Mr. Bright delivered his annual address to his constituents at
Birmingham on Saturday evening. We have analysed and com- mented on it elsewhere, but may remark here that it was de- voted to two subjects alone,—the services which the Liberal party had rendered to working-men, and the reform which Liberals should next pursue. On the first topic, he replied to Lord Derby, who had argued that Liberals never gave working- men anything, by showing that Liberals had removed taxes on 1,200 articles, had abolished the monopolieiof corn, sugar, ships, and newspapers, and had in the boroughs given the working-men votes. With regard to the second, he proposed to do for the counties what had been done for the cities, to equalise the suffrage, to redistribute seats, and to enfranchise the land from the 14,000 per- sons who now own the bulk of it by abolishing primogeniture, reviving the liberty of 'bequest, and making transfer easy. Mr. Bright's opinion, in fact, is that Radical county reform should !Ake precedence of the ecclesiastical question as the next cheval bataille of the Liberal party. We need not say we heartily agree, but we question if the country does.
