Sir Robert Peel replied to Mr. Forster in a speech
that was ranch laughed at, though its irony was very common-place. He called Mr. Forster the most expert political tight-rope dancer he had ever seen in his life, and spoke of the Government as being rapidly crumpled up by the opposition of Liberal refugees. This Bill was one to throw all power into the hands of two millions of the most ignorant and inexperienced voters—a verdict which he has since shown some disposition to explain away. Experience proved that Reform Bills were almost always fatal to the Ministry which introduced them, and this Reform Bill would be fatal to this Government. Mr. Craig-Sellar made a strong speech against giving Ireland so many as 100 Members. Would it be maintained, he asked, that when her population had dwindled to two millions,—the population which as an agricul- tural country she could maintain,—she was still to have 100 Members ? Mr. S. Herbert, M.P. for Wilton, continued the attack on Ireland; and Mr. Charles Russell, in a vigorous speech, showed how utterly inadequate the present electorate of Ireland is, as compared with the electorate of Great Britain. Sir R. Cross described the Bill as one tending to the continual degra- dation of the franchise, but protested against the notion that the Conservatives are unfavourable to Reform. Mr. Shaw- Lefevre closed the debate of Monday with a rather ingenious argu- ment against the scheme of "proportional representation" as applied to Ireland, which was to this effect ;—whatever such a scheme might do in representing loyal Irishmen in Ireland, it would do just as much in representing disloyal Irishmen in England.
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