=Source.=—_The Greville Memoirs_: 1837-1852, vol. ii., p. 309.
LONDON, _December 5_.—I came to town yesterday, and find
public affairs in a state of the greatest interest and excitement. The
whole town had been electrified in the morning by an article in the
_Times_ announcing with an air of certainty and authority that the
discussions and disputes in the Cabinet had terminated by a resolution
to call Parliament together early in January and propose a total repeal
of the Corn Laws, and that the Duke had not only consented, but was to
bring forward the measure in the House of Lords.... There can be very
little doubt that it was Aberdeen’s object that Delane should publish
what he did, although he did not tell him to do so, and the reason
is very obvious. Yesterday the American mail went off, and took with
it the morning papers, and consequently this article in the _Times_.
It was exactly what Aberdeen wanted. As Foreign Secretary, his most
earnest desire is to get over the Oregon affair as well as he can,
and he knows that nothing will have so great an effect in America,
nothing tend so materially to the prevalence of pacific counsels, as an
announcement that our Corn Laws are going to be repealed.