" And again he says, towards the close, "I am prepared, for
one, to take the responsibility of suspending the law by an Order in
Council, or of calling Parliament at a very early period, and advising
in the Speech from the Throne the suspension of the law." On the 29th of
November, the Premier sent to each of his colleagues a more detailed and
elaborate exposition of his views, in order that they might be prepared
to discuss them at the next Cabinet Council.
According to the course he had evidently laid down for himself, he made
the whole question of the repeal of the Corn Laws turn on the impending
Irish famine. He begins with the question he intends to discuss in this
manner:--"What is the course most consistent with the public interests
under the present circumstances, in reference to the future supply of
food?" His answer to his own question is, "that the proper precaution,
though it may turn out to be a superfluous one, is the permission, for a
limited time, to import foreign grain free of duty." He repeats that
several of the countries of Europe have taken precautions to secure a
sufficiency of food for their people. He goes into a history of what
the English Government had done on former occasions, when a scarcity of
food was imminent, admitting that, while, in 1793, it opened the ports
for food supplies, it also prohibited their exportation.
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