376 



GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND. 



counties. The borough franchise created by 

 the act of 1832 was limited by a property 

 qualification of 10 clear annual income from 

 real estate. This takes the place of the 50 

 renting qualification and the 12 rating quali- 

 fication established in the rural districts by the 

 acts of 1832 and 1867. The household and 

 lodger franchises established in 1867 in the 

 boroughs created then the principal accession 

 of new voters, and will have the same effect in 

 the counties by their extension to the entire 

 electorate under the new act. Every citizen 

 of full age and not legally incapacitated, who 

 has occupied a house for twelve months and 

 paid his rates, or who is the inmate of a house 

 under conditions that permit of classing him 

 as a lodger, as defined by law, can have his 

 name placed on the register as a voter for the 

 district, whether borough or county, in which 

 he resides. The class of householders is in- 

 creased by those that occupy any dwelling by 

 virtue of any office, service, or employment, 

 and have exclusive possession of the premises. 

 The act contains disfranchising provisions 

 that are intended to restrict multiple voting. 

 In cases of joint ownership, except as regards 



Sartriers in business, or of persons that have 

 erived their interest by inheritance or mar- 

 riage, only one person will be allowed to regis- 

 ter. The equalization of the borough and 

 county franchise will add over 1,300.000 voters 

 to the register in England and Wales, over 

 200,000 in Scotland, and over 400,000 in Ire- 

 land. Of the 5,000,000 voters in the United 

 Kingdom, four fifths are qualified simply as 

 householders. The act goes into effect nomi- 

 nally Jan. 1, 1885, but the newly enfranchised 

 electors will not be admitted to vote before 

 the beginning of 1886, as their names can not 

 be registered legally before the autumn of 1885. 

 The Redistribution of Seats. The reappor- 

 tionment of electoral districts increases the 

 membership of the House of Commons from 

 652 to 670. Of the 18 additional seats Eng- 

 land is given 6 and Scotland 12, the number of 

 representatives from Ireland and from Wales 

 remaining the same as before. Boroughs con- 

 taining fewer than 12,000 inhabitants lose their 

 separate representation ; boroughs with fewer 

 than 50,000 will be represented by one mem- 

 ber instead of two; boroughs with from 50,- 

 000 to 165,000 will still send two members; 

 and boroughs with over 165,000 inhabitants 

 will receive additional members in the propor- 

 tion of one for every 50,000 or 60,000 inhab- 

 itants in excess of that number. All boroughs 

 returning more than one member, except those 

 which retain the old two-member system, by 

 virtue of containing between 50,000 and 165,- 

 000 inhabitants, and counties returning more 

 than one member, are to be divided into as 

 many separate districts as there are members to 

 be returned. The seats lost to districts that 

 are disfranchised are to be divided among the 

 boroughs and counties that are under-rep- 

 resented. The bill establishes generally the 



single-member system in place of the two- 

 member system, which was the rule. Except 

 by dividing constituencies into districts return- 

 ing one member each, there is no provision for 

 proportional or minority representation. There 

 are 73 boroughs in England, about a dozen of 

 them returning two members, the rest one, 

 which are disfranchised, as containing fewer 

 than 15,000 inhabitants ; 2 of the Scotch groups 

 of boroughs that lost their representation, 

 and 22 Irish boroughs. The number of seats 

 released is altogether 111 under this schedule. 

 The number of boroughs that lose one member 

 on account of having fewer than 50,000 in- 

 habitants is 34 in England and Wales, and 3 in 

 Ireland. The totally disfranchised boroughs 

 are represented in the present Parliament by 

 54 Liberals, 44 Conservatives, and 4 Home- 

 Rulers; the boroughs losing one member by 

 42 Liberals, 17 Conservatives, and 6 Home- 

 Rulers. The total number of seats set free 

 under both schedules is 160. In the new Par- 

 liament England will have 465 of the 670 seats, 

 Wales 30, Scotland 72, and Ireland 103. The 

 metropolis was formerly divided into 1 bor- 

 oughs, represented by 22 members, the city 

 sending 4 and the nine metropolitan boroughs 

 2 each. Henceforth the metropolitan area, in- 

 creased by 7 boroughs taken from the adjoining 

 counties, will consist of 38 boroughs, represent- 

 ed by 62 member's. The boroughs are all di- 

 vided into single-member districts, except the 

 City of London, which will have two members, 

 as it contains 50,526 inhabitants. It was a 

 Conservative borough, and the reduction of its 

 representation in accordance with the popula- 

 tion standard was a cause of complaint because 

 it counts as many as 26,227 registered electors. 

 The representation of Liverpool is increased 

 from 6 to 9 members. Birmingham will have 

 7 instead of 3 members ; Manchester 6 instead 

 of 3 ; Leeds and Sheffield 5 each, instead of 2 ; 

 Bristol 4, instead of 2; Bradford, Kingston, 

 Nottingham, Salford, and Wolverhampton 3 

 instead of 2 members each ; and Swansea 2 in- 

 stead of 1. In Scotland, the representation of 

 Edinburgh is raised from 2 members to 4, Glas- 

 gow from 3 to 7, Aberdeen from 1 to 2, and in 

 Ireland, Dublin and Belfast from 2 to 4 mem- 

 bers each. Outside of the metropolis there 

 are 5 new boroughs created, represented by 

 1 member each. The English counties, hither- 

 to represented by 172 members, will have 241, 

 the largest increase being in Yorkshire and 

 Lancashire. The Irish counties have their rep- 

 resentation increased from 63 to 85 members. 

 Scotland receives 7 additional county mem- 

 bers. While some parts of the country, such 

 as Lancashire, have their representation large- 

 ly increased, others, like Dorset, suffer a large 

 diminution. Prominent members on both sides 

 were affected by disfranchisement. 



Paraellite Attacks on the Irish Executive. The 

 Irish party in Parliament kept up an incessant 

 attack on the Castle government during the 

 year. The Maamtrasna murder-trials and the 



