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    gpoken tnuch longer than five minutes , had not disposed of hMf of it ; 6 fr Robert endeavoured to suppl y the remaining half by a speech in which all which was not truism was irrelevancy . Though Mr . Roebuck said , and said truly , that what is relevant to the question might be stated in five minutes , he could not have meant that so short a time would suffice for answering all the fallacies which may be accumulated round this or any other subject by ingenuity or folly . Sir Robert Peel ' s first argument was that of the peculiar burthens pressing upon the land ; a consideration which no one who ever spoke or wrote against the corn laws has overlooked : but which is a reason for equalizing taxation , not for compensating a class supposed to be peculiarly overtaxed , by another and the worst of taxes—a tax on the people ' s food . The remainder of the speech may be thus summed up : — That the corn laws could not be termed a monopoly , because , if the landlords have a protecting duty , so have all classes of manufacturers . It would take nearly five minutes to enumerate all the mistaken assumptions included in this argument . Whoever agrees with Sir Robert Peel must think

    the following things : —1 . That if there are many monopolies instead of one , they cease to be monopolies . 2 . That it is a legislative business not to do justice , but to establish an equal balance of injustice . 3 . That if A gains sixpence by making B lose a shilling , the way to set all right is for B to treat A in the same manner : while in the meantime C , D , andE are robbed by both . 4 . That duties on the importation of manufactures are a benefit to the manufacturer , in the same sense as duties on the importation of corn are a benefit to the landlord ; whereas , in truth , the landlord obtains a higher rent , but the manufacturer does not obtain a higher profit , the protected

    trade being no better off as to profits than those which are not protected . 5 . That an equal benefit is conferred on two persons , by protecting the one against a cheaper article than his own , the other against a dearer : . that it is the same thing , in fact , to shut the door against the food which would come , and against the cottons and hardware that would not . When propositions which contain in a nutshell a whole Iliad of error , are put forth with an air of authority , and by a person of authority , as if they were the dernier mot of some great question , it is lamentable that there is

    no one , even of those who understand the subject , ready to start up at the instant and present the simple truth in the point of view in which it most vividly illuminates the fallacy , and makes its character visible . But the union of energy and ardour with knowledge and dialectical skill , is a combination too rare in our days to be soon hoped for . 26 th March . TF The Ministry and the Dissenters . —The principal interest of the session , thus far , has been the question of the Church and the

    Dissenters . Even Church Reform , so prominent a tonic for the last two years , has almost ceased to be talked of ; and the subject now pressed upon the Legislature i % ihe entire abolition of the Establishment . This is a fearful truth to Conservatives of all denominations ; and even to considerate Radicals , there is matter for very serious reflection in so striking an instance of the artificial celerity given to the natural progress of change , by the very conduct which is expected to check it .

    If Ministers can profit by experience , they must surely by this time see how utterly the course which they have not adopted , but fallen into , is at variance with their own purposes . Those who most agree with them in their ends , have most cause to complain of their means . It is not as friends of the Movement that we lament the deficiencies of Ministers ; in that character we ought much rather to rejoice at them ; for the tide of change sets m far more violently through this passive resistance to it . But we wish the

    current to be gentle as well as rapid . We dread lest the violence of the struggle which is so needlessly made the sole means ol obtaining reform * , > hould leave neither the leisure nor the frame of mind for choosing the most considerate mode of accomplishing them . One half the good , moreover .

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    The Mbiirtry end the Dissenters . £ 11

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), April 2, 1834, page 311, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2632/page/83/