The Sun.
London, England, 1844-04-13 00:00:00

under indisposition. Having the hollow of being their chair-
man, he might also consider himself a sort of stage manager ;
and it therefore behoved him to look about for some one to
take the part.—(Cheers and laughter.) He begged to pro-
pose as a substitute his respected friend Richard Cobden,
Esq.—(Great cheering, the whole company rising.) He
would only say, as their Speaker says,'," The ayes have it."—
(Cheers and laughter.) In connection with the Anti-Corn-
law League, he begged to propose the health of Richard
Cobden, Esq.—(Great cheering, the company again rising.)
Mr. COBDEN, on rising to respond to the toast, was received
with many rounds of most enthusiastic applause, which it
seemed very difficult to restrain. Silence being obtained, the
Hon. Gentleman proceeded to speak nearly as follows :
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen, fortunately for me, as
the phrenologists tell me who have examined my head, I
have neither self-esteem nor the love of approbation, or you
would spoil me.—(Laughter and cheers.) I regret exceed-
ingly that our friend Mr. Wilson is not here to return his
thanks for the honour you have done him. In his absence, I
shall be sorry to let the occasion pass of giving my humble
tribute to his great worth and usefulness to this great cause.
(Hear.) He is not much accustomed to public exhibitions;
but to those who have been constantly and actively engaged
iu this cause for the last five years like myself, Mr. Wilson's
merits are known and well appreciated.—(Hear.) I have no
hesitation in saying, that without his calm and cool judg-
ment, his clear sagacity, his great perseverance, and his
courage, which never knows what it is to be beaten—if we
had not had his power of combination, his suggestive mind,
to have guided us in our operations, the League would not
have been what it is at the present day.—(Loud cheers.)
For myself—it may be said of Mr. 'Wilson, as
applied to me—" Go, and he goeth ; come, and he cometh ;"
for I am always perfectly safe when I am at his disposal, be-
cause I am sure, if he has made an engagement for me, it is
always to do good to the cause.—(Hear, hear.) You have
spoken of the League in connexion with his name. It is five
years this week since the first number of the organ of the
League, the Anti-Cora-law Circular, first appeared—on the
16th of April. And it is more than five years since the first
great meeting was held in Manchester, where the great
movement of this agitation took its origin. During that time
we have had considerable changes in the aspect of
our cause. When we began our agitation, we had many
difficulties to encounter; but the greatest of all our difficul-
ties was, that nobody would pay any attention to what we
said, or take the trouble to answer us. We were literally the
creatures of contempt ; and if, in the course of our early ad-
vocacy of this cause, we were a little more boisterous, or, as
more or less than the assumption of a degree of importance
ourwhi
which
enemies
esay,w
we swaggered too much, it was literally no
we had not in thew orld, and we thought by
that means to draw a little attention.—(Hear.) :Well, La-
dies and Gentlemen, we have arrived at that point now
when our enemy comes down from his lofty eminence, and,
no longer viewing us with scorn and contempt, condescends
to take level ground with us and contend with Ili in this
great cause. .Now we have some forbearanCe to show them.
—(Laughter.) They are young in agitation ; and if they
should commit a few blunders; we must learn to look with
leniency upon them.—(Hear,• hear.) I. 'recollect five years
have elapsed, and they are not aware . of it—five years
since this great controversy began.—(Hear.) What
wonder it we should see, that whilst we have been snaking
great progress—while we have been changing; *altogether
changing in the circumstances of our case—they have been
fast asleep, and they are unconscious of all these things ;
and they are now treating this cause precisely as they
ought to have treated it, and would have treated it, if they
had begun five years ago. They take our arguments as we
applied them then, and they are now beginning to condemn
those arguments, forgetting the change that has taken place in
the circumstances of the day. I find them answering my
speeches that I made in 1840, and when I complained that
we should not have corn cheaper if we had free trade. They
don't know—how should they know ?—they have been fast
asleep all the: time—they do not know that wheat, run up
in the spring of 1839 suddenly to 80s. the quarter, and that
last June it was down to 745. the quarter—they do not know
that all this has taken place—and, therefore, if- they blunder
in their arguments—if they are out of time, out of tune, and
out of place—let us learn to look upon them with a lively dis-
play of' charity, and forgive them.—(Cheers.) Then, gentle-
men, I find many of them_ not very well informed on other
matters. They donot seem to have had very eaten sivo read-
ing—some of them. The other day one of my friends here,
who is fond of reading from the works of an author whose
name appears among the list of invited guests, Thomas Car-
lyle(—Cheers)—one of my friends, I say quoted him. The
next day we heard one of our opponents charging us with
being infidels, and said we had been quoting a man who was
convicted and imprisoned for blasphemy ! They do
not read Thomas Carlyle it appears ! I would ad-
vise them to do so, for there
.is more of suggestive thought in
one page of his books than in a volume of what they are
hear.) Again, our'
oifitreearvee'rY learned. —(Hear,
trade newspapers in
ng article upon the Anti-
ohonrperdpri
ont.
ni)aberrnid
sl
tryrshh—ai
The other
utmihsnteeoramodfNea.deyt
them
—r el
ofteafdrl
ee
leading
ine(
Anti-
League movement, alluded to the defection froM the right
cause of an old and very esteemed Nobleman there, Lord Dacre,
and he exclaimed in the familiar phrase, " Et tu, Brute ?"
The next day a long letter came from his Lordship's land
steward, but an active opponent, denouncing the editor for
calling Lord Deere a brute !—(Loud laughter.) I might
multiply these instances, showing that our opponents neither
are very good logicians nor yet very learned ; but I
will trouble you with only one more. It happened in '
a southern village where the clergyman of the parish
presided at a public meeting. It was held in a
small parish, and some of our friends called it " a
little go ;" it was an Anti-League meeting, where about a
hundred people were assembled. One of the leading persons
in it was the sexton, In the course of the clergyman's
speech he said we were a body of utilitarians. The next day
the sexton was busy spreading the report throughout the
village that there was not a single churchman among.us all;
for he had heard the parson himself say we were all Unita-
riansl—(Laughter.) So vou see, when you take into
account the extent of the experience of our Oppo-
nents, the amount of their knowledge, and .the quality of
their natural talents, von must make allowances for any little
blunders they may fall into.—(Hear, hear.) I have seen it
stated the other day—the day before yesterday, I think—in the
Times newspaper, that this League—this " great fact," as they
call it—is upon its trial, and that these Leaguers, a few cotton
men, and men of that stamp, who have been suddenly
thrust into notoriety, are upon a pinnacle, and in dan-
ger of a great fall, Now I do not think the League
or the Leaguers are upon- their trial ; it is some-
thing else which is upon trial, namely—monopoly.
That is the culprit on trial, the English public. is the Jury,
• and from the evidence which penes in froth all quarters, we
have no doubt that the verdict will be Gmlty.—(Loud
cheers.) Mr. Cobden then pointed out the baneful effects of
the present system, in a way which made a great impression
on the audience, and, on taking his seat, was enthusiastically
cheered.
_ _ _

Mr. Bright, Colonel Thompson, and other speakers fol.
lowed, and the meeting br9ke up, evidently highly delighted
with the evening's entertainment.

RAILWAY RETURNS.

We extract from the Railway Magazine the sums
received on the principal Railways of Great Britain for
the week ending on the day of the month prefixed to
each. The return includes the money received for
passengers, parcels, carriages, horses, mails, and mer-
chandise:—
Week
ended

Narhe of Railway.

Total.
.L. d.

April— Arbroath and Forfar —
6 Birmingham and Derby Junction 1,415 8 2
5 Birmingham and Gloucester
6 Brandling Junction
3 Chester and Birkenhead
9 Dublin and Kingstown
7 Dundee and Arbroath
6 Durham and Sunderland
6 Edinburgh and Glasgow
7 Eastern Counties and North Eastern 4,293 6 6
6 Glasgow, Kilmarnock, and Ayr •••••• 1,563 0 8
6 Glasgow and Greenock
6 Grand Junction 7,443 8 2
6 Great North of England
7 Great Westeni
29 Liverpool and Manchester
30 London and Birmingham
11 London and Blackwall 1,131 12 8
6 London and Brighton • 3,889 11 5
9 London and Croydon
11 London and Greenwich 2,595 4 3
7 London and South Western .......
4 Manchester, Bolton and Bury 774 3 4
6 Manchester and Birmingham 3,086 5 1
6 Manchester, Leeds, and Hull Assoc 6,094 13 8
f Midland Counties
6 Newcastle and Carlisle 1,375 17 5
7 Newcastle and North Shields 352 15 5
6 North Midland
5 North Union and Bolton and Preston 1,242 19 9
2 Paris and Orleans 4,587 3 4
8 Paris and Rouen 4,510 0 0
6 Preston and Wyre 237 18 7
6 Sheffield and Manchester 577 11 8
11 South Eastern
6 Taff Valej 686 12 6
7 Ulster
6 York and North Midland