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Home Politics and Parties from the Reform Bill of 1832 to that of 1867 Sir Robert Peel's Conservative Ministry and the Repeal of the Corn Laws, 1841-1846 1841-1846; Part 2 |
1841-1846; Part 2Of the four or five most memorable administrations of the century, it has been said, the great Conservative Government of Sir Robert Peel was undoubtedly one. It had to deal with a situation which required the exercise of its great talents. In foreign affairs, there was actual war with China, a prospective war with Afghanistan, relations strained almost to breaking-point with France, and boundary disputes with the United States. At home, there was in trade great depression; amongst the poor distress was universal, and one person in every eleven was a pauper; rioting and sedition were rife; and the national revenue had shown during the last five years a heavy deficit. How the foreign difficulties were overcome is related elsewhere (Chap. XLVIII). In domestic affairs, the first object of Peel's attention was the reorganization of national finance. He imposed an income tax of 7d. in the pound. This not only remedied the deficit, but enabled him to lessen the burden of the customs duties. Continuing the policy, of Huskisson, he - during his five years of office - reduced over a thousand of these duties and abolished over six hundred, and by so doing enabled the raw material for manufactures to be obtained far more cheaply and the cost of living to be reduced. This does not exhaust Peel's achievements in finance. By the Bank Charter Act of 1844 he reorganized the banking system of the country, and limited the issue of bank notes payable on demand, notes which in previous times bankers had been in the habit of circulating with dangerous profusion.In company with many other prime ministers, Peel found Ireland a difficulty during his period of power. It is related elsewhere (Chap. XLVII) how Peel stifled the movement for the repeal of the Union under O'Connell, who was now in opposition to the Government. But Peel was not averse to Irish reforms. He made a grant towards the Roman Catholic College of Maynooth, and appointed a commission - known as the Devon Commission - to enquire into the Irish land question. Before, however, any legislation could be founded upon the report of this commission, a famine occurred in Ireland which was to cause not only the fall of Peel, but almost the destruction of the party which he led. It will be remembered that after the great war with Napoleon was over, a law was passed prohibiting the importation of foreign corn until the price of corn at home had reached a certain height. Subsequently, in 1826, a sliding scale had been adopted whereby the duties on foreign corn varied with the price of corn at home. But gradually popular feeling was aroused against laws which made the price of bread so high. Since England's population had grown so big, it was no longer possible to grow enough corn at home cheaply, and bad seasons, therefore, were apt to cause much distress. In 1838 the Anti-Corn Law League was founded by some Manchester merchants. The League was fortunate in its two orators, Cobden and Bright, the one the son of a small Sussex farmer, and by profession a Lancashire calico printer, and the other the son of a Lancashire cotton spinner. Cobden had the power of stating a case with such clearness that the dullest and most ignorant could understand it, whilst Bright's chief strength lay in his power of pulverizing the arguments of his opponents. These two, in Cobden's words, lived in public meetings, traversing Great Britain from end to end, proclaiming the doctrine of free trade, and exhorting the people to agitate for the abolition of the Corn Laws. Cobden was elected a member of the House of Commons in 1841, and Bright in 1843, and they, of course, proved a powerful reinforcement to the small band of free traders in that assembly. |
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