to Mr. Forster. He agreed to stand, an active canvass on his behalf was commenced, and the free traders and reformers felt confident that he would be returned. The hall was again filled in the evening to hear the address of the candidate, but at nine o'clock the gentlemen who were to have accompanied him arrived and stated that Mr. Forster's father, a conservative, had positively forbidden him to stand, and that Mr. Forster, to avoid the misery and dissension that might arise in the family, had earnestly requested that his name should be withdrawn. This naturally caused deep disappointment; but the spirit of the repealers soon rallied, and it was resolved that an earnest request should be forwarded to the Council of the League to find a candidate from amongst their number. I arrived in Manchester early next morning, a meeting was instantly convened, and it was resolved that, although none of the members should be proposed to the electors, Mr. J. B. Smith should be requested to proceed to Walsall to confer with them, and, when they had made their choice, to do all in his power to aid them in returning an opponent of the bread tax.
This movement on the part of the League, although in perfect consistency with its original constitution, and its reiterated resolution as to the course which its members would pursue at elections threw the whole ministerial press into the wildest hysterics. Not one word had that press to say against a movement of that body at Sudbury, where a tory member had been unseated. On the contrary, there was great rejoicing at the extinction of a tory vote, and great praise of the vigour by which it was effected. But when the movement drove, or appeared to drive, from the field a whig candidate, closely related to the whig Lords Althorp, Lyttelton, and Hatherton, and consequently enjoying the sympathies of the whig aristocracy, the clamour was both loud and deep, and the League, and more especially Mr. Rawson and myself, were loaded with
