Page:History of the Anti corn law league.pdf/302

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CHAPTER XIX

THE CAMPAIGN OF 1842.

On the first day of January, 1842, a meeting was held in the League rooms, Manchester, consisting of working men, deputies from Manchester, Salford, Birmingham, Forfar, Ashton, Bury, Bolton, Warrington, Leicester, Stalybridge, Halifax, Macclesfield, Nottingham, Coventry, Oldham, Liverpool, Royton, Waterhead Mill, Middleton, Mossley, Stockport, Great Torrington (Devonshire), &c. Seldom had there been seen a body of more intelligent men. Mr. E. Watkins was called to the chair. Reports of the state of the working people, and of trade, in the various districts represented, were read by the respective deputies. Many spirit-stirring speeches were delivered during the day; and an excellent address to their fellow-workmen was agreed to, urging them to promote, by every means in their power, the great object of the League, to destroy the great monopoly which stood in the way of the removal of all other monopolies, and especially the monopoly of political power.

A public meeting of the members of the Dundee Anti-Corn-Law Association, and deputies from the various anti-corn-law and free-trade associations in Forfarshire, Fifeshire, and the neighbouring counties connected with the flax and linen trade, was held in Bell-street Chapel, Dundee, on the 6th of January, for the purpose of diffusing