These practically eviscerated the Bill, and at the time it was not supposed that the Government could with any degree of self-respect assent to them. But when the Bill went into Committee it was soon apparent that Mr. Gladstone and his followers meant to force all their proposals on the Government. Ministers day after day held melancholy and mournful Cabinet meetings, and it was with rage that the Adullamites saw the men whom they had brought into office surrendering position after position. [Illustration: MR. DISRAELI INTRODUCING HIS REFORM BILL IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.] “The _laissez aller_ system followed by the Government,” writes Lord Malmesbury in May, “trying to make the best they could of it, but constantly yielding something. The Conservative members seem disposed to adopt anything, and to think that it is ‘in for a penny in for a pound.’” At each Cabinet meeting it was found that the Bill had become more Radical; indeed, it seemed as if Tory opposition stimulated Radical aggressiveness. Nor was the demoralisation confined to the Tory Party. There was some dread lest the persistent humiliation to which Mr. Gladstone and his [Illustration: COUNCIL CHAMBER, OSBORNE. (_After a Photograph by F. G. C. Stuart, Southampton._)] subordinates subjected Mr. Disraeli day after day might tempt him to resign and abandon the Bill. A body of Radicals, called the “Tea Room Clique,” began to give the Government friendly aid, and so greatly encumbered Mr. Gladstone’s opposition, that for a time he refused to be responsible for the leadership of the Liberal Party. The great difficulty was to apply the Bill to tenants who compounded with their landlords for their rates. As these householders were not _personally_ rated, they would not be enfranchised. Mr. Gladstone’s idea was to definitely fix the franchise at a £5 rating limit, and on the 5th of April Mr. Coleridge was put up to move an instruction to the Committee to clear the path for Mr. Gladstone’s proposal. The Radicals who met in the “Tea Room” of the House of Commons forced Mr. Coleridge to give way. When Mr. Gladstone in Committee proposed his plan, it was defeated by the defection of the Tea Room Party. Finally, the matter was settled by Mr. Disraeli putting an end to the practice of compounding for rates, so that every householder, unless he were a pauper, got a vote. Perhaps the most graphic view of the struggles, and the confused strife of this Session when Mr. Disraeli demoralised his own party by perpetual surrender, and broke up the Opposition under the solvent of intrigue, is given by Mr. Paul’s comparison of the original provisions of the Bill and its provisions when it received the Queen’s assent. ORIGINAL BILL. BILL AS PASSED.