e on which the views of its
opponents might be subsequently expressed, and as they themselves were
prepared to engage that they would not proceed further than this
first reading until the Corn Bill had passed the House of Commons. The
consternation, therefore, of the government could scarcely be
concealed, when they found on Monday night that they had to encounter a
well-organized party opposition, headed by Sir William Somerville, and
sanctioned and supported in debate by Lord John Russell and Sir George
Grey.

It would seem indeed a difficult and somewhat graceless office for the
Whigs to oppose the first reading of a government bill, concerning,
too, the highest duties of administration, which had received such
unqualified approval from all the leading members of their party in the
House of Lords, who had competed in declarations of its necessity and
acknowledgments of its moderation, while they only regretted the too
tardy progress of a measure so indispensable to the safety of
the country and the security of her Majesty's subjects. A curious
circumstance, however, saved them from this dilemma, which yet in
the strange history of faction they had nevertheless in due time to
encounter.

As the Coercion Bill coming from the Lords appeared on the paper of
the day in the form of a notice of motion, the Secretary of State,
this being a day on which orders have precedence, had to move that such
orders of the day should be postponed, so that he might proceed with
the motion on the state of Ireland, of which notice had been given. The
strict rule of the House is, that on Mondays and Fridays, orders of
the day should have precedence of notices of motion, so that it was
impossible for the Secretary of State to make his motion, that a certain
bill (the Protection of Life--Ireland--Bill) should be read a first time
without permission of the House, a permission always granted as a matter
of course on such nights to the government, since the business which can
be brought forward, whether in the shape of orders or motions, is
purely government business, and thus the interests and privilege of no
independent member of Parliament can be affected by a relaxation of
the rules which the convenience of a ministry and the conduct of public
business occasionally require. However, on this night, no sooner had
the Secretary of State made, in a few formal words, this formal request,
than up sprang Sir William Somerville to move an amendmen