Corn Laws
The Commons passes Peel’s Corn Importation Bill
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Original prompt & settings (JSON) ↗After three nights of third-reading debate, the House did not adjourn until a quarter past four in the morning.
327 to 229
The House of Commons resumed the third-reading debate on the Corn Importation Bill for a third night on 15 May 1846.
Prime Minister Robert Peel defended the proposed final settlement of the Corn Law question despite denunciations from protectionists in his own party; the Whig leader Lord John Russell supported the third reading.
The House divided 327 to 229 in favour — a majority of 98 — then read the bill a third time and passed it.
Passed is not repealed
The bill had cleared the Commons, but the Corn Laws remained law: approval by the Lords and royal assent were still required.
The Lords gave it a second reading on 25 May and passed it on 25 June; royal assent followed on 26 June.
Hansard files the division under the sitting of 15 May, though the House did not adjourn until 4:15 a.m., so the clock time of passage was early on the 16th.
What "repeal" actually meant
The Corn Laws were protective and sliding-scale import duties rather than an outright block on foreign grain, and the 1846 act phased the change: from 1 February 1849 a nominal duty of one shilling per quarter of imported corn remained.
The 1845 harvest crisis and the Irish potato blight accelerated Peel's decision, but Parliament's own history says repeal did little to ease Ireland's worsening catastrophe.
Peel did not resign over this division: protectionists joined his opponents to defeat the Irish Coercion Bill on 25 June, and he resigned on 29 June.
Sources
Researched 24 Aug 2026 6 sources not yet audited
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What the sources leave uncertain
- Hansard records the division under the sitting of May 15, but the House did not adjourn until 4:15 a.m.; the actual clock time of passage was therefore early on May 16.
- “Repeal” was phased rather than instantaneous. The 1846 Act altered duties until February 1, 1849 and then retained a nominal one-shilling duty.