Page:History of the Radical Party in Parliament.djvu/476

 462 History of the Radical Party in Parliament. [1859- conducive to their common interests. The commercial and financial policy of which he was a most eloquent defender aimed at improving the material conditions of the great body of the people. He was the champion of a system of national education of the broadest and freest kind, and of thorough religious freedom, the love of which did not spring from indifference, but from deep conviction. He saw clearly the necessity of an alteration of those land laws which, artificially built up for the social and political benefit of a class, have divorced the people from the soil, and kept one half of the population of the country in a state of inferiority and subservience. And he was far-seeing enough to know that all the great objects for which he was con- tending could only be obtained, and could only produce their natural results, by a political enfranchisement which would give to all classes of his countrymen a full and free voice in the government of the nation. In Cobden Radicalism found a mouthpiece which could express and defend its noblest aspirations, and could justify its policy to the country and the world. No one, of course, expected any practical work to be effected at the end of this session, and on the 2/th of June Palmerston announced that the prorogation would take place on the 6th of July. Immediately before that time the Ministry sustained another loss, or at least the resignation of another of its members. The scandal about the Leeds Bankruptcy Court, in which the Lord Chancellor's son was implicated in transactions affecting his appointment to an office in the House of Lords, led to an inquiry by a select committee. The report presented, whilst acquitting the Lord Chancellor of any charge except that of haste and want of caution, yet declared that there were circumstances calculated to excite the gravest suspicions, and that the inquiry was highly desirable for the public interests. No one said that Lord Westbury was guilty of personal corrup- tion, but it was evident that his imprudence made his retention of the highest legal office impossible, and on the