204

LIFE OF COBDEN. [oma

1844. dition which cansed the strikes of the workmen in tH
Ar. 40. towns; and asked how a starved population of this Jind
could form that valuable class of domestic consumers, who
were held out by the landlords to the manufacturers as ader
quate compensation for loss of customers abroad. The
official duty of reply fell to Mr. Gladstone. His ansWe'
turned mainly on the inexpediency of assenting to a moto?
which would imply that the Corn Law was an open questio®
and which would therefore tend to unsettle trade, disturD
the revenue, and increase the excitement in people’s minds.
At present, Mr. Gladstone said, the League was thought ©
be a thing of no great practical moment : its parade and
ceremonial were perhaps the most important features abot
it; but if Parliament should take up the subject, the
assuredly the League would acquire a consequence to which
it had really no title. Cobden’s motion was rejected by?
vote of two hundred and twenty-four against one hundred
and thirty-three, being a majority of ninety-one.
This bad division had perhaps less than the general feel
ing of the House, as gathered from talk in the lobbies, 0
do with the changed view which Cobden now took of be
prospects of the cause. The ardour of his hopes was I
laxed, though not the firmness of his resolution. He 87°
expression to this in writing to his brother ;—
“Tt is now quite certain that our Free Trade labours mush
be spread over a larger space of time than we contemplated
at one time. The agitation must be of a different kind ©
what we have hitherto pursued. In fact we must merely
bave just so many demonstrations as will be necessary
keep hold of public attention, and the work must go on in
the way of registration labours in those large constituencio®
where we can hope to gain anything by a change of publi¢
opinion. The little pocket boroughs must be absolutely
given over, They will not weigh as a feather in the gottle”