1846] Sir Robert Peel's Administration. 317 periences were being felt. At most periods the pressure of this misery would have incited the people to efforts for some change in the form of government, especially as it was being proved by the ablest reasoners and most eloquent speakers of the day, that the suffering was caused and perpetuated by laws which a wiser legislature could and would repeal. There was now a considerable amount of agitation going on for Parliamentary reform, Chartists' associations and complete suffrage unions being in active operation, especially in London and the midlands ; but the greater part of the Parliamentary enthusiasm, the protest against the suffering, the struggle for improvement, were being concentrated and directed by the Anti-Corn Law League, against the monstrous system of monopoly by which the food of the people was deliberately made scarce and dear. In their eager desire to save the lives of the people, the free-traders had no time and no inclination to stop and consider the comparative advantage of political methods. They felt bound to drive right on to the accomplishment of their purpose, using all the means and instruments which presented themselves mainly, to be sure, the weight of that passionate public opinion which want and misery inspired, but not neglecting either the influence of official Whigs, or, if it might be obtained, the occasional help of Conservatives. They had no thought that the vast organization which their necessities compelled them to construct might be used for permanent political purposes, yet all the same corn law repeal was at this time a Radical idea ; that is, it was rejected alike by Whigs and Tories, both of whom still believed in protection, and was advocated in Parliament by the same party which originated and developed every other great measure of reform. And this was seen in the first division on the subject which took place in the newly elected House of Commons. The result of those discussions, indeed, proved that the attacks of the free-traders were beginning to tell upon the position which they were storming. It was all very well for both the great parties in the State to retain their hold upon the county
