390 History of the Radical Party in Parliament. [1850- reason why the bill received any attention was that it had been introduced by the Premier, and soon Lord John ceased to hold that position. The catastrophe happened on the 2Oth of February, when Russell moved for leave to bring in a bill for the amendment of the militia law and for the maintenance of a local militia. A description of the proposed measure had been given on the i6th of February, and Palmerston had then intimated his intention to move amendments, which he now proceeded to do. His proposal was to continue the form of a general militia, and to increase and strengthen it, and he moved to omit the word "local " from the description, and to add the word "consolidate/' The issue was as to the nature of the force to be raised, and that was clearly a matter for the Ministry, and to alter their proposition would be an expression of want of confidence ; for if they could not be trusted to arrange for the national defence, they could not be really the Government. After /some debate, a division was taken which resulted in the defeat of ministers, the numbers being for Lord John's motion, 1 26 ,; against, 135. In the division most of the Radicals had voted with ministers, and the Peelites and Tories with Palmerston.* The Premier said he considered that the vote showed that ministers had no longer the confidence of the House, and the natural result followed. On the 23rd of February the resig- nation of the Government was formally announced, and the Earl of Derby f had undertaken to form an administration. There was no choice but to submit to a Tory Govern- ment, unless a dissolution had been determined on, and that, indeed, would not have been likely to change the relative strength of parties. A coalition between the Whigs and the Peelites would, on grounds of general policy, have been pos- /sible ; but on this particular occasion Russell's followers and v the Peelites had been in different lobbies, and an immediate
- Amongst the supporters of Government were W. J. Fox, Milner Gibson,
Sir B. Hall, Hindley, and Hume ; on the other side were Gladstone, Herbert, Palmer, Disraeli, and Lord John Manners. t Lord Stanley had succeeded to this title on ;the death of his father on the 30th of June, 1851.
