“I cannot for a moment doubt that the repeal of the Corn Laws—on the policy of which I do not enter—has materially affected the condition of those who are interested in land. I do not mean to say that this is the only cause of landed distress. There are other reasons—general distress, the metallic changes,[87] have all had an effect. But I cannot shut my eyes to the conviction that the termination of protection to the landed interest has materially tended to the condition in which it finds itself. But that is no reason why we should retrace our steps, and authorise and sanction any violent changes. This state of things is one which has long threatened.... It has arrived.... I cannot give up the expectation that the energy of this country will bring about a condition of affairs more favourable to the various classes which form the great landed interest of this country. I should look upon it as a great misfortune to this country that the character, and power, and influence of the landed interest and its valuable industry, should be diminished, and should experience anything like a fatal and a final blow. It would, in my opinion, be a misfortune, not to this country alone, but to the world, for it has contributed to the spirit of liberty and order more than any other class that has existed in modern times.... But ... I cannot support my noble friend when he asks us to pass resolutions of this great character, and when he himself disclaims the very ground (i.e. protection) on which he might have framed, not what I think was a correct, but a plausible case. It is a very unwise course, in my opinion, when the country is not in a state so satisfactory as we could wish ... to propose any inquiry which has not either some definite object, or is likely to lead to some action on the part of those who bring it forward. It would lead to great disappointment and uneasiness on the part of the country; and the classes who are trying to realise the exact difficulties they have to encounter ... would relapse into a lax state which might render them incapable of making the exertions it is necessary for them to make.... Looking into the state of the country, I do not see there is any great mystery in the causes which have produced a state of which there is undoubted general complaint. What has happened in our own commercial failures during the last ten years will explain it. The great collapse which naturally followed the convulsion of prosperity which seemed to deluge the world and not merely this country—the fact that other countries have been placed in an equally disagreeable situation ... these are circumstances which appear to me to render it quite unnecessary to enter into an inquiry on this subject.... I do not mean to say that there are not moments ... in which an inquiry by Parliament ... into the causes of national distress may not be allowable—may not be necessary; but it must be a distress of a very different kind from that which we are now experiencing. We must have the consciousness that the great body of the people are in a situation intolerable to them....”
Compare with this that passage from his late Endymion—a novel of memories—where “Job Thornberry” (John Bright) discusses this very problem with the hero.
“‘... But, after all,’ said Endymion, ‘America is as little in favour of free exchange as we are. She may send us her bread-stuffs, but her laws will not admit our goods, except on the payment of enormous duties.’
“‘Pish!’ said Thornberry. ‘I do not care this for their enormous duties. Let me have free imports, and I will soon settle their duties.’
“‘To fight hostile tariffs with free imports,’ said Endymion, ‘Is not that fighting against odds?’
“‘Not a bit. This country has nothing to do but to consider its imports. Foreigners will not give us their products for nothing; but as for their tariffs, if we were wise men, and looked to our real interests, their hostile tariffs, as you call them, would soon be falling down like an old wall.’
“‘Well, I confess,’ said Endymion, ‘I have for some time thought the principle of free exchange was a sound one; but its application in a country like this would be very difficult, and require, I should think, great prudence and moderation.’
“‘... Ignorance and timidity,’ said Thornberry, scornfully.
“‘Not exactly that, I hope,’ said Endymion; ‘but you cannot deny that the home market is a most important element in the consideration of our public wealth, and it mainly rests on the agriculture of the country.’”
To which “Thornberry” retorts that “England is to be ruined to keep up rents.”