Page:History of the Anti corn law league.pdf/260

244 right of ministers to take part in questions deeply affecting the rights of humanity, moved: "That in the face of the facts which have come under their notice in their own respective neighbourhoods, no less than by statements laid before them, the ministers of this conference cannot avoid the painful conviction that much of the wide-spread distress of the present time is attributable to Provision Laws, inasmuch as they limit the supply, and thereby enhancing the price of the common necessaries of life, fetter industry, repress enterprise, divert the legitimate employment of capital, and spread discontent and heart-burning through the land." The Rev. H. Harvey, of Glasgow, seconded the motion; and gave an account of the deplorable condition of the weavers in one of the districts of that city.

Dr. Ritchie, of Edinburgh, then moved: "That, believing that the laws of Almighty God, as revealed in his word, ought to be the laws of human action, and that any deviation from them, either in individual conduct or in the affairs of nations, must excite his displeasure; and believing that the monopoly of bread is anti-christian in principle, this conference will seek the removal of the Provision Laws, and more especially deprecates their continuance as a great national offence against that Being by whom kings reign and princes decree justice." The motion, seconded by Mr. Clapp, of Appledoom, Devonshire, was carried unanimously.

The conference was subsequently addressed by the Revs. J. E. Giles, of Leeds, F. J. Archer, of Blessington, in the county of Antrim, T. Swan, of Birmingham, T. Adkins, of Southampton, J. Edwards, of Nottingham, R. Melsom, of Birmingham (one of the Wesleyan Conference), R. W. Hamilton, of Leeds, J. Freeman, of Walthamstow, and J. Carlisle, of London, and the following resolutions were passed:—

"That the laws which restrict the importation of the prime necessaries