n.] THE CHAMBER OF COMMERCE. 14.5

That critical moment had arrived, which comes in the End
history of every successful movement, when a section arises Air. 84.
Within the party, which refuses from that day forward
either to postpone or to compromise. The feeling among
the older men was to stop short in their demands at some
Modification of the existing duty. This was the mind of
*he President and most of the directors of the Manchester
Chamber of Commerce. A meeting of this important body
"aS held in December (1838). The officers of the Chamber
 had, only for the second time in ten years, prepared a
Petition to the House of Commons, but the petition spoke
only of modifications, and total repeal was not whispered.
The more energetic members protested against these faltering
 voices, Cobden strack into the debate with that finely
tempered weapon of argumentative speech, which was his
most singular endowment. The turbid sediment of miscellaneous
 discussion sank away, as he brought out a lucid
Proof that the corn law was the only obstacle to a vast
increase of their trade, and that every shilling of the profection
 on corn which thus obstructed their prosperity,
Passed into the pockets of the land-owners, without conferring
 an atom of advantage on either the farmer or the
labourer,
The meeting was adjourned, to the great chagrin of the
President, and when the members assembled a week later,
Cobden drew from his pocket a draft petition which he and
his allies had prepared in the interval, and which after a
discussion of many hours was adopted by an almost
Unanimous vote, The preamble laid all the stress on the
alleged facts of foreign competition, in words which never
fail to be heard in times of bad trade. It recited how the
existing laws prevented the British manufacturer from exchanging
 the produce of his labour for the corn of other
countries, and so enabled his foreign rivals to purchase