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Free-Trade Policy first promoted by Mr. Pitt in 1785 .5 Opposed by Mr. Fox ; Suspended during the French Revolu- tionary War; Renewed by Lord Liverpool's Government in 1818 6 Ever since consistently followed up by leading Conservative Statesmen ......... 7 Groundlessness of Charge now raade against those Statesmen of deserting their Principles 10 Or of Pirating the Principles of the Whigs . . . .12 This Charge confuted by Mr. Canning in 1826 . . .14 By Mr. Disraeli in 1842 15 By Lord Melbourne in 1845 IJ Sir R. Peel a cordial supporter of all Mr, Iluskisson's Free- Trade Measures 19 Those Measures opposed by leading Whigs . . . .20 Violent attacks on their supporters by "Fettered Trade" Party 22 Lord John Russell's Corn-Law Letter of 1822 . . . 25 Coalition of Whigs and Ultra Tories in 1830 ... 27 Reconsolidation of Conservative Party in 1834 . . .28 Not based on "Fettered Trade" principles, or support of Corn Laws 30 Sir R. Peel's definition of Conservative Principles in 1838 . 32 Whig Premier's Corn-Law views in 1839 . . . .34 Whig Budget of 1841 37 B 2 ^!^liaB^-—t CONTENTS. i Pack Altered views of Statesmen relative to the Corn-Laws between 1841 and 1846 ....••. 46 Lord Stanley's Canada Corn Bill of 1843 . . . .48 Sir R. Peel in 1841 adheres to his former views of Free-Trade Policy '^^ Reserves Iiis right, as the state of che Country niiglit require, to modify or abolish the Corn-Law 53 The latter course justified by the state of the Country in 1846 ."SS Subsequent break up of Conservative Party not justified by the Measures of 1846 •'»7 Conclusion. 1"*. COMMERCIAL POLICY OF PITT AND PEEL. 53 1785—1846. It is not the writer's intention to enter upon any examination of the merits of the commercial measures which in the course of last year obtained the sanction of the legislature. His object is merely to lay before that large and influential portion of the community to whom those measures were distasteful, some consi- derations which may induce them to pause before taking up a position of irreconcilable hostility to men, with whom they cordially acted during ten years of opposition, carried on upon grounds altogether irre- spective of any question affecting the removal of com- mercial restrictions. Not that the writer is indifferent to the success of Sir Robert Peel's measures. No true follower of Mr. Pitt can feel otherwise than anxious that they should be crowned with success ; for they are founded upon principles of commercial policy which were for the first time attempted to be reduced to practice by that statesman in 1785 — which were afterwards embodied by him in the French commercial treaty of 1787 — which were acted upon to a very considerable extent by Mr. Huskisson during the administrations of Lord Liverpool and Mr. Canning, the pupils and successors of Mr. Pitt — and which, after having remained in 6 FREE TRADE POLICY OF MR, PITT OPPOSED BY MR. FOX. abeyance under the Whigs from 1830 to 1841, were more fully carried out by Sir Robert Peel from the date of his accession to office in the latter of these years. That those principles are sound in theory has seldom been disputed by any statesman of eminence since the death of Mr. Fox, who was decidedly opposed to them.* He led the opposition of the English farmer and manu- facturer to the removal of restrictions from Irish com- merce in 1785, and he headed the opposition to the French treaty of 1787. From that period till the ter- mination of the French revolutionary war the pre- servation of the British empire from foreign aggression occupied the attention of British statesmen, to the exclusion of any questions affecting our commercial relations. But upon the restoration of peace those questions soon became the subject of discussion ; and among the members of the Tory Government of that day there was no difference of opinion as to the pro- priety of introducing a more liberal system of com- mercial policy than had before been iii operation. Under the immediate direction of the late Lord Wal- lace, of the Earl of Ripon, and of Mr. Huskisson, measure after measure was introduced from 1818 to 1828, all of them based upon the principle of relieving commerce of every restriction that could be dispensed with consistently with the security of the revenue and with what was due to the general interests of the empire. The gradual removal of such restrictions, ii& * " We must in candour admit and lament that those maxims of policy taught by Dr. Adam Smith, which bind nations together by the reciprocal benefits of commerce, produced less effect on the minds of the Whig leaders than on that of Mr. Pitt." — ' Article on Earls Grey and Spencer,' Edinburgh Review for January, 1846, p. 241. 1 ADVOCATED BY TORY STATESMEN. 7 and a preference for direct to indirect taxation, was tliroiif]jliout the policy of Lord Liverpool's administra- tion: and by the time Mr. Huskisson's measures were fully deveU)i)ed, all statesmen of eminence were satis- fied that Free Trade princi[)les must sooner or later become predominant. The only point on which any difference of opinion prevailed was, as to the time when those principles could be extensively applied with safety. Whether that period had arrived in 1840 can only be determined by the result. The measures of liiut very remarkable Session are now in full operation, whether for good or for evil remains to be proved ; and it seems to be almost universally ad- mitted that they must, for some time at least, form the basis of the commercial policy of the country. Any discussion therefore of their merits, or of their pro- bable effects, would be here out of place. For although indications have from time to time been made of its bein": the intention of a certain section of the Protec- tionists, with Lord George Bentinck at their head, to agitate for a repeal of those measures, the general impression is that no such attempt will be made. The projected plan of operations is said to have met with no support from Lord Stanley, the only tried statesman of the party. It has been openly disavowed by the Duke of Rutland, by Sir Edward KnatchbuU, and by other leading agriculturists ; and the result is, that but a very small portion of the space of the daily or periodical press is occupied with the consideration either of the policy of the measures or the propriety of their repeal. Very different, however, is the course that has been pursued with reference to that portion of the Con- servative party who supported those measures, and to 8 UNREASONABLE CONDUCT OF I the character and conduct of tlie men who introduced them. As tlie discussion of the merits and tendency of the measures died away, very much in the same proportion did the abuse of their authors and sup- porters increase. The characters of those men as states- men and legislators are not, it is said, to be judged of by the result. Even if, upon receiving that fair trial which all parties profess to be ready to give them, the measures of 1846 should turn out to be the most beneficial that ever were devised ; if in the course of a few years the trade and commerce and agriculture of the country should all arrive at a hitherto unexampled state of prosperity ; and if by all reasonable men that prosperity could be traced to the Session of 1846, and to the financial policy of the late Administration, still all this matters not, the pro- moters of that policy are in every event to be condemned, they are never again to be trusted, but to be for ever cashiered from the service of the public. A portion of the Conservative press which long after the passing of the Corn Law of 1842, of Lord Stanley's Canada Corn Bill of 1843, and of the commercial reforms of 1842, 1844, and 1845, were loudest in their praises of these measures and of the conduct and character of Sir Robert Peel, have since become the most lavish of their abuse : and from the date of his resignation in 1846 down to the meet- ing of Parliament in 1847, no language was violent enough for the expression of their detestation of the man and their abhorrence of his conduct. The policy even of measures which some of them aided in carrying has lately been called in question. The ad- ditional grant to Maynooth, for instance, in favour of EXISTING PROTECTIONIST PAKTY. 9 which Lord Stanley and Lord George Bentinck voted, and which the former introduced into the House of Lords, was not long ago selected as a fit subject for insinuating reflections against Sir Robert Peel * by a Conservative newspaper which decidedly advocated that measure in 1845. f Lord Lincoln's declaration of opinion at Manchester upon the endowment of the Irish Roman Catholic clergy was at once assumed to be the opinion of Sir Robert Peel ; and although Lord Stanley voted in the majority for the endow- ment of the Irish priests in 1825, he is nc'vertheless selected as a fit champion of Protestantism, while Sir Robert Peel is held up to public execration as the enemy of the Protestant faith simply because he is suspected of entertaining similar opinions. But this proscription from the public service cannot in fairness be limited to Sir Robert Peel and the members of his Government. It applies to every Conservative in Parliament who voted for the mea- sures, and to every Conservative out of Parliament who was ready to support them. It is true, indeed, * While these pages are passing through the press, Mr. Manners Sutton's " Address to the Electors of Cambridge " has been circulated. The fol- lowing extract from that document will suffice to show, on how little founda- tion these opinions have been ascribed to Sir Robert Peel : — " As respects Sir Robert Peel, I felt myself justified in communicating with him in consc(|uence of the assertions and surmises of Mr. Campbell. I was informed by Sir Robert Peel, and was authorized by him to state, that he had fully ex|)ressed his opinions on the matter referred to by Mr. Campbell, in the debate on the second reading of the Maynooth College Bill, on ihe 18th of April, 1845: that these opinions were correctly re- ported at the time ; that to these opinions, on again referring to them, he now adheres without any qualification ; and that he has given no authority to any person to make any (declaration on his behalf on the subject of Roman Catholic endowment, c.r on iiiy other subject whatever. t See Stanch.:i of January 18, 1847, as contrasted with same paper in March, 1845. 10 CHARGE AGAINST CONSERVATIVE STATESMEN |; that the * Quarterly Review,' in the number for October, 1846, in effect admitted the propriety of limiting this pvoscription to Sir Robert Peel and a few of his more immediate adherents, and of allowing the greater portion of tlie 112 to reunite with tlie Protectionists, provided they would confess that they had done wrong and would promise to behave better for the future. But there is evidently little or no chance of this arrangement taking place. Those members of the Conservative party who sup])orted the measures of 1846 will not, for they cannot in fairness, submit to Sir Robert Peel being proscribed alone. And it is plain that upon tlie very same grounds on which sentence of proscription is pro- nounced against him, must a similar sentence be pro- nounced against all Conservatives who supported him. A portion of the public press, which up to 1846 were the steady adherents of the late Ministry, have ac- cordingly found it necessary to include all in their proscription. The Whigs were "the first for Free Trade" was the cry, when, in anticipation of a general election in the autumn of 1846, an atteinj)t was made, in ignorance, real or pretended, of tlie true state of the facts, to detach the Conservative Free-traders from the party of Sir Robert Peel : " select the Whigs," they have on that score " the first claim " to your su})port, — and somewhat similar recommendations are being repeated, now th.it there are again rumours of a speedy dissolution rf Parliament. In giving this advice the Protectionist organs are consistent. If Sir Robert Peel's conduct, and that of the members of his Administration in 1846, was such as to merit one tithe cf the abuse that has been heaped upon them, it is very plain that the proscription from public life cannot stop with them. Tiir fault could, "\?« OF DESERTING THEIR PRINCIPLES. 11 indeed, in no case easily admit of expiation. For what are the grounds on which this proposed exclusion is rested? The accusation brought against them is, that they have betrayed their friends and party by abandoning Conservative principles, and adopting the Free Trade doctrines of the Whigs. The charge is a serious one, and ought not to be entertained except on evidence of tlie clearest description. It may, however, confidently be asserted that no such evidence has been or can be adduced. It is, on the contrary, believed that a conclusive case may be mfvde out in disproof of any such allegations. One might have expected that the fact of so large a number of Conservatives, distinguished as well for influence as for independence of character, throughout the country, having supported the measures of 1846, would of itself have gone ffir to silence any doubts as to the sincerity of the Ministers who introduced them. One would have thought that the circumstance of the Duke of Wellington appearing as a supporter of the policy of 1846 should have afforded a conclusive guarantee, not perhaps of its necessity, but certainly that there was nothing treache-'ous or dishonourable in the conduct of those by whom it was advocated, and to whom he gpve the sanction of his support. But it is not so. The matter has not been so viewed in many most respectable quarters. The cliarge has been so loudly and so generally asserted, and the im- pression of there having been some dishonesty and treachery at the bottom of the measures of 1846, has taken such complete possession of the minds of a large body of Cons(;rvatives, that the sagacity, the spotless purity of character, and perfect independence of many of the supporters of the late Ministry, is allowed to weigli nothing in the balan^'c against these precon- 12 CHAUGE AGAINST CONSERVATIVE STATESMEN ceived impressions.* The result of all this is, that mosl. of the ultra Protectionists view with indifference, if they do not actually recommend, a course of proceed- ings which must infallibly lead to the permanent ex- clusion from any share in the management of public affairs, not only of all the late Ministers, but of almost all those Conservative Peers and Commoners who con- sidered it their duty to support their measures. It is no light matter thus to endeavour to discredit the cha- racter of public men, comprising some of the ablest practical statesmen the country ever possessed. It is, therefore, hoped that no candid person will with- hold an impartial consideration from remarks tending to show that in carrying out the measures of 1846 tlie Duke of Wellino-ton and Sir Robert Peel were not adopting the policy of their opponents ; were not abandoning Conservative principles ; that there was nothing, in short, in their conduct to justify the with- drawal of public confidence, or any permanent sepa- ration between that portion of the Conservatives who supported them, and the large body of Conservatives who opposed them. This charge of pirating the Free-trade principles of * One circumstance on which this charge of dishonesty is mainly rested is, tlie allegation that Sir Ilohert Peel was frightened into a change of opinion by Lord John Russell's letter to the electors of London in November, 1845. It is believed that the constant reiteration of this statement has had more effect than any other connected with the repeal of the Corn Laws in leading men favourably inclined towards the late Administration to doubt their sincerity. A reference to dates will suffice to show ^hat the charge is unfounded. That Lord John Kussell may have heard rumours of dif- ferences in the Cabinet, and of the cause of these differences, before he wrote his letter, is possible ; but it is utterly impossible that his letter can have led to Sir Robert Peel's calling his Cabinet together to consider the question: because the letter is dated Edinburgh, 22nd Nov. 1845; whereas the meeting of the Cabinet at which Sir Robert Peel broached his plan of opening the ports, with a view to the reconsideration of the Corn Laws, was held three weeks before, viz. on the 1st of November. \ i OF PIRATING THE PRINCIPLES OF THE WHIGS. 13 the Whigs is not new. It was repeatedly brought against Lord Liverpool's Government in 1826, till it was satisfactorily answered by Mr. Canning. !t was urged against Sir Robert Peel's Ministry in 1842, and refuted by Mr. Disraeli. It was renewed in 1846 by the supporters of Lord George Bentinck, the pre- tended pupil of Mr. Canning, and now the leader of Mr. Disraeli. It is to the credit of the Whigs that this charge did not originate with them. It originated with a section of the general supporters of the Government in 1826, who professing to be followers of Mr. Pitt, but forget- ting that he was the first promoter of the principles of Free Trade, thought to damage the commercial policy of Lord Liverpool's ministry by fathering it on the Whig party, whose character had not then recovered the shock it had sustained through the coalition of Mr. Fox with Lord North forty years before. But although the charge did not originate with the Whigs in 1826, many of them were not slow to countenance it in 1842 and 184G ; and the self-complacent manner in which Lord John Russell has accepted the com- pliments paid to him by Lord George Bentinck as a consistent supporter of Free Trade, in contradistinction to Sir Robert Peel, is not very creditable to the can- dour of the present Prime Minister. He must know full well that his career as a practical Free Trader was unheard of until 1841. Under the pretext of better- ing the revenue, the Administration of which he was then a member attempted to make a partial and invi- dious application of Free Trade principles. That attempt was successfully resisted, as not calculated to confer any general benefit, while it pressed most in- juriously on particular interests, and as being in reality not a bona fide well digested reform, but a 14 CHARGE CONFUTED BY MR. CANNING IN 182(). desperate effort to prop up " for awhile a tottering Administration," * which had brought the country to the verge of national bankruptcy. To the charge brought against Lord Liverpool's Government, that they had adopted the principles of the Whigs, Mr. Canning made the following reply in the debate on the effects of Mr. Huskisson's Free Trade system on the silk manufacture, in February, 1826 :— "Two objections have been stated to the course which his Majesty's Ministers are pursuing, under the guidance of my Right Honourable friend. We are charged with having abandoned the principles of Mr. Pitt, and having bor- rowed a leaf from the book of Whig policy. If the latter accusation refers to the useful and honourable support whicli we have received on questions of commerce from some of those who are habitually our antagonists in politics, I have only to admit the fact, and to declare the satisfaction which I derive from it, God forbid. Sir, that I should withhold due praise from those who, forgetting political animosities, and the vulgar divisions of party, liave concurred with us in attempting to do public good. " But if it is meant to say that the commercial policy which we recommend to the country is founded on the principles of Whiggism, history proves tliat proposition to be untrue. I mean neither praise nor blame of Whig or Tory, in adverting to matters which passed long before tlic political existence of the present generation ; but historically speaking, I must say, that freedom of commerce has in former times been the doctrine rather of Tories than of Whigs. If I look back, for instance, to the transactions between this country and France, the only commercial treaty v/hich I can find, beside that which was signed by me and my Right Honourable friend but the other day, since the peace of Utrecht, is the convention of 1 7S6. With respect to the treaty, the House need not be afraid that I am now going to discuss the principles of the treaty of Utrecht. But by whom was the convention of 1 78G proposed and sup- •^ -,-« * See Lord Stanley's Speech, June 4, 1841. CHARGE CONFUTED BY MR. DISRAELI IN 1842. 15 US ported? — By Mr. Pitt. By whom was it opposed? — By Mr. Fox. I will not go into the arguments which might be used on either side ; I enter not into the question who was riffht or wronff. I mention the circumstance only to show how easily facts are perverted for particular purposes of vituperation. It is an ohl adage, that when a man wishes to beat a dog, he has no difficulty in finding a stick : but the stick in the present instance has been unfortunately chosen." The choice of the stick has been equally unfortunate on the present occasion. The charge of plagiarism can with as little justice be made either against Sir Robert Peel or the leading members of his Administra- tion. In proof of this it is scarcely necessary to do more than mention that the Duke of Wellington, Lord Ripon, Lord Lyndhurst, and Mr. Goulburn were in office under Lord Liverpool when the attack thus refuted by Mr. Canning was made on his Government in 1826. So was Sir Robert Peel ; and of the in- justice of the charge, as applied to him, no better evidence can be adduced than that of Lord Melbourne and Mr. Disraeli. In the debate on the tariff in 1842, Mr. Disraeli is reported in Hansard to have spoken as follows :* " With reference to the accusation made on the other side of the House, that the Right Honourable Bart, at tLo head of the Government had repudiated principles when in op- position which he had adopted when in office, — that charge had been made without due examination of the facts of the ( ic. He did not think that the Honourable Gentle- men opposite had succeeded in making out their claim to being peculiarly the originators of the principles of Free Trade ; and as it was of great importance that the House should have as correct a knowledge as possible as to the pedigree of those particular dogmas, that gentlemen opposite should not continue to consider that the country icas indebted to * Hansard, 3rd Scrips, vol. Ixiii. p. 390. Hi CHARGE CONFUTED BY MR. DISR/VELI IN 1842. themselves for the doctrines of Free Trade, or gentlemen on his own side imagine that those doctrines were of such recent and modern invention as was generally supposed, he miykt he alloived to remind the House that it was Mr. Pitt who first pro- mulgated them in 1 787." Mr. Disraeli then goes on to show how, on that occasion, Fox, Burke, Sheridan, and the late Lord Grey took a decided part against Mr. Pitt, whose opinions on commerce were so far in advance of the age, that not even one member of his own Govern- ment in the House of Lords was willing or competent to become their advocate ; and concludes by saying — "The principles of Free Trade were developed — and not by Whigs — fifty years ago ; and how was it that the Whig party now came forward and contended that they were the originators of these opinions ? But what was the conduct of the Pitt party after the peace ? Was the party which origi- nally brought Free Trade principles into notice at that period false to those principles ? If that question were fairly ex- amined, it would be found that exactly the reverse was the case, and that on the very first possible occasion the Adminis- tration of Lord Liverpool showed itself in advance of the age upon the question of a greater freedom of trade. Before Mr. Huskisson exercised his great and beneficial influence on the commercial legislation of this country, Mr. Wallace and Mr. Robinson had carried a series of measures founded on the true principles of commerce, and Mr. Huskisson ""nly prosecuted their system ; and in what the Right Honourable Bart, now proposed, it was manifest that he was doing neither more nor less than carrying into effect principles which originated with Mr. Pitt. The conduct pursued by the Right Honourable Bart, was in exact harmony, in per- fect consistency, with the principles in refererce to Free Trade laid down by Mr. Pitt, and his reason for saying thus much, was to refute the accusations which had been brought against the present Government, that in order to get into, and being in, to keep office, they had changed their opinions on these subjects." Still more emphatic, and, if possible, still more im- \ CHARGE CONFUTED BY LOUD MELBOURNE IN 1845. 17 ! on and I on -^nly partial, is the declaration of Lord Melbourne, who, in speaking of Sir Robert Peel's commercial policy at the dinner of the Fishmongers' Company in August, 1845, said, " Wc all know that thcbO very measures have been pro- ductive, in both Houses of Parliament, of much difference of opinion ; and they have been the cause of much bitter feel- ing, not to say malignant invective, being levelled against the Right Honourable Baronet at the head of Her Majesty's Government, upon the notion of some supposed inconsistency of these measures with his former opinions and conduct. Placed as I have been by circumstances in the position of an antagonist and competitor to that Right Honourable Baronet, it is natural I should look into and examine his conduct, not with hostile jealousy, or any hostile feeling, but with care and anxiety. It is natural that I should be anxious to learn what his conduct has been, what have been his measures, and what liavc been the principles upon which they have been founded, and what the language in which he has argued and enforced these prnciples. I have made such inquiry and examination, and I think myself bound to state as the result of it, that I know nothing in the antecedent conduct of the Right Honourable Baronet, which should, in point of consistency, preclude him from bringing forward either the measures which he has brought forward, or any other measures in the same direction which he may convince his understanding or persuade his conscience would be both expedient and conducive to the benefit and advantage of his country. Thus much I have thought it my duty to say. 1 had intended to have said it in Parliament, but I have never been able to find an opportunity of doing so." This declaration of opinion was highly creditable to Lord Melbourne, and it is not surprising he should have made it. Whatever faults he may have had as a Minister, it never could with justice be said that to them he added that of dealing unfairly with the cha- racter of his political opponents. He must have 18 CHARGE CONFUTED BY LORD MELBOURNE IN 1845. [. . known that his Administration had lost the confidence of Parliament and of the country long before the Session of 1841 ; that he had on that account resigned office in 1839, the very year in which he made the celebrated declaration, that to repeal the Corn Laws would be " the wildest and maddest scheme that ever entered into the mind of man ;" he must have remem- bered that in January, 1840, he had narrowly escaped defeat upon a motion of want of confidence, based upon grounds altogether distinct from any question affecting the Corn Laws, for at that time his Cabinet had proposed no alteration of those laws ; and he knew that the motion of want of confidence made in 1841 was founded upon the incapacity of his Government, its inability to carr}^ its measures, the dcfiilcation it had brought about in the revenue, and the unsatis- factory state of its relations with foreign powers. But above all, he knew that opposition to the removal of commercial restrictions was no part of the political creed of those who were then opposed to him. It seems now to be almost forgotten that Lord Mel- bourne held office under Mr. Canning in 1827, along with Lord Lyndhurst and Lord Ripon ; and that he also held office under the Duke of Wellington, in 1828, with Sir Robert Peel, Mr. Goulburn, and Lord Aber- deen. He had thus the best possible opportunities of knowing the opinion of his leading opponents in 1841, on the subject of commercial freedom. He had witnessed the part taken by many of them, and in particular by Sir Robert Peel, in supporting Mr. Huskisson ; and he knew that that was no lukewarm part. So early as the year 1824, when the appli- cation of the principles of Free Trade was by no means popular, but, on the contrary, viewed with the utmost SIR ROBERT PEEL ON FREE TRADE IN 1824. 19 ■^ dread even by the manufacturing interests of the country ; and when the present Lord Dcnman, Mr. EHice, Mr. Baring, now Lord Ashburton, and other leading Wiiigs, although approving of the theory of Free Trade, were throwing decided obstacles in the way of its practical application, Mr. Canning and Mr. Peel are found urging upon the House of Commons the necessity of disregarding the partial and interested opposition, and of gradually enforcing those principles of trade, the theory of which they professed to approve of. On the 5th of March, 1824, Sir Robert Peel is reported to have concluded a speech on a debate raised by Mr. Baring on the subject of the admission of French silks, with the following pointed observa- tions : — "The Honourable Gentleman has asked wlio was to be considered the sponsor of tliis plan ? No individual cer- tainly, but those general principles which the Honourable Gentleman had himself invariably advocated. They were the sponsors, — and higher authority than any advice from parties interested in the silk manufacture. After declaiming so often a.id so hnr/ in favour of the principles of Free Trade, let the House consider in what a lir/Jd it %coidd stand before Europe^ if it did not attempt, instead of aiming at temporary popidarity^ to establish sound principles of commercial policy. How tcould those principles be p7'ejudiced, if, knowing them to be irrefragable^ Parliament, not having the courage to encounter difficulties^ loere to yield to the fears of the timid or the representations of the interested." * From that period down to his removal from office in 1830, Sir Robert Peel was a party to every mea- sure carried through Parliament to effect the removal of commercial restrictions. It is now well known that he, as Secretary of State for the Home Department, * See Hansard, New Scries, vol, x. p. 740. ' c2 20 SIR ROBERT PEEL A SUPPORTER OF ALL I Wiis intrusted with the preparation of tlie Kinf>'s Speech iu 1825. He made it liis boast that he liad been so, and also that he cordially approved of all Mr. lliis- kisson's Free Trade measures, both before and after the dissolution in 1841. In the speech of 18*25 Par- liament was congratulated on the advantaoes that had been derived " from the relief recently given to com- merce by the removal of inconvenient restrictions ;" and is recommended "to persevere in the removal of similar restrictions." That recommendation was acted upon. The relief alluded to was that att'orded by the Silk Trade measures of Mr. Huskisson, passed in 1824; and which were followed up accordingly in 1825, by other similar changes in our commercial S3^stem. It was in that session of Parliament that Mr. Huskisson made his two very remarkable speeches on foreign and colonial commercial policy, announcing a general revision of the revenue laws. These changes met with some opposition at the time ; but in 182G and 1827 they were made the groundwork of the most uimiea- sured vituperation and abuse of Mr. Huskisson and all who were associated with him in their introduc- tion. The supporters of " Fettered Trade " — as Mr. Huskisson described the opponents of his policy — de- nounced him in language even more violent than that now applied by the Protectionists to Sir Robert Peel. The debate in 1826, on Mr. Ellice's motion relative to the effects of the Free Trade system on the silk manu- facture, was seized upon as a fit opportunity for a general attack on the new commercial regulations and their authors. That attack called forth Mr. Canning's refutation of the charge that the Government were bor- rowing the principles of the Whigs ; and also a bril- liant defence of himself, his colleagues, and Mr. Mil. HUSKISSON'S FUEE-TllADE MEASURES 21 ...ib Huskisson in particular, from " the vulgar topics of ribald invective" with which they had been assailed by a sect " who think that all advances towards im- provement are retrogradations towards Jacobinism ; and that under no possible circumstances can an honest man endeavour to keep his country upon a line with the progress of political knowledge, and to adapt its course to the varying circumstances of the world," without branding it as an " indication of mischievous intentions — as evidence of a design to sap the founda- tions of the greatness of his country."* The expressions which led to this defence exceeded, if possible, anything applied to the late Government and their supporters. In opposing the proposed in- quiry, Mr. Huskisson " was represented as invariably indifferent to the sufferings of those on whose behalf it was called forth," and likened to " a hard-hearted metaphysician, exceeding the devil in point of malig- nity ;" and in the following year he found it neces- sary to allude, in his speech on the commercial and shipping interests, to charges exactly similar in kind and in degree to those now repeated, at an interval of twenty years, against the very men who were con- joined with him in 1826. He was again, in May, 1 827, run down as a '' wild theorist ;" charged with " palming upon the house and the country measures of great public importance, under false pretences ;"t with being "guilty of gross political fraud ; with attempting to support his exaggerated statements, ** and to deceive the public by returns purposelypre pared to lead to false conclusions.":!: * Vide Huskisson's Speeches, vol. ii. p. 527. t Ibid., vol. iii. j). 80. I I/)id, p. 93. 22 VIOLENT ATTACKS ON MR. IIUSKISSON Lt i! In answer to these attacks, Mr. Huskisson adopted pretty much the same course as that followed last year by Sir R. Peel. He would not condescend " to bandy about personalities with his opponents in the House of Commons ;" and with reference to the '* ca- lumnies that were heaped" upon him personally out of doors, he indignantly replied, '* Let not the hireling authors of those calumnies suppose that I am going to retort upon them the low, vulgar abuse which they have attempted to cast upon me. The only punishment which they shall receive at my hands is, to show them that their venom is fallen innocuous upon me ; that I am not infected by it; and that, however unjustly attacked, I feel too much respect for this House — I might add, too much self-respect — to resort to such base engines in my defence."* The venom has, indeed, fallen innocuous upon him. At the distance of twenty years, the man who was the subject of those attacks is now almost universally admitted to have been one of the ablest and most con- scientious practical statesmen that ever held office in this country. But although the venom has thus fallen innocuous upon him, and the calumnies and their authors are weU nigh forgotten, the spirit that dictated the attacks survives. The sect so graphi- cally described by Mr. Canning is not without its representatives in the present day, who have shown themselves no unworthy successors of the " Fettered Trade " party of 1826. That the representatives of that party should have indulged in the most violent abuse of a series of commercial measures based upon tiie same principles as those which called forth the * Vide Uuskisson's Speeches, vol. iii. p. 84. UY "FETTEKED TllAPE" PAUTY. 23 )pted last "to the ca- nt of .m culunmios of 18*26, is not to bo wondered at ; but it is most surprising that to charges similar to those made against Mr. Iluskisson and his colleagues should be added that of inconsistency, of tleserting the jn'iueiples of a lifetime, and borrowing those of the Wiiigs ; and that this should be reiterated day after day, and almost without contradiction, against the Duke of Wellington, Lord Ripon, Lord Lynd- hurst, Sir Robert Peel, and Mr. Cioulburn, some of whom sat in the same Oabinet with Mr. Huskisson in 18*26, and all of whom were in office at the time, simply because, from 1841 to 1846, they have been carrying into more full operation those principles of commercial policy, which they had been j)arties to the aj)plication of during Lord Liverpool's Administration. If any more conclusive evidence were required of the liberal views entertained by Sir Robert Peel at that period on tlu; subject of commerce, and of his being more justly entitled tlian any other living statesman to follow up a Free 'iVade policy, it is to be found in the repeated declarations of Mr. Huskisson himself. When taunted with inconsistency, in 1828, for joining the Duke of Wellington's Administration, he defended himself mainly on the ground of the similarity of opinion be- tween Sir Robert Peel and himself on the subject of commercial freedom ; and when the attempt was made to single him out, with one or two of his immediate friends, and to run them down as supporters of an unsound system of policy, he quoted the Duke of Wellington's declaration, that he held himself respon- sible for the measures introduced by Mr. Huskisson under Lord Liverpool's Government, and added, — " Having taken the liberty to re^d these words, so expres- sive of the noble Duke's sentiments, 1 would wish those 24 THE DUKE OF WELLINGTON AND SIR R. PEEL. who are ever miscliievously endeavouring to identify him with their own contracted views and prejudices, to bear them in their recollection, and to mitigate so'-aewhat of that blundering zeal, under the impulse of which, .<.n their anxiety to asperse the character of Mr. Canning, they do not perceive that they arc calling in question the sincerity and good faith of the noble Duke."* Witli what truth might not these words be applied to those wlio are now endeavouring to separate Sir Robert Peel from t' e same noble Duke. In their de- termination to run down, and if possible irretrievably damage, the character of tlie one, they seem wilfully blind to the fact that in every imputation of insin- cerity, in every charge of inconsistency, ">nade against the one, they are directly calling in question the honesty and good faith of the other. On the occasion of Mr. Huskisson's retirement from office in 1828, he made another and a similar declara- tion of strict and continued unison of opinion and of principles between himself and Sir Robert Peel, on all (piestions of foreign and commercial policy ; and still later, in April, 1829, he repeated the same sentiments after he had ceased to be politically connected with the Duke of Wellington. He stated, in the outsei of liis speech on the silk trade, in reply to Mr. Sadler, the recently elected champion of the " Fettered Trade " party, that he had felt it his duty to attend in the House to support the Government in any further reiterations it might be necessary to make, in order to confirm and perfect the measures of 1824 and 1825, the Ministry having declared tlieir intention to perse- vere with those measures.! * Huskisson's Speeches, vol. >ii. p. 216. t lOid., vol. lii. p. 411,421. LOUD J. RUSSELL'S CORN-LAW LETTER OF 1822. 25 The Duke of Wellington and Sir Robert Peel having thus prior to the year 1830 been parties to the intro- duction of a liberal system of foreign trade, and cordial supporters of all Mr. Huskisson's Free Trade measures, it may be asked, what was Lord John Russell about during all this time, who is now represented as an old, steady, consistent Free-trader, while Sir Robert Peel is reproached as a renegade and deserter of his former principles, and a convert to those of the Whigs ? During the latter part of the above period, Lord John may be found giving an occasional vote, or even now and then saying a few words, in favour of the measures of the Government ; but during the earlier period he appears to have been otherwise employed. He had not very long before (viz., in 1819) delivered his speech in defence of the British Constitution, and of those nomination boroughs which in 1830 he helped to destroy. And whib Mr. Canning, Mr. Huskisson, and Sir Robert Peel were urging on an at first rather reluctant House of Commons the necessity of acting up to their Free Trade principles, and even of adopt- ing a modification of the Corn Law of 1815, Lord John is buckling on his armour as an agriculturist, and denouncing; the ministers, and among them Sir Robert Peel, as " About to give up the question of trade in corn " to a party amongst us, "however distinguished in what is called the science ( them. By Conserva- tive principles, then, I mean, and I believe you mean, the maintenance of the prerogative of the Monarch, the mainte- nance of the just powers and attributes of Queen, Lords, and Commons of the country, and the determination to resist every encroachment which can curtail the just rights and settled privileges of one or other of those tliree branches of the Constitution. By Conservative principles we mean, that co-exist' nt with the equality of civil rights and privi- leges, there shall be an Established Religion, paid and encouraged by the State, and that the Established Religion shall maintain the doctrines of the Protestant Reformed Faith. By Conservative principles we mean, a steady resistance to every project for the alienation of Church property from * Vidn ' Times' of May I4tli, 18.38. ^: .i CONSERVATIVE PRINCIPLES IN 1838. 33 strictly spiritual purposes. We do not mean to raise an unnecessary cry to serve a political end, that the Church is in danger ; but we do put it to every reasonable man to say whether those proposals do not endanger the Church, which, if carried into elfect, would, in Ireland, alienate from the Establishment a certain proportion of her property in viola- tion of binding compacts and the most solemn assurances, and devote it to the purposes of education, expressly ex- cluding instruction in the main principles and precepts of the Protestant Religion. We do put it to every reasonable man to say whether, although their property be improved, if concurrently the Bishops in England should be made stipendiaries of the State, the Churcli could be free from danger, its own revenues being applied to relieve property from a burden to which it has been immemorially subject, ******* }^^^ ^]j^ ^g|^^ y tijQge lyfQ measures were passed, whether they would not greatly endanger the maintenance of the Establishment in both countries ? By Con- servative principles we mean, the rescuing from threatened danger our Protestant Establishments. Nay, more, we mean the infliction, if we can, of 'a heavy blow and a great dis- couragement' upon those principles which are antagonist to the establishment of the l^rotestant Faith in these realms. By Conservative principles we mean, the maintenance of our settled institutions in Church and State; and we mean also the preservation and defence of that combination of law, of institutions, of usages, of habits and manners, which have contributed to mould and form the character of Englishmen, and which have enabled this country, in the contentions and fearful rivalry of war, to extort the admiration of her enemies, and in the equally glorious career of peaceful industry, of commercial enterprise, of mechanical skill, of social improvement, have endeared the name of England and of Englishmen in every country of the world, to those who seek for the estal)lishment of liberty without licence, and look to the maintenance of that pure form of religion which is at once the consolation of the virtuou.« man and the best guarantee which human institutions can afford to civil and religious liberty." This exposition of the meaiiino- of Conservative D 34 WHIG PUEMIER'S COKN-I-AW principles was received witli acclamation at the time ; and, coupled with what took ])lace in Glasgow the year before, proves beyond all (piestion that the Con- servative opposition was organized upon grounds altogether unconnected with the maintenance of commercial restrictions.* In 183i), the year in whicli l^ord Melliourne declared that to repeal the Corn Laws would be madness, so vigorous was the opposition to In's Government on the Bill to annihilate the Consti- tution of Jamaica, that the Ministry resign(>d. Re- stored to ])Ower by the IJedchamber plot, they were sulyected to the withering attacks of Lord Lyndhurst and Lord Brouoham at the close of the Session of 1839. In the speech of Lord Lyndhurst, which was circulated in thousands through the country, the con- duct of the Government was passed in review with reference to all those measures by means of which they had rendered themselves deserving of public reprobation, as incapable " of conducting the affairs of this mighty empire in a manner suitable to its wants and necessities." But the Corn Laws were not alluded to by Lord Lyndhurst. No alteration of those laws had up to that time been })ro})osed : and yet such was the effect produced by that speech out of doors, that from 1839 the days of the ministry were considered doomed ; and in January, 1840, a * I'lic circumstance that Sir R. Peel and most of the members of liis administration supported the Maynootli grant, cannot be said by tiicir pre- sent opponents to amount to any departure from the above exposition. The education of the Roman Catiiolic clergy was a favourite scheme of Mr. Pitt ; and Sir R. Peel, when in opposition, voted for tlie continuance of the grant, while many of his habitual supporters op|)oscd it. The addi- tion made to it in 1845 was, as has been shown, cordially approved of i)y many who are still lauded as true to Conservative principles ; and that by Protectionist journals, which advocated the Maynooth grant in 1845 as calculated to load to the Reformation of Ireland. VIEWS IN 1 «,'»{). :i5 motion was made to remove tlicm from power. It was lost by a very narrow majority. But from that date it was plain that on the very first appeal to the electors the Conservative Opposition would cliange places with the Government and their supporters, and that Sir Robert Peel would be Minister of Enghuid. Had this happened in 1840, could it for a moment have been maintained that he and his colleagues would have been precluded, on the score of consist- ency, from following- uj) and {)erfecting, as the cir- cumstances of the country required it, that system of commercial policy to which they had been parties twenty years before ? or that they were pledged to the then existing Corn Laws, and to oppose any modification of these laws, rendered necessary in their opinion " to keep the country on a line with the progress of political knowledge, and to adapt its course to the varying circumstances of the world?" It is scarcely pretended, even by the bitterest oppo- nents of Sir Robert Peel, that in 1840 there was any- thing in their antecedent conduct which could have precluded the members of the Peel Ministry, any more than Lord John Russell and his adherents, "from bringing forward," to use Lord Melbourne's words of 1845, " either the measures which they did bring forward, or any other measures in the same direction, which they might convince their under- standing or persuade their consciences would be both expedient and conducive to the benefit of the country." And if such was the case in 1840, if Sir Robert Peel and his colleagues would have been at liberty had he remained in power in 1835, or formed a (Government in 1839, to introduce any measures of commercial freedom which might appear to them 1) 2 36 SIR H. PEEL UNFETTERED. ii necessary to follow out Mr. Huskisson's plans, and to adapt the comTnerce of the country to the prof^ress of political events, it does seem somewhat absurd to charge them with treachery and dishonesty simply because at a period when the circumstances of the country imperatively required, and that by universal admission, some change in our commercial regula- tions, they considered it their duty to recommend a very extensive application of the principles of Free Trade. But it is said — and here, in one point of view, lies the substance of the charge — that things had very much changed in 1841. That even granting Sir Robert Peel and those of his colleagues who had been asso- ciated with him prior to 1830, to have been at liberty in 1840 to introduce great commercial and financial reforms, such a course was no longer open to them in 1841. In short, that Lord Melbourne's administration having been defeated upon a question of Free Trade, and the general election having been allowed to ])ro- ceed upon the understanding that Sir Robert Peel and his leading political supporters were decidedly opposed to the removal of commercial restrictions, and to any alteration of the Corn Laws then in operation, all Con- servatives were from that time precluded from follow- ing out a Free Trade policy. Now the answer to this objection is a simple denial of the existence of any such understanding. And in proof of this it may seem almost superfluous to do more than refer to the speeches of Lord Melbourne and Mr. Disraeli, quoted in the preceding pages. It is not easy to figure two more impartial witnesses. The opinions of an ultra-Protectionist on the one hand, and on the otlier of the Minister whom Sir WHIG UUDGICT OF I«41. 37 Kobcrt PtH'l was instrumental in r(;movin<:jfrom power, should be conclusive, at least on the j^uneral question of Free Trade, with every one not blinded by prejudice and determined to shut his eyes to the truth. But it is of importance to show that these opinions are fully borne out by what took place in 1841. It cannot be disputed that the budget of 1841 was what led to the defeat and final overthrow of Lord Melbourne's Administration : but it was by no means tlie cause of that defeat. The attempt of an incapable and powerless Government, through whose misnumagc- ment every interest in the country had been paralyzed, thus to tamper with so delicate a matter as the com- mercial policy of a great commercial country, did unrpiestionably fill the cup of public indignation to overflowing: but that cup had been filled to the brim long before the budget of 1841. By the beginning of that year the Administration was in a most pitiable position. From the date of their return to oflfice by means of the Bedchamber plot of 1839, they were totally powerless. They escaped defeat on -i motion of want of confidence in January, 1840, by the small majority of ten. In the course of that same Session of Parliament they were night after night left in minori- ties on questions of vital importance ; but they still clung to office with unexampled tenacity. By the beginning of 1841 they had reduced the finances of the country to a very deplorable condition, and they knew full well that they had lost the confidence, if not of Parliament, at all events of the overwhelming ma- jority of the people. It was in these circumstances when, as Lord Stanley said,* they saw " not county il * Vide Lord Stanley's Speech, May 12, 1S41. 38 WHIG BUDGET OF 1841. if i 'i I'l ' I » by county, but burgli by })urgli5 their holu upon the country gTiichially slip})ing' away f ^m them ; when tho common consent of the country proclaimed that tliey could no longer iiold the rc'ns cF office, as they had long ceased to hold the reins of power ; that they produced their crude aad ill-digested scheme involving the most extensive financial chaugcs :" . . . " and this with tlie full conviction that it was impossible they would be able to carry the project into effect." And. it was rejected, not so much on ^'^count of its own demerits, as because nobody bad confidence in the capacity of the Ministry to devise and carry into ex- ecution any beneficial proi;osal. It was a buu mea- sure, moreover; partial in its application, pressing invidiously and injuriously on pr.rticular interests, and with no prospect of accomplishing the professed object of its authors, viz., tliat ot bettering the finances of the country. Ministers had been in office since 1835. For the first feu years they had the power to carry their measures at least through the House of Commons. During that period tlie trade and com- merce of the country were by no means in affourishing condition, and yet when Ministers had some degree of ^ ower, and possessed some small portion of the j)uliiic confidence, they made no attemj)t to free com- merce from restrictions, and thereby relieve trade ui' its embarrassments, and at the same time better the revenue. In 1840 they had opposed M:\ E wart's iiiotion for an ecpialization of sugar duties, which they themselves adopted as the basis of their budget in 1841. The sugar duties were the only part of that bud^'et wliicli went through the ordeal of Parliament- ary discussion ; and considering wliai had occurred tJH! year l)efnre, it is not surprising that on thcui i\\v ^' WHIG BUDGET OF 1841. 39 ( Jovernniciit should have beeii defeated. Still they adhered to office ; and as it was now evident that nothing- but a direct vote of want of contidence could deliver the country fi\ i their misrule, that vote was proposed and earned; i.ot upon the merits of tlieir measures, not in condemnation of the principles of Free Trade, but in condemnation of a Ministry which, since 1839, had l3een " unable to carry any measure which they deemed essential to the public welfare ;" and because their continuance in office was in these circumstances " at variance with the spirit of the Con- si iition."* At the general election which followed, the decision of the House of Commons was stamped with public approval. Tiie •majority of one, by which Ministers were defeated on the 4th of June, was, by the 27th of Au[ 'ist, swelled to a majority of ninety-one. But, whatever may have bc?n the ca>e with individuals, and in particular agricultural constituencies, this gene- ral result was not a verdict as to the application of Fiee Trade [)rinciples, and in favour of restrictions upon commerce. The mattf.r in dispute was not put, and, what is of more importance, was not allowed to be put upon that issue at the general election, eitiier by Lord Stanley or Sir Robert Peel. All leading statesmen were then at one ; ^ to a certain amount of protection being necessary. Lard John l^ussell, in the matter of corn, Wc.^ for an 85. duty ; Sir Robert Peel, for a mo- dification of the existiiig sliding scale; and they were all for s(^me protection, for this ])lain voason — that the circumstances of the country did not at that time re- quire and Monld not liave admitted of any very groat * Vl(/e resolution niovocl by Sir R, Pcci on May -irtli, ls41. H h If a 4U WHIG BUDGET OF 1841. * I I ;■ modification of the existing Corn duties; nor were the revenue and finances of the country in a condition to bear any general relaxation of commercial restrictions. All, therefore, with very few exce}3ti«"ns, were for pro- tection. The Whig' Government fancied they would get revenue as well as protection by their proposal. Still, they were for protection. And when they and certain of their supporters endeavoured to claim a mo- nopoly of Free Trade, and to raise a Free Trade cry with a view to the general election, they were indignantly checked, both by Lord Stanley, wlio ridiculed the Whig budget in so far as it professed to be based upon Free Trade ; and by Sir Robert Peel, who, before and after the dissolution, entered his solemn protest against its being supposed, that because lie voted against the Whig budget, he was therefore opposed to, or to be precluded from carrying into operation the removal of commercial restrictions, or even a modification of the ex' ang Corn Laws. In the debate upon the sugar duties on tlie I2th May, 1841, Lord Stan-ey, in answer to the attempt made by some of the Ministerial party to puff them- selves off as champions of Free Trade, and after showing that both Lord John Russell and Lord Melbourne in- troduced their measure as one of protection, said — " I ask the Noble Lord opposite and the mcml ;rs of her Majesty's Government, how they can put themselves for- ward to the country as advocates of Free Trade, and appeal to the country for support as tliough they had proposed a Free Trade in corn, and in timber, and in sugar? As to corn, the Noble Lord tells us that he proposes a protecting duty of 85. a quarter; and though we may question whether that is an adequate protection, yet the Noble Lord concurs with us in principle by distinctly announcing his proposed duty as a protecting duty (hear, hear). Tlien the Noble Lord has 'M WHIG BUDGET OF 1841. 41 announced himpelf as a free-trader in timber. But what is he about to do? Not only does he keep up the duty between Baltic and Canadian timber (which discriminating duty may be too high or too low), but the Noble Lord as a free-trader, goes one step further, and on an article f general consump- tion, and which, by the laws of Free Trade, ought to be specially exempted, the Noble Lord imposes an additional duty of 100 per cent." Then, as to the sugar duties. Lord Stanley goes on to ask — :'j " What is this proposition which t\e free-traders are re- quired to laud so highly and for which the consumer is to be so grateful ? Wliy, merely this : the Noble Lord proposes to relieve the distresses of the people by a reduction of the discriminating duty to the extent of about six-tenths of a ■Hrthing in the pound, while he not only leaves on a dis- criminating duty still, but also leaves untouched the whole of the duty levied alike on British and Foreign sugar for the purposes of revenue, amounting to a tax, upon an article of universal consumption, of about 100 per cent. Again I say the Noble Lord may be right ; again I say the necessities of the revenue may compel him to take that course ; but when he talks about upholding the principles of Free Trade, which he is to carry cuL with a simplicity and a purity that arc to be the wonder of all succeeding times, and an example to all future Governments, I say that the continuance by him of such heavy import duties on articles of such general con- sumptv''.) and of such prime necessity, is in utter contradic- tion .J : !)retensions, and must deprive him of that charac- ter oi '' ci impion of Free Trade which he and others for him ha\ . ^ oea so anxious to assume." The speech of Lord Stanley effectually extinguished Lord John Russell's clainns to the championship of Free Trade. It was followed up on the 18th of May in a similar strain by Sir Robert PeeL who, at the same time, avowed himself the cordial supporter of all Mr. Hju.4isson's measures : — i ( 5 lii If ^ eldid in 1811. Jle must there- fore have sadly disappointed the expectati(ms of his admirers, when in these circnmstanees he cordially eoncnrred in the Corn Act of 1842, which the j!)iike9 of Richmond and Bucknigham'hcld to be a breach of fiiith with the agricultnral party, and against which charge Mr. Disraeli came to the rescue of the Ministry in that year. Lord Stanley's conduct in 184.'^, when by his Canada Corn Bill he made a much more serious breach in the Corn Law of 1842 than the latter did upon the law of 1828, must have been still more dis- tasteful to the agricultural party. But not content with this, Lord Stanley went a step further in 1845. Although opposed to tl i prospective total repeal of the Corn Law of 1842, he was not averse in 1845 to a modification of that law, and to a further diminution of agricultural protection. To what extent of altera- tion Lord Stanley was prepared to agree in 1845 has never been precisely explained ; but that he was ready to concur in some alteration, and refused to form an Administration to keep up the law of 1842, never was denied. In the course of the explanations made in January 26, 1846, in the House of Lords, relative to the resignation of Sir Robert Peel in December 1845, the Duke of Wellinoton stated that in the Cabinet discussions Sir Robert Peel and others were of opinion that in the event of the ports being opened a considerable altera- tion in the existing Corn Laws would be rendered absolutely necessary ; that to this the majority were opposed, but that " everybody admitted some altera- CANADA COKN DILL OF IHl.'l. 't'.) tion was necessary," — " that was admitted by all." In tlie same debate the Duke of Wellington mentioned that he and others " were called upon to state whetlier they were disposed to form adovernment on the prin- ciple of maintaining the existing Corn Laws ;" that he would not pretend to say what others answered, Init that he himself had declined to form such a Govern- ment. Lord Stanley is understood to liave been pre- sent when the Duke of Wellington made this explana- tion, and he did not attempt to contradict the account given of the Cabinet discussions, or the statement that all were agreed some i'urther alteration required to be made upon the law of 1842. That Lord Stanley was one of the *' others " alluded to as having declined to form a Protection Cabinet had before been made public by a letter, dated December 24th, 1845, and read by Lord Norreys at a meeting in Oxfordshire, stating, upon the authority of Lord Stanley, " that he would neither have consented at the time when Sir Robert Peel resigned to form an Administration, nor would he now undertake to do so." * Lord Stanley having thus been a party to the mea- sure of 1842, and the author of the Canada Corn Bill of 1843, and having, moreover, in consequence of the peculiar position of matters in 1845, been ready to accede to some alteration on the law of 1842, and having also refused to take the responsibility of form- ing a Protection Government in 1845, is nevertheless lauded for his honesty and consistency, and as having done no violence to the opinions expressed by him in 1841. And this being the case, it is certainly very difficult to understand how, in common fairness, Sir 'Vide Spectator, January 17, 184G, p. 53. E 50 .M<)l)IFI(r\TK)NS OF COHN F, \WS i ■ Robert I\rl, and tliose wlio af>Tcc(l with liim, sliould bi5 churged with trcfichcry to tiie agricultural interest, and with abandoning- tiieir principk'S, merely bceanse they thought that the eireunistances of the country required a greater alteration in the law of 1842 than Lord Stanley considered necessary, and because they also thought it for the interest of all ])arties, and especially of the agricultural body, to fix a period, after wliieh it would be better not to keep up even the reduced amount of protection. The Corn Laws, which stand repeale'I ^ I ' 52 SIR H. PEEL IN 1841 RESEllVES IIIS RIGHT 4 ■ i.; -■i I' Government measure, any alteration ?n the Corn Law of 1828. Such a proposal would have at once deiached the whole Whig aristocracy from the Govern- ment. In 1841, however, the 8s, fixed duty was proposed by Lord Melbourne. When this was done, did Sir Robert Peel oppose it upon the ground that it was an alteration of the law of 182H, and tliat it was essential to keep up that law ? By no mean^. He distinctly reserved to himself, on ihe question of the Corn Laws, the same freedom of action ls in the removal of other restrictions; viz., unlimited power to remodel the Act of 1828, so as to lessen the amount of protection, and suit that measure to the altered circumstances of the times. Further, in the debate in August, 1841, he repudiated the support of the agricultural body, unless he was to have "the un- fettered discretion of considering and amending the existing: law." As rea:ards this reservation of his right to use his own discretion in proposing any alteration he miglit consider necessnry upon the Corn Laws, Sir Robert Peel is reported to have spoken as follows on the S/th of August, 1841 :- " I now approach the more important and exciting ques- tion of the Corn Laws. In order that I may make no mis- take, allow me to refer to the expressions which I made use of on tins point before the dissolution. I said, that on con- sideration I had formed an opinion wlilch Intcivcning con- sideration had not induced me to alter, that the principle of a graduated scale was preferable to that of a fixed and irrevocable duty — but 1 said then, and I say now, and in doing so I repeat the la.iguage I held In 1839, that I will not bind myself to the details of the existing law, but will reserve to myself the unfettered discretion of considering and amending that law. I hold the same language now — wmiii u I I lib. TO AI.TEIl OU ABOLISH THE CORN LAWS, 53 but if you ask mo whether I bind myself to the maintenance of the existing law in its details, or if you say that that is tl\c condition on which the agricultural interest gave me their support, I say that on that condition I will not accept their support." Tills was a very clear and explicit, and, wdiat is of more importance, a timely declaration of the position in which Sir Robert Peel stood in relation to his agri- cultural supporters, and ought of itself to preclude them from brinj^ing any such charges against him as those in which even their leaders in the House of Commons have allowed themselves to have recourse to. But the following passage from the same speech contains a stiU more explicit intimation of how he would consider himself bound to act in circumstances of general distress, in the event of his being satisfied that a repeal of the Corn Laws would be calculated in any degree to alleviate that distress : — "Tf I could bring myself to think — if I could believe that an alteration of the Corn Laws would preclude the risk of such listress, if I thought it would be an cfTcftual remedy, in all cases, against such instances of lamentable suffering as those whicli have been described, I would say at once to the agricultural interest, ' It is for your advantage rather to sub- mit to any reduction of price than, if an alteration cf the Corn Laws would really be the cure for their sufferings, to compel their continuance.' I should say that it would be for the interest, not of the community in general, but especially of the agriculturists themselves, if, by any sacrifice of theirs, they could prevent the existence of such distress. If any sacrifice of theirs could prevent their being tlo real cause of the distress — could prevent the continuaiice of it — ■ could ofier a guarantee against the recurrence of it, I would earnestly advise a relaxation, an alteration, nay, if necessary, a Repeal of the Corn Laws." Sir Robert Peel havins: thus reserved to himself 1^ 64 THAT COUrSE JUSTIFIED BY THE ^i I '. ii ' slj, unlimited discretion to deal with the Corn Laws, and with the application of the principles of Free Trade, in whatever way the circumstances of the country might require, it does seem to be the height of absurdity, to say nothing of the injustice of the proceeding, to en- deavour to hold him, and those of his supporters who were all along known to entertain liberal views on commercial policy, up to public odium, as for ever unfit to take any part in the management of affairs, simply because they were of opinion in 1845 that the very alarming circumstances of the country rendered it imperative to introduce an extensive alteration of the laws regulating the importation of foreign pro- duce and manufactures. That Sir Robert Peel and his leading colleagues in the Ministry were free to do this, and that in perfect consistency with their former professions, must have now been proved to the satis- faction of every candid and unprejudiced man ; and that there are, therefore, no grounds whatsoever for charrjing them either with hypocrisy or desertion, will be Liade equally clear to any man who calmly con- siders the very peculiar and trying position of the country at the time when these alterations were pro- posed. It is unnecessary, as matters now stand, to re- capitulate the circumstances which led to the Cabinet discussions in 1845, and to the introduction of the measures of 1846. However much the failure of the potato crop, and the probability of that failure bring- ing about a scarcity of provisions, may have been ridi- culed in the spring of 1846, it is now a sad reality; and it is impossible to conceive that, had the Corn Laws of 1842 t-xistod in 1846, any ten men would have been found in either House of Parliament bold STATE OF THE COUNTRY IN 184G, 55 eiiougli to undertake the responsibility of resisting their repeal. The position of this country relative to the supply of food even in the end of 1845 was suf- ficient to create very great anxiety and alarm, and to tax to the utmost the energy and sagacity of states- men. It led Lord John Russell to advise an imme- diate repeal of the Corn Laws, in opposition to his opinions of 1841. It led Lord Stanley to think a further alteration should be made in the law of 1842 ; and it led the Central Protection Society to resolve upon the propriety of opening the po'*ts. And was S.r Robert Peel, of all men, to be alone precluded in such circumstances from exercising his discretion, and was he alone to be charged with dishonesty and trea- chery in advising the remedy which he thought the state of the country imperatively required ? If men with inferior sources of information wera ready to open the ports, without knowing how they were ever again to be closed ; and if men of confessedly inferior capacity, foresight, and experience as statesmen to Sir Robert Peel, " a minister," as the ' Quarterly Review ' admits, " of unrivalled talents, and of the maturest experience,"* saw in the anticipated fail of the supply of food enough to justify them, the ono in abandoning altogether in 1846 the protection he thought necessary in 1841, and the other in changing thp law of 1842, is no latitude to be allowed to the Minister charged with the responsibility of providing against the anticipated evils? Is his conduct, and that of his supporters, in agreeing with the one, and thinking it necessary to go somewhat further than the other, to be charged with nothing short of treachery * < Quarterly Review ' lor March, 1847. : i ' i \l§ i I ']\ If I rs BKEAK-UP OF CONSERVATIVE PARTY to their party and desertion of their friends, while the conduct of those others is praised as honest and con- sistent ? Considered in this point of view, the question admits of but one answer. Sir Robert Peel may have formed a wrong opinion ; his measures may turn out to be productive of no good, or, it may be, of much evil. That, however, remains to be proved ; and until it is proved, it is nothing less than gross injustice to condemn him and the Conservatives who went along with him, much more so to charge them wi^h trea- chery and desertion of their friends for introducing the measures of 1846. Whatever opinions may have been expressed in 1845 and 1846 as to the exaggerated nature of the evils, and as to these having been exaggerated to suit the purposes of the moment, no man can now say that Sir Robert Peel was unnecessarily alarmed. Already are men beginning to view matters in a very different light, and to give credit to whom credit is due. In the recent number of the ' Quarterly Review* Sir Robert Peel's foresight and sagacity are admitted. While great fault is found with him as having done much harm by his measures of 1846, and it is rejrretted that he did not have recourse to some temporary measure of relief, thereby preventing the " fracture of his party " and the evils the Reviewer already anticipates from the Government of his suc- cessors, he is at the same time spoken of as " tmder- standing and anticipating, as he certainly did far more clearly and fully than any other statesman in England, the nature, the growth, and the ultimate magnitude of the evil as respected the potato culti- vation." And if this be the case, if Sir Robert Peel's saga- NOT JUSTIFIED BY MEASURES OF 184G. 57 city led him to discern what others saw darkly, or doubted altogether, may not the very same sagacity have led him to judge aright as to the remedy, although others, who judged wrong as to the extent of the evil, may still fancy themselves infallible as to the treatment they recommended for a disease which they admit they did not understand ? And did it never in these circumstances occur to the Reviewer and his friends that the fracture of the party was not alto- gether chargeable against Sir Robert Peel ? If men had been at pains calmly and dispassionately to consider the measures of 1846; if instead, of allow- ing tliemselves to be hurried on by Lord George Bentinck and Mr. Disraeli, and to charge with dis- honesty, and with falsifying returns, statesmen who are certainly as little likely to be guilty of such practices as their accusers, they had patiently waited the re- sult ; if the Quarterly Reviewer, instead of giving the colour of his influential support to an opposition rested upon allegations which have turned out to be rash and erroneous, had suspended his judgment till the extent of the calamity was disclosed, and had made the same allowance for the sagacity of the JMinister which he has all along done for the purity of the man, then perhaps might c»thers of less capacity than the Reviewer have abstained from the tactics which overthrew the late Administration, and might have hesitated to bring about that disorganization of the Conservative party which the Reviewer now laments, and which, by rashly censuring and judging, the more violent section of the Protectionists have had their own share in producing. It is not uncommon to hear people say that " they do not so much object to the Corn Laws being repealed, r:^ 58 PROPOSAL TO OPEN THE POUTS ■• i I 1 as to the manner in which it was done." Thev admit that the scarcity of 1845 and the famine of 1846 li-ive proved Sir Robert Peel to be right. The Corn Laws they allow could not have been maintained, but they blame the mode in which tliey were surrendered. To say nothing of the captious nature of oUch an objec- tion, with reference to an important course of policy at a great national crisis, though it sounds much the same as if those who were saved from shipwreck should afterwards criticise the mere manner or demeanour of the pilot who preserved them — independently of this consideration, the objection itself is entirely groundless. Its proposers, when asked , /hat other method of doing this unavoidable thing they would have preferred, generally answer that if the danger df famine was so great, the minister should have opened the ports, and should then have called his party together and given them due warning, if any permanent change in the Corn Laws was considered necessary. Mr. Miles stated in the House of Commons that a suggestion made by him to open the ports " met with the most enthusiastic applause" from a company of tenant far- mers ; — and this is the manner in which it is now contender" by many that Sir Robert Peel should have acted. This, then, is the omission of which he is said to have been guilty. If therefore it can be shown that he and those who went along with him are free from this censure, they must be acquitted altogether, at least by one section of their accusers. Now what are the facts ? When famine was im- pending, the first step taken by Sir Robert Peel was to propose the opening of the ports, the very measure which he is now blamed for not adopting. In that proposal he was unsuccessful, not because his own REJECTED BY ?'Tl R. PEEL'S COLLEAGUES. 59 hey To ec- anxiety for it was small, but because the majority of his colleagues differed from him in opinion. His public statement on this point is clear and conclusive. "It appeared to mc, however, that the reports received from the Lord-Lieutenant — that the examples of foreign countries — that the example of Belgium, wliich had cleared the market of Liverpool almost in one day, and had caused a rise of 75 per cent, in the price of rice — rendered it the duty of the Government to take a step ■which Avas not with- out a precedent, and either by an Order in Council, or by calling Parliament together within a fortnight, to remove for a time all restrictions upon the importation of foreign corn. That was the advice I gave on the 1 st of November. I was perfectly ready to take the responsibility of issuing an Order in Council. The period was a critical one. There was an advantage in issuing an Order in Council, for time would thus have been saved; and I was prepared, as the head of the Government, to take that responsibility. I did not insist, however, upon the Order in Council ; for I Avas equally prepared to caV Parliament together immediately, and to advise the removal, for a limited period^ of all re- strictions on the importation of corn. I did not consider it any objection that the temporary removal of those restric- tions might compel a reconsideration of the Tariff. My advice at that period was not followed. Three only of my colleagues concurred in the vicAV Avhich I took, and we separated on the 0th of November ; I reserving to myself the right of again calling the Cabinet together, in the hope that if the alarm Avhich I apprehended sliould be confirmed by subsequent occurrences, the advice Avhich I gave Avould be folloAved at a later period." * When this later period arrived, similar advice was tendered to the Cabinet, although, as Sir Robert Peel said, " the lapse of time, the increase of agitation, and other circumstances, liad materially affected his posi- * Hansard, p. 87. 60 SIR KOBEUT PLEL RESIGNS. k f tion." But that advice was again rejected, and in particular by Lord Stanley, who thought the danger had been magnified ; and the result was, that Sir Robert Peel, not being able to obtain a united Cabinet — an essential element in so important a crisis — resigned. If a united Cabinet had then concurred in the cour£:3 proposed, the aspect of matters would have been changed, and events would have followed in a difl'crent order. A temporary suspension of the Corn Laws would have taken place, and in that event those who now declare that such is the course Sir Robert Peel should have pursued, and who have recently evinced their own readiness to open the ports, cannot surely continue to blame him when they reflect that this was the very course which he proposed, but which he was prevented from following by a majority of his Cabinet. The failure of that proposal led to other results which will immediately be noticed. But it can never in common fairness be denounced as treason to the Conservative party to have advocated that very policy of which many leading Protectionists have since professed their ap})roval. It is, no doubt, true that the opening of the ])orts would have involved a reconsideration of the Corn Laws before the ports could again be shut. For that necessity, however. Sir Robert Peel could not in any view be responsible. It arose from the very nature of things. It was the one main ground on which a portion of the Ministry resisted the opening of the ports when first proposed. But if it was right to take that step for the safety of human life, it was right and necessary to run the risk that was involved in it. If, indeed, Sir Robert Peel and tho-je who agreed Ill ger a HIS SUBSEQUENT POLICY UNAVOIDARLE Gl with him had tried to conceal that risk — if ho had recommended the temporary expedient of opening the |>orts, and had kept in the background the new con- dition in wliich the question of protection would again present itself— he might with some justice be charged with that betrayal of his friends which is now so groundlessly imputed to him. It might then have been said thai he had treacherously led his party into a position where they were unconsciously placed at the mercy of their opponents. But the very reverse of all this was the conduct he pursued ; and it is not impossible that much of the difficulty with which he had to contend arose from the very candour and free- dom with wliich his opinions and anticipations were expressed. If he had been allowed to follow the policy he had marked out, his e.:])lanations to his party at large would have been equally open and explicit. That he was prevented from doing this may not be matter of blame to any one, but least of all can it form a charge against himself. The refusal of a majority of the Cabinet to concur in opening the ports, and the delay that took place, as well as the j)ublic excitement that arose in con- nexion with the state of the country, soon gave to the whole crisis a new appearance of difficulty and danger. When the Cabinet ceased to be unanimous, and con- tinued at variance even upon the preliminary question proposed to them. Sir Robert Peel ceased to be Mi- nister, and made room for any successor that might be called upon to fill his place ; and it has been shown that neither when he resigned, nor when Lord John Russell failed to construct a cabinet, was any Pro- tectionist party prepared to assume the responsibility of office. Sir Robert Peel was thus recalled to power G2 DISOnOANISATION OF II J I t I ' 1 as the only minister wlio could form a Cabinet ; but Jie returned under circumstances and cnoao-enicuts entirely new. The only question that now remained was, how to serve the Queen and save the country, and how best to escape or mitigate the horrors of that calamity which few but himself had the wisdom to foresee. He was then fully entitled and imperatively called upon to follow out his own convictions, as he was left to act on his own responsibility; and per- verted indeed must be the minds of those who, in lookino; to what he did, can find fault with the man- ner while they acquiesce in the result, or can criticise the form when they do not object to the substance of the measures. Any Ministry that accepted office after Lord John Russell's failure to form one, was under an obligation to settle the Corn Law question ; and well it was for the country, and for all classes of the com- munity, that a question involving elements so fearful as those which attend a famine was timefully set at rest by the prudence and patriotism of a Cabinet guided by the ablest statesman of the age. It would have been a sad hour for the aristocracy of England, and for all the institutions which the Conservative party are sworn to protect, if their preservation had come to be regarded by a famishing people as a stand- ing obstacle in the way of an easier access to the means of subsistence. As it is, however, one result of the measure of 1846 has been, that the Conservative party is, for the pre- sent at least, to all appearances much disorganized. That great party which Sir Robert Peel was the chief instrument in building up, by means, as he himseh used to say, of strengthening and " widening the foundations " on which it was originally reared, — that CONSERVATIVE PATiTV. O.'i ^roiit party, formed to tlofcnd the Protestant Church from spoliation, and maintain on their ancient footing our institutions in Church and State, but whicli was at tlie same time not opposed to rational changes required by the lapse of years or the altered circum- stances of society, — which, resisting organic changes in the Constitution, professed itself friendly to all practical and ccononiical reforms, and was led to victory by men who were the colleagues of Mr. Can- ning and the disciples of Mr. Pitt, — which, in 1841, found our Indian empire shaken to its centre, and our relations with America and with France in a most precarious condition, and which, under the same guidance, re-established our connexion with France on a satisfactory footing, adjusted the threatened disputes in the West, and restored tranquillity in the East, — which in 1841 found the Exchequer empty, the revenue insufficient to meet the expenditure, and the public debt yearly increasing, and which under the same guidance remodelled our financial and com- mercial policy so as to replenish the Exchequer, raise the revenue far above the expenditure, and reduce the public debt, — and which, had those who composed it known their own interests and received the measures of 1846 in a spirit suited to the exi- gencies of the times, might have stood upon a firmer footing than any party had ever done si^.ce the days of Mr. Pitt, — that great ]5arty has apparently now been broken up, and by what ? solely in consequence of the introduction of measures based upon an appli- ca*^^ion of principles of commercial policy, opposition to which never formed an essential in the creed of the Conservative body — principles which had always been professed and acted upon by their chosen leaders since < \ til m CONCLUSION. I' i: the time of Mr. Pitt. That party is said to be broken up, and its disorganization lias at all events cleared the 'way for the restoration to office of men whom the Conservative party had opposed as unworthy of public confidence long' before they had proj)osed any plan for altering the Corn Laws, and who are described in the article in the ' Quarterly Review ' just referred to as ** entirely incompetent for conducting cither our finances with discretion or our police with firmness, or of mfiintaining that attitude of dignity in the sight of the world at large, which is essential to the traii- rpiillity of Europe." What is to be the result of all this it is difficult to predict. Already, however, in one portion of the British empire, the severity with which its calamities arc pressing upon it begins to be traced in public opinion to the absence from the helm of affairs of th.e man best fitted to grapple with the difficulties of the times, and that by no supporters of the policy of the late Administration. An article on the state of Ire- land in the April number of the ' Dublin University Magazine,' a periodical of talent and reputation, and which, though decidedly opposed to the measures of Sir Robert Peel, has the candour and straightforward- ness to do justice to their author, contains the following passage : — :| " It was, however, the misfortune of faminc-strickcn Ireland, and a deep misfortune almost all men in Ireland now feel it to be, that party eombinations (we say not now how justifiable or honourable) removed from oflice the man ■who had shown himself alone, perhaps, of living statesmen, alive to the exigencies of the crisis, and capable of boldly and effectually meeting them. It was an occasion on which no statesman could efficiently serve his country out of office. CONCLUSION. G5 ♦ * * ♦ » With the removal of Peel from office, he lost the power of even assisting to obviate the danger, which, we do believe, had he remained in office, ho would successfully have met." Such, according to a well-informed writer, in the opinion of " almost all men in Ireland," arc some of the first-fruits of that party combination which led to the retirement of Sir Robert Peel. What is to follow no man can tell ; and the preceding remarks cannot be better concluded than by giving the following extract from the same able periodical in relation to the motives which led to the repeal of the Corn Laws, and which points out some of the evils, and those no slight ones, which have been warded off by the mea- sures of 1 846 : — " Our sketch of this part of our history would be incom- plete without alluding to the Repeal of the Corn Laws, by which the Session of 1846 was ushered in. On that ques- tion this periodical has already strongly and distinctly expres.'od '"^s opinion, and that opinion it forms no part of the object of this article to qualify or retract. Sir Robert Peel stated, however, in Parliament, that the determinai on of Ministers to settle the question was forced on by their anticipation of an Irish famine — that he and his colleagues felt it would be impossible to maintain the protection during that famine — and that the ports, once opened to avert starvation, never could be closed— that the agitation of the question of the Corn Laws in a famine, when arguments in favour of cheap bread could carry with them such a deep appeal to the passions and sympathies of the human heart, would go far to break up society altogether. The coming of the Irish famine was that which, he stated, forced the Ministry to perhaps a premature decision upon the question — and we well remember the deep and solemn warning in which, with all the authority of a Premie/, he predicted the coming of a calamity in Ireland, of which no one could know F 66 CONCLUSION. f '" i ;:i^ i1! or measure the extent. *********** Time has already done juatice to the speech to which we have referred. Predictions that even from Sir Robert Peel were looked upon as tlie exaggerations of the politician, events have proved to be but the language of caution. Every man can now feel the pressure under which he acted in the nearer view of the calamity that is now upon us; we can appreciate the sagacity that foresaw the fv.'.I extent of the calamity that wrs co'.ning, and y\e can understand the feeling under which the Premier sacrificed party associations and power, and cherished friends, to what he believed to be his duty. Thus far, at least, time has vindicated his conduct ; and who is there that docs nut feel with what immeasi, ble power for evil over the passions of the multitude, the agitator for a Free Trade in Corn could now have directed the fury of the mob against the corn-law lords, by denouncing their monopoly as the cause of the hor- rors of Skibbcreen .'' All this, it is true, leaves untouched the question, whether the Corn Laws ought to be maintained or not; but a calm and impartial estimate of events must decide, that of all the motived which in that memorable speech Sir Robert Peel declared to have influenced his mind, time has proved and tested the power and the strength." All this IP ay " leave untouched the question whether the Corn Laws ought to have been maintained." But it does not leave untouched me question of the honesty and consistency of that section of the Conservative party which supported their repeal. They believed in 1846 the predictions which " events have proved to have been but the language of caution," and the truth of which " time has tested and proved." Looking upon the Corn Laws as a practical question, a mere measure of expediency, which had before been made to yield to the force of events, they could see nothing inconsistent in holding that these laws should be made to bend still further, in order to meet a force of events which no human laws could ever for a moment have withstood. Believing that the time had come when I iiifr'""**'iii'rBri«ii>i ■MiiHi£< m CONCLUSION. 67 ;i relaxation of those laws, with a provision for their ultimate repeal, might be made without injury to the agriculturists and with benefit to the community, and was moreover imp'^ratively required as being well calculated to mitigate the anticipated calamity, and to ward off the " immeasurable power for evil " which the attempt to keep u}) those laws in a time of famine would give — " a power for evil which might go far to bi-eak up society altogether," they threw in their lot with that of the authors of the measure of 1846. In doing tliis they felt that they were fulfilling a public duty ; while they could see no grounds — and it is be- lieved that when the heats and animosities that neces- sarily attend such changes siiall have passed away, an impartial public will see no grounds — on which they ought to forfeit the good opinion of their former friends, or could justly be charged with deserting the ])rinciples which were the basis of their union in 1836, and whicli may still be the bond of future co-operation in every thing that affects the safety of the country or the constitution. London • I'rinted by William Clowes and Sons, Stamford Street.