though we have seen the necessity of change, from being sturdily and contemptuously denied, become generally admitted; though the emergency has made it so obvious, that the defeat of the late administration for its proposition of a fixed duty, has been followed by the tariff and modified Corn Law of the present administration; yet still how much remains to be done before the monster monopoly sinks under its double blow, and before the words of the minister selected for its champion, that 'the nation's policy undoubtedly is to sell in the dearest and buy in the cheapest market,' become a legal reality and a practical blessing.
Further and increasingly strenuous exertions, then, are necessary to set the seal of final success upon the past. The very ground we have gained demands and inspirits to redoubled effort. The pressure beneath which industry sinks is not heaved off; but the force applied has made it move, and perseverance will accomplish all. There must be more lectures, more tracts, more conferences, more agitation. Every county and borough elector in the kingdom must be personally visited, and a condensed library of evidence and reasoning against the Corn Law be placed in his hands. Monopoly will not yield without such efforts, and, it shall have them. We are entering on the fifth year of this struggle for truth, for justice, for existence. We ask of you to replenish our pecuniary means for sustaining it. Our appeal is made confidently, for the character of the agitation is sanctioned by its progress; and what is any outlay to the object to be gained? We have reported the amount already expended; and we now appeal to you to create confidence in our cause, and dismay in its selfish opponents, by enabling us to commence the ensuing year of Anti-Corn-Law agitation with a disposable fund of £50,000. We are confident we shall not ask in vain."
Meeting of the League, 20th October. The chairman. Mr Wilson, having described the various means by which the £50,000 fund was to be raised, stated that it would be closed in January, when a great aggregate meeting would be held in Manchester, at which the subscriptions from each district town and village would be announced, and to which would be invited all the members of the Lords and of the Commons who had voted for a repeal of the Corn Laws, and many other eminent individuals, including ministers of religion of all denominations, with deputies and members of the League, from all parts of the kingdom. The meeting was addressed by Mr. C. Hindley,
