Suddenly, in the summer of 1845, a cold, wet, sunless season fell upon the British Isles and the whole potato crop of Ireland—the sole dependence of the vast majority of the Irish people—rotted.
The food of Ireland was gone; in her poverty she could not pay the English landlord’s price for bread, and the Corn Laws forbade her buying the cheap bread of America and Continental Europe.
It was then that Lord John Russell attacked the whole system of Protection as “the blight of commerce, the bane of agriculture, the source of bitter divisions among classes, the cause of penury, fever and crime among the people.”
It was then that the great Tory Minister, Sir Robert Peel, followed the promptings of his heart and determined that the people should have cheaper food.
He abolished the Corn Laws, and conferred inestimable blessings upon the common people of his country.
The noble act cost him his political life—for that was the penalty which outraged land monopoly, led by Disraeli, inflicted upon its former chief.
The Corn Laws were repealed in 1846.
Mr. Dennis comes along and tells us that Free Trade is responsible for “Hooligan”—for poverty in England.
Mr. Rider Haggard—now in this country in the interest of Hooligan—ought to know as much about the poor of Great Britain as Dennis knows.