Page:History of the Anti corn law league.pdf/294

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278
MIDLAND COUNTIES CONFERENCE.

manufacturers of Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire, and Derbyshire, was held in the Lancasterian School, Derby, John Hinde,Esq., the most extensive manufacturer in the three counties, in the chair. The room, which was capable of holding upwards of a thousand persons, was crowded to excess. The details, read to the meeting by numerous deputies, of the distressed condition of the people in these midland manufacturing counties were heart-rending. The greatest unanimity prevailed, and the most determined resolution was shown to use unrelaxing efforts to remove the great cause of the existing misery. The resolutions were proposed and supported by Mr. W. Biggs, of Leicester; Mr. G. Johnson, of Derby; Mr. Wakefield, and Mr. Cripps, of Nottingham and Mr. Hancock and Mr. Strutt, of Belper. Amongst the gentlemen assembled were, Sir John Easthope, M.P. for Leicester; Sir G. Larpent, M.P. for Nottingham; E. Strutt, M.P. for Derby; W. Evans, M.P. for North Derbyshire, Richard Cobden, M.P.for Stockport; Dr. Bowring, M.P. for Bolton; Edward Baines,of Leeds; and William Rawson, of Manchester, At four o'clock, a dinner was provided in the large room of the Royal Hotel, to which about three hundred gentlemen sat down. The chair was filled by E. Strutt, Esq., M.P. who was supported by Sir George Larpent, Sir John Easthope, and the other members of Parliament. After the usual loyal toasts, the chairman called on Mr. Cobden, who was received with loud and prolonged applause. With his usual business tact, he applied himself at once to the effect of the Corn Laws on that particular locality, and said:—

"Allow me to say that listening to the details which you have given to-day, going back for a period of five and twenty years, showing a constant depression in the condition of the people, and a decline in your own immediate interests, I could not help thinking—pardon me for saying so—that the agitation against the Corn and Provision Law should have begun long long ago, in the midland counties. Why, gentlemen,you have the whole of the case in your own hands. We, in Lan-