FERLING IN THE COUNTRY. 2}

this, bug, he wound up the proceedings by & short and Bll
Yehemen declaration that he could not allow a moment to Zr. 88.
Pass in denouncing the proposed measure as a bitter insult
oa suffering nation.
Cobden’s reception of the Ministerial plan was loudly
"echoed in the northeof England. The news of the retenbon.
 of the sliding scale was received with angry disgust
throughout the manufacturing districts. Thousands of petitons,
 with, hundreds of thousands of signatures, were sent
IP to Cobden and other members to lay before Parliament.
The ordinary places of public meeting were not large enough
hold the thousands of exasperated men, who had just
foun from the newspapers that the Government would not
8lve way. In cold and rain they assembled in the open
"Paces of their towns to listen to speeches, and to pass reso-(ation,
 denouncing Sir Robert Peel’s measure as an insult
wud 2 mockery to s distressed population, The Prime
Minister was formally accused of offering indignity and
“Ontempt to the working classes ; of sacrificing the rights
of the Poor to the selfish interests of an unfeeling and avaclon
 aristocracy ; of creating wealth, luxury, and splenour
 for a class, out of the abject misery of the millions.
Hs effigy was carried on gibbets in contumely through
ho streets of towns like Stockport and Rochdale, to the
wound of drums and fifes, and then, amid the execration of
Multitndeg, hurled into the flames. In some places the
free Ceremony was preceded by a mock trial, in which the
ming] yg swiftly condemned, sentenced, and thrown into
tho bonfire ag a traitor to his country, while the crowd
honteq their prayer that so might all oppressors of the
People perish,
Considering Cobden’s untiring promptitude in seizing
Overy Occasion of enforcing his cause upon the House, it 18
*d tha he should not have spoken in the debate in which