if it were necessary it must be immediate. Sir
Robert remained irritated and obstinate. He would not give up a stage
either of the Corn Bill or the Coercion Bill; he wanted to advance both
before Easter. The mere division of the House between Free-traders and
Protectionists had already ceased; there were breakers ahead, and it
was not difficult from this night to perceive that the course of the
government would not be so summary as they had once expected.

This strange interlude occurred after midnight on the 26th of March. On
Friday, the 27th, the House divided on the amendment of Mr. Eliot Yorke,
and the Corn Bill was read for the second time. On the reassembling of
the House on Monday, the 30th, an extraordinary scene took place.

It appears that the cabinet, after painful deliberation, had arrived at
the conclusion that, notwithstanding the importance of sending up
the Corn Bill to the House of Lords before Easter, it was absolutely
necessary to proceed at once with the Coercion Bill; and it was resolved
that the Secretary of State should on this evening lay before the House
the facts and reasons which 'induce the Government to believe in the
necessity of the measure.' Mr. O'Connell and his followers had already
announced their intention of opposing the first reading of the bill,
an allowable but very unusual course. It is competent to the House of
Commons to refuse a first reading to any bill sent down to it; but the
journals afford few examples of the exercise of such a privilege. A
member of the House of Lords may lay on the table, as a matter of pure
right, any bill which he thinks proper to introduce, and it is read a
first time as a matter of course; the orders of the House of Commons are
different, and a member must obtain permission before he introduces a
bill. This permission is occasionally refused; but when a bill comes
from the House of Lords, the almost invariable custom is to read it
for the first time without discussion. There are, however, as we have
observed, instances to the contrary, and the Irish Coercion Bill of '33
was one of them. So pregnant a precedent could not be forgotten on
the present occasion. The government therefore were prepared for an
opposition to the first reading of their bill; but trusting to the
strength of their case and the assumed support of the Whig party, they
believed that this opposition would not be stubborn, more especially
as there were numerous stages of the measur