Sir Michael Hicks-Beach made a speech at Cheltenham on Thursday
noteworthy, amidst the flaccid speeches on his side, for a certain strength. He said that Mr. Gladstone in 1879 was quite right in appealing to the country against a House of Commons which did not represent the country, though nobody knew it at the time, and that the House of Lords had just the same right as Mr. Gladstone. That is true, of course, if they employ the game method ; but the reasons which justify persuasion do not justify force. Suppose Mr. Glad- stone had urged the people to disobey all laws passed before a Dissolution ! As to Redistribution, Sir Michael avowed that he wanted the direction of it, in order to prevent, " by the represen- tation of minorities, or some other scheme," the ascendancy of numbers, and to continue that "representation of classes and interests" without which the House of Commons would not be,
as it was now, a fair reflex of the people. That is the Toryism of a bygone age which died when, in 1867, the Tory leader gave the urban householders the franchise without any guarantees; but it is pleasanter to listen to than the modern form under which Tories entirely believe in numbers, if only the numbers are not permitted to do anything. Sir M. Hicks-Beach did not quite say that be did not want the people to govern the gentry, but that is what he meant.
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