The Sun.
London, England, 1844-02-29 00:00:00

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LONDON, TIIURSDAY, FEBRUARY 29, 1844,

monopoly which landlords had long exercised so un-

. fairly, so injuriously to their interests; but even the
flogir classes of consumers upon whom that mono-
-
pnlNupply of dear bread had operated, as it ever
rnusti,perate, so oppressively, were, at first, in not
unfrequent instances, vehemently opposed to its ex-
tinction.
But whatever the difficulties, the obstacles, the

X 11.

Another meeting of the Anti-Corn-law League
took place at Covent-garden last night, when the
same enthusiasm in the cause, and the same determi-
nation to fight the battle to the last, was displayed.
Sir R. PEEL'S announcement about " finality " was
treated with the same respect as Lord J. RUSSELL'S
"finality." The audience knew well that the words
of a Minister signify nothing unless they are in ac-
cordance with existing circumstances, and that,
though an announcement may come from li:owning-
street that the corn-law is as unchangeable as the
law of the Medes and Persians, it must break down
before public opinion. No Minister can resist the
public voice. Sir R. PEEL is goaded on to speak in
support of the corn-laws ; but no man who has care-
fully weighed his speeches on free trade—and in that
we include the trade in corn—can fail to see that hci s
waiting only for a fit opportunity to carry his wise
principles of trade into full effect. The Anti-Corn-law
League is his best supporter. Its onward course is
too rapid, and attended by events too impressive and
too startling, to leave room for deliberation on any
of the mere outlying circumstances and proper-
ties which are incidental to the character of its con-
struction. It is a spell which has awakened the
slumberers of half a century throughout the
breadth and length of the land. Its most de-
termined opponents cannot deny that its ap-
peal has been magical. It has spoken, trumpet-
tongued, in the north ; it has re-echoed alike through
the waste and the cultivated districts of the east; it
has made head, and successfully too, against the
" sacred legion" of monopoly in the west ; and ere
long it will doubtless have brought the fertile
counties of the south under its allegiance. That
principle must be one of irresistible cogency which
can thus, in defiance of long transmitted opinions, of
hereditary prejudices, and the authority of practical
and experienced, but not the less ill-informed and ill-
judging agriculturists, assail the very fortresses of
monopoly, and tumble down the long consecrated
idols of "protective duties" levied on the introduction
of foreign corn. In the enterprise upon which the
League embarked its leaders felt how much there
was to be done—at what powerful odds, with
established interests and powers—under what stern
discouragement from class legislation. But in the
actual conduct of that enterprise they had incessantly
to grapple with obstacles more formidable than
any they could have anticipated. False data
and incomplete statistics had perverted, instead
of guiding, the conclusions that highly gifted
minds had, in many instances, arrived at,
touching the laws of which it was the first, the
avowed effort of the League to procure the repeal.
And thus, not only were farmers and tenants found
amongst the most strenuous supporters of the unjust