doom of a great calamity. Instead of this, the thing to be done was to frame such a measure of corn-law repeal as would secure the support of Sir R. Peel and the colleagues who had adhered to him. After a good deal of correspondence, through the queen, of difficult transaction by statesmen so delicately placed with regard to each other, Lord J. Russell conceived himself justified in attempting to form an administration; and he communicated with the sovereign to that effect on the 18th of December. But, next morning, an insuperable difficulty arose. One of the friends on whom he had confidently reckoned as a coadjutor declined to enter the cabinet. This was Lord Grey. Highly as Lord J. Russell valued him, he would at any other time have endeavoured to form a cabinet without him, at his own desire; but the position of the Whigs was now too critical—or, at least, their leader thought so-to admit the risk of such speculation as would be excited by the exclusion of Lord Grey. On the 20th, therefore, the queen was finally informed that Lord John Russell found it impossible to form an administration.

Among the newspaper reports of the public talk during this interval, we find a few words in italics about the popular surprise at there being 'no mention of Lord Grey' in the list of Whig conferences; and close beside this, we meet with notice of the 'alarm' excited by the consideration that Lord Palmerston must have some office, and most probably the foreign department. Our foreign relations were now in a critical state, as our history of the French and American questions will have shown; and there were many who stood in fear of Lord Palmerston's 'talent of keeping perpetually open all vital questions and dangerous controversies.' It was well understood that Lord Grey thought it unsafe to make Lord Palmerston foreign minister at such a juncture; and that he declined to act inconsistently with his own long-avowed principles of peace, by sitting in the cabinet with a minister who had done more than any other man to foster the war-spirit in 1840 and 1841. The disappointed Whig party bitterly complained that Lord Grey had done it all;' but with the country at large Lord Grey lost nothing by this difficult act of self-exclusion, or by his honourable silence

in the midst of the censure which was abundantly poured out upon him.

On Friday the 19th, the queen intimated to Sir R. Peel that, as their political relation was about to terminate, she wished to see him the next day, to bid him farewell. Before he went to Windsor on the Saturday, he was informed by Lord John Russell of the failure of his enterprise; and when he entered the queen's presence, he was told that, so far from taking leave, he must prepare for the resumption of office. He returned to town as minister of the crown, and found no difficulty in reconstructing his cabinet. Lord Stanley of course retired. All the others remained-all but one who had died suddenly from the auxiety of the crisis. Lord Wharncliffe had been suffering from gout, but no danger was apprehended. He was, however, in no state to bear the turmoil of the time; and he suddenly sank on the 19th of December, in the seventieth year of his age. As president of the council, he had proved himself a zealous and effective minister; and his earnestness in fulfilling to the utmost such provisions for education as had been obtained, secured him much gratitude from society. It was an untoward time for a West Riding election; but this elevation of Mr. Stuart Wortley to the peerage rendered it necessary; and Lord Morpeth was returned to his old seat without opposition. Mr. Gladstone became colonial secretary, instead of Lord Stanley; and the Duke of Buccleuch succeeded Lord Wharncliffe as president of the council.

And now, once more, all was going well-well for the people; and, in a large view, well for the minister. His position was at once an humbling and a glorious one; his course a hard and yet a straight one. He had to stand up in the face of the world, and say that he had been in error all his life, and that he found himself compelled now to achieve that which he had all his life opposed. This was the hard part-accompanied as it must be by the rage of disappointed partisans, the indignant grief of old friends, and perhaps the intemperate triumph of old enemies. But his position was a glorious one, if he could but show himself equal to it. If, instead of making this the beginning of a new career, as some anticipated, he

settled it with himself that this should be his last scene of power, and he could endure calmly what he must go through as a necessary retribution for previous error, and close his career with giving to the nation the benefit it most wanted in the best possible manner, this last scene of his administration might be the noblest. His course must be hard, for there were terrible storms ready to burst in parliament; and when he had, by a stern and self-forgetting rule, held his party together for the passage of the single great measure now in his hand, his party would fall to pieces, and he might be left alone in his place in the legislature, after a life of industry and eminent political prosperity. But not the less was his course clear. He must propose and carry through a total repeal of the cornlaws, whatever became of himself. This must be his single and his final aim; and those who knew anything of the 'alacrity of spirit' with which a strong and honourable mind enters on a great work of reparation, self-sacrifice, and general justice, believed that Sir R. Peel would now make manifest to the utmost the nobleness of his position and the singleness of his aim.

As for the Duke of Wellington, the peremptory and inflexible, who had gone through so many changes, and must now go through one more-everybody knew, by dint of repetition, what he would say. He would say that he could not desert his sovereign. And this is what he did say. At all events,' he declared, whatever that measure may be, I must say this: that, situated as I am in this country-highly rewarded as I have been by the sovereign and the people of England-I could not refuse that sovereign to aid her, when called upon, to form a government, in order to enable her majesty to meet her parliament, and to carry on the business of the country. Upon that ground, my lords, I present myself to your lordships.'

VOL. IV.

2 D

CHAPTER XV.

Opening of the Session-Further Remission of Duties-The Revenue prosperous-The Corn Duties-Relief to Farmers-The Issue-The Minister Nature of the Reform-Dissolution of the League-Irish Life Bill-Resignation of Ministers-The retiring Minister.

THE royal speech, delivered by the queen in person on the 19th of January, expressed satisfaction in the results of the repeal of customs-duties, as far as they had yet gone, and recommended to parliament the consideration whether the repeal of restrictions might not be carried yet further; whether there might not still be a remission of the existing duties upon many articles, the produce or manufacture of other countries.'

The remission took place on several articles of the tariff without much opposition. Almost the only raw materials still subject to duty were tallow and timber; and these were to be extensively reduced. In consideration of the release of so much raw material, the manufacturers were expected to acquiesce in the reduction of some remaining articles of manufacture; and this they showed all willingness to do. And well they might; for the minister's exposition proved the vast increase of the silk manufacture in England, in proportion to the removal of duties. There was to be a considerable reduction of the duty on silk manufactures, with more certainty of levy; and the duties on cotton and woollen fabrics were removed or lessened one-half. The differential duties on free-labour sugar were reduced-the higher from 11s. 8d. to 8s.; and the lower from 98. 4d. to 5s. 10d. On brandy and foreign spirits, the duty was brought down nearer to the point which might obviate smuggling; that is, from 22s. 10d. per gallon to 158. Animal food and vegetables were to be admitted duty free; and butter, cheese, hops, and cured fish, reduced one-half. Live animals were freed from duty; and a considerable number of minor and unenume

rated articles.' The minister was strengthened by the successes of former years, and by the absorbing of men's mind in the corn subject; and these remissions passed without any effectual opposition. The sugar-duties, however, were left over for subsequent consideration.

The revenue showed indisputably the results of former remissions. There was this year a clear surplus of £2,380,600. There was a considerable increase in the consumption of those excisable commodities which are connected with the comfort of the mass of the people; more money was in the savings-banks; and there was something better still-a more significant and more blessed token of prosperity than any other-there was a marked decrease of crime. But for the impending famine, there could be no doubt that our country was on the way to a prosperity which must for ever have settled opinions about the policy of free-trade.

It was on the 27th of January that the above tariff reductions were proposed, in the same speech that was to announce the ministerial plan about the corn-laws. 'Every crevice' into which a stranger could thrust himself was occupied; and hundreds who held tickets were obliged to remain in the streets. Prince Albert and the Duke of Cambridge sat below the bar. The minister's speech lasted four hours. It was listened to for the most part in quietness; but some paragraphs were vehemently cheered by the opposition.

All agricultural produce which serves as cattle-food, such as buckwheat and Indian corn, was to be admitted duty free. It was this provision which wrought better than any other precaution whatever to reduce the pressure of the subsequent famine in Ireland; for Indian meal is a good article of human food-far superior to potatoes. All colonial grain was to bear a merely nominal duty. This would be good news in our Australian colonies, whenever the tidings could reach so far. As for other grain, all protection was to cease in three years; and that time was allowed for the farmers to accommodate themselves to the change. In the interval, the duties were to be considerably reduced. When wheat was under 488. per quarter, the duty was to be 108. When at 18. higher, the duty was to