Speech of Mr Alderman Cobden, At the Town Council, On Proposing..

1841. 17-1/2" x 11" (44.4 x 28 cm) broadside. Unrecorded. 17-1/2" x 11" (44.4 x 28 cm) broadside. Unrecorded. Unrecorded Broadside Decrying Trade Protectionism at the Expense of the Poor [Broadside]. Cobden, Richard [1804-1865]. Speech of Mr. Alderman Cobden, At the Town Council, On Proposing a Resolution to Petition Both Houses of Parliament for the Total and Immediate Repeal of the Corn Law. (From the Manchester Times of Saturday, April 3, 1841). Manchester: Prentice and Cathrall, Printers, Times Office, Ducie Place, [1841]. 17-1/2" x 11" (44.4 x 28 cm) broadside, text in three columns below headline. Moderate toning, moderate edgewear, corner folds, horizontal and vertical fold lines, a few minor tears along folds, minor worming to lower half of left margin. Rare. $1,250. * The Corn Laws, sometimes referred to collectively as the Corn Law, were a series of tariffs and trade restrictions enacted in the 1830s to maintain the price of British cereals by restricting access to less expensive imports. They put a great deal of strain on the poor, a situation that was exacerbated by a series of contemporary famines. What is more, many saw them as a device to aid and enrich the rural landholding rural aristocrat at the expense of the common man. Popular agitation against the laws helped to bring about the Parliamentary Reform Bill of 1832, which introduced a measure of democracy by granting the vote to a larger share of the population. Cobden, a successful Manchester manufacturer, was a Liberal politician and free-trade advocate who was a leader of the Anti-Corn Law League. He served three terms as a Member of Parliament, representing, successively, Stockport, the West Riding of Yorkshire and Rochdale. As MP for Stockport he played an important role in the repeal of the laws in 1846. This broadside is rare. No copies listed on OCLC, Library Hub or the online catalogue of the British Library.