Page:History of the Anti corn law league.pdf/413

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
NATIONAL CO-OPERATION.
397

purposes of God. He was followed by Mr. Bright, who forcibly represented the necessity of taking immediate means to rescue the county and several of its boroughs from the disgrace of being represented by protectionists.

Meeting of the League, November 10th, addressed by Mr. George Wilson, Rev. Mr. Shepherd, of Bury, Mr. Buckingham, who spoke with the effect which had been produced in former days by his lectures on the East India Company's monopoly, Mr. Brotherton, whose plain and familiar illustrations much delighted the meeting, and Mr. Cobden, who informed the meeting that Mr. Buckingham had been invited to co-operate with the League—to "pursue the triumph, and partake the gale." He demanded NATIONAL co-operation, and said:—

"There was one plan adopted which probably most of them had heard of. The council of the League had, a short time since, advertised for prize essays, showing the injurious operation of the Corn Laws upon farmers and farm labourers.(Applause.) By the first of this month, the time limited, they received a large number. Three had been selected from that number, and, having had the opportunity of perusing them, he must say that he anticipated the greatest results from their publication. (Hear, hear.) One of them was written by a tenant farmer in Scotland, paying 1,500 a-year rent, and he said, "I have laid out a large sum of money, which I expect to be reimbursed for, before the expiration of my lease, and yet I should be delighted to see the Corn Laws abolished before the next session of Parliament." (Applause.) Now, the League were going to print a million copies of each of these three prize essays. (Cheers.) He expected that in another fortnight every printing press in Manchester would be in full operation for the Anti-Corn Law League. (Hear, hear.) They were aware the Council of the League had arranged a plan, separating the country into districts, placing an authorised agent and lecturer over each, for the purpose of dispensing, as he had said before, not merely a tract, but a condensed library, on the Corn Laws. They had done a work in one county; they had the most of the kingdom almost completed in its organisation, and these prize essays, in addition to the other books, should be placed in the hands of every elector in the kingdom.(Cheers.) Now, the monopolists papers said they should not be able to raise the £50,000 fund; they said they might just as well ask a hundred thousand. Why, the fact was, the Council began to feel that the money raised would be