The Sun.
London, England, 1844-02-22 00:00:00

could be aware of.----(Hear, hear.) They owed many of
the subscriptions which they had received to the
fact of the capital having thrown aside" every paltry
feeling of party, and returned to the Imperial Legisla-
ture the friend of freedom and of the poor man. They
meant to teach the constituencies to look, in their votes,
not to whether the candidate was Tory, Whig, or
Radical, not to whether he was- a monopolist or free
trader. They would appoint canvassers to ascertain the
sentiments upon the subject of every. Honourable
Member, and they would get up a requisition reqUesting
each of them to vote in favour of Mr. Villiers'
motion. According as they ascertained, by the answer
of each Hon. Member, his opinion, they would record
that opinion, and having learned by their canvassers the
state of feeling in the district: which he represented;
they would, at the time of election, know where they were
strong and where they were weak, and accordingly under-
stand where they were to concentrate their efforts.—(Hear,
hear,) They meant to contest every borough where a
vacancy might occur.—(Cheers.)• It was said,thattbe
Anti-Corn-law League was an unconstitutional, a re-
volutionary, and a dangerous body. They were dan-
gerous to nothing but monopoly—they revolutionised
nothing but ignorance. Their whole power was in their
power to spread knowledge, and in their resolution
never to rest till the people h;cl.been taught what itwas
their real interest to know.—(Cheers.) They did not
seek by an enormous array of
.numbers to intimidate.
He repeated they meant to contest every
borough, whether their chance were good or
bad. If it were as bad as Devizes, they
would contest it. By unfurling the banner of free trade
they would give strength to those who were with them,
and he would never be the man to say that any place,
even Devizes itself, was hopeless for the free trade on
some future occasion.—(Hear, heir.) But the greatest
work of all which they had to do was to put down
that old monster which bad defrauded the people, not
only of their bread, but of their power to do right—
bribery at elections.—(Hear, hear.) That had been
the great difficulty in the way of all advancement.—
(Hear, hear.) Men did not- come before the public to
express their opinions • fairly. Efforts were made to
tempt the needy, to influence the. doubtful, to cor-
rupt all. The parties who made: them had no
wish that knowledge should be the power of this
country: They had no wish to enlighten men; but•they
desired to buy the untaught, to corrupt the poor, and
to d.grade all. Against that degradation of the people,
against that• purchasing of votes, against that buying
of men, and selling of the rights of industry,
the League had pledged itself to devote its
most powerful energies.—(Cheers:) The matter was
not one of mere declamation. • The League left it to
the judges of the country to put down bribery. They
offered, in every place where a contest arose, a reward
of a hundred pounds to, every one who would give
such information as might lead to the detec-
-don of any party who had given, offered,
or taken a bribe. The punishment by law for that mis-
demeanour was an imprisonment of two years at the
treadmill.—(Hear, hear, and cheers.) . It was hard to
get such evidence as would Prosecute men to conviction;
but they put down wholesale bribery; they made it dis-
graceful; they put respectable men out of the list of
bribers ; they made it a thing bard to do. The
men who bribed knew well that those who were corrupt
enough to take a bribe might go a step further, and try
and.get the reward. of 100/.—(Hear, hear, and cheers.)
He had now told them their practical plan to carry out
their object. The only power which they relied upon
was the. power, through the funds committed to their
charge, to teach the people. It would be a glorious day
for England when her people, being unfettered from
monopoly, put forth all their strength and all their skill;
and, when armies of industry should be the power with
which they made the world their own—not conquering
it by battle, but exercising its power to give them every
comfort, every luxury which it could produce, conquer-
ing all its barrenness, all its waste, all its idleness,
and making all nations their own, because their skill was
the greatest—because their power to produce was the
greatest power of production in the world. 0! it would
be a glorious day for England when every ship left her
port with a white flag flying at the mast-head, a golden
wheatsheaf upon it, and the words "Free-trade with all
the world" visibly displayed.—(Loud cheers.)
Three cheers were then given for " Justice to Eng-
land and Ireland," after which the vast assembly was
dissolved. •

KICICING.UP A DUST !—Whether this adage derives
its origin from all. London going_ to Epsom on the Derby
day, or from a brisk gale on the Holyhead-road at noon-
day in July, we cannot say; but out ofdoors or in doors there
never was such a dust kicked up as that at Covent-
garden Theatre last night. Verily, such was the vehe-
mence with which the dense mass in the pit kicked and
stamped, that the dust rose up to the ceiling of the house,
and, after hovering in clouds for some minutes, slowly
descended, but the bursts of cheers sent it in eddying
currents over boxes, stage, slips, and galleries, while
the heads of those in the pit were actually powdered
with their own dust I