5 JULY 1968, Page 5

A hundred years ago

From the 'Spectator', 4 July 1868—English Revenue Officers have no vote. Mr. Monck thinks they should have. So does the House of Commons, which on Tuesday, committed the Bill, in the teeth of both Mr. Disraeli and Mr. Gladstone, by 79 to 47. The argument is that their votes will be so valuable that the Treasury will not be able to keep its officers in order; but it belongs, we think, rather to the old-world order of things. Individual votes were valuable yesterday, but today, under Mr. Disraeli's Reform Bill, "the individual dwindles, and the crowd is more and more."