Tuesday until the evening of Thursday. The Rev. J. W. Massie, of Salford, and Colonel P. Thompson attended as representatives of the National Anti-Corn-Law League. The proceedings of the conference were distinguished throughout by talent, fervour, and unanimity. The first resolution adopted by the conference affirmed the duty of ministers to denounce, as publicly and effectually as possible, every measure injurious to the morals of the community and to the physical condition of the people. The third resolution adopted declared the convictions of the conference to be, that a meeting of Christian ministers of any particular district, without reference to denomination or sect, appeared to be the most expedient and effective means of bringing the dictates of the gospel to bear, publicly, upon the public evils. The next resolution adopted was to the effect that the existing Corn Law was a public evil, and essentially adverse to the plainest injunctions of Holy Writ, opposed to the moral and physical welfare of the people, and injurious to the religious interests of the whole community.
In the memorial addressed to her Majesty, the conference said:—
"We are surrounded by, and, in the discharge of our avocations, come into daily contact with, multitudes who depend on industry for their honest maintenance; we witness their struggles, and sympathize with them in their sorrows and privations. But though language be inadequate to describe the scenes of heart-rending, wide-spread, and, ever-deepening distress with which our duty makes us painfully familiar, we are constrained to attempt to convey to your gracious Majesty intelligence of the fact, that thousands of your loyal industrious subjects are in destitution, to a very great extent, of the common necessaries of life; and, besides the prevalence of fevers and other diseases, suffer many of the consequences of famine in a land of plenty. We venture, respectfully, but confidently to trace these miseries to inadequate employment and low wages, which are not merely incidental to fluctuations in trade, but are the legitimate and necessary effects of laws which produce artificial scarcity and enhance the price of bread; and, preventing the increase of labour and commerce, lessen the remuneration of industry."
On Wednesday, December 8th, a great convocation of
