cited Peel's mistrust. In the
course of this debate, the prime minister, abandoning his usual reserve,
definitely pledged himself not only "to advance, soberly and cautiously,
in the path of progressive improvement," but to bring forward specific
measures. "I offer you," he said, "reduced estimates, improvements in
civil jurisprudence, reform of ecclesiastical law, the settlement of the
tithe question in Ireland, the commutation of tithe in England, the
removal of any real abuse in the Church, the redress of those grievances
of which the dissenters have any just ground to complain." Nor were
these offers illusory or barren. On March 17, he brought in a bill to
relieve dissenters from disabilities in respect of marriage, which met
with general approval. It was founded on the simple principle, since
adopted, of giving legal validity to civil marriages duly solemnised
before a registrar, and leaving each communion to superadd a religious
sanction in its own way. The marriages of Churchmen in a church were to
be left on their old footing, but Churchmen were of course to be granted
the same liberty as other citizens of contracting a purely civil
marriage.

Still more important, as examples of conservative reform, were Peel's
efforts to purge the established Church of abuses, and to introduce a
voluntary commutation of tithes. His correspondence amply shows how
large a space these remedial measures occupied in his mind, and one of
his first acts was to appoint an ecclesiastical commission, with
instructions to institute a most comprehensive inquiry into every
subject affecting the distribution of church revenues. Compared with the
petty squabbles over the appropriation of an imaginary surplus to be
derived from Irish tithes which it was impossible to collect, the
schemes of Peel for purifying and strengthening the Church of England
assume heroic proportions. The report of the ecclesiastical commission
originated by him, with its startling disclosures of pluralism and
non-residence, became the basis of legislation which has wrought a
veritable revolution in the financial and disciplinary administration of
the church. His tithe bill, abortive as it was in 1835, was reproduced,
with little alteration, in the tithe commutation act of 1836.

But the whig-radical allies of 1835 had not the smallest intention of
giving Peel a fair trial; nor indeed had they any other object beyond
the recovery of power. His appeals to his opponents