[ 2

LIFE OF OCOBDEN. {ou Vik

1841. The first division as to the new budget was taken upo®
Xr. 37, the sugar duties; the Ministers found themselves in #
minority of thirty-six. They still held on, and instead of
either resigning or dissolving immediately, astonished par
liament and the country by an announcement that they
wonid go on with the old sugar duties, and would bring
forward the question of the Corn Laws in the course of tWO
or three weeks. Sir Robert Peel declined to give them the
chance, brought forward a vote of want of confidence, and
carried it by a majority of one,
The Ministers could not believe that the House of Commons
 represented the wishes of the country, and to the
country they now appealed.