PEACE AND PLENTY

A SERMON

Preached on Sunday Evening, November 14th, 1841

(Old Vol. 5, No 170)

By Mister JAMES WELLS

At the Surrey Tabernacle, Borough Road

Before making a Collection in aid of the Funds of the Anti-Corn Law¹ League.

“And they shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war anymore.” Isaiah 2:4

THIS is one among the prophecies, which in its literal extent has not yet been fulfilled. And that the nations of the earth will progress till they arrive at the state here described, is beyond all dispute; and the oppositions that are offered to this interchange and inter-feeling of interest, shall be, under the Lord’s management, subservient to the furtherance of His own great designs. Not that I dream, with some, of a universal conversion of this world; but I do feel sure from the Word of God, that the time is coming, when the Gospel will be received by thousands in all nations. I make no hesitation in saying, the time is fast coming, when Ammon and Moab and Judea, and all round about those Eastern countries, Syria and Egypt, will profess the Gospel of Christ, and the glory of His name shall be revealed. So runs the prophecy of the Word of the living God; and the present state of things certainly seems to have some little tendency that way. And so, with this verse in particular; men seem to have found out that they are men, and not mere brutes, and that they should settle matters, not by the force of their animal powers, but by the force of superior intelligence.

But besides this general sense, our text has in it a spiritual meaning, which has realized a fulfilment in every age of the world, and in the regeneration of every one of the Lord’s people. And in this view there are three things in the text for us to attend to. First, cessation of war; secondly, prosperity; and thirdly, safety.

I.    First, cessation of war. The implements of war are to be turned to agriculture.

By nature, all are in a state of hostility against God, and the Lord has promised to overcome this hostility in His people: hence the promise to Christ is, “Your people shall be willing in the day of Your power.”

Here I may take a threefold view of the Gospel, in order to bring it before you in that form, in which it is hated, despised and rejected of men, and in which men's hostility to God appears, until the Lord overcomes it and reconciles them to Himself.

The first is the great act of eternal election. The Bible teaches, that there is a people, upon whom the Lord sovereignly has mercy, and a people whom He leaves and upon whom He has no mercy; a people whom He has chosen in Christ before the world was, and a people whom He has not chosen; a people whom He loves, and a people who are called “vessels of wrath” whom He does not love. Now the Lord, in this great act of eternal election especially, is hated, despised and rejected of men; and yet without it, not one soul could ever be saved. And how does the sinner find this secret out? Why, the Lord makes him feel the preponderating weight of eternal things, makes him feel that there is nothing so important to him as salvation; and the man, under this circumstance, does what he can towards making matters right between him and God. But conscience says, It is not right; and the law of God says, It is not right; and daily weaknesses and infirmities go on saying, It is not right; there is a certain something, that he cannot get matters right between himself and God. People say to him, Make your peace with God; and the man tries, and cannot. How it is, or why, he cannot tell, nor what is the matter; but he cannot bring himself to the conclusion that God loves him, that God is on his side, that God will save him. And he remains in this state of suspense, until experience shows him the vileness of his nature, the helplessness of his condition, and he is brought to the conclusion, that if ever matters are put right between God and his soul, God Himself must put them right, for he is utterly unable to do anything towards it. He says, ‘I am helpless, and what shall I do to be saved? which is the way that God saves a sinner? because if it is by something the sinner is to do, I am lost to all eternity, for I feel that I can neither fulfil the law, nor bring into my soul the blessings of the Gospel.' Thus, he is concerned about the matter; and by and bye he hears words like these, “By grace are ye saved” ‘What   does that

mean?’ and the answer is that we are saved, from first to last, by grace. And then he comes to this Scripture, “He has saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works,” not according to creature doings, “but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus, before the world began.” He thus sees that there was something done before the world began. And he reads on, and finds the apostle blessing God for something; and he says, What is it? Why, that “He has blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ, according as He has chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world;” that Christ’s “goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting;” that “Israel shall be saved in the Lord with an everlasting salvation, and they shall not be ashamed nor confounded, world without end.” ‘This is something new; here is a Gospel that can save sinners; but is it mine?’ Now when he is thus far led along, he cannot hate the doctrine of election, for two reasons. First, because he feels he cannot get to heaven, unless God has chosen him; and secondly, he sees in this order of things is a something which just suits him. And therefore, he says, ‘Ah! if the love of God be sovereign, has He loved me? if some are chosen to salvation, has He chosen me? Again, he reads his Bible, and he hears an apostle say, “Knowing, brethren beloved, your election of God;” ‘then,' he says, ‘here are some people that know this; how may I know it?' And Christ says, “Rejoice, because your names are written in heaven;” and the man says, ‘Is my name written in heaven? how can I know such a thing as this?' He goes on, and finds the apostle saying, “Our Gospel came not unto you in word only, but also in power and in the Holy Ghost and in much assurance.” ‘Ah!' says the man, ‘I see here the Lord brought pardon into their souls, He brought peace into their hearts, He brought in liberty, and they had the spirit of adoption, they had the Spirit of Christ within them, and Christ was dear to their hearts, and thus they learnt their eternal election.’ Now this is the way, friends, in which the Lord turns an enemy into a friend. The man goes on and finds that there is no salvation without the sovereign pleasure of God, and he is obliged to leave it there, and go on with that concern which the Holy Spirit engenders to know whether he is saved or not. And thus “the loftiness of man is brought low, and the haughtiness of men is humbled, and the Lord alone is exalted.” Let me ask, then, Has this been a concern with you? Men say, Do not trouble yourselves about election; the Bible says to the Lord's people, “Make your calling and election sure;” and the Psalmist wanted to enter into this subject, when he said, “Remember me, O Lord, with the favor that You bear unto Your people; oh! visit me with Your salvation; that I may see the good of Your chosen, that I may rejoice in the gladness of Your nation, that I may glory with thine inheritance.” The religion of the Son of God will bring to light the hostility of the heart against God, and from necessity he shall be driven to acknowledge, that if not saved in this free-grace order, he cannot be saved at all. But then, it is one thing for me to hold the doctrine of election as a part of a sound creed in my head, and another for it to be a matter of hope and experience. I will tell you what I mean by its being a matter of hope and experience. If you take away election, there is no hope for the man who feels what he is as a sinner; but seeing that salvation is of grace from first to last, (which it could not be without the great act of eternal election, for if that were taken away some creature act must be put in its place,) this confirms hope, and for the poorest and the vilest wretch there is hope. “It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.” and he shall continue in this hope, until the Lord reveals the truth that “his name is written in heaven,” and then shall he rejoice.

Now the next point is that of eternal perfection by the great work of the Lord Jesus Christ. This is another great truth, that the carnal mind cannot receive, nor indeed anyone without the quickening power of the Holy Ghost, eternal perfection by the great work of Christ. God the Father sees us there perfect; the Redeemer holds us there perfect; the Holy Ghost testifies of our perfection there. “That we may present every man,” says Paul, “perfect in Christ Jesus.” And this accords with eternal election; but I cannot stay to enlarge upon it.

The next is the certainty of everlasting glory by the joint operations of the sacred Three. For I do not know of any one transaction in the everlasting covenant, which is not the joint work of the three Persons in the Godhead. There is the love of the Father, there is the love of Christ, and there is the love of the Spirit. The Father chooses us, and Christ says, “I have chosen you and the Holy Spirit joins and bears testimony of our eternal election. And if you come to regeneration, it is said the Father quickens, and “the Son quickens whom He will,” and “it is the Spirit that quickens.” If you come to final perseverance, “none is able to pluck them out of the Father’s hand and Christ says, “Neither shall any pluck them out of My hand and of the Holy Spirit it is said, “He which has begun a good work in you, will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ.” If you go back to the Lord Jesus Christ, He was “begotten of the Father and “that which was conceived in her was of the Holy Ghost.” If you come to His life, God the Father appeared and bore witness of Him: and the Holy Ghost was “given without measure.” If you come to His death, “the Father put Him to grief;” He “laid down His life of Himself;” “through the eternal Spirit He offered Himself without spot to God.” If you come to His glorification, God the Father says, “I will honor Him”, and the Holy Ghost glorifies His name. It is the joint work of the sacred Three; and as the first creation was finished, independent of creatures or creature power, so shall the second creation be completed and God shall enter into rest, and the people into everlasting repose, to be enjoyed as the result of these great transactions, eternal election, eternal redemption, eternal glory.

Now this is the Gospel of God; and no other ever did or ever can do a man any spiritual or saving good. But when it is said that “the carnal mind is enmity against God,” we are not to understand that the carnal mind is always a hater of the Bible; thousands, in the day in which we live, will contend for the letter of the Bible, with as much outward and apparent zeal and sincerity, as any of the Lord’s people could do. Yet they hate this Gospel of God and despise those doctrines that we have been looking at. And therefore, in these matters we can compromise with no man. God’s election must be known; eternal redemption must be known; eternal glorification must be known. And therefore, God says, it shall be known that there is a difference between the Egyptians and Israel. And “who makes you to differ from another? and what hast you, that you did not receive?” But I must leave the matter with you, friends, whether or not you are brought to God and reconciled to Him in these great things, and He is your desire.

II.    We, therefore, notice the next part of our text: after cessation of war, comes prosperity. The people that were fighting against God, are to be employed now, not in matters of war, but of peace.

Now what is said in the Bible concerning this new employment? Why, that “whatsoever a man sows, that shall he also reap; he that sows to the flesh, shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that sows to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.” Now I could easily show you, that Catholicism, Wesleyanism, moderate Calvinism, Church-of-Englandism, are all sowing to the flesh, their leading doctrines are doctrines of the flesh, wherein the sovereignty of God, is not received, nor His truth really loved and known; but I would rather notice the positive, than the negative side of the question. “He that sows to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting.” The meaning is this: he that is brought to such a knowledge of what he is, as to renounce all confidence in the flesh, so that his hope becomes fixed upon Christ, and Christ alone, and he ascribes the whole of the work from first to last to free grace, and God in those relations at which I have hinted becomes dear to his heart, he is sowing to the Spirit; and in this way he shall reap life everlasting.

There is another simile, (to vary the metaphor of our text,) which will illustrate this point, because it sets forth that spiritual prudence which the Lord gives to His people. “Go to the ant you sluggard; consider her ways and be wise; which provides her meat in the summer and gathers her food in the harvest.” Here is an instructive foresight. Who gives the foresight to the ant? Why, the God of nature has constituted the ant, that it seeks beforehand that which it shall afterwards need. Herein the little ant is made a type of the work of God in the souls of His people; He so constitutes them by His grace, and by His regenerating power making them new creatures, that they, not from anything over which they had any control, (for the ant is what it is by the creative wisdom and power of God, and so they are “created anew in Christ Jesus unto good works,”), they are led to a knowledge of those stores, which are to supply them when the winter of death shall come, and their hopes and expectations and affections are all placed in Christ, and He is treasured up (as it were) in their affections as that which they shall have in time to come. Who provides the stores for the ant. He that has “blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ.” Who enables the poor little ants to bring those stores together? The Lord Himself watching over them. And who preserves those stores for them? for poor things, they could not keep them after they had got them; they would soon lose them. And so, the Lord has not given the stores of His mercy into the hands of His people. No: they are in Christ Jesus; and “this is the Father’s will, that of all which He has given Him, He should lose nothing.” Therefore, they are in safe hands; and we are sure to have these things in time to come. So then, here is a “sowing unto the Spirit.”

In the 126th Psalm, you have the Lord's people set forth under this circumstance very beautifully; for there is an allusion to the great anxiety connected with the harvest. James says, “Be patient, brethren,” as “the husbandman waits for the precious fruit of the earth and has long patience for it;” and in another place it is said, “He that observes the wind shall not sow, and he that regards the clouds shall not reap.” and Paul says, “Instant in season and out of season.” Now in the 126th Psalm it is said, “He that goes forth and weeps, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him.” Now the “sheaves” there simply mean the realization of all their hopes and expectations. Mark, they “go forth and weep;” and what is this weeping? Why over their wintry hardness, their wintry coldness, their barrenness, their wretchedness. These things make them miserable; these things try them. And blessed are those that are thus tried; for they that thus go, “bearing precious seed,” the incorruptible seed in their hearts, of which they are born of God, “shall come again with rejoicing, bringing their sheaves with them.” The Lord's people shall glorify the Lord by His own riches, for He furnishes them with all wherewith they are to come before Him and therefore the harvest shall indeed be good, and that by the Lord Jesus Christ.

Again: in the 72nd Psalm we have the prosperity of the Lord's people set forth. Take it first literally, as far as it will bear taking literally, as alluding to Solomon and his kingdom, and then as referring to Christ and His people. David, in that Psalm, is expressing a very high opinion of his son Solomon; and God our Father always bears a very high testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ, and you and I eternally shall speak highly of the Lord Jesus Christ. “The mountains shall bring peace to His people, and the little hills by righteousness:” the word “peace” there means contentment, and you know Paul’s rule of contentment, “Having food and raiment, let us be therewith content,” though we know some want to persuade us we ought to be contented short of that; but sure I am, in a spiritual sense, the mountains of Jehovah's eternal transactions bring contentment to us. But is this all? No: this spiritual Solomon “shall come down like rain upon the mown grass, as showers that water the earth;” that is, as soon as one crop is gone, down come the genial showers, and almost before you can look round there is another crop ready for you; as soon as the Lord's people have enjoyed one privilege, there is another ready for them, a succession of mercies, that they shall not dwell in a barren land, but in a good land, a land for which the Lord their God cares, and “His eyes and His heart are there continually.” But still further: “In His days shall the righteous flourish, and abundance of peace so long as the moon endures; His name shall endure forever, His name shall be continued as long as the sun.” The sun ana the moon, you may depend upon it, in spite of all that men or angels can do, will continue as long as they are wanted: and Christ Jesus will continue too as long as He is needed, and that will be forever, for “the Lord shall be thine everlasting light, and your God your glory,” and “your sun shall no more go down.” Surely then, “in His days shall the righteous flourish;” and what are His days? Why, “the day of His power,” and “the day of salvation,” and “the day of prosperity” and His days preclude all others, for He becomes “all and in all.” So then, here in a spiritual sense we have our text fulfilled, and our everlasting prosperity shown.

III.    Now we notice, in the last place, safety.

The safety of the produce of Judea, you know, depended upon the conformity of the Jews to the covenant, under which they were; and hence, when they gave up God's institutions, and gave way to idolatry, the canker-worm and the palmer worm (a very bad sort of worm) were sent, and ate up the fruits of the field; but when they acted in conformity with the Lord’s institutions, they were then acting according to the order of that covenant, and were blessed with produce, and their adversaries were cut off around them. They were then safe in their possessions. While Solomon, for instance, walked in conformity with the institutions of that dispensation, the nations around were tributary to him and added to his riches, and the consequence was great abundance; but by and bye Solomon fell, and then his adversaries gained the advantage, and a sort of Corn Law (I suppose) interposed, for taxation became so heavy, that when he died you find the people coming to his son Rehoboam, requesting that some of those taxes might be taken off; for when Solomon gave way to idolatry, his supplies ceased, and he could no longer support his expensive household without those taxes. Now Solomon, as far as he did right, and while he did right (but no longer), is a type of Christ; by whose eternal conformity to all the truth of God we have eternal prosperity. So that this new covenant is very different from the old. Under the Old Testament dispensation, it was a matter of duty with the people to walk in those institutions; but under the New it is not; and I do not like the word. You would not say to the blind, that it is a matter of duly to receive sight; or to the maimed, or the leper, that it is a matter of duty to be healed and demised; no, they feel that these things are mercies. And the Lord brings His people to feel that they are blind and so on by nature, and the Lord heals their wounds and conforms them to His truth and writes His law in their hearts. So that as Solomon was in the way of prosperity as far as he acted consistently, he is a type in this of the Lord Jesus Christ, who “did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth” and as Christ never fails, our prosperity can never fail, for you read of the tree of life that it bore fruit all the year round. Hence, He says to His people, “Rise up, My love, My fair one, and come away; for lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone, the flowers appear on the earth, the time of the singing of birds is come setting forth, you see, that fulness of eternal prosperity, we must have in the Lord Jesus Christ. So that let matters go as they will in temporal things, yet in spiritual things we have eternal prosperity through Jesus Christ our Lord.

And now, after having preached the Gospel to you, I come to the subject, for which we are to have a collection.

All the arguments that I have heard brought in defense of the Corn Laws, may be reduced to the four, which I will presently bring before you, and show the reasons why with me they have no weight. But first let me say, for the sake of those who have never paid attention to these things, you well know that there is a great deal of distress in the country, and that distress is increasing, and must increase; you know there is a great dullness in trade; on the other hand, there are vast tracts of land in foreign parts, where the produce is very greatly beyond the need of the people; you know, that we should be very glad to take their corn, and they would be very glad to take our goods; you know also, that there is a law which prevents their corn being landed here, without paying a certain duty; and at present this is upon what they call a “sliding scale,” which is generally at so high a rate as to prevent their landing at all. Now, some few years ago, what is called the Anti-Corn-Law League was formed at Manchester, with a view and a determination to agitate the subject, and to employ Lecturers to go through the country, to point out the cause of the distress and the remedy. The League was laughed at, laughed at in Parliament and laughed at out of Parliament; however, it has gathered strength, and even a great many farmers have come round to it, till the matter has become a grave consideration with Parliament. But this League cannot go on, without having wherewith to send out their Lecturers, and publish their paper (which is issued once a fortnight), to point out where the disease is and where the remedy is, and to promote those measures, by which we may constrain, peacefully constrain, Parliament to yield to our wishes.

Now the first of the four arguments for the Corn Laws, that I have heard, is this: they say, that repealing them would make bread so cheap, that it would bring down poor men's wages. The reason why this argument has no weight with me is, that cheapness or dearness of bread has nothing at all to do with men's wages, Men's wages depend altogether upon the quantity of labor that is wanted to be performed. If there is a vast call for manufactured goods, there is consequently a vast call for hands to perform the labor. Suppose there to be such a call, so great that hardly hands enough can be obtained; at any rate, the result is, that men become well remunerated for what they do. It does not matter whether bread is dear or cheap; that has nothing at all to do with it. Men’s wages depend altogether upon the amount of labor that is wanted to be done. When labor is scarce, wages must be low; but if the Corn-Laws are repealed, it will be as difficult for the masters to get men, as it is now for the men to get masters.

The next argument is that foreigners would take all the gold out of the country. Now the reason why I think nothing of this argument is, that that is not a matter of choice; they could not do it. A merchant comes over here from America, and brings a cargo of wheat in his vessel; he sells it here; now what must he do? He must go back with his gold, or else he must buy English goods. Suppose for a twelvemonth or so they do take gold, the gold will become so cheap in America that they can get perhaps only one per cent for it; and the consequence is, they will be very glad to bring it back again. And then, the prosperity of a country does not depend upon gold. There is plenty of money in England now; we do not want more money; we want the circulation of what there is. And money rises and falls, according to circumstances. It is not the amount of money that you are to look at; it is the amount of property that that money commands. Three hundred years ago, a laboring man got only four-pence a day in this country, but that was good wages, for with that four-pence he could get a pair of shoes, that would now cost seven shillings, and you know very well that workmen do not all get seven shillings a day now; many of them work for one and sixpence a day, and less than that; so that they were better of then, with their four-pence a day, than most workmen are now. Therefore the question with you should be not exactly what money you can get, but what the money will buy for you.

Another argument is that the repeal of the Corn laws would ruin the agricultural interest, because our markets would be so overflowed with foreign corn, that our farmers would not be able to compete with it. Now there are two reasons why this argument has no weight with me; there are two things, which are altogether overlooked. If the Corn laws were repealed, and foreigners must (for interposing circumstances would make them) take a great quantity of our manufactured goods, the consequence would be, that thousands and thousands of men would be called into active exercise, and thousands and thousands of families that now have not a quarter of enough, would buy five or six loaves where they now buy one; and that would make such a vast increase of demand in the market, as would prevent the price of bread sinking so low as you think. And then there is another thing, which indeed is wrapped up in this. Ireland, you know, at present imports a great deal of wheat into this country every year; not because they do not want it there, but because having no work, or not being justly remunerated for their work, they cannot buy the corn; the poor man says, 'I can buy only a few potatoes,’ and the farmer says, ‘I must take the corn to England and sell it there.’ But repeal the Corn Laws, and then labor will revive, wages will rise, and they will consume their corn themselves. I do not believe the repeal of the Corn Laws would make bread so very cheap; I believe, there would be a vast increase of demand for it, from the thousands who have not now a quarter enough, and then that Ireland would keep her produce to herself, and perhaps want some from abroad, and these two things would make a vast difference. I have no idea that the agricultural interest would be injured; it might shake the landlord’s purses for the first year, but it would soon right itself. But there is another circumstance to be considered here: the population of England is rapidly increasing, and what are you to do with them? You cannot throw them into the agricultural districts; they can employ no more. But not so with the manufactories; they can be extended as far as the call for goods can be carried. Our manufacturing departments can employ millions of hands more; our agricultural districts cannot. To be sure, there are a few uncultivated lands, but they are hardly worth naming; they may feed a few sparrows perhaps, but they are not worth cultivating. Therefore, I do not think anything of this argument either; for these circumstances that I have named, would keep bread from getting very cheap. ‘Why, then,’ say you, ‘we should be as badly off, after all.’ No; you do not mind whether bread is Is. or 2s. a loaf, if you can earn the money to get it. As the poor Irishman said, when he bought a loaf for 4d, “I could have got it for 2f. in Ireland” “Then why did you not stay there?” “Because I could not get any twopences there.” And then again, if I am speaking to any farmers tonight, who think this will throw their land into pasturage, and their men out of work, if you think this, you fear where no fear is. But I can tell you one thing, that will throw your men out of work, whether we get the repeal of the Corn Laws or not. ‘Ah! why, what is that?’ Why, steam will step into our fields, and perform all the labor of agriculture without either man or horse; and what will you do with your men then? So that you farmers had better be quiet; for if this steam power does step into your fields, and do all your work, you will have to keep your men in workhouses and pay pretty large poor rates; but repeal the Corn Laws, and we will turn your workhouses into manufactories. And I have not a doubt that steam will step into your fields; I wonder it has not before; depend upon it, it is at the gates, and an ounce of prevention is better than a pound of cure; as the Free-Willers say, you had better be in time. And therefore, I say, this will not hurt the agricultural interest, but the contrary. ‘Oh! sir, but there is a man that keeps three carriages and such a host of men, and they would all be dismissed; what would you do with them?' Why, employ them all in our trade departments, as many as my lord or his grace will dismiss. It is of no use talking against machinery. We want to lessen vain labor, and increase useful labor, or that which brings an ample reward. I believe machinery will come to be the greatest temporal blessing this country ever had. And with regard to the interests of the farmers themselves, the farmers would not suffer; no, nor yet even the agricultural interest in general.

Now for the last argument. Some of my friends have used this argument, ‘There is a great majority of Conservatives in the House of Commons, and it is fighting against God to contend for a repeal of the Corn Laws.' Now I meditated upon the matter a little, and I thought to myself thus: Who are the people, that are fighting against God? those that are starving thousands upon thousands to aggrandize a few, or those who wish the bounties of God to be enjoyed by all? And so I looked into the Bible, and I found, “He that withholds corn, the people shall curse him;!' and then I thought, Now I see who it is that is fighting against God. And then I thought of Popish times: there was a majority in Parliament that were for Popery, but the martyrs in a proper way opposed them; did they fight against God! No. Does not the Bible all through advocate the cause of the poor and therefore who are the persons that fight against God, those that oppress the poor or those that advocate their cause? ‘Oh but' (say some) ‘many of these men are very liberal’ Ave, but what is the good of temporary liberally? Why, you know, in Roman history, there were two men, Pompey and Crassus, aiming at the throne of Rome; Crassus had immense wealth, and he scattered it among the people, and the people were all in love with him; Pompey had no wealth worth speaking of, but there were some laws that stood against the liberty of the people, and he interceded for the repeal of those laws; well, the riches of Crassus were all gone after a time and then the people found Pompey’s laws infinitely better than the riches of Crassus. And so now. Why, if we were to collect five millions, or ten millions, the people would be as badly off as ever in a few months; we want laws, good laws. And do not you attach too much importance to the circumstance, who is in office, whether Whigs or Tories (as they call them), Conservatives or Liberals. It does not matter. For instance, trade was very dull in the latter times of the late ministry, and now if it should happen to revive a little, weak minds will think, ‘Ah! that is because of the Tories being in office;’ whereas neither the old ministry nor the new is the cause in either case. If that were the cause, the transfer from one to the other would give a national shock: but it did not; the newspapers talked about it, but things remained the same with us. No, no, that does not make the difference. Public opinion is everything now. The opinion is gaining ground, that the Corn Laws must be repealed; and when that opinion has encircled the nation, the Conservatives will either be obliged to repeal the Corn Laws, or to give place to others that will. It depends upon public opinion. And as to the effects, the Lord has blessed us with a Queen, that ought to be honored, and we wish her happiness, and I believe her heart would be rejoiced; and I do not know, but we might have to send a vote of thanks to the Parliament every year for their wise and liberal measures: a novel thing certainly, but it might come to that.

Do not think now that I have been standing up to oppose our Constitution. It is a mixture of monarchy and aristocracy and democracy; and I love it. Only let it have room to breathe; unfetter its arms and its legs.

Now I think we ought to give our mite, to enable the League to go on sending out Lecturers and advocating this cause; it belongs to us as subjects of the British empire and therefore I do not feel condemned, but justified, in thus coming forward to advocate the cause of my country, the cause of the poor, and the cause of many of the Lord's people.

[The Collection amounted to £23. 0s. 4d]

¹

As quoted from Wikipedia: “The Corn Laws were tariffs and other trade restrictions on imported food and corn enforced in the United Kingdom between 1815 and 1846. The word corn in British English denotes all cereal grains, including wheat, oats and barley. They were designed to keep corn prices high to favour domestic producers, and represented British mercantilism.[a] The Corn Laws blocked the import of cheap corn, initially by simply forbidding importation below a set price, and later by imposing steep import duties, making it too expensive to import it from abroad, even when food supplies were short. The House of Commons passed the corn law bill on 10 March 1815, the House of Lords on 20 March and the bill received royal assent on 23 March 1815.

The Corn Laws enhanced the profits and political power associated with land ownership. The laws raised food prices and the costs of living for the British public, and hampered the growth of other British economic sectors, such as manufacturing, by reducing the disposable income of the British public.”