Early in March Lady Russell writes to her son Rollo, at Harrow, of a very agreeable evening at Chesham Place, when Mr. Froude and Mr. Bright were among her guests.

    Lady Russell to Mr. Rollo Russell

    March 1, 1866

I wish you had been here at the Friday dinner....  It was such a pleasant little dinner.  Bright was between Johnny and me; ... his conversation is interesting; he is warm hearted and very much in earnest.  We talked of Milton, Shakespeare, and poetry in general; he has intense admiration for Milton, as a man and as a poet, as he ought to have; but agreed with me that it is less improbable that the world should produce another Milton than another Shakespeare.  He said reading poetry was the next to the greatest pleasure he had in life—­the greatest was little children.  These refined and amiable tastes are not what the common world would attribute to Bright, who is better known for determination and pugnacity.

Although Lord Russell and Lord Derby were the two leaders of their respective parties, they were no longer the principal men on either side.  The centre of interest lay in the House of Commons, and Gladstone and Disraeli were now the antagonists whom everybody watched.  On March 12th the Government’s Reform Bill was introduced in a speech by Gladstone, which was chiefly remarkable for lacking his usual fervour.  The cause of this want of ardour on his part lay in the nature of the Bill itself.  In order to conciliate the apathetic or hostile section of the party, the Cabinet, against the advice of Lord Russell and the inclinations of Gladstone had separated the franchise question from their redistribution scheme, which ought to have been an integral part of any Reform Bill capable of meeting the needs of the country.  The grievances which such a Bill would aim at mitigating, although less gigantic than those which called for removal at the time of the first Reform Bill, were still serious enough.  In 1865 “there was not one elector for each four inhabited houses, and five out of every six adult males were without a vote.” [61] But in addition to this the large increase in population had been very unevenly distributed, with the result that large towns like Liverpool were palpably under-represented.  The franchise had been fixed by the first Reform Bill at L10 a year rental.  The Bill which Gladstone brought forward in the Commons proposed to reduce the county franchise from L50 to L14, and the borough franchise from L10 to L7 rental.  Gladstone wished to make the payment of rates qualify a man for a vote; but this change was thought to be too radical, and any lowering of the qualifying sum of L7 rental would, it was found, place the working-classes in command of a majority in the towns—­a result which the Cabinet was not ready to face.  Moderate as the measure was, it was received with bitter hostility, while its half-heartedness roused little enthusiasm among the keener Liberals of the