On Monday, the nineteenth of September, 1831, the Bill to amend
the representation of the people in England and Wales was read a
third time, at an early hour and in a thin house, without any
debate. But on the question whether the Bill should pass a
discussion arose which lasted three nights. On the morning of
the twenty-second of September the House divided; and the Bill
passed by 345 votes to 236. The following Speech was made on the
second night of the debate.

It is not without great diffidence, Sir, that I rise to address
you on a subject which has been nearly exhausted. Indeed, I
should not have risen had I not thought that, though the
arguments on this question are for the most part old, our
situation at present is in a great measure new. At length the
Reform Bill, having passed without vital injury through all the
dangers which threatened it, during a long and minute discussion,
from the attacks of its enemies and from the dissensions of its
friends, comes before us for our final ratification, altered,
indeed, in some of its details for the better, and in some for
the worse, but in its great principles still the same bill which,
on the first of March, was proposed to the late Parliament, the
same bill which was received with joy and gratitude by the whole
nation, the same bill which, in an instant, took away the power
of interested agitators, and united in one firm body all the
sects of sincere Reformers, the same bill which, at the late
election, received the approbation of almost every great
constituent body in the empire. With a confidence which
discussion has only strengthened, with an assured hope of great
public blessings if the wish of the nation shall be gratified,
with a deep and solemn apprehension of great public calamities if