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128 received it made a point of lending it round amongst his neighbours, and then it was sent to some friend in an agricultural district, with the request that it should he lent to all that could be induced to read ; and much alarm was felt by protectionist landowners, when they found their tenants and their dependants conning the contents of that dangerous small sheet.

Numerous pamphlets, ten thousand of each, sent every where—a free-trade newspaper with a circulation of fifteen thousand, probably read every week by two hundred thousand persons—there needed only the vocal denunciation of the Corn Laws in the strongholds of the protectionists to increase the alarm. The lecturers soon followed the tracts and the free-trade newspaper. Many of the tracts were burned when found performing their silent mission. There was much disposition to dispose of the speaking missionaries in the same way. In May, Mr. Sidney Smith, and Mr. Shearman, lecturers of the League, were announced to appear at the theatre in Cambridge, as advocates of the repeal of the Corn Law, and were permitted to deliver their addresses without interruption. On the following evening, however, the students mustered in great strength, and, with the sound of trumpets and other discordant noises, prevented Mr. Smith from being heard. One gownsman, who made himself particularly prominent in the disturbance, roused the ire of the townsmen, who rushed to the boxes to turn him out. The gownsmen rushed to the defence of their fellow-student, a fierce battle ensued between "gown"  and "town," and it required strenuous exertions on the part of the mayor and the police to put an end to the riot. Before this could be accomplished considerable damage was done to the panels and furniture of the building, which was found strewn with torn college gowns and caps, left behind after the rioters had been turned out. Of the lecturers the Cambridge Chronicle said: "It is rumoured that these fellows