uy, i
] SEVENTH YEAR OF THE LEAGUE. 313

"sver less hopeful or encouragmg. The terrible depres- 1845:
on which had at first given so poignant an impulse to the Zr. 41.
*gitation had vanished. Peel's great manipulation of the
2iff had done something to bring about & revival of trade.
Much more had been done by two magnificent harvests.
Wheat which had been up at sixty-seven shillings when
Coben came into Parliament, and then at sixty-one shillings
2 1843, was now down at forty-five. Trade and commerce
Were thriving, The revenue was flourishing. Pauperism
bd declined. The winter had lasted for five months and
had been very rigorous, yet even the agricultural labourers
bad suffered less distress than in the winters before. This
happy state of things was in fact a demonstration of the
ruth of what Cobden and his friends were struggling to
"Mpress upon the country, namely that a moderate price of
food was a condition of good wages and brisk trade.* The
Plain inference from what had been going on for two years
before men’s eves, was that every impediment in the way of

' At a meeting held in Oldham, a workman got up in the body of the
ll He had been thinking, he said, on the subject of the Corn Laws for
bony years; ag there was no possibility shat he should ever see Sir
Bober Peel, as he never came down into that neighbourhood, and as
be, the speaker, could mot bear the expense of a journey to London, he
begged Mr. Cobden to convey to the Prime Minister the following train of
though +—% When provisions are high, the people have so much to pay
for them tha they have little or nothing left to buy clothes with; and
hen they have little to buy olothes with, few clothes are sold ; and when
there ar faw clothes sold, there are too many to sell; and when there are
“i many to sell they are very cheap; and when they are very cheap, there
not he much paid for making them; and consequently the mannfoturing
 working man's wagos are reduced, the mills are shut up, business
S ruined, ang genera] distress is spread through the country. But when
"8 now the working man has the said 25s. [the fall in the price of wheat]
left, 4y, his pocket, he buys more clothing with it, ay, and other articles
°F comfort t00, and that increases the demand for them, and the greater
the demand, you know, makes them rise in price, and the rising in price
®uables the working man to get higher wages and the master better
Profits, This therefore is the way I prove that high provisions make lower
ee, and cheap provisions mnke higher wages." —Quoted in Cobden’s
Peoches, i. £51.