Page:Notes on the Anti-Corn Law Struggle.djvu/14

 pamphlet which was out of print—indeed, I don t know that it was ever actually published for sale—I sent him a copy and received soon after the following note from him:—"Allow me to thank, you most sincerely for your very able and valuable pamphlet on the Land-Tax, which has been of great use and value to me."

On the 6th November, 1844, I received a letter from Mr. Cobden, dated Manchester, 5th November, 1884, in which he said:—

"There is an idea talked of here of sending a Commission of Inquiry into two or three of the southern counties, say Dorset, Somerset, Wilts, to ascertain the condition of the labouring population, and particularly how much of the average earnings of a peasant's family goes in purchasing clothing and articles paying excise or duty to Government. As the only way of making such an inquiry useful would be by having men of character and respectability to put their names to the report, it is thought that one person from Manchester and another from London would be best suited to the labour. The object would be simply an inquiry into facts, without meddling with theories, whether of Corn Law or Poor Law. Do you think you would be able to give six weeks to such an investigation, between this and Christmas, if the plan were carried out?"

In consequence of unavoidable delays it was not till towards the middle of December that the