Page:History of the Radical Party in Parliament.djvu/345

 1846.] Sir Robert Peel's Administration. 331 speech was able to congratulate the country upon the relief from suffering and privations which at former periods she had occasion to deplore. Ireland was still the place over which clouds were hanging ; but the Government were determined to maintain the union, and Peel was far-sighted enough to know that in the land laws and the relation between landlord and tenant lay the root of much of the trouble which existed there. Accordingly there had been appointed that Devon Commission which for the first time gave Englishmen an opportunity of ascertaining, if not the whole truth of the case, at least enough to convince them, if they had studied it sufficiently, that the same laws and customs which prevailed in England were monstrously unjust when applied to the altogether different conditions of Ireland. If the lesson had been sooner learnt and applied, we should have been spared years of misery to Ireland, and disgrace to England. It was hoped, both by the Government and the country party, that the diminution of actual distress would allay the agitation against the corn laws. No such result followed. The reform agitation still continued, and where an extension of popular power was claimed, one of the reasons urged for its necessity was that the tax upon food might be abolished. This was clearly put by Sharman Crawford, who, on the consideration of the address, moved an amendment to the effect that her Majesty be informed, that before supplies were voted the Commons would deem it their " first and most important duty to inquire into the various grievances com- plained of by the people, and to devise such measures as may be most effectual for redressing all just causes of complaint." Amongst the grievances Crawford enumerated unfair and inadequate representation in Parliament, class legislation, accumulation of capital and property in the hands of a few, taxation of food, and extravagant public expenditure. This was a very bold and broad application of the principle that redress of grievances should precede supply, and it found support only among the extreme Radicals. It was defeated by 285 votes to 29. Mr. Bright, who had been elected for