Page:History of the Anti corn law league.pdf/165

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THE WORKING CLASSES.
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Brotherton, M.P., Daniel O'Connell M.P., Thos. Milner, Gibson, Col. Thompson, Dr. Bowring, Dr. Epps, George Thompson, Richard Cobden, with a large list of other gentlemen. The blessing before dinner was prayed by the Rev. Dr. P. Brewster, of Paisley. The most striking feature of this vast assemblage was the order, propriety, and general excellent demeanour of all the company. Their conduct throughout the whole proceedings, which lasted till near two o'clock in the morning, excited the highest admiration of the guests from a distance, and reflected great credit upon the working classes of Manchester. The speakers were Richard Cobden, Joseph Brotherton, M.P., George Thompson, Col. Thompson, Dr. Epps, the Mayor of Manchester, the Rev. T. Spencer, the Hon. C. P. Villiers, M.P., Daniel O'Connell, M.P., Henry Warburton, M.P., Thomas Milner Gibson, the Rev. Dr. Brewster, the Rev. Mr. Winterbottom, and Mr. George Greig, one of the lecturers of the League. The admirable conduct of the working classes, and the marked proofs of their intelligence were suggestive, and in my paper of the following Saturday I said:—

"The demonstration, on Monday and Tuesday, against the Corn Laws was one of the greatest that was ever made on any public question, and will produce an extraordinary impression, not only in these islands, but in every part of the world with which we have commercial relations. At home, the members of Parliament, and the delegates from all the large towns between Taunton and Aberdeen, will describe in glowing terms, the magnificent scene, and the unity and determination of purpose which they witnessed; and they will spread, in their several localities, an unquenchable spirit of opposition to the unholy and destructive monopoly. We refer, with peculiar pride and gratification to the second evening's meeting, where five thousand persons, of whom at least four thousand were of the working classes, assembled, and by their scrupulous decorum at the dinner table, their rivetted attention to the various speakers, their knowledge of the subjects discussed, as evidenced by their instant apprehension of every argument, proved the gross falsehood of the assertion, that they regarded with indifference the efforts of other classes of society to procure for them the full reward of their industry and skill, and their just share in the bounties