Page:History of the Radical Party in Parliament.djvu/268

 254 History of the Radical Party in Parliament. [1833- The appointment of Melbourne as the successor of Grey did not support this theory. Whatever else Melbourne might be, he could never be called a Radical. He had no enthusiasm for political principles, and was a Liberal rather by intel- lectual conviction than instinctive feeling. Originally a Whig, he had joined Canning's Ministry, and remained in office not only under Goderich, but under Wellington. However willing, therefore, he might be to give expression to Liberal feeling, he was not a man likely to lead any revolt on the part of the most advanced officialism against the interests or the prejudices of the governing classes. It did not annoy him to make concessions in either direction, and, having been appointed First Lord on the i6th of July, he appeared as Premier in the House of Lords on the i/th, and announced the changes in the Coercion Bill which Grey had refused to adopt. This was the last event which affected the position of the Ministry. It had been weakened by the secession first of Stanley and his friends, and afterwards of Grey. Its means of carrying any disputed measure depended on the extent to which it could appeal to popular support, and this was an instrument very unacceptable to the old Whigs. The directions in which advance would sooner or later have to be made, if this help was to be secured, were manifested by debates during the session. As early as the 6th of March, before any of the Cabinet disasters had occurred, Hume had moved " That this House do resolve itself into a committee of the whole House, to consider of the corn laws, and of substituting, instead of the present graduated scale of duties, a fixed and moderate duty on the import at all times of foreign corn into the United Kingdom, and for granting a fixed and equivalent bounty on the export of corn from the United Kingdom, with the ultimate view of establishing a free trade in corn." There were two nights' debate, Althorpe and Graham opposing, and Poulett Thompson, a member of the Ministry, and Lord Howick supporting it, and in the end the resolution was rejected by 312 to 155. The subject was