Page:History of the Radical Party in Parliament.djvu/300

 286 History of the Radical Party in Parliament. [1837- character of the constituency was thus maintained, Leader and De Lacy Evans being returned. The numbers of the Radicals were, as we have said, little, if at all, diminished ; that is to say, there were as many members holding Radical opinions in the new House as there had been in the old. This was seen in some divisions in which votes might be given without any danger of injury to the Government. The party, however, no longer acted even with the approach to organization and unity which had once characterized it. There was a strong intention manifested to consider the Liberal party as the common centre of unity, and not to take any action which would forward the interests of the Tories. In accepting this position, the Radical leaders practically renounced the chance, and the hope, of forcing into the Government men who should be admitted not as individual Liberals, but as acknowledged representatives of the extreme section, with the power of affecting in a definite manner the general policy of the party. By this course, however self-denying and public- spirited it was thought to be at the time, the exclusive Whig feeling was strengthened, and the labour of obtaining official support to any thorough programme was enormously increased. From this time for many years the efforts of Radical members were directed to obtain outside pressure in favour of reforms which, if they had been more self-reliant and determined, they might have dictated from a place in the Cabinet itself. This policy, if it was consciously and deliberately adopted at all, was not approved of by the whole party, and the diversity of feeling thus manifested formed a cause of weak- ness to the general body. There were two sections, the smaller one of which strove to direct public attention to, and arouse agitation on behalf of, those constitutional changes without which they were convinced that no substantial progress could be secured. It was natural that, being in this matter deserted by the bulk of the party in Parliament, they should have framed their proposals on the broadest