state, and also levying money, indirectly and furtively, to the detriment of the state, for the private pockets of certain favoured individuals and classes. It was likewise shown that the indirect and furtive private taxation, far exceeds in amount the whole sum of the public taxation of the country—rendering, of course, the burden of the public taxes so much the more onerous, and their collection more difficult. Also, that the incidental operation of these private taxes, in diverting capital and industry from their natural channels, limiting trade, relaxing the demand for labour, and abridging remuneration, is beyond measure more mischievous than their pressure as a pecuniary impost. And, moreover, that the individuals and classes for whose supposed benefit these private taxes are levied, are, on the whole and in the long run, nothing the better, but very much the worse, for the oppression and impoverishment of the rest of the community."
A movement of another kind had a like unpromising beginning, and a like result in more widely spreading the doctrines of free trade. The lecturers of the League were diligently employed in various parts of the kingdom, some in the great towns instructing intelligent audiences in the application of the principles of political economy, and others making popular appeals to the working classes in smaller towns and villages. Useful as this agency was, and zealous and able as the lecturers were in their several capacities, it become obvious that another class of labourers were needed in the wide field. When application was made for a free-trade missionary, I suggested that members of the Council of the League should occasionally go forth, and offered myself as a volunteer when we had nobody else to send. In this way I had attended several meetings in my own neighbourhood; and at the meeting of the delegation in London, finding that Mr. Beadon, of Taunton, and several other gentlemen had in like manner visited in towns of their neighbourhood, I strenuously recommended the example to be followed by the delegates in their various localities. In May I was requested by my colleagues of the council to attend a meeting of the Glasgow Anti-Corn-Law Association in that city, and I took the opportunity of urging upon its
