Gentlemen, things cannot go on well while men are seeking to confront the bounty of Providence, running counter to the will of Providence, and restricting the interchange of that bounty which the wise Giver of all good has dispensed to all, by taxing the necessaries of life." Lord Ducie's adhesion to all the acts of the League must have been gall and wormwood to the splenetic and restless Lord Brougham, who had endeavoured to throw discredit on the body by a virulent attack upon some of its members.
Another great meeting was held, March 22nd, in Drury Lane Theatre, boxes, pit, and gallery again crammed; ladies taking as deep an interest in the proceedings as the eurolled members of the League. The speakers were Mr. G. Wilson; Mr. Villiers, M.P.; Mr. Leader, M.P.; Mr. Christie, M.P.; and Mr. R. R. Moore, London was beginning to be moved effectively. Hitherto it had been behind the provinces, and its apparent apathy, notwithstanding the labours of an active anti-corn-law association, had contributed to the impression that the enactments of the landowners and of other equally selfish monopolists, each aiding and supporting the other, were safe from all the assaults directed against them from other parts of the kingdom. It was a great object to have the metropolis actively co-operating.
The enthusiastic meetings held in Drury Lane Theatre had led me to believe that London was thoroughly roused against landlord-law; but a few days' inquiry there, previous to the third meeting, with more than usual opportunities of ascertaining the state of public opinion, dispelled the illusion. It was, in truth, a hasty judgment to conclude that a city equal in population, and enormously exceeding in wealth, many kingdoms which have borne a great name in history, was to be moved as a little town whose adult inhabitants could all be congregated in one building, to be instructed and moved to the protection of their own interest. It was true that there was a newspaper press,
