Page:History of the Anti corn law league - Volume 2.pdf/150

 was supposed to be more inclined to follow than to lead. In that point of view, however, it could only be looked upon as the result of a shrewd guess as to the party which should be ultimately victorious. The Times, however, had an influence beyond what could be exercised by a journal notoriously following public opinion and changing as that did. It was representative of the feeling of the English people rather than of their opinion. It represented their benevolence, veneration, and combativeness, and it was powerful because it appealed to those feelings. In this respect it was not unlike Cobbet, who, whatever might be his errors, was always English. Nor did the Times slavishly follow public opinion. Without waiting for such expression, it denounced, in unmitigated terms of indignation and horror, the actors in that Manchester tragedy of 18th August, 1816; it supported the cause of Queen Caroline when the influential in society were against her; it threw its powers heartily into the contest for the Reform Bill, and did not abandon the whigs till they had abandoned a great part of their professed principles; it had, in opposition to the opinions of the great and small aristocracy, boldly supported the right of the poor to assistance without the rigid tests prescribed under the New Poor-Law Act; even upon the Corn Law question it had done more than many of the recent converts of the press, by continuing, for a quarter of a century, almost uninterruptedly, to publish the comparative prices of corn in the home and foreign market, and 'thus to supply a constant argument against the monopoly; and it was confessedly, unpurchaseable. With this character it had an influence, for good, beyond that of any other journal; and its onward movement in the right direction was hailed, as likely, although it did not give in its adhesion to the grand single principle of the League, to give a fresh impulse to the agitation against the then existing Corn Law. The following is from the leading article of November 18th, which much excited the fears of the monopolists:—