The news spread with rapidity to every corner of the land that the Lords had defeated the reform for which the nation clamored.  Never in England was there greater excitement.  The abolition of the House of Lords was everywhere discussed, and in many places angrily demanded.  People could do nothing but talk about the bill, and politics threw all business into the shade.  An imprudent speech from an influential popular leader might have precipitated the revolution which the anti-reformers so greatly dreaded.  The disappointed people for the most part, however, restrained their wrath, and contented themselves with closing their shops and muffling their church bells.  The bishops especially became objects of popular detestation.  The Duke of Newcastle and the Marquis of Londonderry, being peculiarly obnoxious, were personally assailed by a mob of incensed agitators.  The Duke of Cumberland, brother of the king, was dragged from his horse, while the mob demolished the windows of the palace which the nation had given to the Duke of Wellington.  Throughout the country in all the large towns there were mobs and angry meetings and serious disturbances.  At Birmingham a rude and indignant meeting of one hundred and fifty thousand people vented their wrath against those who opposed their enfranchisement.  The most alarming of the riots took place in Bristol, of which Sir Charles Wetherell was the recorder, and he barely escaped being murdered by the mob, who burned most of the principal public buildings.  The example of Bristol was followed in other towns, and the whole country was in a state of alarm.

In the midst of these commotions Parliament was prorogued.  But the passage of the bill became more than ever an obvious necessity in order to save the country from violence; and on December 12 Lord John Russell brought forward his third Reform Bill, which, substantially like the first, passed its second reading January 17, 1832, by the increased majority of one hundred and sixty-two.  When considered in committee the old game of obstruction and procrastination was played by the opposition; but in spite of it, the bill finally passed the House on the 23d of March.

The question which everybody now asked was, What will the Lords do?  It was certain that they would throw out the bill, as they did before, unless extraordinary measures were taken by the government.  The creation of new peers, enough to carry the bill, was determined upon if necessary, although regretted by Lord Grey.  To this radical measure there was great opposition on the part of the king, although he had thus far given the bill his support; but the reformers insisted upon it, if reform could not be accomplished in any other way.  To use a vulgar expression, Lord Brougham fairly “bulldozed” his sovereign, and the king never forgave him.  His assent was at last most reluctantly given; but the peers, dreading the great accession to their ranks of sixty or severity Liberal noblemen, concluded to give way, led by the Duke of Wellington, and the bill passed the House of Lords on the 4th of June.