The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-11-12
BRITISH POLITICS.

The political situation in Great Britain is
becoming clearer. The submission of the
Lords to the popular will has abated the storm
which their opposition created, and they may
henceforth be allowed to enjoy their preroga-
tives without further disturbance. The fran
time, may be delayed in the House of Com
mons, but its ultimate success seems certain,
as the government has taken the extraordi-
nary step of calling Especial session for its con
sideration. Accordingly, ere long, 100000
people will be invested with the right to vote
at the next election, and Great Britain will have
made another important stride toward man
hood suffrage and republicanism. The
field laborer will thenceforth enjoy equal
rights with the city artisan, who was
enfranchised by the reform bill in which
Disraeli improved on the scheme proposed by
his Liberal predecessors.
The redistribution of seats may prove
more perplexing to Mr.. Gladstone than his
suffrage bill, which has the full support of his
party and does not clash with private inter
ests The Premier shrinks from adopting
population as the basis of apportionment.
This American method, which has been es-
tiablished in France is evidently the fairest
and the most in accord with modern ideas,
which recognize no valid distinction between
the city and the country voter. But the Lib
eral party is not prepared for a measure so
organic as equal parliamentary districts and
it is quite willing to retain unimpaired the
support it receives from the cities and towns
until it is certain that the new measure will
add to its own strength, and not to that of
the great landowners, who are for the most
part Tories The British disposition to com
promise is likewise apparent in the scheme
which the Liberals have adopted, despite
some discomfort in their own ranks and
which they are DESTROYS that the Conserva-
tives shall accept. This scheme would divide
the large cities into parliamentary districts of
80, 900 inhabitants, and merge boroughs of less
than 900 people into counties, while those of
5000 inhabitants and upwards are to return
members of Parliament The principle of
population as the basis of representation is
here adopted, but it is applied only to a linn
tied extent 1t is noteworthy that Mr.. Glad
stone proposes to do away with the mode of
minority representation, of which so much
was said few years ago in Great Britain and
this country The scheme has not realized
the purpose of the Conservatives, who intro
duced it, and as the Liberals have found it to
be troublesome device, they have resolved to
do away with it and make no further effort to
give the method a fair trial.
1t is understood that when Mr.. Gladstone
has carried these reform measures through
Parliament he will retire from public life and
leave the guidance of the Liberal party to
younger hands. 1t will be interesting to note
the growth Of democracy under the new meas
ures, and the progress of the struggle for mas
terry which will inevitably ensue between the
Wing and Radical elements of the Liberal
party. There is little reason to doubt the Ill
innate ascendency of the democratic faction,
which is friendly to this country and is repub-
lican at heart