Ministry. His position as Secretary of State for the Colonies was
taken by William E. Gladstone. Gladstone, however, did not sit in
Parliament during the eventful session when the corn laws were repealed.
He had sat for the borough of Newark, which was under the influence of
the Duke of Newcastle; and as the Duke of Newcastle had withdrawn his
support from the Ministry, Gladstone did not seek re-election for
Newark, and remained without a seat in the House of Commons for some
months.

Parliament met on January 22, 1846. The "speech from the throne,"
delivered by the Queen in person, recommended the legislature to take
into consideration the necessity of still further applying the principle
on which it had formerly acted, when measures were presented "to extend
commerce and to stimulate domestic skill and industry, by the repeal of
prohibitive and the relaxation of protective duties." In the debate on
the "address" Sir Robert Peel rose, after the mover and seconder had
spoken and the question had been put from the Chair, and at once
proceeded to explain the policy which he intended to adopt. His speech
was long and labored, and somewhat wearied the audience by the elaborate
manner in which he explained how his opinions had been brought into
gradual change with regard to free trade and protection. He made it,
however, perfectly clear that he was now a convert to Cobden's opinions,
and that he intended to introduce some measure which should practically
amount to the abolition of protection.

It was in this debate, and immediately after Peel had spoken, that
Benjamin Disraeli made his first great impression on Parliament. He had
been in the House for many years, and had made many attempts, had
sometimes been laughed at, had sometimes been disliked, and occasionally
for a moment admired. But it was when he rose immediately after Sir
Robert Peel, and denounced Peel as one who had betrayed his party and
his principles, that he made the first deep impression on the House of
Commons, and came to be considered as a serious and influential
Parliamentary personage. "I am not one of the converts," Disraeli said,
"I am perhaps a member of a fallen party." A new Protection party was
formed almost immediately under the leadership of George Lord Bentinck,
a man of great energy and tenacity of purpose, who had hitherto spent
his life almost altogether on the turf, who had had almost no previous
preparation for leadership or even for de