tionist side, and fifty added to the side of free traders, would not, in another session, give a numerical majority, but would indicate such certainty of the triumph of free-trade principles as would induce the majority to yield before it became a minority. How was that change to be effected, and when? A leaf must be taken from the enemy's book. The battle, as Peel had said when the tories recovered from the panic into which they were thrown by the reform bill—"the battle must be fought in the registration courts"—and the League directed its energies in that course, confident that, if it were not possible to obtain repeal under a Peel-parliament, the triumph would come at the next general election, come when that might.
It was not expected that before the prorogation of parliament there would be any further discussion; but on Friday, August 9th, Lord John Russell raised a debate on the condition of the country in which that question had its share of notice. His lordship said:—
"There is another topic upon which I wish to say a few words, because I think it must force itself upon our attention in some shape or other before a very long period elapses—I mean the condition of the people of England. (Hear, hear, hear.) You cannot help, from day to day, and from time to time, observing the state of the people of this country—the inadequate means which the labouring people have to supply their families with the comforts of life (hear, hear, hear) with the extreme labour which, in the manufacturing districts, is undergone, and with the discontent which, both in our agricultural counties and in our manufacturing districts, is at short intervals excited; and I think, if we take a general view of this subject, it is impossible not to see whether it be the fault of our legislature or not, that the labouring classes have not advanced in comfort and welfare in proportion to the other orders of the community. If we compare the condition of this country with what it was a century ago—with what it was in 1740, for instance—it is impossible not to see that while the higher classes have advanced in luxury beyond measure—while the means available for the diffusion of comfort and the enjoyment of life have prodigiously increased—that, if we look again at the middle classes and their means of procuring comfort, of travelling from one place to another, the quickness with which
