Mr. Smith was elected for the Stirling district of Burghs, in Scotland, at the general election of 1847; but though a regular attendant on public business in the House of Commons and its committees, he has seldom risen to speak.

The vacancy at Walsall, which led to the most memorable contest of modern days, occurred in December, 1840. Captain Lyttleton, relative of Lord Spencer, offered himself as the Whig, and Mr. Gladstone, son of the eminent Liverpool merchant of that name, and brother of William Ewart Gladstone, offered himself as the Tory candidate. The League sent a deputation to test the candidates on Corn-Law repeal, intending to give all their influence to Captain Lyttleton, if he pledged himself against the Corn-Law; this he declined to do, on which Mr. J. B. Smith, then President of the Manchester Chamber of Commerce, and of the Anti-Corn-Law Association, and up to that time the leading member of the Anti-Corn-Law League, was proposed. The contest did not come to an issue until the end of January, 1841. The whole period was one of public meetings. Every newspaper and political magazine in the kingdom made the contest the leading text for commentary. Addresses from nearly every town, from public meetings and public men throughout the country, were forwarded to the electors of Walsall. For the first time in the history of elections, issue was fairly joined on the question of Free Trade, all other party distinctions being forgotten. The strength of the monopolist party lay in the property of Mr. Foster, formerly member for the borough, and then a banker, having power over most of the houseproperty in the town. The chartists, who in all parts of the kingdom then acted on the suggestion of Mr. Feargus O'Connor, to oppose Anti-Corn-Law meetings, were conveyed from Manchester, and paid by the Tory party to oppose the free-trade candidate at Walsall. So also a Barrister, who has since become an eminent Queen's Counsel.

Had there been no good cause to be damaged by this hiring of the Barrister, the persons, at least some of them, against whom he was hired, deserved all his ready witted oratory and enmity. They hired him in like manner in Manchester, to speak down and defeat William Cobbett, when that eminent man contested Manchester, in 1832, and sent him after Mr. Cobbett to Oldham, to do the same. He failed to overturn the position of Mr. Cobbett at Oldham, and he did no injury to Mr. Smith at Walsall, though he did his best at both places.

The election at Walsall was won by Mr. Gladstone, by

majority of twenty-seven over Mr. Smith, the number polled being 337 and 364.

Mr. Joseph Hicken, who from this time became so well known as secretary to the League, formed his connection with that body at Walsall. He was a shopkeeper there, and by his zeal, ready writing, diligent industry, and amiable manners, recommended himself to the Anti-CornLaw League. On their return home, defeated, but resolved to conquer in other places, Mr. Hicken returned to Manchester with them.

A petition was presented, and a committee of the House of Commons appointed to inquire into the validity of the election; but they readily decided for the sitting member.

CHARTIST LEADERS HIRED BY THE BREAD-TAXERS.

The Anti-Corn-Law Circular of April 8th, 1841, contained the following statements, to which we now append a note relating to a £50. cheque :

"Our only opponents latterly at public meetings have been certain chartist lecturers. These men had long been objects of our suspicion, and we were in possession of numerous facts, tending to prove them to be hired agents of the bread-taxers; but the disclosures elicited upon oath, before the Walsall Election Committee, have established the knavery of these men beyond all doubt. Our readers will recollect that on the day before the nomination at Walsall, Nightingale, the Chartist leader, made his appearance there, and attempted to excite the people against Mr. Smith. We stated in a former Circular, that he arrived at midnight, in company with one of Mr. Gladstone's party, that he entered a carriage belonging to that gentleman's committee, which was waiting for him at the station, and that he proceeded straight to his Inn at Walsall. We will now fill up the history of this transaction from the report of the proceedings before the Walsall Election Committee, as given in The Morning Chronicle, March 27, 1841.

"Mr. Samuel Patch was sworn, and, in the course of his evidence stated, that 'After his arrival at Walsall, and before the election commenced, he was sent to Manchester by the directions of Mr. Charles Brooks, to bring up a person named Nightingale, who was a Chartist leader. When he received instructions about this affair, Mr. Brooks was at the New Inn. Mr. Wilkins, Mr. James, and Mr. Basset Smith were present. Mr. Brooks told

Nightingale

witness to go to Barnet about the expense. kept an Inn at Manchester. He found him there, and brought him to Walsall. When he spoke to Mr. Brooks about the expense, that gentleman said, 'If you will go to Mr. Barnet, he will give you a cheque for the amount.' We went to Mr. Barnet and asked for the amount for which Mr. Nightingale had agreed to come, and the answer that Mr. Barnet gave, was, that he had nothing to do with it, and that the party who sent for Mr. Nightingale must pay him. Previous to this, he had asked Mr. Barnet whether he was aware that Nightingale had arrived, and he said Yes, I have given him a ticket to go on the hustings.' Nightingale stayed at the New Inn, until the day after the election, in company with Mr. Wilkins, the Barrister.

"The reader must. be reminded, that Nightingale is the same man who headed a ruffianly assault upon the AntiCorn-Law deputies at the Corn Exchange, Manchester, two years ago, and took the lead in creating a disturbance at the public town meeting, on the 19th ult. It should be stated, also, that Mr. Charles Wilkins, the Barrister, has long been the champion and orator of the bread taxers (or Tories) in Manchester. We need not offer any comments upon the above facts, but shall merely add, that we are in possession of all the particulars of the bargain entered into between Mr. Patch and Nightingale ; and we know the exact sum of money for which the Chartist leader hired himself to be taken to Walsall to assist in returning the bread taxer.

"We have, in this disclosure, an explanation of his conduct, strange and unaccountable as it otherwise would appear to be, of other Chartist leaders and missionaries. It has been a matter of surprise to our lecturers to perceive that they have been dogged and beset in all parts of the kingdom by certain well-dressed and apparently well-fed persons, who, under the pretence of advocating the people's charter, have, in reality, been the defenders and supporters of the bread tax. These men have been ready to take a journey of a hundred miles at any time to oppose our lecturers. They have made their appearance to-day in Leeds, to-morrow in Leicester, and the following day in Manchester. In whatever part of the kingdom an AntiCorn-Law movement has taken place, these men have, invariably, made their appearance to take the part of the bread taxers, under the pretence of advocating the charter. Yesterday we received a letter from Great Torrington,

Devon, where an active Anti-Corn-Law Association is giving great annoyance to the bread taxing squirearchy, informing us that a person calling himself a Chartist lecturer had made his appearance there, and was trying to dissuade the peasantry from petitioning against the bread tax. In London, Mr. Sidney Smith has been persecuted by two or three individuals who have followed him night after night, from Whitechapel to Marylebone, from Peckham to Deptford, and to every district and suburb of the metropolis. Wherever he goes the same faces meet his eye, and the same tactics are pursued of making disturbances, under the pretence of advocating the charter. Again and again has the question been raised by our lecturers-by whom are these men paid? The mystery is solved by the disclosures before the Walsall Election Committee. We have not a doubt that those Chartist leaders and missionaries hire themselves out to the bread taxers after the manner of Nightingale. They are traitors in the garb of patriotism, and are playing the same parts as the Olivers and Castles of other days. The spies of twenty years ago did the work of their employers, by tempting their deluded followers to commit crimes which conducted them to the gallows, whilst the Nightingales of our day try to inveigle their victims into an opposition to the Anti-Corn-Law party, by which the bread taxes are enabled to starve them.

"But we will not do an injustice by making a sweeping charge against all who have prominently advocated the charter. Our remarks are not levelled at such individuals as Collins, Lovett, and Vincent; we refer more especially to those men who are backed and retained by the conductors of the Northern Star, the principal proprietor of which newspaper, when in Parliament, spoke and voted in favour of the bread tax. This paper is one of the most insidious and strenuous upholders of the food monopoly, and, whilst it is loud in its commendations of those who oppose the Anti-Corn-Law cause, it is equally bitter in its attacks upon all who endeavour to forward it. Nightingale is one of the heroes of its pages, and his exploits at Walsall were the theme of its loudest plaudits."

In 1840, the arguments against the Corn-Laws were strengthened greatly by the publications of the evidence on the Import Duties taken by a Committee of the House of Commons. (See memoir of Mr. Villiers, in a prece

NOTE.-One of the persons referred to paid a cheque for £50 into a Manchester bank about this time. It was drawn by the Duke of Buckingham.

ding section.) In every subsequent number of the AntiCorn-Law Circular an estimate was given of the sum paid to the landowners over the natural price of bread. During the preceding fortnight the estimate was founded on the evidence of Mr. Deacon Hume, and Mr. M'Gregor, Secretary of the Board of Trade.

Mr. Deacon Hume was asked by the committee, (question 1228,)"Have you ever made a calculation as to the amount of taxation which the community pay in consequence of the increased price of wheat and butcher's meat which is occasioned by the monopoly now held by land?" To which he replied, "I think that a tolerable calculation may be made of that increased charge. It is generally calculated that each person, upon an average, consumes a quarter of wheat a year. Assuming then, the amount of duty which this wheat paid, or the price enhanced by protection, whatever that is, as far as bread goes, is to be ten shillings, it would be that amount upon the whole population; then, you could hardly say less than double as much for butcher's meat and other things protected; so that if we were to say that the corn is enhanced by ten shillings a quarter, and twenty shillings. more as the increase of the price of meat and other agricultural productions, including the provender of the horses, barley for beer, as well as butter and cheese-that would be thirty shillings a year for each of the population; to twentyfour millions of persons, £36,000,000. The public are in fact paying that as effectually out of their pockets as if it did go to the revenue in form of direct taxes.'

Q. 1229. "And, consequently, are less able to pay any taxes that the state may require for its support? A. "Certainly; I conceive that having paid the private taxes, they are the less able to pay the public taxes."

Q. 1230. "Is not the effect of that also to cripple and limit the industry of the country?" A. "I conceive the greatest of the evil lies in that branch of the question. It is not so calculable; but if they could have the trade which I believe they would have if all those protections were taken away, I think they could pay thirty shillings a head easily, compared with what they can do now." And he might have added, that if all revenue strictions were removed from industry and commerce, the effect would be to make the direct payment of money taxes an unspeakable privilege, compared with those taxes which hold industry in bondage, and eat like a cankering worm into its vitality. (See the Tracts of the Association for an analysis of the various taxes.)

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