Page:History of the Radical Party in Parliament.djvu/235

 1832.1 Cannings Premiership to Passing of Reform Act. 221 exactly formed on the model of the Catholic Association ; for it had its subscriptions, its funds, its meetings, its discussions, and its agitator. The purpose of this association was to raise a universal cry for Parliamentary reform ; to carry the question by exaggerating the difficulties, abuses, and distresses of the country." Failing in the attempt to enfranchise a single town, Lord John Russell, on the 23rd of February, brought forward a proposal to enable Leeds, Manchester, and Birmingham to return members to the House of Commons. This was sup- ported by Huskisson, and, on a division, was lost by only forty- eight votes, the numbers being 188 to 140. As a rule, the Radicals had been content to follow and support the Whigs in their mild proposals, but they had now obtained a colleague who would not take part in any such tactics. O'Connell was always for taking the most extreme course, and he hated the Whigs as heartily as he did the Tories. Accordingly, on the 28th of May he moved for leave to bring in a bill to establish triennial Parliaments, universal suffrage, and vote by ballot. These were only the same propositions which had been in the old days supported by Fox and his friends, but in proportion as the question of re- form approached the time for its practical treatment, the dread which the moderates felt for any thorough scheme increased. Lord John Russell and Brougham protested against universal, suffrage and the ballot, and Lord Althorpe, whilst not object- ing to the ballot, strongly opposed universal suffrage. O'Ccn- nell was defeated by 332 votes to 13, and thereon Lord John Russell took occasion to move a series of four resolutions, of which the first three proposed to increase the number of members of the House ; to give members to large towns, and additional members to wealthy and populous counties ; and, to obviate the too great increase of members, to take from not more than sixty boroughs containing less than 2,500 inhabi- tants each, one of the members. The last of the four resolutions contained a proposition so startling that it is scarcely credible now that it could ever have been seriously made by a responsible politician. It only