application of the same faculties and the same interest to their public as to their private affairs, than by any methods of intellectual development yet tried under the name of education."
The landowners were not all convinced that the day of reckoning was to be long postponed. On Tuesday February 26th, a number of them mustered in Willis's Booms, under the designation of "The Central Agricultural Society;" the Earl of Tankerville in the chair, supported by the Earl of Mountcashell, the Earl of Euston, and a host of baronets and members of Parliament. Amongst the speakers were, the Chairman, Mr. Montgomery Martin, Mr. Christopher, M.P., Mr. Ormsby Gore, M.P., Mr. Cayley, M.P., and Mr. Alnutt. Their main arguments were, that we had a heavy national debt, that one concession would lead to another, that the agitators were incendiaries and speculators, that farm labourers liked to have wheat at 80s. or 100s., for then they got good wages, and that farmers paid poor rates. Such were the fallacies and falsehoods uttered, and such the fallacies and falsehoods to be printed and circulated throughout the country. A more effectual mode of combating the agitators was resorted to. It was to disturb their meetings by sending upon them some newly found allies of the aristocracy and the soilowners. They knew that they could effect nothing under fair discussion, and the plan was, if possible, to prevent any discussion.
On the following Thursday (Feb. 28th) the Manchester Anti-Corn-Law Association met in the Corn Exchange, to receive a report from the delegates who had been in London. It might have been supposed that the meeting of members of a particular association, held to receive the report of its representatives, would not have been intruded upon by men who were neither of the body nor invited; but it was soon seen that a number of noisy vagabonds had been brought there for the express purpose of disturb-
