XLI. 1842. with manufactured goods, or how extensive and lucrative CHAP. might be the commerce you might carry on with them. However rising may be the manufactures of the United States, there is not enough of that species of industry, and probably there will not be for a very long time, to furnish with clothes and other articles of rude comfort this great population. 38. "If a moderate fixed duty were established, you would have a complete change effected in the corn trade. Continued. Instead of gambling transactions, which the system of taking the average prices in the great towns has a direct tendency to foster, you would establish a sound and advantageous trade; and instead of the merchant hurrying at every rise in price to the foreign market on the Continent, and thus needlessly enhancing the price of corn, you would establish a steady and well-regulated barter, which would at the same time supply your wants, and establish new fields for the consumption of the produce of your manufacturing industry. Under such a system the merchant would make his arrangements for buying a supply of corn in those places where it was cheapest, and would bring it home at a period when he thought it would be best disposed of both to the country and himself. Above all, by such a system you would extend greatly your commercial relations both of export and import with the United States. Were this system once thoroughly established and acted upon, England would become the great corn emporium of the world, and a supply of food would be secured for its inhabitants both at the cheapest and the most equable rates. 66 39. Why is the earth on which we live divided into different zones and climates? Why do different coun- Concluded. tries yield different productions to people experiencing similar wants? Why are they intersected with mighty rivers, the natural highways of nations? Why are lands the most distant brought into contact by that very ocean which seems to separate them? Why, sir, it is that CHAP. XLI. 1842. man may be made dependent on man. It is that the exchange of commodities may be accompanied by the extension and diffusion of knowledge, by the interchange of mutual benefits engendering mutual kind feelings, multiplying and confirming friendly relations. It is, that Commerce may freely go forth, leading Civilisation with one hand and Peace with the other, to render mankind happier, wiser, better. This is the dispensation of Providence, this is the decree of that Power which created and disposed the universe. But in the face of it, with 1 Parl. Deb. arrogant presumptuous folly, the dealers in restrictive 619; Ann. duties fly, fettering the inborn energies of man, and 41. setting up their miserable legislation instead of the great standing laws of nature."1* lx. 346, Reg. 1838, 40. The bill passes both various amend ments are thrown out. April 5. The House divided upon this debate, when there appeared for Lord John Russell's amendment 226, Houses, and against it 349-majority for Sir R. Peel, 123. This division was of course decisive of the fate of the measure in the Lower House: the second reading passed by a majority of 284 to 176. An amendment, proposed by Mr Christopher, and supported by the whole strength of the Protectionists, with the object of raising the scale of duties, was rejected by a majority of 306 to 104; a majority which was justly regarded as ominous of the fate of the whole Corn Laws at no distant period. A resolution proposed by Mr Cobden on the third reading, to the effect of abrogating the duties altogether, was in like manner rejected by 236 to 86. Thus, so far as could be gathered from the votes of the House, it was resolved to support the middle course, stand by the Minister, and to avoid the extremes on either side. In the House of Lords the bill was, upon the whole, favourably received, although the Duke of Buckingham expressed the greatest alarm at the measure. It was supported, however, by Lord Winchilsea and a number of the ultra The concluding striking paragraph is taken verbatim from Lord Palmerston's splendid peroration.-Parl. Deb. xlix. 619. The second CHAP. XLI. 1842. 1842, 41, 79; Parl. Tories, as well as the whole Ministerialists. reading passed without opposition; but Lord Melbourne afterwards moved the substitution of a fixed duty for the Ann. Reg. sliding-scale, and Lord Brougham the total abolition of all duties, both of which were rejected, the former by a Deb. Ix. majority of 117 to 49, the latter by 87 to 6. The bill 1167, lxii. then passed and became law without any farther oppo- s04. sition.1 620, 1082, 75,722, 41. of the mea country. During the progress of the measure, the nation, as might have been expected on a question of so much Reception importance, and so interesting to large bodies of men on sure in the both sides, was seriously agitated on the subject. At first great dissatisfaction was expressed in the manufacturing towns, and in some of them Sir R. Peel was even burned in effigy for having proposed the retention of any duty at all on foreign grain. The landed proprietors also, and farmers in several places-especially those districts where wheat was largely grown-though not so noisy in the expression of their disapprobation, were not less the prey of serious apprehension as to the ability of British agriculture, oppressed as it was with so many burdens, to maintain its ground against foreign competition. By degrees, however, these feelings were softened down on both sides, and the nation generally acquiesced in the change, regarding it, though for different reasons, as if not the best that either could have desired, at least 1842, 53; the best which, under existing circumstances, could be 532. obtained.2 2 Ann. Reg. Mart. ii. 42. difficulties Peel. The alteration of the duties on grain, though not the least important, was but a part of the comprehensive Financial plan of the Prime Minister. In addition to the loud of Sir R. cry for the repeal of the Corn Laws, he had to face a difficulty of a still more pressing kind, arising from the deficiency of the revenue, amounting already to £2,500,000, and which, with the necessary expenses falling on this country from the Affghanistan expedition, could not be estimated at less than £4,700,000. How XLI. 1842. CHAP. to meet this with the resources of an impoverished realm, and a people who, so far from being disposed to acquiesce in an increase, were loudly clamouring for a reduction of taxation, appeared almost an impossibility; and yet the attempt absolutely required to be made, if England would avoid descending at once from her high position in the scale of nations. Sir Robert Peel attempted it with a courage and manliness worthy of the highest admiration; and the speech with which he ushered in his important 1 Parl. Deb. measures was one of the most remarkable of his long and brilliant career. It was on the 11th March that, in a very crowded House, and amidst breathless silence, he thus expressed himself:-1 lxi. 423; Ann. Reg. 1842, 72, 73. 43. speech on measures. "No one can feel more strongly than I do the imSir R. Peel's portance and extent of the duty that now devolves on introducing me, and my own inadequacy to its discharge. But I his financial should be unworthy of the trust committed to me, I should be unworthy of my place as Minister of the British Crown, if I could feel disheartened or discouraged, if I could feel anything but that buoyancy and contentedness of mind which ought to sustain every public man on entering on the discharge of a public duty-conscious that he is actuated by no motives that are not honourable and just, and feeling a deep and intimate conviction that, according to the best conclusion of his imperfect and fallible judgment, the measures which he intends to propose will be conducive to the welfare, I may say essential to the prosperity, of his country. We live in an important era of human affairs. There may be a natural tendency to overrate the magnitude of the crisis in which we live, or those particular events with which we are ourselves conversant; but I think it is impossible to deny that the period in which our lot and the lot of our fathers has been cast-the period which has elapsed since the first outbreak of the first French Revolution-has been one of the most memorable that the history of the world will afford. The course which England has pur XLI. 1842. sued during that period will attract for ages to come the CHAP. contemplation, and, I trust, the admiration of posterity. There will be a time when these countless millions that are sprung from our loins, occupying many parts of the globe, living under institutions different from ours, but speaking our language, will view with pride and admiration the example of constancy and fortitude which our fathers set during the momentous period of war. They will view with admiration our achievements by land and by sea, our determination to uphold the public credit, and all those qualities by which we were enabled ultimately to effect the deliverance of Europe. I am now addressing you after the duration of twenty-five years of peace. I am now exhibiting to you the financial difficulties and embarrassments in which you are placed, and my confident hope and belief is, that, following the example of those who have preceded you, you will look those difficulties in the face, and not refuse to make similar sacrifices to those which your fathers made for the purpose of upholding public credit. 44. "You will bear in mind that this is no casual or occasional difficulty. You will bear in mind that there Continued. are indications among all the upper classes of increased comfort and enjoyment, of increased prosperity and wealth, and that concurrently with these indications. there exists a mighty evil which has been growing up for the last seven years, and which you are now called upon to meet. You will not reconcile it to your consciences to hope for relief from diminished taxation. If you have the fortitude and constancy of which you have been set the example, you will not consent with folded arms to view the annual growth of this mighty evil. You will not adopt the miserable expedient of adding during peace, and in the midst of those indications of wealth and increasing prosperity, to the burdens which posterity will be called upon to bear. If you do permit this evil to continue, you must expect the severe but just judg |