The second speech was on internal affairs, though Egypt kept
slipping in, like King Charles into Mr. Dick's petition. Lord Salisbury ridiculed the majority of 130, which only meant that "the Government had squared the Irish." He was not opposed to the extension of the franchise to the suburban householder, but believed the agricultural householder did not care to possess it, and would, therefore, be the victim of the agitator. He held a wise Redistribution to be essential to a Franchise Bill, because the first effect of a lowered franchise was always Radical. The Tories never organised in time, and organisation was everything. The Government proposal about Ireland was absurd, for under it, if the Irish population de- clined to two millions, Ireland would still have a hundred representatives ; while the idea that distance from the seat of Government gave increased claim to representation, was a "fantastic and crazy" theory, which must have a motive be- hind it,—the motive being the Liberalism of the distant parts of Scotland, and Ireland, and Wales. The Lords would never be attacked by the people for appealing to them, but the Liberals were afraid of a dissolution. Their proposals were not intended to remedy social evils, which ought to be reme- died by existing machinery, but to fish up votes by the shifting of political power. The Tories would settle those• problems directly by touching them "with a kindly hand," without setting class against class.
