6io 
FREE TRADE SPEECHES. 
their opinions, he said, as Ministers of the Crown, to have the 
confidence of the House; but if Lord Derby does truly 
represent the rest of them, then, inasmuch as he adheres to 
his former views, they are in an undoubted minority in the 
present Parliament. 
For what I believe to be great national reasons I want to 
have these Resolutions carried, and to have the views of the 
House of Commons on this question most distinctly, and 
most explicitly, expressed ; and most especially do I want 
these Resolutions to be placed on record, in order that we may 
at least during the existing Parliament have a settlement of 
a matter that, while unsettled, leaves men of business in the 
country uneasy, and the rest of the world in doubt as to what 
the permanent commercial policy of England is to be. 
I hope, therefore, that the Right Hon, Gentleman the 
Chancellor of the Exchequer will not attempt to evade the 
real question by talking of factiousness or by impugning my 
personal motives ; but that he will address himself in a 
straightforward way to the question before the House, and 
will not sit down without letting us at last know what he really 
means. 
Enormous mischief has already been done by the course 
taken by Hon. Gentlemen opposite ever since 1846. I know 
from what I have heard and from what I have seen on the 
Continent that there people exaggerate the importance of the 
party to which the Hon. Gentlemen belong ; they imagine 
that Lord Derby represents a strong section of the English 
political community, and that he has acquired or will acquire 
power to reverse eventually the policy of Sir Robert Peel. 
Indeed, it is notorious that in those instances where foreign 
nations are disposed to change their own commercial policy, 
the movement is retarded because their Governments are 
compelled to notice the continued existence of the so-called 
Protectionist party in this country. 
There are people both here and abroad who will never 
adapt themselves to the altered circumstances of our commerce 
while doubt is allowed to exist as to our retention of a Free 
Trade policy ; and constant mischief is still being done by the 
agitation and assertion of Protectionist and Anti-Free-Trade 
views. And therefore I contend with the Right Hon. Gentle 
men at present in power, that the importance of some distinctly- 
worded Resolutions such as those I propose, to be taken as a