422 History of the English Landed Interest. 



wtole demand this entire and permanent sacrifice of the 

 English, landlord in favour of the foreign agriculturist. We 

 cannot tell what might not have occurred had even slight 

 duties on imported grain been in force when, for example, 

 th.e Trafalgar Square meetings of the unemployed were taking 

 place, or now that the excess of the labour supply over its 

 demand is prompting men to advocate the diminution by the 

 State of their working hours. Clinging to our idea that any 

 artifi.cial restriction of the natural laws of supply and demand 

 must be a resource rotten at the core, we shall for our part 

 require further proofs before we condenm Peel for his action 

 in repealing the Corn Laws, though we cannot help regretting 

 that lie did not attempt to barter the ceded privilege for some 

 compensatory reduction of the existing land taxation and poor 

 rates,^ 



^ The subject was often touched upon, especially when the Free Trade 

 Party through one of its spokesmen, Ward, moved in 1845 for a select 

 committee to inquire if there were an 3' special burdens aflfecting the 

 Landed Interest which justified its protection. 



