and thus save rural districts from a flood of pauperism, thrown upon them in times of commercial and manufacturing revulsion; that various other charges should be taken off county rates, and placed on the consolidated fund, as expenses of convicted prisoners, of prosecutions, &c. which were to be wholly or partly borne by the state; that the state should encourage agriculture by lending money, at a moderate rate of interest, on adequate security, for the drainage and other improvement of estates, and that the newly-constituted board for the enclosure of commons, and the Exchequer bill commissioners should be the machinery for this purpose.
It was agreed that the debate on Sir Robert Peel's propositions should be postponed till Monday, 9th February, but the more violent of the protectionists, amongst whom were Mr. Liddell, the Earl of March, Colonel Sibthorp, and Sir John Tyrrell, poured forth bittor denunciations of the "Potato Peel Government," as one of them designated the ministers, accusing them, at the same time, of compromising not with the agriculturists but with the League.
A numerously attended meeting of the Council of the League was held at Manchester, on January 29th, Mr. Wilson in the chair, at which the proposed measures of Sir Robert Peel were discussed at some length, Congratulations were exchanged at the progress which the great question had made in the minds of the most distinguished statesmen of all parties. With respect to the measure itself, several parts of it elicited expressions of satisfaction; but the feeling of regret at the re-enactment of the sliding scale was universal. The meeting was addressed, among others, by Messrs. R. H. Greg, Alderman Kershaw, J. B. Smith, 4. Prentice, Jamnes Heywood, H. Rawson, J. Whitaker, W. Bickham, T. Woolley, &c. All were of opinion that the League and its friends should stand firm to the principle of immediate and total repeal; and the following resolution, recommending universal
