6 the Duke, making a pretext of an unexpected defeat
over Sir H. Parnell's motion regarding the Civil List, threw up the
sponge, and Lord Grey was sent for by the King and entrusted with the
new Administration. The irony of the situation became complete when Lord
Grey made it a stipulation to his acceptance of office that
Parliamentary Reform should be a Cabinet measure.

Lord John, meanwhile, was a candidate for Tavistock, and when the
election was still in progress the new Premier offered him the
comparatively unimportant post of Paymaster-General, and, though he
might reasonably have expected higher rank in the Government, he
accepted the appointment. He was accustomed to assert that the actual
duties of the Paymaster were performed by cashiers; and he has left it
on record that the only official act of any importance that he performed
was the pleasant task of allotting garden-plots at Chelsea to seventy
old soldiers, a boon which the pensioners highly appreciated.

FOOTNOTES:

[4] _History of the Free Churches of England_, pp. 457-458, by H. S.
Skeats and C. S. Miall.

[5] _The Three Reforms of Parliament_, by William Heaton, chap. ii. p.
38.

CHAPTER IV

A FIGHT FOR LIBERTY

1830-1832

Lord Grey and the cause of Reform--Lord Durham's share in the
Reform Bill--The voice of the people--Lord John introduces the Bill
and explains its provisions--The surprise of the Tories--'Reform,
Aye or No'--Lord John in the Cabinet--The Bill thrown out--The
indignation of the country--Proposed creation of Peers--Wellington
and Sidmouth in despair--The Bill carried--Lord John's tribute to
Althorp.

EARL GREY was a man of sixty-six when he was called to power, and during
the whole of his public career he had been identified with the cause of
Reform. He, more than any other man, was the founder, in 1792--the year
in which Lord John Russell was born--of 'The Friends of the People,' a
political association which united the forces of the patriotic societies
which just then were struggling into existence in various parts of the
land. He was the foe of Pitt and the friend of Fox, and his official
career began during the short-lived but glorious Administration of All
the Talents. During the dreary quarter of a century which succeeded,
when the destinies of England were committed to men of despotic calibre
and narrow capacity like Sidmouth, Liverpool, Eldon, and Castlereagh, he
remained,