1842,

Ar. ar,

218

LI¥E OF OOBDER.

[omA?.

nothing undone to support or overawe the Prime Minister:
On the eve of the session several hundreds of delegate®
including Cobden, 0’Connell, Mr. Bright, Mr. Villiers, and
Mr. Milner Gibson, assembled at the Crown and Anchor
They learned that the Prime Minister had that morning
refused to receive a deputation from them, on the ground of
his numerous engagements. The Times had a contemptuous
article, mocking at them for the presumption and impertinence
 of their conduct. These deputies from country asso
ciations and religious congregationalists, instead of settling
their differences with one another, had yet on one single
point, forsooth, discovered a system so pure that in a single
interview the greatest and most experienced of statesmen
would be thrown on his haunches. Perhaps these gentle
men would be willing to offer their services as members of
Her Majesty’s Privy Council. And so forth, in that vein of
cheap ridicule with which the ephemera of the leading
article are wont to buzz about all new men and unfamilia®
causes. Ridicule notwithstanding, the deputies thronged
down to the House of Commons with something so like
tumult, that the police turned them out and cleared the
lobbies. As they crowded round the approaches to the
House, the irritated men hailed with abusive names those
whom they knew to be champions of the abhorred monopoly:
[t was noticed that they did not agree in their cries, While
all shouted out, * No sliding scale,” some called for a fixed
duty, and others clamoured for “ Total and immediaté
repeal.”
The ministerial plan was soon known, and brought scanty
somfort to the men of the north, as their friends rushed
down the corridors to tell them what it was to be. Sif
Robert Peel could not accept their explanation of the prevailing
 depression and distress. That was due, he contended,
to over-investment of borrowed capital in manufactures; ©