Page:History of the Anti corn law league - Volume 2.pdf/372

 present appearances, we shall have an ample harvest. This will enable Sir Robert Peel to hold out a little longer against his own convictions of the necessity of a free trade in corn." If the sun continued to shine, with occasional refreshing showers, until about the 12th of August, ministers could then prorogue parliament with a nourish about national prosperity, and retire to their country seats, and their country recreations, and wait there for about some five months, believing that the clamours for free trade in corn would cease ere they met parliament again. Was there any chance of success for the motion of which Mr. Villiers had given notice, in such genial weather, producing such magical effects on vegetation? There was the promise of an ample harvest—if the weather would only continue to be fine for some six weeks more. Would it be wise and prudent to legislate under such promise that legislation would be unnecessary? The nation, meanwhile, must look to the thermometer and the barometer, and not to the Lords and Commons.