Page:History of the Radical Party in Parliament.djvu/399

 i855-] Death of Peel to Resignation of Aberdeen. 385 An increasing number of Liberals were beginning to feel that the only way in which legitimate strength was to be gained for their principles was not by clever trimming between opposing sections in Parliament, but by some change in the representative system by which public opinion could make itself more directly felt. This feeling was ap- pealed to by Locke King, who, on the 2Oth of February, moved for leave to bring in a bill to assimilate the county and borough franchises. Lord John Russell now made a statement which showed that his education had advanced very rapidly. He did not restrict himself to a general state- ment that he was not absolutely opposed to all reform, but said that some reform was desirable, and that a measure should be introduced for a further extension of the suffrage. There were reasons, however, why such a measure should not be brought in this session, though there would be no reason why it should not be brought before the House at the com- mencement of the next session ; and if he were a member of the Government then, he should feel it his duty to lay such a / proposal before Parliament. This was a definite promise which was very acceptable to the reformers ; it encouraged them, however, to push the present motion to division, when they obtained a majority of forty-eight against the Ministry, the numbers being one hundred to fifty-two. The climax was reached when the financial proposals of the Government were received with such general expressions of disapproval that it was evident that they could be carried only with great difficulty. The accounts showed a surplus of appropriate 1 ,000,000 to repayment of debt, and part of the remainder to the conversion of the window tax into a kind of house duty, and to continue the income tax. The strongest objections were raised to the maintenance of the income tax and the refusal to repeal the window tax unconditionally. The financial statement was made on the I7th of February ; on the J 2Oth the division took place on the Franchise Bill, and on the ^ 2 ist the Ministry resigned. Such rapid acts of statesmanship 2 C
 * 1, 890,000, and the Chancellor of the Exchequer proposed to