SIR JAMES GRAHAM.
[To Tan EDITOR OF pie. " SPEODAT011:9
Sea—Apropos of your interesting review of Mn Parker's Life of Sir James Graham in last week's Spectator, the following incident may be of interest to your readers. It will be remem- bered that in 1858 Lord Palmerston's Ministry, despite the large majority it had won at the General Election a year before, was overthrown by reason of an amendment moved by Mr. Milner Gibton to the Conspiracy to Murder Bill, which followed Orsiui's plot to assassinate the Emperor of the French. The amendment is described in Mr. Paul's "History of Modem England" as a triumph of Parliamentary strategy; uniting as it did discontented Whigs, Peelites, and Manchester school with the Conservatives. I well remember the late Mr, Milner Gibson telling me that before presenting his amend- ment he showed it to only one man, an ex-Minister who eat beside him in the House of Commons, and who, in signifying his approval, replied that the wording of the amendment was of ill omen for the Government. These may not have been his exact words ; the substance of them is as stated. The ex-Minister was Sir James Graham.—I am, Sir, dec.,
WM. BURLEY.
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