216

: BOEN fomat
LR oF cospEx,

1845. the severe labours of the session, to watching chances and
dir. 41. reading evidence night and day, in anticipation of the heavy
calamity which hung over the nation, By the middle of
October the apprehension of actual scarcity had becom?
very vivid, and he wrote to Sir James Grabam that the ony
effectual remedy was the removal of impediments to import:
On the last day of the month, the members of the Cabinet
met in grent haste. Three other meetings took place With?
the week, A marked divergence of opinion instantly
became manifest. Sir Robert Pesl wished to summo?
Parliament, and to advise the suspension for a limited period
of the restrictions on importation. Lord Aberdeen, MT
Sidney Herbert, and Sir James Graham supported this view:
The other members of the Cabinet, following Lord Stanley
and the Duke of Wellington, dissented. Peel did nob disguise,
 and the dissidents were well aware, how difficult if
might be to put the corn duties on again if they had onc®
been taken off. It wes folt on hoth sides that the great
struggle which had been going on ever since the Whig®
proposed their fixed duty, and in which Peel had shown £0
many ominous signs of change, was now coring to 8°
issue. On both sides there was & natural reluctance t°
precipitate it. On the 6th of N. ovember Ministers separated
without coming to a decision,
A skilful enemy was intently watching their proceeding?
from the northern metropolis. On the 22nd of November
Lord John Russell launched from Edinburgh his famou®
letter to his constituents in the City of London. He hsd
Seen in the public prints that Ministers had met; that they
had consulted together for many days; and that nothing
had been dove. Under these circumstances he thought
that the Government were not performing their duty to thelr
Sovereign and their country. The present state of the
sonntry oculd nok be viewed without approhension, Fro”