Page:History of the Radical Party in Parliament.djvu/443

 i8s9-] Resignation of Aberdeen to Dissolution in 1859. 4 2 9 It was said that the confused state of parties in Parliament made such a course necessary, but this is a commentary, and not an explanation. There was, in fact, no such complication in parties as had existed only a few years before, when, on the death of Sir Robert Peel, there were three separate sets of opinions held by prominent statesmen, no one set having a majority. In the present case the Parliament had been elected on the old party lines, affected only by the expression of confidence in Palmerston, which did not alter the broad issue. There was a clear Liberal majority in the House of Commons, if the Liberals had been loyal to their opinions. The difficulty lay in the power and position of the Radicals, the force of their views in the country, and the unwillingness of the Whig leaders to frankly recognize the facts. The progress of Radicalism had been manifested not more in the importance of individual members than in the growth of opinion in the bulk of the party. This had been shown in the strength of the votes given on some of what might be considered test questions. On the three most important subjects especially national education, religious liberty, and Parliamentary reform the most decided advance had been made. On the last point every recent Ministry had declared that some change must be made, and Lord Derby, like his predecessors, was ready to promise a measure of the kind. The wise and honest way would have been for the Whig leaders, willing to accept a Radical proposal, to have called into office some members of the party which originated the policy, that it might be efficiently carried out. The objects of Whigs and Radicals, however, were not identical. Whigs and Conservatives alike desired, whilst making concessions to the popular demands, to accompany them by conditions and limitations which should preserve power to the same social class which had now the control of so many of the constituencies ; and each was ready to give, if not active, at least passive support to the other, whilst attempts were made to invent some workable compromise. They either did not see that no