Last Friday was the fiftieth anniversary of the triumph of Free Trade in Englund, the royal assent having been given to the Bill repealing the Corn Laws on the 26th of June, 1846. The event was celebrated by the Cobden Club; first by the pre sentation of an address to Mr. ©. P. Villiers, the Father of the House of Commons and the only survivor of the four great leaders of the Free Trade movement; and secondly by a banquet at Greenwich on the following day. Mx. Villiers is very feeble now. He is bent almost double; and he is of course quite unable to attend to his parliamentary duties; but far advanced as he is in' his tenth decade his mind is still vigorous; and he has replied to the Club's address with a long and able vindication of his consistent attitude on the Free Trade question. Like the late Er] Grey who died two or three years ago at about Mr. Villiers's age, Mr. Villiers has always been a strong opponent of Commercial treaties, urging that they are inconsistent with Free Trade principles. He parted company with Richard Cobden on this question more than forty years ago and he contends that events have justified his attitude. At the Club's dinner at Greenwich the chair was taken by Mr. Leonard Courtney. It had been the desire of the Club that Viscount Peel, the son of the great statesman who carried the Repeal of the Corn Laws, should preside at the Jubilee Celebration, and I have reason to
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.