GATESHEAD AND MERTHYR TYDVIL.

197

wholly extinguished, to the list of those which were to retain single members, and to make other changes in the reverse order. It was remarked that neither the arbitrary fixing of a minimum, nor the adding of fractions to make out a 'function,' nor reference to the new census, prevented the Russell borough Tavistock from retaining its two representatives of about five thousand souls. It was left to the unscientific Reformers of the next generation to bring this little mining town, when it had risen to seven thousand souls, down to the single franchise. Lord John Russell maintained, with indignation at the time, with tenacity thirty-seven years afterwards, that he had not contrived anything in favour of his own family, and he proved that in drawing the boundaries of boroughs a Tory Marquis had been incidentally strengthened at Stamford as much as a Whig Duke at Totnes.

In the county of Durham there was a place of trade called Gateshead, of fifteen thousand souls, divided by the Tyne from Newcastle. The Whigs were for giving it one member; the Tories asked why it should not be annexed to Newcastle, although not in the same county. They wanted the seat for Merthyr Tydvil, a town of twenty-two thousand souls, and chief place of a great iron country. The Bill was applying to Merthyr Tydvil the Welsh principle of stringing together several detached towns; it was to be linked with towns twenty-five and thirty miles distant. The Ministers were worsted in this debate. An excellent Whig, Mr. Labouchere, yielded

198

WELSH REPRESENTATION.

to argument, and voted against his party. His honest vote did not prevent his taking office with his party in after years. Lord John Russell carried the point, by help of a majority faithful but doubting, and smaller than usual. Soon afterwards he yielded about Merthyr Tydvil, giving it a member of its own; but, instead of getting the seat for it at the expense of Gateshead or any other town, he took it from a county. His argument was, that if a new independent borough was formed in Wales a sacrifice must be made elsewhere by Wales. There was a Welsh county to which, as it had nearly a hundred thousand people, he had in the third Bill proposed to give a third member, putting it on a level with some English counties of middling size. This boon was now withdrawn. Monmouthshire had to forego what Merthyr Tydvil demanded. It is a weakness of human nature, from which even the statesman is not always exempt, to indulge a sort of false pride by substituting a thing of one's own design for the thing that another reasonably expects; and to invent, for one occasion only, such a premiss as this maxim about Welsh representation is a trick such as people far inferior to statesmen have been observed to play.

These little fencings about boroughs are interesting, inasmuch as they show that the Ministers did not go far towards that arbitrary and high-handed procedure to which they were tempted by leading a force amounting to two thirds of the House, and sure to be backed by nine-tenths of the talking people in the kingdom. It is also noticeable that in this Session,

IMPROVEMENT OF PARTY FEELINGS.

199

on the eve of final defeat, there were Tories, hitherto not conspicuous in debate, who, when roused by neighbourly sentiment and emboldened by knowledge of details, reasoned with effect and made some impression on public opinion. It would be wholly erroneous to assume that the gentlemen who opposed Reform became sulky or faint-hearted after their many losses. There were some sour and narrow minds in the Opposition; yet candour and cheerfulness prevailed.

A year of strife, which comprised some intervals of repose, had not embittered the animosities of faction. Tories learnt to think better of Whigs because the political unions were repudiated by Court and Ministry. Whigs perceived that many Tories were docile, and nearly all were improved by adversity. The second House of Commons that essayed the task of regenerating itself almost justified, by its good conduct, the praise given by Conservatives to the system on which it had grown.

XXXVI.

THE Reform Bill, modified by the retention of the old number, six hundred and fifty-eight, which was mainly due to General Gascoyne, by the admission of the tenant farmers to the suffrage, which was Lord Chandos's amendment, and by that curious estimate of the wealth of boroughs, which the Tories in their perplexity acknowledged as a blow struck

200

REFORM BILL BEFORE THE LORDS.

by the Whigs against democracy, came finally from the Lower to the Upper House in April. There was so little eagerness amongst the friends, so much hesitation amongst some of the enemies, of the measure, that the discussion was by consent put off some days, ostensibly to give the Lords time to attend quarter sessions in their county towns.

Six months had passed since the Upper House had regularly debated the question; and no terms of surrender had been settled. The alternatives were in April 1832 as plainly set before the privileged men of title as in September 1831. Either they must seem to agree with the elected legislators or submit to manifest coercion. They would be coerced either by the Ministers acting in the King's name, or by the political unions acting in the name of the British people. If the Ministers got a forced majority by the sudden ennobling of fifty or sixty commoners, this would be a stretch of the royal prerogative more painful than the abrupt dissolution of Parliament which took place the year before. If the political unions got the upper hand in London, and hindered the Peers from voting, or set their vote at naught, this would be an insurrection.

To escape from coercion the House had to capitulate with the Ministers. But it would not do this simply by one act. Its dignity would be saved by allowing itself to be driven in from the main breach, and then holding retrenchments further back. There were but few peers who were not by this time prepared to let the House of Commons change its com

POLITICAL STRATAGEMS.

201

position to some extent. Schemes which individual Tories were concocting went very far beyond the proposals made in the Liverpool period by Lord John Russell and the few others who then hoped for a somewhat better system of representation. The Duke of Wellington was not consulted by the moderate Reformers;' he and many others were pledged to remain to the last on the beaten side. It does not follow that they sincerely disliked being beaten. They stuck to the opinion of Lord Dudley that Government could not be carried on with a reformed Parliament, but they were fully aware that they themselves could not, and Earl Grey would not, govern without passing Reform.

It had got to be a question, who were the peers that must sacrifice themselves? The Bill must be read a second time. The superior persons must vote against it. Some poor creatures must vote for it once, to avert the intrusion of new peers. Feeble and half-witted lords were to be impressed. One of them, who was thought up to the last hour 'slippery,' confessed his surprise at discovering his own importance; he had not been used to so many invitations, he was not aware that he had so many acquaintances on terms of shaking hands. Another, whose proxy was mislaid, was visited by an express messenger bearing a letter written by an Earl who was not acquainted with him. The byeways of society were searched for proselytes, who, after saving the honour of high Tories too proud to vote with Ministers or to stay away, were to be turned loose again and for