Page:History of the Radical Party in Parliament.djvu/397

 1855.] Death of Peel to Resignation of Aberdeen. "383 Church. The matter and the style were both offensive to the feelings of English Protestants, and especially to the clergy of the Anglican Establishment. The anti-popery cry was immediately raised with great vigour, and unfortunately Lord John Russell joined in the agitation, and in a letter to the Bishop of Durham, dated the 4th of November, he said, " The present state of the law shall be carefully .examined, and the propriety of adopting any proceedings with reference to the recent assumptions of power deliberately considered." The Government was thus suddenly committed to action in a case where, as it afterwards proved, effective legal action was impossible. It was in the midst of the excitement caused by these events that Parliament met on the 4th of February, 1851. It was not long before ministers found that, however sincere may have been their conviction that an offence had been committed by the pope, they had made a grave political error in their haste to deal with a religious question by the action of the law. When they came to consider the course which it was possible for them to take, they could propose no remedy which did not seem ridiculously feeble when compared with the evil which they described. They found, also, that they were opposed by the two sections of politicians, from one or other of which alone they could derive support enough to maintain themselves in power. The Peelites and the ablest of the Radicals alike declared themselves against the policy adopted " by the Ministry, and they had to rely for anything like hearty approval of their policy upon the most bigoted section of the old Tory party. There was no amendment to the address, but Roebuck, immediately after it had been moved and seconded, rose and expressed the pain he felt at finding an Administration calling itself Liberal about to take a back- ward step. The Government Bill was introduced on the /th of February by the Premier. Lord John had to admit that, after consultation with the law officers of the Crown, he found that neither by the common nor statute law could the mere assump-