Note 113 — Chapter XIX

[It is very remarkable that in the course of this narrative, derived from the most authentic sources, Lord Stanley's name is never mentioned; yet it is now well known that Lord Stanley was the most energetic opponent of the measures contemplated by Sir R. Peel on the Corn Question, whatever they might be. It is stated in the Edinburgh Review (vol. clviii. p. 556), on the authority of the Aberdeen Correspondence, that Sir Robert Peel did not propose to his Cabinet the repeal or abandonment of the Corn Laws, but the suspension of them in consequence of the Irish famine. The real question was whether the suspension should be temporary or otherwise. Sir James Graham says in a letter in that Correspondence, that 'after Lord John's failure to form a Government when they returned to office, Stanley would have consented to a suspension of the Corn Laws if Peel would have pledged himself to reimpose them when the suspension ceased. The question was not brought to an issue till then, and Stanley seceded, not because Peel proposed repeal, but because Stanley insisted on a pledge to reimpose them after a fixed period, in circumstances which could not be foreseen.']