[124] Ibid., pp. 222, 223.
[125] Stockmar, Memoirs (English translation), i., 330.
[126] Parker, Sir Robert Peel, ii., 235.
[127] Stanley to Peel (Dec. 11, 1834), Peel's Memoirs, ii., 39, 40.
[128] Croker to Mrs. Croker, Croker Papers, ii., 219.
[129] Peel, Memoirs, ii., 58-67.
CHAPTER XVII.
PEEL AND MELBOURNE.
The general election which took place in January, 1835, was hotly contested, and in the second reformed parliament the conservatives mustered far stronger than in the first. The party now consisted of some 270 members, chiefly returned by the counties. But they were still outnumbered by the whigs, radicals, and Irish repealers combined, and it was certain that an occasion for such a combination would soon arise. It was found at once in the election of a speaker, when the house of commons met on February 9, 1835. Sutton, now Sir Charles Manners Sutton, was proposed for re-election by the government; the opposition candidate was Abercromby. The number of members who took part in the division was the largest ever assembled, being 622, and Abercromby was elected by a majority of ten. It would have been larger, had not the government been supported by some waverers, but its significance was appreciated by the ministers, and still more by the king. He expressed his displeasure in a very outspoken letter to Peel, declaring that, if the leaders "of the present factious opposition" should be forced upon him by a refusal of the supplies, he might, indeed, tolerate them, but could never give them his confidence or friendship. Two days later, the 24th, the king's speech was delivered, reflecting the spirit of the Tamworth manifesto.[130]
PEEL'S POLICY.