conservatives," apparently
including tories.[111] In such circumstances the attitude to be adopted
by Peel was of the highest constitutional importance. It is some proof
of the respect for statesmanship instinctively felt by the new house of
commons that Peel, as inexorable an opponent of reform as Canning
himself, should at once have assumed a foremost position and soon
obtained an ascendency in an assembly so largely composed of his
opponents.

But Peel himself was no longer a mere party leader. Unlike Wellington
and Eldon, he saw the necessity of accepting loyally the accomplished
fact and shaping his future course in accordance with the nation's will.
He, therefore, took an early opportunity of declaring that he regarded
the reform act as irrevocable, and that he was prepared to participate
in the dispassionate amendment of any institution that really needed it.
In a private letter to Goulburn he stated that, in his judgment, "the
best position the government could assume would be that of moderation
between opposite extremes of ultra-toryism and radicalism," intimating
further that "we should appear to the greatest advantage in defending
the government" against their own extreme left wing.[112] In this
policy he persevered; his influence did much to quell the confusion and
disorder of the first debate, and his followers swelled the government
majorities in several of the early divisions. When he came to review the
first session of the reformed parliament he remarked in a private letter
that what had been foreseen took place, that "the popular assembly
exercised tacitly supreme power," and, without abolishing the crown or
the house of lords, overawed the convictions of both.[113]

[Pageheading: _IRISH COERCION BILL._]

The passion for reform, far from spending itself in remodelling the
house of commons, filled the statute-book with monuments of remedial
legislation. No session was more fruitful in legislative activity than
that of 1833. But the way of legislation was at first blocked against
all projects of improvement by the urgent necessity of passing an Irish
coercion bill. This had been indicated in the king's speech, and on
February 15, 1833 Grey introduced the strongest measure of repression
ever devised for curbing anarchy in Ireland. It combined, as he
explained, the provisions of "the proclamation act, the insurrection
act, the partial application of martial law, and the partial suspension
of the _habeas