ABSTRACT
Lord Liverpool defended the measure on the traditional protectionist ground of incentives to domestic producers. His assertion that the great object was the interest of the Consumer cut no ice at all outside Westminster. The new Corn Law was received with such hostility precisely because protesters believed that the interests of consumers were being sacrificed to those of landowners. Where Liverpool and his ministers saw a means of providing steady and regular food prices, his extra-parliamentary opponents saw naked class legislation. Radicalism was the upsurge of political protest outside Westminster which most concerned the government. Both in public and in the radical press, Queen Caroline was represented as the people's champion. In the House of Lords a Bill of Pains and Penalties, as precursor to a divorce, ran into severe opposition, not least because many peers considered the Kings conduct at least as reprehensible as the Queens.
