On Tuesday night Mr. Bright was unusually conciliatory. He rose
late in the evening to say that the Bill was a bad Bill, but he could wait for the redistribution of seats, declared his willingness to omit the residuum or lees of the house- holders, who were always more or km poor and dependent ; thought the franchise ought to be made easy for compound householders ; would not mind if everybody above 5/. rating were enfranchised ; wished to draw a line which would exclude all householders so poor as to he exonerated from rates ; and wound up his speech by declaring that he would support any Government which would settle the question ; that "he hated the ways and scorned the purposes of faction," and that he only resisted the Bill as it stood, because "lie would be no party to any measure which would cheat the great body of his countrymen of the position and power in the house on which they had set their hearts." It was felt as Mr. Bright sat down that he would endure a rate-paying suffrage, with rates abolished on houses below Si., and that a great step had been made towards a compromise.
