Page:History of the Anti corn law league - Volume 2.pdf/20

 the sum then raised at Edinburgh was £1,000, while the subscription had commenced at Glasgow by ten gentlemen putting down their names for £100 each. A long list of subscriptions, in smaller sums, was read by Mr. Hickin, the secretary, after which Mr. Ben. Pearson addressed the meeting. He was followed by Mr. Bright, who gave the following account of the movement in Scotland:

"I was not present at the first banquet that was given in Glasgow; but I have beard, and you have heard, accounts of the excellent manner in which it passed off, and of the influence it was likely to have, and we have heard something of the influence it has kad upon the people of Scotland. At that meeting, the Hon. Fox Maule, who is heir, I believe, to one of the largest landed properties in Scotland, came forward, and boldly avowed himself in favour of the principles of the League. (Applause.) From that meeting the deputation proceeded to Edinburgh; and the Edinburgh meeting was one of very great importance. Upon that platform were not less than twenty-nine ministers of religion who are living in that city (applause); and I believe it may be taken as a rule that those twenty-nine ministers of religion represented the opinions of at least twenty-nine congregations of the Christian people in that city. (applause.) And some ministers of religion are of a sort, I will not saythat religion may be proud of, but, at any rate, that the people may be proud of. (Applause.) They are not of a class who are to be made the tools or the instruments of any ministry or of any party. (Applause.) I believe they have taken up this question in the conscientious belief that it is one nearly allied to the duties of the office which they have reasoned. They believe that the Corn Law is a law operating constantly incessantly, and most powerfully, to destroy the labours which they are engaged in bringing to perfection amongst their people; and therefore They came forward, unanimously almost, throughout Scotland, to raise their voice against the longer continuance of this lax. I would say of these men us was said of some preachers of the olden times,— No servile doctrines such as power approves, They to the poor and broken-hearted taught: with truths which tyrants hate and conscience loves, They winged and barbed the arrows of their thought; Sin in high places was the mark they sought.' (Loud applause.) I may mention that among the subscriptions given in Edinburgh was one, and it was entirely unsolicited, from the mother of a late secretary, or under secretary, for Ireland, a gentleman who is known, and probably will be known for ages, for one single sentence that passed from his lips: he said—'Property has its duties as well as its