The weekly meeting of the Anti-Corn-law League, in Newell's Buildings,
Manchester, on Thursday evening, was one of the largest The weekly meeting of the Anti-Corn-law League, in Newell's Buildings, Manchester, on Thursday evening, was one of the largest that has yet been held. Mr. George Wilson took the chair and near _him were seated Mr. Richard Cobden, M.P. for Stockport; Mr. Richard Walker, M.P. for Bury ; Dr. Bowring, M.P. for Bolton, Mr. Mark Philips, M.P. for Manchester, and Mr. George Thompson. The prin- cipal business of the evening was to receive addresses from Mr. Walker, Dr. Bowring, and Mr. Thompson.
Mr. Walker described the gloomy condition of the manufacturing districts as unrelieved, and he condemned Sir Robert Peel's change of the Corn-law as too small ; apprehending from the continuance of our restrictive policy a retaliatory tariff in Brazil, such as had already visited our commerce with the 'United States. He spoke, however, with a moderation of tone that seems to have been well received, and which was decidedly characteristic of the meeting— "1 myself have no feeling against the present Government, provided that Government will do its duty to the people. My votes have always been given in Parliament with the view of benefiting mankind, and not of benefiting a party. I shall continue to pursue that course. For Sir Robert Peel as an in- dividual I have a very high personal regard. I knew him in his early da3 5; I knew his father. It was his father who gave the first impetus to the industry of the district in which I live; and his exalted talents and private worth have conferred distinction upon the town of his birth, which town I have had the honour to represent since the passing of the Reform Bill. But I frankly con- fess I can place confidence in no Government which pursues a policy which I conceive to be so directly opposed to the real welfare and happiness of the com- munity at large."
He counselled his bearers to " work in their own field "—
" If the repeal of the Corn-laws depended upon the Members sent by the county of Lancaster and the boroughs within it ice could not carry the question. With
hat face, then, can we go among agricultural constituencies, even when we cannot in our own county return a majority of Members favourable to the repeal of this law—in this county, whose interests are so vitally important, and we so deeply affected by the operation of the Corn-laws?"
Dr. Bowring delivered a very comprehensive resume of the progress of Free Trade, to show how great it had been, beginning with Adam Smith : but he made a statement of immediate interest-
" I said that we Lad progressed; and wherever I look around me, I see marks of that progress. Sir Robert Peel himself is under the despotism of ne- vessity ; he has proclaimed principles to which he, and whoever follows him, must give effect. Ile has become a lecturer on political economy in the House of Commons ; and Sir Robert Peel must carry out those doctrines which he has declared to be true. No doubt great changes are in progress. Parties have been shaken up and scattered : and in that i rejoice, because I believe that a new state of things is coming forward—a new party, a party truly popular, and determined to carry out popular principles; and I know no principles so po- pular, so important to the people, as the principles of Free Trade. I was told yesterday in London, that already as many as foi ty Members had determined to desert Sir Robert Peel ; that they were already alarmed at the concessions he had made to public opinion. But I am told that Sir Robert Peel himself, and cer- tain friends of Sir Robert Peel, begin to anticipate, that for every one who shall desert him for the good lie is doing, be will receive the addition of two from our side. Like my honoi red: friend, I am not bound to the car of any Minister; but that Minister I will follow farthest who shall do most for the people."
In proof of his impartiality, Dr. Bowring, while asserting the supe- riority of commerce over war, contrasted the achievements of his friend Sir Charles Napier with those of his political opponent Lord Ashburton, favourably to the latter-
" Now I think Lord Ashburton is entitled to far greater honour. He has come back from America, where has been engaged in a mission of peace. Be went to a country which he found irritated and exasperated against England: he has removed all those impressions, and has, I believe, left in that country a feeling such as Englishmen would naturally desire should exist in the countries with which they wished to be connected. I certainly rejoice in that event ; and I am one of those who never will consent to throw opprobrium upon the good deeds of a political adversary, merely because they are done hy apolitical adversary. (Applause.) I shall certainly look with much distrust upon the Government of Sir Robert Peel: he does not possess my confidence : but, as my noble friend has said, if lie will remove the thraldom which oppresses trade, if he will give effect to the doctrine be has himself proclaimed, he shall have my cordial support ; and I will lend myself to no annoyances by which attempts may be made to visit him for any good he or his party may have done to the interests of our common country." Mr. George Thompson's speech was a farewell oration of a very dis- cursive and rhetorical nature : from the distresses of the country, the acts of the Government, and the morals of the people, he wandered to "the influence of antediluvian biography, the remotest imaginings of fancy—the tales of the nursery, the weeds of the garden, the loves and fears of far-off strangers, the dreams of his neighbours, the fall of a thunderstorm, or the song of a ballad-hawker," "a thousand other co- adjutant forces, and the w ill of man " ; and thence to "the decline of former empires, Assyria, Greece, Rome, Carthage." Taking for his text the assertion that "Poverty is, it is well known, when expressive, in most instances the mother of crime," he argued on the duty of the clergy to agitate for the repeal of the Corn-laws, and on the culpability of Government in supporting restrictions on trade.
In moving thanks to the gentlemen who had delivered addresses, Mr. Cobden took occasion to contradict the assertion of an anonymous cor- respondent of the Times, that the greater part of the money raised by the ladies' bazaar had been spent in the Stockport election, at which he was returned : "not only was the election carried without the expense of one farthing, but 50,000/. could not have returned a monopolist."
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