Mr. Henry Fowler delivered a striking speech to his con-
stituents at Wolverhampton on Saturday last. It was a speech nearly two hours in length, delivered to an audience of two thousand persons, who listened to him with eagerness and perfect sympathy throughout. He reviewed " the solid and useful" work of the last Session,—the Corrupt Practices Act, the Bankruptcy Act, the Act for Reducing the National Debt, and the Agricultural Holdings Act,—with some detail; but his explanations of what had been done were so graphic that he did not in any degree weary his audience with this long review; and his reply to the Tory criticisms on the finance of the Session evidently excited the deepest interest. When Mr. Fowler asked why the House of Lords should not be reformed, Wolverhampton cheered him most lustily,—and we wish the Conservative leaders in the Peers would carefully watch the growing signs of public impatience with which their obstruc- tive attitude towards Liberal measures is received. On the question of the policy of the future, Mr. Fowler was most explicit, and carried with him the fullest enthusiasm of his audience. The concession of household franchise to the counties should, he said, be the first work undertaken, and with it must go the necessary redistribution of electoral power. " Under the present working of our Parliamentary system," he said, "we are governed by a minority of the population, a minority of voters, a minority of taxpayers, and a minority of the patriotism and intelligence of the country. We can hold no compromise with this sort of thing."
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