Lord Salisbury addressed a crowded meeting on Wednesday, in the
Concert Hall at Lillie Bridge, under the auspices of the Borough of Chelsea Conservative Association, and moved a resolution in favour of forcing on a dissolution at the earliest possible moment. Interrupted in his speech with the cry, " Give us your programme !" he declared that he would give it in four words,--" Appeal to the people." He. declared that, in his opinion, the last election did not turn in any appreciable degree on the franchise question, and that the constituencies could not have been said .to decide that question. It would be most inequitable, he said, to pass the Franchise Bill, and leave the much more important Redistribution Bill to a raw Parliament without experience or discipline ; and therefore, apparently, he intends to refer both questions to a raw Parliament without experience or discipline, though in the sanguine hope that that raw Parliament, under the guidance of Conservatives, will refuse to have anything to do with either measure. It is certain that Lord Salisbury's declaration that he intends to force a dissolu- tion as soon as possible was explicit, and that nothing but a very powerful demonstration in the country at large will deter the Conservative Peers from following his lead.
