Page:History of the Radical Party in Parliament.djvu/214

 200 History of the Radical Party in Parliament. [1827- of the United Kingdom, there were, between the accession of George III. and the year 1827, no fewer than 250 of such new or promoted peers, in addition to the twenty- eight Irish representative peers, who, from the method of election, were as a matter of course of the same political com- plexion. The first object of this policy was to counteract the traditional Liberal feeling of the old noble houses, and to check their too independent power, which had made them not amenable to the influence of the Crown and its ministers. That part of the work it had accomplished, insidiously and quietly, but not the less thoroughly. Hitherto it had not been necessary to use this new instrument against the majority of the House of Commons ; it was formed, in fact, to act in accord with that majority. In the short intervals when Fox and Grenville and Grey were in office, both Houses were equally under the influence of the Crown, and the " King's friends " in one place were as industrious as nominees in another in undermining the power of the actual Govern- ment. During the long and weary time when the Tory administration had ruled, the Peers were the willing sup- porters of the policy of repression and coercion, of obstinate resistance to progress or to change of any kind, and there was at least unity amongst the various constitutional powers Crown, Lords, and Commons being agreed. A new state of things had arisen when public opinion made itself felt in the Lower House, in spite of the narrow- ness and corruption of the representative system. The Peers then took up the position of opponents of the new spirit, the enemies of all change ; in alliance with the King so long as he was in accord with them ; in antagonism to Crown and Ministry and Commons, when the privileges of their order and the interests of their class seemed at stake. The first step in the pursuit of this disastrous policy was taken when an amendment to the Corn Bill of the Government was carried in committee, on the motion of the Duke of Wel- lington, by seventy-eight to seventy-four. This was finally confirmed on the I2th of June by another vote, when