"The right honorable gentleman, secure in the recollection of his own
consistency, has taunted me with the errors of my boyhood. When he
addressed the honorable member of Westminster, he showed his magnanimity
by declaring that he would not take the philosopher to task for what he
wrote twenty-five years ago; but when he caught one who, thirty-six
years ago, just emerged from boyhood, and still an undergraduate at
Oxford, had expressed an opinion adverse to the Reform Bill of 1832, of
which he had so long and bitterly repented, then the right honorable
gentleman could not resist the temptation."

The bill was put upon its passage. The greatest excitement prevailed.
"The house seemed charged with electricity, like a vast thunder-cloud;
and now a spark was about to be applied. Strangers rose in their seats,
the crowd at the bar pushed half-way up the House, the Royal Princes
leaned forward in their standing places, and all was confusion."
Presently order was restored, and breathless excitement prevailed while
the tellers announced that the bill had been carried by a majority of
only five.

"Hardly had the words left the teller's lips than there arose a wild,
raging, mad-brained shout from floor and gallery, such as has never been
heard in the present House of Commons. Dozens of half-frantic Tories
stood up in their seats, madly waved their hats and hurrahed at the top
of their voices. Strangers in both galleries clapped their hands. The
Adullamites on the Ministerial benches, carried away by the delirium of
the moment, waved their hats in sympathy with the Opposition, and
cheered as loudly as any. Mr. Lowe, the leader, instigator, and prime
mover of the conspiracy, stood up in the excitement of the
moment--flushed, triumphant, and avenged.... He took off his hat, waved