ABSTRACT
The Maynooth Bill was in conflict with the principles he had proclaimed in a famous essay, and therefore, though he had changed his mind, and approved the Bill, he refused to retain office while it was under discussion. The Bill was law, and Gladstone came back. When the Bill came up for its second reading, Graham Wallas suggested a compromise which Ashley accepted. In its modified form the Bill applied only to print works and not to dye works and bleaching works. Graham and Sir Robert Peel both argued once more that the Bill was a perilous experiment. Peel tried to meet an argument of Macaulay’s that leisure was necessary for the development of intelligence, by replying that Hargreaves and Crompton devised their great improvements at a time when the hours of labour were not restricted. The minority included the chief Peelites, Peel, Graham, Goulburn and Herbert; and Radicals like Bowring, Leader and Trelawny.
