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FREE TRADE HALL ERECTED.
polies would share the fate of the rotten boroughs. The erection of the temporary pavilion, afterwards to be replaced by the more permanent Free Trade Hall, was the work of one hundred men for eleven days. It is thus described in my paper of the time:—
"The length is 150 feet; width, 105; area, 15,750 square feet. In its frame work, pillars, &c., 4,500 cubic feet of timber have been used; in the flooring of the pavilion and its ante-rooms 17,100 square feet of three-inch plank; there were twenty-five tables from side to side; it was seated for 3,800 persons, and 500 more found entrance after the dinner. It was lighted by twenty-four chandeliers of twelve burners each, eight chandeliers in each of the three aisles, and there were three others at the entrances. Besides these was a device in gas upon the wall above the president's chair, consisting of the word JUSTICE in letters of a yard in length. About 20,000 yards of white and pink calico had been used in the drapery. The whole had a very light appearance, the ground of the draperies forming the walls and roofs of the pavilion being white, panelled by broad bands or fillets of pink and white drapery within, which gives the form of a coned roof to each of the aisles, at a height from the floor of from twenty to twenty-four feet. A striking relief to the almost uniform colour was given by the draperies which cover the front of the galleries. These were of a deep crimson, having mottoes inscribed on them in letters of large dimensions. The one along the principal gallery, directly facing the chair, and extending the whole length of the pavilion is, "Landowners Honesty is the best policy ;' that on the gallery at the east is, 'Total and Immediate Repeal;' and that at the west, A fixed duty is a fixed injustice.'"
Such was the demand for tickets to the banquet, that ten thousand might have been sold. Early on Monday morning, January 13th, indications of the approaching demonstration were apparent in most parts of the town. The arrivals of deputations from various towns in England and Scotland gave increased bustle and animation to the streets; and in the afternoon the avenues immediately
leading to the pavilion were crowded. Hundreds of people welcomed the arrival of Daniel O'Connell, at the railway station, then in Liverpool Road, and received him with loud cheers. At five o'clock, the seats in the body of the hall were all occupied, and the galleries were filled with
