Mr. Lowe's band proved strong enough to kill the measure. It passed the second reading, indeed, by a majority of five, but it perished in Committee, and the Ministry resigned. It was the closing scene of Earl Russell's long career, which somehow had missed the success which his achievements seemed to have earned. Born in the very holiest of holies of the Whig sanctuary, with natural abilities far more varied, with acquired culture far more extensive, with greater advantages from family connection than Palmerston could boast, and without Palmerston's headstrong tendencies, he never attained more than a fraction of the influence and popularity which Palmerston had so fully secured. Indispensable for more than a generation to every Whig or Liberal Cabinet, he had become associated more with the failures than the successes of his party, and people ungratefully remembered him rather as the betrayer of Denmark than as the pioneer of Reform. [Illustration: PERTH, WESTERN AUSTRALIA. The Swan River Settlement was founded in 1826, and made a separate Colony, under the name of Western Australia, in 1829. It remained a Crown Colony until 1890, when it became a self-governing community. Population (1897), 138,000 (estimated). Imports (1895), £3,774,951; exports, £1,332,554.] [Sidenote: Lord Derby's last Administration.] [Sidenote: Disturbance in Hyde Park.] Once more it was Lord Derby's fate to form a stop-gap Administration, and no sooner was the new Ministry complete, early in July, than the country suddenly threw off the indifference it had shown to Mr. Gladstone's offer of an extended franchise, and public meetings were held all over the country vehemently demanding Reform. It was too late in the session, of course, to do anything that year in Parliament, but the agitation sufficed to show that there was at least one weak man in the Cabinet. The Reform League summoned a meeting in Hyde Park for the evening of July 23, which it was decided to prohibit, and amiable, gentle Mr. Walpole, the Home Secretary, issued a notice that the Park gates would be closed at 5 p.m. Notwithstanding this announcement, processions with bands and banners arrived at the appointed hour, and Mr. Beales, President of the League, demanded admittance, which was refused. Mr. Beales was an experienced barrister, and knew very well what he was about. He was of opinion that in denying the right of public meeting in Hyde Park, the Home Secretary was acting beyond his powers, and, content with asserting this right in a formal way, he intended to adjourn the meeting and claim redress by constitutional means. But a meeting in Hyde Park, no matter for what purpose, invariably attracts thousands of idlers and roughs, who have no part and no interest in the question to be discussed. Mr. Beales and the earnest reformers adjourned to Trafalgar Square and passed resolutions to their hearts' content; but the rough and idle part of the crowd remained about Hyde Park. The gates