Page:History of the Anti corn law league - Volume 2.pdf/294

 monopolists, in the event of an election. * * Hitherto the county registration has been almost entirely neglected by the commercial, trading, and industrious classes, and the council resolved to invite their friends everywhere to acquire that political influence to which they are so justly entitled, by taking up their enfranchisement for the counties. The appeal has been received and acted upon with a promptitude and an enthusiasm surpassing their most sanguine expectations. The council have reason to believe that, within the last three months, a sufficient number of persons have purchased freehold qualifications in North Cheshire, South Lancashire, and the West Riding of York, to secure to those important constituencies a free-trade majority: whilst a large addition to our ranks has been made in Middlesex, North Lancashire, and several other populous counties." Simultaneously with these electoral movements, the communications between the council of the League and every portion of the kingdom had, by means of correspondence and deputations, been not only maintained, but greatly increased during the past year. "More than 200 meetings, attended by a deputation from the council, have been held in England and Scotland since October, 1843. Of these meetings, more than 150 have been held in parliamentary boroughs, and the increased numbers by which they have been in all cases attended, and the zeal and enthusiasm manifested, prove the extent and the depth of the public conviction in favour of free trade. Besides these, the great meetings held in Covent Garden Theatre, London, and in the Free Trade Hall, Manchester, show that the question has lost none of its hold on the public mind in the metropolis, or in Manchester, the birth-place of the League. The lecturers of the League have visited and lectured in 30 out of 40 counties of England, and in nearly all the Welsh counties. The demand for this mode of instruction has been much greater than the council have been able to supply, the desire for