Angry eyes turned to watch Prince Albert as he sat down in
the public gallery of the House of Commons with a flourish. The day had finally
arrived! The Prime Minister, Sir Robert Peel, was about to call for the repeal
of the Corn Laws, after many long years of hardship and deprivation for the
poorer classes. As he got up to speak, Sir Robert knew that this would mean the
end of his stellar career…
George Bentinck, the leader of the
protectionists and a dilettante aristocrat who had hardly ever spoken in
Parliament in eighteen years, was especially livid by the audacity of the
German Prince in involving himself in politics. He stated firmly that the
Prince’s presence gave ‘the semblance of a personal sanction of Her Majesty to
a measure which be it for good or for evil, a great majority, at least of the
landed aristocracy…imagine fraught with deep injury, if not ruin, to them’.
The Corn Laws
The end of the Napoleonic Wars in
1815 meant that corn could easily be brought in again from Europe, a prospect
which most landowners and farmers welcomed. They demanded the introduction of
Corn Laws by the Tory government which restricted the amount of foreign gran
which could be imported. These laws only permitted the import of duty-free
wheat when the domestic price reached ’80 shillings per quarter,’ an extremely
high price. Parliament had to be surrounded by bayonet-carrying soldiers when
the Bill was passed, due to the incredible anger on the streets.
The Corn Laws kept the price of
bread artificially high, making life difficult for tenant farmers, farm
workers, labourers and other poor people. This caused riots, demonstrations and
even led to the horrific Peterloo Massacre.
Eventually, the horrors of the laws would create the Irish Famine.
The Anti-Corn Law League
The Anti-Corn Law League, formed
by Richard Cobden and John Bright, was mostly financed by Lancashire
textile-owners, leading to accusations by protectionists that they wanted to
import corn to help their buyers, drive down wages and maximize profits. Cobden
and Bright, however, were idealistic men, who argued that the laws entrenched
aristocratic misrule and class privilege, and harmed the economy by keeping
wages down and stifling progress. The
League grew into a strong organisation, conducting research, publishing many
books and placing great pressure on politicians.
There were many entrenched forces,
however, who most certainly did not want to see the repeal of the Corn Laws. They
even included the Church of England. Many of the clergy benefited from the
oppressive laws because they were tied to the collection of tithes. Tithes had
been converted into payments of so many quarters of corn, or their value, so
the Established Church profited from keeping the laws.
Portrait of Sir Robert Peel
The Repeal of the Corn Laws
Prince Albert summed up Peel’s
attitude towards protectionism in his memorandum about his conversation withPeel in December, 1845. Although Peel had supported the Corn Laws for a long
time, he had become influenced by the arguments of the Anti-Corn Law League,
and he saw that the promotion of free trade in other areas had increased
prosperity and helped to create jobs. 1. However, the terrible situation caused
by the potato blight in Ireland was the final straw. Although the government
set up a commission to find solutions for the blight, and Sir Robert offered to
give away any chemical which would cure it, no answer was found.
Sir Robert, supported by Prince
Alfred, knew what he had to do. Suffering from gout and sleep-deprivation, he
made his big speech on 27 January, 1846. He was on his feet for three and a
half hours.
The repeal of the Corn Laws led to
the resignation of Sir Robert Peel and the splitting of the Conservative Party.
Prince Albert, chastened by Bentinck, never appeared at the House of Commons
again.
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