16 MARCH 1867, Page 3

Lord Russell has been much abused for his speech last

Monday in the House of Lords, but when we once emerge from the sacred groves of historical reminiscences and the Chandos Clause, it was not such bad sense. He remarked that no household rating franchise could now be the sole basis of the political franchise, on account of the compound householders and the numerous lodgers ; nor could they be admitted en masse without swamping the present constituencies, to which he objected. That is cer- tainly- so. But household rating has no greater mystery in it than income-tax paying, and a double basis may be justifiable enough,—if only means be found to reserve a real representative influence to the present constituencies.