directors inclined to any compromise, and the amendmentwas carried, according to the Guardian's account, by " a considerable majority," while the Manchester Times' report says, only about twenty hands out of more than a hundred and twenty were held up against it."
While lessons were thus given to professed free traders, there was a teacher amongst the farmers to tell them that their interests were not promoted by the Corn Laws. At the invitation of Mr. John Childs, the author of "Corn Law Catechism" visited Bungay, where he addressed an audience of real farmers. Rumours were afloat throughout the locality that he would not be heard, and some of the most brutal of the farmers had boasted loudly of what they would do, if he presumed to instruct them. The threateners went, flushed and prepared for action, but they found that preparations had been made to secure Colonel Thompson a fair hearing, and many who had to obstruct the proceedings come away convinced that, whatever advantage landowners might derive from the Corn Laws, farmers received none. The gallant Colonel proceeded to Ipswich, where he had a large audience of agriculturists, whom he addressed with great effect. This was the first movement on an agricultural county. The gallant old soldier saw the advantage of carrying the war into the enemy's country, and he set an example that was followed, most effectively, at a later period of the agitation.
On Monday, February 8th, after the presentation of a number of petitions against the Corn Laws, Mr. Villiers moved that they be referred to a committee of the whole house, and that evidence be heard at the bar. The motion was negatived without a division. On Tuesday, the 19th, Mr. Villiers; after presenting a vast number of additional petitions, brought forward his motion: "That J. B. Smith, Robert Hyde Greg, and others, be heard at the bar of this house, by their witnesses, agents, or counsel, in support of
