Nor can it be urged in his
favour, that the delay in repealing the Corn Laws was the fault of his
opponents, not his own; for no one knew better than he, a shrewd
experienced party leader, that every available weapon of Parliamentary
warfare would be used, as they were used, against his bill for the
repeal of the Corn Laws, in order to strike it down by sheer defeat if
possible, but if not, at least to maim and lop it of its best
provisions.
FOOTNOTES:
[88] Mr. Culhoun.
[89] During the debate in the House of Lords on the Address, in January,
1846, Lord Brougham stated his views about the repeal of the Corn Laws;
the reasons why they should be repealed, and the effects of that repeal.
These views must have seemed to many at the time strange enough, if not
eccentric, but they have turned out to be singularly correct. He
said:--"It was my opinion that an alteration in the commercial policy of
this country with respect to corn, as well as to other commodities, was
highly expedient; I will not say solely, but principally, and beyond all
comparison most chiefly wanted, not for the purpose of lowering the
price of corn and food (which I never expected it could do, which I
urged it could not do, which I endeavoured to show it had no tendency to
do, any more than the Corn Laws had a tendency to keep up the prices of
food); but because I thought it would tend to remodel the whole of our
commercial system, and cause it to assume such a shape and position with
respect to Foreign Powers, as to prevent them from excluding our
manufactures, by opening our ports to their corn, and such as would give
us a reasonable prospect that their restrictions would be removed, and
our manufactures allowed to penetrate into these foreign markets.
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