In the House of Lords on Thursday Lord Wemyss moved
his resolution,—" That this House is prepared to proceed now with the consideration of the Representation of the People Bill, on the understanding that a humble address be presented to her Majesty, humbly praying her Majesty to summon Parliament to assemble in the early part of the autumn for the purpose of considering the Redistribution Bill which her Majesty's Ministers have undertaken to present to Parliament on the earliest occasion possible." He said he had undertaken this proposal solely in consequence of Mr. Gladstone's conciliatory speech in the House of Commons yesterday week, when Mr. Gladstone declared that the compromise he proposed to Lord Cairns was still open. Lord Wemyss thought it the duty of the House of Lords to avail itself of that open door. He held that the Conservative Party, in re- sisting the Franchise Bill, were taking their stand "on mined and rotten ground," and he thought they could not commit a worse mistake. Lord Shaftesbury followed in the same spirit. He believed that if any evil consequences ensued from the course the Lords were taking, none would be so loud in con- demning it as the Conservative party in the country at large. The Peers were wasting, in resisting the Franchise, power which they would greatly need when they came to discuss some more organic change.
