CORN-LAW REPEALERS AT 'MANCHESTER.
THE abolition of the Corn-laws is merely a question of time : it is not whether, but when shall it be effected. In this view of the
matter we have been strengthened by the great festival at Man- chester ; and we return to the subject for the purpose of taking one or two points passed over in the hurry of last week. The "feature" of the gala upon which we dwell with complacency, is the announcement that the League is in debt. The League is in debt, not because its members are without money, for many have paid down hard cash, but because the best mode of levy- ing and apportioning their respective quotas towards the ex- penses has not yet been discovered. The League is in debt to its own members; it has a national debt. This, as the annals doll free states testify, is the first step toward. victory ; no other can he taken without it. This debt will cement the League. The Manchester men have with mingled wisdom and liberality launched into expenses which must in the first place come out of their own pockets. They are bound over to prosecute; they will not let the agitation drop. The Glasgow men have unbuttoned their pockets more leisurely—with the proverbial caution of their country, look- ing at both sides of the coin before they paid it away ; but they too have thrown down their money on the table; they too are bound over to prosecute. Others to less amount have thrown in their mites; and in the paying portion of the League we descry a band which will not separate. Money paid down is the only infallible cement of nation or association. Men who have laid out money for a purpose will not lightly abandon the chance of getting its value in return.
Another circumstance, not so immediately connected with the proceedings of the Manchester gathering, concurs to render us hopeful of perseverance on the part of the League; and perse- verance is success. In many places the middle classes, however sincere in their profession of belief in the injurious working of the Corn-laws, have prosecuted their attacks upon these enactments with that lackadaisical want of energy which is their characteristic in ordinary times. To this we attribute in a great measure the opposition of the Chartists. These men are in earnest ; and when they saw others getting up with great difficulty meetings once a year to repeat in a cool indifilment manner their disapprobation of the Corn-laws,—contributing nothing to the common ffind for att asking them, or voting next day for an avowed supporter of the Corn-laws as a Member of Parliament,—they naturally said, " When these fellows ask us to make room tbr their agitation by abandoning our own, it is only to keep us as idle as themselves. They are dogs in the manger, who will neither work nor let work." Accord- ingly, the Chartists have in various places clubbed their forces to shoulder out of the way those whom they considered mere actors, in order that a clear stage might be left for working. men. We could not have predicated of this plan in advance, that it would work well ; nor do those who acted upon it seem to have consulted any thing but their own plan ; nevertheless it seems to have done good service. The Anti-Corn-law advocates, and many of their caste who never befbre troubled their heads about the matter, have been roused to resent the " tyranny" which would prevent them holding meetings about any question they pleased. They are angrily bent on showing the Chartists that they can carry their point without them, or even against their opposition. They did not care for attending meetings until attempts were made to prevent meetings being held: now they cram thein, out of the noble spirit of contradiction. They are
• working in earnest now for the repeal of the Corn-laws. And the very energy with which in their anger they set about it, will do more to disarm Chartist opposition than millions of fair
speeches. There is a nmjesty about a man who, by getting into a passion, shows that he is sincere and in earnest, which always commands respect. The Chartists played with and crossed the Anti-Corn-law men when they believed them to be playing a double game; they will give way before their onward path when they see them advancing in earnest. They laughed in the faces of idle wheedlers ; they will back bona fide labourers. Now, a wish to see sonic return for money expended, and a spite- ful determination to have one's own way, are not the most elevated of motives ; but as they are influential, they arc not to be despised. They arc " of the earth, earthy," and, unless when inlisted in the cause of a sound principle, speedily corruptible. But a sound principle is the salt which preserves them from putrescence. It is the soul ; and by the law of our blended nature, no soul, however pure and high, can work except through the instrumentality of a body. We do not seek to undervalue the great principle at stake in the Corn-law agitation ; we do not wish to undervalue the high minds who tight the battle from a love of justice; but we do rejoice to see the merely human part of our nature taking an in- terest in the affray, as an assurance that the work will be done. Apart from these considerations, there are this year symptoms of consolidation about the League indicative of permanence. It has survived a year, and the muster to its annual drill has this year been more numerous than the last. The war has been carried into the enemy's quarters. Cambridge has been "fluttered," not carried by storm : the Cr Devon has heard the arguments of the Anti-Corn-law men. The agricultural county of Kirkcud- bright has recently been addressed by the sitting Member (Whig) and his would-be successor (Tory) :* with both the most promi- nent theme is the Corn-laws. Thus the League has gained one great point by its exertions .during the last year—everywhere the question is discussed. Let it follow this up by "putting money in its purse," and clapping on more lecturers. Manchester has done well ; Leeds and Glasgow respectably : but this is a scanty supply of labourers when the fields around us are whitening so rapidly. The missionary field, for a year or two, must be the main object of the League's exertions. Let them scrutinize the civil letters from invited Members of Parliament, and they may prognosticate the flute of any movement which can be made there. There is division in the ranks both of the friends and foes of the Corn-law in Parliament. Among the supporters, some think the time has come to give up a part in order to save a part ; while others will not bate an inch of their monopoly. A corresponding division exists in the hostile ranks : some would simply get rid of the evil ; others think they can manage more adroitly by asking only a partial cure. Among such divisions of opinion, the party in possession derives an advantage from his position ; and this will secure him against the unorganized shock of the present ses- sion, and it may be some sessions to come. The only batter- ing-rain that can bring down the walls of " possession " is a clear and well-defined principle. The task of the League is to diffuse throughout society the conviction, that all interference to bias and divert the natural course of traffic into artificial channels, is in itself an evil. Parliamentary discussions—popular display—all these have their use ; but only as means to the great end. They unsettle erroneous opinion; they break up the ground for receiving the seed of truth. In the national conviction that trade should be left free, exists the only power competent to pull down the Corn- laws, and (which is by no means of secondary importance) to pre- vent the reCrection of kindred errors on their ruins. if the League fortify itself with public opinion, it may command where it must otherwise beg. The only permanent hold it can obtain upon Members of Parliament, is by convincing them that its en- mity can unseat them. Leaguers have the phrase " no party" continually in their mouths: they must learn to understand it aright. It does not mean that Whig or Tory members of the League arc to go on voting for men of their own party even when they would uphold the Corn-laws : it means that they ought to oppose even those of their own party who differ from them on this vital question.
* To be sure, the Tory declares that the existing Corn-law is perfection : but this is a hereditary crotchet. Ile is a descendant of the Cardoness be- devilled by the ungodly muse of ROBERT BURNS. Ilis sainted grandfather had an abhorrence .,t' frisky horses; and strictly prohibited indulging those which drew his coach, with corn on the days wlien he was to drive out. One day observing the olf.horse cock his car suspiciously, he addressed the coach- man—. John, yon have been giving that horse corn : do you think I am going to venture my life with a corned horse?—tarn back t" The grandson would be equally unwilling to trust himself among a parcel of swag-bellied knaves who had got their full measure of corn ; and hence the declaration in his address.
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