ving the franchise in boroughs, while by a kindred amendment,
which was forced on the ministers at a very early stage of the measure,
tenants at will whose tent amounted to L50 became entitled to vote in
the counties.

The arrangements for taking the poll were also greatly changed. Instead
of the fifteen days which had of late been allowed for a county
election, two were now thought sufficient.[217] In boroughs the time was
abridged in a similar proportion, and the arrangement was facilitated by
a division of counties into several convenient polling districts, so
that no elector should require to travel more than a few miles to record
his vote.

This last change was universally accepted as a great practical
improvement, from its tendency to lessen the expense of election
contests, which had risen to an enormous and ruinous height. But every
other part of the scheme was viewed with the greatest repugnance, not to
say dread, by the Opposition; and every one of the bills was fought step
by step in the House of Commons. The first bill was only carried by a
majority of one; the second was absolutely rejected by the House of
Lords; and on the third the ministers, after carrying it triumphantly
through the Lower House, were defeated in the Upper House on a point of
detail, which, though of no great importance in itself, they regarded as
an indication that the peers, though they had consented to read it a
second time, would insist on remodelling it to a great degree, and, if
they were not allowed to do so, would again reject it altogether.

Meanwhile, the people were wrought up to a pitch of frenzy absolutely
unprecedented. Never had agitators, among whom some of the ministers
themselves were not ashamed to appear, been so unscrupulous in their
endeavors to excite discontent. One cabinet minister wrote inflammatory
articles in the newspapers; another publicly called the legitimate
opposition of the peers "the whisper of a faction." And their exertions
soon bore fearful fruit. In London some of the peers who had been most
prominent in their objections to the bill were hooted and pelted, and
one, Lord Londonderry, was nearly murdered. The King and Queen were
insulted by mobs in the Park, some of the rioters even openly
threatening the Queen with death, because she was believed to be
favorable to the anti-Reformers. In some of the most important
provincial towns the discontent broke out into actual insurrection. At
Bristol a tu