The Freeman 1972 - The Ludwig von Mises Institute

608 THE FREEMAN Octobernation shared his views. The problemnow was to .change the law.Before this was done, however,even worse calamities were tocome.liThe Battle of the League"What Bright's biographer 19 hascalled the "Battle of the League"is an interesting study in how towin political friends and influencelegislators. They tried every legitimatetechnique known to politicsand then available. They distributedliterally tons of tracts: "... asmany as three and a half tons oftracts were delivered from Manchesterin a week."20 The ladies.had tea parties, and Anti-CornLaw League bazaars were heldwhich were more of "the characterof a great art Expositionthan of a mere bazaar;" here customerscould buy "free tradehl!ndkerchiefs, anti-corn lawbreadplates and teapots and antimonopolypin cushions." A greatconference of the clergy was heldat Manchester and many ministersbegan to preach that the corn lawswere "anti-scriptural and anti-religious,opposed to the law ofGod."Since Bright himself was a devoutQuaker and thought in Biblicalterms, this is just the way hewanted it. It was easy for cynicsthen and since to see in Bright'sefforts a thinly disguised effortto promote his own interests andthose of the business community,but this is hardly fair to him. Hewas no hypocrite. He could be asstaunch for what he believed wa.sright when he had nothing to gainand everything to lose. For instance,he was bitterly opposed tothe Crimean War a decade laterand on principle, although hisstand made him enormously unpopularand caused him to lose hisseat in Parliament. He was quiteprepareQ. to suffer for his beliefs.When Bright found free trade inthe Bible - "As a nation of BibleChristians, we ought to realizethat trade should be as free as thewinds of heaven" - he meant it,and his own' sincerity and deepconvictions were convincing:. . . he refused to separate thespheres of morality and politics.Moreover, he did all this at a timewhen the mood of the informed menof the age disposed them to prefersubtle calculations of political expediencyto adherence to general principlesof conduct. 21The Biblical and moral argumentscarried great weight witha lot of people who had helped toabolish slavery throughout theEmpire a dozen years earlier, butthose who were not swayed by theethical approach found RichardCobden's facts convincing. He alsowas in Parliament and, if less elo-