316 LIFE OF COBDEN. [omar

1845.
Zr, 41.

League member for a Committee to find out what was really
the nature and amount of the peculiar burdens of which th?
landed interest had to complain. Mr. Bright moved for 2
Committee on the Game Laws. Mr. Villiers pressed PS
regular annual motion for total and immediate repeal. Lord
John Russell introduced a string of nine resolutions, deli?
with the Corn Laws, the law of parochial settlement, D#”
tional education, and systematic colonisation, all with a vie¥
to the permanent improvement of the condition of the
working class, and especially of the labourers in husbandry’
“ Bright did his work admirably,” says Cobden, « and W078
golden opinions from all men. His speech took the squire
quite aback. At the morning meeting of the county member
at Peel’s, to decide upon the course to be taken, the Prime
Minister advised his pack not to be drawn into any discussioB
by the violent speech of the member for Durham, but to allow
the Committee to be granted sub silentio! This affair wil
do us good in a variety of ways. It has put Bright in a right
position—shown that he has power, and it will draw the
sympathy of the farmers to the League. The latter convi¢”
tion seemed to weigh heavily upon the spirits of the squires:
They seemed to feel that we had put them in a false position
towards their tenants, and the blockheads could not conceal
their spite towards the League. I pleaded guilty for the
League to all they charged us with on this score.”’
The result of these incessant challenges to the landlords
and to the Ministers was a thorough sifting of the arguments
and the establishment of a perfectly clear and intelligible
position. No Committee was granted, except Mr. Bright's
but discussion brought out the main facts as clearly as any
Committee could have done. It became stamped on men’s
minds, that while abundant food stimulated manufactures
and promoted the comfort of the whole body of workme?
T To Mr. George Wilson. London, Fob. 88, 1848.