The Descent of the Landlords. 421 



the Queen that he could no longer carry on the govornment. 

 However, on the refusal of Russell to accept office, the Premier 

 reconsidered his position, replaced seceding Ministers by others, 

 like Gladstone, more favourable to his views, and met Parlia- 

 ment on January 16th, 1846, determined to propose at once 

 the absolute repeal of the Corn Laws. The great debate was 

 not long delayed. Peel made his motion on February 9th ; 

 the Tories, then represented by Miles, moved that the House 

 do resolve itself into committee on that day six months, and 

 the discussion which ensued lasted for twelve nights. Though 

 the prime minister gained his purpose, and though the majority 

 that confirmed his action was eighty, he had destroyed him- 

 self for all future chances of political power. Hunted from 

 office before the Bill which he had successfully piloted through 

 the Commons had become law, he took leave of the party 

 which he was accused of having betrayed in the following 

 dignified language: "I shall leave a name execrated by every 

 monopolist who, from less honourable motives, clamours for 

 protection because it conduces to his own individual benefit. 

 But it may be that I shall leave a name sometimes remembered 

 with expressions of good-will in the abodes of those whose lot 

 it is to labour and to earn their daily bread by the sweat of 

 their brow, when they shall recruit their exhausted strength 

 with abundant and untaxed food, the sweeter because it is 

 no longer leavened with a sense of injustice." ^ 



Three years were yet to lapse before Peel's Act came into force ; 

 agitation did not cease for some time after, and the Anti-Corn- 

 Law League was exercising its influence as late as 1852 ; but 

 the wisdom of Peel's step, considering the exigencies of his 

 times, has never been seriously impugned from that day to 

 this. He never lived to see the disastrous effects of foreign 

 competition on the home markets, nor the terrible agricultural 

 distress which improved accessibility to markets and the high 

 prices prevailing during the Crimean War, for a long time 

 delayed. It is even yet too soon to pronounce a decided 

 opinion whether the requirements of the community as a 



^ History of our own Times, vol. i. p. 412. J. McCarthy-. 



