Redistribution of seats in 1832 meant the transfer of a vast body of power from the aristocracy to the middle-class, and the liberation of the Commons from the despotism of the Peers, who ruled it through the nominees who represented their pocket boroughs. Little wonder that the sweeping disfranchisement of these constituencies brought the country to the verge of revolution. In 1867 it was not the aristocracy but the middle-class which dreaded the kind of disfranchisement that proceeds from destroying the separate representation or reducing the redundant representation of a constituency. Hence, though the contest in 1867 was warm, it was not fierce. But in 1885, on the other hand, no popular excitement could be raised over the question of Redistribution, and the nation grew sick of the controversy as to whether a Seats Bill should be taken before, with, or after a Franchise Bill. And yet the redistribution of power proposed [Illustration: PRINCESS BEATRICE. (_From a Photograph by Hughes and Mullins, Ryde._)] by Mr. Gladstone’s Bill in 1885, and which sprang from the compromise with the Opposition in December, 1884, effected changes vaster by far than those that shook Society to its foundation in 1832. In 1832, what nearly came to civil war was waged over 143 seats, liberated by disfranchisement for redistribution.[205] In 1885 Mr. Gladstone had 178 seats representing 26·5 per cent. of the representation of the country to redistribute. Of this number more than half--about 96--were given to the counties, whose Electorate had been enormously increased by the absorption of small boroughs, as well as by the extension of household franchise, whereas in 1832, the counties only pulled 56 of the liberated seats out of the scramble. Of the boroughs which Mr. Gladstone disfranchised, 20 had their representation cut down to one member in 1832, and two, Kendal and Whitby--which Lord John Russell created as new boroughs--lost their separate representation in 1885. The great merit of the Bill was that, as far as possible, it created single-member constituencies on the basis of population, which was as close an approach to equal electoral districts as Mr. Gladstone could make. Large towns, instead of being treated as single electoral units with cumulative voting, were cut up into single-member constituencies as nearly as possible equal in point of population. The Bills for Scotland and Ireland were drawn on the same lines, but adapted to local circumstances.