n the resignation of Sir Robert, her majesty sent for Lord John
Russell, and confided to him the task of forming an administration. His
lordship succeeded in this object, and presented himself to parliament
as first lord of the treasury and prime-minister, with Lord Cottenham as
lord-chancellor, Lord Lansdowne as president of the council, Mr. Charles
Wood as chancellor of the exchequer, and the three chief secretaries of
state--home, foreign, and colonial--were Sir G. Grey, Lord Palmerston,
and Earl Grey.

The public were not displeased with the formation of a whig ministry,
although, had the parliament been dissolved upon the question simply
of Sir Robert or Lord John, the former would have had an overwhelming
majority. Some discontent was expressed with the prevalence of the Grey
family in the cabinet--three members of that connexion in three of the
principal offices gave too much patronage and influence to a single
family, especially as their nepotism had brought discredit upon the late
earl, even in the height of his popularity. The chancellorship of the
exchequer, and the home and colonial secretaryships, being now in the
hands of this aristocratic house, the departments, it was alleged,
would be overwhelmed with scions and _proteges_ of the noble lord, the
representative of the race. Some of the liberal journals sneered at the
administration as "the Grey government" from the beginning, and
prepared the minds of the more radical portion of the people for an
administrative failure. The conservative press caught up the tone of
the Radicals, and ridiculed the new whig government in similar terms,
affecting to feel a constitutional alarm and jealousy at the prevailing
influence of "the Grey sept."

When Lord John appeared in the house as the head of the government,
Mr. Duncombe, one of the members for Fins-bury, a popular and patriotic
commoner, challenged the premier to make a full and explicit statement
of the principles upon which he intended to administer the affairs of
the country. This appeal met with a noble response in a clear, manful
enunciation of free-trade principles, justice to Ireland, peace as far
as that could be maintained in justice and honour, and the "maintenance
and extension of religious liberty, which, together with its civil
liberty, had made England conspicuous as one of the greatest nations of
the world."

The first parliamentary measure introduced by the Whigs was a plan for
the better reg