other causes; and that he had never heard how Parliament could do anything in such a case. Parliament was prorogued on the 7th of October, and the state physician, now regularly called in, obtained some four or five months of time to consider what he would prescribe.
The change of ministry caused no diminution of the zeal with which the anti-corn-law agitation was carried on. Hope, with some, that the Duke and Peel would yield upon an emergency, as they had yielded upon the Catholic question; indignation with others at the insolent declarations of the Duke of Richmond, and his class; an old dislike of the tories, now again in office; whiggism roused into action, now that the whig hitherto ins were out, and restored to their old functions of opposition,—all tended, not merely to aid the movement, but to give it additional activity. And then, above all, was the intense suffering of the people, most distressing to the humane, and filling the minds of the timid with apprehensions of a dreadful convulsion. After events convince us, that these four months of recess must have been spent by Sir Robert Peel with deep anxiety.
The return of the ministers of the gospel from their conference at Manchester, gave rise to meetings so numerous that even the names of the places would fill pages; and new anti-corn-law associations were formed—Birmingham setting the example in this revival. On the 8th of September, a meeting was held in the Manchester Corn Exchange, Mr. Cobden in the chair, at which Mr. Curtis, of Ohio, showed the mutual advantages of free trade between England and the United States. On the 10th of September, a great meeting was held in the Town Hall, Manchester, the mayor, William Nield, Esq., in the chair, in which Mr. Absalom Watkin, the Rev. W. Mc.Kerrow, Sir Thomas Potter, Mr. John Brooks, Mr. W. Rathbone, Mr. R H. Greg, the Rev. Dr. Beard, the Rev. J. W. Massie, Mr. J. C. Dyer, and Mr. W. Rawson, took effective part,
