A very large proportion of tenant farmers thus
became county voters, and for the most part followed the politics of
their landlords. It may be doubted whether Grey seriously lamented
Chandos's intervention; at all events it went far to verify his own
prediction that aristocratic dominion would not be undermined by
reform.[104] Meanwhile, the country was naturally impatient of the
vexatious delay, and a somewhat menacing conference took place between
the political unions of Birmingham, Manchester, and Glasgow. Happily
public attention was diverted to some extent by the coronation, which
took place on the 8th. The bill was carried more rapidly through its
later stages, and was finally passed in the house of commons on the
21st, though by a reduced majority of 345 to 236.

On the following day the bill reached the house of lords and was set
down for its second reading on October 3. Thenceforth all the hopes and
fears of its friends and enemies were concentrated on the proceedings in
that house, whose ascendency in the state was at stake. The question:
"What will the lords do?" was asked all over the country with the
deepest anxiety. The debate lasted five nights, and is admitted to have
been among the finest reported in our parliamentary history. All the
leading peers took part in it, and several of them were roused by the
occasion to unwonted eloquence, but the palm was generally awarded to
the speeches of Grey, Harrowby, Brougham, and Lyndhurst. The first of
these occupied a position which gave increased weight to his counsels,
since he was the veteran advocate of reform and yet known to be a most
loyal member of the nobility which now stood on its trial. In his
opening speech he appealed earnestly to the bench of bishops, as
disinterested parties and as ministers of peace, not to set themselves
against the almost unanimous will of the people. Brougham's great
oration on the last night of the debate contained a masterly review of
the whole question, and, in spite of its theatrical conclusion, when he
sank upon his knees, extorted the admiration of his bitterest critics as
a consummate exhibition of his marvellous powers.

But very few of the peers were open to persuasion; the votes of
anti-reformers were mainly guided by a shortsighted conception of their
own interests, and Eldon did not shrink from contending that nomination
boroughs were in the nature of property rather than of trusts. A
memorable division ended in t