motion now before the house contained anything of a | sinister character, he would not support it. If ministers knew the nature of the amendments which would be proposed if the postponement should be agreed to, much of their objection to the proposition would be removed. They were under the impression that the object of the amendment was to defeat schedule A; but he believed that no such intention was entertained; if it were, he would not support it. It was his belief that the amendments which would be proposed would comprise the whole of schedule A. Earl Grey, however, asserted that nothing could have been devised better calculated to defeat the bill than this amendment; and he would state at once that, if it were carried, he would consider it fatal to the bill. He was pledged to the principles of disfranchisement, enfranchisement, and the extension of the qualification. With respect to the two first, he was ready to listen to any suggestions which might be made with a view of preventing injustice in details, but he would not consent to any reduction of the extent of either disfranchisement or enfranchisement. His lordship also stated that he would resist with the most fixed determination any proposition which, under the pretence of regulation, would have the effect of raising the qualification. These things being fixed, he was so far from considering the proposed motion of little consequence, that it appeared to him of the greatest importance. If it did not subvert the principle of the bill, it materially affected it; and therefore it was impossible that he should give it his assent. He was unable to understand why enfranchisement should be proceeded with before disfranchisement; he might reverse the proposition, and say, that the amount of enfranchisement could not be ascertained till the extent of disfranchisement was settled. A noble lord had expressed a hope that ministers would confide in the peers on the other side of the house, to grant a proper measure of reform to the people; had he observed any such disposition, no one would have been more ready than himself to have met it in a proper spirit; always recollecting that he was irrevocably fixed to the bill. Another noble lord had said, that if any alteration should be proposed which would defeat the principles of the bill, ministers might reckon upon many coming over to them from the opposite side: he could not rely on such a hope consistently with his duty to his king, his country, and himself. It was his opinion that if the present motion should be carried, there would be a difficulty in bringing the bill to a successful issue; and if it should, it would then be necessary for him to consider the course he should be constrained to adopt. At length the house divided, and ministers were left in a minority, the votes for Lord Lyndhurst's amendment being one hundred and fifty-five, and those against it, one hundred and sixteen.

accept his resignation rather than have recourse to the only alternative which had been proposed. Ministers then resigned en masse; and on the 9th Earl Grey in the lords, and Lord Althorp in the commons, announced that the ministry was at an end, and that they held their offices only till their successors should be appointed. Earl Grey in doing so moved that the order for going on with the committee next day should be discharged; and he did not think it necessary to name another day for that purpose. The Earl of Carnarvon strenuously resisted this proposition: the house would not do its duty, he said, to the country or the sovereign, if it left them in this extraordinary state, by suspending so important a subject as reform. The motion for taking the committee on the following Monday was agreed to.

In the commons, on the announcement of the resignation of ministers, Viscount Ebrington gave notice that he would next day move an address to the king on the state of public affairs, and that he would likewise move a call of the house, that he might "guard against backsliders and timewatchers," and show the people who were their honest and consistent representatives and who were not. In pursuance of this notice, on the 10th of May his lordship moved, "That an humble address be presented to his majesty, humbly to represent to his majesty the deep regret felt by this house at the change which has been announced in his majesty's councils by the retirement of those ministers in whom this house continues to repose unabated confidence. That this house, in conformity with the recommendation contained in his majesty's most gracious speech from the throne, has framed and sent up to the house of lords a bill for a reform in the representation of the people, by which they are convinced that the prerogatives of the crown, the authority of both houses of parliament, and the rights and liberties of the people, are equally secured. That, to the progress of this measure, this house considers itself bound in duty to state to his majesty that his subjects are looking with the most intense interest and anxiety; and they cannot disguise from his majesty their apprehension that any successful attempt to mutilate or impair its efficiency would be productive of the greatest disappointment and dismay. This house is therefore compelled, by warm attachment to his majesty's person and government, humbly, but most earnestly, to implore his majesty to call to his councils such persons only as will carry into effect, unimpaired in all its essential provisions, that bill for the reform of the representation of the people, which has recently passed this house." The motion was opposed by Mr. Baring, who, before proceeding to speak against it, expressed a hope that Lord Althorp would give some explanation of the nature of that advice which ministers had tendered to the king, and his majesty's refusal of which had led to their resignation. Lord Althorp declined answering, and Mr. Baring then went on to say that the house was thus left in utter ignorance. He asked on what facts, therefore, was the proposed address to be rested? Lord Althorp, in reply, said, that he had no objection to state plainly that the advice which ministers had given to the king was, that he should create as many peers as would enable them to carry the reform bill through the house of lords in all its efficiency. It was true he had treated a similar proposition to Lord Lyndhurst's, when made in the house of commons, as a matter of small importance; but after the decision to which the lords had come, there was no hope left of carrying the measure. From that moment the bill had passed into the hands of its declared enemies; and ministers had to choose between two alternatives,-either to resign immediately, or Having postponed the further consideration of the bill, to tender such advice as would place them in a situation in Earl Grey and the lord-chancellor proceeded to Windsor, which they might be responsible for the further progress of and tendered his majesty the alternative of either arming the bill; they had adopted the latter alternative, and their the ministers with the powers they deemed necessary to advice having been rejected, all that was left them was to enable them to carry through their bill-namely, a creation resign. Mr. Hume, in supporting the proposition, stated of peers or of accepting their resignation. The ministers that it did not go far enough. Lord Morpeth supported, seem to have expected that he would have adopted the and Sir Robert Peel opposed the motion. The latter said, former alternative; but the king hesitated on account of that the first resolution implied a complete confidence in the the great number requisite, and the danger of such a pre-existing government. He could not consent to this; with cedent. He did not give his answer till the next day, reference to the general course they had taken, he could not when he informed Earl Grey that he had determined to say that they deserved his confidence. With respect to the

On this defeat of ministers, Earl Grey immediately moved that the house should resume; and stated that he would then move that the further consideration of the bill be postponed till Thursday, the 10th. Lord Ellenborough expressed his regret that ministers should interpose delay; and took the opportunity of detailing the amendments which his party, after serious consideration, intended to propose. These consisted in a disfranchisement of one hundred and thirteen boroughs, their privileges to be distributed among other places; a prohibition of persons to vote for counties in respect of property situated in boroughs; the adoption of a clearer and more certain mode of ascertaining the genuineness and value of holdings; and the retention, not only of the ten-pound qualification, but of scot and lot where it existed.

reform question, and with reference to some other points, he was decidedly opposed to the course which the government had pursued. Mr. Macaulay, in supporting the proposition, contended that the house had a right, with respect to the prerogative of the sovereign in the choice of his ministers, as with regard to all the other prerogatives of the crown, to offer its respectful advice. The prerogative vested in the crown of creating peers, for the purpose of carrying any public question, was a valuable and useful power, the existence of which was absolutely necessary, in order, on important questions, to obviate great and pressing inconveniences. He argued, also, that there existed a strong necessity for counter-balancing, by a creation of peers from the Whig party, the number of peers which, during the last forty years, had been made from the Conservative party. There could not be a strong objection to the creation of fifty peers in one day, when no objection had been raised to the creation of two hundred in the course of a generation by the one party that held power during that period. He heartily concurred in the advice which ministers had given to the king, and he regretted it had not been taken: unless ministers were recalled, the reform bill would be lost. On a division, the resolutions were carried by a majority of two hundred and eighty-eight against two hundred and eight.

FAILURE OF THE ATTEMPTS TO FORM A

for yielding to domestic influence, and following the advice of pernicious counsellors. The majority of the house of lords, however, was more particularly attacked: it was said, they were men who would mix blood with corruption; that they were friends of every despotism; and that they were representatives of Miguel and of Ferdinand, of Russian lords and German ladies. Similar meetings were held in Westminster, Southwark, Marylebone, St. Pancras, and Paddington. At Birmingham also, the news of Earl Grey's resignation had no sooner arrived, than the inhabitants assembled at Newhall Hill, and a petition was voted to the house of commons, which, in addition to a prayer that the supplies might be stopped, contained this ominous sentence: Your petitioners find it declared in the bill of rights that the people of England may have arms for their defence, suitable to their condition, and as allowed by law; and they apprehend that this great right will be enforced generally, in order that the people may be prepared for any circumstances that may arise." Some of the inhabitants defied the laws of their country by exhibiting printed placards in their windows to the effect that no taxes would be paid until the reform bill had passed. Similar meetings were held, similar petitions were got up, and similar language used at Manchester, Liverpool, and in various parts of Scotland and Ireland. The annals of England, indeed, do not present a more alarming period than the interval between the 9th and the 16th of May. The language used at the numerous meet

NEW ADMINISTRATION — MINISTERS RE-ings indicated the bitterness of the disappointment which CALLED, ETC.

During these proceedings in parliament great agitation prevailed throughout the country. The political unions convened large assemblies in the open air, and violent resolutions were passed, which threatened a dissolution of society. Addresses were voted to the king, praying him to create as many peers as might be necessary, while others were sent to the commons, praying them to stop the supplies. One meeting, which styled itself "a meeting of the inhabitants of Westminster," assured the king, that, unless their advice was complied with, "tumult, anarchy, and confusion would overspread the land, and would cease only with the extinction of the privileged orders." The national political union resolved to present a petition, praying that, till the bill passed, no supplies should be allowed to go into the hands of the lords of the treasury, but should be paid over to commissioners named by the house of commons; this course was specifically recommended to them, on the ground that it was taken from "that admirable resolution adopted by the house of commons in 1642." The national union also resolved" that the betrayal of the people's cause was not attributable to Lord Grey, or his administration; but to the base and foul treachery of others; that meetings be recommended in every county, town, and parish throughout the kingdom; which, by inducing compliance with the unanimous wishes of the people, may prevent the mischief that would otherwise result from the general indignation; that a petition be presented to the house of commons, praying the appointment of commissioners to receive the supplies; and that, until the bill pass, they be not managed by the lords of the treasury." The common-council met at Guildhall, and passed a number of resolutions, expressing their mortification and disappointment at the distressing communication made by ministers, that his majesty had refused them the means of carrying the reform bill through the house of lords; declaring that the advisers of such a refusal had put to hazard the stability of the throne and tranquillity of the country; and petitioning the commons to withhold supplies till the reform bill was carried. The livery of the city also met, and passed a similar set of resolutions; adding, that "they viewed with distrust and abhorrence attempts, at once interested and hypocritical, to delude and mislead the people by pretended plans of reform, promised or proposed by the insidious enemies of all reform." The speeches at this meeting dared any administration to assume the reins of government, without undertaking to carry the whole bill. The Duke of Wellington was particularly censured by the speakers; nor did his majesty himself escape censure

the people, or at least a certain portion of the people, felt, and their determination of having" the bill, the whole bill, and nothing but the bill," be the cost what it might. At a public meeting at Paddington, Mr. Hume told the multitude," that military were marching upon the metropolis; and he asked whether, when other nations were free, they would submit to walk the streets with the brand of slavery upon them? whether they were prepared to bend before a military yoke?" He added that there were one hundred and fifty peers against them, but he did not know how many women, though he heard there were some. This allusion to the queen was immediately followed by groans; and shortly after her majesty, while taking an airing, was grossly insulted by the populace. In fact the king himself, at this period, learned the true value of the shoutings which had attended him as the personal protector of the reform bill. In one of the metropolitan unions a member was loudly applauded for declaring that till the reform bill was passed there was no William IV., but only a Duke of Clarence. The queen, also, was dragged forward, as an active enemy of the bill, to be made the theme of atrocious insult.

In the meantime the king found a difficulty in forming an administration. As soon as he had resolved to accept the resignation of his cabinet, he sent for Lord Lyndhurst, desiring that nobleman to obtain the opinion of parties respecting the advice which he had rejected, and also authorising him to adopt measures for the formation of a new ministry. At the same time his majesty declared, that "extensive reform was necessary, and was the express condition on which such a ministry must be based." Lord Lyndhurst, on receiving his majesty's commands, immediately waited upon the Duke of Wellington. The sentiments of his grace on the subject of reform had been fully and openly declared; but he, nevertheless, was found willing to make large sacrifices, and to encounter any obloquy, in order to extricate his majesty from embarrassment. He desired no office, he said, much less that of prime-minister; yet if necessary for the king's service, he was ready to serve in any way that might be thought fit. After some consultation, these noble lords considered it advisable to offer the first place to Sir Robert Peel. He was asked if he would accept the office of prime-minister; on the clear understanding that he must carry through a measure of extensive reform, in fulfilment of his majesty's declaration? Sir Robert replied that by an extensive reform" he assumed to be understood all the principles of the bill, and that under such a condition, it was impossible to accept office: hostile as he uniformly had been to every plan of extensive reform, he felt that he could be of no service to the king

or to the country. Lord Lyndhurst communicated theme by the dearest ties, and so far they are a source of pain nature of his commission to several other influential per- to myself; but apart from the feelings of others, I hold sons, and they were not unwilling to take subordinate them in the utmost scorn." Several noble lords, although situations, but no one came forward as a leader. In the they had in no way been connected with the transactions meantime Lord Ebrington's motion interposed insur- which had been explained, declared that the conduct of mountable difficulties in the way of negotiations. The the Duke of Wellington had been high-minded and disnew ministry was of necessity to be sought for among the interested. He had been hunted down day after day opponents of the bill; office must be accepted in defiance because he had dared to become minister; and it turned of the lower house; and the utter hopelessness of any out that he had neither accepted nor sought office. Earl change from a dissolution of parliament was evident from Grey expressed his surprise that the Duke of Wellington the agitation already distracting the country. Lord Lynd- and Lord Lyndhurst should have indulged in violent hurst, therefore, was compelled to inform his majesty that invective against the reform bill an ministers, and "dinned the commission with which he had been entrusted had their lordships' ears" with denunciations of the measure, failed. The king was now reduced to the necessity of and declarations that the bill, instead of saving, would tend renewing his intercourse with his former ministers. On the to the destruction of that house and of the monarchy. He 15th Earl Grey announced in the house of lords that he thought differently. There were dangers, not imaginary had that day received a communication from his majesty, or hypothetical, but substantial and imminent, both to that though of too recent a date to be followed by any decided house and to the monarchy, to be apprehended from proconsequence. Both houses adjourned to the 17th; but ceedings which tended to a collision between the hereditary before the commons separated, a debate took place on the and representative branches of the constitution. He conpresentation of the London petition, which for boldness of cluded by declaring that his continuance in office must invective and declamation was scarcely ever surpassed. It depend on his conviction of his own ability to carry into full turned chiefly on the supposed conduct of the Duke of effect the bill on their lordships' table, unimpaired in prinWellington, and some others, in accepting office under the ciple and all essential details. The Earl of Carnarvon said, peculiar circumstances of that period. On the 17th, how- that if he could venture to make any comment on the ever, the lords had no sooner met, than the Duke of Wel- reasons assigned for the proceedings of ministers, he would lington and Lord Lyndhurst gave an explanation of their say that they had hurried on in their violent course, because conduct in this matter. The Duke of Wellington re- they feared that if their opponents were permitted to intromarked:-"When his majesty found that he could not duce their measures, not all the power and influence of consistently with his duty to the state, follow the advice of ministers could have produced a collision between the two his confidential servants, so little communication had he houses. It was his duty, as the continued day for the with men other than his responsible advisers, that he had committee had been fixed on his motion, now to get rid of had recourse to a nobleman, whose judicial functions took it. He therefore moved that "the order for the comhim almost out of the line of politics, to inquire whether mittee on the reform bill be discharged." He added:means existed, and what means, of forming an administra-"Thus I leave it to other noble lords to do their dirty tion on the principle of carrying into execution an extensive work." The order was accordingly discharged. reform. That nobleman communicated to me the difficulties in which his majesty was placed, in order to ascertain how far it was in my power to assist in extricating him from them. With this view, I thought it my duty to institute similar inquiries of others, the rather as I was myself as unprepared as his majesty for the advice which his ministers had tendered, and for the consequences which had ensued from its being rejected. On inquiry I found that there was a large number of most influential persons not indisposed to support a government formed to aid his majesty in resisting the advice tendered to him by his late administration. Under this conviction I attended his majesty; and my advice to him was, not that he should appoint me his minister, but certain members of the other house of parliament. So far from seeking office for myself, I merely named those persons I thought best qualified for the service; adding, that, for my own part, whether I was in office or out of office, he and those persons might depend upon my most strenuous support. The object of this advice and tender of assistance was to enable his majesty to form an administration upon the principle of resisting the advice which he had just rejected. These are the first steps of the transaction; and I believe they show that, if ever there was an instance in which the king acted with honesty and fairness towards his servants, and if ever there was an instance in which public men, opposed to those servants, kept aloof from intrigue, and from the adoption of all means except the most honourable, in promoting their own views of the public weal, this was that individual instance; and I will add with reference to myself, that these transactions show that, so far from being actuated by those motives of personal aggrandizement, with which I have been charged by persons of high station in another place, my object was, that others should occupy a post of honour, and that for myself I was willing to serve in any capacity, or without any official capacity, so as to enable the crown to carry on the government." Lord Lyndhurst, in explaining the part he had taken in the matter, bitterly complained of being calumniated by the press, which, he said, now reigned paramount over the legislature and the country. As far as I am myself concerned, he said, I despise these calumnies. They may wound, however, the feelings of those allied to

On Friday, the 18th of May, on the assembling of the peers, the Earl of Harewood asked Earl Grey whether it was yet settled that ministers were to continue in office? His lordship answered, that in consequence of having received the king's request to that effect, and in consequence of now finding himself in a situation which would enable him to carry through the bill unimpaired in its efficiency, he and his colleagues did remain in office. He moved that the committee on the bill, under these circumstances, should be taken on Monday. The Earl of Harewood continued, that he had understood the continuance of Earl Grey in office depended on the power he should receive to carry the reform bill-a power which might be conferred by the creation of peers, or by the act and will of certain lords in seceding from their opposition to the bill. In the choice of these two evils, it was his duty to select the lesser. He had opposed the bill on the second reading, and he would likewise have opposed many of its details in the committee, but the wiser course would be now to withhold further opposition to the bill, rather than render the calamity of creating a great number of peers unavoidable. But though he adopted this course, let it be understood that it was by compulsion, and with a feeling that he never would again enjoy an opportunity of uttering in that house one word in an independent form. Bidding farewell to freedom of debate, let those who had brought this infliction on the country be responsible for their acts when the nation came to its senses. On the other hand, the Earl of Winchilsea, while he admitted that the independence of the house was at an end, and that their lordships might be pointed at with scorn, as belonging to a body which went through the mockery of legislative functions while it was denied all legislative power, expressed his determination still to offer every possible opposition to the bill. Earl Grey had not yet stated in what shape the power of carrying the bill had been conferred; and Lord Wharncliffe, conceiving that before any peer could decide on the course he would adopt, it was necessary to know, put the question direct to him, whether their deliberations were to be carried on under the immediate threat of a creation of

peers? or whether it was to be understood that a certain number of peers would absent themselves from the house