advertisement included the inhabitants and electors of Aylesbury," but stated that Dr. Sleigh would not submit that any resolution should be put to the meeting, A counter advertisement had been issued by Mr. Jno. Gibbs, in which that gentleman contended for his right to express his opinion, and to propose any declaratory resolution he might think proper. Dr. Sleigh asserted that the insatiable thirst for wealth was the cause of the reduction of wages, and that those persons who had been reducing wages were the very persons who were now raising the cry for cheap bread. Mr. Jno. Gibbs exposed all the fallacies of the lecturer, and moved a resolution in favour of the entire freedom of trade. The resolution was put by the chairman, after a protest against such a proceeding had been read by Dr. Sleigh. It was carried almost unanimously a thousand hands being held up for it. A vote of thanks to the chairman was then carried by acclamation; three loud and lusty cheers were given for free trade, and Dr. Sleigh retired from the hall discomfited.
On the 29th June, the market day at Maidstone, & meeting was held on Penenden Heath, attended by about three thousand persons, including many farmers, to hear an address from Mr. Cobden. He was received with loud cheers, and successfully attacked the fallacies of the landowners with regard to the operation of the Corn Law upon the interests of agriculture. At the conclusion of his speech, Captain Ateherley spoke for some time, very little to the purpose, and then Mr. J. Osborn, jun., of Marden, an influential landowner, who said that free trade would admit a deluge of corn, and reduce wheat from 60s. to 40s., which his audience said would be a good thing. The tenant farmers, he asserted, would lose a third of their capital, and the farm labourers a third of their wages. The Hon. C. P. Villiers took a manly part in the out-of-door day's work, and was as effective there as in the House of Commons, and sarcastically and effectively demolised Mr.
