These men said that they would rather remain unemployed for twenty years than get cotton from the South at the expense of the slave.

A month later Cobden writes to Charles Sumner: "I know nothing in my political experience so striking, an a display of spontaneous public action, as that of the vast gathering at Exeter Hall (in London), when, without one attraction in the form of a popular orator, the vast building, its minor rooms and passages, and the streets adjoining, were crowded with an enthusiastic audience.

That meeting has had a powerful effect on our newspapers and politicians.

It has closed the mouths of those who have been advocating the side of the South.

And I now write to assure you that any unfriendly act on the part of our Government--no matter which of our aristocratic parties is in power--towards your cause is not to be apprehended.