338 History of the Radical Party in Parliament. [1841- and the abundance of capital was testified, among other symptoms, by the unprecedented number of new railway undertakings, more than two hundred schemes being prepared, at the commencement of the session, to apply for legislative powers. The revenue gave symptoms of continued advance, proving at once the substantial prosperity of the community by increased productiveness in some of its most important branches, and attesting the expediency of those fiscal alter- ations, in the reduction of import duties, which Sir Robert Peel had carried into effect." * If a temporary return of prosperity, and a more plentiful supply of food, could allay the agitation for free trade in corn, the hearts of the pro- tectionists might have been relieved. In fact, however, there was no consolation for them. The very prosperity which was being celebrated was to a great extent owing to the partial application of those principles of commercial freedom which they hated ; the people in the country were every day rallying with more eagerness to the League ; the Liberals in Parliament were becoming more united on the question ; and, worst of all, the minister who ought to have been the bulwark of the cause of protection, was more than suspected of sympathizing with the enemy. The task of the Radicals in the free-trade struggle was nearly completed how nearly they scarcely knew themselves. They had first appreciated the vital importance of freedom ; they had enunciated and proved the truth of its propositions ; they had, in the course of a long and arduous agitation, informed the public mind and aroused the public enthusiasm ; and they were fast convincing the governing class of both parties that there could be but one solution to the national problem. They had prepared the ground, had sowed the seed, had watched and guarded the early growth of the crop : and now the official reapers were about to undertake the part of gathering in the harvest. The work of conversion amongst the Whigs had been going on rapidly. Only a few years back, Melbourne had declared that it was the wildest and maddest thing to think
- " Annual Register," 1845, PP- J > 2 -
