registrations. Mr. Mark Philips, M.P., spoke briefly also, but effectively. Mr. W. Brown followed. He had been selected by the free-traders as a candidate for the representation of South Lancashire, with a certainty of success. He took a comprehensive view of the effects of the Corn Laws on the trade with various nations, and convinced his large audience of his fitness to represent their county. He was followed by Mr. Cobden, who successfully disposed of some charges of intolerance which had been brought against the League. If that body quarrelled with the projects of others, it was, he said—
"Because they had been ostentatious projects, brought forward to divert public attention, and not, as they believed, with the real intention of serving the object professed by the propounders. Who could say that the League had ever found fault with private benevolence, or had ever stopped to quarrel with men going about to do good, and not seeking to proclaim trumpet-tongued their own good works? But it was when men who supported the Corn Laws were found ostentatiously propounding other schemes to meet a great political evil, it was then that they had a right to criticise and question the intelligence, at least of those parties, and to ask how they could profess to serve the people, and at the same time, by their votes, they were trying to starve and impoverish the people. He must confess that, having been let a little behind the scenes in the conduct of these parties, he did suspect that a great number of those who had got a reputation of being benevolent-minded in public matters, were trying to start these false scents, with the view of leading the people off from the question of the Corn Laws. Ordinary intelligence might teach them the utter futility of trying to benefit the people, who, by their own legislation, were kept short of the necessaries of life. * * * He received a letter the other day from an old friend of his, and a fellow-labourer in those efforts they made six or seven years ago in the cause of education—he meant Mr. James Simpson, of Edinburgh, in which he spoke in somewhat a tone of complaint of the remarks which were made in Covent Garden Theatre upon the subject of public baths. Now he should be anxious to pay the tribute of his highest admiration to the conduct Mr. Simpson had pursued. He had not prominently advocated free trade in corn; but he had been a silent contributor to the League, and they knew that they had his good wishes. But if he or any one else thought they could promote the benefit of mankind, by giving their attention to other questions, why, God speed them, and he wished them well in their labours."
