CHAPTER VI.

THE BATTLE OF THE LEAGUE (continued).

Great Distress among the Working Classes.-Meeting of Free-trade Delegates in London in February, 1842.-Sir Robert Peel's Sliding Scale.-Continued Destitution in the Country.-The Duke of Sussex and the League. -Scene outside the House of Commons.-Deputations to Ministers.The Chartist Rising.-Mr. Bright issues an Address to the Working Men of Rochdale.-Tour through the Midlands.-Mr. Bright in the North.Lord Brougham and the Repealers.-Opening of the Free Trade Hall at Manchester.-Sir Robert Peel and Mr. Cobden.-Extraordinary Scene in the House of Commons.-Sympathy in the country with Mr. Cobden.Speech by Mr. Bright.-Carlyle on the Corn Laws.-League Meetings at Drury Lane Theatre.--The Agitation in 1843.-Tour of Mr. Cobden and Mr. Bright.-The Question in the House of Commons.-The League gains influential Adherents.-Meetings in 1844.-Demonstration in Covent Garden Theatre.-Address by Mr. Bright.--Registration Movement by the League. Increase of Freeholds.-Peel's Budget of 1845.-Mr. Cobden's Motion on the Agricultural Distress.--Great Free-Trade Bazaar at Covent Garden.-Mr. Villiers's last Motion on the Corn Laws in the House of Commons.--Speeches of Sir J. Graham, Mr. Bright, and Mr. Cobden.-The Question approaching its final Settlement.

TOWARDS the close of the year 1841, the League appointed commissioners to investigate the appalling condition of the working classes, and the details collected of their suffering and destitution were most heartrending. At a meeting held at Manchester on the 16th of December to consider the depression in the manufacturing districts, Mr. Bright presented an account of the state of things in Rochdale, where the flannel trade had been almost annihilated in consequence of the American tariff, the inevitable effect of the diminished demand for flannel goods being scarcity of employment and a fall of wages. 'We saw around us,' said Mr. Bright, 'wide-spreading distress. Misery was seen in the house of every poor man. Poor men he was

ashamed to call them, but that was the term now applied to every working man. Misery was to be seen on his very threshold; haggard destitution and extreme poverty were the most prominent things in his family. The consequence was that discontent had so pervaded the country that scarcely any working man would lift a finger in defence of those institutions which Englishmen were wont to be proud of. Neither the monarch nor the aristocracy were safe under such a state of things-a

state of things that would blast the fairest prospects and destroy the most powerful nation that ever existed." On the motion of Mr. Bright, this resolution was carried:-That the district of which Manchester is the centre, engaged in the various branches of the cotton trade and its dependencies, is suffering under a general depression, the duration of which has no parallel in the history of Lancashire; that it is in evidence before this meeting that the condition of the surrounding population, both employer and operative, is greatly deteriorated; that fixed capital, such as buildings, machinery, etc., has depreciated in value nearly one-half since 1835; that capitalists, as a body, have long ceased to obtain a profitable return for their investments; that bankruptcy and insolvency have alarmingly increased; that the shopkeepers have suffered corresponding reverses; that the reward of labour has been generally diminished; that great numbers of skilful and deserving workmen are either wholly or partially unemployed; and that pauperism, disease, crime, and mortality have made fearful inroads amongst the poorer classes of the community; that, in the opinion of the deputies now assembled from the various towns of Lancashire, all these evils are experienced at the present moment with unmitigated severity, and that there is no visible prospect of any amelioration of the distresses of this great community.'

Early in 1842 meetings were held at Gloucester, Dundee, Edinburgh, Glasgow-and in fact throughout the length and breadth of the land,—and at many of them farmers attended, who unhesitatingly admitted that they had no reason to fear for the ruin of their order from the working classes of the manufacturing towns being permitted their just right to exchange the produce of their industry for food raised in foreign lands.

Pending an anticipated measure from Ministers for the revision of the Corn Laws, an important meeting of Free-trade delegates was held in London on the 8th of February, 1842, at the Crown and Anchor, Strand. Mr. Duncan M'Laren, afterwards M.P. for Edinburgh, presided, and amongst the speakers was Mr. Bright, who now stepped into the front rank of the repealers. His address was full of power, and its effect was such that every future appearance of the orator was eagerly looked forward to, and welcomed with delight. On this occasion, Mr. Bright said he came from a neighbourhood where the question was looked upon as one of life and death by thousands of honest men; and if there were any in that room, as there were many, who had no conception of the state of things to

which this country was fast hastening under these mischievous laws, he should like them to go with him into the streets and lanes where he could take them, and if they had any intellect, any heart, he was sure they would go away fully convinced of the necessity of the total and immediate repeal of the law. Referring to the flannel trade of his native town, he said that he was not interested in it in any way, but he knew the extent to which the Corn Laws had operated against that trade. Several thousand persons in his neighbourhood were driven from their country as the result of the operation of the Corn Laws. Amidst general cheering, Mr. Bright said that in consequence of the glaring evils of those laws, he had turned his attention to them day and night, and he was firmly convinced that there was no point of view in which they did not manifest their evil operation, and call for total and immediate abolition. He stated that his motion was to pledge the deputies never to swerve from their purpose, nor relax in their efforts, until the total repeal of the Corn Laws was accomplished; and this he enforced' with so much argument, and so energetic and fervent an eloquence, that at the close of his spirit-stirring address the whole assembly rose and testified their approbation by loud and long-continued hurrahs.' From this time forward, Mr. Bright came into special prominence, and his name was now coupled with those of the other popular leaders in the movement-Cobden, Villiers, and Wilson. In conjunction with them he was instrumental in forming many provincial branches of the League.

Sir Robert Peel's measure providing for a sliding scale in the duty on corn was carried during this session, after prolonged debates. During one of these debates, Mr. Cobden said that upon the shoulders of the Premier would the people fix the whole of the responsibility for their present position. On the third reading he further entered a solemn protest against the bill, denouncing it as a robbery of the poor. The new tariff with the sliding scale became law; and the best proof that it was inadequate to meet the necessities of the case was the relief felt by the Protectionists that they had come off so cheaply.

The members of the Anti-Corn-Law Conference again assembled on the 4th of July, at Herbert's Hotel Palace Yard. Mr. P. A. Taylor presided, and Mr. Bright was the first speaker. He observed that the distress had now become universal. If they went to Scotland, they found Forfar, Glasgow, Paisley, in desolation. If they came further south, in Newcastle almost the whole of the working population were

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out of employment, and were living on the charity given out by the Town Council. He had a letter from Shields, in which it was stated that the trade was almost annihilated. In Lancashire, the working population of many towns were actually subsisting on charity. Bolton and Stockport were in a state of desolation. In Leeds it was still worse; there were thirty or forty thousand persons existing on charity alone. In Sheffield, men were driven to the lowest state of distress; and it was the same in Derbyshire. He had seen a letter in the ·Morning Chronicle, giving an account of the state of Hinckley, in Leicestershire, and he would recommend all to read it, as it gave a faithful picture of the prevalent distress. Going still further south, in the agricultural counties of England the poorrates were at that moment rapidly on the increase. labouring population of Somersetshire were living on charity. If they went on to that part of the country, they would find that twenty or thirty thousand persons were now out of employment who were a short time before in comparative comfort. In Ireland they found that famine was stalking through the land, and that riots were taking place, men being killed by the police merely because they endeavoured to obtain food. How, then, could they sit calmly by? Humanity, if nothing more, would call them from their homes. But there was a feeling of policy-their own safety and the safety of the country were at stake. Mr. Bright added that there was one remedy, but it had been rejected by the Legislature. Much would depend on the course taken by the delegates, and he prayed that they might enable the Government to see that the time had come when this question could no longer be tampered with; that the time had arrived when justice and mercy must take the place of cruelty and oppression; and if the Government should still refuse to hearken, he for one trembled at the result.

Observing that the people themselves had the power to compel a settlement of this question, Mr. Bright added: 'There were other weapons than those of war; there were other weapons besides those which wounded the body; there was a most beautiful and admirable system which the people had in their own power, to which he was fully persuaded they were rapidly drifting, and which, if put into active operation, could not fail to bring the struggle to an active issue."

Mr. Bright's statements as to the condition of the country were abundantly corroborated by other delegates. The representative from Wolverhampton stated that there were sixty-two blast furnaces lying idle; and the Stockport delegate stated

that a poor-rate in that town, which in 1839 at 1s. 8d. had produced £5,000, now failed to produce £3,600 at 28. The poorrate at Manchester went up to 3s. 4d. in the pound. At Burslem, the people became greatly excited, and the military required to be called out.

At this juncture the cultured and liberal-minded Duke of Sussex expressed his sympathy with the objects of the League. A deputation had been appointed to wait upon him, and Mr. Bright_reported that he and his coadjutors had been received by his Royal Highness with the utmost cordiality and friendliness. Although he did not think that everything wrong was to be attributed to the Corn Laws, he admitted that they had been the occasion of a great deal of evil, and he himself had always been strenuously opposed to them. His Royal Highness, said Mr. Bright, appeared to be exceedingly well informed on the subject, and it was evident he kept well up with the newspapers. He promised to do everything in his power to further their object, and, if they wished it, would find a way of presenting a memorial to the Queen; but she could not give them a reply, as she could not constitutionally do acts of sovereignty except through the agency of her Ministers. The Duke expressed great commiseration with the distress of the country, and the deputation had come away with a good opinion both of his heart and his understanding.

The delegates continued vigorously to prosecute their mission; and on one occasion, being denied admission into the lobby of the House of Commons, they congregated round the entrance, shouting Total repeal' and 'Cheap food' as the members entered. Meeting on their retirement from the House the carriage of Sir Robert Peel, their cries caused the Premier to lean back in his carriage, with a pale and grave countenance. The delegates next waited upon the Home Secretary, Sir James Graham, to whom they unfolded their story; but Sir James for the moment seemed unable to conceive that there was general and severe distress in the country, because a few new mills had been erected in Manchester! Mr. Bright deprecated making the question one of mills, or of Manchester only; the greatest distress prevailed where there were no mills. Proceeding next to the Board of Trade, the deputation waited upon Lord Ripon ('Prosperity Robinson') and Mr. Gladstone. This was the first public occasion on which the present Premier and Mr. Bright, now his colleague, met. Allusion having been made to the United States, Lord Ripon said that the Americans themselves had a law against the admission of Canadian wheat; whereupon