Mr. Seymour Fitzgerald and Mr. Newdegate have addressed their constituents
this week, the former as a defeated candidate. He made a speech on his leader's text, affirming that the elections proved a Conservative reaction. The feeling for a large reduction in the franchise had died away, even Mr. Locke King professing himself ready to accept the £20 compromise for the counties, while the majority of Liberal candidates declare their wish for a modified, but not a degraded suffrage. Even Mr. Gladstone had tried to explain away his democratic speech. There was a reaction therefore towards Conservative measures, if not Conservative men. Mr. Newdegate, on the other hand, told his entertainers at Birmingham that the Conservatives in 1832 were rash to make reform a matter of principle. The only principle is that the in- telligence and property of the country shall not be overborne by mere numbers, all the rest is "matter of detail." We shall there- fore expect to find Mr. Newdegate voting for the next Reform Bill based on the principle of giving to each class its fair share of power.
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