el as the session went on.
Sometimes he was saved from defeat on a question of finance by the help
of the more advanced Liberals, who came to his assistance when certain
of his own Tory followers were prepared to desert him because his views
on some question of taxation were much too new-fashioned for their own
old-fashioned notions. Every one who has paid any attention to
Parliamentary history can understand how distressing is the position of
a minister who has no absolute majority at his command, and how more
distressing still is the position of a minister who can only look to
chance disruptions and combinations of parties for any possible
majority. Peel bore himself throughout all the trials of that most
trying time with indomitable courage and with unfailing skill. Never
during his whole career did he prove himself more brilliant and more
full of resource than as the leader of what might be called an utterly
hopeless struggle. The highest tribute has been paid to his
never-failing tact and temper during that trying ordeal by his
principal opponent in the House of Commons, Lord John Russell. Russell
was now the leader of the Liberal Opposition in the House of Commons,
and the struggle of parties was once again illustrated by a sort of
continuous Parliamentary duel between two rival leaders. The same
phenomenon had been seen, from time to time, in the days of Queen Anne
and in the days of the Georges; and it was seen again, at intervals,
during some of the most vivid and fascinating passages of Parliamentary
history in the reign of Queen Victoria.

The crisis, however, came soon to this first Ministry of Sir Robert
Peel. Peel had announced, in a reasonable and {245} manful spirit,
considering how the task of holding together a Ministry had been
imposed on him and the temptation which it afforded for the attacks of
irresponsible enemies, that he would not resign office on any side
issue or question of purely factitious importance, and that he would
hold his place unless defeated by a vote of want of confidence or a
vote of censure. He challenged the leader of the Opposition to test
the feeling of the House by a division on a question of that nature.
Lord John Russell refused to take any such course, declaring that he
believed it his duty to wait and see what might be the nature of the
measures of reform which the Government had promised to introduce
before inviting the House to say whether the Government deserv