"
"They have been up a good hour," said Lord Loraine, "quite
long enough for their decisions to be known in St James's
Street. In the good old times, George Farnley used always to
walk from Downing Street to this place the moment the council
was up and tell us everything."
"Ah! those were the good old gentleman-like times," said Mr
Berners, "when members of Parliament had nobody to please and
ministers of State nothing to do."
The riots of Birmingham occurred two months after the events
that closed our last volume. That period, as far as the
obvious movements of the chartists were concerned, had been
passed in preparations for the presentation and discussion of
the National Petition, which the parliamentary embroilments of
the spring of that year had hitherto procrastinated and
prevented. The petition was ultimately carried down to
Westminster on a triumphal car accompanied by all the
delegates of the Convention in solemn procession. It was
necessary to construct a machine in order to introduce the
huge bulk of parchment signed by a million and a half of
persons, into the House of Commons, and thus supported, its
vast form remained on the floor of the House during the
discussion.
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