We know nothing of the causes that have led to this memorable and
momentous event, except that apparently differences of opinion prevailed
among the members of the Ministry in reference to the corn-laws. We
shall not believe, until we hear it from their own lips, that any
portion of the Cabinet have advocated any scheme fraught with danger and
injustice to the best interests of the country: nor shall we indulge in
any conjecture as to the real nature of the policy that may have been
under discussion, where conjecture must be so vague, and where it must
so soon give place to authentic information. We shall merely say, that
any measure calculated to place agriculture and industry generally, in a
disadvantageous and defenceless position, must have met with our
unfactious, but firm, opposition. If ever the day should come, when
protection, by common consent, were to be withdrawn, truth compels us to
declare, that there is no one by whose hand we should desire to see that
painful and dangerous operation performed so much as Sir Robert
Peel;--not because we should be insensible to all the awkward and
painful embarrassments of such a change of course; but simply, because
we are bound to say, that there is no other man of whose knowledge,
skill, and sagacity we have the same opinion. By none we think could the
fall be so much broken, or the transition made so smooth, or so little
injurious. Certain it is, that a measure of total and immediate
abolition _from the Whigs, incompetent and incapable as they have been
proved_, would be a calamity of which the magnitude can scarcely be
estimated by the most gloomy imagination. We are far, however, from
contemplating the necessity or possibility of such a policy from any
Ministry whatever.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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