Page:History of the Radical Party in Parliament.djvu/471

 1865.] P aimer stons Last Administration. 457 of M. Fiori the Italian name for Flowers but he indignantly protested against its being supposed that Mazzini would be a party to a conspiracy to murder. Sir Henry Stracy moved " That the speech of the Procureur- Imperial on the trial of Greco, implicating a member of her Majesty's Government in the plot for the assassination of our ally, the Emperor of the French, deserves the serious consideration of this House." This resolution was defeated by a majority of ten, the numbers being 171 to 161 ; but, in consequence of the debate and the closeness of the division, Mr. Stansfeld sent in his resignation, which was accepted. No one pretended to think that he had known of any conspiracy ; the real offence was, that he avowed his acquaintance and sympathy with one of whom kings and emperors were in fear, and the chance of striking at the Government through him was an opportunity not to be resisted. There was a possibility, too, that the Whigs and Radicals might be estranged by the publicity given to the subject. The other resignation was that of Mr. Lowe, Vice- President of the Council. The clerical and other managers of schools had never forgiven that gentleman for the trouble he had caused them by his revised code. In his own de- partment there were partisans of the same colour, and some of the inspectors were inclined to lecture their own chief in the reports which they presented. Mr. Lowe, following the example of all his predecessors, chose to decide what part of these reports should be printed at the cost of the State, and made considerable excisions in some of them. On this one of the most bitter of the denominationalists, Lord Robert Cecil now the Marquis of Salisbury moved " That in the opinion of this House the mutilation of the reports of her Majesty's inspectors of schools, and the exclusion from them of state- ments and opinions adverse to the educational views enter- tained by the Committee of Council, while matters favourable to them are admitted, are violations of the understanding under which the appointment of inspectors was originally sanctioned by Parliament, and tend entirely to destroy the