- Mr. , Gladstone has been making a little excursion in the
South, and as usual, has been feted in every town he passed through, And has had to make speeches in Dartmouth, Plymouth, and Exeter. The most important was at the last-named town,' where, besides repeating that if we had joined Russia, that Power srotild not have misused a just and necessary war for purposes of ;ambition, and we should not all have been considering whether She could be trusted or not—" a question not .very easy to answer "—he spoke out definitely and, strongly on the ques- tion of household suffrage in the counties. He believed the labourers perfectly competent to exercise the suffrage, and their tnfranchisement required alike by policy and justice. He praised Lord Hartington, "the leader of the Liberal party," 'for:energetic- ally defending this "boon to the country," declared that.the Tory 'Opposition was half-hearted, and predicted A speedy flumes for the reform, adding, "whether it is carried by a Tory or a Liberal Government, is a matter of siegular unimportance,"—a 46ntence which is true enough as regards the franchise, but not quite .so,true as regards redistribution. Tories will have many qualms before they give cities like London the representation
due either to their population or to the proportion they pay, of the direct taxes.
Previous page
