jse
"4%. would be reduced to threspence a pound. The faloificatio®
Cl of these prophecies, as Peel reminded his constituent? sh
his fall, was destined to have a great effect on the gours® g
public opinion. People began to be less apprehensi™ ’
the probable consequences of a more liberal intercours® i
other articles of agricultural produce.’ ie
Then he perceived an increase of consumption of articl®
of first necessity, much more rapid than the increas® z
population, and this greatly augmented the rosponsib 2
of undertaking to regulate the supply of food by logislati” {
restraints. It greatly aggravated, moreover, the peri °
these restraints in the case of any sudden check 0 po
sperity.* }
Besides these considerations, Peel says that his faith »
restrictions on the importation of corn had been wake’
by general reasoning ; by many concurring proofs that o
wages of labour do not vary with the price of cor?’ po
serious doubts whether, in the present condition of § 0
country, the preseut plenty were not ensured for the fut?” g
in a higher degree by free intercourse in corn, that J
restrictions for the purpose of protecting domestic ag’ o
ture. Clear as all thisis to a generation whose vision 1° m 1
obscured by the passions of contemporaries, resentment > "
suspicion at the time were emotions that might have be i”
expected. It speedily became certain that they yo
violent enough to endanger the new policy, to wreck i»
party, and to overthrow for ever the great Minister v
had been its chief. v0
Meanwhile the League made ready to give him effe? sie
support. Whatever may have been the case with or?
Robert Peel himself, it is certain that other people w ,
ofraid of the operations of the League, It was this ©

Tosa:

b Mawnoirs, ii. 108,
I Mawaworkh Letter of 1347. in Mamoirs, i. 108.