: 'Our
crisis has been entertaining, and Peel is expected to-day. I wish he
could have remained long enough at Rome to have learnt mosaic, of which
parti-coloured materials our Cabinets have been constructed for twenty
years, and for want of cement have fallen to pieces. The Whigs squall
out, "Let us depart, for the Reformers grow too impatient." The Tories
squall out, "Let us come in, and we will be very good boys, and become
Reformers ourselves." However, the country is safe by the Reform Bill,
for no Minister can remain in office now by corrupt Parliaments; he must
act with approbation of the country or lose his Cabinet in a couple of
months.' At the General Election which followed, Peel issued his
celebrated address to the electors of Tamworth, in which he declared
himself favourable to the reform of 'proved abuses,' and to the carrying
out of such measures 'gradually, dispassionately, and deliberately,' in
order that it might be lasting. Lord John was returned again for South
Devon; but on the reassembling of Parliament the Liberal majority had
dwindled from 314 to 107. It was during his election tour that he
delivered an address at Totnes, which Greville described as not merely
'a very masterly performance,' but 'one of the cleverest and most
appropriate speeches' he had ever read, and for which his friends
warmly complimented him. It was a powerful and humorous examination of
the Tories' professed anxiety for Reform, and of the prospects of any
Reform measures being carried out by their instrumentality.

[Sidenote: LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION]

Lord John now became leader of the Opposition, though the Duke of
Bedford dreaded the strain, and expostulated with his son on his
acceptance of so irksome and laborious a task. 'You will have to conduct
and keep in order a noisy and turbulent pack of hounds which, I think,
you will find it quite impossible to restrain.' The Duke of Bedford's
fears were not groundless, and Lord John afterwards confessed that, in
the whole period during which he had led the Liberal party in the House
of Commons, he never had so difficult a task. The forces under his
command consisted of a few stalwart Radicals, a number of Whigs of the
traditional and somewhat stationary type, and some sixty Irish members.
Nevertheless, he promptly assumed an aggressive attitude, and his first
victory as leader of the Opposition was won on the question of the
choice of a new Speaker, when Mr. Abercromby was