Page:History of the Anti corn law league - Volume 2.pdf/432

 CHAPTER XXIII.

THE NEW MEASURES.

The meetings at the Free Trade Hall had always been crowded, but so great was the desire for admittance on the 15th January, 1846, that the seats had to be taken out of the body of the hall, to increase the number admitted to 9,000, instead of the usual 8,000. Mr. Wilson stated that since the day when the sum of £60,000 had been subscribed, the subscription had increased to £75,600; that at a meeting at Liverpool, on the previous Friday, £12,000 had been subscribed, of which 21,000 was from Mr. William Brown; that at a meeting at Leeds, addressed by Mr. Cobden, Mr. Bright, and Col. Thompson, £34,000 had been subscribed; that at Dundee, where the five Messrs. Baxter had put down £150 each, the amount subscribed was more than £2,000; that at Stroud, without any deputation, the amount was £1,300; and that the total amount was then $128,800. Before the meeting of parliament, Edinburgh had followed with a subscription of £2,000; Glasgow with one of £10,000; and Preston one of £2,500; the Liverpool subscription had risen to £17,000; and all were to be considerably increased. In one month £150,000 of the quarter of a million fund, had been subscribed, and a considerable proportion of the twenty per cent, instalment had been paid.

On the 19th January, the Queen's speech, read by Her Majesty in person, lamented the failure of the potato crop, especially in Ireland, and expressed satisfaction in the