252 History of the Radical Party in Parliament. [1833- requested that Ward's resolution should be withdrawn, to await the precise information which the commission was to collect. The Radicals refused to accede to this request. They said that they did not consider the tenure in office of ministers as being secure, and that the manner in which the appropriation clause of the previous year had been dealt with rendered it impossible to trust the Government without a decla- ration of principle by the House. Lord Althorpe thereupon moved the previous question, which, after a long debate, was carried by 396 to 120, the minority being of course composed of English Radicals and Irish members. Ward and Grote and their friends were much blamed by the Whigs for endangering the position of the Ministry by an abstract resolution, but it was not long before they followed the example, and by the same kind of instrument overturned the Peel government. The Church was not the only Irish subject on which ministers were divided, and as to which their policy was un- popular ; it was the proceedings with regard to the Coercion Bill which led to the actual break-up, and to Earl Grey's retirement from official life. The Act of the last session would expire in August, 1834, and the Government had to decide if they would ask for the continuance of the whole or any part of it There was not only difference of opinion in the Cabinet ; there was conflicting advice, given at various times by the same people. Lord Wellesley, the Lord- Lieutenant, at one time recommended the re-enactment of all the clauses ; then that those relating to courts-martial, and, again, those prohibiting public meetings, should be omitted. These varying counsels appealed to the sympathies of different sections of the Ministry, and the decisions were consequently uncertain. At one period it was so far understood that moderate opinions would prevail that Littleton, the chief secretary, actually gave O'Connell to understand that the two sets of clauses referred to would be excluded, and the great agitator refrained for some time from action in conse- quence. Eventually, however, Grey decided to go on with
