x] OHANGE OF TAOTIOS. 315
But 1 think there are symptoms that the enemy is preparing _ 1845.
for 5 retreat. The squires in the House are evidently with- Zu. 41.
%8% confidence in themselves, while the farmers are losing
“l faith in their old protectors, and Peel is doing his best to
thake the confidence of both landlords and tenants in any
Winigter, Good will come out of this. People will be
throwy back upon their own resources of judgment. In
fact, the public will be taught to think for themselves.
With respect to Mr. W., he and I are very friendly; I
have had nothing but civility, and indeed kindness, at his
bends ever since I came into the House. He is a man
o very great kindliness of nature, full of bonhomie in fact.
It he has a fault, ib is in being too placable, possessing
600 much love of approbation, which makes him rather
fong of praising people, especially his opponents. He is,
boweyer, upon the whole, a fine-hearted man.” *
In the midst of the general prosperity, there was one
Zreat interest which did not thrive: this was the interest of
the tenant-farmer. Deputations waited upon the Prime Minisber
 to tell him that the farmers in Norfolk were paying rent
Wb of capital ; that half the small farmers in Devonshire
Were insolvent, and the others were rapidly sinking to the
Same condition ; that the agriculturists of the whole of the
South of England, from the Trent to the Land’s End, were
WN a state of embarrassment and distress’ There was
Scarcely a week in which these topics did not find their way
to the Parliamentary debates. Cobden brought forward a
Lotion for a Select Committee to inquire into the causes of
the alleged agricultural distress. A few nights afterwards
%18 of the country gentlemen in the House moved a resoluton
 fp affording relief to the landed interests in the appli-“ation
 of surplus revenue. Then came a proposal from &

} To George Combe. London, ¥eb. 23, 1848,
+ Qobden’s Speeches, 1, 261.