Lord Salisbury, in the course of his second speech, let
fall a curious, and possibly prolific hint. He said that if the House of Commons was to be obeyed by the Lords merely because the majority in favour of a measure was large, it would be necessary to repeal the Septennial Act. It would be intolerable that a House should be absolute which had ceased to represent the opinions of the people. There is truth in that, and should we ever again see a Tory Parliament like that of 1874, with a majority of Jingoes, and the Peers eagerly registering its decrees, we may be pretty certain that the agita- tion for quadrennial Parliaments would become formidable. Then perhaps some politician with a memory will reproduce this section of Lord Salisbury's speech, which, we are happy to see, his audience endorsed. With Lord. Randolph Churchill pro- posing "equal" suffrages and the compulsory conversion of leases into freeholds, and Sir Stafford Northcote praising local self- government, and Lord Salisbury declaring against the Septen- nial Act, we shall get on in time. We wonder if any dead Chartist heard the Plymouth speeches ? If he did, how he must have longed to make his cheers for Lord Salisbury audible to the crowd.
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