who stated the objects of the League in visiting Liverpool, said they had no wish to dictate to the people of Liverpool, but seeing that it was a common interest, they came to plead for the assistance of the important community of that borough. Mr. Bright next addressed the meeting, and spoke with great earnestness on the subject, which he conscientiously believed to be the most important which could then occupy their attention. He showed that the Corn Law was passed to make corn and food dear, by making it scarce, and appealed to the common sense and the moral and religious feeling of the audience, if a law having this object could really be productive of good to this or any other community. It was a quarrel, not between manufacturers and farmers, but between the bread-eating millions and the few who wish to monopolize the soil, and every honest man should give a helping hand in the great and good cause. Mr. J. Brooks was next called upon, and, in a speech remarkable for its happy illustration, he showed how the commerce of Great Britain was suffering from the fetters monopoly fastened upon it. Mr. Cobden next came forward, and beginning at the beginning, he pointed out how the bread tax had originated, how it had worked, the ruin which it had produced, and the prospect which its continuance opened to the country. He most happily illustrated the miserable policy of the Corn Law, its injustice to the industrious classes, and its evident tendency to reduce the prosperity of the country. He pointed out how farmers, agricultural labourers, manufacturers, ans artisans, were alike despoiled of the fruits of their honest labour, for the purpose of affording protection to the least numerous class. A Mr. Dix wished to reply to what he deemed the fallacies of the League, and for half-an-hour he spoke the usual string of absurdities which persons wholly ignorant of the subject, or interested in the monopoly, are accustomed to bring forward. Mr. Cobden replied, and calling Mr. Dix to the front of the
