The speech
then goes on to deplore the failure of the potato in the United
Kingdom--the failure being greatest in Ireland--assuring Parliament that
"all precautions that could be adopted were adopted for the purpose of
alleviating the calamity." An eulogium is next passed on previous
legislation in the direction of Free Trade, and upon the benefits
conferred by it, with a recommendation that Parliament should take into
early consideration the principles which guided that legislation, with a
view of having them more extensively applied.
And her Majesty is finally made to say, that she thinks further
reductions in the existing duties "upon many articles, the produce of
other countries, will tend to ensure the continuance of these great
benefits." The wily Premier did not allow the word "Corn" or "Corn Laws"
to have a place in the speech of his Royal Mistress.
Anxious to explain, at the very earliest moment, the causes which led to
the dissolution of his Ministry and their return to office, he spoke
upon the Address, and went into the whole question. He put the potato
blight in the foreground; for, with the instinct of the caddice worm, he
felt that this was the piece of bulrush by which he could best float his
Free Trade policy, his Government and himself.
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