One of the great speeches of this debate was that
of Mr. Coleridge on Friday week, a speech which stamped him at once as a great master of Parliamentary oratory. He was not enamoured of the Bill, but pointed to the result of its defeat, both on Reform, which would be " at sea," and on the party, which " must be to a great extent broken up." Lord Stanley's speech was unanswerable, but the Government had only a choice of difficulties—to break its pledges, or to bring in a half measure, a complete one having been so often defeated. " Redistribution would affect the franchise, but so would the franchise affect redis- tribution." Mr. Coleridge ridiculed Mr. Lowe's apprehensions, and then, rising into a really lofty strain of eloquence, asked the Tories whether they really thought Liberals had never read history, had no imagination and no sentiment, were blind to the claims of association, or deaf to the voice of tradition. He claimed for them an equal share in all those elements of feeling, and taunted the opponents of the Bill as the true Revolutionists, who refused to deepen the increasing stream till it was forced to overflow.
