Gratitude to Lord Grey was the hustings-cry at the end of 1832, the
pretext that was to return to the new-modelled House of Commons none but
men devoted to the Whig cause. The successful simulation, like everything
that is false, carried within it the seeds of its own dissolution.
Ingratitude to Lord Grey was more the fashion at the commencement of 1834,
and before the close of that eventful year, the once popular Reform
Ministry was upset, and the eagerly-sought Reformed Parliament dissolved!

It can scarcely be alleged that the public was altogether unprepared for
this catastrophe. Many deemed it inevitable; few thought it imminent. The
career of the Ministry, and the existence of the Parliament, had indeed
from the first been turbulent and fitful. It was known, from authority,
that there were dissensions in the cabinet, while a House of Commons which
passed votes on subjects not less important than the repeal of a tax, or
the impeachment of a judge, on one night, and rescinded its resolutions on
the following, certainly established no increased claims to the confidence
of its constituents in its discretion. Nevertheless, there existed at this
period a prevalent conviction that the Whig party, by a great stroke of
state, similar in magnitude and effect to that which in the preceding
century had changed the dynasty, had secured to themselves the government
of this country for, at least, the lives of the present generation. And
even the well-informed in such matters were inclined to look upon the
perplexing circumstances to which we have alluded rather as symptoms of a
want of discipline in a new system of tactics, than as evidences of any
essential and deeply-rooted disorder.

The startling rapidity, however, of the strange incidents of 1834; the
indignant, soon to become vituperative, secession of a considerable
section of the cabinet, some of them esteemed too at that time among its
most efficient members; the piteous deprecation of 'pressure from