Chapter LVI FIRST REFORM BILL. CATHOLIC EMANCIPA- 1827-1832 LEADING DATES REIGN OF GEORGE IV., A.D. 1820-1830-Reign of WILLIAM IV., A.D. URING the latter years of Liverpool's Prime Ministership two questions had been coming into prominence: the one that of Catholic emancipation by the admission of Catholics to Parliament and to offices of state; the other that of Parliamentary reform, with a view to diminish the power of the landowners over elections to the House of Commons, and to transfer at least part of their power to enlarged constituencies. Of the leading statesmen Wellington and Peel were opposed to both the proposed changes; Canning was in favor of Catholic emancipation, but opposed to Parliamentary reform; while the Whigs, the most noteworthy of whom were Earl Grey in the House of Lords, and Lord Althorp and Lord John Russell in the House of Commons, were favorable to both. Before Liverpool left office a resolution in favor of Catholic emancipation was defeated in the House of Commons by the slight majority of four, and almost immediately afterwards Canning, who had spoken and voted for it, was appointed Prime Minister. Seven of the former ministers, including Wellington and Peel, refused to serve under him. On the other hand he obtained the support of the Whigs, to a few of whom office was shortly afterwards given. The Whigs had been long unpopular, on account of the opposition which they had offered to the war with France even while Wellington was conducting his great campaigns in the Peninsula; but they 1827-1828 had now a chance of recovering public favor by associating themselves with domestic reforms. There can hardly be a doubt that Canning's ministry, if it had lasted, could only have maintained itself by a more extended admission of the Whigs to power. Canning's health was, however, failing, and on August 8 he died, having been Prime Minister for less than four months. Canning was succeeded by Goderich, who had formerly, as Mr. Robinson, been Chancellor of the Exchequer. His colleagues quarreled with one another, and Goderich was too weak a man to settle their disputes. Before the end of the year news arrived which increased their differences. On July 6, while Canning still lived, a treaty had been signed in London between England, France, and Russia, binding the three Powers to offer mediation between the Turks and the Greeks, and, in the event of either party rejecting their mediation, to put an end by force to the struggle which was going on. The fleets of the allies arrived later. The combined fleet compelled the Turkish and Egyptian fleet to remain inactive. On land, however, Ibrahim, who commanded the army, transported in it from Egypt, proceeded deliberately to turn the soil of Peloponnesus into a desert, slaying and wasting as he moved. October 20 the allied admirals entered the Bay of Navarino. battle ensued in which half of the Egyptian fleet was destroyed, and the remainder submitted. The victory made Greek independence possible. There can be little doubt that Canning, if he had lived, would have been overjoyed at the result. Goderich and his colleagues in the ministry could not agree whether the English admiral deserved praise or blame. There were fresh quarrels among them, and on January 9, 1828, Goderich formally resigned. Ол The Duke of Wellington became Prime Minister, and Peel again became Home Secretary and the leading minister in the House of Commons. The new ministry, from which the Whigs were rigorously excluded, was to be like Lord Liverpool's, one in which Catholic emancipation was to be an open question, each minister being at liberty to speak and vote on it as he thought fit. Those who supported it, of whom Huskisson was one, were now known as Canningites, from their attachment to the principles of that minister. It was, however, unlikely that the two sections of the ministry would long hold together, especially as the question of Parliamentary reform was now rising into importance, and the 1819-1828 Canningites showed a disposition to break away on this point from Wellington and Peel, who were strongly opposed to any change in the constitution of Parliament. The cause of Parliamentary reform had suffered much from the sweeping nature of the proposals made after the great war by Hunt and Sir Francis Burdett. In 1819 the question was taken up by a young Whig member, Lord John Russell, who perceived that the only chance of prevailing with the House of Commons was to ask it to accept much smaller changes. In 1819 he drew attention to the subject, and in 1820 asked for the disfranchisement, at the next election, of four places in Devon and Cornwall, in which corruption notoriously prevailed. His proposal, accepted by the Commons, was rejected by the Lords. In a new Parliament which met later in the same year Lord John proposed to disfranchise Grampound and to transfer its members to Leeds, thus touching one of the great political grievances of the day, the possession of the right of returning members by small villages, while it was refused to large communities like Birmingham and Leeds. The House was, however, frightened at the idea of giving power to populous towns, and in 1821, when the Bill for Disfranchising Grampound was actually passed, its members were transferred, not to Leeds but to Yorkshire, which thus came to return four members instead of two. A first step had thus been taken in the direction of reform, and Lord John Russell from time to time attempted to obtain the assent of the House of Commons to a proposal to take into consideration the whole subject. Time after time, however, his motions were rejected, and in 1827 Lord John fell back on his former plan of separately attacking corrupt boroughs. In 1827 Penryn and East Retford having been found guilty of corruption, he obtained a vote in the Commons for the disfranchisement of Penryn, while the disfranchisement of East Retford was favorably considered, and it was understood that Lord John would make fresh proposals in the following year. In 1828, after the formation of the Wellington Ministry, before the question of the corrupt boroughs was discussed, Russell was successful in removing another grievance. He proposed to repeal the Corporation Act, and the Test Act, so far as it compelled all applicants for office and for seats in Parliament to receive the Communion in the Church of England. By this means relief would be given to Dissenters, while Roman Catholics would still |