effected? It has robbed Sheffield of its trade. What is the article most wanted in America? The tool necessary to destroy the forests, and to turn them into cultivated plains. That tool is the axe, and the Axe trade of Sheffield has been lost. The axes which are now wielded in the destruction of the forests in the back settlements are not now manufactured in Sheffield, but in Pennsylvania. It is thus that to the Corn Laws Sheffield owes the loss of one of its trades. This it is that has caused 2,000 of the houses of Sheffield to be uninhabited; and the logs of the prosperity of that population injures—I will not exaggerate —injures—I will not say destroy the market of the farmers, and reduces their prices. I think I have proved to you that this restrictive Corn Law, pretending, as was truly said by Mr. Bright, to be enacted for the benefit of the farmer, but in the belief of those who enacted it, though not in my belict, for the bonefit of the landowner; I say not in my belief, for I do not believe that, although it may temporarily produce a somewnat higher rent to the landlord, but I do not believe that in the long-run even the landowner is benefited by this lap. (Loud cheers.) Therefore, I say this law, that has been enacted on pretence of benefiting the landlord, does not benefit the landowner or the farmer, and is unjust to the manufacturer, and therefore to all the best interests of the country."
On these grounds his lordship moved a resolution that all protective duties should be promptly abolished, which was carried by an immense majority.
The nomination for London took place on the 26th of October, and the election the following day. At ten o'clock Mr. Pattison's majority was 345; by desperate efforts on the part of the monopolists, aided by active canvassing on the part of government officials, the majority was reduced at twelve o'clock to 43; but the tide began to turn, and at the close of the poll the numbers stood:
| Pattison | 6,536 |
| Baring | 6,394 |
Within twenty-four hours of the result becoming known in Manchester, an announcement appeared on the walls that there would be a meeting in the Free Trade Hall to congratulate the electors of London on their triumph. Notwithstanding the shortness of the notice, the wetness of the evening, and the certainty that neither Mr, Cobden
