292 History of the Radical Party in Parliament. [1837- risen on his defeat were willing to sacrifice their principles rather than lose office. There was no defence from this charge, and the Ministry never overcame the disgrace in which it involved them. The amendment was, however, defeated by a majority of nineteen, the numbers being 317 to 298 ; and the Government passed a bill which aimed merely at converting the composition into a rent charge, relinquishing a claim for the repayment of advances previously made to tithe- owners, and giving facilities for some further outlay for the extinction of arrears. During the debates on this bill Ward, on the 2nd of July, moved to insert the appropriation clause, and he dwelt upon the obligations under which the Govern- ment and the Parliament lay to observe the pledges made by the resolutions ; but the proposition was lost, only 46 voting for it, and 279 against. The Government had hoped that the abandonment of the appropriation clause would have induced the Tories to assent to a reasonable Irish Municipal Bill ; but in this they were deceived, the Lords altering the conditions of the franchise in a manner which could not be accepted, and the measure was thereon dropped. It is thus that the Conservatives have time after time justified the complaint of Irishmen that they are treated by the imperial legislature in a different manner and on different principles to their fellow-countrymen in the other parts of the kingdom. The Tories, however, were still prepared to support the ministers in their opposition to the policy proposed by the majority of the Liberals. At a banquet giving to him on the 1 2th of May, Sir Robert Peel said that the opposition under his guidance exercised much of the power of Govern- ment, and he gave, in proof of his assertion, cases in which the ministers had been dependant upon the opposition for the votes necessary to defeat proposals made by Liberals. Two of these instances had occurred during the existing session. The first was the I5th of February, when Grote moved his annual resolution for the ballot, and on a division there were Ayes, 198 ; Noes, 31 5. Of this majority 254 were Tories, and only 61
