Page:History of the Anti corn law league - Volume 2.pdf/41

 more than twopence or threepence, and generally written by some well-known Anti-Corn-Law leader, such as Cobden and Sturge, the League are perpetually attacking the public, as with a bombardment of small shot. I saw three or four dozen of such publications announced at the same time by one bookseller, Mr. Gadsby. Still tinier weapons, however, are the Anti-Corn-Law wafers, consisting of short mottoes, couplets, and aphorisms of every class, grave and gay, serious and satirical, witty and unmeaning; but all bearing on the one point of monopoly and free trade. These are sometimes taken from the Bible, sometimes from the works of celebrated writers and orators, some. times from the speeches and publications of the Leaguers themselves, and sometimes are produced by the inventive ingenuity of the editor. Eighteen sheets of these wafers are sold in a pretty cover for one shilling, and each sheet contains forty mottoes. Astonishing indeed is the profuse expenditure of labour, ingenuity, wit, and talent, and likewise of stupidity, folly, and dullness, with which, in this wonderful England, the smallest party operations aro carried on! Even in children's books, do both the Leaguers and Anti-Leaguers carry on their warfare, thus early sowing the seeds of party spirit in the minds of future generations.

"All the publications of the League are not only written, but printed, bound, and published, at the League Rooms, in Market-street, Manchester. I went through the various rooms where these operations were carried on, until I. came at last to the great League Depôt, where books, pamphlets, letters, newspapers, speeches, reports, tracts, and wafers, were all piled in neat packets of every possible size and appearance, like the packets of muslin and calico, in the great warehouses of Manchester. Beyond this was a refreshment room, in which tea was offered us by several ladies, with whom we engaged in conversation for a little while.