Page:Life of the Right Honourable Sir Robert Peel.pdf/11

Rh objects is really valuable; but for my part I can say with perfect truth, that even for those objects I do not covet it. Still I am ready to incur its responsibilities, to bear its sacrifices, to confront its perils; but I will not retain it with mutilated power and shackled authority. I will not stand at the helm during dark and tempestuous weather, if that helm is not allowed to freely traverse; and I will not undertake to direct the course of the vessel now by observations taken in 1842." To the taunt of inconsistency, he thus replied, "I will not withhold the homage due to the progress of reason, and to truth, by denying that my opinions on the subject of Protection have undergone a change. It may be supposed that there is something humiliating in making such an admission. Sir, I feel no such humiliation; but I should feel the deepest humiliation if, having changed or modified my opinions, I declined to acknowledge the change for the base fear of encountering the charge of inconsistency."

After a struggle of a few months, the commercial measures of the cabinet were carried by large majorities in both Houses of Parliament, and received the Queen's assent in person. Sir Robert Peel now felt that the time was come when he should resign. He was overthrown by a division upon the "Irish Coercion Bill," in which the regular Opposition and Protectionists joined to deprive him of office. In his last speech, he said, "I relinquish power with a more lively recollection of the support and confidence I have received during several years, than of the opposition which, during a recent period, I have encountered. I shall leave a name severely censured, I fear, by many who, on public grounds, deeply regret the severance of party ties. I deeply regret that severance, not from interested or personal motives, but from the firm conviction that fidelity to party engagements, the existence and maintenance of a great