ls at his back, a deadlock was
inevitable. Durham, in ill health and chagrin, and irritated by the
stationary, if not reactionary, attitude of certain members of the Grey
Administration, resigned office in the spring of 1833. Goderich became
Privy Seal, and this enabled Stanley to exchange the Irish Secretaryship
for that of the Colonies. He had driven Ireland to the verge of revolt,
but he had nevertheless made an honest attempt to grapple with many
practical evils, and his Education Bill was a piece of constructive
statesmanship which placed Roman Catholics on an equality with
Protestants. Early in the session of 1834 Althorp introduced the Poor
Law Amendment Act, and the measure was passed in July. The changes which
it brought about were startling, for its enactments were drastic. This
great economic measure came to the relief of a nation in which 'one
person in every seven was a pauper.' The new law limited relief to
destitution, prohibited out-door help to the able-bodied, beyond medical
aid, instituted tests to detect imposture, confederated parishes into
unions, and substituted large district workhouses for merely local
shelters for the destitute. In five years the poor rate was reduced by
three millions, and the population, set free by the new interpretation
of 'Settlement,' were able, in their own phrase, to follow the work and
to congregate accordingly wherever the chance of a livelihood offered.
One great question followed hard on the heels of another.

In the King's Speech at the opening of Parliament, the consideration of
Irish tithes was recommended, for extinguishing 'all just causes of
complaint without injury to the rights and property of any class of
subjects or to any institution in Church or State.' Mr. Littleton
(afterwards Lord Hatherton), who had succeeded Stanley as Irish
Secretary accordingly introduced a new Tithe Bill, the object of which
was to change the tithe first into a rent-charge payable by the
landlord, and eventually into land tax. The measure also proposed that
the clergy should be content with a sum which fell short of the amount
to which they were entitled by law, so that riot and bloodshed might be
avoided by lessened demands. On the second reading of the bill, Lord
John frankly avowed the faith that was in him, a circumstance which led
to unexpected results. He declared that, as he understood it, the aim of
the bill was to determine and secure the amount of the tithe. The
questio