AGRICULTURE UNDER FREE TRADE, 1846-96. 27 



I may mention that wool had been imported free of 

 duty down to 1802. A duty of 5s. 3d. per cwt. was then 

 imposed ; in 1813 it was raised to 6s. 8^., and in 1819 to 

 56s. per cwt., or 6d. per lb. In 1824 it was reduced to 

 id. per lb. of is. value, and \&. per lb. under is. value, 

 colonial wool being admitted free. In 1844 the duties on 

 wool were abolished. From 1660 to 1825 the export of 

 wool was prohibited. 



Of the Anti-Corn-Law agitation and the oft-told story 

 of Repeal, I need hardly speak. It may be noted, how- 

 ever, that, as so often happens, the actual event was 

 precipitated by an accidental cause. Cobden and Bright 

 had conducted their famous campaign for seven years 

 without appearing to get appreciably nearer success in 

 Parliament. Mr. Villiers, who was the leader of the small 

 Free-Trade party in the House of Commons, had for 

 several sessions brought forward motions in favour of 

 the repeal of the Corn Laws, but without the remotest 

 chance of securing a majority. Of the two great parties 

 neither had accepted the policy. The leaders on both 

 sides, viz., Lord John Russell and Sir Robert Peel, had 

 both admitted the general principle of Free Trade as an 

 abstract proposition, but neither believed that the free 

 importation of corn was practicable. No doubt the end 

 was inevitable, but it might have been some years longer 

 in coming if a catastrophe had not suddenly occurred 

 which upset all the calculations of politicians. As 

 Mr. Bright many years afterwards said, " Famine itself, 

 against which we warred, joined us." In the autumn of 

 1845 the potato crop utterly failed in Ireland, with the 

 result that the gaunt spectre of famine smote the nation 



