The third speech delivered by Mr. Gladstone in the Waverley
Market was, in one way, the most important of all, for the audience consisted of from twelve to fourteen thousand work- men of Midlothian, who had come to present an address ex- pressing their confidence in the Ministry, and their resolve to. support it in the contest with "the misguided power of an ancient, but irresponsible, section of the Constitution." Mr. Gladstone, in his reply, dwelt principally upon the unconstitu- tional character of the Lords' demand for a Dissolution. The Ministers of the Crown, if they wrongfully advise a Disso- lution, are punished with dismissal. If the House of Lords wrongfully advises a Dissolution, is it to be pun- ished by dismissal? Their proposal is that they shall compel a Dissolution, and if they are wrong, shall go on exactly as before, to play the same part again. As to Redis- tribution, the Government held the extension of the franchise good in itself ; while the Tories proceeded on the idea that the new millions of electors are millions of wild beasts who,. before they can be safely admitted, must be lodged in separate cages. That was the wide difference between the two parties; but the nation must decide, "because never will you engage in a more honourable, never in a more politic, never in a more Constitutional undertaking than when you are about the busi- ness of endeavouring to procure that extension of the Parlia- mentary constituency which will give the illustrious throne of her Majesty a yet broader basis, and to the laws and Constitu- tion of the country a yet firmer foundation to meet the vicissi- tudes of ages to come."
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