A great meeting was held in Manchester on Tuesday to
give support to the Government especially in relation to the proposed. Land-Tenure Bill, the reduction of taxation, the abolition of University tests, the introduction of the ballot, the extension of education to every English child, and the improvement of the licensing system. There was no very good speaking. Mr. Jacob Bright, who supported the principal resolution, complained that the suffrage of the agricultural districts is still so high as to exclude many voters, and that women are not yet made electresees. The meeting, however, did not in any way urge these reforms on the Government. Mr. Jacob Bright called the ballot a measure for defeating the purposes of political highwaymen ; he advocated the abolition of the hustings as an antiquated absurdity ; and he urged that the payment for cabs should invalidate both a muni- cipal and a parliamentary election. There is much good sense in all that, but the form of Mr. Jacob Bright's oratory gives the impression of a wish to get up indignation and passion beyond what the political circumstances of the day and his own views in relation to them, will quite justify.
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