358 SCENES IN THE TWO HOUSES. Lord Durham, who appears also to have been present, now hastened to the palace-gate, where he found the Lord Chancellor's carriage waiting, and, entering it, he drove with all speed to Lord Albemarle's, the Master of the Horse. His lordship was enjoying a late breakfast; but sprang to his feet at Lord Durham's unexpected appearance, inquiring anxiously as to its cause. "You must have the King's carriages ready instantly." "The King's carriages! Very well. I will just finish my breakfast." "Finish your breakfast! Not so! You must not lose a moment. The King ought to be at the House." "Lord bless me! is there a revolution?" "Not as yet; but there may be if you stay to finish your breakfast." The half-eaten meal was left; and in a few minutes the royal carriages were at the palacegate. Soon they were rolling through the streets, amid the shout of excited crowds, whom some vague rumour of great events had speedily drawn together. Meantime, the two Houses were contributing their part to this stirring drama. The Commons had assembled in an eager and expectant mood, which had its effect upon the Speaker, disturbing and agitating him in an extraordinary degree. Several members rose at once; they contradicted each other; and when the Speaker summoned courage to interfere, disregarded his injunctions. Lord John Russell attempted to restore order; but his voice was lost in the din. Sir Richard Vyvyan, a Tory of the old school, at length contrived to obtain a hearing, and was in the full flow of an angry oration, when the sudden roar of cannon announced to the startled House that the King was on his way. Not DISSOLUTION OF PARLIAMENT. 359 a word could be understood, for the cheers that mingled with shouts of laughter and cries of disapprobation, interrupted at regular intervals by the boom of artillery. At one moment, Sir Robert Peel, Lord Althorp, and Sir Francis Burdett were all gesticulating in dumb show, while their friends made frantic efforts to procure a hearing for them. Althorp moved that Burdett should be heard; but the Speaker stammered out that "Peel was in possession of the House to speak on that motion." As for Sir Robert, he lost his usual self-command, and attacked the Government with extraordinary vehemence. was still speaking, "in the midst of every sort of noise and tumult," when the Usher of the Black Rod appeared at the Bar to summon the "faithful Commons" to the royal presence. Sir Robert continued to speak, with persistent vehemence, even after Black Rod's appearance; and the members near him could compel him to take his seat only by strenuous pulling at the skirts of his coat. He The scene in the Lords is described by Lord Campbell, who was an eye-witness. The Earl of Mansfield having given notice for this memorable day of a motion hostile to Reform, the Lord Chancellor (Brougham) manœuvred to prevent him from bringing it forward. He continued hearing an appeal until a late hour, and then retired, with the intention of not returning till he should enter in the King's procession. But no sooner had he gone, than Lord Mansfield, according to the privilege of the peers, moved that the Earl of Shaftesbury should take the chair as Speaker. This was done. Lord Wharncliffe then rose to move 360 THE KING'S ARRIVAL. an address to the King, praying that he would not dissolve the present Parliament. The Ministerialists interrupted him, and "at least five peers were on their legs at one time trying to gain a hearing, and looking as if resolved to come to blows."* Lord Wharncliffe ultimately succeeded in making his motion, and the danger was great that it might be carried by acclamation, when the re-appearance of the Chancellor compelled Lord Shaftesbury to vacate the woolsack. In a passionate tone of voice, Brougham exclaimed:-"I never yet heard that the Crown ought not to dissolve Parliament whenever it thought fit, particularly at a moment when the House of Commons had resorted to the extreme step of refusing the supplies." Loud cries of "Hear! Hear! The King! the King!" arose, and altogether an "immense confusion " pre vailed. Thinking he had checkmated the Opposition, the Chancellor obeyed a summons from Black Rod to attend the King,† and hastily retired. The Tory Lords again placed Lord Shaftesbury on the woolsack, and Lord Mansfield began to pour out a furious declamation against the dissolution and the Reform Bill, when shouts of "The King! the King! God save the King!" were once more heard; and the large doors on the right of the throne being opened, his Majesty entered, accompanied by the Chancellor and other great officers, and seating himself on the throne, looked round * Lord Campbell, Lives of the Lord Chancellors,' ix. 395. A PARLIAMENTARY "SENSATION.” 361 to the quarter whence the disturbance had proceeded, with evident feelings of anger. The Commons were then summoned, and on their arrival the King began :"My Lords and Gentlemen,-I have come to meet you for the purpose of proroguing the Parliament, with a view to its immediate dissolution,"--pronouncing this last word, it is said, with deep emphasis and obvious exultation. Thus, "after a scene of bellowing and roaring and gnashing of teeth, on the part of the adversary, in both Houses, which it was almost frightful to look at,"* terminated terminated the first Parliament of William the 4th. "We do not follow the fashion of the French," says Lord Campbell, "who on these occasions bellow out Vive le Roi!' or 'Vive l'Empereur!' (as it may be) while his French Majesty is still sitting on his throne; but when our Sailor King was returning to his Palace he was saluted with cries of 'Well done, old boy!— sarved them right! Three cheers for the King and Reform. Hip, hip, hurra !' And he seemed much delighted with the applause which he received.”† The Government went to the country with the cry of "The Bill, the whole Bill, and nothing but the * Lord Cockburn, Life of Lord Jeffery,' p. 312. + Mr. Greville gives an animated but one-sided account of this strange scene, from particulars supplied by eye-witnesses :-" Wharncliffe was to have moved an address to the Crown against dissolving Parliament, and this motion the Ministers were resolved should not come on, but he contrived to bring it on so far as to get it put upon the journals. The Duke of Richmond endeavoured to prevent any speaking by raising points of order." 362 THE NEW PARLIAMENT. Bill." The result could not be doubted. The new House of Commons was a House pledged to the lips to pass the Reform Bill. The anti-Reformers could muster only a skeleton army, or rather "a ragged regiment," with which such men as Peel must have felt it a degradation to march through Coventry. The Bill was re-introduced on the 24th of June; but the second reading was postponed until the 4th of July, that the Scotch and Irish Reform Bills might be brought in. The debate then lasted three nights, and was brightened by a brilliant oration from Macaulay, which in Jeffrey's opinion, put him clearly at the head of the great speakers, if not the debaters, of the House. Sir Robert Peel was one of the last who spoke, and he did so with significent caution, the caution of a statesman who meant to yield before it was too late. While still opposing the Bill before the House, he admitted that some reform was now not only expedient but necessary; that the state of the representation neither commanded the goodwill, nor secured the confidence of the nation; and he expressed himself willing to accept any plan of moderate reform which should be brought before the legislature. On a division the second reading was carried by 367 against 231, giving to Ministers a majority of 136. Nothing disheartened, the Opposition, with zeal worthy of a better cause, proceeded to attack the Bill in Committee, drawing upon the forms of the House so as to delay its progress, and endeavouring to weary the majority by endless motions for adjournment. Such tactics may answer where the minority are sup |