infirmities of age and the difficulties of carrying on the government.
He had held office nearly four years, which exceeded the term of his
predecessor the Duke of Wellington; and only four premiers have held
office for a longer period since 1754. The Poor Law Amendment, supported
by all political parties, was passed in view of the burdensome amount of
poor rates and the superior condition of the pauper to that of many an
independent laborer.

The ill management of the beer-houses led to another act in 1834,
requiring a license to sell beer, which was granted only to persons who
could produce a certificate of good character from six respectable
inhabitants of a parish.

The session of Parliament in 1834 was further marked by a repeal of the
house tax, by grants for building schoolhouses, by the abolition of
sinecure offices in the House of Commons, and by giving new facilities
for the circulation of foreign newspapers through the mails. There was
little or no opposition to reforms which did not interfere with landed
interests and the affairs of Ireland. Even Sir Robert Peel, in his
short administration, was not unfriendly to extending privileges to
Dissenters, nor to judicial, municipal, and economical reform generally.

The most important of the measures brought forward by Whig ministers
under Lord Melbourne was the reform of municipal corporations. For two
hundred years the abuses connected with these corporations had been
subjects of complaint, but could not easily be remedied, in consequence
of the perversion of municipal institutions to political ends. The venal
boroughs, which both Whig and Tory magnates controlled, were the chief
seats of abuses and scandals. When these boroughs were disfranchised by
the Reform Bill, a way was opened for the local government of a town by