low price which cattle brought, denied that it was occasioned by importation under the new tariff. He said:—
"The fall has been because the farmers' customers have been ruined.(Hear, hear.) Why, I have made some inquiries on the subject, and I find that in Dundee, in Leeds, in Kendal, in Carlisle, in Birmingham, and in Manchester, the falling-off in the consumption of butchers' meat has been one third, as compared with what it was five years ago. (Hear,hear.) How is it possible that this great falling off in the consumption should take place, without causing a diminution in the price of the article? We, who are apt to cultivate our connections, to nurse our customers, to wish them well, and to be anxious for their prosperity, should take a very different view of the thing. If we find that our customers are declining, and that they have no longer the means to purchase, we know that we, as sellers, must suffer in consequence. The farmers have not learned that lesson yet; they imagine that they can be flourishing while their customers are ruined. (Hear, hear.) Now, at the Chester cheese fair I observe that there was a falling off of 20s. per cwt. on cheese, and the farmers said, 'We have had Peel in the market.' (Laughter.) Now, the absurdity of that is obvious, from the fact that there has been no alteration at all in the duty on foreign cheese. Yet in Cheshire the price of cheese, of butter, and of milk, Lave fallen; and why? Because their largest manufacturing town, Stockport, has been ruined, and is paying £7,000 a-week less wages than it did three years ago. (Cheers.) And with that fact staring them in the face, why should the Cheshire farmers go to Peel, or the tariff, for a reason of their adversity? (Applause.) But, I observe that the Duke of Rutland, at his meeting at Waltham the other day, denied that there had been such a decline in the price of meat, such a fall in the price of agricultural produce. Now, we must set his grace right. There has been such a fall, and his grace ought not to tell his farmers that there has not. Look at the government contract; there cannot be a better test than that. The government contract for the supply of the army and navy with beef has been taken this year for 20 per cent, less than it was last year. (Hear, hear.,) This is proof sufficient of the fact; and his grace ought not to attempt to mislead the farmers, by saying that there is not a great fall in the price of meat. There has been a great fall, and we know the cause. Now, it may seem very strange that I should be here to exculpate Sir Robert Peel from the attacks that are made upon him by his friends, on account of this falling off in the price of meat."
Mr. Cobden, after adverting strongly to the impolicy of the American tariff, announced the intention of the League
