It is not the province of this work to describe the struggles of parties during this momentous period, and it is therefore sufficient to state that the measures of Sir Robert Peel, supported as they were out of doors by the vigorous action of the Anti-Corn-Law League, and in Parliament by the Liberal party, were carried by large majorities through the Commons and were, ultimately, passed by the Lords. But, meantime the Irish Arms Bill had furnished the Opposition with a temporary accession of members to defeat that measure, and consequently with the means of overthrowing Sir Robert’s Administration, so that the night of his triumph on the great question of the repeal of the Corn Laws was a witness also of his downfall; and, in the records of the debates of that ever-memorable evening, may be read the words now so familiar to our ears:—“It may be,” he remarked, in his concluding speech, “that I shall be sometimes remembered with good-will in those places which are the abodes of men whose lot it is to labour and earn their daily bread by the sweat of their brow; in such places, perhaps, my name may be remembered with expressions of good-will, when those who inhabit them recruit their exhausted strength with abundant and untaxed food, the sweeter because no longer leavened with the spirit of injustice.” FOOTNOTES: [23] In a little book, ‘Political Arithmetic,’ by Sir William Petty, written about 1675, and published in 1691, the author of it remarks, “The extent of the shipping of Europe being about two millions of tons, I suppose the English have five hundred thousand—_the Dutch nine hundred thousand_, the French an hundred thousand, the Hamburgers and the subjects of Dantzic two hundred and fifty, and Spain, Portugal, Italy, &c., two hundred and fifty thousand!” the value of which the author reckoned “at 8_l._ per tun” (ton). [24] See a review of the ‘History of the Navigation Laws of England from the Earliest Times,’ by a Barrister, a most able exposition, from the pen (I understand) of Sir Stafford H. Northcote, Bart., now (1875) Chancellor of the Exchequer, published by Ridgway, London, 1849. [25] McPherson’s ‘Annals of Commerce,’ vol. iv. p. 26. [26] See _ante_, vol. ii. p. 354. [27] See Mr. Huskisson’s Speech on Colonial Policy, March 21, 1825. [28] Hertslet’s Treaties. [29] Appendix, No. I., p. 563. [30] In 1814 there were entered inwards 1,290,248 tons of British shipping, and 599,287 tons of foreign shipping. In 1824 there were entered inwards 1,797,320 tons of British shipping, and 759,441 tons of foreign shipping. In 1846 there were entered inwards 4,294,733 tons of British shipping, and 1,806,282 tons of foreign shipping. The clearances at the respective dates were about the same in amount and proportion. [31] See these Reports of 16th July, 1845.