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 *mony. It was therefore urged that the proceedings of the Committee and the abrupt termination of the inquiry were anything but fair, the more so that no practical results had been obtained, though the evidence procured was, ultimately, of considerable importance.

Thus ended this important inquiry in a manner scarcely satisfactory to either party; nor was the investigation again revived in the committee-rooms of the House of Commons, the scene of the contest being transferred elsewhere. On the 23rd July, 1847, Parliament was dissolved; and at the subsequent general election the Free-trade party was triumphant everywhere, Mr. Cardwell gaining his election at Liverpool, while Mr. Cobden was returned in his absence for the West Riding of Yorkshire, as well as for Stockport; Mr. C. P. Villiers, on whose motion the Corn Laws had been repealed, being also doubly returned for South Lancashire and Wolverhampton, both these elections affording thereby unmistakable evidences of the feeling of the country in favour of unfettered commerce. With so great an accession of strength to the Whig Government, further progress in Free-trade measures became inevitable, and the greatest uneasiness prevailed among shipowners as to their future destiny.

Though events of a calamitous character to general commerce intervened, the shipping interest escaped, and, indeed, flourished. Beyond the large quantities of corn necessary to import, so as to meet the urgent wants of the famishing people of Ireland, it was found by the end of December, 1846, that the deficiency of grain in France, Belgium, and Germany, as well as