Page:History of the Radical Party in Parliament.djvu/189

 1827.] Death of Castlereagh to Canning's Premiership. 175 the third was in favour of a commutation of tithes in Ireland ; and the fourth proposed the appointment of a committee to consider how the objects set forth could be best carried into effect. These propositions, of course, aroused a storm of oppo- sition, and the cries were raised about confiscation and spoli- ation which have since been used when the principles, which then seemed so daring-, came to be carried into actual opera- tion. The first, third, and fourth resolutions were negatived without a division ; but on the second Hume obtained the votes of sixty-two members.* The corn laws formed the. other subject which, being once subjected to Liberal criticisms, could not again be closed until, under a reformed Parliament, public opinion became too strong to be resisted. On the 26th of February Mr. Whit- more, one of the members for Bridgnorth, moved for leave to bring in a bill to amend the corn laws. His proposal was to lower the import price two shillings a year until it came down to sixty shillings a quarter, for he believed that the quantity of corn which might be brought into our markets when the price was so low as sixty shillings would be but trifling. Huskisson, the President of the Board of Trade, approved of the principle, but thought the time not suitable for its appli- cation, and advised the withdrawal of the motion. This was opposed and a division taken, the result being the rejection of the motion by seventy-eight to twenty-five. In the minority the Radical votes were prominent, Hume acting as teller with Whitmore, and Hobhouse and Ricardo supporting them. The modern free-trade policy, which has been so fruitful in social and political results, received its earliest impulse at this time from the action of Canning and Huskisson. The Warehousing Bill, the Reciprocity of Duties Bill, and the Beer Bill all had for their object the modification, or removal of fiscal or protective interference with trade. That this policy was not adopted without strong opposition in the Cabinet might be assumed, and one evidence was given publicly of
 * The numbers were Ayes, 62 ; Noes, 167.