1865.] Palmerstoris Last Administration. 451 session, and had been left for public discussion, of which it received a full share. The object of the alterations it con- tained was to secure a performance of the work for which the grants were made, and to establish a system of payment by results. The immediate effect was to raise the cry of interference with vested interests. Managers of schools, clergymen, and teachers assumed that because they had once received money without conditions, they were to go on for ever receiving it in the same way. The agitation was to some extent successful, backed as it was by Bishops and Peers, Tories and Whigs. On the nth of March Mr. Walpole laid upon the table of the House of Commons a series of resolutions he intended to move as amendments to the code. Ministers had to give way, and modifications were made. One great good had been done, however : the country was made aware of the folly of entrusting the public funds to irresponsible people, and the cause of representative government was so far advanced. The usual attempts were made by the Radicals, but more by way of protest and the education of public opinion than from any hope of immediate gain. That hope, indeed, so far as the existing Parliament was concerned, grew fainter instead of stronger, and the success of the Tory-Whig alliance encouraged further defection. Thus, on the 1 4th of May, the second reading of the Church Rates Abolition Bill was rejected by a majority of one, the numbers being 287 to 286. In the early sessions of the Parliament it had been carried by the Commons by good majorities, in 1861 the votes were equal, and now there was a majority against the measure. So it was with the ballot, which this year was presented in two forms, one as applying to Parliamentary, and the other to Municipal, elections. Leave was given to bring in both bills, but one was rejected on the i8th of June by eighty-three to forty-five, and the other on the 2nd of July by 211 to 126* An attempt was made by Mr. Ayrton to improve the law of compensation to workmen in the case of accidents. The bill was introduced on the nth of February, and defeated on the
