Page:History of the Radical Party in Parliament.djvu/302

 288 History of the Radical Party in Parliament. [1837- Radicals who from time to time took office on the condition not of insuring consideration for their own policy, but of being allowed to carry out that of their superiors. One other gain has been obtained, of which the chief result is yet to be realized. The country has learned, at a heavy price to be sure, that the policy which the Radicals have advocated, which through a succession of agitations they have impressed upon the public mind, and for which by slow degrees they have obtained a partial acceptance by the legislature, is that which was wisest and best suited to its wants and require- ments. There is scarcely an Act which has been passed to ameliorate the condition of the people, to elevate their moral, social, and political status, and to remove abuses, which has not been striven for by the Radicals, and called for by their followers, long before it was conceded by either section of the governing class. The nation must indeed be blind if it does not see that the men who were the first to appreciate the necessity of reform, to guage the popular feeling, and to adjust our institutions to the growing necessities of modern times, were at least as much deserving of the name of statesmen as the ministers who resisted progress whilst resist- ance was possible, and maimed and mutilated the proposals which they were forced at last to entertain. The Queen's first Parliament met on the 1 5th of November. The election of Speaker and the usual formalities occupied some days, and on the 2Oth business was commenced. The first division in the House of Commons was taken on an amendment moved to the address by Wakley, containing a declaration in favour of extension of the suffrage. The challenge was taken up by Russell, who declared himself opposed to an extension of the suffrage, the ballot, and triennial Parliaments. Leader and Charles Buller both protested in the name of the Radicals against this speech ; Buller using language so strong that he afterwards modified and partially withdrew it. The division, when it was taken, formed the first proof that there were many men who, whilst approving of the principle of the amendment,