Sir John Lubbock added two happy phrases to the sarcastic
literature which is accumulating on the subject of the passion of the Peers for the Franchise Bill. George Eliot, he said, describes one of her characters,—a certain boy,--as being very fond of birds, "that is to say," she adds, "of throwing stones at them.' Such was the fondness of the Peers for the County Franchise. "In some parts of Australia we are told that when a man marries, every one of his bride's relations gives him a good blow on the head with a club, by way of a warm welcome into the family. This is the sort of way in which the Lords have welcomed the Franchise Bill." Sir Wilfrid Lawson levelled his ridicule chiefly at the House of Peers. He re- marked that when the Duke of Portland said he was in the House of Peers by the will of God, he might just as accurately have said that every publican gets his licence by the will of God. Lord Salisbury, said Sir Wilfrid, had been encouraged to stand firm, very much in the same spirit in which the- Spaniards of Madrid called out to a poor Jew—the victim of an auto-da-fe—" Stand firm, Moses." Moses stood firm, and the consequence was one of the greatest conflagrations that Madrid had ever SEM
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