stituencies voting under
the same franchises had returned an increased majority in support of the
same, or very nearly the same measure; this measure, with slight
variations, had been adopted by an immense preponderance of votes in the
new house of commons: yet its fate in the house of lords was very
doubtful. Ever since the autumn of 1831, the expedient of swamping the
house of lords had been seriously contemplated. It was supremely
distasteful to the king, and Grey himself, in common with a majority of
the cabinet, was strongly averse from it. Then came the intervention of
Harrowby and Wharncliffe, the failure of which strengthened the hands of
the more determined reformers in the cabinet, and induced the king to
give way. Having already created a few peers on the coronation, he
consented to a limited addition in the last resort, but with the
reservation that eldest sons of existing peers should be called up in
the first instance, and upon the assurance that, reform once carried,
all further encroachments of the democracy should be resisted by the
government. He even authorised Grey to inform Harrowby that he had given
the prime minister this power, in the hope that it would never be
needed, and that at least the second reading of the bill would be
carried in the house of lords without it. His objection to a permanent
augmentation of the peerage remained unshaken, and Grey promised to
propose no augmentation at all before the second reading.

This compact, if it can be so called, was fulfilled in the letter, for
the bill was read a first time without a division, and it passed the
second reading on April 14 by a majority of 184 to 175. To all
appearance a notable process of conversion had been wrought among the
peers, seventeen of whom actually changed sides, while ten opponents of
the former bill absented themselves, and twelve new adherents were
gained. However encouraging these figures might be, the ministers were
under no illusion. They had the best reason for expecting the worst
from the struggle in committee, and they were conscious of gradually
losing the king's confidence. The very demonstrations of popular
enthusiasm for reform which impressed others with a sense of its
necessity impressed him with a sense of its danger; the political unions
and the Bristol riots alarmed him extremely; and the foreign policy of
the government elicited from him so outspoken a protest that Grey
tendered his resignation. The diff