Page:History of the Anti corn law league.pdf/175

Rh which such hopes were entertained. It required, therefore, some firmness of resolution to declare that, in future, no distinction should be made between whig and tory candidates, and that none should be supported on the hustings but those who would pledge themselves to vote for the repeal of the Corn Laws. The men in office cared little for the declaration. They had a happy indifference to what other men might regard as signs of the times. For eight or nine years they had found that the cry of "do not embarrass the administration," and "keep the tories out," had drawn around them those who had occasionally shown a disposition to diverge into more radical courses. They thought the same cry would serve them in any emergency, and they laughed at the notion that the assertion of an "abstract principle" would withdraw any of their usual supporters from their party allegiance.