Mr. Disraeli's speech on Monday night was a laborious attempt
to conceal the radical dissensions in the Cabinet about Reform. It was laboured, and only interesting because everybody expected till almost the last moment disclosures which never came ; —the only novel point,—the resolution as to plurality of votes in the boroughs,—being not even adverted to. Mr. Disraeli apologized for mentioning no figure for the borough franchise, on the ground that the particular figure must depend upon other resolutions,— for example, he said, the resolution as to rating or rental. If rental were the criterion, it would be one figure ; if rating, another. But even then he never referred to the still more important fifth resolution on plural voting. And throughout the speech every one felt that something was being kept back. The argument for the form of resolutions was exceedingly elaborate, and took up more than an hour ; the argument for extending the
boundaries of boroughs and emptying the counties of great borough suburbs °coupled nearly another hour ; then Mr. Disraeli went in for the " historic " value of old boroughs, however small, and defended himself for not wholly disfranchising any one borough. And then he got through his peroration with obvious effort, folding his arms, and mouthing even more theatrically than his wont concerning the conditions under which " the wealth of nations becomes a thing of corruption and decay,"—and the dis- appointed House knew that it must wait for the pith of the plan for another twelve hours.
