Bright.

In directing the attention of the masses to this allimportant question he sought the aid of men who had sprung from the people and had been trained to commerce; and he found many able and truly earnest colleagues, but none more so than John Bright, John a man of greater, though perhaps not more convincing eloquence than his own, who like himself had no object in view, as the whole experience of his life has proved, than the good of his country. While Cobden and Bright proclaimed, with overwhelming force, the policy of Charles James Fox, which Huskisson and Canning had first practically put in operation, and which Lord John Russell was now zealously pursuing in Parliament,' an Association, under their leadership, was being formed out of doors destined to give the fullest freedom to commerce. The first object of the Anti-Corn-Law League was to lower the price of bread, which with every deficient harvest approached a famine price, and thus enable the working classes of every grade to compete with greater prospects of success and to the best advantage, in the production of those articles most in demand in their own and other countries, and, at the same time, to secure them more steady employment and a higher rate of wages. With this object, its members set themselves heartily to work, proclaiming their views at public meetings in almost every city and town in Great Britain, and, in the course of their labours, making many converts to their policy among the higher classes, among whom Charles

1 Though not within the province of this work, it should be remembered that Fox stoutly opposed Pitt's great Free-trade Treaty with France, in 1756, and that Lord John Russell did not come out as a thorough and earnest Free-trader until 1840-41.

Effect of

the Irish

famine, 1845-6.

Villiers ought to take high rank, for he was unwearied in his exertions on behalf of the people. Nor did they lack some associates among even the shipowners of England, who, seeing that the free importation of corn from other countries would afford greatly increased employment for their ships, readily joined the league. It is certain, however, that many of this class did not at the time perceive that, though the immediate object of the association was to cut down the chief branch of the huge old tree of protection, other branches, such as those interfering with free navigation, must likewise be pulled down as the supplement to free importation of corn: probably they did not reflect that, should the Freetraders abolish the protection then afforded to the proprietors of land, a protective system for the maritime interest alone could no longer be maintained.

But an event happened which, although in itself a grievous national misfortune, brought about, at an earlier period than might otherwise have been the case, the abolition of the Corn Laws, as well as the suspension, for a time, of the Navigation Laws. This calamity was the failure of the potato crop in Ireland in 1845 by "a pestilence so minute that it eluded the power of the finest microscope, so mysterious that it defied the researches of the most searching philosophy, but strong enough to overturn governments, general enough to alter established commerce, powerful enough to cause the migration of nations."1

The whole crop of potatoes in Ireland having been destroyed, the price of grain rose at bound from 45s. 9d. to 60s. the quarter, and Cabinet

1 Alison's History of Europe,' vol. vii. p. 168.

Councils assembled in November to consider the propriety of throwing open the ports of the United Kingdom. As the Cabinet was divided on the subject, Sir Robert Peel, impressed with the dangers of the approaching crisis, resigned office, and Lord John Russell, whose celebrated letter on that occasion must long be remembered, was called upon to form a new Administration; but personal jealousy among the Whigs1—a jealousy which lasted many years-prevented the formation of a ministry by the opposition party. Nor was Lord Stanley, who had been a member of Sir Robert Peel's Cabinet, more successful in a similar attempt: hence, with the exception of his Lordship, the members of that Cabinet resumed their former places.

6

On the 4th December, 1845, it was intimated through the Times' newspaper, which had for some months previously avoided the question of total repeal, that Sir Robert Peel would propose the entire abolition of the Corn Laws. The Queen's speech, as well as the speech of Sir Robert Peel on the Address, more distinctly announced the policy of the reconstructed Administration, and, having called attention to the measures of commercial reform already adopted, which had tended so materially to the greatness of this country and the welfare and happiness of its inhabitants, he called on the agri

1 This difference reached its climax in 1845, when Lord Grey wished to exclude Lord Palmerston from the Foreign Office, and Lord Russell insisted on his being nominated for that department.

2 The exports of Great Britain rose from 47,000,000l. in 1842 to 60,000,0007. in 1845, and the imports from 65,000,000l. to 85,000,000l., and, in the same period, the entries of British mercantile shipping rose from 4,627,440 tons to 6,031,557 tons. (See Porter's Progress of the Nation.')

culturists to submit to some sacrifice on their part, proposing a sliding-scale of duties on corn until February 1849, with the condition, however, that wheat and other cereal produce should, after that date, be imported from foreign countries at a duty of 1s. a quarter.

Sir Robert It is not the province of this work to describe the Peel carries the struggles of parties during this momentous period, Repeal of the Corn and it is therefore sufficient to state that the measures Laws, and of Sir Robert Peel, supported as they were out of

resigns.

doors by the vigorous action of the Anti-Corn-Law League, and in Parliament by the Liberal party, were carried by large majorities through the Commons and were, ultimately, passed by the Lords. But, meantime the Irish Arms Bill had furnished the Opposition with a temporary accession of members to defeat that measure, and consequently with the means of overthrowing Sir Robert's Administration, so that the night of his triumph on the great question of the repeal of the Corn Laws was a witness also of his downfall; and, in the records of the debates of that ever-memorable evening, may be read the words now so familiar to our ears:-"It may be," he remarked, in his concluding speech, "that I shall be sometimes remembered with goodwill in those places which are the abodes of men whose lot it is to labour and earn their daily bread by the sweat of their brow; in such places, perhaps, my name may be remembered with expressions of good-will, when those who inhabit them recruit their exhausted strength with abundant and untaxed food, the sweeter because no longer leavened with the spirit of injustice."

CHAPTER IV.

Lord John Russell's first steps as Prime Minister: the Equalization of the Sugar Duties-He suspends the Navigation Laws, January 1847 -Mr. Ricardo's motion, February 1847-Reply of Mr. Liddell-Mr. Ricardo's motion carried-Committee appointed, February 1847Meeting of the shipowners, August 12, 1847-Their argumentsWhat constitutes "British ships "-State of Navigation Laws in 1847-Rules in force in the Plantation Trade-Their rigorous character-Their history from 1660 to 1847-First infringement of the principle of confining the American trade to British vesselsAbsurdity and impotency of these laws-State of the law before the Declaration of American Independence-Trade with Europe-Modifications of the law-East India Trade and shipping-Trade with India in foreign and in United States ships even from English ports-Coasting trade-Summary of the Navigation Laws.

John

first steps

the Equa

the Sugar

THE first measure introduced by Lord John Russell, Lord when he succeeded Sir Robert Peel as Prime Minister, Russell's -the equalization of the Sugar Duties--was one as Prime almost as important to the interests of merchant Minister: shipping as the repeal of the Corn Laws. A change lization of so great, affecting, indirectly, the general as well as Duties. the fiscal policy of the empire, was even more remarkable than the abolition of the Corn Laws. was strenuously opposed by the Protectionist party, but Sir Robert Peel, having given his support to Government, the Bill was carried by a large majority.

VOL. III.

G

It