As we have admitted on previous occasions, custom certainly makes
it natural to hold a General Election directly a new Register is complete. By-elections on an old and obsolete register wear a farcical air. This argument no doubt deserves respect, but having 'just re-examined the text of the new Reform Act, we desire to bring forward a point that seems to have been generally over- looked. The Act lays it down that the new Register shall be brought into operation by Order. in Council. That seems to imply that the Government intended that the Act was to be passed only in order to establish the principles of the new franohise. The Act was not to come into operation forthwith, but at a convenient time. If the Government thought the matter out carefully, they probably contemplated bringing the new Register into operation after the -ear, or at least when the war had been won in the field and a more broadly based Government was required for effecting e settlement.
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