existence, or had ever travelled one mile, or had eaten one meal, at the expense of anybody. When the poor men met at Peterloo to petition for the repeal of the Corn Laws, it was the Manchester manufacturers who came upon them and cut there down. What had caused the change in the spirit of their dream? They were then in political power, and now they wanted to regain their lost influence. Mr. O'Connor then proceeded to read extracts from the prize essays published by the Anti-Corn-Law League, which he alleged contained great contradictions, one set of arguments being for town and another for country—in the former representing that the manufacturers would get cheaper bread, and in the latter that the farmer would get higher prices. The League were only for pruning the rotten tree; he was for laying the mattock and the axe to its root. He was for free trade all over the world, but not for being monkeys or tame cats to any party; his object being to secure the poor man a share in the benefit which the manufacturers wanted to deprive him of. Mr. Cobden had spoken of the operatives being possibly reduced to wear wooden shoes, but they actually wear them at this time, and were glad to get them. Where was now (Mr. O'Connor asked) a working man's clock, feather bed, chest of drawers, and other things which he used to have? They had all gone, while the manufacturers boasted of possessing as much wealth as would pay the national debt. He did not charge the fault upon Mr. Cobden, hat it was nevertheless true that & workman had been discharged from that gentleman's employ for reading the Northern Star.
"Mr. Cobden emaphatically denied the assertion.
"Mr. O'Connor proceeded to read some extracts from 'Almack's Character and Proceedings of the Anti-Corn-Law League,' but the purport of them, save for abusing the League, and thereby avoiding the question of the expediency of the Corn Laws, no one could discover. After uttering a great quantity of irrelevant matter, he concluded by moving the following amendment:— Resolved, That we, the inhabitants of the county and town of Northampton, in public meeting assembled, are of opinion that the repeal of the Corn Laws, unaccompanied by a fair and equitable adjustment of the several interests that would be affected by the change, must lead to a confiscation the properties of the most weak and unprotected, and to the centralization of all manufacturing operations in the hands of those who would be most capable, from the possession of large capital, and most rendy, by the possession of a large amount of inanimate machinery, to take advantage of the change. That, while we declare ourselves hostile and opposed to the principle of restricting commerce by interfering with the rights of exchange, we nevertheless feel assured that the question of free trade is one which must be dealt with as a whole, and not upon mere party