The 1st of March, 1831, was a day of intense excitement and even tumult in and around the House of Commons. We are told that never before in that generation had there been so great a crowd of persons struggling for seats in the galleries of the House of Commons. It is recorded, as an illustration of this intense eagerness on the part of the public, that every available seat in the House {137} was occupied for hours before the business of the day began. This, however, is not a statement that could fill with surprise any reader of the present day. We have been accustomed lately to read of occasions when not merely crowds of strangers anxious to obtain seats, but crowds of members positively entitled to get seats, have had to take their stand at the outer gates of the House of Commons hours before daybreak on the morning of the day when some great measure was to be introduced, that they might get a reasonable chance of a place, in order to hear a speech which could not possibly begin before four o'clock in the afternoon. Certainly the House of Commons did not then consist of nearly as many members as it has at present, and the reformed House of Commons has not even yet been so reformed as to impress it with the idea that there ought to be so many seats for so many members. However that may be, it is quite certain that there was intense interest manifested by the public on the day when the Reform Bill was to be introduced; that immense crowds of people made for the Parliament buildings, and that the approaches to the House of Commons were besieged by an excited and tumultuous crowd. There was, in fact, such a rush made to secure the seats in the galleries available for the public, so much noisy struggling and quarrelling for seats, that the Speaker was at last compelled to intervene and to declare that if quiet was not at once restored it would be his duty to have the House cleared of all strangers. Order was thus restored after a time, and at last the moment arrived for Lord John Russell to introduce the Reform Bill. That was indeed a moment of genuine historical interest.