cedure. Above all, he trusted that the contemplated measure would not contain two sets of provisions; one of them framed to have the semblance of giving, and the other to have the reality of taking away. He added, that if ministers, avoiding these changes, would submit a plan that promised to effect good in a way that was simple, straightforward, intelligible, and constitutional in its character, he ventured to promise that it would be received on his side of the house in no grudging spirit, with no recollection of the past, and no revival of mutual suspicions and complaints. These were wise counsels and generous overtures; and it would have been well for the government if it could have embraced them. But Mr. Disraeli now found himself in the position in which Sir Robert Peel had formerly been, having to deal with a section of his party which was determined not to accept changes which had become inevitable and indispensable; and he was obliged to tax his ingenuity to the utmost to produce a measure which would give a considerable extension of the franchise without causing too much alarm to this portion of his party.

The measure which had already divided the conservative councils, and caused so important a secession from the ministry, was brought forward by Mr. Disraeli on the 18th of March. Although so many bills on the subject had already been submitted to the House of Commons, there was no abatement of the interest with which the question was regarded either by the members of the legislature or by the public. The house was as densely packed in all its parts as it had ever been, and there was as great a desire manifested to obtain places in the gallery as on any previous occasion of the same kind. The plan propounded by the chancellor of the exchequer was certainly bold, and perhaps the best which, considering on the one hand the demands of the country, and on the other hand the principles, the sentiments, and the interests of his own followers, it was possible for him to bring forward.

The franchise in boroughs was conferred on every man of full age, and not subject to any legal incapacity, who for the whole of the preceding two years had been the inhabitant occupier, whether as owner or tenant, of any dwellinghouse within the borough, and had during the time of his

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occupation of it been rated to all rates (if any) made for the relief of the poor in respect of these premises, and had before the 20th of July paid all rates due up to the preceding 5th day of January.

The franchise in counties was to be conferred on every man of full age, and not subject to any legal incapacity, who on the last day of July in any year, and during the preceding twelve months, had been the occupier as owner or tenant of premises of any tenure within the county of the rateable value of fifteen pounds or upwards, and had during the time of his occupation been rated to all rates made for the relief of the poor, and had paid before the 20th of July all rates due by him on that property since the preceding 5th of January.

But, in addition to the franchises thus made to depend on the ownership or occupation of property, it was also proposed that there should be

An educational franchise, to be conferred on all graduates or associates in arts of any university of the united kingdom; on any male person who has passed at any senior middle-class examination of any university of the united kingdom; on any ordained priest or deacon of the church of England, or minister of any other denomination; on barristers, pleaders, attorneys, medical men, and certificated schoolmasters.

A pecuniary franchise to belong to every man who on the 1st of July in any year, and during the two years immediately preceding, has had a balance of not less than fifty pounds deposited in a savings-bank, or in the Bank of England, or in any parliamentary stocks or funds, or has during the twelve months immediately preceding the 5th of April in any year been charged with and paid twenty shillings for assessed taxes and income-tax.

Another clause of the bill, which was perhaps its most novel feature, provided that a person registered as a voter for a borough by reason of his having been charged with and paid the requisite amount of assessed taxes and incometax, or either of such taxes, shall not by reason of being so registered lose any right to which he may be entitled (if otherwise duly qualified) to be registered as a voter for the same borough in respect of any franchise involving occupation of premises and payment of rates, and when

registered in respect of such double qualification, he should be entitled to give two votes for the member (or, if there be more than one, for each member) to be returned to serve in parliament for the borough.

The provisions for the redistribution of seats were, that Totness, Reigate, Great Yarmouth, and Lancaster should cease to return any member; that Honiton, Thetford, Wells, Evesham, Marlborough, Norwich, Richmond, Lymington, Knaresborough, Andover, Leominster, Tewkesbury, Ludlow, Ripon, Huntingdon, Maldon, Cirencester, Bodmin, Great Marlow, Devizes, Hertford, Dorchester, and Lichfield, should henceforward only return one; that Tower Hamlets should be divided into two boroughs, each returning two members; that the following counties, or divisions of counties, should be divided into two parts, each returning two members to parliament: South Devon, West Kent, North Lancashire, South Lancashire, Lincoln (parts of Lindsay), Middlesex, South Staffordshire, and East Surrey; that Torquay, Darlington, Hartlepool, Gravesend, St. Helen's, Burnley, Staleybridge, Wednesbury, Croydon, Middlesborough, Dewsbury, and Bursley, and the University of London, should each return one member to parliament.

This bill was based on the principle embodied in Lord Dunkellin's motion.* Thus, instead of drawing a 57., 61., or 77. line to cut off what was called the residuum, that is to say, the class whose extreme poverty rendered_them most liable to be bribed or improperly influenced, the government boldly adopted household suffrage, with the qualification of the payment of rates; thus excluding from the franchise compound householders, who did not pay their rates personally, and those whose rates, under various acts, were compounded for by their landlords, and all lodgers. Mr. Disraeli calculated that his bill would admit 237,000 additional voters, but would leave 486,000 still excluded from the borough franchise, and that the result of his whole plan would be that one quarter of the voting power would belong to the aristocracy, another quarter to the working classes, and the remaining half to the middle classes. Such was his proposed 'balance of political power.' It was, however, afterwards shown that his house

* See p. 285.

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maker who dismissed union-men had his shed burnt by naphtha, and much valuable property consumed. Other masters give up business from fear of being assassinated. Thousands of needles were put into brickmakers' clay to injure the hands of non-union men who refused to obey the tyrannical behests of the union. Persons employed to protect property from these and other attempts were shot at, wounded, and even murdered; a favourite mare was roasted to death in a slow agony, lasting for more than two hours. Such were the means by which some of the Manchester unionists sought to enforce compliance with their tyrannical orders; and those in other places were not far behind them.

The indignation which the conduct of these fiends naturally rouses must not be allowed to blind us to the fact that the outrages of which they were guilty were the results of class legislation, arising from a want of proper representation in parliament of the class of which the tradesunions were composed. The protection of the law was refused to these societies even when they confined themselves to objects which were clearly legitimate, and the consequence was that they attempted to compass their aims by means which were illegitimate. If the law would not protect them, they would defy the law. Thus it always happens that injustice is as pernicious to those whose interests it is designed to advance as to those against whom it is employed. To this fact the eyes of the legislature have been opened, thanks in no small degree to the investigations of the trades-union commissioners; and the result of legislation founded on justice has been that outrages such as those we have recorded have become almost or altogether things of the past.

The session of 1868 found the Derby government, as the session of 1867 had left it, face to face with a liberal party greatly superior in numbers, but too divided to be easily combined in any movement for its overthrow. Mr. Dis. raeli therefore continued to employ the tactics which had hitherto enabled him to escape a fatal defeat, dexterously evading the questions on which the opposition would be likely to unite against him. The Irish and Scotch reform bills had still to be passed, and the desirableness that they should be carried through parliament by the same admi

nistration that had superintended the English bill formed a plausible excuse for the still farther retention of office by the ministry of a minority. It was a state of things wholly without parallel in the history of the country; but it was urged that the circumstances in which they had been placed by the errors and divisions of their opponents were also unprecedented.)

As the session had been formally opened in the autumn of 1867, the two houses had only to take up their business where they had left it and as they had left it. They commenced their sittings on Thursday the 13th of February, on which day Mr. Disraeli with praiseworthy promptitude introduced a bill having for its object the more effectual prevention of corrupt practices at parliamentary elections. The plan he proposed was to create a court composed of three eminent members of the legal profession, with a salary of 2000l. per annum each, who were not only to decide on all election petitions, but to hear appeals from the decisions of revising barristers.

The health of Lord Derby had long been failing; he was weary of the duties of office, which, indeed, his growing infirmities disabled him from discharging with his wonted ability and efficiency. His resignation had long been expected, and it was formally announced on the 25th of February in the upper house by Lord Malmesbury, and in the lower by his son, Lord Stanley. It was added that the Queen had commanded Mr. Disraeli to form, if possible, a new administration, and that he had accepted the task. An adjournment, as a matter of course, was agreed to in the Commons: but the Lords continued their sittings in order to pass a bill for the suspension of the habeascorpus act in Ireland. Mr. Disraeli carried out the commands that had been given him by inducing his colleagues to remain in office, with the exception of Lord Chelmsford, who was succeeded in the chancellorship by Lord Cairns. Of course he himself became first lord of the treasury, and Mr. Ward Hunt took the office of chancellor of the exchequer. When the House of Commons again met, on the Friday after the day of its adjournment, a farther adjournment to the following Thursday was asked for by Lord Stanley, and somewhat reluctantly conceded by Mr. Gladstone.