THE BANK CHARTER ACT.

463

defied and derided. His defeat was absolute, and he never again grew formidable. He had played against Peel with all his finest subtlety and ingenuity, and Peel had won; not by subtlety and ingenuity like his own, but by patience, coolness, and courage.

The session of 1844 was a busy one. It showed in various ways that the labours of Cobden and Bright were beginning to bear fruit; it indicated a further advance towards Free-trade on the part of Peel and his most trusted colleagues; it witnessed the success of another Factory Bill, by which the hours of work for women and children underwent a further limitation; it was distinguished by the conversion of the 3 per cent. public stocks to 3 per cent.; it produced a remission of the duties on various articles of consumption; and it affected, by means of the Bank Charter Act, a complete reorganisation of the Bank of England. Railway legislation was also rendered necessary by the rapid extension of the railway system. A Bill introduced by Mr. Gladstone compelled the railway companies to make better provision for their third-class passengers, and remedied many evils hitherto deemed inseparable from

*"Mr. O'Connell survived his defeat about three years, but only as a sort of melancholy and wandering ghost of his former self. After this, to face Sir Robert Peel in the British House of Commons must have been worse than death to one who, to great faults of character, unquestionably joined great talents, vast energy, and a love of country which, though he failed miserably at last in his designs, must not be denied him. From their first entrance into public life he had been the bitter antagonist of Peel, but in Sir Robert he met an adversary superior to himself both in knowledge of mankind and command of temper."-DOUBLEDAY, 'Life of Peel,' ii. 367.

464

MR. GLADSTONE'S RESIGNATION.

railway management. The "Rebecca riots" in Wales, induced by the exorbitant tolls levied for the maintenance of the turnpike roads, called forth a measure for the entire reform of the whole system of Welsh turnpike trusts. Incidentally we may notice the outburst of public feeling, not less unjust and ill-founded than such outbursts usually are, provoked by the charge against Sir James Graham, the Home Secretary, of having opened the letters of Mazzini, the Italian revolutionist, and others, in their transit through the Post-office. The report of the Committee appointed to inquire into the matter satisfied all reasonable people that a power which it is necessary every Government should possess, had been exercised with discretion, and the ferment quickly subsided.

The prosperity of the country, and the swift increase of its commercial enterprise, enabled the Minister to meet Parliament in February, 1845, with the fullest confidence. During the recess, however, his Government had lost one of its ablest and most earnest members, owing to the resignation of Mr. Gladstone, who, as President of the Board of Trade, had taken an active part in working out, explaining, and supporting Sir Robert's financial reforms. Soon after the opening of the session it was found that an extreme conscientiousness had led him to deprive the country of services which it had learned to value. In an early work of his on Church and State, the work so sharply criticised by Macaulay in a well-known essay, he had expressed opinions which did not agree with the course Sir Robert Peel had resolved upon taking in reference to the endow

IRISH MEASURES.

465

ment of the Roman Catholic College at Maynooth. He no longer held those opinions; but he had persuaded himself that if in office he defended a measure which he had previously condemned, his change of view might be ascribed to interested motives. Very general regret was felt at what was considered the action of an unnecessarily fastidious conscience. Mr. Gladstone's explanation called up Sir Robert Peel, who, after paying a high compliment to his late colleague, announced that he intended to propose a liberal increase of the Maynooth College vote, unaccompanied by any regulation with respect to the doctrine, discipline, and management of the college, which could diminish the grace and favour of the grant. This proposal was afterwards carried into effect, much to the alarm and indignation of the ultraProtestant party; and was followed by another sagacious and enlightened measure, the establishment in Ireland of the "Queen's Colleges," in which no definite religious instruction is imparted, so that under their ample roof students of all religious belief may meet in peace. The great interest of the session centred, however, in the Minister's Budget, which was explained to a crowded House in a speech of three hours and a quarter's duration. It was built up on a continuance of the incometax for a second period of three years, so as to provide the means for another large remission of taxation. A great reduction of the sugar duties; the abolition of the duty on exported coal; the abolition of the duties on the raw material of silk, hemp, flax, certain yarns, furniture woods, animal and vegetable manures, and various other articles, 430 in number; and the remission

VOL. II.

30

466

THE BUDGET OF 1845.

of the auction and glass duties, were among the reforms which lent a new impulse to the commercial and manufacturing industry of the empire. "The total immediate loss," said Sir Robert, in concluding his speech, "which the revenue will sustain from the repeal of the duty on all the articles on which I propose a remission of taxation will be £3,338,000, which will nearly absorb the surplus of £3,400,000, on which I have calculated. I do not deny that the financial scheme which I have just explained to the committee is a bold experiment; but, responsible as I am to Parliament for its success, I am not afraid of making it. I now propose to the committee to continue the income-tax for a further limited period of three years, because I have a confident expectation that the reduction in the price of articles of great importance which will follow this proposed remission of taxation will be, if not a complete, yet a great compensation for its burden. I will not say that it may not be wise to give a longer time than three years for testing this experiment. I think, however, that Parliament ought to have a control over such a tax. I hope that so great a source of revenue will not be dried up before the expiration of three years; but at the end of that time, such is my confidence in the elasticity of the country, I think you will be able to dispense with the tax if you think proper. I recommend this plan with a deliberate conviction that your sanction of it will conduce to the extension of industry and the encouragement of enterprise; so that all classes, whether agricultural, manufacturing, commercial, or parties not engaged in any particular branch of industry, will either directly or indirectly be benefited by it."

THE FREE-TRADE QUESTION.

467

The Budget underwent, of course, the usual ordeal of amateur criticism. Mr. Roebuck moved an amendmend exempting "professions, trades, and offices." from the operation of the income tax, but was defeated by a majority of 208 (263 against 55). All our financiers have admitted the unequal incidence of this tax, but none have appeared able to remedy it. Other attacks were similarly unsuccessful. The most important was directed against the difference in the duties levied on foreign and colonial sugars, the latter being maintained at a lower figure than the former for the protection of the West Indian planters. Free trade was warmly advocated by Milner Gibson, Villiers, Cobden, and Bright; the Ministerial plan not less warmly supported by Gladstone, Goulburn, and Cardwell. On a division Mr. Milner Gibson mustered only 84 votes against the 217 of the Government.

After the Budget had been steered safely into port, the Free Trade question was brought directly before the House, on the 18th of March, by Mr. Cobden, who moved the appointment of a select committee "to inquire into the causes and extent of the alleged existing agricultural distress, and into the effect of legislative protection upon the interests of landowners, tenant farmers, and farm labourers." The Ministry were bound to resist the motion, but Mr. Sydney Herbert (afterwards Lord Herbert of Lea), in doing so, let fall admissions which gave but a small degree of comfort to the champions of the agricultural interest. They were specially indignant at his assertion that "it would be distasteful to the agriculturists to come whining to Parliament