l hazards to avow the new faith that was in him.
Parliament was opened by the Queen in person on January 22, and the
Speech from the Throne laid stress on the privation and suffering in
Ireland, and shadowed forth the repeal of prohibitive and the relaxation
of protective duties. The debate on the Address was rendered memorable
by Peel's explanations of the circumstances under which the recent
crisis had arisen. He made a long speech, and the tone of it, according
to Lord Malmesbury, was half threatening and half apologetic. It was a
manly, straightforward statement of the case, and Sir Robert made it
plain that he had accepted the views of the Manchester school on the
Corn Laws, and was prepared to act without further hesitation on his
convictions. One significant admission was added. He stated before he
sat down that it was 'no easy task to insure the harmonious and united
action of an ancient monarchy, a proud aristocracy, and a reformed House
of Commons.'

New interests were, in fact, beginning to find a voice in Parliament,
and that meant the beginning of the principle of readjustment which is
yet in progress. A few days later the Prime Minister explained his
financial plans for the year, and in the course of them he proposed the
gradual repeal of the Corn Laws. Free trade in corn was, in fact, to
take final effect after an interval of three years. Meanwhile the
sliding scale was to be abandoned in favour of a fixed duty of ten
shillings the quarter on corn, and other concessions for the relief not
only of agriculture but of manufactures and commerce were announced. The
principle of Free Trade was, in fact, applied not in one but in many
directions, and from that hour its legislative triumph was assured. In
the course of the protracted debate which followed, Disraeli, with all
the virulence of a disappointed place-hunter, attacked Sir Robert Peel
with bitter personalities and barbed sarcasm. On this occasion, throwing
decency and good taste to the winds, and, to borrow a phrase of his own,
'intoxicated with the exuberance of his own verbosity,' and with no lack
of tawdry rhetoric and melodramatic emphasis, he did his best to cover
with ridicule and to reduce to confusion one of the most chivalrous and
lofty-minded statesmen of the Queen's reign.

[Sidenote: OUTCAST PROTECTIONISTS]

Disraeli's audacity in attack did much to revive the drooping courage of
the Protectionist party, the leadership of which fell for