passing of the bill, but the Peelite and Puseyite
orators resisted it at every stage, with a zeal and activity which
surpassed that of the Roman Catholic members. In vain the government
pressed upon the house the urgency of the public business, and the
number of the measures which ought to occupy attention: Puseyites and
Protectionists maintained debates on every possible occasion, rendering
legislative measures on a great variety of subjects impracticable.

The ministerial crisis has been already referred to, and its
termination, by the announcement (on the 3rd of March) that the
government had resumed office.

The defeat of the government on the motion of Mr. Locke King, for leave
to bring in a bill to assimilate the elective franchise in boroughs and
counties upon a tenpound value occupation has incidentally been noticed
in connection with the ministerial crisis. Mr. Locke King brought in his
bill, and moved the second reading on the 2nd of April. The debate
which ensued was remarkable from the circumstance that Lord John Eussell
pledged himself to bring in, at the beginning of the next session,
a bill to extend the franchise. This pledge, up to the close of the
session of 1859, more than eight years, has never been redeemed.
The excuse urged has been always the same--the pressure of public
business--an excuse, the sincerity of which cannot be accepted by the
most credulous friends of his lordship's party. Mr. Disraeli declared
that he desired to see the "great settlement of 1831" improved, in the
sense of confirming "the proper territorial influence and power,"
which he assured the house was essential to the liberties of the English
nation. Mr. Disraeli desired an improvement of the Reform Bill which
would consolidate the power of a class: Lord John promised a reform
which would increase the power of the people. Persuaded by his
lordship's specious promises, those of Mr. Fox Maule, and other members
of the government, the Liberals supported the government, and Mr. Locke
King's bill was lost by a vast majority. The speech of Mr. Bright much
conduced to this result, as he showed that the ten-pound occupants, in
counties, would be under the control of the landed interest, which Mr.
Bright denounced as opposed to the material interests and civil and
religious liberties of the people.

Mr. Henry Berkeley endeavoured to secure another measure of reform--the
conducting of elections by vote by ballot. The government resi