Page:History of the Anti corn law league - Volume 2.pdf/325

'cautious' (to use Ricardo's phrase) abandonment of monopoly, but then he would never disguise the ultimate end. Quoting from a pamphlet by Lord Ashburton, when Mr. Alexander Baring, in support of a gradual abolition of monopoly, he said that there was one thing they could do for the farmers—not to inspire them with false hopes. How ungracious it was to come forward with a complaint that the working man did not pay more for his meat and his bread. Such a complaint tended to diminish all regard for that landed interest which he had every reason to respect. (A loud cheer from Colonel Sibthorpe.) That cheer compelled him to state what he otherwise would have abstained from. His connexions were deeply interested in the progress of agriculture; it was the delight of his uncle and his father to gather around them farmers, in order to exhibit the most recent scientific improvements, and to interest them in the advancement of agriculture; and he had, therefore, some ground for urging the landed interest to evince to the people at large that, being the most powerful, they were also the most generous interest in the state.

"Mr. Disraeli would not, he said, then enter on the great question of how far, not free trade but free imports would, with hostile tariffs, affect our power of production, the distribution of the precious metals, and our ability to maintain a standard—he would leave that for a time when it might receive a profounder treatment. There was a budget and a surplus; and the agriculturists thought then, as they do now, that they might be considered. After dwelling sarcastically on the consistencies of the Prime Minister and his adherents, he told the agriculturists that they must not contrast too nicely the hours of courtship with the moments of possession. Sir Robert Peel had avowed that he was prouder of being the leader of the gentlemen of England than of being intrusted with the confidence of sovereigns. There was little said now about the gentlemen of England; when the beloved object has ceased to charm, it is in vain to appeal to the feelings. Instead of listening to their complaints, he sends down his valet, a well-behaved person, to make it known that we are to have no 'whining' here. (This allusion to Mr. S. Herbert's expression in the debate last week was received with vociferous cheering and loud laughter from the Opposition.) Such is the fate of the great agricultural interest; that beauty which everybody wooed and one deluded. (Cheers and laughter.) There is a fatality in such charms, and we now seem to approach to the catastrophe of her career. Protection appears to he in about the same condition that Protestantism was in 1828. (Loud cheers from the Opposition.) The country will draw its moral. For my part, if we are to have free trade, I, who honour genius, prefer that such measures should be proposed by the honourable member for Stockport, than by one who