her Majesty, acknowledged the existence of distress, but, by the prorogation, they declared that no measures for its relief should be even taken into public consideration till the Houses of Parliament met again in February!
The distress amongst the industrial classes went on deepening day by day. There would have been fearful tumult but for the hope that the labours of the League would lead to some relief. While Sir Robert Peel, in his retreat at Tamworth, was pondering upon the difficulties of his position, the anti-corn-law agitators were preserving the peace. The lecturers, in their various grades of intellect and oratory, were out amongst all conditions of the people—a most efficient police force, the only efficient police force—for soldiers and constables would have been powerless, if the sufferers had despaired, or powerless without a frightful bloodshed. I had the painful task, in penning my "Historical Sketches of Manchester," to record details of the misery endured in the manufacturing districts in 1817-18-19 and 1829; the history bringing vividly to my recollection what I had witnessed in those years of wretchedness; and I feel it too heavy a task now to describe, at any length, the misery which selfish legislation inflicted upon the people in 1841—not to pass away with that year, but to be protracted till the famine becoming unbearable, the legislature at last yielded, and, reluctantly permitted the starving to find their food where it could be found. Let not those who have witnessed such distress be deemed uncharitable, if they do not join in the unbounded praise bestowed upon those who, having inflicted or permitted the infliction, yielded at last.
At the time when Parliament was prorogued, there were 20,986 persons in Leeds, whose average earnings were only elevenpence three-farthings a week. In Paisley, nearly one-fourth of the population was in a state bordering upon actual starvation. In one district, in Manchester, the Rev. Mr. Beardsall visited 258 families, consisting of 1,029 in-
