rd Derby, the famous "Rupert of
debate," became Chief Secretary to the Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland.
Grey appointed Lord Plunket Lord Chancellor for Ireland, and the name
of Lord Plunket will always be remembered as that of one of the
greatest Parliamentary orators known to modern times.

The new Ministry was, therefore, well prepared to carry on the battle
of reform. Lord Grey had made up his mind that Lord John Russell,
although not in the Cabinet, was the most fitting member of the
Administration to conduct the Reform Bill through the House of Commons.
As soon as Grey had completed his arrangements for the construction of
a Ministry, Lord Durham put himself into communication with Lord John
Russell. Durham told Lord John Russell that Lord Grey wished him to
consult with Russell as to the formation of a small private committee
whose task should be to create and put into shape some definite scheme
as the foundation of the great constitutional change which the new
Government had been called into power to establish. Lord John Russell
of course accepted the suggestion, and after some consideration it was
agreed by Lord Durham and himself that Sir James Graham and Lord
Duncannon, then Commissioner of Woods and Forests, should be invited to
join them, and make a committee of four for the purpose of devising a
{128} comprehensive and practicable measure of reform. Durham then
asked Lord John to put on paper at once his own idea with regard to the
outlines of such a plan, so that it might be taken into consideration
by the committee at their earliest meeting.

[Sidenote: 1830--The Reform Bill]

Lord John Russell's book, "The English Government and Constitution,"
tells us all what was the central idea in his mind when he set himself
to construct the groundwork of a Reform Bill. He tells us, alluding to
the task assigned to him, "It was not my duty to cut the body of our
old parent into pieces, and to throw it into a Medea's caldron, with
the hope of reviving the vigor of youth." He thought it his duty not
to turn aside "from the track of the Constitution into the maze of
fancy or the wilderness of abstract rights." "It was desirable, in
short, as it appeared to me, while sweeping away gross abuses, to avail
ourselves, as far as possible, of the existing frame and body of our
Constitution. Thus, if the due weight and influence of property could
be maintained, by preserving the representation of a proportion of the
smal