CHAPTER VI

ST. PAUL’S—­THE PARALLELOGRAM—­ARCHDEACON SINGLETON—­COLLECTED WORKS

Meanwhile the Reform Bill had passed the House of Commons and was sent up to the House of Lords.  In the summer, Sydney Smith had written to Lord Grey—­“You may be sure that any attempt of the Lords to throw out the Bill will be the signal for the most energetic resistance from one end of the kingdom to another.”  The Lords faced the risk, and threw out the Bill on the 8th of October 1831.

Sydney’s prophecy was promptly justified, and the most threatening violence and disorder broke out in the great centres of industrial population.  Whigs and Radicals alike rallied, as one man, to the cause of Reform.  On the 11th of October a public meeting was held at Taunton to protest against the action of the Lords and express unabated confidence in the Government.  It was on this occasion that Sydney Smith made the most famous of his political speeches.  He deplored the collision between the two Houses of Parliament, but he was not the least alarmed about the fate of the Bill.  The Lords were no match for the forces arrayed against them.—­

“As for the possibility of the House of Lords preventing for long a reform of Parliament, I hold it to be the most absurd notion that ever entered into the human imagination.  I do not mean to be disrespectful, but the attempt of the Lords to stop the progress of Reform reminds me very forcibly of the great storm at Sidmouth, and of the conduct of the excellent Mrs. Partington on that occasion.  In the winter of 1824, there set in a great flood upon that town—­the tide rose to an incredible height—­the waves rushed in upon the houses, and everything was threatened with destruction.  In the midst of this sublime and terrible storm, Dame Partington, who lived upon the beach, was seen at the door of her house with mop and pattens, trundling her mop, squeezing out the sea-water, and vigorously pushing away the Atlantic Ocean.  The Atlantic was roused.  Mrs. Partington’s spirit was up; but I need not tell you that the contest was unequal.  The Atlantic Ocean beat Mrs. Partington.  She was excellent at a slop, or a puddle, but she should not have meddled with a tempest.  Gentlemen, be at your ease—­be quiet and steady.  You will beat Mrs. Partington.”

Fifty years later, an eye-witness thus described the scene:—­“The introduction of the Partington storm was startling and unexpected.  As he recounted in felicitous terms the adventures of the excellent dame, suiting the action to the word with great dramatic skill, he commenced trundling his imaginary mop and sweeping back the intrusive waves of the Atlantic with an air of resolute determination and an appearance of increasing temper.  The scene was realistic in the extreme, and was too much for the gravity of the most serious.  The house rose, the people cheered, and tears of superabundant laughter trickled down the cheeks of fair women and veteran reformers."[107]