The Descent of the Landlords. 413 



mocratic Cerberus was prompting them to throw it some sop 

 of Parliamentary reform, which would but have whetted its 

 appetite for more. There is much to be admired in the " all 

 or nothing " attitude of the Radicals as well as in the stubborn 

 resistance of the Tories ; but we cannot help despising the 

 intermediate party, which was too frightened of the democracy 

 to become either its pronounced friend or foe. 



On the death of George III. there was very little change 

 noticeable in the tactics of the Grovernment. The Crown, it is 

 true, ceased altogether to exercise any control over State affairs, 

 but the constituencies continued to return large majorities in 

 favour of the existing policy, and the G-overnment, though to 

 a slight degree influenced by the opportunist policy of the 

 moderate party, continued to oppose a solid barrier to Radical 

 innovations. At this period the landed gentry were still en- 

 trusting their interests to the leadership of Liverpool, and 

 Peel, by his vehement defence of the Peterloo massacre, was 

 more than ever regarded with their favourable attention. 

 Canning headed the more advanced Conservatism represented 

 by the least progressive of the Whig party, Russell vacillated 

 between the doctrines of ultra-Liberalism and moderate 

 Radicalism, while Lambton, afterwards Lord Durham, threw 

 in his lot with Burdett, Wilson, and the extremists. 



The vexed question of the Corn Laws was never allowed to 

 sleep. Occasionally the subject of Catholic emancipation or 

 foreign complications allowed the landed interest a short 

 breathing space, and then some restless Radical, like Wliitmore 

 or Hume, would once more draw the attention of the House 

 to the old grievance. Now and then a bad harvest compelled 

 the protectionists to make concessions. Thus, in 1826, minis- 

 ters, unsolicited, took upon themselves the responsibility of 

 encouraging grain importation by lowering the duties. A 

 fresh sliding-scale system was introduced by Wellington in 

 1828,^ and from this year the hopes of the free-traders rose 

 high. It was not so much in the Act itself, however, that they 

 found cause for self-gratulation. High duties, it is true, were 



' 9 Geo. IV. c. 60. 



