" Two most important points, he said, they had now before them; (1)
the measures to be immediately adopted in consequence of the potato
blight; (2) and the ultimate course to be pursued in relation to the
importation of grain. His opinions, he goes on to say, on the subject of
Protection had undergone a change, and chiefly because the prophecies of
the protectionists, when the tariff was altered in '42, were falsified
by experience. Now, if the Free Traders had a watchword which they used
more frequently than any other, it was the cry of "cheap bread;" and yet
in the face of this, the Premier said:--"I want, at the same time, to
show that concurrently with the increase of importation, there has been
an increase in the prices of the articles." He then quotes several of
the Government contracts to prove this assertion, which was quite
correct.[89] Once again, he puts prominently forward the advice he gave
his Government in the beginning of November, 1845, which was, either to
open the ports by an Order in Council, or to call Parliament together as
soon as possible, to meet the "great and pressing danger of the potato
failure;" but what he does _not_ put forward is, that he grounded both
these proposals on the condition that the Corn Laws should be repealed.
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