ent ought to prevail
with a law-abiding people.

{110}

In the House of Commons Brougham gave notice that on an early day he
would bring forward a motion on the subject of political reform. Thus,
therefore, the trumpet of battle was sounded on both sides. The
struggle must now be fought out to the end. Nothing, however, could be
done until the Ministry had been driven from office, and it was not by
any means certain that in the House of Commons, as it was then
constituted, a direct vote on the question of reform would end in a
defeat of the Duke of Wellington's Government. Something that seemed
almost like an accident brought about a crisis sooner than had been
anticipated. Sir Henry Parnell brought forward a motion for the
appointment of a select committee to inquire into, and report upon, the
estimates and amounts submitted by his Majesty with regard to the civil
service. This motion had the support of the Liberal leaders and was
strongly opposed by the Government. No one could have been surprised
at the opposition offered by the Government, for Sir Henry Parnell's
was just the sort of motion which every Ministry is sure to oppose. A
government prepares its own estimates, and is not apt to be in favor of
the appointment of an outside committee to inquire into their amount
and their appropriation. Still, the whole question was not one to be
regarded as of capital importance in ordinary times, and therefore,
although the debate was one of great interest both inside and outside
the House of Commons, it did not seem likely to lead to any momentous
and immediate consequences.

[Sidenote: 1830--Ministerial resignations]

Sir Henry Parnell was a man of ability and character, and was regarded
in the House as an authority on financial questions. He belonged to
the family of Parnell the poet, the friend of Swift and Pope, and he
afterwards became the first Lord Congleton, taking his title from that
part of Cheshire where the poet and his ancestors had lived. In years,
much later years, that belonged to our own times another member of the
Parnell family made for himself a conspicuous place in the House of
Commons and in Imperial politics, the late Charles Stewart Parnell, the
famous leader of the Irish National party. Sir Henry {111} Parnell
carried his motion by a majority of twenty-nine in the House of Commons.

Now in the ordinary course of things there was nothing in such an event
to compel the resignation