duty, under all times and circumstances, is a glaring impossibility; and, besides, is it not certain that the period for the issue of an order in council will be a grand object of speculation to the corn importer; and that he will hoard, and create distress, merely to force out that order?  And the issuing of that order would depend entirely on the strength or the necessity of the Minister:  on his “Squeezableness”—­his anxiety for popularity.  Does the experience of the last ten years justify the country in placing confidence, on such a point, in a Whig Ministry?  In every point of view, the project of a fixed duty is exposed to insuperable objections.  It is plain that on the very first instant of there being a pressure upon the “fixed duty,” it must give way, and for ever.  Once off, it is gone for ever; it can never be re-imposed.  Again, what is to govern the amount at which it is to be fixed?  Must it be the additional burden on land? or the price at which foreign countries, with their increased facilities of transport, and improved cultivation of their soil, would be able to deliver it in the British markets?  What data have we, in either case, on which to decide?  Let it, however, always be borne in mind, by those who are apt too easily to entertain the question as to either a fixed duty, or a total repeal of duty, that the advantages predicted by the respective advocates of those measures are mere assumptions.  We have no experience by which to try the question.  The doctrines of free trade are of very recent growth; the data on which its laws are founded are few, and also uncertain.  And does any one out of Bedlam imagine, that any Minister of this country would consent to run such tremendous risks—­to try such experiments upon an article of such immense importance to its well-being?  Let us never lose sight of Lord Melbourne’s memorable words:—­“Whether the object be to have a fixed duty, or an alteration as to the ascending and descending scale, I see clearly and distinctly, that the object will not be carried without a most violent struggle—­without causing much ill-blood, and a deep sense of grievance—­without stirring society to its foundation, and leaving every sort of bitterness and animosity.  I do not think the advantages to be gained by the change are worth the evils of the struggle."[26]

    [26] Debates, 11th June 1840.

To return, however.  Under the joint operation of the three great measures of the Government—­the income-tax, the new tariff, and the new corn-law, our domestic affairs exhibit, at this moment, such an aspect of steadily returning prosperity, as not the most sanguine person living could have imagined possible two years ago.  For the first time after a miserable interval, we behold our revenue exceeding our expenditure; while every one feels satisfied of the fact, that our finances are now placed upon a sound and solid basis, and daily improving.  Provisions