of that which was told them by the monopolists. (Cheers.) In fact, in some businesses the men now have their employers so completely at their mercy that they can dictate their own terms to them. We have heard of one gentleman in the north—not one of the Leaguers, but a large employer of labour—who remarked, 'Why, my hands will only Work four days A-week now; if we have free-trade in corn, and business is as prosperous as you say it would then be, I should not be able to manage them at all.' (Cheers.)"
Mr. Cobden concluded with an earnest recommendation to purchase freeholds. South Lancashire, he said, had been already secured, and he would guarantee the West Riding of Yorkshire. "Will you do the same for Middlesex?" he asked, and he was answered by loud cries of We will."
Mr. Fox followed, and his eloquence excited great enthusiasm in the assemblage. In reference to the purchase of freeholds, so earnestly recommended by Mr. Cobden, he said:—
"In this plan there is a moral good, beyond, perhaps, what in its original conception was thought of. It tends to act upon the charactor of the entire labouring population of the country,—the working classes, —the more toilsome section of the middle classes; it holds out to them a hope, promise, and incitement of the most desirable and elevating description. It says to them, 'Become proprietors of a portion, however small, of this our England; hare a stake in the country; be something hero. It was thought a wise thing, when, by the measure introduced by the late George Rose, the sayings bunk funds wore connected with the public funds of the country; it was deemed judicious in this way to link those who could amass but yery small sums with national institutions and public interests; and, if it was wise and good to endeavour to make all who could save their pittance become fundholders, it must be at least as prudent and just to induce then, according to their proportion, to become landowners also, joint shareholders in this lovely, and fruitful, and beautiful country—and their country as much as that of the wealthiest nobleman whose lands cover half a county. (Cheers.) It gives them a tangible bond of connexion with society; a feeling of independence and honest pride. They are put in the position which was deemed necessary to citizenships in the republics of ancient days; and this is adapted to cherish in them the emotions which best accord
