CHAPTER LX.
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1844.
The year Eighteen Hundred and Forty-Four opened hopefully so far as regarded the means of agitation for free trade. The League was certain of its £100,000 fund. Amongst its supporters it had, in Mr. Samuel Jones Loyd, the wealthiest individual of the monied interest; in Mr. Marshall, of Leeds, the wealthiest of the manufacturers; and the first day of the new year gave it the wealthiest of the nobility. On that day the following letter was received:
"Sir,—Having, on a former occasion expressed to you my anxious wishes for your success in the arduous contest with monopoly in which you are engaged, I cannot refuse myself the pleasure of congratulating you upon the rapid progress you have since made in the struggle with that formidable adversary.
"As you have found your foe to be daring and resolute, so have your energies increased in a wonderful manner; and, in spite of opposition, you have carried the war most effectually into the enemy's strongholds. With such vigorous and sustained efforts the victory must be yours; and my hopes of ultimate triumph, and that at no very distant date, therefore, much exceed my fears of failure.
"As to the duty—that it is said, would be lost the country, it not insisted on, I am satisfied that such would be the prosperity of all classes from the abolition of this impost, such the advantage that would accrue to all the monied concerns of the community, that, in a very short time, the general wealth would be so far augmented that the national revenue would outrun the amount of any duty that has been proposed, whether 3., 53., or 8s.
