When this was disposed of, the fancy franchises collapsed at
Sir Roundell Palmer's first touch. The educational frauchise was not needed after the concession of a lodger franchise, and was a step towards manhood suffrage, as it would have enfranchised young men living under their parents' roof. The savings' bank and funded-property franchise Mr. Disraeli withdrew on the gentlest possible pressure for the oddest passible reason. The first afternoon sitting, he said, had hitherto been sci successful, that to make it more so, he would withdraw the only clauses which still stood between the Committee and the end of the first part of the Bill ! And the House cheered and was pleased. If he had said he would withdraw the proposed changes in the Constitution because it was a fine afternoon, the House would probably have cheered as much, and looked equally pleased. There is no more. comfort- able way of making an afternoon's work look satisfactory than to suggest to yourself a number of conceivable complex amendments, and decide them suddenly,—in the negative. You may always take credit for having considered and rejected them.
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