2
Already adept at banging the drum against such issues as smoking, drink and the poor, Thomas now put the Anti-Corn Law campaign through his printing presses. While his
Cheap Bread Herald
spoke of the ‘moral injustice’ and ‘class legislation’ which only helped the landowners, Thomas addressed meeting after meeting with intense fervour. His speeches, forthright and to the point, were delivered with the passion of someone who had known the suffering of hunger as a child. Behind the impassioned speaker was his childhood persona: the hungry boy smelling the aroma of freshly baked crusty loaves, but being unable to taste them because his mother could not afford it. Similar misery and suffering had fuelled his horror of alcohol.
Since 1815, the price of corn and other cereals had been protected by the Corn Laws because it was argued that agriculture needed to be propped up. Wheat had trebled in price from 43 shillings a quarter (28lb) in 1792, the year prior to war against France breaking out. It rose to 126 shillings in 1812, the year Napoleon had marched across Russia to Moscow. 3 When prices had dropped after Waterloo, many farmers were ruined and rents could not be paid. While the Corn Law of 1815 safeguarded landlords, it both penalised consumers and caused political unrest. Cereal crops may have appeared not to be relevant to the warehouses in Lancashire piled high with unsold cotton goods, but both were the subject of tariffs, and both were arguments in the strategy of the Leaguers. This protection was implemented when foreign corn, including much from the United States, was prohibited if, due to a good harvest, the home corn fell to a specified price. In the following years import duties fluctuated dependent on the price of home corn.
The religious fervour of Leaguers was shown by the name of the newspaper, the
Free Trade Catechism
, and in such mottoes as ‘Give us our daily bread’, as the theme of many of the speeches. Free Trade was put up as a panacea capable of overcoming all economic and social ills.
Among the many arguments in the Anti-Corn Laws agenda was the suggestion that a high-rate of duty on imported grain would provoke foreigners to retaliate by boycotting British exports. Thomas proudly told how he was one of the agitators: ‘I was intensely interested in the progress towards Free Trade; and in connection with the repeal of the Corn Laws I took a very active part in promoting interest and excitement among the people. I published a little paper entitled the
Cheap Bread Herald
, in which my main object was to accelerate the downfall of Protection.’ 4 He further spoke of the havoc wrought by farmers keeping the price of wheat high and bakers who cheated with underweight loaves. Appalled at bogus claims and false advertising, he formed a committee to expose bakers and force them to price their bread honestly. His motivation was similar to that behind the soup kitchens he was later to organise:
On such evenings there generally collected together about 1,000 people to listen to my statements from my public window of my house, and during most of the time I had the satisfaction of issuing exposing placards headed ‘Down Again,’ as prices continued to fall. A committee was formed to work with me, and very strenuous efforts were made to compel the bakers and breadsellers to sell bread by weight, and much excitement was created in the town. One Monday morning we sent out a number of men to purchase a loaf from every baker and breadseller in Leicester; the loaves were ticketed with the name of the shop where each was bought and the price paid, and in the evening, in response to an invitation by placard, at least 2,000 people assembled in the Amphitheatre in Humberstone Gate to witness a public Assize of Bread.
One by one, the loaves of bread from the shops, of all shapes and sizes, were carried up to the raised platform, where, by permission of the town clerk, the borough scales were waiting. Each
Already adept at banging the drum against such issues as smoking, drink and the poor, Thomas now put the Anti-Corn Law campaign through his printing presses. While his
Cheap Bread Herald
spoke of the ‘moral injustice’ and ‘class legislation’ which only helped the landowners, Thomas addressed meeting after meeting with intense fervour. His speeches, forthright and to the point, were delivered with the passion of someone who had known the suffering of hunger as a child. Behind the impassioned speaker was his childhood persona: the hungry boy smelling the aroma of freshly baked crusty loaves, but being unable to taste them because his mother could not afford it. Similar misery and suffering had fuelled his horror of alcohol.
Since 1815, the price of corn and other cereals had been protected by the Corn Laws because it was argued that agriculture needed to be propped up. Wheat had trebled in price from 43 shillings a quarter (28lb) in 1792, the year prior to war against France breaking out. It rose to 126 shillings in 1812, the year Napoleon had marched across Russia to Moscow. 3 When prices had dropped after Waterloo, many farmers were ruined and rents could not be paid. While the Corn Law of 1815 safeguarded landlords, it both penalised consumers and caused political unrest. Cereal crops may have appeared not to be relevant to the warehouses in Lancashire piled high with unsold cotton goods, but both were the subject of tariffs, and both were arguments in the strategy of the Leaguers. This protection was implemented when foreign corn, including much from the United States, was prohibited if, due to a good harvest, the home corn fell to a specified price. In the following years import duties fluctuated dependent on the price of home corn.
The religious fervour of Leaguers was shown by the name of the newspaper, the
Free Trade Catechism
, and in such mottoes as ‘Give us our daily bread’, as the theme of many of the speeches. Free Trade was put up as a panacea capable of overcoming all economic and social ills.
Among the many arguments in the Anti-Corn Laws agenda was the suggestion that a high-rate of duty on imported grain would provoke foreigners to retaliate by boycotting British exports. Thomas proudly told how he was one of the agitators: ‘I was intensely interested in the progress towards Free Trade; and in connection with the repeal of the Corn Laws I took a very active part in promoting interest and excitement among the people. I published a little paper entitled the
Cheap Bread Herald
, in which my main object was to accelerate the downfall of Protection.’ 4 He further spoke of the havoc wrought by farmers keeping the price of wheat high and bakers who cheated with underweight loaves. Appalled at bogus claims and false advertising, he formed a committee to expose bakers and force them to price their bread honestly. His motivation was similar to that behind the soup kitchens he was later to organise:
On such evenings there generally collected together about 1,000 people to listen to my statements from my public window of my house, and during most of the time I had the satisfaction of issuing exposing placards headed ‘Down Again,’ as prices continued to fall. A committee was formed to work with me, and very strenuous efforts were made to compel the bakers and breadsellers to sell bread by weight, and much excitement was created in the town. One Monday morning we sent out a number of men to purchase a loaf from every baker and breadseller in Leicester; the loaves were ticketed with the name of the shop where each was bought and the price paid, and in the evening, in response to an invitation by placard, at least 2,000 people assembled in the Amphitheatre in Humberstone Gate to witness a public Assize of Bread.
One by one, the loaves of bread from the shops, of all shapes and sizes, were carried up to the raised platform, where, by permission of the town clerk, the borough scales were waiting. Each
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