Author: LONGMATE, Norman.
Title: The Breadstealers: The Fight Against the Corm Laws, 1838 - 1846.
Description: Maurice Temple Smith Ltd, 1984. Hardcover. When the Anti-Corn-Law League was founded in 1839 it was opposed by every established interest in the country. To remove the import duties on corn, so almost all influential people believed, would ruin the landowners who were the backbone of the country and starve the already impoverished farm workers. Even the industrial workers, who stood to gain most, were far from united in support of the League. Despite all this, the members of the League went about their task with extraordinary energy and skill. They were, on the whole, men of affairs, used to conducting business effectively, and they were led by some of the great political personalities of the Victorian age, most notably Cobden and Bright. Norman Longmate tells the whole story of the League, from its tentative beginnings, with a few desperately underpaid lecturers touring the country urging the case for repeal, up to its triumphant conclusion on the dramatic night in the House of Commons when Sir Robert Peel split the Conservative Party by conceding what the League had always stood out for, despite all temptations to compromise - total repeal of the Corn Laws. A touch of sunning to spine of dj, otherwise condition vg. B/W plates and illustrations. 270pp., ISBN 0851172458.

Keywords: British history Anti-Corn-Law League 1839 import duties duty landowners farm Victorian age House of Commons Sir Robert Peel Conservative Party politics political