tw] DIFFICULTIES OF PEEL J POSITION, 359

keep 4 fixed duty, but he was too shrewd to make such 1846.
5 aitempt when success was impossible? In the Upper Jr. 43.
Houge it was notorious that not one peer in ten was
® his heart inclined to pass the Corn Bill. If the Lords
"ere to be coerced into giving their assent, it was in-Yispensable
 that the entire Whig party in the Commons
shoal keep together and vote in every division. It was
Wdonbtedly the interest of the Whigs to help Peel to get the
Cory Law out of the way, and then to turn him out. But there
¥83 & natural temptation to trip him np before the time.
The curious balance of factions filled the air with the
"Pit of intrigue, and until the very last there was good
"ason to apprehend that the Peers might force Peel to
Accept the compromise of a fixed duty, or else to extend the
berm for the expiration of the existing duty. No episode in
dur history shows in a more distressing light the trickery
8d chicane which some thinkers believe to be inseparable
from parliamentary institutions. In this case, however, as
Wao many others, the mischief had its root not in parlia-Wentary
 institutions, but in that constitutional paradox, as
Perplexing in theory as it is equivocal in practice, which
B1ves o hereditary chamber the prerogative of revising and
*hecking the work of the representative chamber.
The session had mot advanced very far, before other
Tanger loomed on the horizon. The Ministry was doomed
tn any case. Whether Peel succeeded or failed with the
Cory Bill, nobody at this time thought it possible that he
*oulq carry on & Conservative Government in a new Parlialent,
 and he could hardly become the chief of a Liberal
Government, The question was whether and how he should
"Peal the Corn Law. Difficulties arose from a quarter where
"hey were not expected. The misery of the winter in
Ueland had produced ite natural fruits in disorder sud
® To J, Parkes. June 10, 1857,