" 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.
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