The contingency never arose, however. The Conserva-
tive party was strengthened in the elections by large
gains in the county constituencies, but the boroughs still
remained faithful to the party of reform. In Great
Britain parties were very evenly balanced, but with the
aid of O'Connell and his supporters from Ireland the
Whigs could count on a majority. It was this which
determined the issue of the political struggles of 1835.
O'Connell was deeply incensed with the Whigs, and had
frequently assailed Lord Grey with outrageous vitupera-
tion. But he was not irreconcilable, and the political
history of the next six years is the history of his alliance
with the Whigs.

The political situation at the beginning of 1835 is
one which repays attentive study. Parties were in
confusion, and the constitution itself was in process of
gradual and uneasy adaptation to the changes effected
in 1832. The king had blundered in dismissing Lord
Melbourne. He thought he could act as his father had
more than once acted, and choose a Ministry to his liking.
But the times had changed, and William IV had not
even the statecraft of George III. A mere accident
rendered the blunder irreparable. Peel being absent
from England, could exercise no effective control over
the king's untoward precipitancy, and he found on his
return that the military promptitude of Wellington had
left him no choice but to become Prime Minister. His
discretion in advising a dissolution was equally fettered.
Had he been in England when Melbourne was dismissed
and the duke summoned, he might have endeavoured,
as Lord John Russell endeavoured on the occasion of
Peel's own resignation in 1845, to obtain some pledges

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