Page:History of the Radical Party in Parliament.djvu/311

 1841.] Accession of the Queen to fall of Melbourne. 297 and some of his friends took part, whilst in 1838 they had abstained.* Resolutions on the corn laws were at once submitted to both Houses, in the form of motions that evidence should be heard at the bar as to their operation and effect. Lord Brougham brought the subject before the Peers on the i8th of February. He was opposed by Melbourne, and the motion was negatived without a division. On the following day Villiers moved in the Commons that certain persons " be heard at the bar of the House, by their agents, witnesses, or counsel, in support of the allegations of the petition presented to the' House on the i$th inst, complaining of the operation of the corn laws." Russell, whilst objecting to the mode of inquiry proposed, said he was willing to have the question examined by a select committee. This was a sign of wavering, and so far a gain to the repealers, who on a division found that they had increased their strength in the House, receiving on this occasion 172 votes to 361, whilst last year the numbers had been 95 to 300. The subject was again raised in more direct form. On the 1 2th of March Villiers proposed a committee to consider the Act 9 George IV. c. 50 ; and on the I4th Earl Fitzwilliam, in the other House, moved a resolution that the Act had failed to secure that steadiness in the price of grain which is essential to the best interests of the country. The debates led to a manifestation of wide differences amongst the chief members of the Cabinet. In opposing Earl Fitzwilliam the Premier made the statement which has often been quoted, that " to leave the whole agricultural interest without protection, I declare before God that I think it the wildest and maddest scheme that has ever entered into the imagina- tion to conceive." He went on to express his special dissent to a fixed duty. But on the i8th of March, in the adjourned debate on Villiers' motion, Russell, the leader of the House of Commons, said that he was in favour of a fixed duty, and before, now voted.
 * Villiers, De Lacy Evans, Sir L. Bulwer, and other Radicals who were absent