The Anti-Corn-law Delegates have been working like men of busi-
ness during the week. Petitions, with many thousand signatures, have been received from the country, and exhibited at the meetings. Depu- tations have waited upon Ministers and Members. A lung list of queries respecting the operation of the Corn-laws in all parts of the country has been prepared. The plan of Parliamentary- proceeding has been settled. Measures are in progress for enlightening the agricul- tural districts ; and a commencement has already been made by the indefatigable Colonel Thompson, who on Thursday delivered a lecture at Bungay in Suflislk. Of the Colonel's manner of addressing tenants, the following may be taken as a fair specimen- " Farmers have families like other men—nay, I am not sure the, from the na- ture of their domestic habits and amtngements, they are not rather more given to large families than anybody else. And what is a flintier to do with his chil- dren: He cannot employ them in commerce, for commerce has been restricted and shut up ; they must therefore bid against each other for a farm, or wait till the old man dies, and then sub-divide his farm. Is not this a true picture of what goes on in limners' finn1bics ? Thus, then, they are brought to the grind- stone, and share the general distress. And in addition to this, thare is the landlord continually over them, to raise his rents on any flush of occasional success. Temporary exceptions may take place where leases exist, or other ar- rangements that cannot be suddenly disturbed ; but in the long run the land- lord reaps. the advantage ; and when a reverse comes, it is not always so easy to get it back again in turn. As a friend of peace, desirous of cultivating union among all classes, I urge farmers to consider whether they are quite sure their interest in imposing hard laws on others, is real and substantial. 1 come not here to charge them with being sinners above all men: we all pursue what we suppose our interest, and while we abstain from encroaching on the rights of others, the pursuit is just: but I again call on them to revise their case, to be not deceived by a sudden flush in the rise of prices, but be sure whether they have any pertnanent and abiding interest in what other classes complain of as inconsistent with their welfare."
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