nature or
consequences. The bill, therefore, received the royal assent on the 7th,
but the king could not be induced to perform this ceremony in person.
Though his scruples had been respected in framing the scheme of reform,
though he was consulted at every turn and clearly recognised the
necessity to which he bowed, and though he was spared the resort to a
_coup d'etat_ which he abhorred, he could not but feel humiliated by the
ill-disguised subjection of the crown and the nobility to a single
chamber of the people. It is greatly to his honour that, with limited
intelligence, and strong prejudices, he should have played a
straightforward and strictly constitutional part in so perilous a
crisis.

By the great reform bill, as it was still called even after it became an
act, the whole representative system of England and Wales was
reconstructed. Fifty-six nomination boroughs, as we have seen, lost
their members altogether; thirty more were reduced to one member, and
Weymouth which, coupled with Melcombe Regis, had returned four members,
now lost two. Twenty-two large towns, including metropolitan districts,
were allotted two members each; twenty smaller but considerable towns
received one member each; the number of English and Welsh county members
was increased from ninety-four to one hundred and fifty-nine, and the
larger counties were parcelled out into divisions. All the fanciful and
antiquated franchises which had prevailed in the older boroughs were
swept away to make room for a levelling L10 household suffrage, the
privileges of freemen being alone preserved. The rights of 40s.
freeholders were retained in counties, but they found themselves
associated with a large body of copyholders, leaseholders, and
tenants-at-will paying L50 in rent. The general result was to place the
borough representation mainly in the hands of shopkeepers, and the
county representation mainly in those of landlords and farmers. The
former change had a far greater effect on the balance of parties than
the latter. The shopkeepers, of whom many were nonconformists, long
continued to cherish advanced radical traditions, partly derived from
the reform agitation, and constantly rebelled against dictation from
their rich customers. The farmers, dependent on their landlords and
closely allied with them in defending the corn laws, proved more
submissive to influence, and constituted the backbone of the great
agricultural interest.

The enactment o