he rejection of the second reform bill on
the 8th by 199 votes to 158. Twenty-one bishops voted against it. The
king lost no time in reminding Grey of his own warning against
submitting the bill, without serious modifications, to the judgment of
the house of lords. He also intimated beforehand that he could not
consent to any such creation of peers as would convert the minority into
a majority. Grey at once admitted that he could not ask for so
high-handed an exercise of the royal prerogative, and undertook to
remain at his post, on condition of being allowed to introduce a third
reform bill as comprehensive as its predecessor. Thereupon the king
abandoned his intention of proroguing parliament by commission, and came
down in person to do so on the 20th when he delivered a speech clearly
indicating legislation on reform as the work of the next session.

[Pageheading: _REFORM BILL RIOTS._]

During the interval between the 8th and the 20th it became evident that
the reform movement, quickened by the action of the upper house, would
rise to a dangerous height. A vote of confidence in the government,
brought forward by Lord Ebrington, eldest son of Earl Fortescue, was
carried by a majority of 131, and speeches were made in support of it
which encouraged, in the form of prediction, every kind of popular
agitation short of open violence. In the course of this debate Macaulay,
the future historian of the English revolution, delivered one of those
highly wrought orations which adorn the political literature of reform.
The excitement in London was great, but kept for the most part within
reasonable bounds, partly by the firm and sensible attitude of Melbourne
as home secretary. The mob, however, vented its rage in window breaking
and personal assaults on some prominent anti-reformers, one of whom,
Lord Londonderry, was knocked off his horse by a volley of stones. In
the provinces more serious disturbances broke out. At Derby the rioters
actually stormed the city jail, releasing the prisoners, and were only
repelled in their attack on the county jail by the fire of a military
force. At Nottingham they wreaked their vengeance on the Duke of
Newcastle by burning down Nottingham Castle, which belonged to him, and
were proceeding to further outrages when they were overawed by a
regiment of hussars. A great open-air meeting of the political union was
held at Birmingham, while the bill was still before the house of lords,
at which a r