74 ECHOES OF OLD COUNTY LIFE. 



Not long after Disraeli's memorable visit to ^Manchester 

 on April 3rd, 1872, I had an opportunity of speaking to 

 him of his reception there, and he said he thought he 

 had never been so heartily received anywhere as in that 

 cit}'. I mentioned that I had intimate friends resident 

 at Manchester, and that I heard from them that no 

 public man, not Gven Mr. John Bright, had received 

 such a welcome. I proceeded to mention several salient 

 points of his address, which, I remarked, bore out many 

 of the opinions which had been fully expressed by him 

 in his earlier novels, especially upon the franchise, to 

 all which he still seemed thoroughly to adhere. Even 

 now I recall a few memorable sentences of this speech 

 in the Free Trade Hall. In speaking of the Reform 

 Act, he said, "Lord Grey in his measure of 1832, 

 ^vhich was, no doubt, on the whole a statesmanlike 

 measure, committed a great, and, for the time, it 

 appeared an irretrievable error. By that measure he 

 not only made no provision for the representation of the 

 working-classes in the Constitution, but he absolutely 

 abolished those ancient franchises which the working- 

 classes had enjoyed and exercised from time immemorial. 

 That was the origin of Chartism, and of that electoral 

 uneasiness which existed in this country more or less 

 for thirty years." He said to me that " he was sure I must 

 have remembered that he had on several occasions in 

 our County Hall said that the Reform Bill of 1832 was a 

 disfranchising measure," and I alluded to. the disfranchise- 

 ment of the ancient Potwaller and the old Freemen. In 

 reference to education he spoke with his usual strong 

 yet cautious manner: "The public mind will arrive at 



