wn
in the dust, for there was a majority of more than three hundred
against them, and now the Liberal majority was hardly more than one
hundred. A very hopeful Conservative, or a Conservative who had a
profound faith in the principles of antique Toryism, might fill himself
with the fond belief that this increase in the Conservative vote
foretold a gradual return to the good old days. But Peel was too
practical a statesman to be touched for a moment by any such illusion.
He had fully expected some increase in the Tory vote. He knew, as well
as anybody could know, that there had been some disappointment among
the more advanced and impatient reformers all over the country with the
achievements of the first reformed Parliament, and, indeed, with the
Act of Reform itself. After victory in a long-contested political
battle there comes, almost as a matter of course, a season of relaxed
effort among the ranks of the victors, for which allowance would have
to be made in the mind of such a statesman as Peel, and, in this
instance, allowance also had to be made for a falling off in the
enthusiasm of those who had helped to carry the Reform movement to
success, and found themselves in the end left out of all its direct
advantages.

[Sidenote: 1835--The Office of Speaker]

Peel saw at once that his Government must be absolutely at the mercy of
the Opposition when any question arose on which it suited the purposes
of the Opposition leaders to rally their whole forces around them and
take a party division. So far as the ordinary business of the session
was concerned, the Ministry might get on well enough, for there must
have been a considerable amount of routine work which would not provoke
the Opposition to a trial of strength; but if chance or hostile
strategy should bring about at any moment a controversy which called
for a strictly party division, then the Government must go down.
Nothing can be more trying to a proud-spirited statesman in office than
the knowledge that he can only maintain his Government, from day to
day, because, for one reason or another, it does not suit the
convenience of the Opposition to press some vote which must leave him
and his colleagues {243} in a distinct minority. Peel had not long to
wait before he found substantial evidence to justify his most gloomy
forebodings.

The new Parliament met on February 19, 1835. The first trial of
strength was on the election of a new Speaker. The former o