Nor is even this all. Not only would Lord Salisbury
refuse to make the least concession if the most equitable Redistribution Bill in the world were introduced; he tells us plainly that he thinks the scheme which is known to be under the consideration of a Com- mittee of the Cabinet a most inequitable one, and just the sort of scheme which the Lords ought to resist to the utmost. "It is a Bill which will have the effect, as I read it, of utterly effacing those rural populations which suffer too much disad- vantage under the present system, and are not represented at all in comparison with their numbers." Considering that nothing is known even of the proposals of the Government as to the work of the Boundary Commissioners, and considering that it will be their work which will determine how far urban populations are to be united to represented boroughs, or left in the counties, this assumption of Lord Salisbury's is extremely. gratuitous, and shows his true bias. The Redistribution Bill, whatever it may be, will always furnish Lord Salisbury with
innumerable reasons for refusing to pass the Franchise Bill, and that is precisely what the Liberal Party have always anticipated.
