Mr. John Morley, whose speeches in the present controversy have
been as notable for their moderation as for their cogency, addressed a great meeting at Nottingham on Tuesday. He dealt chiefly with Mr. Chamberlain's astounding pledge that the cost of living would in no way be increased under the scheme of Protection. He showed, as it seems to us irrefutably, that the proposal will lessen the purchasing power of the people generally, and so work an injury to home trade, and also increase the proportion of taxation paid by the poorer classes, the people whose income is most precarious. He made a very striking use of a reminiscence of Mr. Bright, who bad told him how the year before the repeal of the Corn-laws he drove in a wet autumn from Scotland and saw the crops rotting in the fields. "That was the rain," said Mr. Bright, "which rained away the Corn-laws." Mr. Morley asked his audience : "Have you ever thought what would have been your position this year if your ports had been shut ? " It is a timely warning against any policy which would make the livelihood of the poorer classes a counter to gamble with in a fiscal war.
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