GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



375 



Earl Granville approached Lord Cairns with pro- 

 posals for a compromise. The ministry offered 

 to bring in and press forward a redistribution 

 bill in the ensuing session, but the Conserva- 

 tives demanded the postponement of the op- 

 eration of the franchise bill until Jan. 1, 1886, 

 unless Parliament fixed an earlier date. 



The Franchise Agitation, After the vote of the 

 Lords and during the recess, England was con- 

 vulsed with political excitement. The agitation 

 for the abolition of the House of Lords was re- 

 newed. The tide of popular excitement rose 

 higher than after the rejection of the Irish land 

 bill. The impressive admonition of Gladstone 

 at the close of the debate on the franchise bill 

 gave an impulse to the movement. The Radi- 

 cal leaders were more aggressive and unre- 

 lenting than before. The venerable John 

 Bright denounced the Peers as an " arrogant 

 and unpatriotic oligarchy," and avowed that, 

 "unless English freedom be a fraud and a 

 sham, .the English people will know how to 

 deal with a titled and hereditary chamber 

 whose arrogance and whose class selfishness 

 has long been at war with the highest interests 

 of the nation." John Morley uttered the 

 watchword of the day when he declared that 

 " no power on earth can henceforth separate 

 the question of mending the House of Com- 

 mons from that other question of mending or 

 ending the House of Lords." On July 21 a 

 mass-meeting of over 30,000 men took place 

 in Hyde Park, London. Similar demonstra- 

 tions in other parts of the country revealed a 

 powerful current of feeling among the English 

 democracy hostile to an hereditary chamber. 

 The Marquis of Salisbury denounced the Lib- 

 erals for "descending into the streets," and 

 characterized the popular manifestations as 

 " legislation by picnic." The Tories them- 

 selves soon sought the support of popular 

 manifestations, and in the course of the cam- 

 paign brought together assemblages that ap- 

 proached in their dimensions those of the Lib- 

 erals. In the counter-demonstrations Lord 

 Randolph Churchill did good service to his 

 party, and by the magnitude of his popular fol- 

 lowing demonstrated the vigor of the progres- 

 sive school of Conservatism of which he is the 

 exponent. The Conservative manifestations 

 deserved better the name of picnics than those 

 of the Liberals, because, as a rule, they were 

 not open public meetings, but were guarded by 

 the device of tickets of admission from disturb- 

 ance and interruption, and were often ren- 

 dered inviting by feasts, excursion- trains, and 

 other descriptions of largess. These question- 

 able and novel adjuncts to political assemblies 

 provoked the scorn of their opponents. One 

 of the large Conservative demonstrations was 

 held at Birmingham in October. The Liber- 

 als arranged a counter-demonstration in ad- 

 joining grounds, and, breaking down a parti- 

 tion, interrupted the feasting and speech-mak- 

 ing, changing the scene to riot and havoc. 

 The Conservatives, although many of them, 



when the measure was first proposed, had op- 

 posed the enfranchisement of the rural house- 

 holders as a dangerous advance toward de- 

 mocracy, now professed as much zeal as the 

 Liberals for the extension of suffrage. They 

 attacked the foreign policy of the Government 

 and their legislative impotency in order to 

 show that their mandate was exhausted, their 

 energy run down, and gave color to the Mar- 

 quis of Salisbury's demand that they should 

 go to the country on a question of "the re- 

 vision of the Constitution." They were ac- 

 cused of a design to "gerrymander" the con- 

 stituencies and forcing the Conservatives to 

 accept a redistribution unfavorable to their 

 party interests rather than leave the districts 

 as they were with a widened franchise. Mr. 

 Gladstone declared himself that he must have 

 the franchise bill as a means of pressure upon 

 Parliament to pass a redistribution bill. 



The Autumn Session. The autumn session was 

 opened on October 23. The negotiations with 

 the Conservative leaders were continued dur- 

 ing the recess, but it was not until some 

 weeks after Parliament opened that an agree- 

 ment was reached. The Government brought 

 in a redistribution bill as soon as the franchise 

 bill was passed. As it was based on the com- 

 pact made between the leaders in their secret 

 conferences, it passed smoothly through all its 

 stages and became law before the adjournment 

 for the Christmas holidays. The new grants 

 for naval construction, the vote for the Soudan 

 operations, and other matters, were also dis- 

 posed of. In the negotiations with the Oppo- 

 sition leaders concerning redistribution, the 

 Government were desirous of increasing the 

 number of two-member districts, while the 

 Conservatives advocated a system of grouping 

 boroughs and proportional representation. On 

 both sides of the House there were members 

 long committed to the principle of minority 

 representation. The Government expressed a 

 willingness to adopt single - member divis- 

 ions. This compromise was embraced by the 

 Conservatives, who deemed that it would give 

 larger scope to the influence of property and 

 of local social influences. Many were opposed 

 to this plan, apart from all party considerations, 

 because they considered that it would tend to 

 lower the character of parliamentary repre- 

 sentation, since, if the country were cut up 

 into petty wards, each returning its member, 

 the wards would be likely to fall into the 

 American custom of choosing residents to rep- 

 resent them, men of merely local prominence, 

 politicians of the vestryman type, instead of 

 going outside to obtain men of approved abil- 

 ity and national distinction. It was the same 

 question as that between list and district vot- 

 ing which divided France. Mr. L. H. Court- 

 ney resigned his office of Financial Secretary 

 because of this, and because no provision was 

 made for minority representation. 



The Extension of the Franchise. The franchise 

 bill extends the borough franchises to the 



