Brougham, who,
in the House of Commons, was the most eloquent champion of Reform, gave
notice of a motion on the subject for the 16th of November. Before that
day came, however, the ministry had ceased to exist. On the preceding
evening it had been defeated on a proposal to refer to a select
committee the consideration of the Civil List, a new settlement of which
was indispensable at the beginning of a new reign, and on the morning of
the 16th the Duke resigned, not only advising the King to intrust the
formation of the new cabinet to Lord Grey--who was universally
recognized as the head of the Whig party--but recommending his Majesty
also to be prepared to consent to a measure of moderate Reform, which,
though he could not bring himself to co-operate in it, he was satisfied
that the temper of the House of Commons, if not of the people
out-of-doors also, rendered unavoidable.[216] The advice was taken. Lord
Grey had no difficulty in forming a ministry in which the Whigs were
aided by the junction of several of the more moderate Tories, who had
regarded Canning as their leader; and from the very beginning
Parliamentary Reform was proclaimed to be the one great object of his
government. It would be more correct to call it a Reform of the House of
Commons, since there was no idea of interfering with the House of Lords,
even in those parts of it which were of a representative character, the
Scotch and Irish peers.
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