COLONEL THOMPSON.
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actual yearly value of the land at the time of assessing thereof, and was, consequently, like the perpetual and variable annuity of which it may be considered as intended to be the substitute and representative, to increase with the increasing value of land. But, in the year 1697, they contrived to frame the tax (9 Wm. III., c. 10) in such form that it should not be an annuity increasing with, and in proportion to, the increasing value of the land, but a fixed annuity that should not increase in value. The consequence of this is, that the said annuity remains at amount at which it was when the value of a large proportion of the the land was only a very small fraction of what it is at present"
On Monday, October 11th, Colonel Thompson, in the course of a tour to some of the large towns, where he expounded the principles of free trade, to large audiences, rendering his speech as effective as his pen had been during his long opposition to the Corn Laws, visited Manchester, and was received in the Corn Exchange at a tea party of the Operative Association, five hundred in number,presided over by Mr. John Brooks.
The gallant veteran, in allusion to the interruption of anti-corn-law meetings by the chartists said:—
"The leading principles of popular rights, which the majority of the inhabitants of this country have always been deprived of, were embodied a few years ago, in a document which was named the Charter. I had the honour to he one of ten or twelve members of the House of Commons who were assisting, in conjunction with many most meritorious, able individuals of the working classes, in drawing up that composition. When that was done, there did, as it appeared to me at
least, arise another set of men, who said: 'You have drawn up a charter, and the charter is a very good charter, but we are the only men who know anything how it should be gained.' Now, on that, I say there may be two opinions; for I never flinched, nor hesitated in declaring what I thought, and I always maintained, wherever I had opportunity to lift up my voice, and propriety admitted of it, that the great open door for obtaining the charter was to get rid of the restrictions on trade and industry, which make you poor, and of no consequence in the eyes of your enemies. It was because that I loved the charter that I want to see you put down the Corn Laws, as a step towards the obtaining your object. Now, upon that, let there be no quarrel; it is a difference of opinion it is clear, but if we are to quarrel till all difference of opinion is at an end, we shall quarrel till there is an end of the world,
