Page:History of the Radical Party in Parliament.djvu/484

 4/O History of the Radical Party in Parliament. [1865- more striking proof of the determination of the privileged classes, to whichever political party they belonged, to combine to secure the interests of their own order could not well be given. When the second reading was moved, on the I2th of April, Earl Grosvenor proposed, and Lord Stanley seconded, an amendment declaring that it was inexpedient for the House to consider the bill for the reduction of the franchise until it had before it the whole scheme of the Government for the amendment of the representation of the people. The dis- cussion was not limited to the avowed object of the amend- ment, Mr. Lowe and other Adullamites opposing any change in the constitution of the House. For eight nights the debate went on, the excitement constantly increasing, and on the 27th of April Mr. Gladstone closed it in a speech of remarkable power. In concluding his oration, he told the opposition on both sides that their efforts must ultimately fail, even if they gained a temporary advantage. " You cannot fight against the future," he said. "Time is on our side. The great social forces which move on in their might and majesty, and which the tumult of our debates does not for a moment impede or disturb these great social forces are against you ; they are marshalled on our side ; and the banner which we now carry, though perhaps at some moment it may droop over our sinking heads, yet it soon again will float in the eye of heaven, and it will be borne by the firm hands of the united people of the three kingdoms, perhaps not to an easy, but to a certain and to a not-distant victory." This was the spirit of true Radicalism, this belief in great principles, this trust in the people and in their future. It was scorned at the time by the tricky politicians of the one side and the conceited pedants of the other ; but the Tories and their tools found, in a very short time, that the forces at which the one laughed and the other trembled were indeed too strong for them. The division on Earl Grosvenor's amendment showed a majority of only five for the Government, the numbers being 318 to 313. The strength of the Liberal secession was shown in this result. There voted for the Government, including the