SPEECH
OF THE
REV. T. SPENCER, OF BATH,
DELIVERED AT THE MEETING OF THE
ANTI-CORN-LAW LEAGUE,
AT COVENT-GARDEN THEATRE, LONDON,
ON JUNE 19, 1844,
TO AN AUDIENCE OF, AT LEAST, SIX THOUSAND.
Mr. Chairman, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I have listened, in common with yourselves, with great interest to the address of Mr. Cobden, and I am glad to find that mere parties are getting into disrepute in this country; that the names of "Whig" and "Tory" are almost about to disappear; and I am in hopes—and have long been entertaining the hope—that a new party will rise out of the ruins of both; to be called "the justice party" (great applause)—a party which shall have no other rule but that of justice, not justice to one, but justice to all (loud cheers)—not of favour to the rich, the poor, or to the middle classes only, but holding the balance evenly, and doing at all times, and under all circumstances, the thing that is right. (Cheers.) I am in hopes, too, that the newspapers will take a change at the same time. Instead of their being calculated only, and written on purpose, to deceive the public, or to gain popularity—instead of endless articles on pauperism and the poor-laws—instead of perpetual appeals merely to the passions of men—instead of these old Whig and Tory papers, I trust that we shall have a "truth paper"—a real record of passing events, giving no colouring to, but recording circumstances, and chronicling them just as they are (cheers), so that the people shall really be able to believe what they read, which at present they cannot do, being obliged, in order to get at truth, to read both sides and then to judge between them. (Cheers.)
I ought to feel a great deal of diffidence in my own opinion as a clergyman of the Church of England, when I know that so great a majority of my own order entertain different views from myself upon political subjects—when I see in the late election for South Lancashire that only six or seven clergymen polled for the Free-Trade candidate and sixty or seventy for the other—that is, that nine out of ten entertained opinions differing from my own. However, it is possible for a minority to be right. (Hear.) Sometimes it has happened in the world that truth has been held even by very few, and it is possible for a man even to stand alone—at all events no man should be prevented thinking for himself by this circumstance. The question is, what is right and true, and not "how many are there of
