232 History of the Radical Party in Parliament. [1833- interests rather than at the command of their landlords ; but this expectation has not yet been realized. Whilst the terri- torial power was thus made stronger, the area of its operation was increased by the additional members given to counties. Out of the total number of seats to be appropriated, sixty-five were allotted to county constituencies, and the Tories mainly, and at the best the Conservative section of the Whigs, were permanently strengthened to that extent. In what were retained of the small nomination boroughs, in which the great families were as powerful as in the counties, the Radicals had little hope. The Whigs had, in their treatment of these constituencies, been almost undisguisedly influenced by party considerations ; but in spite of this arrangement there were many of such nomination seats left in the hands of the Tories, and in all of them, as in the counties, the tendency has been for the holders of such power to grow ever more Conservative, and to give support to the party opposed to change. The strength and the weakness of the Radicals were defined by these conditions. Supposing that they obtained the whole of the seats for the popular boroughs, they could never be numerous enough to form and maintain an adminis- tration. But these constituencies were naturally far from being unanimous ; some of them were eventually found to be Whig, and some even Tory, so that the Radicals could not command a force great enough and united enough to regularly make an impression on the Whig policy. This state of things led to a condition of disorganization and of individual instead of combined action, which has been said to be the cause, but was in reality quite as much the conse- quence, of the weakness of the party in Parliament. Another influence which served to increase this want of solidarity in the party, was the entire absence of official or even Parlia- . mentary experience amongst its members. Now and again it occurred that when the Radicals acquired this experience they were admitted into the charmed circle of Whig officialism, not as Radicals, but as Liberals, and their old colleagues were often more vexed by what they considered desertion
