438
THE DIVISION.
Robert Peel ever delivered, that the second reading was carried, the numbers being:
| For the second reading | 302 |
| Against it | 214 |
Notwithstanding this very decided majority, and, notwithstanding the almost universal expression of feeling in the country, in favour of free trade, the protectionists fought most stubbornly against any innovation on their "vested right" to tax the community for their own especial benefit, and it was not until four o'clock in the morning of Saturday, May 16th, that the third reading was carried. Near the conclusion of the debate, Sir Robert Peel delivered a speech of great eloquence and power, from which the following are a few passages:
"You have a right, I admit, to taunt me with my change of opinion on the corn laws; but when you say by my adoption of the principles of free trade, I have acted in contradiction to those principles which I have always avowed during my whole life, that charge, at least, I say is destitute of foundation. Sir, I will not enter at this late hour into the discussion of any other topic; I foresaw the consequences that have resulted from the measures which I thought it my duly to propose. We were charged with the heavy responsibility of taking security against a great calamity in Ireland. We did not act lightly. We did not form our opinion upon merely local information—the information of local authorities likely to be inflamed by an undne alarm. Before I, and those who agreed with me, came to that conclusion, we had adopted every means—by local inquiry, and by sending perfectly disinterested persons of authority to Ireland to form a just and correct opinion. Whether we were mistaken or not—I believe we were not mistaken, but even if we were mistaken, a generous construction should be put upon the motives and conduct of those who are charged with the responsibility of protecting millions of subjects of the Queen from the consequences of scarcity and famine. * * * * My earnest wish has been, during my tenure of power, to impress the people of this country with a belief that the legislature was animated by a sincere desire to frame its legislation upon the principles of equity and justice. I have a strong belief that the greatest object which we or any other government can contemplate should be to elevate the social condition of that class of the people with whom we are brought into no direct relation by the exercise of elective franchise, I wish to convince them that our object has been so to
