Apart from boundary changes, approximately 160 seats were new (or "liberated" as Gladstone described it) in England and Wales. The number of seats in Scotland was increased by 12, and the representation of Ireland in Parliament remained at 103 members, even though its population had declined relative to the rest of the United Kingdom, due to emigration which had continued since the famine. This arrangement was described by "The Times" as "...obviously dictated by a somewhat pusillanimous [weak-hearted] calculation that it was better to avoid a struggle with the Parnellite party."