2-888-290 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The Great Protectionist Meeting, in the Castle-Yard, Lincoln, 1850. '...a meeting of the nobility, gentry, farmers, merchants, and others, of the county of Lincoln, convened by the High Sheriff, in compliance with a numerously signed requisition,...to take into consideration the present depressed state of the agricultural and other branches of native industry...The greatest number of present at any period of the day was probably from 10,000 to 12,000, among whom there were many agricultural labourers...Lincolnshire was entirely an agricultural county, possessing no large manufactures, and, therefore, the industrious labouring population were entirely dependent upon agriculture for their subsistence. No one would deny, not even the most staunch friends of Free Trade, that great distress existed, not only in the town of Lincoln, but in all the villages throughout the county'. From "Illustrated London News", 1850.