=Source.=—_Memoirs by Sir R. Peel_, vol. ii., p. 318.
(London: 1858.)
There are, I know, many who have freely admitted that a Minister was
fully justified in the adoption of the measures of 1846, and who do
not blame the resolution taken, but consider that some better mode
of giving effect to it might have been devised—who are of opinion
that a needless reserve was maintained towards a powerful party, and
that a degree of irritation was thereby produced which more frank and
unreserved communications would have prevented or mitigated.
I wish to give some explanation upon this point. I am the more desirous
to give it because it was my intention—but for the unforeseen events
of the autumn of 1845—to enter into that friendly communication, the
omission of which is blamed and lamented, to apprise the Conservative
party before the Corn Law could be discussed in the Session of 1846,
that my views with regard to the policy of maintaining that law had
undergone a change, and that I could no longer undertake as a Minister
to resist a motion for the consideration of the whole question.
Had I been enabled to act upon this intention, I should, I presume,
have fulfilled every obligation which party connections can impose,
unless it be contended that a Minister may safely disregard the various
circumstances which, even within a brief interval of time, may alter
the character and position of many questions of public policy, and
that, having once adopted a certain course, he is so committed to
a blind perseverance in it that he must steel his mind against the
influence of argument, the result of experience, the conviction of his
own deliberate judgment.
That unreserved communication which I had thus contemplated—which
is possible and most desirable under ordinary circumstances—was in
this case unfortunately precluded by the peculiar character of the
unforeseen emergency for which it was necessary to provide, and the
peculiar position of the Cabinet in respect to the measures to be
adopted.
There was no period between the first alarming indications of the
failure of the potato crop, and the resignation of the Ministers on the
9th of December, 1845, at which I could with propriety have given the
slightest intimation to the supporters of the Government with regard
either to my own course or to the probable decision of the Cabinet. I
could not have alluded to the differences which prevailed among the
members of the Government without extinguishing whatever degree of hope
there might be that those differences would be ultimately reconciled.
The course of events subsequently to the resignation of the
Government on the 9th of December, equally precluded any confidential
communication on my part with the supporters of the Government, which
would have had a tendency to soothe irritated feelings, or to mitigate
hostility to the measures about to be proposed.
It was a matter of public notoriety that the Government had resigned
on the 9th of December, in consequence of differences on the subject
of the Corn Laws—that Lord John Russell had attempted, and had failed
in the attempt, to form a Government—that the Queen had thereupon
appealed to her former servants, and that they had resumed power with
the full intention of proposing measures with regard to the import of
food to which Lord Stanley had refused to be a party.
To assemble the supporters of Government under such circumstances, for
the mere purpose of communicating to them facts which were notorious
to the whole world, would have given offence rather than have calmed
irritation.
Had a meeting taken place, there would naturally have been the demand
for a full explanation, not only of the grounds on which the decision
of the Government had been taken, but of the peculiar character of the
measures which it was intended to propose.
Explanation could not have been given on the first point without
serious prejudice to the Government by anticipating the Parliamentary
discussion which must shortly follow. It could not have been given on
the second, namely, on the precise mode in which the duties on corn
were to be dealt with, without disturbing all commercial operations
connected with the corn trade, and incurring the risk of giving to some
parties an unfair advantage over others.
There is no security against these evils in cases wherein the
imposition or repeal of duties is concerned, excepting entire silence
and reserve on the part of a Minister, until the hour when the
intentions of the Government can be publicly declared in Parliament.