I hold, that if we should be so unfortunate as to commit the error now, instead of availing ourselves of the means of terminating this war by taking the defensive position-if now we shall take the other step of prosecuting the war vigorously, as they term it, till we compel Mexico to submit, let me say to the gentlemen, they take a step which they shall rue the longest day they live! What is party? Nothing! But the party that takes that step will be ruined, and the party that succeeds it will be in a position of great difficulty.

SPEECH OF GEORGE THOMPSON,

IN THE CONFERENCE OF MINISTERS ON THE CORN LAWS, AT
MANCHESTER, 1841.

THIS Conference has answered another high and excellent purpose; it has shown that there is an intimate connection between the abolition of the laws that have been brought under our notice, and the spread of that religion whose ministers are here assembled. And here, sir, I must break the thread of my remarks to dwell for a moment upon the most striking feature of this conference. It is a conference of Christian ministers assembled in the heart of Great Britain, at the seat of science and manufactures, in the year 1841 of the Christian era, at the moment when Britain occupies the highest eminence she has ever scaled,-conspicuous in arts, invincible in arms, famed for learning, mistress of the seas, with one hundred and fifty millions of subjects; colonizing with her children the untrodden wildernesses of the world, embracing in her Christian sympathy all Pagan lands, and not unjustly claiming to be first on the list of civilized nations. At such a period of time, and in such circumstances, have you assembled,-but for what? To exult in the manifold blessings enjoyed by those who inhabit the home of empire, and the sanctuary of religion? To devise measures for

directing from this, the fountain head of knowledge, refreshing streams that shall carry truth and salvation to the uttermost bounds of the globe? To turn the power and dominion which have been acquired to the purposes of human improvement in distant countries? Nothing of the kind. The phenomenon is presented, of seven hundred ministers of religion called from their homes to sit in solemn council upon the state of their native country, in which millions are perishing for lack of bread. Oh, sir, what will the heathen think of us when they shall know this? You send your missionary with this book (the Bible) to the barbarous nations of the world, to preach amongst them the unsearchable riches of Christ to give them the volume that is to make them wise unto salvation. That book, translated into their vernacular tongue, is placed in their hands, and they are told it is the word of God. They reverently open it, and on its first page they read, that, when God had formed man out of the dust of the ground, and breathed into him the breath of life, he said, “Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree in which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to everything that creepeth upon the earth wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat, and it was so." He reads onwards; he listens to the thunders of Sinai, most awful when denouncing the oppression of the poor, and the withholding of bread from the hungry. He advances towards the dawning of the gospel dispensation, and at last he sits at the feet of Christ and his apostles. From lips that spake as never man spake he learns that the very hairs of his head are all numbered, and he reads the precept whose character stamps it as divine: "If thine enemy hunger, feed him; and if he thirst, give him drink." The missionary points him to the prayer which, with every sunrise, he is to present at the footstool of eternal mercy,— "Give us this day our daily bread." The holy man shows

him the answer to this prayer in the fertility of his native land, in the “cattle upon a thousand hills," and in the provision that is made alike for the sparrow that falls at his feet and the raven that cries for food above his head. He asks the missionary from what blessed land he has brought him these glad tidings; and he tells him from a land where the gospel shines brightest-where Christian ministers most abound—where every hamlet is adorned with a Christian temple, and where the statutes of the book he has given are part and parcel of the constitution and the law. "O happy land!" exclaims the converted heathen; "just on the verge of heaven; would I were there, that I might participate the blessings which the gospel has conferred upon it!" Yet, a little while, and the sad truth shall reach the ears of that unsophisticated convert, that in that very land from which the message of his salvation has been sent, there are millions who, by so-called Christian legislators, are deprived of the benefits of that provision which God has made for every living being. May not the Christian patriot exclaim, "O! tell it not in Gath; publish it not in the streets of Askalon, lest we be covered with the scorn of the barbarian, and see our religion rejected as a fable?" But, let it go forth. Let the rebukes of the civilized and the savage be heaped upon us, till those who will not yield to the cry of the wretched are constrained by very shame "to do justly and to love mercy." Let it be published that the emigrant who leaves the land of his nativity with an aching heart, to find an asylum in some more genial region— in some region where the laws permit him to enjoy the fruits of the earth may not send to the starving parent he has left behind, the smallest contribution from the bounty of another clime, in the shape of food, to save that parent alive. Should the donation of filial piety, in the form of a barrel of flour, be sent to the shores of this country, the demon of the corn-laws would meet it on the beach, and, raising the gaunt arm of famine, would say, "Hitherto shalt thou come, but no further!" and the agents

of that accursed law would deprive the venerable sire, famishing at his fireless hearth, of the benefit of the supply which reverent love had devised to keep the old man alive. Oh, sirs, it is time to rise at the stirring call of nature, and put down the abomination which maketh desolate. To-day beholds you in your right place. You are treading in the steps of holy men of old, who did not hesitate to rebuke the iniquities of unrighteous law-makers. You are imitating the example of Him who went about doing good. have a right to claim you as their friends. heaven-commissioned guardians of their rights. sage is to them. Your duties are amongst them. between the oppressor and the oppressed.

"By you, the violated Law speaks out

The poor You are the

Its thunders; and by you, in strains as sweet
As angels use, the gospel whispers peace."

Your mes-
You stand

Cry aloud, then, and spare not. Say to those who, while professing a zeal for religion, neglect the weightier matters of the law, 66 'Is not this the fast that I have chosen? To undo the heavy burdens, to deal thy bread to the hungry, and to satisfy the afflicted soul?" Rebuke the ignorant unbelief, that pretends to advance the interests of the poor by transgressing the commands of the Most High. Say to those who are robbing God, by robbing his poor, "You are at war with your Maker; you are in the road to retribution and ruin." Remind such of the promises given to those who obey the Divine injunction, and have faith in the providence of God,- -"Prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of Hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it." Sir, we have had the state of our country described; we have been told, and the proof has been forthcoming, that there are six millions of our countrymen who know not the taste of wheaten bread; that there are millions more whose supply is scanty and insufficient; in fact, that

--

the whole nation has been put upon short allowance, and that discontented hunger prowls through our streets, devising plans of mischief, and ready for deeds that menace the existence of our dearest social institutions. Those who have ascertained these facts, have asked themselves, if this state of things is to be charged to the account of a judgment and visitation from the Almighty? And they have rescued the sacred name from impiety and profanity, by declaring, that our chastisements are self-inflicted, and the evils we deplore the result of an unbelieving and wicked departure from the spirit and mandates of the Divine law. They have vindicated the veracity of God when he gave to man the promise, “Thy bread shall be given thee, and thy water shall be sure; seed time and harvest, summer and winter, shall never fail." You, reverend sirs, have I was going to say, exonerated the Deity from the impious charge of being the author of prevailing misery, but I retract the word—you have asserted and vindicated the Divine beneficence. You have declared, that, in the provision which God has made for his creatures, there is enough for all, enough for each; an unfailing, an everlasting supply. You have laid the complaints of the poor where they are justly chargeable—at the door of unchristian legislation. You have called upon the oppressors of the poor in high places to beware, lest, by their continuance in wrong doing, they involve themselves in the ruin in which they have already plunged so many of their humbler countrymen. You have done well. Never have you appeared more like the disciples and followers of your benevolent and sympathizing Master. Permit me to repeat it; you are in your right place. Methinks, the gospel will not sound less sweetly in the ears of those to whom you preach, when you shall return from this place, after having met to devise means for bringing the bread which perisheth within reach of those to whom you are accustomed to break the bread of eternal life. You are treading in the steps of Him who, if partial at all, displayed his partiality in acts of charity to the poor;