The Express.
London, England, 1867-03-14 00:00:00

WALE&

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•?.. P. § 5 ix
comity. k... 80,0001. =g• SI
e-:
2 er
g E. i. 2. •7 2
? .
?*
Monmouthsh. 0 198,9;1 Monmouth . 30.000 1 3
Angiesea . . 1 1 litaumaria.. 11,200 1 \
Carnarvonsh 1 Cararvon.. r 2,000 1
• Denbigh .... 17,800 1
Den . I
..
n="r '.
''
- 414,453 Mint........ 18,000 1
Metiooethsh 1 i
Montgomery.
shire I Montgomery 18,000 1
Cardigansh.
Radnorshire 1 1 Radnorl..... 7,100 1
Pembrokeslk 1 liaverford
We5t...... 9,900 1
609,640 Pembroke .. 21,700 1
Carmarthen I
shire
Brocknock.th 1I
Glamorgan 2)

Carmarthen. 21.000 1
Brecknock.. 5,4300 1
Cardiff .... 26,000 1
MerthyrTyd-
-83,000 1
Swansea.... 67,000 1,

Oxford University I 1
For England Members 6OO
1. The inequality of the allotment of represen-
tatives to the several counties may be seen by a
simple calculation. Taking the population of
England and Wales at twenty millions, the ratio is
400,000 of population to each of the 500 members.
The following counties have an excess of represen-
tation :
2 Northampton ...
4 Huntingdon ...
1 Norfolk
I Stumm
3 Hampshire
I I Berkshire
4 Wiltshire
... 4 Dorsetahlre
Shropshire •6
Devonshire
Wescestenhire 6 Cornwall
Rockingham
Word 3 Principality of Wales .... I
Say 103 members, or, if fractional parts were in-
cluded, 110 beyond their fair share.
The following counties are minus their propor-
tion of representation, as follows :
Durham..
Yorkshire
Lancashire

Northumberland
Cumberland
Westmoreland
Rutland
Line°lu
Nottingham
Olommstar
lleteturd

2
1
9
9
4
12
9
7
6

Derbyshire
Staffordshire
Warwick
Middlesex 4l
Including the metropolitan borough north of the Thames.
Surrey
Including the metropolitan borough south of the Thames
Monmouth
2. To entirely remove this inequality might be
undesirable, but it requires some correction. Now,
by taking away the representation from most bo-
roughs under 10,000 inhabitants, and by removing
one member in others, sixty-eight members might
be obtained by which to redress the grievance of
which our mercantile and manufacturing popula-
tions justly complain. Just look through the list
of boroughs in each county which has more than
its fair share of representation, and it will be seen
that no great injury could accrue to the interests
of any political party if, by throwing the population
of certain boroughs into the county representation,
the following counties would be deprived of part of
their overplus of membership as rated below :
Gloucester
Hereford
Shropshire
Worcestershire
Hertford
Buckingham
Oxford
Huntingdon
Elam 2 Somersetshirt
These 68 members divided among the manufac-
turing population of Lancashire, Yorkshire, Staf-
fordshire, and Warwick, and the metropolitan dis-
tricts, would leave little to be desired in the pro-
portion of our representation to population. Some
of the boroughs in the counties which are short of
their fair share of members would, no doubt, re-
quire either to have their boundaries increased so
as to embrace a larger population, or to be absorbed
by the county, and their members added to the
county representation ; the additional members
might be given to the large towns, or divided be-
tween the towns and the counties.
3. How just the demand for a fairer redistribu-
tion of seats is, will appear from the fact that about
half-a-dozen counties, many in the south and west
of England, by their excess of representation can
outvote the entire representation of Yorkshire and
Lancashire. My proposal is to take 68 (of the 103),
and so far redress the list, leaving 33 overplus to the
agricultural constituencies.
4. Important as household suffrage (pure and
simple) may be to the final settlement of the fran-
chise question, the redistribution of seats to a much
larger extent than is, I fear, contemplated by either
of the two great political parties, is equally neces-
sary to save us from having to come to the rough
expedient of electoral districts, followed by annual
parliaments and universal suffrage. If the present
opportnnity of settling these two great points be
allowed to pass by, the measures of 1868, or follow-
ing years, may be something like revolutions. Let
us be wise in time.
5. I firmly believe that household suffrage,
accompanied by a fair redistribution of seats,
would give as conservative a House of Commons as
we have at present ; and if as many constituencies
as possible were furnished with three members and
the cumulative vote permitted, the conservative
party would be, on the whole, gainers. No
doubt conservatism itself would approximate
towards the Stanley, Pakington, and Walpole
type, and the baser elements of both the great
parties would have less chance of attaining parlia-
mentary existence, but the country would gain,
what it needs—a strong government, resting on
known principles, openly avowed and carried out ;
a government which would have the power to deal
with the army and navy (in spite of the Admiralty
and Horse Guards), and with other questions of
great importance, which neither Lord Derby, nor
Earl Russell, nor even Gladstone, dare at present
meddle with.

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FRIZDOM OF CHUM'HU • WORKIICO CLAM
Qutsriox.—The National Association for Freedom of
Worship are • a series of conferences of workmen
in London and o er great towns upon the I*llllolll of
their alleged abeenoe from public worship, it being consi-
dered that the large body of churchmen who attribute that
abeenoe to their being excluded by the appropriation of the
seats in places of worship to a comparative few have not
been duly represented at the ocinfereuese hitherto held.