corn made prices low, and consequently made wages
low also. Now James Lancaster appears to
have had a logical mind, but unfortunately he had
applied it exclusively to the study of the Morning
Post—(Laughter)—and he determined to carry out
practically the principles laid down in that eminent
print. He reasoned in his mind thus :—" Wages de
pend on the price of corn ; the price of corn is low,
because it is abundant; the only way to make
corn dearer, is to make it scarcer; and as
we can only get higher wages by making corn
scarce, I'll go and set fire to farmer Hobbes's corn
stacks."—(Hear, hear.) Now, do not suppose that I
am making up this story. I have not added a syl-
lable to what has appeared in the public papers ; and
Baron Alderson said, with his wig on, and with all the
gravity of a Judge, " This is a most strange and ex-
traordinary application of the doctrines of political
economy." But for the people who can read, but who
can't write, and who, therefore, only read the Morn-
ing Post, it was a logical deduction. James Lancas-
ter had no enmity against farmer Hobbes; he would
not touch his house, his horses, or his cows ; he had
read that corn and bread alone regulated wages, so he
would not burn his cheese-room or his cellar, but he
took his torch and applied it to his wheat stacks, and
set fire to them, in order to make corn scarce, and
thereby raise wages. I think the doctrine of the
Morning Post may hereafter be called the philosophy
of the lucifer match.—(Loud cheers and laughter.)
But James Lancaster, it seems, is to be transported
for the term of his natural ife, to propagate the
doctrines of the Morning Post in Australia. Now,
I want to ask you seriously what the difference is in
principle—for I know the law makes a very great
difference—between creating an artificial scarcity, by
preventing that corn, which the Almighty has given
to the nations of the world, and has spread over the
whole surface of the earth in bountiful abundance,
from coming into the country, unnaturally obstruct-
ing the supply, and making it scarce by burning
Farmer Hobbes's stacks ?—(Cheers.) Their plea, in
both cases, is the same. The law-makers, who make
a law to keep out American corn, say they do it to
keep up wages._ James Lancaster made the same
confession of faith, on the treadmill, to his fellow
prisoner, while the gaoler of the prison was
pretending to be asleep ; and where is the
difference in effect between the two principles ?
The effect is the same on the poor starving
wretch who wants food and cannot get it,
because of this law, as if that want, was caused by the
burning down of Farmer Hobbes's corn-stacks. And'
I suspect that, in the sight of Heaven, half of the men
who Support the corn-laws, will stand acquitted less
than James Lancaster.—(Loud cheers, several times
renewed.) Yes, I repeat it ; tke men who know
what they are doing—and many men who support the
system do know, and can see the consequences of
what they are doing, for a selfish object—are more to
blame than that poor wretch, if he was sincere in the
object he avowed he had for his crime.---(Cheers.)
You have heard from our worthy chairman that
though we are departing, though we are taking our
leave of you, and like another class of performers on
this stage, we are going into the provinces—yet, do
not believe that we intend to be idle during our ab-
sence from the metropolis. And we hope we may
leave with a conviction that those friends of the
cause who have constantly attended our meetings,
will not, in their individual capacities, either as poli-

ticians or as citizens, fail in doing what they C,,0,
advance our great eau-e, by spreading infortno:..e,
andlJekina• r,:er their (pall and their neigh'ootirs '`i,
gi,tl4.li-ai, a,,,1 tli,,ea-,inr.s,L; ',Dud 1. ,f„,,,maeorl
ev,,y losisible wsy. As soon as this systeaLl
thoroughly understood by the people, there Will ' it;
nodifierence of opinion about it, and we are CO,
r:
to tile time when men will be taidng credit to t,heo,
selves for having always been free traders. l‘bee
know that Clarkson began his agitation for the e
tion of the slave trade en 1786, and devoted hilre
—and, if it had been necessary, his life—to Ole
complishment of his holy object ; and I say it to o
honour of the town where I reside, that it wills
Manchester he called the first public meeting to
was held for the consideration of the slave trade. ;
was at work for twenty years before he acc,4l
plished his object; and when the slave t'ill
was abolished, the conflict was renewed to put d°o,
the institution of slavery itself; but it was 00.1'4
six years. before the great work was accomplille
And now when the work is accomplished, and 'v4
there is no sinister interest to offend in advoce'le,
the principle of freedom to the negro, we see thetato
who, when these benevolent men were labouriegerc
accomplish their object, voted against them en e`roi
occasion, even against the abolition of the flogginso
women, going down to Exeter Hall and singinglll6) ~
over the freedom of the negros in the West Indies
(A voice, " Hypocrites," Hear, hear.) And only
not happen perchance, that a few years hencelbo
haps not a very long time either—the very men t,e,
now oppose us in a cause as holy in its nature, 85,erf
neficial in its consequences, as heavenly in oii
property as the abolition of slavery itself, "41
ere long, look . back and say—the Le„life.,
111' accomplished this great work ! Then they "tet
tend our meetings, and take credit for being_,„,l
traders, and, by means of their envoys and 'inin,l
dors, they will spread free trade principles throlid
out every nation of the world! Be it so! `ye
not deny them any honour they wish to particlp
in—and we, who have taken a prominent part in
_,)
agitation shall be forgotten.—(" Never !" and cheer
We may, at, least, believe that we have left some Poi
morial of our existence on the earth, by having c..,,§1
, 1
tributed something to securing the peace, the li`-)
verity, and the happiness of our fellow-creatures." ik
(Loud and long continued cheering.) Mr. 'W. J. Fox then came forward, and was eft
fit
ceived with loud applause. He said—Their excelled
Chairman had introduced the business of the Ineetibf
by describing to them the operations carried 0:1_„
Council of the League throughout the length
_P;,,
breadth of the land, the object of which 74
to prepare a better and more eoenPg'vet
registration, and to lead the way to stiff
an electoral effort on the first opportunity of choeli,
a new Parliament as might secure the success e
~.Li,
cause of free trade. These operations, quietly ru1.,1
ducted, were as material to the advance of theircs;
as those efforts which were the most conspicn°,e,
and although for a time these meetings were to et‘ty
yet to-morrow, when they should have read in the •
Post or the Herald for the twentieth time that 0,
Anti-Corn-law League was dead—yet those oPeilij
tions going on throughout the whole country %,v° 0
prepare for a season that would show as obviouslio
at the present moment, that the League was an to
—(Cheers)—and that its supposed death was so La
proclaimed, that those who got their informationlh-tbe
no other source, must think its ghost still walked tee
world, working wondrous mischief. These 1;';10
would find that its death was but an assumed one,d
that of the seed which the farmer put into the gr° the
and covered up and buried there, but which, bitsi,
immutable laws of Divine Providence, was gehot
nating, and in due time would spring up ; and e,
them, as for that seed, the harvest-time would sniff
with a full ingathering of that glorious fruitthese
which, as men, they had toiled and laboured in tale
years of struggle.—(Loud cheers.) But the Letiejel
need not be judged either by the operations cute
on apart from public observation, or by that fa' of
on which it relied in the strength and certaintliol
their principles, and for which, as Mr. Cobden jog
that night predicted, the coming months would 'lto 1
the surest of all tests. But not by the unseen orAio
future need the exertions of those be tried rip
°lid
formed this League, and contributed largely,
success. And his purpose that night in
le
dressing them was, to advert to the .me for
rials which the League had already created iiiee
itself; and which need not be explored dip
hieroglyphics, but which were written broil„a•
on the face of the county, and which would form nor
terials for the pages of the future historian. In °foe ol
direction he found some impress of what the Lebo
had done. The few years it had existed had t
marked by two Administrations of the Governme°ol
he country, and both the great political parties do
shown in their policy the influence exercised by of
free trade agitation. It had modified the polio
the late Administration, although it was then 100
youth; though at first the head of that Ministrfo, d
disposed to treat as the merest madness the to
at the
the repeal of the corn-laws; yet what but that, - close of his administration served him and his
11
leagues to lay hold of, as the most graceful thief bi
which they could retire from office ? They fell
that, and in so doing made their fall more honour:et,
than had been much of their existence in r pee
—(Hear, hear.) And they had their recoraPee
too • it was the progress which the
bicli
..
trade agitation had made at that period, ". fut ;
caused Lord J. Russell to be returned as Member ble
the City of London, and that gave him 11°W d
chance of returning to office, provided he would
alit
out the principles on which he held his seat'
;alit
possessed his prospects of office. A fixed duty 1113 f
serve the Whigs to fall by, but they could °i/r
rise by a total repeal.—(Loud cheers.) The.
fluence of the free trade agitation on the Ali°l-fet
which succeeded it, and on its policy, was eve°„ael
more marked. The men who were in office,: OS
had been for ten years consolidating their party tit)
the principle ,of no change, 'no infringemell"ool,l
surrender of the corn-laws, on which they :iwtbei,
yield not a jot or a tittle. It was for this .00
rallied their strength, for this it was that they resibel4,
every attempt at movement made by those who the" t of
office, for this it was they moved a vote of water' in that party, which effected their 1 op
throw. What was the language of Sir R. Fefiligs
the first of those great divisions by which the v.' tor t
were expelled from office, he meant when they 111,0'0
duced their Budget of 1841, and when Lord Slivoif
motion on the sugar-duties gave a blow to the oto
Ministry from which it was never able afterwardop
recover ? When they gave symptoms of resigil to
and of resigning too by making an aPPe3olth
the people, Sir Robert Peel taunted them 40
resigning on a mere fiscal question ;ors
said no Government need resign on e 00
fiscal question, yet within three years he thebeaten by his own party on this very question 0.0 0
sugar-duties, and he only reduced that party ngsll,oto
allegiance by threatening to resign unless the.eo of
was rescinded.—(Loud cheers.) On the ninti 0
bps;
Lord Sandon, in May, .1841, Sir R. Peel spokeut 001
he was then looking forward to the change whin" pot
obviously become inevitable, and he said, "1.111314,010
contemplating a re-accession to office, on prllloo
with regard to the corn-laws, other than those). . it
maintained in opposition. You ask me then how l'
possible I can consent to any core
mercial in our ore
mercial relations, if I am still to maintain the Wit,
laws. You say that now this is the master intereft'
and that it is utterly impossible there can be any eris`
sion of our tariff, or any relaxation of our con:0100'
code, without also making a revision of the cernie
I utterly deny that proposition ; I say that Mr' refi:
kisson would have spurned the proposition that witP
sion of our commercial system was inconsistentcors,
the maintenance of the present system of the
~„ono"
laws." Such was the language addressed to the4d for
polist Parliament, in 1841. It was then mod''' and
hest • ,
the purpose of election and hustings speec 001.,
when the new Parliament was called, the neW,.,O are
try was formed; and within fifteen months 1.',. the
time of this very' declaration, utterly denr°'tsrl
proposition that it was impossible to revise theel him'
o
without also revising the corn-laws, Sir B. reae, ,to
self revised the tariff and the corn-laws tog' biro li
the utter astonishment of those who placeusrae I'lo,
Downing-street.—(Cheers.) And whence 45 ne 0
these unexpected measures ? Whence t" 05%
tone, but from this cause—that public opinion felt It
influenced by this agitation that Sir IL peel the
wt
prudent, notwithstanding he was chosen 1., et!.
defender of the great monopolist body, t° o'.7oo°P
some lines in another direction, and claim lie.
credit as he could for following a free-tradewitio:
that he might be enabled to boast that he had' trictie%
one year, done more to relax commercial rev:hole ten
than the opposite party had effected in the.eit; tool1,/
years they were in office, thus making bin' cerw,lllo
monument of the influence of this ntil;:. cohli;
agitation.—(Hear, hear, and cheers.) -`
3 t° op
t,
own the House of' Commons, in reference
00,00_4'
own success as the leader of this Tonione4.
might use the language inscribed on th..„L'en, in i.O
of the great architect, Sir Christopher Ivi,,,id icii_
Paul's Cathedral, where the sectator is biro. ."-_,
seeks the monument, to "look around ,nn
(Cheers.) A certain foreigner, whose too, tst. "'pain's,
oid
exactly hit by the form of the
tdhoenree:L:lni3etereyt.°;e:
once remarked, " I do look around, anno,_den look
one great fool's cap." When 3.1 r. C 10, he 04_0
around him in the House of Commons, two geed
see the influence of the League
fools' caps, one for the leader of the 11__1,tioa...--I°4;,
en
the other for the leader of the opp,_of A nerceßt_ile,
caps, fitting the heads of those who f'icirpeiticfg,
enough to see a great, a wise, and a, 14
op,' cdtivivi a
but lacked the consistency, and the In t ,
latio"' rue° 113‘
to adopt, and carry it out in legison
the o 0
themselves on the good sense, and °n had further
terests terests of the people for support. , rie
time, tIl
ggle
observe, that in a short periFflia of
ulties t° strZoir
the League had had immense 1;11
the
from) of
with, free-trade had obtained in th Pa