CHAPTER XXVIIL

RRTURN FROM AMERICA.—THE NEW MINISTRY.

Durayg Cobden’s absence, great events came to pass in the
Parliamentary world. Mr. Disraeli introduced his Reform Bill
(Feb, 1859), which included the famous fancy *’ franchises,
"Ud the uge of voting papers. The Conservatives did not
lk the Bill, and two of their most respected leaders, Mr.
Henley and Mr. Walpole, quitted the Ministry rather than
% parties to it. The Whigs objected to it as an encroachent
 on their own political preserves. Mr. Bright denounced
ag absurd and irritating, disturbing everything and
“tiling nathing., The Government were defeated by a
Majority of thirty-nine in a hcise of six hundred and
"enty.one members, They dissolved Parliament three
Weeks afterwards, and the writs for its successor were issued
fore the end of April,
The men of Rochdale met and resolved to choose Cobden
® the Liberal candidate. Mr. Bright went to their meeting
"2d commended to them his © political associate, his political
other,» in a manly and cordial record of Cobden’s past
%reer, (obden had told him that he would rather sit for
Rochdale than for any other borough in England; for
Rochdale Liberalism, he said, had heart enough in it “to
bal up a man against the aristocratic section of the
gislatyre, Cobden was eventually returned without &
Sontent

1859.
Ar. 56.

v