The Politics of Protection

One of the great landmarks in the history of English politics in the nineteenth century was the struggle to repeal the Corn Laws in the 1840s. Earlier accounts have examined the episode from the side of the free-traders. This book explains the conduct of those Tories who broke with Robert Peel, and who, in the fighting to save the Corn Laws, preserved the foundations of the modern Conservative Party. Examining the relationship before 1846 between Peel's government and the right-wing back-benchers of the Conservative Party, Dr Stewart argues that there was much more to the split in 1846 than a dispute over tariff policy. He stresses the importance and prevalence of anti-Catholicism among Tory Protectionists, and shows how differences were broad enough to make the 1846 split permanent, and for the Protectionists to organize themselves into a separate party under Lord George Bentinck and Lord Derby.