j>ft;

MEMORIAL EDITION

COLLECTED WOEKS

W. J. FOX.

VOL. IV.
ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES,
Chiefly Reprinted from the " League" Newspaper ;
ADD
OCCASIONAL SPEECHES.

LONDON:
CHARLES POX, 67 PATERNOSTER ROW;
AND
TRUBNER & Co., 60 PATERNOSTER ROW.
1866.

4

LONDON
T.RVEY AND CO., PRINTERS, GREAT NEW STREET,
FETTER LANE, K.C.

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES,

OCCASIONAL SPEECHES.

CONTENTS.

uth.

1843

Anii-Cokn-Law Speeches :
I. At Covent-Garden Theatre ; September 28th, 1843
II. At Liverpool ; October 4th, 1843 .
ni. At Covent-Garden Theatre; October 13th, 1843
IV. At Eoohdale ; November 25th, 1843 .
V. At the Free-Trade HaU, Manchester; December
VI. At Covent-Garden Theatre; January 25th, 1844
VIL At Covent-Garden Theatre ; Februaiy 15th, 1844
VIII. At Covent-Garden Theatre ; March 6th, 1844
IX. At Covent-Garden Theatre; March 27th, 1844
X. At Bristol ; April 12th, 1844
XI. At Covent-Garden Theatre ; May Sth, 1844 .
xn. At Covent-Garden Theatre ; May 22d, 1844 .
Xni. At Covent-Garden Theatre; June 19th, 1844
XIV. At Covent-Garden Theatre ; August 7th, 1844
XV. At Covent-Garden Theatre; January 15th, 1845
XVL At the Free-Trade HaU, Manchester; March 6th,
XVU. At Covent-Garden Theatre ; April 9th, 1845 .
XVIII. At Covent-Garden Theatre ; June 18th, 1845
XIX. At Liverpool ; July 17th, 1845
XX. At the Free-Trade Hall, Manchester; December 10th, 1845 .
XXI. At Covent-Garden Theatre ; December 19th, 1845
XXII. At the Free- Trade HaU, Manchester ; January 15th, 1846 .
OcoAsiONAi, Speeches :
National Education ; in the House of Commons ; February
26th, 1850 
The True Spirit of Reform ; at the London Tavern ; March
10th, 1851 
On being returned M.P. for Oldham a Second Time :
I. At Oldham ; February 4th, 1853 . . .332
n. At Oldham ; February 7th, 1853 . . .349
III. At Eoyton ; February 12th, 1853 . . . 366

1845

PAaa 1
12
284046 52
68
82 95
109 121133
143
154166180
197
214230
246
261278

293

317

THE

COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES.

No. I.
AT COVENT-GAEDEN THEATRE.
September %Sth, 1843.
[On Thursday, 28th September 1843, the Anti-Corn-Law League held
its flrst monthly meeting in Covent-Garden Theatre ; and, as the
League newspaper informs us, "the vast space was crowded in
every corner half an hour before the time for commencing the
business" (at 7 p.m.). A report was read, detailing the operations
ofthe League, and stating that the subscriptions exceeded 60,000^.
The report — moved by Mr. Heyworth, and seconded by Mr. Schole
field, M.P. — was adopted. Mr. Cobden moved "an address of the
Council of the National Anti-Corn-Law League to the people of the
United Kingdom." In this document the League's plan of agi
tation was explained, and contributions to the extent of 100,000^.
invited for the ensuing year. The address, having been seconded
by Mr. Bright, was spoken to as follows by Mr. Fox :]
IN the able speeches ofthe mover and seconder ofthe ad
dress two points have been slightly passed over, or only
incidentally mentioned, which I think tend very much to
recommend that address to the adoption of the public, and
the objects of its authors to their cooperation. One cha
racteristic feature of the address is the plainness and frank
ness with which the plans of the League are told out.
There are no claims of implicit confidence; there are no
ambiguous promises ; there is no endeavour to lead on the
people towards results not specified ; there is no saying,
like a certain state physician, " Let me into of&ce, give me
the fee, and then you shall see my prescription;" but a
VOL. IV, B

2 COLLECTED WOEKS OF W. J. FOX.
succession of measures are distinctly marked out, all tend
ing towards a definite point, which point gained, the objects
of the League must needs be accomplished, and towards
which a movement is made as distinct, and, I apprehend— as
these measures in succession are realised — as resistless, as
the great operations of nature. They conduct us towards
a result which no administration can resist, against which
no law can stand, to that declaration of the will of the pos
sessors of the political power of a great empire, which must
be respected by all who aspire to administer its affairs, which
cannot be resisted but in the dissolution of society, and
before which any opposing power, any law, any institution
even, however time-honoured, must pass away, as the leaves
fall before the winds of autumn, or as snow vanishes in the
sunshine of spring. And the men who propose this course
of measures are plainly as honest as they are earnest in
that for which they ask your cooperation. They make,
themselves, the largest sacrifices that are made ; and the
very fact which has been thrown in their teeth, that they
have an interest in this object, is their best justification.
The interests of honest industry are surely one of the
objects of the policy of a great empire. They have an
interest in it ; so have you ; so have we all. Who that Hves
by eating bread has not an interest in the repeal of the
bread tax ? Who that is endeavouring to support himself
and his family by commerce has not an interest in Free
Trade? Who has not an interest in what advances the
general prosperity ofthe country, even though his pursuits
Jlre artistical or intellectual, ministering to the spiritual
rather than the material portions of our nature ? For as
one thrives will all thrive— they react the one upon the
other — the starving do not encourage literature and art —
they are bound together by the ties which Providence
formed to uphold society ; and it is because they and we
have an interest in this matter that we are determined the
question shall not drop until it is satisfactorily settled.
I say all classes have an interest in this matter ; even
they who are represented as the great opposing class— the
landlord class. For what has made England the paradise
of landowners but its being the workshop of the world?
In the progress of manufacture, if machinery has enabled
one man to do the work of two hundred, it has also em-

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 6
ployed two hundred, and two thousand, where one was
employed ; all bread eaters, coming to the landowner for his
produce. And while the manufacturers of this country
have been thus advancing in the last century, its growth of
wheat has been tripled every year, and the rents qf the
farmers have been in many cases quadrupled. The land
lords gain by railways enhancing the worth of their pro
perty; they gain by the rich and flourishing community
arising around them ; and if for a while they should have
to make some slight sacrifice — if at first their rents should
fall in the change — why, they will still be gaining that
which gold could never buy. By the graceful concession
they would be gaining the good will and gratitude of their
fellow-countrymen; they would gain for themselves an
exemption from the execration that pursues their class —
from the infamy of their names in history — from the repro
bation of their consciences, and the pollution of their souls.
The confidence which the Council expresses in the suc
cessful operations of the measures they trace out is, I think,
a well-founded one. For when have recognised principles
failed of meeting with success — when in the world's his
tory ? Some afiect to sneer at abstract principles ; but
abstract good is the real, practical good, after all ; the
exceptions made to it are some little, dirty contrivances of
those who would have trade free for others, but would
reserve the monopoly for themselves — VFOuld have Free
Trade as to what they buy, but restrictions as to what they
sell ; and who tell us that those principles are sound and
excellent things in reference to all other commodities
whatever, but that there is some one exception left — the
exception of that in which the exceptor deals ; and each in
turn will tell you that Free Trade is the noblest thing in the
world, except for corn, except for sugar, except for coffee,
and except for this, that, and the other, till once, even in the
House of Commons, it came to an exception of second-hand
glass bottles. I say this is a principle recognised by all —
recognised even by the Government in its measures of last
year, however paltry the nature and limited their opera
tion; recognised in the Canada Corn Bill; recognised
in the repeal of the laws against the exportation of
machinery, the last rag of that form of monopoly; and
the repeal of the duties on imports must follow that of

4 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
restriction on exports. A principle thus practically recog
nised by foes, as well as by friends, is certain of success.
Thus was it that the great principle of Negro liberty was
recognised, and thus eventually carried. And did not the
recognition of a principle emancipate the Eoman Catholics
of Ireland? Ask Sir Eobert Peel and the Duke of Wel
lington whether this was not the secret of the success of
that measure.
I say this anticipation of triumph is well founded. For
have we not the eternal power of truth? have we not the
agency of a press that cannot be restricted in its advocacy
of such principles ? Have we not meetings like these—
not only such meetings as these, but meetings held in the
rural districts, where the opposing class is challenged to
the combat ? and have we not that power to which the
address specially points, which with great propriety^ is
introduced on such an occasion as this, that power which
has ever been the cradle and is the bulwark of liberty,
political and commercial, — the power of great cities, the
agency of civilisation ? — of great towns and cities, that first
reared their towers as landmarks when the deluge of bar
barism in the middle ages was beginning to subside ; that
in the civil wars of this country afforded the serf a refuge
from his baronial oppressor, and gave him food and gave
him freedom ; towns and cities, that won the rudiments of
representation, that formed our parliaments, that asserted
the people's power of self- taxation, that gained one step
after another in the progress of order and of human rights
and enjoyments ; where commerce throve, where the arts
have flourished, where the poor serfs of the soil, that vainly
struggled and shed their blood in the Jack Cade and
Wat Tyler insurrections, at length had their emancipation
achieved for them. Cities, in which flourish luxuries and
arts which make it life to live ; whicli are the heralds of
progress, as they have been the safeguards of the past;
where congregated multitudes shout for justice, and demand
that the oppressed shall be emancipated, raising a cry at
the sight of wrong which reverberates from earth to heaven,
and makes the oppressive class, however strong in station
and in power, quail as before the thunder of the day of
retribution. And this is the second point in the address upon which

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 5
I wish to fix your attention — the importance that it assigns
to towns and cities. It looks to them as the machinery by
which this great question is to be wrought out to its final,
satisfactory, and triumphant decision. And well and
rightly does it so, because it is in towns and cities that the
wrong most deeply exists which it is the aim of the League
in its noblest efforts to redress. It is in cities that the
pressure is felt most extensively — that the iron enters most
deeply into the soul. It is not merely in the expression
and feeling of such an assemblage as this that I read the
condemnation of the laws that uphold monopoly ; it is in
what you know — it is in what leads you here. It is some
thing, it is much to many here in this vast and brilliant
assemblage, that from day to day the pressure upon their
circumstances is rendered more and more hard by the arti
ficial limitations of trade ; it is something, it is much to
many here, that from time to time one hostile tariff after
another makes its appearance, shutting us out of markets
on the Continent which had been open ; it is something,
it is much to many here, that in the most frequented
thoroughfares of this great metropolis house after house
should be shut up, exhibiting a spectacle of desolation
where once were thriving tradesmen and enjoying families;
it is something, it is much to many here, that the pressure
comes at each extremity, that the candle is burning at both
ends, — on one side they are exhausted by paying to the
relief of the poor, and on the other side they are plundered
by claims upon them for the income tax ; it is something,
it is much to many here, that through every station, in
every rank of life, the pressure is felt — the demon seems to
be omnipresent, and they cannot escape his pestiferous
influence. But even this is not the deadliest evil of the
Corn Laws. Did one want to exhibit it in this great theatre,
it might be done ; not by calling together such an audience
as I now see here, but by going into the by-places, the
alleys, the dark courts, the garrets and cellars of this metro
polis, and by bringing thence their wretched and famished
inmates! Oh, we might crowd them here, boxes, pit, and
galleries, with their shrunk and shrivelled forms, with their
wan and pallid cheeks, with their distressful looks, perhaps
with dark and bitter passions pictured in their counten
ances, and thus exhibit a scene that would appal the stoutest

6 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
heart, and melt the hardest; a scene that we would wish to
bring the prime minister of the country upon the stage to
see ; and we would say to him, " There, delegate of majesty !
leader of legislators, conservator of institutions, look upon
that mass of misery ! That is what your laws and power,
if they did not create, have failed to prevent, have failed to
cure or mitigate." And supposing this to be done, could
this scene be realised, we know what would be said. ^ We
should be told, that "There has always been poverty in the
world ; that there are numerous ills that laws can neither
make nor cure ; that whatever is done, much distress must
exist." He might say, " It is the mysterious dispensation
of Providence, and there we must leave it." " Hypocrite,
hypocrite !" I would say to him, "urge not that plea yet;
you have no right to it. Strike off every fetter upon in
dustry ; take the last grain of the poison of monopoly out
of the cup of poverty ; give labour its full rights ; throw
open the markets of the world to an industrious people;
and then, if after all there be poverty, you have earned
your right to qualify for the unenviable dignity of a blas
phemer of Providence ; but until then, while any restriction
whatever exists, while any impediment is raised to the
well-being of the many for the sordid profit of the few — till
then you cannot, you dare not, look this gaunt spectre of
wretchedness in the face and exclaim, ' Thou canst not say
I did it.' "
Why, the Corn Laws and the policy of our agricultural
legislators hunt poverty and wretchedness from their own
districts into ours. The landlord class call themselves
feeders of the people. They speak of their ability, if pro
perly encouraged and protected, to feed the nation. What
feeds the people ? Not the growing of corn, but the people
being able to buy it. The people are no more fed, for all
the wheat that is grown, than as if there were so many
stones covering the rich valleys of the country. It is in
the price required of the people who eat it ; and if that is
beyond the power of the multitude to give, the landlords
become starvers instead of feeders of the people. Agricul
ture cannot support its own population; it is not in the
course of nature that it should, for one man is vested with
the ability to raise food for the many. Twenty-eio-ht per
cent of the population are amply sufiBcient to cultivate the

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 7
ground so as to yield food for the remainder ofthe hundred.
How are the rest to be fed ? By opening markets for the
products of their industry, that they may obtain the means.
In the natural growth of the population in the rural dis
tricts they find a superfluous population — that superfluity
is continually on the increase. People talk much about
machinery throwing hands out of employment ; these very
same people raige a cry of the evil results of Corn-Law repeal
in throwing the cultivators of the ground out of employ.
Why, are they not themselves throwing them out of employ
every day ? Have we not the Eoyal Agricultural Society
and local agricultural societies all over the country, where
premiums are offered of frora 3Z. to 50Z., from 50Z. to lOOZ.,
for the invention of machines to cheapen the tillage of the
ground — to do that by mechanical ingenuity which had
heretofore been wrought by human labour? Are there not
machines for every process and operation? machines for
preparing and draining the ground for the reception of the
seed, machines for ploughing and sowing, machines even
for the splitting the beans that the cattle eat, machinery
for reaping the produce, for thrashing the wheat, and for
cutting the chaff, — is there not machinery from the begin
ning to the end ? is there not mechanical power, chemical
power, horse power, steam power ? — and, what perverts it all,
and lies at the back of all of the abuse, political power. These
associations come forth with their splendid array of great
names — some men who figure in one house and some who
figure in another ; some who are chiefiy known as poli
ticians, and others as warriors, until we find among them
that great name whose judgment in machinery relates more
to the sword than the plough, and who best understands
the machinery by which battalions are mowed down, and
the harvest of carnage is gathered in. And there is this
remarkable difference between the employment of machinery
in the one case and in the other, in which it has been so
often assailed. When machinery is employed in manufac
ture, what is the natural result ? Production is cheaper,
goods, apparel of various kinds, are brought to market at a
lower rate. The use of it is diffused more extensively in
society; people have enjoyments and accommodation which
they did not possess ; the demand has increased, and this
a^ain reacts upon production ; more hands are employed.

8 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
and in the natural course of things there is found to be
more work, more wages, and more enjoyment. But m the
employment of agricultural machinery, the intention ot the
Corn Law is not to let those inventions affect the price— not
to let them cheapen corn and to extend the enjoyment of
wholesome food, but to keep up the price while the cost of
production is cheapened, in order that the surplus may go
into that great swamp of all, the receptacle of rent, still
crying, " Give, give," and never satisfied.
Well, in this way there is more of the surplus popula
tion who go on in the natural course of wretchedness, who
fall from one stage to another, in the agricultural districts
than any where else. Up they troop to some great town ;
they come, men, women, and children ; they toil their way
along the hard roads, and then, without friends or help,
they look around them, they ask for work, they ask for
alms : they endeavour in vain to find that for which they
are seeking, for monopoly has been there beforehand;
having driven them out of the country, it bars the occasion
for their employment in the towns, and so they are beaten
and battered from pillar to post; they have, perhaps, to
incur the frown of power by some irregular attempt to
support themselves, for the police hunt and hound them
for endeavouring to sell apples or lucifers in the streets ;
they are sent to the station-house, they are brought out of
that to be committed to gaol ; they go in beggars, they
come out thieves ; they pass through various stages of
disease in the only factory into which they can get — in
those great factories of typhus which abound in large towns.
One union workhouse sends them to another, the overseers
send them to the magistrates, and the magistrates send
them back to the overseers ; and at last, in this hopeless
and heartless strife, they drop by the way. Death com
pletes what monopoly began ; and we, inhabitants of great
towns, know that all this is passing around us, and we are
quiet and acquiescing, and conscience never demands, "Are
not you accessory to these murders ?"
Wisely has the Council appealed to the great towns, for
there is the power. What can the poor farmer do ? His
money is in his landlord's ground, and the man who has
money in another man's ground must needs be a slave.
His freedom is buried there with it, not, like the grain to

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 9
germinate, but only to rot and dissolve in corruption. It
is where great bodies are congregated that they can
stand by one another; where not the importance of the
individual, but the importance of the many, is the great
thing for all. And how independent are such places, if
they but knew their position, of all that aristocracy is, or
can do ! Landlords ! They built not this magnificent
metropolis ; they covered not these forty square miles with
the great mass of human dwellings that spread over them ;
they crowd not our ports with shipping; they filled not
your city with its monuments of science and art, with its
institutions of literature and its temples of religion ; they
poured not that stream of commercial prosperity into the
country which during the last century has made the
grandeur of London, quadrupling its population, and show
ing that it has one heart with the entire community. They !
Why, if they were to spend — if you could impose on them
the laws which they would impose upon you, and they were
bound to spend — in this metropolis all they received in their
rents; if there were no toleration for French wines or foreign
luxuries ; if they were prohibited from storing and locking
up in their remote galleries, works of art, real or pretended,
which they prize as property ; if here, amongst the shop
keepers of London, they were bound to spend that which
they had obtained by their rents,— it would be wretched re
payment to you for what you have forfeited by the absence
of Free Trade. It is, as it were, to make war upon towns
and cities, to cut off their supplies of food, to limit their
resources, to levy upon them other taxation ; for, in the vast
spread of this metropolis, where there are nearly two mil
lions of inhabitants, probably not less than six or eight
millions sterling is wrung from your resources in different
ways, not going into the pockets of the landlords, but being
lost by the way, a great portion of it, in order that their
extortion may keep up a veil on its horrid countenance,
and have something of the show of legitimate taxation,
instead of being apparent and downright plunder.
¦ The time is opportune for the appeal which has been
made to the inhabitants of this metropolis, and for the
appeal to those among you who enjoy the franchise of the
city of London. There will, in a very short period, be an
opportunity for you to show decidedly that the principle of

10 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
Free Trade is consecrated in your hearts and guides your
votes. I trust the contest will be by no means a personal
one, but one wholly of principle, and that no ambiguous
pretensions, no praise of Free Trade, with certain qualifica
tions and accommodations necessary to the hustings, will
be tolerated for an instant; but that the plain and simple
test will be the complete, total, and immediate abolition ot
the monopoly of food. I know not why one should hesi
tate to say, upon such an occasion as this, that the placards
which I see round about this theatre express the feeling
and preference that I think may be honestly enterta,ined
for Mr. Pattison as the representative of that great city.*
In fact, a very excellent case for Mr. Pattison's election
was made out by the Times this morning, without men
tioning his name" It was urged in reference to one sup
posed to be about to become Mr. Pattison's opponent,
Mr. Attwood ; and the Times very strangely recommended
that gentleman to withdraw his determination not to stand
the contest for three reasons : firstly, because he was opposed
to the Poor Law ; secondly, because he was a Conservative ;
and thirdly, because he almost won the last election. Now,
whatever those reasons are worth for Mr. Attwood, they
are worth infinitely more for Mr. Pattison. I know not
what his opinions are specifically on the subject of the
Poor Law, but the man who is the determined enemy of
the Corn Law will extract the venom from the Poor Law.
Give us Free Trade ; let the industrious and the honest have
the means of getting bread, and it will little matter what
the Commissioners of Somerset House may order as the
dietary of the paupers in union houses. Nay, I believe
that under the course of prosperity which such an enact
ment would produce, no very long time would elapse before
the ruins of baronial halls, that now commemorate the past
ages of feudalism, would have their companions in the ruins
of the workhouses, commemorating the past ages of mono
poly. If Mr. Attwood be a Conservative, and a man of
business, we know that Mr. Pattison is a man of business
too, and a Conservative — not of oppression, not of taxation
upon food, not of restriction upon trade — but a Conserva-
* A vacancy in the City of London was occasioned by the death
of Sir Matthew Wood : the candidates were Mr. Pattison and Mr.
Thomas Baring. The former was elected by a majority of 165.

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 11
tive of that which alone can give the country permanent
existence in its grandeur, and the development of its natural
resources to its full moral and intellectual growth. To
come to the last reason — if it be a good recommendation
to Mr. Attwood that he almost triumphed in one election,
why, Mr. Pattison quite triumphed in two elections. Here
then, I hope, will one of the first great electoral experi
ments be tried, that not merely every member of the
League, but every inhabitant of London, who can honour
ably influence the result of that election, should feel him
self bound to do so, as amongst his earliest pledges of
adherence to this great cause^ — the commencement of his
answer to the appeal which has now been made to him for
support. Other ways will soon open themselves ; and I
trust that its past backwardness will be amply redeemed
by the metropolis in the readiness with which it will
respond to the great call now made for its pecuniary
liberality, and in the ardour which many will manifest in
other modes of cooperating in this great work, showing
that we look to yet higher principles and considerations
than any that belong either to rural districts or to par
ticular classes, and that we regard this as the common
cause of humanity. And so it is ; for Free-Trade principles
are the dictates of Nature plainly written on the surface
of land and ocean, so that the simplest may read them
and imbibe their spirit. For that Power which stretched
abroad the land, poured forth the ocean, and piled up the
mountains ; that Power which gave Western America its
broad prairies, and reared the gigantic and boundless forests
of the north; that Power which covered with rich vine
yards the smiling hills of France, which wafts sweet odours
from the "spicy shores of Araby the blest," which has en
dowed this country with its minerals and its insular advan
tages, and its people with their indomitable Saxon energy,
with their skill, their hardihood, their perseverance, their en
terprise; — that Power which doth all this, evidently designed
it for the common good, for the reciprocal advantage of
all; it intended that all should enrich all by the freest
interchange, thus making the world no longer the patri
mony of a class, but the heritage and the paradise of hu
manity.

No. IL
AT LIVEEPOOL.
October Ath, 1843.
I PEEL all the more deeply and strongly the reception
you have so kindly given me on account of the resolution
with which it was prefaced,* and for which, as an elector of
London, I render to you and to this meeting my sincerest
and warmest thanks. That resolution cannot but serve the
cause of Free Trade in London and throughout the country,
because it gives an example to the whole kingdom of the
sympathy which the enemies of monopoly — in all localities,
and disregarding all particular interests of particular dis
tricts — ought to evince on every occasion, and especially on
every electoral occasion ; for every vacancy now in the
representation opens a new battle-field to the champions of
Free Trade and those of monopoly ; and each as it occurs
must be contested — earnestly and strenuously contested —
as if the fate of this country depended solely on each par
ticular election. In London, throwing aside the jealousies
and rivalries that frequently alienate different sections of
those who are moving onward in the same direction, the
citizens have chosen their candidate ; the tendered aUi
ance of the Anti -Corn -Law League has been readily,
thankfully, gladly accepted. The expression of your
opinion will have its result in animating both; and the
contest will be fought, as all such contests must be here
after, as the struggle of one great cause — the cause of
humanity and of national prosperity against that of mo
nopoly, of food-taxation, and of national degradation and
impoverishment. And between what two localities could
there be such an interchange more appropriately carried on
than between London and Liverpool, each owing its ag
grandisement to trade and commerce ; each built up from
* The meeting was the usual monthly gathering of the Liverpool
Anti-Monopoly Association, and the resolution called upon the citi
zens of London to elect a free-trader.

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 13
comparative nothingness, not by feudal power, not by the
exercise of despotic authority, least of all by monopoly;
but each having thriven as industry and enterprise deve
loped themselves in the growth of our gigantic manufac
turing system — each being stupendous monuments of the
power and advantage of the system — and each now, I
trust, becoming pledges that it shall continue until it
works out the whole of that good for individual and social
being which it seems to be the plan of Providence thus to
accomplish ?
The population of London has been quadrupled since
the improvement began in the manufacturing districts.
Were it not for the trade of the country, it would be the
comparatively petty town that it once was ; and a monarch
might still, as a monarch once did, possess his flourishing
vineyard upon Holborn Hill, and the Chapter of St. Paul's
might still have, as it once had, very fine grass-lands in
Norton Folgate. Well, but for that same system, what would
you be here, but with your population of 8000, instead of
something like 300,000 ; but with your single dock, the
only one you had for half a century, instead of your
upwards of 100 acres of dock, and your about seven miles
of quay ? You would stiU be paying the petty duties for
your seventy or eighty ships, instead of the four and a half
millions a year which you contribute to the customs of the
country ; you would still be, in short, the petty " little
creek of Liverpool," the appendage of Chester, instead of
being the magnificent establishment that you are ; and for
all your streets and squares, for your institutions, your
Exchange, your spacious warehouses — for all your buildings
for amusement or for instruction — you would only have so
much land, producing, perhaps, as many potatoes as there
are now human beings here assembled.
I say, let London and Liverpool, then, interchange
their sympathy and encouragement on this great question,
so vitally interesting to both; and the compliment which
you have paid London, I shall be happy to find London
returning to you, and saying, " Now, Liverpool, is your
time. You told us of our duty at the critical moment ;
we now tell you of yours : let not this great, this first com
mercial town in the empire, be represented in the British
parliament any longer by a brace of monopolists." And I

14 ' COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
am not exclusive in these things. I should be very glad if
our monopolist opponents would imitate us in this. Let
them interchange their encouragements; and as their
course seems rather to be one of modification, however
trifling and varied in degree, than of strict adherence to
the principle-^the sordid and selfish principle— which is the
basis of their scheme, why, let Liverpool monopoly say to
London monopoly, as Peachum does to Lockit m the
Beggar's Opera : " Brother, brother, we have both been in
the wrong." We have our fight— and a great one it is
to achieve in the metropolis ; one in which, if we succeed,
and I understand there is the most encouraging and ani
mating prospect of success, the blow will be felt, the dart
will quiver, in the very heart of monopoly. And we
receive, as a presage of success, the encouragement of
Liverpool to this combat — of Liverpool, which was mainly
instrumental in striking down the great East-India mo
nopoly, not, I think, to your own disadvantage, nor without
furnishing some argument in the experience ofthe mer
cantile classes of this town, how much more advantageous
a free trade, even with the remotest regions, is, than a
strict monopoly ever can be. I know not that there is any
thing wrong in those who are toiling in a common cause,
and working in it with what opposition makes an arduous
toil, communicating with one another, and encouraging
one another. I therefore had no anticipation, in accepting
the invitation of your committee to come here on this
occasion, that I should expose myself to any particular
questionings as to my reasons, motives, or purposes in so
doing. But I find that there is a catechising tendency in
some quarters here which has in a manner called upon me
to answer why I am here, and with what object; and
certain questions are put in one of your newspapers, the
Courier of this day, which it may be worth while to
bestow a word or two upon. It says : " The Anti-Mo
nopoly Association are to hold another meeting at the
Amphitheatre this evening" (I think the Anti- Monopoly-
Association ought to be obliged to the editor for this gra
tuitous advertisement), " where Mr. Fox, of London, is to
undertake the task, however supererogatory after the visits
of Mr. Bright, of instructing the people of Liverpool in
the true principles of political economy, the right way of

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 15
exercising the elective franchise, and other things which
it would be extremely convenient for a few grasping ma
nufacturers, who desire to sacrifice every other interest in
the nation for the aggrandisement of their own, that they
should know."
Now this writer, professing to know so much of my
mind at this time, ought, to justify those pretensions, to
have known something more, and to have been aware that
I have written and have spoken on this subject before there
was any pretext whatever for calling it a manufacturer's
question — before the League was in existence, even in
thought — before any individual of the capitalist classes had
taken up the matter ; I had then expressed myself most unre
servedly and strenuously upon it, in that light in which I
have since regarded it, as most deeply interesting every
one, but not as the question of manufacturing capitalists,
or of any other class exclusively. I do not mean but that
I would have their property respected, that that which
they have honestly earned should have its fair chance of
further accumulation ; but capital can usually take care of
itself. My interest in the question has been as the working
man's question, whose bread no class in the country has
the right to tax. If there be in the country such manufac
turers as have been described; if there are those who
regard their fellow-creatures simply as so many engines by
which to work out their own profit, with no further sym
pathy or care for them, soul or body ; if there be masters
who feed their steam-engines with fuel, and their wheels
with water, but are careless whether their workpeople and
their wives and children are fed or clothed ; if they take
more care in packing their bales of cotton than they feel
about the comfortable lodgment of those who are em
ployed in their service ; if the sole business and interest of
their lives is to screw what money they can, not only out
of material existence, but out of the blood and bones, the
sinews, the brains, the lives, of their fellow-creatures, — I
can only say that with such manufacturers I have no
feeling in common. If any of them be really free-traders,
why, I regard it in them as one virtue mixed with a
thousand crimes ; and my only solicitude about them is, if
they come in my way, to awaken the reproaches of their
conscience, and to stimulate them to rise, if they can, from

16 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
the love of money to the love of humanity. But '^^hen I
see men of whom nothing of this sort can be alleged witn
any show of truth— when I behold the industrious and the
enterprising in trade and commerce led by the strong
conviction of their minds of the injustice and the impolicy
of the existing law to withdraw their attention from
business, and to devote themselves from morning till night,
and from year to year, to the adjustment of a great na
tional question— when I behold them asking the country
for large subscriptions, and themselves making the largest
subscriptions that are tendered, in aid of the great cause
for which they are combating — when I find these men,
if they do indeed seek their own interests, seeking them
only in connection with the interests of the entire com
munity of which they are members — why, then I say that
with such I am ready, heart and soul, to cooperate ; and
that to fling in their faces the fact that they are manufac
turing capitalists can only disgrace those by whom such
expressions are thought to be an imputation.
But the writer asks an answer to this question — " Some
who were captivated by the glowing prospect set before
them" (he is speaking of the farmers at Knutsford) " by
Messrs. Cobden and Bright, of increasing commerce, in
creasing towns, and an increasing demand for the produce
of the country to supply the wants of the increasing popu
lation thus got together, have been induced to ask them
selves where, in the first place, this commerce was to come
from. Looking to the Leaguers for an answer, they find
that it is to arise from the importation of foreign corn, to
be paid for in English manufactures."
And a very good answer, although, it is a Leaguer's
answer ; but this is not the whole answer of the Leaguers.
The answer of the Leaguers is : Look to your own columns.
What are your own themes of rejoicing? Have we not
been told for the last several weeks, with a continued
flourish of trumpets, that cotton is up ? Has not an in
crease, and a valuable increase so far as it goes, in the
manufactures and commerce of the country been loudly
proclaimed abroad? and has it not been represented as
that which is to produce the downfall of the League, when
it is in truth an answer to this very question, and the jus
tification of the reasoning on which the leaders of the

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 17
League have ever founded their proceedings? Why is
there a revival of trade, but because food has been cheap
ened, following in this the experience of past years, show
ing that whenever food is cheap, manufactures become
more thriving, and that, on the contrary, when food is
dear, then the pressure begins to be felt anew, and
the alternation commences by which distress is tossed
backward and forward from the agricultural classes to
the manufacturing classes, and back again from the
manufacturing classes to the agricultural classes; show
ing clearly that we are under a false system, and telling
the plain truth, which this writer seems disposed to blink,
that cheap bread does not lower wages, but makes thriving
trade, and enables the wages of the workmen to go much
further than they would under any other circumstances.
He follows this up with another question : " How is a
measure, the specific object of which is to encourage the
importation of foreign grain, which, as a necessary conse
quence, must supersede theirs" (the grain of the English
farmers) "in the English market, as otherwise it could
not be imported, — how is such a measure to benefit them ?
Whatever advantage may accrue to commerce, how is the
bringing of corn from abroad to promote its growth at
home ?" This has been already in part explained to you
by an- excellent friend near me. Whatever promotes trade
promotes the consumption of corn. It enables the labourer
to buy more, and thereby it stimulates production beyond
the limits of the power which originally gave the impulse.
But this is not all. If every quarter of foreign corn that
comes into the country displaces a quarter of English-grown
corn, why is any importation at all allowed ? why do we on
the average import about a million of quarters per annum,
going up at times to three or four millions ? What is all
this but an injury which the present system works, and
which it works in the most intolerable manner ? And it
would be something even to correct the mode of this foreign
corn coming in ; it would be something to pay for it regu
larly in manufactures, instead of the continual derange
ments now occasioned thereby in the monetary system of
the country ; it would be something to have the trade put
on such a wholesome footing as that corn, instead of coming
in, as it did lately, in foreign vessels, on account of the
VOL. IV. C

18 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
unexpectedness of the order, might come always in British
vessels, employed with aforethought for that purpose. _ It
would be something to make the importation of foreign
corn more of a trade and less of a lottery; to ma,te it a
business in which capital might be fairly vested, with the
prospect, the encouraging prospect, of regular gains therein,
instead of making it a speculation which every now and
then ends in the ruin of one after another, and excites the
spirit of gambling in a country that should only live by
honest industry. If every quarter of imported foreign com
displaces one of home growth, what are we to say of the
breaking up of new land in our own country ? If the im
portation from abroad be, as is pretended, an injury upon
the farmer, — and the farmer is the person always professedly
looked to, — why then every enclosure bill is a cheat put hy
the landlords upon their own farmers. It is bringing fresh
acres into cultivation to throw the produce of the old ones
out of the market ; and the bills which within the present
century have caused the enclosure of two millions and a half
of acres have been a war waged by the landlord class upon
their own dependents — a war to aggrandise their own
estates at the expense ofthe cultivators of the more ancient
parts of those estates. But this does promote consumption,
and they know it. Less than a century ago not more than
one-third of the population of this country was fed upon
wheaten bread. Why did the consumption of wheat ex
tend ? Because manufactures arose to furnish means for
the purchase of corn, and its being at times cheapened
thereby did not prevent its becoming more profitable. You
make eaters when you cheapen the price of the necessaries
of life. We have been told that five millions in the United
Kingdom — told with a cold irony of expression that one
would not wiUingly repeat — that five millions " rejoiced =
upon potatoes." Why should not these five millions re
joice upon wheat? Where, then, would there be any
apprehension that the importation of foreign corn would
displace from the market a single grain supplied by the
home producer ?
I have nothing further to say to these questionings,
except that I disclaim the imputation of coming here to
teach political economy. The assembly that I witness to
night, and the speeches that I have heard to-night, show

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 19
that you have already an admirable school of your own in
political economy, where I should much rather present
myself as a learner than as a teacher. The article from
which I have quoted does indeed show that the extension
of the knowledge of political economy, that the gathering
together of such a magnificent assemblage as this from all
its varied ranks and classes of society, to attend, seriously
and thoughtfully, to the truths of political economy, is by
no means a gratifying subject of thought in those quarters;
and it also indicates that there is still some darkness re
maining, and that perhaps, notwithstanding the many
charities that flourish in this town, it would not be amiss if
one other were added to the number, and if some cha
ritable ladies would set on foot a penny-a-week society for
the instruction in political economy, and in sound logic, of
the literary champions of the falling cause of monopoly.
My hostiUty to the Corn Law is based on no recondite
speculations ; it is on the broad principles which we may
trace on the very surface of the question. I object to it
as a violation of justice. It insults that innate feeling of
the human mind which teUs us to render to each that
which is due to him, and especiaUy to respect the rights
of the poor, the distressed, and the laborious. It appears
to me to be a violation of the first dictates of aU moral
codes that have ever appeared on the face of the earth with
any pretensions to the reception of mankind. It takes
from man what he has earned in the sweat of his brow ; it
deprives him of that which is not only his as a debt of
justice, but which ought to be his by the kindness and for
bearance of his more fortunate brethren, if he had not
fairly earned it. It seems to interpose between Heaven
and earth; when the solemn prayer is uttered that the
Supreme Power would give us our daily bread, monopoly
interposes, and dares blasphemously to say that Providence
shall not give it until it has first taken toll on the passage.
It says, " You shall not feed the hungry unless first the loaf
that you give, even to the paupers in the poorhouse, shaU
pay its dues ; as it goes to the most wretched classes in the
land, it shall pay its dues to the wealthiest classes in the
land ; a slice, a huge slice of it, shall be abstracted from the
perishing, in order that a large proportion of what is thus
wrested from their wants may go into the treasury of the

20 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
afSuent." In such a case as this, aU need of political
economy, all need of deep research and recondite ques
tioning, seems to me to be utterly at an end ; and I take
my stand on such a question with the generous language
of one of the great statesmen of this country, that " that
which is morally wrong can never be politicaUy right."
I feel hostile to the Corn Laws because they are at
variance with the spirit of the nation. They depart from,
they attempt to obstruct, the characteristic principle of
British progress. They are alien to the whole course of
our experience as to what most leads onward in this
country, not only the growth of its population, but the
growth of intelligence, of riches, of the means of enjoyment
diffused through all classes. For what was this island of
ours when it was simply agricultural; when that feudal
principle of which some modern writers seem so enamoured
was flourishing in all its glory ? What was it then, not
merely as to the condition of the upper classes, of the
barons, who had to put their mark instead of writing their
names, and the floors of whose palaces were strewn with
rushes instead of being covered with the rich carpets of
modern days ? — but what was the working man's condition
under the agricultural system of this country? Measuring
the wages of the labourer by the number of pints of wheat
that he could purchase, it seems that in the close of the
fifteenth century (we have this on record) his wages were
worth 199 pints of wheat; about the middle of the six
teenth century they were worth no more than 82 pints ;
and by the commencement of the seventeenth century, no.
more than 42 ; thus being reduced in value three-fourths
in the course of little more than a century. And then
came enactments about the middle of the seventeenth cen
tury, fixing a maximum of wages — a maximum, mind you
— so far enslaving the working classes of this country, by
limiting the value of their daily toil, which their superiors
needed, and denying them the remuneration which, in a
fair and open market, they would have been sure of ob
taining. Agriculture — which can never, I think, advan*'
tageously exist in a nation like ours as an exclusive sys-'
tem — having done this, manufacturing industry began its
career. Your Arkwrights and your Watts arose, and led
on that long and magnificent course of things, in which

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 21
the produce of the country in wheat has been trebled, in
which the revenue of the owner of the soil has been quad
rupled, in which the population has gone on doubling
itself, and enabling this country to bear the greatest
burdens of taxation that perhaps ever were imposed upon
any country — to struggle with them bravely, and even
now, after all the pressure, to need but a fair field and
no favour, but its inherent energy, to go on augmenting
the greatness of the community, and thereby increasing
the amount of individual enjoyment. '
I oppose the Corn Laws because they seem to me altoge
ther grounded on fallacious pretences, hollow and rotten in
the very basis of any argument that can be erected for their
support. What, for instance, has been almost the only plea
of a public kind that has been dwelt upon ? " We want,"
they say, " to make this country independent of other na
tions, — independent for its food." How is that man inde
pendent who cannot purchase food at all? His depend
ence is not on the owner of the rich fields, whose golden
grain has been waving in the sunshine, and is now stored
in barns and granaries. He is not allowed to go there, and to
take what he wants. The landowner is not his feeder, but
the manufacturer who gives him work and pays him wages,
without which he would never get at one atom of the land
owner's produce. And if he has to earn the wages to
buy home-grown corn, by producing goods of which the
foreigner is the purchaser, why, then, it is on the foreigner
that he is dependent; and all the restrictions in the world
cannot sever that bond. Besides, what dependence is there
that is not mutual ? Make Great Britain independent of
all other countries ! — it is only another phrase for making
aU other countries independent of Great Britain. This is
the policy to which these wise statesmen point. They would
make the world independent of our country, when — vrith-
out blood-stained fields, without dyeing the ocean with
human gore, without a succession of wars devastating to
financial resources as they are destructive to human life —
but by spreading the products of our industry over the
whole face of the earth, by supplying the wants, wher
ever wants were felt, in any section of the great family of
mankind, and by taking back whatever was produced there,
the chain of man's dependence would indeed be a golden

22 COLXECTED WORKS OP W. J. FOX.
one; and that moral influence would be purchased by this
country— honourably purchased— over aU the nations of
the earth, which the lord of empire could never wield, nor
the most triumphant battle ever secure. No wonder that
monopoly cannot satisfy us with its doings; it has never
been able to satisfy itself. The history ofthe system is but
one of successive tinkering, making one hole faster than
another was patched up. First, the cupidity of the class
showed itself in actuaUy giving a bounty on the exportation
of corn. We had to pay — the people of this country, with
not a bit too much of food to put into their mouths, had to
pay — for the food being sent abroad, in order that it might
be sent abroad at a profit. Then, when importation
became absolutely necessary to prevent actual starvation,
there was first a law devised in 1804, to keep up the price
of grain to 64s. per quarter ; another was passed in 1815,
to keep it up to 80s. per quarter; another in 1821, which
never came into operation, was intended to fix the price at
70s., and obstruct all importation whatever until it reached
that price. Then another law was passed in 1828, to keep
the price somewhere about 60s. ; and another in 1842 was
to keep it — so far as Sir Eobert Peel's* measure can have
effect — at about 56s. a quarter ; notwithstanding which it
has since fallen to between 40s. and 50s. a quarter. And
now, those who enjoy the monopoly in the sense of im
posing it, and those who enjoy it in the sense in which the
negro might be said, of old times, to enjoy the whip — in
the sense of feeling it — are alike dissatisfied, and are caU
ing out that this last tinkering has been tried long enough,
and that it will be better to demolish the old, rickety
implement altogether, and go upon a better system — the
system of Free Trade.
In the hard struggle that has to be maintained, and
which wUl yet be a hard one, for the abolition of this ini
quitous impost, a plan has been marked out by the leaders
of the Anti-Com-Law League, which has, to my mind, all
the characteristics of a grand, an efficient, a triumphant
scheme. It traces, step by step, the course to be taken.
The League proposes, first, to collect the registration Usts
from the entire country ; it will know who are the holders,
* The Com Importation Act (5 Vict. c. 14), imposing a sliding
scale on the importation of wheat, &e.

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 23
the deeply responsible holders as they must be, of political
power — the electors of the kingdom. Knowing them, it
will put itself in connection with them, it will receive in
formation, it wiU transmit information, it will endeavour to
combine them in one body ; so that places where they are
strong may support those where they are feeble ; and so
that in all there may be a systematic effort to put down the
bribery and corruption by which elections have been dis
graced, and enable the opinion that ia formed to speak out
freely by its legitimate and constitutional organs. They
propose encouraging electoral organisation, as you are
encouraging the electors of London in their struggle;
rendering all honourable support, by the dissemination
of tracts, to the efforts which they make; being ready,
whenever they are called on to assist in the great contest,
if candidates are not forthcoming, to suggest those who
may be thought able to serve their cause ; and thus going
forward, progressively but surely, to the time which must
come, when the majority of those who made the present
members a parliament will say that tihey are not in unison
with it, but differ from it on the question of Free Trade and
monopoly. And in the names of those — the majority of the
electoral body — the League wUl then say to the sovereign
of these realms : " May it please your Majesty to dissolve
a parliament that misrepresents the people, and authorise
them to call one whicli will, at any rate, speak their
opinions, and coincide with their own views of their
interests." It was to my mind an impressive lesson to legislators,
the mode in which the announcement was received at the
great meeting at Covent-Garden Theatre last week — the
enthusiasm, the prolonged acclamations, which followed
the announcement that the League did not recommend
any more petitioning ofthe present Parliament. I rejoice
that you feel with them on this point. All right to be
petitioned has been forfeited by a parliament like the pre
sent, — a parliament elected by corruption upon false prin
ciples, whose very existence was founded in delusion, — a
parliament which has falsified every promise that it made,
and whUe not answering the views of those whom it flat
tered for their votes, has yet not adopted the more just
principles of those to whom it was opposed, — a parUament

24 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
that seemed to be created but for one purpose, that of
changing the reins of government, but of marking out no
inteUigible poUcy for the future rule of this great empire,—
a parhament that has disregarded the petitions of the
people, offered not merely by thousands and tens of thou
sands, but by hundreds of thousands and millions,— -a par
liament that has adhered to no one recognised principle,
that has not even respected that inferior tie, the bond of
party, but whose leaders and foUowers are continuing their
recriminations and their sarcasms, — a parliament that has
redressed no one grievance, that has rectified no great
wrong, that has conceded no single right, and whose mem
bers at last scampered from London, telling on their cards
the only truth that parliament has told in its long session,
and with aUits multitude of speeches anddivision,"D.I.O.,"*
to shoot grouse and partridges. Not to such a quarter do we
look for redress, but to that manifestation of opinion which
I trust this meeting will serve to promote, to that general
coincidence in the plans sketched out by the CouncU of
the Anti-Corn- Law League, which I am glad to find is to
be brought before .your earnest attention, and to the com
bination in working out that plan of all hearts and hands,
through all classes, and in all the districts of this great
empire. I hope that the opulent here wiU aid that caU,
and that they wUl set a great example of liberality to the
country in their contributions ; that the electors here wiU
yield their cooperation by preparing themselves to instruct
their present representatives, or to choose their future
representatives, so as to combine their parliamentary efforts
for the total abolition of these iniquitous Laws; and
that all, electors or non-electors, of whatever class, will
remember that it is the battle of opinion we are waging,
and that opinion is important to aU. Eemember that
those who, under the forms of law and the mask of pub
lic good, have gratified the cupidity of the class to which
they belong, when the mask is stripped, when the sophistry
is demolished, when they find that from the highest to the
lowest throughout the country they stand bare and exposed
in the naked deformity of their endeavours to enrich them
selves at the expense of the common good, will flinch
* An allusion to the old joke of the wag who substituted for
P.P.C, D.I. 0.: "D— me! I'm oflF."

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 25
from tbe frowns, from the reprobation, from the dreaded
execration of their countrymen, and will rather conciliate
by concession than prolong an obstinate opposition, which
can only lead to the disorganisation of society.
For where are we if agitation be continuous, if the de
pression be continuous, if these gleams of sunshine in a
temporarily reviving trade pass away, as pass away they
soon must under the present system — where are we, where
is society, but in danger of dissolving into its original
elements, of owning only the law of the strongest, of com
pleting that misrule which has raised the shout of national
existence in Ireland, which has rent in twain the ecclesias
tical establishment of Scotland, which has put Wales in a
state of open and partially successful insurrection, which
convulses England from one end to the other, and which
cannot be prevented — with the ignorance of a large pro
portion, especially of our rural population — from having its
fearful climax in deeds of violence and desperation, bringing
down again from his gibbet the skeleton of " Swing," and
sending him through the country with the dagger of the
assassin in one hand, and in the other the torch of confla
gration. From these perils, and such as these, it is but by
a timely effort to give property its security, labour its
rights, and industry its encouragements ; it is to make a
people thriving, prosperous, and happy, and thereby the
state great and glorious, — that the efforts ofthe League are
directed, and which cannot, I imagine, be in any way so
materially promoted as by their complete success in the
immediate, total, and final abolition of the Corn-Law
monopoly, and, in the train of it, the abolition of aU other
monopolies. And in this they are foUowing out those
great principles of civUisation which have been at work in
the world for many an age, which have raised nations and
aggrandised them, and made them ministers of good in the
world for their time, or for some specific purpose. For
there is nothing uncertain, nothing arbitrary or capricious,
as has been sometimes represented, in trade more than in
any thing else. It has its laws, its laws inviolable in their
operation, wise in their construction, beneficial in their ten
dency, as those great laws of nature which give us the sun
to shine by day and the moon by night, and rule the
planets in their courses, and marshal the stars in their

26 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
consteUations. The poet was guided by a one-sided view
of the question when he said that —
" Trade's proud empire hastes to swift decay.
As ocean sweeps the laboured mole away ;
While self-dependent power can time defy,
As rocks resist the billows and the sky."
If there is such a power, it is certainly not in agriculture.
There is no power more self-dependent than that of trade,
based as it is on the common wants of humanity, and
blending as it does with the progress of human civUisation.
And hence the metaphor fails, as metaphors will fail poets
when they are turned to an unphilosophical purpose. Let
the " laboured mole" be swept away, and you of this great
emporium know how soon industry and commerce may
replace it — stretch it wider, and lay deeper its founda
tions. The rivers of Sir Hugh Middleton and Brindley — rivers
carried along through a course of country — those of
Brindley especially passing through hiUs, over plains, and
proudly surmounting those of nature, — those rivers flow on
like the streams of nature herself; and while the scene of
the battles of the old epic poem is the subject of inter
minable controversy — while they cannot tell us where
Scamander flowed, or where the strife of Hector and
AchUles had its termination — aqueducts and works of
industrial usefulness remain ; they show from age to age
the strength of the principles in which they originate;
and the very rocks themselves, while the engineer blasts
them with his gunpowder, bow their proud heads down
to their base, and the triumphal car of industry, the
steam-engine — type of the progress of humanity — rolls
over them, bearing its living freight, reconciling countries
that were at enmity, uniting those that were at a dis
tance, annihUating time and space, and proclaiming the
miracles which God works; for God works by human intel-
Ugence, human energy, and enterprise, extending the spirit
of trade and commerce, that enriches all nations by enrich
ing one, and develops higher principles than its own ; for
as it advances, it represses the selfish feelings in which it
seemed to originate, and shows that there is no real compe
tition between individual and individual, no real anta-

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 27
gonism between nation and nation, but that the laws of
trade and those of nature are the same as the laws of the
religion which we revere ; and thus working out the prin
ciples on which this society is established, till they lead
forward to the magniflcent result of the one great law of
love and of universal brotherhood.

No. III.
AT COVENT-GAEDEN THEATEE.
October IZth, 1843.
In the important choice which the electors of the City
of London will in a few days be called upon to make, it is
remarkable that the strongest ground for the return of one
candidate is set forth in the address of the other candidate.
" If I were asked," said Mr. Baring, in the explanation of
his views and principles to his supporters last Friday, — " if
I were asked whether I concur in the abstract justice of
Free-Trade principles, I should answer. Yes." Here, then,
are his professed principles — his professed wishes ; and
they are the principles that Mr. Pattison pledges himself
to carry out into practice — they are the wishes that it
would be the object of his parliamentary career to trans
form into realities. Why, then, is not Mr. Baring among
the supporters of Mr. Pattison ? Why is he not for the
accomplishment of his own desires ? Why is he not for
the application of his own principles ? Is it cowardice, or
is it hypocrisy ? Is he one of those who are ever " letting
the ' I dare not' wait upon the ' I would,' like the poor
cat i' the adage," or is he one of those who throw out
good sounding phrases to catch the simple and unwary ?
Does he parade his general principles to catch your votes,
and make his particular exceptions to guide his own ? It
is one of the commonest tricks of sophistry, when a man is
flying directly in the face of a great principle, to acknow
ledge it in reverent phrase, and to put the antagonistic prin
ciple in the form of an exception ; and this is the trick that
runs through the whole of Mr. Baring's address. His
statement of his adhesion to the Free-Trade principle is
clear and broad, while the entire speech is made up of
showing where and how this principle is not to be applied,
showing how it is to be compromised for the sake of this or
that class — for the sake of party — for the sake of revenue 
the pretence of national defence — the pretence of humanity

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 29
to the negroes. But he advocates what in his own phrase
is called protection — the right name of which is monopoly
— which is not really an exception to Free-Trade principles,
but is the very reverse of those principles. What he
calls protection is that which enhances the price of your
subsistence. Protection means that which diminishes the
ability of your customers to buy. Protection is that which
prevents the honest labourer from receiving the whole
amount of his earnings. Protection means the varied
forms which monopoly assumes from morning tiU night ;
and at the present moment, among other things, protection
means the imposition of the income tax.
Whom would he protect? Look at his votes. He
protects ecclesiastical establishments in their power and
splendour, but he does not mean to protect the poor
Dissenter from having his bed or his Bible seized for
church-rates. He protects the wealthy voter, who can go
to the poll assured that he shall suffer neither in pecuniary
means nor in social standing ; but he leaves unprotected
the man whose straitened circumstances may make him a
defaulter for a quarter in the payment of his taxes, and who
needs the protection of the ballot to insure him from the
threats and persecutions of the powerful. In short, his
protection is protection for all that is powerful, but not for
that which is feeble. It is protection for the oppressive
few, but not for the oppressed and plundered many. I
would endeavour, if you would give me your attention, to
pursue the reasoning of his speech through the succession
of his exceptions to his own general principle. He says :
" Free-Trade principles must be modifled by the need of
defence ofthe country, by the necessities ofthe revenue,
by the interests of particular classes, and by the dictates of
humanity." That is to say, according to his own account,
the Free-Trade principles to which he professes his adhesion
are principles which he also thinks come in collision with
the defence of the country, with its resources, with its im
portant classes, and with humane and phUanthropic feel
ings. An odd way this to recommend a principle. What
does all this mean? His object I apprehend to be, under
the name of a general principle which is good, to do some
thing for a particular and monopolist interest. He quotes
Adam Smith, saying the Navigation Law was among the

80 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
wisest of all the commercial regulations of England. But
he only quotes a portion of that great man's opinion, and
by no means that portion which has best stood_ the test of
examination and experience; for the Navigation Law of
which Adam Smith spoke was not the law that now exists.
It was a law which it was found impracticable to carry out
without injuring the interest which it professedly intended
to promote. It was a law which the interference and re
prisals of America and Prussia compelled the government
of this country most materially to modify, until it has left
only certain rags and fragments of it behind. It was a law
which many of those statesmen whom Mr. Baring professes to
revere felt it impossible to retain on the statute-book ; Sir
Eobert Peel, I believe, having had a hand in reducing it to
its present limited dimensions. But the paragraph which
Mr. Baring quoted from was one which, if quoted whoUy,
would have given a very different colouring to the argument.
I can scarcely call it logical honesty that he should have
quoted Adam Smith's opinion from a lengthened passage,
omitting not only the " perhaps" coupled with the words,
but also the preceding sentences, which ran thus : " The
Act of Navigation is not favourable to foreign commerce,
or to the growth of that opulence which can arise from it.
The interest of a nation in its commercial relations to foreign
nations is, like that of a merchant vrith regard to the dif
ferent people with whom he deals, to buy as cheap and to
sell as dear as possible. By diminishing the number of
sellers we necessarUy diminish that of buyers, and are thus
likely, not only to buy foreign goods dearer, but to sell our
own cheaper, than if there was a more perfect freedom of
trade." And what, after aU, is done for the defence of the
country by this exception ? Does the mercantUe navy of
England owe any of its real superiority to monopoly? Can
we not — if it were not for other monopolies with which this
is leagued — can we not build ships as stout and strong, and,
without the Corn Laws, victual them as cheaply ? and have
we not sailors to compete with any others that are to be
found on the shores of any country in the world ? How,
too, did the Navigation Laws make the mercantile navy
subservient to the defence of the country ? How but by
that violence which the Navigation Law generated — that

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 31
foul disgrace to the civilisation of this people that it should
so long have been endured — the practice of impressment ?
The defence of the country was such as can be wrested from
the ranks of industry by the violence of a press-gang. We
need no such interference as this to repel any hostile attack
on this country ; and a much surer way to provide for us, at
aU times and under aU circumstances, the best of defences,
would be to give the great mass of the people something
more to defend than they possess at present. They will
not fight for a bread-tax ; they will not fight for a state
of subserviency to the oligarchy that rides over them ; they
wiU not fight for institutions that work weU for the rich,
but UI for the poor — well for the powerful, but badly for
the feeble. In the extension — the rapid and wide extension
— that would take place by the abolition of commercial re
striction, would be found a surer defence than arms have
ever bestowed, — the defence of mutual dependence, and,
growing out of that, mutual kindness. It is not by navi
gation-laws and press-gangs. The question which a pug
nacious youth once asked a veteran boxer may have an
answer in this case. " What," said he, " is the best attitude
of defence ?" " Why," said the old champion, " the best
attitude of defence at aU times is, to keep a civU tongue in
your head." The peaceful operation of commerce entwining
together the interests of nations, making them minister to
each other's wants and to each other's enjoyments, the
progress in that oneness of feeling and spirit, and that
desire for the common welfare, that would be generated by
the universal communication of mercantUe energy and en
terprise, — in these are found a far better defence than any
other, which, in a conflicting and jealous spirit, has ever
yet been devised ; and if Burke was justified in caUing
honour the cheap defence of nations, we may say more of
free commerce ; it is not only a defence that is cheap, but
it is a defence which tends to the abolition of poverty, and
the enriching of all classes of the community.
Mr. Baring's next exception to Free-Trade principles is
that which, he says, must ever be dictated by the revenue
of the country. The gross ignorance which this displays
has been already exposed. You have been told again, what
has been so often said before, that with the taxes imposed
for the purposes of revenue — honestly and wisely imposed

32 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
for that purpose — this agitation has nothing to do, but with
taxes that are imposed not for the necessities of govern
ment, but to gratify the rapacity of a class. I think that
his instances are scarcely happy. He sa,ys, if Free-Trade
principles were carried out, it would be impossible to tax
tobacco from 800 to 1000 per cent, or to tax tea from 200
to 300 per cent. Over this impossibility he seems to shud
der; and in so fearful a result — from which he shrinks back
aghast — he finds amply sufiicient reason for the modifica
tion of his principles. The horrible event would happen that
you would not have to pay four guineas for a pennyworth
of tobacco, and would get for sixpence the tea for which you
now have to pay 2s. This is a consummation — a state of
things — not to be endured, and which he asks you to send
him into parliament, that he may prevent his own princi
ples from realising in your experience.
In coming to the exception to his principle derived from
class interests, Mr. Baring — put forward as a commercial
candidate of the City of London — fixes at once on a class ;
and what class, think you, is it ? Not the merchants of the
metropolis, not the traders and retaU dealers, not the "hard
working man. He pitches at once upon the agricultural
class as a specimen of class interest, before whose monopoly
Free-Trade principles are at once to bow their head, and to
be passed by, as finding that there is no occasion whatever
for their application. But this is only one instance of the
disposition which has been repeatedly shown by the candi
date on whose claim I am now commenting. The Ash
burton spirit is strong in him. As you have been told, his
foot — if you send him into parliament as a member for the
City of London — will be on the lowest round of that Jacob's
ladder which rises up over the stages of knighthood or
baronetcy, untU it ascends to the third heaven of the peer
age of this country. In his first address he speaks of being
placed in the House of Commons to render service there to
mercantUe interests, "which have in this country a national
importance." He speaks of them as something which has
so grown up that it deserves to be noticed in a patronising
manner; something which may be thought worthy of being
at least recognised as an appendage to the higher ranks
and gradations of society here — something which is to be
condescendingly taken by the hand, and not that which, as

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 33
a citizen of London, he should have been most proud of
— not that which has infused into the minds of men a spirit
of independence and frankness, and which induced an
answer some time ago, when, in a conference with royalty,
the monarch threatened, as if it were utter destruction to
the place, that he would remove himself and court from
London, and a citizen respectfully replied : " I hope it will
please your Majesty to leave the river Thames behind."
Why, the city has bred up men who know their rights, and,
" knowing, dare maintain" them ; in whose honest and in
dependent ranks we find a lustre that aristocracy never has
bestowed, nor ever can ; the appreciation of which should
surely be marked in the man that aspires to be its repre
sentative, and who goes, not to wriggle his own way into
other classes of society, but to tell all the other classes what
are the wants, the wishes, and the rights of the great mer
cantUe and middling classes that constitute the bulk of his
constituency. In conformity with this general leaning of
his mind, he pitches, I say, at once on the agricultural class,
as that whose particular interest is to form an exception to
the application of his own general views. How is it worked
out? By nibbling in succession at sophisms which have
been exploded until even the reiterations of the daily press
have shrunk from their repetition. He looks at them wist
fully, and says of each that it will not do ; turns away to
another, and finds that equaUy worthless ; hints that, per
haps, the agriculture of the country may be protected into
finding a sufficient supply of food, but is not sure ; remarks
that independence of foreign nations, if not a sound and
valid argument — indeed, he does not say that it is — is still
clung to by many as a most desirable condition of things ;
looks at the question of wages, and thinks that it may
follow the price of food, but recoUects that it is not so in
America ; and at last, endeavouring to make something of
this argument, he pursues it from one stage to another,
untU it all comes to this — that he is very much afraid,
were the Corn Laws repealed, that some agricrdtural la
bourers would be thrown out of work, and that the mul
titudes in Lancashire might be injured by their competition.
It is, indeed, but a Httle mouse to be brought forth by such
a mountain of an argument.
And then, how remarkable it is that Mr. Baring should
VOL. IV. D

34 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
be in a difficulty about this, that he should not know what
to do with his surplus agricultural labourers in such a posi
tion of things ; that he should find nowhere to put them
but in Lancashire, among the manufacturing operatives;
because, if we turn to another part of his speech, we.find
that he has a remedy for the overwhelming population of
this country. He is not embarrassed by the birth of a
thousand infants every day ; he has no difficulty in pro
pounding for the entire population a plan of colonisation; he
wiU transport th^ surplus population from the manufactur
ing districts, and yet, having so summarily disposed of those
who would much rather stay here and earn their bread, he
is yet involved in such a terrible difficulty about the minute
portion of agricultural labourers thrown out of employment
by the supposed agency of Free Trade, that for them he
can find no other remedy but the sacrifice of Free-Trade
principles. But then we have too much power, he says;
and this is one of his arguments for supporting the present
monopoly in food: "He would venture to say that, with
their present machinery, the manufacturers of this country
were in possession of a power of production quite equal to
any demand that could be made upon us from any country
which, under such circumstances, might furnish us with
their corn." Now, if it is as he says, this must be a very
wonderful power which does not employ, when it is, set to
work, more hands. I have heard of no machinery, however
powerful, that would work without human superintendence;
that having produced a certain quantity under the direction
of the human mind, and with the application of human
labour, would then go on to produce half as much more>
and yet neither man, woman, nor child be wanted for the
operation. But suppose it is so, what is his remedy ? This
power of production, which one might think among the
best gifts of Heaven, while there are people to be fed and.
clothed, and the means of food and clothing are provided
in such power, — what is his remedy for it ? Keep it idle;:
practically annihilate it. We have too much power of pro
duction, which must not be exercised, because the landlords
of this country do not produce food enough for those to
purchase who would be enriched by this application of the
machinery. What a state of things, that an immense power of pro-

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 35
duction of the conveniences and luxuries of life should ever
be thought a thing that requires repression, that should be
coerced into inertness ! Why, if this were carried out to
its full extent, to what absurdities might it not lead us !
If one machine be too powerful, it would make us use a less
powerful one. The rule would be : " Do not produce more
than the landlords require to be produced, in order that
you may treat with them for the produce of their soil."
And if machinery is thus to be reduced in power, why
not the human machine that works it ? If men wUl labour
so much — if they will have the power of earning bread
from foreigners, and claim to have it when they have earned
it — why, then, diminish that power ; cut off their arms, and
let them labour only within the reasonable limits which
protection demands of them. We should be somewhat sur
prised if a traveller were to tell us that, in his wanderings
over the face of the globe, he came into a country where
aU the working class had had two of their fingers ampu
tated, and his surprise would be by no means diminished if
some politician in the country — some representative of its
metropolis, or would be so — were to teU him that the people
had been guilty of over-production ; that they laboured
so much with those restless five fingers of theirs, that there
was no bearing it ; that the land of the country would not
grow enough to satisfy them if they toiled so much ; that,
it being necessary to protect this landed interest, he had
diminished their power by this amputation ; and that this
nation of " Three-fingered Jacks " was the noblest speci
men that could be furnished of the wisdom of protection,
and of the beauty of excluding abstract principles from
regulating the commerce of the country. And what is
Mr. Baring, after all ? He cannot dismiss this part of the
subject without teUing us that, supposing the country
wanted regularly an importation of foreign corn for the
subsistence of the population, it would then become a ques
tion, nay, in his mind it would be more desirable, that
there should be a fixed duty than a sHding scale, inasmuch as
in the latter case there would be an artificial deluging ofthe
country at a time when it was least needed, and a scarcity
when it was most strongly felt. Now, who does not know
that this is really the state of things ; that for fifty years
this has been an importing country ; that the average want

36 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
of about 1,000,000 quarters has been felt, year after year,
through a large portion of that time ; that it can be marKea
out distinctly as a regular national want ? Mr. Baring,
accordingly, in meaning to support a sliding scale, does so in
opposition to his own opinion in favour of a fixed duty; botn
the intention and the opinion being also in violation ot his
professed adhesion to the principles of Free Trade. And this
man is supported by those whose whole power was, not long
ago, put forth most energetically, in order to demolish an
administration that had dared to propose a fixed duty.
I pass on from this to his next point of exception, which
is on the ground of humanity. Now, if one's feelings of hu
manity come into competition with any sound principle, one
may weU hesitate, although it is a strange case to suppose.
But what is this plea of humanity ? Why, that the sugar
of this country must be free from the taint of slavery. He
feels so much'for the negroes, that he will not allow slave-
made sugar to come into this country ; whUe those very
negroes, for whose emancipation we have paid so amply,
sweeten their own grog with the slave-made sugars that
have been sent to this country from Brazil, to be refined
and reexported. Humanity, indeed! The feeling is not
for the negroes. It is for the possessors of estates in the
West Indies, which yield not a. satisfactory profit to their
owners. The negro does not want their sympathy in this
way ; he does not want to be bulbed or flogged into a cane-
field ; he likes his present situation much better. Nay, we
find complaints made that he has grown wealthy. We
have been told that his wife wears silks, and that he rides
in a gig, and is a " respectable" man ; that he bids for the
property on which he once toiled, and laughs to scorn the
pretended humanity that would bring him down by compe
tition practically to the condition of a slave. And this is
the pretext, the shallow pretext, under which a system is
kept up that actuaUy stops the consumption of sugar in
this country ; that keeps it for years, notwithstanding the
great increase of the population, precisely where it was, and
thus invades the common comforts of life, and inflicts a pri
vation that must be severely felt by the poorest classes.
Through all these exceptions, we find one spirit and
principle reigning. Tear off the mask ;from each, and you
find the foul and disgusting feature of monopoly under-

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 37
neath. Shipping monopoly, corn monopoly, sugar mono
poly, — there they are, veiled as defence, veiled as revenue,
veUed as humanity, but all meaning the same thing, all
meaning the enrichment of small classes at the expense of the
toiling and the industry of the larger. And is it to support
such a system as this that we are invited to blink our own
principles as Mr. Baring disregards his ? Is it to support
such anomalies, such absurdities, such oppressions and in
juries, that we are to turn away from the man who wiU
work out his principles, and give our votes to one who
practically confesses that his whole political conduct is an
exception to — I should say more properly a violation of —
the principles he professes to hold as just and true ? I am
not one of those who have their homes in Lancashire, a
residence which seems to bear something of offence upon it
in certain quarters ; but I would much rather be identified
with any class, whatever their abode, that makes the just
and noble appeal that has been made to the citizens of
London by these denizens of Lancashire, than I would with
a class who shall, if it be a supposable case, disregard that
appeal, and give their votes in favour of monopoly and
against their feUow-countrymen. What matters it where
they come from ? Is London grown so narrow and re
stricted that it has no citizenship to spare for those whose
generous efforts in behalf of the laborious and oppressed
should make them free of any city, however proud its com
munity? I had thought better of London before this
declaration was put forth; I had imagined that if there
were men who could point out the path of improvement, who
could lay their hand on a law, and say this is bad, wrong
in principle, and injurious in operation, and ought to be
repealed, — that when they could say, such is the course by
which commerce may be extended, labour more amply re
warded, and industry more sufficiently encouraged — I should
have supposed that the home of such men, their natural
abode, should have been in London. I had supposed that
when there was an appeal to be made against the infliction
of wrong, that when the cry of justice was to be raised,
that when the favouring spirit of public opinion, manifested
by the daily organs of the press, or by the voices of as
sembled multitudes, was to be looked for, that those who
sought such things, and entertained such objects, would be

38 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
sure of finding their homes in London. Such, I trust,
wUl London be, and not a cistern for the foul toads of
monopoly to thrive and gender in.
The feeling of the people with these men of Lancashire
has crowned their heretofore honourable labours; and it now
wiU, I trust, add a more briUiant victory than any which they
have yet achieved as preparatory to the great final triumph.
In our response to the appeal from the free-traders of Lan
cashire, I feel that their home is wherever the principles of
truth and justice can prevaU. They are not for abstract
justice merely — the meaning of which I take to be simply
an abstraction of justice from the people ; and wherever
knowledge penetrates — wherever the multitudinous tracts
which they put forth find their way to men's intellects and
hearts — wherever, by the growth of information, sound
principles are generated, and the progress of social improve
ment is advanced, — there the League has its home ; wher
ever there is hard endurance of imperfectly remunerated
toil — wherever the artisan in the populous city has to
grieve over the pittance which is all that he has to bestow
on his family — or, in remoter districts, wherever the agri
cultural labourer looks around on the tattered vestments of
his wife and children, and feels that they cannot even
appear decently at church to receive the ordinances of
their religion, — there is the home of the League, to inspire
despondency itself with hope, and to give the prospect of
relief Wherever in distant regions nature's fertility runs
to waste — where, for want of a demand for the power of
human labour, ingenuity is not put forth, but the soil is
doomed to artificial barrenness through the power of
monopoly in this country, preventing the interchange of
that which the cultivator would gladly make — there, too, is
the home of the League, bringing the promise of richer
harvests ; there to clothe the distant cultivator, and to feed
the artisan. And wherever, on aU future occasions, the
battle of principles is to be fought in the electoral contests
— wherever monopoly may raise its head, and make its last
expiring efforts against Free Trade— there wUl be the home
of the League, to see fair play, to encourage the timid, and
to cheer on the candidate who shall honestly advocate those
measures which shall insure food to the hungry, clothing to
the naked, and give life, spirit, and power to aU classes of

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 39
society, and thereby show that this country has yet to
run its career of prosperity and glory. And I trust that
the result of this election vrill be to show that where there
is a legislature having in its hands the destinies of a great
empire, there likewise will be the home of the League,
proving that justice — no longer an abstraction — ^justice to
all classes, from the highest to the lowest — is the surest
guidance of legislative enactments, as it is the amplest
source of national prosperity.

No. IV.
AT EOCHDALE.
November %bili, 1843.
Mr. Chairman, ladies, and gentlemen, I feel very strongly
the truth and propriety of the observation just made by
Mr. Cobden, that we are not assembled here to argue
the question of the Corn Laws. The arguments against
these laws are scattered aU over the country, and are
concentrated in every town. These arguments exist in the
sufferings of the distressed — in the accumulated wretch
edness and pauperism of a large portion of our feUow-
countrymen — in the feelings of the humane and benevolent
— in the principles of the clear-headed, and in the deter
mination of patriotic men that this monster shaU no longer
be endured. How can the question be argued, when there
is nothing to answer — when one sophism after another has
been exposed and exploded — when the whole series of
vicious reasoning has been run round and round, and the
advocates of monopoly, beaten out of one position, take up
another ; and so, in their everlasting round, untU there is
no place of rest for them whatever that has not been pre
viously occupied — that has not been shown to be in a
position where they can establish no power, and on which
they can buUd up no demonstration ?
The Corn Laws are not now a fallacy to be disproved,
but a nuisance to be abated. It is not a time to argue ; it
is the time for feeling and exertion. We cannot stop — we
should not stop to discuss the theory of storms, if we
were in a ship, and in danger of immediately going to the
bottom ; the worst of all seasons for inquiring into the
natural history of serpents would be when a man found
himself within the folds of a boa constrictor. The question
is, not how to debate, but it is how to get rid of this prac
tical falsehood from the land, how to put down this wicked
ness and abomination. I am not to bring arguments to
you — the arguments are best which I find here; I find

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 41
them in your earnestness, I find them in your sympathy, I
find them in your zeal. The arguments against the Corn
Laws and the predictions of their termination are not in
words, but in men and facts. Mr. Cobden and Mr.
Bright are arguments against the Corn Laws by which
they will be disproved. Manchester and Eochdale are
other arguments by which they are backed, completing the
demonstration. In fact, it is reduced to a mere question
of arithmetic, which the ladies who devote their attention
to the cultivation of young minds in infant-schools wiU
speedily be able to teach them, and may be worked out in
their elementary lessons, and the question may be thus
stated: "Mr. Cobden plus Mr. Bright, and the manu
facturers of Manchester plus the manufacturers of Eoch
dale, are equal to the abolition of the Corn Laws."
The best arguments are those which are distinguished
by the abbreviations oi £.s. d. And especially is this the
case since that which has generally been the root of all
wickedness has, by the zeal ofthe noble leaders ofthe League,
been made the root of righteousness ; and money, so often
used for the purposes of popular debasement and degrada
tion — money, so often boasted of as the power that turned
the tide of elections, and that commanded the most solemn
expression of public opinion in the return of representatives
to Parhament — has been made by them the means of mul
tiplying knowledge ; of kindling the light of intelligence ;
of giving principle its power, honesty its weight ; and of
making the interests and the determination of the country
have their representatives, too, in its legislative councils,
and dealt with first in the enactments of parliament. The
whole sum and substance of what is ever said now in
defence of the Corn Laws is in the cuckoo repetition of the
two words. As the advocates of monopoly are looking to
the chance of holding on a little longer, or to the prospect
of a speedy compromise, it is either for protection or
revenue — protection, a word misapplied in the most extra
ordinary sense as it is used in conhection with this subject.
Protection ! protection of what ? It is a term we are
accustomed, in truth and justice and humanity, to apply to
the extending of the arm of the strong over the weak ; it is
that by which we denote the administration of justice
when it asserts the rights of the needy and confronts the

42 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. POX.
rapacity of the oppressor; but in the lexicon of monopoly,
" protection" means the defence, not of the weak, but of
the powerful— the protection, not of those who live m cot
tages, but of those who dweU in mansions or palaces ; the
protection, not of those who can scarcely obtain food to
eat, but of those who revel in every luxury ; protection, not
for the pennUess farm-labourer, but for the proprietors of
broad acres. As for those who should be the objects of
protection, they get, indeed, just such protection as the
vulture gives to the lamb. The lower class of the agricul
tural community, where have they been protected ? Where,
when they could not escape from their own districts to
those where manufactures would promise them some em
ployment, but must fly to that saddest place to which living
wretchedness could be led — the union workhouse ? They
have been protected into rags ; they have been protected
from wheaten bread and meat down to potatoes ; they
have been protected from a condition in which they could
see their way in Hfe to one in which there is the direst
prospect before them; they have been degraded into
ignorance both morally and intellectually ; they have been
degraded into brutality, and too often into vice ; they have
been protected through different stages of suffering, untU
at last this boasted carefulness for them ends in pro
tecting them to that narrow house "where the wicked
cease from troubling, and the weary are at rest."
And in all this jealousy of the foreigner, this protection
from his interference, and of the poor and those who toil
from being fed with the corn which he is ready to exchange
for the products of their labour, why have the very authors
of the law — sufficient as they must be for their own pro
tection, seeing that they not only have the command of
both houses of the legislature, but that they have also at
their back that mighty Church over which their patronage •
extends so largely ; seeing that the army, and the navy,
and the legal institutions of the country, are aU open to
their ambition, and tend in various ways to swell their
emoluments — why have they not protected themselves, if
there be any honesty at all in their plea of nationaHty,
and pretence of thinking that every thing — so far, at
least, as regards the poorer classes — should be so per
fectly English ? Why, on a recent occasion, the dress

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 43
of one of them was. analysed : the beaver hat on his
head was French; the leather in his boots was French;
the figured-satin vest was French ; and even the very cam
bric handkerchief which he carried in his pocket was French,
-^until he was shown to depend upon the foreigner phy
sically from head to foot. Now, we might follow up that
view to the general consideration of his habits and modes
of Hving and of thought. Where, then, is the wealthy land
owner of this country really independent of the foreigner ?
Take him from head to foot:* to-day he has a French cook
to dress his dinner for him, and a Swiss valet to dress him
for his dinner ; he hands his lady to it, her modest blushes
concealed beneath a veU of Brussels lace, French gloves on
her hands, and an ostrich-plume waving over her head
which never grew in an English poultry-yard. His wines
are from the Ehine or the Ehone ; his galleries are rich in
paintings from Italy, or in statuary from Greece ; his
favourite horses are distinguished for their Arabian blood,
and his favourite dogs are of St. Bernard's breed. His
education is from Greece and Eome, and even his religion
itself from Palestine ; the very fields from which he enjoys
his revenue are now manured from guano as un-EngHsh ;
and at last, if he rises to judicial honours, he carries on his
shoulders that honoured ermine which never before was on
the back of an English beast ; and when he is worn out
with warning us against the foreigner — as in his cradle he
played with a coral from the Oriental ocean — the sculpture
that adorns his tomb is beautiful in marble from the quar
ries of Carrara.
I find no fault with him for realising all the amount of
enjoyment and inteUigence and refinement which can be
gathered from the remotest regions of the earth ; I believe
that Providence has diversified the productions of different
cHmates and the sections of mankind in order that they
might minister to each other in those things, and that the
good of all should become the good of each. What I com
plain of is this : that being thus foreign, both physicaUy
and mentally, moreover, being altogether a foreign product
• It was very rare for Mr. Fox to repeat an illustration ; but he
elaborated this passage, and introduced it in a subsequent speech
with subh remarkable effect, that it was extensively copied by the
press, and translated into all the principal languages of Europe.

44 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
himself in the very heart of England, he should have that
nicety of feehng as to be afraid lest foreign bread should
find its way into the mouth of the honest labourer. From
that gross inconsistency, from that hypocrisy, from that
gross injury to his feUow-creatures, and from his prepos
terous pretext, I would gladly afford him and his whole
class the most complete protection that could be de
manded. But what is really, after all, the object of this
protection ; this cry, as it is always called, of the " agri
cultural interest" ? It is not raised on behalf of the poor
farm-labourer. It is not really raised on behalf of the
tenant-farmers either.
I looked the other day to an analysis of the outgoings
and incomings of a farmer, as stated by a clerical secretary
to an agricultural society ; from which it appeared that, on
a farm of three hundred acres, the tenant was represented
to have sustained a loss of upwards of 200^. Such a loss is
a hard thing for a man who toUs and brings skUl and
industry to his work, and on whom others are dependent,
and in whose well-being he is deeply interested. But, on
looking more closely to the item, I find that the tenant,
who finds all the skill and capital and industry, sustains a
loss of upwards of 2001 ; while there is put down among
his payments rent to the amount of 400 guineas, which
has been duly paid to his landlord. And this — qualified
persons of their own order being witnesses — this is the
great object of legislative protection, and of the food mo
nopoly ! We are teaching no new doctrine in this. Nearly
a quarter of a century ago, a great poet of this country
— knowing weU the class to which he belonged — thus de
scribed the motives by which they were then actuated, in
their support of a former Corn Bill, preparatory to that
under which the country suffered so long. Byron speaks
thus of the landowners of 1821 :

" Their ploughshare was the sword in hireling hands,
Their fields manured by gore of other lands.
Safe in their barns, these Sabine tillers sent
Their brethren out to battle — why ? for rent.
Tear after year they voted cent per cent.
Blood, sweat, and tear-wrung millions — why ? for rent.
They roared, they dined, they drank, they swore they meant
To die for England ; why then live ? — for rent !

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 45
The peace has made one general malcontent
Of these high-market patriots — war was rent !
Their love of country, millions all misspent.
How reconcile ? — by reconciling rent !
And will they not repay the treasures lent ?
No ; down with every thing, and up with rent !
Their good, UI, health, wealth, joy, or discontent.
Being, end, aim, religion — rent 1 rent ! rent 1"

No. V.
AT THE FEEE-TEADE HALL, MANCHESTER
December Uth, 1843.
I REJOICE to find myself face to face with you, the men of
Manchester, in your Free-Trade Hall — in this capacious
cradle of the Anti-Corn-Law League, where has been
cherished that young Hercules, that already grasps by the
throat with one hand the serpent of Monopoly, and with
the other that of Electoral Corruption. I am glad to find
myself here with you, in whose zeal that League originated,
by whose munificent contributions it has been suppHed,
and by whose cooperative multitudes it has been supported;
amongst you who have sent forth men that are teaching
the country, and the rulers of the country, this great les
son, — that as Napoleon failed to subdue England through
commercial restrictions abroad, the conqueror of Napoleon
shall fail to govern England through commercial restric
tions at home. I am glad to see those who have sent
forth through the length and breadth of the country the
men who, if they may not yet be said
" The applause of listening senates to command,"
are in a way for accomplishing a much greater object than
the applause of any senate ; and as they march onward to
the accomplishment of their great purpose,
"Will scatter plenty o'er a smiling land.
And read their history in a nation's eyes."
Full of anxiety for the success of this cause, to their
devotedness of spirit, backed by your cheering aid, what
wiU not the country owe? and how proud should all be
who, like myself, are thus privUeged to come among you,
to acknowledge the obligations which throughout the land
we feel to them, — feel to many on whose merits I will not
dwell, because they are here around me, — feel towards one
of whom I may speak because he is not present — your
able, your eminent, your devoted townsman — that man to

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 47
whom all who are interested in the cause of Free Trade
look as to one who is destined to achieve its triumph ; who,
while conciliating different classes, has never sunk into a
trimmer; whom the applause of multitudes has never inflated
into a demagogue; and whom the malaria of St, Stephen's
has never paled into conventionalism. By his straightforward
simplicity of fact and argument he has baffled the tactics
and the efforts of the most veteran sophists ; by his obvious
integrity he has conciliated the spirit of all honest men ;
and when the work shall be done, when the future his
torians of our country shaU record the conffict and the
triumph, then, with a eulogy that will give him place
above the statesman, and far above the warrior, will they,
in their most flowing language, record the efforts, the
exertions, and the achievements of Richard Cobden.
To him, in conjunction with his worthy fellow-labourers,
is owing that which I regard as one of the greatest
blessings of the Anti-Corn-Law League — indirect, indeed,
but not unworthy of being compared with its direct effect ;
I mean, that when the reform for which you strive shall
be accomplished, — when the victory of the League is gained,
and its labours are over, — when the League may have
ceased to be in existence,— -it wUl live beyond all these, the
surety and the pledge of all other desirable reforms ; it wiU
leave ample materials of future good for our country, in the
knowledge it has diffused; in the inteUigence it has sti
mulated; in the integrity it has cherished; in the inde
pendence of spirit which it will have fostered and matured;
in the large views of other interests to which it wUl have
expanded man's thoughts ; in the brotherhood of feeling
that it will have generated between classes too often hos
tile to each other, and between nations too often engaged in
sanguinary warfare ; and thus, strong in the moral elements
of future good, these reforms wUl be the pledge, the germ of
a thousand reforms, raising our country to a noble eleva
tion, and endowing England with what her great poet
caUs her ancient privUege and prerogative of "teaching
nations how to Hve,"
That you are moving onward to certain success every
new event is the presage. The prospects of victory seem
to redouble upon us as we look around. I find them one
day, in the accession of Ulustrious names ; another day, in

48 COLLECTED WORKS OF W, J. FOX.
the zeal of countless multitudes; now, in the enthusiastic
meetings which are held in towns; now, in meetings
affording a like prospect of success and usefulness that are
held in agricultural districts. We see success in the elec
tions you win; we see it also in the elections you lose—
lose, poUing votes more numerous than gained former
elections in the same town; and showing to monopoly
that, inch by inch, its dominion wiU be contested, that no
quarter will be given, till its nefarious domination is ever
lastingly aboHshed. But whUe this process is going on,
we cannot but remark, with deep anxiety and with acute
suffering, that the evUs which you would remedy continue
from year to year, producing most fearful and heart
rending results. Notwithstanding every effort, still the
powers of mischief are afoot; industry is languishing
throughout the country, and the occasional gleams — tran
sient gleams — of restored occupation to the industrious
artisan, do but serve to make more visible the darkness
across which they flash ; they do but iUustrate the fact,
that in cheapness of food, and in that alone, can the people
of this country flnd security that industry wiU thrive, and
wiU meet with its due recompense; that aU the various
sources of human existence and weU-being will continue to
flow on in their fertilising streams.
Why, there are cases in which monopolists are obliged
to adopt the arguments of the League. As soon as they
begin to reason, they play your game; they have no winning
card which they do not take from your pack. About a
week ago, the great landowners of Norfolk met to consult
about the formation of a railway to London, to connect
them at once with the metropolis and with the northern
counties. And what were the arguments used at this
meeting? Why, that all railways had, in all cases, en
hanced the value of land ; that they could not be cut off
from the metropolitan market; that without a railway
their traffic would be completely isolated ; that they should
imitate those who slaughtered their cattle and sent them
to London by the trains, as is said to be done by the large
northern counties ; for, said they, the manufacturing dis
tricts are the best contractors for our coarse beef. Now,
the minds of these men must be coarser than their beef, if
they are not content to remain isolated in their county,

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 49
while, at the same time, they tell the people that they
should be isolated from all the world. Why, traffic is
what they are representing to be the great desideratum for
England. It is independence of the foreigner ; it is inde
pendence of the counties ; it is independence of the metro
polis : and what is the result of this independence ? But
they say, " We must have greater facilities of intercom
munication." They say, " We must have more trade for
our productions; we must have a railway, and get into
livelier competition with the landowners of other coun
ties." That which is good for them is surely good for you
also ; for if the manufacturer is to be restricted, what is he
but the mere tool and agent, the workman, of this class ?
He toUs in that case for the British landowner, and for
him alone. And what scope is there? There are thirty
thousand landowners in this country, and one or two of your
great establishments would give to them all the productions
which they deign to wear, and accumulate a surplus which
can only be useful for exchange with the foreigner.
It is by industry that England has been made, not by
Norman conquerors, — not by feudal barons, — not by an
aristocracy of any description of wealth or title. It has
been made by that slow but unfailing process, upon which
generation after generation has applied its powers of mind
and invention and physical endurance to realising the good
which the earth gives out, and to which the different mate
rials that can be brought from the remotest regions can be
applied. War-horses do not create lands; but the coral
polyps from generation to generation raise them up from
the depths of the ocean ; the land appears, the sun shines,
the dews descend, seeds spring up, and there at length is
life, and joy, and industry, and happiness. However this
land of ours was formed, — whether by such slow labours,
or by some volcanic eruption,
" Britain first at Heaven's command
Arose from out the azure main," —
still the lesson which is thus taught us has this moral
importance, that in the League there is a power, like that
of the central fire of which geologists tell us, that raises
up the lowest formations to endow them with the capa
bility of exhibiting all the powers of Hfe and animation.
VOL. IV. E

50 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
The great masses of the people of this country also may
have been from generation to generation only slowly accu
mulating their capabilities and their powers, forming Hke
the strata that are being deposited in the great bed of the
ocean, exposed to the agencies of fire and water until the
time comes when they are heaved above the waters. Thus,
by the power of association and gradual elevation, the
industrial classes arise into magnitude and strength.
Though the bUlows of oppression shall have rolled over
them for ages, thus shall they be borne to the surface of
things, and take their position among the world's realities,
and bear their harvests of truth and goodness and enjoy
ment. If industry languishes, even while these efforts are
put forth for the emancipation of industry, can it be said
that agriculture thrives? It has had its -nursing-fathers
and its nursing-mothers. King George III. was a great
farmer, whatever he might be as a sovereign. He is said
to have been the author of several articles which appeared
in the Farmers' Magazine ; articles which were published
anonymously, but which are quite as good as many royal
speeches that have been delivered ; and in his time there
was a board of agriculture which was to rival the High
land Society of Scotland ; it lived twenty-five years, during
every one of which years it had a parliamentary grant for
its support; at length the grant was withdrawn, and the
board perished. The landowners thought it better to rely
on the legislative board, which they made subservient to
their purposes of " protection," for improvements ; and only
in the years 1838 and 1839 did the founder of the Agri
cultural Society declare that agriculture was then quite in
its infancy. Since that time, we find that this society is
spending 5000/. a year in premiums for inventions of
improved machinery for agricultural purposes, and in hold
ing great public meetings ; and it has boasted from time
to time that now agriculture is showing symptoms of
taking rank as a science and an art ; that at the last agri
cultural exhibition there were 290 more inventions than
had been exhibited at the preceding one ; and that a pro
spect was opening for them of indefinite improvement.
Who has done all this ? 1838 and 1839 ? Why, they
are the years of the birth of the League, as well as of the

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 51
Eoyal Agricultural Society. We find here symptoms of
action and reaction; those who depend upon protection
are not likely to cherish internal improvements ; and now
that you have driven them upon the other tack, let us
hope they wiU learn where their reliance is, and turn the
land to its legitimate purposes ; for certain it is, after aU
that has been said about the growing of corn, it is not for
the growing of corn merely that the landowner looks to
his estate. He values it for the growing of other things
of a very different kind. The land grows political influ
ence, — it grows votes, large crops of them ; it grows places
and pensions ; it grows peerages, and stars and garters, and
mitres; and, above all, it has grown that horrible upas-
tree of monopoly, more pestilential than the famous poison-
tree of Java, whose atmosphere restricts all communication
from a distance, under whose boughs no justice is ever
administered, and where lie around the whitening and
rotting carcasses of those who have perished under its ma
lignant influence.

No. VI.
AT COVENT-GAEDEN THEATEE.
January 25th, 1844.
I HAVE to address you on the first meeting of a new
year of agitation, at a time when confusion, anxiety, and
uncertainty are prevailing throughout the country, — when
the legislature is expected shortly to meet, — when the peo
ple look on rather with sullen expectancy than with any
degree of hopefulness, — when the League has gone on mar
shalling its strength, augmenting its funds, and multiplying
its numbers, — when political parties are on the look-out to
see what chance may turn up for retaining their position,
or for getting into the position of their adversaries, — when
Anti-League Associations are forming in different counties,
— and when, therefore, it is appropriate and desirable to
reiterate, though in terms that have been often heard, but
which cannot be too frequently repeated — to reiterate the
League principle — the one aim and object of this associa
tion, that for which we are banded together — without which
we will never be content ; tUl we attain which our organ
isation and exertions will continue — the one broad, simple
principle of Free Trade ; and, as applied to the greatest
practical case, the total, the immediate, and the uncon
ditional abolition of the Corn Laws.
That is the star by which we steer ; to that single point
we bear right on, heedless of aU other considerations. We
care not for parties ; we care not for demarcations of fac
tion, new or old; we care not for the consistencies or
inconsistencies of this or that leader of any portion of the
House of Commons — the total, the unconditional, and the
immediate abolition of the Corn Laws is what we ask, and
all we ask. We require no more, we will take no less,
from Sir Eobert Peel on the one side, or Lord John Eussell
on the other. We ask no more, and we will take no less,
from Lord Melbourne on the one side, and the Duke of
Wellington on the other — or from my Lord Brougham on
all sides. We wage no further warfare with those who con-

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 53
cede this principle ; we wage everlasting warfare with all
who wiU not grant it ; and because it is a principle, in our
own minds it admits of no compromise whatever. That is
our watchword. If a certain class in the country reiterates
the cry, " No surrender," we reply by " No compromise."
If this movement were what it has been sometimes mis
takenly represented, — if it were a mere manufacturers' com
bination, — if it endeavoured to put certain portions of the
trade and commerce of this country on a different, a safer,
and more profitable footing, and this were all, — if this were
a mere party movement, an action of hostility towards one
set of politicians, and an endeavour to introduce into their
place another set of politicians, — if this movement were a
class feeling, — if we really did the absurd thing that has
been ascribed to us in the published resolutions of societies,
— if we hated agriculture — an inconceivable absurdity ! for
how can any man hate that without which he gets no bread
to eat ? — or if this were a mere popular or a mere cuckoo
cry, set up by individuals for their own personal aggrandise
ment, or for political ends, like " No Popery," and similar
cries that have so often led multitudes astray, and wrought
confusion in the country, why then there might be com
promise in the matter. But we say it is " the very stuff
o' the conscience ;" it is a principle upon which we have
made up our minds as embracing the right of man anterior
to the existence of civilised society ; for if any thing can be
caUed a natural right, it is that of man's exchanging the
produce of his honest labour freely in the world's markets
for whatever he may desire which may be most welcome to
him, ministering to his existence or enjoyment.
This is not a question that admits of degrees ; it is not
a thing to be settled piecemeal. We respect all rights ; but
we have no respect for wrongs. We understand not the
doctrine of tolerating a certain portion of robbery, iniquity,
and oppression upon the community, and on individuals.
We take up our position on the right and the wrong of the
case — for property of aU sorts, as reahsed by human skill
and labour, and as sanctioned by human laws and institu
tions. We avow our respect for, and we hold in sacred vene
ration, the property of the class which has most opposed it
self to our claims : the broad acres ofthe landowner are his ;
we mean not to touch them — we set up no scramble for

54 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
their division. We interfere not with his regulation of that
which, by inheritance or by purchase, belongs to him. Let
him do as he wiU with his own ; he is amenable to opinion
if he violates decency and morality; but so far as he keeps
within the Hmits which the great objects of human society
prescribe, we respect his rights even there. Let him ha,ve
his game, or let him decimate his hares and rabbits ; let
him grant leases or refuse them; let him cut down the
ancient timber on his estate to put cash into his pocket, or
let him have a great respect for, and be conservative of, tim
ber and institutions. We meddle with nothing whatever
of this; let him have his whole rights. The land is his;
the produce of the land is his, or theirs to whom he hires
out that land ; but there is one thing which is not his, and
that is, the industry of other people, their labour, their
skill, their perseverance, their bones and sinews, their daUy
toU ; and the bread which they earn by that toU and work
he has no right to diminish by taxation. They are his fel
low-countrymen, and not his slaves.
The labourer's bones and muscles are his own property,
and not the landlord's. We claim for ourselves that which
we concede to him — the fair produce of whatever power^
privileges, or advantages we possess. Here our principle
claims the same respect, the same sacred veneration, for the
rights of property of the man who has nothing in the
world but the physical strength with which he goes forth
in the morning to earn his dinner at noon, and that of the
inheritor ofthe widest and most princely domain which can
be boasted of in this country of Great Britain. And in our
regard for this principle, we are opposed, not only to the pro
tectionist form of invasion ofthe industrious man's property,
but to any other mode or plan of invasion of that property
which might be substituted by any other parties or for any
other purpose. Our principle is as opposed to a fixed duty
as it is opposed to a sliding scale. The one is as much an
invasion of the common rights of the people as is the other ;
for what is its tendency, under whatever pretext it can he
levied ? There is no doubt that any duty on the importa
tion of corn must enhance the price of food ; and whatever
enhances the price of food takes away from the fair earn
ings of the industrious.
When we call to mind the condition of great multitudes

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 55
of the industrious classes — when we think how they rise
early and sit up late, and eat the bread of carefulness —
by what miserable and wearing toil their poor pittance is
won from the world — when we remember how many there
are the whole history of whose lives is summed up in the
weU-known verse —
"Work, work, work,
Till the eyes be red and dim ;
Work, work, work,
TUl the brain begins to swim," —
when we look on such a destiny as this, if a fixed duty
would take but a farthing out of the pound, we say it
should not be taken off their pittance to augment the
stores of the Dukes of Buckingham and Eichmond, or any
other landlord. Why, there are cases in which the im
position of a fixed duty on corn, whatever the amount,
would lead to more objectionable results, perhaps,, than
those which belong to the sliding scale.
It has been often urged, and I believe it has been felt
as an objection, " What will you do with your fixed duty,
your 10s., your 8s., or your 5s., — what will you do with it
when the price of food rises, as at times it does rise, to a
famine price?" And it has been replied. Then it must
be relaxed. And what power shall determine the relaxa
tion, and by what test ? Only realise in your imagina
tion, for a moment, the condition of a prime minister
who has to watch the country to see whether the time
is come, or coming, at which the fixed duty on corn must
be relaxed by a special interposition of the government,
because food is reaching a famine price ! He must note
in the papers how many are picked up fainting in the
streets from want of food ; how many cases of starvation
will prove that bread has risen to the price at which the
relaxation must take place; what amount of disease, how
much typhus, will be a justification of the relaxation of
that duty ? These are the inquiries a prime minister
must make in such a case. He must watch the country,
and feel its pulsation, as the regimental surgeon stands by
when a soldier is fiogged — finger on -wrist, eye oh the
bleeding wound, ear upon the sound of the cat on the bare
back, with a stop-watch noting whether the instant has yet
arrived when he is to interpose and say, " Hold, enough !"'

56 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
Is this a fitting position for the chief of the legitimate
government of a free nation ? i, xn +
One violation of justice always leads to another. 1^ orget
justice, and charity wiU not long be remembered, and hu
manity cry in vain. A fixed duty ! It is only protection
under another name. That which is caUed "protection
—and " protection" is the very thing against which this
League wages warfare, and which it exists in order to put
down and annihUate for ever— we have no more charity for
protection in this form than in another. What is it ? " The
protection of agriculture." What portion of agriculture ?
What class of persons ? Strip it of devices and sophisms
and circumlocutions, it is the protection of rent, and nothing
else. The protection of the farmer ! The tenant-farmer !
has it ever enriched him? The protection of the labourer!
what has been his history for many a year past ? He has been
protected downwards from one stage to another of descent;
protected out of his old clothes into rags ; protected out of
his cottage into a ruined hovel, with but one filthy room in
it for wife and family aU to pig together. He has been
protected tUl his wife and children are so ragged that they
cannot go to church for the rites of religion. He is pro
tected out of the field into the union workhouse, or perhaps
into a court of justice, or a gaol ; and at last he is protected
into that narrow home,
" Where the wicked cease from troubling.
And the weary are at rest ;" —
finding in the cold shelter of the grave more reality of pro
tection than he ever got from the Corn Laws.
Protection ! Why, what should we protect ? Not a
losing trade, for that is taxing all the community for the
advantage of a class ; that is pursuing an object that can
not repay the labourer. Not a thriving trade, for that
needs no protection. And why should any one class be
singled out ? What is there in the condition of the re
cipient of rents that he is .to be protected at the expense of
all the rest of the community ? Why not protect the phi
losopher, the artist, the poet? What can protection do
for them, or for any thing that is intrinsically valuable?
There was a poet born this day — some Scotchmen here will
immediately remember to whom I refer, for many are

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 57
engaged elsewhere in celebrating the birthday of Eobert
Burns. Nature made Burns a poet, and aristocratic pro
tection made him an exciseman. But the protection he
most desired was that which his own stout heart and strong
arm could give him. He was a man who would not humble
himself in the dust before an aristocrat. He could adopt
such language as this in reference to servility, —
" For me, sae low I need nae bow,
For the Lord be thankit I can plough ;
When I downa yoke a naig,
Then, Lord be thankit, I can beg."
And the independence of the beggar was with him, and is,
in reality, a more desirable thing than that pecuniary in
dependence which is obtained by plundering others of their
rights and their means of subsistence. It was justly said
by an honourable gentleman who preceded me — If it be con
sidered as a question of revenue, what is there in the world
from which a revenue ought not sooner to be derived than
from human food ? Tax any thing but that ! But revenue
is a mere pretext in the case. In fact, the operation of
these laws is full of petty juggling : some saying "revenue"
when they mean " protection," others saying " protection"
when they mean " revenue."
Sir Eobert Peel contrived, in the first year of his tariff,
to realise a duty of eight shiUings a quarter on corn — three
shillings a quarter more than it had ever before brought to
the country. Those who are crying out that this is a ques
tion of revenue are only leading us by a roundabout way
towards the same object — the putting money into the
pockets of a class derived from the earnings of the rgst of
the community. But it is not the less an invasion of their
rights, though the circuitousness of the method obscures
and mystifies the process. They draw it silently and un-
observedly, as they think, on account of this roundabout
way of getting at it. But, after aU, there it is ! They are
like the dishonest churchwarden. I did not mean  ;
there have been more dishonest churchwardens in the
world than one, however unenviable the preeminence that
he has obtained. My aUusion was to the old story of the
churchwarden who carried round the plate for the sacra
ment money for the poor, and who, upon such occasions.

58 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
always took care to put sawdust in his pockets, that a few
shiUings might drop in without jingling. The Corn Laws
are the landowners' sawdust; but the money goes not in a
less quantity because its abstraction is more noiseless in
the way of robbery by Act of Parliament than in any other
irregular abstraction of property. With such men and
such dealings as these we make no compromise.
Indeed, why should the League compromise now?
"Compromise" is not exactly the word that belongs to our
present position. If we dreamed not of it when we were
weak, we are not likely to listen to it now that we are
strong ; if it was not our word when we were but few, it is
little likely to be so now we are many. Allow me to say,
that you in London scarcely imagine at present what the
strength of the League is. It would be worth your while
to send a deputation down into the North, there to mark
and observe the nature of that strength ; its progressive-
ness and its intensity. You should see the multitudes
flocking together in those districts, men, women, and
children, persons of all ranks and classes, as to a work
that called forth the deepest sympathies of human nature.
Yes, you should see them coming and mingling together in
the same assembly — masters and men pouring out from
the same factories. There is no heed paid there to the
calumnies and stories which are circulated in some quarters ;
there are no symptoms there of the tyranny which has been
talked of elsewhere. Whether it exists in other cases I
know not ; it certainly does not in the towns I have visited,
and where I have seen this question agitated ; but there
come the operatives from the factories, not choked with
" devil's dust," as Mr. Ferrand says, but ready to " down
wdth their own dust" in the cause ; contributing, and that
largely ; women bringing their portion, and showing that
they feel that it is indeed a woman's part to help the help
less, to sympathise with the oppressed, to relieve the strug
gling ; old and young combining, the very children feeling,
as it were, an atmosphere of patriotic exertion, and having
a presentiment that in times to come, when the victory of
Free Trade shall be gained, and men will look back upon
it as a matter of history and glorious achievement, that
they, too, wUl have pride in saying, " I, also, was a repealer
in my infancy !" Could you see the spirit with which they

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 59
are animated, the enthusiasm that pefvades their meetings,
you would feel that indeed the death-doom of monopoly
was sealed; and whenever London shall take its proper
position, when the feeling in the provinces shaU be pro
portionately responded to here, when you meet with their
religious principle in this matter, when you meet with their
pecuniary liberality in this great cause, when you are
animated with this firm determination, why, then the work
is accomplished, and these Laws wUl be totally and finally
abolished. Not but that compromise would be as remote from the
thoughts of the leaders of the League if they were alone in
this great struggle. This was manifest from the spirit of
the seven men at the meeting in Manchester several years
ago, when they banded themselves for this purpose. Their
principle from the beginning was, complete abolition and
repeal, and nothing short of repeal ; and I believe thatr they
and others would have adhered to it, although no public
sympathy had been aroused — though none of these great
meetings had been held to cheer them on in their course ;
for when once a principle like this gets possession of the
soul of man, it is indomitable. It is the fight of martyrdom
and of victory ! There may be victims, there cannot be
defeat; there may be delay, but there cannot be eventual
repulse. It is to individual devotion — to the determina
tion never to compromise a principle — that we owe most of
the world's great blessings. Without it we should have
had no political freedom, no Protestant Eeform ation, no
Christian religion !
Could the League falter in its course now — a thing
which I hold to be morally impossible — it would still not
signify in the great cause ; for the leaders in such a cause
as this, could they prove traitors, cannot stop the move
ment ; they are but foremost in the ranks ; they are march
ing on " regtdar as rolling water ;" and if they will not
themselves keep in advance, why, they will only be trampled
under foot in the progress of the country towards the great
consummation. I say again, "No compromise;" because
we are chaUenged, we are summoned to the confiict. The
landowners of England are throwing down the gauntlet;
they are going to wage warfare with the League, and they
say they wUl put down the League. We wUl try that

60 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
question with them. • They are not the bold barons of
Eunnymede; the age of chivalry is gone ; and most of aU
it is gone in their ranks, for there is little chivalry in be
coming traders in corn, and taxing the country to enhance
their profits.
But what do these people mean by a course which tends
to isolate them from every other class of the community ?
Suspicion in their tenants ; hatred and insubordination in
their labourers; an interest against which they wage war
in the other great classes in the empire ; repudiating, not
their debts, but their diamonds ; rejecting from their ranks
such men as the Spencers, the Westminsters, the Ducies,
and the Eadnors; disrobing themselves of what should
constitute their dignity and their armour. And what do
they mean, I say, by standing aloof from the world, and
dreaming that they are strong enough to trample under
foot its inhabitants, and to reap its plunder ? Nothing can
await them but discomfiture and confusion. They must
soon feel that their state, the more they persist in such a
course, is one of insecurity and apprehension; they wUl
feel the ground tremble under them, as it is said to have
shaken wherever the fratricide Cain set his foot ; and ram
ble where they will, no sympathy wiU cheer their course,
no kind and gushing feeling will welcome their arrival :
their real interest is, then, to reunite themselves with the
nation, in conjunction with which they may have respect,
wealth, and happiness ; in warfare with which, they can
only bring on the destruction of their class.
As to these meetings ofthe tenantry — ordered to come,
as they seem to be in some cases, and declining to come, as
they evidently do in others — the deception and exaggera
tion of their numbers and their contributions have afready
been mentioned to you. I have no doubt that large exag
gerations do take place wherever a numerous meeting is
reported ; and would the Morning Herald favour us, as it
sometimes obliges the government, with the private notes
of its reporters, we should then know something more of
the real state of the case. I have seen but one account —
and that in a local paper — of a genuine meeting of tenant-
farmers, placed beyond suspicion as to the class of persons
and the freedom of their discussion. That was a meeting
which lately took place at Evesham of the tenant-farmers,

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 61
members of the Agricultural Society of the Vale of Eve
sham. About twenty-five of them met together to discuss
the subject of leases ; and after fairly and fully hearing
both sides of the question from two of their number, who
had studied the subject and were opposed in opinion, they
came to two divisions : one division was on the desirable
ness of leases, on which twenty voted for it and two against
it ; the other was on the subject of corn-rents, where there
were eighteen for and three against. And such will be the
result of these County Protection Associations, if the farmers
are aUowed fair play. Meanwhile, from their number, it
is a pity they do not seek an aggregate meeting. I think,
inconvenient as this place is for your number, they might
perhaps be accommodated here, and Mr. Paulton could find
a private box for the Protection Society of each county.
The conscientious friends of the present sHding scale, and
of Sir Eobert Peel, might, perhaps, aU be accommodated in
the manager's box, and then when their discussion was done
they might join in yours, and compare notes with you on
the great question at issue.
But it will never avail for the landlords to attempt to
drive the farmers to such meetings in the same manner
as they drive them to the poU at elections — there is more
required; and it is difficult to make persons in their present
doubting, inquiring, and perhaps suspicious and sullen state
of mind, go through the manual exercise which their chair
man may desire. I understand that at one of these meet
ings, when a resolution was to be passed, the chairman had
great difficulty in getting a show of hands ; he had to tell
the farmers, over and over again, that now they were to
hold up^heir hands; but the farmers, by perhaps a volun
tary blunder, instead of holding up their hands, turned up
their noses. On the argumentation at these meetings I
shall make no remark; for out of nothing, nothing can
come. They have been generally a sheer tissue of abuse ;
and the only fragments or grains that are to be found in
these bushels of chaff are the old iterations of fallacies
which every labourer can detect, of wages rising with the
price of corn, ofthe need of protection against competition,
of the desirableness of independence of the foreigner, and
so on; things that we may heartily rejoice to hear are
brought into something like discussion ; for when all the

62 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
rest ofthe world has exploded them as nonsensical, it is weU
that they should be now put forward and subjected to in
vestigation, in those regions where they are still turned
to account. It is a favourite theme, this independence of
foreigners. One would imagine that the patriotism of the
landlord's breast must be most intense. Yet he seems to
forget that he is employing guano to manure his fields ;
that he is spreading a foreign surface over his EngHsh soil,
through which every atom of corn is to grow ; becoming
thereby poUuted with the dependence upon foreigners which
he professes to abjure.
To what is he left, this disclaimer against foreigners and
advocate of dependence upon home ? Trace him through
his career. This was very admirably done by an honourable
gentleman, who just now addressed you, at the Salisbury
contest. His opponent urged this plea, and Mr. Bouverie
stripped him, as it were, from head to foot, showing that
he had not an article of dress upon him which did not
render him in some degree dependent upon foreigners. We
will pursue this subject, and trace his whole life. What is
the career ofthe man whose possessions are in broad acres ?
Why, a French cook dresses his dinner for him, and a Swiss
valet dresses him for dinner; he hands down his lady,
decked with pearls that never grew in the shell of a British
oyster ; and her waving plume of ostrich-feathers certainly
never formed the tail of a barn-door fowl. The viands of
his table are from all countries of the world ; his wines are
from the banks of the Ehine and the Ehone. In his con
servatory, he regales his sight with the blossoms of South-
American flowers. In his smoking-room, he gratifies his
scent with the weed of North America. His favourite
horse is of Arabian blood; his pet dog, of the St. Bernard's
breed. His gallery is rich with pictures from the Flemish
school, and statues from Greece. For his amusements,
he goes to hear Italian singers warble German music, fol
lowed by a French ballet. If he rises to judicial honours,
the ermine that decorates his shoulders is a production
that was never before on the back of a British beast. His
very mind is not English in its attainments ; it is a mere
pic-nic of foreign contributions. His poetry and philosophy
are from Greece and Eome ; his geometry is from Alex
andria; his arithmetic is from Arabia; and his religion

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 63
from Palestine. In his cradle, in his infancy, he rubbed
his gums with coral from Oriental oceans; and when he
dies, his monument wiU be sculptured in marble from the
quarries of Carrara.
And yet this is the man who says : " Oh ! let us be in
dependent of foreigners ! Let us submit to taxation ; let
there be privation and want; let there be struggles and
disappointments ; let there be starvation itself ; only let us
be independent of foreigners !" I quarrel not with him for
enjoying the luxuries of other lands, the results of arts that
make it life to live. I wish not only that he and his order
may have all the good that any climate or region can bear for
them — ^it is their right, if they have wherewithal to exchange
for it ; what I complain of is, the sophistry, the hypocrisy,
and the iniquity of talking of independence of foreigners in
the article of food, while there is dependence in all these
materials of daily enjoyment and recreation. Food is the
article the foreigner most wants to sell ; food is that which
thousands of our operatives most want to buy ; and it is
not for him — the mere creature of foreign agency from
head to foot — to interpose and say : " You shall be inde
pendent ; I alone will be the very essence and quintessence
of dependence." We compromise not this question with
parties such as these ; no, nor with the legislature.
We are not going to the legislature this session. No
more petitioning. Members of the House of Commons !
Members of the House of Lords ! do as you please, and
what you please ; our appeal is to -your masters. The
League goes to the constituencies, to the creators of
legislators, and tells them they have made the article
badly, and instructs them how to form it better on the
first occasion. Here we carry on the warfare ; appealing,
not, as has been falsely said, to calumny, delusion, or to
corruption, but calling up in those who possess political
power the intelligence and independence which dignify hu
manity. And it is remarkable the contrast in the elections
that have already taken place since this course was adopted
by the League : that while their adversaries seek out for
every little spot, for every speck of dirt and corruption, iu
human character, and build upon that; while those who
espouse the interest of the great land monopoly, hunt up
the tailor and shoemaker, or the glovenlaker, and say :

64 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
" Have you not a little monopoly of your own ? — keep up
our great monopoly, and we will uphold your little mono
poly;" "Tickle me, Toby; tickle me, do;"— while they
endeavour in every way to play upon all the foolishness
and baseness of human nature, — the League has endeavoured
to work by inteUigence and principle, and by these alone ;
caUing out, not what is brutal, but what is most divine in
human nature ; thus realising that spirit of independence,
without which no institution, no forms of freedom, no
rights of voting, nothing that society can enact or sanction,
ever made a people free and great, or ever will. For this
reason it was that they were held to be such " monstrous
interlopers," such " strangers ;" this raised the cry in
London and Salisbury, " Here are people come up amongst
us whose homes are in Lancashire; great strangers, who
have no business here."
This was the same sort of indignation that Doctor
Caius manifested in The Merr-y Wives of Windsor, when
he found Slender's man in his closet. When he inquired
of Dame Quickly who was there, the lady only infiamed
his wrath the more by saying, " He is an honest man."
Why, the monopolist uses the same language as Doctor
Caius : " Vat shall de honest man do in my closet ? there
is no honest man shall come into my closet." But the
honest man has got into his closet with a search-warrant,
and finds there what shall bring them to shame and con
fusion, exposing the sophistry, laying bare the tricks,
and paving the way for future struggles of a similar
description, and of yet more resplendent consequences.
We have no compromise on such a question as the Corn
Laws, because we cannot compromise with crime ; and I
hold these laws to be one great crime, both in themselves
and in their consequences. On the very face of the thing
they are a fraud ; for when a class says to a nation, " Ex
clude all foreign corn ; be independent of foreigners ;"
does it not imply that they, the home growers, will furnish
the supply ? Do they not, by the very fact of interposing
to prevent our getting provisions abroad, undertake that
there shall be food of their raising at home ?
Have they done this? Have they produced it at a
price at which the great mass of the community, however
industrious, cojiild afford to purchase a sufficient quantity ?

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 65
Have there not been want and starvation both in this
country and Ireland, whUe there has been ample abundance
which has been increasing the wealth of the landowners,
but not ministering to the necessities of the community ?
Have they the power? Why, the very increase of our
population, some 330,000 a year, would require to feed it
the addition every year of a county as large as that of
Surrey, for its produce to administer to this additional
number of mouths a sufficient quantity of bread and meat.
Can they do this? Can they add another county to
England ? Can they make, as it were, another England ?
Can they create and furnish us with the produce of a new
Ireland ; or can they keep the old Ireland ?
I say that those laws are a crime, because they occasion
the destruction of human food. Not long ago — about the
time I was at Liverpool — large quantities of American
butter were brought out of the warehouses ; a hole was
bored in each firkin — the butter would not answer, as a
commercial speculation, to pay the duty on it — and into
those firkins pitch and other substances were poured, in
order that this butter might be rendered altogether unfit
for human use. I believe that ultimately it was actually
made into grease for the wheels of the locomotive engines.
At Sunderland the same thing has occurred twice within
no great number of weeks, with respect to wheat kept there
in bond. The people were starving, and the wheat was all
the while rotting within the warehouses, until at last it was
brought out from under the Government lock and key, by
her Majesty's servants the Custom-house officers, taken
to a dunghill, mixed with all sorts of substances, and
thereby rendered utterly unfit for use for the common pur
poses of human food, was there converted into manure —
and this at a time when the people were talking about the
Poor Laws, charities, subscriptions, and coUections, and of
their tender feelings for the sufferings of the poor.
And therd is more yet of crime. Let any one look at
the table of committals for offences, and compare it with
the price of wheat from year to year. The exceptions are
very rare in which a rise in the price of corn is not also
attended by an increase in the number of committals. In
the years from 1834 to 1836, when wheat was at 44s. 3d.
a quarter, the average number of commitals was 21,000 ;
VOL. IV. F

66 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
from 1837 to 1841, when wheat averaged 63s. 2d., the
annual number of committals was 25,000 : 4000 criminals
a year added by this horrible sliding scale of guUt and
misery ! To take extreme years : in 1835, wheat was a
Httle under 40s. a quarter ; the number of committals was
20,731. In 1842, when wheat was 57s. 3d., the com
mittals rose to 31,309. There are calculations indicating,
by the experience of many years, the results of this system.
It is a horrible operation to trace out these iniquitous
laws, depressing the circumstances, murdering the soul as
well as the body, making even the generous and merito
rious tendencies of our nature subservient to crime, ren
dering the love of a man for his own family, and those
dependent upon him, a motive and an incentive to guilt,
creating crime, and mocking the repetition to the Queen's
proclamation for the suppression of vice, by an Act of Par
liament for the production of criminality.
Oh ! I do declare, before heaven and earth, that I would
rather hold up my hand at the bar of the Old Bailey as a
culprit driven to crime by the feeling which these iniquit
ous laws produce, than be one of those who have profited
by their enactment to coin money out of the hearts, lives,
and consciences of their fellow-creatures.
Nor is this all. The annual table of mortality shows
analogous results to those of the table of crime ; with the
price of wheat, the number of deaths falls and rises. In
1798 and in 1802, wheat was 59s. a quarter; the average
of deaths, 20,508 in London. In 1800, an intermediate
year, and therefore not liable to any exception on the
ground of increased population, when wheat was upwards
of 60.S., the number of deaths was 25,670 : 5000 deaths in
that year analagous with the increase in the price of food,
directly tending to impress on our mind the connection of
cause and efl'ect. It seems as if that grim monster had
forgotten his impartiality— as if the bony tyrant had
become the very servant of monopoly; and though it is
stUl, in some measure, true that " the rich and the poor
He down together in the grave," yet wealth, by its laws, sends
the poor there first, and sends them there in numbers to
prepare for its own reception. The effect of the classifica
tion of society by the different degrees of safety and good
lodging and nutriment is, that while of the middle and

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 67
higher class only one child in five fails to attain the age of
five years, in the working class half the number die before
they reach that period.
Are we to be told that further experiments should be
made in laws connected with phenomena such as these?
Are we to give Peel's bill a longer trial, or any form of
monopoly whatever ? Are we to have more experiments of
privation and disappointment and suffering, of crime and
of death ? It was an old medical axiom to let experiments
be made upon vile and worthless bodies ; but here are laws
making the most cruel of all experiments, even upon the
body of a great and suffering nation. I say, this is enough
to arouse every feeling of our souls, and to proclaim a cru
sade of men, women, and children, of all ranks and classes,
against this iniquity ; listening to no compromise until it be
put down utterly and for ever. For this we band ourselves.
You, inhabitants of the metropolis, will, I trust,, take
your rightful position, and go forward in the van, and lead
on the march of the provinces. For this we combine our
exertions, determined not to rest until we behold realised
that great object of our anticipation — the giant form of
emancipated labour throned on the ruins of all existing
monopolies. For this we strive from year to year ; and while
there is one atom left of restriction on the statute-book — ¦
while there is any enactment injurious to the rights of
industry and of labour — while there is any imposition on
the food of the people — we will never desist from agitation
— no, never, never, never ! Towards this consummation
from year to year we hold onward our course, endeavouring
in all its realisations to effect not only good for ourselves,
but for other classes also, however bhnd they may be to
their own interests : for we see in universal freedom the
best security for the largest property, as well as the rightful
and honourable encouragement for those who have no pro
perty at all. We believe commercial freedom will develop
intellectual and moral freedom, — teaching the different
classes their dependence on each other, uniting nations in
bonds of brotherhood, and tending to realise the anticipa
tions of the great poet before referred to, and whom this
day gave to Scotland and the world :
" Now let us pray, that come it may,
As come it shall for a' that :
That man to man, the world o'er,
Shall brothers be for a' that."

No. VII,
AT COVENT-GAEDEN THEATEE,
Febr-mry I5th, 1844.
If there hangs upon two honourable members of Par
hament, who have addressed you this evening, the ^doom
which used to be much more frequently on judge's Hps
than, happily, it is at the present day, and if they are
about to be " taken to the place from whence they came,"
I trust that, upon reaching their destination, they wUl
report to the assembly coUected there that the Anti-Corn-
Law League is stiU in existence ; for it was announced in
that House, no longer ago than last night, that since the
declaration of Sir Eobert Peel, on the first night of the
session, the Anti- Corn-Law agitation had " dwindled into
insignificance." Yes, it has indeed dwindled from a revenue of 50,000Z.
in the year towards one of 100,000Z. It has dwindled
from small local meetings to such gatherings as I now
behold around me ; and it has dwindled from the humihty
of petitioning the House of Commons into appealing to
the masters of that assembly. What a strange, imperfect,
confused, and ignorant notion must any man have of the
Anti-Corn- Law League, who supposes that the breath of
members of the House of Commons, or of ministers of the
Crown, can cause it to shrink and shrivel up into insigni
ficance ! Why, the monopolist legislators take the League
to be some petty intrigue or paltry manoeuvre of party ;
something to which the members of their own body are
much more accustomed than they are to the grand prin
ciples of truth and justice, and the great movement of
national opinion. And that man, too, of all persons to be
cited in this manner, whose breath has so often blown hot
and cold upon subjects ; who has aforetime denounced as
destructive of the political constitution and the religious
establishment of these realms the very measures which he
has subsequently submitted to introduce, — of all men his

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 69
words are not those before which such a body as the Anti-
Corn-Law League is to stand appalled, or at whose com
mand it can shrink into annihilation ! Neither upon the
will of Sir Eobert Peel, nor of any other leader of party, does
the existence of this League depend, or the attainment of
its great objects, which are now advancing towards accom
plishment. We abjure all party alliances !
It has lately been made a boast that even rich Whig
landlords are joining the Anti-League Associations. Let
them do so : so much the worse for the Whigs, but not for
the Anti-Corn-Law League. Our strength is in the prin
ciples we hold ; it is in the certainty that Free Trade is
written down as an important step in the progress of
nations ; it is in the fact that the claims of industry are
founded on the principles of eternal justice. The right of
industry to a fair market for its produce may be violated
for a time, and be withheld by influence or by violence,
but can never permanently be refused to the demands of
humanity. Their dicta, upon whatever side of the House
they may be, or to whichever party they may lean, — their
dicta stop the progress of this League, or prevent the
accomplishment of its objects ! Why, we may as soon
believe that the progress of the coming spring will be
retarded or prevented by the bellowing of the bull in
Tamworth Park.
But what monopoly cannot effect through the medium
of ancient institutions and legitimate forms is, it seems, to
be brought about by voluntary associations and combined
exertions. Not content with the great Pro-Corn-Law
League of the House of Lords, not satisfied with the sup
plemental Corn-Law League of the House of Commons, or
with the committee of the Cabinet and its coerced spokes
man, not content with all this, we find a number of little
associations springing up here and there all over the
country, and crying out, as it were, to these leviathan
powers, — " Oh, let my little bark attend and sail.
Pursue the triumph, and partake the gale !"
Very imitative bodies are these new associations ! Indeed,
they have now taken to copy after us; we have left off
petitioning Parliament, and therefore they are just going to
begin ; I hope the cast-off clothes will fit them gracefully.

70 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
They denounce our agitation. The Duke of Eichmond
says, "agitation is immoral;" and forthwith he puts him
self at the head of another agitation I On looking over the
various resolutions and proceedings of these meetings, I
have endeavoured to ascertain what are their most promi
nent features, and what they are driving at. Of the two
things which stand out the most boldly in relief, one I find
is hatred of the League. They do not know exactly what
they are about to do, but they must "oppose the League;"
they must " stop the League ;" they must " put down the
League;" and to do aU this, they begin by praising the
very law of which they have heretofore been complaining;
they announce themselves as supporters of the ministry
by whom they have just been betrayed ; they show their
consistency, scarcely knowing what else to drive at, by
avowing their intention to uphold a law which they de
nounced, and to support a premier whom they acknow
ledged they despise. And then they declare that we are
liable to the penalties of the law !
Why, what have they done but put themselves in a
position to shield us, if there be any impartiality in the
administration of the law, from such inflictions ? If we
are an illegal body, much more so are they, with their
Corresponding Societies, making their conspiracies not "con
structive," but open and apparent to all the world. Not
that I care about the word "conspiracy;" I should as soon
as any other, or perhaps in preference, have addressed
myself in the first instance to this meeting by the term
" Fellow Conspirators." I hold it no disgrace, when
the pursuit of a lawful object by lawful means brings men
under pains and penalties, to adopt that or any other
term whatever which may be applied to them. I do say
that, whatever may be the business of our meeting this
evening, I should have felt ashamed of myself and of you
if the privUege of free meeting and of free speech could be
used here without an expression of sympathy with those
who are to be punished for its use in the sister country. I
say it is sympathy for our own sakes, not for theirs ; for,
of all men, I take him to have the least need of sympathy
who, even in a dungeon,* if he is sent to one, wiU rule in
* The verdict against O'Connell, tried for conspiracy, &c., was
given on the 12th February 1844, and a new trial being refused,

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 71
the thoughts, hearts, and devotion ofthe nation he is serving.
It is due to ourselves, and to the best and dearest right that
the people of this country possess — the right of publicly
meeting; and if it be a great grievance, to do so in numbers
proportioned to the greatness of that grievance, to declare
their wrongs and demand redress. That right should never
be assailed in any locality, or in the person of any indi
vidual, without the protest — strong and heartfelt— of every
one who values public freedom, for the interests of a nation
are ouly preserved by the boldness of its speech and by its
spirit of independence.
But to return to the Anti-League Associations. The
crimination of the League seems to be their first great per
vading object; this is the most intense feeling in their
hearts, and the first idea to which they give utterance.
But for what do they criminate us ? Of all the petty,
paltry charges ever scraped together, some of those that
figure in the very head and front are the most pitiful. The
first resolution of one great agricultural body states it to
be a most intolerable thing that the League sends paid lec
turers about the country. They charge it as a crime upon
us that lecturers are sent to teach public meetings. But
even they have not the impudence to charge it upon us,
that in some instances rufiSans are sent to disturb public
meetings. They forget, too, that the great teacher and
lecturer of the League is one who is not, and cannot be,
paid by human agency ; its greatest and most efficient
lecturer is an invisible power, but most formidable in its
results — a missionary from the council of Heaven to the
heart of humanity ; a lecturer that speaks secretly to the
minds of those who listen, as well as with the voice of him
who addresses au assembly ; an undying power, but every
where pledged to support Free-Trade doctrines, and cry
down oppression — and the name of that unpaid lecturer is
Love of Justice !
They complain, too, of our petitions, now that we have
done with them. The generous maxim of " nothing but
good ofthe dead," seems not to operate upon them. A
sentence of one year's imprisonment and a fine of 2000?. was passed
on the 24th May. An appeal to the House of Lords ended, on the
4th September 1844, iu the reversal of the judgment of the court
below.

72 collected works of w. j. fox.
number of stories are raked up against us, amongst which
is that of a man having forged many names to an Anti-
Corn-Law petition. They do not accuse us of forging
names to a requisition to a monopolist candidate to stand
for a county ! With rather an unadvised choice of illus
tration, they say that one man went iuto a churchyard and
copied a number of names from the gravestones, and ap
pended them to a petition against the Corn Laws, Why,
if the rogue actually did this, there was some shrewdness
about him; and had their own perception been morally acute,
I think they would have abstained from selecting such a
particular illustration of the charge ; for in the graveyards
of this country, in those both of crowded towns aud remote
villages, how many senseless inhabitants are there that have
been brought to that condition, indirectly, indeed, but not
the less certainly, by the operation of these accursed Corn
Laws ! Could the dead interfere in our transitory con
cerns, myriads of them would have a right to petition on
this matter. They have been victims of the system which
the living are yet enduring, and under which they are
writhing ; and were there a power to reach their dust, —
could old thoughts, feelings, and reminiscences be gathered
together, and could they come from those graves to which so
many of them have been carried with but limited rites and
shortened ceremony — " the little bell tolled hastily at the
pauper's funeral ;" could they be gathered together from
their resting-places, and be assembled in the neighbour
hood of that body which sits and legislates on life and
death, — oh ! there would be such a crowd, that the ave
nues to the Houses of Parliament would be blocked up far
and wide ; it would require a little army of horse, foot,
and artillery— with a WeUington at their head — to cut a
passage through the multitudes ; and if this were done,
the appropriate result would be — that of finding the chap
lain of the House of Commons preaching a sermon on that
occasion from the text — " Thy brother's blood crieth unto
me from the ground."
Next in prominence to this most unwise disposition to
vituperate the League, I find in the proceedings of these
bodies an immensity of professions of attachment to the
labourer. This is the stalking-horse in every string of
resolutions, and in aU their speeches. The good of the

anti-corn-law speeches. 73
labourer and his worth seem to be their beings' end and
aim. It would appear from these statements as if land
lords were only born that they might exercise love to
labourers. One would suppose from such proceedings that
they would never meet again at their festivities, but that
after the toast of " Church and State," and its usual ac
companiment of the song of
"AjoUy full bottle!"
the very next toast would be, " Our love to the labourer !"
and if their description of his Arcadian state and rural
felicity be true, this toast would be followed by the song,
in character, of " Such a beauty I did grow !"
They love the labourer so dearly, that they take care the
fine proportions of his form shall not be spoiled by too
rich or ample living, or obscured by too great an abund
ance of clothing. They love upon the principle laid down
by a curate whose faith was doubted as to its orthodoxy,
and who replied that he could not be expected to believe
very largely, — he only believed at the rate of 801. annually,
while the bishop believed at the rate of 15,000^. a year.
So it seems at these agricultural meetings, the great
lords and landed proprietors love the labourer at the rate
of their 30,000^., 40,000/., 60,000/., 80,000/., a year, whUe
the poor labourer in return can only love at the rate of 8s.
or 9s. a week. There has been nothing Hke this wonderful
attachment since the days " when King Cophetua loved
the beggar-maid ;" but that potentate did not make the
maid a beggar that he might love her, as the landowners'
system has made the labourer to whom they profess this
attachment. True affection has often been celebrated in
song, of " The lass that loves a sailor :"
but what in the world is that to the affection of " the lord
that loves a labourer" ? They love them so dearly, that for
their sakes they will even injure the rest ofthe community;
they will degrade their own character ; pervert their power
and station ; and abuse legislative duties. They love them
so dearly, that for their sakes they wUl take out of the
pockets of the public any amount of rent which they can

74 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
enhance by taxation on food. " The labourers must not
be thrown out of employment ;" they, we are told, must
have work ; and " if Free-Trade principles are to preva,il,"
they gravely say, " why, the land wiU go out of cultivation,
and the poor labourer will starve."
Now what is the meaning of this statement ? For love
itself— even the love ofthe landlord for the labourer — must
sometimes be subjected to analysis. The owner of 50,000
acres, who gets from them his 50,000/. a year, says, if Free-
Trade principles prevail, his land will go out of cultivation,
and England wiU become a desert. Does he mean that
the land itself wiU take wings and fly away, if he takes
no rent for it ? Does he wish us to believe that the land
wUl yield no produce to any body that will tUl it ? There
it is, and no alteration in the laws of the land can anni
hUate that soU, or blast the power with which Providence
has endowed it, of bringing ample return to the seed which
man deposits therein. Why, let him throw it out of culti
vation ; and suppose there are 1500 labourers uow upon
any particular property ; if it is altogether abandoned, there
would be nice squatting for those labourers. I take it that
they would be pretty sure to turn it to some account ; and
I think it woiUd go hard but that they would manufacture
bread and cheese out of it. If they had no capital to work
with, why then, as we are told that the hares and rabbits
on some of the estates need a considerable reduction, they
might live on the game till their harvests came round.
Thus, with a little power of cooperation, these 50,000 acres
would be covered with industrious people, who would get
food for their support, and who would have some surplus
to spare, I take it, to find themselves in clothing.
This is what comes of the cant phrase, when examined
fairly, of throwing land out of cultivation. If this were
to happen, the labourer would think it the happiest day of
his life when the landlord was crossed in love with him,
and driven away from his estate. But as such a state of
things progressed, and the comfort of this little society in
creased, it is much to be suspected that, after a time, the
landlord would come back again ; there would be a repeti
tion of scenes such as have disgraced both Scotland and Ire
land ; there would be notice to quit upon those who had
taken possession of the abandoned property ; the horrors

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 75
of a clearing would be witnessed such as have occurred
elsewhere, in which whole families have been known to He
down in the ditches, and to have sought in vain a refuge
from the pitiless elements, to which they were exposed by
equally pitiless landlords ; and the reenactment of the old
Sutherland tragedy would end the farce of "The La
bourer's Love."
When did all this love commence, and what is the his
tory of this most fond and affectionate care of one class by
another ? How old is it ? Does it belong to those ancient
times of our country, when the old cultivator of the soil
was required by his lease to know his " team of oxen" and
his " team of men" — when slaves were fattened here and
sold in Ireland, to the detriment of the home market there,
until it was glutted with the surplus produce ? Was it in
the fourteenth century, when pestilence had ravaged the
country, and the number of those whose business was till
age of the soil was so reduced that they claimed, as they
had a right to do, higher wages for their work, and when
the " Statute of Labourers" was, therefore, passed — a law
which some have praised even in our day — enacting that
the labourers should be fiogged to their work, and com
pelled to labour at the wages which they had had before
this opportunity came?
Was it in the fifteenth century, when it was the law
that if a man had been twelve years in the occupation of
husbandry he was to follow the plough-tail for the rest of
his life, and not be allowed even to apprentice his children
in towns, lest they should be in a better position than him
self, and the lord of the soil lose the service of his serfs ?
Was it even in the sixteenth century, when a man catching
any idle stroller might force him to work, forcibly take him
for his slave, feed him with the offal of his table, and brand
him even, that he might be known to belong to his service ?
Was it in the period from that time till the era of manu
facturing energy and enterprise — a period during which
the wages of the labourer, as measured in wheat, fell more
than one-half, while the price of that wheat more than
doubled ? Was it in times subsequent to that, under old or
new Poor Laws, sometimes subjecting the labourer to the
degradation of being paid his honestly earned wages out of
the parish funds ; at others turning the screw upon him.

76 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
and teUing him that he was a late comer to nature's table,
and for him there was no cover set,— bidding him, even in
his rags and starvation, be independent ? Is it now, when
he is gifted with 20d. a day should the weather be fine, and
loses it if the rain comes down? Is it in the present day,
when his life wears out in a miserable succession of toil,
from week to week and month to month ?
Where can we find the origin, where trace the history
and see the marks, of that paternal care by which one
especial class now affirms that it has the labourer of the
country under its peculiar and fond protection ? If such
be the feeling of the landowners to the labourers, why do
they not bestow more exclusively their attention on them ?
for it happens to be the habit of legislators of this class to
meddle with any business rather than their own. They
are very anxious about factories, where people are paid
higher wages by far than any which are earned in the em
ployment of their tenants ; they are for making regula
tions about hours and schools ; they are always prompt at
interfering with silk, cotton, and woollen manufactures —
with every thing in the world ; but, meanwhile, there is
the poor labourer whom they love so well, the most unpro
tected and unhelped being in the community. Now and
then, perhaps, they give him some 10s. prize for a twenty
years' service in the same family, coupled, as it was of
late, with an admonition from the right honourable and
reverend chairman of the meeting, in distributing the
prizes, that the successful labourer should " not listen to
people who were given to change; for the Bible taught
that there must always be poor in the land."
And what is this very assumption of being agricul
turalists, on the part of the proprietary ? What is it but
a section ofthe same cant that we find exhibited in the
whole course of their proceedings? Why, the nature
of a man's property, and the use that is made of it,
does not affect his character or his occupation. Being
the owner of a library does not make a man learned ; as
Mr. Cobden has pithily said, " a man is not a sailor be
cause he is a shipowner ;" neither are proprietors of great
estates entitled to claim the honourable appellation of
" agriculturists ;" they are not the cultivators of the ground ;
they are only the recipients of its bounty, taking the

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 7(
lion's share of the profit. If this language were allowed in
reference to other matters, — if we were to designate the
personal qualities and occupations of people by the use
made of their property, — it would follow that the noble
member of this League, the Marquis of Westminster, was
the greatest bricklayer in London ; that the Duke of Bed
ford was the most distinguished dramatist and musician ;
and that the clergy of the Abbey Church in Westminster,
some of whose property is devoted to much more question
able uses, were eminent professors of prostitution.
The real question, stripped of all mystification, between
the League and those by whom it is opposed, is this. Whe
ther the landed proprietors are to absorb all power ? whether
they are to be not merely a great and influential class;
but whether they are to be the nation, — the entire nation ?
for this is really the object at which they are aiming.
They acknowledge a Queen, but they name her ministers,
they dictate the measures, and even the language, of those
ministers. They acknowledge a legislature, but the-y are
one House, and possess influence enough to command the
other House. They acknowledge the middle class, but
they command its votes, and cherish in it only the most
degrading habits of servility. They acknowledge the ma
nufacturing class, but they cripple its enterprise and restrict
its markets. They acknowledge the working class, and they
tax their bones, sinews, and labour; they tax the very
bread which is their daily support.
I grant that they were once "the nation." There
was a time when the landed interest of England was
the nation, and when there was no other known or re
cognised power. But what sort of a time was that ? A
time when the people of the country were mere serfs, —
when they were " property,". — when they could be flogged
and branded and sold. There was a time when they were
the nation : and where were then all the arts of life ?
where was literature and learning ? The philosopher was
in his cell, only showing himself to become the object of
suspicion among the ignorant, and perhaps of persecution ;
or else sent for by the rich, that he might be bribed to give
them magic aid to win the love of a lady's heart, or para
lyse the might of an opponent's arm. There was a time
when they were the nation, — when they went forth in their

78 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
maUed panoply, leading their followers to slaughter, from
which good care was taken to preserve themselves as much
as possible,— when they rode almost unresisted over their
helpless, naked opponents, and were only capable of being
put hors de combat by being cracked, like lobsters, m their
sheUs. There was a time when they were the nation,—
and what a time was that for the towns !— when every
citizen who had any thing to lose had to fly from petty
tyrants to the throne; to strengthen despotism with aU
his power, in order that he might have some resource
against this overbearing oligarchy ; and when, if there had
been Eothschilds in the world, they would have had their
teeth drawn to get at their treasures. When they were
the nation, no invention had enriched the land and made
the metals and wood do the work of millions of human
hands; no press had scattered knowledge over the whole
face of the country, carrying intellectual light into hovels
and cottages; no mercantile navy covered the sea, and
sought the aid of every breeze that blew to reach some
distant shore to bring back its freight of necessaries and
luxuries. When they were the nation, it was a land not
worth living in ; and were the natural effects of such enact
ments as the Corn Laws to have their full scope, — towards
this period would it turn back the wheels of time, and
bring the nation so much nearer barbarism than it now is
removed from it by the lapse and growth of centuries.
Proprietorship is not nationality ! The peerage is not
the nation ! Brains and hearts go for something in con
stituting a people; our philosophers who think, our states
men who act, our poets who sing, and our hardy multi
tudes who work, — these are the nation ! The members of
the aristocracy take their place of true nobility in the
nation when they cooperate with mind and heart, and,
like some of the worthy friends of this Association, give
themselves to objects of patriotism and the promotion of
public right. Such men redeem the class to which they
belong, and shed a lustre upon others from their own
inherent brightness. We regard all who toil — be it with
thought, or with the strong hand — as members of the
community, — as those who help to build up a people, and
to make a nation free, great, and prosperous ! And surely,
if we look at the position of the landowners of this country.

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 79
there is so much in it which they cannot, by any change or
chance short of tremendous and universal convulsion, be
deprived of, that they might well be content therewith ;
" too happy, if their happiness they knew :" for it is cer
tainly true, as has often been said, that England is the
paradise of landowners ; made so by the untiring labour,
the indomitable energy, and the daring enterprise of its
industrious children. What would they have ? Is not
the land theirs from sea to sea — theirs even the bird that
wings its flight in the air ? We cannot till a field without
their permission; we cannot build a house without their
consent. They walk the earth as if they were the gods
who had made it ; and yet, not content with all this, they
go on artificially to enhance the price of its produce to
others ; not satisfied with being the lords of the soil, they
aspire also to be the lords of industry, and the dolers out of
the labourer's food.
Why are they not content? They have shuffled off
from the land the burdens that once pressed upon it;
they took their estates originally when the title was not
honest industry, but the sword, rapine, and violence ; they
had them burdened with the support of Church and State ;
they found armies for the king when it pleased him to
take the field for foreign conquest, or to repel domestic
invasion ; they have now turned into sources of emolument
the very burdens that once hung upon the land ; and they
derive from the Church, the army, and from our various
institutions, resources for their own offspring and their
dependents : and yet, having done all this, they seek to
weigh industry down to the ground with a heavier bur
den than ever pressed upon the land. " Free markets !"
was the cry some centuries ago, when Wat Tyler and his
peasant companions were driven to insurrection by the
extent of oppression of the monopolies of the landlords and
corporations. " Free markets !" was the cry of Wat Tyler,
The dagger that struck him down still sticks in the arms
of the Corporation of London — a warning against violence
to those who uphold that ancient controversy, and who
raise, as we do now, the same cry of " Free markets !" not
in England only, but all the world over.
We demand that the markets should be as free as they
have made those markets in which they hire venal tongues.

80 COLLECTED WORKS OF W, J. FOX.
or traffic for venal votes. We demand free markets, — free
as the air, unshackled as the bUlows of the sea, or as the
thoughts in the soul of man ! They have had the lion's
share of commercial prosperity, and yet what great advance
ments have been made ! What have machinery, railroads,
steamboats, or any thing else done towards enriching the
industrious, that have not also raised the worth of the land
and the rate of rents? There was an outcry — a putting
forth, as it is caUed, of " a great fact"— in the newspapers
the other day, namely, that the price of corn was now only
the same as in 1791. "How, then," it was said, "could
the farmer be expected to produce this in competition with
foreigners, when he has so many more burdens ?" But iu
this statement the fact was suppressed, that although the
price of corn may be now the same as in 1791, and the
wages of labour no higher than at that period, the rent in
this country has doubled, and more than doubled, since
that time.
And there is the real burden that presses on the farmer,
and which cripples him — as it does all other industry —
from the power of a most successful competition with
foreigners. Let them enjoy their prosperity ; but let them
not wound, limit, and restrain the untiring toil by which
that prosperity is won. We fear them not — with their
boast or their threatenings ! Here are we in our own
voluntary gatherings, and yonder, they in their set meet
ing, by royal mandate. Here are we in our miscellaneous
and multitudious assemblages, and there are they in their
exclusiveness. Here are we in our hired theatre, and there
are they in their senatorial halls, and with yet statelier
buUdings erecting and to be paid for by a nation's toil, and
at the expense of the privations of thousands. Here are
we with right, and they with might; we take up the gaunt
let they have thrown down, and we hurl defiance in their
teeth ! We advance to the conflict which they brave — of
opinion against power — breaking no law, even of their
making : in the spirit of that peaceful morality, which
they profess to have made part and parcel of the law of
England, we carry out this question; and we will win
for them dehverance from the curse that the oppressor
brings on his own head ; for ourselves, emancipation from
the disgrace of being plundered and enslaved ; and for our

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 81
country, deliverance from the prospect of confusion, from
the endurance of wretchedness, from anarchy and deso
lation. The age of feudalism is past, and the spirit of feudalism
cannot again govern this country. It may be strong in the
prestige of the past, and glitter in the splendour which it
has won from the toils of industry ; it may fortify itself in
the bulwarks of institutions, it may surround itself with a
servile multitude; but the spirit of feudalism must succumb
before the genius of humanity. The spirit, the principle,
and the power of feudalism must stand by, and make way
for the rights of industry, and the progress of nations to
wards commercial, political, and intellectual liberty.

VOL. IV.

No. VIII.
AT COVENT-GAEDEN THEATEE.
March Qth, 1844.
Mr. Chairman, — many allusions have been made this
evening — some mostfelicitously by yourself* — to the asso
ciations which are now forming in different parts of the
country, and which are at this time engaged in establishing
in the metropolis their " Central Anti-League." But in
those allusions one particular view has not been taken, or,
at least, it has been but slightly glanced at, which is, to my
apprehension, the most important in which they can be
contemplated. In those Anti-League Associations I see
one of the greatest triumphs that this League has achieved,
one of the most remarkable indications of its rapid and
successful progress. For what are they ? They are a con
fession that the public voice must at last decide this great
question of the repeal of the Corn Laws. They concede
that even parliament is not the ultimate tribunal for the
settlement of this point ; but that there is a greater power
which has to be conciliated by persuasion, and by the sem
blance, at least, of facts and arguments. In those associa
tions we have dragged the landed aristocracy of Great
Britain to the bar of public opinion, and made it plead
there. Their resolutions and speeches are all addressed to
the public ear. These inheritors of ancient titles that have
descended almost from the Norman Conquest, — these lords
of parhament, and possessors ofthe broad lauds of England,
with all their pomp of station and of office,— these men,
the farmers' masters, clergymen's patrons, the supporters,
or deemed so, of whatever is rich, varied, grand, and lovely
in art or science, — this great and proud body confesses
that it is put upon its defence ; that an indictment has
been found against it ; that it must answer for its doings
to the public; that it must plead in a court where, "Not
guilty, upon my honour," wUl never be admitted; but
where valid arguments and substantial facts must show its
• Mr. George Wilson.

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 83
case if it has one, or consign it deservedly to general repro
bation. What can we desire better than to bring matters
to this issue ? We have the aristocracy now — the mono
polists — where we have always wished to flnd them ; in a
position in which they must submit to certain awkward
cross-questionings like other people, who have to hold up
their hands at the bar — where former deeds and doings
may be gone into, where the history of class-misgovern-
ment for class-interests may all be exposed to the public
gaze, and canvassed according to its true merits — and where
the question may be put to them which has been found so
awkward by many personages at the bar of justice, " Pray,
were you ever in trouble before ?" Whether their answer
be in the affirmative or the negative, unless they get well
through the matter, they will be very likely to be in
trouble again ere long ; for, if their obstinacy prevent the
just and speedy settlement of this question, the time may
come when the question will be enlarged, and indem
nity for the past wUl be coupled with security for the
future. One must look with charity on exertions which are
made in a new sphere ; and I would in all friendliness —
as one who may have seen something more of popular
agitation than many of the titled personages who are
now engaging in it — suggest to them some matter which
may be worthy of their consideration; and one espe
cially, — which is, that they should take care not to under
rate the understandings ofthe public to the extent to which
they seem disposed ; no, not even of any class whatever.
The people of this country — if they have not the advantage
of instruction in Latin, Greek, and mathematics, by college
tutors — have yet eyes, ears, and brains, and are not so
easily imposed on as some seem to think by that species
of logic or rhetoric which is known by the name of " hum
bug." Some observations, in reply to us, have been thrown
out, in the shape of a small paper, which has been given
away by thousands ; and which was distributed, I under
stand, to almost every working man who entered Free
masons' Hall on the memorable 4th of March ; which is
an exhibition of that kind of disregard of the intellect of
the working people of this country which I had in view.

84 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
Now, there are many matters in this paper, which is headed
" The Corn Laws," printed and published at the Church
and State office. No. 342 Strand, and which professes to be
rather a catalogue of facts than any thing else. It contains
matters which must be very trite to such an assemblage as
this. I wiU read a few of these /ac/s, as a specimen of the
manner in which the young agitators — these new-fledged
demagogues — enter upon their novel functions.
The paper is headed, "Pacts are stubborn things."
The first fact is this : " According to the census of 1831,
there are in the United Kingdom 2,470,411 males above
twenty years of age employed in agriculture; and 710,531
in manufactures. Seven-ninths of the population are de
pendent on agriculture, and two-ninths ou manufactures."
Setting aside all other deductions from this most extra
ordinary classification, why, it would occur, I should think,
to almost every journeyman weaver as he entered Free
masons' Hall, and looked at this paper, that this calculation
threw the whole of Ireland into the scale of agricultural
population. Well, take it on that ground. What business,
then, have the monopolists to talk of the agricultural in
terest? For, if their assumption be right, we have a
majority of that agricultural interest in our favour. We
have had, I say, the voice of the Irish people pronounced
here by their acknowledged leader — and reechoed by your
sympathies on a very recent occasion — declaring that they
were heart and soul with us in this cause of a repeal of the
Corn Laws. And why should they not be ? A perilous
subject is this Ireland to the agricultural monopolists'
interest; for there the Corn-Law system is exhibited in
full bloom. Why, the soil in that country seems to grow
landlords like potatoes ! I have heard of many a tenant
who has four to his own share; all of them squeezing
something out of the produce of his daUy toU, untU per
haps he has come — a labourer and a beggar — to this
country to obtain wherewith to pay the rental of his own
potato-patch. Pursue the system there, and it wUl be
shown as bringing humanity down to the lowest stage of
distress and want, as inconsistent with all social order and
human comfort and enjoyment, as a state of things which
ought not to be endured an hour longer than any people
could shake off the yoke. Ireland is a demonstration

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 85
of the futility and mischievousness ofthe landlords' system,
and of the fallacies which our new agitators have endea
voured to thrust into the minds of the credulous.
Another of these alleged facts is, that every quarter of
wheat introduced into the country supersedes just as much
labour as would be required to produce it at home. Why,
surely that depends on how it is introduced. There might
be some plausibility in such a statement as this if the land
grew such quantities of food that every individual in every
locality had as much as he could consume ; but while there
are millions " rejoicing," as it is called; " on potatoes," —
multitudes, able and willing to work, but who have no
means, by any thing that they could produce having a sale
in this country, to earn the food they need, — why, how
glaring, how cruel, and insulting a falsehood is this to the
honest man who would win his food from the foreigner !
Another of these facts is, that in Prussia land can be
rented at Is. 3d. per acre, and that wheat is sold for
14s. 9(/. per quarter, and that the labourers' wages are 5«?.
per day. Now, this, I think, was not a wise thing to tell
the working men of London ; still less prudent to speak in
this manner to the tenant-farmers and agricultural labourers
through the country. There are very many of them who
would deem it no great mischief if the lands were rented
at Is. 3d. per acre instead of from 18s. to 30s. It would
be just as fertile, and certainly would not return less pro
fits; and the condition of the labourer would be never
the worse if here, as in Prussia, he could earn the annual
rent of two acres of land in the course of a week.
Another fact is, that " agricultural wages in England
are regulated by the price of wheat, the value of a day's
labour for the last hundred years being one peck of wheat."
This is said in the face of authentic records of wages, and
the price of wheat, which shows that the weekly wages of
the farm-labourer, as measured in pints of wheat, have
varied from 63 to 96 ; and that, as to the mechanic and
artisan, their wages have remained exactly the same when
wheat was at 52s. as when it was at 105s. per quarter.
It will never do to trifie thus with the working classes
of this country. This may be called, and to a certain ex
tent it is, a middle-class agitation. I am sorry that there
should be any deduction from the unanimity of the work-

86 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
ing classes in their support of it, because it is preeminently
their question; and more deeply than any rank or class ofthe
community are they concerned in that assertion ofthe rights
of industry which the League is so determinedly making.
But, with all my regret as to the deduction of their sup
port, I think it becomes this meeting, the British people,
and the aristocracy especially, to render the respect whicli
is due to the character and inteUigence of the working
people of this country. Their errors, in some measure,
have leaned to virtue's side. The worst fault ascribed to
them of late years has been an excessive eagerness in the
pursuit, and too little scrupulousness in means for the at
tainment, of political rights ; that they were more impatient
than was prudent of being in a slave class, and not mem
bers of a free community; that they wished to realise at
once what is called the great maxim of our constitution,
that no one should be taxed but by his own consent. The
fault, if it be such, has something in it which is truthful,
praiseworthy, and honourable ; whilst in their indomitable
energy, their patience under that toil which no people on
the face of the earth can endure as they do, from week to
week and year to year ; in their teachability, and the pro
gress which they have made in the use of the different
means of knowledge which have been placed within their
reach; in the number of men eminent in our literature,
and in the annals of science, who have sprung from their
ranks ; in all that belongs to the history of the working
classes of this country, — I say that they have shown them
selves not only strong in arm, but sound in head, true of
heart, deserving of the sympathy of all, and especially of
respectful treatment for their minds and interests from the
aristocracy. But, to return to our subject : I said that we have now
got the aristocracy at the bar of public opinion. They take
great pains to assure the world that their position is one
of " self-defence." I believe that scarcely one Anti-League
has been formed in any place throughout the country,
which has not set forth in its first resolution that it is
merely " a defensive body." In the selection of this word
".defensive," there is perhaps something skilful, because
men are naturally inclined to look favourably upon those
wio merely defend themselves. But yet there is a further

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 87
question to be put to these gentlemen. Having thus told
us that they only act on the defensive, they must submit
to be asked — " What is it, then, which you defend ?"
Why, the thief in the streets acts on the defensive when he
knocks down the man whom he has robbed. If it should
appear that they are defending as their right that which is
the produce of our wrong — if it should turn out that what
they really mean to defend is our money in their pockets
— why, defensiveness then loses its former favourable asso
ciation. However gallant may be the stand made by a
body in such a cause as this, it can bring with it no glory.
There will be no niche in the columns of history — no
wreath assigned by the poet of future ages — to those who
shall have defended to the last the spoils which they had
extorted from industry; nor can they be entitled to any
more favourable regard because their defence was not made
with the struggle of the battle-field, but by Acts of Parlia
ment, whicli they were enabled to pass by corrupting or
intimidating voters, giving the landowners themselves
power to lay a tax on the food of the community.
But they are not satisfied with being brought within
the meaning of the proverb to which our chairman alluded,
of a man being his own client : but in this self-defence
they have pushed forward others. At one time it is tenant-
farmers who take the chair, make the speeches, aud pro
pound the resolutions ; for in this vigorous self-defence aU
means are adopted. In self-defence they associate ; for
this purpose they organise themselves in a manner which
they had previously described as illegal. In self-defence
they correspond with other societies; and in self-defence
they even venture to county meetings like that at Somer
set, and get soundly beaten — all in self-defence. But, to
make amends for the meeting to which I have alluded,
another was held at Bristol which was to counterbalance
the effect produced at that of Bridgewater. Well, upon
this latter occasion a tenant-farmer was placed in the chair.
What was the best thing which he could find to say?
Why, that the farmers of England were capable of com
peting with the foreigners of any other country, provided
they only started upon fair ground ; that it was hardly just
that they should proceed upon such a race with a heavy
weight upon their shoulders, having to compete against

88 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
those who had comparatively nothing to carry. If the
farmers of England have a heavy weight of taxation upon
their shoulders, I should like to know who laid it there ?
Who are the authors of the burden of which they com
plain, but those very landlords whom they are coming for
ward, or are pushed forward, to screen from the attacks
made upon them? Who is it that has oppressed the
farmers thus unequally and heavily ? Not the Anti-Com-
Law League, assuredly ; there is not one member of that
body in parliament who would not readily give his vote
for an equalisation of the farmers' burdens, if such equal
isation be really necessary. It is from the side of the
House on which the Free-Traders sit that inquiry has
been demanded as to what these burdens on land reaUy
are; while the farmers' masters — if I may not call them
farmers' friends — are the parties who have pertinaciously
resisted such inquiry. But if the burdens are equal, surely
it is not by levying another tax on the consumers that the
farmer will be enabled to run his race. If our debt be
heavy — if the impost which it requires be such as to press
heavily on industry — it should bear upon all classes alike ;
and that which should be spared to the very last is, poverty,
with its requisition of the necessary means of supporting
human existence.
I cannot imagine that the tenant-farmers willingly or
cheerfully allow themselves to be put forward upon these
occasions. It is an ungracious task, in which they have
little interest, however loudly they may cry out at these
one-sided meetings — for two opinions are never allowed at
them — and whatever protestations they may make. They
remind me of a scene I once witnessed in an infant school,
where the children, having been well patronised, were taught
a parody on a song then much in vogue —
"Home, sweet home !"
I saw the master fix his knuckles into one of the Httle
one's heads, telling him to sing out louder; which the
poor thing did with a most dolorous voice and rueful
countenance : " School, sweet school !
There's nothing like school !"
Were the tenant-farmer free to express the feelings of his

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 89
heart, I cannot help thinking that something like this
would appear in the features of many a farmer, who at
these Anti-League Associations has to sing out,
" Protection, sweet protection I
There's nothing like protection !"
The tenant-farmers not being strong enough for the
work imposed on them, there comes forth a miller to the
rescue. A considerable stress has been laid in different
newspapers, both metropolitan and provincial, on a letter of
Mr. Biddle, who is described as the largest corn-dealer and
miller in the West of England. His testimony is to this
effect. He goes through the lists received from his corre
spondents of the price of wheat in the different parts of
the world, at Odessa, Alexandria, and so on; and then
sums it up thus : " In taking the average of the above
wheat prices, I have inserted them quite as high as the
quotations I have received for the last month ; still I find
the average to be about 31s. 3d. per quarter, being some
what under 3s. \ld. the imperial bushel; and this," he
states, " includes freight and aU other expenses except the
duty. Now, gentlemen," he says, "the plain question is,
can you grow wheat at this price, and live ? The League
will reply, ' Oh, but the prices will rise abroad.' Do
not listen to such deceptive nonsense ; the extra thousands
upon thousands of acres that would be brought into cultiva
tion would soon fully counteract the extra demand. Only
let the foreigner find a regular cash market for his corn,
and I will almost defy you to say how cheap he will grow
it. Look at the great continent of America : that country
alone can spare land enough to send us the produce of
more acres than is grown in England."
What ! is it really so, that 25s. is the difference of price
per quarter of wheat made to us by the Corn Laws ? Are
the landlords really taxing us to this extent ? They talk of
exaggeration in the statements we make here : no allegation
of ours has ever charged upon them a grosser fraud and
more extensive and onerous imposition than is here taken
up in the way of their defence, and set forth to show how
much spoil there is for them to rally round. Why, if they
have done this— taking the average income, as it is stated
by Mr, M'CuUoch, of the people of England at about 17/.

90 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
per annum — they have levied a poU-tax of 20s. ; a supple
mentary income tax on that average of six per cent— three
per cent for Sir Eobert Peel and the government, and six per
cent for the landlords and the Corn Laws ; and they have
levied this as a poU-tax, pressing more heavUy the lower you
descend in society, until at last it makes its invasion upon
those necessaries which are essential to the very support of
our existence. This is their defence, gentlemen ! This is
their apology for agitation ! Good Heavens ! What, then,
would they regard as an accusation, if this is their defence ?
And when is it that this is done— under what circum
stances ? Why, at a time when the price of food not being
so inordinately high as frequently it has been, has caused a
revival of manufactures to a certain extent, — enough to be
the subject of boast by those who wish to uphold the cause
of monopoly, — when yet, under these favourable circum
stances, with the winter passing away, we cannot take up
a daily paper without seeing something about the destitu
tion in the metropolis, enough to wring any compassionate
heart ! Why, only within the last two days we read that
the Bank of England, the East-India Company, the Wor
shipful Companies of the Mercers and Grocers, have during
the past week each subscribed the liberal sum of 200/. in
aid ofthe fund ofthe Bishop of London's Association for
Visiting and Believing the Poor at their own Dwellings.
The gross amount of the fund of this Association is now,
we hear, above 20,000/, ; and little enough too for the pur
pose for which it is needed. At the same time an institu
tion at Mile End reports to its subscribers that 3500 adult
persons have been visited at their homes, and that there
are 5000 more to be visited, and, if possible, relieved, if
the society can but obtain pecuniary means equal to the
emergency. With all this going on, we are yet told, as a
defence of the Corn Laws, that they cost the country
a larger sum annually than is needed to relieve all this des
titution ! Why, though I would not willingly consent to
any compromise whatever on this momentous question, yet
there is one form of compromise that might make me
pause ; and that is, if leaving the bread-tax upon all who
are in such a position of life that they are secure from the
pinchings of want, — if the bread that is doled out at the
poor-houses and by charities, the food of the working

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 91
classes, and the bread that is intended to feed those who
make up the various items in the great total of destitu
tion, — if that could be let into the country free of all duty,
— I should then say that we might well pause, and think
whether in this concession there was not something that
had a claim on the consideration of humanity. As it is,
there is no relaxation of the monopoly of the great on the
plea of charity. Out of this 20,000/. which was collected
for the Bishop of London's fund for the relief of destitution
in the metropolis, if it be all given away in bread, we can
not reckon a smaller sum than 6000/. as bread-tax taken
on behalf of the landed aristocracy. You cannot disen
tangle the bread-tax from the charity. There is no sub
scribing to one without swelling the gains of the other.
You are really giving your shilHngs and your pence in this
charity to the nobility of the country ; and for every 14<d.
that you subscribe for the starving shirt-women and other
poor of the metropoHs, you give 6d. to the Dukes of Buck
ingham and Eichmond.
Wretched, indeed, must the cause be when the articles
of its defence let us into such a scene as this, — showing the
splendour of ducal palaces - rendered more gorgeous by
taxation on the food that is doled out at the neighbouring
workhouse. Men who make such infringements on what
are justly deemed the rights of their fellow-subjects should
bethink themselves, when they come to plead their own
cause, and ask, if not for justice, at least for mercy, in that
court of public opinion, — they should look well to it how
they deal out justice and mercy to others. They allow
not the plea of ignorance of the law in those on whom the
law lays its iron hand. They excuse not, on the ground of
the value of the thing taken, the attempt to take it, if it is
connected with their property or pleasure. It was only
three or four days ago that the papers reported a case of
poaching at the petty session at Ashby-de-la-Zouch, in
which three men were charged with having fixed a net on
a Sunday, not having a game certificate. This was the
offence, but it was got up into four parts. They were first
charged with having a net ; they were then accused with
doing the act on a Sunday ; they were then charged with a
trespass in the pursuit of game ; and they were lastly
charged with an assault on the gamekeeper. These three

92 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX,
men were each, in a summary mode, by the magistrates,
themselves perhaps interested in this very case, sentenced to
a fine of 5/, each for three offences out of the four, and 21.
each for the remaining offence; and in default of payment,
they were sentenced severaUy to three months' imprison
ment for each of the first two offences, and to two months
for each of the other offences, making in the whole a fine
of 17/., or ten months' imprisonment, for each of these
three men. If such is a righteous measure of punishment
for desiring to taste the rich man's bird, what should be
the measure of punishment for taking by wholesale the
poor man's bread ? The penalties in that case, I think,
ought not to be less heavy than those legaUy incurred, but
which will not fall on the parties who have incurred them,
by betting at horse races, which has lately been made the
subject of legislation. For penalties do not reach those
who were described by one of the members of their own
senate as " gentlemen whom this House would not wish to
see convicted."
There is another caution I would give our fellow-
agitators and conspirators in their new attempt ; and that
is, to avoid such exhibitions as one which took place the
other day at a meeting of the Newton- Abbot Agricultural
Society. This was not an Anti-League Association. It
was neither more nor less than the annual ploughing
match. The high sheriff of the county was present, and a
peer and some members of the Lower House formed part
of the company. There were thirty-nine ploughs in the
field, and men were called upon to contest for various
prizes. Amongst other things on the ground was a wagon
surmounted with fiags, upon one of which was inscribed
" Protection to Agriculture," and on each side of this
wagon there were three cannons. Such may be the ultimate
argument of monopolists, as they have been said to be of
sovereigns. It may be that at the present moment, were
there not such things as cannons, muskets, and bayonets
in the country, the delay of right and justice would not be
continued so obstinately as it is. But still, I say, it is not
prudent in 30,000 people — for the owners of the land
amount to no more — even though the rest of the com
munity may be taxed for the purpose of paying the sol
diery to fire artUlery, — it is not prudent in the thousands

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 93
to remind the millions of such a contest as this. We have
better weapons than all the cannons they can muster,
whether in ploughing or in fields of battle. There are arms
which swords cannot reach, against which military man
oeuvres are quite harmless. There is a power in society,
spread as it were through the atmosphere we breathe, and
which an electrical touch may bring down at once with a
force that nothing can resist, whatever its array of antique
state, or its boast of physical force. They have appealed to
that ; but I would advise them well to mark the symptoms
of public opinion ; let them watch the indications of the
way the tide is flowing ; let them ask where the con
versions are.
It was remarked by one of the speakers this evening,
that there had not been a single conversion to Free Trade
in the House of Commons. Has there been a single con
version to monopoly out of that assembly ? Do we not
find, even in the ranks of the nobUity, that from week to
week still some fresh name is announced — all coming from
the monopolist camp — giving in their adhesion successively
to the cause of Free Trade ; showing that opinion is flowing
on like the tide, that it cannot ebb, and that its resistless
course can only end in the attainment of its object? Let
them mark, in another direction, the resiUt of calling any
meeting that is open to all comers; let them grow wise
by the experience of Somerset, and add to that, by the
experience recently gained at Freemasons' Hall. I believe
they dare not, in any part of the country, give fair play
and have open meetings. Why, they dare not even hold
open agricultural meetings, nor trust the tenant-farmers
with the expression of different opinions upon the question
of Free Trade or monopoly. If they talk of their strength
in parliament, let them mark the course of opinion in
reference to the legislature; let them note the silence of
both Houses oii subjects upon which nobody out of par
liament is silent ; let them observe the contrast which
those assemblies present to the feeling out of the House,
their silence being only to be accounted for upon the sup
position that those who wish to uphold the present system
feel that " the least said's the soonest mended ;" and that
they by no means are in the way to win popularity by
being the friends, or saying any thing in favour, of mono-

94 COLLECTED WORKS OP W. J. FOX.
poly. Let them note, too, the way in which the mention
of the legislature is received at public meetings all over
the country. I have never been present upon any occa
sion, at any public meeting, however great the distance
from London, where the announcement made this year of
the determination of the League not to petition the present
House of Commons any more was not received with shouts
of responsive acclamation. And is this a wholesome or
safe state of things for those who live in a land where the
government, if it exist at all, must be based upon public
opinion ?
There can be no hesitation in the mind of any lover of
his country in assenting to the statement that this divi
sion of feeling should be abated as soon as possible, and
remedied in the only way in which it can be — by con
ceding the claims of charity and justice, and adopting the
policy of those measures which are demanded by the advo
cates of Free Trade. Here, then, upon the ground now
taken by our opponents, we are content to contest the
question in future. With them we go to public opinion :
as they have appealed to it, by its decision they must abide.
We go with them to opinion — the ruler of the world;
opinion, which is the breath of the body politic, without
which it soon sinks into the death of despotism, or becomes
a mass of corruption ; opinion, which anticipates the pro
vince of history, and which glorifies those whom unjust
verdicts may condemn ; opinion, which, while it can irra
diate the dungeon, strikes cold apprehension into the
bosom ofthe powerful sophist, fearing that in history he
may only find himself " damned to everlasting fame ;"
opinion, which gives its worth to whatever is most highly
prized, without which the crown is but wood and velvet,
and coronets, mitres, and Georges are worth just as much
as they will fetch at the pawnbroker's; opinion, which,
when it refers to the great elementary principles of truth
and justice, rarely, if ever, mistakes; opinion, to which
the monopolists have now appealed, by which they must
stand or fall, and which has already pronounced, and does
now by your voices pronounce, the Corn Laws a false
pohcy, a base fraud, and an atrocious crime, which ought
to be obliterated for ever from the statute-book of this
country.

No. IX.
AT COVENT-GAEDEN THEATEE.
March '2.1th, 1844.
Some very just observations were made by the honour
able member who spoke first this evening upon the unde-
sirableness of taking a one-sided view of a question, and
of associating exclusively with those with whom our opin
ions are identical and our sympathies are strong. But this
evil, be it little or much, is almost unavoidable upon the
question of the Corn Laws, because, so far as logic is con
cerned, it is a question which has but one side to it. The
Pro-Corn-Law Associations wiU not admit us at their as
semblies, and they will not come to our meetings ; we
must bear the evil whatever it be, endeavouring to gain a
remote point for the contemplation of the subject. I think
that an intelligent foreigner, especially if not intimately
acquainted with the mechanism of society in this country,
who should attend several of these meetings in succession,
would be strongly impressed with the conviction that our
most sanguine expectations are sure of being realised. In
the unprecedented numbers that have been gathered to
gether week after week in this metropolis — in the great
assemblage here bf persons of all ranks and classes of
society — in the voluntary order and harmony of your
proceedings — in the interest excited by topics sometimes
leading to remote considerations, and strange ones, as they
would generally have been deemed, for great public meet
ings to have addressed to them — in the concurrence of the
views which are put forth here with those of the soundest
philosophers upon the production and distribution of na
tional wealth; and the response which there is to your
opinions and feelings throughout the country, manifested,
from time to time, in the most distant counties and towns
— and in the determination which is by you and by them
evinced never to shrink from the assertion of the principle
we hold, nor to abandon or relax in the demand for its
practical application, — in aU these circumstances, I appre-

96 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
hend that such an observer would see evidence that the
repeal of the Corn Laws, and all other monopolies, is
marked down as the inevitable result.
The same honourable gentleman referred to a time
when the country shall be visited by a bad harvest as that
which probably would be the date of the abolition of the
Corn Laws. It is melancholy to look at the question only
in that association. But I would suggest, on the other
hand, that some additional element is necessary. We
have had bad harvests, and though they have inflicted
tremendous suffering on the people, they have led to no
reform in our ministerial policy. If there be a cause why,
in future, such a dispensation should wear a different aspect
from what it has in times gone by — why that which has
only been evil shall at some future period become a good
and a blessing — I flnd that modifying clause in another
result of the same Providential superintendence, which,
whilst it orders the clouds and the winds, and regulates the
fertility of the soil, or visits it with barrenness, also stimu
lates in human hearts a love of justice, an impatience of
wrong, and a determination by peaceful but unconquerable
perseverance to win from the hands of power the rights
and interests of the many.
While the intelligent foreigner whom I am supposing
would behold in your assemblages only reasons for ex
pecting the abolition ofthe food monopoly, he might be
induced perchance to visit another place, and breathe a
different atmosphere, where no such impression would be
conveyed to his mind, but where every symptom which he
contemplated would be one of stubborn and dogged resist
ance to this wise, just, and beneficent measure. And what
are the symptoms by which that resistance would manifest
itself ? As far as we see, on the one hand, the prospect of
this repeal shows itself in the frank communication and
expression of sentiment — in the heartening one another up
for the conflict on behalf of the helpless against the power
ful-— in the endeavour to carry out to the world, in human
institutions, that great provision of nature by which the
diversities of aU regions are framed to minister to the well-
being of every nation. As such are the symptoms by which
he would be led to expect this result here, what would he
find as existing in the forms and demonstrations of the

ANTl-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 97
opposition — the dead and seemingly impassible resistance
— by which that result is opposed ? Why, he would find
in that place an affected silence upon the subject. He
would see a number of persons met together, professedly
to consult for the welfare of the nation, where the one
topic that occupied the mind and heart of the nation was
continually passed over — where, on that momentous ques-'
tion which you have heard here discussed, all voices are
mute, none countenancing its being brought forward. No
measure tending to relieve the people from the pressure
laid upon them in relation to the necessaries of life has as
yet found its way, still less has been adopted, there ; and
we are reminded of the old story of Queen Elizabeth, who,
when the parliament had been very sluggish indeed, ap
plied to its speaker — afterwards Mr. Chief-Justice Pop-
ham — and said, " WeU, Mr. Speaker, what has passed in
the House of Commons ?" The speaker, with a low bow to
her majesty, could only reply, " If it please your majesty,
seven weeks have passed." Even inquiry is forbidden there !
They tell us we do not understand the subject ; but assur
edly they offer no assistance towards its better comprehen
sion. They complain of the burdens that weigh down the
agricultural interest, and render protection necessary ; but
it is from others that the desire and proposition comes to
ascertain what those burdens really are.
Still the inquiry is refused ; we are not to be aUowed
to know what the peculiar pressure is ; we must take it all
upon trust. They seem to think that examination into
these matters would be as perilous to the cause which they
wish to uphold as an inquisition with lighted torches would
be into the state of a gunpowder manufactory. Yet, mean
while, assertions are reiterated by their retainers out of
• doors, and great license is given to their tongues. State
ments are made of the conduct, motives, and proceedings
of manufacturers and others, which, if they have in them
a particle of truth, ought to be put in the most distinct
form, and be supported by the clearest evidence. They go
on, taking a latitude of speech to which there is no parallel
in the proceedings of any other body. They put forth, as
you have heard in some quotations to-night, declarations
of attempts by manufacturers to excite, to oppress, and to
enrage the people of this country, which are so unsubstan-
VOL. IV. H

98 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
tial and devoid of aU verisimUitude, that if this work goes
on much longer, their speeches will pass into a proverb :
we shall talk of the mendacity of monopoly, and it wiU
become a familiar saying of any one grossly regardless of
the truth,—" He lies Hke a Pro-Corn-Law lord." Connected
with this affected sUence there is a pretended bustle on
trivial and unimportant matters. Eesolutions are passed,
going in one direction one night, and in another direction
another night. There is great talk of humanity, with Httle
appearance of soHd advantages to be bestowed on the com
munity. They march up the hill, then down again, and
remind us of Dr. Young's description ofthe impenitent sin
ner, who, after suspecting himself a fool,
" Resolves, and re-resolves, then dies the same."
In the course of these proceedings, the great sensation
of the session appears to have been an allusion to that
memorable character in history, Jack Cade. This has
acted so strongly, that I think it would be well worth while
if a select committee of country gentlemen were appointed
to inquire into the history and principles of " Mr. Cade,"
as he is now more respectfully termed. They would find
very much in them that might be instructive, with this
impartiality, that it would have a bearing on both sides of
the question. In the authentic chronicles of Shakespeare
we find a leading principle of Cade's followers to have been
that " the members of the royal council were no good
workmen." That, perhaps, may be thought not inapplic
able to some recent displays of the statesmanship of the
present cabinet. Cade was a great regulator : he meddled
with business which he did not understand; and yet in that
interference, perhaps, his disposition was not the worst,
or the most vicious, this country has witnessed. He de
clared that seven halfpenny loaves should be sold in Lon
don for a penny ; and this would not have been a worse
law than others, which enact that only six halfpenny loaves
shall be sold for fourpence. Cade was met by an embassy,
in which the Duke of Buckingham of the day was the am
bassador. That nobleman said he found him in his answers
a very discreet person ; but, notwithstanding this recom
mendation, the Duke abandoned him to treachery, which
resulted in his execution ; and thus ended the first alliance

ANTl-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 99
between the Dukes of Buckingham and those who attempted
to disturb the country and excite riot and confusion. Cade
is said to have buUt a chimney ; but we are not told that
it was a tall one. He was evidently no factory man. He
came from that county which, in our own day, has been ren
dered famous by the eloquence of a Bradshaw ; adorned by
the divinity of a Molesworth, the divine mission of a Thom ;
blessed with the refined gentleness of a Winchilsea, and
honoured with the legislative impartiality and frankness of
a Knatchbull. There are many historic doubts about this
same Cade. Upon the authority of contemporary chro
niclers, it has been said that this was only an assumed
name ; that he was, in reality, a doctor, and that, like some
other state empirics, he would not prescribe until he was
" called in." By such tricks he got himself prematurely
called in, and then found himself in such an awkward
scrape by the dissatisfaction of the different parties with
whom he was in collision, that he would have been very
glad indeed to get out of it with a whole skin, if he could
have done so.
But no wonder that matters even of this incidental
kind can attract attention and excite interest in the House
of Commons, when, as we were informed by what is pro
fessed to be a report of a speech of Lord Stanley last night,
the great question of all — the Corn Laws — -is deemed by
him one of "infinite importance and infinite delicacy;" so
much so, that it is scarcely safe to whisper about it, lest the
great agricultural interest should become alarmed, and
betake itself to the extravagancy of a panic ! It seems
there are two reasons against legislating upon the importa
tion of foreign corn, both of them alike conclusive. It is
not to be legislated for in some countries, because they can
send corn ; and not to be legislated for in others, because
they have none whatever to send. These are held to be
sufficient reasons for maintaining the law in its present
state, and for saving the landlords from a panic. But are
they really so tender upon the point as all this ? May it
not be that there is yet a further reason for this sensitive
ness than any mere apprehension that an influx of Indian
corn — for there are no Tamboffs* in India — could possibly
* Much ridicule was excited about this time by a geographical
blunder of Lord Stanley (now Earl Derby) as to the situation of

100 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
create in their minds ? Is it not rather from the circum
stance that the power which has made the government,
will not allow them to tamper with even the show of altera
tion in these laws ? Is it not more likely that the ministers
are held strictly to their allegiance, — that it is not a panic
of the landovmers, but of the cabinet, — a fear on the part
of the government lest those who brought it into being,
and who boast that they could, with equal ease, destroy it,
should take offence at any relaxation of their policy.
If this be so, the ministry are in a state of most unhappy
subjugation and degrading dependency for an adminis
tration in a country like this, where so much sympathy has
been shown for slavery of all kinds, — for the negroes under
the lash, and even for those who work by their free
consent in factories, — where there is so much sympathy
with all kinds of subjugation. Why, surely it would be
desirable, looking at this state of things, to make some
exertions, and to have voluntary associations for the eman
cipation of her majesty's ministers.
In these various indications, an attentive looker-on
would see the different forms and phases of the obstinate
resistance to our principles which we have still to en
counter. We might ask, How is this opposition to truth
and justice to be maintained? Where are its powers,
and what its strength ? One House would meet his eye
composed of landowners, — not with all their estates free,
and their receipts in full, — but still, the class to which
they belong being hereditary legislators, some of whom
have won battles, others whose grandfathers, by worse
tricks even than by winning battles, gained their places
there, and formed a legislative body whose capacity
for law-making is presumed to descend from generation to
generation. Then he would look at the other assembly,
over which he would find the former exercising consider
able influence.
We look with full earnestness of purpose to the con
stituencies of the country in reference to this elective body.
But there have been some recent returns as to what those
constituencies are, illustrative of the relation that they
bear to the possessors of landed property. We find that in
TambofiF, a central government of European Russia, which alarmed
the protectionists ou account of its growth of corn.

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 101
England four-sevenths of the entire constituency are county
voters ; of this number one-fourth of the whole vote as 50/.
tenants-at-wiU. In Wales the county voters are differently
divided, and the tenants-at-wiU form an actual majority.
Of the 320,000 — to speak in round numbers — borough
voters in England, upwards of 130,000 belong to the
classes of freemen, liverymen, scot-and-lot voters, and pot-
wallopers. There is throughout the whole electoral body a
large mass of individuals capable of being acted upon by
the most corrupt influences, and of the exercise of whicli
there is so frequently positive proof Then the direct
power of command is enforced by the indirect. It spreads
through the whole of society : the screw is turned upon
one man, who is obliged to pursue the same process with
his neighbour. Men in the loftiest station are not ashamed
of being parties to proceedings of this kind. Only a few
days ago a fact was reported in the Morning Chronicle,
which is only one of a thousand of an analogous descrip
tion which are continually occurring, but which, to an
.observant foreigner, would throw some light upon the
strength of monopoly and upon the landed aristocracy in
this country. The circumstance to which I allude is
thus stated — it relates to a cabinet minister :
" In a county which has acquired much reputation for
the agricultural skill of its farmers,, there was lately adver
tised one of the minister's farms to be let by proposal.
There were various offerers ; but one higher than the others
was admitted to a special interview with the landlord's
agent, who, being satisfied with the means of the offerer,
and the respectabiUty of his character, seemed upon the.
point of deciding in his favour, until the following and con
cluding conversation occurred : Agent. ' Of what politics
are you?' Offerer. 'A Liberal.' Agent. 'Of what religious
persuasion ?' Offerer. ' A Dissenter.' Agent. ' But the
tenant of this farm must both go to church and poll with
his landlord.' Offerer. 'Then, sir, I am not prepared to
bid a higher rent than any one else, and have to sacrifice
my religious and political principles, merely to gratify your
master's lust for power. Good morning, sir.' "
It is more than probable that such occurrences as the
above are not uncommon; and if the persons to whom they
happen would only publish them through the- medium of

102 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX'.
the press. Englishmen would be made to blush for suffering
this great country to be ruled by such tyrants as these.
But so it is : the parties with whom we have to deal appear
to think that a species of omniscience is communicated by
the possession of landed property ; that the landowners
have a right to determine how a man shall act, poHticaUy
and reHgiously. They are continually exercising this inter
ference over those who have the misfortune to be their
dependents. They say to all other parties, in the words of
CampbeU : " We know aU about God Almighty,
A thousand times better than you."
They even lay down the law as to the course which is to be
taken by their tenants in sending children to school. A
few days before this paragraph appeared, the same paper
had a report of a Dissenting school being entirely put down,
after it had been carried on in a most meritorious manner
by a man in humble circumstances for many years. In
fact, they seem disposed to realise the dictum of one of the
Scotch judges who presided at the trial of Muir and
Palmer, who declared from the bench that " no man had a
right even to speak of the constitution unless he possessed
landed property."
Here, then, is a power which may long resist the force
of public opinion. But what will be the consequence of
that obstinacy ? Is it possible for such a feeling to exist as
has been evinced in the many meetings held here, and which
prevails to so large an extent throughout the country,
which is seen in the strong conviction and determina
tion which millions and millions of our countrymen en
tertain on this subject, and that no effects should result
from such a collision ? Is it at all likely that the unhappy
influence of the Corn Laws on the condition of multi
tudes should not produce its results also in the limitation
of manufacturing industry, in the failure of one market
after another, in the alternation, as the seasons vary, of
commercial and agricultural distress? We see suffering
more deep than charitable societies or mitigated Poor Laws
will ever be able to reach ; we behold a gigantic and yet
growing evil, which sooner or later must be grappled with,
and that, too, by a statesmanship which is equal to the
achievement of the largest commercial reform that any

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 103
country perhaps has ever yet experienced. For what else
can or is to be done ? There is a talk of emigration, of
exporting a portion of the people of this country to other
lands. We do not send our horses away ; or, if we do it,
it is at a high price; showing the esteem which is set upon
their worth. That useful animal does not go about neigh
ing, by way of petition for work, to any human being who
will oblige him in that way ; he is too vabiable for that
But let the animal only walk on two legs instead of four, —
let him but have what has been called the " human face
divine," and be capable of looking up with high aspirations,
— let him have a brain where thought works with its
mighty energies, and possess a heart beating with affec
tions, — let him be the possessor of a strong arm, — and still
all these may not avail him ; he must go about seeking for
work, and perhaps after all be told, that though the horse
is valuable, man is worthless, and the best thing to be
done with him is to send him out of the country.
There was a time when human beings were told by the
Highest Authority, that they were "of more value than
many sparrows." But even this can scarcely be said now.
Sparrows are worth something in country parts — they put
them into puddings ; but we have not yet got to pauper-
pies ; and those of our population who are neither wanted
for their work, nor are good for eating, why, it seems to be
thought but one thing is to be done with them, and that is,
to cast them overboard out ofthe vessel of the community.
Were this hopeful idea capable of being carried out — to do
which there has been a disposition evinced — those who
might enrich our land by their toU — who might, in earning
their own means of subsistence, provide for the support
and the gratification of others, even though those others
should dwell in distant regions, — would, if such a policy
were wrought out, be driven, as it were, in shoals to our
coasts, there to be shipped off; bound, some for the
Cape — not of " Good Hope," but of hope most forlorn —
some for Canada, others for Australia; and some — looking
at the manner in which emigration and transport-ships are
too frequently sent forth — some, perhaps, for eternity;
startling the depths of the ocean by the unexpected inva
sion of a colony of emaciated corpses.
It is said that the country is making strides in de-

104 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
moralisation. What hold can spiritual teachers have of a
people who are obHged to battle earnestly for the right of
being aUowed to earn the means of subsistence ? What
favourable hearing can they expect, against whom the laws
preach another gospel — the gospel of starvation — as op
posed to theirs of freedom and plenty ; denying them the
daily bread which it is inculcated in their Bible that they
should ask of Heaven ? Less and less must be the influ
ence of Christian teachers as this erroneous and degrading
poHcy manifests its full depravity ; and smaUer a,nd smaller
the power of instructors of every kind. Eating is the con
dition of learning ; under all circumstances it must precede
that work. The people must be fed and clothed before you
can expect that the mind will be exercised, the taste culti
vated, and the character formed. One of the worst features
of this worn-out feudal policy — and it is even a compli
ment to call it feudal, for it is much more sordid than
any thing in ancient feudalism — is, that it not only wages
war against man's physical support and comfort, but also
against the morale of the country ; exercising a deadly in
fluence against education, and the enlightenment of civili
sation itself. If its whole result be accomplished, it wUl
tend to turn back the future ages into periods of bar
barism ; to overspread the land with an untutored banditti,
repaying the vindictive and selfish lessons which they have
learned from example. It will open before us — as the re
sult of oppression continued and reform denied, as through
a long vista perhaps, but yet distinct in its remoteness at
the end of that perspective — the blazing and roaring vol
cano of revolution.
Foolish people are the aristocracy of this country to
abuse and sneer at the Anti-Corn-Law League ! Why,
that body stands between them and ruin. The League
interposes and shields them from such hatred and execra
tion as no class of men, one would think, would willingly
abide the pelting of. It excites hope in minds that would
otherwise be driven to desperation. There is a prospect in
its peaceful, firm, and decided advance ; there is a means
provided for the readjustment of society, the restoration of
harmony between class and class, the healing of wounds
that have festered into bitterness, and the reconciliation of
interests that for the present are put into the utmost

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 105
extremes of animosity and incongruity. For all this they
should thank the League, rely upon it, and make speedy
terms with it ; the only terms which are to be made being,
that the aristocracy should serve us, and in the end serve
themselves, by the total abolition of their infamous mo
nopoly. I say the Corn Law is a warfare against civilisation, a
wanton abuse by the landowners of their legislational
power; for when and where in the world's history has
civilisation ever advanced but in connection with the hu
manising and harmonising influences of commercial inter
course ? To whom do we, to whom does the world, owe its
first alphabet, but to those adventurous merchants, the
Phoenicians ? There is a sort of cant about the instability
of commerce ; why. Tyre lasted in its glory seven hundred
years. It was their free intercourse that gave the polished
Athenians all their superiority over the rough and rude
Spartans. In the middle ages, the republics of Italy, while
they kept alive some notion of political freedom, did it in
connection with the extensiveness of their commercial inter
course. Their princely merchants founded at once the civi
lisation and the wealth of succeeding periods. In the great
start which Europe took at the time of the Eeformation,
we behold the same alliance. Every where the merchant,
the burgess, or the tradesman, is seen making good his
position in society, raising the whole community, and, as
he did so, elevating those very feudal lords themselves.
For what were they then, or what would they have been
now, but for the benignant influence of commerce ? But
for that, these very persons who deny the labourer the food
he has earned of the foreigner, while they surround them
selves with aU the luxuries which they can accumulate
from the most distant regions, instead of being seated in
their richly carpeted rooms, would have been walking upon
their rush-strewn floors, immured in their cold, stony resi
dences, more like dungeons than any thing else, with their
unglazed windows letting in the rain and sleet as well as
the breath and air of heaven. They would have been to
this day still sanctioning the charters of some mercantile
guild, by affixing their marks to the documents instead of
writing their names ; and have been about as well informed
of the distant countries over whose destinies they now

106 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
exercise so large an influence, as those same feudal barons
were when they set out upon their Christian expedition to
Palestine, expecting to find in that country that they should
have to encounter giants riding on unicorns, black ma
gicians who breakfasted by sucking phoenix' eggs, and
griffins and dragons as plentiful as barn-door fowls.
Why, it is commerce which has made men of the aris
tocracy. Poor and beggarly is the boon which is asked of
them in return — to allow even the humblest of those who
labour in what is really the work that Providence has
given to men to do for each other — to allow them the free
interchange of the results of their toU, from whatever
region the payment may come by which that toil is to be
recompensed. And if laws for the restriction of commerce
are an absurdity under any circumstances, and a wickedness
as well as an absurdity, much more are they both in such
a country as this. Why, this island was made for com
merce : it is marked out for it by the hand of Heaven
itself ! Creative Power has stamped that destiny upon it by
our long lines of coast, our beautiful rivers, safe harbours,
and all those circumstances which indicate Britain as the
central point from which every wind that blows should
waft some freight of wealth, knowledge, or charity to the
remotest regions of the globe. It has been marked out
for commerce by its coal-beds and mineral treasures, — by
the materials which Nature puts into the hands of man,
which seem of themselves to invite the application of his
power, and say, " Come and use us ! elicit the virtue that
we possess, and our gigantic power to minister to the lux
uries of millions, and to feed and clothe millions and
millions more." The industry and unwearied toil, the accu
mulated capital, the surpassing skill and science of this
land, the eminence it has already attained, — all show that
these are the conquests which we have to make. This is
our mission from heaven for the universal benefit of man
kind upon God's earth ; and who or what are the landed
class, that they should stand up and interpose, saying,
" This shall not be done ; for it will deteriorate our pro
perty, and lower our rents" ? Why, suppose it should ; is
there any thing in a class which has had for ages immense
advantages over all the rest of society suffering a little
inconvenience ? Is there any thing in the result of a right-

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 107
ful change subjecting them, were it so, to temporary pri
vation, that should in honesty allow them to stand in the
way of the accomplishment of that which humanity has a
right to claim, to which charity and justice alike award
their sacred sanction? Could they permanently divert
this land from its proper work, and succeed in upholding
for ever laws which would cripple the manufactures aud
commerce by which we have been enriched, which have
made the strength and greatness of the nation, — could
they go on successfully repressing these, keeping down the
ebullition of misery, and suppressing all indications of dis
content, — could they, through coming years, uphold their
present policy to its full extent, and reahse — which they
are far from being able to do — the purposes for which their
monopoly laws are enacted, — what disastrous results would
take place from end to end of this country 1 With a grow
ing population and a declining trade, — the ports barred
against the foreigner by duties, — disease and famine would
stalk abroad; frightful demoralisation would ensue; the
iron arm of power must then be put forth to keep down
the millions ; they must make a solitude, and call it peace,
— such peace as there would be thus obtained wduld be
the peace of the churchyard, where every arm is nerveless,
every heart cold, and all are mouldering fast into one mass
of corruption. The land would be partitioned into squire
archies, and each rural tyrant would stalk in the solitary
majesty of self-assumption over his petty domain; the
peasant would think it a great prize when he got a sound
potato ; and intellect and the arts, and every thing which
refines and softens Hfe, would leave a country thus de
graded and abandoned ; it would become so fearful a spec
tacle, that we should cry, " O God of heaven ! sooner than
this, let Britain be whelmed again in the ocean from which
it first arose, — let it find a worthier grave there, than that
the long annals of its glory should end in a state of things
so infamous and disgusting !"
We are not, then, fighting a manufacturer's question,
or pleading only for charity to the poor ; we are asserting
the common, the great right of humanity, and advocating
an interest which is not merely a pecuniary question of
a passing day, but the interest of human nature in aU
countries and ages. Our cause is the advance of civilisa-

108 COLLECTED tFORKS OF W, J, FOX,
tion itself; it is for that we strive. We are struggling
that the world's progress may not be turned back through
our indifference under the infliction of these mischievous
wrongs. It is a sacred cause, and one which will call forth
the most enthusiastic feelings of our hearts, and the in-
tensest devotion of our souls. It is a matter which ought
to be before us day and night, — from month to month and
year to year, — until the result which we contemplate is
obtained. Oh, that it were regarded in all its importance
by those whose station gives them ampler means of leading
on that result! for should the sovereign of these realms
have moments of perplexity and anxiousness, and be dis
tracted by conflicting councils, — looking wistfully on the
battles of warring statesmen, — should she at such moments
desire to know what it is that would make her reign
blessed, as wiping away the tears of the distressed, clothing
the naked, feeding the hungry, and raising those that are
trampled down, — should she desire to know what it is that
would render her reign iUustrious, not only by averting
misery and rectifying wrong, but which would give it a yet
higher splendour, before which the glories of conquest,
legislative institutions, and reformations in former times
would all wax pale in comparison, — should she desire to
know what the magic is that would render her reign an
era in the world's history, and the best and brightest in
the annals of Great Britain, — oh, that some good angel
would whisper in her ear that the talismanic words to do
aU this are — Commercial Freedom !

No, X,
AT BEISTOL,*
April 12, 1844,
My Lord Ducie, in opening this meeting, has — if I
may be allowed on the part of this meeting, as well as on
my own, to say so — greatly underrated his own powers
as an advocate in this great cause. I, for one, have been
exceedingly interested and instructed by the exposition
which he has just given us. I am instructed by it as
coming from such authority ; as being the testimony of
a noble landowner whose charges are all paid, and one,
therefore, which bears down the whole mass of testimony
from landowners whose charges are not paid, who are only
the nominal proprietors of the broad acres over which they
profess to have the mastery, who have to meet the diffi
culties of mortgages and marriage-settlements, and who
tax the country to enable themselves to meet those diffi
culties. But it is not only the testimony of the noble lord
which is valuable; his arguments are so in an equal
degree. With the economical part of the question he has
fairly grappled. He has taken that part of the Anti-Corn-
Law League's reasoning where it was supposed to be the
weakest, and he has shown its power and strength. He
has touched on the most important part of the whole sub
ject. He has shown the substantial good which the League
has effected ; that good which will endure when the Corn
Laws are matter of history ; that good which is beyond all
economical good; that good which springs from arousing
the mind of the country, caUing forth its spirit and inde
pendence, without which prosperity itself is a mere transi
tory enjoyment, and without which freedom is only an
empty name. Whether we achieve or do not achieve our
objects, the League has conferred upon the country a sub
stantial good where it was most needed. It has taught the
people a lesson which they will not forget, — it has led
them to the exercise of their rational powers, — it has sent
information Hke light beaming over the surface of the
* From the Bristol Mercury.

110 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
country, and caUed forth its energies, its principles, anc"
its patriotism, — it has made the electors feel the solemr
and sacred responsibility which rests upon them, — and }i
has taught the non-electors how to use that power which
they possess — the power of public opinion. WheneyA the
history of this struggle shall be written, it will be found
that it contained the germ of other reforms, that it paved
the way for the broad march of improvement which must
flow in its track. Whatever is humane and benevolent —
whatever is true, good, right, and just — whatever tends to
the advance of humanity, makes light on earth lighter and
more benignant — is only to be obtained by opening up to
every individual the sources of knowledge and freedom, and
showing to society the high destinies which civilisation has
yet to offer.
Your noble chairman in his opening address has touched
upon all the leading points of this important question, and
shown the continued succession of jeers, suspicions, and
denunciations which have been vented against the League,
as if it were so strange a thing that a good object should
commend itself to honest minds, call forth their energies,
and lead them to cooperation with others. If there is
any thing more extraordinary than this agitation itself, it
is that the necessity for it should be allowed to exist.
Why are we compelled to leave our homes and our house
hold enjoyments ? why are we forced to meet month after
month, and year after year ? why all this toil and sacrifice,
this outlay of money, this expenditure of mind ? Have we
not Houses of Lords and Commons, and municipal insti
tutions ? Why is all this necessary for a matter so plain
and simple as the right of the tradesman to buy in the
cheapest and sell in the dearest market, for the right of
the labourer to exchange the produce of his toil for the
bread which he has fairly earned by the sweat of his brow ?
If there is any thing more extraordinary than the necessity
for this agitation, it is the cause of it — the limitation of
the trade of this country, the tax which is put upon the
food ofthe labouring population. If there is any thing
more extraordinary stUl, it is that this attempt to remedy
the evil — an attempt caused by the backwardness of the
legislature to do so — should be met by scorns and scoffs
and calumny. What would they have us to do ? We have

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. Ill
been compelled to agitate ; they have driven us to it. If
the Duke of Eichmond thinks that this country should not
be troubled by agitation, let him do us justice. The
matter has been long before the country ; every educated
man knows the pros and cons of it. Every great writer
on the science, from Adam Smith down to Colonel Thomp
son, has borne witness to the great truth, that Free Trade
is to the interest of a community, and especially of such
a community as that of Great Britain. Have not appeals
been made to the legislature by all the well-informed mer
chants ofthe country? was there not a famous petition
from London twenty years ago ? have not petitions innu
merable been poured in from the great masses of the com
munity? were they not multiplied last session? did not
a million and a quarter of petitioners humbly approach
the legislative bodies, and beg from them as a boon to the
labourer that which was his undoubted right ? What
would they have us to do ? — would they have us to rebel ?
would they have us plead our cause with the musket ? We
are rather too weU instructed for that nowadays. We
know of a power which the musket cannot exert, and
which, thanks be to Heaven, the musket cannot resist, —
a power which cannot be put down by cannon or bayonet
— the power of opinion pervading society, and which will
have its way, and will wring its rights from reluctant
power, while that power itself will be only mentioned by
the future historian as being disgraced, from the very fact
of its having been so long reluctant in this matter.
The Times of this morning reads a great moral lesson
to the League. The great journal reads the " Great Fact"
a great moral lesson. The first objection of the Times is,
that the League and its leaders are concerned in manufac
tures, that they are cotton-spinners and calico-printers, and
it is wonderful how such men have become the world's
talk. The Times forgets, in using this language, that the
present condition of society is not as it was years ago, when
certain political cliques managed affairs, whilst the millions
stood looking on in mindless acquiescence; the course
of events, though in a more peaceful way than in other
countries, has called forth talent from all ranks and classes.
As in revolutionary France the marshals of her empire, who
carried the tricolour in triumph over the world, came not

112 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
from those trained in arms, not from those high in station
and influence, but were found in all classes, whether from
among the post-house or the pot-house, the tradesman's
shop or the lawyer's clerk ; so in this question, which has
so deeply stirred and interested the public mind, men,
even though they may be cotton-spinners, have come forth
and exhibited an intellect, a comprehensive power of mind,
not to be found amongst the oldest political statesmen of
the day. The Times talks of the cotton grub. What is a
grub? The germ of the winged insect, that in time to
come shaU soar into the air, the type of the human soul and
its immortality. So the intellect which the agitation of
this question has called forth, has attracted the gaze and
commanded the admiration of the world. We have a prime
minister who is the son of a cotton-spinner ; and why may
not another cotton-spinner appear who shall have the
power to grapple with this important question ? The world
advances rapidly, and a cotton-spinner of to-day may do
that which the son of a cotton-spinner has been unable to
accomplish. It is not by cramming with Latin and Greek
at the university that you make statesmen. Other wisdom
than what is taught there must be learnt. Had the son of
a certain cotton-spinner not been so crammed, had he not
drunk at that fountain from whence the waters of bitter
ness have too often flowed, he would not, at his entrance
into Hfe, have opposed what he afterwards granted — the
great act of religious freedom — and would, instead of gaining
from his former colleagues the brand of apostasy, have won
for himself the crown of patriotism.
But I must go on a little further with this great moral
lesson to our leaders. There are some points in it in which
I really, entirely, and heartUy coincide, because I believe
they contain great truths well expressed. Such as the fol
lowing : " A great cause as often makes little men as it
makes great men." So far, so good. — this cause is a great
cause. The lesson then goes on to inquire, " For whom and
for what do they ask that the country should run the risks,
for risks, at least, there are involved, in a greater freedom
of trade ? For whom and for what do they ask that impor
tant items of the revenue should be surrendered, and the
vested interests of the land should be endangered ? For
themselves only, or for the whole nation, themselves in-

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 113
eluded ? It is their scheme of a blessed futurity, that they
are to build new mills, create new manufacturing cities, dig
new docks, lay down new raUways, enlarge their mansions
into palaces, and their pleasure-grounds into parks, add
town houses to country houses, and ally themselves to the
much-hated, much-envied aristocracy ; vrhile all this time
the operative, the mother of a family, the squalid youth, the
sickly girl, are to go on standing at the spindles for ever,
winter and summer, from half-past five in the morning —
by the inexorable mill clock — to seven in the evening."
And then the writer proceeds to say that the League has
been miserably slow to recognise the fact that there are
hundreds of thousands of women and young persons chained
to the steam-engine, &c. That the League has been miser
ably slow to recognise the condition of the poor of this
country, I beg leave to deny. I know of no philanthropy
more substantial than giving to man the power of improv
ing his own condition, by laying the best foundation for his
advance. It is not by saying to a man. You shall not work,
it is not by saying that the steam-engine shall not work,
that you will add to his comforts. I feel as strongly as any
man that women and children have claims on the world for
protection, legal protection if it be necessary — throw the
broad shield of public opinion and the law between the
strong and the weak; but let me say that the labouring
population would not need protection for their wives and
children — they would be able to protect themselves — were it
not for the monopoHsts' tax on their food, and which drives
them to tasks that are abhorrent to the feelings of all.
The advocates for protection overlook this fact, and it is
only the League which has looked the matter fully in the
face. There is no other mode of grappling with the evil.
To abridge a man's power to work, and thus to lower his
wages, whilst you subject his food to an impost, is what I
can call not only a one-sided, but a most abominable
policy. It is because the leaders of the League have put
this question on broad principles, have made it, not a
manufacturer's question, but the question of the people of
Great Britain, that they have commanded so much sym
pathy, and will so certainly triumph.
The Times speaks of the factory people as the most
wretched under heaven; and the Morning Herald asks
VOL. IV. I

114 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
with great naivete, if a family in Mr. Bright's employ earn
1/. 19s. M. a week, supposing the legislature to reduce
their wages by limiting their labour, could they not live on
1/. 9s. 9^.? Is that the philanthropy of this friend to hu
manity ? Is that the way questions affecting the mass of
the people of this country should be put ? Are there no
people working hard but those employed in factories?
Have there not lately appeared statements of horrors in
other places, and amongst other people, to which the his
tory of Lancashire has nothing to put in comparison ? I
was reading some weeks ago, in the Westminster Review, a
notice of an autobiography, as yet unpublished, of a man who
is distinguished for his poetical writings, and who at one
time suffered the greatest distress. He was an Aberdeen
weaver. Business fell off, and he was driven to try his
fortune as a pedlar, with his wife and children. One of them
was dying under a hedge ; shelter was sought at a farm, and
refused ; and in the bitterness of his heart the father writes :
" My head throbbed with pain, and for a time became the
tenement of thoughts I would not now reveal. They par
took less of sorrow than of indignation, and it seemed to
me that this same world was a thing very much to be hated;
and, on the whole, the sooner that one Hke me could get out
of it, the better for its sake and my own. I felt myself, as
it were, shut out from mankind — enclosed, prisoned in
misery ; no outlook — none ! My miserable wife and little
ones, who alone cared for me — what would I not have done
for their sakes at that hour ! Here let me speak out — and
be heard, too, whUe I tell it — that the world does not at all
times know how unsafely it sits : when Despair has loosed
Honour's last hold upon the heart — when transcendent
Wretchedness lays weeping Eeason in the dust — when every
unsympathising looker-on is deemed an enemy — who then
can limit the consequences ? For my own part, I confess
that, ever since that dreadful night, I can never hear of an
extraordinary criminal without the wish to pierce through
the mere judicial view of his career, under which, I am
persuaded, there would often be found to exist an unseen
impulse — a chain with one end fixed in Nature's holiest
ground, that drew him on to his destiny."* Such are the
* The autobiography alluded to by Mr. Fox was afterwards pub
lished in a work entitled Rhymes and RecoUections of a Ha-ndloo-m.

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 115
people ; and there are hundreds of thousands enduring like
this man, whom Free Trade — by cheapening the means of
subsistence and giving them employment — would render
the stay and prop of the country, instead of their being
as now the occasion of peril to life and property.
There have been some accusations uttered against the
League, at a meeting which was held in this city about a
fortnight ago, at the White Lion in Broad Street, of the
Agricultural Protection Society. It is stated that many of
the influential gentlemen of the surrounding country were
present — that they were not all there we have good evidence
to-night. The chairman, Mr. J. S. Harford, made it one
ofthe chief objects of his speech to bring accusations against
the Anti-Corn-Law League; but I will say for him, that
his speech is marked with an unusual spirit of moderation.
He does not accuse us of some of the atrocious crimes
Weaver, by William Thom of Inverury. The passage cited is printed
as it stands in the second edition of that work, published by Smith,
Elder, and Co., 1845. On the night alluded to, admission was at
length obtained by Thom and his family at the farmhouse of John
Cooper West-town of Kinnaird, by whom they were hospitably received.
The sick child, Jeanie, died during the night from the effects of ex
posure. Some time after this an elegant poem, called the ' ' Blind
Boy's Pranks," appeared in the Aberdeen Herald, with the signature
" A Serf." 'The writer was William Thom. Mr. Gordon of Knockes-
pock sent him 51. through the editor of the journal, and after making
minute inquiries into his character, position, &o., rendered him
further assistance. While in London, Thom was a frequent guest at
the house of Mr. Fox. The simplicity and earnestness of his character
attracted affection and respect wherever he was known. The first
edition of Rhymes and Recollections met with an excellent reception,
to which Mr. Fox in no small degree contributed ; and iu the second
edition Thom wrote : " I would just allude to certain matters result
ing from the first edition of this little book. For its success and the
good things that followed, my prime thanks are due to the public
press. It, with little exception, exhibited the best portions of my
book, with the best effect. Above all, they found in my narrative
and song a text from which they worked a powerful and enduring
sympathy towards the trade- stricken, whose sorrows and shiftings are
but too fully told in my own experiences. That same is no mean re
ward. A selfish and personal pity -was never sought for by -me — nor
had I a single wish all the while beyond the utterance of my private
feelings, and the pleasure such utterance affords to a stifled and un
regarded suffering. I made mo appeal. Yet there have arisen many
friends willing to see me above the chances of again tasting the evils
I attempted to describe. From these friends I have received a suffi
ciency to make good a beginning."

116 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
which, with great glibness and in the most liberal manner,
have been imputed to us at some meetings. He does not
assume that Mr. Cobden goes about with pistols to Drum-
mondise people. He does not insinuate that your noble
chairman steals out at night to set fire to wheat-ricks. He
does not denounce us all as so many Jack Cades. His
charges are brought temperately, and in comparatively
mild language ; and for that reason they are perhaps en
titled to more notice. He told the meeting they were all
concerned to uphold the great interest of agriculture ; and
it was only when that was prosperous that manufactures
could flourish. To this I have nothing to object, except
that the question is represented as being of " one" of these
great interests. In my view it is not a question of this or
that great interest, but of one common interest. It is not
a question for Whig and Tory to battle out in the legisla
ture. It is not a question to have a grand field-day upon,
and then afterwards to compromise away, when interest
or ambition requires it, and so leave the people in a
worse condition than before. I have no patience with the
way in which political questions have been fought out.
After years of controversy, we have seen a statesman, who
called another the greatest fool and beast in the world, join
hands with him, take the fool to his councils and the beast
to his arms. It is not a subject to be compromised in this
way. It is not a class question at all. It is a question of
humanity to the millions who are without those proper
means of subsistence which every human being ought to
enjoy. It is a question of poHcy ; of that policy which has
made the country great, which has raised ber, enabled her
to overcome her difficulties, and which, if unchecked, wiU
open the way to yet more brUliant prosperity. It is a
question of common justice to all, justice to" the whole
human family, to whom Providence has given the dominion
over all things, in order that from His munificence His crea
tures might derive subsistence and enjoyment.
Mr. Harford goes on to say that he and his friends
acted merely on the defensive. Now, it is very benevolent
in these gentlemen to speak of their own rents and their
own land as being only held for the good of the labourer,
and to deprecate the effect which a reduction in price would
have on the cultivation of the soU. How stands the ques-

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 117
tion of price as respects the labourer ? Tables have been
compiled, which I have consulted, and which trace the matter
of agricultural labour as far back as possible, and which
also show the prices of corn for the same periods. Instead
of showing that the labourer's wages have been lowered by
a reduction in the price of corn, nothing can be more di
rectly opposed to it. The maximum of the labourer's
wages, as represented in pints of wheat, was when the price
of wheat was the lowest. In the fifteenth century wheat
was 4s. lOd. per quarter, and the wages ofthe labourer were
represented by 199 pints; at the end ofthe century wheat
was at 15s. 9d., and the labourer's wages only 82 pints.
Corn had trebled in price, but wages had fallen one-half.
From the end of the sixteenth century to the beginning of
the next, corn rose to double the price — to 37s. — and wages
fell to 46 pints : another reduction of nearly one-half, ac
companied by a double rise in the price. It was similar in
the seventeenth century — when wheat fell, wages rose. The
same contrast was exhibited in the succeeding century. In
1752 wheat was at 32s., and the labourer earned only 96
pints per week ; at another period wheat was at 60s., and
the labourer's wages fell off to 70 pints. But the most
complete proof is exhibited in the present century. In
1803 wheat was at 91s. 8d., and the labourer's wages only
46 pints. Through the whole succession of tables the
same contrast is shown. So much for high prices affording
protection to the agricultural labourer.
But Mr. Harford says he does not wish that we should
wrest from him the moderate protection he enjoys. As if
the League were robbers, and wanted to deprive him of his
property ! Is there any vested interest in taxation ? Has
any class of men a vested interest in the burdens the
legislature lays on the people ? Can they have a property
in the money which is in our own pockets, — a vested inter
est in the labourer's property, which is his labour? If
they have that, then indeed are they the masters, and the
labourers their slaves. But the League, he says, is very ty
rannous. He accuses it of violence, of tyranny, of endea
vouring to make the House of Commons a close borough,
and to fill it only with their myrmidons. Has the League
ever threatened — as a certain peer did — to put his black
footman into the House ? The League has ever put for-

118 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
ward as candidates men whose talents, whose principles,
and whose worth will stand a comparison with that of any
in the country. Has the League ever attempted bribery
or even treating? Is it not owing to their proclama
tions, issued against bribery, that corrupting the people is
now made more difficult than ever ? Violence ! tyranny !
oppression ! despotism ! — strange words these for men who
have no arguments but those which liberty and free dis
cussion furnish; who have sought but to enlighten the
mind and persuade the will. That tyranny ! that oppres
sion ! If it is so, that tyranny is the tyranny of reason,
and that despotism the despotism of demonstration.
But then Mr. Harford professes to be greatly annoyed
at our insulting the aristocracy of the country; that we
should go so far as to fix the brand of tyranny, of oppres
sion, on the flower of the English nobility ! I see no brand
on the brow of the noble earl. Whenever the flower of our
nobility — and I believe they best deserve the name — have
shown, as he has, their sympathy with the wants, and their
determination to maintain the rights, of the people, they
have been welcomed by the League to their very hearts,
and our friends have been glad to look up to them as our
leaders. Is there a hand that would be raised against their
property ? Is there a heart that does not rejoice that they
fill stations which make their worth conspicuous; which
does not delight itself with the thought that it is their lot,
their right, and their privilege,
" The applause of list'ning senates to command,
The threats of pain and ruin to despise.
To scatter plenty o'er a smiling land.
And read their history in a nation's eyes'' ?
Fix a brand on them ! We invite them ; in the fulness of
burning hearts, we call on the Westminsters, the Eadnors,
and the Ducies to lead us on to conquest, and we will
twine for them the noblest wreath that ever graced the
brow of a patriot. Throughout the breadth and length of
the land, when the ear hears them it shall bless them ; for
they will have made the widow's heart to sing for joy, and
the blessing of those who were ready to perish shall rest
upon them.
Throughout the whole course, the proceedings of the

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 119
League have been marked by a rigid adherence to the
question, and it has been made matter of accusation by the
Times that the League has been ready to accept the sup
port even of those interests which are thought not to be in
the closest affinity to it. But it is not a conquest of class
over class that we wish. We strive for Free Trade for the
benefit of the whole community. And how many recoUec
tions and feelings throng on us to urge us on ! How great
the responsibility which rests on every elector to endeavour
by his votes to carry it into legislative effect ! How vast
the obligations on those who have not the franchise, to make
the force of public opinion felt ! How much there is to re
commend to every man the exhortation of our chairman, —
to enrol himself as a member, to give his subscription to
advance the cause, and to facilitate the great struggle which
is going on ! When he thinks of the benefits to be achieved,
and whose steps he is following in, he will be eager to help
forward the great cause. " I shall never forget Paisley,"
said Sir Eobert Peel, "with its 15,000 men out of work, —
men able and willing to work, but dependent on charity."
Sir Eobert Peel ought never to forget it ; for if it Had
not been for his dilatory system, there never would have
been families reduced to live on rotten potatoes, and beg
from the chandler's shops the refuse ofthe herring-brine to
give them something of a relish; whilst each successive
day added but another to another stage to their wretch
edness. Oh, may he not forget, but so remember as to
give him heart and courage to shake off the fetters of the
aristocratical faction by which he is bound, and of the
monopolist class who use him as a tool even while they
despise him ; and, breaking away from them, eam for him- •
self a niche in history ! May he have the moral courage,
in defiance of corrupt infiuence, to do justice, and to iden
tify himself with the greatest advance that this country will
ever have made in the longest period of its history !
In every view — direct or indirect — which can be
taken, the Anti-Corn-Law League is entitled to your sup
port. It is so entitled for having brought into exercise
the intelligence and inteUect of the country; for having
taught to listening thousands the lessons of truth, of know
ledge, and of science; for having placed the advocacy of
its principles on the broadest basis, and for haying pursued

120 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
as its policy the plan marked out by Providence itself,
which has given to the different regions of the earth differ
ent products, that the necessities of the one might be fur
nished from the superfluities of the other. We appeal to
you, as the grand jury of the electors of the countj^, and
ask at your hands a verdict in favour of that body by
whom so much has been already achieved, and by whose
ultimate success thousands of other blessings will be pro
cured. For these reasons, I hold that the League is worthy
of all support, is worthy not only of your best wishes, but
of your most earnest and unceasing aid. If, as the wisest
man said, there is a time for every thing, — a time to be
silent and a time to speak, — then the time to speak is
whilst we have health and strength and life ; the time to
be silent is only when we lie unconscious in the grave.

No. XI.
AT COVENT-GAEDEN THEATEE.
May 8, 1844.
Mr. Chairman, Ladies, and Gentlemen, I address you
this evening under the disadvantage of not having been
present at the early part of the proceedings, from a cause
which I must make a plea for your indulgence as regards
what I do address to you, namely, personal indisposition,
which presses on me even in sight of so inspiriting and mag
nificent an assembly as the present. And what can be
imagined more inspiriting or magnificent than these meet
ings? The long series of them that has now been held
with unabated attention and zeal, — meetings of individuals
gathered together to listen either to those elementary and
simple truths which every one knows, or to the recondite
speculations and laborious researches of political economy,
not often found to gain the attention of multitudes, —
meetings in which every heart' glows with as burning a
sense of the wrong we denounce as ever nerved those who
took the field to contest against injustice with muskets
on their shoulders and swords by their sides, and yet
which has blended this sense of wrong with a prudence as
wise and a forbearance as dignified as ever marked the best
school of philosophers,— meetings which have made this
place an asylum of truth and justice, at a time when those
qualities have been banished from the mansions of the
men whose stations ought to have made them the leaders
of the people, and when they have been violated in those
legislative halls which ought to have been their sacred
shrine, where their blessings were worked out for the
entire mass of the community.
I confess that, for myself, I sometimes weary of the
statistics of this question, interesting as they are. The list
of deaths which a rise in the price of food has occasioned,
— the long muster-roll of pauperism kept up by the con
tinual pressure from year to year, — committals for crime
bearing their constant proportion to the fiuctuations in the
price of food, — calculations of the number of poor children

122 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
that die above those of the rich in consequence, not of the
hard bearing of natural causes, but of artificial laws in
aggravation of the disparity of condition, — these, and aU
the other fearful items in that account, although they are
of a nature to harrow up the soul, yet the continuous detail
drives us back upon that one plain, simple truth in which
the whole question is involved, and which contains all its
merits, — I mean the fact that " the labourer is worthy of
his hire." There is the beginning and the end of the
argument, in my view of the matter. It is a question of
justice, of simple, impartial, universal justice. The doom
of mankind is toil, and the labourer is worthy of his hire,
worthy of it undiminished by trick, rapacity, or oppression;
worthy of his hire for whatever it will fetch in the world's
market ; worthy of his hire to lay it out with whomsoever
he may please, and for whatsoever he will ; worthy of it
undiminished by any interference except that only which
takes from him his proportion of the national expenditure,
of that which is fairly necessary for the carrying on the
government, and for the defence ofthe community. In
deed, all other matters, although upon many accounts it is
worth while to go into their consideration, are but inci
dental to this great controversy ; here is its essence.
We affirm that the labourer is worthy of his hire : the
monopoly that levies taxation for class profit, and not for
national objects, denies that proposition, tramples on it,
spurns it as if it were a mere cobweb, and not a primary
law of human society, and one of the first dictates of
nature and of Providence. It is an accident that the manu
facturer thinks the violation of this law diminishes his
profits ; it is an accident that the landlord thinks that the
violation of this law enlarges his rents. Were it directly
the reverse — did justice to those who toil, by allowing them
the full results of their toU, injure the manufacturer and
benefit the landlord — I should still say precisely the same
— let justice be done. The difference in the class makes
no difference in the principle ; we must not regard these
temporary and subordinate considerations : here is the first
obligation of society and of law, — the recognition of a title
as sacred, nay, more so, than that by which any species of
property whatever is held, by which any titles or estates
are bequeathed or inherited. I see why none should regard
them, because in the whole history of mankind — at least of

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 123
peaceful legislation — I believe no class was ever ruined by
justice unless it deserved that fate by crime. So linked
together is the order of things in nature, that the dictates
of equity are never violated with impunity : they who have
gone on on that road should look about them and return as
soon as possible ; and they who hold property, and defend
the enactments of society for the security of their posses
sions, of all people should be tender of the labourer's right,
and regard that as specially sacred, for without it their
title-deeds are but so much parchment. A man's right
in his limbs is beyond and above any one's right in his
land. Those who will not allow him to say his soul is his
own, must at least allow that his body is his own; and
what he wins frora his fellow-men in the supply of their
wants, or from nature in its fertile returns to the appli
cation of human toil, is his by the first of all titles;
and those who trample on it endanger the entire order of
society, and do that which, if carried out to its conse
quences, would break down all safety in property, anni
hilate all successions in honours, and shake thrones to their
very foundations.
It is important in one point of view, however much to
be regretted on account of its evils in another respect, that
this first ground of justice cannot be reached for the pur
pose of hostile invasion but by passing over other grounds ;
and that those who interfere with the right of the work
man to what he earns in the sweat of his brow, also med
dle with the tradesman, the merchant, the capitalist, and the
large manufacturer. And in the wrong infiicted on these, a
spirit has been raised, an organisation produced, a ma
chinery set up and put to work, which shows those who
toil their way to the peaceful acquisition of what is due to
them, in combination with other classes of society, suffering
similar injuries, and having to assert analogous rights. It
is well for the enemies of justice, for its violators — and there
is this breakwater between them and the toiHng multitudes
— that they have to deal, in the first instance, with the
League, combined of all classes, and having for its leaders
men of station, ability, wealth, and extensive influence ;
that they have to deal with this combination, and not
merely with the labouring multitude disunited from others,
and who in such a state of society — if they were left to
fight with the aristocracy by whom they are injured —

124 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
would give us only the prospect of confusion and desola
tion; who would either break out into open violence,
which would make one great ruin of much of the beauty
and ornament of our country, or else, turned aside from
their legitimate mode of obtaining subsistence, would spread
over the land like swarms of locusts, devouring every green
thing, incapable of being driven back or cooped up by aU
the severities or imprisonments of the Poor-Law system
which a landed aristocracy could apply.
There is little occasion for me to attempt any array of
details ; when not only at the early meetings ofthe League
in this place you have heard the commercial part of this
question so ably and amply argued, but when, at its more
recent meetings, at three or four in succession, you have
heard the agricultural division of it as thoroughly entered
into, at once from members of the landlord and those of
the tenant class of agriculturists; you have heard state
ments, showing that some amongst them are alive to their
own interests, that they see that honesty is the best policy,
and sympathise with those who are claiming their rights
against the body to which they nominally belong, and have
voluntarily proffered here the results of that inquiry which
in another place was asked for and superciliously refused.
You have had your open committee on this portion of the
subject. Evidence has been adduced here which might
well settle the question, and opposed to which certainly we
find no particle of contradictory evidence from the rival and
antagonistic society. In fact, all the arguments of what
calls itself the "Agricultural Protection Society" appear
to have evaporated in the production of one tract in three
months, and that tract chiefly characterised by the dis
graceful peculiarity of being the most dishonest publication
that has issued from the press for many a long year. While
there is not a position in it, bearing the semblance of rea
soning, that has not been over and over again discussed,
refuted, and exploded on these boards, — while it is falla
cious in its logic, untrue in its history, false even in its con
temporary facts, — it is, above all, glaringly and outrageously
false in its attempt to pervert the highest authority of this
country — the patriarch of its political economy- — to bring
him into court as a witness in the cause of monopoly. An at
tempt so impudent as this I believe never to have been made
in any court of justice for any cause however desperate.

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 125
In the face of the whole tendency of his system, in the
teeth of his well-known principles, reiterated from book to
book and chapter to chapter of his great work, the " lords
and gentlemen of the committee of the Agricultural Pro
tection Society" have called, not a false witness into court,
but have called Adam Smith into court as their witness,
putting their false words into his mouth. This is beyond
the plea of mere literary license. There is not a gentleman
connected with the press, here or any where else, who would
be capable of committing such a fraud ; or, if such a one
was found, who would not be discharged from his employ
ment for so doing, and be denounced by his fellow-labourers.
It is an attempt to impose in this great cause the highest
authority on one side as an authority on the other. That
individual members of that committee should say they dis
own the pamphlet, and wash their hands of it — as 1 under
stand some of them have said in private — is not enough ;
there is much more than this due to the sense of public
justice and decency. It is a violation, we will say nothing
of Christian morality, — but it goes very far indeed to touch
the honour of a British gentleman that his name is in
any way mixed up with such a subornation of false testi
mony. The proceedings of these meetings have attracted anim
adversion in one particular, which is, perhaps, better worth
adverting to than any thing which has been urged by the
Protection Society. It has been said, and in quarters
seemingly not unfriendly to our objects, that too much of a
tone of exaggeration has been indulged in here, as to the
benefits that may accrue from Corn-Law repeal. We are
alleged to have represented the results of such a measure
as constituting a perfect millennium on earth, as healing all
the evils and wretchedness of society, and creating such a
state as the poets might sing of as the return of the golden
age on earth. Now, how much reason for this imputa
tion may have been given I do not know ; but I think the
general representation here of the repeal of the monopoly
laws has been rather as a cure for an evil, than as the pro
duction of all this amount of virtue and happiness. Our
first business is to struggle with the acknowledged mis
chiefs that are abroad in society ; to apply something like
mitigation to the aggravated horrors that have existed in
manufacturing towns at particular seasons, and that are

126 COLLECTED WORKS OF W, J. FOX,
found to a large extent in great cities at all times ; to assist
the great body of society, by enabling them to help them
selves ; and it is surely no objection to a medicine to say
that, though it may cure a disease, it will not confer the
gift of immortahty. But, besides this, there is, I think,
demonstrably a large amount of practical good which may
be most confidently anticipated from the extension of Free-
Trade principles. It is said that, were these barriers thrown
down, there would be a great amount of speculation, there
would be an immediate ameHoration of the working classes;
but that it would be found that behind these artificial bar
riers there are natural obstructions which cannot be passed ;
and that the world, or our own country, would still exhibit,
in a short period of time, very much the same amount and
degree of suffering as had been temporarily relieved by this
legislative measure.
Now, I demur to there being such natural barriers to
be speedily reached after the first influx of good from the
practical establishment of Free-Trade principles. Where
are those barriers ? So long as there is but the most in
significant fraction of the land of Europe which is well
cultivated, what an indefinite increase of progress is to be
found there at our very doors ! Then there are intermin
able forests and prairies to the world's end which are ready
to yield their produce to the hand of the cultivator. We
reach not the natural limits of man's progress whilst there
are climates abounding in rich fruits and in natural pro
ducts of various descriptions, which may be readily ex
changed for the products of the human labour and inge
nuity of other countries. We are in no danger whilst the
tropical regions are in all their richness ; whilst there are
lands so fertile that sometimes their pork is spoiled by
being fattened too much on peaches ; while there are mil
lions yet destitute of that convenient clothing and of those
dwellings which should be the lot of every inhabitant of this
world ; whUe out of its 900,000,000, not 200,000,000 are
yet reached by the manufacture of articles deemed essential
to a comfortable existence ; while in all countries there is
a fund of power which may be stimulated to action, and
while free interchange has its full room, for coming ages
and ages, to promote the good of each from the resources
of all : we may look onwards, I think, to such an advance
ment as we need feel no discouragement if there be some

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 127
eventual limit thereto ; we may anticipate that the triumph
of Free Trade would give an impetus to the world analogous
to that which Europe experienced at the great period of
the Eeformation, when it shook off the fetters of feudalism
in which it had been so long cramped and enslaved — of
that feudalism which is mimicked now by the men who
make their landlords' titles a trade and a dignity, and who
keep up that trade by means which depress aU other classes
whatever. It is in this direction that I look for the true greatness,
for the real independence of our country — that sort of
independence which the patriot will desire, and in desiring
which he will have the satisfaction of feeling that he is
cherishing no narrow purpose, but that his patriotism is in
harmony with the most extensive philanthropy. Indepen
dence is universal dependence — the mutual interchange of
good, in whatever quarter that good can be realised. Of
all schemes of national independence, the most puerile and
paltry, as well as the most fallacious, is that which is sought
for through the medium of protective duties on the importa
tion of food. Modern Greece won independence by the
remains of its original freedom of spirit, and the traditions
of its ancient glory. Switzerland achieved her independ
ence by tenacity for its simple and pure manners, when
they were outraged by its subjugators. The United Pro
vinces won their independence by their regard for the rights
of conscience and liberty of religion. The little republic of
San Marino, amidst Europe's convulsions, maintained its
independence by moderation. The United States of Ame
rica won their independence by resistance to taxation with
out representation. By a variety of pure principles have
noble actions been called forth, and national independence
achieved or preserved, leaving it for the proud nobility of
England, with their Norman titles and their loug pedigrees,
to dream of securing national independence through the
agency of custom-house officers. Oh, when the author of
our national song delighted in the contemplation, the
proud contemplation, of British independence — when
Thomson sang of his country,
•' Still more majestic shalt thou rise.
More dreadful from each foreign stroke.
As the loud blast that tears the skies
Serves but to root thy native oak, " —

128 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
he little thought that any body would ever have imagined
that that oak was most safely rooted in the dunghill of
protective duties. Let the independence of Britain be a
reliance upon her own skill, not an attempt to creep under
any safeguard of this description : applying the capital she
has amassed, exercising the intellectual acuteness and vigour
which has ever distinguished her inventors, and displaying
that indomitable power of labour which marks her multi
tudes, she makes herself independent of all by rendering
to all those services which they cannot do without; and in
the necessity of such services for their well-being, amply
will she reap in return from them what is most important
to her own well-being, and thus regain and exercise what
Milton calls "her ancient prerogative" of teaching the
nations how to live.
I believe we have present in this meeting, and the time
of year makes it to be expected that it should be so, a more
than usual proportion of friends from different parts of the
country; and I cannot conclude without a few remarks
having special reference to them. I wish them to take
back into the country, as the practical lesson which the
League at this moment is most desirous of enforcing, the
necessity of attending to the registration. Never yet have
the people worked the machinery ofthe Eeform Bill; from
its first enactment it has been managed by parties for party
purposes ; but never by the people for their own benefit.
You must remember that the Bill which makes this ma
chinery necessary, has destroyed the old opportunity of
popular enthusiasm carrying a point suddenly at an elec
tion. It is of no use now that jou are enthusiastic : when
the time of election comes, if the registration has been
neglected, you are only like the unarmed warrior, who,
whatever the intensity of his interest in the conflict, and
how great soever the power he might have had with his
weapon of turning the tide of battle, can only look hope
lessly on, a forlorn spectator, with no small self- accusation
in his own bosom. In no place, even where the registration
has been most attended to, has any thing like the entire
number of qualified persons been put on the Hst. The
investigation which has been carried on in London shows
that there are tens of thousands whose claims have every
probability of being established. Look after this, friends
from the country, and see to it in your own locahties.

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 129
Eemember that the elections which occur now, from time
to time, are not a true test of what our question will be
when its forces are in the field. We look to the elections
that pass now as to their moral, not as to their numerical
results. We have no dream of adding such a number of
Free-Traders in the present parliament upon these parti
cular occasions as can make any impression whatever on
the divisions there. Our time will come by and by. Now,
the occasions are to be taken when victory, as it was in
London, is great by its moral strength, by the electrical
stroke which it gives the country. Such another occasion
has occurred in South Lancashire, and that county will be
fought, and fought with a spirit proportioned to the emer
gency of the occasion. There the friends of Free Trade —
Leaguers or not Leaguers — will take the field ; though the
county may be partitioned between large landlords, every
one of whom stands aloof or looks on with hostility, yet
the battle will be fought with an energy that will make
them tremble for the fate of the county, if it does not bear
away the prize before their eyes. Think of these things, I
say again, as you return into the country. Have the hun
dred eyes of Argus for the registration lists, and tbat will
give you the hundred arms of Briareus for the elections,
every one striking a death-blow at monopoly. I know how
much there is to contend with in these matters..
The Western Times told us the other day ofa young
man in a workshop at Exeter in which there were ten
workmen : the foreman announced to them authoritatively
that they were all to vote for the Attorney- General; five
of them, being Tories, obeyed the mandate of the master ;
the other five were of a different description, — four of them
did not vote at all, but one voted according to his con
science, and he, we are told, was discharged, though bear
ing the best of characters, and having a poor mother
dependent on him for subsistence. Such is protection at
election times ! And then some monopoly-lord looks ten
derly on ; and while the son, perhaps, is compelled to have
recourse to the dietary of the poor-house, the mother, if
she is fortunate, may obtain a pittance from " the Bene
volent Society for the Protection of Poor Needlewomen."
Such is the result ofthe interference with which, in all
localities, and among almost all classes, the friends of
VOL. IV. K

130 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
truth and justice in this Free-Trade question, and in so
many other public contests, will have to struggle.
I confess I cannot contemplate without disgust the
amount of crime which is perpetrated by those who pass for
respectable, moral, and even religious members of society,
but who seem to think that all principle is superseded by
the struggle of an election and by the prospect of seats in
Parliament. Why, the landlord who purchases land, reckon
ing that he buys votes at the same time — whose tenants'
polling according to his order is a portion of the rent
that is paid for the farm — who exercises the cruelty of
his authority by a threat of dismissal from the holding of
those who are not obedient — who, directly and indirectly,
applies the screw to tradespeople and labourers — who is
connected with those operations by which integrity is
broken down, and the poor man taught the first lesson of
guilt in an offer so large as to dazzle and bewilder him, and
who, perhaps, by this is led into a long course of cor
ruption and iniquity — whose conduct makes the noblest
of institutions (the representative) the means of manu
facturing baseness, and who too often merits the stigma
of being a suborner of ruffianism and a missionary of
demoralisation, — incurs a guilt for which, in my view, no
paUiation can be offered by the greatness of the prize or
the frequency of the custom. Compared with this, I do
not hesitate to say that the poor outcast who walks the
Strand for the wages of infamy, contributes less to the
amount of public vice than many persons who are dignified
as "noble," and would less pollute by her presence the
circle of a court or the presence of royalty.
I have another thing to say to our friends from the
country; and that is, let them take care ofthe tricks which
are practised here. There is thimble-rigging and ring-
dropping in other places besides Epsom or the pothouses
of the metropolis. Let them beware of knavish humanities,
I would not utter one syllable to steel any man's heart
against a grief that should be felt, or to close his pocket
from liberal almsgiving ; but when it is attempted to blind
the country to the claims of justice by introducing some
show of alleged charity; when comparatively imperfect,
pitiful, and paltry donations are set up in the room of
giving to every one that which is rightfuUy his own;

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 131
when the enumeration of these is made boastfully to turn
us away from the real and only cure for the country's
misery, and the distress of so large a portion of its inhabit
ants, — why, then, I say it is time to cry "Beware !" and
to expose the sophisms and the duplicity, whatever aristo
cratic names may adorn the lists.
It is a false and bastard charity ; I mean that which,
while it gives to this or that particular class of the poor
something to lighten the day's pressure, denies them that
good by which they could serve themselves from year's end
to year's end ; a charity which would cut down the hours of
work in the mill, and at the same time the worth of wages
in the market ; a charity which gives guineas to individuals,
while it draws milHons from the community ; a charity
which bestows a square half-inch of court-plaister to the
scratch on the finger of society, while it drives the iron of
oppression into the very soul of the country ; a charity
that gives hundreds of children a penny bun, whUe it
makes millions of men pay 9d. for the 6d. loaf; a charity
that, having created a conflagration of misery and wretched
ness, brings its silver thimble to put its drop of water on
the flames. I say that this charity is unworthy of absorb
ing the regard of right-minded men ; it is a sort of ped-
dUng man-millinery of humanity, that should not stand in
the way of the greatest philanthropy of all, that which
renders impartial justice to every man who labours. Let
them give over talking sensibUity and voting monopoly ;
let them render justice, justice to the poor, and they will
then take care of their own children ; they will pay their
workwomen, select their own schools, do that for them
selves, and do it very much better than any self-appointed
patron can ; and wiU realise, in the comfort of their dwell
ings and in the progress of their condition, that which they
deserve by their toU, but which no charity ever has sup
plied or ever can.
Those who are present at such a time as this from the
country, perhaps, have some of them come to London in
connection with many of the institutions that are now
holding their anniversaries. They have come to talk of
subjects more sacred than that which occupies us here ; but
I would say to them that, if such have been the topics of
their attention and the tone of their minds, I desire no

132 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
better state of mind for our meetings, because I believe
that the doctrines of Free Trade are essentially connected
with the giving peace on earth and diffusing good will
among mankind. What, indeed, is a greater bar to the
progress of religion in the land than monopoly ? It inter
feres with devout associations even in those natural scenes
that excite them almost instinctively in the human bosom.
In all the richness of harvest, when golden fields are waving
in heaven's light, and you see the peasant or the poor
labourer look on, and when thankfulness to Providence
should arise in his heart, there comes the shadow of the
dark cloud of monopoly brooding over the scene, and inter
posing between him and the sunshine of God's bounty.
Feelings have not their full, free, and fair play, even on the
most sacred points ; nor can they, for we may be assured
that there will be no rest — there can be only one incessant
struggle — until the claims of justice are conceded by the
possessors of power. In promoting this, they will be co
operating with a moral and religious work, one which
deserves to be classed with those which made Ulustrious
such names as those of Howard and Clarkson, for bringing
emancipation to slavery, the Hght of heaven into the
darkest and dreariest regions of wretchedness, the song of
gladness to the tongue of the widow and the orphan, and
kindlier feeHngs of social order where now all is strife and
contention. As a good work, then, let them promote it
by their concurrence while they are here, and by their co
operation when they return to their several places of
abode. And now, for myself, I have to thank you for the
cheering sympathy which may seem in some measure to
have rendered unnecessary the apology with which I com
menced ; but whether in sickness or in health there is no
cause which lays stronger grasp upon the heart and mind
than does this great cause of justice and humanity. It is
one for which the exertions of a life would be weU spent,
and dying breath could scarcely be poured forth more
appropriately than in a last protest against that injurious
system which denies to man the rights of his labour, the
charter of his being, and the bounty of his Creator.

No. XII.
AT COVENT-GAEDEN THEATEE.
May 22d, 1844.
It is now so near the time at which it is the wholesome
rule and practice of these meetings to adjourn, that I could
well desire to be excused speaking on this occasion, were
it not that I would not seem to flinch from doing a portion
of that sort of garrison duty which is devolved upon us at
the present time. In the absence of so many champions
of this great and good cause — men whom this assembly
has been accustomed to see here week after week- — we are
left, as it were, to guard the fortress of Free Trade, and to
take as much care as lies in our power that it sustains no
damage in their absence ; to show that there is no peril,
while they are withdrawn, that the banner of Free Trade
should be lowered before the black flag of monopoly ; and
to wait here to welcome them back soon, I trust, with a
shout of triumph ringing in the air, and to add our gra
tulations to those with which they may have been already
welcomed, for the victory which their exertions will have
been instrumental in obtaining. And in the fulfilment of
this duty, whilst we have only to look on at the strife in
which they are engaged, it is matter, I think, of satisfac
tion that this first county confiict will be fought on the
one great question in reference to which the League is
organised. The matter comes plainly and simply before the elec
tors of South Lancashire. There is no confusion or mis
take ; the battle is fought for that which alone we contem
plate in these meetings, and which is the one object of the
organisation of the Anti-Corn-Law League. For be it
known to all, friends or foes, that this is the one bond of
our union. Whatever may be our opinion on other topics
— whatever I myself, and some who have addressed you
this evening, may think either of church establishments, or
how many and what class of individuals should possess the
suffrage, and numerous other questions of the deepest mo-

134 collected works of w. j. fox.
ment, and exciting strong feelings — yet here we know no
thing of these questions. They are not mooted unless the
infatuated obstinacy of those who resist our claim should
compel them to be agitated ; and then who can say what
questions may arise, what interests or antique prestiges
may be shattered and wrecked in the storm that will ensue !
For no cuckoo cry of blue or yellow colours — ^for no cant
words of " Whig" or " Tory" faction — for no scheme of
" Old England" or "Young England," with its propositions
of saints'-days and maypoles for the people — for no old
strife of faction or modern conundrums — is this great battle
fighting in South Lancashire ; but plainly and broadly the
contest is for Free Trade on the one side, and monopoly
on the other. Upon that we ask the verdict of the
electors of that district ; if they give it in our favour, it
will be a more encouraging triumph, perhaps, than any
which has yet been achieved ; and if we faU, it will only
be to return to the confiict, with renewed vigour and fresh
determination to try the other counties, to appeal to the
entire constituency of the kingdom, to get its verdict in
our favour, and then to stand or fall by demanding of those
who administer the constitutional power of the country
whether they will or will not hear the voice of their political
creators. One is always curious to know what can be said on
these occasions, and I find in the Times of this morning a
speech reported, of the monopolist candidate, Mr. Ent-
wistle, made at Bolton on Monday last, in which he uses
these expressions : " Trade had already been carried on in
this country to an enormous extent, and it was for the
purpose of extending it still further that they were asked
to injure, if not destroy, one of the most important, if not
the most important, interests in the kingdom." The poor
man seems alarmed at the magnitude ofthe trade of this
country. He complains that it is " enormous." Why, a
giant's constitution requires a giant's food. Is not the
population " enormous" ? Does it not increase at the rate
of nearly 1000 a day? Are not the wants ofthe miUions
" enormous" beyond all rule or precedent, and demanding
a corresponding supply ? Are not the evils which industry
has to meet " enormous" ? Is not the taxation of the
country " enormous" ? And, if monopolists wUl start such

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 135
expressions, is not rent " enormous" ? And is not the
imposition of a tax on the people's food for the enhance
ment of that rent the most " enormous" of all other enor
mities ? It is a strange discovery, this of the wonderful
growth of trade. Who finds it so out of South Lancashire?
I suspect I might also ask. Within that county ? Do our
shopkeepers complain that trade has grown so enormous
that they do not know how to enlarge their establishments
sufficiently, and that they are quite distressed to know to
what to apply the surplus profits of their enormous gains ?
Do our shipowners find fault with the enormous extent of
our commerce ? Do they raise this cry at Hull, where in
the last month, between the 10th of April and the 9th of
May, sixty-four vessels arrived laden with foreign corn, and
from the injurious operation of our sliding scale, forbidding
merchants to anticipate the time when such supplies are
needed and can profitably be brought in, out of those sixty-
four ships sixty-one were foreign vessels? Throughout
the country the want is not the limiting and abridging
trade, but the increasing it and extending the means of
subsistence, until distress, suffering, crime even, whose enor
mity is created by the pressure of these laws, shall give
way to an antagonistic power of like gigantic force, but of
more beneficent purpose.
Mr. Entwistle does not absolutely propose to drive our
trade back within narrower limits, although it is to that
his argument tends. In such a state of society as ours,
and in the condition of this country, trade is essentially
progressive. To check its course, which is what he does
propose — to protest against its further extension, which is
what he does declare — what would this be but to produce
a mass of misery, the contemplation of which must appal
every human mind. It is of no use to say of the popula
tion that they are redundant ; it is of no avail for the land
owners to say, " We do not want these people," or for the
factory proprietor to reply, " Neither do we want them."
It is utterly useless to complain of Nature as having made
a blunder in the production of such multitudes on this
limited island of ours ; — there they are — the miUions in
their want, and with their strength ; there they are in their
sufferings and their destitution, with power of earning an
independent supply if they are not interfered with by re-

136 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
strictive laws. They exist, and you cannot order them out
of existence ; they are " a great fact," and must rule other
facts, and eventually they must rule legislation also.
Why this jealousy and ill-feeling, approaching to scorn,
on the subject of trade ? What could the body politic do
without it ? Its members are as essential to the weU-
being of the entire body as those who may hold themselves
the most dignified portion of that great and complex unity.
To say that the landed interest is to be looked at as the
worthiest and the most important in the country, and that
trade in its natural progress is to do nothing to interfere
with that interest, is only like the folly of the fiddler who
had hurt both his foot and his hand, whose constant lan
guage to his medical attendant was, " Doctor, never mind
my foot — that is of uo consequence ; do but cure my hand
— take care of that ;" until at last the doctor, wearied with
this absurdity, cried out, " Why, you fool, you ' enormous'
fool, if your foot be mortified, what will become of your
hand?" Let the possessors of property learn the lesson
which that old story teaches. They are as dependent on
the multitude as the multitude is upon them, and they
cannot with impunity trifle with its wants or its rights;
neither can they set u^ an interest, whether they call it
" the interest of the land" or any other, which ought for
a moment to weigh down the just claims of the miUions ;
still less a system which, by its artificial production of
dearness in price and its artificial restriction of naturally
advancing trade and commerce, fiUs the land not only with
suffering, but with guUt also, inducing such events as that
which has lately occupied, and ought not to glide from, the
attention of the inhabitants of this metropolis — I mean the
condemnation to such punishment as even gross crime only
finds its due award in, of a poor creature for an act of reck
lessness to which she was reduced by the absence ofthe
means of employment and ofthe necessary food for the day's
subsistence. It ought not to be borne while food is dearer
than it might be— made so by artificial regulations— that
there should be such a condemnation, not merely, as in the
first instance, of death upon the gallows, but even of such
a Hmited sentence as seven years' transportation for a poor
creature who is in fact found guilty of destitution, and is
condemned for the crime of being driven to desperation.

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 137
Why, if agriculture is only to be supported by such laws,
I should say, then, let agriculture sink. Chemists tell us
that there is in the human blood a certain quantity of
iron ; they say this may be extracted, separated, and pro
duced in the metallic form, and that from the veins of forty
men iron enough may be produced to make a ploughshare.
If so, such a ploughshare, while these laws continue, ought
to be the badge and crest of Agricultural Protection So
cieties. And what propriety is there in the contrast between
agriculture and trade ? Landownerism is itself a trade in
this country — a most sordid and unfair trade, taking every
advantage ; doing that which no other trade can ac
complish — namely, creating artificial profits by the prosti
tution of the legislative authority. It is a trade not only
in corn and money, but, when we look at the political in
fluence for which the possession of land is coveted, it is a
trade in votes, consciences, bribery, perjury, and demoral
isation. The feudal nobles ! the ancient nobUity of our
country ! They are no such thing.
In certain recent complaints, to take a very minor
operation of this great question of Free Trade, — in certain
alleged minor evils, like that which came out the other
day, when the Duke of Eichmond complained of the oper
ation of Peel's tariff upon the value of his salmon streams
in Scotland, respecting which he said he had lost 2000/.
from being obliged to reduce the rent of the tenant who
rented them, — why, it is evident, if this be so, that the
people of this country, in the consumption of salmon, have
been plundered of 2000/. a year by this coroneted fish
monger. Look, again, at some other features of this trade of
landownerism. In one of their own journals — one which
is preeminently theirs — the Morning Herald, about a week
ago, there was inserted a selection of extracts from a pam
phlet, introduced with these remarks : " That some such
effort as this is needed can require no proof. When we
find a single county within sixty miles of the metropolis
(Suffolk) disgraced and dismayed by more than fifty incen
diary confiagrations within two months, it cannot be a time
to rest in contented indolence." Quotations are then
made from the pamphlet, which is entitled Remedies for

138 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
some of the Evils which constitute the Perils of the Nation,
which bring out in bold relief the fact that the landowners'
trade wages war on cottage habitations ; that in one county
after another the number of famUies has increased, and the
number of dweUings diminished. They wUl not allow
humanity to rest its foot upon their soil, unless it be profit
able to themselves, if they can help it. In Bedfordshire
we find that, between the years 1801 and 1831, there has
been in three villages an increase of 54 in the number of
famUies, and a decrease in the dwellings by the actual
demolition of 22 cottages. In Buckinghamshire, in five
parishes, the families in that time increased by the addition
of 129, whUe the cottages diminished by 41. In Cam
bridgeshire, in three parishes, the families augmented by
166, while the dwellings were reduced by 18. In Hamp
shire, in seven parishes, there was an addition of 248 fami
lies, accompanied by a demolition of 124 houses. In
Sussex, in five parishes, the families increased by 62, and
the houses diminished by 59. So that the general result
of this very cursory glance over these six counties was, that
in 1801 there were 2551 families accommodated in 2375
dwellings, leaving only 176 families to seek for a share of
other habitations ; while in 1 831 the families had increased
to 3307, and the dwellings were reduced to 2041, leaving
1266 families to be only sharers in the shelter of a roof
belonging to others. What outcries we ^ave heard against,
and what reprobation of, the French revolutionary watch
word of " Peace with cottages and war with palaces !"
But that cry, the signal as it may often have been of
plunder and massacre, was to my mind not half so disgust
ing as this war on cottages for the benefit of palaces.
Now, observe, these are aU great agricultural counties —
the places where the system is wrought out to the fullest
extent that it can be in such a country as ours, and where
we see what the unchecked predominance of the so-called
agricultural system tends to realise. Who can wonder
after this, that in one of these counties there was, ,as the
same article informs us, fifty incendiary conflagrations
within two months ? And they have kept up, and do keep
up, scenes of this description. It is not that League meet
ings are held there : those meetings, have scarcely taken
place at aU in the county of Suffolk, where this crime is

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 139
most predominant. There is no such coincidence, as is so
often insidiously pointed out by Pro-Corn-Law lords. They
have it all their own way in that county ; and there is the
result. The landlords go down from the metropolis to keep
Whitsuntide ; they refer to that sacred commemoration in
which we are told that tongues of flame descended from
heaven to earth. They go to vritness "the tongues of
flame" ascending from earth to heaven, kindled, not for the
preaching of peace and good will, but the result of crime
produced by legal oppression, the eloquent pleaders of the
wrongs, sufferings, and degradations of that mute peasantry.
And all this is put into the newspaper from which I quote
it ; for what purpose, think you ? Why, that we should
subscribe to a charity, — should help some one or other of
the benevolent associations that my Lord Ashley and others
are forming, — that we should give something in order that
cottages may be made more comfortable, — as if, under such
a system, improvement could be carried into effect without
the whole benefit rapidly gliding away from the hands of
the artisan or labouring tenant, and finding its way into
the clutches of the landlords ! " Why do you not manage,"
said a friend of mine in Ireland, some little while ago, at
a cottage where he had stopped in his wanderings, " to
have a better kettle than that to boil your potatoes in ?"
" Bless you, sir," replied the inmate, " if we were to have
a new kettle seen here to boil our potatoes in, the landlord
would be sure to put something on our rent next quarter.'''
That is the great gulf towards which all such improvements
must tend. Charitable collections raised here for the bene
fit of the starving fishermen in the Orkneys ! Why, they
have gone by wholesale into the pockets of the Scotch
landlords ! Towards that tends every thing : the great
omnipresent eye of monopoly is over all the food in the
country ; and there cannot be a morsel of bread put into
the mouth of the poorest pauper, but what the noble and
highest-titled landlords have their share of it as a spoil.
And in what way, and upon what principle, are these
enormities apologised for ? There is a point which I have
mentioned here before very recently, but which I do not
intend should be lost sight of by the public, — I mean the
dereliction of principle which has been shown by the Agri
cultural Protection Society in its first publication. It will

140 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
not do to call it, as some have done, a point of " literary
criticism ;" it is no such thing. It is a question of moral
honesty and common decency. False quotations from the
writings of Adam Smith were once proved on Mr. Cayley's
pamphlet ; after a time he put a letter into the Morning
Herald, half-confessing and half-defending the charge, but
admitting the substitution of the word "protection" for
that of " encouragement," and also admitting that in two
instances, if not in more, he had not taken consecutive
words of those which were marked in his pamphlet as the
words of Adam Smith, and promising that these, and any
other error that might be pointed out, should thereafter be
corrected. Now, what is the fact? Why, that this pub
lication has been reduced in price from Is. to 2d., so that
by those who buy it, it may be bought the more largely. It is
distributed, it is said, by tens of thousands, or more, through
out the country, — I dare say sent down by hundredweights
into South Lancashire at this moment. And yet, notwith
standing Mr. Cayley's printed apology and profession one
month ago, to this day these falsifications are not corrected.
I purchased a copy of the pamphlet on this very afternoon.
I found all the falsifications Hhere : the alteration of the
word " encouragement" into " protection," the perversion
of the quotation on the Navigation Laws, and that other
perverted quotation, in which the farmers are represented
as belonging to one class of society, and the manufacturing
capitalists and merchants to another, in defiance of the
spirit of the passage, if read entire in Adam Smith ; and
that still worse falsification, in which, where the author
says whatever keeps produce below what it would rise to
is an injury, the word " price" is inserted, — an alteration
pointed out to the meeting by Lord Eadnor, and bearing
on its face the mark of the grossest invasion on the mean
ing of the author. All these, I believe, remain ; and the
pamphlet appears to be printed from the very same type as
that which was used in the first instance. In spite of aU
the apologies and promises of correction, the only addition
is a little bit of paper pasted on the bottom of one page,
pointing to "encouragement" and " protection" in the next
passage but one ; and saying of the other passage, that it
is a compression of what the author says, and not a con
tinuous quotation, — the fact being that it is no compression

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 141
at all, but an unfair selection of phrases, by which they are
made to bear a different meaning from what they do when
read continuously in the original.
Now, I say that all this would not be tolerated in other
matters. It would not be allowed for a moment if wealthy
persons were not the offenders, aud the public the injured
party. If a transaction of this kind had passed between
man and man in the aristocratic ranks of society, they
would have been compelled to go out with pistols, to ob
literate the stain which would attach to the character of
the guilty individual I repeat, what has been already
said in the League paper, that " if the chivalrous ancestors
of those landowners — those of them, indeed, who had chi
valrous ancestors — had behaved in tournament as their
descendants have done in argument, their spurs would
have been hacked from their heels, and their banners
kicked out of the lists." But here they are — their names
all committed to detected falsehood for fraudulent pur
poses, — five dukes, an earl, nineteen members of parlia
ment, — brilliant names, aU made " the shameless heralds
of a lie."
By no such power or means as these can our cause be
arrested in its course towards triumph. Such means never
yet answered for any length of time, and never will. The
power of truth, the spirit of the nation, common sense, and
moral feeling will always rise against them, heave them off,
and consign them to that defeat and disgrace which is their
desert. By such means, or by any of the arts of monopoly,
however obstinately resistance is prolonged, they never wiU
succeed. Their boast is, indeed, a vain one. The League
cannot fall, for its basis is in eternal justice; it cannot fall,
for if it could there must fall with it those shrines whicli
Heaven has erected in the common human heart, — the
shrines of truth, of love, of justice, of charity, — the holy
places of the human soul, where it worships what is good,
and vows perpetual devotion to the well-being of the com
munity. The League cannot fall, or if it could, it would
only be as some of the first and noblest of our race have
fallen, — struggling with the mighty tide of corruption and
oppression, "falling with a fallen state," and leaving an
enduring lesson of animation to others to persist, even to
the extremest verge of life, in protesting against all such

142 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
public iniquities. The League cannot fall, or if it could,
there would fall with it that agriculture which is set up as
an opposing interest to it. Surrounded with famished
miUtitudes, who would be like locusts devouring every green
thing from the surface of the earth — surrounded not only
by them in a famishing, but in an infuriated state — where
would they be, with all their property, and all their legis
lative privileges ? The League cannot fall, or if it could,
it would be Hke Samson of old, clinging fast to the pillars
of truth and justice, only faUing when they tottered, and
when the social edifice which they alone can permanently
uphold must sink, whelming the painted galleries of the
noble, the gay, and the great in one common and indiscri-
minating ruin. •/
/

No. XIII.
AT COVENT-GAEDEN THEATEE.
Jwne 19<A, 1844.
The motion for the repeal of the Corn Laws, which the
Hon. Charles Pelham Villiers wiU propose in the House
of Commons on Tuesday next, marks the completion of
another year of the League agitation. It is a time to note
the indications of the progress which our cause is making,
and the rate at which it is advancing. The result of that
motion wiU be, as it were, a taking stock in the House of
Commons, and exhibiting, in the first instance, how the
Free-Trade cause stands in that assembly as compared with
last year. I confess I have no very large anticipations as
to this portion of the review. I am acquainted with the
prayer for the House of Commons, which has been so
emphatically and soundly explained to you by a reverend
gentleman this evening; but however frequently, and in
some quarters earnestly, that prayer may be offered, I am
afraid it will be about as unavaUing as a proposition made
about two or three weeks since in a country village where
the farmers were suffering very much in a similar way to
that described to you by Mr. Spencer — a proposal that
their clergyman should put up a prayer for rain. He con
sulted an old farmer in the village, and wanted to know
what his view of the matter was, and whether he coincided
with the rest of the parishioners in the request. " Why,
master parson," said the farmer, " in my opinion it is no
use praying for rain as long as the wind holds in the north
east." And I fear that the prayer of the church wiU be
of as little use in leading to a settlement of this question
of Free Trade in the House of Commons on the founda
tion of truth and justice, so long as the prevaUing wind in
that region is from the bitter and biting quarter of mono
poly. I can hope but little in a question between class
interest and the public from an assembly which is at pre
sent a class-constructed and even a class-elected legislature.
The disease is in its very vitals, and there must be a rege-

144 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
neration of the legislative body before we can hope for
justice, to say nothing of charity, to the suffering miUions
from those who are at present the arbiters of our destiny.
There are symptoms, too, which must moderate our
expectations of the approaching debate and division on this
question. I confess I should not be at all surprised if our
strength should even appear less, instead of more, than on
some former occasions ; and I should be by no means dis
heartened by any such phenomenon, for when the Whig
party gets a glimpse of power, we always find that the
phrases and notioiis which had been thought obsolete by
the progress of the controversy are revived again; and in
the recent conflicting events which have taken place, as
soon as in the legislature any chance of upsetting the rival
party and returning to place is perceived, the doctrine of
a fixed duty reappears in the Whig newspapers. True it is
they have a right to revive it, most assuredly, as any body
would have a right to dig a corpse out of the earth if that
earth belonged to him ; but they would have no right to
push that hideous mass of corruption among living beings
and say, "This is one of you, and must share in your
functions and enjoy a portion of your privileges."
A short time ago, apparently, and logically, the fixed-
duty doctrine was dead, buried, rotten, and forgotten ; and
it only reappears on the stage because there seems to be
some slight opening for a certain parliamentary party to
return to place. But with fixed duty, as with sliding
scale, this League wages unextinguishable warfare. The
hostility of our principle is as great in the one case
as it is in the other ; we know no more compromise with
bread- tax in the one form than we do in the other; we
abjure them both as only different phases of intercept
ing the gifts of Providence in their way to minister to
human enjoyment. There is a yet further objection to
the fixed-duty doctrine which renders it, I think, stiU
more obnoxious; and that is, that it is a principle
which tends to divide the interests of the class possessing
capital from that of those having only labour to rely upon.
It might answer the purpose of the merchant, manufac
turer, and shopkeeper, and might in some measure satisfy
them, looking exclusively to their own interests; but it
does so at the sacrifice of the interests and the rights of

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 145
the great majority of the toiling multitude, whose question
this is, with reference to whom it ought always to be agi
tated, and not one atom of whose claim to the food they
earn should ever be compromised by any friend of Free
Trade on the just and broad principle which that phrase
denotes. In looking at the public indications of the state of
our cause, one cannot but be struck at once with the
fact of the unabated interest that is manifested in these
meetings; and this circumstance is more remarkable, I
think, at this time, than it was last year or upon any
former occasion, for this reason, that the present period is
not one of very much excitement; it is not a time in
which there are the cheering and stimulating electoral
victories that occurred a few months ago ; it is not a sea
son in which the operations of the League have allowed
of those numerous country meetings in different parts of
the kingdom which some while since occupied public
attention, and formed continual occasion for observing
the progress of ou,r cause ; it has not been a time, except
within the last few days, of parliamentary discussions that
attracted any very great degree of notice, or excited any
peculiar interest in our principles. You have come to this
place from week to week, seeing the old famUiar faces,
and hearing the old familiar voices; you have attended
this theatre under no temporary excitement, and influ
enced by no extraordinary stimulus from without ; you
have come because there was an increasing zeal in your
own bosoms, — because this was in your mind a matter of
principle, and not of mere passing excitement; you have
come because the determination was flxed and rooted in
your own souls, to protest against these outrageous im
posts on food until they should be utterly abolished; to
reiterate that determination, and by the very fact of your
attendance here to caU heaven and earth to witness that,
come storm or sunshine, calm or struggle, you are resolved
to bear your protest, until at length the voice of truth and
justice shall prevaU over aU class interests, and the legis
lature itself shall yield to the power of public opinion. In
this quiet determination, — needing no contrivance or varied
means and appliances to keep up your attendance, — I see
that calm and growing strength which works like the
VOL. IV. L

146 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
mighty elements of nature itself. It is a power which has
within itself the means of perseverance ; and the means of
perseverance in moral power are the means of increase
also. It shows that our strength goes on from day to day
silently but irresistibly augmenting, swelling like the
snows upon the mountain top, until they are formed into the
extent and compactness of the glacier, and then ready —
affording to bide the time, but ready when that time shaU
come — to rush down, bearing all before it, and over
whelming every hostile power with the resistless will of a
mighty nation.
Miscalculating the quietness with which true power
holds its own and augments its influence, we find some
journalists still determined to treat the League as com
paratively or absolutely defunct. Indeed, only a few days
ago there were papers in which one might read that the
League had been " driven out of Covent-Garden Theatre
by the London Conservative Association." A marvellous
rout, indeed, would that be ! The generosity which aUowed
that body the use of this theatre, I think, was by no means
misplaced; although, perhaps, those who met were rather
unfortunate in the permission being extended to them quite
so soon. They should have met to-day instead of last
Wednesday ; and then, when they toasted their " glorious
majority of ninety," they might have been called upon
to explain whether they were celebrating the triumph
of the Tories over Sir Eobert Peel, or the victory of Sir
Eobert Peel over the Tories ;* and the question might espe
cially have been put to Sir Howard Douglas, who voted
on the first occasion with Mr. MUes, and upon the second
division with Sir Eobert Peel, and who prefaced his vote
by declaring that his opinions had undergone no change
whatever. That was the gentleman who took upon him
self, or who had put upon him, at the Conservative dinner
here, the office of being responser in reply to the health of
* On the 14th June 1844, a resolution of Mr. Miles, relating to
sugar duties, was carried against the Government by a majority of
twenty. On the 17th Sir R. Peel gave the House what he called an
opportunity of reconsidering its vote, and then, in spite of the op
position of a portion of his party, he succeeded in carrying his own
proposals. Mr. Miles, in opposing the Government, complained of
its Free-Trade tendencies, and of its not adequately protecting the
West-Indian interest.

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 147
the Duke of Wellington. Had the Conservative festival
been postponed till this evening, they might have had some
pithy allusions to the uncovered statue, which I have not
seen, but which, I am told, stands with its face towards
the church, the post-office, and the Horse Guards, and its
back turned upon the Eoyal Exchange. They stated
repeatedly at that festival, and I believe they alleged very
truly, that they were not associated to uphold " any par
ticular ministry ;" the ministry which such an association
upholds, beyond all doubt, must be a ministry which is not
" very particular." I wonder much, considering the num
ber of mercantile people there, and the large correspond
ence which they must keep up in their business, that they
did not introduce at least some such toast as this : " Suc
cess to those who hold the seals of office, and who break
the seals of letters!"
To return to the indications of the progress of our
cause : I, for one, reckon it a very gratifying indication,
and a good of immense moment effected by the League,
that the condition of the agricultural labourer is now
forced upon public attention with a power which I think
insures that something must be done towards its ameliora
tion. It was the League that brought that condition first
into notice, and it did so in the face of the boldest contra
diction. Every rural district was described as a perfect
Arcadia ; all being innocence, comfort, and enjoyment
there. The veil is now torn aside, and no patching can
ever make it hold together again. The horrid and dis
gusting reality is exposed, and that reality, however it may
be tampered with, I believe never can be materially altered
in its character or thoroughly reformed but by the accom
plishment of that repeal of taxes on food which is the
object of this Association.
How much of this would ever have been attempted had
not the League broached the subject — had not the con
dition of these poor creatures been prominent in the
speeches at these and almost every other meeting held in
connection with our question throughout the country ?
Would that great power the Times newspaper have taken
the matter up as it has done, had there been none of this
previous preparation? The Times has now sent out its
royal commission into the disturbed districts. I say "its

148 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
royal commission," for we have other governments besides
those that meet in Westminster. The Times may be said
to a certain extent to rule England, as Daniel O'Connell
now rules Ireland. Printing-House Square and the Peni
tentiary in the Circular Eoad are seats of government,
where influences are exercised which make themselves felt
to the remotest borders of either island. The series of
papers which are appearing in the Times with reference to
the condition of labourers in the eastern counties — where,
as we find, you may trace on the map the broad black line
of low wages and incendiary fires — those papers, by the
impression that they produce, will, I think, shame down for
ever the calumny so often repeated against the League and
these meetings — that they have, or possibly can have, any
thing whatever to do with the excitement of such disturb
ances. That sophism must follow in the wake of many
others ; they are all on the road to oblivion, and there wUl
soon be little or nothing left to the monopolists but the
barefaced assertion, that "to tax your food is good for
our pockets, and we will do it as long as you leave us the
power of doing so."
It is a blessing even already that the condition of the
labourer is now becoming so much understood, and that
the need of applying some alleviation is so extensively felt.
There is reason throughout those agricultural counties — in
Essex, Suffolk, and Norfolk, and elsewhere — to bless the
name of the League, and the day when its labours com
menced. Poor creature ! born to filth and hunger ; enter
ing the world in a dUapidated cottage, destined, perhaps, to
be pulled down under the common clearing system ; sent
out in his early youth to pick stones on the road that leads
to some ducal mansion, kept up in its splendour by the
assistance of bread-tax profits ; growing up in his strength
and maturity to work for 6s. a week, and to house and feed
as he can ; his only refuge — his church, if one may so say—
the beer-shop; his only chance of tasting any thing better
than dry bread being to go out in the night poaching in
the preserves of the squire who is resident hard by,— his
course steering between the ScyUa and Charybdis of the
workhouse and the gaol, with beyond them, in the distance,
a view of the gallows made visible by the fire of a blazing
barn. For wretches such as these a star of hope has

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 149
arisen, and it will hold on its way until it attains the
meridian of truth and justice ; and the beams of light and
knowledge that it sheds attest the power of that principle
of operation in the League which has applied to the under
standing of mankind, and provided them with information;
which has shown not only to the class that was imme
diately infiuenced to begin this agitation, but through all
classes, commercial or agricultural, the devastating and
demoralising influence of the monopoly to which we are
opposed. There are indications of the advance of our cause in the
present condition of the hostile power. Where is the great
compact phalanx that two years ago was arrayed against
us? Where the power which, in the election of 1841,
carried every thing before it like a whirlwind — where, I
ask, is it now? Quarrelling about almost every question
that can be started ; contending fiercely respecting a Welsh
bishopric ; fighting desperately about Dissenters' chapels ;
going to quarrel about the new Poor Law ; having quar
relled about the Ten Hours' Bill ; and being involved in
a deadly feud on the subject of the sugar duties. Why,
there they are, — High Church and Moderate Church, — ¦
ancient Tories and modern Conservatives, — Young England
and Old England, — there they are ; till the premier, stirring
up the heterogeneous materials, may well exclaim:
" Double, double toil and trouble ;
Fire, bum ; and, caldron, bubble."
And this is Sir Eobert Peel's "great Conservative
party," which he was ten years in amalgamating ! The
present condition of the House of Commons reads a very
impressive moral lesson to statesmen to avoid in future the
endeavour to form a party without a principle ; or what is
pretty much as bad, to form a party with half a dozen
antagonistic principles. In opposition Sir Eobert Peel
courted them aU, avoiding committing himself with won
derful dexterity ; but still each was given to understand —
confidentially, as it were — that there was good in the com
bination. At first it was only to unseat the Whigs, and
the rest was aU to follow. The amalgamation succeeded so
far ; and now it exhibits the right honourable baronet in
the most pitiable position in which, I think, a prime

150 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
minister has ever been placed. Needed for his dexterity,
and tolerated for nothing else, there he is, toiling at their
work; needed by all, scorned by all, thwarted by all,
reproached by all, and the reproaches bearing this mar
vellous uniformity — that they all strike in one direction.
Nobody accuses him of being so sturdy in his principles
that he is impracticable ; no one charges him with being
rash, and going to extreme lengths in carrying out what
is right and proper; but every one all round intimates
"treachery." The word "trickster" is on all their
tongues ; and as they search their calendars over, they all
agree in giving him Judas for his patron saint.
In this age of invention and discovery we should be
astonished at but few things ; novelties follow with such
marvellous rapidity, and are often of so extraordinary a
nature; but not the least astounding is the recent dis
covery by Sir Eobert Peel of the principle of his adminis
tration, which he has just found out is the relaxation of
our commercial system of prohibition and protection, and
the letting in the articles produced in other countries, in
competition, with similar articles produced in this. He
did not make this discovery before he came into office : there
was no announcement of it in the Tamworth manifesto ;
and it was never proclaimed on the hustings in the election
of 1841. He comes out with it only now that he is in a
difficult and entangled position. Let his foUowers think
what they will of his new principle, it may recommend
some of his measures to us, but it will not commend him
self. It can attract no confidence in any quarter. When
the time shall come — a period which the pragmaticality of
the Whig party makes not impossible — that some states
man must propose the total repeal of the Corn Laws, it
may be that Sir Eobert Peel will do it : from his hands,
as from any other, we will take that repeal, but not as from
a champion ; not as from one who has claims to trust and
confidence, but from one who, if he knew the right, all
along daUied with the wrong, and pursued it while it gave
him political power ; and who, therefore, can only take his
place amongst those whom the might of public opinion has
conquered into the allowance of a good to a nation that
ought never to have been refused.
I have often in this place addressed earnest recommen-

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 151
dations to those who assemble here, that they should exert
themselves in such ways as their circumstances allow for
the furtherance of our cause ; that they should pay atten
tion, for instance, to the registration, and do whatever they
can to get those who are entitled to vote, and who are
friends, of our objects, to place themselves in a position for
the exercise of their political rights; that they should
exert themselves in canvassing, and, by the distribution of
tracts and conversation, spread abroad the knowledge of
our principles, and the conviction of their truth.
I will only briefiy advert to one other topic. Yesterday
was the anniversary ofthe battle of Waterloo. The warriors
who won that tremendous fight are enjoying their laurels.
Many of them are in a very influential position, and I could
wish that the occasion should suggest to their minds an
inquiry into what it was that had weakened the social
power of Napoleon before his military strength received
the complete destruction which it did at Waterloo. Now,
I believe that, in tracing the course of events, we should
have to go back to the time when his Berlin Decree de
clared the British Islands in a state of blockade.- The laws
of trade, it has been said, and most truly so, crushed him
like a weed. Opinion had ebbed from him, destroying the
allegiance and respect for his policy all over Europe, before
the prodigious reverse which his arms sustained on the
18th of June. The system was hollow, and he himself
gave it the first great blow in those anti-commercial pro
clamations to which I have referred. Well, then, let the
warriors who triumphed over one blockade of Great Britain
think well before they support a class which, in its turn,
attempts also to blockade Great Britain. The Corn Laws
are a blockade : they warn foreign ships from our shores ;
they cut off our supply of food ; they treat us like a be
sieged people ; they gird us round as though they would
starve us out. The blockade which the Duke of Welling
ton raised by his arms was not more essentially a blockade
than this of monopoly ; only the latter has not the pre
tence of being imposed for a great national policy like the
former, but for a paltry class interest. It is not that the
lordship of Europe is at stake in the contest, but merely
that so much more rent per annum is at issue. It is not
that kings come into conflict with nations, but it is that

152 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
those whose property Hes in the manufacture of food, and
in the production of fish in the waters, or even canary -
seed for birds, feel their interests at stake, and therefore
wage war, and endeavour to encompass with their blockade
the industrious and toiling multitudes of England.
The system of monopoly is as anti-national as the com
mercial poHcy of Napoleon was hostUe to the interests of
Europe; and it can no more last than did that of the
French emperor. No power, whatever victories it may
have achieved, can sustain this imposition of mono
poly : the blockade wUl have its Waterloo of final de
feat, and monopoHst legislation its St. Helena of exile
from the boundaries of the civilised world. I trust that
the warriors who yesterday assembled, satisfied with the
laurels they have gained, rejoice in their hearts that there
has not since been occasion for more laurels, and that the
peace has been unbroken ; long may it continue so ! But
whether we ascribe the cessation of warfare to the ex
haustion of the resources of nations — which, no doubt, has
much to do with it, or to the growth of opinion — and that,
I think, has also some infiuence in the matter — I mean the
opinion which deprecates an appeal to the sword for the
settlement of questions between nation and nation, which
may be adjusted amicably, as well as those of individuals,
where there is mutual consideration and forbearance, —
wherever these are, and in whatever proportions their
combinations operate as causes antagonistic to warfare,
they are also antagonistic to monopoly. If nations
cannot fight because they are exhausted, assuredly they
cannot bear the pressure of monopoly when their re
sources are exhausted. If opinion has set in strongly
against the conflict of nation with nation, opinion is equally
decided against the conflicts of class with class, especiaUy
of the rich and powerful with the poor and laborious for a
portion of their earnings.
These same causes wiU work on in correction of the
one mischief, I trust, as they have done in correction of
the other. The features are the same of these two sorts of
evU : if war impoverishes, if it brings down the merchant
from his height of fortune, lays waste the resources of the
nation, and crushes the poor into yet deeper poverty, why,
monopoly reenacts all these scenes, and carries on its op-

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 153
pressive influence from year to year. If war desolates the
fair face of nature, makes ruins of cities, and a desert where
fields had been covered with the waving corn, what is the
tendency of monopoly also, but to make the grass grow in
populous towns, and keep large tracts of country a desert,
which might otherwise have borne their abundant harvest,
for the consumption — by means of Free Trade — of labour
ing multitudes in distant lands. If war kills, if it stains
the field of strife with human blood, monopoly destroys
human life also by hundreds and thousands, from year to
year, and that, too, by lingering agonies, far worse to endure
than the short stroke of the sword or the cannon-ball. If
war demoralises, training thieves whom peace brings to the
gaUows, monopoly demoralises also, opening up the sources
of crime, spreading it through the different ranks of society,
and inciting to theft and violence, until it fills our gaols,
and calls down the vengeance of the law. Alike in the
evils they generate, and opposed by the same antagonistic
principles, I rely on one overruling process for the destruc
tion of both ; the same moral law condemns both systems
for their criminality, and the same Divine Providence wUl
ultimately work for both a total annihilation.

XIV.
AT COVENT-GAEDEN THEATEE
August 1th, 1844.
Our excellent chairman introduced the business of the
evening by describing to you the operations carried on by
the CouncU of the League, and extending through the
length and breadth of the country ; the object of which is,
to prepare a better registration, and to lead the way to such
electoral efforts — upon the first opportunity to choose a
new parliament — as may secure the success ofthe cause of
Free Trade. Those operations, quietly conducted, are as
material to the advance of our cause as those which are
most conspicuous ; and although for a time these meetings
are to cease, yet to-morrow, when you will have read in the
Post and Herald, for the twentieth time, that the Anti-
Corn-Law League is dead, those operations going on
throughout the country will prepare for a season that shall
show as obviously as now that the League is all alive ; and
its supposed death has been so frequently proclaimed, that
those who get their information from no other source
than monopolist journals may well imagine that its ghost
walks the earth, and works wondrous mischief. Thty will
find that its alleged dissolution is as the seeming death of
the seed which the farmer puts into the ground, which is
covered up and buried there, but by the immutable laws of
Divine Providence it is germinating too, and there in due
time will spring up ; and for us, as for that seed, harvest
now is coming, — a full ingathering of that glorious fruit for
which so many have toiled and laboured in these years of
struggle. The League, however, does not require to be
judged by operations carried on without public observ
ance, or by prophecies of the future relying on the certain
ties of principles — such a prophecy, for instance, as Mr.
Cobden has uttered; for it can bear to be judged by
the surest of all tests, that which it has done, and not
that alone which is unseen or which is anticipated.

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 155
My purpose in addressing you this evening is to advert
to the memorials which already the League has created for
itself; which need not to be explored like hieroglyphics by
the antiquarian, but are written broadly on the face of the
country, and form materials for the pages of its future his
torians. In every direction I find some impress of what
the League has done. The few years which it has existed
have been marked by two administrations in our govern
ment ; and both the great political parties show, in their
policy, that they have been influenced by the Free-Trade
agitation. It modified the policy of the late ministry, al
though in its youth the then minister was disposed to treat
it as mere madness to talk of repealing the Corn Laws ;
yet at the close of his administration, that which he scoffed
at in the time of seeming power, he and his colleagues laid
hold of as the most graceful thing by which to retire from
office. They fell by it, and made their fall thereby more
honourable than had been much of their existence during
their power. They had their recompense too. It was the
progress which the Free-Trade agitation had made at that
period which caused Lord John Eussell to be elected a
member of parliament for the City of London, and which
now gives him his chance of returning to office, provided
he will carry out the principles on which he was returned,
and by which he holds his seat and his prospects of
office. A flxed duty might serve the Whigs to fall by; they
can only rise by a total repeal.
The influence of the League on the policy of the admi
nistration which succeeded the Whigs has been more
marked ; for the men in office now are those who, for ten
long years, were consolidating a party on the principle of
no change, no surrender. They would give up nothing ;
no, not one jot nor tittle. It was for this that they rallied
and strengthened their forces ; for this it was that they re
sisted every attempt at a movement on the part of those
who had then possession of office ; for this it was that they
moved a vote of want of confidence in that party, and
effected their overthrow. What was the language of Sir
Eobert Peel on the first of those great divisions by which
the Whigs were expelled from office ? — I mean, when they
introduced their budget in 1841, and when Lord Sandon's
motion on the sugar duties gave the then government a

156 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
blow from which it was never able to recover. On that
occasion, when they began to show symptoms of resigning
and of following their resignation by an appeal to the coun
try. Sir Eobert Peel told Lord John Eussell it was an irre
gular thing to resign on a mere fiscal question. He said
they need not do that, — no government need resign on a
fiscal question ; yet he Hved to be beaten within three years
by his own party on this aforesaid sugar question, and to
reduce that party to allegiance by his own threat to resign
unless the vote was rescinded. On Lord Sandon's motion,
in May 1841, Sir Eobert Peel spoke thus, — he was then, as
every body knew, looking forward to a change which had
obviously become inevitable in the administration of affairs:
" I am not," said he, " contemplating a recession in office
from the principles with regard to the Corn Laws which
I have hitherto maintained. You wUl ask me, then, how
is it possible for me, who have consented to relaxations
in commercial relations, to maintain the Corn Laws?
You say now that this is the master interest, and that
it is utterly impossible there can be a revision of the
tariff, or a relaxation of the commercial code, without
a revision of the Corn Laws. I utterly deny that pro
position." " Mr. Huskisson," he says afterwards, " would
have scouted the proposition, that a Hberal commercial
poHcy was inconsistent with the maintenance of the present
Corn Laws."
Such was the language addressed to the monopolists in
parliament. The tone was modified in electioneering
speeches to affect the choice of candidates for members at
the election; and when the fresh parliament was called,
and the new administration formed, why, within about
fifteen months from this very declaration, from utterly de
nying the proposition that a revision of the tariff would
involve any alteration of the Corn Laws, Sir Eobert Peel
revised the tariff and Corn Laws together, to the utter
astonishment of those who had placed him in Downing
Street. And whence all this? whence these unexpected
measures? whence this new tone? — but from this cause,
that public opinion has been so influenced by this agita
tion, that Sir Eobert Peel feels it prudent, notwithstanding
his dependence on the great monopoHst body at his back,
to lay out some lines in another direction ; to claim as

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 157
much credit as he can for Free-Trade policy; to boast that
within a year he relaxed commercial restrictions more than
the opposite party had done in their whole ten years'
tenure of office ; and thus to make himself, too, a monu
ment of the influence of this Anti-Corn-Law League
agitation. Why, Mr. Cobden, in that House, might adopt the
language, in reference to his own success as the great
leader of this movement, which is inscribed on the monu
ment of Sir Christopher Wren in St. Paul's Cathedral,
where the spectator is told, if he asks for a monument of
the architect, to look around him. A foreigner, whose
taste was not exactly hit by the form of the dome of St.
Paul's, remarked, " I do look around, and I only see one
great fool's cap." When Mr. Cobden looks round for a
monument of the influence of this League in the House of
Commons, he may see two great fools' caps — one for the
ministerial leader, the other for the opposition ; fools' caps
fitting the heads of those who have the perception of great,
wise, and good principles, but who lack the consistency or
moral courage to devote themselves to carrying out those
principles in legislation, and throw themselves on the good
sense and true interests of the country for their support.
On the state of parties the future commentator will have,
I think, to observe, that in a very short period, and with
immense difficulty to struggle with. Free Trade obtained
in the House of Commons a body of representatives suffi
ciently compacted, well-principled, and decided, to make
it impossible for any monopolist faction — either Whig or
Tory — to govern the destinies of this country. If the
influence of this movement be visible on political parties in
the legislature, it may assuredly be traced distinctly and
broadly on the public mind.
No subject of a similar nature has ever yet in the world's
history been so variously and ably Ulustrated, and I believe
in consequence so generally understood and appreciated,
as this Free-Trade question now is. I would put the
meetings that have been held here in evidence ; the kind
of topics and arguments in which the audiences have dis
played the most lively interest ; the quick responses which
have been given to points which some few years ago would
have been matter of hesitation and of thoughtfulness even

158 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
to the great mass of highly educated men. Political eco
nomy, as was said of philosophy of old, has been brought
down from the clouds to human habitations, mingles with
the every-day thoughts of the great mass of the popula
tion, and is the subject of their conversation. There is a
political intelligence generated by this procedure which
must soon banish utterly from the world the prejudices,
sophisms, and falsehoods by which mankind have hitherto
been deluded. How short a time it is since two great
statesmen, Pitt and Fox, made the world ring with their con
flicts ! and yet it was matter of discussion which of the two
was the more profoundly ignorant of the doctrines of poli
tical economy ; whilst now there cannot be a lisping dandy
sent down to the constituency of a pocket-borough, there
to represent his relative's importance, who is not crammed
from Adam Smith in Mr. Cayley's edition ! A people
thus instructed are not to be trifled with.
It is a proud boast for the League that, together with
intellectual exertion and acquirement, they have been the
means of diffusing through the country a spirit of intel
lectual independence. Wherever I flnd a disposition to
break through that gross servility which has so long been
a stain upon a large proportion of the people of this
country, — when I find a disposition to call things by their
right names, however plausible the appellations by which
they have been distinguished, — when I see the same stand
ard of right and wrong applied to the high and the low,
the peer being judged by the principles that are applied
also to the peasant, — when I find a desire to bear testimony
to great and wise principles, and that lively sympathy in the
wants and in the wrongs of the poor and helpless class,—
why, in all this I see the same influence exercised by the
Anti-Corn-Law League, I behold the spread of that influ
ence through the different classes of society, and recognise
a determination to work out the right, and to put down
the wrong, by peaceful, legal, but honourable and certain
means of success, which it is the noble consolation and
encouragement of the men who originated this institution
that they have been instrumental in diffusing through the
country. I know that these best and noblest results are
yet much more limited than the leaders of the League and
all true-hearted persons must desire. We have evidence

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 159
of that; facts which we need not shrink from looking
fairly in the face.
It is continually brought up about the League in cer
tain journals, "Look how many elections they have lost;
look at the places where they dare not show themselves
for a contest ;" — why, we have not been able to contest
Horsham, Cirencester, and several other places I might
mention ; — " and they have been beaten in South Lanca
shire and Birmingham," And what of that ? I hold it
to be no evil, but I believe it to be a great good to a
cause like this, comprising, I apprehend, a vast number of
advocates not hitherto connected with political agitation, —
not accustomed to the long, toilsome process which must
be gone through for the achievement of any great work of
social or physical improvement, — I hold it to be a great
good that their minds are dispossessed of the notion that
you have only to teach people what is true and right, and
that then you may rely on the true and the right being
forthwith triumphant. Why, if those elections had had
a different result, what would the lesson have been,- — what
the effect on a great portion of those who have been led,
for the first time in their lives, in connection with the
Anti-Corn-Law League, into the struggle of an agitation?
The lesson would apparently have been, that opinion
and action were free in electors ; that there was no intimi
dation, bribery, or active sinister interests to pervert the
consciences of the voters, and turn them away in spite of
their own thoughts and feelings. And that lesson would
have been a gross falsehood. It would have seemed by
such a result that monopoly was ready to give up the con
test without making a vigorous and desperate effort,
and would retire when the vanity and wickedness of its
claims was demonstrated to the public ; that there was not
to be apprehended from it a tooth-and-nail resistance, a
struggle to the death, and by most unscrupulous means.
And that lesson would have been a falsehood too. It
would have been judged, by such a result, that party-spirit
had subsided; that it had learned wisdom and rectitude;
that people would not, for the sake of pragmatically assert
ing some point of political sectarianism, have suffered
themselves to be beaten through division, when they might
have conquered by unity. And that lesson would have

160 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
been a falsehood also. It would have appeared, by such
results, that the present arrangements are all-sufficient for
maintaining the rights and the interests of people in elec
tions ; and every thing connected with political machinery
and our institutions, as good as possibly can be imagined
or desired. And this lesson, too, would have been a false
hood — a gross falsehood. I think we may well put up vrith
disasters, defeat, and postponement ofthe time when we
come to the great final decisive strife, for the effects which
are thus produced in the minds of miUtitudes, for the
training and disciphne which is thus given for working the
continuous, and eventually successful, assertion of the
interests of the community.
To those who point with exultation and scorn to these
results, I would say. Why, you are laughing at that which
is training an antagonistic power — a might which nothing
can resist. There are agencies of education in agitation.
They have already given much instruction, and they will
yet give more, until the whole community is wise enough
to see, that in directing its energies towards a single point,
and carrying triumphantly one great principle, it is in
reality achieving more than could be obtained by any other
means, and laying the foundation of national character,
greatness, and prosperity. There is another thing which
the League has done, and it was an object worthy of their
exertions, — it has unmasked the monopolist classes. Their
features are known to every one now, and they can never be
disguised again. At a comparatively recent period there
was a mystification about peers and men in station, as
though a different blood ran in their veins from that which
flows in the bodies of the great mass of the people ; and it
was only when Free-Trade principles came into that close,
continuous, and animated discussion which they have been
recently doomed to undergo, that it was perceived that
these feudal associations were all false, and that really
those men were as much a trading class as though they had
kept shops in Cheapside ; and the coronets which used to
be thought emblems of a semi-regal dignity in their
several districts, pass for nothing more than a sign of so
many acres to let, and so much corn to be sold.
Why, they are traders — traders all ! They deal in
land as weU as corn ; and in food for all sorts of beings —

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 161
from the loaf which the man eats to the seed which the
canary-bird pecks in his cage. They trade in fish and
pheasants, in ground for gambling-booths upon race
courses ; nay, they also lose their money in the races them
selves, and then bring in an Act of Parliament to suspend the
payment of their penalties. They trade in stars, garters,
and ribbons — especially blue ones ; and, what is worst of
all, they trade in that legislation by which their business
is made more profitable : they are hucksters, with the
power of law-making for the enhancement of their prices.
A great outcry has been raised against the pStty cheap
linendraper who teaches his apprentice-boy to " shave the
ladies," while these noble legislators do infinitely worse
than that, for they shave the nation, and the poor they
shave the closest and hardest of all. Their fallacies have
been exposed, and though they be not the original au
thors, yet they are the real patrons of the doctrines of
the Morning Post- — the connection of which with incen
diarism Mr. Cobden has so luminously traced. Eick-
burning in practice is only Eichmondism in theory. Nor
was there ever a more complete parallel than that be
tween the Eichmondites and the rick-burners. If the
one wantonly destroys property, so does the other ; if the
one endangers human life, why, human Hfe has been more
than endangered by the other, and that too by wholesale,
by these abominable starvation laws. If, in the rick-
burner's case, the innocent suffer, who are they that are
injured in the other case, but the unoffending, poor, and
helpless — their suffering being greater, the more helpless
their position in society? If the one destroys the good
gifts of Heaven to man, so does the other. It is highly
probable that a much larger quantity of corn than these
fires in Suffolk and the adjoining counties have destroyed
has, in the course of years, been rotting under lock and
key, in bond, and has been at last shovelled out into rivers
or harbours, as we know was recently the case at HuU,
where a considerable quantity, even within a very few
months, has been thus destroyed. And where, I pray, is
the mighty difference in the element of destruction ? Why
should it be villanous to destroy corn by fire, and virtuous
to destroy it by water ? Even without reference to that
more awful tribunal which has been appealed to this
VOL. IV. M

162 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
evening, I believe the doers of this wickedness will not
escape their punishment ; if the incendiary be transported
for his Hfe, why, after the Hves of the monopoHsts, it wiU
go hard if the honest historian does not gibbet their me
mory in his pages to all posterity.
The League has also exposed the monopoHst class in
another way, — by eliciting their virtues, by stimulating
their phUanthropy. How charitable, provided their Corn
Law can escape untouched, do the monopoHsts show them
selves ! Plans for the improvement of the condition of the
poor are qliite in request ; and every political section must
get up something of the kind. One party founds a society
for the relief of the poor needlewomen, who, they contend,
are very much injured indeed by people buying cheap shirts,
and they allege that every one ought to buy dear shhts
for the encouragement of the sempstresses. There is a
great charity excited for the needle and thread, but not
much for those to whom a cheap shirt is the only chance
they have of obtaining any at all. They even had com
passion on the poor for working too long, and they were
desirous that the machinery in mills should not work too
much, so that the workmen might have time to go home
and meditate on what they would do with more wages if
they got them. They even took care that the poor should
be enabled to recreate themselves by travelling on the rail
ways, and they proposed to have third-class trains for the
purpose, — and here the philanthropy of the bishops was
brought into practice, for they could not think of the poor
travelling on railways unless their enjoyment was com
plete, and they proposed that they should be compelled to
go in a first or second-class carriage when they travelled
by the railway. They looked every where for a means of
indicating their philanthropy but to the poor man's cup
board, where they might see the reduced loaf, which they
had sliced away by their monopoly.
In the mean time, while all this is going on, in 1843 —
only the last year — the people of this country paid in
direct taxation upon wheat imported into England the sum
of 800,000/. ; that amount of bread-tax averaging 15s. 3d.
on the quarter, which stUl, we are told, is not protection
enough. Wheat in this country last year averaged 53s.
per quarter, 9s. more than our fellow-subjects pay for it

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 163
in Guernsey, where they are out of the boundary of this
law ; so that we have the pleasure of paying 9s. a quarter
more for our wheat, we never having been conquered from
the French, but living under our own glorious constitution.
This overflowing benevolence looks at the morals of the
people as well as at their physical condition ; and as they
want bread, it will give them stones. They shall have
chm'ches, thus rendering applicable the usurer's epitaph :
" In pious as in impious works,
Like water, still he found his level;
For having cheated all the world,
He built a church to cheat the devil."
Such absurdities and enormities as these will never
suffer an antagonistic movement to abate. It cannot do
so, while they exist ; and, during the cessation of these
meetings, if you want to know where the League is, if you
see a man looking sharply after the registration list, and
see him marking an omission to be supplied by a claim, or
a name which ought not to be there for objection, there
you see the League. If you want to find its leaders, you
vrill only have to look to the papers ; as it is this week, so
it will be in future weeks. You wiU see Bright and
Cobden there, as heretofore, sometimes fighting with phy
sical-force men at Northampton, at other times with
monopolist Tories at Dudley, and frequently with wild
beasts at Ephesus. The Morning Herald says to-day that
these leaders of the League want to back out of the agita
tion, and that they would if they could. I suspect, by
these remarks, the Morning Herald does not exactly under
stand the nature of the impossibility of their " backing
out." There is a moral as well as a physical impossibUity
that men of clear minds and true hearts, who have put
their hands to the plough, should look back. It is not in
their moral being to desist from the great work that they
have undertaken so long as they have life, or until the
great triumph of their cause shall, through their efforts, be
achieved. They talk of disunion in the League. "Dis
union" and " dissolution" are terms of which here we
know not the meaning.
If ever a movement showed confidence, mutual reliance,
amity, and decision, it has been this Anti-Corn-Law League

164 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
agitation. In fact, it used to be charged against us, that
there was too much confidence ; and the monopolists were
endeavouring to spirit up people here to inquire after
the funds, and ascertain what had become of the 50,000/.
last year, and the 100,000/. this ; and many wonderful and
wise insinuations were made in relation to these topics.
Assuredly this shows no want of confidence, coming, as a
large portion of this fund did, from where the leaders of
the League are best known in their personal character and
history. I should like to see the Anti- League evince simi
lar confidence, by the farmers of this country raising and
intrusting 150,000/. to his Grace the Duke of Buckingham,
even if he gave them his bills, those bills bearing interest,
and indorsed by his Grace the Duke of Eichmond. If, in
this seeming cessation ofthe League, from a discontinuance
of these meetings, those of us who live in London should
feel that a blank is left in our lives, let us, as citizens of
this metropolis, remember that the League came to us, and
that we did not in the first instance go to the League. We
have been recipients of the benefits, and not the originators
of the League ; it has called and held these meetings, and
if we grow impatient of the suspension or delay, the best
remedy for that is to call our meetings in turn, and invite
the League to come and see us. I really think we owe
them a response of hospitality after all which they have
done for us. We owe them, in every way in which we can
show it, our hearty, ready, and unremitting cooperation.
At the first meeting ofthe present season, I endeavoured
to show that the triumph of this great cause rests mainly
with the cities and large towns of the empire. I am sorry
that such a town as Birmingham should have tarnished its
fair fame by what has recently occurred there — that any
who have the means of information should give themselves
the Hcense of employing their votes in any other way than in
the assertion of the rights of labour, and the maintenance
of the commercial interests of the nation. But such a cir
cumstance as this is an admonition here and every where to
do all that we can of the work of the day while the day
lasts, ever preparing for that great future electoral struggle
which is to come. This is a cause of national interests ;
those interests are not decided by chance ; they rest on no
baseless theories, but upon the principles of a science which

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 165
has been distinctly traced; its principles are laid broad and
deep, and the testimony of all experience is against monopoly.
But it is yet more strongly opposed to war under the pre
tence of national benefit. I trust that the warning which
was thrown out by the honourable member for Manchester
this evening will sink into your minds and hearts; for
when we see to what means monopoly has recourse, it is
not chimerical that there should be found even that mon
strous wickedness which would plunge a nation into war for
the sordid interest of a class. Should such an emergency
ever seem to be impending over us, I trust that the people
of this country will as one man protest against the recur
rence of those sanguinary doings of old which ought now
to be matters of history, and of history alone.
This agitation must continue and advance, because it is
founded in the extended perceptions of national interests,
and is based on moral principles. It is indeed a moral
question. We grant our opponents all the advantage they
boast of possessing : they have enormous property and in
fluence; Houses of Lords and Commons ; a large portion
¦ of the press ; the use of the post-office ; the patronage of
the army and navy; appointments in the Church, and its
influence at their back ; — they have all these, and the enu
meration does not appal us : for we have against them
all — what is stronger than the whole put together — the
sense of justice in the human heart. There is a power with
which they know not how to deal, but which will teach
others how to deal with them — a power more ancient than
their oldest ancestry, which existed before castles and
cathedrals. Church and State — a power as old, nay, older
than creation — a sacred power which existed before the
pillars of the earth were laid, or the mountains were
brought forth ; it dwelt with wisdom in the Eternal Mind ;
it was breathed into man with the first breath of life ; it
will not perish in him until our race shall have numbered
its days upon earth. To contend with it is as vain as to
strive with the stars of heaven. It will witness the ex
tinction — nay, more, it wUl be the agency of destruction —
of all wrong in political and social institutions. Soon may
Providence send that blessed consummation !

XT.
AT COVENT-GAEDEN THEATEE.
Jamtary \5th, 1845.
The practical measure by which the policy ofthe Anti-
Corn-Law League is characterised in the present year is
that to which Mr. Cobden has just adverted, namely, the
correction of the county registration, and the enlargement
of the county constituencies, by inducing the wealthy free
traders in the cities and towns to employ a portion of their
surplus money, and the industrial classes in those places to
invest their savings, in the purchase of 40s. freeholds ; in
the contemplation, at no great distance of time, of meeting
the lords of the soil upon their own ground, of having with
them a fair fight, and, as we confidently reckon, driving
them from their strongholds.
This policy has excited a remarkable degree both of
satisfaction and dissatisfaction in different quarters. The
displeasure has been expressed by the use of the word " un
constitutional ;" which, for the purpose of political displea
sure, is very analogous in its use to the term " respectable"
in moral praise. The late William Hazlitt, in one of his
essays, says, that we never have recourse to that expression
to praise anybody, if there is any quality whatever by which
we can designate him. If capable of making good verses,
we call him a poet ; if skUled in diagrams and profound in
problems, we term him a mathematician : we run the
whole round of qualifications, and seek for any honourable
distinction whatever, and in the failure of all, we say,
" Well, he is certainly a very respectable man." So in
politics : when persons are annoyed by a proposed mea
sure, if they cannot pronounce it illegal, because it violates
no enactment of the laws of the land ; or immoral, inas
much as it implies no breach of the commandments ; if
they cannot allege that it is dishonourable in principle,
and inconsistent with the conventional regulations of Hfe,
— why, they fall back upon this word " unconstitutional,"
which means neither more nor less but that they dislike

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES^ 167
the thing exceedingly; and, having nothing else which
they can assert against it, they say, " Well, at any rate, it
is very unconstitutional." It is, however, with singular
impropriety that such dispraise is applied to' a policy which
tends to give life to the constitution, makes it something
more than a mere dead letter, enlarges its power, extends
the number of those who possess its privUeges, and through
that extension multiplies its blessings to the community.
The persons to whom the League policy imparts dissatis
faction are happily only to be found among those to
whose proceedings that body is opposed, whose unjust
gains or egregious blunders it seeks to bring to the stand
ard of truth and justice. We have displeased our enemies
by the course we are pursuing, but that same conduct has
gratified our friends, ^
The case is reversed with the Central Society for the
Protection of Agriculture. Whatever they may have done
in facing their opponents during the last year, they have
certainly succeeded in exciting the strongest dissatisfaction
and reprobation of their friends. Throughout the country
the cry is loud against them. Never was protection — if it
really be so — more unthankfuUy repaid. The society say
that they are set up as a safeguard to the tenant-farmer
and the labourer ; but throughout both classes there exists
but one feeling of disappointment, annoyance, and rebuke.
They held a meeting the other day, but not such an as
semblage as this. They might, indeed, venture to compare
theirs with ours, if every duke were counted for a thousand,
and each member of parliament for one or two hundred ;
but their great gathering in reality numbered some forty
persons. It was an annual general meeting of the great
Central Society for the Protection of Agriculture, held in a
room upon the first fioor of a house in Bond Street. There
even the members of the committee found fault with their
own report, and alleged that dissatisfaction at their pro
ceedings was general throughout the country; that the
agriculturists were every where crying out that the society
neither did, nor attempted to do, any thing; that they
would receive no suggestions from others, nor yet originate
any proceedings; that they would not go down to Man
chester and hold large meetings for open discussions — I
should Hke to see them attempting it !. — that the farmers

168 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
were not getting the price of 56s., which was promised to
be secured to them by Sir Eobert Peel's Bill, as wheat had
been down as low as 45s.
In truth, there is reason for this dissatisfaction. It
proves that the Central Society has undertaken more than
it can perform. It may protect the Corn Law against
legislative change, but not against the workings of that
higher power which interferes with the practical operation
of those enactments. The Central Society for the Protec
tion of Agriculture, with all its dukes and squires, has failed
to shield monopoly against the dispensations of Providence.
It has been unable to preserve the farmers from the cala
mity of a good harvest, or show itself strong enough to
avert what it strangely deems the plague of plenty and the
curse of cheapness. The endeavour ^has not been wanting ;
but such is the success which attempts of this description
deserve. We seek not to please persons of this class by
the proceedings of the League. We would not needlessly
annoy them ; if there be annoyance to any persons, the
fault is their own. We cannot separate monopoly from the
monopolist, nor sophistry from the sophist ; they are bound
too closely together.
The upholders of these unjust laws, whatever be their
standing in the country, or their dignity of station — if they
persist in clinging to these evils, and engaging in a mad
struggle against the rights of mankind, the tendencies of
the age, and even the dispensations of Providence — must
expect defeat and disgrace. Mortification awaits them;
they see the shadow ofthe coming events in these efforts tc
enlarge the constituencies of counties: that is to say, in
fact, to create what the counties have not at present, — ^in
dependent constituencies. They know how much their
own power has arisen out of the large extent of country of
which they go to parliament as the representatives; they
have a foreboding that it will not do long, should they be
shaken in those seats, to fall back upon the little boroughs.
They feel the humbling position in which they must be
placed, when, lords and dictators of these vast provinces,
they are unhorsed from their power, and are taught to give
way to those who recommend themselves to the general
voice by their adhesion to the common principles of right
and justice. The counties have been their heavy artillery ;

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 169
the pocket-boroughs without them wiU be worth no more
than so many pocket-pistols; and when the League has
carried their cannon, do they think to make the fight good
with their popguns ? They must submit to drink the cup
of humiliation, which an obstinate retention of these laws
is mixing for their lips; and with the humihation must
come loss also — not merely of the proceeds of the bread-
tax, but other things beside — if they persevere in holding
by that tax until the result be that their political influence
vanishes. Their ascendency in the state is at peril in this con
flict; it can only be saved by a timely compromise; and
they know weU enough that their land is worth to them,
politically, much more than it is simply in an agricultural or
commercial sense. It is not only wheat and barley that
they seek from their acres ; other things are grown there, —
offices, salaries, red-coats and commissions in the army,
preferment in the Church, gowns and surplices, are cultivated
there peacefully together. They have long had the undisputed
gathering in of this vast harvest ; and it is surely a species
of infatuation, by which they are now perilling the whole,
in vainly endeavouring to retain this imposition on the
food of the people,- — a taxation which no nation, con
scious of its own power, can possibly submit to, or regard
otherwise than as a burden wrongfully bound upon it, which
every effort is to be put forth to shake off on the very first
opportunity. Of all the undignified endings of a potent body, I think
the humbling of the aristocracy of Great Britain for the
sake ofthe bread-tax would be one ofthe most preposterous.
The old noblesse of France fell in defence of monarchy;
the aristocracy of Poland sacrificed themselves for the sake
of nationality : but to go after them into the gulf of insig
nificance and oblivion on such a score as this — for the aris
tocracy of Great Britain to sacrifice its power and greatness
in order to tax the poor man's loaf — would be the most
" lame and impotent conclusion" that ever followed a long
and brUHant story. Such an extinction and humiliation
would refiect no lustre on their memories in the page of
history ; it would gain no monumental honours or records.
A foreigner, a little while ago, visited Westminster Abbey,
thinking he should be permitted to inspect the monuments

170 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
in the same manner as those in foreign cathedrals are
looked at; but, after having gone the round, the verger
demanded 15d. of him. The foreigner hesitated a little.
" Why," said the man in office, by way of argument, " I
have shown you the monuments of the greatest portion
of the aristocracy of England." " Have you?" said the
foreigner; "why, then, I would give you half-a-crown if
you would complete the collection." But no minghng
with the illustrious of former times will await an aristocracy
martyred in the cause of the bread-tax. The only fitting
memorial even for those who boast — Hke the Dukes of
Buckingham and Eichmond — of royal blood in their veins,
would be some old empty warehouse, where, in the days
of the Corn Law, bonded wheat was locked up, while
multitudes were starving around. Such should be the
monumental pile of the descendants of the Stuarts and the
Plantagenets. They say something else, however, in reproach, besides
adopting this word " unconstitutional." The report of the
Central Protection Society declares, that the leaders of the
League use " all means" for the accomplishment of their
ends. I humbly submit that this is something of a mis
take. No ; we do not use " all means." We never send
people scouring the country, in order to gather a meeting
together. We have no occasion for dilettante charioteers
to drive dirty demagogues in dog-carts, in order that they
may pass for peasantry upon the hustings. We do not use
" all means." We do not garble Adam Smith, neither do
we falsify quotations, nor repeat the practice after a promise
has been made of revision and correction. We do not use
"all means." We do not promise that the people shall
have cheap bread within a given time, and then leave them
to grumble over a very different price from that which was
put forth in our prospectus. We do not use " all means."
We do not, in a collective capacity, declare that it is very
improper indeed to interfere in elections, that it is contrary
to all our principles, that the most rigid abstinence shall be
maintained; and then, whenever the occasion offers, em
ploy all the dirtiest tricks of bribery and the most abomin
able arts of intimidation. No ; we do not employ " all
means." If her Majesty — God bless her ! — vnll but come
to the Free-Trade Bazaar next May, in this buUding — and

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 171
though I do not expect her to take a stall there, I believe
it would call forth a very grateful acclamation from her
people if she did — she will behold honourable specimens of
the industry of the country in all its branches ; deserving
not only justice, but the noblest praises that royal feeling
can bestow : and she will not see there such tricks as some
times are to be met with at a cattle-show, when a roarer
wins the prize by being passed for an Arabian.
Instead of employing " all means," the League leaves
such as these, and others of a similar description, making
a fair partition with the antagonistic society, they taking
those which are most in harmony with their ends, we
choosing those which are most accordant with our pur
poses, — remembering that they are banded for the defence
of an interest, we are leagued for the assertion of a prin
ciple. If it be only meant " all means" which may become
a man to use, why, then, accusation vanishes, and the fact
is correctly stated. The leaders of the League have shown
themselves men who will, in these circumstances, use " all
means ;" who will spare no time or labour, but undertake
whatever the powers of the human body and mind are
equal to, in the promotion of this great work ; who seem
to have consecrated to it their very lives, and will earn
their honourable niche in history by the unceasing per
severance, the gigantic effort, the honourable virtue, the
lofty and just principles, in which they have pursued this
great object, and will bring it, I trust, before long, to a
triumphant termination.
It is a satisfactory characteristic of the cause of Free
Trade, that in all its successive phases, and in every stage
of its progress, there has not only been a good end pursued,
but just means employed ; and the beneficial results pro
duced by the operation might themselves be ranked as
among the noblest objects of persevering endeavour. It
has been thus from the very first. How did it commence ?
With such speculations as those of Adam Smith and other
political economists. The cause of Free Trade was then
enshrined in scientific volumes ; it was an intellectual dis
covery. The talent and power of the philosopher were
employed to make a science of that which theretofore had
been a mere chaos of isolated facts. They accomplished
this ; but they did not realise Free Trade for the country

172 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
by so doing, because legislators are not chosen for their
knowledge of the science of national prosperity ; and at
that time the disregard of the seminaries of education, and
the different tastes which prevailed in both Houses of Par
liament, made senators altogether heedless of any such
study as that of political economy.
The next stage in the process was, that from a science
it became a policy. Principles were wrought out into their
details, and applied to the practical concerns of the coun
try. Exhibition was made gradually, in different direc
tions, of the way in which trade and commerce were
affected. For this change let us never forget how largely
we are indebted to the pages of the Westminster Review^
and to the writings of the author of the Corn-Law Cate
chism. That noble veteran in our cause, Colonel Thomp
son — soon may he fight the battle again on the floor of
the House of Commons ! — may be said to have accom
plished this stage of the process almost single-handed ; to
have advanced the politico-economical science into a na
tional policy : but still without result on the legislature, for
it was not one of the watch-words of party. Whig and
Tory hoisted their old banners, held their review days as
of yore, and fought out battles of much more importance
to themselves than to any other persons whatever through
the length and breadth of the country. But a third phase
was advancing, when a new form was taken — that ofthe
interest ofa class; an important class, but still only a class.
The third stage of Free Trade was when the great manu
facturers began to feel the shoe pinch them; monopoly
interfered with the extension of their operations, prospects,
and profits ; and they, beginning to be uneasy under this
load, forwarded the cause another stage. Whether any of
the present leaders of the League flrst felt it in this par
ticular way, I cannot undertake to say; if they did, we
know how soon their views expanded, and their minds arose
towards a nobler contemplation ofthe subject. But through
this stage it had to pass ; an ineffectual one still, for there
was another and a mightier class to interpose its veto upon
any thing which they would have had adopted for their
reHef. Then came the stage for which we are indebted to the
Anti-Corn-Law League, and the efforts of those true-

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 173
hearted men, so many of whom are before you on this
occasion, and who have their coadjutors in the country,
who made it a popular appeal, and first called on the
inhabitants of the towns and cities to consider this matter,
to see its bearing on the common weal, to decide on the
right and justice of the case, and to say whether this sys
tem of things was to be prolonged with their consent, or
was entitled to their endurance. What was this but a great
national institution ? It was a system, at first, of the com
munication of knowledge, much of which was altogether
new to those who came together to be instructed ; they
had many of them to learn the very elements of that poli
tical economy which is now so familiar to their minds.
They had to be formed and trained; and the result has
been a clear conviction and a firm determination.
But the monopolist landowners make fight still, even
in the face of these great bodies of the people ; and there
fore the leaders of the League have given the word,
" March onward," to gain another and a yet higher step,
to make this great battle in the counties throughout the
whole extent of the land, to arrive thus at the public mind,
and then to take decisive measures that the national will
shall become the law of the empire. And if of all the
previous stages it may be said that they were a public
good, preeminently may it be so stated of that which is
now in the course of being realised.
The endeavour which is making to enlarge the county
constituencies, and especially by the qualified votes of in
teUigent Free-Trade residents in towns, and of the indus
trious classes in particular, is, in every view of it, an
important benefit in itself, even were it not the path
through which we must pass to the repeal of the Corn
Laws. For what is it but to make county representation
a reality ? County elections are what the Duke of Wel
lington once called county meetings, a mere " farce." They
are the result of the distribution of property, and the votes
are reckoned upon according to the number of tenant-
farmers on the different estates throughout the district.
There you have them all beforehand. When the property
passes from one party to another, the votes are transferred
with it. They may be all marked out upon the map of the
county. They should be so; we should have something

174 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
like those very instructive geological maps, which, by the
different colourings of the districts, teU us what mineral
wealth lies hid beneath ; and there is something analogous, I
conceive, to a geological distribution. Had we such a map,
the dark Hne that designates the bed of coal below would
show where black monopoly was working in its deep re
cesses. The indication that petrified remains were in
abundance, might suggest to us that there would be the
place to dig up and to excavate the fossil Whigs, with
their fixed duty, remains of an antedUuvian world. In
another direction, the soft aUuvial deposit might suggest
the yielding clay of the ministerial followers; whilst, to
the eye of scientific observation, it would be plain that
beneath all this was that central fire of which geologists
tell us, intense and enduring as the principles of human
nature, and which, at the appointed time, raises the lowest
strata from their humble position, shatters down the higher
granite, though it be of an older creation than any Norman
nobility, and produces a new surface of things, where those
that were unseen, scorned, and disregarded, become a fresh
world of order, enjoyment, harmony, and beauty.
We are a League for the transformation of county
voters into realities ; for delivering them from the district
dictatorship to which they are now subjected. And this
is to be done by infusing the life-blood of city thought
and independence into the constituencies. Bring the in
dependent into contact with the dependent. Lay the fac
tory alongside of the farmhouse. Let those who have
been enslaved, even in the tone and spirit of their minds,
be shamed by their friends and neighboui's, who take a
more decisive part in this matter. Let them perceive that
there is for them a protective power. Surely, friends,
neighbours, customers — those who purchase the produce
of their soil — have some title to their care and confidence ;
for who is the best friend to the farmer, the man who pays
him money for his corn, or the man who takes his money
for a rent calculated on monopolist prices ? They call this
" the interference of strangers." There is an absurd way of
speaking of the League as " a stranger" every where. It
is a stranger nowhere. It has domesticated itself here in
London ; but " the League" is every one whose mind sees
clearly, and whose heart beats strongly for, the principles

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 175
and the cause of Free Trade. We are the League in London;
and if we look abroad into the different towns and districts
of the country, wherever there are men who see the real
interests of the nation, who feel for the wrongs of the poor,
who rise up against oppression, and say, " These taxes on
the bread of the indigent shall not continue," why, they
are the League — the League is there. When my Lord
Ducie or Eadnor rises in his place to address his fellow-
peers, why, then the League is in the House of Lords.
When by any chance, however remote, a courageous
thought shall arise in the mind of the premier, and an
honest determination on this matter come from his mouth
amongst his colleagues, then the League will be in the cabi
net. Principles of this nature are like the air or the water —
they have an elemental omnipresence. They are wherever
there is the light of thought and the warmth of feeling.
Besides, as to county representation, are not towns
and cities part and parcel of counties ? Are they foreign
countries ? Are they " aliens in blood, language, or reli
gion"? Are not most counties made by the towns and
cities which are in them ? Do they not rise as the crown
ofthe richness and fertility of the more productive counties ?
Where there is no such fertility, but mineral treasures
exist below the surface, or ports and harbours are found
along the coast, why, there towns and cities make counties
by a work almost to be compared with that of creation,
giving them numbers, wealth, grandeur, and importance,
which Nature seems to have forgotten or overlooked.
What would Middlesex be, if you were to strike London
out of it ? Nay, what would the most rural counties be, if
you were to take from them the advantage of towns, if not
in them, at least in their vicinity, and within an easy
reach ? The counties separate from, and independent of,
the towns ! Do we not buy their wheat, even at their own
monopolist prices ? Do we not very often indeed feed
their poor who seek refuge here ; employ their idle and
superfiuous hands, and give a shelter to their victims?
And, besides all this, do we not purchase their game ?
Towns and cities are the hearts of counties — the last
portion of them that should be left unrepresented. If it
should be said they have their own separate representa
tion, I reply, that is not all. It is property that is repre-

176 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
sented, according to the theory of the law under which we
Hve ; and wherever there are freeholds which produce 40s.
a year, there the constitution supposes — and by supposing
requires and demands of us, if we are patriots — that there
should be a corresponding vote also. Your 40s. freehold'is
not represented by the city and town members ; it has yet
its claim to make. Well is it when that claim can be
urged with such happy results as promise to attend it in
the present instance. For in this plan there is a moral
good beyond, perhaps, what in its original conception was
thought of. It tends to act upon the character of the
entire labouring population of the country — the working
classes — the more toilsome section of the middle classes ;
it holds out to them a hope, promise, and incitement of the
most desirable and elevating description. It says to them,
" Become proprietors of a portion, however small, of this our
England ; have a stake in the country; be something here."
It was thought a wise thing when, by the measure
introduced by the late George Eose, the savings'-bank
funds were connected with the public funds of the country ;
it was deemed judicious in this way to link those who could
amass but very small sums with national institutions and
public interests. And if it was wise and good to endeavour
to make all who could save their pittance become fund-
holders, it must be at least as prudent and just to induce
them, according to their proportion, to become landholders
also, joint shareholders in this lovely and fruitful and
beautiful country — and their country as much as that of
the wealthiest nobleman whose lands cover half a county.
It gives them a tangible bond of connection with society ;
a feeling of independence and honest pride. They are put
in the position which was deemed necessary to citizenship
in the republics of ancient days; and this is adapted to
cherish in them the emotions which best accord with con
sistency, propriety, and dignity of character. The poet
Campbell has described the feelings of the outcast when he
wanders through the vUlage— how he looks wistfully at the
cottage, with its little garden ; leans on the gate, and says
to himself :
" Oh ! that for me some home like this might smile.
Some hamlet's shade, to yield my sickly form
Health in the breeze, and shelter from the storm !"

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 177
To those whose lives are spent in toilsome exertion and
constant endurance, but who can take time so far by the
forelock as to accumulate a little sum, such hope and pro
mise as this does the present plan hold out and offer as
an incitement. May their spirit arise to aspire towards
and seize it ; and obtaining it, I think we shall be on the
high-road towards a better choice of legislators, a more
complete identification of the interests of those who toil
with the advantages of those who think, — a better identifica
tion of the different classes that extend themselves through
the demarcations of society ; and our House of Commons
will then be in a fair way to show what it is to have a
full, fair, and free representation of the commons of
England. You have had well dissected this evening the consti
tuent elements of a great financier ; and you have heard
something of the prosperity of the revenue. I have a
notion that the revenue is prosperous when more money
remains iu our own pockets, rather than when more is
taken out. This comparative prosperity — for it is only
such — has falsified every assertion of monopoly, and verified
all the predictions of the leaders of the League. We
rejoice that there is such a comparative prosperity;, but
yet, how far has it gone towards decreasing the miseries and
the endurance of a very large portion of the community ?
Take up the daily newspapers, and I defy you to look at
them many days in succession without meeting again and
again with coroners' inquests on deaths by destitution;
poor wretches perishing upon a bundle of straw in a corner
of a hovel, where they have scarcely had any nutriment for
days or weeks. Whilst there are such scenes as these, it
is not for our efforts to relax, or for us to bate one jot of
heart or hope in this great struggle, but still to press right
onwards. There is another testimony to the fearful amount of
misery that yet remains untouched, in the different so
cieties which are continually forming; societies, as you
have heard, for grinding and baking bread for the poor ;
for furnishing them with baths and wash-houses ; for set
ting them to work ; putting them into better dwellings ; and
societies for relieving the wants of the poor needlewomen.
The leaders of the League have sometimes been blamed
VOL. IV. N

178 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
because they were thought to look coldly at these efforts;
they have been accused of a sort of jealousy, or an indiffer
ent feeling towards the wants of the poor, as though they
must be careless about them unless they entered into these
specific modes of attempted reHef; the fact being that they
were not less anxious than any of the promoters of those
societies for the removal of the mischiefs of which they
complained ; but they saw at the same time that, as na
tional measures for reHef, these were mere pretensions, so
miserably inefficient that they were scarcely worth a
thought, whilst the great battle was to be sustained as that
which alone could reach the root of the evil, and banish it
from the country. It was their sympathy with, and not
their want of feeling for, the poor that occasioned this
mode of adverting to such exertions.
But aUow me to say that those who were so quick in
detecting in the Free-Traders what they represented as
hostile to humane attempts, might, if they had looked
elsewhere, have seen a real collision with the object of
these societies ; for while there are societies for all these
purposes, there is also an association for rendering the
poor needlewomen unable to buy more than three-fourths
of the bread which they might otherwise purchase; for
making the poor spend so much upon food that they can
not buy a stock of linen to go to the wash ; a society which
so interferes with the rights and wants of the poor, that
they lose all heart and desire of putting themselves into
a better habitation ; there is a society that directly tends
to diminish the amount of work for the poor, to curtail
their employment, and deteriorate the worth of that em
ployment. There is an antagonist society to all these
professedly benevolent institutions ; and that is the Central
Society for keeping up the taxation upon bread. They
are the parties that ought to be accused by those who are
so much addicted to these special modes of charity. On
their heads should the thunderbolt fall. They should be
put upon their trial, and not the leaders of the League.
The League on their trial, indeed ! Why, Providence has
given them their trial, and they have stood it bravely and
triumphantly. They have summered and wintered this
great cause. They have been earnest for it in times of
heaviest suffering, and in periods of comparative prosperity.

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 179
They have pleaded it in the Legislature, and before assem
blages of tremendous multitudes; they have been, to use
an apostolic phrase, " instant in season and out of season."
Every time to them has been a season for striving to ad
vance this great eause of justice and charity. They are
not merely acquitted, but are deserving of all honour for
these proceedings.
It is another party who are upon their trial ; it is the
moral courage of the premier that is upon trial, and his dis
position to carry into practice his own professed principles.
It is the constitution of our country that is upon trial, in
order to ascertain whether it furnishes the means of redress
for this great and pervading wrong. It is the spirit, the
energy, and the determination of the British people that
is upon trial, to see whether it will hold out until it shall
do itself this right, and put down the oppressions of a class.
They call themselves a protection society ; why, we are a
protection society too, although antithetically distinguished
from them. They are au association for the protection of
the rich and powerful ; we, for that of the needy and the
helpless. They are a society for the protection of high
prices of food ; we, for the protection of the highest worth
of wages. They are a society for the protection of indo
lence and of rent ; we, for the encouragement of industry
and of enterprise. They are a society for the protection of
a demoralising, degrading, and destructive system ; we, for
that of universal right, justice, and charity.

No. XVI.
AT THE FEEE-TEADE HALL, MANCHESTER.
March 6th, 1845.
Mr. Chairman, Ladies, and Gentlemen, — Fifteen months
ago I had the gratification of finding myself in this
place, face to face with the men of Manchester, amongst
whom originated this greatest movement of modern times.
In that period there may not have been any triumph of
a stupendous description; certainly there has been no dis
astrous defeat. Nor, on the principle on which the Anti-
Corn-Law League is constructed, was either one or the
other to be anticipated. We work by wit, and not by
witchcraft ; and the leaders of the League were much too
wise and too honest either to expect a miracle or to plan
a revolution. It was no scheme of theirs,- — as a right hon.
baronet, a member of the late administration, once sug
gested, — it was no scheme of theirs, even with their most
excited meetings, to call on the multitude to march and
pull the members by their ears out of St. Stephen's Chapel,
and souse them in the Thames. Their purposes were very
different from any thing of this sort; their action was
upon mind, their reliance upon the omnipotence of truth.
But these months have not been unmarked ; the progress
of enlightened opinion and of firm determination upon this
great matter has been distinct throughout the country.
There has been no flagging of zeal in any locality whatever.
As previous suffering had not disheartened the people too
much for the exertion, neither has the prosperity of the
last few months turned them aside.
In your Athenseums and your projected parks you had
not forgotten for one moment the Anti-Corn-Law League
and its objects, or the efforts which it demands. You feel in
your own minds its growing strength. The nation feels
and recognises its evidence in the House of Commons
itself, — the last place to show the results of a movement.
Yet there, who does not perceive in the present session
that the tone and style ofthe leaders of political parties

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 181
have undergone a material change ; that we find deference
where once there was superciliousness ; that the treasury
bench looks on not haughtily, whilst the leader of the
opposition declares that protection is the bane of agricul
ture ? A higher standing has assuredly been achieved for
the friends of Free Trade, as opposed to the friends of
scarcity, in the legislature of the country. That indication
is valuable for the very reason that more slowly than in
any other class does the progress of knowledge and of
truth act upon that body ; the House of Commons marks
time like a septennial clock, that only strikes at long in
tervals. When the hands do begin to move forward,
however, it is with a sort of jump, and not with the steady
progress that marks the advance of truth amongst the
people; and we may anticipate that on this matter, as on that
of Catholic Emancipation and some other topics, — whilst
year after year we are tauntingly asked, how many votes
have you got? — how many votes have you changed? — that
at last wUl come all at once the word of command from
head-quarters, to " right-about-face !" The ground will
be cleared, and we shall find that what they have been for
whole years denouncing as the ruin of the constitution and
the agriculture of the kingdom, — we shall find them en
lightened on the essential importance of Free Trade, and
declaring that it is the only national policy which such an
empire can adopt.
However it may be in the legislature, the symptoms of
progress are decided enough every where else. They are
evident, not only in the immense numbers that attend
meetings, both here, in the cradle of the Anti-Corn-Law
League, and at those meetings in London, which have gone
on to such an unparalleled extent ; but they are not less
distinct in the character than in the multitudinousness of
the meetings. They are marked by no sudden outbreaks
of popular enthusiasm ; they are drawn together by no
unreasoning appeals to passion and vindictiveness; but
they are pervaded throughout by that high character of
intelligence which is the surest presage of a coming change
in the direction to which intelligence points. Why, in these
meetings, those who had only been accustomed to assem
blies of the people some few years ago, would be perfectly
astonished at the topics that are introduced, at the course

1 82 COLLECTED WORKS OP W. J. FOX.
of argument that is pursued, at the recondite matters
which are familiarly discussed, and which are evidently
understood, appreciated, and dealt with by the largest
assemblies. You may hear at such meetings disquisitions
on differential duties and points of political economy, which
have been judged entirely inappropriate for any large gather
ing, even of the most educated classes. And yet the
hearers follow the speakers distinctly and clearly, with full
understanding and conviction throughout the discussion,
showing that a new state of things has arrived, and that,
whatever may be thought ofthe ultimate objects and ulti
mate triumphs of the League, and its incidental course, it
has done a good unequalled by any former agitation, — that
it has done a good which it was not imagined any agitation
whatever could accomplish. It has stimulated the mind of
the country, — it has informed the mind of the country.
It has been the creator of light and intellect, and by the
power thus brought into being its ultimate objects will
assuredly be achieved. Why, it is enough to make the
bones of Adam Smith rattle rejoicingly in his grave to see
the topics these meetings have discussed. And so long as
this is the case, — while this great schoolmaster is abroad, —
we may feel that good, immeasurable good, is in store for
our country; we may feel that not merely the purposes of
this League, but every purpose that is connected with the
march of the national mind, is advancing towards its ac
complishment ; that the dominion of sophistry, that the
reign of humbug, is over, — over for ever in this country.
No legislator or professed statesman will in future dare
to try the cajolery that has been practised in past times,
when he knows that the flimsiness of his arguments will
instantly be seen through, that his insufficient arguments
wUl have their speciousness detected. He wiU feel that his
best interest is to be honest, because he has to deal with a
development of mind that is no longer to be paltered with.
At the termination of the great European conflict, one of
our poets rejoiced that the prestige of violence and military
glory was over, — that it was gone. The prestige of official
sophistry is rapidly following that of military glory. Its time
for exacting blind homage is gone also, or rapidly going,
under the influence of the proceedings of the League,
And we may say of triumphant chancellors of the ex-

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES, 183
chequer, and their annual statements — full as they used to
be of glozing fraud and falsehood — we may say of them as
we say of the sword and the general's truncheon :
" That spell upon the minds of men
Breaks never to unite again ;"
and the same of the feeling that led them to adore
" That pagod thing that budgets sway,
With front of brass and feet of clay."
Dead by the reports of its enemies over and over again,
the League shows that it is yet alive for the exposure of
sophistry in every form, and for the advancement of its
objects by the most important and influential means, —
those of knowledge, truth, and reason. And even if it
were as comparatively inert as sometimes — the wish being
father to the thought — it has been represented ; even if our
meetings were not gatherings of power, but actually no
more than the theatrical amusements which have occasion
ally been described with a sneer, — still, I say that, even as
amusements, they would at least bear comparison with the
favourite amusements or sports of the most exalted classes
in this country. Why, take our meetings here, or at
Covent-Garden Theatre, or other places, to be only a grati
fication, let them be only a form, — they are not of that sort
that costs the public two millions and a half per annum.
They are not a sport in which of every fifteen persons that
have a title to the amusement there is found one person
who has his mittimus thereby. There is no such propor
tion between the evil and the enjoyment in this instance as
there is in those with which it might be brought into com
parison. It would be a pretty thing, indeed, if for every
meeting of 6000 people — and how many such meetings
has the League held ? — there were to be 400 men sent to
gaol !
It would be a pretty thing, indeed, if 4500 persons were
convicted for crimes perpetrated in consequence of the
Anti-Corn-Law League meetings ; that being about the
number of those committed and punished for offences under
the game-laws connected with the sport I refer to. If our
amusements had any such results, any such attendant mis
chiefs, why, the whole world would have been up in a fer-

184 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
ment about them ; there would have been an instantaneous
cry, " Put it down !" What an opening of letters there
would be at the Post-Office ! What beautiful correct copies
would be engraved of a certain seal, with a wheat-sheaf in
the middle of it, and " Anti- Corn- Law League" round'the
rim of it ! What an outcry there would be for immediate
proceedings, a committee of inquiry ; and then, if such a
committee were proposed, a committee of inquiry into the
amusements of the League, like to that which a gentleman
here present has obtained into the other. And suppose on
that occasion any leading member of the League were to
get up and say: "True, there are great enormities; we
must give way to this committee ; and I hope it will be seen
and noted on the other side the example we set of a ready
acquiescence in this inquiry into our private enjoyments.
why, such a mode of treatment would be received with
roars of laughter by the honourable House ; and something
more markedly censuring than roars of laughter would fol
low the statement of any minister who then should get up
and say : " He did not mean to oppose this committee,
having previously consulted with the leading members of
the League, and found that they were disposed to concede
the measure." Now, really, the good done by proceedings
which too many are disposed to reprobate, and the evil at
tendant on amusements for which so much indulgence is
claimed, offer a contrast, ridiculous or melancholy accord
ing to the point of view we look at it in, but of which we
may at least say this, — that if the amusements of pursuing
game be important to secure the residence of the gentry,
the amusements of our Anti-Corn-Law meetings are im
portant to the very existence of industry as its thrift and
enjoyment. In the interval which has elapsed since I had the plea
sure of meeting you here on a former occasion, that great
step in the progress of the League has been determined
upon and authorised, ofthe emancipation ofthe counties,
— their electoral emancipation, — the most important move
ment connected with this great agitation that has yet been
adopted. It is in effect giving to counties political ex
istence ; for what are the counties without towns in them,
by whose industry they are aggrandised, and by whose
wants their products are disposed of? Towns are an essen-

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 185
tial portion, a vital portion, of counties. They are the
beating hearts of those large tracts of land, without which,
politically, they are but little worth. What would South
Lancashire be without Manchester and Liverpool, — what
Yorkshire without Leeds and Sheffield, — what Middlesex
without London? Why, representation, without giving
these their full weight, the weight of their property, their
intelligence, their zeal, would be worse than Hamlet with
the part of Hamlet cut out of the tragedy : it would
be like a representation of the oceans that encompass our
islands, in which the shoals and sands of the shore were
depicted. Great Britain itself being altogether omitted.
Our plan has sometimes been called unconstitutional.
What does the epithet mean ? Is not the 40s. freehold
vote one of the very oldest portions of our constitution ?
Is it not a right that has been handed down through a
long succession of reigns and of centuries, from the time
of Henry VIL at least ? Has it not been the unquestion
able purpose long before that, has it not been the very
meaning of the constitution, that whoever realises so much
worth of land becomes thereby, for political purposes, part
and parcel of the county, and that without his share in the
representation that representation is imperfect? Instead
of being unconstitutional, it is that which gives the consti
tution existence, makes it something better than a dead
letter, and calls into being political right in the hands
which are best disposed to use it efficiently and practically.
It was said in long past years, by a fanatic, of ancient in
stitutions, " Perish commerce, so the constitution lives !"
The language of the League is the converse of this, and by
this movement you say, " Up, commerce, and make the
constitution live !" You raise it from the very dead, for
it has been in a sleep as profound as that of death in the
county representation, and bid it " come forth aud live !"
You animate it, and bid it go on with power and strength,
and make itself the agency, not of party spirit, but of na
tional grandeur and prosperity.
Well, during that period too the enemy has not been
idle. There has been the Anti-League beating up its re
cruits, accomplishing its regeneration, meeting, not in a
hall like this, but assembling on a first fioor of a house.
No. 17 in New Bond Street. They had a very fine annual

186 COLLECTED WORKS OF W, J. FOX.
meeting there, it is said ; several chairs in the drawing-
room may have been left unoccupied, but stUl altogether it
was a good gathering ; and yet even in that assembly there
were tenant-farmers found to read a lecture to the ducal
farmers' friends, and to tell them something of their mind
as to the promises which had been made to them for a
time, and the halting performance which had foUowed
those promises. Well, their leaders told them to be as
quiet as possible. They selected a land-agent to speak for
the tenant-farmers, and proposed, as to other matters, that
they should have a dinner, and at that dinner they should
drink the labourers' health, but not in water only. There
they have concocted their pamphlets, made their beautifully
correct quotations from Adam Smith, settled their proceed
ings for a campaign, in which, after having gone through ex
ertions of this kind, after having presided at various meetings
in the country, after having gathered together 500 labourers
in clean smock-frocks and with green ribbons round their
hats, to shout before the Queen and impress her with the
comfort of the peasantry, — after all this the Duke of Buck
ingham and the Duke of Eichmond each feels he can lay
his hand upon his heart and say, " Have I not done all
that I can as a man and a monopolist ?"
However, although they still murmur among them
selves, and still tell the country that they must needs have
protection on account of their peculiar burdens, we perceive
no great eagerness to come forward and distinctly prove to
the world what these burdens are. They like the farce, —
it answers a purpose ; but as to going into particulars, and
making out the case, that is quite another thing. They
are of opinion, with the sentimental lady in the play of
The Stranger :
" I have a silent sorrow here, a grief I'U ne'er impart;
It breathes no sigh, it sheds no tear,
But it consumes my heart."
Such is their secret burden ; they will tell nobody of it ;
but whether it consumes their hearts or not, it seems, at
any rate, not hitherto to have consumed their pockets.
No ; I do not mean to deny that the land has peculiar
burdens; and I should say that, first and foremost, the land
of this country is burdened with the most exorbitant pro
prietary of any country in the world. England has been

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 187
rightly named the paradise of landowners. There is no
country in Europe where so small a proportion of the
general taxation of the country is borne by the land as in
Great Britain. There is no country in Europe where the
proprietors of the land have the opportunity, by means of
political power which their possessions confer, to put their
hands into the pockets of other people, and where they use
that power with so unsparing and unmerciful a prodigality.
That is the first great and peculiar burden of the land in
England, — the rent is double now what it was some forty
or fifty years ago, — more than double generally throughout
the country. The burden has thus been increased, is
increased enormously ; and every well-wisher to the land
will feel that it ought to be diminished. Another burden
of the land is the weight of misery which it bears upon its
bosom. It is like a fainting mother, with a child which
she cannot nourish ; mourning and groans are continually
heard, and the unhappy beings who are willing and ready
to till the soil for a very scanty portion of its produce go
here and there begging for leave to work, too seldom
getting it ; and when they do get it, upon most starvation
terms, they continually feel themselves in a dilemma be
tween the workhouse and the suicide of destitution.
Now, this is the burden of the land ; and if the poet,
in the exercise of his imaginative faculties, were to con
ceive the earth as endowed with reason and feeling, he
would imagine it to bring forth bitter remonstrances. The
free air would say, "I flow for all; I yield the measure
which I can give of life and well-being to every organised
existence." The sun would say, " I shine for all ; my light
gladdens the pauper in his hovel as well as the noble in his
palace." But whilst the air breathes for all, and the sun
and stars shine for all, the earth does not bear its fruits for
all; they are made artificially scarce, dear, and inaccessible
to a large proportion of those by whose labour they are
produced. And then a seeming curse is laid upon the
earth from which the other elements may claim exemption.
Yes, the land has to bear the burden of an unnatural
complicity in crime and wretchedness ; for it is made the
pretext for all these. There are those who support a mo
nopolist system, who undertake to feed the country, and fail
in the attempt, and yet endeavour to exclude the foreign

188 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX,
nations, and set upthe vain plea of independence,— as if any
nation could be independent of others, — as if it did not
render them the less independent of us ! yet they say it is
aU for the sake of the land. They keep down the pea
santry ; they make the farmer pay rent out of his capital,
opening only before him the melancholy prospect of de
clining resources, crippling his energies, stopping his enter
prise ; and they say it is all for the sake of the land.
They fix barriers to trade, and limit the markets for com
merce; they press heavily upon manufacturing industry;
they aHenate this country from other countries ; and they
say it is all for the sake ofthe land,— the innocent land,
which abjures it all. It is for their own sordid sakes. It
is the work of the government over which they tyrannise ;
it is no ordinance of nature; it is Peel, and not Providence;
it is not God, but government.
Another topic which has risen into importance during
these last fifteen months, is that which has been so ably and
amply adverted to by your chairman in his opening address ;
I mean the bazaar which is soon to be held in Covent-Garden
Theatre, and which partakes of that simplicity, breadth, and
grandeur which has characterised so many of the proceed
ings of the Anti-Corn-Law League. It is of itself an argu
ment — it will be a most imposing argument to the senses —
this exhibition of the products of the national industry,
this display of what manufacturing power and skill and
taste can achieve in the variety and in the magnificence
which will there be exhibited. But where will space be
found for the exhibition ? Why, Covent-Garden Theatre ! —
scarcely London itself would suffice for the full display of
such an exhibition of the labours, of the products of manu
facturing industry, as one would wish to see accumulated
on that occasion. And even then, how imperfect it would
be ! Show the deeds of industry, — of British industry ;
arrange its trophies : why, not all the space of London
would suffice for any thing of that sort. Nor would you
have it in such goods as can be carted, or wagoned, or
boated to the metropolis ; why, to exhibit British industry
in its whole magnificence, you should remove Manchester
bodily to London. We should have up your long lines of
buUdings — your palaces; we should have up your ample
factories ; we should have up your capacious warehouses ;

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 189
we should have from other places their docks, their ship
ping ; we should gather together all that has been done by
the power that raises temples, towers, and palaces ; fur
nishing them with all the adornments of luxury, and with
all the splendour of grandeur. Bring all these together,
and then let Industry point to them, and say : " These are
my works ; how long shall legislation interfere with my
recompense ?" Oh, that we could have, not only the pro
ducts, but the men that made the products too ! Our
great industrial army, — the noblest army ever raised, — the
most varied, the most magnificent in its bloodless triumphs,
the most glorious of armies ! Would that we could have
it there, with all its ensigns of industry, with all its
trophies of success ! Why, no processions of royal and
titled personages, with all their crowns and coronets, their
sceptres, robes, and helmets, no military march of battalions
that have won the bloodiest fields, with their resounding
music and their fiaunting banners, could possibly compete
in moral grandeur with that stupendous procession, that
exhibition ofthe might with which man is enriched through
his intelligence and his vigour, acting for the noblest re
sults, and ruling effectually over the very elements of nature
for the benefit of humanity.
I am certain monopoly could never compete with that
exhibition ; no, not though there were borne in procession
coffers filled with all the wealth the bread tax ever realised, —
not though nobles were there, not only with their insignia of
state, but with their attendants who grace their amusements
also, — not though there were Corn-Law dukes and peers,
with their huntsmen and whippers-in, with their very
hounds, — not though all the game they had slaughtered
could be raised from the dead, and they could proceed in
stately march, every man heading what he had destroyed
in a battue, his hundred hares and his two hundred phea
sants. The very paltriness in comparison would sweep
them away into utter insignificance ; it would render more
striking the grandeur and the glory of British industry, —
that industry to which the ancients, in their idolatrous en
thusiasm, would have raised temples, to which they would
have built altars, offering sacrifices, with the songs of the
poet and the exhibitions of the drama ; and for which, in
our Christian times, we seek no such homage, but merely

190 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
demand appreciation, merely cry out for bare justice, merely
say, " Here we are, the representatives of industry ; we
have done all this ; and do we not deserve, not titles or
honours, but the bread untaxed which we earn by the
sweat of our brow ?"
But it may be said, and is said, that we are better off
than we were, that the season has been favourable, that
here and elsewhere there is a considerable revival of trade,
and that with this we should be content. I scarcely think
the time is come to be contented yet. There have been
concessions, no doubt; the late alteration in the tariff
has made a good many; but still nothing must be multi
plied a vast number of times before it amounts to any
thing substantial. In the goods exonerated from duty
there are " greaves," which I am told are useful for feed
ing dogs. Now, if the food of dogs is to be imported
free of duty, what a shame it is that that of labouring
men is to be so heavUy taxed ! The little obstacles are
giving way to Free-Trade principles; we want to seethe
great ones giving way also. In this variety of movements
with the smallest items ofthe list, there is an encourage
ment to push the argument for consistency yet more stren
uously with those who hold the reins of power.
Sir Eobert Peel professes Free-Trade principles; re
peatedly and distinctly has he professed them. We cannot
then let him off with any such minute application as he is
making in all these operations. We cannot allow him to
boast of it much, to come pompously forward and say what
he is doing for the country. The littleness of the doings
will warrant no boast, whilst there is so serious a deficiency
in the carrying out of those very principles. This magni
loquence only reminds one of that late facetious character,
of theatrical notoriety, Eobert EUiston. When he was the
manager of Drury-Lane Theatre, some great tragedian
exceedingly pleased him by his performance one night.
EUiston, in his pompous way, marched into the green
room when the play was over ; there, amid the assembled
company, he called the successful tragedian before him ; he
made a sounding speech to him, teUing him how gratified
he had been by the able personation of that evening, how
it drew tears and excited clamours of applause, and wound
up by saying, it had so impressed him that he could n6t

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 191
feel he had discharged his duty without showing his appre
ciation by presenting him with a small piece of plate, and
accordingly he handed to the- flattered tragedian — a silver
toothpick ! Now, Sir Eobert Peel's Free-Trade perform
ances are very much like this small piece of plate — they
amount to but very little ; and our answer to them all is,
that we take them as pledges of principle, and not as satis
faction of our demands ; we thank him for the little tooth
pick, but we are determined to have the dinner also.
Whilst there is so much reason for rejoicing in the pro
sperity which there has been for a time in manufactures,
I find also ample warrant for saying this does not satisfy
us. For look, after aU, at the limitations of the prosperity.
It has been comparative, it is not absolute ; it may be as
much as the present system will allow, — it is not so much
as the interests of the country or the claims of humanity
require. Why, in this prosperity of ours, what does Sir
James Graham tell us ? That, last year, 1,500,000 persons
received more or less relief from the poor-rates. One per
son out of every fifteen, in a state of prosperity, as it is
called, receiving relief; 200 millions of pounds expended
on the poor since the conclusion of a general peace !
Why, we might ask, did one not know how these matters
were effected, — one might ask, if this be prosperity, in the
name of Heaven, what is our adversity and calamity?
We still hear, too, of deaths by destitution; many cases
have I noticed lately of suicide from destitution. And so
long as any reports of this kind, or any facts of this de
scription, exist in the country, you cannot say there is
such prosperity as any heart can be satisfied with that
is not deadened in its whole feeling of what humanity is
entitled to from the possessors of our common nature.
Prosperity or adversity, it is our business to see that these
things shall not be, whilst there is any further opening for
the spread of trade and commerce by which these persons
may earn their bread, instead of receiving it in charity ;
and instead of dying in destitution, may live on by their
own exertions, or by those of their connections who have
been enabled to render their kindly assistance.
Towards this we should ever direct our view, — be con
tent with nothing but the entire establishment of the
claims of justice and of humanity. Aud the reason for

192 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
not being satisfied with this degree of prosperity is, that
the way in which it has been attained shows us the
path to get a great deal more. Let Sir Eobert Peel take
what credit he will for the alterations of the tariff, — if that
modicum of Free Trade has done so much, what wUl not
the broad and universal application of the principle effect ?
He calculates that he has given us of Free Trade enough to
enable us to pay the income tax ; we want a little more,
in order to enable us to rise above the apprehension of
change, and see the interests and prosperity of the country
moving forward in an accelerated ratio. We are content
to bear whatever burdens are needful for the state, willing
to be taxed for the Queen and country, — for the adminis
tration of law, for army and navy, for the interest of the
national debt; but very unwilling to be taxed for the
timber-merchants, the sugar-dealers, or the landlords. We
hold that to be quite another thing. We do not feel bound
to support them, either in grandeur, or in any state short
of that of absolute pauperism ; and if they claim the pri
vileges of paupers, they must submit to ask for them in
paupers' language.
Especially do we demur to our own best feelings, our
own noblest exertions, being turned against us for the
purposes of class taxation, when the philanthropy of the
country, its generous, its noble zeal for negro emanci
pation, has been made to recoil upon it and serve as a
reason for a monopoly in sugar, — as if we were thus to
be screwed down because it was found that we felt for
the unhappy negro. This is a most mean and ungenerous
use of the feeling that was exhibited by the people of this
country on that subject. Did they not cheerfully pay their
twenty millions, and was not the bargain then complete?
Why should we now pay, not for the good of the negro,
for that is not in question, — but simply for the interest of
the West-India proprietor ? The negro does not want our
interposition ; the complaint of the monopolist papers is,
that the negro is too well off. A paper in their interest,
the Morning Herald, says, that the state of things cannot
be good until the wages of labour of the freed negro is
reduced, — brought down to what it calls " the wholesome
European standard." The same paper says that it advo
cated free labour, but it never meant free idleness. Now,

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 193
if the emancipated black can afford to be idle now that he
is free, — if in that genial climate he can realise all that he
deems necessary for his subsistence and his comfort, which
has been complained of by some of these newspapers, — if
he is even in the way to get so much for his labour as to
aggrandise himself, and to become a proprietor of the
lands he was once flogged to till, why should we not
wish him God speed? We have struggled, we have
paid for his emancipation ; and if emancipation bring him
wealth, in the name of Heaven let him possess the enjoy
ment of that wealth, and all the luxuries it can realise.
" No," says the mock philanthropy of the day, " you must
enable us to compete with slave labour ; you must pay us
further." And thus they make your good feeling the in
strument of subserving their sordid interests.
The philanthropy of our modern West-India proprie
tors reminds me of a story of Barrington, the noted pick
pocket, some years ago, whose memoirs were at the
time as popular as are the stories of Dick Turpin and Jack
Sheppard at the present day. He was transported at last ;
but at Botany Bay he amassed property and became a
magistrate, — one of the " great unpaid," — no doubt he
took care to pay himself Well, Barrington one day went
to a watchmaker in London, and gave him instructions
to make a very delicate instrument, of a very peculiar
construction, which he was to call for. It was made,
and made to his satisfaction. He praised it much; he
paid the man a 10/. note for the job, and was going away,
when the maker of the instrument preferred the request
that he might know the use for which it was intended.
" I shall not tell you its use," said Barrington ; " after
wards, perhaps, you may discover." As soon as he was
gone, the man found that the instrument had been already
used to draw the 10/. note out of his pocket. And so you
have manufactured a beautiful philanthropy, a genuine
one, and the West- India interest, like Barrington, is using
your philanthropy to draw money out of the public pocket;
and thus you may discover what the objects were with
which this philanthropy passed so readily into the ranks
of those who had always been the most determined ene
mies of negro emancipation.
Be not satisfied, I say, with present prosperity, with
VOL. IV. O

194 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
all its appearances ; for what security for its permanence
can we ever have, whilst obstructions to the importation
of corn and the exportation of goods remain, not only to
limit the operations of commerce, but to spread uncer
tainty over prices, and every thing connected with such
transactions? Why, if one or two bad harvests were to
come, where would our prosperity be? The change which
came in with low prices would go out with high prices;
the same fearful round would have to be trod from which we
have but just emerged; there would be the same outcry, the
same want and destitution, the same heart-sickening scenes,
that but a few years ago produced an impression that can
never be obliterated. For there is no security until the
simple and direct application of Free-Trade principles shall
be made to all the arrangements of this great commercial
country. It is as if the powers of disorder were ever be
neath our feet. For a short time a stimulus is given, and
we rejoice therein. You find in it not a motive for relax
ation, but to work on; and while there is no better security
than we yet possess, what is the result of prosperity but
eventually to enrich those who hold the ultimate screw,
and who endeavour to turn every aggrandisement of the
country and augmentation of its wealth to their own
account ?
We should never forget what has been witnessed, and
what, when it returns, will return in a yet more awful
form ; for these crises grow continually darker and deeper
as they recur. The powers are undiminished in their force
and energy by which the last great seasons of distress were
occasioned ; they are ready, the moment they are let loose,
to work again the like disastrous consequences. It is but
as the condition of those who live on the side of Vesuvius
or Etna : we may grow careless. The field and the moun
tain-side may be rich ; the vineyards may be laden with
grapes ; the wealthy may be careless ; pretty cottages and
stately mansions may rise here and there ; the peasantry
may be dancing night and day. But the principles that
are at work in the bowels of the earth still keep on with
their chemical combinations ; the great laboratory never
ceases; and in the midst of all this peacefulness and
rejoicing, another combination of those elements produces
explosion, shakes the solid mountain itself; the burning

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 195
lava stream rushes down, scattering all before it ; the scene
changes from one of peacefulness and joy to one of dreary,
wide, and lasting desolation. And if a blind persistence
in the cause of monopoly should survive the present time
of comparative quiet and prosperity — should hold on until
failing harvests and famine prices and sinking trade again
excite the public mind, and stimulate to madness the
feelings of the destitute, — who can say what is too old, too
venerable, too sacred, not to be shaken in that convulsion,
or give way before that tremendous tempest ?
We should not wait till the storm arrives, when it will
be impossible to rectify that which,, with great care, may be
harmoniously arranged during the season of calm and sun
shine. Therefore, now, with might and main, urge on
your great work ; continue with that peaceful and untiring
energy that has hitherto been manifested, and make good
your steps in the course which leads to assured success.
Men of Manchester, with whom it began, I know you
cannot and will not relax. You did not when alone, before
your spirit had spread itself over the whole face of the
country, before you had elicited the response of the metro
polis : then you were decided and determined, and you
cannot cease to be so now. The resistance of moral nature
is at least as great as that of physical nature. There is the
security of enlightened determination — a security as great
as that of cause and effect in the material creation. The
sun and moon once stood still to accommodate an army;
Cobden and Bright will not stand still to aecommodate a
government. Onward, still onward, is their word, whether it
be in this mode of action or in that. You will hold your
meetings, you will register your voters, you will circulate
your tracts, you will send out your lecturers. Whether
you petition parliament or abstain from petitioning —
whether you cultivate the constituencies of counties or of
boroughs — whether you subscribe your money or whether
you exhibit manufacturing productions — still your ten
dency is the same ; it is a working right on towards the
great and blessed end — a working on with a power like
that of the mighty elements of nature — unresting, in
visible or visible — welcome or unwelcome to mortals —
judged rightly or wrongly — still they form their combi
nations, still they go on, the sun shining by day, and the

196 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
moon and stars by night, maturing the richness of the
varied seasons. And like them, your moral energy — a
great power of nature also, of our inward and spiritual
being — will fulfil its work, which shall combine with all
the elemental influences of heaven and earth to declare the
glory of God, and to insure the well-being of humanity.

No. XVII.
AT COVENT-GAEDEN THEATEE.
April m, 1845.
Now that these meetings are about for a time to be sus
pended, and to give way to other modes of demonstration
of the progress of our cause, and as the topics of the day
connected with Free-Trade principles have here and else
where been continuously and amply discussed, it seems to
me not undesirable that the general principles on which
our League is founded, the spirit in which its operations
are conducted, and the object to which they tend, should
briefly pass in review before us ; partly to guide those who
for a while will lose the opportunity of assembling here,
that they may bear in mind to what to direct their exer
tions, and may keep steadily in view those everlasting truths
which are the basis of all our expectations,, and the direction
of our efforts ; and partly to estimate the progress of our
cause. Founded in truth as these principles are, we reckon
with unfailing confidence on their eventual triumph. We
are encouraged by many signs to expect a speedy triumph ;
and however varied the League may appear in its constitu
ent elements, however different the classes and parties of
those who assist in its proceedings, still it differs from all
great bodies which have been prominently before the
public in this, — that we are not a political party; we do
not make our principles extempore for the occasion, nor
adopt one line of argument to-day and another to-morrow.
We are not an "interest," in the common sense of the
term. Agitation is not with us subordinate to sordid pur
poses, and meant in some peculiar and especial way to-
answer the objects of a trade in which we are all engaged ;
but we belong, as you have just been told, to all parties in
politics and in society ; the bond of our union being in
principle, a principle as demonstrable as the strictest
science; as deep in its basis as is the constitution of
human nature; as enduring as the history of society,
whose progress history records ; as pure and sacred as the-

198 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
dictates of morality; and as certain of success as that truth
is omnipotent and must prevail.
The principles of the League are exhibited in a few of
the simplest facts in economical science. There is nothing
in them of abstruseness, depth, and remoteness, which can
long entangle or perplex an earnest mind. They consist
almost of axioms : that we should buy in the cheapest market
and sell in the dearest ; that the labourer is worthy of his
hire, and of that hire not diminished merely for the pur
pose of enriching his neighbour ; that the legitimate object
of taxation is the exigency of a state, and not the profit of
a class ; and that the common interest of nations is in the
free interchange of their diversified productions. These are
our principles : truths so plain that scarcely any body ven
tures to deny them in terms, and which all assent to, only
making exceptions and equivocations, endeavouring to mys
tify in this and the other direction, just for the sake of
some paltry interest which they have more at heart than
the cause of truth and the well-being of humanity. We
are not sectarian in political economy. All the teachers of
the science, with scarcely any exception — at least, all the
more eminent — agree in laying down the maxims which I
have just enumerated as the foundation of their specula
tions. The doctrines we hold are the same in all times and
in every country.
A gentleman from the United States, who is present
with us this evening, put into my hands the other day a
work produced in that country some fifteen years ago or
thereabouts, at. a time when the American tariff was first
making a .portion of its community feel an undue pressure ;
and there the principles that we advocate here are taught
with most lucid statement and cogent reasoning; the situa
tion being only just the converse of ours : the agriculturists
being there the pleaders for Free Trade, and pushing their
arguments — as we do ours against the landlords here —
against the manufacturers there, for endearouring to make
them pay for cotton goods double the price at which they
could get much better by importing instead of manufac
turing in their own regions.
The writer, however, was happy in one Ulustration, which
may bear its application in this country. One chapter in
his book is a petition from certain fig-growers in the djs-

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 199
trict of Columbia. It appears that iu the neighbourhood
of Washington the climate is such that, " under favourable
circumstances," figs will ripen ; accordingly a manifesto is
drawn up, stating the desirableness ofthe United States
being independent of Turkey for the supply of the popula
tion with figs. It was said that this would very much in
crease the value of land in the United States ; that the cul
tivation of it needed nothing in the world but " protection,"
— that reasonable protection which government should give
to native industry ; that the capital thus invested would be
laid out most advantageously, as it would employ a great
number of native labourers ; hothouses, indeed, would be
necessary, but then they would employ still more labour ;
and though the figs would be very dear at first, yet pro
tection might so stimulate the native production, as that
eventually America would be the greatest fig-growing and
exporting nation in the world. Not only national inde
pendence but religion was invoked. It was said that the
figs came from Turkey, and every body knows that the cry
in Constantinople is, " In the name of the Prophet — figs !"
By the proposed plan they would uo longer have figs in the
name of the Prophet ; and, with an exceUent class thus
nurtured, thriving on the high rents of their fig-grounds,
what an independent and proud attitude would the country
assume in the eyes of other nations, insomuch that, should
a war break out, not a nation ou the face of the earth
could then dare to say, " Here is a fig for America !"
It is a great mercy that the landowners of our country
have no figgeries. The same arguments of independence,
the same isolation from other regions, the same pretext of
employing native industry, the same disregard of the loss
of labour in doing that with much toil and expense which
could be produced with less toil and expense elsewhere, —
these would all apply in our country as well as in America.
They are the arguments used on behalf of the Corn Laws ;
and the only difference between the supposed case of the
figgery and the actual case of the Corn Laws is this, that
the one touches only a luxury, and the other goes to
diminish the supply of the very first necessary of human
existence. Our principles are not only simple, but they are old, —
as old as the science of political economy itself. They were

200 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
born with its birth. The common cry that is raised against
those who advocate reform and improvements, " Oh, you
are introducing new principles, you are broaching unheard-
of theories !" cannot be urged against the Anti-Corn-Law
League. We trace back those principles through aU the
writers on the subject, and we find indications of them in
the very first teachers of economical science, who were
only groping their way. They are part and parcel of it :
to deny them is to deny altogether that there is such a
science as political economy. Not that I should wonder
at hearing such a denial, for a hardihood of assertion has
sometimes been shown which would scarcely be surpassed
by going that length. I should not be surprised if it were
some day even to be asserted, as the old nurse in Martin
Chuzzlewit— 'Betsey Prig— says of Mrs. Harris, _ " Don't
believe there ain't no sich a person." Nor would it be as
tonishing if some Protection- Society manifesto were to
declare that " there was no such person never had been as
Adam Smith," except, indeed, that this testimony has
been given by that society to the existence of such a
writer, that they falsified his words and misrepresented his
doctrines. But our principles are not merely as old as political
economy; they are, in truth, as old as the history of man
kind, the facts of which are the materials of political eco
nomy. They are intertwined with the records of the pros
perity and the calamity of nations. We can trace them
through the long annals of ancient and modern times. We
trace them back beyond this, even to the very constitution of
nature and the globe itself They are the dictates of phi
losophy, interpreted by the system of things in which we
live, and of which we form a portion ; for when that mighty
Power who spread abroad the heavens, fixed suns in their
central position, and rolled the planets in their orbits,
surrounded them with belts and satellites, measuring the
course — limitless as it seems — ofthe wandering comet,
which, in its wild career, moves from the intensity of light to
the deepest darkness ; bound all together by the principle of
gravitation — and thus united our system to other systems
through all the infinity of being, — when that Power fa
shioned this earth of ours, it made a reflex of the com
bined, harmonised, and mutually dependent system which

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 201
is exhibited to the astronomer when he gazes on the hea
vens ; it endowed one climate with one species of fertility,
and another with another ; and surrounded the earth with
those zones — temperate, torrid, and frigid — constituting
climates, sunny or moist, in all their diversities, and gave
the luscious vine to grow upon the banks of the Ehine and
the Ehone, and enriched the Spice Islands with their fra
grant products; it spread the broad and vast prairies of
America, sufficient to grow corn for the whole world's con
sumption, planted the tea-groves of China, endowed the
sugar-cane with its sweetness, and gave to Britain its coast,
minerals, and industry, — and by these, as by the mutual
dependence of the heavenly bodies, it said : " All these be
long to each other ! Let their influence be reciprocal : let
one minister to another; be the interest of each the in
terest of all, and let all minister to each." They are one
in wisdom and beneficence, and show forth as resplen-
dently as the starry heavens the glory of a benevolent Pro
vidence. Our principles are not only the dictates of nature, but
they are the morality of nations; they are doctrines of
peace and harmony to those whom thoughtless presump
tion, designing ambition, or mad passion, would stir up
to offensive deeds, and to the slaughter and devastation,
the aggregate of crime and misery, which is too often
called " glorious and honourable war.''' I trust that, com
bining with other influences, the principles of Free Trade
wUl become in our land as a barrier against warlike feel
ings through the great mass ofthe population; so that they
will give no encouragement and no heed to those who would
turn aside the course of improvement, and stop all useful
progress; who would suspend the best efforts of mind,
heart, and industry, for the indulgence of any proud selfish
ness or passion that may point in the direction of hos
tilities towards any country that respects our shores, and
wUl interchange with us the commodities we produce.
It is sad to see how Hghtly speakers and writers wiU
put forth whatever degree of power they may possess in such
a direction as that of warlike operations. I cannot but con
fess to have been somewhat shocked this morning at reading
an article in a paper which, by the expression I am about
to quote, shows how easUy the advocate of starvation may

202 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
pass to the morality of massacre. I read this morning in a
paper an intimation to America, that "New York and
some other towns might conveniently be bombarded."
Why, we were angry enough when the hot-headed young
Prince de JoinviUe thought that Brighton might be
conveniently bombarded, and yet we are holding out a
threat of this sort. Upon what account, or upon what
ground ? Because Messrs. Peel and Polk have talked like
two blustering boys about the Oregon territory. Why,
what is this territory they are disputing about ? There are
some 350,000 square miles of it, of which it seems we are
claiming a barren 100,000, or thereabouts. What are they
worth ? What is the value of all the land that exists with
out man upon it, with his industry and products ? Much
of this Oregon territory is a desert ; the great Sahara of
America, the Botany Bay of the red man's banishment.
There are now upon it some few hundreds of Indians and
half-castes, connected with the Hudson' s-Bay Company;
there are certain trappers, hunters, and squatters from the
United States. Then there are some Indian tribes there,
who rejoice in such names as " Flathead," " Slitnose,"
" Pointed-heart." The buffaloes are the lords of the soil,
unless when the game-laws of these Indians interfere. A
great portion of it is mere lava, the overflowing of vol
canoes ; a " city" is talked of, but scarcely any settlement
makes it, as territory, of any value. Quarrel about this !
Why, we might just as well be invited by Peel and Polk to
fight about mountains in the -moon.
But let men have something to do with it ; let those
who have found no preferable home go there, and see what
effect they can produce upon the best portions of the soil ;
as their numbers increase and their exertions tell, it will
soon become more valuable. And when man has occupied
it ; when industry has driven its car of peaceful conquest
around the borders of that vast land; when towns have
arisen and cities appeared, with their thronging numbers;
when the Eocky Mountains are tunnelled, and rail and
canal have united the Atlantic and Pacific; when the
waters of the Columbia swarm with steamboats, — why,
then will be the time to talk of the Oregon territory.
Then, without a regiment or line-of-battle ship, without
bombarding any town whatever. Free Trade will conquer

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 203
the Oregon territory for us, and will conquer the United
States for us also, — as far as it is desirable either for us or
for them that there should be any conquest whatever in the
case, — Free Trade will establish there all the insignia of
conquest. When their products come here, and those of
our industry return, there will be scarcely a labourer upon
the pine-forest that he is clearing but will wear upon his
back, to his very shirt, the livery of Manchester. The
knife with which he carves his game will have the mark of
Sheffield upon its blade, as a testimony of our supremacy.
Every handkerchief waved upon the banks of the Missouri
will be the waving of an English banner from Spitalfields.
Throughout the country there will be marks of our skUl
and greatness, and tribute paid for us received not by war
riors or governors, not coming directly into the national
treasury, but fiowing into the pockets of the industrious
and toiling poor, refreshing trade, and enriching those who
pursue it, giving them an imperial heritage beyond the wide
Atlantic. Why, they will be conquered, for they will work
for us; and what can the conquered do more for their
masters ? They will grow corn for us, they will grind it,
and send us the fiour; they will fatten pigs for us upon
the peaches of their large wooded grounds ; they will send
us whatever they can produce that we want, and without
asking us to put our hand in our pocket in order, by tax
ation, to pay a governor there for quarrelling with their
representatives, or soldiery to bayonet their multitudes.
There is nothing upon earth worthier the name of empire
than this ; this is a nobler kind of dominion, less degrad
ing both for the one party and for the other, less debasing,
than any sovereignty that was ever won by armies, and,
being so won, reluctantly swayed by sceptres.
But it is not only from nation to nation that the
uniting influence of our principles extends, but from class
to class, where the alienation is, perhaps, sometimes greater
than amongst those who dwell in the most remote locali
ties. We have very much indeed to achieve in the appli
cation of those principles in our own country, as well as
with reference to other nations. The severe period of three
years ago has passed away, but not that we should sleep in
fancied security. Let this babble of fleets and armies, and
these threats of war, increasing, as they will, feeHngs of

204 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
animosity and enmity, if they lead to no direct results of
hostihties, produce their natural result of deranging the ope
rations of trade, or let two or three bad harvests in succession
send up the price of corn to such a price as it then attained,
and where are we, with the prosperity that has been so
much boasted of? It is for us to look in time to the pre
vention ; for means by which a recurrence of the tremen
dous calamities of that period shall be averted. And in
our prosperity I confess I see reason, abundant reason, on
every hand, for putting forth exertions to mitigate the
amount of wretchedness with which that prosperity is
clouded and tainted. For in this metropolis what is the
condition, I will not say of hundreds, but of thousands
and thousands? What is the state ofthe habitations of
the poor, made so wretched by their wretchedness; for
nobody lives in a hovel that can hire a decent house ?
I met a short time since with a report of one of our
religious societies — "the London City Mission." The
Spitalfields' auxiliary of that mission reported thus, at the
commencement of the present year : they begin with stating
the iUness of one of their missionaries ; and then they go
on to say that " a second missionary was very shortly after
seized with an equally violent attack of fever, and has been
entirely disabled for work for nearly four months, and in
great hazard of his life. He is now, by God's blessing,
beginning to regain his strength, but he will not again be
able to resume work upon the same district, and it will be
necessary for him also to be removed. Neither of these
cases of fever occurred from the visitation of any peculiarly
affected room, but simply from the constant exposure to
the malaria of so densely populated and undrained a dis
trict. A third missionary has been in so bad a state of
health as to allow him to work for many months but for
a very limited period of time ; a fourth missionary has had
to resign through the failure of his health ; a fifth, to be
removed ; a sixth is stiU very weak ; and a seventh mis
sionary, in the parish of Spitalfields, has been entirely laid
by for the last eight weeks. These illnesses have occurred
in spite of every precaution ; no missionaries being received
into the mission but such as are in the prime of life, and
who can satisfactorily show that they are in a good state
of health,"

ANTl-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 205
Thus there is a plague that requires to be ' stayed.
I know there are propositions for sanitary legislation ; but
what can all the sanitary legislation in the world do, if you
do not mitigate the poverty that locates people in these
wretched, unwholesome situations ? You are only touch
ing the outward symptoms of the disease. With your
improvements it has continuaUy happened that you drive
them yet further and yet closer together. You coop them
up into yet more pestilential crowds and corners. It is by
an amendment of their condition, — by giving them better
wages, that they may pay for better houses, — and in that
alone, that you can stay such an exhibition as this, and
clear the way for those operations of religion which are
now rendered fatal to the missionaries themselves by the
intervention of monopoly. The missionary who makes
this report gives the following statement: "The extreme
poverty and the frequent destitution of the Spitalfields'
population, present further difficulties in their instruction.
When the cravings of hunger are indicting pain on the
bodies of the people, they are naturally indifferent to other
matters; and very many are the families who are thus
circumstanced, and who, when the missionary speaks to
them of religion while they are wanting bread, consider
that he is mocking them. One missionary found, during
the severe weather of last winter, a poor woman very
ill, lying upon a few cane shavings, without a particle of
fire, with scarcely an article of clothing to cover her per
son, literally perishing for want. He dared not to direct
her to the Saviour as the bread of life until he had first
saved her from starving by furnishing her with the bread
that perisheth."
The case of this woman is, iu a curious way, most
unconsciously on the part of the writer of the report, con
nected with the assertions that have been repeatedly put
forth by the advocates of the League. How came the
poor creature in such a condition as that the very proposal
to speak of religious matters, under the common simile of
food, was in danger of being thought a mockery? The
Inquirer thus teUs us : " This widow is aged thirty-six, by
trade a chair-bottomer and lucifer-box maker ; she has one
child aged thirteen, and one married daughter." Now,
mark here. " Her husband died about twelve years since.

206 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
leaving her vrith three small children, one of whom shortly
after died. For the first six years she comfortably sup
ported herself and family by slop-making, but at the end
of that time wages were much reduced, and she was even
tually thrown out of work : a distress for rent followed,
and for five weeks herself and children had to sleep in a
cupboard  I perceived that she was starving, and
would soon be in eternity if something was not immedi
ately done for her. ... In the afternoon the parish doctor
was obtained, and he testified that she was dying for want
of nourishment — a circumstance not to be wondered at, as
it is a fact that for six weeks previously the most she had
been able to earn during any one week was 3s. 6d., some
times it was only 2s. 6c?., out of which she had to pay 2s.
per week for rent."
Now, I request your attention to the date. This poor
woman, with her family, lost her husband twelve years
ago; that is, twelve years from the winter of 1844, when
the missionary visited her, and then for six years she had
work and wages, and supported her family. What were
those six years ? Why, the twelve years just bring us back
to 1832. The price per quarter of wheat in that year was
58s. 8d.; and for the five years following it was — in 1833,
52s. Ud. ; in 1834, 46s. 2d. ; in 1835, 39s. 4^d.; in 1836,
48s. Gd. ; and in 1837, 55s. lOd Those were the first six
years ; and then that poor woman maintained her family
single-handed. " But," says the missionary, " at the end
of that time wages were much reduced, and then foUowed
the distress for rent, and the seizure of their bed, and the ,
starvation that followed." Now, I have given the prices of'
wheat up to 1837. In 1838, the date of the commence
ment of these disasters, wheat rose to 64s. 7d. ; in 1839,
70s, 8d.; in 1840, 66s, 4(/, ; and in 1841, 64s. 4d There
is the history and mystery of the poor woman's ability in
the one case, and inability in the other; of the comfort of
the first six years, and the misery of the six that followed.
Now, is it for men like Sir Eobert IngHs, who supports this
and similar societies, to talk of "the cold-hearted and
muddle-headed economists," — who would go to the root of
this mischief, and enable such people as that poor woman to
support herself, — who have taught repeatedly in this place
how cheap years are years of prosperity for the labouring poor,

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 207
and dear years of calamity for them. "Cold-hearted and
muddle-headed," because they do not look at the outward
symptoms merely, or rest in a superficial view, just re
moving the pressure for a moment ; but, instead of groping
in the dark, penetrate to the core of the thing, lay the axe
to the root, and would strike down a system that bears
such pestilential fruit for the population of this metropolis
and the country at large.
I cannot dismiss this report without reverting to ano
ther ease in it for a very different reason. One of the mis
sionaries relates the case of a Christian woman, who had
been out of work some time. His superintendent noticed
the case, and requested him to take her an order for Is.
a week for six weeks. On informing her of this, and offer
ing her the order, she expressed her thankfulness for the
kindness, but added : " I cannot think of accepting it, as
there are so many who have families to support, and who
are as poor as I am. Let it be given to one of them. I
have Is. 6d. a week to subsist upon, and the promise of a
faithful God to trust to. I have always been able to earn
my daily bread, and while I can do that my conscience will
not allow me to take what so many need." Noble creature !
I wish our ¦aohlemen, as they are called by a stretch of
courtesy, would imitate her magnanimity. They, with all
their broad lands and their well-filled coffers, with their
thousands per week, or per day, perhaps; they, with the
sources of wealth and emolument ever flowing for them in
a golden stream, — do not disdain to take the shilling that
she refused: they take it out of the poor slop-maker's
pocket who is earning her 3s. a week — they extract it from
her by their Corn Laws.
While there are such things as these in the country, it
is for the League to be up and doing, to keep ever before
the public mind the principles by which alone such a
plague can be stayed. It is for them also to teach the
unscrupulous classes their duty. I said they did not dis
dain to take the shilling, for they were out of sympathy
with this poor but honourable-minded woman. I fear they
were not in sympathy, either, when she said she would
" try to earn her own living, and trust in Providence."
That is not the course their confidence takes. They are
Hke the old Scotchwoman, who, when the waters at Queen's

208 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
Ferry seemed rather rough, and the boatman told her she
must trust in Providence, said, " Na, na ; I wUl not trust
in Providence as long as there is a brig at Stirling."
They w.Ul not trust in Providence as long as there is an
Act of' ParUament to be had. No, that is their vain
reliance; not so sure a footing as the brig of StirHng; and,
much as they may rely on what they at present enjoy in
this way, it will go very hard but Sir Eobert Peel's
Corn BiU will be very little better than the brig to carry
them over to the shores of Free Trade. Such cases as
these show the propriety of the appeals made by the
League to the women of Great Britain. We have been
told that the League should not drag our countrywomen
through the dirty ways of party politics. I should like to
know who made the ways of politics dirty. The League
never did that. It never perverted legislative power to
sordid purposes to advance their own money interests. It
is that which has made party politics dirty. There is a
redeeming power from the dirt of party politics in the ex
ertions which the League is putting forth, that needs not
be afraid or ashamed to call for woman's sympathy and
woman's help, assured that she would honour herself much
more by contributing towards the destruction of the cause
of misery, than by merely aiding the little charities which
here and there pull a leaf or a twig from the poison-tree,
but leave it still to send forth its baleful odours, and
scatter death and desolation over the soil.
The spirit indeed of the League has been found fault
with. It is difficult to please some people any how. One
accusation especially has been made, in which I have some
times had the honour of being personally mentioned. In
fact, there is one journal which has stereotyped its report of
what I say here, and always sums it up in one sentence,
announcing that I "uttered my usual tirade against the
aristocracy of the country." I wish to say a word or two
upon that matter. I do not profess to be a very enthu
siastic admirer of the aristocracy. For the legally consti
tuted aristocracy of my country I have all that love and
reverence which the laws of my country require and en
force — and it can be no man's duty to have more ; but I
have never come here to express my opinion of the aris
tocracy, or the suffrage, or any other great questions which

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 209
are put under temporary abeyance by the Anti-Corn- Law
agitation — an abeyance from which, I trust, they will some
day arise, for which day I am looking with an expectation
which is not the less valuable to me, for seeing clearly that
this question must be disposed of first, and the sooner it is
disposed of the better. But all that I have ever said here
about the aristocracy has been said of certain members of
that body, not in their capacity of aristocrats, but in their
occupation as tradesmen. In that character they are, I
apprehend, most legitimate objects of animadversion here.
A man is not to be protected if he keeps a chandler's shop
and cheats, because he happens to be one of the members
of the aristocracy. This is what I complain of. They
keep a great chandler's shop, and they look to every
minute article in their store, to see how they can pervert
the power of legislation to make the community pay more
for it than its natural price.
There was a time when trading at all was thought in
consistent with the possession of that dignity. Your feudal
baron did not mind robbing by the strong hand, but he
turned away with contempt from robbing by the short
weight of a protective duty. So far back as the days of
Elizabeth, the intellect of the country had begun to mark
out for division the trading propensities of the members
of the feudal aristocracy. In Beaumont and Fletcher's
Beggar's Bush, there is a dispute between a certain mili
tary gentleman, proud of his aristocratical position, and a
couple of merchants. He tells them that " this is certain,
if you once buy and sell, your gentry's gone." To which
the merchant retorts : " Do not you, the lords
Of land (if you be any), sell the grass.
The corn, the straw, the milk, the cheese — ''
Then the other merchant interposes —
" ReMEMBEK B0TTBR ! do UOt LEAVE OtTT buttCr !"
And they never have left out butter to this very day. Only
they have improved upon the practice of those days by
spoiling butter which is not the produce of their own land
with the filthiness of tar.
Now, when nobles become tradesmen, when dukes be
come dealers in various commodities, when the memory of
VOL. IV. I"

210 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
the Plantagenet serves to make a better barter at Mark
Lane, — why, I think it is time for us to caU out and say
that this is unfair dealing with the other tradespeople ofthe
country. I confess I never picture to myself— it has got
such hold of one's fancy— the Duke of Eichmond, but with
his coronet on his head, with a corn sample in his pocket,
a salmon in one hand, and a whisky-bottle in the other,
and enthroned upon a butter-firkin. Then I study this
figure as I would Quarles's Emblems ; for the coronet is
practically connected with all the rest by the legislative
power that enacts protective duties. The coronet rubs the
sample till the grains are more golden; the coronet is
thrown into the scale with the salmon, and makes the fish-
eater pay a higher price for it ; the coronet is a false bot
tom to the whisky-bottle, and cheats the purchaser of his
Glenlivat ; and, last of all, if the butter be not his own, the
coronet makes a hole in the firkin, in order to pour in the
pitch and tar. Why, this incongruity, this perversion of
all dignity of station, and whatever is most honourable and
majestic in legislative power, — this cannot save a set of
tradesmen ! We cannot forget the one character in the
other ; they blend all together, and we look at the whole
as peers of parliament and compeers of pedlars, — conser
vators of the constitution and of canary-seed, — lords of
land and of lard, — knights of the garter and the grease-
pot. Well it is that there are men of a different sort of tem
perament in that body; and that there are those who, slightly
altering the burden of Robert Burns's famous song, can
say of themselves, at least, and a few noble coadjutors,
" A lord's a man for a' that ;"
who feel that society has done much for them, and are de
sirous in turn of doing something for society ; who have
their sense of the responsibUity of station combined with
their sense of the responsibility of legislation ; who are not
ennobled by their title, but their title is ennobled by their
minds aud hearts ; who move surrounded by blessings,
which redeem the name of the class with which they are
associated, and to whom the rest must owe it that the
very name of hereditary nobility does not become a foul
stench in the nostrils of humanity.

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 211
I must return to the point from which I started, — the
cessation, for a time, of these meetings. They will be sus
pended, but the exertions of some whom you are so often
delighted to see here will not be suspended, but from night
to night, as opportunity shall serve, will they endeavour to
impress upon the members of the legislature the principles
which they declare in these meetings. Their words will go
forth, by means of the press, through the length and
breadth of the land ; they will be teaching the millions of
this country, and the mUlions of other countries too ; their
lessons will be read through the continent of Europe, and
across the wide Atlantic; They will at last, I trust, by
their simplicity, earnestness, truthfulness, and information,
— by their determined pursuit in that body of their one
great object, — shame down the spirit of party, and de
prive monopoly of all grace and ornament iu its proceed
ings, — until at last, in deference to public opinion, it must
fairly throw up its ill-gotten gains and badly advised
measures. These meetings will be suspended, but the exertions of
the same individuals, and others in cooperation with them,
will not be suspended. As the season advances they will
be at their work, passing with the rapidity of steam from
one part of the country to another. They will be able to
take advantage of that growing spirit of dissatisfaction,
restlessness, and inquiry — and we trust the openness to
conviction — which is spreading throughout the body of
tenant-farmers. They will argue with those who will hear
reason ; they will warn those who may appear infatuated ;
they will show that they have only the good of all classes at
heart; and in all classes, and especially that most important
class, wiU continue their labours, — and may success attend
them !
These meetings will be suspended, but the place will
not be vacated ; it will be rich with the display of British
industry, enterprise, taste, and genius, inviting contempla
tion, as a specimen of what our people can do ; demanding
attention from those wha may admire thfr products to the
industry of those by whom they are realised ; and pleading
with a mute but eloquent argument for the restoration to
industry of its rights, that those who are capable of so
much ingenuity and exertion may not pass without their

212 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
recompense, — a recompense they are able, if let alone,
to earn for themselves from their countrymen and other
nations. These meetings will be suspended, but the course of
events will proceed, — the alternations of cheapness and
dearness, of prosperity and calamity ; the course of events
which, in so many ways, already has placed the principles
of Free Trade in different lights, and thrown upon them
the most dissimilar tints of colouring, only to show through
all their eternal identity. The great powers of nature wUl
continue their operations ; the showers will descend, the
sun will shine, and knowledge, truth, and science — which
belong to the great powers of nature — these wUl continue
their work ; diffusing themselves Hke the light and air of
heaven, penetrating to the domestic hearth, taking their
places in multitudinous assemblages ; and every where
breathing the animated soul of that Free-Trade principle
which alone can constitute the renovated life and regained
prosperity of our country.
These meetings will be suspended, but the mysteries of
Hfe and death will hold on their course. Every day its ap
pointed thousands will be born ; thousands of mouths more
to be fed by a soil that is now insufficient to yield bread for
those already in existence, — every increase ofthe population
being an augmented demonstration ofthe necessity of that
great change for which the League is pleading. And death
will continue as well as life ; monopoly will have its victims;
Free Trade sometimes loses its champions, and others will
follow that excellent person whose loss, a short time since,
made Manchester one great place of mourning.* Before we
shall again assemble here, voices that have now joined in
cheering shouts may be mute for ever ; but if it be so — as
* Sir Thomas Potter died on the SOth March 1845. The Leagw
newspaper of the 22d of the same month said : " For more than
thirty years the name of this estimable gentleman was associated, in
Manchester, with every object of local or national advantage 
Through evil report and through good report he maintained the great
principles of civil and religious liberty and of commercial freedom ;
exhibiting the same firmness in the dark days of Sidmouth and
Castlereagh that he displayed in the later season of comparative libe
rality  A new generation in Manchester enjoys the fruit of Mb
toils, for to him the town is indebted for the best part of its muni
cipal institutions."

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 213
it is wise and right that it should be — to leave the world
better than we found it, by the advancement of this great
cause, will be no unworthy consolation on a bed of sickness
or in the agonies of death. And when the liberated prin
ciple of vitality rejoins the great majority, should it meet
there with those spirits of the just who in their day have
laboured and suffered for human good ; who have wrought
out, in defiance of calumny and persecution, some splendid
work of philanthropy and improvement ; let them be told —
to gladden them even there — that the seed they have sown
in tears is springing up, bringing another harvest ; that
their patriotism and philanthropy yet walk the world in
might and majesty; that another battle is being fought
here — and well fought — for truth and peace, right and
justice; and that another victory, one ofthe most splendid
of all, is about to be won over the powers of darkness, by
destroying the worst obstacles they have raised to man's
enjoyment ofthe integrity and nobility of character, the
happiness and the hopefulness, for which he was fitted at
his birth by the great Creator.

No. JKVIIL
AT COVENT-GAEDEN THEATEE.
June I8th, 1845.
The anticipations with which the last speaker* so eloquently
concluded his address are, I apprehend, thoroughly well
founded ; and very unreasonable must that free-trader be
who does not look with satisfaction on the progress and the
prospects of this agitation. By the signs which offer them
selves on every hand it is plain that the end is coming, —
that this confiict cannot be continued much longer, — that
diminishing majorities, from the sense of those who have
become, we trust, ashamed to show themselves in a ma
jority for scarcity in the House of Commons, will ere long
exhibit the transformation of a majority into a minority ;
and that we shall find at last, not by the triumph of a
party, not by the exercise of an overawing influence, but
by the triumph of truth and reason, that the measure which
we have so long and urgently asked for will be generally
and completely conceded to us. One leader of a great po
litical party has voted with us ; the leader of the other
great political party has, through nine-tenths of his speech,
spoken for us. There is an approximation of persons of
different classes of opinions, showing the same advance of
the tide towards the great object. One agricultural so
ciety has been broken up because — as the farmers said —
the landlords did not take any care about it ; and, if they
took no care, I wonder who should !
The forces of our enemy being thus diminishing, their
spirits seem to be quailing also. Their arguments, such as
they were, are fast vanishing altogether from human con
templation. Indeed, two of our newspapers have been dis
cussing whether the present Corn Law has one argument
jleft, and if so, what is that one argument ; and I do not
think they have very clearly discovered it. Even that old
excuse — which has been so humorously exposed by Mr.
* Mr. Cobden.

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES, 215
Cobden — of the peculiar burdens of the aristocracy, even
that is kept out of sight, as if there was something of which
the revelation would make them ashamed rather than proud.
It is stUl paraded in a sort of vacant show, as in the cele
bration of the Eleusinian Mysteries at Athens, there used
to be a donkey led through the streets, with a pannier on
its back, covered up very carefully with a white linen veil,
where nobody was to presume to peep, but in which all
were to suppose there was something very wonderful and
sacred, until it became a proverb in Athens, "The ass
carries the mysteries."
I am afraid the old company of repeaters, from day to
day, of these mysterious excuses of peculiar agricultural
burdens, may find themselves in a somewhat similar posi
tion. They will be merely the ass carrying the mysteries ;
and when they make their parade with this, and hold it up
before the people's eyes as something wonderful, why, it
will soon come out, as once happened in a corporation de
bate, when an alderman was called to order for shaking his
head while a brother alderman was speaking, — he said it was
true he did shake his head, but there was nothing in that.
They are vanishing as fast as shadows when the sun rises.
Sophisms, that once were so plentifully poured through the
country, and were paraded as so many irrefragable argu
ments, are fast vanishing; and the votes vanish after the
sophisms, until at last the ground will be cleared for truth
and justice to come forward on the scene. Yes, it comes ;
the condemnation of the most atrocious injustice that was
ever perpetrated on labour in any age or country whatever.
It comes— the blotting out of that old folly from our statute-
book, where it has remained so long, not mixed with baser
matter, for baser matter never was inscribed on any book
of law, or any volume whatever. It comes — not an in
demnity for the past, for monopoly will not be asked to
disgorge its gains, but a security for the future ; to every
one that which he earns, and to the country a fair field for
a long and glorious career of national prosperity.
And if we free-traders have reason to be satisfied with
the prospects which are opening on us, that complacency is
rendered more complete by the circumstances in connection
with which these prospects arise on our view. We have
reason, I think, to be most sincerely and devoutly glad

216 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
that this prospect of success is not accompanied with the
fearful symptoms, some of which have been touched upon
this evening, of a few years ago, that it does not come
whilst numbers are pining and perishing with want, crime
multij)]ying with fearful strides, and death adding,^ — as was
the case after tbe highest years of the prices of corn, in
1839 and 1840, when it reached 70s.,— his 20,000 in one
year to that fearful list ; not when symptoms of demorali
sation connected with the pressure of want and with the
inability to provide for offspring are spreading themselves
over the land, and threatening to change it into one bed of
corruption ; but that in a time of comparative prosperity,
— when wages in different parts of the country are rising,
when men are looking about with leisure for thought, and
gaining the wisdom which belongs to the agency of thought,
— that in a season of peace and comparative sunshine, we
shall have our views gladdened with the addition to these
blessings, and have that greatest blessing of all that shaU
permanently insure the free importation of food in exchange
for the products of our industry.
Better and wiser it is for aU parties that, in such a
period as this, the change should be accomplished ; and I
trust that the individuals who hold the reins of government
may feel this and lay it to heart. Sir Eobert Peel has keen
eyes for seeing a little cloud, although it were across the
Atlantic ; but he never saw a darkness so thick and deep —
he never witnessed a tornado so terrific — as that which
would sweep through the length and breadth of this land
if two or three bad harvests were to come in succession, and
the wants and the exigencies of the population should drive
them to desperate courses, until they burst out with the
fury of a volcano, leaving what once was order, beauty, and
harmony only one dreary scene of terrific barrenness and
desolation. Oh, happy for us that it should come now ! — now, when
long training has taught the people of this country to think
steadily on subjects once remote from their observation;
when their judgments have been exercised with arguments
which multitudes have seldom been accustomed to weigh,
and which can be presented . with confidence to great
assemblies, and there duly appreciated ; when their better
condition has led mechanics, instead of nightly driUing on

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 217
hills, to look to athenseums, parks, and trim gardens, in
which they may enjoy their leisure. And with the growth
of judgment, the idea of violence has been expelled from all
minds, and there is reliance on goodness, and confidence in
the omnipotence of truth, and a growing sense of right and
justice. The national mind would go along with the great
legislative act of rectitude ; would give it a power that it
could not possess under any other circumstances ; would
neither receive it for triumph nor scorn it as an imposition ;
but would realise its principles and its power until it
became a moral influence in their souls, and its beneficent
tendency would be incorporated in their thoughts and cha
racters ; and they would go to their labours and engage
ments, and would look at their fellow-countrymen and
foreigners in the spirit of that science which teaches us that
all interests are identified, and all classes in the community
have one great or com mon concern ; that all nations are
made of one flesh and blood ; and that in their brotherhood
the principles of Free Trade, by which they communicate
to each other such surplus of their own particular advan
tages, are the law of nature and morality and of God, under
which they live, and by which they arrive at a higher
degree of human blessedness.
It was in the spirit of the soundest political wisdom that
Mr. Cobden, long ago, at one of the very first meetings
held here, stated that he did not expect to carry Free Trade
as the triumph of a party, but by the conviction of enlight
ened men of all parties. Union is the spirit of Free Trade ;
not the force of antagonism and rivalry ; not the horrible
monster that some conjure up to their minds under the
term " competition ;" but union by each working for
others, as others are doing good for them. And this spirit
of union has grown with the growth of the League, and
strengthened with its strength. What we wish for in the
world, we exhibit in ourselves; what we ask our own legis
lature and that of other countries to do, we display in its
limited effects in our own meetings and proceedings ; nor,
perhaps, has there ever been in any country or in any age
such a social combination as these walls witnessed not long
ago by those who came to the Bazaar ; who made the
Bazaar ; who, in all their diversities, were of one heart and
soul in forwarding the objects of the Bazaar, and of Free

218 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
Trade in general. What rehgious sect was not represented
there ? What station in society had not noble and pure
specimens of it there ? What class or occupation did not
show itself on that occasion, of either sex and all ages ?
They were there, — there for the same purpose ; there in a
way so true and beautiful that one might well bless Provi
dence that any circumstance or movement whatever had
arisen to give to the world such a sight as that. Those who
had only met in the fierceness of political or theological
debate ; those who were separated by the broad gulfs that
intervene between the different ranks of society; those
whose customary life is seclusion, but who felt not ashamed
or afraid to enter into the crowd, and were safe in that
throng as in the bosom of their own famUies, — why, aU
were there — there, exhibiting not the license of heathen
saturnaHa, but the beauty of Christian union. They were
there, even children disporting themselves, as it were, in
an excitement which they could but partly understand, yet
which had begun to dawn upon their minds to help on
the great result ; as the poet records of the battle in which
the Swiss cantons struggled to the last for their inde
pendence of France, as he tells us that —
" Fierce amid the hostile bands,
Shouting in the foremost fray.
Children raised their little hands
In their country's evil day," —
so here were children, not to imbrue their infantile hands
in blood, but to learn the arts of peace, the love of peace,
and the delights and blessings of peace. Here they were
earning for themselves a gladsome time even for remote
years ; for when in their age their children shall go to
school and be taught history — when they shall read those
dark pages that record the crimes inflicted on this country
by our scarcity laws, and turn over the brighter pages
of those paragraphs that tell of their demolition — then the
little things wiU raise their hands to heaven, and bless
God that their father or mother was in that struggle, and
were free-traders too.
Not that I think any brightness in our prospects, or any
apparent near approach to the great consummation, should
induce us for one instant to relax our perseverance, our
unabating energy in subscription, canvass, registration, and

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 219
exertion of any sort that may be needful. Our unabating
zeal and energy is an essential condition to the realisation
of those prospects; and I think we have confident reason
to expect that Sir Eobert Peel will not scruple to put
an end to these atrocious laws. I think that we may
confidently expect that in no long period of time a Tory
majority of the legislature will not be found to obstruct
their abolition. But remember this, — that there is wheel
connected with wheel, and the movement must go through
the whole series. To make the majority of the legislature
go on, we must make Sir Eobert Peel go on; and to
make Sir Eobert Peel go on, we must make Lord John
Eussell go on; to make Lord John Eussell goon, we must
make the Whig members of parliament go on ; to make
them, or any member of parliament, go on, we must make
the constituency go on ; and to do that, we must make the
huge atmosphere — the great multitude of the population by
which they are surrounded — go on ; and to make that go
on, why, the League itself, the mainspring of all, must go
on, and continue its appliances with unabating power and
influence. It is with the League and Sir Eobert Peel as
with the wind and the windmill. You know the chorus
with which the play of Ttie Miller and his Men opens :
" When the wind blows,
Then the mill goes ;"
and so on. So it is here :
" When the League blows,
Then the Peel goes ;
When the League drops,
Then the Peel stops !"
That is not the way to get the re-Peel that we want ; nor
will the needful effort of indomitable perseverance and
excessive energy, which has never hitherto failed, be lack
ing now, when the ground is so much more clear, and the
prospects so much more stimulating. For what is the
condition of monopoly? There is a scene in Serjeant
Talfourd's play of The Athenian Captive, in which the
vanquished hero, made a slave, has first to take off his
helmet, and so to deposit his buckler, then to give up his
sword, and then to sink into his servile condition. Now,
in this way Sir Eobert Peel is serving the Corn Law. He
takes national independence — " that is your buckler — put

220 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
that down;" "class interest — that is the plume in your
helmet — lower that ;" " the effect on wages, and the agri
cultural classes — that is your sword — give that up." He
strips off one thing after another, but with this difference,
— the Athenian captive was stripped of his appendages that
he might be made a slave ; Sir Eobert Peel strips mono
poly of all its powers and appendages, in order that the
country may rise to the condition of commercial freedom.
He leaves but one plea for the laws which he so stoutly
defended — one, and only one; and that is, as he replied
after the hon. member for Wolverhampton, that "pro
tection law is 150 years old."
So old a law might have been a little wiser. WeU,
this hoary-headed sinner has been made by Sir Eobert
Peel to confess to all sorts of iniquities, — to have been an
inveterate sophist ; to have played ofl" all sorts of humbug
upon the nation in order to gratify his private interest;
to have been the occasion of distress and suffering. And if
we look from his admission to the facts, we may accumu
late on its head yet more and heavier crimes : it has sti
mulated guilt ; it has plundered the honest, the poor, and
the industrious ; it has entrapped children and bred them
up to theft and fraud, and made them its victims, and has
even been accessory to murder, and sent one after another
to the grave ; in fact, it has done as much iniquity on a
broad scale as Fagan the Jew is described by Mr. Dickens,
in Oliver Twist, to have committed on a small scale.
Now, the very same defence is set up for it. " The law
has Hved 150 years," says Sir Eobert Peel. What said
Fagan in court? "I am an old man!" The appeal did
not avail him in his guilt. The scene is told by Dickens
in one of those expressive passages which go to every ima
gination and heart, realising to us at once the cunning of
the man as well as his criminality, and the feeling also of
others, in a way which may well rank amongst the master
pieces of that fictitious writing — the only great fiction
— which is founded upon truth, the truth of human nature,
and which he has thus described in the work to which I
refer: "'Guilty!' says the jury; and the buUding rang
with a tremendous shout, and another, and another, and
then it echoed deep and loud groans, that gathered strength
as they swelled out like angry thunder. It was a peal of

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 221
joy from the populace outside, greeting the news that he
should die on Monday. The noise subsided, and he was
asked if he had any thing to say why sentence of death
should not be passed on him. He resumed his listening
attitude, and looked intently at the questioner while, the
demand was made ; but it was twice repeated before he
seemed to hear it, and then he only muttered that he was
'an old man, an old man, — a very old man;' and so
dropping into a whisper, he was silent again." Age did
not save hira, nor shall it save the Corn Laws ; his day of
doom arrived, and so shall theirs ; and louder shouts than
Dickens has described shall ring the peal of its condemna
tion, and hail, with iterated joy ousness, the fact, that at
last there shall come its black Monday for the old black
monopoly. This is not the place in which political matters or poli
tical characters not necessarily involved in our own peculiar
topics are to be discussed. I, therefore, go not into my
opinion of the career of Sir Eobert Peel, or of the many
reasons that would present themselves to my mind why
I might prefer that the country received this great retri
bution from other hands than his. But there are some
reasons why it would be better that he— why it would be
better that he than any other man whatsoever — should at
last grant this great measure and become its author, and
that, after having in various ways gradually led forward
the adoption of Free-Trade principles in the various bear
ings of our commercial legislation, he should at length
crown the whole with this ; and the commercial blood in
his veins run the more rapidly as he lives to see how much
good could be accomplished in the nation, and what a
bright scene of peace, joy, and prosperity would follow,
from the complete carrying out of this principle ; and in
that learn a moral lesson to be taught him in no other way.
For all my animosity towards Sir Eobert Peel would be
gratified, and the worst vengeance I may wish inflicted on
him would be this, — that in the contemplation of the
blessings of Free Trade to the country, by him conferred,
he might read how much better is one single simple act
of right, than a whole Hfe of parliamentary tactics and
political expediency.
As the great event we anticipate is coming, so it will

222 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
have passed by ; and looked back upon, and through the
following years of time, this agitation will be revolved in
people's minds, and it will be desirable that they should not
forget it, and that no lapse of time whatever should oblite
rate the period from their memories. I trust that means
will be taken in furtherance of this purpose ; and that when
her Majesty shall have reigned some half-century, if in her
age she should call to mind the splendid amusements of
her youth, and fancy to give them a parting glance before
she left the world, it may make them the means of imprint
ing a wholesome lesson on the mind ofthe Prince of Wales;
and perhaps then the recollection of her old sports may lead
her to give another bal costume, of which the adornments
will be the costume ofthe Corn-Law period, and the peculiar
effect which Protection had on the dress and manners ofthe
population. Should she do so, there will be a curious assem
blage: very unlike either the grotesque drapery of George II.
or the heroic costume of the' Elizabethan era. There may
be jewels and splendour there ; but they will have to be
ticketed — those bright diamonds — as the result of the tears
and groans shed by the labouring population. Members of
both Houses of the Legislature may come to that ball, and
they will carry a map of the world in their hands, on which
they will intently look, to show how their ancestors peered
on it in order to discover any corner, however remote,
of the globe, from which a single handful of agricultural
produce might be imported into this country in competition
with the growth of their own estates. Overseers will be
there, with the garb and look in which they told the la
bourer not to come for relief if he had the opportunity of
earning any thing like as much as 6s, a week. In one
corner ofthe splendid room may be seen "a woman in
most unwomanly rags," singing " The Song of the Shirt."
And in the opposite corner, perhaps, a noble with a petition
for the continuance of protection in one hand, and in the
other a proposition for subscriptions to relieve these poor
seamstresses, and plans of charity-balls : he sustaining the
character of a charity-monger ; for, in our nobility, there
are charity-mongers as well as cheesemongers and fish
mongers. Throughout the whole there would be large
groups of ragged peasants, sorae of them dressed up like
the double figures one occasionally sees in burlesque bal-

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 223
lets ; a peasant with a showy hat and green ribbons on it
in front, and a great hole in that same hat behind ; a clean
smock-frock for covering a coat out at the elbows, and
dropping from his limbs in rags. There would be whole
tribes of lean beings, in workhouse jackets and felons'
jackets; and interspersed amongst them, individuals as
poachers with their screw-guns, and incendiaries with
their turpentine-balls and lucifer-matches. It would be a
sort of Dance of Death, which, in the recollection that this
was all a thing of times gone by, might beat merrily on the
marble floor, the tombstone of defunct Monopoly, and
tell that death had long since gathered his " harvest home"
from artificial famine, and had only scanty gleanings
left; while over him they would dance to those Free-
Trade quadrilles, whose merry sound anticipates the
period when that gladness shall have its exuberant out
pouring. And not then — oh, no, never ! not while the world stands
— shall the cruelty of the Corn-Law system be obliterated
from the memory. Sorae — were such a scene as I have
imagined ever to take place — might be present at it who
would not have been living but for the repeal of the laws
whose deadly operation might also have sent them where it
has sent so many others : for it is the peculiar cruelty of
this system that it wars on the young; it obstructs the
young man's prospects in life; it makes the choice of occu
pations and professions the great difficulty of a parent ;
with those yet young it annihilates all chance of that edu
cation which should be the sole business of their tender
years. And babes, — what is their food ? Their milk, but
ter, bread, sugar, — all heavily taxed, or else their prices
raised by the influence of taxation ; as if not even the babe
at the breast was to be spared, but there was the hard hand
of monopoly interposed to dry up the resources of its nou
rishment ; to stop whatever could be administered to it from
without to advance its growth ; to show its own unholy
and infernal character, by keeping up that degree of mor
tality which, even in this country, makes life in such
numerous instances but a short prelude to the grave.
Never let it be thought that this agitation is so limited
as only to refer to a question, or a series of questions ; that
it is only one particular matter, or that it is an abstraction.

224 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
that is in conflict. There is much more in it than this :
the aim and tendency is, that Free Trade should become
the policy of this nation ; and in its becoming the policy of
the nation, how much is involved ! For as different nations,
in ancient and modern times, have had each their character
istic policy — as one was democracy, and another absolutism,
and another conquest — so it is desirable that Free Trade
should be the characteristic ofthe national policy of this great
industrial people to which we belong ; and that, being so,
it should not only direct this or that particular measure,
but affect, as it must and will eventually, all institutions,
all proceedings, arrangements, operations of society, all
home legislation, and all foreign relations.
In what an amicable position with all the world would
a nation be whose policy was Free Trade ! What jea
lousy could it excite ? If it is said abroad, " England
arms, let us arm too," this implies expense, trouble, violent
dispositions, an outbreak of passion, on both sides insult
and injury ; but to say, " England trades, let us trade also,"
involves no harm to any body, but much good to all. There
would be no talk then of bombarding, none of invading, our
country. Invading I What would the invasion be ? Why,
the landing of cargoes of corn would be the only invasion
we should look for; and we should return it bythe invasion
of cotton on other shores. Countries may go on thus in
vading one another without any mischief. There is this
great difference as to the champions of the one sort of war
fare and the champions of the other, — that military heroes
are paid by the country for spreading desolation, but com
mercial heroes pay the country for leave to minister to its
enrichment. A Free-Trade policy would give an advance to civilisa
tion ; we should import other things besides food ; we should
require luxuries as well as necessaries ; and we should send
abroad luxuries, too, as good as those which we obtained.
Enjoyments would be diffused amongst us ; libraries and
museums would rise in augmented numbers; parks and
pleasure-grounds would extend themselves, and pay a
better rent than a wheat-field under monopolist protection.
Through all ranks and classes a taste for refinement, know
ledge, and truth would pursue its course; and if for a while
we should take the start of the majestic world, the world

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 225
would soon advance with us : humanity would rise into a
proper enjoyment of its nature ; and society would assume
a condition more truly elevated, and more replete with good,
than the world has ever yet witnessed.
To carry all this out there must yet be a continuous
effort, and not effort in this country only. These meetings
are often graced by the presence of foreigners. There are
some such, I believe, here to-night ; there always are some,
and led, 1 hope, not merely by curiosity — nor departing
merely with the satisfaction of that curiosity — but with
some impulse of sympathy, some stimulus to make exertion.
I would say to any and to all such : " Help us, help us, for it
is the world's cause ; it is yours as well as ours. Whence-
soever you come, and whithersoever you may go, oh, help,
help, in this matter, for it is the cause of humanity ! It
has no respect of language, government, or country; it is
for the well-being of aU; and join you with us in exertion
for its promotion."
To the gallant Frenchman, if such be here, I say, let
not our national rivalry pursue its old course. There has
been enough in the long Hne of our warfare, from the time
of our Henrys down to recent years ; let that suffice. Look
not only at our dockyards, but at our manufactories; not
merely at our ships of war, but at our merchantmen, and
the stores they take out with them. Wherever your tri
colour is, be it the rainbow of peace ; and thus may it be
come unto you a promise of a more glorious career — more
glorious for yourselves and others — than that which you
pursued even when your victories were most important, and
one capital after another surrendered to your conquering
arms. I would say to the Germans, men of a nation of deep
and far-going thought, of mind wide-spreading as your own
unbounded forests, let that thought turn its direction to
the things of earth as well as of air, to commercial principles
as well as to antique legends. Be not the slaves of any
system of monopoly, however its extension within German
limits may seem to secure it from that term which bears a
hostile aspect to the policy of the rest of the world. Be
not the tools of your ZoUverein ; but learn that custom
houses should have their proper places, as fortresses of ex
clusion and repulsion, not at the boundary of any par-
VOL. IV. Q

226 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
ticular state, but at the very ends of the earth, and mark
only the difference of land inhabited by humanity, and that
bounded by the wild beasts of the forest.
To Holland I would say: remember the old lesson
which you taught the world. You, primeval missionaries
of Free Trade, stick to your ancient principles and prac
tices; and Belgians, however severed from you, be one with
you in this interest, the interest of all enlightened and in
dustrial nations.
Italy, fair and fertile ! where so many fine minds have
indulged in speculations that were ages before the world, —
you, whose Beccaria taught humanity to legislation as re
lates to punishment, learn you to legislate for humanity as
relates to trade and commerce. Let Eome sustain higher
glories than its ancient period of conquest, in that mild
conquest that carries the victories of civilisation and peace,
truth and justice.
And you, poor exUes from Spain and Poland, or what-
eyer country has cast you out ; you who sojourn with us,
and can only call yourselves citizens of the world; why,
there is that in Free-Trade principles which makes the
world worth being a citizen of, demolishing so much of the
ancient barriers between nation and nation. We offer you
them here, as some consolation in your time of exile and
proscription ; and when your turn comes — as come it will,
I trust, for aU exiles in the cause of freedom — when it
comes for you or your children, may this lesson be borne
back with you, a glad and happy remembrance of that ter
rible time, and be installed with you in the honours which
you may then wear, and the institutions which you may
have to form and carry on.
To the Americans I need say but Httle ; they feel how
much the battle is theirs as well as ours. I would
say to them : A century and a half ago we imported
com for the sustenance of your forefathers ; I trust you
'will soon have the opportunity of amply repaying the
compliment, with liberal interest upon the length of time
that has elapsed. The independence you have achieved
is one which needs no severance of relations as to the
interchange of whatever other countries can produce ; and
in your own vast regions and growing population, you see
that which should unite you with all the world; showing

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 227
the Old and the New World one at least in this, that they
have learned the lesson of a common interest, and can
unite heart and hand in promoting the good of common
humanity. Your own Channing, with prophetic voice, in
almost the last, if not the very last, publication he issued,
described Free Trade as one of the great tendencies of the
human mind; as one of the principles of the age, which
was sure to make its way, by a rapid progression, into uni
versal practice. And were I to lack reasons for describing
my feelings on this subject, as something infinitely above
the manufacturing, agricultural, or money questions of my
country, as something even above a national policy, — were
I to require words to express its sacred and religious cha
racter, as tending to realise in the condition of society that
benevolence which is a holy bond between man and man,
as almost partaking ofthe character of worship, seeing that
that is worship in which the sacrifice of true and loving
hearts is offered, and in which kindly and benevolent ac
tions are wrought, — why, I should give such a description
in the words of a feUow-countryman of Channing, and a
kindred genius, who describes, in solemn strain, the
divine presence as not merely realised amid the beauties
and the wonders of nature, but as also capable of being
seen by the mind amidst thronging cities and in aggregated
crowds. " Not in the solitude
Alone may man commune with Heaven ; or see
Only in savage wood
And sunny vale the present Deity ;
Or only hear his voice
Where the winds whisper and the waves rejoice.
Even here do I behold
Thy steps. Almighty ! — here, amidst the crowd
Through the great city rolled.
With everlasting murmur, deep and loud,
Choking the ways that wind
'Mongst the proud piles — the work of humankind !
Thy golden sunshine comes
From the round heaven, and on their dwelling lies.
And lights their inner homes ;
For them thou fiUest the air, the unbounded skies.
And givest them the stores
Of ocean, and the harvest of its shores.

228 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
Thy spirit is around,
Quickening the restless mass that sweeps along ;
And this eternal sound.
Voices and footfalls of the numberless throng,
Like the surrounding sea.
Or like the rainy tempest, speaks of thee.
And when the hour of rest
Comes like a calm upon the mid- sea brine,
Hushing its billowy breast —
The quiet of that moment too is thine :
It breathes of Him who keeps
The vast and helpless city while it sleeps."
Such is the language which the sight of an immense
assemblage like this, animated by one heart and mind,
is calculated to impress on one's soul ; not the less accept
able that it is in the language of an American poet, — of a
living poet ; and as the person of Mr. Bryant is not known
here, though his name and his poems are well known, I
trust I do no offence to the modesty of genius when I
say, of a present poet, — whose presence is most welcome.
And that from other countries, as well as from our own,
the poet and the artist, in all their different modes of ap
pealing to taste and developing genius, have shown them
selves amongst us, as well as statesmen, merchants, and
politicians, is one of the peculiar and high gratifications of
these meetings, is one pledge that the great mind of hu
manity is going along with us, that the power which has
been created belongs to the elements of nature, works in
their way, and produces analogous results.
Our agitation, like some of those mighty elementary
principles, not merely overturns, but creates; not only
destroys, but fertilises It is like — if we may rely on a
late discovery — the electric matter ofthe atmosphere, which
may be conveyed by rods into the soil, and will render that
soil fruitful. It is like that power, that electricity, of which
the thunder is the voice before which the guilty tremble;
vvhich strikes down whatever obstacles impede its course,
though they be lofty turrets — feudal or ecclesiastical, the
warrior's column, or the ancestral oak which has braved
the storms of ages ; yet, while it is so resistless, guided by
the rod of science, it plays on the grass, and sinks into the
ground : and there the grass springs up the greener ; the

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 229
stem of corn is the sturdier, and bears a fuller ear ; the sun
looks down calmly from that blue sky which is over all ;
and richer fields, waving for the harvest, raise man's grati
tude to heave ?.^ and send him on his earthly course thank
ful and rejoicing.

No. XIX.
AT LIVEEPOOL.
July 11th, 1845.
Mr. Chairman, Ladies, and Gentlemen, the resolution
before you* has so peculiar a relation to the community of
Liverpool, that it might at first sight appear somewhat
inappropriate that I should be called upon to speak in
reference to it ; but I trust that this is an impression that
must immediately be dissipated, for, when I before had
the gratification of meeting the friends of Free Trade in
this place, it was thankfully to receive the expression of
your sympathy with the free-traders of London, then
engaged in an arduous contest. I returned to town on
that occasion with a full recollection of your demonstration
in our favour, which helped to give strength to the exer
tions we made, and successfully made, to place Mr. Pat
tison in the situation of Free-Trade representative of the
City of London ; and I am here now to express the sym
pathy and the interest which the friends of Free Trade in
the metropolis feel in your proceedings, — their trust that
a similar triumph to that which followed your congratu
lations to us will foUow the expression of our good wishes
to you, and the hope that as our feelings were identified
on that occasion, so we may ere long have an opportunity
of looking to Liverpool, and saying, We rejoice to see that
great emporium of commerce at length leading the way
towards that great national change by which monopoly will
cease to disgrace and impoverish the land, and Free Trade
in all its extended signification shaU become the national
policy of this empire.
And this, gentlemen, is the time for those who feel an
* This meeting was called by the Liverpool Anti-Monopoly Associa
tion. The chair was occupied by James Mulleneux, Esq. The reso
lution alluded to by Mr. Fox pledged those present to look to the
registration, and to support no candidates who were not in favour of
removing all commercial monopolies. It was proposed by Thomas
Blackburn, Esq., and seconded by John Smith, Esq., of the Liverpool
Mercury, from which this report is taken.

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 231
interest in the extension of Free-Trade opinions to express
their sympathy with one another ; to strengthen each other
in their exertions ; to make known the wishes and feelings
of each other throughout the length and breadth of the
land, — for we are now arrived at a most critical time. Tem
porary prosperity, — a partial revival of trade, — the com
parative cheapness of provisions, — these have all marked
out the present as a most favourable opportunity for deal
ing with the Corn-Law monopoly, which may now be im
proved to great advantage, but which, if neglected, may
never return, for the change may become inevitably neces
sary, under circumstances of distress, — in times as unfor
tunate as these are prosperous. For what, gentlemen, is
now the state of things ? Every one feels how much de
pends on the next harvest, — every one is asking the ques
tion. Will it be bad or good ? This is the time which, in
the natural course of things, should be one of hopeful
reliance and gladsome expectation, and in which man
should rely confidently on that remuneration for his toils
which nature and Providence so abundantly provide, —
when all fears of changes in the weather should be dissi
pated by the conviction that in this world the diversity of
climate is such, that if the harvest fails in one place it
succeeds in another; and that, so long as humanity relies
on the resources of the world, it is secured from disap
pointment by the wise and providential laws of nature
under which we live. But such is not the condition in
which we are. We have no security in the resources of
other countries ; we have scarcely any stock of our own in
this country ; and we are cut off by the monopoly law from
the means of suddenly drawing on the rest of the world
for a supply; and thus we feel that every change in the
weather may involve consequences the most tremendous,
— that a couple of showers in a day may raise the, price
of wheat a couple of shillings the quarter, and that if the
sun shines more steadUy, it will go down again. We are
so dependent upon every change ofthe atmosphere, that we
have to look at the barometer every day to know how to
make our calculations, and to go abroad at night to see
whether the skies are clear or cloudy, in order that we
may have some guess at what will be the price of bread for
our famUies in the next week or the next month.

232 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
Is this a state of things that ought to last? The
resources of this country might be identified with those of
all nations. We might be able to draw from others on
any emergency that might happen in this country, and be
sure of ever finding a redundant and steady supply ; but
we are practically at war with the world in this matter ;
and the war we make upon others recoils upon ourselves.
Oh, what would be our condition, should it be in the
will of Providence that for one or two seasons our fields
should cease to yield their abundant increase ! Who
does not remember the sufferings and the horrors of three
or four years ago? Whose heart does not droop with
anxiety lest they should return upon us, — lest dear food
should revive the sufferings in our large manufacturing
towns; lest the weavers of Paisley should again have to
beg herring-brine to flavour their mouldy potatoes; lest
men should again be found starving in our streets; lest
in the multiplied calamities of the time crime should
again extend itself, and our calendars show, in longer lists
of offenders, the influence of monopoly upon the progress
of guilt ; and the sure result of dear seasons foUowing all,
and completing the climax in the ravages of disease and
death; whilst again should blaze forth, as if they were
funeral fires, those fiames in the agricultural districts which
then told the necessities of the peasantry and the desperar
tion to which they were driven, and the cessation of which,
knocking down the sophisms which have been so often
repeated, proved that cheap bread is better for labourers in
rural parishes as well as for labourers in the factory, and
is, in truth, the common interest of humanity, and identi
fied with the peace, the honour, and the weU-being of the
nation. These peculiar characteristics of the present time should
enfor.ce the recommendations that have been so earnestly
given you this evening. They should induce every man
who can do so to take care that his name is placed upon
the register, that the first moment may be seized for mak
ing an impression upon the representative body, that there
may be no delay through your indifference or your selfish
ness ; but that if the time of calamity should arrive, you
may have clear consciences, may be able to lay your hands
upon your hearts, and, while you strive for its mitigation,

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 233
feel you had nothing to do with its production. Or if,
happily, a brighter period is to come, and the nation
adopts the only policy worthy of its empire, and which it
becomes aU other nations to follow, you may have the
satisfaction of saying, " I was one of those who agitated
for this, — who struggled for this, — who registered and
voted for this. I feel it is the noblest heritage I can leave
my chUdren," In times when all these vicissitudes, when
this guilt, this delay, when these crimes and sufferings,
shall only be matter of history, they may say, " My father
may have been poor and low in the world's estimation, —
he may have struggled hard, — but he was one of those
who, in the time of his country's need, stepped forward,
at whatever peril or trouble to himself, and assisted in
the accomplishment of this great and good and glorious
work," Let not the heart, then, sicken with the pangs of
"hope deferred," We have struggled nearly seven or
eight years for this ; but what are seven or eight years ?
The mighty object of changing the policy of the country
from being directed to the interest and the aggran
disement of a class, to that of being directed to the weU-
being of the entire body of the community, is worth the
labour of a Hfe, — it is worth the labour of lives in succes
sion. It is one of those objects that should be handed
down from sire to son, and never cease until the purpose
be realised. And are we not making way towards it ? Do we not,
though chiefly in isolated contests, register still higher num
bers at the poll at every successive contest that takes place?
Is not one sophism after another given up? Does not
one party leader after another show his foreboding that
the time must come when, on Free-Trade principles, and
no other, can the government of the nation be conducted ?
Has not Sir Eobert Peel, in his speech on the last intro
duction of Mr, Villiers' motion, stripped off almost every
rag of excuse for monopoly ? Did he not throw over the
notion of independence of foreign countries for our supply
of food ? Did he not throw over the notion of particular
classes having peculiar claims to protection ? Did he not
throw off the assertion, so often repeated, that high prices
made high wages ? Did he not declare that the policy of

234 COLLECTED WORKS OF W, J. FOX.
his government was the gradual abrogation of aU peculiar
protective duties ? And is it not our business to help him
on in that policy ? His degrees are at present too long and
too slow, — his paces too short ; but Cobden has him by
the hand, and will make him step out.
However, although the sophistries of the monopolists
have been given up by the premier, they seem not to have
been altogether abandoned by his followers. Although
they have become too bad for the House of Commons or
for the public press, they wiU yet do occasionally on the
hustings. There seems to be such a faith in the guUibUity
of a portion of the population, that on occasions of public
addresses at election contests, the most enormous sophis
tries may be uttered, the most glaring perversions had
recourse to ; and I know not that a stronger specimen of
this has lately occurred than when her Majesty's solicitor-
general was making his acknowledgments to the electors of
Cambridge for the favour bestowed on him in having
returned him as their representative to this parliament by
a small majority of five. He warned the people of Cam
bridge against the nonsense of the Free-Trade system.
He would ask those who supported Free-Trade principles,
How, if they were to prevail, were the exigencies of the
country to be met, or the objects of government to be
effected ? Let him ask his master. Sir Eobert Peel, His
betters and employers have found out that what lightens
the people's burdens, and facilitates their industry, and
augments their profits, and raises their wages, enables
them to bear a weight of taxation for public purposes
which would otherwise crush all classes of the community
together. Then, again, Mr. Kelly said, " Would they de
stroy the rents of the landlords, the profits of the farmers,
and the wages ofthe labourers, in order to throw some
advantages for a time, and but for a time, into the hands
of the manufacturing interests ?"
The rents ofthe landlords and the profits ofthe farmers !
Odd things to couple together, at a time when it is notori
ous that rents are double what they were fifty years ago,
when corn was at the very price it is now, and when the
farmers, to a large extent, are paying those rents, not out
of profits, but out of their rapidly diminishing capital.
Besides, if the competition of what modicum of foreign

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 235
corn might be introduced would be so injurious to rent, —
if the landlords feel that they cannot bear any diminution
in the value of the corn of this country, — why do they
allow so much of the produce of the country to be eaten
up by hares and rabbits, pheasants and partridges ? They
thus destroy no small portion of that which would make
the difference to the farmer between profit and loss, if he
has to pay a rent which he agreed to on the promise of
56s, a quarter for wheat, whilst he is only receiving 45s.
If his landlord would add to his stock, to be distributed
in the market, what is consumed by the game, that would
put him in a much better plight, and enable him to bear
his other burdens with a less crushing difficulty.
If they are so much afraid of competition, why display
so much earnestness to get enclosure bills ? There is a bill
now in progress through parliament to enclose thousands
of acres of land. This will all come into competition with
existing farms. That wUl be as fatal to them as if they
had foreign competition. The only difference is this, that
the foreigners do not pay rent to our landowners, and the
occupiers of these enclosed lands wiU. They care nothing
about increased competition, when there is a chance of
making the profits go into their own pockets. As for the
labourer, with his 7s. or 8s. a week, we may safely leave
him out of the question. He has nothing to fear from
the exertions of the Anti- Corn-Law League. His situa
tion can be pressed down no lower. But the principles we
advocate will bring advantages to his class; wUl enable
him to leave the fields, where he is not wanted, to make
something of his labour in the manufacturing districts,
where his services would be required.
" If agriculture were destroyed, if our fields were uncul
tivated, and our rural parishes depopulated." Eural parishes
depopulated I Does this man read the monopolist news
papers ? Has he seen the lists which have been given in
such papers as the Morning Herald of the numbers of cot
tages pulled down on large properties? — of the way in
which inhabitants of rural districts are compelled to herd
together in the most humble of houses, because the great
proprietor does not choose to have them on his land ; but
leaves the burden of their support to any who wUl be
troubled with it, only taking care that he defrays no por-

236 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
tion of the cost? "If those principles were to prevaU,
the land must either become waste, or changed in its pur
pose and character, and the nobihty and gentry connected
with the land would suffer, and consequently all below
them. If they destroyed the aristocracy of the country,
what would become of their university, by which the
trade and prosperity of the town were promoted ?" Here
is the course which the partisans like Mr. Fitzroy KeUy
have always adopted. If there is a little, exclusive, sor
did, dirty, petty interest in their hearers, to that in
terest they make their appeal. "Think of the advan
tages," says he to tradesmen, "to be derived from these
young gentlemen who attend the university. Think of the
plunder you get out of those who pay themselves by plun
dering the community." Why, it was easy to teU what
would happen to the university. The people would be
better able to send their children there. There would then
be a greater amount of legislative infiuence in favour of
extending the advantages of these ancient seminaries of
education. They would become the source of so much
more instruction, and spread around them so much love of
knowledge, that no man, whatever his situation, could
dare to stand up and talk sophistry like this to the inhabit
ants of a university town.
If the case of the monopolists rests on such arguments
as these, why I think Mr. Fitzroy Kelly's present client
may say as another client said not long ago, on an occasion
when it was attempted to prove that apple-pips could
generate prussic acid in a woman's stomach, — which is just
as likely as that the importation of foreign corn could
poison the country, — as his client said on that occasion, so
may his present client say, " I really think the ease looks
very black against us." Such is the solicitor-general's
present brief, but he has taken his retaining fee in another
court; and let us hope that by the time the annual motion
of Mr. Villiers comes on again. Sir Eobert Peel will put a
different brief into the hands of the great lawyer, and then
we shall have some eloquent argumentations on the other
side ; we shall be told that the full time is come, and that
the total abolition of protective duties cannot be delayed
for another month.
MeanwhUe we have to look to our cause as only in pro-

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 237
gress. We have to put our shoulders to the wheel, and
assist in its working. Depressing influences will sometimes
be felt, but let our minds be kept steadily fixed on the great
object. Let us not consent to any compromise whatever,
from whichever side of the House such a proposition may
come, or by whomsoever it may be recommended. Let
us bear in mind the right of the poor man, certainly the
common right of all, but to him most essential, that his
earnings be not diminished for the benefit of any class
whatever, but that his wages, as the reward of the sweat of
his brow, shall have their full worth in the world's market.
We cannot too much bear in mind that we are all united,
that we have a common interest, a common cause, in
every part of the country; and as the cause is universal,
so should be the exertions we make to further it. It
should not be said by the free-traders in any place, " Oh,
the League will do this ;" or, " the League will do that"
— meaning that because the League is in existence, they
need not help themselves. Why, the leading gentlemen of
the League do aU that men can do. Cobden and Bright
rise much like the sun and moon, and only set in one place
to become visible in another. In the House and out ofthe
House, in the manufacturing districts and in the agricultural
districts, at the registration time, at the election times, they
are ever at their post, and toiling in the good cause ; and
the incessant exertions which they and their coadjutors
make will lead to a life-long feeling of admiration and of
gratitude in the hearts of their feUow-countrymen. But as
to the League doing every thing — why, what is the League
in Liverpool ? Why, you are the League ! The friends of
Free Trade are the League in all places. The League is a
spirit ; it is not confined to the limitation ofa human body.
Wherever there is sound knowledge and a love of truth, —
wherever there are sound heads and warm hearts, — wher
ever there are men who will give their votes from principle,
and not from sordid personal motive, — wherever these are,
there is the League. And you, being the League, will, I
trust, add a glorious achievement to the great things which
it has already accomplished, namely, that of rectifying the
representation of Liverpool, and putting it in the van of
this great constitutional agitation. That is the place which
Liverpool should occupy.

238 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J, FOX.
It is most unfortunate that so vast a commercial and
industrial population as this should be represented by
those who, as yet, have discovered Httle partiality for Free
Trade, unless perhaps in the single article of slave-produced
copper. It is true that my Lord Sandon headed a deputa
tion to the premier the other day, to suggest a step towards
Free Trade in the direction of copper; they did not suggest
Free Trade in the article of brass, though they might weU
afford to export a large quantity of that commodity. Such
a place as this, where Canning and Brougham once con
tended for the honour of its representation, — such a place
as this, which gave infiuence and encouragement to Hus
kisson when he first appealed to the legislature to extend
the principles of Free Trade, breaking ground in that im
portant direction, and taking steps which showed how far
he would have advanced had his valuable life been pro
longed ; — in such a town as this the whole nation feels an
interest, — the whole nation expects that you will come for
ward with zeal and energy, — that you will assert the dig
nity of the second commercial port in the empire, — that
you will show by your actions how strongly you are im
pressed with a sense of what is due from you to the world.
And you can only perform this duty by sending men to the
House of Commons who are in advance of the opinions of
the world, — who wiU seek to enlarge, not only civil and re
ligious liberty, but also the freedom of commerce ; making
this country resume her proud prerogative — that of teach
ing the nations how to live.
And what is it that you have to suffer for the accom
plishment of this great object? What toil, what drudgery,
have you to submit to ? It is just to take care that if
you have a claim to the elective franchise, that claim is
duly recognised ; .it is just to see that the collector of
taxes does not, by delaying his call, cheat you out of your
franchise ; just to ascertain that you are — what the laws of
your country entitle you to be — free men, enfranchised
men. This is what the cause requires from you. It is
not a degradation, but a privilege ; it is not a toil, but the
enjoyment of a right ; and it assuredly is a duty. In the
attempts now made by Free-Trade associations, what are
they doing, but endeavouring to carry into practical effect
laws which already exist on our statute-book ? They are

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 239
not innovating on the constitution, they are only endeavour
ing to bring about such a change that representation shall
not be a mere theory, not mere representation in the
abstract, but a true, vital, and practical representation ; they
are endeavouring to work the Eeform Bill for the purpose
of the nation, as it has hitherto been worked for the pur
pose of a faction ; they are endeavouring to make the
constitution a reality ; they are enfranchising societies, and
their object is to have the state consist, not merely of
nominal voters, by influence created, but of men — high-
minded men — men that "know their rights, and, know
ing, dare maintain !"
And yet we of the League are often told in different
places that we are strangers. A sUly cry was raised
flrst in London, — and it has done some execution, I am
afraid, in Exeter, — that strangers were coming among
them ! As if we spoke not in the same language, held not
the same faith, obeyed not the same laws, — as if our in
terests were not one, — as if they were not making the
lawgivers to whose enactments we should all have to sub
mit just as if we had nominated them ! As if any one
should be a stranger who brings information, diffuses know
ledge, advocates truth, — who opens and solves a great
question before the community ! Such people, we think,
should be welcome wherever they show themselves, and
have a fair hearing. Least of all should the epithet be
applied to them, that they are " strangers," unless those
who use it mean to assert their own strangeness from the
interests of knowledge and the claims of industry. This
is the sort of feeling in which, in a biographical dictionary
compiled by some one tinctured vrith the prejudices of a
class, I found John Howard described as a " very busy,
meddling man, that ran about the country peeping into
prisons and interfering very impertinently with their ar
rangements" !
Strangers ! What are the best productions of the most
enlightened minds of our country upon this subject?
Should they, or can they, be foreign in a place that boasts
of intelligence? Are Adam Smith, and Mill, and Ei
cardo, and all who laboured with them to diffuse light
upon topics of political economy, — are they strangers to
any thinkers, whatever be their extremes in politics ? Are

240 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
they strangers to the extreme of democracy, where we
find the doctrine of Paine, that the commerce of all coun
tries is connected, and that the government that wars upon
the commerce of other nations is, in fact, warring upon
its own ? Are they strangers amongst the extreme aris-
tocracy, when Burke declared, great as was his aversion
for the doctrine of natural right, that there were natural
rights to be held sacred, — and among them was that of
every man to the earnings of his industry, and to facilities
for making his industry profitable ? With loyal emphasis
he affirmed that the laws of trade and commerce were a
portion of the laws of nature, which were the laws of God,
and, like them, not to be violated with impunity by nations
or individuals. Those who profess their own strangeness upon this
matter do not apply the epithet where they might apply
it deservedly. If any candidate comes from the Carlton
or Conservative Clubs, with money in his pocket, they do
not deal with him as a stranger. When the tempter goes
in at the poor man's door, — when he sneaks in there, —
when he offers to buy, at the cost of pounds, perhaps, the
Httle kitten he sees gambolling about, — when in different
shapes he draws his snare, and he has the consciousness of
having the victim in his trap, he is not called a stranger in
his infamous and diabolical work. And to interrupt the
peace and quiet and order of elections, — to intimidate, to
overawe, to generate confusion, — these are not caUed
strange ; the advocates and the dependents of monopoly
own no strangeness in the world but the strangeness of
knowledge, wisdom, truth, and justice. I would say to the
constituencies of Cambridge, Exeter, and such places, that
adopt this doctrine, " If we are strangers, as you say we
are, just be as civil to us as you should be to strangers.
If we are strangers, do not take our food; if we are
strangers, do not pick our pockets ; if we are strangers, do
not rob our industry and interfere with our exchanges ; if
we are strangers, at least leave us alone; and if you are
enamoured of monopoly and of a bread-tax, why, take
them yourselves, and realise the full blessings that such
measures can bestow upon you."
Yet worse than the doctrine of strangeness is the
notion of neutrality upon such matters. Some thousands

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 241
of persons of understanding, calling themselves reformers,
at Exeter, stood aloof at the late election. They held
themselves neutral. Now, in a matter which concerns
the claims of justice and of charity, — in a matter which
interests every laborious individual in the country, — in a
matter which affects national policy and the character of
our government in the accomplishment of those objects for
which government exists, — what is neutrality but that sort
of treason which induced an ancient lawgiver to enact
that in civil strife all who stood neutral should be hanged,
and which drew down one of the most awful curses of holy
writ : " Curse ye Meroz, curse ye bitterly the inhabitants
thereof, because they came not to the help of the Lord" ?*
What public cause can stimulate these men if in such a
cause as this they can stand by in perfect coolness, and
unconcerned ? Why should it excite them that John this,
and Thomas that, may be sent into the House, there being
no more important difference between them than the dis
tinction between their names ? Their obsolete distinctions
of " Whig" and " Tory" — their bygone battles — would be
uppermost in the House of Commons. They have a minis
ter there who is very gradually destroying all protective
duties, and the result of such conflicts might be that they
would have another minister who thinks protection a bane
to agriculture, but stUl sticks to a protective duty ; each of
them wanting that imperative public voice which shall dic
tate the course they are to pursue.
One could scarcely beheve any man sincere upon any
topic whatever who professes indifference and neutrality
upon this. Are you Eeformers ? Here is one of the most
important reforms, and, in practical operation, one of the re
forms the most conducive to the well-being of millions that
can be imagined, waiting for your exertions. Are you Con
servatives ? What preservation can there be for peace and
order, — what security against these social convulsions, over
whelming all things in ruin, — but by giving trade its natural
course, and leaving industry to its natural expansion? Are
you philanthropists ? How can you be neutral upon that
which concerns the feeding ofthe poor, and upon that which
gives more abundance to relieve their wants, which strength
ens the hands of charity, and which enables the people to
* Judges V. 23.
VOL. IV. H

242 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
seek for themselves all those advantages of baths and
washhouses and better dwellings that you are now busied
in providing for them, but which, with untaxed food, they
would set about providing for themselves? Not even the
rcHgionist has any excuse for standing neutral upon a
question of this description. What, is not the city mis
sionary to advocate the most practical mode of feeding
the poor ? What was publicly reported by one of them at
the annual meeting in London not long ago ? Why, this,
that he felt ashamed to name the bread of life to perishing
sinners, because they were in want of daily bread, without
the application of which the mind could not be brought
into a state to receive religious exhortations.
Whatever your principles, whatever your objects, if
you feel an interest in thera, you will perceive that, rightly
considered, this question lays hold ofthe true, the good,
the beautiful, and the useful in all of them. It extracts
utility from all. It appeals to principles, and most deeply
connects you with all. It gives a pledge to the world of
your sincerity in every one of those directions that should
make you heart and soul a free-trader,— one who leaves
the promotion of that object not to the toil of others, but
takes his own share, and bears the heat and burden of the
day as if upon him, and upon him alone, it depended
whether this cause should be lost or won. This is the sort
of spirit which I trust is growing up in this town, which
I hope will show itself forth at no distant day in a manner
that will become an example to the whole nation, and
which will evince how strong has been the individual im
pression, the impression upon one and all, of the necessity
of letting no opportunity slip, of missing no occasion of
increasing your free-traders upon the registration list,
and of doing all that can be done by individuals who
are determined to accomplish the great object of their
exertions. For you have to put down laws which are, in
truth, laws against trade and commerce. They profess to
be laws for the protection of agriculture. The farmers,
however, declare with one voice that they are not laws
for the protection of agriculture. They may, perhaps, he
blundering as to the efl'ects of the recent change of the
law ; but their decision is a distinct one, to every candid
mind, as to the theory of protection itself. Why, what

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 243
would they have ? The duty has been at a very high rate
for a large portion ofthe last quarter. Foreign corn is
effectually shut out. The duties actually paid under Sir
Eobert Peel's bill, on the average, have been twice as much
— I think they have been more than twice as much — as
were paid under the previous bill. This is all that laws
miscaUed protective can achieve ; and yet, by the universal
consent of the actual agriculturists, the cultivators of the
ground, they are not protected. They had better, then,
learn to rely on their own resources, and to adjust with
their landlords any questions of rent.
But whilst the Corn Laws have been a faUure to them
as weU as to every other portion of the community, in the
production of good, they have been pregnant with mischief
both at home and abroad. They have produced retaliation
in other countries ; they have organised a mighty League
against this nation; they have produced a succession of
hostile tariffs ; they have diminished the frequency and the
extent of that interchange of commodities which would
otherwise have gone on; they have narrowed the operations
of the manufacturers and of the shipowners ; by abridging
the amount of employment, and leaving it less in proporr
tion to the number of the population than it would be,
they have tended to keep down wages, at the same time
that they have raised the prices of the necessaries of life ;
and thus to their full extent, as far as they have been
operative, they have been laws against trade and commerce.
In fact, the Corn Law is a law agaiust Liverpool, and Man
chester, and Leeds, and Sheffield; a law against energy
and enterprise and industry ; a law against that which has
raised our country to her greatness, which has miUtiplied
her wealth, which has enabled her to bear up against
fiscal burdens the endurance of which might have been
pronounced impossible. It is a law against the means and
resources of the people ; and all for the supposed benefit of
a small class, who would, in fact, find themselves en
riched and aggrandised by a more just and beneficent
system. Talk of injury to landed property ! When was land
ever made less valuable by the wealth and prosperity of
those who lived in the country ? When have customers,
with money in their hands, deteriorated the worth of that

244 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
which they would purchase, instead of enhancing it?
Would not land, if this country became the great work
shop of the world, be worth far more than it now is ? If it
were made one great garden for labour and industry to dis
port themselves in, and every grain of corn imported from
other countries, would they not pay for it better than the
poor, toiHng, struggling people, who now in vain strive to
profit by its cultivation? Are uot stacks of houses on
fields better than stacks of barley or wheat ? Does not a
growing population every where bring wealth with it?
And were it not that portions of the landed interest want
present means rather than future enhancement in value, —
were it not that they look to mortgages and settlements,
and not to the worth of their estates, — they would in two or
three generations see that Free Trade in agriculture and
all things else can never plunge into poverty the proprietors
of a land inhabited by a great and thriving body of indus
trious people.
It is the cause, then, of trade and industry and com
merce that calls on you to exert yourselves. And not that
alone, for what is the world's civiliser ? What but com
merce and industry, in old times, led on the human race in
their first advances? Where have genius and the arts
most flourished, but where they were in their plenitude, —
where there were the appreciating many as well as the
patronising individual ? And if it be said that the age of
chivalry has gone, and that that of economy has succeeded,
I say that economy, in the course of ages, will bring back
a better age of chivalry than the world has yet seen ; a
higher tone and larger range of thought, of intellectual
exertion, and of knowledge, and a better state of general
feeling, by which all will rise to a height of dignity enjoyed
only by the knightly few in ancient times, and rival them
in courtesy of manner, in hatred of oppression, and in a
devotion of soul and body to the true, the right, the good,
and the beautiful.
Let our industrial population be in that advantageous
position in which Free Trade would place them, and many
of the evils against which philanthropists eloquently dis
course would vanish — wither to the very root. Think you
that if the removal of the blight of monopoly were to give
that fair play which has been so warmly recommended to-

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 245
night, the gigantic powers possessed by the people of this
country would not enable them to support their offspring,
so as to make it needless any more to call out about child-
labour ? Would not the toiling poor then, with bettered
circumstances, think of the school rather than of the fac
tory ? Instead of living on their children, would they not
provide for light to be put into their children's minds, and
nurture and culture secured for their souls? Would not
the vices of intoxication and its kindred results be checked
by a system that would lead to the diffusion of knowledge,
and a sense of decency and propriety, of the dignity and
luxury of life ? Whatever is most debasing and crushing
would pass away iu this general elevation ofthe great body
of the people, and instead of here and there a distin
guished individual claiming the eulogy of his fellow-men,
we should look around us on manufacturing multitudes,
and say of each one of them, as the poet said of one of
his favourite heroes,
" His life was gentle, and the elements
So mixed in him, that Nature might stand up
And say to all the world, ' This was a man !' "

No XX.
AT THE FEEE-TEADE HALL, MANCHESTEE.
December 10th, 1845.
[In October 1845, loud alarm was expressed at the extent of the
mischief which it was believed the potato disease had occasioned
in Ireland. The newspapers were filled with details of the ravages
of an " enemy whose history and habits" were, in the language of
the Government Commissioners, " as yet but imperfectly known."
The condition of Ireland, and of the country generally, became
alarming, and there arose a universal demand for " opening the
ports," in order that famine might be averted by the admission of
food. Sir Robert Peel's administration seemed in danger, and
Earl, then Lord John, Russell issued a letter to the electors of
the City of London, dated from Edinburgh, November 22, 1845,
and making explicit declarations in favour of Free Trade. As this
document possesses historical interest, we have subjoined it in
extenso.* Numerous public meetings were held throughout the
country, and Lord John Russell's conversion was the subject of
congratulatory remark. It was evident that the Corn Laws must
be repealed, and the only doubt was by whom the good deed would
be accomplished. In opening the meeting at Manchester on the
10th December, at which the following speech was made, Mr.
George Wilson, who was in the chair, after complimenting Lord
John Russell on his change of opinion, said, " If Sir Robert Peel
chooses at the eleventh hour to shake off the trammels of faction,
and stand before his feUow-countrymen with the charter of their
industrial freedom in his hands, then no man will be held as a
greater patriot in the meetings of the League than Sir Robert
Peel."]
These stupendous meetings are altogether unprecedented
in history ; but they are not more unprecedented than the
condition of the country which has called them forth and
demands their repetition. We are, indeed, in a position
not only peculiar, but absolutely singular. The pressure of
coming scarcity is upon us ; and yet, as a nation, we turn
* " Gentlemen, — The present state of the country, in regard to its
supply of food, cannot be viewed without apprehension. Forethought
and bold precaution may avert any serious evils — ^indecision aud pro
crastination may produce a state of suffering which it is frightful to
contemplate. Three weeks ago it was generally expected that Parliament would
be immediately called together. The announcement that Ministers

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 247
back food from our shores that has been purchased, stored,
paid for, and was there awaiting our own consumption, and
was in readiness for the approaching season of exigency.
Such conduct in an individual would be utter insanity ; it
were prepared at that time to advise the Crown to summon Parlia
ment, and to propose on their first meeting a suspension of the import
duties on corn, would have caused orders at once to be sent to various
ports of Europe and America for the purchase aud transmission of
grain for the consumption of the United Kingdom. An Order in
Council dispensing with the law was neither necessary nor desirable.
No party iu Parliament would have made itself responsible for the
obstruction of a measure so urgent and so beneficial.
The Queen's Ministers have met and separated, without affording
us any promise of such seasonable relief.
It becomes us, therefore, the Queen's subjects, to consider how we
can best avert, or at all events mitigate, calamities of no ordinary
magnitude. Two evils require your consideration. One of these is the disease
in the potatoes, affecting very seriously parts of England and Scot
land, and committing fearful ravages in Ireland.
The extent of this evil has not yet been ascertained, and every
week, indeed, tends either to reveal unexpected disease, or to abate
in some districts the alarm previously entertained. But there is one
misfortune peculiar to the failure in this particular crop. The effect
of a bad corn harvest is, in the first place, to diminish the supply in
the market, and to raise the price. Hence diminished consumption,
and the privation of incipient scarcity by which the whole stock is
more equally distributed over the year, and the ultimate pressure is
greatly mitigated. But the fear of the breaking out of this unknown
disease in the potatoes induces the holders to hurry into the market,
and thus we have at one and the same time rapid consumption and
impending deficiency — scarcity of the article and cheapness of price.
The ultimate suffering must thereby be rendered far more severe than
it otherwise would be. The evil to which I have adverted may be
owing to an adverse season, to a mysterious disease in the potato, to
want of science or of care in propagating the plant. In any of these
oases. Government is no more subject to blame for the failure of the
potato crop, than it was entitled to credit for the plentiful corn harvest
which we have lately enjoyed.
Another evil, however, under which we are suffering, is the fruit
of Ministerial council and Parliamentary law. It is the direct conse
quence of an Act of Parliament, passed three years ago, on the recom
mendation of the present advisers of the Crown. By this law grain
of all kinds has been made subject to very high duties on importation.
These duties are so contrived, that the worse the quality of the corn,
the higher is the duty ; so that when good wheat rises to 70.s. a quarter,
the average price of all wheat is 57s. or 68s., and the duty 15s. or 14s.
a quarter. Thus the corn barometer points to fair, while the ship is
bending under a storm.
This defect was pointed out many years ago by writers on the Corn

248 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J, FOX.
would be SO in a nation, if the nation and its government
were thoroughly identical — if there were not a contrariety of
interest, feeling, and purpose, real or supposed, betwixt the
great masses of the people and the classes that have for
Laws, and was urged upon the attention of the House of Commons
when the present Act was under consideration.
But I confess that, on the general subject, my views have in the
course of twenty years undergone a great alteration. I used to be of
opinion that corn was an exception to the general rules of political
economy ; but observation and experience have convinced me that we
ought to abstain from all interference with the supply of food. Neither
a government nor a legislature can ever regulate the corn markets
with the beneficial effects which the entire freedom of sale and pur
chase are sure of themselves to produce.
I have for several years endeavoured to obtain a compromise on
this subject. In 1839 I voted for a committee of the whole House,
with the view of supporting the substitution of a moderate fixed duty
for the sliding scale. In 1841 I announced the intention of the then
Government of proposing a fixed duty of 8s. a quarter. In the past
session I proposed the imposition of some lower duty. These pro
positions were successively r^ected. The present First Lord of the
Treasury met them in 1839, 1840, and 1841 by eloquent panegyrics
of the existing system — the plenty it had caused, the rural happiness
it had diffused. He met the propositions for diminished protection
in the same way in which he had met the offer of securities for Pro
testant interests in 1817 and 1825 — in the same way in which he met
the proposal to allow Manchester, Leeds, and Birmingham to send
members to Parliament in 1830.
The result of resistance to qualified concession must be the same
in the present instance as in those I have mentioned. It is no longer
worth while to contend for a fixed duty. In 1841 the Free-Trade
party would have agreed to a duty of 8s. a quarter on wheat ; and after
a lapse of years this duty might have been further reduced, and ulti
mately abolished. But the imposition of any duty at present, without
a provision for its extinction within a short period, would but prolong
a contest already sufficiently fruitful of animosity and discontent.
The struggle to make bread scarce and dear, when it is clear that part,
at least, of the additional price goes to increase rent, is a struggle
deeply injurious to an aristocracy which, this quarrel once removed,
is strong in property, strong in the construction of our legislature,
strong in opinion, strong in ancient associations and the memory of
immortal services.
Let us, then, unite to put an end to a system which has been
proved to be the blight of commerce, the bane of agriculture, the
source of bitter divisions among classes, the cause of penury, fever,
mortality, and crime among the people.
But if this end is to be achieved, it must be gained by the un
equivocal expression of the public voice. It is not to be denied that
many elections for cities and towns in 1841, and some in 1845, appear
to favour the assertion that Free Trade is not popular with the great

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 249
a time got possession of legislative power. They have
enforced upon the country this absurdity ; they have
stained the national character; they are making at this
moment our apparent conduct as a people as preposterous
as that of the Frenchman in the well-known story of his
failing grammar, — his misplaced " will" and " shall," —
" I will be drowned— nobody shall save me ;" and so they
make the nation say, by its practical condition, — " We will
be starved, and nobody shall feed us."
And not only is the position of the country a curious
one in the incongruities thus enforced upon its conduct, but
also in the darkness in whicli we are kept from day to day
as to the extent of the calamity, and the means which her
majesty's advisers, or the people's rulers, have to propose
for the mitigation of that calamity. Her majesty herself
is said to have learned something of the intentions of her
own servants from an opposition journal, which in a day or
two is contradicted by a ministerial journal, leaving us only
in the midst of perplexity and bewilderment, and that on
the most important of all topics, — the very means of exist
ence for a great people through a trying period. There is
scarcely an object so remote, or a transaction so trifling, —
nothing in the material world, or beyond the bounds of
this world of ours, — nothing so peculiar or individual, but
what we can get more authentic information about than
we can about our own supplies of provisions for the coming
months. We have authentic information by my Lord
Eosse's great telescope of the number of stars that com
pose certain clusters hitherto regarded as nebulae. We
have accurate information by Dr. Buckland's scientific
researches of the saurians and megatheria of bygone ages.
mass of the community. The Government appear to be waiting for
some excuse to give up the present Corn Law. Let the people, by
petition, by address, by remonstrance, afford them the excuse they
seek. Let the Ministry propose such a revision of the taxes as in
their opinion may render the public burdens more j ust and more equal ;
let them add any other provisions which caution and even scrupulous
forbearance may suggest ; but let the removal of restrictions on the
admission of the main articles of food and clothing used by the mass
of the people be required, in plain terms, as useful to ail great in
terests, and indispensable to the progress of the nation.
I have the honour to be. Gentlemen,
Your obedient servant,
Edinburgh, Nov. 22, 1845. J. RussBii,."

250 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. POX.
We know what the fossil lizards, forty feet long, used to
feed upon in their time, many millions of years ago, but we
know not what we ourselves are to feed upon next month.
Every fashionable arrival at Brighton, every dinner party
in May Fair, finds its place in accurate and authoritative
statement ; and even, thanks to the diligence and the
far-sightedness and the communicativeness of the gentle-
man who writes the Court Circular, we know more about
the royal baby that will be born in the month of April than
we know about the food on which the people shall feed in
the month of February.
The perplexity extends through all ranks of society,
from the lowest to the highest. Not only is the willing
mechanic and the poor labourer in this dense ignorance,
but a royal duke tells the world, — not that he knows any
thing of the scarcity ; he does not come near that point, —
not that he knows any thing of the panic, or alarm of that
scarcity ; he does not probe the matter so far as that, — but
he " has heard something of a report of a panic of a
scarcity," and he has private information that that report
is not altogether to be credited. These confessions of
ignorance are ill adapted to excite the confidence of the
ignorant mass of the community in those who are raised
to eminence by office or by rank. They may stand idle,
but time moves on, and whatever of good or evil time has
in reserve for us. The inexorable course of events is before
us ; and too much of bitter experience in past years has
taught us what to think of the events that are on their way.
Sir Eobert Peel has said he will never forget Paisley ; we
will not forget it either. We take warning by the recol
lection of those years ; and, being forewarned, by the exer
tion of whatever peaceful energy the people may have, will
be forearmed as well as forewarned against the circum
stances ofthe coming period. And it seems we are to have
a conflict for that very simple and obvious remedy which
the necessities of the time dictate. Individual despotism
has never hesitated as to its course ; it at once says, " Let
food come in from whatever quarter it may.'' Other
countries, not under despotism, but more assimilated with
our own, have also set the example. Belgium threw open
its ports at once, and from day to day came arrivals of
grain from a great variety of countries, very many indeed

ANTI-COUN-LAW SPEECHES. 251
from this country, — exhibiting the extraordinary spectacle
of the foreign grain which we had in our own possession
leaving our shores, much of it in foreign vessels, steering to
a foreign port, to feed the subjects of a foreign country ;
and then we call all this the protection of native in
dustry !
Why are not those whose business it is to advise up
and doing? If they delay, it is for us to urge them on.
And as to the hostility that is threatened, why, let mo
nopoly, if it will, as it boasts, nail its colours to the mast;
the only result will be, that the colours will go down with
the mast and the vessel altogether. And I would admonish
them, too, to take some heed to the language they use.
The honourable gentleman* who just addressed you ad
verted to that very undutiful godson of mine, " the coro
neted fishmonger." I gave him " his name, and he
answers to it ; I have given him much good counsel," — and
I wish he would attend to that also. He learns his cate
chism, I am afraid, much as did the tax-gatherer's boy.
" My child, what is your duty to your neighbour ?" Think
ing of his father's avocation, the boy says : " To surcharge
him as often as you can."
In this mode does he exercise his duties ; and in the
course of the hostility he now announces, he has dared to
brand with opprobrium the patriotic conduct of perhaps the
most patriotic nobleman in this country. He accuses Lord
Morpeth of giving his money to an association, meaning
the League, for the purpose of creating fictitious votes, and
Hbelling in the newspapers those who differ from him in
opinion. And yet he says, withal, that of the integrity,
the honourableness, and the sincerity of that noble lord's
character there can be no doubt. From which what we
gather is this, that, in the Duke of Eichmond's opinion, a
very sincere, a very honourable, and a very upright man
may, nevertheless, be a party to the creation of fictitious
votes, and to the libelling in newspapers of those who differ
* Mr. Milner Gibson was the speaker alluded to. He observed,
" The Duke of Richmond says, that if the ministers are so perfidious
as to propose the repeal of the Corn Laws, he must look to hereditary
wisdom, to the hereditary peerage, as his only safety. In 1839 I re
member when his grace said that if the Corn Laws were repealed, he
would depart from England for ever, — would leave his native soil,
and wander remote and unfriended over the world."

252 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
from him in opinion. It was not for a man who himself
for a considerable period of his life, if he be not now, was a
pensioner on the public ; for one whose naive confession wiU
not be forgotten, when discriminating between timber and
glass, — " We grow timber, but we do not grow glass," — a
man who had amused even the House of Lords by his
" tariff" lamentations, who confessed virtually that he had
been pocketing 2000Z. a year for his salmon more than it
was worth— a parliamentarily created price, of which he
grieved over the loss; a man who quarters the younger
branches of his family upon the public purse, instead of upon
his own property, — it was not, I say, for such a man as this
to dare to raise his tongue against the purity or the con
sistency of Lord Morpeth ; nor is he in a condition, with
his own name appended to pamphlets convicted of grossly
falsifying quotations from works of authority, to talk of the
falsehood or the libellousness of the press.
The League, I believe, has never libelled his Grace of
Eichmond ; but it differs from him in opinion, according
to his own dainty phraseology in this matter. The League
is of opinion that wealthy proprietors have no business to
abuse their legislative powers to private advantage. It
differs from him in opinion, and thinks that the wealthy
man's hand ought not to be in the poor man's pocket, nor
the wealthy man's knife to be slicing off a third from the
poor man's loaf. I trust, however, the machinery is at
work which will silence the Duke of Eichmond. If mat
ters go on as is conjectured in many quarters, he may
about the time of the meeting of Parliament receive one
of those pithy, laconic notes, with the style of which the
public have been pretty well familiarised, from the speci
mens which have got into the papers, running something
in this way : " Field-Marshal the Duke of WeUington
desires the Duke of Eichmond to be quiet. Field-Marshal
the Duke of Wellington is obliged either to part with the
Com Laws or to part with Sir Eobert Peel. Field-
Marshal the Duke of Wellington cannot govern the
country without Sir Eobert Peel ; let the Corn Laws be
abolished." An interesting correspondence of this kind
will, no doubt, beam light into the convictions of many of
that venerable House, and help us over what otherwise
might have been insurmountable difficulties. But, how-

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 253
ever that may be, we look not to this or that leader — to
this or that House, even ; the country looks to you, who
are marching in its van in this great advance — you, men of
Manchester, who have hitherto braved the foe and led on
the struggle. Your grip is now firm upon the neck of the
serpent : hold it there. Hold it there ; hold it hard ; and
however the venomous creature may writhe and wriggle, if
you do but persevere and keep as you are, with the same
tenacity of purpose, at length its convulsions will be over,
and the country delivered for ever from the poison and the
sting of that mighty reptile.
Of all the impertinent pieces of advice which the present
time has brought forth, I think the most so is one that is
reiterated in sundry monopolist journals — that if there be a
scarcity, we should still be submissive and content. We
are told — and this is the statement of the Protection So
ciety themselves — that the crop is an average crop ; they
say nothing of quality ; but they report that as to quan
tity. Now take their own statement — say that the wheat
is up to the average of the harvest : do the people keep
down to the average? Have we not been told by au
thority of 360,000 or 380,000 additions every year to the
mouths that are to be fed ? What is to become of these
380,000, if our supplies of food are to be kept down to
an average of past years ? and is it to be matter of con
jecture that we have as much food now as we had when
we were so many hundred thousands fewer in number?
The people grow, and the supplies must grow too; that
agency must be employed which is capable of sustaining
them. Providence puts this power into our hands. I had
almost said it was impious to tell the people they must
submit to scarcity — go without food, or get what modicum
they can at an exorbitant and monopoly price, and call all
they are enduring a dispensation of Providence !
Why, Providence makes ports, stretches the bold curve
of the bay, and roUs in the billows, so that they may bear
in safety vessels bringing supplies of necessaries and luxu
ries. Providence makes ports — Providence does not close
ports. It was Providence that grew the very corn, the
foreign corn, that had arrived in this country, that was in
our possession ; Providence placed it within our reach : the
Corn Laws turn it back, and fly in the face of Providence.

254 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
Providence endows the banks of the Mississippi and the
Missouri with their abundant fertility, making them capable
of becoming the granaries of Europe, and of supplying the
wants of our industrial myriads, who provide for the cultiva
tors there the clothing which they need. Providence never
sends universal scarcity — there is no such thing on record in
all history; where one portion ofthe world fails in its crops,
another succeeds, and there is a general superabundance.
Providence gives for all ; and the lesson from its conduct
is, that all should feel their common interest, and adminis
ter to each other's common wants. Providence is account
able for none of these things. Providence lays no rate;
Providence takes no tax ; and Providence tars no butter.
Wicked, we might say blasphemous, teachers are they
who would transfer their own iniquitous doings to the
Divine government, representing that as not less oppressive
and tyrannical than themselves. Why, if it were as they
tell us,^ — if Providence indeed willed that a class should gain
profits by a nation's sufferings, — the only moral would be
that of the tempter of old — to curse God and die. Such
is the tendency of their teaching in the holy name, which
they abuse, and in despite of the instructions of a book
every where replete with admonitions that we should
relieve the poor and the needy, that " he who withholdeth
corn, the people shall curse him," and which, in the various
illustrations of the connection of seemingly small events
with great, gives us a better notion of Providence under
present circumstances than all their teachers exhibit. It
shows us the momentary interruption of our own supply
tending to the prompt abolition of an enormous iniquity
that parts us from the rest of the world ; it shows us, in the
failure of a crop of the lowest vegetable used for human
food, the occasion of the destruction of the mightiest mo
nopoly that ever plundered humanity, and revelled in its
sufferings; and as it tells the tale of old, how the shep
herd-boy, with his sling -and with a smooth stone from
the brook, brought down the Philistine giant, so it shows
us now the more profane giant of monopoly laid prostrate
by the blow of a rotten potato.
If our condition is not rightly represented as an affiict
ive dispensation of Providence, to which we have nothing
to do but submit unmurmuringly, so neither cau it be

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 255
fairly ascribed to the progress of manufactures — to the com
mercial system by which, in fact, the country has been
aggrandised. This has been a favourite topic with mono
polist advocates. They have spoken of our overgrown estab
lishments for producing goods. They once ventured to
suggest that the greater portion of London, Manchester,
and Liverpool might as well be rased to the ground, and
the inhabitants distributed over the country, in parishes,
on small allotments, each with a squire and a parson to
take care of them. They are frequently reminding us that
commerce is "more unfaithful than the southern gale,"
that she " may shift to other shores her sail."
Now, what does all this mean? There may have been
ages in history when the operations of commerce appeared
to change their localities capriciously ; but what was the
commerce of ancient times? Merely the interchange of
natural products. It is only in modern history that real
commerce has sprung up ; it is one of the last results of
civilisation, and amongst the grandest. It has sprung up,
not in consequence of caprices, but of wants ; not for the
interchange of merely natural products, but for the dis
tribution of art and capital and industry throughout the
world ; uniting the nations by the peculiar abilities of dif
ferent people to contribute different results to the great
common sum of good. It is a system that in its very
nature implies advance ; and I see no reason to imagine
that any number of years which our figures can express
will find it arrived at a point beyond which there is no
progress. Comraerce grows like the oak ; it may seem a
mere sapling, which the passing breeze may level with the
ground, but its roots strike this way and that, as if instinct
ively in search of their proper nutriment ; its leaves unfold
themselves to the air, to imbibe from it the nourishment
it affords ; and year after year adds to the rings that circle
it, and denote its age, and show the steadiness and equality
of its growth. As it strikes deep into the earth, so it
extends high up into the air, it spreads abroad a grateful
shade and shelter, and the birds of heaven sing among its
branches. Commerce flows like the river; it may be con
fined for a time, when it is yet but small and feeble, by
rocky barriers, but it goes on deepening and widening, and
fertilising its banks on either side, and towns and cities

256 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
rise upon its shores, and it bears upon its bosom the wealth
of provinces, carrying it on with it to meet the ocean,
where they are to find nature's broad highway to every
region of the globe.
And such is the growth, and such the natural flowing,
of the commercial power and principle. Why, at this
very moment, when articles of cotton clothing seem to be
among the prime necessities of life to so many civilised
nations of the 900 miUions of the earth's inhabitants,
not above 120 millions are provided with them. There
are seven to one that use your cotton manufactures
spread all over the surface of the earth, and all of them
able to contribute something from their own regions,
which, in return for what you furnish, shall enlarge your
wealth, shall add to your enjoyments, shall provide for
your multitudes, shall stimulate your arts and industry,
and aggrandise the British name by linking it with the
world's advancement and the comfort and progress of its
inhabitants. See how it advances with us, even here, in
this little isle of ours ; now intersected, or about to be in
tersected, from end to end, and across its breadth, with
those lines of locomotion that annihilate time and space.
Throughout the land the barrier of distance is thrown
down, and the galvanic telegraph lends its instantaneous
communication. The spirit of commerce does all this. It
seizes the elementary powers ; it harnesses them ; it makes
their mighty energies minister to the production of human
good and the gratification of human wishes. It bridges
the mighty ocean ; it extends from our own country to all
Europe ; it is at work every where.
This system of more rapid communication, and with it
eventuaUy' — however prejudices may obstruct — of free in
terchange, is extending throughout the whole length and
breadth of Europe. Eailroads will run ere long, transvers-
ing the course of every mighty stream; as the rivers flow in
one direction, the iron lines will be laid down in another,
until, throughout all the nations of Europe, there will
be the means of a rapid transit from the Ebro to the
Ehine, from the Ehine to the Danube, from the Danube to
the Vistula, from the Vistula to the Volga. All along
with these mighty natural arteries of Europe will the iron
muscles be laid down, aiding and cooperating vrith the

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES, 257
energy of the human frame ; and augmenting the strength
of all these nations for their mutual good, their mutual en
joyment. And not Europe merely : the New World and
the Old are thus linked together; and even the ancient
nation, so long secluded, whose inhabitants learnt their
wisdom from Confucius, and who have kept aloof for ages
from others, — they are becoming one with us ; the barriers
of space and time, the barriers of superstition and prejudice,
all are destined to succumb before the growing spirit of
commerce. It puts its belt around the globe, and it is itself
as firm and solid as that globe ; a portion, too, of mighty
nature ; a part of the great providential system that formed
worlds and suns and systems, and rolls them along in their
harmonious motions.
The power that governs our country suffices not at the
present moment to save it from the prospect of calamity ;
but this is owing to the accident, to the unnatural and pre
posterous circumstance, that those who enrich the country
are not those who have a decisive voice in ruHng the
country. A class interposes, and for a time throws doubt
and suspicion even on the workings of Nature and of Pro
vidence. It is a momentary obscurity ; and the League
may warn the monopolists in the words of Gray's bard to
the tyrant of his country :
" Pond, impious man ! think'st thou yon gloomy cloud,
Rais'd by thy breath, has quench'd the orb of day ?
To-morrow he repairs his golden flood.
And warms the nations with redoubled ray."
And such will be the gladdening sunlight of Free Trade,
and its joy-giving force, after this temporary obscura
tion. Other counsellors of the public say, "We have got
through times of alarm before, and therefore let us hope
we may get through again." We have got through them
before, but how? In 1825-26-27 — the last three years of
the former Com Law — in every one of those years the Go
vernment was obliged to let foreign corn in bond out at a
reduced and almost nominal duty; they also asked and
obtained the power of admitting half a million quarters of
foreign corn in 1826. In AprU of that year they declared
— as some ministers and legislators have of late declared —
VOL. IV. s

258 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
that they had no such purpose, the Cabinet had come to
no decision on the Corn Laws; and on the 1st of May
afterwards they came down to the House with their propo
sition, to throw open the warehouses, and to allow of that
extent of importation. We got through in those years, but
how ? How in a later period ? We got through with mul
tiplied bankruptcies, with increased committals for crime,
with want extending through the streets of our towns, with
incendiary fires blazing all over the rural districts. We
got through, but we did so at a fearful expense of privation
and suffering, of disease and of mortality.
In the name of Heaven, let us try to get through better
the next time ! And there is something to encourage the
hope ; the question is better understood now than it was
then ; the ways of getting through which were then sub
mitted to will not now be endured. In 1815 there was a
sort of instinctive blind outbreak against the passing of
these Corn Laws : there were riots, blood was shed in the
streets ; the people struggled like blind Samson, and like bhnd
Samson were sent back to toil in their prison-houses for
the benefit of their taskmasters. But the lancet of know
ledge has couched blind Samson's eyes. The physical
power of the many and the moral power are now in unison,
in an alliance that cannot be broken. There is wisdom to
direct the guidance of that strength ; and thus put forth,
where is the power that shall stand before it ? It is com
ing, we know it is coming ; be you but firm, unrelaxing,
unbending, in every exertion — every legal and peaceful
exertion — that may promote this good cause. New aUies
are announced every day. Mr. Labouchere, in this morn
ing's Times, adds his name to the converts for a fixed duty.
They are all coming in, but it is somewhat misnamed to
call this leading. Much has been made of Lord John
Eussell's name as the Liberal leader, because twenty years'
consideration has led him to the point which the inteUi
gence of the country had arrived at so long before. We
welcome him gladly. I believe he has come amongst us
because the cry was so loud and strong. Being made a
little louder and a Httle stronger, it may bring us another
Liberal leader, in the person of Sir Eobert Peel; and
raise it to its loudest pitch, and we may have that great
Liberal leader, the Duke of WeUington, in our ranks.

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 259
While we remember aU this, let us never forget who
they are that have done this, and who in the day of triumph
should wear the laurels. There has been at times a prac
tice of dealing with works of art that I think ought not to
be tolerated. Julius Caesar is said to have been so pleased
with the statue of Alexander the Great by Aristippus, that he
ordered the head to be taken off and his own countenance
to be put on its shoulders. And I myself once lived in a
cathedral town where there was a statue of St. Paul over the
great western entrance of the church. The men at work in
the repairs knocked St. Paul's head off; the dean and chap
ter, being too stingy to employ a sculptor, went to some old
stonemason's shop in the town, where they found a judge's
head, with a long wig on ; and there St. Paul stands to
this day, with a judges's wig and curls on his head ! Now,
as preposterous a transformation as this would it be, when
in a coming time — I hope in the new Houses of Parliament
— the statues shall be erected to the founders of Free Trade,
if on those statues should be placed the heads of Eussell,
Peel, and Wellington, instead of those of Cobden, Bright,
and Villiers. Great as may be the political advantage —
the advantage in parliamentary tactics — of those eminent
names, that is all we can plead for them. The work has
been done; the chariot of Free Trade has been driven
within sight ofthe goal; and Eussell, Peel, and Wellington
at best are only yoked to it to drag it along the few re
maining paces to its final destination.
But trust them not. Lord John Eussell may not have
the power, the Duke of Wellington may not have the will,
and Sir Eobert Peel, having played the monopolists a slip
pery trick one way, may play the free-traders a slippery
trick another way. Trust in yourselves, under the guid
ance of that Power which ever smiles propitiously on the
true, the just, and the right. There is a piece of advice
which was given some time ago, with no very charitable
intent, perhaps, to the Orangemen of Ireland : " Trust in
Providence, and keep your powder dry." We don't use
gunpowder ; our weapon is of a very different and a much
more potent description. Bayonets cannot pierce it, balls
cannot level it. Opinion is a power which no form of
physical force — multitudinous or military — can eventuaUy
prevaU against. But means must be employed ; and I say

260 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. POX.
to you : " Trust in Providence, and keep your names upon
the registration; trust in Providence, and multiply your
40s. freeholds ; trust in Providence, and win cities and
counties, and show parliament and the world your un
alterable determination that the shackles of trade and
industry shall be knocked off for ever." In that confi
dence you cannot be disappointed. The time is coming —
it is clearly coming.
" Powder dry I" No, our cause is not like a cannon ;
it is more like a steam-engine. It is preparing for its
journey, the hour of starting is come, the bell rings, and it
rings the death-knell of monopoly. There is a steady hand
[pointing to the chairman) to steer the engine. There are
active stokers to keep up a bright fire {pointing to Messrs.
Cobden and Bright). On it then moves. Out of the way,
calves and pigs ! out of the way, or you will be veal and pork
in no time ! Booted squires and sportsmen, clear the line,
or down you go, horse and rider, in spite of all your game
laws ! Such a train as that would dash through a house if
it stood in the way, though it should.be a house as old and
as strong for its age as the House of Lords itself On it
goes, brightened in the sun, careless of the storm ; all good
spirits in heaven and earth in sympathy with its progress.
Nor shall it rest until it reach its final destination ; until
we are home, — in the people's home, — a home made happy
by freedom, peace, plenty, and progress !

No. XXI.
AT COVENT-GAEDEN THEATEE.
December IQth, 1845.
I SHOULD rather have avoided speaking this evening, had I
not been previously announced; not from any indisposition
to be in active sympathy with this magnificent meeting,
but because of the unpleasantness of the present confused
state ofthe political atmosphere, the uncertainty that hangs
over our condition : our parliament not at its post ; one
administration out, we scarcely know why, and another
administration delaying to come in, we scarcely know
wherefore ;* friends and enemies confusedly mixed, so that
we cannot discriminate the one from the other; and the
whole political condition of the country a chaos, the dark
ness of which may be felt, but where nothing is seen ; a
fog in which one cannot breathe, and where one longs for
every coming day to bring some decisive information as to
who are to be practically the rulers of the country, what
difficulties our cause is next to struggle with, or to what
triumphs our cause is about to advance. One longs for
some certainty iu which to rest ; one wants this confusion
to have a speedy termination, that we may not have to
think and speak hypothetically, that our desires and wishes
may not be contingent on something as yet unascertained ;
and our whole course, Hke the old Castilian oath of alle
giance, which was to obey the sovereign if he preserved
their laws and privileges, but if not — not; the negation
being often much more important than the affirmation by
which it was preceded.
But there are circumstances on which to fall back;
there are facts in the state of the country, there are truths
in the principles we hold, there are assured hopes in the
* On the 10th December a Privy Council was held at Osborne
House, and Parliament was further prorogued. The next day Sir R.
Peel's resignation was announced, and Lord John Russell was sent
for. On the 20th Sir R. Peel reaccepted office. Lord John having
failed in his efforts to form a Cabinet.

262 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J, FOX.
prospects opening before us, where we find something like
sohd footing ; and it is to turn the mind away from the
uncertainties of the passing day, and to fix it on these
certainties, that I would now endeavour to direct your
attention. Of these, some are sad and some are joyous;
but stiU they furnish in their combination the elements
and materials to which we have to look for the completion
of the great work so long, honourably, and successfuUy
carried on by the leaders of the League.
The first certainty, I take it, that we can discern in
looking around us is a dreary one ; it is, that the country
is short in its supply of food, and that its means are not in
the best condition for making good the deficiency. At
first this allegation was met — as so many truths have been
met from the same quarter — by a brazen denial. We were
told by the Protection Society, in the first floor of No. 17
Bond Street, that it was an insidious and base delusion ;
that this outcry of coming scarcity was got up for selfish
and interested purposes. We were told that nobody knew
• — they did not themselves know — what the harvest was ;
but they contradicted the assertion of scarcity, by the as
surance that they would write down to their local societies,
and get back satisfactory information. The denial has now
faded away ; it was too daring, in the face of ascertained
facts, to be any longer adhered to. There is a deficiency
of supply, there is a peril of scarcity, — and scarcity to a
nation is famine and starvation to thousands of individuals.
There is peril, or why these commissioners to inquire into
the state of the potato crop in Ireland ? There is scarcity,
or why the rejoicing of the Somersetshire farmers that this
season promises to be more remunerative than the last;
that is, the price of food will be higher, in consequence of
deficient quantity ? There is danger, or why these sugges
tions of all sorts of preposterous substitutes for human
food? why learned disquisitions on the different roots
that may be brought into play as food, or of the compounds
of " peppers and that sort of thing," with which water
may be made to comfort the human frame ? There is
something, there is truth in the apprehension, or why the
breaking up of one government, and the difficulties that
exist as to the formation of another ?
Then, where are we as to the supply that should come

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 263
in readily, that the wealth of this country should set flow
ing in from all other countries, to stay even the apprehen
sion, and to put down the fear of the most timorous as to
such tremendous consequences? Why, the sliding scale,
with all its boasted operations, is rendered altogether use
less; the bad wheat keeps down the price and keeps up the
duty ; and with eatable corn at famine prices we are turn
ing back importation from our doors. We had a little
stock of foreign corn in bond ; but, under the operation of
the same law, that leaves our shores in the time of our
own want, and, amid all our apprehensions, quits our land
to seek the more provident, just, and careful regions, that
open their ports and invite supplies from other people the
moment the danger appears above the verge of the horizon.
The fields that should supply us — the rich, fertile fields, of
which there are so many thousand square miles on the
continent of Europe and in the vast prairies of America —
they have not borne the corn that might be sent for now
to feed the population of these realms ; they have not been
tilled, because the restrictive system gave the cultivator no
prospect ofa market here, however much the food might be
wanted. Monopoly here has laid on them in the distance
the curse of sterility ; it has arrested the arm of the culti
vator, and robbed him of his profits and us of our pro
visions. To this has that boasted system brought us which has
been lauded as though it were the perfection of human
wisdom. Here ends the sliding scale, smashed in the mo
ment of trial, ridiculously inefficient to cope with the
emergency that has occurred ; showing that, from begin
ning to end, the system has been full of fallacy : false in
its profession of rendering the country independent of
foreign supplies ; false in its promise of promoting culti
vation, so that it should be adequate to the demand ; false
in its promise of giving the farmers stimulating and re
munerating prices ; false in its declaration of utility to the
labouring classes, the proportion of whose numbers em
ployed in the cultivation of the land, as a percentage of
the whole population, has been regularly diminishing;
false in its promised connection with the stability of our
means and the increase of our prices : from first to last
one mass of falsehood, engendered by the sordid cupidity

264 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
ofa class, carried by interested majorities with indecent
haste, under the protection of bayonets, in the face of
popular commotion, supported by one administration after
another, to curry favour with those who commanded votes
in the House of Commons, and formed a great body ofthe
House of Lords ; prolonged, altered, and tinkered in vari
ous ways, in order to meet particular exigencies, but still
retaining its original sin; fallacious at the end as it
was at the beginning, and deserving to perish — as I trust
it soon will — amid universal contempt and execration.
A time of trial and privation is before the people of
these lands; they have borne such again and again; but
there is something more formidable in the prospect now.
It is more distinctly anticipated ; its privations in many
respects will be aggravated by the general knowledge of
the cause frora which those privations fiow, and the means
by which, with wiser and juster rulers, they might have
been avoided. The horrors of past times will come back
with aggravated force upon us and those great capitalists
in the country who, while this matter was not understood,
subjected themselves to severe losses; who struggled as
they might through times of depressed trade and of heavy
losses ; who kept their works going by drains on their own
resources, or what should have been their own reserved
private fortunes ; and thus found some sort of employ
ment, although for diminished time, and consequently
diminished wages, to the great mass of operatives. Can
we, therefore, expect that, now that every body knows that
it is not Providence, but unjust laws, — now that an exposed
and exploded system is seen to be the origin and source of
this, — can we expect of them with any reasonableness that
they should make themselves martyrs for the sake of the
monopoly under which they suffer and groan, — that they
should ruin themselves in order to avert some few of the
operations of a law which is still obstinately upheld by its
authors, — that they should interpose, as it were, between
the dead and the living, and themselves perish in the strife,
when they know that it is by the alteration of the law, and
by that alone, that master and workman can hope to
hold on his course, and get safe through this time of
peril ?
We have no right to expect any such conduct of them.

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 265
nor can we look without apprehension at the mode in
which, when there is a deficiency, the food in the country
has to be distributed ; for if there is not enough for all, do
we not know that there are plenty of persons in the country
that will be sure to have sufficient for themselves ? Do we
not know that the division of the deficient supply will be
much for the wealthy, and little for the poor ; that there
will be meat for these, and bones for those, — food for the
one class, and garbage for the others; that there will be the
same sort of division as between the lion and the jackal,
when the prey seized is not enough for the stronger and
more rapacious creature's appetite ?
Such will be the condition of the several classes ; and
let no man in comfortable circumstances wrap his warm
cloak about him, and hug himself in the thought that,
however it may fall with others, he shall get through this
time ; it will not retrench his table ; he has a relish for
potatoes, but he can do without them, — he will be furn
ished with his usual supply of dainties, and will live in his
customary state of luxury. Let not any one, I say, be
making himself comfortable in this Avay, for there is an
atmosphere of evil that cannot be restrained. If you set up
typhus fever in St, Giles's, the effiuvia will spread abroad,
and press into the purlieus of St, James's; if there be want
and hunger and desperation in some classes, it wUl be felt
by others — ay, by the most easy and the most comfortable.
They will have to look well to their doors at night, — they
will have to barricade their windows, — they will have to
take care of their pockets when they walk the streets, —
they will be wise to avoid lonely roads, especially if they
are known to have money about them ; there will be dan
ger every where. Want and desperation are the sources of
crime and violence; if we subject England to the priva
tions of Ireland, we shall import the outrages of Ireland,
and our comfortable man will find his slumbers broken,
and he wiU scarcely sleep the better for having pistols near
his pillow, or, every night when he retires, feeling it expe
dient to call for his bed-candle and his blunderbuss.
Throughout all the ranks and classes of society, the
pressure that is set up too heavily for one portion to endure
brings a reaction upon other portions of society. " No
doubt we shall get through it ;" that is to say, the British

266 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
Islands wUl not be swamped in the ocean, the race by
which they are inhabited will not become extinct; we
shaU get through somehow : but with how many shattered
fortunes and broken hearts? with how many famihes
plunged into desolation who had before them the fairest
prospects? with how many of the sturdy operative classes
starved, and their frames attenuated, so that — as it hap
pened the last time distress visited us — when work is
found their muscular strength is gone, and they are un
able to do it? We shall get along and survive it; the
soU and people of the country wilU survive it ; but what
dreary monuments and recollections of it will be left !
What sad testimonies wUl there be to the iniquity of this
system in churchyards crowded with dead corruption, and
gaols crowded with living corruption ! If I see dismal cer
tainties in the condition of the country, and no appear
ance as yet of legislative interposition to ward off the
danger, — no government at work, no administration in
existence, — I turn on the other hand, and behold the
people of this country in one of the truest and proudest
positions they ever occupied. Come the danger when it
may, be the suffering what it will, in the sight of heaven
and earth it is not the fault of the people of this country,
but of their rulers.
For years now have the great truths of political economy,
throwing light on our state interests and duties, been, one
may say, studied by the population ofthe country; they have
been the subject of common discussion. Topics that had
been confined to the pages of philosophers and sages have
been made familiar to public meetings; they have been
analysed and compared and deliberated upon. Opinion has
graduaUy advanced, and has been declared again and again
in its strength and clearness. Whilst there was a hope in
petitioning parliament, the people did petition ; when that
was turned from with disgust at the disregard with which
it was treated, they then looked to themselves and their
resources. Money was wanted, and it was subscribed ; the
registration was suggested, and the people have registered,
and will register by tens and twenties of thousands more.
No state-pilot sang out from the mast-head that there were
breakers ; the warning of the danger was not given to the
people by the government ; the people had to give it them-

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 267
selves, and the notion grew up amongst them, and was
canvassed, and found to have something in it ; its truth
was ascertained, but they were left to work all this out as
they could. Information was denied by the last parlia
ment as to the progress of agricultural produce in this
country, — no official helps have been given now for com
prehending our condition; the people have done it all
themselves ; they have seen the danger, they have sounded
the alarm, they are demanding the remedy; they are
preparing for the assertion of the only principles that can
guide us through this difficulty. They began to assemble
first in town councils, remonstrating quietly with govern
ment upon opening the ports ; then in chambers of com
merce, and bodies of that description, still going on deli
berately and gradually ; then in larger meetings ; and now
multitudinous assemblages in every great town and city
throughout the country — north, south, east, and west —
are raising their clamour for our deliverance from this im
pending storm, speaking in a voice of thunder. Whose
soever duty is neglected, they are doing theirs ; and in their
great, peaceful, decisive movement, — in the firm step they
take, — in the onward ground by which they advance to the
possession of it, — we see what in other countries would be
a convulsion and revolution, but which here is only the
firm march of the people to the possession of justice and
the enjoyment of their rights.
Where are those who should have taken this charge off
the people's hands? Who should have done this for them?
Who should have been foremost ? Where is the sugges
tion of the remedy ? Where is the great party that fought
for and won the government of the country, and drove the
Whigs from office, — that boasted of having gained the per
petual tenancy of the seats they held, and to have the
wisdom and the power to render office subservient to the
right government of the nation ? Where are they — that
mighty party, so much talked of ? It took ten long years
in its formation, and great were the toils and many the
expedients that were employed to build it up to its tower
ing grandeur. It welcomed comers from all quarters;
there was not a discontent of whatever description through
out the country with which it did not affect to sympathise
in order to get its Httle modicum of support : its recruit-

268 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
ing-sergeants were every where offering high bounties;
apostates from every principle, and professors of every
principle, were alike welcomed into its ranks. There was
no principle but what some of its members professed to
hold, no principle but what some of its members abjured :
it sympathised with the proud aristocracy of Whiggism,
and with the fierce democracy of Chartism ; it held out its
fraternal hand alike to the anti-Eoman-CathoHc Dissenter
and to the Eomanising Puseyite ; it professed to adhere to
absolute monarchy on the one hand, while on the other
some of its orators were reminding Queen Victoria of the
abdication of James IL ; it thought every thing a bait that
would catch a fish ; and thus collected its band together.
The time of trial came ; its proud majority of ninety
was ascertained, and then the great party, with the great
premier at its head, marched triumphantly into office,
drums beating and colours dying — " See the conquering
hero comes." There they were safely housed, thence to
dispense law and justice to the world ; in doing which
they are now confessing the astounding truth, that for
these four years they have been voting against their own
consciences; and all at once, in ,their pride and plenitude
of power, just as the architect was exclaiming, "The
mighty structure stands complete;" "Is not this great
Babylon, that I have built to the glory of my name ?" his
Babylon falls to pieces in a marvellous confusion of tongues;
the whole vanishes away, and, like the magician deserted
by his demons, he is left forlorn. There he is, left alone
on the wide waste to endure the pelting of the pitUess
storm, — a more pitiless storm from all quarters than has
ever assailed any public man in my recollection.
And perhaps it wiU one day be felt to be too pitiless.
There is one thing which all the world seems to have
made up its mind not to believe in, and that is, the sin
cerity of Sir Eobert Peel. I cannot profess my faith in it ;
but if it be true that he has broken up this great party
that was banded at his back, — that he has forfeited his
own grasp of office and power from a sense that the condi
tion of the country needed measures the reverse of what
he had hitherto in some particulars supported, — that the
only remedy for their distress was that 'entire freedom of
trade, which his coUeagues, or some one or more of them.

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 269
would not cooperate with him in producing ; if, upon such
grounds and for such reasons, he has thrown himself out
of his position, and is ready to cooperate with those who
will promote the same great ends of securing the freedom
of food for the people of this country, why, then, I do say,
that if not confidence, he has gratitude ; if we do not be
lieve him for the future, we have reason to thank him for
that one thing in the past ; and nothing in his public life
will have become him like the leaving it, — and for that act
let him have the full measure of the approval and thank
fulness to which such a deed is most assuredly entitled.
Well, then, there is the other party, — those who are not
in, although their opponents are out; who seem to take
a pretty long time in considering whether they shall come
in. Grateful as I am to Lord John Eussell, as well as to Sir
Eobert Peel, for the letter, which is completely intelligible,
as well as the resignation, which is not yet completely
intelligible, I must nevertheless look with some anxiety to
the restoration of the Whig ministry to office. If they do
come in, I tmst — and I believe the people of the country
join me in that hope — that it will be with the determina
tion at once to carry the repeal of the Corn Laws com
pletely unshackled, and to admit of no compromise what
ever. This we expect of them, and also that they should
omit no means within their reach for the accompHshment
of that object. There must be no squeamishness, no
deference to absurd and pernicious prejudices.
If, to carry this measure through the Commons, a
coalition with Sir Eobert Peel be necessary, why, then,
there should be a coalition with him. We have had many
coalitions for party purposes ; the country would not find
fault with one for patriotic purposes. If a creation of peers
should be necessary to carry the measure through the
other House, the country looks, then, to have it done. It
wants no delaying, paltering, and temporising, as there
seemed to be at one time when the Eeform Bill was in
jeopardy from the Peers. And why should they not make
Peers ? Can they make any who will be worse than some
who now sit in that House ? If such swamping hurts the
dignity of the House of Lords, why, all the good that the
House of Lords does this country, as far as I know, is not
for a moment to be compared with the mischief that the

270 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
Corn Law does this country. If a dissolution be necessary,
they should dissolve parliament ; and, if needs be, dissolve
it again. They should give the people the chance of the
next registration as well as the last. They should let those
who are qualifying themselves to speak out politically, —
who are buying their position as county voters, — buying
their emancipation at 501. a piece or more, — they should
give them an opportunity of using a voice they thus pur
chase. Let them have fair play; let the registration
reform which has been commenced in the north be car
ried on in the south ; let it be extended to every county in
the kingdom ; and then take the voice of the people of
England — and not till then can you get the voice ofthe
people of England — through the means of parliamentary
representation. If all this will not do, why, let them throw
up office again, and fight out this battle in the ranks of op
position, assured that, if they failed to carry it in the one
case, they must succeed in the other.
I would say further to this party, on coming in : Identify
yourselves with the people; sympathise with them more
than you are accustomed to do in this matter. No doubt
some of the noble members of that party are amongst the
most Ulustrious, titled or untitled, that the country now
bears ; but still, for all that, for all one's gladness to see
them there, the old familiar names, if not in every case the
old familiar faces, — still, for all that, it does not accord with
the tone and temper of the English people at this time ; it
does not agree with the feeling and notions which this agi
tation has fostered and matured in their minds, that we
should be altogether under the government of lords, though
they be Whig lords, or that the business of the country
should not have some men of business, trained in the ranks
where alone they can best acquire the knowledge of such
practical transactions. For some of these the country
looks, I need not say in what direction ; but it anticipates
and demands that the commons of England be repre
sented in the cabinet. As the Whig party may not be
so open to admonition when once they are snugly housed
in Downing Street, I wiU go on a little further to say,
that they will be wise to whip themselves up more closely
to a level with public opinion, and that especially if they
aspire again to be the leaders of this nation.

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 271
Now, in this question before us — this principle of Free
Trade — sixty years ago aU the phUosophical minds in this
country came to an agreement upon the matter. They
saw that interference with the people's food was a nuisance,
and a thing which no legislature ought to attempt. Thirty
years ago, when the first Corn Law was passed — the first
of this series of Corn Laws — the multitude of this metro
poHs had an inkling of the question, — a sort of glimpse
bursting into the darkness of their minds ; and they offered
what rough, rude obstruction they could to the passing
of that monopoly act of the present system. Twenty years
ago the question expanded itself, and descended from the
philosopher to the expositor, was taught by reviewers and
by journalists, by those whose office it is to stand between
the profound thinkers and the inquiring many ; they fami
liarised the minds of thousands with it, and brought it on
another stage. Ten years after this the manufacturers of
Manchester found where the shoe was pinching ; they
traced their difficulties, and the struggles they had to
undergo, to this preposterous and iniquitous system. They
made up their minds, and they entered on the course which
they have ever since so nobly pursued. Five or six years
ago we may say that the public generally of Great Britain
became decided upon this question, and multitudinous
meetings reiterated the intelligent expression of their de
terminations for an alteration of plans which had worked
so mischievously. Two or three weeks ago my Lord
John Eussell came in, having the advantage, by eighteen
days, of the resignation of Sir Eobert Peel, — perhaps
about eighteen hours of the determination of that right
honourable baronet. These two great leading statesmen
of the country, thus following at the heels of the farmers,
of the meetings and multitudes, of the manufacturers,
of the expositors and philosophers that had gone before,
coming with all their leading power at the very end of
the time, making it a most important point which of
them should arrive first at the goal ; having, after twenty
years' hesitation, the two of them, to run as fast as ma
gicians are said to run upon Hallowe'en, when the devil
has a right to take his own, — they accomplished their race
seemingly with all the speed arising from the principle of
" the devil take the hindmost ;" and of those that should

272 COLLECTED WORKS OP W. J. FOX.
have been first, that should have gone at the head of the
people and of the mass of the manufacturers, we can only
say, as was said of a certain racehorse, " although he was
behind before, he was first at last."
• Now, this vrill not do in carrying out the principles
of Free Trade ; there must be evidence of a bolder spirit
than is here shown. There must be real leading of the
country, — leading it on ; and it wUl not do for them to sit,
like the gods of Epicurus, in the clouds, enjoying their own
leisure and dignity, and looking down on mankind in their
toils and struggles. If they would have us rest with con
fidence upon them, as the men who are to work out the
deHverance of the country, let them show themselves
amongst us ; let them give their active and decided coun
tenance to what can only be achieved by a great move
ment ofthe industrial masses ; let them come forth and help
the power which they invite to back them and strengthen
them in office; let us see their subscriptions of thousands
towards the proposed quarter of a million; or towards another
quarter of a million of their own, if they like, raised among
the Whig aristocracy, to combine with that raised by the
manufacturers and the commonalty. Let them do this,
and there is no strength and confidence, there is no hearti
ness of cooperation, nay, there is no child-like sympathy
and faculty of guidance, that they wiU not find in the people
of this country ; knowing whom they trust, as in such a
case, with evidence of this sort, they may do confidently
with their whole hearts and minds. Let them think over
the matter; there is something worth their subscribing
for. As manufacturers count the cost, as they look to the
falling off in their orders, as they see how their trade is
affected by the action of restrictive legislation, as they put
down their subscriptions to the League in some sort as an
insurance for the future, — let the liberal aristocracy do the
like; let it count the cost or the worth of its stars and
garters, and subscribe accordingly ; let it count the worth
of its fertile fields, and that security of improvement which
they will derive from the establishment of Free-Trade
principles, and from their influence in enriching the coun
try. Let them count, if they can, what a nation's con
fidence and gratitude are worth. These are all before

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 273
them, — safety, honour, and the noblest powers that man
can exercise over his fellow-men ; and they surely deserve
some demonstration of fellowship in this good cause, and
fraternity in what they tell us shall be our common cause ;
and let it be manifest on their part, and they know very
well there will be no lack of responsive demonstration on
our parts.
There is a third party in 'the State of whom something
is known in this matter,— or rather, a man with a party in
his pocket, which, considering his years, he carries with
wonderful ease. Sad is the anticipation expressed in so
many quarters that European honour and a European
name should be tarnished in the latter years of life by
struggling against the rights of a country, — their rights in
that most important article, the free importation of their
food at times of apprehended scarcity. Oh, could voice
of remonstrance reach that old man's ears ! — for we may
not yet say,
" Down Marlborough's cheeks the tears of dotage flow ;" —
could we reach his ears, our language would be something
like this : Man, upon whose brows are the laurels of a hun
dred fights, and in whose pocket are the proxies of eighty
peers, — true, you conquered Napoleon; you have his statue
in your mansion; look at it well, and its marble lips may
seem to speak to you and warn you of a deeper fall than
his whom you hurled from his high eminence. Though
you were the conqueror of Napoleon, I would say, remem
ber, there are certain differences and contrasts in your
characters and histories. You won many a brilliant battle
— won it with troops well trained, troops the fiower of the
English people ; while he had to invent the art of war, to
baffle the most accomplished generals of Europe with raw
regiments who had never before entered the battle-field,
nor knew aught but by report of the dangers they should
face, or the exertions they had to make ; and yet with these
he commenced that splendid series of victories of Lodi,
Marengo, Austerlitz, and Jena, which will beam and blaze
so fearfully for ages upon the page of military history.
You, Duke of Wellington, have won principaHties and
broad estates in many of the countries of Europe ; but he
did more, — he won realms, kingdoms, crowns, and empires,
VOL. IV. T

274 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
You have been the servant of monarchs, and have rendered
them good service, supporting for a while their tottering
thrones ; he made himself the master of sovereigns, and
compelled them to wait like menials in his ante-room.
You, by Catholic emancipation, freed your fellow-subjects
from civil disabilities; h"e, throughout Europe, opened a
career for talents, and showed them the path for energetic
exertion, by which any one might rise from the lowest
ranks to the highest by the force of his ability. Such has
been the difference of your courses. You have equestrian
statues ; but wander over Europe, — bridges here and aque
ducts there, open squares in one place and roads cut across
mountains in others, — these are the monumental records
of Napoleon ; identifying his name with the progress of art
and the grandeur of a nation that has advanced high in
civUisation. With all this difference, remember, that the
date of the Berlin decrees was that of the commencement
of the fall of Napoleon. Powerful against armies, resistless
by monarchs, he fought against the laws of trade, and they
"crushed him like a weed." From that moment hearts
left him ; the injury inflicted on every country to which his
prescriptive system extended alienated their feelings. Vt^hen
he raised fresh armies, they were flUed with traitors or
thinned by deserters, until at last the tide of battle followed
the tide of human feeling, and there ensued bis deposition,
exile, imprisonment, and death at St. Helena. Duke of
Wellington, take warning ! remember, that if the Berlin
decrees brought on the downfall of Napoleon, the Corn
Laws may bring about the downfall of the Duke of Wel
lington. You would be more humbled in that than the
man you vanquished; and with withered laurels, with a
stained name, with reverence alienated that was long paid
so readily, you would go to your grave, coupled with him
you defeated in this, that you both
" Leave a name at which the world grew pale.
To point a moral and adorn a tale."
The moral is, that no political ascendency, no mere
station, no strength of party, no antiquity oi prestige, can
successfully maintain battle against the laws of nature, of
which the laws of trade, as Edmund Burke has taught us,
are part and parcel. They are the laws of nature ; a mani-

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 275
festation of the same Providence, characterised by the same
universality and omnipotence. And not only has trade its
laws, but opinion, — opinion in its progress according to the
circumstances of modern civilisation. I believe that the
advance of this agitation is referable to those same princi
ples, and that we shall find in it an exhibition of the opera
tion of those self-same laws. This agitation has grown,
as the glacier grows on the mountain-top. The snows de
scend silently and softly, like the progress of conviction in
individual minds ; penetrating and abiding, yet not attract
ing notice. Every passing cloud drops more and more, and
one stratum accumulates upon another, and then the wild
vrinds that rage, and the biting frost in its severity, do but
knit it the firmer, and make it the stronger and more com
pact; and still as the seasons return, the winter, which
forbids the growth of vegetation, gives growth and nutri
ment to this same mass in its progress ; and through years
and ages it accumulates, and is bound together by the
freezing atmosphere, firm and fast, like the opinion, the
riveted opinion and principles, of enlightened multitudes;
and then, by its very growth and magnitude, the time for
moving comes ; by its own weight it is loosened, it rushes
down — the avalanche, and bears all before it; and no trophy
of military greatness, no senate-house however venerable,
no palace however splendid, no church however towering,
can stop its progress ; down it rushes over all, turning even
the ancient rivers from their courses, and thus sweeps away
the monuments of man, proclaiming that nature's laws
are like nature's God — are vested with omnipotence ;
and that they are resisted only to the destruction of their
oppqsers. In the determination which these meetings erince, in
the growing power of popular opinion, in the certainty
that, whether we can or cannot rely upon Sir Eobert Peel
or Lord John Eussell, we can rely upon ourselves — in that
is our hope and our strength for the future. You have pe
titioned, you have resolved, you have remonstrated, many
of you have registered, and many more of you will possess
yourselves of the 40s. franchise. You will do this until
it is achieved through the length and breadth of the land ;
and if that does not win the battle, you will do whatever
more may be necessary ; and the means wUl be found —

276 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
honourable, legal, and peaceable — for the accomplishment
of your purpose.
Towards that you are advancing in a march that nothing
can resist, because your reliance is upon principles that are
everlasting and universal as truth itself. You have identi
fied your cause with the power of truth; that must fail,
the experience of ages must be reversed, the maxims of the
wisest must be proved folly, before you can flinch in your
course : and when once you have worked out this great and
good achievement; when you have done what is to be done
for grappling with and abating the pressure of temporary
suffering; when, beyond that, you have made this country
preeminent in the world for the adoption of a liberal and
generous policy; when the blessings of Free Trade are felt
through the nations as averting wars and keeping down
the rage of hostile feeling and antagonistic passions; when
experience has taught the most backward of them to
acknowledge at last that you have rightly guided them in
the course of peace, of prosperity, and of social advance
ment,. — oh, then it will be the disposition of mankind at
large to render honour, in the records of historians, to
whom honour is due; and in that pyramid which the
world will pile in commemoration of this grand event — of
this peaceful, just, and fraternal policy — there may be the
names of political and party leaders at the base, but above
them will be the names of philosophers — of Adam Smith
and other enlightened men — whose works made the sub
ject understood, and prepared the way for those blessed
changes ; and above them will be the practical men — your
Bright and Cobden, aud their fellow-labourers — the real
abolishers of the Corn Law, so far as individuals are. able
to achieve such a result ; above them, and above all, will
be the inscription of the world's gratitude to the people of
England, for that they enforced the adoption of a Free-
Trade policy.
Well is it that you should raise your voice for marshal-
Hng on this mighty and blessed change, now when the
exigencies of the time render immediate action necessary;
and I wiU add, that you should do it now is not unfitting
at this particular season of the year ; for if there be a
cause— if there ever has been a cause — discussed in public
meetings, intermixed with political antagonisms, which

ANTI-COKN-LAW SPEECHES. 277
deserves the name of " holy, sacred, and Christian," it is
this. And when you raise, as you do, your shouts of
gratitude and acclamation for the abolition of restric
tion, and for the establishment of a brotherly policy, in
ducing brotherly love among all varieties of the human
species, you are, in fact, sending back the echo of earth
to the song of angels of " Glory to God in the highest,
on earth peace, good wiU toward men."

No. XXII.
AT THE FEEE-TEADE HALL, MANCHESTEE.
January 15ih, 1846.
The little month which has elapsed since I last stood upon
this platform has been rendered memorable by a proceed
ing which will long influence the course of events in this
country, and eventually in other countries ; I mean that
bold challenge which you, the men of Manchester, have
thrown down to monopoly for a five years' confiict, if they
dare that conflict, and with a spirit that, after that is done,
shows your readiness for five years more, should such a
thing be necessary for the accompHshment of your pur
poses. Oh, you have not been idle ; you have not only
been making cotton, but you have been making history.
You have been providing material, and not raw material,
for the future annals of our country. Elsewhere there has
been change, — here there has been progress. Elsewhere
there has been shifting and turning out and turning in
again, showing that modern history, like old houses, may
have long passages that lead to nothing. But you have
shown here a short passage that leads to something, pre
senting a great and tangible object at once attained, and
that attainment a presage and security for a yet greater
and more magnificent and enduring result, to be reahsed
through its agency. It indicates a spirit before which all
opposition must quaU. It shows that you have taken up
this cause as those who remonstrate against slavery, — for
white slavery it is, as much as ever the treatment of the
negroes was black slavery : the lords of food are the lords
of persons all the world over ; and those who control what
you eat have their fetters and their brand upon you as
much as if you were their serfs and vassals. They know
this; their own statements show a perception of such a
truth. There has been already so masterly a handling of the late
Protection-Society meeting, that I am almost ashamed to
draw back your attention to it; but although the harvest has

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 279
been reaped, a few gleanings are left, of which I may avail
myself; and one is the illustration ofthe assertion I have just
made by an hypothesis of my Lord Beaumont. He says,
that " such a state of things may happen as that there shall
be scarcity in Europe and a misunderstanding with America :
what would then be our condition? There might be in
America abundance of corn ; but there might be, at the
same time, a disputed territory. At the moment when we
were praying for a morsel of food, a military man in the
American congress might be moving a resolution hostile to
England. What, then, would be the instructions of our
cabinet to the British minister at Washington ? A stern
necessity would compel them to instruct the Queen's am
bassador to say nothing about the disputed territory ; or,
if the subject were forced upon him by a hostile president,
to say, that England was prepared to make any conces
sions. The British ambassador, instead of contending for
the rights of this great nation, would be obliged to bend
in lowly guise at the feet of the president, and beg of him
to spare the English a bit of bread."
Well, now, this supposition of scarcity all over Eu
rope, and of hostility with America, is about as likely as
that some comet should run foul of the earth, and should
dash into chaos all the fertile fields of Europe, and cause
the Atlantic and Pacific to meet over what is now Ame
rican land. An approach to such a misfortune may be
conceivable through the behaviour of the landowners of
this country. They, so far as our interests are concerned,
blight the fields of Europe with artificial scarcity; they
stimulate America into unnatural hostUity ; and they want
to see us where Lord Beauraont says the British nation
would be as to America, — they want to see us at their
feet, forgetting all disputed territories, having no "Ore
gon" to quarrel about with them, and only begging humbly
that all rights may be compromised, and that we may be
allowed a morsel of bread on such terms as our pockets
can afford. We are not going to be so submissive as he
supposes the British ambassador would be at Washing
ton. No; we will tell them that we will have the food
and the right together; we will compromise nothing in
respect to the position which they occupy; we stand on
the universal claim of humanity — honest, toUing humanity

280 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
— to the subsistence which it earns ; and if we cannot have
it any other way, we will work it out by the extension of
those political rights which ancient statutes and usage con
firm to the people of this country; thus at once beating
back their insolence, gaining the supply of our own neces
sities, and teaching them that they should not keep people
too hungry, nor trifle too long with their wants, lest the
recoil should be so strong as to sweep their own ill-
obtained and long-abused political predominance away.
You have given the world a gauge of your perseverance
in this cause. It is one which, once begun, can never be
abandoned ; one which, once begun, has no termination,
but its victorious termination in the abolition of monopoly;
one which you have already sustained through prosperous
times and disastrous times, through evil report and through
good report; and let them hold out yet a while, — let them
drag us through more change, — let them expose the country
to yet more vicissitude, — let them again multiply bankrupt
cies and disasters, — let them stimulate the howl of want
through our villages and our towns, — let them get up any
political diversity or bluster of war to turn attention, still
it will be all unavailing : through every device, through
all change, you will hold on in the course you have begun;
and that course can only result in absolute and uncon
ditional success. And they see the symptoms of your suc
cess. They let out many facts illustrative of the condition
into which they themselves have got. A Mr. Ball, a
speaker at their meeting, said, " The time had now arrived
when concession must cease, when every member of par
liament who was elected by a county population, or by a
borough dependent on rural support, must feel that his
duty was to support the agricultural interest." And again
he tells them, " If the county members were only true to
the gentry, the tenantry, and the farmers, the latter class
would be faithful to them."
The county members and the little borough, dependent
on rural support ! There all their hopes centre; they give
up the towns, they have lost the towns : and how much is
implied in that abandonment? To lose the towns in a
question of this sort, is to lose the very centre of intelli
gence and light. It is to lose those bodies who have made
the House of Commons what it is ; it is to lose the power

ANTl-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 281
which has stimulated agriculture — for you have no such
thing as skilled agriculture but where there are large
towns ; it is to lose the power which has made their lands
worth what they are ; it is to lose the power which has
worked out every great question that the political history
of this country knows ; it is to lose the asylums for the
hunted and starved serfs, who fly thither from the coun
try ; it is to lose whatever most plainly speaks the opinions
of a great nation ; aud a confession of the loss is a confes
sion of their own hostility to the common sense of mankind
— ay, of the right, the truth, the justice, ofthe cause which
they hold in contest.
Well, they have done with the towns ; we have begun
with the counties. We are following them up in their
own regions. Their concession leaves only this field on
which to fight out the remainder of this great battle, and
there the struggle is about to be made. It is only a begin
ning yet, but it is a beginning which woe to them if they
abide the termination I The corameneement indeed is a
splendid one ; for which speaks first of the counties ? the
West Eiding of Yorkshire. The foreman of the county
jury of Great Britain comes forward to pronounce a ver
dict of condemnation on this most iniquitous system. The
example will be followed, it will go from one to another,
and not exactly as the Duke of Eichmond says, by fabri
cated votes. Fabricated in one sense indeed they are, as
the savings of honest industry in gaining a freehold; a
fabric which is an honourable memorial of the industry
and patriotism of the individual, as well as a direct service
to the country. But the votes are not fabricated in the
sense of those mere nominal holdings by which their stew
ards and servants have been sent up to the poll. The votes
are not fabricated in the sense in which many of their argu
ments are fabricated, — are not fabricated in the same sense
as are their quotations from Adam Smith. And if we come
to that, what is the Duke of Eichmond himself, his title and
his lineage ? What are the Eichmonds but a fabrication of
Stuart lasciviousness, and of Stuart lavishness at the ex
pense of the nation's purse ?
Well, but they teU us now they are going to fight this
out in good earnest ; and should they revoke a portion of
their own constitution, their constitution won't work; they

282 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
demolish it after only two years' experience. They rescind
the declaration, that their sovereignty shall on no account
interfere with the election of members to serve in parha
ment ; that is, by thus rescinding the negative they adopt
the positive, aud declare that that sovereignty shall in
terfere in the election of members of parliament. That
sovereignty of ducal and other titled members, with the
Dukes of Eichmond and Buckingham at their head, now
declares, not that they shall go to tbe registration courts
merely, not that they will pay a lawyer, not that they will
sanction votes; but that they have changed their minds,
and will interfere with the election of members of parlia
ment. This is in the very teeth of all that has been called
constitutional. Their determination not to interfere was
either right or wrong ; if right, why do they alter it ? if
wrong, why have they been abusing the League all this
time for taking a different course ? They have had their
whole run of accusations ; there has not been a meeting at
which they have not talked of the unconstitutional pro
ceedings of the League. There has not been an electoral
contest in which they have not endeavoured to bring this
notion to bear upon the minds of the electors ; they have
made the country ring with the cry of, " Strangers from
Lancashire, aliens interfering with the process of election
for members of parliament!" They have taken to themselves
the credit of constitutional purity and abstinence. Their
hands, forsooth, were clean, and they were perfectly horror-
struck at the sight of these enormities. They deliberated
whether they should not be put down by fresh enactments,
more stringent, on behalf of the right of free and inde
pendent election ; and now they come forward when there
is a prospect of an election at hand ; they come forward on
the first occasion when they could do any thing, by alter
ing all this, and throwing overboard their own resolution
of abstinence ; they now will interfere, and that with all
their might, in order to emulate the League in the use of
its own weapons.
Why, who does not know that they have been interfering
aU their lives? Where is there a county throughout the whole
length and breadth of the land in which they have not told
off their voters according to their estates, and in which the
issue of elections has not been coloured with the mass ofthe

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 283
property of that county? They have reckoned this as a part
and parcel of their inheritance. They have grown voters by a
more rapid process, and with greater care for their culture,
than they have grown any kind of com ; and now, in the
face of all this, with one of the most daring acts of hypo
crisy, at the present time — they confess their hypocrisy
in the past time — they assure us that they are indeed
right, whichever course they pursue; the League being
equally wrong whatever may be the measure which it shall
adopt. In the discussions that took place on his rescinding of
their original constitution. Sir Eobert Peel, as usual, was
roughly handled ; but their moral code is a remarkable
one, for I believe few people would pick out as the most
intolerable vices those which they have selected for their
distinguished reprobation. This same Mr. Ball says of
him, that he was alarmed at the prospect of famine : " Sir
Eobert Peel became alarmed about famine; he quailed
before the public press." Sir Eobert Peel cannot return
the compliment. They are not alarmed about famine; they
can face it, so that it but put cash into their pockets. They
are not quailing before the public press; they bear a heavier
load of exposure, odium, and scorn than any class of men
has ever hitherto been found able to make head against.
His vices, such as they esteem them, are not found in
themselves; they are free from both. They have the
hardihood to bear a country's anathema, so that they
can but continue to reap that country's plunder. But
they are determined to be active; they will be up and
doing ; and it is astonishing what they are going to do.
One cannot quite pierce through the whole cloud of
metaphor in which it is enveloped, but something very por
tentous is obviously signified. They are going to rouse
the British lion, they will make him roar and shake his
mane ; in fact, they seem disposed to deal with him like a
showman, who stirs up the beast with a long pole that he
may exhibit his fierceness. Moreover, they have hoisted
their banner — they will stick to their colours — they have
nailed their flag to the mast; the Duke of Buckingham
helped to nail the flag to the mast, and then left the meet
ing without speaking, to go home to dinner ; the flag re
maining flying, I suppose, till he came back. They will

284 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
have " No surrender ;" they will raise the cry of " No
compromise !" They will make Lord William Lennox poet
laureate ; they will distribute over the country the worst
verses any body ever saw ; they wUl burn the Times. Don
Quixote only rode a tilt against windmills ; the Duke of
Eichmond will ride a tilt against cotton-mills. He apolo
gises for his speaking, on the excuse of a bullet in his
lungs : there must have been a mistake, I imagine, in the
locality. The absorbing process of the system must by
this time have changed its place; instead of lead in the
lungs, it is a bullet in the brain, and very ill does it perform
the functions of the brain. It serves him, however, to
threaten with; he accumulates horror upon horror; al
though no conjuror, he seems to adopt the imprecations of
the witch in Macbeth, "Like a rat without a tail,
I'll do, I'U do, and I'U do."
Well, let them do. The enemies of monopoly have
already, even now, an organisation that can feel no dis
inclination, if a struggle must come, to fight it out with
the Duke of Eichmond's class. It is for them to consider
and to measure their forces ; they are but the few against
the many. Three hundred of them though there might
be, they are not Spartans, — no, not with all their love of
Greece. Willis's Eooms in St. James's is no Thermopylse,
that they can long defend it against the myriads arrayed
against them, who are not barbarian myriads, but cham
pions of the nation's civilisation.
But they claim to be the majority. " The agricultural
interest," says one speaker, " is the majority of the nation."
How do they make that out, I should like to know ? Why,
to do that, they take some statistical tables, in which they
find put down, perhaps exclusively, the number of those
engaged in some one sort of mills ; and they say, " There
are only so many in the country ; why, then, all the rest
are agriculturalists, and there's a majority." Well, then,
there are miUions who have been, with an unhappy face
tiousness, said " to rejoice in potatoes ;" they put all these
down, and reckon them in their majority. There are thou
sands and tens of thousands that are continually obliged
to seek a refuge from their forlorn condition under these

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 285
lords of protection, — that have to fly into the manufacturing
districts for something wherewithal to get a bit of bread ;
or have to take that forlorn asylum, the union workhouse ;
or, worse than that, perhaps, are driven to crime and the
gaol; and they reckon them, too, in their majority. There
are those pale-faced men that met by the light of the
moon at Goatacre to tell their affecting tales, their simple
record of their griefs and grievances, — a record enough to
make the nerves thrill and the tears flow from every one
who is formed of penetrable stuff; and they reckon them,
too, as agricultural labourers, into their majority. There
are some of a different class, who do not meet by moon
light to tell their grievances, who prefer the dark night to
the light of the moon, and who then steal forth to kindle
up an unhallowed glare of their own creating, — the men
who light up their ricks and their barns; and those go
into the majority — they reckon them too. And, last of
all, there is Sir Eobert Peel himself, with all his faults
and shortcomings and uncertainties : he is not a manufac
turer ; put him down as in the majority : and thus they
make up their majority.
Curious mode this of balancing accounts, — precious
statistics these ! Why, there were 200 delegates. They
will not allow delegates on all occasions from their fellow-
countrymen ; but there were delegates from local societies
to a central society ; the very thing for which these men
or their predecessors sought to hang Home Tooke, Thomas
Hardy, Thelwall, and their followers ; and the very thing
for which they did consign to a lingering existence — that
was, in fact, a barbarian murder — in a penal settlement,
Muir, Palmer, Skirving, and Margerot from Scotland.
Now they can meet by delegation, to resolve that they
will interfere with the election of members of parliament ;
and then they talk of their majority ! Why, if those who
are already heart and soul in this cause, if those through
out our populous towns, and over all the rural districts
too, were but to show themselves in their multitude and
strength, they could sweep the whole clique of them from
the face of the earth, and they would never be missed ; the
world would know nothing of their loss. England, as a
nation, would be England still, as wise and great, as free
and glorious, as ever England was while Eichmonds as yet

286 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
had no existence on the face of the earth. Not only are
they the few against the many, but their cause is that of
assumption against experience, — and the lessons of expe
rience embodied in economical philosophy. They go on
with the same account from time to time of independence
of foreign countries, as if it was not also independence of
foreign countries upon us. They go on with that often-
repeated story of low prices and low wages, and heed not
the events that are passing before their eyes from year to
year. When has the test of experience been appealed to, —
when or where, if not on this topic ? Why, Mr. Cobden
has stood up in Covent-Garden Theatre from year to year,
and told how the system would work : told how, if harvests
were abundant, it would affect this question ; how, if har
vests were deficient, the country would feel it ; shown the
connection of the price of food with the prosperity of trade.
And no prediction has been so punctually verified, as the
circling seasons have gone their round ; and they, witnessing
all this, yet cannot learn from year to year and from month
to month. Every man of philosophical mind that has
written, every statistician that has accumulated his facts and
arranged them in tables, all come to the same conclusion.
There is no exception amongst them all. The light of
knowledge, the testimony of experience, — these are with
us. It is 'against these that they wage a warfare that must
be as unsuccessful in its results as it is preposterous in its
characteristics. To take another view of the struggle : their cause is
that of ignorance against intelligence, — and I say this ad
visedly. Wherever they may have been taught, whatever
school, college, or university may have reared them, — nay,
though some of them may have gone to two universities —
like the calf that sucked two cows, and became the greater
calf, — whatever their training, they have shown the most
deplorable ignorance — they confess it — and want of talent
in the matter. They say at their meeting, that the de
bating talent of the House of Commons is altogether
against them. They were complaining a little while ago
that the talent of the press was against them. They
wonder how they should be against them, and they talk
of going iuto the market for talent. The Morning Post

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 287
was advising them to send some clever young men to
the House of Commons, to plead the cause of poor, dumb
agriculture. They do not see this truth, — that intelli
gence has a natural aUiance with, and a tendency towards,
sound views of a nation's economy and interests ; that you
cannot bribe mind to be wholly false to itself. They may
purchase a word- grinding machine, they may set up a
rhetorical manufactory ; they cannot give that which gold
can never buy, — that earnestness of conviction, that lucid-
ness of view, that forcibleness of appeal, which belongs
alone to the consciousness of truth and the desire of pro
moting the nation's advance.
Survey the literature of our country, look at it iu all its
phases. There are some indulging in the remotest specu
lations of philosophy, and yet blending them with the vivid
realisation of the scenes of past history; like Thomas Car
lyle. There are some crowning her melodious songs in
solitude, pouring forth the poet's soliloquy, like Tennyson.
There are some working out in the details of imaginary facts
the operation of real causes, like Harriet Martineau. There
are bards of various kinds — our Leigh Hunts, and Brown
ings, and Landons — each in their way rendering song the
eloquence of truth. There are some, like Forster, writing
lives of statesmen of the Commonwealth, and by the history
of ancient patriotism keeping alive the flame of modem
patriotism. There are some that show what truth and
beauty may be in humble life, what passions may agitate
the bosom of the labourer, of the carrier, of any toil-worn
man ; and, while dealing with homely things, perhaps, lend
ing them the likeness of a fairy tale, penetrating to the
profoundest truths of human nature, like Charles Dickens.
There are some, the light and feathery quality of whose
wit attracts the world's gaze, but which, however light
and feathery, serves as the wind to the arrow, and sends
it home to the heart of corruption, like Douglas Jerrold.
And, I say, go the whole round of literature, they are
ours, all ours. Ours, from the graceful fancies of Thomas
Moore to the stern denunciations of Ebenezer Elliot They
are ours, not by undetected tendency in their own writings;
they are ours by explicit declarations. They are ours, all
of them, more or less, by what they have written to further
this great and good cause. They are ours by a common

288 COLLECTED WORKS OP W. J. FOX.
pledge — common pledge ofa mutual bond — in which we
read the worth of intellect, of talent, of genius to a country,
and render to that genius grateful homage, — a nobler
homage than the patronage of peers ever rendered to hire
ling songs and strains of luxury. They are ours, I say, and
would be ours did the contest assume a darker and more
fearful character. The bard of old was warrior as well as
bard ; knew how to work deeds of heroism which he knew
to sing ; — and such is ever the tendency of genius. When
it comes to the last resort, to the direct appeal, where is
the poet ? — where ?
" The minstrel boy to the war is gone —
In the ranks of death you'll find him ;
His father's sword he has girded on,
And his wild harp slung behind him."
Our opponents are at war with the intelligence of the
country ; now marking a most propitious era, by every day
more and more identifying itself with the wants, the rights,
and the exertions of the country at large. There is a new
phase in literature, a new and glorious one, and the herald
of better times than the world has yet seen. Why, even
their own sycophants, those of them who have any mind,
and who may for a while have been bribed to prostitute
that intellect, will say, as Thersites says of those Homeric
hordes drawn by Shakespeare — the hordes who carried
their brains in their bellies and their bowels in their heads
— they will say, as Thersites says of Ajax and Achilles, "I
will go away ; I will go where some wit is stirring, and
leave this faction of fools." They war not only against
the intellect of their own land, but against the common
sympathies of our nature, against the intellect of all other
countries, and against the great, mighty stream of ten
dency in human affairs, which, as Dr. Channing said pro
phetically, in, I believe, the last address he ever delivered,
"sets on towards Free Trade, wherever inteUect is culti
vated, as well as wherever trade is pursued, throughout
the world."
What is the world's petition on this question? Why,
amongst those petitions which the King of Prussia dis
posed of so cavalierly the other day, we find a plea, a
prayer, to be delivered from some ofthe nuisances ofthe

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 289
custom-houses. The people want to be less imprisoned
than they are by the restrictions that bind them. In
France your proceedings are reported ; histories exist there
already of the League, recording its past exertions, and
prepared for the supplement that is to record its final
triumph. In America, some of the best works on political
economy, some of the amplest and noblest illustrations of
Free Trade, have been produced by Transatlantic writers.
It was predicted, sixteen years ago, by Judge Cooper, in
his lectures on political economy, that the Corn Laws of
England would be abolished whenever the different classes
— trading, professional, and those of Hmited income —
should see their common interest, and unite against the
corn oppression. The time has come, and the prophecy is
about to be fulfiUed.
The last presidential election in America shows the
way in which things are tending there. It shows us that
we of the League are at one with the world, and that
our opponents are aliens from, and in hostility with, the
world. What, would these dukes and their little cHque
of retainers isolate Great Britain from the nations of the
earth ? Would they shut out the resources of other coun
tries ready to be exchanged with ours? Would they re
duce us to Hve, first on the corn which they grow, and, that
consumed, I suppose, to feed upon one another ? Would
they bring us back to a savage state, and reduce her ma
jesty Queen Victoria, from being the empress of the great
est state in the world, to be only Queen of the Cannibal
Islands ?
They are struggHng with enduring interests and ineradi
cable sympathies. Man must feel for sorrow; it is wrought
into his frame ; it is a portion, one might say, of his physi
cal constitution. The nerves wUl thrill at the exhibition
of pain and agony. It is sad to see nobles shorn of their
dignities, bereft of their estates, sent abroad, exiles over
the world, to pick up a scanty subsistence, as the old
nobUity of France was sent. It is sad to see a nobUity
thus reduced ; although perhaps there are some of whom
a jury might be disposed to say, as was once said in a
case of manslaughter, " We find, sarved 'em right !" It
is sad to behold talent and industry bufi'eting their way
through the storms of life, hardly able to make head
VOL. IV. V

290 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
against the trials and oppositions that beset them. It is
sad to witness the bereavements and afflictions that come
to the homes of all mankind and there produce weeping
and wailing. But the saddest of all sights is that of a
multitude of people without a sufficiency of food. That is
what wrings the soul; and the sympathy reacts, strengthen
ing the indignation with which we see that this is not the
dispensation of Providence, but the abuse of property, with
its influence over legislative enactment. The common
feelings of our nature cry out against this ; and it is our
right for which we stand, — an inherent, natural, universal
right. Burke, the eloquent and philosophical, calls it a
natural right, even when his own feelings were excited to
the highest degree of antagonism, in his endeavour to put
down what were then called " the rights of man," when he
sometimes went the length of denying altogether that there
were such things as natural rights ; but food wrung the
admission from him, and he said it was most unwise and
unjust to tamper with a nation's bread.
It is for this right you stand ; for this you throw down
the gauntlet in the face of the proud aristocracy. You
dare them to the conflict which they provoke, in the regis
tration courts, at the hustings, in the future House of Par
liament ; you wiU fight it out ; and if " God defend the
Eight" — the old prayer in duels — we know what will become
of those who are only champions for the wrong, for their
own sordid gains. They have yet to leam the power of
principle. That is something out of their calculation;
their politics, for a long time, have gone on without it;
and they have done much towards eradicating it from the
people's minds and hearts. It has been one of the greatest
blessings of the League to have revived this sense of the
power of principle, to have taught us again the omnipotence
of truth, to assure us that a good cause cannot be finally
baffied ; and in this strength we feel that we are banded
together as by a holy League; the tie is as solemn as
if confirmed by the oath of an angel, raising his arm to
Him who liveth for ever and ever. It is a tie which every
soul acknowledges. It is a principle, not only of politics,
but of morality, of religion, to which lives are devoted
in the support of missionaries and of martyrs. And
who or what are dukes and earls, that they sliould4hink

ANTI-CORN-LAW SPEECHES. 291
it is for them to stay this tide, and to roll back these irre
sistible billows, which are moving on to the fulfilment
of the purposes to which they were ordained of God and
nature ?
It is coming — the end of this struggle — its auspicious
end. It is coming ; and come when it will, the heartfelt
testimony will be borne, not here only, but all over the
country, that you, men of Manchester, have done it. All
else has been subsidiary. Philosophers have laid down
the principles, statisticians have collected the facts and ar
ranged the results. Politicians are but the machinery by
which these results are to be reduced to legislative prac
tice. Voters, constituencies, are only the intermediate
powers to connect public opinion with a representative
legislature. Queen, Lords, and Commons will be but formal
agents to give solemn record and authenticity to that which
— wherever and however accomplished — originated with
you, the men of Manchester. It will not be unremembered.
The old man, as his daily strength reminds him of the ter
mination of his course, as the bending body shows its in
chnation to the grave, and the world begins to fade away
from his sight, — the old man will go to his rest the more
contented that his children will not have his hardships to
struggle with, that an easier and a blissful course is before
them ; and he will die with blessings on the men of Man
chester. The future child will learn to lisp its history. It
will be early taught the events that have brought the world
into the condition in which its own eyes were first opened ;
and as it traces those pages, its sight cannot but rest on
one — the brightest amongst them all — which tells ofthe
good that in this great struggle was wrought out by you,
the men of Manchester. You wiU all of you face your own
last great change with stouter hearts, in the consciousness
that, whatever else may have been your shortcomings, in this
great matter you leave the world better than you found it.
And in future times, when there is more of enjoyment on the
face of the earth, and when the people, leading more glad
some lives, compare them with the past, to stimulate their
thankfulness ; or when the struggles of those times come
on, — for struggles in this imperfect condition of humanity
there ever will and must be, — those who enjoy and those
who struggle will — for gratitude the one, and encourage-

292 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
ment the other — look back to the history of this agitation
and to its triumph ; and in their thankfulness, and in their
invigorated strength, they, too, will accumulate their bless
ings on the heads of you, men of Manchester.

OCCASIONAL SPEECHES.

NATIONAL EDUCATION.
A Speech in the House of Commons, Feb. 26, 1850,
WITH
A COPY OP THE BILL POR ITS PROMOTION.

Mr. W. j. Fox, on rising to move for leave to bring in a
bUl to promote the secular education of the people in Eng
land and Wales, said he could not approach this subject,
to which he had undertaken to call the attention of the
House, without a deep sense of its difficulties. Those dif
ficulties were, indeed, not the same as in former years.
There were many points he was now entitled to take for
granted, with which he need not trouble the House. It
was no longer necessary to prove that education was good,
— good for the individual and for the community ; that it
leads to the abatement of crime and to improvement of
manners and morals. Now, although it was held by many
that on the one hand it was the duty of Government to
educate the people, and on the other that education was a
religious question, and that religion was voluntary, and
should not have the interference of Government, yet between
these extreme opinions there was, he apprehended, a large
number of persons who held that although the Government
should not educate the people, yet they would exercise a
legitimate function in providing that the people should
educate themselves ; and it was on that view that he had
constructed the measure which he should have the honour
to submit to the House. The difficulties that attended the
educational question, he had said, were not the same now
as formerly. They formerly arose from indifference, but
they now arose from zeal. Different religious bodies re-

294 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
garded it as something which they might connect with their
peculiarities, to which they might make it subservient. The
consequence was, that parties avowedly engaged in the same
work of instruction and enlightening the pubHc mind were
continually quarrelling with each other.
The efforts which had been made for the promotion of
education were most honourable to aU parties concerned.
Of late years the Church had put forth a magnificent
degree of fervour and influence in these matters. Dissenters
had been the tried friends of education from the very begin
ning of those efforts which in modern times had spread it so
much among the poorer classes ; and he believed that the
Committee of Privy Council on Education had endeavoured,
with great judgment and tact, to encourage those great
bodies who have an earnest interest in the cause, to pro
mote their efforts, to stimulate them when lagging, and to
guide them when zealous. But what was the state of those
great bodies? That they were in collision with each other;
that a large section of the National Society repudiated
grants of the public money ; that a large body of Dissenters,
and the British-and-Foreign School Society, also repudiated
these grants ; that the Committee of Council had striven
in vain to bring together these jarring elements ; and that
as a consequence the progress of education had been stayed,
and, he thought, in some respects a retrograde movement
had commenced. Now this -was a state of things most
earnestly to be deplored. He found that the Dissenters,
the Congregational Dissenters, who a few years ago declared
that they would have nothing to do with Government in
this matter, that they could raise a sum of 200,000^., and
show that their denomination at least could educate itself,
had failed in that purpose. The utmost they professed to
have raised was 60 per cent of the amount proposed. In
stead of raising 200,000/., they only reported that 60 per
cent, or 120,000Z., was known to have been expended for
educational purposes within this period ; that only 7000/.
had passed through the hands of the board ; and they had
announced, though with hopefulness as to the future re
sumption of grants, that for the present their grants to
poor schools were suspended. WhUe that was the case
with them, how was it with the National Society? In
their last annual Eeport it is stated, that " the support of

NATIONAL EDUCATION. 295
schools continues a matter of greater difficulty than the
building of schools, as it is found easier to rouse men to
one great effort than to induce them to give a steady and
lengthened support." And as an evidence that this was not
the only difficulty, he found, in one of the reports of the
inspectors, that in the north-eastern district the attendance
of scholars was much less than it might be; that with
accommodation for 33,656 scholars, an average of only
14,791 children had been attending instruction there. In
one of the Monthly Papers published by the National
Society during the last year, it is stated that " its finances
had become more depressed, and the Committee had been
compelled to suspend their operations for the present in
building and enlarging schools. They had also considered
it prudent to make reductions in the instances of St. .Mark's
CoUege, Chelsea, and the Battersea training estabhshment ;
and they also fear that they will be compelled to diminish
the supply of teachers at the very time when the exigencies
of the Church require that they should be increased."
Now he took these statements to be a good reason for calling
again the attention of the House to this subject. He
knew it was but three years since it was discussed, and
very freely discussed ; but when they found that the ma
chinery had got into such disorder, and that instead of
progressively increasing they were in danger of diminishing
their usefulness, it was surely time to inquire what means
could be taken to stay this downward course.
There were other reasons why the subject could with
advantage again be brought under the consideration of the
legislature. During the period that had elapsed a variety
of important documents had been published. In the Eeports
and Minutes of the Committee of Council, and in the
evidence afforded by the inspectors, there was very much
indeed whicli bore both on the extent and on the quality of
the education as now administered in this country, and
showed that in both particulars there was great reason
for prompt and careful attention to the subject. As an
additional reason . for calling so soon the attention of the
House to the subject, he might also mention, that in various
parts ofthe country there was an educational movement
which the legislature should recognise, and which impera
tively demanded attention. The people of Lancashire, with

296 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
that energy which distinguished them, had formed a scheme
for the complete education of their entire county — he al
luded to the proceedings of the Association for the Secular
Education of the County of Lancaster. In Scotland, highly
advantageous as its position had generaUy been supposed,
in consequence of its ancient parochial system, there were
complaints ; and these complaints took the same direction,
and adopted the same tone. That religious country — a
distinction which it had always so honourably earned — felt
that more secular education was necessary to give religious
education its full efficiency. They had circulated a decla
ration through the country to that effect, and had backed
their opinion with the venerated authority of the late Dr.
Chalmers. Besides this, in the metropoHs and other places
the workpeople themselves were showing a lively interest
in the education of their offspring. They had associated
themselves for the purpose, if they could, of obtaining it.
Many individually had made great sacrifices for the accom
plishment of the object; but feeling that they could not in
that way fully realise all they desired, they had combined
— still adopting the same principle, and pursuing the same
object — more secular education than was furnished by the
schools at present in operation. This feeling had been yet
further tested by the establishment in London of a number
of schools, where the training of the faculties of chUdren
was carried considerably further than was usual in schools.
They were not charity-schools; they were self-supporting,
and had even become profitable ; many hundreds of the chil
dren of the working classes attended — the boys paying 6d.,
the girls 4d., a week ; and these schools had attained con
siderable popularity with the class for whose advantage
they were designed. Thus, both the discouraging circum
stances and the popular movement acted in the same di
rection and led to the same result, namely, that the time
was come, short though the interval was, for taking some
further step, for making some advances in this matter.
But there were reasons stronger and more urgent even
than these. No person could compare the condition of this
country with other countries as to education, without feeling
that the nation to which we belonged was not supporting
its high character and its ancient prerogative.
< Through means ofthe noble lord the Secretary of State

NATIONAL EDUCATION. 297
for Foreign Affairs, and by reference to the Minutes of the
Committee of Council on Education, he was enabled to give
the proportion borne by the children at school to the entire
population in various countries of Europe and America.
This proportion was : — in Prussia, 1 in 6 ; in Bavaria, 1 in
7 at day schools, and, reckoning every kind of elementary
school, 1 in 5 ; in Holland, 1 in 8 at public schools, besides
those under private tuition ; in Belgium, 1 in 9 ; in Penn
sylvania, 1 in 5 ; in Massachusetts, 1 in 6^. The very
highest estimate of the most sanguine calculator of this
proportion in England — he meant Mr. Baines — only gave
it at 1 in 8^ ; but if, to make out this proportion, every
kind of school, day and Sunday schools, were reckoned,
still there was great reason to believe that it was very inac
curate, and that 1 in 13 would be much nearer the mark.
Not only would he direct attention to the general deficiency
of education, but to its exceeding irregularity. It was not
the same in any two counties, nor in different parishes of
the same town, nor in different classes of the working peo
ple. In the localities where most attention had been paid
to this subject, it was reported that in the district of Vaux-
,hall, Liverpool, the proportion attending day schools was
1 in 11^; in Blackfriars, Salford, 1 in 36; in the diocese
of Chester, 1 in 20; in Sheffield, 1 in 11; in Manchester,
1 in 14|. Taking the different counties of England, a
most enormous variation from the average of instruction
was found. In Middlesex, Surrey, and Cumberland, the
number receiving education was above the average by 59,
53, and 52 per cent respectively. In Bedford, Monmouth,
and Hertford, it was below the average by about 53 per
cent in each. In Warwickshire and Cheshire it was above.
So that the map of England had its light and dark spots,
and they continually intermingled in the strangest manner.
While, according to recent returns of the Eegistrar-General
of England and Wales, one-half the population did not
know how to write their names, it appeared from well-
authenticated returns from 474 cotton-mills in Manchester
and the surrounding district, that no less than 82 ^ per
cent of the whole number of factory operatives could
read. The disparity extended even to the sexes. In the
National Schools in London and the neighbourhood, there
were three boys educated to two girls; but in the Bri-

298 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
tish-and-Foreign Schools in the metropolis and its neigh
bourhood, there was only one girl to two boys. Every
where was found disparity, irregularity ; and that called for
some such measure as he had endeavoured to provide —
namely, to excite the localities to exertion, to call forth
the principle of emulation between different districts, which
should make each anxious to vie with its competitors, and
to produce at least as good if not a better and more com
plete system of general and efficient instruction.
There was yet something more to be considered — the
efficiency of education as well as its extent. How had it
succeeded in that which was most confidently anticipated
to raise a barrier against criminality ? He was aware he
was touching an argument which those wbo were disposed
to take any logical advantage of an opponent might endea
vour to turn against him, and that it might in appearance,
but in appearance only, be made to recoil upon educa
tion itself. He should endeavour to guard against such
an inference, which was altogether unwarranted by the
facts. From tables presented to this House, the abstracts
of various returns, he derived these very striking and im
pressive results, showing that education as now adminis
tered had had comparatively little effect in the abatement
of crime. He took the years from 1837 to 1848 inclusive,
and would adopt the classification of criminals now gene
rally used under four heads, namely, of those who were
unable to read and write, those able to read and write
imperfectly, those able to read and write well, and those
who had received a superior education. During the years
above mentioned the gross amount of crime had undergone
great fiuctuations; it had risen, fallen, and risen again;
but in the relative proportions of the criminals classified
as above there had been no such diversity, but a continuous
process, teaching the lesson it was adapted to convey most
impressively. For instance, the first — the least-instructed
class — had not become more criminal ; it had been placed
under more beneficent influences than in former years, and
those influences had operated. During those twelve years
the percentage of those unable to read and write had de
creased from 35-85 to 34-40, 33-53, and so on — down at
last to 31-93. In the same time the percentage of criminals
who had received an instruction superior to reading and

NATIONAL EDUCATION. 299
writing had also decreased from -43 to '27 per cent. Thus
the two extremes showed a decreasing proportion; whilst
in the intermediate classes, those who could read and write
imperfectly, and those who could read and write well,— that
was to say, those trained according to the system of instruc
tion now generaUy practised in our schools, — there had been
an increased percentage : of those who could read and write
imperfectly, from 52-08 to 56-38; and of those who could
read and write well there tiad been an increase also, but a
very slight one, only from 9-46 to 9-83. The great increase
in the relative proportion of criminals had been in those
who could read and write imperfectly — children who had
been at the schools which now furnished the great mass of
instruction to the pooreir classes. It was shown by the able
papers of Mr. Fletcher, the inspector of the British-and-
Foreign Society's Schools, that a similar result obtained.
He said : " While the total increase of commitments from
1837, '38, and '39, to 1842, '43, and '44, was 23 per cent,
the increase in the wholly ignorant was only 11-6 per
cent; and while the decrease in the total commitments
from 1842, '43, and '44, to 1845, '46, and '47, has been only
13-2 per cent, the decrease in the wholly ignorant has been
15-6 per cent." There had therefore been an advance in
criminality amongst those who received instruction in the
schools which at present existed.
Though feeling, with the great majority of the House,
that religious instruction was the most important that the
child could receive, he had also a conviction that, to make
that instruction produce its genuine results, there must be
a proportionate admixture of that communication of know
ledge and of that training of the faculties which, in com
mon parlance, was designated secular teaching. To the
want of this he ascribed whatever there might be of failure
in the efforts that had been so extensively made to benefit
the rising generation. Without this, the religion they gave
the child was mere words, whose meaning he did not feel
or comprehend; he might repeat them, but they did not
sink into his mind. They required the atmosphere of other
instruction, and the stimulus of his own reflective faculties.
The results of the gaol returns were also of a kind to bear
out this conviction, and to increase our dissatisfaction with
education as now generally administered. He would take

300 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
the gaol retums presented in 1848 — the last he had seen ;
and he would take the test generally applied by the gaol
chaplains — whether the parties committed could repeat the
Lord's Prayer — a very legitimate test to apply in this case.
The children whose parents taught them that prayer were
not generally the children to flnd their way into gaols —
while those children who had been abandoned entirely, the
children of reprobate parents, who had not been to school,
would not be able to repeat, efen as a dry form of words,
that symbol of devotion which was so dear to all Christians.
He took, therefore, this test to separate the children who
had been at the existing schools from those who had not.
Of course there were exceptional cases, but they were not
numerous enough to affect the argument ; and he assumed,
if a child could repeat the Lord's Prayer, that be had been at
some school or other, British or National, public or private,
day or Sunday school. In the county gaol at Eeading, out
of 631 prisoners there were only 204 who could not repeat
the Lord's Prayer, leaving 427 who had gone through a
nominal education. In Cambridge county gaol, 61 out of
229 were unable to repeat the Lord's Prayer, leaving there
168 who had gone through a nominal education. In the
Cornwall county gaol there were 684 prisoners, of whom
139 could not bear this test, leaving 445 there who had
gone through a nominal education. Of 674 prisoners in
the Dorset county gaol only 57 were unable to repeat the
Lord's Prayer, leaving 617 nominally educated. In Lan
caster county gaol, out of 603 prisoners 115 were in this
predicament, leaving 488 nominally instructed. In the
Sussex county gaol, out of 522 prisoners 80 were ignorant,
leaving 442. These returns bore out to a large extent the
assertion he had made. He could follow them up by other
calculations of a similar description. Eeturns procured by
individuals from a great number of the governors of gaols
showed that out of 9387 prisoners, 5875 had been at Sun
day-schools, to say nothing of other schools. He was
merely giving specimens of the different classes of evidence,
the whole of which would fill volumes. Let them take
report after report, and they would find analogous results.
The impression which this evidence conveyed — of the
needful accompaniment of secular instruction and intellec
tual training to render reUgious education valuable, and

NATIONAL EDUCATION. 301
enable it to produce its fruits — seemed to have been im
parted in a greater or less degree to the minds of almost all
the parties concemed. The statements of gaol chaplains,
governors of gaols, inspectors of prisons, inspectors of
schools, all tended in the same direction. They might give
it more or less explicit utterance, but still this was clearly
in their minds. The chaplain of the Pentonville Prison
said in his last report : " I am compelled again to confess
that the proportion of convicts who have been educated in
some sort, as compared with those totally uneducated, is
fully as high as that which exists between those classes in
the general population, — a fact which should lead to the
inquiry wherein the popular education is defective." The
same chaplain, in his report for the year, said that, of 500
prisoners, 178 had attended some sort of school upwards of
four years, 58 less than four years, 193 less than three
years, and only 71 not at all ; being a little more than four
years' schooling, on an average, for each. The prison in
spectors had borne similar testimony. In the 14th Eeport
of the Exeter County Gaol, the inspector stated that he had
examined 120 prisoners, of whom 21 could not repeat the
Lord's Prayer, 43 could repeat it, 51 could repeat part of
the Catechism, and 5 could repeat the whole Catechism —
giving 99 nominally trained prisoners to 21 altogether un
trained. The 14tli Eeport from the county gaol at Bod
min showed that of 684 prisoners, 465 could repeat the
Lord's Prayer more or less correctly, and were acquainted
with the simple truths of religion, and 80 had a good gene
ral knowledge of the scriptures. Thus, 545 out of 684 had
gone through the training of the schools. Mr. Fletcher,
the Inspector of the British-and-Foreign Society's Schools,
appended this remark to his last report : " However essen
tial such a training may seem to any course claiming the
name of education, it has yet to be commenced for all the
children in our schools, except a few in the top classes
of the best of them. And grateful indeed as we ought to
be for the degree of instruction which has been spread
among the poorer classes, their ' day-school education' is
stUl in its infancy, even in the most favoured places ; .while
in remote, though often not less densely populated districts,
its existence is little more than nominal, whatever may be
the exceeding number of infants ' kept quiet' in the kitch-

302 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
ens of the dames, or of uneducated and untrained teachers
earning a scanty pittance under permission to assemble a
few chUdren on week-days amidst the superfluous desks
and benches of the Sunday-schools." The Eev. Mr.
Moseley, whose reports were always deserving of the very
closest degree of attention, had generalised more his re
marks on this subject in the last report of the schools in
the Surrey district. He said : " It is consistent with my
own experience, and, I believe, with that of aU other in
spectors, that there is most rehgious knowledge in those
schools where the reading of the scriptures is united in
a just proportion with secular instruction, and where, a dis
tinction between the functions of the day-school and the
Sunday-school being observed, something of that relation
is estabhshed in the school between religious principles and
secular pursuits which ought to obtain in the after-life of
the child. This is a grave error which confounds rehgious
knowledge with a religious character, and that no ordinary
sacrifice which is made of the veneration due to the word
of God when it is constantly applied to a secular use."
Another inspector, the Eev. P. Cooke, of the metropoHtan
district said : " Eeligious instruction is advanced in propor
tion to the proficiency of children in other studies, and, so
far as outward observation goes, the best effects are pro
duced upon the moral principles and conduct."
The Committee of Council was itself aware of this
deficiency. The National Society perceived that it had
made some mistake in this matter, and was justly chargeable
with some deficiency. The inspector, in reporting on its
training institution at St, Mark's College, said : " They
wUl be men, I think, fond of study, and desirous of self-
improvement. Whether in the estimate they may have
formed of the subjects proper to the education of the indus
trial masses of the country, or in the knowledge they may
possess applicable to it, they will be found equal to the
exigencies of the times, remains to be proved," This
deficiency as to the exigencies of the times was pointed at
in the 37th Eeport ofthe National Society, After mention
ing some comments on the scriptures, which were required,
it said : " To this list of books required may be added a
work on the elements of political economy for the use of
teachers ; and a very simple book on the same subject

NATIONAL EDUCATION, 303
might be advantageously put into the hands of the children.
This is a topic which is now beginning to be discussed
among all ranks ; and it is impossible to over-estimate the
importance of early imbuing the minds of persons with
some maxims on this subject, in order to prevent their
imbibing any of the false and pernicious theories whicli are
now broached. How to foster the accumulation of capital
in a country, and protect it when accumulated, and at the
same time to prevent the manual labourer from being un
duly ground down and oppressed, is felt to be one of the
great problems of the day ; and if the science of political
economy cannot solve this problem, it can at least prove to
the capitalist that it is always, in the long-run, his interest to
care tenderly for his workmen ; and it can demonstrate to the
workmen that they are equally dependent on the capitalist."
To these evidences he would add the testimony of an
intelligent observer, Mr. Horace Mann, so well known for
his exertions in Boston, and so long connected with schools
there, who, not very long ago, had made an educational
tour throughout Europe. In his remarks on the schools
and the religious teaching of this country, he said : " After
the particular attention which I gave to this subject, both in
England and Scotland, I can say without any exception,
that in those schools where religious creeds and forms of
faith and modes of worship were directly taught, I found
the common doctrines and injunctions of morality, and the
meaning of the preceptive parts of the Gospel, to be much
less taught and much less understood by the pupils, than
in the same grade of schools and by the same classes of
pupils with us." To these observations of an intelligent
American traveller, he would add those of a not less intel
ligent English traveller on the state of education in America.
Sir Charles Lyell, in his recently published work, said :
" The clergy are becoming more and more convinced that
where the education of the miUion has been carried
furthest, the people are most regular in their attendance on
public worship, most zealous in the defence of their theolo
gical opinions, and most liberal in contributing funds to
the support of their pastors and to the buUding of churches."
His inference from these varied testimonies was the same,
— not that religious teaching should be in any degree
checked, restricted, or abated, but that care should be taken

804 COLLECTED WORKS OP W. J. FOX.
always to accompany it with such training and instruction
as would give it its full force on the mind, and insure its
best results on the heart and character.
He would now endeavour briefly to explain the provi
sions of the Bill which he should ask leave to introduce,
and in which he had endeavoured not to supersede any
existing education, but to render it all available, as far as
possible, for calling forth, in supply of the undeniable defi
ciency, local exertions in connection with that central
superintendence which would render them most efficient.
He proposed that the deficiency in the supply of the means
of education in any parish or combination of parishes
should be ascertained by her Majesty's inspectors. In
estimating those means, he would have them take every
item of educational machinery into account, — National
Schools, British-and-Foreign Schools, schools connected
with religious denominations, schools without any such
connection, public schools, private schools, if they sub
mitted to inspection ; he would have them report on any
and all, as affording the means of instruction for the people
of that district, subtracting the exclusion which might arise
from too great costliness in some instances, and from exclu
sive religious peculiarities being enforced upon the chUdren
or expected of them in other instances. The amount of
the deficiency of education being thus ascertained, he pro
posed that the locality should be invited to supply it ; that
the inhabitants of the district should be summoned to elect
an Education Committee, who should have the supply ofthe
deficiency for their peculiar work, and be empowered to
rate the inhabitants for the expense necessarily incurred in
carrying out their plans. He would have continued regard
to the existing schools. There were two means by which
the wants of the parish or district, as regarded secular edu
cation, which should be peculiarly the province of the Com
mittee, might be met. First, as in the old schools, and
schools already existing, by the remuneration of the teacher
for so many pupils as the inspector should report him to
have efficiently instructed in the elements of secular educa
tion ; and, secondly, by the formation of new schools, to be
properly free schools, — schools to which any inhabitant of
the parish or district should have the right of sending his
chUdren between the ages of seven and thirteen, without

NATIONAL EDUCATION, 305
charge, without distinction in the treatment and training of
the children, with no religious peculiarities inculcated upon
them, but with the right reserved and inalienable, the right
of the parents to have, at certain convenient times fixed by
the master, their chUdren instructed as to religion where
and by whom they pleased. He also proposed that, on
leaving the school, each child, having conducted itself to its
master's satisfaction, and in his estimation deserving by
its attainments, should have a present of books made, of
which the holy Scriptures should always form a portion, —
thus putting that volume into the child's hand at a time
when his mind was most fitted for appreciating its grandeur,
and for coming under its moral influences. He proposed
that the teachers in these schools should be made as inde
pendent as possible ; that they should be appointed, paid,
and dismissed by the local Education Committee, giving
them in the latter case an appeal to the Committee of
Council on Education. And should an instance occur
where the locality was so careless, indolent, and neglectful
of its duty, as not to undertake to provide for the deficiency,
he would call upon the Committee of Council to step in,
and not to allow that locality to become a sink of ignorance,
prejudice, and vice, to its own disgrace and misery, and a
nuisance to all the surrounding country. The masters he
proposed to remunerate by salaries, fixing the minimum at
such an amount as should insure them some considerable
degree of respectability in their social position. This was
of the very utmost consequence. He relied on the school
masters for the advancement of education. It was only
through their means that we could have any hope of better
and brighter results than some we had witnessed. He
would stimulate honourable rivalry by the publication by
the Committee of Council of a complete Eeport, from year
to year, of the state of education in every district in the
kingdom ; those reports would find their way into the usual
channels and to the table of that House ; and thus publicity
and opinion would be avaUable both for encouraging the
meritorious, and for shaming the indifferent out of their
culpable neglect of duty.
He hoped he had said nothing in the course of his
observations which could be fairly construed into any thing
offensive towards the various religious bodies who undoubt-
VOL. IV. X

306 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J, FOX.
edly did so much for education. He proposed to put no
restraint upon them. Schools might still be erected and
endowed in the strictest principles of Church education;
they might be put under the entire control of clergymen,
and have bishops for visitors. He interfered not with any
of these. On the contrary, those schools, of whatever kind,
which had assisted the State in sending out, year after yea,r,
a certain number of pupUs qualified to take their place in
civiHsed society, would, under his scheme, receive their re
ward according to the work they had done. The religious
bodies would have the opportunity of giving instruction as
heretofore, accompanied with their own peculiar religious
opinions, and would have the power of making the impart
ing of education subordinate to what appeared to them a
paramount purpose. He did not think the Dissenters
would be found objecting to his proposal, because their
schools would be left equal freedom. And here he would
observe that he adopted the distinction so finely drawn by
the hon. member for Surrey (Mr. Drummond) between
"education" and "instruction." By education he meant
the complete training and drawing forth ofthe mind. This
could only be accomplished by the highly gifted teacher or
the affectionate pastor or parent. Instruction, or the mere
imparting of knowledge, was a lower task, which was to be
accomplished by the agency of the school and the efforts of
the schoolmaster. He used the word " education," however,
for instruction, as the one most commonly used to signify
that which was properly expressed by the word "instruction."
But there was another class of persons whose coopera
tion was of the utmost importance in working out any
system of education — he meant the working people, whose
children were to be instructed and trained. Unless they
were with the plan, unless they coincided with it and re
ceived it kindly, and as a privilege for their children,
although it should have the sanction of the Church and
of different religious denominations, it would not have that
effect which it was most devoutly to be wished it should have.
Amongst that class, whose intelligence was underrated by
those who had not the advantage of personal communication
with them, a sturdy intellect and moral sense prevailed
which recoiled from charity ; and whatever they might
think of their feelings, rights, and privileges, he thought

NATIONAL EDUCATION. 307
this sturdiness of intellect, which was invariably the result
of self-cultivation, though it might not be accompanied by
external culture, was entitled to respect. These people
were indisposed to send their children to schools when they
found them used for the purpose of proselytism ; and thus
a suspicion of their intentions was generated which he
regretted to say was not always unwarranted. He would
read to the House a passage from the manifesto of the
working men of London on this subject. They say : " We
cannot consent that our children should be apportioned
amongst the religious sects ; that their plastic minds and
nascent judgments should be subjected to an external pres
sure which would give them a permanent bias towards
peculiar notions. This appears to us to be the very way to
foment and cherish those theological distinctions which
already so unhappily divide mankind. Eeligion is intended
to prepare men for heaven, where the society of the blessed
will be united in peace and love. Why should it be made
on earth the pretext for cutting up the community into
sections, and separating them from one another by unpro
nounceable shibboleths ? We have now for several years
been spectators of the dispute going on between the deno
minations on the subject of popular education. We have
noticed that they all agree as to its urgent and imperative
necessity ; each party has vied with the others in eloquent
descriptions of the frightful condition of the working
classes. We have been called ' a multitude of untutored
savages,' and the places where we dwell have been desig
nated as ' great and terrible wildernesses.' We have sat still,
expecting that the religious denominations, in holy charity
and pity for our suffering, would for once lay by their
peculiarities, which they themselves confess are not essential
to salvation, and agree upon some plan by which the re
sources of the State might be employed to rescue us from
our awful condition. But we have waited in vain ; the
controversy has waxed hotter and more furious ; our little
ones have been forgotten in the fray, and their golden mo
ments have been allowed to run irrecoverably to waste."
He believed these words to be the genuine opinion of the
real working men, and their wiUingness to receive instruc
tion fairly offered gave an assurance of success to be de
rived from no other source.

SOS COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
It would be expected that he should say something of
the co.st of the experiment he proposed, but it would be
idle affectation to produce any figures on such a subject.
He would remark, however, that first impressions were
likely to lead to a much over-rated estimate of the outlay.
The Association for Education in the County of Lancaster
made a calculation with great care, and they found that
they could erect schools for the entire education of the
county by a rate of 4|«?. in the pound. The expenses of
sustaining and managing their schools for chUdren and
adults were expected to be covered by a rate of 6d. in the
pound. Such was the estimate for providing education for
the entire county; but it must be borne in mind that he
proposed by his present scheme to provide merely for the
deficiency of education. Then he asked to have a reason
able allowance made on account of the diminished crime
which would result from education and moral training, and
for the abatement of the enormous cost of unrestored pro
perty lost by theft. The poorer ratepayers would' also find
themselves repaid, and overpaid, for what they would be
called on to contribute for teachers, in the instruction
which would be given to their children. Beyond this
general view, it would be absurd to attempt to calculate the
expenses of the plan with any degree of accuracy.
He had already trespassed too long on the patience of
the House, but he would ask their attention for a few
minutes longer. He depended on the character of the
teachers for the success of his plan. In that view he was
warranted by a sound observation of the noble lord at the
head of her Majesty's government, made three years ago,
when this same topic of education was under discussion.
He said : " It has always been my view that you can never
effectually raise education in this country till you raise the
condition and prospects of the teachers of schools." That
was what he (Mr. Fox) wished to do by the salary he
recommended in the measure for the masters of free schools.
And if any one questioned the essential importance of the
masters of schools, he would refer him to the Isle of Man,
where the most perfect system of education to be found in
the world existed on paper; for every parish had its school,
the ratepayers had a share in its management, and every
parent was made to send his children to school; yet, not-

NATIONAL EDUCATION. 309
withstanding all this, these children were in a more forlorn
condition than any chUdren in the country. This was
owing to the want of proper and efficient teachers'. The
bishop, writing on this subject to the Committee of Coun
cU on Education, says: "That unless some plan were
adopted for raising the character of the schoolmaster, they
would be outstripped by the inhabitants of any other part
of her Majesty's dominions, and they would not have good
schoolmasters unless they raised their position. It was not
enough to have convenient schoolrooms; they must also
have a sufficient salary, and comfortable houses to reside
in." The fact was, that the profession of schoolmaster did
not receive that encouragement in this country which was
necessary to enable persons to devote themselves heart and
soul to their caUing. He believed that persons well qua
lified for the work existed in great numbers throughout the
country. He believed that it might be said of the school
master a.g it had been said ofthe poet, "Nascitur, non fit."
He believed that there existed by nature in some minds a
disposition which enabled them to sympathise with children
— to feel the difficulties which obstructed children, and to
accelerate their progress, for the want of which no amount
of learning, classical or otherwise, could compensate. He
would therefore throw the competition for masters perfectly
open, without regard to training schools. He would invite
true men to come forward; he would make aptitude for
teaching the great test of fitness, and would reward them
accordingly. The function of the teacher was one of great
difficulty ; it required time, patience, and it was deserving
of the best honours which society could bestow.
He trusted the House would judge this subject on its
own intrinsic interest and importance, and not from the
imperfect manner in which it had been brought forward.
He prayed the House to think ofthe condition of thousands
upon thousands of children in this country; to think ofthe
crime which had thriven on soils from which they had
hoped it was entirely banished, and which they wished to
see preoccupied by better seed ; to think of those localities
which continued to send forth their " hordes of untutored
savages" upon society, who seemed to derive from civilisa
tion itself facihties for becoming more unwholesome annoy
ances to it; he would have them thi"k ofthe overcrowded

310 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
gaols, the hulks, and the reluctant colonies ; he would have
them think ofthe peace, quiet, and good order which would
spread amongst the homes of the weU-disposed, by the
general training and moral culture ofthe people; he would
have them look to the higher motive of patriotism, and
consider that the intellect and moral lustre of their country
had been a glory superior to that even of its supremacy in
arts and arms; he would have them look to the highest
objects of all, which, when the purposes of civil society had
been accomplished, still remained to be realised in the indi
vidual, who, by the means which they could afford, would
be better qualified to fulfil the great purpose for which he
had been formed by a beneficent Creator.

A Bill to Promote the Secular Education of the People in
England and Wales.
[Note. — The words printed in italics are proposed to be inserted
in the Committee.]
AEEAKGBMENT OF CLAUSES.
Interpretation of Act ; Sect. 1.
Annual Reports on the provisions for Education in every parish to he
made to the Committee of Privy Council ; 2.
On deficiency of means for Education reported in any parish, the
rated inhabitants to be directed to elect an Educational Com
mittee. Proviso, that two or more parishes may be imited for the
election of an Educational Committee ; 3.
The parochial Educational Committee to propose a plan for supplying
deficiency of Secular Education. Committee of Education may
direct payments to be made to masters of Schools for pupils
gratuitously taught ; 4.
¦Where provision for Education deficient, Free Schools to be estab
lished, to be managed by the local Educational Committee.
Salaries of Schoolmasters and Mistresses. The instruction in Free
Schools to be the same for all pupils. No charges in Free Schools.
Time to be aUowed to pupUs at Free Schools for religious
instruction. PupUs at Free Schools to be rewarded for acquire
ment and good conduct ; 5.
Infant, and Evening Adult, and other Schools, may be estabUshed ; 6.
Power to remove Schoolmasters and Mistresses in certain cases.
Appeal to Committee of Council on Education ; 7.
Power to levy a School-rate. 'Where parishes united, School-iate to
be apportioned ; 8.
Educational Committee may purchase and hold land ; 9.
Educational Committee to appoint Schoolmasters and Mistresses; 10.

NATIONAL EDUCATION. 311
Educational Committee to keep accounts and minutes of pro
ceedings; 11.
Educational Committee to send yearly abstracts of accounts
and minutes to the Committee of CouncU ; 12.
If no Educational Committee elected, or no plan proposed, the
Committee of Council to establish Schools ; 13.
Committee of Council to report on Education ; 14.
Act may be amended or repealed ; 15.
Whereas it is expedient to make provision for Secular Preamble.
Education in England and Wales, and to provide for the
greater efficiency of existing Schools : Be it therefore
enacted by the Queen's most excellent Majesty, by and
with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and
Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assem
bled, and by the authority of the same, That in construing Memeta.
this Act the words and expressions following shall have the
several meanings herein assigned to them, unless such
meanings be repugnant to or inconsistent with the context ;
(that is to say),
Words importing the singular number shall include the
plural number, and words importing the plural
number shall include the singular number:
The word " person" shall include corporation, whether
sole or aggregate :
Words importing the masculine gender shaU include
the feminine :
The word " land" shall include all messuages, lands,
tenements, and hereditaments of any tenure, and
any interest therein :
The word " parish" shall include any township, tithing,
vill, or other place or district in which a rate for
the relief of the poor is levied:
The words " Inspectors of schools" shall denote Her
Majesty's Inspectors of schools appointed by the
Committee of Privy Council on Education :
The word " Overseers" shall include and denote all
persons having power to assess or levy a rate in
any " parish :"
The word "inhabitants" shall denote and include aU
persons assessed to any local rate :
The word " parent" shall include the guardian or any
other person having the lawful care and control of
any child.
II. And be it enacted, That on the next ports on the

312

COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.

Provisionsfor Educa
tiou iu every
Parish to be
made to the.
Committeeof Privy
Council ou
Education.

On defi
ciency of
means for
Education
reported in
any parish,
the rated In
habitants to
be directed
to elect an
Educational Committee.

Proviso, that
two or more
parishes may
be united for
the election

after the passing of this Act, and on every succeeding
the Inspectors of Schools shall make fuU and
detailed Reports to the Committee of Privy CouncU on
Education of the state of secular education in each parish
of their respective districts, and of the adequacy of the
existing provisions of each parish to afford secular edu
cation for the wants of the entire population thereof;
and that in such Eeports the said Inspectors shall take
cognisance of secular education only; and in estimating
the proportion of educational means to the wants of the
entire population, private schools which submit to inspec
tion by the Inspectors of Schools, and schools in connection
with the Established Church and any other religious body,
shall be included ; and regard shall be had to the effect of
every exclusion from instruction, whether arising from the
expense of schooling, from peculiar or special religious
teaching adopted in any school, or from auy other cause
whatsoever. III. And be it enacted. That whenever it shall appear
from any such Eeport of the Inspectors of Schools that the
existing provisions for education in any parish are insufii
cient for the wants of the entire population of such parish,
the Committee of Privy Council for Education shall, by a
Letter signed by their secretary, addressed and sent to the
overseers of such parish, direct the overseers to summon a
meeting of the inhabitants, within a time to be named in
such Letter, who shall elect not less than [ ^ve'\ nor more
than [ffteeri] of the inhabitants of such parish to form the
Educational Committee for such parish ; and thereupon the
election of such Educational Committee, and the names of
the members thereof, shall be forthwith certified to the
Committee of Council on Education by the said overseers ;
and such Educational Committee shall remain in office for
twelve calendar months from the day of election ; and fifteen
days at least before the expiration of such twelve calendar
months the said overseers shall summon a meeting of the
inhabitants, who shall elect a like Educational Committee
for the year then next succeeding the expiration of the said
twelve calendar months, and so on from time to time for
every succeeding year; and after every such election the
said overseers shall forthwith certify the names of the
members of the Educational Committee so elected to the
Committee of Council on Education : Provided always, that
the Committee of Council on Education may, in manner
aforesaid, direct the inhabitants of any two or more adjoin-

NATIONAL EDUCATION. 313
ing parishes to unite in electing an Educational Committee, of anEduca-
and such united parishes shall, for the purposes of this Act, mMeeP"""'
be deemed one parish.
IV. And be it enacted, That the first elected Educa- The paro-
tional Committee of any parish shaU forthwith propose a P'"^'i-'5?°j^^'
plan to supply the deficiency ofthe existing provisions for mitteetopro-
secular education in such parish, for the approval of the For suppiySig
Committee of Council on Education, and on being approved deficiency of
by the said Committee of Council the same shall be carried catkm.
into execution by the Educational Committee ; and such
Educational Committee shall appoint a clerk, secretary,
treasurer, or other officer, with such reasonable compensa
tion as they may think fit, to assist in executing the plan
so approved as aforesaid: Provided always, that it shall Committee
and may be lawful for the Committee of Council on Educa- may toect
tion to direct that the Educational Committee of any parish payments to
shall pay to the master of any existing school, or of any masters ot
school to be established imder this Act in such parish, such ^^.^^ *"'
a yearly sum of money, not exceeding ten shillings, as the gratuitously
said Committee of Council may deem fit, in respect of each "^ '
pupil who may have been gratuitously taught at such
school for one year then immediately preceding, and who
shall be reported by the Inspector of Schools to have re
ceived sufficient secular education.
V. And be it enacted. That in every parish where such where pro-
deficiency as aforesaid shall be reported, one or more free Scatimi
school or schools shall be established under the provisions deficient,
of this Act, which shall be under the management of the to be estab-
Educational Committee of such parish, who shaU appoint '¦''"'*' ^*«
the schoolmaster and mistress ; and in all schools established the local
under this Act (except the infant, evening adult, and other com^tee'i'
schools hereinafter mentioned) provision shaU be made for
affording gratuitously sufficient instruction, which shall be
secular only, to all the children of each parish between the
ages oi seven and thirteen years ; and every schoolmaster and
mistress shall be allowed a net yearly salary of not less than
one Jvandred pounds for every fifty pupils who shall attend
the free school of such master or mistress for one year:
Provided always, that the same course of secular educa- ^Jn™^/'
tion shall be afforded to all the pupils attending any such schools to be
free school as aforesaid ; and all such pupils shall be free auV^s.^"
from all charges and payments whatever: Provided also, No charges
that the master and mistress of every free school shall allow schools.
to each pupil sufficient time for receiving religious instruc- "^^^^^
tion, under the direction of the parents of such pupils ; pupUs at free

314 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
schools for Provided also, that each pupil of any free school, on com-
reiigious pleting his education, shall, upon receiving from the master
instruction. ^ .^ „ iii l'C ± r ii
Pupils at free or mistress of such school a certifacate ot approval, be en-
rewarfed te titled to books of the value oi fifty shillings, to be selected
acquirement by the said master or mistress, and one of such books shall
condS? be a copy of the holy Scriptures ; and such certificate of
approval shall relate to, and certify approval of, the con
tinuous and regular attendance of such pupil at school, as
well as his acquirements and good conduct.
Mant, even- VI. And be it enacted, That it shall and may be lawful
an^Sr for the Educational Committee of any parish to propose for
schools may tjjg approval of the Committee of Council on Education a
lished. plan for establishing an infant school for the instruction of
children under the age of seven years, an evening school
for the instruction of young persons above the age of
thirteen years, and schools for the instruction of deaf and
dumb or blind persons, or any one or more of such schools
for any one or more of such purposes, and on being approved
by the Committee of Council on Education the same shall
be carried into execution by the Educational Committee.
Power to re- VII. And be it enacted. That upon the complaint of
martersand" [of the parents] of the children who may have attended
mistresses in any free school for twelve months next preceding, made
' against any master or mistress of such free school, the
Educational Committee shall inquire into and investigate
the subject-matter of such complaint ; and if upon such
inquiry and investigation just cause of complaint, either by
reason of incompetency or misconduct, shall be proved
against such master or mistress, the Educational Committee
shall forthwith remove such master or mistress, and (sub
ject to the appeal hereinafter mentioned) shall appoint some
other fit person to supply the vacancy thereby occasioned;
Appeal to the Provided always, that in case the persons complaining
CoSi?^^ " against such master or mistress, or in case such master or
mistress so complained against, shall be dissatisfied with
the decision of the Educational Committee upon such com
plaint, either party may refer the subject-matter of such
complaint to the Committee of Council on Education, whose
decision shall be final.
Power to VIII. And be it enacted, That the Educational Corn-
rate.* °'''""''" "littee of each parish shaU direct the overseers of such
parish to levy an annual school-rate for the purposes of this
Act on the ratable property of such parish ; and such
school-rate shall be made, raised, levied, and collected by
the overseers in the same manner and with the like powers

NATIONAL EDUCATION. 315
and authorities as they by law possess for making, levying,
and collecting rates for the relief of the poor; and such
rate shall be paid over by the overseers to the Educational
Committee or their appointed officer, to be applied in carry
ing into effect the plan so approved as aforesaid, and for
the other purposes of this Act : Provided always, that where 'Where
two or more parishes shall be united for the purposes of Sted!"
this Act, the Educational Committee of such united parishes Jj'j,''"^"^"^.
shall apportion the school-rate between the several parishes tioned.
in union according to their due proportions respectively,
and the overseers of each parish shaU raise, levy, and collect
such apportioned rate.
IX. And be it enacted, That every Educational Com- Educational
mittee shall have perpetual succession for the purposes of may pur-
this Act, and shall be entitled to take, purchase, and hold J^jll^i™^
land of freehold, copyhold, or leasehold tenure whereon to
erect schoolhouses, residences for schoolmasters, or for in
dustrial training, for the use of any school to be established
under this Act: Provided always, that land purchased by
any Educational Committee shaU be conveyed free fi-om all
stamp-duty whatever.
X. And be it enacted. That the Educational Committee ^*^^jj^^^
of each parish shall, with the approval of the said Com- to appoint
mittee of Council, appoint, and from time to time remove, '"^^"^''mis-
the schoolmaster and schoolmistress or school assistants of tresses.
any school established under the provisions of this Act.
XI. And be it enacted. That every Educational Com- Educational
.,,,,,, IT... J, 1, Committee
mittee shall keep accurate and distinct accounts of all sums to keep ac-
of money received and expended for the purposes of this Act, ^„te™f
and of the several matters for which such sums of money proceedings.
shall have been received or expended, and, in case of united
parishes, distinguishing therein the parishes from and in
respect of which the same were received and expended, and
shall enter in a book, to be provided for the purposes of
this Act, minutes of all orders and directions received from
the said Committee of Council, and of all acts and proceed
ings of such Educational Committee in relation to the ex
ecution of this Act ; and such book shall at all seasonable
times be open to the inspection of every inhabitant, and of
every person having a child at any school subject to such
inspection by Inspectors of Schools in such parish, without
any fee or gratuity whatsoever.
XII. And be it enacted, That every Educational Com- Educational
mittee shall, within days after the in toTend year-
every year, cause to be prepared an abstract of their receipt '>' aijstracts

316 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
of accounts and expenditure, for the purposes of this Act, for the year
aid mmutes ending on the , and of such other particulars
mittee of ' as the Committee of Council on Education may require ;
Council. y^jj^ gygij abstract, so prepared, shall be signed by the
clerk or other officer of such Educational Committee, and
shall be forthwith transmitted to the said Committee of
Council.
If no educa- XIII. And be it enacted. That in case no Educational
tional Cora- Committee as aforesaid shall be elected in any parish, in
ed, or no plan pursuance of the direction ofthe said Committee of Council,
Committee'"^ or if no such plan as aforesaid shall be proposed by such
of Council to Educational Committee, or, being proposed, shall not obtain
scSs.'' *^^ sanction and approval ofthe said Committee of Council,
it shall be lawful for the said Committee of Council to
undertake to supply the deficiency of provision for secular
education by the establishment of a free school or schools
under this Act, and to exercise the powers hereby given to
the Educational Committee of such parish.
Committee XIV. And be it enacted, That the Committee of Coun-
of Council to cil on Education shall make yearly a full report upon the
progresTof ° State and progress of education in England and Wales, and
education, shall transmit such report to one of her Majesty's principal
Secretaries of State, to be by him laid before Parliament.
Act may be XV. And be it enacted. That this Act may be amended
*""=°J«^ °'^ or repealed by any Act to be passed in this present session
of Parliament.

THE TRUE SPIRIT OF REFORM.
A Speech delivered March 10, 1851, at the London Tavern, Bishopsgate
Street, at a Monthly SoirSe ofthe National Reform Association ; Sir
Joshua Walmsley, M.P., President of the Association, in the Chair.
Mr. Chairman, Ladies, and Gentlemen, — When the
plan of these meetings was first mentioned to me, I at once
declared my concurrence with it, and my readiness to co
operate therein. It cannot but be interesting and useful to
have brought before the public, at these monthly assem
blages, the various branches of the great Eeform question,
and the different phases of that question, considered in its
generality. They will be placed before you by variety of
talent, animated by uniformity of principle and of purpose.
Not that we anticipate that much novelty, of either argu
ment or illustration, can now be adduced upon the subject
— long-standing grievances necessarily lead to monotony of
complaint — but you will have elicited the different views,
arising from the contemplation of various intellects ; and
those who are still in a state of ignorance or indifference
may be thus made better acquainted with the subject;
while those who already feel its importance, and appreciate
its victories, will encourage one another to perseverance
and energy in the great struggle that is before us.
The complaint of sameness in the speeches on these occa
sions we must confess to be, to a considerable extent, well
founded. The Times will probably say of this meeting, as
it said of our annual meeting in this place, that it was " the
usual thing." Well, sir, when people were beaten, it was
"the usual thing" to cry "Oh!" before the flood, and has
been so ever since. Continuity of wrong produces con
tinuity and identity of remonstrance; but when meetings
like this' — so numerous, so respectable, so enthusiastic —
when such meetings become "the usual thing," for success
to be long delayed will be very unusual indeed. Our oppo-

318 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
nents tell us that they uphold ancient institutions. Granted;
but then we uphold an ancient protest against the imper
fections or the abuses of those institutions, and our anti
quity is at least as honourable as theirs.
All great principles, when first brought into practice,
are imperfectly understood and partially applied. This
holds in all the departments of human exertion. It is true
in mechanism. A new power, like steam, at first is under
valued, misdirected, and its power wasted ; and it is long
before it takes its proper place as the great spring of so
much useful operation in the mechanical arts. It is the
same in the political world. Representation^ — that great,
tbat glorious principle — representation, the characteristic
of the modern world, unknown in the ancient — which
belongs to our forms of government of these later days,
which is associated with the civilisation of the modern
world — where is the wonder if, when representation was
first recognised as a principle of government, it was applied
only very partially, and its purpose, essence, and spirit
were far from being understood, even if there had been a
dispositign properly to appreciate and fully to apply them ?
Simon de Montfort little knew what he was doing, if he it
was who first called the Commons of England to assemble;
he thought probably only of a temporary expedient, looked
no further than the first patrons — the first regal patrons —
of the Commons did — which was, as to how they could get
the most money out of their loving, paying subjects. But,
sir, the principle was introduced ; it began to make its way
in people's minds ; and from that time to this there has
been a continuous struggle to correct its abuses and to
extend its influence. The history of representation is also
the history of an endeavour for reform and the extension
of representation ; because that principle — an essential por
tion of our constitution — has its full development in the
future, and not in the past. Accordingly we find, sir, that
from age to age there has been this conflict going on.
There have been the unrepresented, the partially repre
sented, and there have been defects which pressed heavily
and grievously on some one or other portion of the com
munity. Abuses— -and detected imperfections, which are as bad
— abuses are contemporaneous with the history of parlia-

THE TRUE SPIRIT OF REFORM. 319
ments : they came together as life and death came together
into the world ; their antagonism remains to this day, but
with a succession of triumphs which will bring us nearer
and still nearer to what the philosopher conceives of repre
sentation, and to what it is the advantage of the multitude
to realise in representation. Why, sir, as far back as the
reign of Edward III. it was demanded, and the demand
was conceded, that parliaments should be annual, or oftener,
if need be. In the time of Henry VII. we find that abuses
had crept into the exercise of the elective franchise, and
that elections were disturbed by tumultuous crowds, and
restriction was founded on this abuse, — it would have been
better to make an extension of the qualification than to
exclude parties, — but a restriction was founded upon these
abuses, which was the origin of that valuable franchise, the
forty-shilling county freeholds. Well, sir, soon after this,
in the reign of the tyrannical Henry VIII., when Wales
became formally incorporated with this country, repre
sentation was conferred, as a matter of course, upon some
sort of instinctive understanding that taxation and repre
sentation must go together. When parliaments were inter
mitted by the first Charles, the Triennial Act of that day
was passed, forbidding the monarch to be more than three
years without calling parliaments. Cromwell had his bill
for the amendment of the representation, and in that it is
a remarkable circumstance that members were assigned to
Manchester nearly two centuries before a parliament of a
later date conceded that privilege, even to so important a
town. Well, sir, at the time of William III., it is on
record that, in one instance at least, the ballot was in use,
in the borough of Lymington in Hampshire, and that it
was found there most serviceable in keeping people from
being corrupted or intimidated. Then, sir, at the beginning
of the last century, the Protestant Whigs of that day pro
longed the parliament from three years to seven. This
gave rise to a succession of conflicts ; whicli shows that the
cause of parliamentary reform, whether provoked by new
aggressions or old abuses, has been continuous in this
country. From the time of the first Stuart rebellion, in
171.5, till the time of the French Revolution, there was an
almost continuous parliamentary conflict against the Sept
ennial Act. Its repeal was moved in 1742, and was defeated

320 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J, FOX.
by 204 to 184. Moved again in 1744 — when the motion
was not for a return to triennial parliaments, but for
annual parliaments — and negatived by 145 to 113. Again
in 1747, again in 1759, again in 1771, again in 1773, there
were debates and divisions on this question : and then came
the French Revolution, which swamped topics of this kind
for a long course of years, which alarmed all the prelatical
and aristocratical world, — alarmed them for the cause ofthe
altar and the throne; that is to say, the tithes and the
taxes. There was, sir, against this Septennial Act, a
protest, which is one ofthe bright spots in the history ofthe
House of Lords, and which contains sentiments which
ought never to be forgotten, nor be remembered without
honour to those by whom they were inscribed on the
journals of that House. Twenty-four peers protested against
the third reading of the Septennial Bill, because frequent
parliaments were of the fundamental constitution of this
kingdom ; because the House of Commons ought to be
chosen by the people, and when continued for a longer
time than they were chosen for, they were then chosen by
the parliament, and not by the people. They conceived
that the bill, so far from preventing corruption, was rather
increasing it; for the longer parliament was to last, the
more valuable to corrupters would be the purchase; and
that all the reasons which had been given for long parlia
ments would be good for making them perpetual, which
would be an absolute subversion of the third estate. Such,
sir, was the protest of these peers ; amply justified at once,
for the price of boroughs immediately rose fifty per cent
in the market, and it went on increasing until it was
checked by the Reform Bill, when a different mode of sale
of votes and of conscience was introduced.
Well, sir, succeeding, then, to these principles and to
this contest, can we for an instant allow that they are
settled by the Reform Bill ? — that it is to be taken as any
thing like a final adjudication of this great question ? We
demur to this, because the Reform Bill is not what at the
outset it professed to be. As that Bill first came before the
House of Commons, whenever a constituency fell below
three hundred voters, the neighbouring parishes and dis
tricts were to be called on to wipe away so foul a blot upon
the very notion of representation as constituencies of three

THE TRUE SPIRIT OF REFORM. 321
hundred householders. By the Reform Bill, as it first
stood, the length of the duration of parliaments, and the
question of security — that is, safe and unbiassed voting —
these were left open questions. Every body understood
that they were to be adjudicated at a future time, and
under other circumstances ; and it was not presumed for a
long time that these were to be precluded from discussion
or adoption, but they were still looked upon as a material
part of that course of legislation on which we had entered.
Now, sir, ten or fifteen years before the Reform Act was
passed. Lord John Russell declared, in his place in the
House of Commons, that there were a million of persons
in this country fitted to exercise the franchise, and not
possessed of it. Did the bill enfranchise that million?
Why, we have scarcely more than a million of voters now,
with all the increase of knowledge which has taken place
since that time, with the schools that have been multiplied,
with the institutes, colleges, and various provisions for the
growth of the people in attainments, and in fitness for the
exercise of the franchise. There must now, then, according
to that classification, be an accumulation of persons well
qualified, but still excluded ; which more accords with Mr.
flume's calculation than with the present views of ray Lord
John Russell. Now, sir, the notion of the Reform Bill
being a final settlement seems something like given up in
those quarters from which resistance has been so long expe
rienced. We are to have, it seems, " when the proper
time shall come," — and I think something has happened
since that answer was given to hasten the period, — we are,
I say, to have some new persons, or new class, admitted
within the boundaries of the constitution ; but still there
are evident indications that it will be on the principle,
and in the spirit, of the existing Reform Act, and not on
that broad principle and more generous spirit which
characterise the plans of reform supported by this Asso
ciation. Now, sir, the Reform Bill has sometimes been called a
" compact." The Conservatives are in the habit of saying,
"You gave the Reform Bill, we accepted it, and there is
an end of the matter." But they did not accept it without
damaging it by their Chandos clause, which admits a
dependent class in large numbers, whilst it keeps out inde-
VOL. IV. Y

322 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
pendent persons in yet larger numbers. But even if the
Whigs can rightly say they did give it, and if the Tories
can affirm, " We accepted it," still, I say, what is that to
us, the people of England ? Who gave them authority to
barter between them our rights and liberties ? The free
dom of Englishmen is not a thing to be given by Whigs, or
to be withheld or accepted by Tories. Nor was the Reform
Bill a compact between the Whigs and the people. They
were, indeed, supported bythe people; and where would
they have been had that not been the case? But did they
give the people the Reform Bill, after all ? Where were
they when King William IV. flung Lord Grey, by refusing
to create peers ? Why, there was an end of the Whig
power ; there was an end of their promise to the people,
that if they would only keep quiet. Government would do
it all for them. They tried their strength, and they failed ;
and it was the great popular demonstration, from John o'
Groat's to the Land's End — it was the magnificent atti
tude, so calm and so resolute, assumed by the people of
England on that occasion — that made even the heart of
"the Iron Duke" to quail within him, that told him he
might have been the victor in a hundred battles, but that
he was not destined to be a victor over the will of the
people of England. The Whigs gave us the Reform Bill ?
It was we that gave the Whigs the Reform Bill. And how
did we do that ? By a greater extent of heart-felt union
among the different classes of people in this country — of
the different ranks of society, of the different sets of poli
ticians — than had ever before been evinced. We did it by
the union of those who were content with septennial par
liaments, and with the franchise then provided — those who
wished for triennial and those who wished for annual
parliaments — aU classes of politicians combined in carrying
the Reform Bill. And, sir, they did it, I think, with a
clear understanding. The great mass of the workiug people
of this country saw that the bill would not enfranchise
them, that the suffrage it gave would stop with the middle
classes, and that they themselves would still be excluded ;
yet, with a generosity and nobleness of spirit which did
them honour, they waived their own rights, and they helped
the middle classes to gain their freedom ; and shame on
the middle classes of this country if that union is ever for-

THE TRUE SPIRIT OF REFORM. 323
gotten ! I say, sir, that was a pledge — an implied pledge,
and a sacred one — on the part of the middle classes of this
country, that whenever the opportunity should serve, the
power being in their hands, they would again unite with
the working classes throughout the kingdom, and would
cooperate with them in an attempt to gain that for the
excluded party which had already been gained for those
who were included in this extension of the suffrage.
Now, I take Mr. Hume's motion to be an attempt to
fulfil this pledge. I will not say — I never have said on any
occasion whatever — that that motion perfectly comes up to
what the inherent right of the people requires ; but I do
say that it combines a larger number of supporters than
any other plan can or will combine. I say that the differ
ence between it and the more consistent theory is practically
so small, that while the chance of getting the one is greater
than getting the other, I think we should go for this ; for
although it may leave half a million unenfranchised who
ought to possess the franchise, yet it will add to the con
stituency something like three millions of voters ; and what
power will stand against their influence then ? I rejoice to
see the way in which this measure is taken. I know not
whether the meeting generally has seen the resolutions
passed by that great body of Chartists in the north who
hold their public meetings in Manchester. They are an
admirable set of resolutions. I will not occupy your time
by reading all of them; but there are two or three which I
wish to bring before the notice of the meeting, because
they realise the subject I undertook to discuss in this
address, — they exhibit practically the True Spirit of Reform.
The third of these resolutions runs thus : " That many
years of bitter experience have taught us the necessity of
the friendly union and cooperation of all sections of political
reformers ; that such a union would be so powerful in its
features that nothing could withstand it ; that the present
political crisis is a great opportunity for a union being
brought about, and to accomplish its ends. We therefore
resolve to assist and give the right hand of fellowship to
all men who are essaying to gain any measure of reform
that shall elevate the down-trodden masses of our country
men." The next resolution goes on to say: "That we
receive with satisfaction the address recently put forth by

324 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
the National Parliamentary and Financial Reform Associ
ation, signed by Sir Joshua Walmsley, and we hereby
tender them our heartfelt thanks and support; believing
that in so doing we seek to further the principles of our
Charter, and shorten the way to the enfranchisement of
the industrious millions." Let these resolutions be met,
sir, by a corresponding spirit. From one end of this coun
try to the other, let us have an end of this line of demar
cation between those who may go different lengths, but
who have a common object — the rendering of this a self-
governed nation — and I think that such a union will
yield a far greater measure of reform, and that speedily,
than my Lord John Russell is, as I understand, contem
plating. I cannot, however, omit all notice of the theory which
that noble lord still holds, aud which was with some for
mality propounded on a late occasion. It may be well to
see exactly wherein we differ. He allows that it is desirable
to place the representation on a wider basis, and give an
interest to a greater number of the subjects of the Queen
in maintaining our institutions. Why not in "improving"
our institutions, as well as " maintaining" them ? But,
he says, "I cannot conceive that a House of Commons,
merely representing numbers, would act in harmony with
the monarchy, a hereditary House of Lords, and an Es
tablished Church." Then why cannot my Lord John
Russell conceive that? Does he think that these institu
tions are not good enough to commend themselves to
people of common sense? Does he mean to make this
very imperfection a reason for withholding their rights
from those who, as he apprehends, may entertain a differ
ent opinion upon this subject? Why, sir, where is the old
Whig toast and doctrine of " The Sovereignty of the Peo
ple" ? What is an Established Church, what the House
of Lords, what Royalty itself, according to the old Whig
doctrine, but emanations from " the sovereignty of the peo
ple," existing for and by the people alone ? Sir, I say the
people have a right, if they please, to deal with all these.
Assuredly they have the right to deal with an Established
Church, which is only a creature of the State; whose Prayer-
book is the long schedule of an Act of Parliament, passed
in the reign of Charles II. ; which repeatedly boasts of its

THE TRUE SPIRIT OF REFORM. 325
connection with the State, and thereby avows its own sub
jugated condition. Assuredly it is in the power of the
people to decide whether wisdom be or be not hereditary,
and whether so large a portion of it does descend from
father to son as to make that mode of legislation desirable.
Not that there is any particular outcry about the House of
Lords at this time ; nor much, indeed, about the Estab
lished Church: the outcry is rather by the Established
Church against the aggression ofa non-established Church.
But still we declare the people have a right to deal with
these matters. As to Royalty itself, — and there, sir. Lord
John Russell had little occasion to make this remark at
such a time, for when has there been less discontent in the
country as to the character or conduct of the sovereign ?
Never. I am old enough to remember three sovereigns
before this, and all the popularity that each of them had
put together, and multiplied twentyfold, would not amount
to the popularity enjoyed by Queen Victoria. If there be
any imputation implied here, and it looks somewhat like
it, I say that imputation is a calumny upon the people of
this country; but I say that if royalty should, in the course
of years, show itself inconsistent with the well-being of the
country, — if it should forfeit its claims to immunity, by
invading the liberties of the subject, — if it should cease to
fulfil the benefit, whatever that may be, for which its exist
ence is cheerfully recognised by the people, — then the
people have a right to deal with that as with other institu
tions. We do not hold the monstrous faith of millions
made for one ; we are not the born property of hereditary
possessors ; we have monarchy as an institution with which
we are content, but which, should we not prove content
with it, we have a right to abolish.
Lord John Russell thinks it should be the object of
every man who approaches the subject not to create a
House of Commons which should be a separate and inde
pendent power, jarring with all our institutions. Well,
then, he would have it a dependent power, not jarring with
our other institutions, — Lords, or Established Church, or
whatever they may be. This is not desiring the enfran
chisement of the people ; this is a plan for giving them
votes, provided there is full security they will use those
votes just in the particular way, and no other, in which it

326 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
is desired by the parliamentary donors. Sir, the very
object of a man's possessing a substantive existence in the
State, of being enfranchised, is this, — that he may exercise
an independent judgment, and that his representatives may
be as independent as he is when truth and justice require
it, and not carefully to keep himself in conformity to our
" other institutions." I shall be glad, however, to find the
noble lord doing any thing. I am not for rejecting the
smallest measure of reform, and I am very glad he has
found out his blunder about finality. He came to that
opinion much too soon. In fact, the Whigs in this reform
labour have reversed the plan which in a late report of
a factory inspector it was stated that some mill-owner in
the north adopted with his workpeople. He had them
rung in in the morning by the engineer, and rung out at
night by the fireman. The engineer had a watch which
was a quarter of an hour too fast, and the fireman had
a watch which was a quarter of an hour too slow; so
that the labour of the people was prolonged at both
ends. But Lord John Russell and the Whigs begin their
reform work by the slow watch, and end it by the quick
watch. Sir, in directing attention to the true spirit of reform,
I assume that a great and noble cause like ours should be
upheld by its supporters in a spirit that corresponds with
its dignity and its nobleness. I want to see no vile party
tactics, no unmeaning clamour, no tricks such as are re
sorted to to carry some measure of the day. Ours is not a
measure of that description. We have a past. Mr. D'IsraeU
has sometimes boasted for his party that, although crippled
now, they have been a great party; that they have done
things recorded in history; that they have their traditions.
Sir, we have our traditions. Faintly and hastily I have
sketched the progress of reform from the very beginning of
representative government, and its coordinate progress with
that of representation. We have our past in the history of
our country ; those by whom reforms were conceived, and
by whom they were won, and by whom a portion of them
were established. We have our alliances with great names
in the history of our country ; men who in philosophical
retirement, like Sir Thomas More, have conceived in their
Utopias of a more prosperous state of society; — they have

THE TRUE SPIRIT OF REFORM. 327
early been of our principles — the Miltons, and the Lockes,
and others, shedding a brighter lustre upon our country
than all the deeds of its warriors, or even its statesmen ; —
they pleaded with their gigantic powers in this same cause
of reform. Ours were the warriors of the Commonwealth,
and ours were the martyrs of the Restoration. From that
time to this there has been a succession of men, belonging
in later periods to the humbler classes, but showing an
intelligence and integrity worthy of any period; a cause
containing such names as that of Thomas Hardy aud the
men of 1794; they perilled prospects, liberty, and life in
this cause : and these in long succession have handed it
down to us. We have to support it worthily. Here is
something greater than physical, hereditary descent ; here
is generation after generation : heirs each of the spirit of
those who went before, following them in struggles the
most arduous, enduring privations after their high example,
endeavouring to apply their success, and to realise what to
them were only the blissful visions of futurity in their ima
ginations. Sir, we have our past and our future too. They are
connected. We have been called " destructives." It is a
thorough misunderstanding, if it be not a wilful untruth.
All that we desire has its foundation, or its root, in the
past. There is not a thing, even technically, for which we
have not precedent. Men in this country have had annual
parliaments, they have voted by ballot, they have had, by
implication, the suffrage. Lord John Russell himself, in
one of his early reform speeches, stated that every house
holder in a borough had formerly a right to vote for mem
bers of parliament. We only ask that of which the indica
tions are evident in the past; we ask them freely developed
and applied to the intelligence and the condition of the
present generation. We allow no slavery now; and we
demand, then, for all, if slavery has ceased, the rights
which were claimed for freemen as far back even as the
tyrant John. If the Charter, as we have often been told,
did not benefit the serf, why, when serfdom ceased, the
benefit ought to have been coextensive with human exist
ence. The term " slave class" has often been objected to
by certain parties, but what else is a man who, in a govern
ment carried on by representation, has no share in the

328 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
election of a representative ? Sir, our future — it may be
through a long perspective, but it is grand and glorious —
it is that of growing intelligence with extended right ; it is
that of the fusion of classes, the swamping of class interest
in the great common interest ; it is that of men " who
know their rights, and, knowing, dare maintain ;" it is that
of a self-governed nation, clearly apprehensive of its own
greatest and best interests, and in whose hands, therefore,
those interests are safe against either internal oppression or
foreign invasion. And in our way to that consummation
are many good things to be enjoyed : the lightening of the
burdens of taxation; a more equitable adjustment of them;
the pressure removed from the springs of industry; a feeling
of fraternity, taking the place of the rivalry of mutually
anathematising Churches ; and eventually talent — talent
and character — filling their proper places in the world, and
as adapted for political organisation and arrangement being
in the seats of power, however lowly the situation in which
their possessor may have been born.
Why, sir, how far we are off this ! The other day, the
leader of a free-trade ministry being virtually out of office,
to whom does he betake himself? Why, he advises her
Majesty to send for ray Lord Stanley; he knowing and
declaring that Lord Stanley's ministry would be a great
wrong to this country, an injustice too bad to be borne,
and that it would be rectified, not by parliament, where
the people have no sufficient voice, but that it would pro
duce confusion throughout the country, and plunge society
into the most horrible calamities; yet, seeing all this, he
advises her Majesty to send for Lord Stanley ! Why ? Be
cause he himself is the leader of one party of the aristo
cracy, aud Lord Stanley is the leader of the antagonistic
party. Lord Stanley had not beaten him ; he was not put
in a minority by Lord Stanley's party in the House of
Commons. He had been put in a minority, — true ! but it
was by the members ofthe people's party. Why, sir, I
could better understand, according to the etiquette of
such matters, that he should have advised her Majesty to
send for Mr. Locke King and Mr. Hume, than that he
should have advised Lord Stanley to be sent for. But this
is the result of letting the nation or government be placed
iu the hands of certain families. There is a little knot of

THE TRUE SPIRIT OF REFORM. 329
families called "Whigs," and another little knot of famihes
called " Tories ;" they take the government by turns, and
when one of them gets into a hobble, then the other is called
in, and has its turn in the distribution of the good things of
government and of corruption.
Sir, I say to this National Reform Association, — pursue
your object in an intelligent, decided, and high-minded
manner. Let there be a moral feeling amongst you, which
will make a man as willing to confess that he has put his
hand into other people's pockets as that he has taken a
bribe to bias him in his vote. Let such people feel that
they are as felons in the class to which they belong. Let
them know that you will not tolerate the various forms of
bribery, and those absurd and beastly indulgences to which
they were so addicted, and in which those who make them
selves the agents of corruption in the land are in the habit
of working. Why, sir, the accounts of the recent election
for the Falkirk Burghs is enough almost to make one
blush for one's nature ! We are told there that the voters
were in such a state of beastly intoxication, that they were
lying about the paths in all directions ; that you were not
safe in driving a carriage, lest you should drive over them ;
that some were with their heads in the hedge, and others
with their feet in the hedge; that they were scattered
almost in all sorts of ways, from which humanity turns
sickening and revolting. Is this to be endured? Is it to
be endured that the common plan of canvassing and co
ercing the conscience should be persevered in ? I say to
the members of this Association— and I would say it if my
voice would reach its members throughout the country — ¦
set your faces sternly against this; no matter whether
Whig or Tory, or whoever may be the candidate that resorts
to such means; they are not the parties to deal wisely,
fairly, and truthfully by you, when they have accomplished
the object of their ambition.
We need the protection of the ballot from scenes of
this kind. I am not an advocate for the ballot in itself. I
say it is a painful and degrading thought, that secrecy
should be necessary in the exercise of the proudest duty of
a citizen ; but so long as the great and influential classes
persist in corrupting the people, — so long as they persist
also in intimidating the people,— I say protection is the

330 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
right of every man who might suffer in his circumstances
as no one should be compelled to suffer. I venerate the
martyr who braves all this; but I would take away the
power of inflicting martyrdom throughout the country.
Why, what a position it is ! I remember the story of a
brewer, in the time of one of Sir Francis Burdett's
elections for Westminster. The brewer served the king ;
and it is said that he had had a hint from a high quarter
as to his vote at the election. The poor man said : " What
am I to do ? if I vote for Sir Francis Burdett, I shall brew
no more for the king ; and if I do not vote for Sir Francis
Burdett, I shall brew no more for auy body else." Well,
sir, something like that is the condition to which tens of
thousands of the tradesmen of this country are reduced
whenever an election comes round. The law should throw
over them the broad shield of its protection by secrecy ;
and I think the result would be, that, in the course of a
single generation, that dull body to learn — the aristocracy
of the country — would at length be taught the lesson, that
it had no more to do with how a tenant or a tradesman
voted, than it had with whom he married, or how he said
his prayers. Pursue reform in the spirit of independence, avoiding
all abuse and low party tactics. Remember that it is an
intellectual subject ; understand its bearings ; be ready to
give a reason for it. Have something more to say than
what the Times calls it, — that it is "the usual thing."
Let it be usual with you to show how and why you desire
it ; that you look to the influence of the people, and to the
protection of their interests. You look not merely to
economy and saving, you look to the prosperity as well
as the freedom of your country. It may be a long work
yet for some of us : perhaps, for some of us at least, it
will be a life-long work. It is worthy of it. Many have
lived for it, — some have died for it. We follow them
in this course ; and by a stern frown on every dereliction
of principle, by a spirit of union and kindness in the
various classes of society thus harmoniously combined, by
abstaining from all absurd ¦ threats of violence — it is not
violence that can ever serve the cause of reform— let us
show ourselves worthy successors ofthe great men who have
gone before in this cause, — of the multitude who before

THE TRUE SPIRIT OF REFORM. 331
have nobly striven in this cause. It is the greatest and
the best cause for which we can engage in political action;
and if you show that you deserve to be victorious, that
desert will hasten, aggrandise, and render more beneficial
the moment of victory.
[The other speakers at this meeting were the President, T. J.
Serle, Esq., Chailes Gilpin, Esq., John Thwaites, Esq., R. H. Ken
nedy, Esq., and H. J. Slack, Esq.]

THREE SPEECHES
Delivered at Meetings held to congratulate Mr. Fox on his return a
second time as M.P. for Oldham.
[At the first of these Meetings, held at Oldham on February 4, 1853,
a crimson velvet purse, containing 112 sovereigns,— the number
of the majority by which he was returned, — was presented to Mr.
Pox by the ladies of Oldham, together with a signet-ring, bearing
the inscription : " Education the birthright of all." At the second
meeting, held also at Oldham on February 7, 1853, a silver ink
stand and gold pen were presented, the former bearing the inscrip
tion : "Presented to W. J. Fox, Esq., M.P. for Oldham, by a few
of the non-electors of that borough, for his able and zealous
advocacy of their political rights, and their moral and intellectual
elevation." And at the third meeting, held at Royton on
February 12, 1853, a sUver medal was presented, bearing on one
side the inscription : " Presented to W. J. Pox, Esq., M.P., as a
token of respect, by a number of boys belonging to the borough of
Oldham ;" and on the other : " Free Trade and Religious Liberty."]

No. I.
SPEECH AT OLDHAM.
February Ath, 1853.
Mr. Chairman, Ladies, and Gentlemen, — Words are want
ing to me to express the emotions with which I receive
this handsome and substantial memorial, so gracefully and
beautifully presented by the lady deputed for that purpose.
I cannot but feel that this is, indeed, the proudest tribute
which a political man can possibly receive. I feel it to be
the noblest recognition of whatever I may have done in the
field of politics, for this reason, that when woman's heart
is touched by political movements, when woman's moral
sense accords with the exertions of man in the storms of
public life, you may be sure there is something more in it
than a mere party question, — something more than a mere

SPEECH AT OLDHAM. 333
struggle for power. There is in it that which appeals to
the commonest and purest principles of our nature ; there
is something which tends to the edification and elevation of
humanity. It is on this account I feel so strongly this
testimony from the mothers and daughters, from the wives
and sisters, of the electors and non- electors of the borough
of Oldham. I feel it more from them than from their
husbands, sons, and fathers, because I regard woman as
the conscience of politics, its moral sense, that which argues
its refinement and its exaltation ; that which marks it
morally as well as politically, and indicates to us the path
which, with our rougher means and in our rougher way, we
should endeavour to trace. Some will say, even in this
day, as it has often been said before, and may still, perhaps,
be said in some dark corners ofthe country,- — some will say
that woman has nothing to do with politics. Why, if
woman has nothing to do with politics, an honest man
ought to have nothing to do with politics. They have to
do with politics. They keep us pure, simple, just, earnest
in our exertions in politics and public life. They have to
do with it, because, whilst the portion of man may be, by the
rougher labour of the head and hands, to work out many
of the great results of life, the peculiar function of woman
is to spread grace and softness, truth, beauty, benignity,
over all. Nor is woman confined to this sort of influence ;
in fact, I wish that her direct, as well as her indirect, in
fluence were still larger than it is in the sphere of politics.
Why, we trust a woman with the sceptre of this realm ; and,
adequate to making peers in the State, and bishops in the
Church, surely she must be adequate to sending her repre
sentative to the lower House. I know the time may not be
come yet for mooting a question of this sort ; but I know,
also, that the time will come, and that the time must come,
and that woman will be something more than a mere ad
jective to man in political matters. She will become a
substantive also; and why not? If she chooses, every
woman who holds stock in the East-India Company shares
in the election ofthe directors ofthe East-India House, who
elect those who govern our vast Indian empire. Any
woman who holds East-India stock nominates those who
nominate the rulers of our mighty oriental territory. In
many of our large parochial matters — in the parish of Mary-

334 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
lebone, itself as large as a county, and with its array of
numbers and property — women who are householders vote,
and vote by a mode analogous to that of the ballot. There
is a Hst of the candidates left at their residences, and they
strike out those names of which they disapprove, and leave
in the names of those of whom they approve; and thus they
exercise their influence on the general result of parochial
management. Then in Lower Canada women vote for
representatives. All those who inherit certain freeholds,
by a traditionary custom from their forefathers, exercise the
elective franchise there, and no complaint that I know of
has.ever been made of its being abused.
However, I speak not of such a thing as of immediate
and pressing urgency in this country, but as that which I
am not ashamed or afraid to look forward to. This is a
matter we ought not to blink, as a matter of principle, as
something which will come in this country, if it is to be a
free country, and if the laws which affect all are to be
assented to by all. Women have not been wanting in the
most arduous and stirring times ; they have not been want
ing in whatever could mitigate the sufferings and stimulate
the exertions of those who were engaged in arduous
conflict. Many years ago, I was acquainted with William Hone,
who fought the battle of the freedom of the press with the
government and the aristocracy, and with courts of justice —
a man who was tried for many long hours, on three succes
sive days, on different indictments. First, by Chief-Justice
Abbot, who was then pushed aside by Lord EUenborough,
who as much as said to him, " You do not know how to
convict a radical — I do ; let me come on to the bench ;" but
Hone obtained the verdict of three juries. What was the
position of my poor friend ? When this array was before
him, his heart sank within him ; some thoughts of his wife
and ten children crossed his mind ; he thought of the future
with the present; all the perils of political martyrdom arose
in his sight, and he said, " It must not be. I shall not
stay : I will estreat my bail, and be off to America ;" and
his wife said, " You have braved them thus far ; you have
challenged those powers ; you have dared them to the con
flict ; do not leave your children the disgrace of knowing
that you shrank from it when the moment of trial came."

SPEECH AT OLDHAM. 335
Inspirited by her, he went on and succeeded ; and so will
man succeed when woman points the path of duty, and
urges him to the conflict, however arduous that conflict
may be.
When English arms were victorious in France, the fair
Maid of Arc redeemed her country ; and when the French
overran Spain, the Maid of Saragossa aggrandised even the
antique bravery of the Spanish nation. Women are cap
able of deeds like those ; and, if it be considered that their
general sphere should be confined to the discharge of house
hold duties, it is as the genii of our hearts and of our homes,
and not as drudges, that we should there regard them;
and woe be to the man who dares not carry his politics to
his own hearth and fireside, and tell his wife his feelings,
his principles, his motives, claim the sympathy of woman
in the exertions of man, and so give them consecration and
an earnest of the Divine sanction. They are the pledge of
the success of every great and good cause. I remember
when the anti-Corn-Law agitation had gone on for several
years, there came a great movement of the women in its
favour; there were gatherings in different parts of the
country, and Mr. Cobden exclaimed with delight on the
occasion, " We shall win now the women are for us." So
I say of Reform, we shall win when the women show them
selves in favour of it. So I say of the conflict which is yet
to come ; and why ? It has been so since the world began.
What great work has been accomplished without woman's
aid? Would the emancipation of the slave have been
accomplished had it not been for the impulse of strength
and encouragement from their sympathy? We may go
back to the origin of our religion. Who in the New- Testa
ment record appear as the most earnest supporters of the
great Founder of Christianity and of their leader and
Saviour? We find women following, ministering to his
wants and necessities, and sympathising in his sorrow. We
never find them among the brutal multitude, shouting
" Crucify him !" but whereverthe success ofthat pure system
of religion was to be promoted, they were the last at the
cross and' the first at the sepulchre in every place ; and
thus they gave Christianity their evidence that it is in
accordance with the best and purest sympathies of human
nature.

336 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
I would say, if our spheres are different, they yet har
monise. I would say to man and woman, in political
movements, as an elegant poetess, Mrs. Barbauld, said to
the scholars of Eton College, imagining their future destiny
in the service of the country :
" Their different powers in different spheres displayed,
Like blended harmony of light and shade.
With friendly union in one mass shall blend.
And those adorn the cause, and these defend."
But my thanks are due not only to them, but to others
whom I see congregated before me ; and I can truly say,
of all the meetings I have ever faced — and they must have
been many — this is the one which most embarrasses and
impairs my powers of utterance. I have faced meetings
like this, of majestic numbers ; I have faced meetings acute
and critical, where every word and sentence was liable to
be analysed, and, if there were a flaw in it, detected and
scoffed at. I have faced meetings uproarious and hostile,
where a hearing was scarcely to be obtained, if it were to
be obtained at all. But not in any one or all of those did I
find associations so overwhelming as present themselves to
my mind at this moment. It is not merely that a great
host of friendly beings, by the accumulation, as it were, of
their kindness, overpower the feelings, but it is the asso
ciated recollections which they awaken, that crowd on the
. mind ; it is the thought that you, electors and non-electors,
by arduous struggles, by great sacrifices on your part, by
much influence, by opposing reason to violence and justice
to calumny, — that you have, at the peril of person and of
property, in the most noble and most magnanimous manner,
placed me in a position to which my thoughts, some time
ago, never could have possibly looked. You have placed
the " Norwich Weaver-boy" in the Senate of the British
empire ; and you have done so from no influence of wealth,
of station, of connection. Why, there have been, and there
are, other honourable instances of men who, like myself,
bred amongst the labouring classes, have taken their places
in that assembly ; but there is this difference between my
case and theirs. They have made their way by successful
industry ; they have accumulated wealth ; they have acquired
station and influence by their wealth ; and on this basis

SPEECH AT OLDHAM. 337
they have erected the fabric of their ambition. I have
never done this ; I have never sought to do this. I came
amongst you with no such influences : I have them not.
There was only to recommend me the simple fervency of
my nature in the cause of the classes in which I was born
and bred, and to the elevation of which my efforts have
been uniformly directed.
There has been a paragraph lately going the round of
the papers, headed a " Liberal Constituency," stating that
the electors of Wolverhampton returned Mr. Villiers free
of expense. This may be new to some ; but there is nothing
new in it to you at Oldham ; it is a familiar thing. It is
not what you consider liberality, but justice. It is what
you have done again and again, and it gives me the right
to boast — a right which few share with me in the House of
Commons — that I have practised nothing unjust to bring
me there, or used other means than the fair exercise of
my energies ; and when I was once asked, was there any
bribery in Oldham, I answered, "Yes, there was one
instance, and only one, that came to my knowledge ; and
that was, that the noble and generous people of Oldham
bribed me to be their representative."
I said that recollections were crowding on my mind as
I stood here, and there continue to crowd on it recollections
of different kinds. And with the memory and with the
thoughts of active and living services, I cannot stand on
this platform without the memory of the services of the
dead. I cannot stand on this platform without remember
ing what passed here not very long ago, — that solemn, that
impressive scene which I have no doubt recurs to your
mind, without adverting to it more this evening. At a
distance I felt a feeling of regret when the news of that
occurrence reached me ; for, as regards Mr. HoUiday, I
was with him in a peculiar position. When I first appeared
here in 1846, he and I stood on the same platform in your
town hall. We stood there as opponents. He was then
the candidate for your suffrage. I found him a frank,
truthful, generous opponent. I had to complain to him of
no misstatement, of no calumny, of nothing ungenerous, of
nothing that could excite any other feeling than that of
respect. As the course of events proceeded, he withdrew
his pretensions; and as I had found him a frank and truth-
VOL. IV. Z

338 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
ful and generous opponent, I then found him a frank,
truthful, and generous supporter. He acted cordially in
the struggle of that first election in 1847 ; he became sub
sequently my proposer on the hustings at the nomination
day; and, in the recent struggle, you all know how keen
was his interest, how valuable his exertions. And in that
last impressive scene, he closed his life, though most unex
pectedly, yet most worthily and honourably, in enforcing,
especially on young men, a regard for principle above all
things ; the temperate, the reasonable, and persevering pur
suit of the true and the good. And may the lessons that he
taught that day, with his dying breath, be impressed on
their minds clearly, that the future may give value to their
characters, and brightness to their eternal hope ! May each
learn from his memory, whatever his politics or opinions,
whatever his position, that as he was successful in his in
dustry, sincere in his piety, patriotic in his politics, the
moral of his life and death is one which, though trite and
familiar in its terms, should yet be inscribed on every mind
and heart, that
" An honest man's the noblest work of God."
And now I feel that physical infirmity will scarcely permit
me to thank you as largely and fervently as I would. But
let me glance at the general condition of the country. I
am happy we meet in times of prosperity, in times made so
by the exertions eminently of one who is with us on this
platform, and in a large degree by many of you present.
There is an end to all controversy now about free trade,
because those who doubted, doubt no longer; those who
denied it, deny it no longer. In fact, they charge their
opponents with not going on fast enough ; and, as the late
Chancellor of the Exchequer said in his budget speech:
"They say protection is dead. Not so; it is alive on the
bench opposite; — they have taken up our prejudices, when
we have laid them down." Well, I am glad to find they
have laid them down, whoever may take them up. But
the influence on the prices of food, on the imports of various
articles into the kingdom — on trade, on exports, on the
shipping interest, and all interests, — the results are con
spicuous ; there can be but one voice and one feeling now
on the matter.

SPEECH AT OLDHAM.

339

Nor is this the only cause of congratulation. The
government of the country i# now in hands which, what
ever suspicion there may be about some questions, I think
may be regarded as safe hands for free trade, — at least, as
much safer hands for free trade than those from which they
have taken the reins of government. We have, I think,
seen the end of the last Tory ministry that this country will
ever know. They have added to a curious fact with regard
to many Tory ministries that preceded them. You find that
every Tory government coming into power sees itself behind
the public opinion on some point or other — so much so, that
it must make concessions. The history of Tory adminis
trations is like a record of milestones which shows how the
world goes on, and those who endeavour to stand still only
serve to record its progress. From 1790, for a period of
forty years, Toryism was rampant in this country ; and what
tricks it played ! There are in Oldham and the neighbour
hood some old reformers, like myself, who remember the time
when the Habeas Corpus Act was permanently suspended,
— when men were dragged from their homes and from their
beds, and conveyed to prison — nobody knew for what, they
themselves least of all — and some even kept there for several
years, without any distinct charge being made against them,
— when the press was taxed and fettered, — when public
meetings were impeded in every possible way, — when
oppression went greater lengths than this, and events
which I need not relate now, of a sanguinary character,
took place, and magistrates were thanked for massacres.
This lasted forty years; and then again, in 1827, there was
a Tory ministry with George Canning at its head. They
did some good service by unloosing this country from the
car of the Holy Alliance. They disclaimed that impious
bond of kings against people. They said the country
should have nothing to do with any such combination or
conspiracy, and they recognised the independence of the
republics of the New World, in order to correct the balanc^e
of the Old. In 1829 there was again a Tory ministry ; and
what did they do ? They liberated the Dissenters from the
disgrace of the Test and Corporation Act, and they eman
cipated the Irish Catholics : not from any good will,
avowedly not from conviction ; but the public opinion of the
country was not to be trifled with on this matter. In 1835

340 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
we again had a Tory administration in power, the Peel and
Welhngton administration. What did they do? They
accepted the Reform Act— that Act which they declared
would peril the House of Lords, the king's throne, the
institutions, and every thing that was sacred and venerable
in the country. In 1841 there was another Tory adminis
tration—then began fiscal reform, the tariff was amended,
and in 1846 a Tory administration repealed the Corn Laws.
In 1852 came the last Tory administration, which has pro
nounced the funeral oration of protection, consigned it to
the grave of all the Capulets, which has left this country a
legacy which must be administered to in a corrected income
tax, in amending the probate duties, and interfering in
various ways with the system of class legislation which has
hitherto prevailed.
I do not thank Toryism for those things ; but they show
that its tyranny has been gradually declining every time
that it has come into the possession of power, — something
swept away from it every time, — until modern Toryism is the
merest strip — like the reducing strip of land seen when the
tide is rushing in on the edge of the seashore. Why, some
time ago it seemed as if the slime, and the seaweed, and the
grotesque rocks of the shore, and all the deformity of the
beach, were triumphing over the retreating tide. One
wave rushing in cuts down a portion ; another comes, and
overwhelms another part ; another takes yet more, — until
they come on, and we have arrived at the very last edge of
Toryism, and the majestic tide of public opinion rolls tri
umphant in beauty and grandeur over the whole extent of
the kingdom. On other occasions I have been asked many questions
in this place. The last time I was here, oh ! how I was
questioned for about an hour. I have no catechism to say
now. I have given but one vote since I had the honour of
being your representative, and that one vote I gave with a
sound and safe conscience. It was the vote that helped to
unseat the Derby ministry; and I say with the greatest
pleasure here, that in this case my vote was not neutralised,
I did not vote alone. Oldham was not on that occasion
mystified and stultified by votes on both sides. You told
for two. In that majority of 19 (no very large majority)
Oldham told for two, and I think it was a fair and honour-

SPEECH AT OLDHAM. 341
able proportion for you to have in that division. There
fore I say, that was a vote which I glory in, because I
think that the men then in power, by their unprincipled
mode of acting on the public mind, — by the nefarious at
tempts which they made in elections by bribery and vio
lence all over the country — by open violence in some places,
and by filthy W. B.-ism in others ; by eating their own
words wholesale ; by being all things to all men — promising
any thing and every thing — shifting the grounds even oi
the very question on which we were to come to a vote — shift
ing the grounds every speech that was made, in order that
they might bewilder and catch some one or other stray
vote; — I say that such men deserved to be turned out.
This country is not to be governed by trickery, artifice,
and falsehood. We demand fair, straightforward, honest
dealing in those with whom we deal in respect to our
allegiance. I say, the budget alone was offence enough. I par
ticularly allude to its most prominent features, — doubling
the land-tax and extending the area of the tax, and
extending the area of the income-tax. I say this was a
policy most unfair to the very same classes, people with
incomes from 50/. to 150Z. per annum. They are the
people who bear the great mass of indirect taxation,
and from whom the largest proportion is taken for the
mere necessaries of life ; and yet it was on this class that the
great burden was to fall. What could be more unequal
than this house-tax? Even as it at present exists, how
unjust towards the shopkeeper ! Where, in England, do
you think the highest-rated house in the kingdom was lately
to be found? Not iu the palaces of princes, not in the
large and stately castles surrounded by the demesnes of
noblemen. Unfortunately, the most highly taxed house in
the kingdom was an hotel in Brighton. The shopkeeper
has three or four times as much to pay as the first noble
of the country; and, at this very moment, this unequal
rating makes the tax bear, as in its nature it must, seri
ously on the trading and operative classes. There is a
special reason for this. A person of independent property
chooses his abode ; he pitches his tent where he likes. He
can take advantage of the salubrity of one country, or the
beauty of another, or the conveniences and cheapness of a

342 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX,
third. The shopkeeper must have his premises where his
customers "most do congregate." The labouring man
must live where he is within reach of the place of his em
ployment. They are both tied and attached to the spot.
They cannot move from it. Taxation takes an ungenerous
advantage of it, like some filthy mongrel of a dog which
worries a poor cow that is tethered within a narrow circle
of grass, and that cannot escape his vexatious interference.
Why, sir, that was the course pursued by the Chancellor of
the Exchequer on this resolution. He looked in many direc
tions for collecting opinions. He did something for the ship
owner ; he did something for the West-India interest. He
intended to make the growers of barley a present of two
and a half millions per annum — for the greatest portion of
it would have gone into their pockets, and not remained in
those ofthe consumer. He did something for the farmers —
remitting, I think, 160,000Z. out of schedule B. He did
something for the clergymen — he purposed to put them
on a different footing from other holders of a freehold
life interest. He made a circumnavigation of liberality;
he seemed to be sailing round the world, touching at every
social port and distributing his bounties, until he came to
the land of narrow incomes and industrial labour; and there,
instead of giving a bonus, he levied a contribution. I say, if it
was only for this, they deserved their dismission from power.
As to the men who succeed them, they are upon their
trial, and a fair trial they are assuredly entitled to. I trust
that free trade is safe in their hands. I do not say quite
as much of the question of reform. We shall see what they
do mean to produce ; but, without insisting on all the points
that we deem even of great importance, there are three
essentials in any reform scheme which are indispensable to
make it worth any thing to those who understand the ques
tion. These three essentials are, — a large extension of the
franchise ; the ballot, or other security, if it can be devised,
for safe voting, of which I have no knowledge ; and a re
distribution of electoral power. These, I say, are all
essentials. There are masses that are well entitled to the suffrage,
and that must have it, and it is inevitable they should have
it ; but what is voting unless it be free voting ? How can
it be free voting unless they have some protection from the

SPEECH AT OLDHAM. 343
supervision of those who either use the bludgeon to stop us in
our way to the poll, or who say that we shall feel the screw
upon our pockets if we dare to vote in opposition to them ?
Why, they said the ballot would sanction lying. I am very
glad to find that the people who say this are so particular
about lying. It is, no doubt, a lie when a man tells his
master or landlord that he voted one way, and actually
voted another ; but I can tell you a worse lie than that :
it is a still worse lie when a man goes to the poll and says,
"I vote for A. B." — ^knowing in his heart that A. B. is not
the properest person to send into the house of legislature.
Why, that is a lie, not to his master or his landlord, — it is
a lie to his God, his country, and his own conscience ; and
the operation of this is to spread lying throughout his life.
A man is ashamed to say he voted against his opinions;
he falsifies his opinions in order to accommodate these to the
vote which he was compelled to give ; and thus you confer
a sort of omnipresence on falsehood ; you strike at the very
heart and life of truth in the man's own soul and conscience.
Then, I say, we must have a redistribution of power. One
hundred and fifty thousand electors, out of about a million
who are now in the nominal possession of the franchise,
return a majority in the present House of Commons. Is
this fair?
And what does an extension ofthe franchise mean, if
there be no distribution of representatives in proportion to
the population, or, if you like, the population and the pro
perty, of the electoral districts ? What does it mean ? It
is simply lowering the value ofthe franchise. You have
now in Oldham about 2000 voters. Well, Mr. Hume's
motion, if carried, would give you 16,000 and some odd
hundrede. What, then, is your position ? Each voter has
now the nomination of the two-thousandth part of a mem
ber of parliament ; you would then have only the sixteen-
thousandth part. You would have so much taken from
you, if this is to be all, — if there is to be no proportion
between the number of electors, or, it may be, the amount of
property, of a district, and the number of the representa
tives. Why, is it not monstrous that the metropolitan
boroughs, if you add Manchester to them, return just
eighteen members, and yet contain a majority of the
present constituency of the country ? Is it not monstrous.

344 COLLECTED WORKS OF W^. J. FOX.
that if you sort the counties according to their character,
if you take each county with its population, with its pro
perty, and with the number of members it sends both for
the county and for boroughs within the county, — if you
apply this test to all the counties in the country, and then
arrange them as they are agricultural counties, like Dorset,
and Hampshire, and Essex, and so on ; or as they are manu
facturing counties, like Lancashire and Yorkshire, and so
on, — that the agricultural counties have nearly one hundred
more members than by population and property they are
entitled to send, while the manufacturing counties have
nearly one hundred fewer members than by population and
property they are entitled to send. Now, that is the reform
I want to see. Distribute political power. There is nothing
gained by giving a man who has now 10,000 electors, 15,000
constituents ; his is but one vote, — he is altogether in the
same position. I want to see that we proportion political
power to population and property, and make them tell upon
the legislation.
Another point on which I would not trust the present
government is that of education. Lord John Russell and
Lord Aberdeen say they are projecting an educational
measure on the basis of religion. Now, Heaven forbid
that I should, on this occasion or any other, say one word
against religion as an element of education, because I
should be belying my own views and conscience. I say
there can be no education, in the proper, ample, highest
sense of the word, without religion. I say that most dis
tinctly. At the same time, I object to a government scheme
of education which is what they call founded on religion, —
because such a scheme means teaching catechism, not
science ; because such a scheme means throwing the juve
nile population ofthe country into the hands ofthe parsons,
and not ofthe philosophers; because it tends to sectarianise
the population. There are certain things which I should
have thought no one would doubt— and your chairman put
this point to you — were important for all. Now I say, it
would be desirable if there were places — call them schools, or
institutes, or whatever you will — all over the country, where
the young might freely learn to read, to write, and to cast
accounts; where they might be taught something of the
history, geography, and institutions of their country; where

SPEECH AT OLDHAM. 345
they might get some insight into the elements of some art or
science connected with industrial occupations ; where they
might have inculcated upon them the principles of social mo
rality ; — I say it would be a good thing to have such schools,
or institutes, call them what you will, accessible in the morn
ing of the day, or accessible in the evening of the day, and
freely accessible to all, and maintained out of either alocal rate
or a general tax, — at any rate, maintained so that all might
go and say, " I want this knowledge ; give it me." Well,
1 do not care whether you call this education or not, — call
it instruction if you will, as distinguished from education, —
I say a government cannot educate ; that is a task beyond
the powers or the sphere of any government. It may
instruct, and provide for instruction, but it cannot educate.
It is the mother must educate ; it is home must educate ;
it is the teacher who is in the place of a parent that must
educate ; it is the faithful pastor who heeds the admonition
to feed the Saviour's lambs that must educate ; it is that
faithful clergyman that " lures to brighter worlds, and leads
the way." Let these educate, in the higher and nobler
sense of the term, and educate all the people, of all classes,
that they may not come to the duties of civil and social
life mere barbarians, unable to manage their own concerns,
and unfit to take a part in influencing the concerns of
others : and I say, if this were done, there is another link
which ought to be connected with it. I would say, let
there be such places for teaching open to all ; and let not
merely children, but young men who are at work in the
daytime, and have their evenings,. — let them go to these
places ; and then, I say, when the inspector of the schools,
or some other constituted authority, comes round, let them
present themselves before him for examination, and say,
" I have learned what the government say these institutions
should teach : try me ; examine me." If he found the
examination satisfactory, I would give that man a certifi
cate which would confer the franchise upon him as long as
he lived, and wherever he might be.
I feel that I must say but a few more words. They shall
be devoted to what I think the first great object of public
life — the future well-being of the working classes. For
them I think prospects are opening which are full of bril
liant promise. Free trade is beginninh its good work for

346 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
them. It is only beginning yet. Emigration is be
ginning its good work for them ; but that, too, is only
beginning yet. In the last year it is calculated that a
thousand persons per day left this country for Australia
and other regions. Well, they leave no vacancy but what
we can fill up. We are better without them, and they are
better without us. They are our best customers, go where
they will. We export to them as colonists at the rate of 21.
per head per annum, whilst our highest exports in propor
tion to the population — those to America — are only 12s.
per head. And do they not carry with them our fashions,
our notions ? Do they not show us, when our turn or
that of others may come, how to go out and join them in those
new and promising regions ? Must there not be a dimin
ished competition where competition has pressed the most
hardly and the most sorely upon the state ofthe labourer?
Why, look at the change which has taken place in the
condition of the most defenceless class of workpeople in this
whole nation. There was a letter from Lord Shaftesbury
the other day in the Times ; his lordship was made rather
sore by some retorts of the Americans upon the lady phi
lanthropists of Sutherland House, whom his lordship had ex
cited to movement ; and Lord Shaftesbury thus replies to the
allegations of the American writer. The American writer
says : " London contains 33,000 needlewomen, who earn
on an average only 4^\d. a day by working fourteen hours."
Shameful enough. But listen how Lord Shaftesbury replies
to this: "An offer was made," he says, "through myself,
a short time ago, to provide lodgings and Qs. a week for
two or three hundred female hands required in the north of
England. The proposition was laid before this formerly
suffering class, but rejected, because their actual condition
was so much better in London." Well, now, what had
done this? Not any of Lord Shaftesbury's own philan
thropic interferences, — no putting down of Moses and the
slop-sellers, — free trade, mainly, I take it, has achieved
this result for the poorest, the most distressed, the most
helpless of our population. Does not that teach the lesson,
that to their own clear heads, to their own strong hands,
the working people of this country must look, — to their own
prudence, care, energy, and perseverance ?
When saying this, I must advert for a moment to a

SPEECH AT OLDHAM. 347
subject which has often in the borough, both in this place
and in other places, been pressed upon my attention. I
allude to the Ten Hours' Bill. I allude to it now that I am
returned as one of your representatives, to say that no
assertion of mine, however strong, that no declaration I
have made, in any time or place, on this subject, goes
beyond what I at present adhere to ; and I am ready to act
fully and entirely up to all that I have ever said. But,
while recognising the principle of Mr. John Fielden's Bill
not to interfere with adult male labour, and to stop exces
sive female labour, that of young persons and of children,
yet, as I am sorry to find from the reports of the inspectors
that that Bill is extensively violated, I am ready to go any
reasonable length to repress that violation, and to enforce
conformity with the law. I would say, that if a man
obstinately violates it, if he is convicted once, and again, and
again, — after that third conviction, I would take care he
should do so no more, and in that case I would agree with
the proposition popular amongst many of you, — I would say,
restrict the moving power, so that he shall have no ability
to violate the law. He would have deserved his punish
ment in that case, and let him submit to its endurance.
I repeat this, because I would not have it said by any one
that I have ever uttered opinions whilst only a candidate
that I am not fully prepared to act up to now that I have
the honour of being one of your representatives.
But it is not, I confess, to this that I look mainly for
the elevation of the working classes. It is to the calling
forth of more prudence and more thought ; it is to more of
that cooperation by which the aggregate of your small
earnings may realise something which deserves the name
of capital. It is to see the broad line narrowed that parts
the capitalist and the operative ; to see it so narrowed that
it may be passed over with facility, and that we may cease
to regard it as one of the great distinctions of the classes of
this country. Look what is done by cooperation in the
higher classes. Look at the princely clubs of London,
with all the luxuries they provide. A small subscription
from a large number of members realises even for men of
wealth far more than they could ever hope to have from
their own resources. Look at your own freehold land
societies. There is the path of progress ; mark it ; press

348 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
forward in it ; and take care that mere material prosperity be
not the only prosperity which you are ambitious of realising.
There is more than this; there is an intellectual, an
artistic, a moral prosperity, that I desiderate for the work
ing classes of this country. I would have you all famihar
with the great writers of our own language. I would have
you all know something ofthe arts and sciences whicli adorn
and refine humanity. I would have you all appreciate,
not in that vulgar mode which elevates military glory
above all other honour, — but I would have you appreciate
intellectual and moral greatness ; and by doing so, enhance
that greatness in your own minds and lives. It was said
of the Athenian population, that there was not one amongst
them — not a citizen, however poor — that did not know the
refinements of their most refined language, and have some
knowledge of their great poets and philosophers. It has
been said in reply to this remark, and as an objection to
the great body of the people in a modern nation doing the
like, that the Athenians had slaves that did all their
drudgery. Well, I hope to see the time when the working
classes of England will be employing their slaves, who are
ready made for their hands. You may have slaves too, —
slaves, not fellow-men, with bones and muscles, nerves,
brains, and hearts, like yourselves, but slaves of iron, slaves
of steel, slaves of steam, slaves that pass to and fro across
the waters, slaves of the winds and of the waves, and of
the elemental powers of nature. Make these your slaves,
and then at home in your exertions, abroad in your emigra
tion, go forth to replenish the world and subdue it, and the
subdued world will yield you its large blessings in return.
This is what I desiderate, hope for, and shall be glad more
and more confidently with each returning year to anticipate.
It has been often said, and is a somewhat trite saying, that
on the British empire the sun never sets. Oh, on that
empire may the sun of intelligence and moral truth and
good rise never to set ! May that unsetting sun behold
the large regions spreading abroad in their mighty extent
across the surface of the earth ! May it behold them uo
longer bound in the frosts of oppression, no longer devas
tated by the storms of war, nor ever again entombed in the
darkness of ignorance !

second speech at OLDHAM. 349
No. II.
SPEECH AT OLDHAM.
February 1th, 1853.
The heartfelt gratification which I should have derived
from any one of these testimonies of respect is increased by
their combination. I rejoice in receiving at the same time
these marks of approval from the non-electors, and from the
young men so honourably engaged in the mutual instruction
societies. The combination is one which asserts the two great
rights of human nature. It corresponds with the inscription
on the signet-ring which I bear on my finger, having received
it here a few nights ago, and which declares education to
be " the birthright of all." I am one of an old school of
philosophers and politicians, believers in natural rights. I
think that man, as man, has inherent and universal rights ;
and of these I take the two most important to be, the right
to the development of his faculties by raeans of education,
and the right to his share in controlling the concerns of
the community of which he is born a member. I say, there
is the right to education — the right of the child, in the first
instance, from parents or friends. The child comes into
the world helpless indeed; but those connected with his
birth have contracted obligations, sacred obligations, to
wards the human being thus produced. They have no right
to turn him, helpless, ignorant, perhaps useless and per
nicious, upon the world. They are bound to endeavour
for his development, physically, mentally, morally ; and if
parents be unwilling or unable to do this, then, I say, the
'community has a right to step in — the state has a right,
in the character and services of the various citizens of whom
it is composed — it has a right to be free from the nuisance
of having, from time to time, shoals of ignorant, uninstructed
barbarians thrust into society, to the utter confusion of all
its elements of order. Whether we look, therefore, to the
parents or to the state, I say, education is the birthright of
the human being, an inherent right ; and I say, as for the
other form of natural right to which I have adverted, that
man is not produced now, like the first man, without social
relations; we are born into society — society receives an

350 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
accession of members — it receives the prospect of future
services from the toil that tends to its enrichment, from the
efforts which may tend to its aggrandisement — and in re
turn it ought to recognise every new-come member ; and
if he cannot exercise the functions of a citizen without
previous instruction, the state, that claims his obedience
to the duties of a citizen, is bound for its own part to bring
home to him the means by which he may be instructed.
These rights of each one are the rights of all. We are
all born equal. The puling infant is as helpless, whether
it be the child of the peasant or of the sovereign. It has
similar claims upon others — similar duties are to be exer
cised towards it. I will not believe that there is not universal
and inherent right ; I wiU not believe that some classes are
born to command and others to obey, without respect to
personal merits or qualities; I will never believe that
some inherit a title to oppress, and others a liability to be
oppressed, — until I see some children born into the world
with saddles upon their backs, and others born ready booted
and spurred in order to ride them. Whenever such a phe
nomenon occurs, I shall then, so far as it goes, but no
farther, recognise the inherent right of some classes to be
the rulers and masters of other classes. But so long as I
see all humanity equal in birth, equal in its destiny to
exertion and suffering, equal, again, in the mouldering
level of the grave, — so long shall I believe in the natural
equality of men, and in the universal existence of native
and inherent rights. Those rights were asserted in the
American revolution ; spite of that foul blot of slavery,
and in condemnation of it, there stands the constitutional
declaration of the United States that " all men are born
free and equal." That truth cannot be destroyed until
you reverse the American revolution. It was again re-
announced to the world at the opening of the French re
volution — again repeated and echoed from nation to nation.
Nor is it on such pillars as these that the principle rests.
It is declared in the scriptures we revere that " All ye are
brethren ;" and those who supersede the doctrine, must
dispose of Christianity itself.
I accept with pleasure these marks of your regard, from
the manner in which they have been presented to me ; not
merely from the kind and laudatory terms employed, but

SECOND SPEECH AT OLDHAM. 351
because they are associated with feelings which mark in
the strongest manner your appreciation of my humble but
continued endeavours to benefit ray fellow-creatures. I do
not — if I may take any such slight exception to a single
sentence — I do not take them as any compensation or
alleviation for any indignity which may be thought to have
been put upon me by certain occurrences a few months
ago. I assure you that those occurrences have passed away
from my memory. I have no wish to look back on them ;
or if I have, I only look back in this point of view — that
there was a certain compliment implied in them ; for those
who endeavoured to prevent my voice being heard by the
people of Oldham testified thereby that they thought words
of truth falling from me would have their weight with you,
were they allowed to be heard. With that I dismiss them
from my thoughts.
Adverting to the manner of this testimonial, I recognise
with strong feelings the language used by those young raen
who are so worthily associated. My sympathies are with
them. I have known something of what their struggles
and efforts must be. I have known what it is to snatch
hours from necessary engagements, in order to employ
them in the culture of the mind ; and if in any way I can
aid and promote their efforts, it would be to me not only a
heartfelt satisfaction, but I should feel it a duty, recurring
to the events of my own earlier life, remembering how,
while I often toiled alone, at other times I was cheered by
sympathy and encouragement. Sir, I value this testimonial
for a certain appropriateness in it. Our triuraphant gene
rals, returning from victorious campaigns, have swords
presented to them ; this [taking up the pen) is the sword
you give me. And in the feeling in which you give it, I
accept it. He who presents the sword says, " Go and kill !"
Those who present the pen say, " Go and teach !" Yes, the
pen is my sword — not to lop offa limb, but to lop offa
prejudice ; not to cut the throat of an enemy, but to stab
to the heart a fallacy : it is the weapon of the warfare
which I would wage with all the enemies of the true and
the good; and I trust, in the strength you give me, to
wield that sword more energetically than ever. Nor is it
only in the political or the literary warfare that this weapon
is used. It has sometimes held its place in spiritual con-

352 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
flict. It has put down bigotry, persecution, and priestly
assumption ; it has humbled and put to flight those who
would have kept the world in darkness. You give me an
inkstand. That is one of the weapons that wrought the
great reformation of the fifteenth century ; and the legend
about Martin Luther, whatever of literal truth there may
be in it, is most expressive in its meaning. When Luther,
it is said, was translating the scriptures, the devil continu
ally appeared to him, and tormented him and interrupted
his work, until Luther threw his inkstand at the devil.
The mark of the ink — they say it was printer's ink — is
seen upon the wall to this day: the devil fled, and the
translation of the scriptures was completed. And by such
weapons may we put to flight all the devils that would
excite man against man — that would stimulate him to
torture his brother, to imprison him, or to deprive him of
his political and civil rights : they are of the same spirit —
all of the nature of persecution. With such weapons may
you and I put to flight and lay for ever all the demons that
haunt this country.
Sir, in the honourable efforts of those who are asso
ciated for mutual instruction, and whose efforts I consider
always conjointly with those of all who are aspiring to
their political rights, is it not a shame, a blot, a foul dis
grace upon this country, that the very means of information
and instruction should be subjected to taxation ? It is
not merely the child at school ; the young man finds his
book all the dearer, he finds more difficulty in obtaining
information, either on the events of past times in history,
or on those of the current day in the newspapers — he finds
these means of knowledge rendered more costly by the
interference of taxation. Why, what has taxation to do
with such subjects ? The paper duty, with its three-quar
ters of a million, the stamp duty, and the advertisement
duty — that paltry thing, with its 120,000Z. or thereabouts
of revenue- — what are these but totally inconsistent with all
enlightened political principles, with all justice and philan
thropy, and with all free-trade principles ? Why, how can
you talk of free trade, when a man cannot announce to
the public his wares but he must pay so much to the
government ? Is that the way in which we should encour
age the interchange of the produce of one man's toil with

SECOND SPEECH AT OLDHAM. 353
another's? And on whom does this bear the most hard?
It is a tax for the suppressing of trade — that is one odious
aspect of it ; but it is a most unfair tax on the different
classes of society.
I took the trouble one day of analysing the advertise
ments in the Times, on one of those days when they put
forth their supplement crowded with advertisements. Well,
I found that altogether there was about half a million's
worth of property advertised for auction, and that this paid, in
the whole, some four pounds or five pounds duty to govern
ment. And then I found scores and hundreds of servants
" wanting places," — liable to the severest privations, many
of them, from their being out of place, — I found these pay
ing twice, three times, four times as much taxation as those
by whom this vast amount of property was going to be
transferred from one possessor to another. I found among
the classes subjected to this heavy impost that governesses
seeking for situations, in which, on the condition of attend
ing to so many children, they were to have a few pounds
per annum, were taxed Is. Qd. for every application they
made for such employment. I found that even the poor
laundress could not apply for the family washing without
passing under this infamous taxation. I found foreigners
liable to it, — accomplished men, refugees from diff'erent
countries, able to teach all the languages of modern Europe
and of ancient time — ready to do all this for a shilling or
sixpence a lesson — yet obliged to pay this same hateful
impost. And I say, if the window-tax was bad, as blocking
out the light of heaven from people's habitations, is not
this a bad tax, which blocks up the avenues of the mind,
shuts up the windows of the soul, and does what taxation
can do to condemn us to perpetual darkness ?
Consider the effect of this upon those who aspire to
be the instructors of the community. Now, how valuable
are many of the publications whicli are attempted, at a
very low price, in order to communicate useful information
— many of them by men of high talent or genius, many of
them by men of large industry and knowledge; and yet
we find them stopped by these taxes. We find that Messrs.
Chambers, who have done so much, have once or twice
been obhged to give up their publications, some particular
series, because the taxation to the government prevented
VOL. IV, A A

354 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
even their immense circulation from yielding a profitable
return. And this is not all. Look at the temptations under
which you place your writers. A man conducting one of
these publications, if it be a twopenny one for instance,
can scarcely make it replace his expenses, to say nothing
of profit, under a circulation of 60,000 or 70,000. What
is the consequence? If he has the talent to raise his
work — if he dares to confront any popular prejudice, or if
he opposes any falsehood which has already a wide grasp of
the minds of the people — his circulation falls below that
limit ; he cannot afford to continue it at a loss ; he must
either tamper with his own conscience, or retire from the
task he has undertaken.
I say, that a wise government should do any thing in
its power to encourage those who, with ability, undertake
thus, in some measure, to guide and inform their fellow-
creatures. Instead of that, by this enhancement of the
price of their work, by this increased risk, we disable them
from their most useful sphere of operation, and we do as
much as we can to make them pander to every prejudice and
fallacy that may have an extensive hold of the population of
the country. And who is it that we tax ? Not only the
living, but the mighty dead, whose names adorn our coun
try's history more than those of all our generals and admi
rals — more even than those of all our legislators and states
men. We find a writer with such power as Milton to soar
to the heaven of heavens, and paint things of eternal worth
in strains of song that are not unworthy ofthe subject, — and
what do we do with our paper-tax? Why, we tax him,
and endeavour to interpose a barrier between him and the
public. We find a Shakespeare, with that versatility of
power, with that deep knowledge of human nature, who
can appeal to all the variety of faculties and feelings in us,
ministering at once to enjoyment and elevation of feeling
— and we tax him. We find an eloquent writer of the
Church of England like Bishop Jeremy Taylor, whose
words might penetrate millions of hearts, who might recover
to the bosom of the elder Church those who have associated
themselves with newer sects — but the government for once
forgets its adhesion to the Church, and taxes him. We
find a man amongst the Dissenters like Dr. Watts, often
called " the sweet singer of Israel," whose hymns have

SECOND SPEECH AT OLDHAM. 355
been the language of expression of thousands of souls in
their times of distress and calamity, or of devotion and
thanksgiving — and we tax him. We find such people as
Chambers and Cassell issuing works for the general in
struction of the people, and promoting self-education — and
we tax them. In fact, we endeavour by this fiscal impost
to close every avenue, and to keep knowledge, truth, good
ness, morality, and religion at the utmost possible distance ;
we warn them off the premises as intruders, and say, " This
is the House of Ignorance ; we defend it ; it is a castle
which you may not and shall not enter."
Well, when we look to provision for the younger classes
of society, what is the conduct of government, and what is
the course which the address presented to me this evening
would lead us to pursue as the most desirable ? It is said
that the new ministry mean to appoint an educational com
mission. I should like to know for what purpose. If that
commission is only to inquire whether the people universally
be as well educated as they ought, I think we know well
enough how that case stands, without their instituting any
examination of it. If that commission be to inquire whether
the system of teaching generally pursued in the schools of
this country is the best, I think that they may be answered
without any such inquiry. We know that in this country
education is torn limb from limb by conflicting churches
and sects, each of which is making theology its paramount
object, and education its subordinate object. Well, there
is the cause, and this never can be a satisfactory state of
things. We need only look abroad. In America there
are their common schools, to which the Catholic and Pro
testant, the Episcopalian and Independent, Baptist, or
other sect, all send their children, mixing harmoniously
together ; and who will tell me that one of those children
will be so likely to hate and to abuse and persecute another
of the children in after life, when he remembers how they
took sweet counsel together in their boyish days, went to
the same school, and sported on the same playground?
Nor is this the only intermixture which takes place. _ A
gentleman told me that he knew this fact— that a visitor
to one of the American schools said, "Who are those
children? Who is that boy yonder, and who is the
boy next him that is helping him on with his lesson?"

356 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
The answer was, " Why, the boy yonder is the son of the
President ofthe United States, and the boy sitting next
him, and helping him on with his lesson — a help which he
will gratefully remember — is the son of the town crier of
the village." And even in Ireland, in some degree, this
has been realised ; in all the schools under the system of
national education in Ireland, there is a separation of
general instruction from the theological instruction ; there
are times and places set apart, at which the Catholic priest,
the Protestant clergyman, the Presbyterian or other Dissent
ing minister, takes charge of the children connected with
his Church, grounds them in their religious knowledge and
duties, and all this apart from the rest ; and then the chil
dren go back again, they mix together, and their progress
is allowed to be such as to raise that system very far indeed
above any thing we have accomplished in this country.
There is a proof of this, because in Ireland the number of
criminals who can read and write is a continually diminish
ing percentage ; in this country it is the reverse.
Now, it has been sometimes said. Why should you make
one man pay for the education ofthe children of another?
This has been put as a conclusive argument against any
common mode of raising the funds for the necessary outlay.
Why ? I will tell you why. In the first place, if he is able
to pay, and is a good man, who likes to see men made some
thing more than beasts of the field or beasts of burden, he
will not grudge paying for his neighbour's children. But I
will put that out of the question. Suppose that he does not
pay for this education, is that much consolation to him
when he has to pay for their pauperism ? Had not he bet
ter send them to school at his expense, than let thera go
to the poor-house, and burden him and his neighbours
much more heavily? If he demurs to pay for their edu
cation, let him remember that he may pay for their
blunders and their thievery, — that their crimes may tax
him, — firstly, by the property they may abstract from
society; and then, by the heavy expenditure for their
punishment. I say, the original outlay is an insurance,
well and wisely laid out, for the prevention of consequences
such as these. Now, some people say, " Oh, but rehgion !
you don't think of teaching them without religion?" I
propose no such thing. I propose this,— that religion be

SECOND SPEECH AT OLDHAM. 357
taught by the persons best qualified to teach religion.
What I say is this, — that the multiplication table is true,
upon all religious systems. I say that there is the same
number of shillings in a guinea, and the same number of
ounces in a pound, on the Catholic system as there is
on the Protestant system. I say, too, that there has not
been a religion on the face of the earth which made false
hood, theft, violence, and crime, virtues. These are de
nounced by all ; and surely here is agreement enough to
go some way upon a common system. But they say " the
Church must educate," and they are willing to pay all
kinds of religion, so that religion be but taught, and made
what they call the basis of education. Well, as they
include the Roman Catholic among the systems, I would
just remark how the case stands in the city of Rome.
Whatever may be said of Rome in other respects — and
whatever veneration, with which I do not quarrel, the
Catholic may feel for the metropolis of his religion —
I believe no one can deny, that it is about one of the most
licentious cities on the face of the earth ; and yet there is
plenty of teaching of this sort, under the direction ofthe
priests. Mr. Laing, the traveller, writing in 1846, says :
"In every street in Rome, there are at short distances
public primary schools for the education of the children of
the lower and middle classes of the neighbourhood; Rome,
with a population of 158,000, has 372 primary schools,
where, according to the official statement, with 482 teachers,
there are 14,000 children attending them." And yet,
you know the results. If there is a place to be pointed
out where debauchery and theft and assassinations are
most abundant, it is in that city, so well schooled, but
schooled theologically, and not scientifically or morally.
Why, the state of that city is such, that it is said a
Jew was once converted to Christianity by going there;
and every body was very much surprised at the result.
" Converted to Christianity by going to Rome !" they said ;
" we thought it would rather give you such a disgust for
Christianity, you would never hear the name again !"
" No," he said, " I saw so much wickedness in Rome, that
I am convinced, unless it were miraculously upheld by
Christianity, the city must have sunk into an abyss of ruin."
But there is a way in which too many people use the

358 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
sacred name of religion. They connect it with ignorance,
with ambition, with usurpation, and with cruelty. Nor
does this happen to Christianity alone. An English tra
veller, staying at Algiers, saw there a remarkably handsome
scymetar ; the blade was of the finest steel, it was beauti
fully flexible, it was sharper than any razor, and it had cut
upon it certain mysterious letters in the Arabic language.
"What," said the English traveller, — " what is the meaning
of those letters, and what is the use of this scymetar?"
"Why, the letters," they said, " are a verse quoted from the
Koran of Mahomet, and mean, ' God is merciful ;' and this
scyraetar is what the executioner cuts people's heads off
with !" Oh, there are those who, in the name of religion,
would reverse the miracle which we read of in the Tempta
tion recorded in the Gospels : that temptation was, to turn
stones into bread ; and they, having the bread of life in their
hands, would turn it into stones to pelt their neighbours with.
Well, sir, if the education committee could not interfere
in this point of the matter, there is, I confess, work which
they might be advantageously set to do. They might over
haul the ancient endowments of our various grammar
schools ; they might ask, what funds exist for educational
purposes ; — and if the estimates of rumour have much cor
rectness in them, these funds are so large, that they would
almost suffice for the purposes of national education, with
out any taxation at all. I know some would say, "Oh,
but remember the will of the founders ; these are tied up
by the will of the founders ?" And are we always so very
reverential to the will of the founders ? Why, how did we
come by our churches and our cathedrals ? Did we, the
Protestants of England, found them ? They were built by
men who wanted to have masses said for their souls perpetu
ally, after they were dead : and the majority of the nation,
regarding that as an outworn creed, said, "No, we will
apply them to more reasonable purposes." I ask you to
apply the same principle to schools. These grammar
schools, many of them, were founded when a knowledge of
Latin and Greek was supposed to be the very sum and
substance of all human acquirements ; nothing was thought
of beyond that. Why, since that time, other languages,
modern languages, have arisen, of immeasurably greater
importance in the practical concerns of life ; old sciences

SECOND SPEECH AT OLDHAM. 359
have been extended, new sciences have been discovered;
the progress of invention has gone on with accelerated pace ;
and, if we have respect to the will of the founders, I should
construe it in this way,: — that the founders meant that
knowledge should be communicated, and that people should
be instructed : and if so, we be^ carry out their purposes by
including all the great area of modern tuition within the
compass of these ancient endowments.
I take this matter to be a very simple one. The duties of
rehgious guidance devolve with a very solemn responsibility
upon certain parties. Leave those duties there. The state,
composed as it is of persons of all religious denominations
and persuasions, has no business to attempt to inculcate a re
ligion ; but the state has a right to expect something like
this, — that a subject shall have some acquaintance with
the common methods of computation, — that he shall be
able to read and write, — that he shall know something
of the land we live in, — that he shall have some glimpse
into the elements of different sciences, — that he shall
have a notion of those social duties which all religions
acknowledge and inculcate, and which are essential, not
only to the well-being, but, we may say, to the exist
ence, of society. I say, let the state bring home the oppor
tunity of these acquirements to every man's door, let it
put them within the reach of those young men the greater
part of whose time is spent in needful toil, but who are
willing to give their evenings and spare hours to such occu
pations, — and then, let any one of them be free to present
himself before certain competent persons, appointed for the
purpose, and say, " Here I am ; examine me : have I at
tained the requisite degree of knowledge which is thought
necessary for all the citizens of a free country? " and if he has
so attained, I say, then a certificate of competency given to
him should make such a man a free man and a voter, to the
very end of his days, in whatever town or part of the coun
try he raay reside.
In this way, the two subjects which have been brought
before us this evening harmoniously blend. In this way,
the suffrage, by easy gradations, would become strictly and
properly universal. It would be every one's own fault if
he did not make the requisite attainments. And people
can do that even at an advanced age. I have at home, in

360 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J, FOX.
my desk, a beautiful specimen of handwriting, which was
produced by an old offender and criminal in gaol, who
learned to write under the prison tuition in his sixtieth
year ; and if an old thief of sixty can do this, what may not
young and enterprising honest men do, through their
earlier years, or even in the maturity of their lives?
Sir, on the intentions of the government on these sub
jects—the suffrage and education — we are yet very much in
the dark. In fact, as to the new ministry generally, we
may be said to be in a state of waiting and watching for
the dawn of their career. We are glad of every glimpse
that we can get ; and a few rays were afforded us on
Thursday last by a cabinet minister, a late Chancellor of
the Exchequer, and future President ofthe Board of Control,
— that is to say. Governor of India ; for he partakes of a
remarkable aptitude, which certain persons are said to have,
that they can move with facility from one post to another,
fit alike for all. We see a man distinguish himself in
regard to the colonies; and he is put to the Board of
Works; and we see a very able militia officer set to he
Secretary of the Admiralty ; and we see another, who has
been a colonial minister, and is deep in Church matters,
and he is made Chancellor of the Exchequer ; and so, in
the whole round, they seem to be fit for all things ; and if
they so regard the universality of their own knowledge, I
think they might have a little more respect for the prevalence
of knowledge among the whole people.
Now, as to what we learn from Sir C. Wood at the '
dinner recently given to him at Halifax, — in the first place,
he promises something in the way of reform ; he introduces
it in this manner : " It would be strange, indeed, if there
were no faults and no defects in the Reform Act, which the
experience of twenty years might bring out." Well, what
the experience of twenty years may have brought to Sir
Charles Wood, I will not undertake to say; but I know
this, — that the defects of the Reform Act required no
twenty years' experience to detect their existence. I know
that at the moment that Act was passing through the legis
lature, there were those, Francis Place amongst the rest,
who, in a series of articles in the Morning Chronicle,
showed that the Reform Act would, in no long time, create
as precious a nest of small manageable and corrupt boroughs

SECOND SPEECH AT OLDHAM. 361
as existed before that Act. It needs no experience of
twenty years to show that voting is not pure and free. This
was very well known at that time ; the necessity for the
ballot had been demonstrated by reasoning and experience
before the Reform Bill was introduced; the disproportion
of representation to constituencies also existed before, and
was somewhat abated by that Act, but only modified and
not extinguished, because no general principle was adopted
in that Act. However, if experience has made cabinet
ministers know that after twenty years which all the world
besides knew before, we are rejoiced they are enlightened at
last, though so late in the day. But he says, " We propose
to proceed upon the principle of the Reform Bill, as advo
cated in 1832, and so to extend the franchise as to embrace
the most intelligent of the classes below those now enfran
chised." The principle ofthe Reform Bill? What was that?
Did that connect intelligence with voting at all ? Lord J.
Russell had, many years before that Bill was introduced,
declared that there were a million of men in the country
intellectually qualified to exercise the franchise. He did
not give the franchise to that million — nor to above half that
million — by the Reform Act. Intelligence is not the prin
ciple, — bricks and mortar are the principle of the Reform
Act. Doyoulivein a lOZ. house? That is the question. Why,
that 10/. house may indicate a very different social status
in one part of the country from what it does in another,
and, at any rate, it is no gauge whatever of the brains of
the man by whom that house is inhabited. Well, then.
Sir Charles, of course, says, " We are to go on with very
great caution," — like a cat stepping on a wall. He has a
hit at the freemen, as if they were the most corrupt body
that ever existed. Well, something may be said for these
poor freemen. You will remember that they belong to a
class that existed under the old corporations, — and what
were those corporations but a continual machinery of
corruption? and on them ]*ests the guilt if this class be
debased. But I don't beheve in the justice of this indis
criminate censure. Why, when St. Albans was overhauled
last year, it was ascertained that out of the constituency
there were but two uncorrupt voters — only two in the
borough— and these belonged to the despised class of free-
raen ; among the lOZ. voters there was not a single excep-

362 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
tion to the corruption. Well, Sir Charles Wood, to enforce
his warnings, says, " There is hardly a country in Europe
which, in the last four or five years, has not attempted a
revolution." That is true enough ; but, to make it a case
in point, Sir Charles should have shown that this arose
from there being a too extended franchise in these countries ;
he should have shown that too much pohtical right had
made people revolutionary, — that in Prussia, in Italy, and
in Hungary the people had too much right and influence —
that they did not know what to do with the surplus, and so
they made a revolution with it. I think we may safely say
that, from the commencement of history, revolutions have
never been the result of too much political influence by the
people. But the grand appeal of Sir C. Wood is to the ex
ample of France ; he says, "The votes in France were taken by
universal suffrage, and voting by ballot; now, gentlemen,
just consider what the effect of this vote by ballot is !"
Well, when Sir C. Wood undertakes to read the moral of
a great event to his countrymen, he should look at all the
lessons which that event teaches. We may probably
differ in opinion from these millions of Frenchmen, — we
may very much disapprove, we may detest and despise the
present government of France, — I will not argue that mat
ter at all. But I will say, that the ballot and universal
suffrage are not the only things which have had to do with
that government, or of which Sir C. Wood might have told
us to take warning by the example of France. Sir C. Wood
might have said this : " Look at France, and consider what
the military have done in effecting this change ! See what
the result of large armaments in that country has been ! Look
at the slavery connected with a military preponderance in
society ! Take note of this, gentlemen, and beware how
you sanction large army estimates and great railitary
establishments in this country !" Or Sir C. Wood might
have said, " Look at the effect of the Estabhshed Church
in France, — see how Louis Napoleon courts the priests,
and how the priests, in return, court and support Louis
Napoleon ! See what a hierarchy, possessing great wealth
and great ambition and great influence, will do for the de
struction of freedom and for the establishment of despotism !
Take warning, gentlemen, by the example of France, and
remember the revenues of your own bishops and arch-

SECOND SPEECH AT OLDHAM. 363
bishops ! think of the great sinecurists, with their hundreds
and thousands, paying their poor curates 60/. or 70/. a
year! Look at the immense funds locked up in your
ecclesiastical institutions, — take warning, gentlemen, and
reform your Established Church 1" And Sir Charles
Wood might have said, " Look how that Louis Napoleon
is endeavouring to consolidate his power by extravagant
outlays, to gratify the taste of the French people for tin
selled finery, — look at the enormous wealth which he is
lavishing on processions and exhibitions, and on pomps and
paraphernalia, and on the gilding and ornament of his
palaces, — take warning by France, gentlemen, and when
you hear of 80,000/. expended on the passage of the corpse
ofa great warrior from the Horse Guards to St. Paul's,
take warning by France; — when you hear of the sums
continually expended to build aud keep palaces in repair, —
or when you hear of millions upon millions lavished on that
gorgeous abortion, our new House of Parliament — with
nothing convenient, but every thing glittering, with green
dragons and blue lions adorning its windows, to show that
Sir C. Barry has a medieval taste — money sunk wholesale
in the very mud of the banks of the Thames, — think of
France, gentlemen, when you find these outlays made; oh,
take warning by France, you Englishmen, and button up
your breeches' pockets!" I have thus endeavoured just
to finish Sir C. Wood's elucidation of the moral of recent
transactions in France, and their application to this
country. I will only add one thing more. He says the
ballot and universal suffrage have done this. So say I :
but what then? We think it a very bad. deed that seven
millions have voted for Louis Napoleon. Did they think
it very bad ? Can any one presume to say, whatever our
opinion of him and his government, that he is not the
choice of the majority of the nation? Then I say again
with Sir Charles Wood, the ballot and universal suffrage
have given expression to the will ofthe nation, — ^^an erroneous
will, I grant, in our apprehension, — but their will. The
ballot and universal suffrage have given expression to the
erring will, it may be, of the French nation; and so
would the ballot and universal suffrage give expression to
what I hope would be the not so much erring will of the
British people.

364 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
The blending of the cultivation of the mind with the
aspirations to political right, is, in proportion to its extent,
a pledge of peace and of improvement to the country. Sir
Charles Wood does not seem very apprehensive of a great
war. He professes to " have no fear that Louis Napoleon
will come over at the head of 200,000 men;" but, most
curiously, towards the conclusion of his speech, he urges
that we are to be very strenuous in our national defences,
because "5000 Frenchmen may land upon the Sussex-
coast." What in the world should 5000 Frenchmen do
on the Sussex coast, without a general, without the sanction
of any one in authority in France, — because that presup
poses, between the governments, remonstrances and so on?
— but there are to be 5000 soldiers, seized with a spirit
of vagabondage, to start on a buccaneering expedition.
And he asks, What are we to do, if we do not strengthen
our defences ? Why, the poor unhappy wretches ! if they
do land, the best thing to do would be to send down the
police division A, and take them all into custody. A
notion of this sort is utterly chimerical and perfectly
childish, and shows the straits to which men are reduced
when they have a position to defend which there is no solid
ground for in fact and argument.
I return to say, that this junction of mental and political
progress is a pledge both for peace and improvement. The
victories thus gained are enduring victories; the triumphs
of the pen can never be reversed like those of the sword.
Our philosophers have demonstrated truths centuries ago,
and those truths now rule the belief and the minds of men.
But where are .the victories of the sword,^ — -where are the
most recent, the greatest, and the most splendid of them ?
Why, the sun of the same week which shone on the
funeral car of the hero who demolished the empire of the
first Napoleon in France, shone also on the resurrection of
that very empire which he was supposed to have eternally
destroyed. Let us lose, after this, faith in the victories
of the sword. Let us look to those victories over ignor
ance and error and superstition which are gained by
the power of the pen. Let the inkstand, and not the
powder magazine, be our ammunition; and thus we may
go on winning for each class good — in knowledge, in indus
trial attainments, in the use and invention of the arts, iu

SECOND SPEECH AT OLDHAM. 365
the enjoyment of literature and of science ; thus we may
prepare the way for that great progress by which, I trust,
the laborious classes, cooperating vrisely together for the
husbanding of their small resources, may go on, in mind
and physical condition alike improving, until difficulties,
obstacles, legal interventions, all melt away before them,
¦ — until they run in the clear space which belongs to thera,
as forming the great body of the population of this empire,
— until upon restrictive acts, upon feudal castles and
palaces, upon ancient monopolies, however long cherished,
— until upon the ruins of these shall sit enthroned the
giant genius of emancipated industry. Sir, it is by union,
by laborious united exertion, that this is to be accomplished.
I am happy that we have with us here to-night the
President of the Parliamentary and Financial Reform Asso
ciation,— of that central society, in harmony with which
you have formed a society here which numbers its members
by hundreds. He will probably continue the train of
thought which I have endeavoured to suggest; and I will,
therefore, conclude by saying that it is by associating your
selves together, it is by linking raind to mind and heart to
heart that all great moral and intellectual victories in the
world have been achieved. Sacred or secular, this has been
their power. The first Christians, wherever they were con
verted from paganism, formed themselves into churches,
little brotherhoods of men who knew one another, and
acted together ; and it was by multiplying these over the great
extent of the Roman empire that the gods of Greece and
Rome were made to bow down before Christ, and the apos
tate Julian was forced to exclaim, " Galilean, thou hast con
quered I" It was in this spirit the Reformation was achieved;
here and there a man of intellect sprang up that saw farther
than others, but he was sure to be persecuted — he was
doomed to martyrdom ; but they multiplied, they leagued
themselves together, and at last the reign of darkness,
which had extended for ages, broke down, and men arose
who, if they did not fully carry out, at least taught the
elements ofthe great principles of religious liberty. It was
by thus associating that Clarkson began with a few friends,
and stirred up their minds like his own on the question of
negro slavery ; it spread from one to another, and those
efforts continued for year after year, until, after the lapse

366 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
of half a century, they saw the completion of their wishes
in the abolition of slavery throughout the British dominions.
It was by this Daniel O'Connell conquered political rights
for the Catholics of Ireland ; by this that he occasioned his
own return for county Clare, and presented himself at the bar
of the House of Commons, — himself a power which the
House of Commons and the House of Lords were soon
fain to acknowledge. It was by this that seven men met in
a small room at Manchester, and organised that mighty
Anti-Corn-Law League, which, as was said the other night,
conquered three administrations, which conquered hosts of
prejudices, and ushered in the great change in our national
policy from monopoly to free trade. By this means of associa
tion wehope to guide this country onwards until the time when
the natural rights, the birthright of education and citizen
ship in a civilised community, shall both be recognised,
and we shall see throughout the land an intelligent self-
governed nation — the most glorious epoch of our own
History, and making our country the glory of all nations;
for the reformation of England wiU be the regeneration of
the world.

No. III.
SPEECH AT ROYTON.
February l%ih, 1853.
I ACCEPT this juvenile present with great pleasure; for
to win young hearts, to act upon young minds, to feel that
young blood is flowing freely, and that young pulses are
beating strongly for whatever is good and improving in the
world, ought to be a worthy object of contemplation to all
of us, and I feel it an honour that by the young, as in
other cases by the aged veterans of reform, I have been so
heartily greeted in this place. It is now within a few
months of seven years since I stood in this very room, and
delivered one of my first addresses to the people connected
with this important borough. In April 1846 you gave me
your first hearty welcome. I now receive your second;
and I receive it gladly from the people of Royton, who
were amongst the first to tender me their kindness and

SPEECH AT ROYTON. 367
support, — who, as they were amongst the first, have been
amongst my firmest friends — who have stood by me when
the day went in our favour, who stood by me when the day
went against us, — who, through good report and evil report,
in peaceful times and amid scenes such as you have had, of
confusion and of violence, have ever been true to me, — who
with each successive election of the three which have been
contested for the borough of Oldham, have given me a
majority, whilst some other districts left me in a minority,
— who gave me that majority even when, in July last, the
entire borough put me in a minority, and who increased
their numbers from one election to the other, and have thus
shown a spirit of kindness, of confidence, and of generous
appreciation, which I cannot but feel to the very bottom of
my heart.
In speaking to you on the present occasion, I labour
under one disadvantage. I have already addressed two
very large meetings in the borough of Oldham. I have
forestalled much which I might have said to you on the
present occasion ; and I have no wish to repeat here what I
have already said in another place; but as on those two
occasions I adverted to various points of political interest ;
— as the circumstances of those meetings, and the addresses
delivered to me, and the presents made to me, led me to speak
of the place of woman in society, of the influence she was
qualified to exert, and of the influence which she ought to
possess; — as they led me to speak ofthe general cause of
reform and its advocates, of their history, and of their
prospects; — as they led me to enter into the subject of
education in its various phases, and especiaUy in its relation
to and its connection with the suffrage; — as I had also
occasion at those meetings to speak of labour, its duties and
its rights, — to speak of it as the lot of a large portion of
humanity, but as a lot which had been manfully endured,
and would be working out, as I trust, its own way to
improvement, physical, mental, and moral ; — as I had to
speak of excessive labour, and of my wish for its being
reduced so that all might have the opportunity for mental
culture as well as for reasonable enjoyment; — I shall pass
by those topics on the present occasion, and address myself
to that which relates to all of them indeed— namely, to the
very spirit and essence of political institutions, — to the

368 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
motive of political zeal, — to that which I deem more import
ant than any of the external paraphernalia of mere institu
tions. I say, then, that in my view the great end and aim of
all politics — the reason why any rational or good man
should meddle with politics— is this, that they should be
rendered subservient to the development of humanity, — to
the maturing of man in mind and body, spirit and circum
stances ; to the making of man — I speak of man and woman
under the generic term — all that the great Creator intended
him to be and has formed him capable of being. And I
believe that every human being that comes into the world
has, as the motto of the ring they gave me at Oldham ex
pressed it, education for his or her birthright. I believe
that we are entitled to it by the dispensations of nature and
of Providence, and that every one in society who bears his
part as a citizen is fairly and inherently entitled to his
share in the management of the concerns of the comraunity
of which he is a member. But why is all this ? It is that
men and women should be more happy as men and women,
not as beasts of burden, or beasts of the fleld, and still less
as brutes and savages of the forest. It is that they may
show the intellectual powers and the moral dispositions
which belong to our common nature ; those which it should
be the object of all political arrangements and of all institu
tions to bring to full maturity— tbat we may say of each,
as was said of Brutus in Shakespeare's play of Julius
Ceesar : " His life was gentle ; and the elements
So mixed in him, that Nature might stand up.
And say to all the world. This was a man."
Well, now, this is not the object of many forms of
government ; but I say it is the test by which they should be
tried. I say that it is my motive for embarking. with so
much earnestness in a political career. I say it is that by
which we may bring to trial the different systems of
government. What does the Emperor of Austria or the
Czar of Russia think man was made for ? Why, he holds
" The monstrous faith of millions made for one ;"
he thinks men were made to be his soldiers, his servants,
his slaves. Millions have died that one man might be called

SPEECH AT ROYTON. 369
lord; millions have pined in bondage that one might
believe that he holds the sceptre of dominion over boundless
regions, and that the human beings that live upon the soil
are but as so many insects crawling upon the earth in his
august presence. Well, I say that human beings cannot
thrive under such an arrangement. Humanity sinks,
shrivels up, becomes a poor and a despicable thing.
Well, then, there is another theory of politics ; and that
is, that if we do not exist for one, we exist for a few. There
are certain privileged classes whose minds are to be loaded
with all the accomplishment and learning of the time;
whose houses are to be adorned with all that is grand and
beautiful ; who are to be the hereditary leaders and chieftains
of that portion of the human race which is found in the
country where they dwell. This is the old feudal system,
by which one man is to be nourished as in a hothouse to
an unnatural degree of expansion, while all the rest are
left to " bide the pelting of the pitiless storm" as they may,
and are to be only an inferior caste in his presence. It
was on such a theory as this that a member of the late
government, in his juvenile days, spoke out a sentiment of
which I hope he has lived to be ashamed, but which ex
presses the political theory that many still hold, — I allude
to those memorable lines by Lord John Manners, in which
he exclaims :
" Let laws and learning, art and science, die ;
But leave us still our old nobility."
Well, I believe we could do much better without our " old
nobility" than without law and learning, and art and
science. There is still another theory, which gives, I think, too
low an estimate of government and of politics, — I mean
that of Edmund Burke, who, in his great admiration of our
judicial institutions, says that the whole Constitution of
England — I do not remember his exact words, but I know
I quote the sentiment correctly, — King, and Lords and
Commons, Church and State, — all exist to put twelve honest
men into a jury-box. Well, the putting of twelve men
into a jury-box is a very desirable thing, especially in times
of political persecution ; it is our best shield against arbitrary
authority; and it is a good thing that our institutions
VOL. IV. B B

370 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J, FOX.
accomplish that ; but that is not the whole great object of
human life. Government, society, institutions, are surely
meant for something better than mere police work, — merely
to keep one man from picking another's pocket, or break
ing his head. It is well that they should do this ; but that
is not enough.
There is still another theory of society — that ofthe late
wit, Sydney Smith, who said that roast mutton and claret
were the great end and object of all government, law, and
order. WeU, that is a very pleasant theory to the people
that can enjoy the roast mutton and claret; but how is it
to those who find a difficulty in getting any kind of meat,
or beer with it, in order to support their existence ?
I can never believe but that men are united in society
for some better purpose than any of these. They are united
in order that they may perform that great work of coopera
tion which, on a small scale, achieves so many beneficial
results, and which a nation should, I think, exhibit on a
large scale in all its institutions. So that I have gone into
politics with this question constantly in my mind — What
will your theories, your forms, your propositions, do for
human nature ? Will they make man more manly ? Will
they raise men and women iu the scale of creation? Will
they lift them above the brutes ? Will they call forth their
thoughts, their feelings, their actions ? Will they make
them moral beings? Will they be worthy to tread the
earth as children of the common Parent, and to look for
ward, not only for his blessing here, but for his benignant
bestowment of happiness hereafter ? If institutions do this,
I applaud them ; if they have lower aims, I despise them ;
and if they have antagonistic aims, I counteract them with
all my might and strength.
Well, now, let us apply this ; — let us see how it works,
I am very partial to democratic institutions. I want to see
a country governed by its inhabitants, — not by one man, a
few men, or a privileged class ; and governed for the high
and noble purposes I have endeavoured to describe. Well,
I say democratic institutions are favourable to this, I say
that they call forth all a man's best feelings, and his highest
aspirations, and his noblest purposes, — not for their own
sakes, but on account of their tendency, I should not care
about what we Radical reformers contend for, if all these

SPEECH AT ROYTON. 371
changes which we seek were to end in themselves. Whether
a man votes by ballot, putting an envelope into a box, or
whether he answers a question at the hustings, and gives
his vote openly, — in fact, whether he votes at all or not, —
whether government be representative or be arbitrary, — I
say that these things are comparatively worthless. It is ps
means that they are good, and not as ends ; and I say that
as means they are good. I say that when a man feels that
he is recognised as a citizen, — that he is not a serf, not one
of a slave class, — that he can walk abroad, and can exercise
his due share in the nomination of those who make the laws,
— that he has not only the bounden obligation upon him to
obey those laws, but that he has also his art and part even
in the making of them by the machinery of representation ;
— I say, when a man feels this, it makes him more a man
than he was before ; it teaches him to respect and venerate
himself; it tends even to make him feel that violence, that
falsehood, that corrupt arts, are unworthy of him; and that,
being a free citizen, he should act like a free citizen, and
only do that which may become a man. What is the ten
dency of slavery ? Why, to strip a man of all the best
virtues that adorn a man's nature. If a slave has virtues,
what are they? — the virtues of a dog rather than ofa man !
He may be faithful to his owner ; he may be obedient and
tractable; he may fetch and carry when he is bid; — and
what then? Is this what man' was made for? Can we
show nothing higher, nothing better than this ? I say, yes !
— and democracy is to do this for us, teaching us that we
are all born free and equal, and, in the words of one of our
ancient sovereigns, that "laws which bind all, should be
assented to by all." Now, there are many people who are
not looking to this tendency of democracy, and they say, if
we had a perfect despot, — a despot very wise and very
benevolent, — that would be better for us than democracy. I
say, no ; because, suppose the despot does go right as to the
external matters of the country, or its material interests at
home, and suppose the representative government does
blunder, — suppose the people make mistakes, and have to
reconsider what they have done, and to retrace their path,
— still, there is this difference between the worst form of
democracy and the best form of despotism, — that under the
despot man has not that self-respect which the self-govern-

372 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
ment of a nation imparts to all that belong to that nation.
You cannot give him this under a despotism, though it
were the despotism of an angel or an archangel. You cannot
do this. He is but a chUd in leading-strings, instead of a
man walking straight forward in his own course, guided by
his own intellect, which, if it errs, corrects itself by its
errors. Well, I apply this test to other things. I apply it to
the free-trade doctrines. I say. Are those doctrines tending
to raise and purify and benefit humanity? Well, I find
my justification in the way in which they used to be
attacked. What was the language of protectionists a few
years ago against free-traders? They said, "You wiU
benefit the foreigner ;" or, " If you do this, the foreigner
will profit by it." " Levy a tax upon corn, as it will be
paid by the foreigner." They would have taught the
people of this country, in the very teeth of religion, that
they were to consider the foreigner as an enemy ; that it
was an objection to any thing that it would benefit the
foreigner. I trust the working people of this country have
rejected and thrust from them such unchristian doctrines as
these, — such selfish and malevolent feelings. Why, it is one
of the beauties of free trade, that if we benefit the foreigner,
we benefit ourselves. If the foreigner can produce some
thing we want, and if we can produce something which the
foreigner wants, then the man who endeavours to prevent
the exchange of those articles is an enemy of the human
race. He opposes their material interests as well as their
moral feelings. He subjects them to privation where they
might have abundance ; and he teaches them selfishness and
enmity, where they ought to feel brotherly regard, and a
common interest, and a delight in the prospect of a common
course of prosperity. Well has that working man, who
laboured in iron and other metals, who became the poet of
the poor, — I mean Ebenezer Elliott, the author of the " Corn-
Law Rhymes," who saw so much further than so many of
his class at that time, and who spoke to them so emphatic
ally on this matter, — well has he sung, in one of his odes :
" Free Trade like that hath doctrines of love.
And the blessing of plenty and health ;
And proclaims, while the angels look down from above,
The marriage of labour and wealth."

SPEECH AT ROYTON. 373
I believe that such are the arrangements of nature and
Providence, that the freest intercommunication between
different states is alike good for all the states concerned in
it, and for the different classes of society in each and all
those states. What is the end of Providence? Look
abroad on the world. See how different climates produce
different fruits. See how their varied productions are such,
that the inhabitants of one region may reasonably be
desirous to have possession of those which are produced in
another region. See the infinite diversity, see the changes
which a single article has to undergo, — how it has to pass
from country to country in order to obtain that final shape
and form in which it best ministers to humanity. Look at
the silkworm spinning her cocoons in the trees of Lebanon.
Look at the cotton-plants, rich in their white blossoms, in
the fair South of America. Why, their products cross the
broad Atlantic, — they come here ; they are subject to your
various industrial operations, and then they go back again,
in order to clothe even the natives ofthe very country from
which they came, — to give them their garments : and when
those garments are worn out, these very articles some-
tiraes undergo another change; they take the form of
paper, and circulate through the world the lessons of
intelligence and of wisdom. I say, that free trade is a
providential doctrine. It teaches us the wisdom of those
arrangements by which nations may ultimately, we trust,
be led into one great confederation, one brotherhood of
communities, rendering aud receiving mutual service.
Well, then, again I test by this principle the influence
of systems and of institutions and of policies which are
favourable to knowledge on the one hand, or promotive of
ignorance on the other. Try them, I say. Despotic coun
tries always pursue a system which tends to shut out know
ledge from the minds of the subjects of the despot. The
late Emperor of Austria did not hke new ideas. His
successor, I dare say, has the same antipathy. Despots
never do like new ideas, or any ideas at all, but the ideas of
their power and grandeur, and of subserviency to their
greatness. But spread knowledge over a nation, and what
is the result? Governments assume a truer and more
beneficial formi; that mighty power called pubhc opinion
is created, — a power which cannons cannot batter down, —

374 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J, FOX.
which bayonets cannot stab to death, — which no might of
princes, potentates, or armies can bring to nothing, — which
holds on its course in spite of all, and in due time wiU be
sure to triumph over all.
On this principle I prefer the peace policy to a war
policy. I judge them by the contrast which they afford.
This country has had experience of both policies. From
1790 to 1815 we had experience of a war policy. From
1815 to the present time we have had experience of a
peace policy. What is the difference between 1790 and
1815? How many reforms were effected? how many
wise and good laws were passed, for which, at this moment,
you are blessing the authors ? What was done, what was
felt, while the war-whoop resounded through the nation?
Benevolence was a thing almost to be laughed to scorn.
Hatred of the French, who were called our national
enemies, was burning in the minds of the great majority.
The few who protested were subjected to insult, to outrage,
to rioting ; some of them confined for years, only for wishing
to make their fellow-creatures wiser and better; others
driven from their country into exile ; — and the only relief to
these was the blaze of illuminations, darkened by the
mourning which so many families in all our large towns
hadito wear for relatives who had fallen in the battle. Oh,
scarcely a soil was there on the face of the earth that was
not fertilised by British blood; not a famous river, or a
sea, that was not discoloured and stained by British blood ;
while treasure was poured forth like water, and the country
had an enormous burden of debt left upon it that will take
many a long generation yet to wipe away. . . .
I am for no premature hostility to the new cabinet, no
causeless suspicion against them. Let them, I say, have a
fair trial. The administration is comprised of men drawn
from very different parties, but of known ability. I cannot
feel that entire confidence which would lead me to implicit
trust ; neither would I cherish that suspicion which shall
look with a jaundiced eye upon any thing which they may
do or attempt. Let them have the fair trial to which they
are entitled. Now, in yesterday's paper we had the pro
gramme of some of their intentions; and Lord John Russell's
speech, which consisted of little more than a catalogue of
the measures that his colleagues intended to introduce, may

SPEECH AT ROYTON. 375
give us some glimpses into their future policy. I have made
a memorandum of each of the topics which he proposed to
bring under the consideration of the House of Commons,
and I will just notice them, with the intimation that to
each and all of these I shall endeavour to apply the test
which I have laid down on the present occasion.
Well, he said, first, that the army and the navy and the
ordnance estimates would only provide for the same number
of men as had been already voted ; but that they would
require more money. Well, what is the matter with these
men, that they are to cost more money than we were told
originally ? I suppose something of this sort, — that instead
of the militia being out only one month in a year, we may
perhaps find that they are permanently embodied ; or that
instead of resting for the defence of this country on its
natural advantages, and on the true hearts and strong arms
of those by whom it is inhabited, we are to have expensive
mihtary works thrown up in different parts of the island.
Well, I cannot conceive that demonstrations of this kind
tend to make us a better people, or our neighbours across
the Channel either, just at this time ; because we have been
told by every statesman of importance, of all parties in this
country, that there is no reason to apprehend hostilities from
our French neighbours. This was repeated again and again
by Lord John Russell, by Lord Palmerston, by Lord Derby,
and by Mr. D'Israeh. Well, then, why are we to be buckling
on our armour, and taking spear and shield, and looking big,
and blustering, when there is no particular reason for putting
ourselves into such an attitude? Is it not provocative?
Does it not tend to make other nations say, " What are
these Enghshmen about ? Look how they are throwing
away their money upon military armaments. Do they
mean to become a power of a different order," — which I
believe is what many of our statesmen wish, — " and take rank
with the great mUitary nations of the continent ?" Nature
never framed us for this. Our wooden walls are our best
defence. The ocean flows around us; it is our proper
element and home. We are masters of it; and without the
grossest mismanagement of it, we cannot remain other
than masters of the empire ofthe sea. A struggle, I think,
would show this ; and if so, why, what are we doing with
the pubhc money, if we are to have these enlarged estimates ?

376 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
But some people are very free with public money. They
not only spend it lavishly, but they blunder it away. They
fool it away upon things which turn to no account.
WeU, I pass on to Lord John Russell's next topic, and
in that my sympathies are with him. He says, the govern
ment will introduce a bill to enable the parliament of
Canada to dispose ofthe clergy reserves. . . . Lord John
Russell then comes, not to an announcement, but to a
postponement ; with careful steps, and looking wistfully on
either side, he approaches the subject of reform ; and he
thinks that he wUl put it off to another session, for fear that
it should stand; in the way of rectifying the injustice ofthe
income-tax. Well, now, really, the injustice of the income-
tax ought to be amended ; but I do not see why we should
wait for that, and postpone the greatest amendment of all
that a statesman can contemplate. Lord John broaches
the question, whether they should endeavour to effect a
renewal of the income-tax for the present year, without any
observation or discussion whatever, in order that they might
devote the whole of their time to the one subject of parlia
mentary reform. He allows the importance of the subject ;
but he says they want consideration ; they must make pre
paration ; there are inquiries that would be requisite ; they
must give up the consideration of all other measures if they
are to go into the question of reform, — and especially as to
bribery and corruption, he thinks it very desirable that they
should wait and hear what the election committee say of
the proceedings upon the late general election. Now, this
is really a most lame and impotent conclusion. Why, the
measures he talks of, if they be good measures, would be
more energetically adopted by a reformed parliament than
by an unreformed one. If corruption and other debasing
influences exercise their power over the present system of
representation, that surely is a reason for putting reform
first, and not for putting reform last. Why, it is as if there
were a drunken man, who had a great deal of business in
his hands, and somebody were to advise this man to sober
himself, and to attend to the mighty questions that pressed
upon him ; and he were to say, — " No, no ; I cannot think
of making myself sober at present. No, I will attend to
the business now, while I am drunk, and then I shall have
time to get sober at my leisure." This affliction of Lord

SPEECH AT ROYTON. 377
John Russell's about bribery and corruption is no new
thing. Eighteen years ago he said it was so bad that if it
went on we must come to the baUot. Eighteen years have
elapsed, and we are no nearer the ballot in his mind than
we were at that period. Eighteen years of observation,
eighteen years of thought, eighteen years of invention, have
still left us where we were, as to his perception. But they
have not left the country where it was. From year to year
the feehng has been growing that we must have a further re
form ; that we must extend the franchise, and that largely, to
other classes ; that we must give a wide and ample possession
ofthe rights of citizenship, and that we must accompany the
vote with that which alone can make it a free and indepen
dent vote, and enable a man to poll for whom he pleases
without supervision, without the interference of patron,
landlord, or any one who could bias him to be false to his
own convictions and to his own preference.
Well, I have now detailed to you the measures hinted
at .by Lord John Russell. I am not in a strong state of
health, and I feel that I can say but little more. I have
detailed to you the principles on which I regard our political
system, and the course of legislative and of administrative
operations. I am glad and proud to find that they have
your sympathy and approval. I trust that your minds will
go with me in the atteinpt to discharge the arduous duties,
and to sustain the heavy responsibilities, which the position
of being one of your representatives imposes upon me.
Whilst I am endeavouring to promote the adoption of
reforms, you can reform yourselves. In whatever course
has been erroneous or blamable in politics, you can help
by petitions and reraonstrances, and by keeping alive the
public interest and the power of public opinion ; and thus,
in doing your parts, you will better enable me to fulfil
mine. While I am labouring to promote the- cause of
education, I hope to find that amongst you, the young, —
parents and children, youths, — the young especially, — -there
wUl be a sense of this great subject leading you to strive at
self-education, the best of aU education. Relying on you
for this, I shaU go forward in a strength which you alone
can impart to your representative, that you may have the
blessings which flow from improvements in our national
pohcy; that you may reap the advantages, in pure and

VOL IV.

c c

378 COLLECTED WORKS OF W. J. FOX.
rational enjoyment, in a fine development of human charac
ter, in kindly and amicable communications with one another,
and in the consciousness of doing your part for your
country's good, even while seeking your own improve
ment. While you will have these blessings resulting from
such a course, the time is not far distant for me when I
shall hav'e to look back on my own career. If I see it con
nected with your efforts in this same direction, it will be
with higher satisfaction that I shall make that retrospect :
and whilst you, most of you, or all of you, in the vigour of
life are pursuing your efforts, and enjoying good, may it be
my lot to say on the bed of death, that I bless my Maker
in that I leave the world better than I found it !

END OF VOL. IV.

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