e has no hope of soon seeing them equalled. The
observance of such principles is in his conviction the best means
of disarming radicalism of whatever is dangerous in its
composition, and he would feel more completely at ease as to the
future prospects of this country could he feel more sure of their
being faithfully observed.

Mr. Gladstone is, and has been, but a learner through his life, and
he can claim no special gift of insight into the future: the
history of his life may not be flattering to his self-love, but he
has great consolation in believing that the great legislative acts
of the last half-century, in most of which he has had some share
...

_And here the fragment closes_.

CRISIS ON THE SUGAR DUTIES, 1844

_Page 267_

In 1841 the whig government raised the question of the sugar duties, and
proposed to substitute a protective duty of 12/ per cwt. for the actual
or virtual prohibition of foreign sugars which had up to that time
subsisted. They were strongly opposed, and decisively beaten. The
argument used against them was, I think, twofold. There was the
protection plea on behalf of the West Indians whose estates were now
worked only by free labour--and there was the great and popular
contention that the measure not only admitted sugar the product of slave
labour, which we would not allow our own colonies to employ, but that
our new supplies would be derived from Brazil, and above all from Cuba
and Puerto Rico, where the slave trade was rampant, and was prosecuted
on an enormous scale. The government of Sir R. Peel largely modified our
system. Its general professions were the abolition of prohibition, and
the reduction of protective duties to a moderate rate. In 1844 it was
determined to deal with the sugar duties, and to admit sugar at, I
think, a rate of 10/ per cwt. beyond the rate for British-grown. But we
had to bear in mind the arguments of 1841, and it was determined that
the sugars so to be admitted were to be the product of free labour only.
There was some uncertainty from whence they were to come. Java produced
sugar largely, under a system involving certain restraints, but as we
contended essentially free. The whole argument, however, was difficult
and perplexed, and a parliamentary combination was formed against the
government. The opposition, with perfect consistency, mustered in full