26 OCTOBER 1872, Page 1

Sir J. Coleridge is the first member of the Government

who has spoken out manfully and strongly in behalf of the Labourers, who, he says, "live very hardly and work very long, sad have at the end of life nothing to hope for." He ventured to believe that a "Tory Duke and a Tory Bishop had between them made the extension of the county franchise a matter of very pressing necessity." The Duke had made every labourer a farmer's tenant- at-will, and the Bishop had not yet apologised for his recom- mendation of the horse-pond. He quite believed the farmers might have a case, but they must be taught that there are two sides to every question, and that they must not settle every dis- pute in their own favour by mere unreasoning authority. The laws of mortmain, transfer, and entail would have to be modified, if only because of their effect upon the condition of the peasaat. Household suffrage in counties, the enfranchisement of the land, the abolition of primogeniture, all proposed by an Attorney.- General ! Tory Duke and Tory Bishop have secured much for mankind.