The Session of 1846.

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adopt regarding them. In a speech he made in the debate on the Address he struck the key-note of his policy. He declared that he would not withhold the homage due to the progress of reason and to truth by denying that his opinions on the subject of protection had undergone a change. "Whether holding a private station or a public one, I will assert the privilege of yielding to the force of argument and conviction, and acting upon the results of large experience. It may be supposed that there is something humiliating in making such admissions. Sir, I feel no such humiliation; I should feel humiliation if, having modified or changed my opinions, I declined to acknowledge the change, for fear of incurring the imputation of inconsistency."

On January 27, in presence of a crowded House, Sir Robert Peel unfolded his plan of commercial policy. He proposed to fix the minimum duty at four shillings when wheat was at fifty-three shillings, rising to a maximum of ten shillings when the price was below forty-eight shillings. Other grain was to be charged less in proportion; and all grain from the colonies was to be admitted duty-free. On February 1, 1849, the duty on wheat, oats, barley, and rye was to cease to exist, with the exception of a nominal duty of one shilling per quarter. The scale of duties on imported wheat for the next three years was to be as follows:

When the average price of wheat was under 48s. the duty was 10s.

"From a

In a very eloquent and powerful speech Peel implored the landowners not to obstruct the passing of this measure. sincere conviction," he said, "that the settlement is not to be delayed; that, accompanied with the precautionary measures to which I have referred, it will not inflict injury on the agricult

ural interest-from these feelings I should deeply lament, exclusively on public grounds, the failure of an attempt which, at the instance of her Majesty's government, I have made on this occasion, to recommend to your calm and dispassionate consideration these proposals, with no other feeling or interest in the ultimate issue than that they may, to use the words of her Majesty's Speech, conduce to the promotion of friendly feelings between different classes, to provide additional security for the continuance of peace, and to maintain contentment and happiness at home, by increasing the comforts and bettering the condition of the people.""

The measure, in spite of the furious opposition of the party of which the real leader was Mr. Disraeli, passed through the House of Commons more easily than might have been anticipated. After fifty-five speeches in favor of protection, and forty-eight in favor of free-trade, the second reading was carried by a majority of ninety-seven. An amendment proposed by Mr. Villiers, "That all duties on corn do now cease," found only seventy-eight supporters. The third reading was passed, on May 15, by a majority of ninety-eight. Mainly owing to the influence of the Duke of Wellington, who advised his followers not to oppose it, the bill passed rapidly through the House of Lords. On June 26 it received the royal assent.

While the protectionists were uttering fiery tirades against the noblest act of the man whose public life, though not free from faults, had always been honest and courageous, by the country at large Sir Robert Peel was regarded with that veneration which self-sacrifice and devotion to principle rarely fail to inspire. As he had anticipated, and as was generally expected, he was speedily obliged to give up office by a combination of the votes of the Opposition and of the defeated monopolists. On June 29 he resigned, in a speech which forms one of the noblest efforts of his eloquence. After a generous tribute to Cobden, as the man whose name ought to be associated with the success of the measures which had established freetrade and abolished the Corn-laws, he went on to say: "I shall

Sir R. Peel's Noble Eloquence.

289 leave behind me a name detested by every monopolist who clamors for protection because it conduces to his own individual benefit; but it may be that I shall also leave a name sometimes remembered with expressions of good-will in the abodes of those whose lot it is to labor and to earn their daily bread by the sweat of their brow, when they shall recruit their exhausted strength with abundant and untaxed food, the sweeter because it is no longer leavened by the sense of injustice.”

The work of the Anti-Corn-law League was now accomplished; and at a meeting held in the Manchester Town-hall, July 2, its operations were brought to a close. Only £50,000 of the proposed £250,000 fund was called up, out of which £10,000 were voted to Mr. George Wilson, the Chairman of the League. When, in 1852, the Derby-Disraeli ministry came into power, and it was feared that a protectionist policy would be adopted, the League was for a short time revived. But it was soon seen that, however much the remnant of the protectionist party might bluster while in opposition, it would never venture when in office to resume a policy of which the country thoroughly disapproved; and accordingly the League was a second time dissolved.

Cobden's devoted labors in advancing the cause of free-trade had necessitated his neglect of his private business, and, of course, he had suffered accordingly. To compensate him for his losses, a subscription on his behalf was started, to which money rapidly poured in. In 1848 he was presented with a testimonial of over £76,000. Of this sum he unfortunately invested part in American railway speculations which turned out badly, and involved him in considerable financial difficulties. A few of his old friends came nobly to his assistance in 1860, and privately presented him with a sum exceeding £40,000. Before his death, which occurred April 2, 1865, amid the universal regret even of those who had been his most strenuous opponents, he rendered a great service to the commercial world. In 1859-'60 he negotiated with the French government a treaty which did much to facilitate commercial intercourse be

tween Great Britain and France. By this treaty, which, after having been renewed in 1870, expired at the close of 1880, great reductions were made in the scale of duties levied on British goods in France, and corresponding abatements in the British tariff on French wines, silks, and other articles.

Since the repeal of the Corn-laws British legislation has more and more advanced in the direction of free-trade, with what satisfactory results has been over and over proved by the clear evidence of statistical tables. We have not succeeded to so great an extent as Cobden and the other early apostles of free-trade hoped, in inducing other nations to follow in our footsteps; and hence there arises periodically, from industries suffering under a temporary depression, a cry for protection, under the new name of "Reciprocity." But the nation has gradually accepted the sound doctrine, that it is better to buy cheap, even if artificial obstacles make it impossible to sell dear; and there appears little reason to apprehend that it will ever depart from it.

THOMAS MILNER GIBSON AND OTHERS.

In the year 1712 the Tory ministers of Queen Anne, finding that the Whig Press by its ability, force of invective, and attractiveness was undermining their influence in the country, determined to place it under some severe restraints. With this view they imposed a stamp duty of a half-penny on every newspaper or pamphlet containing half a sheet or less, the tax rising to one penny on a whole sheet. "Grub Street has but ten days to live," writes Swift to Stella on July 17, 1712; "then an act of Parliament takes place that ruins it by taxing every half-sheet at a half-penny." Again, on August 7 of the same year, he writes: "Do you know that Grub Street is dead and gone last week? No more ghosts or murders now for love or money. I plied it pretty close the last fortnight, and published at least seven penny papers of my own, besides some of other people; but now every single half-sheet pays a half-penny to the Queen. The Observator is fallen; the Medleys are jumbled together with the Flying Post; the Examiner is deadly sick; the Spectator keeps up and doubles its price; I know not how long it will hold. red stamp the papers are marked with? a half-penny the stamping." At the same time as the stamp duty, a tax of one shilling on every advertisement, and also a duty on paper and foreign books, were imposed, which had the effect of still farther crippling the Press. These taxes on knowledge continued to exist, with various modifications, for

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