Page:History of the Radical Party in Parliament.djvu/275

 1 837-] First Reformed Parliament to Death of William IV. 261 had voted against the repeal of the corn laws; they had hoped for relief from taxation, ministers had voted with the Tories against the reduction of the pension list, and seemed to care nothing for financial reform ; they had hoped for a settlement of the Irish Church difficulty, ministers had abandoned the only clause in the bill which dealt with the principle at stake ; they hoped to conciliate the Irish people and effect a real union, ministers had proposed the most stringent Coercion Bill which had ever been known ; they had hoped that religious equality would have been vindicated by the reform of the marriage laws, ministers offered a measure which the dissenters rejected with contempt. On all these questions there seemed as much to be expected from the Conservatives as from the Whigs. Before the Reform Act was passed, a Tory Parliament had amended the corn laws and had carried Catholic emancipation, and the Whigs had done nothing better or bolder. So thousands of electors quietly accepted the direction of landlords and patrons, and voted for Con- servatives. Where there was any enthusiasm the constituencies looked to the Radicals as opposed to the Whigs, and again the old ministers were the losers. It might have been thought and at the time it was thought that these conditions would make the Whigs more than ever dependent upon the Radicals, and would result in the adoption of a stronger and more decided policy. " It became one of the results of the change," said the "Annual Register," "that a greater degree of influence was acquired by the Radical party than it had yet been able to manifest." * This was the opinion of some of the most thoughtful members of that party, and there was great disappointment when the expectations were not realized. John Stuart Mill has expressed in his "Autobiography" the feeling of disappointment which was caused by the failure of the Radicals to make themselves felt in legislation in the years following the Reform Actf The failure was still more f "Autobiography," pp. 194, et seq.
 * "Annual Register," 1835, p. 3.