one; the successive fates of Castlereagh, of Liverpool,
and of Canning, spoke to him in tones of warning
of the inexorable strain of public affairs, and his
overwrought nerves accepted the omen conveyed in
Macaulay's statement that no man past sixty had ever
led the House of Commons,--a generalisation so soon
to be overthrown by three men who were then sitting
in the House of Commons with Macaulay. But
whatever his personal feeling and intentions may have
been, it is clear, from the state of parties, that during
the few years which remained to him no question
of his return to power could disturb the fallen minister's
repose. His former followers were scattered; those
who adhered to him were, as was said at the time, a
handful of statesmen without a party, the remainder
a party without statesmen. In these circumstances
Peel's course was clear. Recognising that no Government
was possible except that which succeeded him, he resolved
to give that Government an independent support, and
especially to assist it in defending, maintaining, and
developing the policy of free trade, for which he had
made so heavy and withal so patriotic a sacrifice.
Accordingly, on almost every important question which
arose in the four years from 1846 to 1850, Sir Robert
Peel gave the assistance of his immense public authority
to the Ministry which supplanted him. Those were the
years of the Irish famine followed by an abortive rebellion,
of the Revolution in France, of the Chartist agitation in
England, of the railway mania and its attendant finan-
cial crises, involving renewed attacks on the policy of
the Bank Charter Act, of the Spanish marriages, and
other excitements and anxieties in the department of

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