The Reformers held their meetings, and on the 28th of July London was so quiet and orderly, that no chance visitor would have dreamt that it had during the week been on the verge of revolution. Parliament was prorogued on the 11th of August, and the agitation went on throughout the country. The Derby-Disraeli Government were by this time completely cowed by the mob, and they frankly admitted that it was too dangerous to let Reform alone. Parliament met on the 5th of February, 1867, and was opened by the Queen, who, though driven in a close carriage from the Palace to Westminster, was received with the heartiest cheers by crowds of people, who, despite the wet and dismal weather, came out to greet her as she passed. The Royal Speech was listened to with suppressed excitement, especially when the paragraph relating to Reform was read by the Lord Chancellor. It, however, merely hinted at the introduction of a measure for extending the Franchise, so that naturally attention was next concentrated on Mr. Disraeli’s utterances on the vexed question.[251] He rather amused his opponents by solemnly announcing that the subject of Reform should no longer be treated as one to determine the fate of Cabinets.[252] No doubt it was a little difficult to treat such an announcement seriously, coming from a Minister who had dexterously used the question for the purpose of upsetting Lord Russell’s Cabinet. Still, it was the wisest policy that could be adopted in the circumstances, and its adoption had been strongly pressed on Lord Derby by the Queen herself. Her Majesty’s view was that the history, especially the recent history, of the Reform agitation, proved conclusively two things--first, that no possible Government could by its own effort and authority carry a Reform Bill; and second, as Mr. Gladstone had himself admitted to her, that with a £10 franchise it was not likely that a House of Commons could be obtained with a strong working majority pledged to support a Reform Ministry. “If,” said Lord Derby, in his speech on the Address, in words which aptly reflected the [Illustration: GREAT DEMONSTRATION AT THE REFORMERS’ TREE IN HYDE PARK.] opinion of the Sovereign, “we desire to see the representation of the country placed upon a sound basis; if we desire to see a settlement of the question, which I will not say shall be final, but which shall render unnecessary and improbable any further agitation upon the subject for a very considerable time, then I say this object cannot be attained by making the question one of party and political strife for the purpose of obtaining office or Parliamentary majorities. The question must be examined in a fair, deliberate, and dispassionate spirit; we must be prepared to give and take, to meet each other’s views, and, above all things, to cast away all party objects.” [Illustration: LORD CARNARVON. (_From a Photograph by the London Stereoscopic Company._)]