Some  of  the  efforts  to  embarrass  the  Ministry
were  successful :  thus  a  small  majority  was
obtained  against  the  malt  tax ;  which  vote,
however,  was  set  aside  two  days  after,  by  a
large  majority.
When,  however,  the  Government  was  outvoted
on  the  agricultural  horse  tax,  it  was  not  judged
expedient  to  attempt  to  reverse  the  decision.
On  both  these  occasions  many  of  the  country
gentlemen  swelled  the  lists  of  the  majority :
smarting  under  the  pressure  of  the  times,
they  were  apt,  like  all  in  similar  situations,
to  listen  to  those  who  professed  to  be  able
at  once  to  point  out  to  them  the  cause  and
prescribe  the  remedy  of  the  peculiar  evils
under  which  they  laboured.  They  therefore
acquiesced  in  the  truth  of  the  proposition
that  the  depression  of  agriculture  was  exclu-
sively owing  to  taxation ;  the  inaccuracy  of
which   assertion   may  be  considered  as   proved


101

by  the  fact,  that  the  evils  complained  of  have
diminished,  in  a  far  greater  proportion  than  the
taxes.
The  true  causes,  indeed,  of  those  evils  are  to
be  found  in  the  low  prices  produced  by  the
great  excess  of  supply  occasioned  by  the  Corn
Bill,  and  the  increased  value  of  money  in  every
part  of  the  world.
These  defeats  which  the  Ministers  had  suffered
made  them  anxious  to  increase  in  the  House  of
Commons  their  strength,  which  had  been  much
weakened  by  the  loss  of  Mr.  Canning's  sound
reasoning  and  eloquence,  which  had  so  often
secured  them  victory,  and  checked,  by  a  salutary
awe,  the  vehement  language  of  their  most  for-
midable opponents.
