In the session of 1844 the factory question occupied a large share of public attention.  Lord Ashley, whose philanthropic aims commanded great respect, contended for a limitation of the hours of labor.  The ministry insisted upon twelve hours; but Lord Ashley carried his measure, with some amendments, the government being brought over to the side of humanity.  The result was that the working-hours of children under thirteen was limited to six and a half hours, and the amount of fines imposed for a violation of the laws was lowered; while a provision was made for the instruction of children employed in the mills of three hours in summer, and two and a half in the winter.

The confidence in the government showed itself in the rise of public securities, so that it became practicable to reduce the interest on consols (the consolidated government debt) from three and a half to three percent, by which a saving accrued to the country of L1,250,000, indicating general prosperity.  The income increased with the revival of trade and commerce, and the customs alone increased to nearly L2,500,000, chiefly from duties on tea and sugar, which increasing prosperity enabled the poorer classes to use more freely.  The surplus of the revenue amounted to over L4,000,000 sterling, owing largely to the income tax, which now the ministers proposed to reduce.  The charter of the Bank of England was renewed in a form which modified the whole banking system in England.  The banking business of the Bank was placed on the same footing with other institutions as to its power of issuing notes, which beyond a certain amount should depend on the amount of bullion in the Bank.  Substantially, this was the same principle which Daniel Webster advocated in the United States Senate,—­that all bank-notes should be redeemable in gold and silver; in other words, that a specie basis is the only sound principle, whether in banking operations or in government securities, for the amount of notes issued.  This tended to great stability in the financial world, as the Bank of England, although a private joint-stock association, has from its foundation in 1694 been practically the fiscal agent of the government,—­having the management of the public debt, paying dividends upon it, holding the government moneys, making advances when necessary, helping the collection of the public revenue, and being the central bank of the other banks.

In addition to the financial measures by which Sir Robert Peel increased the revenues of the country, and gave to it a greater degree of material prosperity than it had enjoyed during the century, he attempted to soothe the Catholics of Ireland by increasing the grant to the Roman Catholic College of Maynooth, in Ireland; indeed, he changed the annual grant to a permanent endowment, but only through a fierce opposition.  He trebled the grant for national education, and exhibited increasing liberality of mind as he gained experience.  But his great exploit was the repeal of the corn laws, in a Parliament where more than three quarters of the members represented agricultural districts, and were naturally on the side of a protection of their own interests.  In order to appreciate more clearly the magnitude of this movement, we must trace it from the beginning.