Reform Bill was carried on the 7th of April, a majority of 340 to 210 having rejected the hostile amendment of the Conservatives, which was moved by Lord John Manners. The Tories then made many futile efforts to coerce Mr. Gladstone into disclosing his Redistribution Scheme, which he had, however, sketched in outline in his speech introducing the Franchise Bill. Ultimately the Third Reading was carried on the 26th of June--_nemine contradicente_. The Bill was read a first time in the House of Lords on the 27th of June, where Lord Cairns and the Tory Peers opposed it by an amendment, in which they refused to assent to any extension of the Franchise, without any provision for a redistribution of seats. The country began to murmur against this attitude of the Tory Peers, many of whom even deprecated the policy of supporting Lord Cairns’s amendment. It was, however, carried by a majority of 205 against 146. After that the Peers, by way of conciliating public opinion, agreed, on the motion of Lord Dunraven, to assent “to the principles of representation in the Bill.” Ministers immediately announced that they would take steps to prorogue Parliament in order to hold an autumn Session for the reintroduction of the Measure. This involved the sacrifice of all their projects of legislation, including Sir William Harcourt’s Bill for reforming the Government of London, Mr. Chamberlain’s Merchant Shipping Bill (prohibiting shipowners from making a profit out of the wreck of over-insured ships), the Railway Regulation Bill (which prevented railway companies from burdening traders and farmers with extortionate transport rates), the Scottish Universities Bill, the Welsh Education Bill, the Police Superannuation Bill, the Medical Acts Amendment Bill, the Corrupt Practices at Municipal Elections Bill, the Law of Evidence Amendment Bill, the Irish Sunday Closing Bill, and the Irish Land Purchase Bill. These, as well as many useful measures, perished in the legislative holocaust of the 10th of July, which the opposition of the Peers had brought about.