Grey, was directed to be read a second
time on the 3rd of October. In the meantime the reformers vigorously
employed all the means in their power to intimidate the peers into
submission. Political unions again sent forth their addresses and
petitions, and meetings were convened to warn them of "the tremendous
consequences of rejecting the bill," and to inform them how "deeply and
fearfully the security of commercial, as well as of all other property,
was involved" in passing it without delay. In a meeting held in the
common-hall of London, Colonel Torrens remarked:--"Let the peers refuse
this bill if they dare; and if they do, dearly will they rue their
obstinacy hereafter. You all remember the Sibyl's story. She presented
her oracles to the court of Tarquin, and they were rejected. She burned
a portion, and again offered them, but they were again rejected. After
diminishing their number still further, she once more returned, and
the remaining volumes were gladly purchased at the price which she had
originally demanded for the entire. We, however, mean to reverse the
moral, for should the present bill be defeated, we shall bring their
lordships another bill, demanding a little more; and then, should they
still dare to resist the might, and insult the majesty of the people of
England united as one man, we will come forward with a bill of reform in
which their lordships will find themselves inserted in schedule A." Such
language as this was used from one end of the country to the other, and
the press and orators alike endeavoured to intimidate the peers into
submission. They were to have no direct influence in the deliberations
of the commons, and now they were to have no deliberate voice in their
own house. Such was the state of public feeling when, on the 3rd of
October, Earl Grey moved the second reading of the bill. After
some prefatory remarks, he said, that being called to form a new
administration, he stated to his majesty that the only condition on
which he would accept office was that he should be allowed to bring
forward the question of parliamentary reform as a measure of government.
That condition was sanctioned by the monarch, assented to by the
commons, and hailed with joy by the people. Earl Grey next went into the
details of the bill, an account of which is given in the previous pages.
He added: "You are asked to give up that which is odious, unjust, and
unconstitutional, and by retaining which the security