The Sun.
London, England, 1845-12-18 00:00:00

GREAT MEETOG

OF TILE
ANTI-C RN- AW
iN LEAGUE
CbVEN r-GARDEN THEATRE.
Theft

iltasbetei elafisrtst great aggregate meetirg of the League took
night, in the Theatre Royal, Covent-garden.
the as been our lot to visit, as the faithful chronicler for
elatr,!'°lic information, every meeting of the League
we 24as taken place within this spacious building ; but
witzust on
that, of all the demonstrations we ever
Poeored in favour of free trade, and the principles exceeded
by the League, the one of last night exceeded
tepee as. anticipated an immense meeting, in conse•
vrofhthe lately-published opinions of Lord J. Russell,
tore.r°rPt-th, and others, in favour of a repeal of the
of kit"ll, but we were astounded by the demonstration
No, NIL Long before the opedna' of the doors every
issoael„t() the theatre was choked up by masses of
the di ueings, all anxious to obtain admission ; anti when
liish,.,4°rs were opened the rush was tremendous, and
to s„:usc in a very few minutes was filled to suffocation
Ills; 3' Part. The arrival of Mr. Cobden, Mr. Villiers,
stki attison, Mr. Milner Gibson, and other influential
lasSPlTam.,inent members of the League, was hailed with
the Plaudits. The theatre, before the commencement of
the meeting and through its duration, presented one of
tt magnificent spectacles it is possible to imagine.
It. ea "e? Platform we noticed the Hon. C. P. Villiers, M.P.;
rain n, Esq , M.P. ; John Bright, Esq., M.P. ; T. C.
I,saarg,7r, Esq., M.P.; Henry Metcalf, Esq., M.P. ;
-'4lphinston, Esq., M.P.; Benjamin Smith, Esq,
Pails; Thomas Milner Gibson, Esq., M.P. ; James
'ot, Z3l) Esq., M.P. ; Arthur Paulson, Esq. ; W. J.
%Ipta• ; William Metcalf, Esq. ; Adam Smith, Esq ;
iLe°gan ; John M'Clode, Esq. ; W. A. Wilkin•
eq ; P. A. Taylor, Esq. ; Norman Wilkinson,
,aar6 r• Stoner ; William Laver, Esq. ; Colonel
Ns-7 Dr. Lobb • George Stephenson, Esq. ; A.
'4lO ; H. Fowler, Esq. ; Henry Staples Foster,
Zitlkii.Thnlbride,-e • J. Phillips. Esq ; Henry Lloyd
'Ore ;' Rev. S. Luke ; J. A. St. John, Esq. ;
polls John, Esq ; Wm. Mortimer, Esq. ; Wm.
,Iltt,t'„r‘sq., Hertford ; B. M. Roberts, Esq. ; J. Per-
„etsalomerset ; J. Somers, Bridgewater ; J. Col-
ittst reerset ; Alfred Levibond, Middlezoy, Bridge-
si Wm. Baynes, Bart. ; T. M. Robinson, Esq.;
bssilk tt'l, Esq., Manchester • Hugo Reid, Esq. ;
r 4 trisopr q., Stilton ; F. 'Scheer, Esq., Cherapanot,
!-14lisit"ttrgs Siberia ; Ralph Ricardo, Esq. ; James
• s`e°. Esq. ; John Moss, Esq.. Derby ; P. Davy,
rtklbrediton ; H. L. Keeling, Esq. ; Sylvanus Par-
`astl• ; Robert Price, Esq. ; and Summers Har-
k• d4l•
qehuseYell o'clock, the time appointed for commencing
dness of the meeting,
ti!lsis°llDaaT came forward, amid tremendous cheering,
-altsea that Mr. Villiers had kindly consented, in the
Ass'
st-' f their friend Mr. Wilson, to take the chair.—
he? pisst,)
' I'll.l.lElls, Esq., M.P., took the chair amid great
the g,ltnd some confusion, and cries of" Open the doors
o"°xes " occasioned by the extremely crowded
41 ,°' the' house. When silence and order had
mdies 119 measure been restored, he said—
'else and Gentlemen, a person has been di-
ltle sto open the doors of the boxes, which
,t 44, esit's°lls seem anxious should be done.--;Cheers,
ass Pose
of " That's right.") Ladies and gentlemen, the
:se zoo Pose for which I have to ask your attention for
thll'ent is to explain the reason why I should oc-
t' ere chair this evening. It was only a few minutes
:raoed „entered this theatre this evening that I was in-
e,'" as Illy friends around me that the gentleman
wires so frequently, and so efficiently, presided as
ri of these meetings, was seriously and
glattel,ll,_ indisposed ; and the gentleman who in-
s• ibti",ar'to me, stated that it would be convenient
of": th°Z supply the place of our friend Mr. Wilson
L'cgtes,ening. Ladies and gentlemen, when the re-
dilcso„7 made to me to preside over the meeting, I
misgivings that it would be no easy duty to
Zhis▪ ito-,,D, and I at first declined to discharge it ; but
LI I h;:iltlY I assented to occupy the chair this evening,
Cruiion°° upon the principle which I—(Great noise and
Lctite occasioned by the over-crowded state of the
dtee-41' the anxiety of parties to obtain admission.)
e'te rand any
this confusion does not
;Nies4.°m any spirit of disrespect to the
tl't of° or its object, but only from an over-zeal on the
ats Persons to obtain places where they can see and
Nii.Ladies and gentlemen, I knew it would be no
tkabitit to preside on this occasion, and I really did
d° so when the request was made to me for
teen Purpose than that which, for the last six or
tlt•
i.dearss has always actuated me with respect to the
'operaternslaw League—namely, to cordially co-
;Ala with them whenever my humble services
,1111e0117 made available.—(Great cheering.) I
1. "rs er the difficulties that beset the repeal of the
Lvatu.-ws before the establishment of the Anti-Corn-law
• pet"4 I have been always of opinion, that if some
Itterfld, intelligent body was not originated, there
e •a•I: e'raY prospect of success for the cause of the
ft 9111; rePealers-- (Cheers)—and because I earnestly
,„14Ydotbice the repeal of the corn-laws, I have thought
ss,t to place my feeble services when they were
Az (4,14 at the disposal of the Anti-Corn-law League.
--,‘"l to heering.) Notwithstanding the errors
t-41,,P05i been committed by some of the gentlemen
13,"„'ne body of the Anti Corn-law League, I am
f "°W that if our opponents should come to their
lore Clad consent to the abolition of the corn-laws be-
'A` Itoii,People are maddened by starvation and want,
'ktti;;„'' be the measures that have been adopted by the
)4eon'4ll-law League that had brought about so glorious
Lto -,;tinunation.—(Cheers.) One of the reasons for which
Ipleerely regret the absence of our respected friend
to y.'hilson is, that I know it was his intention to detail
mtt•
i°l the extraordinary exertions which have keen
•-ge Le• e Y our friends, and those who represented
14disphane in the provinces, and which afford clear and
,°Pita's-table proof of the extent to which conversion to our
"lioD;tis and conviction of their truth has gone.—(Cheers.)
thee- es it is satisfactory to our friends to observe that,
.74asbie they go, or their names are mentioned, thellir
• e, services are duly appreciated and gratefe y
itSZteclged.—(Great cheering.) Gentlemen, it would
s vir!,;l have been one part of the address of my friend
'qedial:'soss to congratulate you, as I do myself, most
eheiupon the accession of strength we have lately
,''utt,4" to our cause, in the conversion of some of the
Ptis"Tinent statesmen existing in this country to the
,71.44 r n law ti--orsa.nadviewspropounded in this theatre by the
ti
League.—(Loud cheering.) We do
,‘1),:oe
by
that those persons who alone could be referred
• th Crown to form an Administration, have come
conclusion that they would be no longer
„Vas' to withholding one of the most obvious
~Iht of the people of -this country—the plain
feeding themselves.—(Cheers.) We have now
%VI Men who can in the present state of affairs, be
ttik.4' to the councils 'and the assistance of their Soite-
ena
`od'orceording their opinions in favour of free trade,
01es—ensuing the existence any longer of a duty on
a7,core._/Cheers.) Lord John Russell, there can
Zioo();l°Ubt—(6 slat cheering)—is a free trader, and in
repeal oaf the corn-laws. He has, in a bold,
~,:ilsoriTar and intehl:.Srenntg.way, made that manifest to
) You have all, no doubt,
414 hi, •rece(nGtreaatdcresee
d s t'o the electors of the City of
%sliiott'ns by h' h he has plainly shown 7hat his
blks.7ll are,- andwicleaving no doubt as to what his inten-
se orlt was with no
the future are also.—(Cheers.)
% that I read that Noble Lord's address, be-
,▪
"a cannot but recollect that in the last
"„ h
e voted with the motion that I made for the
atti °II the corn-laws ; and by the speeches that e
Ztfe,,• e
"Po during the last session he exhibited himself
;44 they alive to all the injury and miscief
curs-laws had produced —(Cheers)—and pre-
tesll,,,,that a time might arrive when they should be
DeoTed from calmly considering the question of the
'sty of the corn-laws, and that when scarcity came.
Wouldi be obliged at once to act, and repeal those ?b
laws. I did not therefore read this address with All
a~eWhen the emergency arrived.—(Cheers.)
ttee;that that emergency has arisen, and that, unless
ss's -"ll=',' be done, an that without delay, it is obviouse
f'qvti—e°Pie of this country will be put to considerable
_,411'i5,..-°.,os.—(cheers.) Lord John Russell has come
111 11: at a most opportune moment to declare that he_
14'
es
h." noparty to obstruct the procuring of food
people.-(Loud (Loud cheers.) Gentlemen, it
dhas
assert de."—it has not been contradicte.
Ly it h e • d the strongest confirmation,
.Qgbt
the 15 received
._resignationt ofe
Sir Robert Peel, that he has
; als,h.rea mind to the conclusion that the
.peo-
,, ant so feed theasselves.—(Tremendous cheering.)
:s "Its conversion and conviction has been brought
t
;glatith:s matter of indifference to us.—(Cheers.) I
;god
a-aae been the bad potatoes—(Laughter).—or the
l
th,rguments that have been used in favour ofarepse
Lay, -meorn-laws.—(lnareased laughter.)—Be that. it
fs'eeti;" fact of such a conversion and conviction has
,°nounced, and it is for the people to turn
This
"'e_t• eilLstance to the best account.—(Cheers.) a
be the great difficulty: we have arrived atl
eel' 41(1 nobody knows what will be the resu
t.—
• Say, that if these public men are true to you,
,i'osio'';°ll are true to yourselves, there can be no difficulty.
• L,ta--(Chee ) If Lord John Russell is of opinion
onet (Cheers.)
s ought to be abolished, and
;` •
his beenaw summoned to the councils
'„ Sovereign and commissioned to form.
'aeo'';`rnment, let him declare that he will form it on
It'R 5 -y"leir,le of abolishing the corn-laws.—(Great cheer-
lf 1;s
skins
air Robert Peel has been properly represented—
t° b reiSlly been convinced that the corn-laws ought
°lbata•oolishe,i—then let him come forward andstrenu-
Ne:jtud faits, fully support Lord John Russell .—(i
eheerin -.) If we can be thoroughly con-
Ste a that thtese tssso men, of these two parties,
it a esali
ueirssaY earnest and honest in this purpose,
ts„ maalies the duty as it is the itsterest, of this, great andlw
Ett-`4l and intellectual association--the Anti-Corn-law e
tAtili+ to devote their energies in support of Lora ~...h
beliitue en" and, Sir R. Peel.—(Great cheering.) Now I do
‘holit,:" if we can found the common ground of the total
4,4'1°110f the corn-laws for each of these parties to stand
Nye st; the month of February will not pass over before
14ot all relieve the statute-book of one of the foulest
ali,Vhat ever stained it.—(Great cheering.) If I
it w be allowed to offer one single syllable of advice,
of t~uld be, let the people depend upon themselves, for
depe,',l I am assured, that if the people of this country
pith d upon anything—upon any person or persons—
they more Confidence and reliance than upon themselves,
lloitruo the greatest risk of being deceived and disap-
teot
the(.ed•—Cheers.) The time has now arrived, the pre
parcla moment.—(Cheers.) We have got these great
pobli.es such a state of' confusion—we have got these
• lo men in such a fix—(Great laughter)—that if we
do justice to ourselves in this cause, nothing will
vent our succeeding.—(Cheers.) This is the moment
ell every person—when all men are required to make

every effort and sacrifice, in order to convey to men
who are in power the unmistakeable determination of
the peeple no longer to put up with a tax on their food.
Geneenien, I had no intention of presiding at this meet-
ing ; I was not advertised to do so, and I aill not stand
for a moment in the wav of other members who are
more eloquent than myselle and who are anxious to ad-
dress you. I beg at sexy to call upon Richard Cobden.
Mr. Cobden then came forwerd, amid reiterated
cheering, and attempted to speak, but for several minutes
he was totally inaudible. Ile attempted oft and again
to address the meeting, but every new attempt was
drowned in acclainatiof Silence being somewhat re-
stored,
Mr. COBDEN spoke as follows :—I think some of the
protection societies would be glad to have our overflow
to-night.—(Cheers.) If this agitation continue we shall
have to build an edifice as large as St. Paul's to hold the
Leaguers.—(inthusiastic cheering and laughter.) I be-
lieve to-day we have had applications for 30,000 tickets
of admission. There are many thousands around this
building who cannot be accommodated, and
there are a great many more inside than can
be comfortable.—(Loud cheers.) But I have fall
confidence in the disposition of 211 good Leaguers to ac-
commodate each other, and I must say, that I have seen
in front of me every disposition to be quiet ; but it seems
to-night, as I have observed it gcceraely in my great ex-
perience of public meetings, that if there be any disorder,
it is always amongst the aristocracy on the platform. I
think this meeting is a sufficient proof of the circum-
stances under which we meet to-night. The manner in
which we are gathered together; the excited feeling which
animates all present, indicate something peculiar in the
present phase of our movement. I do not know how it is,
but RI see others excited and inclined to throw up their
hats, it makes me look grave and serious, because I
always think there is most danger when the people are
least on their guard in this wicked world.—(Cheers.)
Doubtless we have brought our cause to a new position.
We have got it in the hands of the politicians ; the ins
and the outs are quarrelling over it e but I am
anxious to impress upon you and upon our
friends throughout the kingdom (for what we
say hero is read by hundreds and thousands elsewhere)
that it is not our business to form Cabinets—to choose
individuals who shall carry out our principles. We
are not to trust to others to do our work. Wo are
not to feel confident that the work will be done until it
is done, and I shall not col sider that it is done until I
see the Act wet from the printer's containing the total
abolition of the corn-laws.—(Loud cheers.) Now I
have always expected that in the course of this agita-
tation we should knock one or two Governments on the
head before we succeeded.—(Cheers.) The Government
of 1841 can hardly be said to have been killed by the
corn-law ; it took the corn-law as a last desperate
dose, in hopes to cure it of a long and lingering dis-
ease.—(Cheers.) But it proved fatal.—(Renewed cheers
and laughter.) I think, however, that we may say that
the last Government has died of the corn-law, and our
business must be to try and make the fate of the last
Government a warning to the next.—e Cheers.) We
certainly do not yet exactly know why Sir Robert Peel
ran away from his corn-law. We have had no explana-
tion. I thought when I came from the country that I
might get a little behind the scenes, and learn something
about it. But I am as much in the dark now as when
I was in Lancashire.—(Loud cheers.) I can't learn
why Sir Robert Peel " bolted."—(Great laughter.)
It was his own law. He passed it in
1842, . after considerable deliberation. It was not
asked by the people, for I know that some two or three
millions petitioned against it. It was his own handiwork,
in defiance of the people ; and now, in 1845, with the
same Parliament to back him, he suddenly runs away,
and leaves his sliding-scale as a legacy to his successors.
—(Cheers.) Now, if he had carried his corn-law with
him—(Cheers)—if he had only carried off his sliding-
scale to Tamworth—l do not th nk we should have made
many inquiries about him ; but he has left his law, ar.d
no one knows how he is going to deal with it
in future. When we meet in Parliameut, which
may be early next month at all events I
should say the sooner the better—(Cheers)—the first
thing for which I shall look with great interest will be
the reason of this sudden dissolution of the Cabinet. I
shall await Sir Robert Peel's explanation with great
interest. He, doubtless, will be able to tell us whether
the facts collected by his Commissioners in Ireland and
in England were of a nature to impress him with the
idea that we were verging on a probable famine in one
country, if not in both? If that be the case, I suppose
he will tell us that he at least was ready to subvert his
own handiwork, the sliding scale. Well, that being the
case, I 'presume he will then assist us to do what
he could not himself accomplish with his refractory
Cabinet.— (Cheers.) I expect—l don't know whether I
am rash in expecting so much—but I do anticipate that
straightforward course from him.—(Great cheering.)
There are people who tell us that this corn-law must not
be suspeuded suddenly, that it must not be dealt with
rashly and procipitately ; but that if we are to have a
repeal of the corn-laws it must be done gradually. Well,
that might have been in the eyes of some a very -states-
man-like way of doing the business six or seven years
ago. Some would have thought last year, when wheat
was 40s. a quarter, that if a law had been passed then
providing for the extinction of the corn-laws in
two or three years, that would have been no very bad
measure ; but who would propose now to pass a law im-
posing a fixed duty on corn, next spring to take off 3s.
or 45., the next spring to reduce it still further, and so
on, till none was left?—(Loud cheers.) That won't suit
the exigencies of the present moment.—(Cheers.) Our
wise Legislature would not deal with the question
when they might have done so with advan-
tage to their own policy. We were pressing
on the Government to deal with the corn-
laws last year, and the year before, when
wheat was 475. per quarter •, but we were told then that
we were rash men—that the corn-law had not had a
fair trial—that we must wait to see how it worked.
Now they do see how it has worked.—(Cheers.) But
there is no time for temporising now. Nature has
stepped in. Providence has stepped in—has inflicted a
famine on the land, and has set at nought all the con-
trivances, the delays, and the modifications of States.—
(Great cheering.) There is now but one course to pur-
sue. It is no use asking us for a feather bed to drop the
aristocracy on. We might if we had one to offer them,
but they can have no feather bed now.—(Cheers
and laughter.) They must have a total and immediate
repeal of the corn-laws; not because the League demand
it—not out of any deference to the Shibboleth of a club
like ours; no, we don't wish to inflict any unnecessary
humiliation on the landowners ; but they have put off
this good work so long that nature has stepped in, and
now they must bow to the law of nature without de-
lay.—(Great cheering.) Well, we meet Parliament
next session with, I take it for granted, but one propo-
sition before us, and that is the immediate abolition
of the corn-laws.—(Applause.) No Minister can take
office without proposing that measure. Whether
Sir Robert Peel or Lord John Russell, I defy them to
take office without coming to the House of Commons
and in the Queen's speech proposing that measure.—
(Loud and continued cheering.) No one would exult
over them. It is not our doing after all. We have
merely prepared the public mind, in some degree, to
take advantage of a great national calamity. But it is
not so well prepared as if they had given us two or
three years more. The potato crop has tripped up the
heels of Sir Robert Peel; but it has also stopped our
registration agents. I should have liked another year
or two to have qualified for the counties.—(Cheers.)
We would then have shown the monopolist landowners
that we can transfer power in this country from the
hands of an exclusive class totally into the hands
of middle and industrious classes.—(Loud cheering.)
We shall go on with that movement, and I hope
it will never stop.—(Cheers.) But we shall have to deal
with the crisis of the corn question next session.—
(Hear.) The Queen's speech, within a month of this
time, must recommend the abolition of the corn-law.—
(Great applause.) I want to get into the House of Com-
mons again, to have some talk about this question. It is
very different work there, I assure you, to talking in
these meetings every day, where there are no opponents.
I don't know how it is, but I have that quality.of com-
bativeness, as the phrenologists call it, so inherent
in me, that unless I meet some opposition I am as
dull as ditch water.—(Loud cheers and laughter.) Now,
there is no man to be found at large, out of the
House of Commons, to say one word in defence of
the corn-laws. I am anxious, therefore, to meet these
protectionists in the House of Commons. Yet I don't
know—it will be an odd scene when we assemble next
session—for we shall not know where to sit.—(Great
laughter.) There will be such a gathering in the lobbies
—one saying to the other, " Which side are you going
to sit on ?" Then, the greatest subject of interest will
be, to see where Sir Robert Peel is to sit.—(Laughter.)
I should not wonder if we should have to find him a
chair, and put him in the middle of the floor.—(Renewed
laughter, and cheers.) Now, I shall be somewhat inte-
rested to hear the arguments that will be used by the
protectionists in defence of this corn-law. Recollect,
the debate will come on with respect to the present
exigencies of the moment. The corn-law must
be suspended instantly. If Lord John Russell
take office—he will be a bold man if he does—but
if he does, I suppose he will either suspend the law the
next day by an Order in Council, or will call us together,
and submit his proposition to suspend that corn-law at
once—(Great cheering)—or, if he does not do that, he
won't hold office a week.— (Cheers.) Then the debate
will turn on the necessity of suspending this corn-law,
and we shall have gentlemen getting up from Dorset-
shire and Essex protesting that there is great abun-
dance of everything in the country, that there is no
scarcity at all, no potato rot, and a full average
quantity of wheat. Then I should not wonder if
we should have some very novel receipts for feeding
the people.—(Loud cheers and laughter.) Dr.
Buckland has lately been publishing a paper,
which he read before the Ashmolean Society at
Oxford, and he has shown, you know, that people can
live very well on peas—that they get on tolerably
well with beans, and if there is nothing else, they can
live pretty well on mangel wurzel.—(Great laughter.)
And he gives an instance, you know, of one good lady
who lived, I don't know how many days, by sucking the
--3, out of her white pocket handkerchief.—(Renewed
m.— "eneel wurzel, starch, and beans, mixed
laughter.) nee - 'nr I should think, would make
with a little curry p0wa.....: - 'Tndignant laughter.)
a rich treat for starving people.--,_
l
Well, we shall have divisions as well as uelheq'tes' and
I should like to see the names of those goon
men in the House of Commons who will vote
against opening the ports—that is, of those men who
will declare that we shan't he treated as well as Rus-
sians, Turks, Poles, and Dutchmen.—(Cheers.) If
they out-vote us on that proposition we shall have a
general election, and I should like to see some of those
curry powder catsdidates that will go down. I would
advise you to get some curry powder ready; a little
hot water with a pinch of curry powder stirred
up makes a man very comfortable to go to bed with!
—(Laughter.) Try it on some of the protection can-
didates.—(Great laughter.) But really this is no
laughing matter after all. As my friend Mr. Villiers

ays, this is now vary much 0. question between Sir It. r
Peel and Lord J. Russell. For myself, I have no reason
to feel any very great respect for Sir R. Pe 1. lie is
the only man in the House of Commons that I could

never speak a word to in private without forfeiting my
own respect. But though I say that, and though I ant
justified in saying it, yet I will add, that so
deeply have I this question of the corn-laws at heart,
that if Sir R. Peel will take the same manly, straightfor-
ward part that Lord John Russell has taken —if be will
avow an intehigible course of action without any mysti-
fication, I will as heartily co operate with him as wi:h
any man in the House of Commons—(Tremendous ap-
plause)—and I should think that the time has come when
every statesman, of whatever party, who has a particle of
intelligence and conscience, must be anxious to remove
this question of supplying the food of the people out of
the category of party polities.—(Cheers.) The respon-
sibility of supplying the people with food is one which
no Government ought even to take upon itself. If by
any sudden calamity of flood or fire the material riches
of the country should be destroyed, would the p.-ople
blame the Government ? No, they would rally round
it; and why should they not do so when, through the
dispensation of Providence, there is a dericieLcy of food?
Why, because the Government has arrogated to itself
finctions which belong not to it, but to nature. If
they will take upon themselves superhuman functions,
they will be held responsible fur Divine inflictions.
But though I say that in reference to the past Govern-
ment, this I will also say, that it is to be regretted we
have such a tale to tell, because I know that this is a
question which many of them had nearest their hearts
—(Cheers)—and I now say, that if Sir Robert Peel will
only take up this question as Lord John Russell has
taken it up, and that he will promise that there is to be
no my stitication about it, as there was upon a former
occasion, then I pledge myself that I will most heartily
co-operate with him and his party when he shall intro-
duce this measure in the House of Common=.—(Cheers.)
And, let me tell these statesmen that the time is now
come when the statesmen of every party, who have
a particle of integrity or inteligence left, must
yield to the pressing and irresistible demands of the
people, and put aside for the present all conside-
rations of party politics.—(Hear, hear, and cheers.)
Look at the position of the present Ministry,
or of any Ministry who will persevere at this time of
day in refusing this demand of the people of this
country.—(Cheers.) What position can any Minister
he in who will attempt to maintain a tax upon food ?
(Chevrs.) If the food of the people should fall short,
will they not immediatety assail the Government? That
they will not do so is what no Government should
assume.—(Hear, hear.) Why should the Government
assume that a scarcity will or will not take place? Why
should the Government say that that will or will not
take place, which can be assumed by the hands of Provi-
dence alone, and which Providence alone can dispose of?
—(Cheers.) ' Why should we seek to visit the Govern-
ment with that which we believe to be a visitation of-
Providence, namely a deficiency of the liar-
vest?—(Hear)—and why should the Government
seek to visit the consequences of the dispensations of
Providence upon the people ?—(Cheers.) Will the
Government pretend to say that they should con-
tinue a tax upon the people's bread because of this

year's rot in the potato?—(Hear, hear.) Let me put a
ccnverse proposition, and suppose that all the best and
most valuable fruits of the earth were swept away, would
the people then be found resisting the efforts of the
Government to avert or alleviate the calamity ?

(Hear, hear.) On the contrary, would they not be found
ready to rally round the Government, and to render all
the assistance in their power to relieve the country from
such a calamity ?—(Cheers.) Then why should not the
Government take the part of the people, now that that
part devolves upon them ?—(Cheers.) They have not
done so heretofore, because they feared to offend a
party ; but now the Government, at least Sir Robert
Peel's Government, are compelled to acknowledge that
they are obliged to accede this question because they can
not do otherwise.—(Loud cheers.) If he should not
succeed, I do hope to see such a set of statesmen brought
together as shall evince an anxiety to get rid of those
laws which impose restrictions on food.—(Cheers.)
There is, however, another reason why we should hope
that we will never again be visited with a vision of
this ghost of restriction, and that is, that
the protectionists have now almost despaired of ever
being able to rally a meeting in their favour again.—
(Cheers.) I say, then, let Sir Robert Peel and Lord
Joh❑ Russell put an end to this senseless and ridiculous
war against the common rights of humanity by making
a united resolution to propose, in the next session of
Parliament, a proposition for the total and permanent
abolition of the corn-laws.--(Loud cheers.) But then
they talk of making terms for a re-adjustment of these
laws, and for compensation, and for a great many
other things.—(Laughter.) I am told that Sir Robert
Peel has a hundred different projects of one sort or
another to mix up with his proposition for repeal-
ing the corn-laws ; but we will tell him,
that whatever his propositions may be, we
will have a total, unequivocal repeal of the corn-laws,
and nothing less.—(Loud cheers.) We have had too
much of these propositions already—(Cheers)—we will
have no more of them.—(Cheers.) In the north of
England the people have a very " vulgar," but a very
usetul and a very popular " prejudice " in favour of
" doing one thing at a tune."—(Cheers.) And those
ople have had too much of such things as undertaking
a great number of projects at one time, and therefore
they say, let us have these corn-laws dealt with first.
(Cheers.); I have also been told that Sir Robert Peel has
some such project in his head as a " compensation to the
landlords."—(Oh.) Now, all I can say is, that Sir Robert
has not been very successful hitherto in his efforts
to conciliate the people of this country; but if ha perse-
vere in this, he will prove himself as great an enemyof the
people. as it he neverconsented to a repeal of thecorn-laws.
IC( w I warn others against this new mode of taxation ;
for great as the grievance of " protection " has been felt,
I do believe that, even if you were to bring forward all
the legislative enac ments for the last hundred years,
) ou would not find one so great a grievance as this
would be, eve❑ in the corn-law itself.—(Hear, hear.) If
the Government really wish to aim at the death of the
corn-laws without any additions or restrictions,
let them do so at once— (Hear, hear)—but if
they want to impose renewed restrictions, let
them, before they do so, look at the manner in which
the people have already been cheated and robbed and
bamboozled under the plea of taxation.—(Loud cheers.)
The Hon. Member having alluded to the system of taxa-
tion 150 years ago, when the probate and legacy duty
pressed heavily on the tradesmen of England, the effects
of which he illustrated by the operation of that tax
upon the sons of tradesmen, he then continued
by saying: Three years ago, when we met
in Palace-yard upon this question, a nobleman
attended the meeting and asked us what we wanted
—(Laughter)—and, when we told him, ho very modestly
replied that we might just as well hope to unseat the
Monarchy as to achieve our object."—(Cheers and
laughter.) Well, the same energy which we then applied
to our purpose with a Few, we have for the last seven
years never failed to exert until our numbers have now
became so great that we have succeeded in puttiug
down those who conceived they were placed above us,
for ever.—(Cheers.) That is now our position ; and I
warn Sir Robert Peel not to force us, by any such
measure as " compensation," into a discussion of the
burdens which peculiarly press upon land.—(Loud
cheering.) Sir Robert Peel and his party, nor any other
party, can now meet with any hope of proposing any
measure for what they may choose to call a " modifi-
cation" of the corn-laws.—(Cheers.) No ; the time has
gone by for that, and therefore I would advise them to
do justice to the people speedily and promptly—Cheers)
—and if we are satisfied to let bygones be bygones, and
accept of a repeal of the corn-laws without any re
strictions or compensations, I think they ought to be
very well satisfied.—(Great cheering.) The Hon. Mem-
ber then alluded to some observation of Mr. Vernon
Smith, and proceeded to say that it afforded
him great pleasure to observe that the
proceedings at Conciliation Hall, in Dublin,
were in favour of this movement, and that Mr. O'Con-
nell had said that it afforded him great pleasure to ob-
serve that the people of England were so near the
achievement of the repeal of the corn-laws.—(Cheers.)
From the beginning of the agitation of this question,
(continued Mr. Cobden,) Mr. O'Connell has taken the
part of the people of England.—(Loud cheers.)
I never considered Mr. O'Connell as advocat-
ing that measure solely for the benefit of
England, so much as because he believed that the repeal
of the corn-laws would not only benefit this country, but
also relieve the poor peasant of his own country, and
affard them better food than the " lumper potato."—
(Cheers.) Therefore, I say, then, that upon this ques-
tion we are glad to have the co-operation of Mr. O'Con-
nell, and that we have found a point at which no line of
demarcation shall be known betwixt us.—(Cheers.)
The people of Ireland want bread as well as the
people of England, and if we can help O'Connell to give
it them, they shall have the half.—(Great cheering.) I
have now only to add that the time is coming when our
greatest activity and vigilance will be required.—(Hear,
hear.) The Duko of Richmond has told you that he in-
tends to trust to the " hereditary " legislators of his
country.—(Laughter.) Well, in answer to him, I say—
" Hereditary bondsmen, know ye not."—(Tremendous
cheering.) I 'am satisfied to place the " hereditary
bondsmen " against the " hereditary legislators," and
abide the result.—(Cheers.) However, even amongst
the " heriditary legislators" we have not all opponents.
—(Cheers.) We have the best portion even of that
House on our side, and we always had—(Cheers)—and
even if they have not joined our club, I do not care much
for that, so that they have adopted our principles.
I have never made this a class question—it is others who
have done so ; but we have, even from amongst the
hereditary legislators, on our side Lord Morpeth—
(Cheers)—and the Earl of Radnor—(Cheers)—and Lord
Duaie—(Cheers)—and Lord Kinnaird—(Cheers)—and
Lord Grey—(Loud cheering)—and therefore, if his
Grace of Richmond be against us, why we can only say
that if he and some of their other Graces continue so,
they will form the greatest "noodles and doodles" on the
whole of their Grace's estates.—(Loud cheers.)
Now, this is a question which involves matter
of great importance. It is not a question of every day,
and therefore we have to consider who we shall have as
the next Ministry.—(Hear, hear.) I feel quite assured
that if Lord John Russell 'comes in, his word is his
bond.—(Cheers.) I do not know whether he will take
atfiee or not, but if he does, I do not know who he will
--ist him.—(Cries of "Yourself," and cheers.)
have to a.— • —nu as long as there are bad eharac
ciman.
Yes, I will be Alta _ --4.) He may have some
iumt we
hoe mpuo sl4ter back
weh
and
tern— (Haebarro:;ll
give him to carry this important aiffieulty in makin‘gvuepmauCset
show
Lord John Russell in con-
-vas of Lor
question.—(Cheers.)
And let us take the
he had done,
e•—ar(.)liear'
nexion with this subject. it,
a mistake in writing the letter van-
7. as said that he had made
would have been. Without it, in fact, he would have been
but, without it, how comparatively unimporta:s be
nothing. Without it, the Queen would never have sent for
him. Without that letter, he would have excited no

more public emotion,' no mere interest, and no more
enthusiasm, than Sir Robert Peel would have dune. It.
is a proof of the vitality of the Tiestion we have been
alvoeating, that, without even joining
by the mere enunciation of a principle, from being ob-
scure and scarcely visible to the public, he has become
the most prominent man of the day.—(hear, hear.)
H OV,* ill this country
Iles rise is a proof that there is n the Lea u.', but
only one solid growing and consolidated power in this
country.—(near, hear, and cheers.) All that is good of
the Whigs have joined us.—(hear, hear.)
Free trade principles have broken the Tory
Administration to atoms.—(Cheers.) Nor is it
destined to terminate here, for league principles must
always prove the ruin of parties in power who are hostile
to their progress.— (Hear and cheers.) Let us, then, hold
on to the rinciples which has made us so strong as we
at present are, not swerving to the right or to the left,
end no Minister can expect to retain office without
at once abolishing these laws.—(Hear, hear.) Ie t us
maintain this ground for another six months, and then
w e shall he near to that time which I so much desire—
when this League shall be resolved into its primitive
elements by the triumph of its principles,.—(The mo't
ewthu,iastic cheering followed, in the course al which
the Hon. Gentleman resumed his seat.)
Mr. BievenT, M.P., said that during the last month, as
one of a deputation front the Council of the League, he
had visited many towns, and ben present at many meet-
ings in Lancashire, in Cheshire, in Yorkshire, in Not-
tinghamshire, in Derbyshire, in Glouce ster,hire, in
Staffordshire, in Sotnersetshire, and now he was present
at one in Middlesex. That afforded a consolation
that the agitation which is now in progress throughout
this kingdoms is one of no common, and of no unequivocal
character.—(Hear.) Notwithstanding what his friend
who had just addressed them said, that he hoped it
might not become a war of classes, he (Mr. Bright)
was not sure that it had not already become such, and
he doubted if it could be otherwise.—(Hear.) He
believed it to he a movement of the commercial and in-
dustrious classes against the lords and great proprietors
of the soil in this country.—(llear.) Within the last
fifty years trade had dere much for the people
of England. Their population had greatly increased ;
their villages had become; towns, and their small towns
large cities. The despised and contemned classes of
manufacturers and traders had assumed another and
very different position, and the great proprietors of the
soil now fbund that there were other men and other in-
terests in the kingdom. to be consulted besides their own.
They had seen the course of party legislation that had been
pursued, and the way in which their varying for-
tunes had been managed during that contest. They
had already seen one somewhat feeble Administration
overthrown—another that every one thought powerful
shattered to pieces.—(Great cheering.) What was it
that had brought the NV higs into office? What was it
that had driven the Tories from office? The corn-laws.
—(Cheers.) Now it was evident from these circum-
stances—it must be evident that the corn-laws made it
impossible any longer for any party to govern in England i
on those principles by which they had hitherto been n-
fluenced.—(llear, hear.) The Whig Government had
been blamed for the manner in which they had
lea the country in a financial point of view. But to
what was the deficiency in the revenue to be ascribed?
It was owing to bad harvests and a want of employ-
ment.—(Hear, hear.) Now, the landed proprietors
might conceive that trade was of small importance; but
they were now sure that no Government could maintain
its popularity, none could maintain its power, so long as
they had restrictions on the importation of foreign
grain. Social order could not be preserved with-
out the people being fed. Their revenue failing,
taxes must be imposed, general discontent would prevail,
and every Government, under such circumstances, must
first become unpopular, and finally become extinct.—
(Hear, hear.) They must, therefore, come to the con •
elusion that matters had arrived at that crisis that
the administration of public affairs could no longer
be continued with the maintenance of the corn-laws.—

(Hear, and cheers.) Lord John Russell had stated
that he and Sir Robert Peel had come to the same con-
clusion. But Sir John Tyrrell and Mr. Branston spoke
now of Sir R. Peel with disgust and aversion. They were
astonished at his perfidy; but he could tell them that it
was not the perfidy of the Minister they were to blame,
but the impossibility that existed of his being able to
govern with a corn-law.—(Hear, hear.) These were not
in the position of Sir Robert Peel. The country
would not hold themselves responsible for any calamity
that might occur ; and as to posterity, for the applause
of which it was well known that Sir Robert Peel was
most desirous, the notice it would take of him would be
some miserable tablet of some obscure parish church.
—(Loud cheers.) If there was anything that
could impress more strongly upon his mind the necessity
of the abolition of these laws, it was the condition of
the agricultural labourers.—(Hear, hear, and cheers.)
He had visited several of the agricultural counties in
England, and what he had seen there fully bore out the
accounts that bad been given respecting their condition.
And, in fact, bow could it be otherwise ? They were
in youth employed at work for a remuneration that
would not be given to a child in manufacturing dis-
tricts; and, after a life of labour, to be rewarded at
sixty years of age with 20s. and a cot, provided he had
not inflicted any burden on the parish. His fate might
be summed up in these words of the poet—
" A blessed prospect :
To slave while there is strength; in age a workhouse;
A parish shell at last, and that title hell
Toll'd hastily for a pauper's funeral !"
In Ireland, too, which is purely an agricultural coun-
try, there was a state of misery bordering on starva-
tion ; and yet Mr. Benett, one of the Members for
Wiltshire, had said in a speech that he made the other
day, that after seventy years of all situations, if he had
the choice, he should select that of an agricultural
labourer—(Great laughter)—and this after he had been
some years possessed of a property of 10,0001. a-year.—
(Ilear, hear.) And it was under this system that the
agricultural labourer had been brought down to his pre-
sent heart-broken and dispang condition. They had
prevented their having a sufficient grow;h of grain at
home, and they had prevented their, receiving an ade-
quate supply from abroad.—(Hear, hear, and cheers.)
The most demoniac malignity could not have invented a
scheme more calculated to bring the great masses of the
working millions of this country to a state of pauperism,
country—(Cheers owf ae
England,rie(it r.;
discontent, and insubordination, than this corn-law they
did they find a fat and sleek being,
opposing.—(Cheers.) And while in this state
,) weref
t h tnhgesn,
what
who was a dignitary of the Church and a great philo-
sopher, recommending for the consumption of the
the hungry
turnips,
he anesen if
fsa
pepper,
eondpt
doopmeuiharta u
igvgleehi
prople ? He did not read a paper about the supplies
that were to be had in the great valley of the Missis-
sippi, but told them that there were still plenty of
Ir-teoewdr(u).rlltz
recourseeel tui
odd; to
oit
Blight)
himself,
swhraeeraajl
ldfot
water
enaadrnsndthi
olaaetl
whenrecom-
mended
pi neh
of
fe
heard that the Duke of Norfolk had made this
recommendation, but he rather pitied the Noble Duke.
Ho did not, however, rejoice in his heart when he saw
the speech the Noble Duke had made in Sussex, be-
cause it served to show the people of England that it
was not enough that the should be suffering
under the pernicious corn-law but the law itself
must submit them to insult and wrong at
the hands of its supporters.—(Hear, hear.) It
was not enough that the law should have passed
—it was not enough that it made their toil value-
less—it was not enough that it made all their skill and
labour unavailing—it was not enough that it did not
allow them to procure a fair supply of the common ne-
cessaries of life, but when this iniquitous law brought
misery and want upon them, its cautious enactors in-
sulted their feelings, and told them like they would the
beasts of the earth, to go to mangel-wurzel, or to something
else, which even the beasts themselves cauld not eat. And
,
he supposed this system would be continued till the peo-
ple should rise, and in one voice proclaim the downfall
of this odious system.—(Cheers.) This law was the
parent of the grievous fluctuations in trade under which
so much suffering
was created in this commercial king-
dom ; and now a period was coming when one of these
fluctuations would occur which might be as bad, nay
worse, than the last, when many a man now feeling
himself independent and comfortable in his circumstances,
would find himself swept away by the torrent, and his
goodly ship made a complete wreck ()F.—(llears
hear.) Capital in these cases sometimes availed
almost nothing, and they had seen with their own eyes
fluctuations occur in trade which no prudence could have
guarded'against. They might be in the midst of great
prosperity and excitement in one year, and in the next
ruin might stare them in the face. At one time they
fancied they were getting rich in a moment, and imme-
diately afterwards they found themselves rapidly retro-
grading. 'I hese fluctuations might be all attributed to
the corn-laws; and not only was trade sacrificed by:them,
but the moral character of the country was injured.—
( Hear, and loud cheers.) Now, had they a
scarcity coming or not ? It was said that
to be forewarned was to be forearmed, and
that a foretold, famine never came; and so this famine
would not have come about at all, if at the moment they
saw it was coming they had power to relieve themselves
by obtaining supplies of food from abroad. But the rea-
son a foretold famine never came was, because, when it
was foretold men provided against it, and took care
that it should not come. Here, then, had a famine been
foreseen and foretold, but, instead of taking measures
against it, their wise legislators passed a malignant law
to accelerate it, and foreign supplies were not
allowed to come in for fear that it should
bring some injury upon the mortgaged landowners of the
country.—(Cheers.) Well then, these classes of whom
from 1838 to 1842 amidst edeepest misery; and now g
of relenting—
he had spoken had maintained dthis law for 30 years, and
th
no sympathy for the sufferings of the people,
no feeling of mercy—no foolin
would add one iota to induce or make them give up
this law now. They had now, however, nobody to take
office with a promise to maintain it, but they thought
they had somebody who would take office with a pro-
or of any other Minister, was entirely conditional. Lord
mise to repeal it ; but the promise of Lord John Russell,
John Russell could not repeal the corn laws himself,
itin that,
to but he confessed that it mug be done by the unequivocal
expression of the public will. How was this ex-
psresa,such meetings as
a
those which
they had held in all parts of the kingdom,
and hy a preparation of
general election which, in all human probability, was near
andbehad ? Why, by meetings such
upon them.—(Loud cheers.) they had heard, he be-
lieved, that they had had a meeting in Manchester
the other day. It was attended by more of the
wealth and influence of that district than he had ever seen
by
a most active character for that
assembled before in a meeting of the same number. It was
resolved next Tuesday to call a general fleeting of all those
who were favourable to, or who supported the
League, to consider the butt means to be
adopted in their present great final struggle. It had been
announced that the council of the Leaelie were willing by the
aid of their frionds throughout the country to raise a fund of
,„ ^" fur the purpose of being ready in any emergency,
I 's"""*; - , maintaining before the ranks of the pie..
or tor the same last file bOld and res 1 t 1
0 e Waster which
to
to do! • •

they had maintained for the last seven years. . Now,
if the money required should be subscribed, he could promise I
that meeting and the country it would be benestly and jadi-
eiouely applied lbr carrying out that great national
object for which the League had been established
and if the protectionists defer the final settletnent of ti
question till the warm weather came, they would not trouble ;
their friends to force themselves into half their natural size to
get wilin the walls of that theatre, but they would ask
them to meet there, and in Manchester, and in Leeds, and
hi Glasgow, and in Shenield, and in Birmingham, and; in
other towns, in numbers so great, with unanimity so re-
markable, resolution so undaunted, that the aristocracy of
this country, with all their wealth,boasted honesty, and with
all their feeling, would quail before the Administration that
should be made.—(Cheers.) Two centuries ago the
people of this country were engaged in a fearful conflict with
the Crown. The despotic and factious monarch assumed the
right to levy taxes without the consent of Parliament or
the people. That assumption was resisted, and this fair
island became a battle-field, and the kingdom was convulsed
from one end to theother. Now if their forefathers, 200 years
ago, resisted that attempt, should they (their children) be
bound by the threats of an aristocracy?—(Cries of" No.")
Should they consent to be put down, or would they, by a
manful and u:iited expression of the public voice, at once and
fur ever put an end to this kind of wrong. Their cause at
least was as good as their forefathers?—(Hear, hear.)
They stood o❑ higher 'vantage ground--they had
a larger number of followers at their back ; they had more
of wealth, and more of intelligence, more of union, and more
knowledge of their political rights, and knew more of the true
interest of the country, and, what was better than all this,
they had a power and machinery to work with
which was a thousand times better than force,
and should they, with all these advantages, refrain
from that struggle which their forefathers had made. before
them, under much moreladverse circumstances?—(Cheers.)
The three they were employing he was sure would before long
be the means of their obtaining the object. The force, he
allowed, they had found in the 40s. freeholders, and that was
the great constitutional weapon which they intended
to take up, and by which they were sure to conquer—not,
however, as of old, in bloody fields, but in the registration
courts.—(Cheers.) Now he did trust that tide law would
be. repealed within six months, and if it should be then
necessary that the League should disperse, he did hope
that the people of England would bear in mind
what a great panic had been struck amongst the monopolist
ranks by this small weapon which they had discovered in the
Reform Act and in the constitution of the country; and in
conclusion, he implored the middle and working classes to
regard it as the instrument of their deliverance, and as the
strong and irresistible weapon, before which the domination
of an hereditary peerage must be laid in the dust.—(Cheers.)
Mr. W. J. Fox then stepped forward, and was greeted
with several roun,!s of applause. When the excitement had
subsided, he said, I should rather have avoided speaking this
evening, had I not been announced to do so, not from any
indisposition to be in active sympathy with this magnificent
meeting, but because, in the unpleasantness of the present
confused state of public affairs, and the uncertainty that
' hangs over our:condition— our Parliament not at its post—one
Administration having gone out, we scarcely know
why—and another Administration delaying to come
into office, we scarcely know why—friends and enemies
confusedly mixed, so that we cannot discriminate one from
the other—the whole political condition of the country a chaos,
a darkness which may be felt where nothing is seen ; a
night in which one cannot sleep, and where one longs for the
coining day to bring some decisive information, so that
we may know who are to be the rulers of the country,
and what difficulties or new cause we are next to struggle
with, or what triumphs our question is next to attain—a
confusion one wants put speedily an end to, that we may
not have to think and speak hypothetically—that our desires
and wishes may not be contingent upon something yet uncer-
tain, and our whole course, like the old Castelian oath of
allegiance, which was, to obey the sovereign, if he preserved
the laws and privileges of the people, and if not—not ; the last
negative being of much more importance than the positive
with which it was preceded; yet still there are facts in the
state of the country, and there are prospects before us,
where we find something like solid footing ; and
' it is to turn the mind away from the uncertainties
of the passing day, and to fix it on those certainties, that I
' would endeavour to direct your attention. Of these some are
sad and some are joyous; but still they furnish in their corn-
' bination elements and materials to which we have to look for

the completion of the great work so long honourably and
successfully carried on by the leaders of the League. The
first certainty which we can discover on looking around us
as the prior one, is that the country is short in its supply of
food, and that the means are not in the best condition for
making good the deficiency. At first this allegation was
met, as many other truths had been met, by a
brazen denial. We were told by the Society of 17, Old
Bond-street, that it was an insidious and base
delusion, and that this cry of the coming
scarcity was got up for selfish and interested purposes. We
are told that nobody knew—they did not themselves know—
what the harvest would be; but to contradict the representa-
tion that scarcity might be expected, they write to some of
our local societies, and get what they called satisfactory in-
fi,rmation on the subject.—(Hear, and laughter.) It is now
felt to be flying in the face of ascei tamed facts to
persist longer in the denial, and it is partially admitted
there is a deficiency of supply, that there is a peril of a
scarcity—and let it be remembered scarcity to a nation is
famine and starvation to thousands of individuals.—(Cheers.)
There is peril, or why have a Commission of Inquiry to in-
quire into the state of the potato crop in Ireland? There is
peril, or why do some of the farmers rejoice that the season
can be made more remunerative than the last; that is to say,
the price of food to be higher in consequence of the den •
ciencies in the country? There is danger ofa scarcity, or why
the suggestions of certain preposterous specifics for human
food? There is fear, or why have learned disquisitions on the
different arts that may be brought to bear, or compounds of
pepper and that sort of thing, to supply the place of human
food? There is truth in the apprehension, or why the break-

ing up of one Government, and the difficulties which exist
as to the formation of another Government ?—(Cheers.)
And what is it keeps down the supply of food, which the
great wealth that flows into this country from every
part of the globe cannot procure ?—(Loud cheers.) Why,
it is because, to keep up the high price of home produce, we
turn away wheat importation from our very doors.—(Cheers.)
We lately had a stock of wheat in bond, but, under the ope-
ration of this same law I have just mentioned, it leaves our
shores in the time of our own want, and amidst all our ap-
prehensions of a coming scarcity, to seek the more provident,
careful, just, and charitable regions of those who invite sup-
plies of food from all countries, who are willing to buy it un-
der the verge of the horizon. The: fields that should
supply us—rich, fertile lands, of which there are so
many thousand square miles on the continent of
Europe and vast prairies of America, are not barren—
and corn might be sown upon them to supply the popula-
tion of these realms with food more than adequate to their
wants; but they have not been tilled because our restrictive
system gives the cultivators no prospect of a market here,
however much food might be wanted. Here we see the
effect of the system, making acres upon acres sterile, arrest-
ing the arm of the cultivator, and robbing him of his profits,
and us of our proper supply of provisions. And this is the
boasted system that has been lauded as if it were the
perfection of human wisdom. Here ends the slid-

mg-scale—smashed in the moment of peril, ridiculed
by every one, and really ridiculous, because it is in-
ellicient, and incapable of keeping away an emergency it has
created, but which it was intended to prevent, showing, that
from beginning to end, the system is false and founded on
fallacy, and false in its profession of rendering this country in-
dependent of foreign supplies—false in its promise of establishing
cultivation, which should produce a supply adequate to the
demand—•false in its promise of giving the farmer stipulated
and remunerating prices—false in its declaration of in-
creasing employment for the labouring classes; the
number employed in the cultivation of land having
been regularly diminishing—false in its promise of
increasing the stability of our means and sources of
supply, and from first to last made up of
falsehoods engendered by the sordid cupidity of
a class carried by interested majorities with inde-
cent haste under the shelter of bayonets, and in
direct violation of the voice of the people. It was sup-
ported by an Administration who commanded the ma-
jority of the votes of the House of Commons, and obtained
the sanction of those who formed the great body of the House
of Lords, through being altered and tricked in various
ways in order to meet peculiar and interested views
but still it retained its fallacies to the end as
it did at the beginning, and it deserves to perish,
as I trust it soon will perish, amid universal con-

tempt and execration.--(Loud cheers.) In times
past we have seen our manufacturers bearing up against ad-
versity, and employing that which they had a right to consi-
der and look upon as their private fortunes, for the sole purpose
of keeping on their workmen and artisans, but it is unreason-
able to expect them to do so in future, when we know that is
caused by a pernicious law, which is kept up for a class in-
terest, and when we know, and they know by its alteration,
both the master and the workman could hold on his course,
and with their own resources get through times of peril.
We have no right to expect credit for honest and truthful
intentions unless we look at the mode in which food is dis-
tributed. If we io not find enough in one part of the
country we find plenty in another. If the supply is great to
the wealthy it is little to the poor—it is food to one class and
hunger to another—meat here and famine there; it is like
the lion sitting down to prey along with the jackall, where
there is not enough to satisfy the demands of both.
Such is the condition of the people now—one class famishing
of hunger, and the other well to do—the latter not even
allowed to relish potatoes, but obliged to do without—and
we all know the punishment that such a condition in one
class inflicts on another—how the sufferings of the poor
re-acted on those who are well to do—the indigent
on the comfortable. If you set up fever in St. Giles's,
the effect it will penetrate into St. James's—so if
hunger and despreration prevail in one class, it
will be felt in its influence among all those
placed in easy circumstances. Your house will not be se•
cure—your banks will be in danger—when you walk out
your pockets will not be safe—everywhere there will be
danger on account of the desperation of crime. If England
were subject to the privations of Ireland, we should have
imported into England the violence of Ireland. The
most comfortable men would find their slumbers
broken—secure sleep, even with pistols under their
head, would be rarely felt.—(Hear, hear.) They would,
be calling at the same time for their bed-candle and their
blunderbuss.—(Loud cheers.) Through all classes injury to,
one class is sure to react injuriously on every other.—
( Hear, hear.) To be sure the race would not be extin-
guished, but it would be much depraved. No, though the
British Islands might not be swept of its people, they would
be plunged into desolation on account of the present
system of protection. We should see our sturdy
operative class with their flames attenuated, their
muscular strength gone; we should find the country survive
it, but only the recollection of its people would be left, as
sad testimonials of an iniquitous system— a system which
encouraged and induced every kind of injury and wrong—a
churchyard, instead of being charged with dead corruption,
filled up with that which was alive.—(Loud cheers ) If
we see ourselves thus placed by a vicious system—if we
find the country in this condition—if trade is paralysed,
and no application is made by the Legislature to interfere
to bring about a better condition of things—if the State is in
danger, and no Government at work, in fact, no Govern-
ment in existence—if all this we find to be the cue, by
directing all our attention in another direction, the prospect
of the country is one of the finest and proudest it ever occu-
pied.—(Loud cheers.) Such is the position of the country
—such the state of the population, however far behind may
be their rulers. For years the great truths of political eco-
nomy have been taught the masses.—(Loud cheers.) The
fact; and doctrines of this important department
of human knowledge has been the study of the
untryto;
ptluieblicsumbjeeecttingso—f
meetings—and philoso-
phers
has been the result ? Opinion has gradually advanced,
and it has been declared again and again, in strength and
pow •
ppohperuslahtaiosnbeen of
made familiar
co
,er. At first the population petitioned the Parliament to
open the ports, but their urgent requests were neglected.
They petitioned in tens and twenties of thousands, but with-
out effect. The warning of danger was not given by the
rulers of the country, but by the people themselves; and they
originated anew movement when left to work out the end as
they best could. The people alone originated this movement.
`They
had no official Help—they did it all for themselves.
They suov the danger is prospect, and came to the rescue—

(Cheers)—and they proposed the only course that was i
founded in truth and justice. They pledged themselves to
the principles of free trade—(Loud cheers)—and what has
been the progress? At first the subject was brought forward
in meetings of town-councils, who memorialised the Govern-
ment to open the ports; next they called large meetings for
an expression of opinion ; and now they met in multitudinous
assemblies in every large town of the country, in north and
south, in east and west, raising a voice of thunder that pro-
tection and injustice should have an end, and the people be
enabled to realise justice and possess their rights.—(Loud
cheers) And what were those doing who should have taken
charge of the people's interests? Where were they to suggest
a remedy ?—where is the great party which now deprived
the Whigs of office ?—where is the mighty party that
took ten years to build it up ?—where the Minister
who so carefully and assiduously called his forces and pre-
pared them for action, who had employed every toil and ex-
pedient to work out his end, where are all the gentlemen
who affected to sympathise with all the grievances of the
people— those who heretofore have been receiving suggestions
everywhere as to the best means of serving the willions—
those who suited themselves to all the changing phases of
the times—who were all things to all men—whose great
object was to develop the art of pleasing—who
held oat one hand to Roman Catholic Dissenters, and
another to Puseyism—who supported monarchy in one breath,
and with the other referred to James 11., to show how easy a
thing it was to sacrifice a crown—where, I ask, are they?—
(Hear, hear.) When their leader was called into office, and
when his first trial of strength was made, it was fiscertained
that he lied a majority of ninety votes, and it was believed
that his term of office was secure for an indefinite period.
But row we find that he is shipwrecked in the plenitude cf
power. At the moment when it was believed he was most
secure. we see him unable to maintain his ground, the huge
Babylon falls to pieces—it fades away like a piece of en-
chantment. and the master magician is left deserted by his
demon host.—(Loud and long-continued cheering.) There
he is left forlorn to endure the pelting of the pitiless storm
—and a more pitiless storm from all quarters has
seldom fallen to the lot of any public man.— (Hear, hear.)
And perhaps the day may come when it will be felt that it
has been too pitiless to him—when it will be found that he
has been too hardly dealt with. But it is the misfor-
tune, that whatever he may have intended whatever
measure of policy he has csniemplated, the people cannot
make up their minds to bs!leve him—they cannot place
confidence in Sir Robert Peel.—(Cries of " Hear, hear.")
I for one confess that I cannot place any faith in him. If,
however, it be true that he has broken up the great party at
his back—if he has given up place and power on account of
the condition of the country, and his desire to administer a
full measure ofjustice—and the only measure of justice I re-
cognise is the measure of free trade—if such is the reason of
his being thrown into his present position, and if he is
ready to co-operate with those who seek for an unshackled
freedom for the food of the country, then ought we to re-
ceive him and respect him.—(Loud cheers.) If we have not
confidence in him, if we do not believe in him, we shall at
least evince gratitude for the part he has taken—we shall ac-
cord to him that meed of thankfulness to which he is most as-
suredly entitled. Now to the other party,those who are not yet
in office, although the others are out—though by this time they
are aware whether they will come in or not—l will address
myself. I feel grateful to Lord John Russell as well as to
Sir Robert Peel—for the letter of the one, which is intelligible
—for the resignation of the other, which is not intelligible;
and I look with anxiety to the coming in of the Whig
Ministry to office. If they do come in, I trust and hope
that the people of the country will give them to under-
stand that their duty must be to repeal the corn-laws—to
leave commerce completely free and unshackled—that there
must be no compromise whatever.—(Loud cheers.) This we
expect of them, and that they will leave untried no lawful
means of accomplishing this object. There must be no
squeamishness, for even if a coalition with Peel is neces-
sary for the purpose, it must be done. On many
a former occasion such has taken place for party purposes—
let them now endeavour to found one for a patriotic object.
—(Cheers.) If even the creation of peers is required, the
country looks to have it done.—(Loud cheers.) There was
no delicacy in disclosing that at a former time when the
Reform Bill was in jeopardy—why place free trade in corn
in a worse position now?—(Hear, hear.) If this will not
suffice to put an end to the corn-laws, then let them
try another course; if a dissolution of Parliament is neces-
sary, then let Parliament be dissolved; and if one disso-
lution will not do, let them try another—let them try the
strength of the past registration as well as the one that is to
come—that which is to be as well as that which is.—(Loud
cheers.) Give a chance to those who may employ their
501. in purchasing their freehold between the present
registration and the next.—(Hear.) Let this registration
be extended from the north to the south—into every county
of the kingdom, and then let the voice of the people be taken,
for not till then shall we see the full force of popular repre-
sentation. If this does not succeed, let Lord John Russell
throw up office and take the place of the Opposition, and I
am sure, if he does not obtain the success of our
cause in the one position, he will be sure to gain
it in the other.—(Cheers.) To succeed they must identify
themselves more with you than they have ever done before.
—(Hear, hear. They must be told by the country that,
however glad they are to see ranged on their side some of the
most illustrious and titled of the land, the old familiar names
—or at least the old familiar faces—it does not accord with
the feelings of the people of England that these alone should
hold Ministerial power.—(Loud cheers.) They demand that,
however good and worthy the Whig Lords may be, that
at least an infusion of the commercial men of the country—
of the men of business—shall take place in their ranks. 1
will not mention who these should be, but I hold it is right
that some of those to whom the country looks up should be
included in the Ministerial programme. It is necessary the
people should demand that the Commons of England be
represented in the Cabinet.—(Loud and general cheering.)
Thirty years ago, when these corn-laws were being passed,
the multitude of this metropolis showed they had some
inkling of the oppression to which they were about to be
subjecte'l, and offered what obstruction they could to these
laws being enacted. Twenty years ago the question de-
scended from the philosophers who had explained the
principles on which it rested to the practical
men, the reviewers and the journalists, who inculcated it on
the many, familiarising their minds with its details and its
bearing. Ten years after it had come clown a stage lower,
to the manufacturers and mechanics of Manchester, who felt
where the shoe pinched them, and they took their stand,
which they have continued so nobly to maintain.—
(Loud cheers.) Five years ago such demonstrations
were given as showed what advance the question had
made; three years ago the farmers came in; five-and-twenty
days ago Lord John Russell came in, anticipating thereby
another event, the resignation of Sir Robert Peel by so many
hours. That great statesman has come In after the people
had brought the question to the present crisis. Now be-
tween him and Peel it seems to be a point who shall first
get to the goal, running, both of them, as fast as magicians
do on a certain night—l believe they call it Halloween—a
night when the devil has a right to take his own, both of
them actuated by the feeling of the " devil take the hind-
most." I will say of them as it has been said of a celebrated
race-horse, " be was behind before although he first was last.."
This will not do. It will not do for them to sit like the
gods of Epicurus, in the clouds, enjoying their ease,
looking down on the troubles and struggles of the people.
If they will benefit the country, they must come amongst
us—they must mingle with the industrial classes. Let
them subscribe their thousands of pounds to the quarter of
a million raised by these classes; or, if they like, let them
raise a quarter of a million of their own, and add it to that
raised by the manufacturers and the members of the working
classes to promote free-trade. They may then look to the
country for support ; there is no 'help, no aid which they
shall not find from the people of this country. They
may count the cost and place against that the returns. Let
them count their stars and garters, and subscribe
accordingly. Let them count on the fertility of their fields,
and their increased • produce under a new system,
with the additional income that must render them.
Let them count all these, and come to our aid heartily, there
shall be no lack on our part. There is a third party in this
case, or, rather, an old man, who carries a party in his
pocket, which, considering his age, he carries with won-
derful ease.—(Hear, and laughter.) Such are the fail-
ings of some characters of European honours and of
European name; sad is it that such a one should be found
struggling against the rights of the country, against the sup-
ply of food for the people in a time of necessity and famine.
Oh, if a voice might reach that old man's ears, he might be
addressed—Man, about whose brows are the laurels of a hun-
dred tights, who have in your pocket the proxies of SO Peers—
(Laughter)—who is the conqueror of Napoleon, whose statue
you have got in your hall, its marble lips seem to speak,
warning you of a fall deeper and more dreadful than his whom
you have hurled from his high eminence. Oh ! conqueror of
Napoleon, yea have many different contrasts in your cha-
racter; you won the battle-field, but you won it with such
trained troops, troops who were the flower of the English
people. But he had to invent a new system of war ; he had
to baffle the most skilled generals of Europe, with raw
recruits who had never before seen a battle-field, yet with
these he pursued his resistless career, and gained the victo-
ries of Lodi, and Marengo, and Austerlitz, and Jena—victo-
ries which will continue a monument to his fame.—(Cheer-
lug.) You, Duke of Wellington, have conquered territories
and broad estates in every country ; but lie did more, he won
kingdoms and crowns and empires; you were the
servant of kings, and rendered them good service,
supporting them on their tottering thrones ; but he made
monarchs his servants, who, like menials, waited in his ante-
room.—(Applause.) You, by Catholic Emancipation, freed
a portion of your fellow-subjects from some of their dis-
abilities; he, throughout Europe, opened a career for talent,
and enabled men to rise to the exercise of their abilities
to the most commanding spheres ; you have equestrian
statues erected t.) your memory; but into whatever
country in Europe one will look, he will see bridges, and
aqueducts, and roads constructed at the instance of that
great man—the monuments which he has raised for himself
in every nation, the monuments which commend his
name to the memory of the sympathy of the people.—
(Cheers.) Remember the date of the Berlin decree; that
was the commencement of the downfal of Napoleon ;
powerful against arms, resistless against monarchs
lie fought there against the laws of trade.—(lm-
mense cheering.) That moment men's hearts left him—he
had alienated their feelings. Those who appeared in arms on
the field were traitors to him, or they left him as deserters ;
he was foiled in the battle-field, and his deposition, his exile
and his death at St. Helena soon followed. Duke of Welling-
ton, take warning, if the Berlin decree brought about the
downfal of Napoleon, the corn-laws will bring about the
downfal of the Duke of Wellington, and then, with withered
laurels and a blotted name, you will go down to the grave
coupled with him you defeated, when both shall have left
nothing but

" A name at which the world grows pale,
To point a moral or adorn a tale."—(Cheers.)

And that moral is, that no party power, however great,
can resist without destruction the laws of free trade, which
Edmund Burke has told us are part and parcel of the laws of
nature. The growth of this agitation is like the glacier ;
the snows descend silently and softly, attracting no notice;
cloud follows cloud, and stratum is laid upon stratum ; the
winds and the biting frosts knit it most firmly and com-
pactly together; the season of winter, which is prejudicial to
all other growth, aids this ; for ages it accumulates, till the time
of moving, when, loosed and wrenched from its place, it
hurls down as an avalanche, bearing all before it—the tro-
phies of the;battle-field, however celebrated—the palace, how-
ever grand—the church, however venerated—till it finds an
abiding place, where it remains an eternal monument of the
power of nature's laws, which are lasting as nature's God.
In the determination evinced by this meeting, in the growing
power of the popular voice, in the growing certainty of se-
curing results, the question is not now whether we shall
rely on Lord John Russell or Sir Robert Peel—we can rely on
ourselves. You have petitioned, you have remonstrated ; if
you continue to register, and to put yourselves itt
possession of 401. freehold rights, you may count
upon your object.—(Hear, hear,) When you have done
all this, when you have achieved such results, historians
will record the fAct. You will have reared a monument, and
op the base of that monument shall be engraven the names
of the philosophers who promulgated the principles—our
Adam Smith, and such like. Above them shall be the
Cobdens and the Brights •, and above them all shall be
an inscription to the glory of the English people, whose was
the power to effect the end. Wealth, and prosperity, and
mliveraally diffused good feeling, will be the possession of
man. Then the cry of triumph on carrying this great

question, will echo back the chorus of heavenr- to
hod in the highest, and on earth peace."
The speaker sat down amid long and continued cheering.
As the meeting was separating. Mr. Cobden came forward
and proposed three cheers for " Free Trade," which was re-
sponded to with three time three from the whole audience.

THE LATE HIGH TIDE.
On Tuesday, English, one of the summoning officers
belonging to the Lambeth Police-court, who had been
desired by Mr. Henry, on the day before, to make the
necessary inquirie% as to the condition of twelve families
who were represented to be severe sufferers by the disas-
trous high tide on the night of Thursday last, made his
report to Mr. Henry. He said he had visited each of
the twelve families occupying so many small cottages in
Wellington-grove, Lambeth, and found them in a very
deplorable condition. One of them, a pipemaker, who
had just erected a kiln, for the purpose of baking his
pipes, at an expense of 151., had the kiln, as well as all
the made work and the material in a state of prepara-
tion, totally destroyed, and was quite ruined. Several
of the families had nothing left but what they put hastily
on on tie morning in question; and some bad escapt d in a
state of nudity. One family had not only to centend with
the water, but with a fire; ar.d between the &esti uction of
both, the whole of what they possessed was destroyed.
In the course of his ieq&ries, he (English) bad ascer-
tained that the parish officers had contributed to the
immediate relief of the suffert.rs, but still they Were left
without the means of getting on again, having lost their
tools, &c.

Mr. Henry observed, that there was a small
fund
which the magistrates had the control of, but it was in-
tended to assist those individuals and oljects of a
.diffe-
rent kind ; and therefore be thought he would be going
beyond his trusteeship in devoting them to the present
object. As, however, the calamity .was to sudden, and
no forethought could have prevented it, he should hate
no objection to give V., not to be added to any subscrip-
tion, but to be expended by the officer in providingfor
the immediate necessities of the poor sufferers.
Dunn, one of the parish beadles, here said that the
whole of the poor persons mention( d bad been relieved
by the overseers of Lambeth on Saturday last, and they
were all ordered to go before the board on that day,
with the view of being further relieved.

'he Marquisand Marchioness et Queensberry have
arrived at Farrance's Hotel, Belgrave-street, from their seat
in Scotland.

The rectory of St. Anne's, Soho, has become vacant
by the death of the Rev. Dr. Roderick 11•Leod. The Rev.
Gentleman was in his 93d year.
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY DEC. 16.—CONGREGA.•
TIONS.—The following are the Congregation -days of the ensu-
ing
Lent Term : Saturday, Jan. 24 ( B.A. Commencement), at
ten ; Wednesday, Jan. 28, at eleven ; Wednesday, Feb. 11, at
eleven ; 'Wednesday, Feb. 25, at eleven ; Wednesday, March
11, at eleven • Friday, March 27 (M.A. Inceptors), at ten;
Friday, April (end of Term), at ten.
THE ROYAL FREE HOSPITAL.—CORONER'S
IN-
QUEsT.—An inquest on the body of Susannah Stephens, who
died on Friday last, and with reference to whose case several
letters signed " Humanitas," have appeared in the Times, was
held cn Tuesday at the Sun public-house, Gray's Inn-road,
before Mr. Wakley. On this occasion there were present the
Rev. Dr. Worthington, the Rev. Mr. Packman, Mr. Pritchald,
High-Bailiff of Southwark; Mr. Walmesly, Dr. Marsden,
and other gentlemen connected with and interested in the
Free Hospital. The receiver and other officers of the London
Union were in attendance. After the usual preliminaries, the
Coroner and jury proceeded to view the body, and on their
return the Coroner inquired if the officer of the City of Lon-
don Union was present. The answer was in the af"Srmative.
The Coroner asked if he had taken three patients to the hos-
pital on Wednesday, the 19th of November ? The officer--
My son did. The Coroner—Where are these patients
now ? Officer—One is still in the hospital, but Ido not
know where the other two, Ann Morgan and
Ann Lever, are. The Coroner said that in his opinirn it
was essential to the inquiry that the three girls should be
present. The officer said that he had made every exertion
to find them, but without effect. The Coroner then inquired
if any of the gentlemen connected with the Free Hospita,
were present? The Rev. Dr. Worthington—Yes. After
some further conversation, the Coroner said that he thought
the evidence of the girls so necessary, that the inquest must
be adjourned until they were found. Doctor Marsden said
that one of them was still in the hospital ; and although ill, she
was not so much so as to prevent her being carried in a cab.
He thought that as the other two could not be found, one of
the three would be sufficient for the purposes of the inquiry.
The Coroner said that it was his firm conviction that two oat
of the three girls should be present; and that being so, if
the examination of the one were proceeded with that day, an
adjournment would at any rate become necessary to get the
other. He, therefore, thought it better that they should
i
adjourn at once, as it was most desirable that the nvcsti-
gation should come on and terminate on the same day.
After a warm discussion, the inquiry was adjourned until
Tuesday next.
FIRE ON CLEREENWELL-GREEN.—Yesterday morn-
ing, between twelve and one o'clock, an alarming fire broke
out upon the premises belonging to Mr. Maddox, painter and
glazier, No. 9, Clerkenwell-green. The first discovery WBB
made by the police-constable on the beat. Smoke which he
saw breaking over the roofs of the houses made him aware of
the alarming fact. Without less of time the officer aroused
the inmates of the contiguous buildings, and dispatched a
messenger for the fire-engines. The parish engine was im-
mediately on the spot, and was followed by the brigade en-
gines from Farringdon-street and Holborn stations. These
were instantly set to work from an abundant supply of water
furnished by the New River Company. The West of Eng-
land, County, and several other brigade engines followed in
rapid succession, as did also two escapes belonging to the
Royal Society for the Protee'ion of Life from Fire. The
firemen and police exerted themselves to the utmost, and by
two o'clock they happily succeeded in extinguishing the
flames. As to the origin of the fire, or whether or not the
sufferer was insured, we were unable during the confusion
that prevailed to learn,

DEATH Br FIRE.—On Tuesday Mr. Bedford held
an inquest at St. George's Hospital, or. the body of Prances
Allen, aged fort-five years, lately residing at go. 6. Alfred-
road, liensal New-town, ho died under the following dread-
ful circumstanced-..'Frederick Saunders stated that he
lodged in the same house as the deceased, who occupied a
room on the first floor with her husband, a bricklayer. Oa
the morning of Sunday last, about a quarter to one o'clock,
witness was awakened by hearing loud cries of "Fire, tire."
Witness got out of bed and ran to the room, and there dis-
covered the deceased enveloped in a body of flame. Her hus-
band was in the room, and rolling her on the floor, endeavour-
ing to extinguish the fire. Witness procured a jug of water,
and threw it over the deceased, who appeared to be burned
completely over the whole surface of the body, She was
placed in a cart and removed to the above hospital, where
she expired at half-past one on Sunday afternoon. Witness
asked her several times how it occurred, but as she was in
such a deplorable state she could not speak as to the origin of
the fire. Verdict, "That the deceased died from the effects
of burns, but how caused there was no evidence to show."
A NOBLE LECTURER.—On Wednesday evening a.
lecture was delivered at the Plymouth Mechanics' Institute by
Viscount Ebrington, M.P., on the health of towns. The
Plymouth Journal, which gives a full report of the Noble Lord's
lecture, speaks of it as follows :—The lecture itself, indepen-
dently of its elegant, striking, and terse style of composition
will reflect credit and honour, not only on the Noble Lord indi-
vididually, but on all, like himself, devoted to the cause of
lismnanity and justice, whose claims he has so ably advocated
and enforced. We recommend to all literally, the perusal of
every sentence uttered, as far as we are able to give it, for
we believe that in no one similarly compendious form will so
much information be found as is embodied in the lecture re-
ferred to.

DESPERATE ATTEMPT AT SUICIDE DT A RECRUIT.
—John Smith, a recruit in the Royal Artillery corps, was
taken before Mr. Thomas Jackson, the Mayor of Kingston,
on Monday, charged with the offence of misdemeanour in
having unlawfully attempted to destroy himself. Wm. Smith,
another recruit in the same regiment, deposed that he was int
company with the accused and some other recruits at a beer-
shop in heathen-street, Kingston, and Smith, the defendant,
was
-very drunk. In a short time he left the room, and very
soon afterwards the servant came in and told him to go and
look after John ; for when he went out she heard him
mutter something about "and he would go and do it," and
as he had been talking in the course of the day about de-
stria} ing himself, she feared he make would an attempt to
do so. Witness accordingly made a search, and on going to
the water-cicset be found the door fastened. He burst it
open, and found the defendant hanging from the ceiling;
black in the face, and nearly dead. He cut him down im-
mediately, and sent for a surgeon, but it was some time
before the accused could be restored to consciousness, when,
a policeman was called in and he was sent to the station-
house for security. The defendant said he was very sorry
fur what he had done, but it was through drink; he had
been drunk for three or four days, and had quite lost his
senses, or he should not have done such a thing. Sergeant
Wilson, of the Royal Artillery, who is at present recruiting
in the town, in answer to a question from the magistrate,
said that the accused had been recruited about a month, and
latterly had given way to drunken and slovenly habits. He
added that when he had been recruited six weeks he would
be sent to head-quarters at Woolwich. The Mayor said
that he considered the practice of keeping recruits so long
before they were sent to head-quarters a very improper one,
as the men had nothing else to do but to idle about and get
drinking; and he wished to know why it was adopted? The
sergeant said he did not know; but it was the ordinary rule
to send in drafts of recruits every six weeks. The Mayor
then ordered that the defendant should stand committed to
Kingston Gaol in order to give an opportunity to communi-
cate with the commanding officer of the regiment ; and the
sergeant was directed to report the opinion of the Bench
upon the subject of detaining the recruits for E 0 long a period
before they were sent to head-quarters, to the proper quarter,
with a view to the alteration of the system.
IMPROVEMENTS AT TEE NEW ROYAL EXCHANGE-
-On Sunday last Divine service was performed for the last
time in the church of St. Bennet Fink, Threadneedle-street,
the building having been given over to the commissioners for
making the improvements near and widening the approaches
to the new Royal Exchange. The parish in which it is
situated being in junction with that of St. Peter-le-Poer, the
Church service for the united parishes will in future be per-
formed at the church of this parish. The sacred edifice,
which will be forthwith pulled down, has stood upon its pre-
sent site for about 200 years, having been erected from a
design by that eminent architect Sir Christopher Wren,
THE RECENT FIRE IN BISHOPSGATE-STREET.—
On Tuesday W. Payne, Esq., coroner for the City of London,
and a respectable jury assembled at the Fox and Grapes
Tavern, Primrose-street, Bishopsgate, for the purpose of in-
quiring into the cause of the recent fire in Catherine-wheel
and George-yard, Bishopgate. Some few particulars of the
conflagration appeared in The Sun of Saturday last. After
hearing evidence, which presented no material fact, the jury
returned a verdict " that the fire was caused by accident."
ISLE OF SKYE.—DISTRESSING OCCURRENCE.--011
Thursday, the 20th of November, a party of three men and
a young woman, named Catherine Martin, left Portree, with
the intention of walking home to the district of Steinscboll, in
the parish of Kilmuir, by the romantic hill-path through the
farm of Scorribreck. The distance which they had to travel
was upwards of twenty miles, over one of the most rugged
and picturesque scenes in the island. During the prevtoua
day, thunder and lightning were very prevalent, and rail' fell
in torrents, which continued with little intermission urr,il the
evening of Thursday. The mountain rivulets were much
swollen, which rendered it a difficult matter at many places to
pass them. The party, however, succeeded well enough until
thy had almost ended their journey, when, having to cress a
rapid stream, the woman lost her footing, and was instantly
swept down the stream. The rivulet, near the spot of the
fatal accident, enters a larger one, which, at a short distance
below, rushes over shelving precipices, and forms a succession
of rapid cascades, as it falls immediately into the deep. The
body of the unfortunate woman must have been swept over
all these places, and into the ocean; for, although almost all
the articles of her dress were found, het body cork not be
discovered for a week after the tuehtneholS• accident, and little
hopes were then entertained of it; recovc,,j, at all.-e-havernen
Courier,