IRONHORSE 95

existed. Taking the short view, the Cobdenites were right
and fully justified by the events of the next quarter of 'a
century.

But Disraeli was not taking the short view. Wiser than the
economists in their own wisdom, he knew that the productive
capacity of British farms could not be stimulated indefinitely
like that of machinery merely by reducing the price of their
products. The unsatisfied demand of the ever-growing towns
would increasingly have to be met elsewhere. For a time the
virgin corn lands of Asia and the New World, with their vast
areas and dependable climates, might lack capital and transport
But with a market in urban Britainibr their surplus, permanently
guaranteed by an unchanging principle, capital would inevitably
be forthcoming to develop their farms and build railways and
ships. It would be supplied by British capitalists.

Disraeli not only believed that the decline of British agri-
culture, at that time the finest in the world, would weaken the
country in time of war. He felt that it would undermine the
health and happiness of its people and those constitutional
liberties which, in his view, rested in the last resort on the
strength and independence of the landed interest. By this he did
not mean, as his critics supposed, the monopoly of the squires
who sat with him on the benches of Parliament "I am looking
in that phrase," he told the House, "to the population of our
innumerable villages, to the crowds in our rural towns: I mean
that estate of the poor which, in my opinion, has been already
dangerously tampered with; I mean the great estate of the
Church, which has before this time secured our liberty, and
may ... still secure our civilisation ... that great judicial fabric,
that great building up of our laws and manners, which is, in
fact, the ancient polity of the realm."1

To the inind of this half-alien patriot the Corn Laws were no
mere plank of fiscal policy but an outwork of an historic system
which protected a priceless civilisation. That system had based
the possession of wealth on the performance of social duty—
"the noblest principle that was ever conceived by sage or
practised by patriot." Understanding human nature, Disraeli
knew how hard it was "to impress upon society that there is
such a thing as duty." "The feudal system may have worn out,"
he wrote, "but its main principle—that the tenure of property •

r & JBvckk, Disraeli, /, 539.