Mr. Goschen's was the last important speech in the Debate.
He announced his intention of voting against the Bill. The Government had not given him the pledge he hoped for, to represent minorities in their Redistribution Bill ; the new franchise would, in thirty county divisions with sixty seats, make the voters who were really urban dominant, and with their aid the Democratic party in the House would refuse all guarantees. He feared to diminish the resisting power of Parliament. The House took very different views after 1867 on many subjects, and he dreaded an increase in democratic force, which would, in the end, give ascendancy to a single class. He would represent minorities fully, would extend that system to Ireland, and would rather, for that purpose, retain the threecornered system than have none at all. He doubted if the Redistribution Bill would be passed before a dissolution, and though he earnestly wished to vote for the Bill, he found he could not. "My party seem to breathe an atmosphere of Utopia," but though I cannot join the majority, I "earnestly trust that the democracy to which the large majority of this House is bent on confiding the future destinies of this country, may stand out in splendid contrast to the democracy of other countries, and that, by its superior fair- ness and greater moderation, it may prove that history does not always repeat itself." The peroration was fine, but Mr. Goschen carried only Sir J. Ennis with him into the lobby.
