The Conservative counter-policy on the question of Redistri- bution is
not, and never will be, very important, since every one knows that the Conservatives in Opposition take one view of Reform, and adopt a very different view directly they attain
office. But if we may judge of it by a speech of Mr. G. W. Elliot, M.P. for Northallerton, delivered on Wednesday, it is something of this kind s—Appoint a Boundary Commission first to sweep genuine urban populations into boroughs of some sort ; then group all such constituencies as are not sufficiently large for a representative ; enlarge the smallest existing boroughs in this way by grouping ; take away the second Member from the boroughs next in magnitude ; finally,. appropriate the seats so gained to the largest unrepresented or under-represented constituencies ; and then let every house- holder, whether in a town or county, have one vote. That is only a roundabout way of asking for the minimum of redistri- bution. Mr. Elliot deprecated the right of people "huddled together in large towns," as he termed it, to exert as much elec- toral influence as those who are sparsely distributed over great distances. But why should you have less influence because you are huddled up with others, than you would have if you were comparatively solitary ? It is not as a solitary being, but as a social being, that man stands in need of representative institu- tions at all.
Previous page
