The Sun.
London, England, 1845-04-10 00:00:00

T LIE SUN, LONDON, THURSDAY EVENING, APRIL 10 184%

saw no reason why the youngest should go first.
Eighteen years ago—

‘-‘ True pity—pity 'tis 'tis

eighteen years ago he was exerting himself alone in
this grand cause. Nine years ago he was doing what
one man could do to oppose in the House of Com-
mons that arrangement of the existing Government
by which the interests of the English Church were
bound up up with a continuance of the corn-laws.—
(Cheers.) All would not do, however, and he was
cashiered on the first opportunity.—(A laugh.) Had
he had a fair chance, as other men had, he might have
been alive still, and of service to them now. It was
not him they saw before them, but only his wailing
ghost.—(Laughter.) He had been assassinated seven
years ago in Marylebone.—(Cheers and laughter.)
That was a long story, and not to the present ques-
tion. But he was assassinated there, and some would
find it so to their cost. When that was the way in
which the people paid those who led them, no wonder
if, year after year, they found a difficulty in carrying
popular questions. But he brought no ill omen there.
He brought nothing but what was favourable. He
had been recently visiting their old and tried friends
in Scotland, who were as hearty as ever, nay, heartier
than ever in the cause.—(Loud cheers.) Their
Scotch friends knew, as well as they themselves knew.
that the time was fast approaching when their cause
would be triumphant. Their friends were multiply-
ing everywhere. Their enemies were falling before
them ; or, better still, they were joining them,
(Loud cheers.) Look at the Premier.—(lmmense
cheering.) How much was he worth ?--(Renewed
cheering.) Let them take note of his actions and his
sayings. He saw that opposition was so foolish and
so hopeless that, like a man of prudent character as he
was, he was only looking round to secure a safe port
in time to put into it.—(Cheers and laughter.) And
with him would come all those special waiters upon
Providence who considered him as their God, the
Eolus, and who, whatever wind he blew, were ready
to make sail before it.—(Loud cheers ) Their
enemies were working for them.—(Cheers.) All
that men could do to forward their cause their enemies
were doing.—(Cheers.) They themselves could not
do more than their enemies were doing for them.—
(Cheers.) He had told his friends in Scotland that
if they had paid their enemies to adopt that course
s hich would most promote the cause of the League,
and had laid down for them the course they were to
adept, they could not do it half so well
as their enemies were doing it for them.
—(Hear, hear.) Let them look at the
recent debates—grease, and lard, and butter—those
were the things which had engaged the attention of
statesmen on the monopolist side of the House.—
(Cheers and laughter.) The great questions of na-
tional interest had dwindled down into such smoky,
greasy things as these.—(Renewed laughter.) He
had told their friends in Scotland that when they
brought the little boys into schools, and instructed
them in the use of various things, they should ask
them, among other things, what Government was for,
and he little fellows should be brought to pipe out
in answer—to put tar in our butter.—(Cheers and
laughter.) He had been to Scotland to invite their
friends there to make contributions to the bazaar ;
and some men had said to him, what is your particu-
lar concern in this busines3? How do you earn your
livelihood ? He answered, that it was aforaging party,
and why should not he take charge of a foraging
party, if he were asked, as well as any other ? And,
strange to say, they liked his foraging party, and
they gave contributions according to their produce.
Some gave yarn, some gave bed -ticking, some gave
minerals.—(Cheers.) At Newcastle they gave coals,
which it had been agreed should be sold from the
sample. Tickets should be printed for the bazaar
for ten chaldrons of coals; and why ladies should
not sell these tickets for coals, he could not under-
stand. Depend upon it that nothing could he given
but that they would have ingenuity enough to find
the means of disposing of it. One man had pro-
mised to send them a Shetland horse, forty inches
high. Now he proposed that this horse should
appear at the bazaar, and that over him there
should be this motto, " This is what men and horses
come to, when they can't get corn."—(Loud cheers,
and laughter.) Now there was more than a jest
hanging upon that horse. The inhabitants of the
Shetland Islands maintained themselves by the pro-
duce of their fisheries, which they send to Spain and
Portugal; and if they were permitted to bring home
corn, instead of being unable, as they were now very
frequently, to obtain bread to eat, they would have
an ample supply of it. The corn of the Shetland
Islands was so bad that it had been suggested that it
might be possible, if they went quietly to work, for
them to be able to obtain for the Shetland Islands
the same privileges as the Channel Islands now en-
joyed, and which had been obtained in some degree

through the interference of their friend Dr. Bowring—
(Cheers)—for the Isle of Man.—(Renewed cheers.)
The course was the same in Shetland as in London.
The hardship was equal in both places. Restriction
was as hard at Lerwick as in London. It was felt
the same in Manchester. Now, 100 pair of hands

were employed in a factory as it was in. the Shetland
cottage by the fisherman's wife, who sat knitting in
solitude those shawls which could not be sold to pro-
cure her family bread. The only difference was,
that while Shetland was small, London was large, and
as they were larger and possessed greater strength
so they should aid the weaker, and make contribu-
tions in proportion to their greater means. They
should aid that bazaar which was to be raised in
their own metropolis, so that their friends might say
that never yet had there been such an exposition of
the produce of British ingenuity and British genius.
For he knew well' that although those who were
there assembled were perfectly aware of the magni-
tude and importance of their cause, yet there were
iome who were outside barbarians who required in-
formation on the subject.—(Cheers.) And he be-
iought all of them, when they went forth from that
house, and returned to their homes, to become mis-
sionaries of the truth, and see how long it would be
before they would stimulate their friends and convert
their enemies, so that their power should be irresis-
tible.—(Cheers.) He understood that they were to
have some unexpected aid that night, and he, as an
old servant, would not detain them longer, but would
at once make way, to afford them a taste of that
which was new.—(The Gallant Colonel then retired,
amidst loud and long-continued cheering.)
Mr. COBDEN then came forward, and was received
with the utmost enthusiasm. He said, that he had
found himself unexpectedly seated beside a gentleman
who in times past had been a consistent and strenuous,
but conscientious and amicable opponent of their
good cause.—(Hear, hear.) That gentleman was
largely connected with agriculture.—(Hear, hear.)
Not only did he farm himself above 3,000 acres of
land—not only was he connected as agent with some
of the largest proprietors in the kingdom, but he him-
self was a large landed proprietor.—(Cheers.) Mr.
Haughton had been examined before the Parlia-
mentary Committee of 1836, and he (Mr. Cobden)
was happy to say that Mr. Haughton had maturely
considered this question, and that he was prepared
that night to address a few words to that meeting--
(Cheers)—to explain, if explanation were necessary
to them and to the country, the grounds on which he
had seen reason to alter the views he had fo merly
entertained upon that subject. He begged to be al-
lowed to introduce Mr. Haughton to the meeting. •

Mr. HAUGHTON then came forward, but for a few
minutes he could nr)t obtain a hearing, so tumultuous
was the applause which greeted him. When silence
was somewhat restored, he said, that it had been said
by one of the greatest men that the world had ever
seen figure upon its stage, that men and women were
merely players. He (Mr. Haughton) little thought
that he himself should be a performer upon these
boards.—(Laughter and cheers.) He little thought
that he should there address such an assemblage upon
such a subject.—(Cheers.) He had been for 20 years
the steady supporter of protective duties. He did sup-
port them conscientiously and firmly. It would
not be necessary for him to take a review of his past
adherence to those principles, in the same manner
that Opposition Members in the House of Commons
reviewed the past labours of the session.—(Cheers.)
But he would acknowledge that he had supported
the system of protection which had now extended
over a period of thirty years. He would give them
his reasons for abandoning the sinking ship when she
was no longer sea• worthy.—(Cheers.) They might,
perhaps, be aware that not only was he a large land-
lord himself, but that he also had a great quantity of
property in charge, and it was only from a thorough
conviction—from a consciousness that it was his duty
—that he did what he could to bring about the con -
summation
colfleheriss.)brothilere would
drs
of this great principle.—(Loud
how the protective laws had been o
firswthoof alli ask of any
—(Cheers.) When the law might
segrviht.ebeeto.ptrheesmel
they were told that the price waso first passed in 1815.
yet, in 1822, it was found that the tatlfstTuld be 80s.,
that
nmoney
was all they could obtain. In 1825 it fectly impossible to carry out this law,
'the famine that prevailed in the country,
garean, zas
r.
Canning thought it his duty to go down tOr,thenuss
of Commons and let wheat out of bond without
par.o
ing any duty at all. In the year 1835 he was one
of
the parties examined before the House of Commons,
and it was then complained that 355. was all they
could get. In 1840 there was a different state of
things to be brought about—(Laughter and cheers)—
Sir Robert Peel was brought into power, and he said
that he Gould insure the highest rate of wheat to the
farmer. He could assure him 565. They were at

that time obliged to sell it for 45s.—(Hear, bear.)
And he would say now, after ten years' experience,
that it was an egregious fallaey to endeavour to con-
trol the seasons, or to state with certainty what should
be the price of bread.—(Hear, hear, and cheering.)
That was the case, and he would affirm that while it
was already proved that while the amount guaranteed
was 545., the sum they sold it at was 455. Such was
the effect of protection.—(Loui cheering.) Know-
ing this, it was necessary that all should come for-
ward on this occasion, whether landlords, or tenants,
or labourers, and when at last the immense mass
of the people would feel their interest in the cause,
there could be no doubt of its being ultimately car •
ried.—(Cheers.) Why, it was the interest of the
landlord, it was the interest of the farmer to do that
—(Continued cheering.) And let them not forget
that it was their bounden duty to fill the mouths of
their vastly increased pauper brethren with the good
with which God had gifted them. They knew that the
seasons had their cycles, and that while the only kind,
the great and the bountiful Giver of all
Good might be .showering down his gifts
on one portion of the earth, he might at the same
time withhold his favours from them, by scorching
up what they had sown, or by drenching their fields
with rain. Let them apply to every part of the globe
for food.—(Cheers.) Let them carry their produce
wherever it might find a market ; and let England he,
as it was intended at first to be, the workshop of the
world.—(lmmense cheering.) Let all in that assem-
blage do their duty ; landlords, tenants, and opera-
tires, until, like the phoenix from its ashes, they should
arise, and show by their determination their desire
to do away with the stigma which now attached to
their country. He would mention what had oc-
curred to his own mind within the last three
years, when Irish butter was introduced into this
country, and Glasgow alone could be found to
purchase it. He remembered lately that in Ireland
he spoke to a manufacturer, and these were his
words :—" Where is the sense of your giving us
such prices for our butter, for all the farmers wives
want shawls now ?"—(Laughter.) In carrying out
that principle, they need not mind whether other
countries grew corn, for they, also, would try to
grow it—(Hear, hear)—and, like the farmers' wives
who wanted shawls, theywould find their wants grow
in the same proportion.—(Cheers.) He had just le't
the shores of Ireland, and he had been told that the
corn-laws had done a great deal of good for that
country. He would now ask this simple question—
Had it made the farmers of that country rich ?—had
it increased the happiness of the popula-
tion ?—(Hear, hear.) It was no use to occupy the
public mind of Ireland in this manner. It would
make the country worse; it would bring the people
into a state of greater degradation. After seeing the
state of the farmer in England with his thirty years
of protection, he was compelled to ask, if he was in
the position to which that protection entitled him ?
He said no ; and he did say that he was unwilling to
give any protection. He had supported protection
conscientiously, because all he had in the world was
on land or in land, and he had the consolation left
that let the wind blow high or blow low, he had
acted throughout conscientiously, because, though he
was interested in the question, he had changed his
opinions, and he was not ashamed now to avow them.
—(Tremendous cheering.) He would tell them this,
that he had changed those opinions conscientiously.
He would tell them more than this, he advocated
these new opinions because he believed them,
and he would advocate a free-trade not
only in corn, but in sugar, and in
timber also. He could not ask for sugar, because
the Crown said it was to be protected ; but if he built
a house, he might surely see what the quality of the
timber used in it was, and he might wish to make
that timber better. He asked for the abolition of the
corn-laws, because it would enhance the comforts
and the happiness of the people.—(Cheers )
Mr. COBDEN, who for some time was so voci-
ferously cheered that it was impossible for him to
obtain a hearing, at last, when silence was
somewhat restored, said that he was sure that the
expression of the feeling of every one in that
assembly would agree with him when he stated how
deeply they felt themselves indebted to the Hon.
Friend who had just appeared before them, for his
candid expression of his conversion from the princi-
ples which he had before then advocated ; and he
thought it looked like the beginning of the
end.—(" Hear, hear," and laughter.) They had, if
he might say so, been going round the circle, and
had just completed the journey. They had be-
gan with the manufacturers, then they had gone to
the shopkeepers, and now they had got among the
farmers. When the agricultural interest was intro•
duced to the notice of the House of Commons, and
when its most distinguished supporters brought for-
ward
a motion on the subject, it would astonish the
landlords and their friends to find that nothing de-
serving the name of an argument had been advanced
on the subject on that side of the House.
He would not say that there were not Mem-

bers on the Government side of the House o

Commons who could not make out a good case to the
advantage of their own principles, and the questions
which they themselves defended. He should not say
that they descended to any unworthy practices in
order to confer a peculiar benefit on a elms, but he,
looking after the interests of the farmer and the farm
labourer, would meet them on the equal ground, that

the corn-laws were more injurious t 3 the farmer than
to any other class in the empire.—(Cheers.) Now,
really, when he considered the state of the House of
Commons that it contained at least 200 county Mem-
bers, besides 140 Members more, sent up from
pocket boroughs, he would ask them what they could
possibly expect from one or two men ? It appeared
to him, and he had a lively faith in the character and
credit of Englishmen, that they would not allow
the counties to send up Members to stop the
advocates of the people in the body of
the House. He had faith in the qualities
of his countryu:en, who had that staple in their
composition, that out of one hundred, ninety-nine
employed the privileges entrusted to them correctly.—
(Cheers.) He could only account for the deficiency
in argument on the Ministerial side of the House, by
a reference to the considerations which influenced

their opinions. They supported the Crown—they
supported monopoly, and it would take the eloquence of
Demosthenes himself to support, with any degree
of fervour, the corn-laws. The Prime Minister of
England ought to be wary that he did not induce
his followers to stretch the bow too tightly, lest the
present evil might be still further increased. Upon
the subject of the kitchen stuffs of Sir Robert
Peel's tariff, he (Mr. Cobden) never heard a man so
eloquent as Mr. Bickham Escott. Even Colonel
Wyndham was roused into a state of agitated elo-
quence, when referring to the little Parliament of
No. 17, Bond-street.--(Cheers and laughter.) The
question now arose, what were they to do between
Peel and Russell ? There appeared to be a sort of
rival bidding on either side, but he would not say
which should have the honour of carrying
out the great principle of free-trade.—(Hear.)
If he (Mr. Cobden) were in the position of Lord
John Russell, he would be very—very jealous of the
honour of the House of Woburn, and would not like
that the House of Peel and Co. should take it out of
his hands.—(Hear, hear.) lie would bid high for it.
If put to the vote, probably a majority would be dis-
posed to give an old friend who had a hand in the
Test and Corporation Ae.ts the preference.—(Hear,
hear.) And then he made the first bid also in 1841,
but he did not bid quite up to the mark. He thought
that after reading what Mr. Haughton had said that
night, Lord John ought be very much disposed to
put another foot forward in the matter. He did net
see how statesmen could falter —how they could hesi-
tate for one moment, when a gentleman like Mr. Haugh-
ton came forward, whom he knew to be employed and
trusted by some of the noblest of the land in the ma-
nagement of their estates : who had been for three
days under examination before an agricultural com-
mittee in 1835, and who was a great agricultural
authority—when he saw such a gentleman come for-
ward and declare himself a free• trader after mature
deliberation, he could not see why Lord John should
hesitate in carrying out the principles of free-trade.
It was a very remarkable fact that, go where they
would, there was something in their cause that
attracted all the men of sense, eloquence, and feeling
to them.—(Cheers.) There was Mr. Haughton, and
he saw another old friend cf theirs behind him, Mr.
Latimore—(Hear, hear)—and there were some other
independent and intelligent farmers sitting just below
him. If any of those who were listening to him hap-
pened to go into a farmer's dining-room, which was
his ordinary, he would tell them how they could re-
cognise the free traders amongst them. Let them
just take their hats, and see which were the biggest,
and these would belong to the largest heads, who
were free traders.—(Laughter.) If any of their
opponents had heads above the average size, they
would soon be found to desert the ranks of the pro-
tectionists, and come over to the ranks of the free
traders.—(Hear, hear, and laughter.) Why they
had some of the very best landed proprietors in the
kingdom on their side. There was one of great pre-
eminence, whose name was hardly ever quoted,
Mr. Coke, of Norfolk, afterwards Lord Leicester.—
(Hear, hear.) He was a man, who sixty years ago
little went
htoettrthan
a rabbit w
Norfolk, wherehefaorurne. Therednan estate
was notwhichwa:
bladeuhpe
ecelta oytf grass
wmori fora
mixed
rabbit
with
it withthi
this
estate,t o
sand feed
de itself
sankm a upon.
made
e wells,
surface,
threwi 'lr eslol
that this land, which was not worth 2s. 6d. an acre

; when he got it, was worth 255. an acre in his hands.
—(Hear, hear.) A property not worth 2,000/. rose
to the value of 20,0001. in his skilful hands. Now,
if any man ought to be afraid of foreign competition,
afraid that any produce of the fertile lands of the
Mississippi and the rich central land of Poland
would throw out of cultivation the comparatively
barren land which he had cultivated, it was Mr.
Coke. But he (Mr. Cobden) knew that from the
first he was a strenuous advocate of free trade in corn.
When he was in Norwich lately, he took the
pains of ascertaining, from Mr. Coke's most
intimate friends, what his opinions on the
corn-laws were, and he had the authority
of his personal friends for saying that he was from
the first a consistent opponent of the corn-laws—
(Hear, hear)—not that he took any great pains to
study their effect upon the commerce and manufac-
tures of the country, but he opposed them because he
thought they were calculated to make the farmers in-
dolent in their agricultural pursuits.—(Hear.) Now,
not to go farther than Lord Spencer—(Cheers)—
what right had any man, who had not made agricul-
ture his study, to talk about a free trade in corn
being injurious to the farmers, when he had the ex-
ample of Earl Spencer to guide him on the subject ?
If any body chose to contend that it was beneficial
to commerce and manufactures, why, he may be as
competent to judge of it as Eirl Spencer or Lord
Dueie, but when some empty• headed person came out
of his counting-house, or from behind his desk, 2nd
said that the League wanted to ruin the farmers, he
would only point to the dicta of Earl Spencer,
the best grazing farmer in the kingdom—
(Hear, hear)—and of Earl Ducie, the best
arable farmer, and ask him how he had the pre-
sumption to say that, with such practical farmers to
guide him, they were the enemies of farmers or agri-
culture ?—(Hear, hear.) He took an opportunity,
the other night, in the House of Commons, of drawing
the attention of his audience there— (Laughter)—to
the evils, upon the industry of the farmers, which
their law, which prevented the coarser kinds of grain
used for the feeding of cattle from being imported,
produced. But, would they believe it, Mr. Stafford
O'Brien, who called himself a farmer's friend, got up
and actually bullied the Ministry because he suspected
that they were inclined to let Dutch clover-seed come
in for the benefit of the farmer, There was a farmer's
friend !—(Laughter.) Was it not a privilege to have
such people for an audience, that one might be able
to teach them something ?—(Laughter and cheers.)
Why, if they had a free trade in grain, the
farmers were the class, of all others, who
who would participate most largely in the benefit.
They could indeed eat American flour and Polish
wheat in the towns, but the farmers would be the
great buyers of Indian corn and Egyptian beans, and
Polish peas, if, as ought to be the case, they were
allowed to import those things free.—(Hear, hear.)
He would appeal to Mr. Haughton and Mr. Latimore
whether, at the time the Protection Society was
bullying the Ministry to keep up the restrictions
upon the food for cattle, the tenants of those blind
men, who were leading the blind, had not their cattle
starving for want of provender?—(Hear, hear.)
The consequence was, that the farmers were forced to
send their cattle to market, and sell them at a sacri-
fice, thereby running down the price, because they
had not fodder at home to feed them with; and he
heard yesterday of one proprietor who bought, as a
favour, from his tenant, upwards of fifty cows to feed
the hounds in his kennel.—(Loud cries of " Shame,
shame.") The landlords now began to suspect,
,he verily believed, that other persons knew
their business better than they did themselves—they
had that virtue of modesty coming over them for the
first time—(Laughter)—and that accounted for the
more moderate tone they lately assumed. They had
doubts whether they were not wrong altogether, and
when they read the speech of Mr. Haughton he sus-
pected those doubts would very much increase.—
(Hear, hear.) There was one part of his speech
which he did not sufficiently dwell upon. He had
shown that the farmers derived no benefit from pro-
tection, but there was one part of the protective sys-
tem, the monopolies of sugar and timber, by which
they were injured.—(Hear, hear.) They paid dearly
for those articles, merely that the landed proprietors
might get up a partnership with the sugar and timber
monopoly in the House of Commons.—(Cheers.)
How many hundred tons of fruit were wasted every
year, which would be made into preserves and con-
sumed by children (and nothing could be more
wholesome), if sugar were sold at one-half the price
at which it had been sold for the last five years?—
(Hear.) But the most important part of all was this,
and Mr. Haughton had not at all adverted to it, that
the many grievances which the farmers had to com-
plain of would never be got rid of, as long as their
attention was distracted by the cry of protection—as
long as that ignis fatuus of protection was held be-
fore their eyes. The farmers were always led away
by this artful cry. The landlord said to them, " Oh,
we must take care of the corn-law, send men to Par-
liament to maintain protection, and we will take care
of your interests." They were thus led to believe
that if they sent a majority to the House of Com-
mons, that majority would enable them to pay what-
ever rent they agreed to give. They had thus no
time to think how they would get fairer rents, or rid
themselves of the nuisance of game. The consequence
was, that the landlords, instead of meeting their tenants
on fair, equitable terms, as men of business, threw
something between them which mystified a very
plain matter—" There is my land, what will you give
for it." Were it not for this cry, the landlords would
have been compelled to grant leases to their tenants,
and to abate the nuisance of game—in fact such a
nuisance would never have been imposed on the
tenants. They would have laid out more capital on
the land, and would have made it more profitable,
were it not for the bug-bear of protection which mis-
led them.—(Hear, hear.) Now he would give an
advice to the farmers, and that was, that they would
not take leases at present—(Hear, hear)—unless they
got them at a corn rent.—(Hear, hear.) A lease was
necessary to the tenant—to the man who invested his
capital in land; and if there was no corn-law a man
might with great security take a lease at twenty-one
years' money rent, because under a free trade supply
and demand would be so regulatd that there would
be very little fluctuation in the price of corn.—(Hear,
hear.) But HOW that they had a corn-law every one
knew that the greatest fluctuations in the price of
corn occurred. That was a point on which every,
sane mind agreed. How had the Scotch farmer ma-
naged to evade the fluctuations in the price of corn ?
They showed that they were twenty-three years in
advance of the English farmers, in shrewdness and
intelligence in this matter. In 1815, when the corn-
law passed, the Scotch, like the English farmer, be-
lieved that an Act of Parliament could secure to him
80s. a quarter for his corn, and he took land calcu-
lating upon that price ; but when, in 1822, the Scotch
farmer found that the price fell to 40s. a quarter, he
eaid immediately this law is a failure, the system
won't do. That class of farmers who took land, sup-
posing that the 80s. per quarter could be maintained,
were of course swept away ; but when those who
succeeded came, they said to the landlords, we will
not take your land at a money-rent, because Parlia-
ment does not fulfil its promises, and does not secure
the price of wheat which we were led to expect, but. as
there is one thing which Parliament cannot contrel—
the quantity of corn which, by the help of na-
ture, and our own industry, we can grow—.
we will pay you a rent calculated at a
corn-rent, instead of a money-rent. Thus
the Scotch farmers showed themselves much
shrewder and more intelligent than the English
farmers. He did not want to flatter the English
farmer ; he wanted to say something homely and un-
palatable to him, till he became a sharper and a wiser
man than he really was.—(" Hear, hear," and a
laugh.) He said it with regret, but he believed that
there were not ten per cent. of the English farmers of
the present day who knew what a corn-rent
meant. The • Scotch farmer bargained to give so
many quarters of corn as_ the rent of his farm.
Suppose he agreed to give 200 quarters of wheat for
his farm. The price of wheat in Scotland was taken
every year in order to regulate the stipends of 'the
clergy, and at the end of the year the average was
struck by the Sheriff of the county ; and it was the
average price for the year in the county that decided
the price which the farmer was to
pay to the land-
lord : well, supposing he bargained to give 200
quarters of wheat. At the end of the year, supposing
the price of wheat per quarter averaged 605., then
the farmer had to pay 6001., but if the price only
averaged 405.,
then the Scotch farmer would have to
pay only 4001.—(Hear, hear.) Now, what was the
condition of the Scotch farmer under this system ?
While they knew, from the evidence given before a
Committee of the House of Commons in 1835, that
the English farmers declared themselves bankrupt,
the Scotch farmers on the contrary, who were sum-
moned before the Committee, said they were in a state
of prosperity with wheat at a price of 395.
per quarter.
'The reason was, that while the Scotch farmer paid a
rent, calculated at 395. per quarter, the Englieh
farmer was paying a rent of 645. per quarter.—(Loud
cheers.) What was the condition of the Scotch
farmer at present ? He lately saw in the Scotsman a
report of the East Lothian Agricultural District
Society in the first week in January. That report
stated that the farmers were not in a more pros-
perous condition since 1835, actually the last time
that wheat was dawn to 395. a quarter. Well,
in that very same week, he read in the Mark-
lane Express, a report of the state of the agri-
culturists in Essex, written, probably, by Mr. Baker
himself—(Laughter)—but however that may be, the
report stated that the small farmers were being
ruined—that they were sinking into the condition of
labourers—while the large farmers were in a state of
sullenness and discontent, partaking almost of the
spirit of the labourers themselves—(Hear, hear)--
that the union houses were full of unemployed
labourers, who were actually sent to gaol because
they were so insubordinate in the union houses.

What was the cause of this difference, in
the very same week, between the condition
of the English and Scotch agriculturists ? It
could not be the new tariff, or the Canada Corn
Bill, or the new corn-law, for these affected the
Scotch as well as the English agriculturist. The
East Lothian farmer and the Essex farmer were, in
this respect, precisely similarly situated ; and the
Essex farmer had this advantage, that he had a richer
soil and a better climate than the East Lothian. Ile
had also a better market; for, by means of the rail-
road, he could bring his produce to the metropolis,
the best market in the world, within half an hour.—
(Laughter.) And yet the Esex farmer was in
a miserable, impoverished, whining state.—(Cheers.)
And why were the farmers of Scotland in a state of
such great comparative prosperity?—(Hear, hear.)
One of the reasons of this prosperity of the Scotch
farmers over the English was, that they had long
leases of their farms at a grain rent, added to which
advantages they had the others—those bestowed by
nature, education, and the kindness of their natural
protectors—namely, skill, intelligence, capital, and
industry ; and these were the reasons vs'ty the farmers
of Scotland were prosperous, while those of Essex
were not so, though possessing so many more advan-
tages of clime and soil over their Highland neighbours.
—(Hear.) These were facts that should hold good
until they were disproved ; but who could disprove
them ?—(Hear.) Yet this was a boast of the Scotch
over the English farmer that need not exist if the
disability imposed on the latter by the law be only
removed.—(Hear.) Put the English farmer—the
farmer of Essex—on the same footing with Scotch
farmers, and he would be ably to accomplish quite as
much.—(Hear.) But this the English farmer never
could do, this improved and improving farmer he never
could he, while he permitted himself to be treated as
the down-trodden slave—to have the burden kept
upon his hack—to be dealt with as the weak and
puling child, instead of the upright, independent
man.—(Shouts of- applause) Hitherto, Englishmen
had been treated as if they were inferior to Scotch•
men in intellect and intelligence, and they would
deserve a continuation of such treatment if they
bore with it.—(Hear, hear.) What he (Mr. Cobden)
and those who acted with h:m wanted was, to raise
the English farmer from the state of degradation
that had been forced upon him by law ; and if those
men only felt and appreciated the nature of their
true position, it would not be long before they would
be easily able to recognise in the League those who
had their real interest at heart.—(Cheers.) He did
not think that there at all existed that distinction be-
tween the farmer and the manufacturer that had been
imagined. He conceived that the farmer should be
in the same position as the artisan in the town, and the
same remedy that gave relief to the one should also re-
lieve the other; and he trusted that the time was not far
distant when the farmers would be identified with
the inhabitants of the .towns in this one common
cause for the advocacy of free-trade principles.—
(Hear, hear.) Heretofore the farmers had been
placed in a false position, from the fact of their hav-
ing joined the landlord class in hostile array to the
working classes, under the mistaken and most erro-
neous belief that the interests of both were nut iden-
tical.—(Hear, hear.) But this error was fast disap-
pearing, and he did hope that he would ere long, and
before the League had had many more meetings,
have the pleasure of hearing that numerous, indeed,
were the names of those who had followed the ex-
ample of Mr. Uaughton and Mr. Lattimore.—(Loud
cheers.) He (Mr. Cobden) congratulated those gen-
tlemen and the friends of the League upon hearing
those gentlemen had enrolled themselves in so good,
so noble, and so just a cause. They, as well as those
who had long advocated the cause of free trade,
were able to boast that they had never acted towards
the landlords in any other than a fair spirit, though
the landlords could not say the same for themselves.
—(Hear, hear.) Yet though the working classes
had been shut out from the enjoyment of all those
benefits which it was in the power of the landlords to
confer, the latter should not have to say that they
were kept out from the free-trade men • but they
always ready to receive their aid in the advance-
ment of this great moral struggle.—(Hear, hear.)
But whether they joined them or not, the League
would never change their principles—(Hear, hear)
—they would go on steadily and perseveringly, and
when they had at length arrived at the consummation
of their labours, which, beyond all doubt, could not
be far distant, it would then be acknowledged by all
parties that they had, by their perseverance in this
great and mighty struggle, achieved a great
and tremendous triumph.—(Loud cheers.) It was
not by ignorance of the duty they were called upon
to perform that they could achieve this triumph ; but
by acquiring and promulgating a thorough know-
ledge of those facts and arguments that spoke so
strongly in their favour ; facts which were not de-
rived from any class or any country in particular, but
which were applicable to, and should affect, all classes,
all countries, and in all times. The lion. Member
sat down amidst deafening and prolonged cheering.
Mr. W. J. Fox next presented himself, and was
received with loud and continued plaudits. He corn-
meticed by saying that, now that those meetings were
about to be suspended for a time, in order to give
place to other modes of disseminating the an-
nouncement of the progress of their cause ;
and as the topics of the day in con-
nexion with the free-trade principle had,
here and elsewhere, been continuously and
amply discussed ; it seemed to him not to be unde•
sirable that the general principle on which the League
had been founded, and above all, the objects, the
achievement of which it had in view, should be passed
in review before the meeting. —(Hear, hear, hear.)
They had assembled here to-night for the purpose of
being reminded, that it was essential to keep ever in
view the great truths by which their efforts had
hitherto been guided, and by a close adherence to
which they could alone expect success would crown
their efforts.—(Hear, hear.) Founded in truth and
justice, as their cause was, they had gained many
converts to it ; and there could be no doubt but that
it would eventuate in a most signal triumph.—(Hear,
hear.) And, however varied might be the opinions of
those who concurred with them in some points, and
differed from them in others; still it should be ad-
mitted that the League were not a political or party
body of men."—(Hear, hear.) They were not
a body of men who advocated one line of
argument to-day and another to-morrow, but they
were men who belonged to all phases of politics and all
classes of society.—(fiear,:hear.) The bond of their
union was based upon principles as solid and lasting
as those of the British Constitution, as enduring as
time, and as certain of success as was the inviola-
bility of the maxim that " truth was omnipotent and
must prevail."—(Loud cheers.) The principles on
which the League was founded were as simple, yet
as true, as any proposition in science ; there was no-
thing in them calculated to entangle or embarrass
the most sincere and earnest mind. One of those
principles advocated the justice of the axiom that
the working people should sell in the dearest market
and buy in the cheapest—that they should assist
their neighbours—and that the exigencies of the
State should not be met exclusively from the earnings
of the working classes.—(Hear, hear.) These were
the principles of the League, and they were so
plain and explicit that nobody could deny their
truth, except some few who, in the mortification they
felt, declared that they took more to heart their own
cause than the cause of the people.—(Cheers.) Now,
on the other hand, some of the most eminent men of
the day had laid down as just, and had advocated as
inviolable, the principles he had enumerated.—(Hear,
hear.) A gentleman from the United States, who
now sat near him, had put into his hand a document
which had just issued from the press in that country,
and which advocated the same cause that the League
did, with this difference only, that here in England
the farmers advocated the cause of the landed interest,
while in the United States they did the direct con
trary.—(Hear, hear, and cheers.) One passage iu
this book put him in mind of the story of the fig-
growers in Columbia. In that country it was at one
time imagined that the fig would grow there as luxu-
riously as in Turkey, provided that " some protection
should be given to native industry "—(Laughter)—
" and if it were, America would be found to be even-
tually the greatest fig-growing country in the world,
provided encouragement should be given to native in-
dustry in this particular, in order to enable certain
parties to cultivate the soil to such an extent as that
they could grow figs "—(Laughter)—or, in other
words, if a war should break out, in which America
should be compelled to act on the defensive, those
who laughed at her for attempting to grow, under
" protection, " that which belonged to their soils,
should say, " Oh, a fig for America."—(Laughter
and cheers.) However, there was some hope for the
future in the fact that there was to be no figgery in
England—(Laughter)—and if there was not, then
the only difference that existed in this respect be-
tween England and America was, that in the latter
country the people had declined the cultivation of a
luxury, while in England, a class had refused
an abundant supply, on fair terms, of one
of the first necessaries to human existence.—(Cheers.)
In fact, the principles on which the League was
based were as old as political economy itself, and,
therefore, the arguments in favour of the new doc-
trines of protection could not stand good against
them ; and, therefore, to deny their truth would be
to deny the truth of the political economy doctrine
(not that he should wonder at suoh an attempt, for
the hardihood with which such assertions were made
now-a-days was proverbial.)—(Laughter.) But, in
fact, the principles of the League were not only as old
as those of political economy, but bore a date coeval
with that of the first order of things, and were as true
in their object, and as harmonious in their organism-

tion, as that system of the movement of the heavenly
bodies planned and directed by the Great Creator of
the Universe, who first harmonised the order of the
heavenly bodies—who had created the zones,
frigid and temperate who had given to
the enjoyment of men those countries of
the Rhine and the Rhone, and their pro-
ducts of luxury and necessity, in order that men
should live to bles ao beneficent a Providence.—
(Loud cheers.) The principles of the League were
those which advocated the advancement of free trade,
and therefore he hoped they would prevail.—
(Cheers ) But he should here allude to an article
ha had seen in one of the London papers, in which a
hope was expressed that New cork and other towns
of the United States 'e ould be bombarded, and sug-
gesting a plan for such a proceeding.—(Cries of
" Oh, oh.") Tleey were angry enough when the
hot-headed young Prince de Joinville thought that
Brighton might conveniently be bombarded. Messrs.
Peel and Polk had been talking like two blustering
boys about the Oregon territory. And what was
that territory that was talked of? There were some
350,000 square miles of it, of which we claimed a
barren 100,000. ‘Vhat were they worth ? What
was all that land worth, without man upon it, his
industry, and products ?—(Cheers.) Why, the
Oregon territory was a desert. It was the Sahara
of America—the Botany Bay of the red man's
banishment. There are (continued the Hon. Gentle-
man) now upon it some few hundreds of Indians
and half-castes connected with the Hudson's
Bay Company. There are a, certain number
of squatters from the United States, and then
there are Indian tribes there, who rejoice in such
names as " Flat-head," " Slit-nose," and " Pointed-
heart." The buffaloes are the lords of the soil, un-
less the game-laws of the Indians shall make it other-
wise. It is a territory of no value, and to quarrel
about this? Why, you might just as well be in-
vited by Peel and Polk to fight about the mountains
in the moon.—(Laughter.) Let man have some-
thing to do with it—let those who can find no pro-
fitable home go there and use their labour in the
cultivation of the soil, and as the numbers increase,
and a stimulus is given to exertion, it will soon
become valuable,-and when man has occupied it, when
industry has then driven its car of peaceful conquest
about the borders of that vast land—when towns have
risen, and cities with their thronging numbers—
when the Rocky Mountains are tunnelled, when rail
and canal have united the Atlantic and the Pacific,
when the wa'ers of the Colombia swarm with steam-
boats, then will be the time to talk of the Oregon ter-
ritory; and then, without a regiment or line-of-battle
ship, without bombarding any town whatever, free
trade will conquer the Oregon' territory for
us, and will conquer the United States
fir us, as far as it is desirable, either for us or
them, that there should be any conquest what-
ever?—(Loud cheers.) Free trade will establish
there all the insignia of conquest. The products of
that part will come here, and we shall send the re-
sults of our labour there in return, and there will
scarcely be a labourer that will not bear on his back,
to his very shirt, the livery of 'Manchester. The
knife with which he carves his game will have the
mark of Sheffield on the blade, as testimony of supre-
macy ; in every handkerchief which waves on the banks
of the Missouri will be waving the English banner of
Spitalfields.—(Cheers.) Why they will he con-
quered—for they will work for us, and what can the
conquered do more ? They will grow corn for us,
and they will grind it and send us the flour for our
use. They will send us whatever they can produce,
and that we want, and there would he no necessity
for putting our hands in our pockets in order to pay
a governor who is for ever quarrelling with the re-
presentative of the people, or for soldiers to bayonet
the multitude.—(Cheers.) There is nothing on
earth worthier the name of empire than
this. It is a noble kind of dominion
—less degrading both for the one party and the
other, but less degrading than any sovereignty that
rules over men by armies. But it is not only from
nation to nation that the uniting influence of the
principle extends, but from class to class, where the
alienation is perhaps sometimes greater than amonest
those who dwell in the most remote latitudes. We
have very much need of the application of this
principle to this country, as may be seen in the ex-
perience of the last three years. Let there be two
or three bad harvests in succession, so as to send up
the price of corn to such a price as it attained some
years ago, and what becomes of the prosperity
of which there has been so much boast. It is for us
to look in time to the prevention of a recurrence of
those tremendous calamities which have already oc-
curred, and, in our prosperity, I confess that I see
reason, abundant reason on every hand for further
exertion to mitigate the amount of wretchedness with
which that prosperity is likely to be attended. For
in this metropolis what is the condition—l will not
say of hundreds only—but thausands and thousands ?
What is the state of the habitations of the poor ?
Nobody would live in a hovel that could hire a decent
house. I met, a short while since, with the report
of one of our religious societies—the City London
Mission—the Spitalfields Auxiliary of that mis-
sion's report, at the commencement of the
present year. The book, after alluding to the
illness of one of the missionaries, goes on to say that a
second missionary was shortly after seized with an
virulent attack of fever. Another of these cases oc •
curred from visitations, not from visiting a particular
infected rcom, but simply from continually inhaling
malaria in an undrained district. A third missionary
was in a bad state of health, by which he could only
make his visitations at limited periods, as was the
case with the fifth and the sixth missionary, and the
seventh missionary, in Spitalfields, was entirely laid
up for a period of eight weeks. That illness oc-
curred in spite of every precaution which was taken,
for no missionary was received into the mission who
was not in the prime of life, and who could not show
that he was in a good state of health. Here, then,
is the plague that requires to be stayed.
I know that there are propositions for sanatory legis-
lation ; but all the sanatory legislation in the world
will be useless if you do not, mitigate the poverty
that is locked up in un wholes° ne situations. You
are only touching the out Nard symptoms of the dis
ease, without improving the condition of the sufferers,
and you drive them into yet closer habitations.
You keep them in pestilential courts and corners,
and you give them no amendment to their condition.
The missionary who makes this report makes the fol-
lowing statement :—The extreme poverty and fre-
quent destitution of the Spitalfields population pre-
sents further difficulties in the way of their instruc-
tion ; for when the cravings of hunger are in-
flicting pain on the bodies of the people,
they are naturally indifferent to such matters. Very
many are familiar with these circumstances ; and
when the missionaries speak to them of religion,
while they are wanting bread, think that he is making
game of them. One missionary found, during the
severe weather of the last winter, a poor woman very
ill, without a particle of fire, with scarcely an article
of clothing to cover her person, and literally perish-
ing for want, and he dared not direct her attention to
the Saviour, or the Bread of Life, until he had first
saved her from starving, by furnisking her with the
bread that perisheth.—(Dear, hear.) The case of
that woman is in a curious way, but most un
consciously on the part of the writer of the
report, connected with the assertion that has been
repeatedly put forth by the advocates of the League.
Row came the poor creature in such a condition, so
that to speak of religious matters under the common
simile of food was looked upon as a mockery ? The
report then tells us that the woman was a widow,
aged 36, and was by trade a chair-bottomer and
lucifer-match maker. She had one child thirteen
years of age, and. one married daughter. Her husband
died about twelve years since, leaving her with three
small children, one of whom shortly afterwards died.
For the first six years she comfortably supported her-
self and family by slop-making, but at the end of
that time wages were reduced, and eventually she
was thrown out of work and a distress for
rent followed; and for five weeks herself
and family had to sleep in a cupboard.
For six months previous to the report the utmost she
had earned in one week amounted to 3s. 6d., and
sometimes it was only '2s. 6d., out of which she had
to pay 2s. for rent. Now, I request your attention
to the date. That poor woman lost her husband
twelve years ago—that is, twelve years from the
winter of 1844, when the missionary found her. For
six years after that she supported herself and family.
The twelve years bring us back to theyear 1832, when
the price of corn was 58s. Bd., then 525. 11d., then
465. 2d., then 395. 4d., then 48s. 6d., and then
555. 10d. That was for the firstsix years, when this poor
woman managed to maintain herself and family in com-
fort single-handed. But, says the missionary, wages
at the end of that time were very much reduced, and
then followed the distress for rent, the seizure of the beds
and the starvation that happened. In 1837 and 1838,
when the distress commenced, the price of wheat had
risen to 645. 7d. a quarter; in 1839, 70s. Bd.; in
1840, 665. 4d.; and in 1841, 645. 4d. There is the
history of the suffering of this poor woman—the abi-
lity in one case, and the inability in the other—the
comfort of six years, and the misery of six years fol-
lowing. Well, there are men such as Sir R. Inglis,
who support similar societies to this I have referred,
who talk of cold-hearted and muddle-headed econo-
mists who go to the root of the evil under which this
poor woman laboured. They are cold-hearted and
muddle-headed because they do not look at the outward
system merely, because they do not take a superficial
view of the causes of the poverty and distress which
exist amongst the population of this metropolis, and
of the country at large. I cannot dismiss this report
without adverting to another case, and for a very dif-
ferent reason. One of the missionaries relates the case
of a woman who had been out of work fur some time;
the superintendent made an order that she should
have a shilling a week for six weeks. On her being
informed of this she expressed her thankfulness for the

..-)

kindness—" Sir," said she "I cannot think of ecueP',.
ing it, as there are so many who have families to silo
port, and who are as poor as I am, let it be gicei4
one of them ; I have is. 6d. a• week to subsist on: :ad
the prowl: e of a faithful God to trust to--(i'do
cheers)—l have always been able to earn InYlive
bread, and while I can do that my conscience wi.nuel
me to take what so many need."—(G`ienit.,loo
cheering.) Noble creature ! I wish our nc"-I.„'
oald
as they are called, by a stretch of courtesy, ."00,11
imitate her magnanimity.—(Cheers.) Nay, witbell
their broad lands and their well-filled coffers--00,
with their hundreds pFr week, aoe, per daY c/e•
with all their sources of wea:th and emolumel'"
flowing over them i.e a goleen stream, do not cZhie
to take the very shilling that she refased. 'is et
there are such things as that in the country, 1t
tees
the League to be up and doing, to keep ever .bell
the public mind the principle alive, by ‘11,;40
such a plague can he stayed—it is for tiee
also to teach the unscrupulous class their auto
I said that they do not disdain t 0 thf
the shilling ; so they have no sYulgiose
with that poor, but noble-minded wbeo
and certainly they have no sympathy with her,rjee
she said that she would try to earn her own
and t:ust in Providence. That is net the course
their confidence takes. They are like the old °ce,'‘
woman who, when the water at the Quetie
Ferry was somewhat rough, was told bi
Rill
boatman to trust in Providence, said " Nse,
not trust in Providence sae ling as there is sl
br Doi'
Stirling."—(Laughter.) They will not trust bet
dence so long as an Act of Parliament can 15f pig
~
That is their bridge at Stirling, but I think lb„ttie
go very hard but Peel's Corn Bill will be h"eii
better than a bre to carry them over to the 'OO
of free-trade.-(Cheers.) Such cases asde bJ
show the propriety of the appeals nit joie
the League to the women of Great 1°,4 le,
We have been told that the League ought n-fligi
drag their countrywomen through the dirty le'
party politics. I should like to know who Ow 51e
ways of politics dirty ?—(Laughter and cheers.) .0/
League never did that—they never perverted legit.oil
tive power to sordid purposes—they need not he 'lois
or ashamed to call for woman's sympathy and vi,° 000
help, assured that she will honour herself moth 00
by contributing towards the destruction of thei_ntisf
of misery than by merely adding a little to enif4
here and there, which pull a leaf or
of the poisoned tree, but leave it still tok'self
amidst its baneful influence, spreading l'ocd'
tion around the soil in which it is PfAtill
The spirit of the League has been found fault
oror
but it is difficult to please those people. I h3V,6 5 foCt4
times had the honour of a personal notice--eivedli
there is one journal that has stereotyped
of what I say here, for is it always the salutoeSt
sentence, namely, that I entered into my -00
tirade against the aristocracy of the country. de
I wish just to say a word upon this subject. ity
not profess to be a very enthusiastic admirer tha
aristocracy.—(Laughter ard cheers.) 'or left
legally constituted aristocracy of my country ]sets
all that love, and all that reverence, which the
of my country require ; and is it my duty t 0 iel
5,
more ? But have never come here to exeore.no, of
opinion on the aristocracy or Suffrage questl.o" red
the 1
crop,
other groat questions which are put into ternertitp7
abeyance by the Anti-Corn-law agitatioo-""
abeyance from which I trust they will some &Int tt/
For we are looking with expectation that is °yeti°.
less valuable to us, as we see clearly that this ‘11.!6 dic
must be disposed of first, and the sooner it /tbet'
posed of the better.—(Hear, hear.) But all tett/
have ever said here about the aristocracy, "',:iet
said of certain members of the aristocracy,
their capacity of aristocrats, but in their caP°.• the/
tradeemen.—(Hear, hear.) In that character pt'
:.re, I apprehend, most legitimate subjects of
madversion here.—(llear.) A man is not t° apes
any special exemption because he keeps a CIICI
shop mid cheats his customers, though he suci
a member of the aristocracy. This is what oil
plain of. Tiley keep a great chandlers'-shur4 se;
everything most needful to the people in 1100
then pervert their poweri of legislation t... 6 aessui
the community pay the more.—(Hear.) The':ith
time when trading was thought inconsistent nth t
position such men occupied. The feudal b°llollol_,4
not mind robbing with a strong hand, but evl olts;
away contemptuously from tricking with
weights and protecting duties. So far back%4 ar
days of Elizabeth, the intellect of the cone",sf tit
marked out for derision the trading propens,itiletelief;
feudal aristocracy, and in Beaumont go ot,
play of the Beggar's Bush, a dispute between._ nee
tain military gentleman, proud of his aristocratiu The
tion, and a couple of merchants is portraYed:o"
aristocrat tells them that of this he is cert3lit tr
" once you buy and sell your gentility is goue.;eot ,
upon which the merchant retorts—" no, no,
poor argument—don't you, the lord of the o'oo
and sell the grass, the corn, the straw, th„e,
the cheese ;" and ten the other merel3ol,-teid
"and the butter—remember the butter--u°ll 040
out the butter "—(Long continued c •en
and from that day to this it has been borne/il-beet
that the butter should not be left out Jit
The only improvement on the practice of th°so,biP
is smearing all butter with the filthiness of t3/.' SOl6
is not of our own production.—(Hear, hear) Dpi
when the Nobles became tradesmen—wheneee*-08,
became dealers in various commodities—w"o9o,l
memory of the Plantagenets serves only t° riOf
better barter at Mark.lane—it is high time toft,,
that the people of this country are unfairly de° ci;lir,
I never picture to myself a; Duke of Richnnuiteb:
with his coronet on his head, and a corn samPiewhis!?
pocket—with a salmon in his right hand ands
bottle in his left, and enthroned upon A° teeti.
of butter—(Loud laughter and cheers)—au: for ~•'"
study his figure as I would Quarle's Embleu"
coronet is ornamented by legislative powers, set
are used to enact protective duties. The coren'
symbol of high rents and high prices for grairl'or
coronet, thrown into the scale with salmoc,,
the fish-eater pay more. The coronet fills the
ees°,
tom of the whisky-bottle ; and, last of all, the rei,'
pokes a hole into the firkin of butter, in order to
in the pitch and tar.—(Laughter and great cife
Why is this abasement of all dignity of stab(lt
l,
of all majesty of legislative power ? canu°A riv
look the character of the tradesman—we caun„-oia,
l,
get one character in the other. We mustnd v
the whole, and not isolated parts, and beleces
peers of Parliament the compeers of pedlars v 0
servatives of the Constitution the conserva" letv-
canary seed—the lords of the land and the e 4).
of the lard—the Knights of' the Garter eubtetj
knights of the grease-pot.--(lmmense laugrts
It is well that there are men of different o°o4o
temperament in that body—that there are the's: oe
(slightly altering the burden of Robert Burnt' cot'
song) can say to themselves, and a few nobs°
panionions—
" A Lord's a man for a' that." ti
Those are the men who, conscious that see'' re j
done much for them, are desirous in their tu? v;
doing something for society—who have a seAtb
the responsibility of their station, combined "It Or
sense of the responsibility of legislators—wh°
ennobled by their title, but who ennoble the,ith
who redeem the name of the class with whit deb,
are associated, and to whom the rest must be in 017,
that the name of " hereditary nobility" does no!
come a foul stench in the nostrils of hunt 11,1
(Loud and continued cheering.) But I„„rui. 7.0 fP;
turn to the point whence I started. .-"et.,-.004"
he a cessation for a time of these ineei eere,
—they will be suspended, but the exertions °be en
whom you have so often heard here willeed,
tinued—these exertions will not be suspenl" ot"of
from night to night, as the opportunity In' boll,
they will endeavour to impress on the Men/iteee /f
the Legislature the principles which they decease%
this meeting ; their words will go forth V ite 0111
the press throughout the whole length an",; rot sir.,
of the land, teaching millions of the peel" colui
country, and millions of the people of other ter
tries, their rights. These lessons will he tl.
throughout the continent of Europe and aer°l;
wide Atlantic, and all at last, struck by 1,,,,
Oill t.
plicity, earnestness, truth, and information, ,bear
determined in the pursuit of that great object, n'opelf
down the spirit of party, and deprive 03°,,
of all its grace and ornament, until 111',
in deference to public opinion, they mush; otiejP
up those odious and ill-gotten gains, and, 5'll:S
this ill advised measure.—(Hear, hear.) few
meetings will be suspended, but the exertions 11°00;
individuals, and of others in co-operation wits
will not be suspended,—as the season adven—igil".
will toil at the good work, passing with thee rtter'
of steam from one part of the country ae°6s(se;
taking advantage of that gloomy spirit of (1155'004t,'
tion—that restlessness of inquiry, and that oPe° telt
conviction which is becoming more and 51°,64
lent among the body of the tenant-farmers;
argue with those who will hear reason,
.10 OS ey I
warn those who appear infatuated; they "• besrl •
that they have only the good of all classes, all se'
•
and they will continue their labours untiring P Tessb:
may success attend them.—(Loud cheers.) mine:
meetings will be suspended, but its Pr°l3rine;
Members will not abandon the rights which Brittsll
industry has a right to claim. Specimens ofgent vs
industry, British skill, and enterprise and ge;roos °
be presented here for contemplation as sPec'n
what our people can do; demanding atteutiS
those who can admire art and ingenuity, ellhe res_dw
ing with mute but eloquent arguments fort who s-
ration of industry to its rights, that those
not el,
capable of so much skill and exertion nlaYieb 0104
without recompense, and that they maj vv',
and suffered to compete with free ;pests
the inhabitants of other nations. These ootirs
ing; will be suspended; but theitsrostisei
of events will still proceed, the a 0010,0:i
of cheapness and dearness—of prosper.,
lamity—the course of events which has saw
o