who was the great knight, and Dr. Sleigh, our old acquaintance, who was his lordship's trusty squire on that occasion. That meeting being attended with such discouraging circumstances will not, I think, incline these gentlemen to have another. But on that same day the League had a meeting, not in Buckinghamshire, but in Somersetshire, at Taunton, and which meeting was addressed by Mr. Cobden, Mr. Bright, and Mr. Moore, The Shire Hall was thronged to suffocation. There were upwards of 800 farmers present, besides a large attendance of the townspeople, while nearly 1,000 persons were at the doors, unable to gain admission. The farmers, after the information which these gentlemen conveyed to them, passed & resolution condemnatory of the Corn Laws (Loud cheering.) That is the second meeting which we have held within the last fortnight of this description. We shall hold a simiiar meeting in every county in the kingdom, on each succeeding Saturday, and Mr. Cobden has pledged himself to attend every one of those meetings (loud cheers); and this system of agitation will be pursued until the whole country has been visited. (Cheers.) We now begin to experience the effects of the distribution of the tracts among the farmers. We see the weakness of our opponents in those strongholds of the monopolists. We are determined to prosecute the war even in their own camp, and we will wring from out their own hands that political influence which they have so much abused in destroying the industry of the country. (Loud cheers.)
Dr. Bowring followed, and said that the fame of the League had gone out throughout the world; that China rejoiced in the expectation of more commercial intercourse with us, and that Egypt, the granary of the ancient world, was anxious to supply our starving multitudes out of its overflowing granaries, He contrasted the effects of free trade in Holland and Tuscany, with the effects of monopoly in Spain and the Roman States, and concluded by saying:—
