which his reckless inconsistency so often damaged.

The Protectionists were unable to make any impression upon the house or
the country favourable to a reversal of free trade, or the removal from
the landed gentry of the taxes which they professed bore most heavily
upon them.

In connection with the protectionist agitation, the navigation laws,
and their repeal, held an angry prominence. The shipowners agitated
the peculiar burdens on shipping almost as loudly as the landlords
complained of the peculiar burdens on land. The cause of the shipowners
was espoused by the landlords, and among them the Earl of Derby was
the most prominent. The act of 1849, for the removal of maritime
restrictions, was discussed in both houses, and the shipowners and
landed interests demanded that the legislature should retrace its steps
on that subject. The house, however, maintained the policy of 1849.

GENERAL PARLIAMENTARY HISTORY OF 1851.

In the foregoing notices of proceedings in parliament, reference was
made to them in connection with the great subjects which agitated the
country at large. Those notices necessarily abridge the relation of this
section of the chapter.

Although the session was not fruitful in legislation, a considerable
range of important subjects was embraced by the discussions which took
place. The ministry was desirous to improve the laws, and carry some
useful measures. Private members in vain sought opportunity to direct
the attention of parliament to practical and useful legislation: the
great agitations of the day, and mere party disputes, consumed the time
of the house. The Protectionists caught at so many opportunities
for prolonged debates, for the purposes of gaining some pecuniary
advantage, and of worrying the ministry, that the public business was
greatly impeded. The Peelites, especially in the commons, were hostile
to the ecclesiastical titles bill. That small section of the house which
prided itself in following the policy of Sir Robert Peel in everything,
belonged, in almost every individual case, to the Puseyite party in
the established church, and viewed with apparently bitter animosity
the attempt of Lord John Russell to curb the pretensions of the Romish
hierarchy. Mr. Gladstone and Sir James Graham, always hostile to the
religious liberties of Protestant dissenters, led the opposition to the
government measure. It was obvious enough that the house and the country
were resolved upon the