There is unfortunately no report of these observations. Sir Robert Peel turning his face to Lord Chandos listened to him with great attention and watched him with approving interest. When he sate down, the cheering from the treasury bench and its quarter was vociferous. The observations of Lord Chandos prolonged a little the debate, which was concluded by Mr. Cobden offering the reasons why he voted against a minister in whom he had the utmost confidence, and on whom he delivered a fervent panegyric, tendering him "his heart-felt thanks for the unwearied perseverance, the unswerving firmness, and the great ability, with which he had, during the last six months, conducted through the house of commons one of the most magnificent reforms ever carried through any country."

At length, about half-past one o'clock, the galleries were cleared, the division called, and the question put. In almost all previous divisions, where the fate of a government had been depending, the vote of every member with scarcely an exception had been anticipated that was not the case in the present instance, and the direction which members took as they left their seats was anxiously watched. More than one hundred protectionist members followed the minister; more than eighty avoided the division, a few of these however had paired; nearly the same number followed Lord George Bentinck. But it was not merely their numbers that attracted the anxious

observation of the treasury bench as the protectionists passed in defile before the minister to the hostile lobby. It was impossible that he could have marked them without emotion: the flower of that great party which had been so proud to follow one who had been so proud to lead them. They were men to gain whose hearts and the hearts of their fathers had been the aim and exultation of his life. They had extended to him an unlimited confidence and an admiration without stint. They had stood by him in the darkest hour, and had borne him from the depths of political despair to the proudest of living positions. Right or wrong, they were men of honour, breeding, and refinement, high and generous character, great weight and station in the country, which they had ever placed at his disposal. They had been not only his followers but his friends; had joined in the same pastimes, drank from the same cup, and in the pleasantness of private life had often forgotten together the cares and strife of politics.

He must have felt something of this, while the Manners, the Somersets, the Bentincks, the Lowthers, and the Lennoxes, passed before him. And those country gentlemen, "those gentlemen of England," of whom, but five years ago, the very same building was ringing with his pride of being their leader-if his heart were hardened to Sir Charles Burrell, Sir William Jolliffe, Sir Charles Knightly, Sir John Trollope,

Sir Edward Kerrison, Sir John Tyrrell, he surely must have had a pang, when his eye rested on Sir John Yarde Buller, his choice and pattern country gentleman, whom he had himself selected and invited but six years back to move a vote of want of confidence in the whig government, in order, against the feeling of the court, to install Sir Robert Peel in their stead.

They trooped on: all the men of metal and largeacred squires, whose spirit he had so often quickened and whose counsel he had so often solicited in his fine conservative speeches in Whitehall gardens : Mr. Bankes, with a parliamentary name of two centuries, and Mr. Christopher from that broad Lincolnshire which protection had created; and the Mileses and the Henleys were there; and the Duncombes, the Liddells, and the Yorkes; and Devon had sent there the stout heart of Mr. Buck-and Wiltshire, the pleasant presence of Walter Long. Mr. Newdegate was there, whom Sir Robert had himself recommended to the confidence of the electors of Warwickshire, as one of whom he had the highest hopes; and Mr. Alderman Thompson was there, who, also through Sir Robert's selection, had seconded the assault upon the whigs, led on by Sir John Buller. But the list is too long; or good names remain behind.

When Prince Metternich was informed at Dresden,

with great ostentation, that the emperor had arrived "Yes; but without his army," was the reply. Sir Robert Peel was still first minister of England, as Napoleon remained emperor for a while after Moscow. Each perhaps for a moment had indulged in hope. It is so difficult for those who are on the pinnacle of life to realize disaster. They sometimes contemplate it in their deep and far-seeing calculations, but it is only to imagine a contingency which their resources must surely baffle; they sometimes talk of it to their friends, and oftener of it to their enemies, but it is only as an insurance of their prosperity and as an offering to propitiate their Nemesis. They never believe in it.

The news that the government were not only beaten, but by a majority so large as 73, began to circulate. An incredulous murmur passed it along the treasury bench.

They say we are beaten by 73!" whispered the most important member of the cabinet in a tone of surprise to Sir Robert Peel.

Sir Robert did not reply or even turn his head. He looked very grave, and extended his chin as was his habit when he was annoyed and cared not to speak. He began to comprehend his position, and that the emperor was without his army.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE house met the next day (Friday), but the first minister was not in his place, and it having been privately notified that in consequence of the vote of the previous evening the government was at an end, all business was postponed, and the house adjourned.

On Monday at five o'clock, the public notification of the resignation of the ministry was made by Sir Robert Peel, to a crowded house, and in a remarkable speech. He said that the ministers had advised her majesty to accept their resignations without adopting the alternative of dissolving the parliament, though had they failed in carrying in all their integrity the main measures of their commercial policy, they would have recommended an appeal to the country. Sir Robert then passed in review the principal acts of his administration in every department. He did not forget to touch on the bank charter act of 1844, as "giving