66 Having thus, Gentlemen, intrusted to all of you collectively, a secret, one syllable of which I would not have breathed to any one of you individually, for the whole world; having, I trust, proved to you how truly amiable Protection is; how far more sinn'd against than sinning;" having, as you did see, her full authority to address you as her champion; and having, as you did not see, kissed hands-and every thing else on the appointment; I shall now, with the utmost confidence, in the highest spirits, and without further preamble-begin. Begin! when both my paper and your impatience warn me, that I have scarcely time or space for bidding you farewell! Farewell! then-but not without a parting sigh of indignation at this scandalous " experiment," which Wealth is making at the cost of Labour ; degrading, with "universal benevolence," the bulk of our working classes to the " continental level; and, with " cheap foreign corn," throwing our lands out of cultivation, and our cultivators out of bread; plausibly pretending to " lighten the springs of Industry," yet, in reality, clogging every wheel in the machine: but, to the most sceptical, ere long, will Truth be revealed: every lie-"in-aid" is well nigh exhausted; and soon will every knee be bent, and every hand uplifted, to implore, for millions of loyal men, Protection from a scheme, which did require the head of the Devil to contrive, which will require the heart of the Devil to carry into execution, and which-in firm reliance on the Divine Justice-I leave, with hope and confidence, to the unerring vengeance-not of man, but-of God, to repay. VOBIS-Supplicii eorum spectaculum, non modò non acerbum, sed lætum etiam-SI SANA MENS REDIIT— debet esse; de nullis enim, quàm de VOBIS, infestiùs aut inimiciùs consuluerunt. |