They were defeated, and for one bright summer evening London enjoyed the ...

They were defeated, and for one bright summer evening London enjoyed the forgotten thrill of a battle between Reformers and Policemen. Derby and Disraeli succeeded and fell.' The Ten pound Householder imparted his privilege to the Householder at large, and the Lodger: the Forty Shilling Freeholder to the Twelve pound Householder.

For another eighteen years the distinction of Borough and County persisted: and though, after 1867, the social composition of Parliament began to alter rapidly to the advantage of the business man, the ascendancy of the rural gentry was not yet fatally impaired. Fortune was still on the side of her old favorites, and the Civil War in America postponed for half a generation the menace to the land.

But the return of the Liberals in 1868

dealt a threefold blow

to the Gentlemanly Interest. Purchase of Commissions was abolished, the Universities were thrown open to dissenters, the Civil Service to competition.

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