Mr. COBDEN makes way in recruiting the ranks of Corn-law
Repealers from the agricultural districts ; and this week we have the news of a fresh victory in Bedford. The agriculturists have been doomed to a series of astonishments, not more painful to them than significant of ulterior events. The Whig Budget was scouted by them with ridicule and derision : offered now, in con- junction with the Whiggish doctrine of" finality," it would almost be hailed as a blessed rock of safety : it now seems impossible— not because it proposed so much change, but because so much more change is inevitable. Astonishment the first was the Pew. Corn-law and Tariff; then came the autumn agricultural dinners, and the enunciation by quondam Anti-Free-traders of doubts as to the infallibility of their doctrines; then came Lord STANHOPE'S meetings, and Mr. BLACKSTONE'S Anti-Canada-Corn meetings ; and the ultra-agriculturists definitively proved themselves to be re- duced to the predicament of a whining, discontented band, of great importance to no party—neglected by Ministers, disclaimed by the Opposition, and no longer able to do more than indulge in vehement lachrymose language. Meanwhile, Mr. COBDEN invaded them in their own territory—at Hertford, at Aylesbury, at Uxbridge and other places, and now at Bedford; inflicting on them successive defeats. The circumstances of the Bedford meeting invest it with importance. The opponents of the League avow that they took energetic measures to insure their own success : before the pro- mised discussion, some of them canvassed all the farmers of the surrounding parishes, and pledged them by their signatures to a decision adverse to Mr. COBDEN'S known views : the day of the public meeting comes ; they do their best to preoccupy the ground; one of their own party is chairman ; two resolutions, the one de- claring the abolition of " protection" to be ruin, the other de- claring " monopoly " of all kinds to be ruin, are proposed ; and the resolution against monopoly is carried by a large majority. This decision reduces the farmers' signed pledge against Corn-law Repeal to waste paper : if the men dared not, individually and face to face, avow opinions adverse to the landlord party, at all events they were so little zealous in support of that party that they suffered judgment in the opposite sense to go by default ; and the sturdy protectionist, Lord CHARLES RUSSELL, declared that the ultra-agriculturists were fairly beaten. At the very least, the trust of the agricultural population in the Corn-law, its durability and expediency, has been shaken to the foundation; and every day more exposes the fact.
