s of minorities," said Francis.

"Oh! we misdooted that; for we thocht it was a treacherous thing on
Lord John's part," said Sandy. "It is hard eneuch for the Leeberals to
get their dues wi' this restricted franchise; an' this arrangement
would mak the Tories stronger than they are noo."

"But is it not just that a minority of a third should be secured their
third share in the representation?" asked Francis.

"Oh! ye're gaun to first principles, like your freend, Maister
Sinclair. Nae doot it's a' richt, but it wadna answer. The third in ae
district maun do without their man, an' in some other they micht hae
the best o' it. That wad mak a' odds even."

"It does so in a great measure at present, though not so much so as I
could wish, but every extension of the suffrage will tend to extinguish
the minorities more and more. You cannot say that, in any electoral
district you could name, with manhood suffrage the working classes
would not enormously outnumber the educated classes."

"An' we maun wait for the reconstruction of the districts afore there
is any chance o' justice?" said Jamie Howison. "I'm thinking we'll hae
to tarry lang for our richts."

"Not so long, if you steadily keep in view that this is the FIRST step.
Lord John Russell's proposal was an approximation to a right principle,
which, if it had been properly supported, might have given the fairest
opening for greater reforms. If the Conservatives had voted for a
really Conservative measure like this it would have been carried, but
as it was brought forward by a political opponent they voted against
it, though they now taunt him with introducing it. If the Whig party
had seen the importance of it, and had vigorously supported it, it
might have facilitated the extension of the suffrage, a measure which
none of you can desire more earnestly than I do. I have conversed
recently with some colonial gentlemen returned from Australia on the
working of their manhood suffrage and the ballot, and from one of them
I got an idea which appears to be a still better one than Lord John
Russell's. It was embodied in a Municipal Bill for an infant city--that
of Adelaide--drawn up by no less a person than Rowland Hill, then
Secretary for the Colonisation Commissioners. I believe it was a
deplorably bad town council for Birmingham that led his acute mind to
ponder how to secure the rights of minorities, as it was the enormous
expense of a correspondence he entered into on t