assembly in which appeal {169} was always made
to high principle, to reason, and to justice, not to passion, to
prejudice, or to party. Lord Grey, so far as we can judge from
contemporary accounts, never spoke better than in the debate on the
second reading of the Reform Bill, and it was evident that he spoke
with all the sincere emotion of one whose mind and heart alike were
filled with the cause for which he pleaded. But the House of Lords
just then was not in a mood to be swayed greatly by argument or by
eloquence. Lord Wharncliffe moved an amendment to the effect that the
Bill be read a second time this day six months. This, at least, was
the shape that the motion took after some discussion, because Lord
Wharncliffe, in the first instance, had concluded his speech against
the second reading by the blunt motion that the Bill be rejected; and
it was only when it had been pressed upon his attention that such a
method of disposing of the measure would be a downright insult to the
Commons that he consented to modify his proposal into the formal and
familiar amendment that the Bill be read a second time this day six
months. The effect would be just the same in either case, for no
Ministry would think of retaining office if the discussion of its most
important measure were postponed in the House of Lords for a period of
six months. During the debate which followed, the Duke of Wellington
spoke strongly against the Bill. On the morning of October 8 the
division was taken. There were 199 votes for the amendment and 158
against it, or, in other words, for the second reading of the Bill.
The second reading was therefore rejected by a majority of 41. The
whole work of legislation during all the previous part of the year had
thus been reduced to nothing, and the House of Lords had shown what it
would do with the Bill by contemptuously rejecting it, and thus bidding
defiance to the demand unquestionably made by the vast majority of the
people of England, Scotland, and Ireland.

Parliament was at once prorogued, and the members who were in favor of
reform hurried off to address great meetings of their constituents, and
to denounce the action of the House of Lords. Popular enthusiasm was
aroused {170} more than ever in favor of the Reform Bill, and popular
passion was stirred in many places to positive fury against the
principal opponents of the Bill. In London several public men who were
conspicuous for their opposition