l.

The grand failure of the Derby ministry was a reform bill, which was an
indirect and sly scheme to increase the power of the landed interest.
The bill was ignominiously spurned by the people and the popular branch
of the legislature. From that hour the Derby ministry was doomed,
although another question was that upon which its defeat was destined to
take place. A very important measure was carried by Mr. Locke King,--the
abolition of the property qualification for members of parliament.
The same honourable member carried a bill for enfranchising ten pound
householders in counties, over a second reading in the commons, signally
defeating the government. The lateness of the session at the time when
this was achieved prevented the further progress of the bill.

On the 3rd of August the session of 1858 terminated.

The session of 1859 opened at the usual period. Rumours of war between
France and Austria gave an extraordinary interest to the occasion. That
war broke out, after strenuous efforts by Lord Derby's government to
prevent it. The _animus_ of Lord Malmesbury's diplomacy was evidently
in favour of Austria, and without any sympathy for Italy, while it was
decidedly hostile to France. By this policy the cabinet was overthrown,
and Lord Palmerston formed a ministry. Public opinion in England was
hostile to the Emperor of the French, but still more so to the kasir,
while an intense desire for Italian freedom existed in the United
Kingdom. The general sentiment of the nation was therefore adverse to
the foreign policy of the Derby government, and, before a motion in the
commons condemnatory of that policy, the cabinet fell. Lord Derby was
not disposed to yield to an adverse vote without taking "the sense of
the country;" but the country showed him no favour, and he resigned.
Lord Palmerston had the honour of forming the new cabinet. He became
first lord of the treasury; Lord John Russell, minister for foreign
affairs; Sir G. Grey, home secretary; Mr. Gladstone, chancellor of the
exchequer; Sir Charles Wood, secretary for India; the Duke of Newcastle,
for the colonies; Lord Granville, president of the council, and Mr.
Sidney Herbert, minister of war. This was a strong government. The
elections were decisively in their favour. The party conflicts of the
year impeded legislation. Mr. Gladstone startled the house by a bold
and comprehensive system of finance, and when in August the session
terminated, Lord Palmerston h