forward the advice he gave
his Government in the beginning of November, 1845, which was, either to
open the ports by an Order in Council, or to call Parliament together as
soon as possible, to meet the "great and pressing danger of the potato
failure;" but what he does _not_ put forward is, that he grounded both
these proposals on the condition that the Corn Laws should be repealed.
To be sure he stated this condition mildly, when he told his colleagues
that once the ports were opened, he would not undertake to close
them--yet what was this but saying to a protectionist Cabinet,--there is
great danger of a famine in Ireland--we ought to open the ports or
assemble Parliament, but I will not agree to one or the other unless you
all become Free-traders; thus making the feeding or the starving of the
Irish people depend on the condition, that the members of his Government
were to change their views, and preach Free Trade from those benches, to
which they had been triumphantly carried on the shoulders of Protection.
In truth, Sir Robert, more than most politicians, was in the habit of
suppressing those portions of a question which he found inconvenient;
limiting his statement to such parts of it, as suited his present
purpose. In his communications with his colleagues, he was very fond of
such phrases as, "to lay aside all reserve," "to speak in the most
unreserved manner," etc.; thus forcibly impressing one with his habitual
love of reserve, even with his greatest intimates. And in his speech of
the 22nd of January, on the Address, he said, with suspicious
indignation, that "nothing could be more base or dishonest" than to use
the potato blight as a means of repealing the Corn Laws.

The great twelve nights' debate on the repeal of these laws, commenced
five days after the speech above referred to, was made. The Premier, at
great length and very ably, repeated the arguments he had been putting
forward since the previous November, in favour of taking the duty off
everything that could be called human food; he even proposed to repeal
the duty on the importation of potatoes, by which, he said, he hoped to
obtain sound seed from abroad. Sir Robert, in this speech, may be said
to have been in his best vein,--- full, explanatory, clear, assumptive,
persuasive,--often appealing to the kindness and forbearance of his
hearers,--always calculating a good deal on his power of bending people
to his views by a plausible, diplomatic treat