in Lancashire or in Yorkshire. The meeting was subsequently addressed by Colonel Thompson, who said that argument was sadly wanting, when charges of instigating to assassination were resorted to; and by Mr. Hume, who hailed Sir Robert Peel as a new convert to free trade, who would show his principles if he were not overborne by the aristocracy.
On the following evening nearly ten thousand persons congregated in the Free Trade Hall, at Manchester, to testify their unabated attachment to the cause of free trade and its distinguished advocate. Mr. Wilson, the chairman, after giving an account of the scene in the House of Commons, and reading some of the calumnies in the Times, the Morning Herald, and the Standard, said:—
For four years, under many a trying calumny and under the greatest provocations, we have never deviated from pursuing the object for which this League was established; we have never, during that period, turned aside to refute the thousand-and-one misrepresentations, to call them by the mildest name, by which we have been beset; and if we depart from that rule, on the present occasion, it is on account of the attack being one of the grossest, one of the vilest, one of the most painful that could be heaped upon us. In the name then, of all who are included, collectively, or individually, in this accusation, I deny all alliance with, and approbation and knowledge of any agent or means, other than those that are peaceful, moral, and in accordance with the principles of the British constitution, for the accomplishment of our object. (Great and prolonged cheering.) In the name of the ladies, (Great cheering) the occupants of those galleries, (Immense cheering, the whole of the vast assemblage in the body of the hall waving their hats,) who have graced our meetings on many a previous occasion, and who are included in that base attack, I deny it. (Deafening cheers.) In the name of the thousands of working men who stand before me in this ball, and who are included in that base attack, I deny it. (Cheers.) In the name of the gentlemen who stand around me on this platform, who countenance our proceedings, who are identified with them, and who are included in this attack, I deny it. (Renewed cheering.) Io the name of the great body of merchants, manufacturers, traders, and others in this and in different parts of the country, identified with us, and who are included In this attack, I deny it. (Continued cheering.) In the name of the
