he rejection of the Reform Bill in the House
of Lords. A great number of rioters were convicted. Altogether, seven men
were put to death at Bristol and Nottingham. The officers who commanded the
troops during the riots were court-martialed. When Parliament reassembled,
the Commons once more passed the Reform Bill and carried it up to the
Lords. In the course of the renewed debate on the Reform Bill in the House
of Peers the Duke of Wellington announced that he had reason to believe
that the King did not approve of the bill. The statement was confirmed by
the King's refusal to create new peers wherewith to pass the bill through
the Upper House. Thereupon Lord Grey and his colleagues resigned from the
Ministry. The King accepted their resignation. Monster petitions were
immediately sent in to the Commons from Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds and
other great centres of population, urging the Commons to refuse the
supplies until reform should have been secured. Once more stocks fell
sharply. For the express purpose of embarrassing the King's chosen
successors for the Cabinet, runs were made on the Bank of England, and on
the savings banks at Birmingham and Manchester. The streets of London were
covered with placards: "Go for gold and stop the Duke!" In the face of this
agitation the Duke of Wellington declined the King's offer to form a
Ministry. Sir Robert Peel likewise declined. As a last resort Wellington
consented to form a Ministry, but could not get together a Cabinet strong
enough to stem the storm. The Iron Duke's popularity as well as the King's
was at an end. When the King came up to London, accompanied by his sons,
they were received with hoots and insults. Missiles were thrown at the
royal carriage, and the Life Guards had to fight a way through the mob with
their swords. The King was driven to the humiliating expedient of recalling
his dismissed Ministers. William IV. now consented to create the required
number of new peers. Lord Brougham gave mortal offence to the King by a
request that he should put his promise in writing. With the King's written
pledge in their hands the Ministers obtained an agreement from their
opponents to pass the bill without further coercion. Early in June, at
length, the Reform Bill passed through the House of Lords after a third
reading. One hundred and six peers voted for it and only twenty-two against
it. On this occasion Sir Robert Peel made a remark to which his subsequent
change of fr