372 History of the Radical Party in Parliament. [1846- 84 for, and 119 against. Mr. Bright acted as teller with Trelawny. On the 1 2th of June Cobden moved a resolution in favour of international arbitration, but was defeated by 176 votes to 79. During the session a great advance was made towards the adoption of just principles in the management of the colonies, and the foundation of independent representative governments was laid. In this work Roebuck had for years been actively engaged, and he and Molesworth rendered service in the cause which deserves to be permanently recorded. The session closed on the ist of August. The protectionists had not yet given up the contest ; they still openly sought for an opportunity to reverse the decision in favour of free trade. In nothing did they differ so widely from the great statesman from whom they had separated themselves, as in this refusal to accept the verdict of the nation when it had once been decisively pronounced. Sir Robert Peel showed his wisdom most strikingly in this respect, that he never would become a reactionist. He opposed the Reform Bill, but when it was once passed he loyally accepted it, and directed his policy to applying it so as to serve what he believed to be the best purposes. If he had been opposed to the repeal of the corn laws, he would never have sought to re- impose them, at the cost of continued popular excitement and the unsettlement of the whole commercial and financial arrangements of the country. Stanley and Disraeli were not so wise ; they would not accept the inevitable, and, striving after the impossible, they lost the actual strength which they might have obtained by a reconciliation with the bulk of the Conservatives who were also free-traders. The agitation which was kept up was disquieting, even if it was not dangerous, and it was known that when Parliament again met the contest would be renewed. The session of 1850 was opened by commission on the 3 ist of January. In order to give the most effective answer possible to the protectionists, and to show that the Govern- ment were at one with the Radical free-traders on the question, Mr. Villiers was specially asked to move the address
