Page:Notes on the Anti-Corn Law Struggle.djvu/61

 when he was right, whereas John Stuart Mill, while he shows wherein he considers the author of the pamphlet wrong, does him ample justice in the criticism of his "Catechism on the Corn Laws." It is in this quality of trying to do justice to all men, by patient investigation and incessant labour, that John Stuart Mill stands alone among all the men that have come under my observation in the course of my life.

John Stuart Mill, in an article on the Corn Laws, in the thirteenth number of The Westminster Review, which came out in January, 1827—the book named at the head of the article being the "Catechism on the Corn Laws," third edition, London, 1827—in the course of some remarks on the new proposal for the amendment of the Corn Laws, says:—

"'Mr. Canning commenced his speech by declaring that the conflicting opinions did not differ so widely as was commonly supposed. He proceeded to explain himself by saying that no person advocated a perfectly free trade in corn; that the necessity of some protection to agriculture was universally acknowledged, and that the only question was how much. We respect Mr. Canning's honest intentions, and admire his eloquence; but really, when we find him uttering with a grave face the above assertion, we can neither give him credit for much knowledge of the subject, nor even for"