The amendment in favour of free-trade principles having been put, the Chairman, amidst the greatest applause, declared it to be carried by a large majority. The defeated monopolists, however, not satisfied with the decision of an avowedly pro-corn-law chairman, persisted in retiring to one side of the field, thus giving a further demonstration of the numerical weakness of the monopolists; for on the division the numbers appeared to be at least two to one in favour of the total and immediate repeal of the Corn Laws. This discomfiture was obviously most unexpected, as throughout the whole proceedings the pro-corn-law party seemed to calculate upon a sure and decisive victory.
On Saturday, June 10th, Mr, Cobden and Mr. Moore visited Rye, in the eastern division of Sussex. Placards had been issued entreating the farmers to be aware and not to be misled by Mr. Cobden who, though the son of a Sussex farmer, was a manufacturer and a member of the League. A great number of that class, however, attended, And there was the necessity to adjourn from the Town Hall to the Cattle Market The Brighton Herald, giving an account of the meeting, said: "Though there was evidently a hostile feeling towards Mr. Cobden, because it was known that he was an advocate for the total repeal of the Corn Laws, yet his success was most complete, and before he bad half finished his first address, we do not believe there was a man present who was not convinced in his own conscience that the views taken by Mr. Cobden were sound and correct, and that there really was no answer to him." Mr. Moore followed, and then Major Curteis said that he went two thirds of the way with those gentlemen, but he lived in a part of the country where they had not good land, and the tenant farmers were in as bad a state as the labourers were themselves ("Granted"), and if there was an immediate repeal of the Corn Laws, two out of three in his parish would be obliged to leave their farms; and he asked if two-thirds of the tenant
