deal about the bad effect of your speech,
but I can assure you that I hear from many quarters the unfavourable
impression it has produced even upon many of the liberal party, and upon
all persons who value the maintenance of our institutions."

To others, Mr. Gladstone wrote in less formal style, for instance to an
eminent nonconformist minister: "May 14. I have unwarily, it seems, set
the Thames on fire. But I have great hopes that the Thames will, on
reflection perceive that he had no business or title to catch the flame,
and will revert to his ordinary temperature accordingly." And to his
brother Robertson, he writes from Brighton, three days later:--

Many thanks for all you say respecting my speech on the franchise
bill. I have been astounded to find it the cause or occasion of
such a row. It would have been quite as intelligible to me had
people said, "Under the exceptions of personal unfitness and
political danger you exclude or may exclude almost everybody, and
you reduce your declaration to a shadow."

In the diary he says: "_May 11._--Spoke on the franchise bill. Some
sensation. It appears to me that it was due less to me, than to the change
in the hearers and in the public mind from the professions at least if not
the principles of 1859." Much against Lord Palmerston's wish, the speech
was published, with a short preface that even staunch friends like
Phillimore found obscure and not well written.

(M38) An address, significant of the general feeling in the unenfranchised
classes, was presented to him from the workmen of York a month after his
speech in parliament. They recalled his services to free trade when he
stood by the side of Peel; his budget of 1860; his conspicuous and
honourable share in abolishing the taxes on knowledge. "We have marked,"
they said, "your manifestations of sympathy with the down-trodden and
oppressed of every clime. You have advanced the cause of freedom in
foreign lands by the power and courage with which you have assailed and
exposed the misdeeds and cruelties of continental tyrants. To the
provident operative you have by your Post Office Savings Bank bill given
security for his small savings, and your Government Annuities bill of this
session is a measure which will stimulate the people to greater thrift and
forethought. These acts, together with your speeches on the last named,
and on the Borough Franchise bill, make up a life that commands our