Page:Public School History of England and Canada (1892).djvu/184

 built. If the land-owner was in need of money, he sold the right to the seat to some man who wished to be a member of Parliament, and these “nomination” boroughs soon came to have a regular market value. In other boroughs, the voters were so few that a rich candidate could easily buy their votes. So it can easily be seen that the British Parliament did not really represent the British people. Yet many men, some of them intelligent and honest, dreaded any change, fearing that it would be the beginning of a revolution, or that good and able men would find it difficult to be elected, if votes were given to the people. One of these was Wellington, who thought that everything was just right, and that the system in use could not be improved.

It was the custom then to have a general election soon after a new sovereign came to the throne, and the election that took place in 1830, showed that Wellington and Peel had lost their popularity on account of the Roman Catholic Emancipation Bill. Soon after the new Parliament met the Government had to resign and Lord Grey became Prime Minister, with Lord John Russell as leader in the Commons. Russell lost no time in bringing in a Reform Bill, but it made so many changes that it passed its second reading by a majority of only one, and a little later an important change was made in it, when it came up again for discussion. The ministers now persuaded the king to dissolve Parliament, and have a new election. Although very few people had votes, yet the feeling was so strong throughout the country among the merchants, manufacturers, artisans, and working-men that the election resulted in giving the Bill a large majority. A second Reform Bill was now introduced in the Commons and carried by a majority of 109, but when it went before the House of Lords it was thrown out. This caused intense indignation, and great meetings were held in different parts of the country to denounce the Lords and to encourage the supporters of the measure. In some places there were riots and burnings, and people began to fear that a revolution was near at hand. Once more did the Government bring in the measure, and once more it was carried by a large majority in the Commons, and rejected in the Lords. Lord Grey and his colleagues now resigned, and Wellington tried to form a Government, but failed. Grey was recalled, not, however, before he had secured a pledge from the king, that he would, if necessary, create sufficient new peers to carry the