In Manchester the Club members had "smashed up the last Abolitionist meeting in the Free Trade Hall": "These parties are not the rich spinners but young men of energy with a taste for agitation but little money.

It appears to my judgment that it would be wise not to stint money in aiding this effort to expose cant and diffuse the truth.

Manchester is naturally the centre of such a move and you will see there are here the germs of important work--but they need to be tended and fostered.

I have supplied a good deal of money individually but I see room for the use of L30 or L40 a month or more[1129]." The appeal for funds (though Spence wrote that he would advance the required amounts on the chance of reimbursement from the Confederate secret service fund) is interesting in comparison with the contributions willingly made by Bright's friends.

"Young men of energy with a taste for agitation but little money" reveals a source of support somewhat dubious in persistent zeal and requiring more than a heavy list of patrons' names to keep up a public interest.