Page:History of the Anti corn law league - Volume 2.pdf/422

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408
ACTIVITY OF THE LEAGUERS.

whig auxiliaries, had stimulated them to increased exer tion. Applications for freeholds had been made to the League from all parts of the kingdom previous to that accession. Cobden and Bright had received as many invitations to attend meetings at large towns, as would have occupied them for every night until February. On Monday, November 23rd, they were at Sheffield; on Tuesday, at Leeds, where they first heard of Lord Morpeth's letter; at Wakefield, on Thursday; and at Bradford, on Friday, where they were received by numerous and enthusiastic meetings. On the following week, according to appointments made before the whig accessions, they attended similarly enthusiastic meetings at Gloucester and Stroud, where Earl Ducie was in the chair; Bath and Bristol; and on the week following that, at Nottingham, Derby, and Stockport, also on invitations given before the whig accessions. During that tour, meetings were held at Ashton, Bury, Lees, Newton, and Failsworth, in Lancashire; and the movement received an additional impulse from great meetings held in London, Leicester, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Huddersfield, and numerous other large towns, where the demand was, as it had been for seven years, for total and immediate repeal. There was no throwing up of caps as if the work had been done. There was a deep conviction that it must be finished by those who had begun it, and the stern determination was to have no juggle to stare off the final settlement by any temporary expedient. The people had no faith in either whig or tory movement. They saw their way to victory through redoubled zeal and activity, and they braced themselves up to the work.

On Sunday, the 7th of December, it was rumoured that the Duke of Wellington had reluctantly yielded; on Tuesday, it was asserted that he had withdraw his assent. On Thursday, it was known that ministers had resigned; that the "STRONG GOVERNMENT" had fallen to pieces before the shadow of coming events. It appeared that the startling