Mr. Goschen made a speech on Thursday, in the City,
against the minority principle, especially as applied to London. He called it an "arithmetical puzzle,"—so it is, and so is 3 and 4 make 7, to a very stupid person ; but Mr. Goschen did not say his constituents were all very stupid persons. He remarked truly enough that so far as it succeeded in returning minority members, it would, for the present, diminish the apparent party influence of the Liberal majority in the great boroughs to which it applies. He also said that it would tend to the equalization of electoral dis- tricts, and so it will; but that is the natural result of the Reform Act without any minority principle, which only tends to make equal electoral districts fair. Finally, Mr. Goschen exhorted London to prove the clause a failure by returning all the four Liberals in spite of it. Well, but bow would that prove it a failure ? It would be the greatest possible triumph to London to show a Liberal majority so large that no Conservative minority sufficient to return one out of four members could be found.
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