My Summery of Changing British
In the mid 19 century the British attitudes started to change towards the colonies. Many people in Britain were starting to feel like the colonies were a great burden and cost too much to maintain. Not only was there the cost of protective trade tariffs like the corn laws. but there was also the cost of maintaining the apparatus of political control. A small but vocal group called the Little Englanders was formed, they believed that the colonies were a far too great burden and said that it was time the colonies began to pay their own way. John bright expressed the Little Englanders feelings in the British parliament. When the colonies began to approach England about confederation and independence, the English were quite ready to give up their political hold on the colonies. BUT they wanted to keep as much economical control as possible.
Corn Law
Corn laws, 1794-1846, set duties on grain imports into Britain to protect British agriculture from outside competition. (In Britain, "corn" is the name for CEREAL CROPS. ) By the 1820s, increased food demands in Britain led to revisions giving preference (lower duties) to colonial over foreign imports, thereby promoting an imperial grain supply. Preferential rates offset the costs of transatlantic transport for British North American grain and built up a major colonial stake in wheat exporting. Shifts in the level of duties primarily to suit British harvests and prices could still trouble this commerce; yet in general it rose steadily, particularly after the CANADA CORN ACT was passed in 1843. Then in 1846 Britain repealed the Corn laws as part of a movement towards free trade. The consequent loss of preferential duties seemed a hard blow to the Canadian grain trade; but it recovered in the prosperous 1850s. Moreover, the lifting of imperial economic controls also brought relief from political controls, and thus imperial recognition of RESPONSIBLE GOVERNMENT in British North America.
John Brights speech
I think it is natural and reasonable to hope that there is in the North American provinces a very strong attachment to Britain. But if they are to be constantly applying to us for guarantees for railways, and for grants for fortresses, and for works of defense, then I think it would be far better for them and us-cheaper for us-that they should become independent. They could maintain their own fortresses, fight their own cause, and build up their own future without relying on us ....I say the time has come when it ought to be clearly understood that the taxes of England are no longer to go across the ocean to pay expenses of any kind