It is dangerous to be too sanguine upon subjects which
are closely identified with the most powerful emotions of the human mind, as the consequences of disappointment after sanguine anti- cipation are apt to be very perilous, as well as painful, but there is substantial reason to • hope that, with every reserve for the con- tingency of relapses, the pressure of the compound householder upon the brain of politicians is at an end, and that, oven to take the least sanguine view, a lucid interval is likely to be enjoyed. Mr. Disraeli, with his usual adroitness, while proposing even to repeal the third section of Sir William Clay's Act, by which the compound householder of to-day gets placed on the Register, has sacrificed enough of his original plan to convert a great many Liberals to his view, while retaining enough to dissatisfy many Liberals and to keep up the necessity for a party fight, and the appearance of a decent resistance and Conservative consistency. He has given up the " fine " on the voter, by empowering him to deduct from his rent the "full" rates to which his house is liable, considering that the landlord ought to give up the bonus of 25 per cent., or more, for trouble and responsibility, when that trouble and responsibility no longer fall upon him. This concession, though it did not satisfy Mr. Hibbert and Mr. Gladstone, really took the heart out of the Opposition, and Mr. Disraeli had courage to take the debate upon it at once, instead of keeping it, as he might have done, till the very end of the discussion, seehig that it arises principally on the 34th clause. We have explained carefully in another column how it is probable that Mr. Disraeli's proposed new clause will really work.
