and would not be dear—inquiring, in short, how infinitissimally small the homeopathic dose of relief might be made!
A public dinner to Mr. Villiers, in the Town Hall, Birmingham, attended by upwards of six hundred gentlemen, the Earl of Ducie of the number, and presided over by the mayor, came in good time to excite the country to renewed exertion against the starvation-creating monopoly. The speeches of the Mayor, Mr. Villiers, Earl Ducie, Mr. Cobden, Mr. Bright, Mr. W. J. Fox, Colonel Thompson, and Mr. W. Brown, of Liverpool, all breathing a spirit of determination and hope,—reported in full in the League, and in nearly all the newspapers of the kingdom which had any influence,—gave a tone to public opinion every where. Remonstrances began to flow in upon the ministry from every quarter. The freeholders of the county of Lanark, presided over by the Duke of Hamilton, agreed to a declaration that the potatoes in that county would not amount to half a crop, and that the disease continued to be progressive. The town council of Perth passed a resolution in favour of opening the ports. Crayford, in Kent, memorialised Sir Robert Peel to the same effect. The parish of St. Paul, Covent Garden; the Gateshead town conncil: Lord Cloncurry, on behalf of an influential meeting in Dublin; a meeting of the working classes in Kendal; & public meeting in the Town Hall, Manchester, the mayor, Mr. W. B. Watkins, in the chair; the town council of Manchester; the town council of Salford; the town council of Sheffield; the town council of Nottingham; the town council of Stockport; the inhabitants of Oldham: the Newcastle Chamber of Commerce; the town councils of Ayr and Montrose; the town council of Gateshead: and many other places and public bodies, memorialised the government instantly to open the ports.
In the midst of this excitement appeared a letter, addressed to the electors of London, from Lord John
