Manufacturers were now able
to buy their raw materials at a lower price, and need no longer pay
such low wages to keep up their profits.
In 1845 Peel went a step farther, and in order to relieve the famine
in Ireland, he removed the duty on corn. Thus, since corn could now
be imported free, bread became cheaper.
The Corn Law Repealers had fought for years to bring this about. Their
leader and poet, Ebenezer Elliott, declared that "what they wanted
was bread in exchange for their cottons, woollens, and hardware, and
no other thing can supply the want of that one thing, any more than
water could supply the want of air in the Black Hole of Calcutta."
Bad government
Is the deadly will that takes
What Labour ought to keep,
It is the deadly power that makes
Bread dear and Labour cheap.
It was not until there had been many riots and much bloodshed that
the Irish Famine forced Peel at last to give way.
A third party of reformers were working for the same end. This was
the 'Young England' party, whose leader was Disraeli, a rising young
politician. By birth a Jew, he had joined the English Church and the
ranks of the Tory party. His early works are chiefly sketches of
social and political life and are not concerned with the 'question
of the People.' He took as his motto the words Shakespeare puts into
Ancient Pistol's mouth,
Why, then the world's mine oyster,
Which I with sword will open,
thus showing at an early age that he had a firm belief in his own
powers.
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