Page:History of the Radical Party in Parliament.djvu/223

 1832] Cannings Premiership to Passing of Reform Act. 209 right, and it is then difficult to see where morality comes into practical politics. That men who carry out a particular Act do so not because they believe in it, but because it is essential to their retention of power, will be apt to limit its application, to check its operation, and thereby injure its character and effect. This may be a minor evil, but it is, nevertheless, one palpable and almost inevitable. There were excuse and apology to be made for the Govern- ment in the present instance. The opinion of the nation and of Parliament on the point raised was unmistakable ; but, without some constitutional reform, there was only one way in which it could be obeyed. With the then existing consti- tuencies there was no possibility of any but a Tory Adminis- tration, and to such a Government constitutional change was absolutely inadmissible. There seemed, then, only the alterna- tive of submission on the part of ministers, or of something like administrative anarchy, and as it was the first principle of Wellington that his Majesty's Government must be carried on, we can understand how he persuaded himself to sacrifice his own views for the purpose. The same difficulties gave rise to other concessions on the part of the same ministers : there was in every case the necessity of passing Radical measures without adopting the Radical policy of Parliamentary reform. The whole process, after all, rather promoted than retarded the coming changes, since it convinced the timid that if the policy which the Radicals advocated could be safely adopted by a Tory Government, the advocates themselves could not be so dangerous as their opponents pretended. The Premier himself had to make another concession, and suffer a humiliation which peculiarly affected himself. When the Corn Bill of 1827 was withdrawn in consequence of the amendment carried by Wellington, Canning had declared that a similar measure should be introduced in the following session. This pledge had to be redeemed by the Ministry of which the duke was chief, and a bill was brought in without the clause which, the year before, the present Premier had declared to be indispensable. The measure did not quite P