on was entertained; if it were, he would not support
it. It was his belief that the amendments which would be proposed would
comprise the whole of schedule A. Earl Grey, however, asserted that
nothing could have been devised better calculated to defeat the bill
than this amendment; and he would state at once that, if it were
carried, he would consider it fatal to the bill. He was pledged to the
principles of disfranchisement, enfranchisement, and the extension of
the qualification. With respect to the two first, he was ready to
listen to any suggestions which might be made with a view of preventing
injustice in details, but he would not consent to any reduction of the
extent of either disfranchisement or enfranchisement. His lordship
also stated that he would resist with the most fixed determination any
proposition which, under the pretence of regulation, would have the
effect of raising the qualification. These things being fixed, he was so
far from considering the proposed motion of little consequence, that it
appeared to him of the greatest importance. If it did not subvert the
principle of the bill, it materially affected it; and therefore it
was impossible that he should give it his assent. He was unable
to understand why enfranchisement should be proceeded with before
disfranchisement; he might reverse the proposition, and say, that the
amount of enfranchisement could not be ascertained till the extent of
disfranchisement was settled. A noble lord had expressed a hope that
ministers would confide in the peers on the other side of the house, to
grant a proper measure of reform to the people; had he observed any such
disposition, no one would have been more ready than himself to have met
it in a proper spirit; always recollecting that he was irrevocably fixed
to the bill. Another noble lord had said, that if any alteration should
be proposed which would defeat the principles of the bill, ministers
might reckon upon many coming over to them from the opposite side: he
could not rely on such a hope consistently with his duty to his king,
his country, and himself. It was his opinion that if the present motion
should be carried, there would be a difficulty in bringing the bill to
a successful issue; and if it should, it would then be necessary for him
to consider the course he should be constrained to adopt. At length the
house divided, and ministers were left in a minority, the votes for
Lord Lyndhurst's amendment being o