142 THE ROARING FORTIES 



to the lot of the Tory cabinet of Sir Robert 

 Peel, 1841-6. As the one set of problems cen 

 tred in the due recognition of the American 

 democracy, so the other set involved large con 

 cessions to the democratic movement in Great 

 Britain. There was a connection between the 

 two that, while it did not escape notice in the 

 reasoned debates, for the most part lurked ob 

 scurely in the channels of popular feeling. 

 Peel s government was called upon to deal with 

 two questions of internal politics that particu 

 larly appealed to the American interest. These 

 were the repeal of the union with Ireland and 

 the abolition of the Corn Laws. 



O Connell s tremendous agitation for the res 

 toration of an Irish Parliament such as had 

 existed before 1800, won sympathy in America 

 on various grounds other than that unthinking 

 joy which greeted every situation producing 

 trouble for the British Government. It seemed 

 to be the demand of the common people for 

 relief from oppression by a privileged class; it 

 seemed to be a demand for self-government as 

 opposed to foreign rule; it seemed to be a per 

 fect application of that principle of nationality 

 that had been so eloquently proclaimed by 

 Englishmen, both official and unofficial, in sus- 



