Page:History of the Radical Party in Parliament.djvu/435

 i8s9-] Resignation of Aberdeen to Dissolution in 1859. 4 2r and moved and carried a motion that on the roth of April the House would resolve itself into a committee to consider the question. On the day appointed the House went into committee, when Russell moved " That in the opinion of this committee it is expedient to revise and consolidate the minutes of the Committee of Privy Council on Education," but was defeated by 260 votes to 158. An advance was, however, made during- the session by the appointment of a vice- president of the Committee of Council on Education, who should be a minister having special charge of the subject. The greatest activity was shown by the Radicals with regard to religious liberty. Sir W. Clay again introduced his bill to abolish church rates, and once more obtained large majorities in his favour. This year, too, he succeeded in securing the votes of ministers. The second reading, which took place on the 5th of March, was carried by 221 to 178 Palmerston, Sir G. C. Lewis, and Sir C. Wood being in the majority, and Russell and Gladstone in the minority. The bill was withdrawn on the 2/th of June. A more striking proposal was made by Miall on the 27th of May, when he moved to disendow the Irish Church, and to discontinue the Regum Donum to Nonconformists in Ireland, saving in both cases all existing life-interests. For this thorough-going resolution he obtained 93 votes, whilst 163 were recorded against it. The division showed that there existed in Parlia- ment a very strong feeling in favour of relieving the Irish people from the dominance of an alien Church. On the 2Oth of May Berkeley moved for leave to introduce a bill for the adoption of the ballot, but was defeated by 1 5 1 to in. An attempt was made by the Ministry to introduce a reform of the House of Lords in a manner which if it would not have been very effective at the time, yet would have settled a principle which might by degrees produce something like an approach to sympathy of feeling between the two Houses, instead of the direct antagonism which now exists whenever there is a Liberal majority in the Commons. The appointment of Lord Wensleydale as a life peer would have