1846.] Sir Robert Peel's Administration. 347 tinuance of the great benefits to which I have adverted." The general meaning of this language was understood by every one, but the greatest anxiety existed to learn the precise manner in which the work was to be done. On the 2/th of January, the day fixed for the ministerial statement, the House of Commons was crowded in all parts, and every word was listened to with the deepest interest. The speech of the Premier, in which he set out the various financial and commercial proposals of the Government, occupied four hours ; but the part most interesting at the time, and the most important permanently, was the explanation of what was to be done with the corn laws. The provisions on this subject were far-reaching and thorough. In three years all duty on corn was to be abolished, except a nominal charge of one shilling a quarter to serve as a registration fee, so that the amount of imports might be ascertained. Thus the great central feature of the scheme was the abolition of protection. For immediate relief there were other provisions. Agri- cultural produce serving as food for animals, amongst which were reckoned buckwheat and Indian corn, was to be admitted duty free, and all colonial-grown corn at a nominal rate. The duties on foreign corn which were to expire in three years were immediately reduced, the effect of which was, at the then existing prices, to lower the tax from sixteen to four shillings a quarter. There were some provisions for relieving the agricultural interests. The cost of prisoners was transferred from the local to the imperial rates ; an alteration was made in the law of settlement ; and the highway admini- stration was improved, consolidated, and thereby cheapened. The great thing, however, which absorbed all interest and gave rise to all discussion, was the slightly deferred but absolute repeal of the corn laws. Thus the principle for which the Radicals had so long contended, to which the Whigs had been slowly converted, and which a vast popular organization had been created to promote, was at last carried out by a great Conservative statesman but not with the consent of the Tory section of
