This great fact was now apparent to all men. The Conservatives, however, did not yet give up the struggle, though they fought as men in despair. Having failed in defeating the measure in the whole, they sought to defeat it in its details. On the house resolving itself into committee on the customs’ acts, amendment after amendment was moved by them; and when these were all negatived, they commenced another struggle to defeat the second reading. A division on the second reading took place on the 28th of March, which was carried by a majority of three hundred and two against two hundred and fourteen. Nor yet was the battle won. As if exhausted by the struggle, both parties rested awhile from the strife; but it recommenced on the 5th of May, on a motion that the house resolve itself into a committee of the whole house on the corn-importation bill. This was opposed by Lord George Bentinck, who was considered as the champion of protection; he moved that the speaker do leave the chair that day three months. No division took place on his lordship’s amendment, and the house resolved into committee on the corn-law importation act. Amendments were moved on some of its clauses, but they were all either negatived or withdrawn; and by the 9th of May the report was brought up. Sir G. Burrell moved that the report should be received that day six months; but after a long discussion, which was more distinguished for personal attacks than for sober argument, the amendment was withdrawn, and the bill was ordered to be printed, and to be read a third time on the 12th. The third reading was on that day moved by Sir James Graham, and the final struggle in the house of commons on this great subject commenced. The Marquis of Granby moved that the bill be read a third time that day six months; and in doing so, he did not believe the measure would pass the legislature; but if it did, he hoped their anticipations of evil would prove inaccurate, and that the anticipations of Sir Robert Peel, however vague, would be verified. The debate on the third reading continued by adjournment up to the 16th of May, its opponents putting forth all their strength to defeat it—arguing and pleading for the corn-laws as though the very existence of England depended on their continuance.
On a division, the third reading was carried by a majority of three hundred and twenty-seven against two hundred and twenty-nine, and the bill was then read a third time, and passed amidst loud cheering.
The report of the customs’ duties bill was brought up in the commons on Monday the 18th of May, and though strenuously opposed by Lord George Bentinck, and others of his party, was agreed to without a division; and on the morrow it was read a third time without either discussion or division, and passed.
On the 18th the corn-importation bill was introduced into the lords by the Duke of Wellington, who moved its first reading. The Duke of Richmond said that he could not permit the bill to be read even a first time without entering his protest against it. The first reading was carried without a division, the Duke of Richmond being the only peer who expressed dissent. The Duke of Wellington gave notice that he would move the second reading of the bill on Monday the 25th. This motion was introduced, however, on that day by the Earl of Ripon. The Duke of Richmond moved that the bill be read a second time that day six months; feeling it to be a measure likely to inflict a deadly blow upon British agriculture and the national greatness. The debate continued by adjournment up to Thursday the 28th of May, most of the peers being anxious to deliver their sentiments on this great subject. Lord Ashburton justified the principles of protection. The system of protection, he said, was founded upon three grounds: it was necessary in order to secure industry; it secured us against dependence on foreign countries for food; and there were peculiar burdens upon the land, for which landowners were entitled to compensation. The debate was closed by the Duke of Wellington, who justified the measure in an emphatic speech, and warned their lordships, that if they rejected it, it would only be to have another brought before them. On a division, the second reading was carried by a majority of two hundred and eleven against one hundred and sixty-four.
The customs’ duties bill was read a first time, after the stern opposition of the Duke of Richmond, in the house of lords, on the 20th of May. The second reading was moved by the Earl of Dalhousie on the 4th of June; in doing which is lordship stated generally the ground on which it was based. The noble lord went through the detail of the several articles of the tariff on which reductions were proposed, and concluded by repudiating the notion that the measure was one of pure free trade, and therefore did not go far enough: it was no free-trade measure at all; but one for the removal of prohibitive, and the gradual repeal of protective duties. The Duke of Richmond said, that after the decision to which their lordships had come on the corn-importation bill, he felt it was little use to trouble them with any remarks; and therefore he should content himself with moving that the bill be read a second time that day six months. After a few words from the Earl of Wicklow and Lord Ashburton against the bill, and from Earl Grey and Lord Monteagle in its support, the bill was read a second time, and ordered to be committed on Monday week. Before proceeding with the tariff, however, their lordships went into committee on the corn-importation bill. The first night of the committee’s sitting was Friday, June 12th; and the opponents of the measure brought forward so many amendments, that the several clauses were not gone through till the 19th. On that day, after all the amendments had been negatived, it was arranged that the report should be brought up on the 22nd; that afterwards the tariff bill should be proceeded with, as far as possible, and continued on the following day; and that on the 25th the corn-bill should be read a third time. In accordance with this agreement the report of the corn-bill was brought up on the following Monday, and the house went into committee upon the tariff-bill. Several amendments were proposed and negatived, and at length the opponents of the measure gave up the contest. On the following day the bill was reported without amendments, and ordered to be read a third time on Thursday with the corn-importation bill. Upon the motion for the third reading of these bills several noble lords, in opposition, urged their previous arguments, and entered their solemn protests against them; but all opposition was futile: they passed their final stage triumphantly, and on the morrow, Friday, the 26th, the royal assent was given to them by commission, and they became laws.
Thus triumphed Sir Robert Peel. Yet with his triumph as a patriot came his downfall as a minister. Simultaneous with these great and twin measures, the corn-bill and the customs-bill, he had brought in a protection life-bill for Ireland. The premier, in bringing in this bill, was aware that the Whigs, who had supported him in his great free-trade measures, would be to a man adverse to any coercive measure for that country; and his only hope of success was that those of his recent colleagues whom he had so grievously offended by striking the final blow at their darling measure, the corn-laws, would forget their resentment, and act according to their conscience, in a matter which, under ordinary circumstances, and according to their usual policy, would have obtained their hearty support. That hope was vain. They, his former stanch adherents, considered that government had forfeited all claim to their confidence, and therefore declined “to supply them with unconstitutional powers.” The protection life-bill was thrown out by the commons—the Tories uniting with the Whigs, that they might crush a man whom they had idolized—by a majority of seventy-three, although it was urged by stern necessity, and enforced with the whole weight of a triumphant cabinet. On the day after the triumph of the corn-bill and the customs-bill, the premier went down to Osborne-house to tender the resignation of his ministry, in his retirement he carried with him the sympathy and admiration of the great body of the people. All felt that he had not only benefited England by these great measures, but all the world. Nor must the name of Cobden be forgotten in this achievement. The retiring premier, indeed, nobly attributed the whole triumph to that long-tried champion of free-trade. But the names of Peel and Cobden will ever be associated in the annals of the country, as the names of those who struck the final blow at laws which enriched the few at the cost of the whole population.
CHAPTER LVIII.
VICTORIA. 1846
Position of the Conservative Party on the Defection of Sir Robert Peel, and the Parliamentary Success of his Free- Trade Measures..... Formation of a Whig Cabinet..... The Sugar Duties..... Dreadful Condition of Ireland..... Decline of Mr. O’Connell..... The Young Ireland Leaders..... Colonial Affairs..... War with the Sikhs..... Foreign Affairs..... Coolness with France..... Spanish Marriages