mons as well. The history of the Reform Bill shows
that the Whigs were compelled to go within measurable
distance of revolution in order to effect constitutional
changes which every one now sees to have been necessary.
Even ten years later, in 1842, Charles Greville summed
up the political situation in the sagacious and pregnant
maxim that "the Tories only can carry Liberal measures."
But four years earlier, when the sovereign was hostile,
the House of Lords paramount, and the country indif-
ferent, when the peace of Ireland and the welfare of
the Empire depended on concession to the Catholic
claims, the Whigs would have been powerless to carry
the needful measure even if Peel had been on their
side. Certain questions connected with this great crisis
will be more conveniently discussed hereafter: for the
present it is sufficient to say that if Peel had not been
nominally a Tory and really a statesman, the Catholic
question of 1828 might have ended in revolution.

-17-