The Express.
London, England, 1866-05-08 00:00:00

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LONDON, TUESDAY, MAY S.

Tax policy of conciliation which animated
Ministers in framing their Franchise Bill, has
evidently inspired their measure for the Redis-
tribution of Seats. They desire a settlement ; and
are willing to meet opposition half-way, in order
to disarm it. Good will spring from their adop-
tion of this course ; but not, if we may trust
the indications of last evening, in the form in
which they expected it. The Conservative party
will be obliged to throw off the last shred of the
disguise in which they have hitherto counterfeited
to be Reformers ; and the country will know
them for what they are. If they do not accept
the complete scheme for which they have cla-
moured, it will be because they distrust any exrl
tension of the popular element of the constitution,
and dislike any correction of the anomalies of our
electoral system.
To be part of a Reform Bill no measure could
be more conservative than that which Mr. GLAD-
STONE explained yesterday evening. Not a single
constituency is disfranchised by it. Forty-nine
seats are placed at the disposal of Parliament by
the grouping of boroughs ; and of these the lion's
share is assigned to the counties, which re-
ceive twenty-six new representatives. South
Lancashire, divided into two constituencies,
gains three additional members, and twerty-
three counties or divisions of counties, having
a population of more than a hundred
and fifty thousand inhabitants, receive each
a new member. A higher figure is taken
to qualify town constituencies for a similar
increase of lower. To four boroughs, with
more than two hundred thousand inhabitants—
namely, Liverpool, Birmingham, Manchester, and
Leeds—a third representative is given. Salford,
with a population of over a hundred thousand,
receives a second member. Two new metropo-
litan boroughs, each with two members, are created
by the division of the enormous constituency of
the Tower Hamlets, with its population of I
647,000 ; and by the enfranchisement of Chelsea I
and Kensington, which together have a popu-
lation of 133,000. Six unenfranchised bo-
roughs having a popuLation of over 18,000
souls—namely, Burnley, Staleybridge, Gravesend,
Hartlepool, Middlesborough, and Dewsbury—
beoome parliamentary boroughs, each with a single
member. The London University gains the re-
presentative lung promised it. Whatever might
be thought of the policy of giving separate parlia-
mentary representation to learned corporations if
it were new to the country, no one can maintain
that, while the Universities of Oxford and Cam-
bridge retain their place among the constituencies,
their younger rival can be justly excluded from a
similar privilege.
The seats thus disposed of amount to forty-
two in number. The remaining seven seats,
though all the forty-nine are obtained by the
re-arrangement of English constituencies, Minis-
ters hand over to Scotland, whose claims to an
increased representation are beyond question, on
the four-fold ground of population, property, in-
telligence, and an exercise singularly uncorrupt of
the franchises already possessed by its electors.
The counties of Aberdeen, Ayr, and Lanark, which
now return one member each, arc in future to re-
turn two, though if Ayr and Lanark were on this
side of the b. order, they would ho entitled to
three members each, as having more than a hun-
dred and fifty thousand inhabitants. Glasgow receives
a third member, a privilege to which it hasthe same
claim as the four English boroughs which it resem-
bles in having over 200,000 inhabitants. The
representation of Etlinburgh is increased in the
same degree, though it falls short of this numerical
standard, its literary and intellectual position, and
its position as the Scotch capital, being justly
taken into account. To Dundee, with more than
90,000 inhabitants, a second member is assigned.
The Scotch Universities receive a representative,

to which they have the same title as that which I
has been long acknowledged in the case of the '
University of London. While the number of
representatives of England and Wales is dimi-
nished, and that of Scotland is increased, by the
Government scheme, Ireland, with her declining
population and inferior wealth, may be content
to find herself left as she is. Applying the stan-
dard adopted in England, the city of Dublin and
the county of Cork are entitled to, and receive
each a third member ; and the claim of the Queen's
University to be placed on the same footing as
that of London and those of Scotland, is allowed.
These three seats are acquired by transfer from
six smaller boroughs, which are united into three
groups.
The feature of the Bill which will attract mast
interest, and provoke most criticism, is the partial
disfranchisement, by grouping, of small English
boroughs, which sets free the forty-nine seats, dis-
posed of in the manner we have narrated. To the
new constituencies thus formed, having fewer than
fifteen thousand inhabitints, only one member
each is assigned. Those groups which have a
population of more than fifteen thousand re-
ceive two members. Somewhat inconsistently,
the six newly enfranchised boroughs already
mentioned, having each more than eighteen
thousand inhabitants, are allowed hut one member.
The reason of this anomaly is to be sought pro-
bably in those considerations of policy to which,
as Mr. GLADSTONE intimated, the framers of the
Bill have been obliged to subordinate strict
justice. The best that can be said of this part of
the Government scheme is that it is an improve-
ment upon existing arrangements ; and perhaps
nearly as great an improvement as there is any
reason to suppose that Parliament would accept.
One thing we do not understand—that is, why
Mr. GLADSTONE should group together only bo-