Page:Notes on the Anti-Corn Law Struggle.djvu/74

 and on which he attempted to say a few words, but his mouth was stopped, and he was not allowed to say a word. He then proceeds thus:—

"'Was it decent, again, according to the supposed rules of popular assemblies, that on the question of the Corn Laws, on which, if some do not know, others do, that I have bestowed a greater quantity of continuous labour than any other man in the House can show, and have something not unlike a tail in some parts of the country in consequence, I should not be allowed to say one word?'"

I quote these passages as evidence of the state of things just one year before Mr. Villiers first brought forward the question of the Repeal of the Corn Laws in the House of Commons. I have said just one year, but I ought to have said about a month less than one year, for Colonel Thompson wrote what has been quoted on April 22, 1837, and Mr. Villier's first Motion on the Corn Law question was made March 15, 1838.

In reading General Thompson's Letters to his Constituents it is evident that he had not, in 1836 and 1837, gained the ear of the House; and indeed I doubt whether he ever gained the ear of the House, which amounts to the same thing as what he terms "liberty of speech, there being no liberty of speech except for a certain number of professional