ous, the Sunday papers are
talking treason by wholesale.... Peel does all he can to make his
friends behave like gentlemen. But the nightly vulgarities of the House
of Commons furnish new reasons for Reform, and not a ray of talent
glimmers among them all. Double-distilled stupidity!'[6] In the midst of
it all Russell fell ill, worn out with fatigue and excitement, and as
the summer slipped past the people became alarmed and indignant at the
dead-lock, and in various parts of the kingdom the attitude of the
masses grew not merely restless but menacing. At length the tactics of
the Opposition were exhausted, and it was possible to report progress.
'On September 7,' is Lord John's statement, 'the debate was closed, and
after much labour, and considerable sacrifice of health, I was able on
that night to propose, amid much cheering, that the bill should be
reported to the House.' The third reading was carried on September 19 by
a majority of fifty-five. Three days later, at five in the morning on
September 22, the question was at length put, and in a House of five
hundred and eighty-one members the majority for Ministers was one
hundred and nine.

[Sidenote: LORD GREY ARISES TO THE OCCASION]

The bill was promptly sent up to the Peers, and Lord Grey proposed the
second reading on October 3 in a speech of sustained eloquence. Lord
Grey spoke as if he felt the occasion to be the most critical event in a
political career which had extended to nearly half a century. He struck
at once the right key-note, the gravity of the situation, the magnitude
of the issues involved, the welfare of the nation. He made a modest but
dignified allusion to his own life-long association with the question.
'In 1786 I voted for Reform. I supported Mr. Pitt in his motion for
shortening the duration of Parliaments. I gave my best assistance to the
measure of Reform introduced by Mr. Flood before the French
Revolution.[7] On one or two occasions I originated motions on the
subject.' Then he turned abruptly from his own personal association with
the subject to what he finely termed the 'mighty interests of the
State,' and the course which Ministers felt they must take if they were
to meet the demands of justice, and not to imperil the safety of the
nation. He laid stress on the general discontent which prevailed, on the
political agitation of the last twelve months, on the distress that
reigned in the manufacturing districts, on the influence of the