Page:History of the Radical Party in Parliament.djvu/369

 1850.] Resignation of Sir Robert Peel to his Death. 355 This was done, and the second reading was moved on the 28th of April. The debate was adjourned to the 1 6th of June, when, on a division, the bill was thrown out by 1 12 to 23. It was a curious commentary on the past policy of Whigs and protectionists alike, that the recent corn law, by which the duty on wheat was four shillings a quarter, had to be entirely suspended, as it was by a bill founded on resolutions intro- duced by Lord John Russell on the 2ist of January. Once more, on the 23rd of February, the old Parliament was challenged to give an opinion on the subject of electoral reform. The suggestion was a very mild one, Buncombe moving for leave to bring in a bill for repealing the rate-paying clauses of the Reform Act. Leave was refused by a majority of twenty, the numbers being fifty-eight to thirty-eight. In this division Milner Gibson, who had supported many much more extensive reforms, was in the majority. It must have been an unpleasant position, and it was one which he soon found insupportable ; for in the following April he resigned office, and resumed his place beside Hume, Cobden, and the other Radicals. Ward was absent from this division, but he, unlike Milner Gibson, grew accustomed to official restraints unaccompanied by power. The cause which stood next to that of reform in the opinions of the popular party that of national education made but little progress in Parliament. The policy of the Government was to continue and very slightly extend the system of grants in aid of voluntary efforts, through the medium of the committee of privy council. When the vote came up, on the 2/th of April, Buncombe moved for the appointment of a committee to inquire into the whole subject, but was defeated by 372 votes to 47. He was supported by the Radical vote, Milner Gibson and Ward being both absent. There was, indeed, no possibility of taking any important step with a Parliament which was daily expecting to receive the dismissal which came on the 23rd of June, when it was pro- rogued and dissolved. The general election of 1847 showed to how great an