OPENING OF PARLIAMENT.

447

himself had failed to do in five years what he would not now allow a new Ministry five months to prepare and mature; but, while fully and deeply sensible of the distressed condition of the country, Sir Robert would attempt nothing until he had diligently studied the financial "situation."

On the 3rd of February, 1842, Parliament met again; and met under some excitement, as in the interval, the Duke of Buckingham, an Ultra-Protectionist, had resigned the office of Privy Seal, and it was, therefore, expected that the Premier had determined on a modification of the Corn Laws. This expectation was strengthened by a recommendation in the Speech from the Throne that Parliament should consider "the state of the laws affecting the importation of corn and other articles, the produce of foreign countries." And it was fulfilled on the 9th of February. The avenues to the House were on that day crowded with excited faces; and as soon as the doors were opened, the strangers' gallery was carried with a rush. At four o'clock the front ranks of a remarkable procession appeared on the scene. Six hundred Anti-Corn-Law delegates, whom the League had sent up from all parts of the country, marched down to the House, and when refused admission to the Lobby, lined the way in Palace Yard, and greeted the members as they passed with cries of, "Total Repeal!" "No Sliding Scale!" "Down with the Corn Laws!" This demonstration at an end, they marched back again up Parliament Street, and, at Privy Gardens, met the Premier in his carriage, going to the House. It was observed that he looked very grave;

448

SIR ROBERT PEEL'S SPEECH.

It

and the gravity did not depart when he heard the shouts which demanded the repeal of the bread-tax. did not relax; it could not relax; for he knew that he was not yet prepared to grant what was asked; that if he had educated himself up to a belief in the justice and wisdom of Free Trade, he had not yet educated his most trusted lieutenants or his party.

He rose to speak at about five o'clock. The House was very full, and a prince of the blood and many peers were present. The audience was one to stimulate and inspirit an orator; yet, we are told, that, on this occasion, his manner was nervous, uneasy, deficient in confidence. His speech was as clear and intelligible as usual, but not so forcibly reasoned as usual. It endeavoured to disconnect the existing depression and distress from the operation of the Corn Laws, and to ascribe them to other causes.* It expressed the speaker's conviction that it was of the highest importance to the welfare of all classes that the main sources of its corn supply should be derived from domestic agriculture. At the same time, the cogency was acknowledged of the objections to the existing law based upon its system of averages, of which speculators had made fraudulent

use.

These objections it was proposed to obviate by transferring the duty of ascertaining averages, to the excise; by broadening the area from which returns were to be obtained; and, above all, by so reducing the duties as greatly to diminish the temptation to unfair and dishonest dealing. The intended reduction was explained

* Hansard, lx. 214 et seq.

THE SLIDING SCALE.

449

at length; it was founded on the sliding-scale system, the duty decreasing as the average price of English corn rose. Thus, when home-grown wheat was at 50s. and under 51s. per quarter, the duty on foreign corn was to stand at 20s. ; when home-grown wheat rose to 54s. the duty sank to 188.; and so on, until, when home-grown wheat rose to 758. and upwards, the duty sank to 1s.,-the object being, of course, to keep the price of wheat at a moderate level. "With reference to the probable remunerating price," said the Minister, "I should say that if the price of wheat in the country, allowing for its natural oscillations, could be limited to some such amount as between 54s. and 58s. that would be the thing to be desired. I do not believe that it is for the interest of the agriculturist that it should be higher; and on the other hand, I cannot say that I am able to see any great or permanent advantage to be derived from the diminution of the price of corn beyond the lowest amount I have named, if I look at the subject in connection with the general position of the country, the existing relations of landlord and tenant, the burden upon land, and the habits of the nation. I beg, however, altogether to disclaim mentioning this sum as a pivot or remunerating price, or any inference that the legislature can guarantee the continuation of that price; for I know that it is utterly beyond your power and a mere delusion to say, that, by any duty fixed or otherwise, you can guarantee a certain price to the producer."

Sir Robert's proposal met with opposition from two considerable parties. The fervent advocates of Free

VOL. II.

29

450

VICTORY OF THE GOVERNMENT.

Trade admitted that it was a relaxation, a concession; but that it was a concession made on the lines of Protection. The not less fervent advocates of Protection denounced it because it was a concession, and because they felt that it sounded the knell of the Corn Laws. The Opposition endeavoured to combine both sections against the Ministerial project; and Lord John Russell moved as an amendment, "that this House, considering the evils that have been caused by the present Corn Laws, and especially by the fluctuations of the graduated or sliding scale, is not prepared to adopt the measure of her Majesty's Government, which is founded upon the same principles, and is likely to be attended by similar results." After a sharp debate, 349 voted for the Ministry, and 226 against, giving them a majority of 123. Mr. Villiers, one of the earliest and most indefatigable of Free Trade champions, next submitted a motion against any corn duty whatever; but could rally only a minority of 90 against a formidable phalanx of 393. Further skirmishing followed; but Sir Robert was too good a general, and at the head of too loyal a following, to be worsted in any encounter, and the Bill passed through both Houses triumphantly to become law on the 29th of April.

Meanwhile, Sir Robert had firmly established his reputation as a financier by the introduction of a fiscal policy of extraordinary breadth and boldness. He found himself called upon to lift the nation out of a slough of debt and discredit. The deficit in the last year had reached £2,334,559; for 1843, it would not be less than £2,570,000; in six years it amounted to

PEEL'S FINANCIAL SCHEME.

45I

the formidable total of £10,072,638. A renewal of the old funding and borrowing system was impossible; and it was well understood that indirect taxation had reached its limit. Yet the national indebtedness must be remedied, and provision made for meeting such extra expenditure as the Chinese opium war and the Afghanistan calamity might involve. On the 11th of March the Minister unfolded the great scheme by which he proposed to retrieve the past, and give a new impulse to the enterprise of the country. His speech was worthy of the occasion, not only in its perspicuous eloquence and luminous simplicity, but in its tone of earnest and deeply-felt responsibility. After a straightforward statement of the embarrassments which the Government and the nation were called upon to face, and an exposition of the measures by which he intended to dispose of them, he said *:

"I have performed, on the part of her Majesty's Government, my duty. I have proposed, with the full weight and authority of the Government, that which I believe to be conducive to the public welfare. I now devolve upon you the duty, which properly belongs to you, of maturely considering, and finally deciding upon, the adoption or rejection of the measures I propose. We live in an important era of human affairs. There may be a natural tendency to overrate the magnitude of the crisis in which we live, or those particular events with which we are ourselves conversant; but I think it is impossible to deny that the period in which our lot

* Hansard, lxi,