The Express.
London, England, 1850-07-03 00:00:00

EVENING; JULY 3, ' 1810.

imam 81r Rehert for not teeming a ministry, on the
mere that a few whir lodise at court would have
bean more than a meta for the cabinet at Whitehall.
It was thin that, after a brief succession, the whip
lessee more resumed their places en the tressory bench,
which, with hot few interruptions, they had enjoyed
sines 1831. They serried on the government with no
very great credit to themselves till 1841, when a new
crisis in political affairs was approaching, a crisis
which soon afterwards burst upon the country, and
expelled them from office.
In the year 1839, • new, and in every respect a
novel power, arose in the state. Nothing mould be
humbler or more obscure, It.. promising or more
forlorn than the circumstances under which the
And-Corn-law League was unbend into being,
and dragged through the first year or two
of its existence. To some extent, men's minds were
rips for the discussion of the great issue which it put
before the country; but It. chief mission was to ripen
'them still more, until, at length, it so far succeeded in
lite task, that Sic Robert himself became one of its

pnpiLti despite the influences of bis early education
and political predilections. The League did not at
first strike as boldly as it afterwards did. So direct
an attack upon the landlord party as was in-
volved in a proposal foe a total repeal of
the corn law., was not at first contem-
plated by it. It was only after it bad
learnt to feel its way, and found that the question was
one which promised to evoke all the energies and en-
thusiasm of the industrial classes, tbat the bold and
unexpected announcement was made, that the C .un-
cil of the Ltsuae had resolved to go fer nothing short
of " total, immediate, and unconditional repeal.''
England wag startled, and no wander, far even Man-
chester recoiled fur a time from a propasal which
seemed to be as audacious as it was pronounced to be
impolitic. It was a critical moment in the history of
the League.
Many men, in the great Capital of Labour itself.
who afterwards stood forward as its most strenuous

t•cpporters and who subscribed their thousands and
tens of thousands to promote its success, hung back
for the moment, and meditated deserting, if not ac-
tnelly opposing, it. But the traders of the body bad
acted, not without a certain degree of foresight—the
cletrnees of which after-events to some extent justi-
fied—for it most not be forgotten that although
tho principles of the League were seen
in the end to triumph, the speed with
which their triumph was secured was greatly
attributable to circumstances which the
_League bad

not the credit of originating, and which it had not the
power to control.
The whigs had discernment enough to perceive in
1841 that a sufficient change had been wrought in the

public mind in reference to this subject to neceesitate
some legislative movement with respect to it.
They were all the more disposed to contemplate
some snob movement, from the chance which it
afforded them of retrieving their dceperate fortune,.
They were once more, as • ministry, in the agonies
of dissolution, when their unfortunate budget, with
its alarming deficit, gave the coup de grrice to their
administration. They did not on this occasion, how-
ever, follow the vulgar precedent of resigning. They
dissolved parliament, not the cabinet, and appealed
to the country. The general election was contested
on a variety of issuee. The whigs were arraigned, in
connexion with their whole policy, at the bar of pub-
lic opinion. But it was their position with respect
to the corn duties, which raised the chief
.issue

on which the contes:turnet. Previously to this Sir
Robert Peel had been regarded as the bead of the
°arty designating itself conservative, as contradis-
tirguished to the progress party, representel by the
wings, and nicknamed destructive' by its opponents.
But, in 1841, during the electoral contest in question,
he appeared in a new character, as the head of the
country party, against the great industrial party,
whtch was then organizing, and the principles
of which have since culminated in the
abstraction known as the Manchester school.
The old political watchwords were forgotten in the
confict which was now waged on economic grounds.
Protection and Free Trwle met face to face on the
electoral !Reid, and although political considerations
were not overlooked, that battle was chitfly fought
between three antagonist systems. In this first
p.tch.d battle between them, Free Trade was worsted,
f.nd the Whigs, in the autumn of ISII, met a parlia-
ment in which there was a majority of nearly 100
against them. As soon as they made this discovery,
they resigned, and Sir Robert Peel, the incarnation of
the victorious principle, the champion of the col.ntry
party, and the leader of the conservatives, was once
more summoned to form an administration. From

the manifestoes which he uttered, and the speeches
which he delivered, as well as from the form in which
the issue between the two parties went to the country,
it could not be doubted that Sir Robert acceded to
power as the avowed enemy of free trade and the de-
clared protector of the corn laws. Strange that he
should so soon afterwards take the most prominent
part in abolishing the one, and ensuring the perma-
nent triumph of the other!
No one appreciated better than did Sir Robert the
I value of a political cry at an election ; but no one
was less disposed to let that which was bat a mere
cry, after the contest was over, interpose between his
glvernment and such a line of policy as his own discern-
ment of the exigency of the times might point out as
necessary. Ile soon perceived that the pressure from
without, to which the whigs had yielded, and for
yielding to which they had been driven from office,
was not to be altogether resisted. Either Sir Hobert
was himself not yet sufficiently advanced upon the
question to concur in the propriety of a fixed duty of
any amount, or he did not think that the time was
propitious for entertaining such a proposition. But
something must be done. The sliding scale had become
odious ton large section of the people for various reasons.
It was objected to, in the first place, by those who
were opposed in kilo to dutieslon corn—in the next,
by such as charged it with producing the very fluc-
tuations in prices, the prevention of which was one
of its avowed objects ; and, lastly, by those who, even
admitting its correctness, in point of principle, re-
garded its range as far 100 great, and the scale of
duties, which it imposed, as excessive. To meet the
views of those first alluded to was impossible
—to admit the propositions of the next
class of objectors would have been to aban-
don the favourite sliding scale in point of prin-
ciple, whilst to meet the views of the last clued
objectors might conciliate without abandoning the
principle of the scale. Neither the ministry nor the
parliament which called it into existence was a year
old, when the leader of the country party himselt
proposed a modification of the sliding scale. The
principle was carefully and ostentatiously ad-
hered to, but the general scale of duties from
thepioophsit as est to the lowest w reduced. The
certainly excited the suspicions of the
country gentlemen, and some of them went even so
far as to prognosticate what has since happened.
They were, however, reasoned into yielding, which
they did, under the belief that by yielding a little to
an obvious pressure, they would be all the stronger in
their new position. This saved the premier from that
odium which he would otherwise have incurred. He
was aided not a little, too, by the pride of his fol-
lowers, many of :whom, although with wry faces,
went with apparent cheerfulness along with him, lest
it should be for a moment supposed that they had
been betrayed or even taken by surprise. The gain
made by the industrial classes, so far from satisfying
them, only showed that the sliding smile was not in-
vulnerable, and they were not long in discovering
their appetite for still further change*. The pressure
was thus continued, notwithstanding the concession
which had been made, and it was obvious that, under
the auspices of the league, which was drily gaining
new power, that pressure was becoming. greater and
greater. This gave serious uneasiness to the
country party, an uneasiness which frequently lapsed
into suspicion and distrust of their chief. That sus-
picion and distrust became more confirmed, an
rumours became rife that his views were in a state el,
transition, respecting the whole Rolicy of the corn
laws. At length the feelings, which had been peat
up for some time, found vent in expressions—and the
premier was more than once pointedly interrogated as
to his views and intentions respecting the sliding
scale. To these interrogatories ha returned answers
, which, for the time at least, allayed apprelisn-
, sion on the part of the landlords. About the
close of the session of 1844, Sir Robert most posi-
tively disclaimed any intention on the part of the
, government to disturb the settlement of 1842. The
, squires took him at his word—his declaration indi-
cating what were at the time, no doubt, the real views
of the government.
The agitation for free trade, however, progressed
out of doors, and was not long of producing fruits

in parliament. Shortly after the opening of the ses-
sion of 1845, the government, with Sir Robert
as its mouthpiece, proposed. one of the
mast sweeping alterations in the tariff
of the °matey that has ever been effected.
The proposal did not touch the great question then at
issue between him and the League, but the country
was nevertheless taken by sarpriee at the boldness
and comprehensive character of his measure. It was
a decided advance towards free trade—an avowed

homage paid to its principles. Hundred. of articles
were swept from the list of dutiable article,,
and hundreds of imposts, some of them in-
significant, but all of them vexation., sacri-
ficed to the rising political divinity. In some cases,
the duties were only modified, in others they were
totally repealed. The latter was the case with respect
to gloss and auctions. This was a new and a still
ruder blow to the confidence of the country party in
their leader. They now began to see that they had
been duped, and had the mortifica'ion of seeing that
their opponents were aware that they thought so.
Their secret suspicions bad already broken out
into bitter complaints, and Sir Robert had,
in 1845, a foretaste of the malignity with
which he was hunted from office in 1846. In pro-

portion Si his own party lost confidence in him, did
he win the confidence and inspire the hopes of the
friends and promoters of economic reforms; and be-
fore the first year of famine, thin" were many, and
those not the most sanguine, who already looked to
Sir Robert Peel as the man whose mission it was to

sweep the corn laws from the statute-beok. He
was frequently questioned during the session
as to his intentions with regard to the
corn laws. His answer was invariably that it
was not in contemplation to interfere with them.
But however much members in the house might be
pacified by such assurances Old Bond-street was not
to be quieted. The country. party had now resolved
itself into the protectionist party, the main ob-
ject of which was to keep up the price of all agricul-
ture products, by exempting them from foreign com-
petition. This party did not limit its vi, ws to corn,
and what confidence, as regards corn, could it be

pected to have in a minister who proposed to admit
to the disadvantaues of competition British cattle,
beef, lard, grease, butter, cheese, &c. ? Before the
famine of 1845 precipitated the crisis which soon
afterwards ensued, the breach between Sir Robert

Peel and a considerable section of his party wu vir-
tually complete.

The famine, which occurred in the autumn of that
year, opened op a very gloomy prospect for the country.
The article cf food, on which a large part of the
United Kingdom almost solely depended, had nearly
perished through the influences of an unknown and
mysterious dimes,. The cereal crops were also
short, and the prices of the necessaries of life were high
and still tending rapidly upwards—a state
of things, the evils of which were aggra-
vated by partial and precarious employment
for the labouring classes. It was under these
circumstances that the nation was called upon seri-
ously to contemplate the propriety of keeping its ports
any longer almost hermetically sealed against the
admission of foreign grain. An agitation ensued
throughout the country, remarkable alike for its spon-
taneity, its universality, and the absence of party
strife which characterised it. Meetings were held in
ali the large and small industrial towns of the empire,
at which resolutions were passed, praying the
government to open the ports and relieve the nation
from its sufferings, present and prospective, by the
timely admission f foreign supplies. These meet-
ings were the simple remit of the crisis. They were
attended by men of all shades of political opinion,
whilst the deputations appointed to carry the resolu-
tions to the government were composed of toriee,
whigs, conservatives, and radic As, without distinc-
tion of party. The meetings in quesion were not
the result of any manceuvre on the part
of the League. Indeed the leaders of that powerful
organisation purposely and wisely kept aloof from
them, lest they should be connected with the League,
and thus lose much of the effect which they would
otherwise produce. It was at this time that the
leaders of the great political parties had a new light
dawn upon them with respect to the corn laws. Lord
John Russell was spending part of the recess at
Edinburgh, from whence he indited his celebrated
letter to his constituents in London, an-
nouncing his adhesion to the League. On
the very night on which that letter was
furnished to the public papers the good people
of Leeds were thrown into costae,' by a letter
which wee read, at a great meeting held there to
petition for the opening of the ports, from Lord Mor-
peth, announcing his conversion, and containing his
subscription to the funds of the League. Ore of the
great parties in the state was thus, as it were, irre-
trievably committed to the principle.; of the League.
If report spoke truly, Sir Robert Peel had already
been a convert to free-trade doctrines. The state
of the country and the agitation which was
convulsing it from one end to the other, were of them-
selves sufficient to induce him to resolve upon some
very decided step to meet the exigencies of the
cri-is. It is not unlikely that the course taken by the
whig leaders had some effect upon the decision at
which he arrived. One morning in December the
country was informed that the Peel cabinet was at an
end. The ministers left town for Osborne, and re-
turned as private individuals to London. Lord John
Russell, now a declared free trader and corn-law re-
pealer, was sent for by the Queen on Sir Robert's re-
commendation.
Tee point on which the Peel cabinet split was the
opening of the ports. Lord Stanley, then secretary
for the colonies, headed the opposition, and ministers
placed their resignations in the hands of her Majesty.
The whip did not succeed in forming a government.
Personal disputes prevented them from completing
their cabinet, and they did well, perhaps, in shrink-
icg from facing the difficulties without, when dis-
sensions were weakening them within. After a week
spent in vain efforts to reconcile differences, Lord
John abandoned the task, and Sir Robert Peel was
once more reinstated in the post which, on this occa-
sion, be can scarcely be considered to have quitted.
Speculation was now rife as to the policy which
the restored minister would pursue. That he medi-
tated nothing short of the proposal which broke up
his cabinet was evident from the reconstruction
which it underwent. Lord Stanley kept aloof, :and
Mr. Gladstone was elevated to the head of the colo-
nial department. People were perplexed, however,
when they saw the Duke of Wellington once more
supporting the cabinet, seeing that it was well
known that he had sided with Lord Stanley
before the dissolution of the previous administration.
This was afterwards explained in a characteristic
manner by the gallant duke. For a time, however,
it seemed to enshroud the intentions of the minister
in considerable mystery; and it was not until shortly
after the opening of the session of 1840 that the
country was made fully aware of the principles on
which he had reconstructed his cabinet. He then
formally announced his intention, not of modi-
fying, but of entirely repealing, the corn laws.
From that moment he became the object of
unceasing attack, unsparing invective, and bitter re-
proach from those wko complained that he had abused
their confidence and betrayed them. All this be
bore, however, with the equanimity and fortitude of a
philosop_her. He had a double conviction to sustain
him. He was convinced that no measure short of
that proposed by him would meet the exigency of the
times, and also that the principles on which
that measure was hosed were sound. He re-
solved that they should thenceforth be the car-
dinal principles of the commercial policy
of the country. The opposition was strong.
bitter, and not ill-conducted, but after • protracted
discussion, the policy of the Premier triumphed in
both Houses of Parliament. The corn laws were for
ever abolished, and free trade was solemnly inau-
gurated as the cardinal policy of the country; and
all through the instrumentality of ono who, but five
years before, had been elevated to power to maintain
the one and check the progress of the other. Sir
Robert was for but a brief time in office after this.
A coalition of whigs and protectionists drove
him from power on the Irish Coercion Bill.
Lord John Russell was again sent for.
From that time down to the occurrence of the fatal
accident, which has just terminated in his death, Sir
Robert Peel, although not in power, could scarcely
be said to be in opposition. Through all their trials
and difficulties he has given a constant and a gene-
eons support to the whip, even when their measures
were of a nature akin to the very measure on which,
in league with the protectionists, they had expelled
him from power. The constancy and the utility of
the support thus given them were handsomely ad-
mitted by Lord John Russell, in his spook on Friday

night last—the noble lord, at the same time, doing
the right bon. baronet the justice of adding, that Ma
support had been given them in a way at once so
courteous and so gracious as not to make it appear
that he entertained the thought for a moment that he
was their main prop, and in reality the arbiter of
their fortunes. Little did the whig Premier think
that he was then dictating the political epitaph
of his great and generous rival. It is
pleasing to reflect upon the courtesies which
pained between him and his old opponents during
this the last debate in which he was destined to bear
a part. In the speech which he delivered on Friday
night, whilst opposing the policy of Lord Palmer-
ston, be passed the highest encomium upon the
talents and masterly abilities of the Fort ign Minister,
characterising him as a man of whom England had
every reason to be proud. We cannot but regret
that his last vote should, in our apprehension,
have been a mistaken one, and that a man who
had done so much for the good of mankind, and
from whom so much more was expected, should have,
as his lest political act, recorded kis condemnation of
a policy, with the maintenance of which the liber-
ties of mankindare so intimately identified.
This is not the place in which to speculate upon the
results of the lamentable event which has deprived
the country at this crisis of one of the most illustrious
of its FOOS, either upon the fortunes of parties, or the
general interests of the country.
Sir Robert Peel has expired at the age of 62. But
for the melancholy accident which resulted in hie
death, the country might have for many years to come
enjoyed the advantage of hie experience and counsels.
lie occupied a seat in parliament for 41 years. He
was the master-spirit of the house, thoroughly ac-
quainted with all its springs of action, and knowing
when and how to touch them. Without being less of
a debater, he was m,re of the orator than Lord John
Russell—his speeches always evincinz a comprehen-
sive grasp of his subject, and a wmderful command
of details.

By his untimely death the country has &en de-
prived of a statesman of the highest order, a great
financier, an excellent administrator, and latterly a
sincere and ardent political economist.

Sir R. Peel was married on the Bth of Jar.e, 1820,
to Julia, the youngest daughter of General Sir John
Floyd, and had issue five sons and •wo daughters.
One son has enjoyed diplomatic employment, a second
is in the navy, a third in the Scots Fusilier Guards,
a fourth occupies a place in parliament. One of Sir
Robert's el +lighters was married in Jelly, 1841, to
Viscount Villiers, eldest son of the Earl of Jersey.
The author of the " Peerage " finds fur Sir Robert
Peel a long pedigree: a better claim for respect and
a greater chance for his memory is to be found in his
service rendered to political progress by his votes
for Catholic Emancipation and Corn-law Repeal.

SIR 11. PEEL AND MR. P. WARD.—NoY. 21,
1819.—" Walked with Peel. Ile asked how I .bought we
were so to strength in the house? I said very strong.
' But, added he, 'shall we have any of the whits ? They
mean, I understand, to rally on the dismissal of Lard Fitz-
minim.' I said I thought that signified lit:le—that then
seemed a great reaction, and the aoyal population
pnpon-
dented ten to one. ' True,' said he, but don't you thick
tht public opinion among the lower o•ders has watrgone
change within these few years as to the constitution of
parltantrat f' Peel thought Runt a clever fe:low. Not so
I."—Life of Pitman Ward, quoted from Quarterly.