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COBDEN’S SPEROUA ON THE PLAN. 223

if the exclusive burdens on land were proved, the proper
remedy was to remove them, and not to tax the food of the
People,

1849.

Br. 88

An excellent point was made by the exposure of the
fallacy, that low wages are the same thing as cheap labour,
And this proved to be of the highest importance, as an ele-Ment
 in Sir Robert Peel’s conversion. He admitted after-Wards
 that he had accepted this fallacy without proper
SXamination, and that jts overthrow was one of the things
Which mogt powerfully affected his opinions on a protective
“stem, Apart from his general demonstration of the truth
0 this respect, Cobden now showed that the highly paid
labour of England was proved to be the cheapest labour in
the world, The manufacturers might have credit for taking
® More enlightened view of their own interest than to sup-Pose
 that the impoverishment of the multitude—the great con-Sumers
 of all that they produce—could ever tend to promote
the Prosperity of the manufacturers. I will tell the House,
that Yy deteriorating the population, of which they ought
to be so proud, they will run the risk of spoiling, not merely
the animal, but the intellectual creature. It is not a
Potato-fed race that will ever lead the way in arts, arms,
OF Commerc,”
In the course of his speech, which was not in the strong
vein that greater experience soon made easy to him, Cobden
had talkeq of the ignorance on the question which prevailed
“ong the Tory members. © Yes,” he exclaimed, when his
versarieg cried out against this vigorous thrust, “I have
U8Ver seen their ignorance equalled among any equal
Number of working men in the north of England.” And he
"®0inded them that when the Corn Law of 1815 was passed,
“2d when eminent men of both parties honestly thought that
ages followed the price of corn, the great multitude of the
"ation, without the aid of learning, © with that intuitive saga-