issue of an order in council will be a grand object of
speculation to the corn importer; and that he will hoard, and create
distress, merely to force out that order? And the issuing of that
order would depend entirely on the strength or the necessity of the
Minister: on his "Squeezableness"--his anxiety for popularity. Does
the experience of the last ten years justify the country in placing
confidence, on such a point, in a _Whig_ Ministry? In every point of
view, the project of a fixed duty is exposed to insuperable
objections. It is plain that on the very first instant of there being
a pressure upon the "fixed duty," it must give way, and for ever. Once
off, it is gone for ever; it can never be re-imposed. Again, what is
to govern the _amount_ at which it is to be fixed? Must it be the
additional burden on land? or the price at which foreign countries,
with their increased facilities of transport, and improved cultivation
of their soil, would be able to deliver it in the British markets?
What _data_ have we, in either case, on which to decide? Let it,
however, always be borne in mind, by those who are apt too easily to
entertain the question as to either a fixed duty, or a total repeal of
duty, that the advantages predicted by the respective advocates of
those measures are _mere assumptions_. We have no experience by which
to try the question. The doctrines of free trade are of very recent
growth; the _data_ on which its laws are founded are few, and also
uncertain. And does any one out of Bedlam imagine, that any Minister
of this country would consent to run such tremendous risks--to try
such experiments upon an article of such immense importance to its
well-being? Let us never lose sight of Lord Melbourne's memorable
words:--"Whether the object be to have a fixed duty, or an alteration
as to the ascending and descending scale, I see clearly and
distinctly, that the object will not be carried without a most violent
struggle--without causing much ill-blood, and a deep sense of
grievance--without stirring society to its foundation, and leaving
every sort of bitterness and animosity. I do not think the advantages
to be gained by the change are worth the evils of the struggle."[26]

[26] Debates, 11th June 1840.

To return, however. Under the joint operation of the three great
measures of the Government--the income-tax, the new tariff, and the
new corn-law, our domestic affairs exhibit, at this moment, such an
asp