m the Throne was the guarded promise of a Reform Bill. The
attention of Parliament was to be called to information concerning the
right of voting with a view to such improvements as might tend to
strengthen our free institutions and conduce to the public welfare. Lord
John determined to make haste slowly, for some of his colleagues were
hardly inclined to make haste at all, since they shared Lord
Palmerston's views on the subject and distrusted the Radical cry which
had arisen since the industrial revolution. The Premier and Mr.
Gladstone--for they were a kind of Committee of Two--were content for
the moment to propose a revision of the franchise, and to leave in
ambush for another session the vexed question involved in a
redistribution of seats. 'It was decided,' states Lord John, 'that it
would be best to separate the question of the franchise from that of the
disfranchisement of boroughs. After much inquiry, we agreed to fix the
suffrages of boroughs at an occupation of 7_l._ value.'

[Sidenote: THE CAVE OF ADULLAM]

The House of Commons was densely packed when Mr. Gladstone introduced
the measure on March 12, but, in spite of his powers of exposition and
infectious enthusiasm, the Government proposals fell undeniably flat.
Broadly stated, they were as follows. The county franchise was to be
dropped to 14_l._, and that of the borough, as already stated, to half
that amount, whilst compound householders and lodgers paying 10_l._ a
year were to possess votes. It was computed at the time that the measure
would add four hundred thousand new voters to the existing lists, and
that two hundred thousand of these would belong to what Lord John termed
the 'best of the working classes.' Mr. Bright, and those whom he
represented, not only in Birmingham, but also in every great city and
town in the land, gave their support to the Government, on the principle
that this was at least an 'honest' measure, and that half a loaf,
moreover, was better than no bread. At the same time the country was not
greatly stirred one way or another by the scheme, though it stirred to
panic-stricken indignation men of the stamp of Mr. Lowe, Mr. Horsman,
Lord Elcho, Earl Grosvenor, Lord Dunkellin, and other so-called, but
very indifferent, Liberals, who had attached themselves to the party
under Lord Palmerston's happy-go-lucky and easy auspices. These were the
men who presently distinguished themselves, and extinguished the Russell
Administration