Memorial Edition of Collected Works of W. J. Fox, Vol. 5: Letters on the Corn Laws, by "a Norwich Weaver-Boy;" And Extracts From Letters by "Publicola" (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from Memorial Edition of Collected Works of W. J. Fox, Vol. 5: Letters on the Corn Laws, by "a Norwich Weaver-Boy;" And Extracts From Letters by "Publicola"

MY lord, - A parliamentary leader has no vacations. For you this is no season of rest and relaxation. Although the night does not summon you to debate, and the day is free from official cares, yet have you that upon your mind which must frequently task severely your thoughts and faculties. The House of Commons is still sitting in your brain. The next session has already commenced in your imagination. You must observe intently the course of events. The position has to be marked out which the party will occupy with whose guidance you are intrusted. The campaign must be planned. And never, perhaps, had Chieftain, political or military, greater reason than yourself, while his followers reposed or sported, for anxiety and watchfulness.

You are the leader of an Old party in new circum stances. Much difficulty might not be presented by that fact to an intelligent politician, were the circumstances such as to bear the application of party principles. In the present case it is not so; and hence the difficulty of your deliberations and the importance of your decisions. Whig principles have nothing to do with political economy. They might as well be brought to the determination of a controversy in chemistry or geology. No common mea sure exists between what constitutes your party and what interests the public mind. The star by which that party has been steered belongs to a different hemisphere from the present horizon of public affairs. A Whig leader of Whigs, you contemplate a legislative campaign in which the only strife that the world cares for is between the cause of Free Trade and that of monopoly. This will never do, my lord.

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