Page:History of the Radical Party in Parliament.djvu/494

 480 History of the Radical Party in Parliament. [1865- division to have two members, London University one, and the remainder to counties. There was a debate which was adjourned to the 28th, but before that time, Disraeli announced the intention of the Government to withdraw the resolutions, and to bring in a bill. Before that could be done, however, a ministerial catastrophe occurred. Lord Cranbourne and Lord Carnarvon found that their impulse had carried them beyond their reason in allowing them to accept the moderate bill of their colleagues, and so they resigned. On this General Peel was released from his unwilling assent, and all three retired from the Cabinet. The causes which led to the crisis, and the policy of the Government, were explained and discussed in the House of Commons on the 4th and 5th of March, and on the last-named evening Mr. Bright reminded the House that he had always said that household suffrage was the true suffrage for boroughs, and urged the Ministry to deal with the working classes in a generous and liberal spirit. Such a secession as that which had now taken place might have done more injury to a stronger Cabinet than it did to that of Lord Derby. There was no ministerial majority in the Commons to be affected by it, and the forbearance of Liberals, by which the Government existed, was likely to be increased rather than diminished by such an event. Certainly the prospect of obtaining a good reform bill was brighter than before, on account of that greater dependence upon the opposition which had been caused by the resignations. Ministers at once reverted to the more extensive scheme which they had modified with a view of conciliating Cran- bourne and Carnarvon. How extensive it was to be really made, they had themselves no idea ; but they were prepared for " a leap in the dark," * and trusted to fortune and the Liberals for a safe landing-place. On the i8th of March the Chancellor of the Exchequer introduced the second and final bill, final in title, but destined to be essentially altered in its progress through Parliament. The principal difference between this third reading of the bill.
 * Lord Derby's speech in the House of Lords, on the 6th of August, on the