The Press.
London, England, 1858-03-20 00:00:00

266

THE RESULTS OF FREE TRADE.
Jusr twelve years ago, the Free-Trade party,
after having been signally defeated in an
appeal to the country at the general election
of 1841, received such an accession of strength
by the sudden adhesion of Sir ROBERT PEEL
and his friends, as enabled it to accomplish
its main object —the destruction of the
Corn Laws—followed, soon after, by the
dissolution of the Cabinet, and the remis-
sion of the Conservative party to the
Opposition benches. In most cases such
signal success would have consolidated
and rendered permanent the victorious
party ; while the defeated section would gra-
dually have crumbled away, or have melted
into union with some branch of the majority.
Strange to say, the reverse has been the case
in this instance. The Conservative or Pro-

teotionist party has remained united, while the
triumphant Liberals have continually fallen out
among themselves. Four times in the course
of the last seven years has Lord DERBY been
appealed to, to form a Government, and twice
has he found it impossible to decline the call.
Strange to say, too, at the last general elec-
tion, a year ago, the peculiar objects of dislike
to the people seemed to be, the leading actors
in the destruction of the Corn Laws. The
Manchester party, who bytheir Anti-Corn-Law
League had frightened Sir R. PEEL—and
PEEL'S own immediate followers, who, by their
secession, had given the League its ultimate
triumph—these were everywhere rejected.
Scarcely half a dozen of either section escaped
defeat ; while of the stubborn, obstinate Pro
tectionists, more than two hundred obtained

re-election without difficulty.
We have never yet seen any satisfactory ex-
planation of this very strange fact. Here was
a great and important change effected, which
was alleged to be altogether for the people's
advantage. Yet, when it has come into full
•peration, and that operation begins to be
understood, the people turn with peculiar
anger upon its leading advocates, and, wher-
ever it is possible, eject them from their seats
in the popular branch of the Legislature.
How is this to be accounted for?
It has usually been regarded as a mere freak,
or fit of caprice, or else set down to the ac-
count of the Chinese war. But the Chinese
war is insufficient to bear the blame, for the
followers of PEEL and the partisans of the
League, were not all found in opposition to the
Chinese war. We believe that the expulsion
of the greater part of the Peelites, and of the
Free-Trade party, was in reality a silent, in-
articulate verdict, delivered by the bulk of the
electors of England, who thereby declared
that, in their opinion, the whole Free-trade
movement of 1842-1845 had been a delusion
and a fraud. The masses can often find their
way, almost in the dark, to a clear and strong
conviction of this kind, even when they would
be puzzled to assign any definite or intelli'
gible reason for what they are doing. But if
they had thoroughly investigated the matter,
and had gone into the most searching inquiry
as to every point of the case, their final con-
clusion could have been no other than that at
which they by bap-hazard arrived. The whole
history of popular delusions furnishes no more
signal or astounding instance of a vast poli-
tical trade being carried on for several years,
to the great personal profit of many indivi-
duals, and yet proving in the end nothing
better than a hollow pretence and a fraud,
Of this the evidence is now becoming, after
the lapse of years, absolutely full and complete.
Passing over for the present a variety of
minor pleas for abolishing Protection and
throwing the corn ,trade open, every one's re-
collection will confirm what we say, when we
set down these three main grounds as the
reasons advanced for abolishing the Corn
Laws: Free Trade, it was alleged, would-
1. Give us cheaper food.
2. Augment our continental trade.
3. Benefit the working classes, and dimi-
nish pauperism.
These three principal pleas, we repeat, con-
ituted the strength of the case of the League.