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170 affairs—when, in short, our merchants and manufacturers turn free—trade missionaries, there can be no doubt about the triumph of their cause." The year 1840 closed with proof that there was a demand for missionary work, and that there were men well able to perform it.

Another influential agency had now its origination. Two great banquets had been given in January. It was found that mothers, wives, and daughters, took a deep interest in the question which so much engrossed the attention of sons, husbands, and brothers. A lady, eighty years of age, told me that in her daily prayers for daily bread she also prayed for a blessing on the good work of Richard Cobden, and of all who were labouring that the afflicted poor should enjoy, in their humble homes, an abundance of the gifts which God had bestowed for the use of man. Thousands of female hearts beat indignantly at the thought that food should not be had where it could be had, while millions were in a state bordering upon starvation. Were the frigid rules of artificial society to exclude women from an agitation widely to diffuse the benefits of "plenty and cheapness ?" On Thursday night, October 29th, the Corn Exchange, in Manchester, was handsomely decorated for a tea party, at which more than eight hundred and fifty attended, a considerable portion of the company consisting of ladies. The following presided at the various tables:— Mrs. W. Rawson, Mrs. John Brooks, Mrs. Brotherton, Mrs. Cobden, Mrs. Kershaw, Mrs. T. Walker, Mrs. W. Evans, Mrs. Lewis, Mrs. J. Ashworth, Mrs. Harbottle, Mrs. Burton, Miss Hanmer, Mrs. Jackson, Miss Stephens, Miss C. Perkins, Mrs. W. Mather, Mrs. Taylor, Mrs. Bryden, Miss, Miss M. and Miss H. Horner, Mrs. J. Taylor, Mrs. E. Evans, Miss Mary Prentice, Mrs. Phythian, Mrs. Antrobus, Mrs. Greaves, Mrs. James Boyle, Mrs. Whitlow, Mrs. Wood, Mrs. E. Hall, Mrs. Rawson, Mrs. Caldecut, Mrs. E. Perkins, Mrs. Ellis, Mrs. J. Galloway, Miss M. A. Carr, Mrs. Watkin, Mrs. Scot, Mrs. W. Perkins, Miss Nodal, Mrs. G. Macintyre, Mrs. Armitage, Mrs. Dean, Mrs. G. Wilson, Mrs. Slack, Mrs. Leatherbarrow, Mrs. James Howie, Mrs. Nicholson, Mrs. Deaville, Mrs. Rawsthorne, Mrs. Hutchinson, Miss Hall, Miss Knowles, Mrs. David Ainsworth, Miss E. Leete, Mrs. Wood,