to be immediately given to the Lord Lieutenant, who could nominate its members after consulting with others, or immediately if he thought it necessary.  In the third and last part of his memorandum the Premier comes to the really delicate and dangerous question—­the repeal of the Corn Laws.  He thinks the potato blight and the measures he proposes to meet its probable consequences would necessitate the calling of Parliament before Christmas—­a very important step, as “it compels,” he says, “an immediate decision on these questions—­’Shall we maintain unaltered—­shall we modify—­shall we suspend—­the operation of the Corn Laws?’” The first vote the Cabinet proposes, say a vote of L100,000, to be placed at the disposal of the Lord Lieutenant for the supply of food, opens the whole question.  Can the Government, then, vote public money for the sustenance of the people and maintain existing restrictions on the free importation of grain?  He thinks not, and he goes on to give the example of other countries threatened with scarcity, which are opening their ports for foreign grain, and prohibiting their own to be exported, thereby closing some of our ordinary sources of supply.  If, he asks, the Corn Laws are suspended, is it to be done by an act of prerogative, or by legislation at the instance of the Government?

Such were the leading points placed before his Cabinet by Sir Robert Peel in his memorandum of the 1st of November.  “In the course of the conversation which followed the reading of the above memorandum, it became evident,” he says, “that very serious differences of opinion existed as to the necessity of adopting any extraordinary measures, and as to the character of the measures which it might be advisable to adopt.”

The Cabinet broke up to meet again on the 6th of November, on which day the Premier submitted to his colleagues the following memorandum:  “To issue forth an Order in Council remitting the duty on grain in bond to one shilling, and opening the ports for the admission of all species of grain at a smaller rate of duty until a day named in the Order.  To call Parliament together on the 27th instant, to ask for indemnity and a sanction of the Order by law.  To propose to Parliament no other measure than that during the sitting before Christmas.  To declare an intention of submitting to Parliament immediately after the recess, a modification of the existing law, but to decline entering into any details in Parliament with regard to such modification.  Such modification to include the admission at a nominal duty of Indian corn and of British Colonial corn—­to proceed with regard to other descriptions of grain upon the principle of the existing law, after a careful consideration of the practical working of the present machinery for taking the averages."[82] These proposals were rejected by a very decided majority of the Cabinet, only three ministers, Lord Aberdeen, Sir James Graham and Mr. Sidney Herbert, supporting them.  Sir Robert