ABSTRACT
On Thursday, February the 3rd, 1842, the Queen opened Parliament in person. Upon the previous Monday, the Duke of Buckingham had resigned his office in the ministry, and the protectionists, attributing the resignation to his knowledge of some forthcoming change in the Corn Laws, were in extreme alarm. The free traders anticipated no more than some miserable compromise, unworthy of acceptance. They did not even anticipate any acknowledgment of the existing distress, which, in the previous session, had been either totally denied by the Duke of Wellington and Sir Robert Peel, or attributed to temporary causes needing no legislative measure. It was seen, however, that the agitation of the League, and the proofs it had adduced of wide-spread and intense suffering, the result of a selfish, unjust, and cruel legislation, had not been without their effects. The Queen was permitted to acknowledge, “with deep regret, the continued distress in the manufacturing districts of the country,” and that “the sufferings and privations which had resulted from it,” had been “borne with exemplary patience and fortitude.” Her Majesty was made to recommend to the consideration of both houses “the laws which affect the imports of corn, and other articles.” This was more than the free traders expected in the speech. There was to be a change in the Corn Laws, and an alteration in the tariff, and intense curiosity was excited as to what those changes might be.
