Page:History of the Anti corn law league - Volume 2.pdf/36

 more extensive cotton spinner and manufacturer, The meeting was addressed by him, by Mr. Milner Gibson, a Suffolk landowner, by Mr. Walker, of Longford, Mr. John Toll, of Berkshire, Mr. Chadwick, of Arksey, near Doncaster, Mr. Charles Sherill, a Gloucestershire farmer, Col. Thompson, and others. It was shown that the agriculture of a great part of England, in spite of all the protection heaped upon it, was in the most wretched condition, that a great majority of the tenants-at-will were without capital or skill; little better in condition than common labourers; that the labourers received miserable wages, and that the workhouses were filled with persons of that class; that diminished consumption had caused reduction of prices; and that poor's rates were rapidly increasing in agricultural parishes, not only from the demands of their own unemployed poor, but from the return of labourers who had ceased to find employment in manufacturing towns. This was contrasted with the state of things in Scotland, where long leases and corn-rents gave encouragement to the employment of capital and enterprise, and where men of education could sustain a more highly respectable station than had yet been attained by the generality of English farmers.

Another meeting of deputies was held on Wednesday, Mr. H. Ashworth in the chair, to consider the effects of the Corn Laws on manufacture and commerce. The speakers were Mr. Thomas Bazley: Mr. P. A. Taylor, of London; Mr. W. H. Greg, author of one of the prize essays, now known as a frequent contributor to the Edinburgh Review; his brother, Mr. R. H. Greg; Mr. T. Plint, of Leeds; Mr. Taunton, of Coventry; Mr. Scholefield, M.P., of Birmingham; Mr. E. Baxter, of Dundee; Mr. Duncan Maclaren, Do Lord Provost of Edinburgh, and others. Deeply affecting details were given not only of continued, but of continually increasing, distress.

A dinner or banquet took place in the Free Trade Hall in the evening, at which 3,800 persons sat down. The