Littleton's character that was to have major consequences for his career. To get the reform through, he had made the concession that Ireland be excluded from it for the time being. At one point he had let slip the unguarded comment that he did not care about Ireland. This was overheard by one of the members for Waterford – presumably Lord George Beresford, who was hated by the Radicals and Irish Repealers, and who proceeded to broadcast the remark. Littleton took up the challenge in Parliament and, accepting that the report of his comment was accurate, pointed out that it was reported entirely out of context. In fact, it was well known that he had been a strong proponent of Emancipation. However, the damage was done. As the Truck Act passed into Law, Littleton was drafted into detailed work on the Great Reform Bill, intended to create an entirely new system of parliamentary representation. The reform had two main thrusts: a simplification of the Franchise qualification and a complete redrawing of the Constituency boundaries to abolish the rotten boroughs and pocket boroughs. Littleton was appointed as an unpaid Commissioner on the latter task. Here his command of detail and forensic skills found a perfect outlet, as the reform involved careful research, the establishment of principles and their application to hundreds of varying local situations. He was determined that the reform should be based on the latest data about population sizes, not on the traditional status of settlements. He was formidably well informed and often sarcastic in debate, often tangling with John Wilson Croker, a bitterly anti-Reform Irish Tory who sat for the rotten borough of Aldeburgh. In his first major contribution in Committee, he said in reply to an ill-informed remark by Croker that: "his right hon. friend had displayed his want of acquaintance with the county of Stafford when he spoke of the village of Bilston. The village of Bilston, as his right hon. friend was facetiously pleased to style it, contained a population of not less than 14,000 or 15,000 souls.". He made similar contributions to uphold the importance of Wolverhampton, Walsall and Stoke, continually insisting on the principle that constituencies should represent communities and populations, not political or economic interests. He consistently appealed simultaneously to principles and facts, showing a ferocious interest in every region of the country, for example: "as one of the Commissioners upon whom