260

LIF# OF (OBDEN,

[HAP

B48. fasion of the spring, the agitators applied themselves with
Ar. 38. invigorated resolution to their work.
They had been spending a bundred pounds a week. They
ought now, said Cobden, to spend a thousand. Up to thus
time the Council of the League bad bad twenty-five tho?’
wand pounds through their hands, of which by far the
larger portion had heen raised in Manchester and the
neighbouring district. About three times that sum had
been raised and expended by local associations elsewher:
In all, therefore, a hundred thoussad pounds had gone, and
the Corn Laws seemed more iramovshle than ever, With
admirable energy, the Council now made up their minds ab
once to raise a new fund of fifty thousand pounds, and, uot
withstanding the terrible condition of the cothon trade, the
amount was collected in a very short time. Men co™
tributed freely because they knew that the rescue of their
capital depended cn the opening of markets from which th
protection on corn excluded them.
“Yon will have observed,” Cobden wrote to Mr
Edward Baines, “that the Council of the Leagme 8°
determined upon a renewed agitation upon a great scale
provided they can get a coramensurate pecuniary help fro®
the country, aud my object in troubling you is to beg that
you will endeavour to rouse the men of the West Riding
fo another effort. .
“The gcheme which we especially aim at carrying oub is
this :~—To make an attack upon every registered elector of
the kingdom, county and borough, by sending to each ®
packet of publications embracing the whole argument 5°
it affects both the agricultural and trading view of he
question. We are procuriag the copies of the registers for
the purpose. But the plan involves an cwxpense of 20,0000
Add to this our increased expenditure in lectures, eto
pnd the contemplated cost of the spring deputations in