d to Catholic
emancipation,--followed the current of public opinion, which he always
watched with the most anxious care,--and turning round, carried through
Parliament a measure which he had long and strenuously opposed. There
was, to be sure, this difference in his conduct with regard to those two
great measures, that, whilst up to the time he undertook, in conjunction
with the Duke of Wellington, to free the Catholics, he never advocated
their claims, on the other hand, he had been twice a party to
modifications of the Corn Laws, first in 1828, and secondly in 1842. In
the latter year he, cautiously indeed, but not unsubstantially,
legislated in the direction of free trade.

He became First Lord of the Treasury in August, 1841, and soon
afterwards brought before the Cabinet the question of the duties on the
importation of food, more especially of corn. He recommended his
colleagues to make the revision of those duties a Cabinet question; and
he further submitted "a proposal in respect to the extent to which such
revision should be carried, and to the details of the new law."[70] A
bill founded on his views was passed in the Parliament of 1842,
"providing for a material diminution in the amount of the import duties
on the several kinds of foreign grain." But these changes did not
satisfy the Corn Law Leaguers, who sought complete repeal; but they had
the effect of alarming the Premier's Tory supporters, and led to the
resignation of one Cabinet Minister--the Duke of Buckingham. His
partizans endeavoured to obtain from him a guarantee that this Corn Law
of 1842 should, as far as he was concerned, be a final measure; but,
although he tells us, that he did not then contemplate the necessity for
further change, he uniformly refused to fetter either the Government or
himself by such an assurance. Yet, in proposing the introduction of the
tariff in 1842, he seems to have foreshadowed future and still more
liberal legislation on the subject. "I know that many gentlemen," he
said, "who are strong advocates for free trade may consider that I have
not gone far enough. I know that. I believe that on the general
principle of freetrade there is _now no great difference of opinion; and
that all agree_ in the general rule, that we should purchase in the
cheapest market, and sell in the dearest."

The opposition, more especially the freetraders, received this sentiment
with rapturous applause, so the adroit statesman added: "I know t