The amendment carried by the Opposition in the House of Lords on the
evening of the 7th of May, that the enfranchising clauses of the Reform
Bill should be considered before entering into the question of
disfranchisement, was the immediate cause of this startling event. The
Lords had previously consented to the second reading of the Bill with the
view of preventing that large increase of their numbers with which they
had been long menaced; rather, indeed, by mysterious rumours than by any
official declaration; but, nevertheless, in a manner which had carried
conviction to no inconsiderable portion of the Opposition that the threat
was not without foundation.

During the progress of the Bill through the Lower House, the journals
which were looked upon as the organs of the ministry had announced with
unhesitating confidence, that Lord Grey was armed with what was then
called a 'carte blanche' to create any number of peers necessary to insure
its success. But public journalists who were under the control of the
ministry, and whose statements were never contradicted, were not the sole
authorities for this prevailing belief. Members of the House of Commons,
who were strong supporters of the cabinet, though not connected with it by
any official tie, had unequivocally stated in their places that the
Sovereign had not resisted the advice of his counsellors to create peers,
if such creation were required to carry into effect what was then styled
'the great national measure.' In more than one instance, ministers had
been warned, that if they did not exercise that power with prompt energy,
they might deserve impeachment. And these intimations and announcements
had been made in the presence of leading members of the Government, and
had received from them, at least, the sanction of their silence.

It did not subsequently appear that the Reform ministers had been invested
with any such power; but a conviction of the reverse, fostered by these