colonies,' he said,--'saved the colonies. I knew it
must be so. It is the knell of free trade.'

Notwithstanding the formal renunciation of the leadership of the
Protectionist party by Lord George Bentinck, it was soon evident to the
House and the country that that renunciation was merely formal. In these
days of labour, the leader of a party must be the man who does the work,
and that work cannot now be accomplished without the devotion of a life.
Whenever a great question arose, the people out of doors went to Lord
George Bentinck, and when the discussion commenced, he was always found
to be the man armed with the authority of knowledge. There was, however,
no organized debate and no party discipline. No one was requested to
take a part, and no attendance was ever summoned. The vast majority
sitting on the Protectionist benches always followed Bentinck, who,
whatever might be his numbers in the lobby, always made a redoubtable
stand in the House. The situation however, it cannot be denied, was a
dangerous one for a great party to persevere in, but no permanent damage
accrued, because almost every one hoped that before the session was
over, the difficulty would find a natural solution in the virtual chief
resuming his formal and responsible post. Notwithstanding his labours on
the two great committees of the year--those on colonial and commercial
distress,--Lord George Bentinck found time to master the case of the
shipping interest when the navigation laws were attacked, to impugn in
a formal motion the whole of the commercial policy of Sir Robert Peel,
even while the sugar and coffee planting committee was still sitting,
and to produce, early in March, a rival budget. It was mainly through
the prolonged resistance which he organized against the repeal of the
navigation laws, that the government, in 1848, was forced to abandon
their project. The resistance was led with great ability by Mr. Herries,
and the whole party put forward their utmost strength to support him.
But it is very difficult to convey a complete picture of the laborious
life of Lord George Bentinck during the sitting of Parliament.
At half-past nine o'clock there called upon him the commercial
representatives of the question of the day; after these conferences came
his elaborate and methodical correspondence, all of which he carried
on himself in a handwriting clear as print, and never employing a
secretary; at twelve or one o'clock he was at a committe