Page:History of the Radical Party in Parliament.djvu/282

 268 History of the Radical Party in Parliament. [1834- that hold on the national feeling which, by adopting a different course, they were destined speedily to lose. For the Govern- ment was formed upon the narrowest sectional basis, no new man representing the new ideas being admitted. The only persons connected in any way with Radicalism were Hobhouse and Poulett Thompson, of whom the former had been disowned by the Westminster constituency, and the latter was not sufficiently strong to vindicate his principles in a Cabinet where he stood alone. Thompson, indeed, did insist upon the right of voting for the repeal of the corn laws, but that at the time was regarded as a very cheap concession. This difficulty of deciding how to deal with Radical claims was, perhaps, one of the causes of the delay which occurred in the formation of the Ministry. The King, in the first place, sent for Lord Grey ; but he declined, and advised that Lord Melbourne should be called, and the advice was accepted. It was on the 8th of April that Peel had announced his resignation, and it was not until the i8th that Parliament was informed that the new Administration was formed, when Melbourne said that the difficulties which he had encountered in construct- ing his Ministry had not only been many and great, but some of them of a peculiarly severe and mortifying nature. This mortification did not end with the appointments, for on the re-election of those members of the House of Commons who had taken office a severe reverse was experienced. Russell was rejected by Devonshire, and Palmerston by Hampshire, both having to find other constituencies ; and seats in Stafford- shire and Inverness-shire, rendered vacant by the elevation of Littleton and Grant to the peerage, were both filled by Con- servatives. There was nothing in the constitution of the Cabinet to excite any popular feeling, and without that the counties were sure to be lost. The Government did not learn either of the lessons which these reverses should have taught them ; they neither leaned towards the Radicals nor stiffened their own policy. On the contrary, as they were beaten in the counties by the Tories, they seemed inclined to become themselves more Conservative.