judge impartially, and help by your voices to sell the cry which is hastening the glad time when the worst brand which ever tyranny inflicted on a people shall be swept away, and your industry and mine shall be free. (Cheers.) But, before I go to that, there is just one point with respect to Mr. O'Connor that I must be permitted to allude to, and I am sure he will not object to it. I said I was unable to discover from his speech what were his views on this question, and if I leave to-day out of consideration, and look back to former periods, I am equally unable to discover anything like a clear course which he has pursued on this question, Mr. O'Connor was a member of the House of Commons in the year 1834. In that year, immediately after the passing of the Reform Bill, Ms. Hume, a gentleman whom the last speaker has thought fit to place before you in terms neither fair nor complimentary, moved for a committee of the whole house, for the purpose of abolishing the then existing Corn law, and substituting for a time a much lower fixed duty, with a view of ultimately coming to the principle of total free trade. Mr. O'Connor was in Parliament then, and what said he on that motion? Did he then say that he was in favour of free trade with all the world, but that he would not have free trade because the working people were not represented? No; he did nothing of the kind. Mr. O'Connor got up in his place in Parliament, and there and the defended the Corn Laws, and not upon any of those grounds which he has advanced here today, bat upon grounds totally different. Mr. O'Connor may not be to blame in this matter, he may have changed his mind from conviction since.
"Mr. O'Connor: Not a bit of it.
"Mr. Bright continued: It will not be amiss if I give you a portion, or, if he please and you have no objection, the whole, of his speech on that occasion. It is taken from Hansard's publication of the debates; it has been before quoted in Mr. O'Connor's presence, and he has never disputed the accuracy of it:—
"Mr. Feargus O'Connor: My honourable and gallant friend the member for Bolton has appealed to the Irish members upon this subject, and has called upon me more especially, as being the representative of the largest agricultural county in Ireland, to give him my support. Sir, I am going to give him my support, bat it will be in the spirit of a guardian angel, to protect him from sacrificing his interest and his happiness upon the shrine of that block called political economy. The hon. member for Middlesex has said that this question is now at rest. I agree with him, and it is the only part of his speech with which I do agree. It is high time that this question, which, at present, not only agitates the manufacturing and agricultural interests of England, but also the agricultural interests of Ireland, should be set at rest. It is