Page:Notes on the Anti-Corn Law Struggle.djvu/73



shows that he is come over to the people's side on the question of the Poor Laws as connected with the Corn Laws. Through living in the same part of the town, I have the 'privilege,' as some of our Hull friends would say, of coming home with him almost every night from the House of Commons, and it is not long since he in some sort rated me for my Poor Law heresies at Preston. The member for Middlesex is always right in the end, but he is not hasty in his conclusions. He is surrounded by numbers of doctrinaires, which only makes his escape to the popular side of more importance.

"Another point on which I am glad to find the member for Middlesex is confirming my preconceived opinions with the weight of his authority, is in believing that the abolition of the Corn Laws is the key to the whole of our enemies' position. Our oppressors are strong, because they contrive to live upon our resources; because, through the Corn Laws, they draw our wealth into the shape of rents, and make us pay for the hoof that tramples on us."

On April 22, 1837, he writes:— "'The House of Commons, as it at present exists, is an engine for securing the minimum of publicity and information which is compatible with the actual state of popular power. To give a single instance; there is no liberty of speech, except for a certain number of professional speech-makers. Heaven knows I have troubled nobody at any great length, but from the moment I entered the House of Commons I have been trampled on because I belonged to no clique.'"

He then mentions two questions respecting which he possessed special opportunities of knowledge,