Mr. Bright spoke with much of his old fire, throwing
the vast audience into an uproar of delight by likening the affection of the Lords for household franchise in the counties to the ostentatious affection lavished on Rob the Grinder by the old harridan to whom he addresses the remonstrance,—" Can't you be fond of a cove without a-squeeging him and a-throttling him P" He also disposed pretty conclusively of the charge that he had changed his mind since 1866-7, in relation to separating the Redistribution Bill from the Franchise Bill. He read a private letter, written by him to Mr. Disraeli in 1867, in which he said,—" The wise course is to leave the question of seats to a future Parliament or for a time when opinion shall be made ripe, and when both sides in the House will accept a larger and a better measure. Besides, to persist in it [the Redistribution] may risk the Franchise Bill, the necessity for which is urgent.' Nothing could show more demonstratively that Mr. Bright does not give one sort of counsel to Tories and another sort of counsel to Liberals.
