Page:History of the Radical Party in Parliament.djvu/339

 1846.] Sir Robert Peel's Administration. 325 the division in the previous year, the numbers voting for the motion had increased by thirty-five, and those against it had decreased by twelve. The increased support was of course drawn from the Whig side of the party, although the leaders were not yet converted, Russell and Palmerston both voting against the resolution. They still adhered to their special belief in a moderate fixed duty, which became every day more hopeless and less acceptable to the country. This was seen when, on the I3th of June, Russell moved for a committee of the whole House to consider the corn laws. The resolution did not specify the particular solution of the question aimed at, but the mover advocated it in his speech. The result was by no means a Whig triumph. Lord John received 145 votes only twenty more than were given for Mr. Villiers, although in this case Villiers, Milner Gibson, Brotherton, and other Radicals voted with him. The party was evidently rapidly under- going the process of conversion, and the conviction of the leaders was only a question of time and increased popular pressure. In the mean time, the Government was still further pre- paring the way for free trade, and the next step, by a sort of irony of fate, had to be taken at the instance of Lord Stanley, one of the most vehement of the protectionists. The Canadian Legislature, with a view of obtaining the right to send corn to England at a nominal duty/had passed an Act imposing a tax of three shillings per quarter on all wheat imported into the colony from any source except her Majesty's dominions. In consideration of this Act, the English Government now proposed to admit wheat from Canada on payment of a duty of one shilling per quarter, and flour at a proportionate rate. With regard, therefore, to wheat coming from Canada, or from the United States via Canada, the idea of a revenue-producing tax was abandoned, and the protection to English agriculture was reduced to the very moderate fixed duty of four shillings a quarter, three shillings of it levied in Canada, and the remaining shilling in our own ports. The resolutions approv- ing this arrangement were submitted by Lord Stanley, and