Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1866-04-25

ed. The issue now before the country is
not only the acceptance or rejection of
Mr.. Gadstone's bill, but the existence Of
Liberal administration. The ministry
having wisely, as well as courageously,
resolved to stand or fall by the measure,
it lies with the people to close up ranks
and 60 into action after their leaders,
determined to win or stack their arms
in ''calm, dishonorable, base submission
at the feet of the triumphant Tories.
That is the alternative, and one is re-
joiced to see it accepted pretty thorough
ly. An enthusiasm which the bill was
certainly not calculated to evoke on its
own merits seems likely to be excited by
the delightful perversity and admirable
unreason ofits opponents, and especially
by the outspoken rancor of the renegades
whom deficiency Of drill in the ranks
to which they had deserted, urged to the
front The Tories and their allies have
shown unmistakably that what they hate
is not the particular kind of reform pro-
posed, but reform ITSELF The arguments
put forward by Messrs. Lowe and Hors-
man, and indorsed by Lord Robert Mon
tague and Vincent Cranbourne, assert
that unenfranchised masses are radically
unfit for the possession of vote-ln
effect, the drunkards, brawlers, brutes,
and corrupt rascals that the frst-named
member for the rotten borough of Calne
"a village in the west of England =
chose to call them Now, the Liberals
of England are about as much divided in
opinion as were the Abolitionists of
America, to whom have compared them,
as to how far it is desirable to interfere
with the existing state Of things; they
differ as to what extent the franchise
ought to be lowered, and many were dis
posed to consider the redistribution of
seats of more urgent importance than a
mere lowering Of the suffrage, which will
practically increase the power of the I'M
represented classes, without touching
fragrant anomalies and abuses, crying
aloud for extinction. But as We Repnb-
licans were agreed that slavery should,
with our consent, 60 no further, so the
Liberals here entertain no doubt us to
the expediency ofincreasing the electoral
body. TO admit that the working men of
England ought to be permanently exclu-
ded from any direct share in the govern
ment of the country is to renounce the
whole creed of Liberalism. The elo-
quent and burning Indignation with
which Mr. Gladstone repudiated the stig-
ma which the Tory party attempted to
aiiix to their poorer countrymen was per-
haps needed to raise their feelings to the
right pitch-perhaps expressly calculated
for that purpose / object" he said
in answer to the vapid insolence of Lord
Robert Montague and the stupid appre-
tensions of the Conservatives, to the
idea Of dealing with these statistics as
II zoe mere dscertaini'g the numbers Of |
an iaUdding army The people phO
wiH be admitted 10 the franchise are our
feNop.sabj our felioac Christians,
our oaon flesh and blood-men tduded
TO the skies for their cOnduct--men rho
hare borne dsShtutioR, starvation al
most, with a patience that ,oiU be les
son TO aH Won't there be a grand echo
to these sentimental rant as
Lord Cranbourne termed them a man
whose mind has been felcitously desert
bed as "one with false bottom when,
next week, the Chancellor of the Exche- |
quer takes the stump in LancashireY
1t was the first time during his leader
ship that he spoke with his old passion,
and for the first time the House of Com
mons felt that Mr. Gladstone was In
earnest about reform, as it only learned |
recently to appreciate Mr.. Bright as, not |
a speaker, but debator. Never was
engineer more startlingly hoist with his
own petard" than the Tories were dis
by the information that Govern !
ment intended to lay the Irish and Scotch |
Reform Bills, and one for the redistribu-
ton of seats at once on the table!