R23 PROSPECTS OF THE QUESTION. 323

by Party ties, and which complacently recognized in their 184.
Teasureg the gradual and moderate fulfilment of a latitu- Zr. 41.
Yanrian policy both in Church aud State.” The same keen
Observer goes on to remark of those with whom we are
Miediately concerned, that in spite of their powers of
lebate and their external organization, the close of the
ssion found the members of the Manchester confederacy
“duced to silence, The state of prices, of the harvests, of
“merce had rendered appeals varied even by the per-Wagive
 ingenuity of Mr. Cobden a wearisome iteration.
Cobden himself, however, knew exactly how things stood,
“2 foresaw with precision bow they would move. Ia the
Wmer of 1845, when Parlisment had found his appeal s
Vearisome iteration, he had before him one of those immense
Wltity des, such as could only be assembled, he said, in
*Wient Rome to witness the brutal conflicts of men, ov
™ ean now be found in Spain to witness the brutal conflicts
°f animals, What, he asked, if you could get into the
"Mermost minds of the Ministers, would you find them
thinking as to the repeal of the Corn Laws? “I know it
"8 well ag thongh I were in their hearts. It is this: they
"re lf afraid that this Corn Law cannot be maintained—no,
10% 4 rag of it, during a period of scarcity prices, of a
fing season, such as we had in *52, 40, and ’41. They
Sto it. They are prepared wher such a time comes, to
“bolish the Corn Laws, and they have made up their minds
bo it, There is no doubt in the world of it. They are going
s T8peal it,” he went on, “as I told you—meark my words
“3% a season of distress. That distcess may come ; aye, three
"ook of showery weather when the wheat is in bloom or
"Poning, would repeal these Corn Laws.”® You cannot call
Matesmanship, he scornfully argued, a policy which leaves
the industria] scheme of such a couniry a8 ours to stand

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