were now almost all going into the cotton trade. Why? Not because they liked it better; but there was no field for them in their own trade, one half of which had been cut off by the American tariff. Mr. Sharman Crawford also spoke on the question of Free-trade. Messrs. Bright and Cobden on the evening of the 3rd of December were in Huddersfield Guild Hall, advocating the cause of the League. The next day they delivered speeches at Leeds, in the Music Hall, to a large number of persons. They returned to London on the 11th of December, and were present at a League meeting in Covent Garden Theatre in the evening. Boxes, pit, gallery, and stage were crowded. The Hon. C. P. Villiers was the first gentleman called upon by the chairman, Mr. J. Wilson, to address the meeting. Mr. Cobden followed, and then Mr. Bright spoke. "Yes," said Mr. Bright, "freedom is Heaven's first gift to man. It is his heritage; he has it by charter from Heaven, and, although it has struggled so long, this principle is still living, breathing, growing, and every day increasing in strength. (Cheers.) The infant of our fathers' day has become the giant of our own time. An American poet, speaking of liberty and its struggles, says:— 'Power at thee has launch'd His bolts, and with his lightnings smitten thee; They could not quench the life thou hast from Heaven, And his swart armourers, by a thousand fires, Have forged thy chain.' But liberty still survives, is indestructible, and man shall yet enjoy its blessings. But, bear in mind that, precious and excellent as this liberty is, there are certain conditions upon which alone it can be obtained and secured. You must rely upon yourselves for it. Liberty is too precious and sacred a thing ever to be entrusted to the keeping of another man. Be the guardians of your own rights and liberties; if you be not, you will have no protectors but spoilers of all that you possess." (Hear, hear, and cheers.) Messrs. Bright and Cobden were down at a meeting in Bradford on the 13th of December, and four days after they addressed a gathering in the Mechanics' Institute, Wakefield, with the object of trying to improve the register for the West Riding of Yorkshire. A Free-trade banquet was held in Farringdon Hall, Snow Hill, London, on the 16th of December, and Mr. Bright was one of the guests. Mr. John Buckmaster officiated as chairman. Mr. J. Pattison, M.P., Dr. Lynch, and Mr. John Bright were the principal speakers on the occasion. "I have been more or less connected with it (the League) from the first," said Mr. Bright, "and have been intimately acquainted with its proceedings from that time to this. Year after year I have witnessed its growth and watched its increasing strength, until at this moment I may say-without any of that partiality which, perhaps, from my identification with it, I might be excused for feeling-that I am 1845.] THE LABOUR OF THE LEAGUE CONTINUED. 195 quite certain there is no political or other question which at this moment has ob tained one tithe of the attention in Great Britain which Free-trade now commands." (Cheers.) The inhabitants of the manufacturing town of Keighley had the pleasure of listening to Mr. Bright in their Mechanics' Institute on the 20th of December, and gave him an enthusiastic reception. Mr. Cobden again joined Mr. Bright on the 23rd of December, and proceeded to the clean and handsome town of Pontefract, famed for its gardens and nurseries, and associated with some of the greatest events in English history. The meeting was held in the Town Hall, and the then mayor, Mr. John Phillips, was the chairman. They continued their journey in Yorkshire, and came to Cleckheaton on the 27th of December. About 700 of the inhabitants congregated in the Concert Room in the afternoon to listen to them. In the evening of the same day they addressed an equally numerous assembly in a schoolroom in the manufacturing town of Batley. On the second day in January, 1845, they were at a meeting in the Corn Exchange, Preston, where 500 of the inhabitants listened attentively to them. Two days after, they arrived at Warrington, a town said to be the oldest in Lancashire, and amongst the first to manufacture cotton. A meeting was held in the evening in a room adjoining the Lion Hotel, and 600 persons were present. This was considered the largest gathering that had been held in that town on the question of Free-trade and the registration movement. Mr. Bright, accompanied by Mr. Prentice, was at Chorley, at a meeting in the old Wesleyan Chapel, on the 6th of January, and the facts and arguments brought forward by both of them in their speeches made a deep impression on their audience. Mr. Cobden next joined Mr. Bright at a meeting in the Freetrade Hall, Manchester, on the 8th of January. The body of the hall and the galleries, as well as the platform, were thronged with people of a respectable station in society. Both of them delivered lengthy speeches. Next day they addressed the inhabitants of Wigan, in a large room adjoining the Buck i' th' Vine Hotel. The day following they spoke in the Baptist Chapel, Bramley, Yorkshire, to an audience which chiefly had been attracted from the surrounding villages. On the 13th of January, 1,300 of the inhabitants of Blackburn assembled in a schoolroom under St. James' Chapel, and listened to their speeches. On the 15th of January Mr. Bright was amongst his constituents, giving them an account of his stewardship. The meeting was held in the Theatre, Sadler Street, Durham, and the whole building was crowded; Mr. John Henderson, of Leazes House, acted as chairman. When Mr. Bright appeared upon the stage he was received with reiterated bursts of cheering, manifestations of approbation that were renewed again and again. He spoke for an hour and three-quarters. Mr. John Branwell moved, and Mr. John Marshall seconded, and the meeting carried unanimously the following resolution :-"That the able review which has been given this evening by the hon. member for this city of his Parliamentary conduct is highly satisfactory to this meeting; that his conduct in Parliament entitles him to the warmest thanks of his constituency, and that the meeting and the constituency feel perfect confidence in the course which he will pursue in the proud situation in which he is placed as the member for this borough." The annual meeting of the Anti-Corn-Law League was held on the 22nd of January in the Free Trade Hall, Manchester. The platform, the body of the hall, and the galleries were crowded. Mr. Edward Baines, of Leeds, Mr. Lawrence Heyworth, of Liverpool, Mr. T. M. Gibson, M.P., and Mr. John Bright, addressed the meeting. "The tendency and object of all Corn Law legislation of late years has been the same-to plunder the industry of the country by creating an artificial famine, and thereby to enrich the great proprietors of the soil, and those who call themselves the nobility of the land. (Loud cheers.) When the Law was passed in 1815, £4 a quarter was fixed as the price of wheat; now the price is 45s. a quarter, only a little more than half. (Hear, hear.) Now, we think £4 a quarter a famine price. It was a famine price then; the law intended that it should be perpetual; but only two years since that time have witnessed the price of wheat so high as 80s. In 1817 and 1818 the Act-of-Parliament-famine-price was reached, and those years were years of great distress and discontent, and menaced insurrection in all the densely-populated districts of the kingdom. (Cheers.) But the Corn Law intended that, from 1815 to 1845, or as long as it should last, the famine price should be kept in view, and should be attained if possible, the object of these men had only this limit-Get as near to that price always as it may be safe to go. (Loud cheers.) Get all out of the industry of the country that the industrious classes will bear quietly. (Hear, hear.) Don't mind starving a few of the poor, who will go down to premature graves, and their voices will not be heard amongst the strife of parties and the contentions for political power.' (Cheers.) This Corn Law has no mercy in it, and its framers had none. (Cheers.) There have been periods when distress has not extensively prevailed. We are now passing through one of them, but it is not by the mercy of the Corn Law that we are not now plunged into utter desolation. (Cheers.) In 1842 we held a bazaar in this town, which realised the sum of £10,000, more, I believe, by some thousands than was ever before received from any bazaar in this country, however great and noble were the patrons and patronesses. (Cheers.) In 1843 we realised a subscription of £50,000, and that was done with the greatest ease. (Cheers.) In 1844 the subscription of £100,000 was asked for, and you have heard from the report that about £82,000 or £83,000 have been received, although one of the greatest means by which it was to have been collected has not yet been employed. (Hear, hear.) Thirty years' protection has left some 800,000 or 900,000 of your countrymen, agricultural labourers, for the most part paupers, hopeless and reckless. (Hear, hear.) We now find, on inquiry into the conditions of these districts, that the very population who, our opponents said, supported our home trade and supported the revenue, 1845.] THE LABOUR OF THE LEAGUE CONTINUED. 197 buy almost no clothing, and consume almost no excisable articles. We find that these labourers are helpless amidst their wrongs. Protection to them has been of a sort which they dread almost to think of. If I were to be asked of its results, I would say:— "Tis to see their children weak, ''Tis to hunger for such diet, (Cheers.) This is the protection the Corn Law has given to rural labourers, and I appeal to themselves and their actual condition for the truth of the statement. (Cheers.) And the farmers are just about as helpless. There is a case to prove it. Ninety-nine farmers out of every hundred in the kingdom are altogether against the Game Law, that is notorious, and yet there are not ten farmers in the district who dare meet to denounce that Law in the face of the landlords." (Cheers.) About 1,000 of the inhabitants of Bury again assembled in the Brunswick school on the 20th of January to hear addresses from Mr. Bright and Mr. Cobden. Mr. R. Walker, M.P., presided. On the 8th of February the legislative session was opened, and Mr. Cobden called the attention of the House of Commons to the fact that on former occasions, when the agricultural districts were in a state of distress, the circumstance was usually adverted to in the Speech from the Throne at the opening of the Session; on the present occasion it was not. Mr. J. Bright followed in a powerful speech. His contrast between protected Buckinghamshire and unprotected Lancashire was masterly, and his pictures of the agricultural labourer and the straits of the tenant farmer, all caused by protection, fell with withering effect. The second metropolitan meeting for the year was held in Covent Garden, on the 19th of February, and so crowded was the building that hundreds of persons were unable to gain admittance. Mr. Bright was one of the speakers. CHAPTER XXI. OPPOSITION TO THE GAME AND CORN LAWS. Mr. Bright's Committee to inquire into the Game Laws-Mr. Cobden and the Distress-Mr. Bright and the Tenant Farmers of Hertfordshire-The Anti-CornLaw Bazaar in London-The Distress at Hereford and Newton-Mr. Bright at Sunderland assisting Col. Thompson at an Election Contest. FOR many years Mr. Bright had devoted considerable attention to the Game Laws, and, in moving in the House of Commons, on the 27th of February, for a Select Committee to inquire into them, he delivered a speech which occupied two hours and a-half. Throughout the whole of this period he commanded constant and unbounded attention, and was interrupted only by the cheers that broke out from all sides. He presented an array of facts and figures, lucidly arranged, which could not be resisted. His sturdy hate of wrong and unaffected sympathy for the suffering which these laws had brought upon the poor and the defenceless, gave to his arguments a tone and colouring of rich feeling, which made them as touching to the heart as they were convincing to the head. At one portion the county gentlemen forgot themselves, when Mr. Bright was censuring the butchery of game, called a battue, and ridiculed the idea that the abolition of the Game Laws would render residence in the country unattractive. He pictured the real dignity of a landowner residing on his estate in the midst of his tenantry, having within his command so much power of doing good, and so many sources of natural amusement. Charmed with the strain, the country gentlemen were captivated, and cheered lustily; and when Mr. Bright concluded his speech, the members acknowledged his mastery of the subject by cheering, and there was a general assent to the appointment of a committee. Mr. Bright was present at the monthly meeting of the League in the Free-trade Hall, Manchester, on the 6th of March; but he did not deliver a speech to the gathering, which numbered 6,000 people. Mr. W. J. Fox addressed the meeting eloquently, and thus concluded :— "There is the security of enlightened determination-a security as great as that of cause and effect in the material creation. The sun and the moon once stood still to accommodate an army; Cobden and Bright will not stand still to accommodate a Government. (Tremendous cheering.) Onward, still onward, is their word, |