Page:History of the Radical Party in Parliament.djvu/327

 CHAPTER XIV. SIR ROBERT PEEL'S ADMINISTRATION (1841-1846). THE election of 1841 made a marked difference in the personal constitution of the Radical party, but its results affected still more materially its future policy and conduct. Two of the leading members, representing the thought and the activity of the party, now left, one for a time only, the other permanently, the House in which they had played a distinguished part ; and a third celebrated man, defeated now as a Liberal, returned afterwards to Parliament as a Con- servative. Grote, whose great learning and business ability, devoted unreservedly to the popular cause, had given weight to the opinions and the proceedings of his party, retired from Parliament. His seat for the city was lost to the Liberals ; and Lord John Russell barely kept the third seat from a Tory competitor. Hume, whose constant attention to financial affairs had made him a distinct position, which his thorough consistent Liberalism also justified, was defeated at Leeds, but in the following year (1842) he was returned for Montrose. The case of Bulwer was different. He had worked with the Radicals heartily in their efforts to obtain Parliamentary reform, and given special and successful attention to the removal of the taxes on knowledge, which interfered as much with the political as with the general education of the people. There were some matters of practical importance, however, on which he did not agree with the party, the principal one being the corn law question. His defeat for Lincoln led to his absence from Parliament