THE Parliament of 1832 was dissolved at the close of
1834, and its successor was summoned to meet in
February 1835. As a matter of policy it might have
been wiser, as Lord John Russell thought in after years,
for the new Ministry to meet the old Parliament, and
not to appeal to the country until they had been
defeated in the House of Commons. But, as we have
seen in the last chapter, Peel had practically no alterna-
tive. A second dissolution was constitutionally open
to him, and when challenged on the point during the
debate on the Address by Lord John Russell, who
became the leader of the Opposition, he declared that
while it would be unbecoming in him to fetter the
discussions of the House of Commons by the slightest
menace of contingent dissolution, it would be equally
unbecoming to consent to place in abeyance any preroga-
tive of the Crown, or to debar himself by previous
pledges from giving to the Crown that advice which
future exigencies of the public service might require.

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