the public mind is at this moment in process of refutation, Cheaper food was to lower wages! We have had cheaper food, and, in a great number of trades, even money wages have been actually increased; in some cases voluntarily, by the employers in others at the demand of the operatives, and the combinations of the latter have, in almost every instance, been successful. Everywhere real wages—the amount of comforts for which money wages stand as only the representative—have advanced; and we believe that the working classes are becoming more and more convinced that the only permanent and true protection for the labourer is in the active demand for his labour. Our late distress was said to be owing to over-production of manufactures and the use of machinery! Returning prosperity has been accompanied by increased production, while an unexampled extension of machinery has led to a like extension in the employment of manual labour. Cheaper food was to injure the revenue! The revenue, which had declined in years of scarcity, has flourished in seasons of abundance." The report also went at length into a discussion of the sugar, coffee, and other duties. It was well received, and the meeting altogether was very satisfactory.
The annual aggregate meeting of the League was held in the Free Trade Hall on Wednesday, January 22nd, The report of the council and the treasurer's statement of accounts were first read. The report detailed the operations of the League during the past year, being particularly minute as to what had been done with respect to registration. It appears that "160 boroughs in England and Wales have been visited during the past year, and the council have obtained a mass of information which will enable them to direct their future efforts with greater efficiency: while the returns already in their possession show an undoubted gain in 112 of the boroughs thus acted upon, and in many of these the improvement on the register is such as to ensure the return of free traders in the place of
