NEWS OF THE WEEK.
(AN Thursday, Mr. Disraeli brought on his new Redistribution (AN scheme, which appears to be the old one extended so as to give a greater relative power to the counties, and otherwise altered for the worse. The only change for the better is the omission of the proposal to represent consumption, by striking out Torquay from the new boroughs, and the exchange of Croydon, which is a ques- tionable suburb of London, for Chelsea, which is unquestionably a part of the metropolis. Mr. Disraeli has forty-five seats (all taken 1. boroughs) to distribute. Of these he proposes to give nineteen to boroughs, one to a hybrid University constituency made up of London and Durham Universities, and twenty-five to the counties. The nineteen borough seats are proposed to be given as follows :—Two to Hackney, split off from the Tower Hamlets ; two to Chelsea, one additional to Salford, one additional to Merthyr-Tydvil, and one to each of the following—Darlington, Hartlepool, Gravesend, St. Helen's, Burnley, Staleybridge, Wed- nesbury, Middlesborough, Dewsbury, Barnsley, Stockton-on-Tees, Keighley, and Luton. Of these the three last were not included in the old redistribution scheme. Litton, a busy town in the Chil- tern Hills, is, we suppose, given a member to represent the straw- hat interest. To the counties the other twenty-five seats are given as follows :—West Kent, North Lancashire, South Lancashire, and East Surrey are to be divided, and get two additional seats each, except South Lancashire, which already has three, and gets only one. That disposes of seven seats. Moreover, nine counties (now bisected) are to be trisected, with two members for each new divi- sion, namely, Lincolnshire, Derbyshire, Devonshire, Somersetshire, the West Riding of Yorkshire, Cheshire, Norfolk, Staffordshire, and Essex. This disposes of the remaining eighteen seats.
