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THE NEW TALIEL.

2139

Miserg he flaw in the new scheme to talk of the main object iid
being to Jessen the charge of living, and then to leave bread am. 38
i Sugar, two great articles of universal consumption,
burdened with heavy protective taxation. Many a League
Meeting in the next three years rang with fierce laughter at
the ®xpense of a Minister who talked of relieving the
Consumer, when he had taken the tax off dried fruits, cos-Wetics,
 satin, caviare, and left it upon the loaf of bread.
The Tories followed reluctantly. The more acute among
the Protectionists felt that the colonial interest would
*Peedily he forced to surrender its advantage over the sugar
of Cuba and Brazil; and one member warned sympathetic
hearers that, when the Tariff was passed, the next step to
in Xpected was the repeal of the Corn Laws. The Minister
found one remarkable champion on his own side, whose
Benius he failed to recognize. Mr. Disraeli laughed at the
Whigs for pretending to be the originators of Free Trade.
I Was Mr. Pitt, he said, who first promulgated its docbrines;
 and it was Fox, Burke, and Sheridan who - then
denounceq the new commercial principles. The prin-“Ples
 of Free Trade were developed, and not by Whigs,
fifty Years before ; and the conduct now pursued by Sir
Robert Peel was in exact accordance and consistency with
the Principles for the first time promulgated by Mr. Pitt.
So far ag jf went, Mr. Disracli’s contention was perfectly
Correa

the Protectionists were puzzled as well as annoyed by the
low Policy, so were the Free Traders. The following extracts
from letters to his brother convey one or two of Cobden’s
Sarlier impressions about Pesl. Of the measure he always
though the same, and the worst. By the end of the session
Cobden kad clearly discerned whither Peel’s mind was turnng.
 We who live a generation after tte hattle was won, aay
feel for. % moment disappoinied that Cobden did not at once