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204 appropriate it to themselves. But ministers disappointed them. They had a good card left in the pack, and they played it; the mistake was, that they did not play the best. On the 7th of May, Lord John Russell declared his intention of proposing a fixed duty of 8s. per quarter on wheat, of 5s. on rye, of 4s. 6d. on barley, and of 3s. 4d. on oats.

The course followed by the Anti-Corn-Law League, on the intelligence that a change in the law was to be made a cabinet measure, was in accordance with all the previous measures of the body. It existed as the pledged opponent of any impost whatever on the people's bread. The council met at Manchester on Saturday, May 1st, and addressed letters to all the associations, urging them to redoubled exertions for the total repeal of the Corn Laws. A special and more numerous meeting, attended by a number of influential members from the surrounding towns, was held on the following Tuesday, when it was moved by Mr. John Bright, seconded by Mr. Alderman Kershaw: " That, under the more encouraging circumstances in which the question of the bread tax is now placed, it is highly expedient that redoubled efforts be made to obtain a full expression of public opinion, in condemnation of that unjust and inhuman enactment;" and "That, in order to carry into effect the foregoing resolution, a deputation shall be sent to Birmingham, Hull, Bristol, and Newcastle, and such other towns as the council think proper, in order to rouse the inhabitants to the absolute necessity of making increased exertions to forward petitions to the House of Commons at this important crisis of the great question of the repeal of the bread tax."

An address from the council of the League, signed by its chairman, Mr. George Wilson, was issued and widely distributed, urging the free traders throughout the kingdom to be up and doing, and recommending the demand