But he knew also, that Hunger knows no law, and that men too poor to have where to lay their heads do not have much care regarding the heads of more fortunate men.
Squire Annis was a thoroughly informed man on all historical and political subjects and he knew well that the English people had not been so much in earnest since the time of Oliver Cromwell as they then were; and when he called to remembrance the events between the rejection of the first Reform Bill and its present struggle, he was really amazed that people could think or talk of any other thing. Continually he was arranging in his mind the salient points of moral dispute, as he had known them, and it may not be amiss for two or three minutes to follow his thoughts.
They generally went back to the dramatic rejection of the first Reform Bill, on the sixteenth of August, A. D. 1831. Parliament met again on the sixth of December, and on the twelfth of December Lord John Russell brought in a second Reform Bill. It was slightly changed but in all important matters the same as the first Bill. On the eighteenth of December, Parliament adjourned for the Christmas holidays but met again on January the seventeenth, A. D. 1832. This Parliament passed The Bill ready for the House of Lords on March the twenty-sixth, just two days after his own arrival in London. He had made a point of seeing this ceremony, for a very large attendance of peeresses and strangers of mark were expected to be present. He found the space allotted to strangers crowded, but he also found a good standing place and from it saw the Lord Chancellor Brougham take his seat at the Woolsack and the Deputy usher of the Black Rod announce--“A message from the Commons.” Then he saw the doors thrown open and Lord Althorp and Lord John Russell, bearing the Reform Bill in their hands, appeared at the head of one hundred members of Parliament, and Russell delivered the Bill to the Lord Chancellor, saying:
“My Lords, the House of Commons have passed an act to amend the representation of England and Wales to which they desire your Lordship’s concurrence.”
The great question now was, whether the Lords would concur or not, for if the populace were ready to back their determination with their lives the Lords were in the same temper though they knew well enough that the one stubborn cry of the whole country was “The Bill, The Bill, and nothing but The Bill.” They knew also that The House of Commons sympathized with the suffering of the poor and the terrible deeds of the French Revolution were still green in their memories. Yet they dared to argue and dispute and put off the men standing in dangerous patience, waiting, waiting day and night for justice.