Chapter Eleven
Author | Richard D. Schneider |
Pages | 99-108 |
Cae Eevn
- League was formed in by members of the
industrial classes to ght the government’s enormously unpopular
Corn Laws, rst introduced in , which were put in place to pro-
tect the prots of the wealthy land-owning farmers by setting inated,
rather than market-driven, prices on corn. e eect of the laws was
to keep the price of wheat and therefore bread unconscionably high.
is legislation was particularly hated by the people living in the large
fast-growing urban centres who were oended by having to pay these
exorbitant prices.
Enormous pressure was put upon the government of Sir Robert
Peel who eventually was won over and repealed the laws in – three
years after Drummond’s murder. Some elements of the Anti-Corn
Law League were not averse to violent displays of their dissatisfaction.
At the time of Mr. Drummond’s murder in , Sir Robert Peel and
his government were enduring constant pressure to repeal the laws.
e anti-government attitude of the league and the suspicion that they
were behind various nefarious events, caused some commentators to
speculate that it may have been the proselytizing of the league that
incited M’Naughten to attempt the murder of Sir Robert Peel.
In response to such speculation, e Times wrote in its issue of
January on the subject of Drummond’s murder:
is brings us to the consideration of a point, which we would handle
with great delicacy; and we must begin by saying that we do not think
even the least scrupulous of our political opponents so destitute of
Christian and manly feeling as to promote or countenance assassina-
tion or any other act at all approaching it in the scale of criminality.
e Anti-Corn Law League for instance, we have never ceased to
Get this document and AI-powered insights with a free trial of vLex and Vincent AI
Get Started for FreeUnlock full access with a free 7-day trial
Transform your legal research with vLex
-
Complete access to the largest collection of common law case law on one platform
-
Generate AI case summaries that instantly highlight key legal issues
-
Advanced search capabilities with precise filtering and sorting options
-
Comprehensive legal content with documents across 100+ jurisdictions
-
Trusted by 2 million professionals including top global firms
-
Access AI-Powered Research with Vincent AI: Natural language queries with verified citations

Unlock full access with a free 7-day trial
Transform your legal research with vLex
-
Complete access to the largest collection of common law case law on one platform
-
Generate AI case summaries that instantly highlight key legal issues
-
Advanced search capabilities with precise filtering and sorting options
-
Comprehensive legal content with documents across 100+ jurisdictions
-
Trusted by 2 million professionals including top global firms
-
Access AI-Powered Research with Vincent AI: Natural language queries with verified citations

Unlock full access with a free 7-day trial
Transform your legal research with vLex
-
Complete access to the largest collection of common law case law on one platform
-
Generate AI case summaries that instantly highlight key legal issues
-
Advanced search capabilities with precise filtering and sorting options
-
Comprehensive legal content with documents across 100+ jurisdictions
-
Trusted by 2 million professionals including top global firms
-
Access AI-Powered Research with Vincent AI: Natural language queries with verified citations

Unlock full access with a free 7-day trial
Transform your legal research with vLex
-
Complete access to the largest collection of common law case law on one platform
-
Generate AI case summaries that instantly highlight key legal issues
-
Advanced search capabilities with precise filtering and sorting options
-
Comprehensive legal content with documents across 100+ jurisdictions
-
Trusted by 2 million professionals including top global firms
-
Access AI-Powered Research with Vincent AI: Natural language queries with verified citations

Unlock full access with a free 7-day trial
Transform your legal research with vLex
-
Complete access to the largest collection of common law case law on one platform
-
Generate AI case summaries that instantly highlight key legal issues
-
Advanced search capabilities with precise filtering and sorting options
-
Comprehensive legal content with documents across 100+ jurisdictions
-
Trusted by 2 million professionals including top global firms
-
Access AI-Powered Research with Vincent AI: Natural language queries with verified citations
