REFORM AND DEMOCRACY 65 



tility by the extreme Tories. It did not so 

 directly affect the ruling aristocracy as a whole, 

 however, as to excite a decisive opposition. 

 Quite otherwise was the case with the Corn 

 Law, on which the rents of the landowners 

 were believed absolutely to depend. Protec 

 tion to the domestic grain-growers was by this 

 legislation ingeniously complete. Duties on im 

 ported grain varied with the price in England; 

 importation was prohibited so long as the price 

 was under a maximum figure; and exportation 

 was stimulated by bounties when the price fell 

 below a minimum figure. Despite the guar 

 antee thus apparently established that Great 

 Britain should produce the food for her own 

 people at a fair and steady cost, there was 

 continual friction over the matter. Prices 

 fluctuated disastrously with variations of the 

 weather, and were never low enough for the 

 consumers or high enough for the farmers and 

 the landlords. Parliament was called upon 

 repeatedly to consider exceptional modifica 

 tions of the system, in order to check distress 

 among the farmers or the working classes. De 

 mands became frequent and loud for a radical 

 change that should do away with the high pro 

 tection to grain-growers; but here the aristo- 



