Page:Notes on the Anti-Corn Law Struggle.djvu/75

 speech-makers." If these speech-makers were agreeable speakers the evil might be more endurable. But are they agreeable speakers? What he did for the Repeal of the Corn Laws was done by his "Catechism on the Corn Laws" and other writings, and by his speaking at public meetings in various parts of England, Scotland, and Wales, particularly in that journey with Mr. Cobden to the principal towns of Scotland, in reference to which the Earl of Dalhousie, who had known Colonel Thompson when he was in the House of Commons as Mr. Fox Maule, afterwards mentioned at a public meeting as a proof of his Liberal principles that he had gone to Glasgow to meet the apostles of Free Trade, Mr. Cobden and Colonel Thompson. Indeed many members of Parliament have obtained a hearing from their first speech to their last without possessing the knowledge or eloquence of some who have been refused a hearing, but who in time overcame the obstacles opposed to them and became leaders of parties whose words commanded attention. For some time after Mr. O'Connell entered the House of Commons he was received in such a manner that he said to a member from whom I heard it that he thought of giving up the attempt to obtain a hearing. I have also heard that the