Page:History of the Radical Party in Parliament.djvu/387

1850.] Resignation of Sir Robert Peel to his Death. 373 in reply to the Queen's speech, which set forth that it was " a source of sincere gratification to her Majesty to witness the increased enjoyment of the necessaries and comforts of life, which cheapness and plenty have bestowed upon the great body of her people." This selection of a mover was unusual in two ways : Mr. Villiers was a borough member, and the regular practice was for a county member to move the address ; and he was an old debater and party leader, and, as such, outside the ranks of those usually chosen for so purely ornamental a purpose.- The choice, therefore, marked the seriousness of the occasion, and his speech was regarded and deservedly so as a national manifesto on behalf of com- mercial freedom. The opinion of Parliament was at once challenged, amendments being moved referring to agricultural distress, and declaring it " mainly applicable, in our opinion, to recent legislative enactments, aggravated by the pressure of local taxation." Put in this plain way as an attack upon recent legislation, the amendment received the hostility of the whole of the Peelites ; it was, indeed, the proposition which would insure to the Government the largest possible vote. In the House of Lords it was moved by the Earl of Stradbroke, and defeated by a majority of forty-nine ; and in the Commons it was moved by Sir J. Trollope, and negatived by 311 against 192. There were many of the Peelites, and some of the Whigs, who, whilst refusing to re-open the question of protection, were quite prepared to make concessions in other directions to the land-owning class, to which they themselves belonged. To these Disraeli appealed with more success when, on the ipth of February, he moved for a committee of the whole House to consider such a revision of the poor laws as might mitigate the distress of the agricultural classes. The debate was adjourned, and the division, taken on the 2ist, differed widely from that taken on the amendment to the address, the numbers being for the motion, 252; against it, 273, giving ministers a majority of only twenty-one, whilst they had secured a majority of 1 19 against Trollope's proposition. This