arrowly rejected, various points in the Government
proposals, and the opposition grew more and more stubborn. At length
Lord Dunkellin (son of the Earl of Clanricarde) moved to substitute
rating for rental in the boroughs; and the Government, in a House of six
hundred and nineteen members, were defeated on June 18 by a majority of
eleven. The excitement which met this announcement was extraordinary,
and when it was followed next day by tidings that the Russell
Administration was at an end, those who thought that the country cared
little about the question found themselves suddenly disillusioned.

[Sidenote: FALL OF THE RUSSELL GOVERNMENT]

Burke declared that there were moments when it became necessary for the
people themselves to interpose on behalf of their rights. The overthrow
of the Russell Administration took the nation by surprise. Three days
after Lord John's resignation there was a historic gathering in
Trafalgar Square. In his speech announcing the resignation of his
Ministry, Lord John warned Parliament about the danger of alienating the
sympathy of the people from the Crown and the aristocracy. He reminded
the Peers that universal suffrage prevailed not only in the United
States but in our own Colonies; and he took his stand in the light of
the larger needs of the new era, on the assertion of Lord Grey at the
time of the Reform Bill that only a large measure was a safe measure.
'We have made the attempt,' added Lord John, 'sincerely and anxiously to
perform the duties of reconciling that which is due to the Constitution
of the country with that which is due to the growing intelligence, the
increasing wealth, and the manifest forbearance, virtue, and order of
the people.' He protested against a niggardly and ungenerous treatment
of so momentous a question.

Lord Russell's words were not lost on Mr. Bradlaugh. He made them the
text of his speech to the twenty thousand people who assembled in
Trafalgar Square, and afterwards walked in procession to give Mr.
Gladstone an ovation in Carlton House Terrace. About three weeks later
another great demonstration was announced to take place in Hyde Park,
under the auspices of the Reform League. The authorities refused to
allow the gathering, and, after a formal protest, the meeting was held
at the former rendezvous. The mixed multitude who had followed the
procession to the Park gates took the repulse less calmly, with the
result that, as much by accident as by desi