Page:History of the Radical Party in Parliament.djvu/294

 280 History of the Radical Party in Parliament. [1834- subject of education, Ewart gave notice of a motion for the appointment of a minister of education, and Roebuck of one for the establishment of a national system. Ewart also took one of the earliest steps in the agitation for land law reform, by moving, on the 4th of April, for the abolition of the law of primogeniture, for which he obtained only twenty-one votes.* It was becoming more and more evident that no per- manent progress was to be expected until the opinions of the majority of the people obtained constitutional expression through a reform of the representative system. No advance of any kind was possible without long and violent agitation ; and whatever the special question before the country might be, a demand for parliamentary reform inevitably formed a part, and a very important part, in .the public discussions which it aroused. The Peers would not give way on any subject until they were convinced that the excitement caused by their obstruction was likely to threaten their hold on the legislature. Accordingly, the motions of this kind were numerous and far-reaching. Amongst the notices given were those of Grote for the Ballot ; by Molesworth for the abolition of property qualification of members, and for a committee on peerage reform ; by Hume for household suffrage ; by Dun- combe for the repeal of the rate-paying clauses of the Reform Act, and for the abolition of proxy voting in the House of Lords ; by Tennyson d'Eyncourt for the repeal of the Septen- nial Act ; and by Lushington for the exclusion of the bishops from the House of Lords. All those of the above motions which were actually introduced were defeated by large majorities, but many of them secured a considerable number of votes. Thus for the ballot there were 155; for abolishing property qualification, 104 ; for the exclusion of the bishops, 92 ; for abolition of proxy voting, 81 ; for the second reading of the bill to repeal rate-paying clauses, 73 ; and for shorten- one who had once occupied the most prominent place in the party. Burdett, who had been lukewarm, now openly left them, resigned his seat at Westminster, and stood again as a Tory. He was successful then, but retired at the general election , and took a county seat.
 * Whilst the new school of Radicals were thus active, they were deserted by