Mr. Gladstone has delivered four speeches in Edinburgh in three
days. In the two on Wednesday he dilated on the less obvious results of the policy by which he has done so much for England, and of this we have spoken elsewhere. But he threw out besides two very remarkable indications of the kind of Reform Bill which he at least is prepared to support. With regard to the franchise he said, " Whenever Parliament shall find the opportunity of ad- dressing itself to the consideration of that question, and will ap- proach it in the spirit on the one hand of prudence, on the other of manliness and justice, the end which they will propose to themselves will be public justice, and they will seek by any provi- sions they may incorporate in the law, neither to continue, nor to set up, nor in any manner to favour dominion, or the undue influence, of one class as compared with another." Again, in his address to the working class, while expressing a hope that they might soon be included in the representation, he took great pains to insist on the necessity of preventing majorities from infringing on the rights of minorities. From these hints we may fairly hope that Mr. Gladstone would favour such a measure as we have sketched out elsewhere, the principle of which these words of his precisely ex- press. The " dominion" of the middle class has " continued " too long already. Let us hope it may not be succeeded by the dominion of the working class.
