Page:History of the Radical Party in Parliament.djvu/359

 1846.] Sir Robert Peel's Administration. 345 could ever be restored. Some expression was given by public men to the feelings which were so general. On the loth of October Lord Ashley, a Conservative, wrote a letter to his- constituents, in which he expressed his opinion that the corn laws could not be maintained. Early in November Lord Morpeth wrote to the League, and said, " I wish to record, in the most emphatic way -I can, my conviction that the time is come for a total repeal of the corn laws." F inally Lord John Russell wrote to the electors of London the famous letter of the 22nd of November, in which he an- nounced that he had given up the idea of a fixed duty, and was converted to the necessity of immediate repeal. " Let us, then," he wrote, " unite to put an end to a system which has proved to be the blight of commerce, the bane of agri- culture, the source of bitter divisions among classes, the cause . of penury, fever, mortality, and crime among the people." In the meantime the Ministry were impressed by the responsibilities imposed upon them. In the Cabinet, as else- where, the anxiety was accompanied by division of opinion as to the course which ought to be taken. The Prime Minister was the first to realize the necessities of the position, and he of course felt most deeply the responsibilities. Between the 1st and the 6th of October there were several Cabinet councils held, and Peel advised that, before it was too late, measures should be taken, either by opening the ports by an order in council, or by calling Parliament together in a fortnight, to obviate the impending evil.* The advice of the Premier was not taken, only three of his colleagues concurring with him, and the Cabinet separated on the 6th of November, Peel reserving the power of calling it together and renewing his recommendation if events should confirm his opinions. Accordingly the Cabinet met again on the 26th of November, the evidence which he had received in the interim not having diminished the apprehensions of the is given in the speeches of Sir Robert Peel and Lord John Russell, at the opening of Parliament on the iQth of January, 1846.
 * The history of these transactions, and of the ministerial crisis which followed