In the House of Lords, on Thursday, the Franchise Bill
passed through Committee without amendment; and in all pro- bability it will have passed its third reading before this journal is in our readers' hands. In the House of Commons on the same day Mr. Courtney, speaking from below the gangway, ex- plained with much dignity the reasons which had compelled him to resign office ; and, in advocating the Hare system, made a sharp attack on the principle of breaking up constituencies into sections with single seats as one which may be so manipulated as to give a majority to the weaker party, and which, in his opinion, is certain to lead to a degradation of the personnel of the House of Commons. He declared that General Garfield had been so much impressed by the speeches in favour of minority representation in the House of Commons, that he returned to the United States a convert to that system. Mr. Courtney
extolled the late President of the United States as a perfect specimen of the impartial foreigner using his intellect honestly for a great cud.
